Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Stuff Out There

Four Reactors Affected; Two On Fire
The New York Times reports that four reactors at the Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant were in various stages of melting down; in addition, several concrete pools for storage of spent fuel rods had lost coolant water, overheated, and exposed the radioactive assemblies to the air -- meaning the stored fuel rods may have begun to melt down.

UPDATE: Shinichi Saoshiro and Chisa Fujioka, reporting from the scene for Reuters, quoted officials in Tokyo (some 150 miles to the south of the Daichi plant) as saying "radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people..."

"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to human bodies because it will be dissipated by the time it gets to Tokyo," said Koji Yamazaki, professor at Hokkaido University graduate school of environmental science. "If the wind gets stronger, it means the material flies faster but it will be even more dispersed in the air." ...

Japanese media have became more critical of [Japanese Prime Minister Naoto] Kan's handling of the disaster and criticized the government, and nuclear plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) for their failure to provide enough information on the incident.

Kyodyo News Service reported that Prime Minister Kan angrily complained TEPCO had said nothing to him about the most recent explosion at the plant complex, until an hour after it occurred. Kan allegedly asked the power company's executives, "What the hell is going on?"

All very reassuring.

Pro-Quaddafi Libyan Forces Continue Assault
"Using tanks, heavy artillery and airstrikes, forces loyal to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi began a sustained assault here on Tuesday," the NYT's Anthony Shadid reported, "seeking to rout a ragtag army of insurgents and would-be revolutionaries holding the last defensive line before the rebel capital of Benghazi."

The West continues to dither about doing -- well, much of anything. Perhaps (as critics of American neutrality before April, 1917, used to say over another U-Boat sinking) we'll issue another strongly-worded note of caution to Quadaffi, requesting he step down from power, please, in yet another speech by Our Leader. I'm sure that will work out very well and by this time tomorrow Libya will be free of brutal authoritarian domination, or foreign influence, and that everyone reading this will receive a Pony.

I've had my war, thanks. I never wanted to see another, but there have been eight that the U.S. has been involved with since (Lebanon, Grenada; Panama; Iraq I; Somalia, Kosovo; Iraq II, and Afghanistan). However, I'm sorry, sports fans, but this is a Morton's Fork dilemma: Act, or not, we can be screwed.

I believed we should make a full-court press through NATO in joint (not unilateral) action to enforce a no-fly zone. That's an amazingly naive and simplistic statement, but there it is; I'm only a Dog. Also however, I believe the opportunity to make that choice has passed, and that the rebels are screwed. We'll go back to monster truck rallies and 600-channel cable teevee. Many of the rebels will end up lining the bottom of a shallow grave.

Saudi Arabia Sends Troops To Bahrain
The world's attention has been turned elsewhere by the civil war in Libya, the massive tragedy in Japan, and Michele Bachmann strangling a puppy on live television while screaming, "This is what I'll give America!" (okay; I made that last one up -- but I'll bet she wants to).

However, in the Middle East, no one has taken a holiday in the continuing protests against authoritarian rule in places like Yemen -- and Bahrain, one of the "oil sheikdoms" of the Persian Gulf.

Protests against corruption and authoritarian rule by the royal family of the small island at the entrance to the Gulf (also possessing a naval base that is the home of the U.S. Twelfth Fleet) have continued for nearly a month. Two days ago, the protestors actually drove riot police away from their encampment in Star Square, a central traffic roundabout. In response, the Bahraini rulers asked for assistance from neighboring Saudi Arabia, which sent some 1,000 troops in armored cars.

No one knows what will happen -- the protestors are refusing to move and rejecting calls to quit Star Square -- but a heavy-handed crackdown may do much more harm than good. The Saudis are frightened at continuing Iranian agitation of the situation, which has fractured along Shiite / Sunni lines -- the rulers of Bahrain are Sunni, while the majority of its citizens are Shiia; and Iran, nominally a Shiite Muslim country, wants to destabilize the power of the Sunni House of Saud.

It's a bad situation from a human rights viewpoint, and from a faultline-in-the-Muslim-world perspective. UPDATE: The U.S. government has issued a statement hoping that the Saudi troops sent to Bahrain will "show restraint", so I'm sure that will just make them behave. Just like QuadaffiDuck will leave Libya and voluntarily turn himself in to the UN Commission on human rights (direction of which was once actually given to Libya), because we've asked him to "step down".

Buh-Bye
Josh Marshall at TPM tells us that the 91-year-old, newly-elected member of New Hampshire's legislature "who said 'defective people' (including the mentally ill, the retarded and the drug addicted) should be sent to Siberia to die has now resigned."

The New Hampshire Speaker of the House issued this statement: Representative Harty came to my office today to offer his resignation in person. We both agreed that this is what is best for the House to move forward and focus on critical issues, like balancing our budget without raising taxes and giving the voters an opportunity to pass a school funding amendment to ensure local control. We will move quickly to request a special election to fill this vacancy.

Harty's letter of resignation will be read on the New Hampshire House floor today, at which point his seat will be removed and ritually burned in the Concord town square, while the fifty-voice, Cotton Mather Aquarium Church Choir sings, "Marching, Marching To Shibboleth", until we Eat Our Lord's Reward. Step up -- and claim your Tub Of Slaw™.

Sorry; got caught in a Firesign Theatre flashback. As I've said before: So, when do the aliens show up?

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Wherever, Whenever

In Spite Of Everything: Time To Dance

(Hayao Myazaki, My Friend Totoro)

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Extremely Bad Things, Too

スリーマ イル 島 (*)

(* Three Mile Island, Again)

The New York Times reports this morning that at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Japan's northwest coast, damaged by Wednesday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunamis, an explosion "blew the roof off one building and destroyed the exterior walls of a crippled reactor, escalating the emergency confronting Japan after a huge earthquake and tsunami destroyed parts of the country’s northeastern coast on Friday."

The front page of the NYT online ran the headline, "Radiation Leaks Said to Recede After Blast at Japan Nuclear Plant". This is much like saying the radioactive horse is out of the barn, but that Farmer Jones is confident he will be brought back, as soon as he can find a lead-lined full-body suit on eBay.

Government officials and executives of Tokyo Electric Power, which runs the plant, gave confusing accounts of the causes of the explosion and the damage it caused. Late Saturday night, officials said that the explosion occurred in a structure housing turbines near the No. 1 reactor at the plant rather than inside the reactor itself.

The blast, apparently caused by a sharp buildup of pressure or of hydrogen when the reactor’s cooling system failed after the quake, destroyed the concrete structure surrounding the reactor but did not collapse the critical steel container inside, they said. They said that raised the chances they could continue cooling the core, and prevent the release of large amounts of radioactive material and avoid a full core meltdown at the plant...

...The crisis at the aging plant confronted Japan with its worst nuclear accident — and one of the biggest malfunctions at a nuclear plant since the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986.

Remain Calm. Cooking Will Be Automatic, Now That Ambient

Radioactivity Levels Have Reached +/- 1,000 Rads Per Hour!

In an interview with Japan’s national public television, NHK, Tokyo University professor Naoto Sekimura said “only a small portion of the fuel has been melted. But the plant is shut down already, and being cooled down. Most of the fuel is contained in the plant case, so I would like to ask people to be calm.”

As C. Montgomery Burns once said, what could be a full-blown Chernobyl has been reduced to the size of a mere Three-Mile Island. What a relief for the survivors.

UPDATE: Vanity Fair reports that CNBC's Larry Kudlow, useless narcissistic parasite economist who be lovin' him that supply-side economics, observed during yesterday's coverage of the earthquake and tsunamis in Japan that “The human toll here looks to be much worse than the economic toll, and we can be grateful for that.” You can see the video here.

Of course, Larry (whose nickname reportedly is 'Kuddles') was also a cheerleader for the Great American Housing Bubble from his little teevee soapbox. He said it could never end. He also said in 2008 that America's entering a recession was an impossibility, and called "Lil' Boots" Bush an "economic genius". This, of course, from a moderately reformed cokehead. The level of empathy is mind-boggling, Kuddles.

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Extremely Bad Things

8.9 Earthquake, Tsunamis, In Japan

(Photo: Kyodo News / Associated Press / New York Times Online)

At 9:46PM Pacific Standard Time, an 8.9 Magnitude undersea earthquake occurred just to the east of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Damage was widespread, as were casualties.

Within minutes, huge tidal surges began arriving from the east -- videos of a massive wall of mud and water coming onshore were far worse than scenes of the Tsunami striking Thailand and Indonesia in December of 2005. Industrial areas, ports, large airports, refineries and regular neighborhoods were being swamped; the scale is mind-boggling and the amount of human suffering involved is so very high.

A friend here at my Place Of Witless Labor™ noted that "the Japanese plan for disaster", with earthquake and tsunami drills, evacuation plans and sophisticated construction techniques. Well and good -- but in one video I'd seen, shot from a helicopter, you could plainly see tiny cars, driving placidly along roads while a gigantic wall of mud and debris headed right for them. I have a feeling these areas hadn't been evacuated, and that I was watching people dying a terrifying and ugly death.

The Pacific basin remains under a Tsunami warning (NOAA's highest alert level) -- here in the San Francisco Bay area, my Place Of Witless Labor™ is actually across the water in Oakland, and if BART stops service through the tunnel under the Bay (the first stations at the San Francisco end could potentially be flooded in a major tidal surge), as a Dog away from home I'm in a tight spot.

UPDATE: Tsunami warnings have been lifted in Hawaii, and the West Coast. A nuclear power plant outside Tokyo has declared an emergency, and residents in a 3-kilometer radius are being evacuated.

On the lighter side, TPM reports that a Republican in the New Hampshire House of Representatives told one of his constituents that the "mentally challenged and other defective people should be sent to Siberia so they don't stand to inherit control of the world."

" 'The world population has gotten too big and the world is being inherited by too many defective people,' Rep. Martin Harty told one of his constituents. 'I mean all the defective people, the drug addicts, mentally ill, the retarded -- all of them.' "

Asked what should be done with those people, Harty said, "I believe if we had a Siberia we should send them to this and they would all freeze and die and we will be rid of them."

The catch, TPM added, is that he's a 91 year old, swept into office in 2012 on the "GOP wave", and everyone is "too deferential to tell him he's gone too far".

You can look at Harty's voting record in the New Hampshire House here. He doesn't like the Healthcare Act and wants the state to enjoin with the challenge to the Act by other Rightist enclaves U.S. States; doesn't like unions; and at times doesn't bother to appear to vote.

But, hey; he voted "Yea" on HB202, "relative to road salt applicators" -- and, he said he "regretted" saying that the United States should embrace the spirit of nazi Germany's T-4 Program -- So, it's all good!

Nazi Poster, 1938: 60,00 Reichmarks Is What This [Person
Suffering From Hereditary Illness] Costs the Folk Community
In His Lifetime -- Fellow Members, This Is Also Your Money!
Read NEW FOLK; Magazine Of Racial Politics Of The NSDAP!

Oh, and Republicans in the Wisconsin state Assembly want back rubs, fancy little pastries, and "fun girls" provided with each legislative session. And they want all Democrats to die or leave the state. Maybe the country.

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Where I'd Rather Be, At The Moment

Berlin Bleibt Berlin -- Louis Vutton Edition

Courtesy of A 1920's Flat In Berlin: "The German National Tourist Board (DZT) recently noted that Germany was now second only to Spain as the top holiday destination for Europeans -- edging out France, Italy and Austria. 'In 2010 we broke through the historic mark of 60 million foreign overnight visitors,' said DZT chairwoman Petra Hedorfer in a statement."

"The DZT is looking for another banner year for tourism in 2011, with major events such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup and the 125th anniversary of the automobile set to attract visitors from all over the world."

A 1920's Flat also posted a video on the history of Berlin's architecture created and released last September -- by Louis Vutton, the manufacturer of various haute coture lines of luggage and fashion accessories.

Berlin has always been an architecturally significant city, one way or another (you'd expect that of the capital of a European country, but it isn't always the case). The video is brief and well-made; it provides a nutshell view of a few major sites, the East-West split in Berlin's construction after the Second World War, and the flowering of new architectural development since the fall of the Wall in 1989, and reunification. Have a look:


© 2010 Louis Vuitton Malletier / Des Quatre (I recommend going
direct to You Tube to see this, as my Dog-sized blog isn't a venue
for full-sized videos).

There's also this video, from the Stadt Berlin Facebook page (Yes, large cities get to have their own official Facebook page. It's a rule, and you must follow the rules, carefully, especially if you're, you know -- Berlin).

It's a bit more on the Alles Heir Sind Ja Gut Sein touristy-side, with big production values -- not surprising, given that it's an official release promoting the capital of Germany and the administrative seat of the state of Brandenburg. Face it: you wouldn't want your official promotional video to have been done by Two Guys In Kreuzberg using a Smartphone, with a Tekno-band backup soundtrack. Might not set the proper tone to introduce 600 years of German history and the cultural center of Central Europe. Or, maybe it might; I'm only a Dog. What do I know.

However, the six-second opening shot of the Quadriga and a zooming run up the Straße des 17. Juni to the Stern in the Tiergarten is worth it. And I'd rather be there, right now, than The Place Of Witless Labor™.

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The End Is Near

So, Did He, Or Didn't He? I'm Just Asking A Question.

As time goes by we will hear less and less of you, Mr. Patterson.
-- Dean Jagger, to Glenn Ford: 'Brotherhood Of The Bell' (1970)

Yesterday I was barking about the cyclical nature of modern Fame -- that (in line with the 'Bubble' cycle of Western economies) being famous isn't actually about doing anything, making use of the term 'famous' a bit risky. Does "Famous" cover Karl Marx, Amelia Erhart, Thomas Pynchon and Charlie Sheen, for example?

Or is it that Notoriety is more useful to purveyors of Die Spotsbillig Fast-Food culture in America? That being known as the Freak Of The Moment can be more easily packaged and sold to huge numbers of passive Rubes? Charlie Sheen will probably find this out soon -- along with Elizabeth Gilbert, Chia Pet Obamas, "Survivor", and the two guys who discovered Cold Fusion.

Someone else, it seems, will also learn relatively soon that same lesson; from David Carr in the New York Times:

Mr. Beck... burst into television prominence in 2009 by taking the forsaken 5 p.m. slot on Fox News and turning it into a juggernaut. A conjurer of conspiracies who spotted sedition everywhere he looked, Mr. Beck struck a big chord and ended up on the cover of Time magazine and The New York Times Magazine, and held rallies all over the country that were mobbed with acolytes. He achieved unheard-of ratings, swamped the competition and at times seemed to threaten the dominion of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity...

But a funny thing happened on the way from the revolution. Since last August, when he summoned more than 100,000 followers to the Washington mall for the “Restoring Honor” rally, Mr. Beck has lost over a third of his audience on Fox — a greater percentage drop than other hosts...

He still has numbers that just about any cable news host would envy and, with about two million viewers a night, outdraws all his competition combined. But the erosion is significant enough that Fox News officials are willing to say — anonymously, of course; they don’t want to be identified as criticizing the talent — that they are looking at the end of his contract in December and contemplating life without Mr. Beck.

Little Glenny has been the target of recent criticism from more senior, less 'god'-driven pundits on the Right, and it's on the order of the Look, friend, you've just pissed your pants and its time to stop drinking kind of advice; I mean, if an unindicted war criminal like Little Billy Kristol and a barely coherent winner of the Mordecai Rumkowski Award like Jonah Pantload are saying he's out of line... well, maybe Glenny should pay attention.

So far, he seems hell-bent (snigger) on hewing to that old-time delusion of world-wide conspiracy. Is that why Glenny is losing so much market share? Because he's a Whack Job (Well; this is Fox we're talking about), or... is it that little unpleasant episode that's supposed to have occurred back in 1990?

I don't really know. Just asking a question.

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Deutschland Ruft Mich An

Germany Calling

I've posted a number of writings about the dramatization of Henning Mankell's Wallander character on Swedish television -- programs which have only become available for English-speaking audiences in the past two years.

One of the posts was about Johanna Sällström, the actress who played Wallander's daughter, Linda. I had begun watching the series on local television here in San Francisco in 2009 -- only to find out later, very sadly, that Sällström had committed suicide in 2007.

Since, I've received perhaps thirty to fifty hits a day to that article, mostly people searching on Sällström's name or looking for a photograph of her (of which my post had a number). All of the hits are from Europe, primarily Sweden and Scandinavia, but also Germany and England.

It's been consistent, day in and out -- a bit like watching people search for references to Marilyn Monroe, and it's a testament to Sällström's ability as an actress as much as her finally being pulled down by the undertow of Depression.

Today, however, over a period of an hour (13:30 - 14:30 PST), I received 405 separate hits to the Sällström article. All of the traffic was from Google.de, and I have no idea why four hundred people in Germany were moved to look at that post so suddenly. A funny place, the Intertubes.

Aber für mein Deutscher Leser, ein herzlich willkommen. Bitte leeren Sie den Abfallbehälter und geh'n die Lichter aus, bevor Sie verlassen. Und sag 'hallo' zu Berlin für mich!

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Random Barking

(Hubble Space Telescope Image ©NASA)

Whole Lotta Stuff Out There

Ghaddafi Duck Claims Spirit Of god, Rommel And Charlie Sheen Are On His Side -- Rebel forces attempting to dethrone Libya's current leader, Mommar Ghaddafi, continue to advance towards the capital, Tripoli. But, from news footage shown via the BBC of fighting on the road to the coastal town of Surt, Little Mommar's birthplace, they are primarily "local militia", a kind way of saying Untrained Guys With Guns, and are facing both Libyan army troops and hired Mercenaries from Central African countries. Reports this morning indicated that Ghaddafi's forces lured the rebels into the town of Bin Jawwad and ambushed them with tanks and airstrikes (See a New York Times map of the conflict here).

Rebel Forces In Ras Lunuf, Yesterday; You Have To Admire What
These People Are Doing, And Why (Photo: AP)

I'm confident there are people out there, in this Great Land Of Ours, saying to themselves Gosh, if "Lil' Boots" was still th' Supreme Leader, we'd be goin' in with all guns blazin', helpin' them get them some Freedom! YA-hoo! YA-hoo! YAAAAAA-hoo! An' gettin' that oil, too! Jes' like it was supposed to be in that Eye-Rak!

I'm not interested in expanded bloodshed, and don't see the UN as the White Knights here. However, Ghaddafi has shown no compunction in killing as many people as he believes is necessary to regain control of the country, and that's where he and civilization part company. Reports of African mercenaries or Libyan army 'special forces' indiscriminately shooting civilians, looting, and setting fire to homes in "rebel" districts of Tripoli and elsewhere are too detailed and numerous to ignore.

It's just One Dog's Opinion, but from a humanitarian perspective there should be military involvement -- by the U.S., UK, or UN -- in tacit support of the rebellion. I mean, these are Untrained Guys With Guns, remember? Rather than allow a bunch of for-pay mercenaries and unrestrained army yabbos to shoot unarmed people to death just because Gadaffi Duck said it was okay... does this seem right to you? It doesn't to me.

However, if we do become involved, for the oil (remember, because he controlled the oil, we were supporting Ghaddafi until about ten days ago) -- if it's just another usual, American Middle East foreign policy move, then forget it. Assist the rebels, and leave; they'll remember what we've done, and that we didn't stick around to meddle in their internal politics, which we will try to do anyway.

Meanwhile, Little Mommar is as crazy as a rabid Raccoon, and should be put down immediately.

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Charlie Sheen Claims He Is Adonis Tiger God Who Smokes Seven-Gram Rocks, Is Good Father -- I don't give a rat's ass about Charlie Sheen. He is, however, in the entertainment business, and the fact that Our Media will follow his antics as this weeks' Shiny Object on the Road To Desolation Row deserves a moment to consider.

Warning: Will Self-Destruct In 5 Seconds

In the 1970's or 80's, Sheen's behavior wouldn't have been covered up, but it would have gone 'under-reported' -- in part because it was unseemly: Imagine, negative publicity actually was a career-limiting event. However, with the rise of new technologies and cable teevee covering the planet 24 X 7 came the Little Rupert business model: Virtual Tits And Ass, And Right-Wing Garbage (To be fair, Little Rupert didn't invent this, but he's become the best purveyor of low-class manipulation on earth by using it).

That's Entertainment! And in the Little Rupert universe, partying with whores porn starlets and trashing your suite at the Plaza Hotel, suggesting that your boss is an evil Jew, and raving like a homeless schizophrenic isn't something to be kept under wraps with a trip to the Betty Ford clinic. That's so 1980's.

Now, it's a replacement for having an actual career. Instead of actually doing something, you can be famous for just -- being famous. Ask Lindsay, whose career has turned into What will I wear to court today? Ask Poor Little Rich Girl, Paris, who does nothing but be photographed doing, you know... Rich Girl stuff. Ask John Galliano, whose career is apparently about lovin' him some Hitler.

Sadly, it appears people are actually fascinated by human weakness and pathological demands for attention (where did you think 'reality teevee' came from?). Advertisers want to exploit it; Rupert wants to make as much money as possible from it; and the world keeps on spinnin'... at least, Little Rupert's world.

A Fox Blondebot: Lip Gloss, Dental Floss, Birther Idiocy

In Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, Yemen, and definitely Libya, people have, uh, a different perspective. Tell the rebel forces outside Tripoli about Charlie Sheen and they'll look at you with blank stares: What is this? Why should I care about this? I have to field-strip my AK-47 now. Not having basic civil rights, being manipulated, lied to, arrested and brutalized for decades, or killed solely because the dictator running things says so will do that to you.

And in Little Rupert's Entertaining News model, Charlie Sheen is tailor-made to be the Freak Of The Week -- filler, between President Boner's talking about shutting down the evil socialist government; and Glenny's telling us to buy precious metals from Goldline! before civilization ends (but not before Rupert is allowed to have the monopoly on public communications in Great Britain, too).

However, all good things (and sales trends) have to come to an end. After a time, no matter what Charlie does to keep grabbing his tiny slice of the kleig light, the Media and the Publik will become tired of hearing Charlie's name. His time will be up -- as Lady Gaga's eventually will; as Madonna's already is; and Justin Bieber will get older. Some new Freak Of the Week will appear, and become the new Shiny Object.

And eventually, Charlie will come to earth -- perhaps with permanent physical damage, perhaps not; more sober, or perhaps not; but without his retinue, his paychecks, his porn-star girlfriends. And if he rants and raves about whatever junk is left in his head, no one will give a damn.

Little Charlie is as crazy as a rabid Raccoon, and should be caged until dry, immediately.

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Michele Bachmann Says Obama 'Runs A Gangster Government' -- Remember, the same media that reports on Charlie Sheen's antics also wants its political reporting to have that same flavor of outrageousness and over-the-top, this-just-in sense of desperation. And, like Sheen's highjinks, what the Crazies on the Right are saying and doing fit both parts of the Little Rupert 'News' model -- titillation, and right-wing garbage.

On this morning's Meet The Press, Representative Michele Bachmann (Teabagger / Toontown) told Davy Gregory of NBC, "I don't take back my statement on gangster government.. I think that there have been actions that have been taken by this government that I think are corrupt, thoroughly corrupt... I believe the actions of this government have been emblematic of ones that have not been based on true American values."

Little Michele is as crazy as a rabid Raccoon. But you knew that.

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Michael Moore Speaks At Madison Capitol -- On the 18th day of protests against that wacky Governor Scott Walker's attempt to roll back 150 years of labor history disguised as a 'cost-savings' measure, documentary filmaker and Bane Of The Right Wing Michael Moore spoke to a large crowd on the steps of the state capitol building, and told them, "America is not broke".

Moore, After Speaking At Capitol In Madison (Photo: AP)

Moore's speech focused on "three major lies" -- that "Wisconsin is broke.... There are weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, and that "the Packers need [Brett] Favre to win the Super Bowl."

"The country is awash in wealth and cash," Moore said. "It's just not in your hands... It's been transferred from working people" to bankers and America's super-wealthy, "in the greatest heist in history."

"Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic," Moore told the crowd, adding that Governor Walker's actions in Wisconsin "have aroused a sleeping giant, known as the working people".

"Right now, the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states: 'We have had it.' ... We are all Wisconsinites now. We are rich with ideas and talent and hard work and love, yes love..."

"For three weeks you have stood in the cold, sat on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois; whatever it took, you've done it," Moore said. "What is certain, Madison is only the beginning."

The Right only sees what's happened in Wisconsin as fat-cat unions, trying desperately to hold on to bloated salaries and seniority perks. But what if that isn't what's happening at all?

What if Madison is a symptom of a response to events in the American consciousness?

What if it means people understand that we've been screwed? That we're tired of manipulation and lies? That we can see the Masters Of The Universe© are richer, while we're poorer; that the government is clearly on their side? And that people's response is that something has to change?

And what if that change isn't a Teabagger, faux-populist political "party", bankrolled by billionaires?

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Still, No One Can Say What Or Why Universe Is -- As another week of human affairs comes to a close and a new one begins, no one -- absolutely no one -- can provide any answer to The Big Questions about the existence of all things, including ourselves.

Here's a photo of the Orion Nebula (via the European Space Organization [ESO]). You should keep in mind exactly how big this skein of gossamer light actually is, while going about your week. Where did it come from? Why is it?

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Something (Relatively) Positive

Berkeley Earth Project

Recently, I've been reading The 4% Universe, a story of the development of the dominant modern currents in cosmology -- the formation, development, and ultimate fate of the Universe we inhabit, whether we'd like to ignore it or not.

It's a story of the astronomers and physicists (and their long-suffering post-doctoral assistants) who theorized, made the observations, worked with the data, and collectively reached a conclusion: That at present we can only account for some four per cent of all matter in the Universe -- the remainder consisting of "dark matter", which is only beginning to be understood, and that in a theoretical sense.

Why is this important? Go here, and buckle up.

One of the physicists involved in the story is Professor Richard Muller. In 1964, as an undergraduate, he was part of the original FSM (Free Speech Movement)at UC Berkeley, which culminated in the occupation of Sproul Hall, and the inevitable Bust.

Muller went on to a PhD in Physics, and may be the only FSM alumni who is now a tenured faculty member of the university which had him arrested 47 years ago. Through his work on Dark Matter and several other projects, Dr. Muller has earned a reputation as a good scientist -- Thorough, empirical, rigorous in demanding a high quality of data; and not as easy a job description as it sounds.

By chance, I came across an article in the UK Guardian online about his newest project -- just about to come to fruition:

[Muller's] list of publications is testament to the free rein of tenure: he worked on the first light from the big bang, proposed a new theory of ice ages, and found evidence for an upturn in impact craters on the moon. His expertise is highly sought after. For more than 30 years, he was a member of the independent Jason group that advises the US government on defense; his college lecture series, Physics for Future Presidents, was voted best class on campus, went stratospheric on YouTube and, in 2009, was turned into a bestseller.

For the past year, Muller has kept a low profile, working quietly on a new project with a team of academics hand-picked for their skills. They meet on campus regularly, to check progress, thrash out problems and hunt for oversights that might undermine their work. And for good reason. When Muller and his team go public with their findings in a few weeks, they will be muscling in on the ugliest and most hard-fought debate of modern times.

Muller calls his latest obsession the Berkeley Earth project. The aim is so simple that the complexity and magnitude of the undertaking is easy to miss. Starting from scratch, with new computer tools and more data than has ever been used, they will arrive at an independent assessment of global warming. The team will also make every piece of data it uses – 1.6bn data points – freely available on a website. It will post its workings alongside, including full information on how more than 100 years of data from thousands of instruments around the world are stitched together to give a historic record of the planet's temperature.

Muller is fed up with the politicized row that all too often engulfs climate science. By laying all its data and workings out in the open, where they can be checked and challenged by anyone, the Berkeley team hopes to achieve something remarkable: a broader consensus on global warming. In no other field would Muller's dream seem so ambitious, or perhaps, so naive.

The Guardian continued that Muller is clear the Earth Project will not provide a definitive answer regarding Global Warming, but is convinced that his approach will lead to a better assessment of climactic changes.

The project's team will present the billion-plus pieces of temperature data they've collected, and explain their method in reconciling it -- which they will have to explain and defend through peer examination, discussion and debate; and that's just within the scientific community.

"I've told the team I don't know if global warming is more or less than we hear," Muller told the Guardian, "But I do believe we can get a more precise number, and we can do it in a way that will cool the arguments over climate change, if nothing else... Science has its weaknesses, and it doesn't have a stranglehold on the truth, but it has a way of approaching technical issues that is a closer approximation of truth than any other method we have."

The concept that Climate change and Global Warming are real has been challenged, over and over -- primarily by corporate interests, and critics whose allegiances are to an ideology or religious belief over empirical evidence.

What impressed me about 4% Universe, and Muller's role in determining an answer to a specific set of scientific questions about the nature of that Universe, was how willing he was to follow Bertrand Russell's dictum of going where the data takes you, and not taking the data where you would prefer it goes -- a decent definition of 'Bad Science'.

I'll be very curious to see the conclusions, and details about how they were reached -- but given the project's genesis, I have confidence that the conclusions will have been arrived at through Good Science: Thorough, empirical, the result of rigorous internal debate, and in the spirit of adding to (instead of subtracting from) the sum of human knowledge.

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Nobody's Goin' To Jail

This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef

Mozilo (Photo: NYT Online 2/25/11; Jay Mallin/Bloomberg News)

Last week, the Federal Department Of Justice announced that Angelo Mozilo, former CEO of Countrywide Financial, would not be prosecuted for any of his activities contributing to America (and the rest of the world)'s financial collapse.

The two major elements of the financial collapse were (1) The 'securitizing' of home loan mortgages, packaging and repackaging them into investments offered by major banks and financial firms; and (2) Generating as many mortgages (for new-construction and existing homes) as possible to create even more investment "product".

Countrywide Financial Corporation was the principle engine of this process, and it created many imitators and spinoffs before the Real Estate bubble began collapsing in 2007. Before that happened, Countrywide was a $500 billion-dollar home loan machine with (per the New York Times) "62,000 employees, 900 offices and assets of $200 billion. As the mortgage market boomed beginning in 2000, no company pursued growth in home loans more aggressively than Countrywide."

The fact that so many of the loans created by Countrywide were "toxic" (as Mozilo admitted in an internal email) meant that when the adjustable-rate or interest-only mortgages "reset" to higher monthly payments after a few years, the homeowner - borrowers would have to default and the loans would fail.

Mozilo And Godzill-o (Courtesy Of Barry's Temple Of Godzilla)

Likewise, the securities they backed would have to be lowered in value, and fail for their investor, who would want to get rid of them as "toxic", too. Which is precisely what happened, beginning in August and September of 2007.

But before then, everyone in the chain -- from the major corporations building new homes; to the loan originators (Countrywide Financial), to the banks and financial firms creating the securities and making investment offerings (Bear-Stearns; Goldman Sachs; Lehman Bros.; Citicorp; and European and Asian banks like Banque de France, HSBC; ad nauseum), to the major hedge funds -- the number of which grew dramatically from 2000-2006; to the companies who insured the derivatives trading (AIG) ... everyone, uh, "Made Bank".

Mozilo was a co-founder of Countrywide in 1969, and drove its growth and direction for 40 years. As the NYT reported, despite massive evidence of his actions and decisions, the Justice Department would not prosecute him "for insider trading.... failing to disclose to investors his private worries about subprime loans... [or] for helping to create a culture at Countrywide in which mortgage originators were rewarded for pushing fraudulent loans on borrowers."

After nearly collapsing into bankruptcy as its financing dried up, the company was acquired by Bank of America in 2008. When Bank of America took over the company in July 2008, Mr. Mozilo left. The value of the acquisition, because shares of both companies had dropped [from $200 Billion, to] 2.8 billion [-- A loss of nearly 90% of the company's stated value] .

In June 2009, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud and insider trading charges against Mr. Mozilo and his top lieutenants: David Sambol, the company’s former president, and Eric Sieracki, the former chief financial officer... In June 2010, Countrywide Home Loans and its mortgage servicing unit, which are now part of Bank of America, agreed to pay $108 million to settle federal charges that the company overcharged customers who were struggling to hang onto their homes...

In October [2010], Mr. Mozilo agreed to repay $45 million in ill-gotten profits and $22.5 million in civil penalties as part of a settlement with the SEC in which he admits no wrongdoing.

The New York Times also noted, "In its article about the Justice Department’s decision, The Los Angeles Times said prosecutors had concluded that Mr. Mozilo’s actions 'did not amount to criminal wrongdoing.' ”

At all. You are, I imagine, as surprised as I am -- Gosh; Mozilo escaped from prosecution? No one could have forseen that.

A number of the quotes above are from an article by columnist Joe Nocera in yesterday's NYT, about why Mozilo -- or any of the other major players in the financial crisis -- will feel no fret, take no responsibility, and never be prosecuted for what they've done.

In other words, they broke the law and got away with it -- an object lesson for the culture at large, I guess. The Fix Is In. There Ain't No Justice. Once You're Big Enough, It's Get Out Of Jail, Free.

Nocera writes:

A few days ago, I listened to a recording of a lengthy interview with Mr. Mozilo conducted by investigators working for the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission and posted recently on the commission’s Web site.

It was a remarkable performance; Mr. Mozilo expressed no regrets and no remorse. He extolled subprime loans as a way to allow lower-income Americans to get a piece of the American dream and “really build wealth” — just like people used to do during the housing bubble. He bragged that Countrywide, unlike the too-big-to-fail banks, never took a penny of government money. He said that Countrywide had helped put 25 million Americans in homes.

His voice rising passionately, he said finally, “Countrywide was one of the greatest companies in the history of this country.”

"Which is," Nocera concludes, "a final reason Mr. Mozilo would have been difficult to prosecute. Delusion is an iron-clad defense."

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