Friday, May 1, 2009
Today is May Day. Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went shipping at Whole Foods and HEB this afternoon. Ate pieces of pizza and a dish of salad for dinner.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Got up at six-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
I would like to write about car safety again. Which car is safer, a larger car or a smaller car? The answer is that a larger car has better driving safety than a smaller car even if both cars have the same driving safety grade as the crash test. The following explains why. For the purpose of simplification, a larger car is supposed to have a heavier weight, and a smaller car is supposed to have a lighter weight.
First, let's consider one of the most typical cases of the crash test a car deliberately collides head-on with a fixed concrete wall at a specific speed in order to evaluate its ability to withstand impact. This is the so-called frontal impact test. Because the strength of the impact due to a collision increases proportionally with increasing its weight, a larger & heavier car receives a stronger impact at a collision with a fixed wall than a smaller & lighter car does at a given speed. Therefore, a smaller car has the advantage of weak impact strength. On the other hand, a larger car has a more robust frame & body and wider spaces enough to maintain the crumple zone between bumpers and passengers than a smaller car does. Therefore a larger car can more effectively absorb an impact without damaging its cockpit area than a smaller car. From the impact absorption point of view, a larger car has the advantage over a small car.
Let's now assume that both a larger car and a smaller car have the same driving safety grade as the crash test. For instance, the same five-star rating score is given to both cars. When you drive a car alone in a closed private area such as a circuit racecourse, the driving safety of the five-star larger car should be nearly equal to that of the five-star smaller car. When you drive a car on a public road or highway, however, it puts different complexions on the situation. There are many different types of cars running there. When the five-stars larger car running at half the original speed collides head-on with the five-starts smaller car coming from the opposite side at the same half speed, both cars receive the same impact. The advantage of a smaller car in the impact strength disappears in cases where cars crash into each other. The strength of the impact should be weaker than what the larger car running at the original speed receives from the collision with the fixed wall and should be stronger than what the smaller car running at the same speed receives from the collision with the fixed wall. In the case of a collision between cars different in size, the driving safety of a larger car should be better than that of a smaller car even if both cars have the same driving safety grade simply because the former has a more solid and larger body that the latter has.
The driving safety of a small (not smaller) car is not pertinent to the subject above. Neither an airbag device nor a safety belt can help the lives of the driver and the passengers when the collision crumples its cockpit area. It is unsafe especially when driving over a certain level of speed. Although technologies in both the safety devices and vehicle structure have ever significantly advanced, it's not easy for a small car to pass a crash test with a good score. Indeed, the Road Traffic Law prohibits the driving of a small car on any express highway (speed limit, 60-75 mph) in Japan. Such a small car usually runs at 30-40 mph only as a city car there. Drive more carefully.
It can be said that the driving safety of a small car can be ensured when there is no larger car running on the public road. A hysteric owner of a small car who likes an extreme argument may say that the government must exclude all large cars from public roads for the purposes of the safety of small car drivers and the ecology of the earth. The idea is not so bad and insane only if it could also shut out all huge freight vehicles from the public roads. Actually, there are a lot of monster trucks that tow a mammoth trailer traveling on the public highways everywhere in the US. As well known, the US has been strongly relying on this means of transportation and can't easily emerge from it. Is the idea still insane? Executives of Wal-Mart, FedEx, and Exxon may say so.
BTW, the crash test that includes several vehicle-vehicle collisions should help find a safe vehicle more reliably. The robustness of a vehicle against a side crash is very important even for a city car, because one of the most fatal accidents happens at an intersection. The rollover test is necessary in order to evaluate the prevention against the rollover, especially for an unbalanced SUV.
Monday, May 4, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, a cup of Matcha green tea at three o'clock, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
I would like to write about an environment-friendly car again. My forecast for the future of emission control from vehicles is optimistic in itself. This is because there are many promising technologies that allow the consumption of fossil fuels in each vehicle into the fuel consumption in the power plants for the purpose of driving the vehicles (e.g. plug-in hybrid, fuel cell, and so on). In the case of plug-in hybrid technology, electricity from the power plants is utilized to charge the lithium-ion battery equipped in a vehicle by inserting its plug into a socket located at a wall of a home garage for several hours. In the case of fuel cell technology (hydrogen engine), hydrogen is extracted by various methods by consuming either electricity or heat and stored probably in a liquid state at a plant, and either nitrogen-gas or –liquid is injected into the fuel cells of a vehicle at a gas station. The fuel cell produces an electric current from a chemical reaction in order to drive the motor engine and the vehicle. In the case of ethanol-blended gasoline, the production of ethanol at a plant requires more energy than the combustion of ethanol generated in a conventional engine. Surly, the widespread of these technologies will enforce to construct more new power stations in a nation.
Therefore, the future progress in this conversion would make worse the environment when mankind continues to depend strongly upon fossil fuels, especially "coal", as the fuel of the generation of electricity, as well known. As long as the number of working coal-fired power stations increases, it will make the world dirty by using just other means. In the near future, the substitution of coal as the fuel of the power stations will become the main point to solve environmental problems associated with even transportation.
"Coal" is one of the cheapest energy sources currently, but it may cost mankind a lot in the future. The bottleneck is obvious. What has to be done is also clear. However, the world situation is blocking its progress.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Even a person who behaves fearlessly when driving a dangerous vehicle by handling its wheel himself may feel anxiety when getting on it as a passenger. Don't hesitate to choose a safe vehicle for the safety of your fellow passengers.
Take pleasure from driving an unsafe vehicle alone while observing the Road Traffic Law on your own responsibility.
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch.
My wife went to buy a bottle of the organic fungicide at Home Depot this afternoon. Applied it to Red Robin Photinia planted around my house before an evening meal. Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Sprayed the organic fungicide over Elm trees planted at the front and back yards of my house, too. Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Today the maximum temperature was 96 degrees F (35.5 degrees C).
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went out shopping at Whole Foods and HEB this afternoon. Ate pieces of pizza and a dish of salad for dinner.
Carry an insurance policy on my life in the US, as written previously. This evening, my wife suggested I ask my mother whether she or somebody else currently insures my life without my permission in Japan when visiting there next time. Not sure what she intended by such a suggestion.
Her suggestion reminded me of what my mother told me by telephone one and a half months ago. When my father passed away from subarachnoid hemorrhage in the late winter of my senior year at Tokyo University of Science about seventeen years ago, my mother received all of the insurance money from his life insurance policy. I felt reassured by knowing that there was very little possibility of recurrent carcinoma in 2004 because ten years had passed without its relapse since my mother had received treatment for cancer. Had believed until recently that my mother had saved it up and would be able to live on both her savings and annuity because no one else but my mother has received it and used it according to my recollection of the matter. Have never received any financial assistance from her savings for both living expenses and tuition fees in my graduate school days and for expenses of weddings, wedding celebrations, and housing after our marriage.
Over the telephone in late March this year, she told me that she had already spent all. Come to think of it, both my sister and her daughter returned to my mother's house about nine years ago and have lived with her since then. It seems that they have exhausted her savings if she told me the truth in March.
BTW, my parents supported me by bearing half of my living during my undergraduate school days at Tokyo University of Science until my father's death, as written in my diary on August 13, 2008. A scholarship loan was applied to the rest of my living expenses during my undergraduate and graduate school days. All tuition fees were covered by my part-time jobs those days.
My mother told me over the telephone in either 1998 or 1999 that the Tokyo Institute of Technology where I took the master's degree sent me a letter calling for a small contribution. It is usually collected from a graduate about $100 per year at the most. Regardless of my refusal to a contribution because of my living overseas, she gave a donation strangely. She might make it a couple of times. According to my knowledge, Tokyo University of Science has never sent any letter collecting a contribution so far.
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Got up at nine-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, pieces of Winnimere cheese at three o'clock, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Why does my wife think that somebody may have insured my life without my permission in Japan? Probably, Masumi Hayashi's case that the BBC Online News recently reported reminded her of it.
Since 1999 until 2006, my pickup truck has several times gotten nails in its tires. It's too often to get them accidentally. These incidents were reported to the local police in 2001. This is one of the reasons why our vehicles have been kept in the garage of our house when we were at home since the summer of 2006. Fortunately, our vehicles have never gotten any puncture since then.
Hysteric ethnic groups, girls groups, and majority groups have followed us one after another since some time in 2003 until now. It seems that one or some of these groups carried out these crimes previously. Rivalries among groups are always common everywhere in the US, as seen in its history. Here, friends belonging to an ethnic group are encouraged to help each other for the purpose of supporting diversity on the basis of the understanding that there are always rivalries among groups and that a small ethnic group is in a disadvantageous position. Unfortunately, its basic idea is easily harmed when majority groups also adopt the same way, and as a natural consequence of human society, it intensifies rivalries, struggles, and mass hysteria. It has become possible even for members (so-called friends) of majority groups to build strong bonds and take actions expeditiously for their benefit in the era of modern communications through the Internet and wireless networks using PCs and mobile gadgets. What a complicated world it is!
I want to believe that a stress test did not include any stress by administering toxic or spoiled substances. Were these incidents related to either Japanese or other Asians, such as Korean, Taiwanese, Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, Singaporean, and so on? Do they enter into partnerships with some major groups in the US? Probably, that's right.
This is why my wife is worrying that there are some Asian agitators behind the scenes. The converse is also true. A major group in the US may be instigating them. Probably both sides are trying to control each other. Whatever.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Got up at five forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Wednesday, May13, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Got up at seven-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-European-style meal for dinner.
Friday, May 15, 2009
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-European-style meal for dinner.
Have no plan to live in my legal domicile in Nanao-shi, Ishkawa-ken, Japan simply because it is disadvantageous and unattractive for me to live there in terms of any aspects. No domestic industry with the exception of tourism is interested in such an isolated underpopulated region, unfortunately. Above all, it's not an appropriate place to bring up a child.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Got up at eight forty-five in the morning. Took a nap on a sofa for a couple of hours more. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went shopping at Whole Foods and HEB this afternoon.
A funny Arian guy put on a performance at Whole Foods. He seems to be a customer. What role did he play there on earth? He might be just cranked up.
Ate a bowl of Japanese noodles for dinner.
I would like to write about car stability. From a simple consideration by taking both the moments of inertia of a car's body about axes and the earth's gravity into consideration, the stability of a vehicle becomes better with increasing the width and the length while decreasing the height of its body. Although an increase in the weight of a body also improves its stability, it degrades the acceleration, braking and stopping power, fuel efficiency, and safety against a frontal impact for a given size. Instead, an improvement in the aerodynamics of its body helps improve its stability by increasing the grip and the traction with an appropriate downforce. Good balances of the weight, the driving force and the traction between the front side and rear side are also important, and the center of gravity should be kept lower. Therefore, a stable modern car needs to have a wider, longer, lower, lighter, stronger, well-balanced, and well-designed body.
Avoid any rough acceleration, braking, and handling the preventions against a rollover and a spin, especially when you drive an unstable small SUV on a highway or a slippery road. As far as you drive such a car in a town safely, its instability may not be a matter of concern.
Don't forget to fit good tires into your vehicle. The equalization of proper air pressure in all four tires is also important for car stability.
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Got up at eleven o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Sipped a cup of Matcha green tea at three o'clock. Ate pieces of pizza and a dish of salad for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
I would like to write about how to remove coal-fired power stations from the world. What should take the place of coal-fired power stations? The answer is whatever it takes to do.
Renewable energy sources such as wind power, solar power, water power, geothermal power, etc. are appropriate, especially for countries that have comparatively small populations. As well known, however, the electric power supply from all of such renewable energy sources can cover only a small proportion of the whole energy needs for countries that have populations over one hundred million.
When the economic recession comes to an end, coal-fired power stations in urban areas and their suburbs of the nation that have a large population have to be gradually substituted by the natural gas-fired power stations that cost more but emit less amount of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, fly ash and mercury than coal-fired power stations does. If all coal-fired power stations in a nation can be substituted by natural gas-fired power stations, there is nothing else to do in the meantime.
If it cannot, the rest of the coal-fired power stations in unpopulated rural areas should be substituted with nuclear power stations. The nuclear power stations that are specialized for the production of either hydrogen or other liquid fuels for the fuel cell's uses may be built in regions too far away from the cities for the efficient transmission of electric power through the grid. The nuclear power stations for the fuel cell's uses may be built even in secluded places in Alaska, islands in distant seas, etc. The produced hydrogen is kept in liquid state in tanks at the neighboring fuel cell plants and it is transported to gas stations and individual houses by freight vehicle and tanker. The fuel cells that are installed in both a car and a house should be refueled with either liquid or gas hydrogen in order to drive the motor engine, light up electric lamps, run air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and so on.
A more important question than "Where should nuclear power stations be constructed?" is "When?" Some may say that the substitution of nuclear power stations should start right now because they have already covered a considerable proportion of the entire energy needs of the world. Others may say that it's not necessary and we should wait for the realization of a safer nuclear reactor such as a fusion reactor. My opinion on this matter is that the substitution of nuclear power stations in unpopulated areas should start when the possibility of terrorism can be lowered below a certain level. For example, for the US it should be reduced below the level in 1990. Therefore, the progress of the war on terrorism is one of the most important factors to judge it. The chain reaction of acts of terrorism followed by acts of retaliation has to be stopped. Exactly speaking, the question is "How much longer will it take to bring about a reconciliation, years, decades, or centuries?" Don't just postpone the solving of problems. Hope that a peace settlement will be reached within a couple of decades. The more important question is "How to heal a breach?" This deviates considerably from the original theme today.
In the future when the goal above is attained, the cost of the electricity generation from a nuclear power station may be significantly reduced when fast breeder reactors operate because this type of reactor produces more (1 ~ 2X) nuclear fuel than it uses while generating the electricity. Natural uranium contains only 0.72% of its radioisotope of the uranium 235, which can be directly used as a nuclear fuel. In the case of the most widespread light-water reactor, the enriched uranium that contains a higher percentage of uranium 235 than 0.72% is utilized as the fuel. In the case of a breeder reactor, plutonium 239, which can be also directly used as a nuclear fuel, is produced while generating the energy when the fertile material of uranium 238, 99.3% of which natural uranium contains, absorbs a fast neutron emitted from a fission reaction of uranium 235.
If a nuclear fusion reactor comes true in the future, most of the problems associated with the energy sources will be resolved. However, it's currently just a dream, at least until the nuclear fusion reaction can be artificially ignited without using the heat generated by a nuclear fission bomb. There are quite a few other hurdles to overcome, for instance, the discovery of the method to convert the extremely high energy of a confined fusion plasma sphere with radiating electromagnetic waves and emitting neutrons into electric power effectively. As well known, the most common electricity generator still uses the turbine that converts either heat or potential energy into rotational kinetic energy. An ideal heat source for either gas or steam turbine such as a well-controlled fission reactor core should "consistently" supply thermal energy for quite "a long time" over "a lower flame". On the other hand, instantaneous heat from such an ultimate fireball like a sun evaporates everything coming closer. Obviously, it isn't appropriate for any turbine use at all, according to my knowledge. Have no idea whether there exists a photovoltaic cell that effectively produces the electricity at the PN junction of semiconductor materials exposed to very high energy electromagnetic radiations from fusion reactions or not. Let's wait to see the future achievements of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the International Thermal Nuclear Experimental Reactor, and so on.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Got up at seven-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
I would like to write about Japan's three nonnuclear principles resolved in 1971. It declares that Japan does not make or possess nuclear weapons, and does not allow their entry into Japan. Japan must maintain its principles and continue to play an important role in advocating the abolition of nuclear weapons forever.
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, pieces of Frico's Old Dutch Gouda at three o'clock, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
We haven't seen any movie since February 7, 2009, and haven't watched any TV program since February 22, 2009, either.
I would like to write about a dark shirt & beige trousers.
About seven years ago, my wife suggested I wear a dark shirt because she thought that it gave a virile impression of me. Her idea interested me at that time. That might be the beginning of troubles, thinking back to the past. My usual attire consisted of a shirt of either navy or black and trousers of beige from then until 2005.
It's still not uncertain why some members of a particular group in the US had started following me one after another from some time in 2004 until recently. They suddenly ran out in front of my vehicle and they also tried to dash their car furiously against my vehicle several times in 2005, 2006, and 2007. In most cases, they did such acts on the same day as they sent me an email with the sender's name of the Red Cross Society. They persisted in sending the email to me even after unsubscribing from receiving it. Probably, they wanted to show their braveness or tried to use threats to pester us for contributions. Unfortunately, some employees of a charitable organization might be their fellows in crime. We have obliged ourselves to refrain from any contribution to charitable organizations for our safety since then.
Needless to say, no traffic accident resulting in injury or death as a consequence of other people's nonsense behaviors is welcome. To avoid any unnecessary trouble, my attire consisted of a shirt and trousers of different colors according to the mood of the moment since 2005.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
There seem to be several types of mind control methods in the world. The following tells two typical types of the methods seen around. One is designed to corrupt and debauch the mind and morals of a person directly by taking a mean advantage of his or her weakness of mind related to the desires for wealth, knowledge, exclusive possession, advancement, praise, fame, power, health, peace and love, the fear of death, loss, failure, and ignorance, and so on. The archetype of the evil spirit that is well-versed in this method is Mephistopheles of Faust. It can also be found in a cult religious group. The other is intended to control the minds of the masses by buzzing mischievous rumors about a person so that it can manipulate his or her life indirectly. The archetype of the person who is an expert in this method can be found in the worlds of mass communications and politics. The former may be disregarded. However, it's rather harder to deal with the latter.
In the events written in my diary yesterday, the reason why a particular group had followed me since 2004 seems to be because they set about the latter method, and that why it tried to annoy me by using threats is because they set about the former method.
The best protection against the groups that are proficient in these methods is the acquisition of the ability to understand their methods, grasp the situations, and think logically.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Got up at six-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and pieces of pizza and a bowl of soup for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went shopping at Asahi, Whole Foods, and HEB this afternoon. Some members of a group of Asian girls who are trying to control the minds of the masses by buzzing numerous made-up stories were rampant at Whole Foods.
Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day except for the time to go shopping.
"This is an interesting topic found in the BBC online news today". The following are my comments on it:
It's predictable that North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on May 25, 2009. It picked its timing to coincide with Memorial Day in the US. A more interesting point than the result of its nuclear test in itself is how both Russia and China will respond to North Korea's act this time.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Today is Memorial Day. Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner. Stayed at home for the entire day. Watched the DVD of "Just Visiting" at home this evening.
The Comprehensive nuclear-test-ban Treaty (CTBT) has not yet come into effect because both the US and China still have rejected ratification of it. Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, North Korea, and Pakistan have rejected ratification of CTBT, either. Will the US continue to reserve ratification of CTBT? China may follow if the US ratifies it because it should not like to stand against it alone as a permanent member of the Security Council.
The following itemizes what Japan needs to do:
1. Take great exception to North Korea's act, as Japan has always done.
2. Call the US's and China's ratification of CTBT. Raise the matter that the CTBT should become effective, in the United Nations. Should play a leading role in making the treaty effective.
3. Put in more effective diplomatic efforts with both Russia and China to demand a moratorium on nuclear testing from North Korea.
4. Strengthen own "defense" capacity excluding nuclear arms, if necessary. Prove the propriety of its act on the basis of present circumstances, by claiming that, as a matter of fact at the present time, a non-nuclear-armed country is nearly incapable of conducting any offensive act against the other countries whatever amount of defensive weapons it possesses.
5. Face the fact that North Korea became one of the nuclear (weapon) power nations. No country is capable of dismantling its nuclear armament by force of arms or warnings.
6. Align Japan's policies with the UN's decisions regarding possible economic sanctions on North Korea. Try to restore a better relationship with North Korea by finding business opportunities when the UN lifts economic sanctions on it in the future. Try not to let it isolated.
7. No energy aid to North Korea as a result of its threats is necessary in order to avoid setting a bad precedent and provoking a copycat crime.
8. Refrain from bringing up an old topic at a top-level conference. The prioritization of matters and the division of roles have to be reconsidered.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Watched one-third of the DVD of "Dune" at home this evening. Don't take any illegal drugs. It's a mind-killer. It may be just a killer.
In the International Thermal Nuclear Experimental Reactor, the fusion reaction between deuterium and tritium that produces a helium nucleus and a neutron while releasing the energy by mass defect is utilized. Its website says that "some 80% of the energy produced is carried away from the plasma by emitting the neutrons". Its proportion much exceeds my expectations. The surrounding heat- & neutron radiation-resistant walls of its tokamak-type fusion reactor absorb the fast neutrons while transferring their kinetic energy to the walls as heat. The loss in energy at this stage is not indicated on its website, however. They use a traditional method of electricity generation to convert the thermal energy from the surrounding walls into electricity using turbines and alternators.
In ITER, the combination of the ohmic heating by changing the magnetic field generated with the coils of the tokamak reactor, the injection of a neutral beam, and the radiation of high-frequency electromagnetic waves may bring the confined doughnut-shapely plasma up to 150 million degrees C when it has enough power. It seems that two latter heating devices were externally added to the reactor because the ohmic heating cannot bring the plasma to the targeted temperature independently. Then, the question that should be raised here is how much energy its multiple heating methods may consume, which consumes more energy either ITER's heating devices or NIF's laser device, how much energy its electricity generator may produce, and how much total energy its reactor may gain. Moreover, it's questionable whether the plasma can be burnt successively while avoiding re-ignition when refueling its reactor.
ITER uses the D-T fusion reaction (17.6MeV) that releases about 5.4 times higher energy than the D-D fusion reaction (3.27Mev) does. However, tritium is a radioactive hydrogen isotope. The beta ray emitted by its radioactive decay is weak but it's detrimental to human health.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Got up at seven-fifteen in the morning. Took a tablet of ibuprofen for the purpose of anti-inflammation of possible polyps in my large intestine last evening. According to my recent experience, taking a tablet of ibuprofen helps relieve the dull pain in my abdomen for 3~4 days. Looked into other non-prescription anti-inflammatory medicines available at a nearby pharmacy online. It seems that aspirin is more appropriate than ibuprofen for my regular use. A MD previously suggested I take a low dose (75~81mg) of aspirin daily because it helps reduce my risk of stroke. Its undesirable side effect, stomach bleeding, may be suppressed by taking it with a meal.
A repairman came to fix a blower of the air conditioning located in the attic of my house this morning. He replaced the broken control unit of its system and also adjusted the pressure of the refrigerant of the air compressors installed outside my house.
Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-European-style meal for dinner. Watched the 2nd episode of the DVD of "Dune" at home this evening. The first edition of the original work was published in 1965 and both Hugo and Nebula awards were conferred on its author in 1966. One of the main themes of this novel is widely known as "ecology". The influences of the culture of American people at that time also come across this work here and there.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
I would prefer not to make any comment on the matter of "how to heal a breach" in my diary because this is so sensitive. Would also like to withhold any comment on the matter of "how to accomplish diplomatic efforts to end the nuclear testing" because of the same reason above.
--- "South Korean and US troops have gone on higher alert after North Korea said it was scrapping the treaty that halted the Korean War more than 50 years ago," the BBC Online News reported. ---
North Korea's behavior lets us clearly see what it has been trying to do. It still would like to incorporate South Korea into it as a part of the communist bloc, setting aside its probability. The clock might have stopped there since the 1950s. Obviously, this isn't true. It now has its own nuclear armaments.
The Bloomberg Online News reported, "The U.S. and Japan are seeking a United Nations Security Council resolution to cut North Korea's financial ties to the world and forbid the regime from selling weapons to raise money, diplomats at the UN said".
It seems that Japan should not play a leading role in seeking a UN Security Council resolution to impose economic sanctions against North Korea. Japan has to hold itself in a supportive role in applying sanctions, as one part of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. Japan should have the other more important responsibility.
Watched the final episode of the DVD of "Dune" at home this evening. "Dune" is a long film, about four hours. The plot is well worked out, except for the lack of the influence of radiation and radioactive contaminations due to a bomb burst. It might harm the lives of most of the characters in the last scene if this story became more realistic.
BTW, We also have a DVD of "Dune (1984)".
Friday, May 29, 2009
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of cod roe pasta for dinner.
Watched a DVD of "Big Fish" at home this evening. This movie deals with the story of a strange relationship between the father and his son. His son tries to understand the father on his deathbed who has ever told about only the tall tale version of his real life. His tall stories sparkle with humor. Is this character an exaggeration of a typical American father born in the 1920s or 1930s? Probably he represents a type of American father of older generations, for instance, a father in the 19th century. My wife said that many pleasant tall tales have been handed down in the US from generation to generation since the pioneering days.
This movie reminded me that, on the contrary, my father had seldom told me about himself in his life. My mother did not, either. My parents are rather on the quiet side. Actually, both did not intend to give me a good education. Books became most instructive to me, especially after I acquired an objective view of a matter.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Got up at nine-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went shopping at Whole Foods and HEB this afternoon. On my way to these grocery stores, two motorcycles seemed to guide our vehicle. A member of a group of Asian girls reviled some words against a gay & lesbian group loudly and offensively over the cell phone at the parking lot of HEB Gateway. It was a hot day.
Ate a dish of salad and pieces of pizza for dinner. Restarted taking a tablet of adult low dose (81mg) of aspirin per day.
Watched a DVD of "Seabiscuit" at home this evening. This movie is well-directed and edited. The performances of the actors sparkle. In the early stage, the movie deals with the backgrounds of the main characters, an owner of a racehorse, a jockey, and a horse trainer. A legendary horse, Seabiscuit appears in time in the middle of the film. Several different ways of life converge here into one. Then, the story gallops toward its end while describing their success, setback, and comeback.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Got up at nine forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Stayed at home for the entire day. Sipped a bowl of Matcha tea and ate a piece of Japanese cake at four o'clock. Ate a dish of vongole and a dish of salad for dinner.
Watched a DVD of " Somewhere in Time" at home this evening. It's a beautiful story. The movie was mainly filmed at a classic American-style hotel, the Grand Hotel located on Mackinac Island. In the original novel, the main character, Richard travels to the past in a guest room of the Hotel del Coronado rather than the Grand Hotel, according to Wikipedia. My favorite scene of this movie is when Richard happens to find out that the framed sepia photograph of Elise that has been displayed on the wall of an exhibition room at the Grand Hotel until the present time (1980) was taken by a photographer when she was looking at Richard, and then smiling in the past, 1912. Any unromantic comment on the movie about the time paradox isn't appropriate.
Needless to say, travel to the past is impossible in the real world. Only in an imaginary tale, it's possible. In this movie, the possibility that a romance after traveling to the past is just created in the brain of Richard who is a play writer in a slump and may be a neurotic is not disregarded wisely. The intentional ambiguity helps refine the quality of the movie and satisfies both a romantic and a realist. Alas, the story has an ending like Richard II.
