Monday, March 1, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
The following description can be found in Wikipedia:
--- In January 2010, Henry Holt published Pellegrino's Last Train from Hiroshima, a look at the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima from the vantage of survivors. ---
--- The New York Times initially praised the book as "sober and authoritative" and as a "firm and compelling synthesis of earlier memoirs and archival material". However, a month later the New York Times reported on allegedly false historical data found in Pellegrino's book. As the New York Times stated, Pelligrino's book: claims to reveal a secret accident with the atom bomb that killed one American and irradiated others and greatly reduced the weapon's destructive power. . . . There is just one problem. That section of the book and other technical details of the mission are based on the recollections of Joseph Fuoco, who is described as a last-minute substitute on one of the two observation planes that escorted the Enola Gay. . . . But Mr. Fuoco . . . never flew on the bombing run, and he never substituted for James R. Corliss, the plane's regular flight engineer, Mr. Corliss's family says. They, along with angry ranks of scientists, historians, and veterans, are denouncing the book and calling Mr. Fuoco an impostor." ---
--- The New York Times added, "Facing a national outcry and the Corliss family's evidence, the author, Charles Pellegrino, now concedes that he was probably duped. . . . [H]e said he would rewrite sections of the book for paperback and foreign editions." ---
--- On March 1, 2010, Henry Holt announced that it had halted publication of the book as more questions arose about the veracity of the material. In particular, doubts arose about the existence of two Westerners mentioned in the book as having been in Hiroshima at the time of the bomb. It was also reported that Victoria University, which, according to Mr. Pellegrino's website, had awarded him a Ph.D. in 1982 was reported to have informed AP that they had no record of the Ph.D. having been awarded. AP reported that Henry Holt was withdrawing the book because "Mr. Pellegrino was not able to answer the additional questions that have arisen about his book to our satisfaction". ---
Who is blocking this book? Is it the Moral Majority, the US government, or the US Army Veterans?
It's understandable that a considerable number of Americans don't want their children to read the book and see the movie about the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. People in a religious group tend to avoid finding any vice and unpleasant reality in their past. The US government is worried that it may lead to a reduction in the number of volunteers for military service. Some politicians want to hide it for diplomatic issues. It seems to me that blocking this book is an overreaction. Obviously, it's against the right to freedom of expression. When this story is adapted into a film, children's appreciation of it can be regulated by the film rating. Don't worry.
In Japan, several books and movies about the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have been released for the last six decades. It had been rather strange why none of these works left any strong impression on me. Although my imagination was above the average, none of them had made me dreaded in my childhood.
However, my feelings toward the nuclear bombings changed during my first visit to the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima about thirty years ago. That's a hell on earth. Many publishers have brought out books about the nuclear bombings and many filmmakers have tried to make a screen version of novels about it. However, the horrific tragedies caused by the nuclear bombings have never been adequately conveyed by any writings, to my knowledge. Only parts of the aftermaths of the wretched spectacles due to the nuclear bombings have been cinematographed because the reality was too cruel for a motion picture. There is something at the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, only the original photos displayed on the walls inside the Dome at the actual site can tell. Hopefully, as many adult Americans as possible will get an opportunity to visit there and to know what those were. The idea of trying to attract the 2020 Olympics to Hiroshima is wonderful.
The school education of children in Japan about the nuclear bombings is quite healthy. It's designed for Japanese children to take all the blame for the abstract idea, of the war. It isn't designed to inflame any hostility toward a particular person, organization, or country. However, as grow older, people should have different opinions about this matter.
In my case, my visit to the Atomic Bomb Dome strengthened my tendency toward cosmopolitanism for the future while maintaining conservativeness for the present time and near future in my teens. It awoke me to the fact that in those days, there were several sorts of evilness such as out-of-date colonization, military regime, extreme totalitarianism, disrespect for life, hunting for concessions, the developments and the use of weapons of mass destruction ("Little Boy", a uranium bomb on Hiroshima, and "Fat Man", a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki), human experimentations in the scale of entire cities (which are designed to investigate the destructiveness of buildings and the number of casualties due to each nuclear explosion, the number of casualties due to residual radioactivity from each bomb, the effects of radiation on the human body, difference in these aspects between two types of nuclear bombing, the remaining period of radioactivity on the stricken areas, the optimum altitude for an explosion, etc.), a large number of civilian fatalities, threats against the Communist bloc having an eye on the Cold War, and so on. Almost all of the people responsible for the nuclear bombings in both the US and Japan either directly or indirectly have already passed away.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and pieces of California Pizza Kitchen's pizza for dinner.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Got up at nine-thirty in the morning. Went out shopping at paint and grocery stores this morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch.
Made some repairs on the exterior walls this afternoon.
Ate a bowl of Japanese noodle soup for dinner.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Got up at eleven o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Made some repairs on the exterior walls this afternoon. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Got up at seven forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal and a simple Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal and a simple Japanese meal for lunch. Hewed down a withered elm tree to the ground in the backyard of my house after confirming that it died off previously. Probably, it's withered with a drought and/or a disease last summer. Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and pieces of 'Freschetta's pizza for dinner.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Went out shopping at a paint store and grocery stores. Ate a bowl of cereal and a simple Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Made some repairs on the exterior walls of my house this afternoon.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Got up around noon. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Made some repairs on the exterior walls of my house this afternoon. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Got up at nine o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and pieces of California Pizza Kitchen's pizza for dinner.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Got up at ten o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch.
Went to see "Hubble 3D" at the Bob Bullock IMAX theater this afternoon. A troublesome reflecting telescope with an error in a reflex mirror in orbit around the earth, Hubble has been repaired several times in space since its launch in 1990. This documentary film mainly shows last year's life-support measures for Hubble by NASA. Motion video of astronomical observations in 3D on the IMAX Theater is well worth seeing.
Bought some items of food at grocery stores on the way home. Ate a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Got up at eleven-thirty. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and an American meal for dinner. Went out shopping at a grocery store this afternoon.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
"This is an interesting topic found in the FAST COMPANY today". The following are my comments on it:
--- According to Wikipedia, "No TWR has yet been constructed, but in 2006, Intellectual Ventures launched a subsidiary named TerraPower, LLC to model and commercialize a practical engineering embodiment of such a reactor, which has since come to be called a traveling-wave reactor. Papers and presentations on the TerraPower TWR describe a pool-type reactor cooled by liquid sodium. The reactor is fueled primarily by depleted uranium but requires a small amount of enriched uranium or other fissile fuel to initiate fission. Some of the fast-spectrum neutrons produced by fission are absorbed by neutron capture in adjacent fertile fuel (i.e. the non-fissile depleted uranium), converting it into plutonium by the nuclear reaction. Initially, the core is charged with fertile material. A small amount of fissile fuel is added to one end of the core. Once the reactor is started, four zones form in the core: the depleted zone, which contains mostly fission products and leftover fuel; the fission zone, where fission of bred fuel takes place; the breeding zone, where fissile material is created by neutron capture; and the fresh zone, which contains unreacted fertile material. The energy-generating fission zone advances through the core over time, effectively consuming fertile material in front of it and leaving spent fuel behind. Heat from fission is converted into electricity using conventional steam turbines. ---
--- It also tells, that unlike light-water reactors (LWRs), TWRs can be fueled at the time of construction with enough depleted uranium to produce full power for 60 years or more. TWRs consume substantially less uranium than an LWR per unit of electricity generated due to TWRs' higher fuel burnup, higher thermal efficiency, and higher fuel density. A TWR also accomplishes reprocessing on the fly, without the need for chemical separation which is typical of other kinds of breeder reactors. These features greatly reduce fuel and waste volumes while enhancing proliferation resistance. ---
From the explanation above, the basic concept of a Traveling Wave Reactor can be guessed to some extent. It's a kind of fast neutron reactor. Different from a fast breeder reactor, it doesn't only breed plutonium but also burns bred plutonium in it simultaneously and successively. Such a short description doesn't help make intelligible enough how high density and amount of plutonium can be produced in the breeding zone contiguous to the fission zone emitting fast neutrons in a radial manner, and how the criticality in the reactor is controlled. Probably, the layout of the main fertile material and a small amount of fissile fuel is key.
TWRs also use liquid sodium as a coolant. The other types of coolant that are safer than liquid sodium may be utilized in the future, hopefully.
It can be fueled to produce full power for 60 years or longer. This period of time is comparable with or longer than the life of a typical reactor. Therefore, this reactor may not require any refueling process. That helps simplify its structure.
The biggest advantage of this reactor over a fast breeder reactor is its resistance to the proliferation of nuclear weapons, as written above. This is a rather high-risk investment because this type of reactor has never been built. However, its advantage in proliferation resistance seems to be worthwhile.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Got up at eight forty-five in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal and a simple Japanese meal for lunch, and a dish of Italian pasta for dinner.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Got up at eight-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal and a simple Japanese meal for lunch, and pieces of California Pizza Kitchen's pizza for dinner.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Got up at ten-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner. Cut away the dead branches from a Magnolia tree in the backyard of my house this afternoon. Stayed at home for the entire day.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Got up at eleven-thirty in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch. Went out shopping at grocery stores this afternoon. Ate an American meal for dinner.
Monday, March 29, 2010
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 mass media gave prominent coverage of two annoying cases as seen below:
--- "Suicide bombers have attacked the metro system in Moscow, killing at least 38 people," the BBC Online News reported. ---
--- "A ninth alleged member of a Christian militia group that prepared to battle the Antichrist and the U.S. government was arrested after the FBI played recorded messages from family and friends, who urged the man to give himself up, over loudspeakers outside a home in rural Michigan," the Chicago Tribune Online News reported. ---
Both criminal events above reminded me of the Subway Sarin Gas Incident, which is one of the acts of terrorism by a cult group in Tokyo Japan in 1995. That was really disgusting. The former case is similar to the Subway Sarin Gas Incident in the scene of the crimes, and the latter case is similar to it in the motivation for the crimes. The truth of the former case seems to be rather complicated.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Got up at eight o'clock in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a dish of Japanese pasta for dinner.
Completed the 1040 forms and sent them to a local IRS center by certified mail today.
--- According to an IRS document, in the US, the donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax. Under special arrangements, the donee may agree to pay the tax instead. ---
The tax law that the donor is generally responsible for paying the gift tax is better than that that the donee is. The former should help collect the gift tax more correctly. No gift was sent to my wife or me in 2009.
--- CERN announced today that the LHC research programme gets underway. "Beams collided at 7 TeV in the LHC at 13:06 CEST, marking the start of the LHC research programme". "Particle physicists around the world are looking forward to a potentially rich harvest of new physics as the LHC begins its first long run at an energy three and a half times higher than previously achieved at a particle accelerator". ---
It is to be desired that predicted particles and theories will be successfully detected and proven, and new phenomena will be discovered.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Got up at eight-fifteen in the morning. Ate a bowl of cereal for lunch, and a Japanese-style meal for dinner.
Did maintenance on the HP Photosmart All-in-One printer on my desk. Its printing quality was successfully recovered.
