An ode to a bear past

My posting frequency has risen as of late,

For our wild friend has suffered a tragic fate [LINK]

A creature savage,

And fierce at times,

Was a victim of neglect and rubbish,

Such senseless crimes.

This bear unnamed,
Whose mother had cherished,
Was living untamed,
And too early perished.

We'll never know,
The fauna he befriended,
Again he'll never go,
To the bear parties he attended.

Possible he was searching,
For a morsel to woo,
A coy she-bear perching,
At a ledge to coo.

Stumbled into a jar,
Of human origin,
He wandered a far,
Losing strength within.

The police discounted,
The plight of this yogi,
Their bullets they counted,
As he wandered so lonely.

With lead and fire,
Ursidae dispatched,
In a jar still mired,
His fur was no match.

Before you throw trash,
Forget not this beast,
When our worlds clash,
Theirs do cease.

Remembering the unnamed bear (1997 - 2008):

Baby bear's first tree climb (1998)

High School Graduation (2005)

Bear with childhood friend, Bambi

Head caught in a jar

We'll Miss You

FRESH NUCLEAR ACCIDENT!

BREAKING NEWS: NUCLEAR ACCIDENT IN FRANCE!

HOLY CRAP (article link)

Ya'll better hide your kids!!!!

Seriously though, the media's (and therefore PUBLIC) perception of nuclear power is ridiculous. I (and probably many in the nuclear field) am pretty tired of the sensationalist yellow journalism that surrounds nuclear power. Much like sharks, the Bermuda Triangle, and Michael Jackson's true alien identity, it is a sorely misunderstood topic. US Nuclear power deaths since it's inception: 0. Russian nuclear power related deaths since it's inception: a bunch, but Russians have had a reputation for not caring about human lives anyway, so honestly, it doesn't really count. Chernobyl (for those who are familiar with it) was due to severe operator error and a NON-fail-safe design, which is just SILLY. See below for depiction of Russian's and their design principles:
Anyway, back to the original article:
"About 100 staff at a nuclear plant in southern France have been exposed to a low dose of radiation, power firm Electricite de France (EDF) says."
"Seventy of them show low traces of radioelements, below one 40th of the authorised limit," EDF said, adding that the incident would not affect people's health or the environment."

Apparently, workers were exposed during maintenance. Possible scenario: Pressurized system, partially isolated for maintenance, error in establishing barrier criteria (whatever theirs are), and poof, some liquid spray (which is the most likely method of activity going airborne in this case). Some air particulate detector alarmed, and people ran out. They recieved 1/40th!! Without using any absurd analogies, I will simply say that recieving 1/40th of your authorized dose is insignificant. Dose bases are calculated are with extremely conservative methods, incorporating stochastic and deterministic results of worst case radiation exposure with a 100% dose rate. Bottom line: 1/40th of a conservative dose limit is a pittance.


RADIATION IS DANGEROUS! People cry. Oh yeah? Well so are you. Anyone who says nuclear power is dangerous because radiation is dangerous is a silly goose (see previous picture). Let's put it this way:
1. If you are overweight, you are dangerous. And a drain on society. Food made you overweight, so food is dangerous. Let's not eat anymore. Millions of Americans will die from obesity related illnesses (heart disease, diabetes, etc) this year. 0 will die from radiation exposure. Radiation will generate thousands of gigawatts across America. Fat people will generate millions of tons of poop.
2. If you smoke (at all) or drink (in excess, and/or have driven under the influence), you are dangerous. You are a drain on society. You endanger yourself and those around you every time you smoke and/or drink. Cancer deaths from cigarettes infinitely (mathematically true) outnumber deaths from nuclear reactor accidents. Furthermore, cigarettes aren't that cool. What's cool is a 2000 Mw reactor plant busting out more juice than you can suck up with useless flat panel televisions.
3. If you purchase electricity from a coal burning power plant (knowingly or unknowingly), you are directly causing the output of millions of tons of carcinogens into the environment that have been scientifically proven to result in thousands of deaths across the country. Baby killer!
4. If you read the Da Vinci code, and thought it was a good book, then you are an idiot.

[None of the above points have cited statistics, due to the blatant truths behind them]

If you do not fall into any of the above categories, than you can have a logically sustainable position against nuclear power and it's dangers. Otherwise, you are an American killing, Apple Pie hating, flag burning communist, and have no right to purport the dangers of nuclear power when you are part of the problem.

Fear not the unknown, but your inability to get off your butt, turn off the TV, and go PT.

Fair winds and Following Seas

Ruff Ryder

The best part of my day is on my bike. I've been riding to/from work pretty consistently for a couple of months now. I'm slowly becoming the "rides a 10 speed everywhere guy," as featured in the hit animated series "Family Guy."


I had a fender attached to my bike for a while, and finally took it off because it was detrimental to mounting my rear safety light - plus it's been dry for weeks. But of course, one day after work, it pours. I mean, dumps. So I rode home in my first rain ride, without a fender, and all that tasty oily, muddy, hepatitis filled gutter water splashing onto my back from my rear tire, and splashing into my face from my front tire.
Even then, it was refreshing, fun, and a great way to stay in shape.
------
Tricia: Tom, residents all over Quahog have been effected by the heavy rains. Although some are doing their best to ride it out. For example, I'm standing here with 'rides a ten speed everywhere' guy. Sir, why are you riding your ten speed in the rain?
Rides A Ten Speed Everywhere Guy: I don't mind, a little drizzle never hurt anybody. I like riding the ten speed because it's fun it gives me energy and it's a great way to stay in shape.
Tricia: What do you do for a living?
Rides A Ten Speed Everywhere Guy: I work at accounts receivable at Quahog Insurance, it's not to demanding, the pay is good and it's a great way to stay in shape.
Tricia: Well we should wrap this up, you're getting wet.
Rides A Ten Speed Everywhere Guy: Well I'm living life before the cancer I have kills me so I don't mind the rain. The water feels good on my skin, it's cool refreshing and it's a great way to stay in shape.
Tricia: What kind of cancer?
Rides A Ten Speed Everywhere Guy: It's rectal cancer, it's slowly eating away at my lower insides. It's a quick process, both painful and untreatable and it's a great way to stay in shape.
-----------

I've seen some funny stuff having ridden hundreds of miles on the locals roads here. I actually hit a bird a month ago, which was gross. It wasn't badly injured, but I'm sure it sprayed bird flu all over me. I used to take a bike path that paralleled a main road, but later found out that the main road is faster, and safer, because the bike path is in disrepair, and has blind intersections. Plus, the bike path has a small colony of bums that live there. At 0615, on most mornings, this one long haired dude is always fishing with this old piece of yarn off the path, that runs over a small river. His cats are usually nearby. After changing my route to the main road, I no longer saw the guy, and didn't miss the stench of the hobo camp. However, the return trip of my new route takes me by these two old lady bums, who squat by this shrub every evening between 1700-1800. They creep me out, because it looks like they just laid a claymore or something.

There's also a lady bum fishing off the other side of the main road, visible on my return trip. I wonder if she knows that a fisherman bum is on the other side? Maybe they will meet one day, and fish together...
I've also seen more broken glass than you can shake a stick at. And I can shake a stick at a lot of things.

Work rave: [ERROR, INSUFFICIENT DATA]
Work rant: [ERROR, STACK OVERFLOW]

LOVE IT

Kahlil Gibran, "The Prophet" - An overall mediocre text I thought, because it was all pretty obvious stuff. However certain portions had unique perspective. I frequently recall this quote while at work:

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Rickover's nuclear knife carves my heart out on a daily basis. The funny thing is, it is not nuclear power, or submarining that deepens my "joy bowl." It is the daily interactions with over 120 people on board. There are at LEAST 30-40 people that you are forced to interact with on any given day. Out of that 35, how many are having a good day? Let's say 30. Those 5 that are having a bad day, steady state, are they cool or not? I would say 3 would be joe blow's, 1 would a generally positive person, and the fifth... Well, the fifth would be some bitter ass mofo. And this is being generous. Especially in port, and in any sort of upkeep, with poop hitting the fan, THERE WILL BE BLOOD.

The point is, that submarining is a people business, not just one of reactor safety, and approach and attack. I think many people forget that. Now, chicken or egg? Who was the first person to have a bad submarine day? I would probably say Rickover, who according to historical records administered the first nuclear spanking. And then, due to the nature of the average person to pass on the ass-chewing, whoever got spanked with Rickover's control rod shaped beat stick, subsequently chewed ass at the next level down. Decades later, we have bitter whiners everywhere. This is a mere identification of said problem, and does not come close to providing due diligence on the subject.

MOVING ON.

So we had a quick underway, which was fun. Doc prophetically warned the crew to take their vitamins and 'airborne' (a sham, I think), as everyone will catch a cold. I scoffed. A week later, I coughed. I quickly caught a cold, and was miserable for the last week of the underway, and at least a week into port. The cold was particularly pernicious because all the JO's slept about 3 hrs a night for a week straight due to all this watch manning biznazz.

I should be getting my EOOW/EDO board soon, after months of riling by the crew. Once qualified EOOW/EDO, I can stand back aft and receive more riling from the crew, for finally qualifying. Such is submarine life.

On a related note, we all got the "Order of the Ditch" certificate for crossing the Panama Canal. WOOT!

I've done my quick schpiel (sp?) on work life. Life outside of work is swell! I've met a lot of cool people even after only being here at my permanent duty station for less than 3 months. It's a weird thing, because I'm very excited about going on deployment (and having dolphins by then), and seeing awesome things, but I've never been gone for that long. Who knows what will happen to my house in that amount of time. Something Jumanji-esque? Will my friends remember me? Will my car drive itself away? Deployment is far away, so these are trivial musings anyway...

Quick book reviews:

Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse: Amazing! I went in, expecting a plain old novel, and came out unsure yet satisfied. Like a protein shake made with spoiled milk. If you like thinking, this book is for you. If you like non-thinking, avoid this book.

Old Man and the Sea, by Ernest Hemmingway: I actually got stressed out when the sharks were eating his fish. This was my first Hemmingway, and I think I'm a fan. I love his stark yet effective prose.

One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Holy crap, this won the Nobel Prize in Literature? Sure it was kinda fun to read, but I spent a lot of time doubting this fictional universe that Marquez created. Even more so, I thought the rampant incest was unnecessary. And all the cool characters kept dying. Overall, an annoying book.

Rock Climbing Anchors, by Mountaineer's Outdoor Expert Series: Ironically, there aren't many climbable rocks in my parts now - but I still yearn for the stone.