UNIVERSAL VISION

Arnie Gundersen says something really stupid again. Now he claims that there is dangerous radioactive “Hot Particles” in Tokyo car air filters and that this radiation is deadly yet it cannot be detected. This is getting really ridiculous. Seriously, is this old age, dementia or Alzheimer’s with this guy?

His most recent idiocy is on Al Jazeera with an article entitled, Fukushima: It’s much worse than you think.

Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common, and Gundersen says his sources are finding radioactive air filters in the greater Seattle area of the US as well.

No. Gundersen, besides normal levels, there no “common” radiation finding in car filters in Tokyo. Fukushima is not much worse than we think. Your wild imagination and fast progressing senility is much worse than we, or even you, think.

“Radioactive air filters from cars in Fukushima prefecture and Tokyo are now common”!? That’s just total and complete bullshit. Jeez Louise, Gundersen, the ground around us emits natural radiation! So does the sun! I’m sure that all cars emit some levels of radiation. It is a course of common sense.

Are these levels of radiation dangerous or something to be concerned about? Not according to the University of Washington. But facts haven’t stopped Gundersen yet from auditioning for the lead role in the new Chicken Little movie…

Well, I think, Arnie, you are failing miserably. If anything, the more you talk, the dumber you look.

Just to show you what a crock of sh*t this idiocy Gundersen is saying is, I just did a Japanese language Google search looking for “車のエアフィルター　放射能.” (In English this is “Automobile air filter + radiation”). There are zero results for this search excepting articles that refer to Gundersen as a source. Get that? Zero. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Gundersen, you are caught red-handed! You are making up sh*t again.

Here’s a screen capture of all results:

Are there any readers and Gundersen fanatics who do not believe me? Here’s a shortened URL to the Google search: http://bit.ly/lUUYH0. I hope that, by now, dear reader knows how to use Google Translation.

The Al Jazeera article continues with more fluff about dangers:

According to Gundersen, the exposed reactors and fuel cores are continuing to release microns of caesium, strontium, and plutonium isotopes. The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

“We are discovering hot particles everywhere in Japan, even in Tokyo,” he said. “Scientists are finding these everywhere. Over the last 90 days these hot particles have continued to fall and are being deposited in high concentrations. A lot of people are picking these up in car engine air filters.”

The hot particles on them can eventually lead to cancer.

“These get stuck in your lungs or GI tract, and they are a constant irritant,” he explained, “One cigarette doesn’t get you, but over time they do. These [hot particles] can cause cancer, but you can’t measure them with a Geiger counter.

Wait a minute, Grandpa! You just put your foot in your mouth again… What’s this? You are quoted as saying at least three stupid things in one breath here:

In one part you say about “Hot particles” that:

“Scientists are finding these everywhere.”

Yet, you do not name these scientists. All the while you say that these “Hot Particles” are dangerous you also claim:

“…you can’t measure them (hot particles) with a Geiger counter.”

Riiiiiiight. They are radioactive and dangerous but we can’t measure them witha Geiger counter!? Earth to Gundersen! Earth to Gundersen! According to Wikipedia about “Hot Particles”, under the heading “Attributes” it clearly states:

Hot particles can be identified by a Geiger counter, or by autoradiography. Their age and origin can be determined by their isotopic signature.

In a previous article, Gundersen makes another unsubstantiated claim. It is an audio interview with him. Here’s a snippet from an interview with another fool named Chris Martenson who needs a convenient slap right up side the head too:

“Arnie Gundersen said he received 7 used auto air filters that came from Tokyo, probably from a repair shop. Five of them had no traces of radiation, but two of them were heavily irradiated. He said the fallout will be patchy…”

OK. I’m game, Arnie, old boy. Just how did you detect these Hot Particles in air filters “from Tokyo” (by the way, do you have a receipt and proof they are from Tokyo?) when you claim that the radiation, which is normally detected with a Geiger counter, is not detectable with a Geiger counter? Are you using some sort of sodium iodide crystal device or Ion chamber? Or is it just alchemy or some sort of magic potion?

If your results would stand up to scrutiny, then why don’t you make these results public (a Youtube video would be great – you seem to like being on Youtube) and also why can’t you make these claims available for confirmation by other scientists (and no, I don’t mean the “scientists” that you always refer to but never name) using the Scientific Method?

Or do we all have to go and take your word for it?… The word of a guy who makes claims about all sorts of things using “anecdotal evidence” mysterious “sources” and other claims as proof?

It gets even more silly… Gundersen goes on to compare the dangers of “Hot Particles” in car filters to to the dangers of… are you ready for it?… Cigarette smoking!!! Laughable!

“One cigarette doesn’t get you, but over time they do.”

So, what you are saying Gundersen is that, besides not being able to keep your  story straight, with all the pollutants in our foods, water, industrial contaminants in the air and chemicals in our over processed foods, you think that this most recent news from your “sources” (Guffaw!) is cause enough for you to scare people and cause hysteria because the level of radiation is comparable to smoking cigarettes over a long time?

This guy looks well over 75, maybe 80. Is anyone surprised when

an over 75-year-old guy says some pretty wild stuff?

Oh please! Someone make sure Grandpa Gundersen gets his rest and makes sure he properly takes his meds everyday and on time. This guy is losing it quickly.

Grandpa, you idiot. Why don’t you warn people about heart disease or high blood pressure? That kills tens of thousands more times the numbers of people annually than cigarette smoking does. From the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention here’s the numbers for deaths of the leading causes of deaths (2007):

• Heart disease: 616,067
• Cancer: 562,875
• Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 135,952
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 127,924
• Accidents (unintentional injuries): 123,706

From the same site, in 1990, deaths attributed to smoking were, get this… 5,619! That’s the most recent information I could find. Sales of cigarettes and tobacco products keep declining every year so I imagine that they’ve found it a waste of money to keep track of this anymore.

But Gundersen wants to compare the big bad “Hot Particles” to the evils of smoking when you have over a 200,000% higher chance of dying from heart disease or cancers (food preservatives, chemicals, too much salt, and car accidents). I also showed the relative dangers of this in a previous post entitled: For Every One Death Due to Nuclear Power, 4,000 Die Due to Coal in which the title of the post speaks for itself.

Gee, Arnie, why don’t you do something more useful with your 15 minutes of fame and urge people to slow down and drive more safely? That would save a hell of a lot more lives than this nonsense you keep saying…

Oh, but then again, I forgot. You work in the nuclear industry advising people on how to decommission nuke plants and not as an adviser to automobile safety organizations. But, nah! You don’t have any conflicts of interest.

You are a REAL scientist!

Gundersen is a joke. I’ve already blasted Arnie for saying stupid stuff before. In Metallic Tastes in Mouths Prove Nuclear Disaster in Japan! Or Does it? I wrote:

Once again, Arnie Gundersen and a bunch of illogical panic stricken fools say something stupid about Fukushima and radiation.

They are now saying that there is “anecdotal evidence” of people having a metallic taste in their mouths and, from this, they draw the wild conclusion that this means there is an uncontrollable nuclear chain reaction going on at Fukushima. This nonsense has no basis in science, reality, nor does it have any evidence backing it up. It is fantasy..

“Anecdotal eveidence!” Isn’t that hilarious? I already showed you how he has motivation for saying this and a possible conflict of interest (making him no more credible than, say, George Bush)… And speaking of “air” and “filters” I ripped him a new air-hole when he claimed that “the winds have now shifted and are blowing from Fukushima to Tokyo.”

This most recent rubbish is just plain embarrassing. I guess the mass media is now latching onto Gundersen because they realize (as I demonstrated) that their last “expert” Michio Kaku was definitely a few CDs short of a boxed set. But, they’ll soon see that Gundersen isn’t any better.

I suspect, one day soon, people are going to realize that, when it comes to Gundersen, we are talking about a senior citizen here who seems to be losing his grip on reality. Anyone who has a father or mother over 75 or so, may have had  this experience.

But I guess I shouldn’t be too hard on the old guy. I mean, think about it, they say that radiation causes all sorts of damage to the body and to the human brain. There’s no argument there. Gundersen also claims that he worked in the nuclear industry for over 38 years (something that has been proven as a gross exaggeration along with his claims of many of his other “qualifications” here)… If anything, I suppose that means that the nonsense he says is the best proof so far that radiation is damaging to humans.

OK. Let’s say that he did work at nuke plants for 38 years… That and Gundersen repeatedly spewing out unconfirmed, hysterical nonsense is a great argument that radiation does cause brain damage.

Too many clueless people. Another person, who knows nothing about Japan, or its weather or geography, takes issue with the facts I wrote in a previous blog post about the prevailing winds in Japan ALWAYS blowing from south or east from April to December and then from the north east in winter. Regardless of season, generally speaking, winds blow radiation (if there is any) away from Fukushima towards the ocean. They do not blow from Fukushima towards Tokyo. That’s an impossibility.

Laughingly, a commenter named, “S” (in a lame attempt at wit) writes:

BTW, you piqued my curiosity, so I just took a quick look at the forecast for Fukushima, here: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Fukushima/forecasts/latest It shows today’s wind blowing SSW all day –i.e., straight towards Tokyo. You might want to call them, and explain that this is ‘impossible.’ Have a nice weekend.

“Have a nice weekend?” How cute. I will, thank you. And I will be laughing at you in a few minutes.

Thanks S. I don’t think I need to call the weather-forecast people. This is not a forecasting problem. Their forecast for Fukushima is most probably correct. Fukushima is not a big place. Is, say, the weather report for Ventura California  consistent with the weather in Tijuana Mexico? Probably not. They might be if it were all flat lands, but, alas, for you and your weak argument, there are a bunch of mountains in the way.

The nuclear power plants in Fukushima are on the ocean side of those high mountain ranges. Winds often blow onshore from the ocean. This is a geography question and how geography influences weather.

Some people need to open up a relief map of Japan and see the terrain and just how far away Tokyo is from Fukushima is… And, no, it’s not the 1/2 inch you see on that map in front of your face. I guess some people’s reading and comprehension abilities are lacking as I simply pointed out in my post, about the geographical considerations when dealing with weather patterns here (or anywhere else in the world for that matter – but especially in a mountainous country).

As a professional in the mass media, I do know how to check and cross reference information. I guess I shouldn’t hold others up to the same standard, but it is disgraceful when people aren’t intelligent enough to do the very basic level of fact checking – or they cherry picks facts. How embarrassing. I wrote about that here: Critical and Analytical Thinking are Lost Arts Amongst Many of Today’s Adult Population

Now, let me blow this stupid argument out of the water. Here is the claim of this reader that, “I just took a quick look at the forecast for Fukushima, here: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Fukushima/forecasts/latest It shows today’s wind blowing SSW all day –i.e., straight towards Tokyo.”

Refer to this map: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/fukushima/forecasts/latest

CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VIEW

My God! He’s right! If we are to extrapolate, that wind is also blowing straight for Manila, Brunei, and Adelaide Australia! We’re doomed! Head for the life rafts! Every man for himself!

As you can see, “S” is referring to the wind direction in Fukushima, indeed blowing south, all the while being ignorant of Japan’s geography and distance between Fukushima and Tokyo.

Now, let’s show his how he doesn’t have the faintest idea as to what he is talking about. From the very same weather service. Refer to this map: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/tokyo/forecasts/latest

CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VIEW

Well, look at that! The winds are blowing from the south to the north in Tokyo! How could this be? How could the wind be blowing south in Fukushima but blowing north in Tokyo!?

Well, like I said, this is a mountainous country and geography plays a big part. This reader  cherry picked his data so that it shows winds blowing south IN FUKUSHIMA today, Saturday June 11, 2011 – (while conveniently forgetting to check Tokyo). Fukushima is on the other side of a huge mountain range and 230 + kilometers from Tokyo… Yet, in the bottom chart, from his very own sources, it shows the wind blowing from the south towards the north away from Tokyo.

Just how do we justify this discrepancy? Could it be geography as I showed in my previous post? Seems like the only plausible explanation. Either that or weather gremlins!

“There’s no place like home. There’s no place like home! Oh Auntie Em!”

Also, let’s examine further… What about the area just north of Tokyo, Chiba Japan? Well,  sorry about that one too: Refer to this: http://www.weather-forecast.com/locations/Chiba/forecasts/latest

CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE LARGER VIEW

Wow! Astounding. The winds are blowing north or, later, from the west (as they always do) away from Tokyo! Who’d a thunk it?

Do I need to alert the weather service? Or does dear reader and Arnie Gundersen need to get an education on Japan’s geography and weather?

As I have said numerous times, Japan’s prevailing winds blow from the south or the east. For a few months in winter, they blow from the north east. There might be times when, due to terrain, in small areas, winds blow different directions (a walk in a windy hallway in any city in the world can demonstrate that), but these winds are caused and controlled by geography.

Winds do not blow from Fukushima to Tokyo over the biggest and widest and highest mountain range in Japan.

May I now start enjoying my weekend?

I already started laughing at least five minutes ago.

“A lie told even ten thousands times never becomes the truth” – Mikhail Gorbachev

There are people in this world who are so desperate to be proven “right,” at least in their own minds, that they would do, or hope for, most anything to achieve those ends. Some of these people are very mentally ill yet they fail to realize or see the shortcomings of their thinking.

They are the People of the Lie. These people are all around us. They function in our society. We see them daily. These are the bosses at work who extoll the virtues of living right, telling the truth and working hard yet they are having an affair with another woman.

These are the people who claim to be in search of the truth yet they commit lies at work and home. These are the wives and husbands who, on the surface, seem contented but actually commit domestic violence against their spouses and children.

These are the People of the Lie. These are also people who will do most anything or hope for ill fortune against others in order for them to get their desired gains.

The most extreme (traditional and much over-used) example of those sorts of people – people who will do anything to be proven correct – are political groups like the Nazis. These people were so sick that they would even kill others in an effort to be proven correct.

Recent modern day examples of these sorts of people were the hard-core believers in Man-Made Global Warming (AGW). I remember on a very popular morning FM radio show in Tokyo in 2006 when I was debunking the entire theory of AGW – after having Greenpeace members as guests on the program (who couldn’t rectify their beliefs with scientific fact) – we received a telephone call from a very irate listener who firmly believed in Man- Made Global Warming. This listener was so furious that I would go on air and publicly debunk this polemic.

He wanted to talk to the boss of the station. It was to his shock when I told him that I was the general manager of the station and if he didn’t like what he heard on air there was something on the radio called a “tuner” and he should use it to change the station. He was so furious with that that he threatened to, “Come down to the radio station, set it on fire and burn it to the ground.”

I told him that if he did that then we would have, “The police come down to your house, arrest you and send you to prison.” Never heard from him again.

I wonder if he still believes that AGW nonsense?

This is the kind of person who I classify as the People of the Lie; they will do anything to be proven correct, even if it means that people must be injured or die (of course not them) in order for that to happen.

The most recent example of this disgusting sickness, in many forms, is the current controversy about radiation from Fukushima. Specifically, how the Fukushima problem affects us in Tokyo, 230 kilometers away.

We’ve heard all sorts of stories; how Fukushima was going to make 1/3 of Japan uninhabitable; then it was half of Japan; there was going to be a nuclear winter, etc., etc.

I know one guy who, at the start of this entire affair, took his whole family and ran away to southern Japan. It was with glee when he announced on Facebook that they had found two TEPCO workers dead at the damaged reactors. He triumphantly wrote something to the effect of, “See? I was right. You are going to see more and  more dead guys like this coming out of there in the next few days and weeks.”

It was to his chagrin that I had to alert him to the fact that those two guys were killed because they drowned. When the tsunami hit, they were trapped underground and couldn’t escape. Their deaths had nothing to do with radiation. Their bodies were covered in bruises and they had broken bones from being bashed around in a small room when the water came in and there was no way out.

May they rest in peace. Too bad some sick people are happy about their sorry lot.

To date, there haven’t been any deaths directly related to radiation at Fukushima. It seems that, like Chernobyl, panic over radiation will cause much more damage than the actual radiation itself.

Yesterday, I wrote a post entitled Results of Geiger Counter Use in Tokyo that was about my factual research using a “professional use” Geiger counter in various places in and around town. I could not find any elevated levels of radiation even though I went to several major areas in this city. The levels were all lower than regular levels in Hong Kong and in some UK cities. I wrote:

The readings have all been between 0.07 mSV/hr to 0.13 mSV/hr. A flight on a commercial jet airplane from Tokyo to New York will expose you to about 190 mSV (about 18.0 mSV/hr) so you can see that the current levels are not be worried about. Unless, of course, you are the worrying sort.

Yet, even with my merely reporting the facts, some people want to take me to task and argue with me for doing so. Since this post is not about people’s lack of critical reading skills or lack of analytical thinking abilities (I’ve covered that here: Critical and Analytical Thinking are Lost Arts Amongst Many of Today’s Adult Population) I will stick with the subject and that is an examination of the People of the Lie; People who are so desperate to be “right” that they will do anything or desire anything so that they can be  proven correct.

One such person is a reader who is so desperate for this that it seems he hopes radiation is at dangerous levels and many men, women and children in Tokyo do get deathly ill so that he can say later, “I told you so.” I don’t think it is a problem using his pen name since it is a moniker. His handle is Richardw. He commented:

The question is not what readings you found – but which areas you didn’t read that others have found high levels in. Why is it your call to say no big deal? You are a shill – and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry. Hope it goes well for you. Nice to see you work for the industry that TEPCO is known for funding. Well done – Marketing suits you.

Richardw’s lack of reasoning skills are so faulty that I don’t know where to begin. Richardw accuses me of being a “shill - and you are doing a good job of protecting the industry.” And to what basis does he make these claims? Because I reported factually and truthfully what the readings of the Geiger counter I used showed!? Astounding!

Do tell, Richardw, how does that make me a shill? Would you have been happier if I lied and made up wild claims of dangerous radiation in Tokyo? It seems you would.

The knee-jerk reaction and excuse of most of these people like Richardw is that TEPCO lies. Well, it is known and a matter of public record that TEPCO has lied about many things in the past. There is no debate and argument about that. There is, though, argument about what they lied about in this most recent case at Fukushima. For example, the charges that TEPCO lied about meltdowns at the reactor cores as early as March 18th. There was conjecture that the cores may have melted down at that time. Even TEPCO’s own records show that there was this possibility, but until the radioactive release and danger was brought under more control, these claims could not be verified. That TEPCO did not announce unverified information does not constitute a lie. Unverified information is just that; it is conjecture. Public companies handling a nuclear crisis have a responsibility to tell the truth. They do not and should not go on the mass media making pronouncements of unverified claims. That would be most irresponsible.

Once again, we must only deal with known facts. I always want to deal with facts. My post was factual. What else is there?

What is the motivation for being one of the People of the Lie?

Either way, like I said, TEPCO has lied. That is a known fact and in the public domain. Lying is a very bad thing and should not be easily forgiven. TEPCO’s motivations for lying are for money and lying to protect people’s job’s and their own, as well as the livelihoods of their employees and their families.

That being said, these motivations for TEPCO’s lying are easily recognizable, and, in a way, very understandable.

Motivations for people like Richardw, on the other hand, are more difficult to pin down. But, in my opinion, once you do recognize then for what they are, they are even more ugly, disgusting and grotesque than TEPCO’s simple-minded motivations.

Like my friend who ran away to southern Japan, these people are so “sick” that they desperately want people to suffer or die in order to be proven correct. The fact of the matter is that People of the Lie, like Richardw, want to be proven correct for nothing else but to be able to say, “I told you so.” It is nothing short of narcissism and the twisted vanity of a psychopath.

Trust that, even though they fail to realize it, the fact is that people like the ones who lied at TEPCO and people like Richardw are actually birds of a feather.

They all are truly People of the Lie.

To read more on the concept of the People of the Lie, I recommend F. Scott Peck’s bestselling book, “People of the Lie – the Hope for Healing Human Evil“