Nuclear Plant Meltdown in Japan: Ay! Get Me Out Of Here!

Doug Bremner — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 18:58:30 +0000

New New! Lolcat! I done wanna die!

In the aftermath of the partial meltdown (or is it?) of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan people have been getting pretty edgy. I was surprised to hear about the large number of people clamouring for potassium iodide tablets after word got out about a radiation leak.

Most people are a little unclear about what is going. The by products of nuclear fission are Iodine-131 (I-131) and Cesium-137 (Cs-137). I-131 has a half life of 8 hours, which means all of it will be gone after a few weeks. It can concentrate in cow milk and trees and get onto plants, making its way into the diet. This seems to have happened in Japan, where milk and spinach from the area had 27 times the safe level. If you take potassium iodide as a preventive measure before exposure, it goes into the thyroid gland and fills up the iodine receptors so radioactive iodine won’t bind. If not, I-131 can concentrate in the thyroid gland and increase the risk of thyroid cancer many years later. This is what happened in the aftermath of Chernobyl, where local thyroid cancer rates increased. Thyroid cancer is highly treatable, however. What is on more concern is Cs-137, which has a half life of 30 years. It can cause leukemia. Fortunately so far release of Cs-137 into the environment in Japan has been very low.

On the Importance of Feeling Sorry for Yourself

Doug Bremner — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:32:43 +0000

Last week I was in Nashville and flew back on my birthday and reflected on that experience, and got some feedback from others. At the time I was reflecting on some memories from my childhood that weren’t that great, and at the time I simply allowed myself to feel sorry for myself and feel the feelings that were associated with the experiences I had had, as I perceived them. Now I am not going around blaming others or looking for a fight. I just think sometimes you should allow yourself to feel sorry for yourself. I mean if something bad happened to you, and you don’t allow yourself to be honest about it, then you aren’t practicing emotional integrity, are you?

A while back I started a cause on Facebook called “Virtual Fishtrap“. It refers to a place on Puget Sound in Washington State where myself and others lived before bad things started happening like people dying or getting divorced. Anyhoo the principles of our “cause” are:

We believe in emotional integrity/honesty
We like to walk on the beach
We like sheep

Anyone is welcome to join.

We were thinking of making Fishtrap the site of the new University of Emotional Integrity.

Class will be on Fishtrap beach

Lolcat is ready to enroll.

Lolcat sports a lovely U. of Emotional Integrity shirt

And we’ve already gotten going on Board of Trustees, which will be headed by Milvina Dean, last survivor of the Titanic, whom I mentioned in my lecture last week on the tendency of trauma survivors to want to gather together on the anniversary of the traumatic event they experienced in common.

Milvina Dean, last survivor of the Titanic, with her favorite cat.

She died a few weeks ago, but it doesn’t matter, since we’ll mostly be using primary process thinking at the University. And after all, time is relative, right?

See you at the U.

Before You Take That Pill » lolcat

Nuclear Plant Meltdown in Japan: Ay! Get Me Out Of Here!

On the Importance of Feeling Sorry for Yourself