NUCLEAR FEARS

I'm pondering -- double, double, toil and trouble, stirring the latest real news about Japan's nuclear future, and us -- our 104 Nuclear plants.

As of July 20th; the situation in Japan is not good.. Cooling the reactors is creating nuclear waste that cannot be cleaned up. The waste creates radioactive particles.. Japanese adults and children are being exposed to radiation, through water, food, and the air they breathe.

Yes, scientists and experts all over the world have been working on ways to dispose of nuclear waste -- it remains hot, and dangerous for many, many years -- nobody knows for how long but 20 years, and 10, 000 years have been mentioned by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Meanwhile, in Japan, the area affected is now 17 times the size of Manhattan. Japan's beef have been fed contaminated food. The Japan's government has stopped the shipment of its beef to other countries. It should not be eaten by anyone.

It is a disaster worse than Chernobyl, which still continues to harm people and the land, and the radiation from Chernobyl has spread, is still spreading to other countries.

In Chernobyl, the sarcophagus that was built 25 years ago, to cover the hot nuclear waste, is crumbling. Workers in hazard-protective suits, are on the site daily, repairing the sarcophagus.

No doubt about it -- radioactive nuclear particles from Fukushima are in the air and have been found in automobile filters in Seattle.

Meanwhile, Chicago's nuclear plant has a leaking reactor, The Tennessee Valley Authority reports that one of its nuclear reactor has been leaking. Cooling the reactor, disposing of nuclear waste is what's more or less being done in Illinois and Tennessee right now.

What's being done by our government to protect us from more plants, more reactors leaking fuel.

Nothing significant -- from what I've read, Exelon, the corporation that built the plants in Illinois made large contributions to Obama's presidential campaign. Exelon CEO John Rowe was appointed by Obama to his Blue Ribbon Commission on America's Nuclear Future.

Is that why nothing is being done right now? White House critics say Obama doesn't want to pass a law, or make a ruling that will hurt him?

I am not going to drift into a post about our stuck government situation. I'm just gathering information, and updating OUR fears -- mine and yours.

August 2, the members of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, pledged quick action on a task force report recommending sweeping safety changes for the U.S. Nuclear industry. But commission members were divided on Tuesday, on what that means. They are saying they can't vote on the full report within the 90 days that the NRC Chairman recommends. Why? Because some of the changes recommended could add millions of costs for the nuclear operators, such as Excelon Corp, Louisiana-based Energy, and Georgia-based Southern Co., and all the nuclear operators need detailed plans.
What should we do? Stop building plants? shut down the plants? Make more laws, more rules for checking, inspecting?

Nuclear problems are surrounding us like the clouds, the air, the sky. Sources for this post:
July 20, CBS News report by the World Health Organization; July 19 New York Times blog;
statements by Dr. Maria Neira, director, department of public health and environment; Arnold Gundersen, former nuclear industry senior vice president, Dr. MV Ramana, physicist, Princeton University Programme on Science an d Global Security; Dr. Shoji Sawada, physicist, Professor Emeritus, Japan's Nagoya University; IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency, Incident and Emergency Centre]; Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency; Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).

FIXING BLIND EYES

My husband injured an eye during a tennis game, and over the years, the sight in the eye has deteriorated.

I'm don't like to write about what's wrong, I like to discuss what's right! Stem cells are right -- wonderful, amazing!

After many years of research, Dr. Steven Schwartz, an eye doctor at the University of California, Los Angeles, has finally been able to help a patient with stem cell therapy. The patient had been losing her sight since age 12, and at age 26, was almost blind from macular degeneration

JC's injured eye, no matter what he did and how many doctors he saw, could not be "fixed."

(Hey, don't feel sorry for him -- many of us have accidents and sustain injuries that last a lifetime. JC drives a car, works as an actor and, with glasses and magnifiers, can fix the spring on the inside of a wristwatch. He does all the things one needs to do with one's eyes. But, if that eye could have been fixed, his career as a leading man would have been in movies as well as on stage. The subtle changes in one's eyes is a major tool for a movie actor.)

So, what about what's being done right now, with stem cells? Could it have helped John Cullum?

The 26-year-old patient is a pioneer, one of the first to receive first retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells generated from embryonic stem cells. If the cells that are being injected into her eyes work, she will join a handful of other patients with similar problems who are getting stem cells. Also in the pioneer group are two patients with spinal-cord injuries who've been receiving injections in another embryonic-stem-cell-based treatment.

These pioneers are helping scientists decide if therapies with stem cells are safe and ultimately effective.

"We are finally ready to break ground on this field with the first trials," says Dr. Robert Lanza, Chief Scientific Officer at ACT (Advanced Cell Technology), a company that makes the RPE cells. "It's taken a decade of extensive research to get to this point."

Disabled guys -- Michael J. Fox, Steven Hawking, Stevie Wonder, and the late Richard Pryor and Christopher Reeve -- think of them and stem cells therapies -- think about what stem cells could have done for Roosevelt, Helen Keller, and Beethoven.

My favorite Emily, Emily Dickinson said,
"Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all."

Scientists are hoping that embryonic stem cells have already begun the new era in medicine, and there will be help for Diabetes, Alzheimer's, and countless of other chronic diseases, including heart disease.

I've got big hopes.

YAY -- MUSLIM EVANGELIST

Amr Mohamed Helmi Khaled, 43-years-old, is an Egyptian Muslim activist and television preacher.

As Christians and Muslims raised a cross in Tahrir square in Cairo, He said, calling for the end of Mubarak's regime, "My message here today for Muslims and Christians is Let's be one hand."

Can we hope that Muslims and Christians can join hands and work together, prevent Holy Wars, Jihadist killings? He's got power and a message that can, perhaps, maybe, hopefully, dear God I hope so... affect Christians and Muslims throughout the world.

The New York Times Magazine described him in its April 30, 2006 issue as "the world's most famous and influential Muslim television preacher."

Amr Khaled was chosen as number 13 of the world's most influential people by Time Magazinem (2007)] and sixth most influential intellectual in the world by Prospect magazine. During the protests in Egypt that started on January 25, 2011, the Egyptian government ordered him out of Egypt.

Here are three Youtube videos -- not long -- the only ones that have him speaking in English so that I could sense for myself, whether to hope, pin my hopes on him and his followers or wonder if the Brotherhood of Muslims will squash him, dispose of him, force him into silence.



AND HERE IS MORE --a Gallup News video..




and here's what he said in April 2011