p e n g u i n d e v i l

So in the late 1970’s I was living here, Portland, just not too many miles upriver from a nuclear plant that had one of the largest reactors yet built. It was quite a sight and quite a target for the large number of progressive citizens in these parts. I went on a tour of it in grade school, which I found quite memorable and I even got to look into the control room from the observation deck! In 1978 they discovered: building construction errors, the proximity of a faultline and cracking of the steam tubes.
It was made all the more interesting because this plant was, strangely & symbolically, named Trojan Nuclear Power Plant (yes, it even used a chess knight for a symbol… Were they trying to make us think of the condoms or, more likely, the Trojan Horse… Either way, the meaning seemed such a blatant signpost of hidden threat, I am still shocked at the gall it took to use it.). Of course there was a concerted effect to shut the plant down.

Into all of this, a movie was released called The China Syndrome (it even featured cracking welds on tubes…just like Trojan!). Most of the meat takes place in the control room, which was modeled after the Trojan control room (in fact a lot of it took place on the observation deck for the control room, making it doubly eerie to me). Then to make matters worse, two weeks after the movie came out, the incident at Three Mile Island occurred (don’t even bring up the double Pennsylvania connection!). This all made for a very unfriendly Nuclear environment here and Trojan suffered many protests, shutdowns and minor accidents before being finally closed 16 years into its 35 year lifespan. Of course, in walks Chernobyl (and more recently, Robert Polidori’s brilliant photography book on it, Zones of Exclusion) and for a lot of people, including myself, nuclear was removed from the table as a viable energy source.

Well, to be realistic, I know that the fuel disposal is the big issue and that there have been hundreds of Nuclear plants operating for years without any known big problems. But it still is a dangerous industry. It seems to me like it may be the future of power, whether we like it or not, but boy, if we would build houses and buildings with modern solar panels for roofing, our need for dangerous power would be much diminished. But then again, I am a renewable resource person, living somewhere that most power is hydroelectric (31 power generating dams?).

In honor of the 60 Minutes last night where they were discussing the embracing of Nuclear Power in France and the weakening reluctance towards it in the USA. We watched The China Syndrome. I hadn’t seen it in many years, but I think it has aged well. The threats of nuclear power, the attempts to downplay those and the reluctance of the media to confront these issues remain timely, especially now when plans are being presented across the nation for additional plants to be constructed (for the first time in something like 20 years). It is the story of a reporter who is in the right place at the right time to witness a near-accident at a nuclear plant and the efforts of the power company to silence the story. Things get ugly, as one might imagine and, as Carter Burke would say, a few deaths were involved. I may be cynical, but I don’t feel like the lengths the company would go to to protect itself were exaggerated and it really does make you think about the dangers of Nuclear Power and it feels like it was based on a true story (though it wasn’t really) and it is, in fact, very similar to Silkwood. It’s also pretty involving: they don’t shy away from technical jargon, and it has some good little thriller aspects to it and a car chase! Jane Fonda and Michael Douglas are the film crew (I am not a fan of either one, but they do just fine) but two actors that I always enjoy make it an a-list movie: Jack Lemmon plays the plant supervisor who is torn between his plant and the knowledge that he has of its faults and James Karen (yes, of Return of the Living Dead fame) plays Fonda’s producer.

I do highly recommend it for people who have issues about nuclear power, for people who don’t have issues about nuclear power, and just plain for anyone who likes a good drama with some political meat to it.

Since everybody likes discussing the “browser wars” and platform popularity, I thought I would throw in my two cents. It seems that when people report on market share, they give about 80% to internet exploiter and 90-95 percent to windows users.

Looking at the stats for this site, the last 100 visitors show this breakdown (the different versions are compressed…):

62.00% Firefox (2.0=35%, 1.5=25%, 1.0=2%)
27.00% Safari 1.2
7.00% MSIE (6.0=6%, 7.0=1%)
4.00% Other (Camino=2%, Mozilla=1%, Omniweb=1%)

and

45.00% Mac OS X
39.00% Windows (XP=33%, 2003=5%, 2000=1%)
16.00% Unknown

And for the old Blogspot incarnation?

61.00% Firefox 1.5.0 (1.5=32%, 2.0=28%, 1.0=1%)
19.00% Safari
18.00% MSIE (6.0=13%, 7.0=5%)
2.00% Other (Camino=2%, unknown=1%, Mozilla=1%)

and

60.00% Windows (XP=56%, 98=2%, Vista=1%, 2000=1%
24.00% Unknown
16.00% Mac OS X

I don’t know if that means anything but I certainly like the looks of it. It shows a very strong tendency towards Firefox and Mac OSX, well above the average… Though blogspot shows 60% windows (what are earth is that “16% other”), even the 16% Mac is above the trend.

Well, well, well.. So the Beastie’s played a private party here in town 3 days ago. Now, I know, you’re thinking, so what? Well, settle in, it’s a long sad story. See, I have a hard time going to concerts. I usually change my mind day of show, figuring that I’d rather just stay home. But I always imagine that I’d break that tradition for the Boys. See, I first stumbled on them on the USA network in about 1985 when I encountered the “she’s on it” video. I then ran out and picked up the Rock Hard 12″ and they’ve been in my “big three bands” list ever since. And since their most recent album, To the Five Borough’s, is easily the second best of their career, attending a show should still be a going concern.

So, of course, I’m going to be checking them out whenever they come to town, right?

Well, seemingly wrong. With my history I feel that even had this weeks show not been a private party, I probably wouldn’t have gone anyway.

I must, sadly, list my failures in this regard to attend the local Beasties shows… Here are the ones that I can think of:

1) (no) Roseland Theater for LTI tour. I changed my mind, though most of my friends went.
2) (no) Coliseum. With RUN-DMC on the Together Forever Tour. I didn’t get around to it.
3) (no) Lollapalooza (with the monks) Didn’t go. I can’t stand the thought of festivals.
4) (yes) Salem Armory. Had to go. Couldn’t miss them 4 times! Oh, and L7 was playing too…
5) (yes) Rose Garden (Hello Nasty). Went to that one.

So since then it’s been a quiet 7 years, with no shows to worry about. Then I learn of that secret show three days ago, and then next month (on what seems to be their only American tour date for 2007) they’ll be right up the river for the Sasquatch festival which I won’t be going to. Oh well. At this point, why worry. I’m still just feeling some reeling from the unexpected show.

Boys Live…
Image from w+k blog
The King and Mike…
Image from w+k blog
very blue…
Image by Bgirl*555 In more media news, The Sopranos debuted tonight. Well, I wasn’t super fond of the episode, but I think that was the intention, to leave people with big questions about what’s just about to happen. I kept waiting for more of Paulie and to see Sil. Instead, Janice and Bobby, over and over… I can’t stand Janice or any of her storylines.

In non-media news, I have recently discovered that those big blow up birthing balls (or exercise balls, whatever they are), make great everyday seats!

Does this page need more color?