Quoted from the Wikipedia entry linked:

Often, one who takes refuge will make vows as well, typically vows to adhere to the Five Precepts (pañca-sila). Laypeople generally undertake at least one of the five, but traditions differ in how many vows is common to take. The Five Precepts are not given in the form of commands such as “thou shalt not …”, but rather are promises to oneself: “I will (try) …”

1. To refrain from harming living creatures (killing).
2. To refrain from taking that which is not given (stealing).
3. To refrain from sexual misconduct.
4. To refrain from false speech.
5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness.

In some schools of Buddhism, serious lay people or aspiring monks take an additional three to five ethical precepts, and some of the five precepts are strengthened. For example, the precept pertaining to sexual misconduct becomes a precept of celibacy.

Weight: 170.2 lbs

Two slices of toast

6 Chicken & Pork pot stickers

Raisin Bran w/ Almond Milk

Tea

1 poached egg

Orange juice

Grapefruit

Fish Oil

Sendai and Christchurch once again bring to mind the emergency grab bag.  The bag you grab in an emergency when you have to absolutely get out RIGHT NOW.  If memory serves, there’s a nuclear power plant about 40 miles west of Fort Worth.  Everything below is from the FEMA website linked.

Basic Disaster Supplies

There are six basics you should stock in your home:

• Water
• Food
• First aid supplies
• Clothing, bedding and sanitation supplies
• Tools
• Special items

Keep the items that you would most likely need during an evacuation in an easy-to-carry container. Possible containers include a large, covered trash container; a camping backpack; or a duffle bag.

Disaster Supplies Kit Locations

Home

• Your disaster supplies kit should contain essential food, water, and supplies for at least three days.
• Keep this kit in a desig­nated place and have it ready in case you have to leave your home quickly. Make sure all family members know where the kit is kept.
• Additionally, you may want to consider having supplies for sheltering for up to two weeks.

Work

• This kit should be in one container, and ready to “grab and go” in case you are evacuated from your workplace.
• Make sure you have food and water in the kit. Also, be sure to have com­fortable walking shoes at your workplace in case an evacuation requires walking long distances.

Car

• In case you are strand­ed, keep a kit of emer­gency supplies in your car.
• This kit should contain food, water, first aid supplies, flares, jumper cables, and seasonal supplies.

Disaster Supplies Kit Maintenance

Just as important as putting your supplies together is maintaining them so they are safe to use when needed. Here are some tips to keep your supplies ready and in good condition:

• Keep canned foods in a dry place where the temperature is cool.
• Store boxed food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers to protect from pests and to extend its shelf life.
• Throw out any canned good that becomes swollen, dented, or corroded.
• Use foods before they go bad, and replace them with fresh supplies.
• Place new items at the back of the storage area and older ones in the front.
• Change stored food and water supplies every six months. Be sure to write the date you store it on all containers.
• Re-think your needs every year and update your kit as your family needs change.
• Keep items in airtight plastic bags and put your entire disaster supplies kit in one or two easy-to-carry containers, such as an unused trashcan, camping backpack, or duffel bag.

I find that I find cooking a throughly more rewarding and enjoyable experience as a married man than I ever did single, even when I was living with others.  Part of it’s probably maturity.  I think more of it is feeling appreciated by someone we love.

According to a Pew Research Poll published on Feb 23, 2011:

The Tea Party movement clearly played a role in rejuvenating the Republican Party in 2010, helping the GOP take control of the House of Representatives and make gains in the Senate. Tea Party supporters made up 41% of the electorate on Nov. 2, and 86% of them voted for Republican House candidates, according to exit polls.

41%?  Hell, that’s larger than the number of people who self-identify as Republicans or Democrats.  More people supported the Tea Party in the 2010 election than called themselves members of either party.

Sooner or later every couple reaches the point where farting under the covers passes for humor.  This is further proof that this is not the best of all worlds.

As of 4pm local Japanese time:

Reactors 1, 2, 3, and 4 were NOT in cold shutdown. Reactors 3 and 4 at low water levels. Seawater injection continues at 1, 2, and 3. Fuel remains exposed at 1, 2, and 3. Cooling non-functional at plants 1, 2, and 3. Containment breached at reactor 2 and possibly reactor 3. Reactor pressure unknown in plant 2. INES Level 5 at plants 1, 2, and 3. Ongoing venting of radioactive gases may still be necessary at plants 1, 2, and 3.

Can it reach level 7 exactly like Chernobyl? That’s nearly impossible, granted. Chernobyl was a graphite reactor which had no mechanisms in place to slow down the reaction, and had NO containment building. IIRC, Fukushima has 8ft thick concrete walls, and a seal of 1ft of steel (rather less than more modern reactor designs and always a huge criticism of Mark I designs apparently), and the actual chance of a full-on nuclear explosion is slim indeed. What has happened and is happening what we call a nuclear meltdown, which has happened because of evaporation of all the water and is bad enough in its own right, whatwith escape of gases which leads to radioactivity into the atmosphere and throughout the countryside, an altogether separate issue from Chernobyl explosion risk. You have those spent nuclear rods melting through the containment floor, and basically you get the Hanford situation, which is an uncontained situation that exists in Washington State and site of the world’s first nuclear waste dump. You can bury it with all the concrete in the world, but that spent nuclear waste is still going to make its way down to Portland given a decade or five. Hanford is a big reason so many nuclear reactors worldwide are now situated at the edge of the sea.

Then of course all that radioactivity seeps into the ocean, and then it’s bad sushi, and RUN, it’s Gojira!

Here is the current report on Reactor 3, straight from the IAEA website: Coolant within Unit 3 is covering about half of the fuel rods in the reactor, and Japanese authorities believe the core has been damaged. High pressure within the reactor’s containment led operators to vent gas from the containment. Later, an explosion destroyed the outer shell of the reactor building above the containment on 14 March.

Following the explosion, Japanese officials expressed concerns that the reactor’s containment may not be fully intact. White smoke has been seen emerging from the reactor, but on 19 March it appeared to be less intense than in previous days.

Efforts to pump seawater into the reactor core are continuing.

Of additional concern at Unit 3 is the condition of the spent fuel pool in the building. There are indications that there is inadequate cooling water level in the pool, and Japanese authorities have addressed the problem by dropping water from helicopters into the building and spraying water from trucks. Spraying from trucks continued on 20 March. There is no data on the temperature of the water in the pool.

On 18 March, Japan assigned an INES rating of 5 to this Unit.

The fact that seawater is being used to actively pump water into the plant belies any concept of “cold shutdown”, and more like “oh god please work”.

Hmm, I was speaking of this all largely hypothetically based on Gojira musings, but looks like Japanese authorities are highly concerned as well. http://blueskysunshine.org /blog/?p=3937#axzz1HDgLLVq N ”Japanese Official: Pressure Levels Rising Again in Reactor at Damaged Nuclear Plant. Fox News “alert” states that the water being sprayed on the reactor[s] is NOT working. Pumps were unable to be restarted. Meltdown “continues”. They intend to move on to another reactor. Food ban next step because of radiation. Now Taiwan detects radiation on imported Japanese peas. 

The half-life of Cesium 137 is 30 years. This means it would take about 200 years for something contaminated with it to lose all signs of radioactivity. *“It’s worse than a meltdown,”* said David A. Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer at the Union of Concerned Scientists who worked as an instructor on the kinds of General Electric reactors used in Japan. “The reactor is inside thick walls, and the spent fuel of Reactors 1 and 3 is out in the open.”

And there you have it. Straight from a guy who taught people how to use Mark I reactors, and even went up to bat before Congress in 1992 to force design changes at Mark I plants which he was working on at the time. “worse than a meltdown” Here’s his writeup on the causes of the Fukushima reactor explosions at plants No. 1 and No. 3 with some diagrams http://allthingsnuclear.or g/post/3940804083/possible-cause-of-reactor-building-explosions

“Tests found levels of radioactive iodine up to seven times the legal limit in samples of raw milk, spinach and two leaf vegetables as far away from the nuclear plant as Chiba prefecture, to the east of Tokyo.”

It’s sort of funny how many purported news journalists speak of how radiation levels in the air and food and such are “just fine” and nothing to panic about.  They wouldn’t have a clue if it clubbed them in the head.  The real focus ought to be the food supply.  You eat it, it gets into your thyroid gland.  And boom, thyroid cancer.  It doesn’t take a whole like of radioactive iodine to send you on a one way trip of surgery, chronic fatigue, and lifelong thyroid hormone supplementation.