A good review of Their Lordships Request ...

Their Lordships Request has been reviewed on BlogCritics and I'm rather pleased with the result. Please do take a look at it.

St Patrick's Day ...

Yes, I am wearing something green. But the best way I can think of marking it is to post the Saint's own poetic expression of his faith.

St Patrick's Lorica

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith,
Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spiced tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun's life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.

The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide,
His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,

In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

I despair ...

It was, I expect, inevitable. Already I am receiving emails suggesting that the Tokyo earthquake is the start of the 'End of the World' predicted by that favourite book for misquotation, the Bible. Someone, presumably in the US, but I could well be wrong, and certainly on the 'fundamentalist' end of the religious spectrum, has started an email suggesting that 9/11 (New York), 1/11 (Haiti) and now 3/11 (Tokyo) are all linked and signs of the coming end...

That gave me a desire to scream, but then I stumbled across someone trying to make a link between "Anthropomorphic Global Warming" (AGW) and an increase in the strength of earthquakes and had to go and lie down in a darkened room for a bit.

According to the AGW suggestion, the melting of glaciers has caused an 'isostatic bounce' which has triggered an increase in the number of earthquakes in the last 30 years. Really? Since on a geological timescale these things happen over thousands of years, if not millions, the last 30 years is not statistically significant. There is another reason for the increase in earthquakes - the number of seismic stations has gone from 164 in the 1960s to over a thousand in the last thirty. We are now measuring quakes in places we simply didn't have records for before this.

Plate tectonics is a very interesting subject, one that is still not fully explored, but as with any system in movement, if it cannot move smoothly and continuously past whatever it is in contact with, there has to be stress. Stress has to be relieved. When two plates build up stress and then release it - you get an earthquake. I'm glad to say that geologists all over the internet are jumping up and down and foaming at the mouth over this suggestion by some idiot in Green Peace.

This sort of psuedo-science is precisely why people are so distrustful of anything to do with science these days. Right, back to my darkened room. With all the other problems in Tokyo at present, no one needs this sort of blatant scaremongering. Sadly, I have also no doubt that there are enough idiots out there who believe this sort of garbage to make the donations to Green Peace keep rolling in - and for governments to keep throwing tax money into "research" on the subject!

Now I'm really upset ....

Not getting down to it ...

Having had a successful day finishing off work and getting a number of other things done yesterday, I'm not doing so well today. First, I've lost an important file on the computer. I can't find it anywhere in any of the directories and folders, so I can only assume it must be permanently gone down the electronic chute ...

Never mind, I'm now about to pack in and find some lunch.

Then some German Übungs in preparation for tonight's classes ...

Some informative links to the nuclear discussion

I have found a number of informative articles posted about the nuclear power plant emergency in Japan. I have to say that nearly all of them have comments attached by idiots who are obviously Greenpeace trolls who simply hate anyone arguing with their "ban all nuclear and let's live in caves" point of view.

Bravenewclimate has some very good information and illustrations on the construction and design of the reactors involved. They are Boiling Water Reactors, similar to Pressurised Water Reactors and totally unlike the modified Magnox type that was involved at Chernobyl.

Another site, ANS Nuclear Cafe, has regular updates on the situation and some really intelligent discussions from people who work in the industry and know what they are talking about.

Another very lucid article appears on the website Morgsatlarge - Blogoriphic. It has a fairly lengthy introduction, but is written by an engineer and addresses the procedures and the problems that have arisen. I note that it also links to both the sites I have linked above.

Nuclear debate

The nuclear problem in Japan is being endlessly discussed on TV at present. I suppose it has provided the perfect opportunity for the anti-nuclear brigade to trot out all their usual misinformation and prejudice. Though my command of the language is, as yet, imperfect, I can't overlook some of the attempts to claim that what has happened in Japan "could happen here" which I find annoying.

Why annoying? Put simply, this is a case of not comparing "apples with apples." The media interviewers keep making reference to Chernobyl, but what has happened in Japan is nothing like what happened in Chernobyl and it is, in my view, a blatant attempt to stir up fear and promote the anti-nuclear campaign. None of the nuclear plants in Europe are likely to face the same combination of problems as the Japanese plant - for one thing none are near major earthquake faults. The plant in Japan faced a near "million to one" combination of disasters. First, the earthquake was way in excess of what any building has yet been planned to withstand. (The Richter Scale operates on a logarithmic progression so a single "point" difference makes a huge difference in forces unleashed.) Secondly, the quake triggered the safety systems, damping out the fuel rods, but it also triggered the shutdown of power right across the region, so the coolant pumps for the reactor had to draw on the back-up power, diesel generators - which were then swamped by the massive tidal wave. The quake also damaged the coolant pumps for one reactor, preventing them from operating, but the remainder continued to function on the third back-up, battery power. The trouble is, the batteries can only do this for a maximum period and no one seems to have been able to bring in more generators to support them.

The chances of this happening in Europe in a like sequence are extremely remote.

What is concerning me is that this emergency - and it is an emergency - will now be used to prevent the renewal of existing nuclear plants and the building of the new ones we need. Despite the hype, neither wind nor solar can or will deliver the levels of energy demand Europe needs if it is to continue to support the lifestyles, development and technology we need to remain competitive in the emerging world we live in.

What we need is more truth, less hype and prejudice and a lot more honesty from the "Green" lobby, whose demands, policies and downright lies will lead inexorably to our permanent impoverishment and dependence on less paranoid and less "ethical" peoples and nations in the not too distant future.

The power of nature ...

The quake in Japan is a truly awesome reminder of the power of nature. An earthquake of this magnitude - does it really matter if it was 8.9 or 9.0 on the Richter scale? - unleashes forces humanity can't even beging to comprehend. Watching the YouTube videos of the tsunami makes one very aware of the power of water as well.

The reports I'm seeing suggest the death toll is likely to be over 10,000 and I suspect that is on the low end of this disaster. I'm glad to see the US has sent one of their giant carriers to the scene and that it is already engaged in humanitarian relief, refueling Japanese rescue aircraft and providing emergency hospital services and clean water as well as troops and sailors to help in the rescue effort. A pity the UK is not in a position to do anything similar - all our mini-carriers are now either scrapped or out of service and the new ones, if they are ever finished, won't be available for another 10 years. So much for the UK being a "Global Power" these days...

At least the Emergency Services have been able to respond, sending a corps of volunteers to join the massive international relief effort.

All the rest of us can really do is pray for those affected by this massive tragedy - and hope that the world will respond generously when the rebuilding can be started.