Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) the folks who ran the medical isotope reactor up here without the proper safety equipment for more than a year, have finally thrown in the multi-million dollar towel. AECL was building two new contemporary medical isotope generating reactors at Chalk River, called MAPLE.
Eight years late, several hundred million dollars over budget and still to produce one single isotope, AECL has said "Screw it. We’re done". Gary Lunn, Minister for Natural Resources said that "has been plagued with problems since its inception." No kidding. The MAPLE reactors are built, but the safety equipment doesn’t work/isn’t installed/will never work, so they can’t fire’em up.
Which is odd, because the Tories decided to bypass the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission ‘No-Start’ order on the old NRU reactor back in the winter, firing the head of the CNSC for being in the way. Why doesn’t Lunn just ask PM Stevie Harper for another bypass order and get those babies crankin’?
Or did someone finally notice that Chalk River is only a two and a half hour drive from Ottawa?
China and Burma have both been savaged with disasters in the past two weeks, Burma with a cyclone and China with a serious earthquake: Thousands are dead and millions are displaced. It is heartbreaking. China rapidly opened their borders for assistance from the rest of the world. Burma has not.
There are stories that what aid has trickled into Burma has been re-labelled as "gifts" from General Than Shwe or one of his cronies in the junta. If you want to give money, the most sensible route, if only to ensure that your donations get to the actual people who need it, is via the Red Cross, which is located here.
A commercial has been plaguing television that is on par with "Head-On, Apply directly to the forehead!". This would be the "Just A Drop" commercial, which promises a "new way to use the toilet".
An intriguing concept, don’t you think? As an abacus? A porcelain trampoline? A replacement for your Blackberry? A medical isotope generator? Poppy planters for the Afghani heroin crop? Exactly what is this ‘new way to use the toilet’?
One must, before dropping undergarments, add ‘just a drop’ of the product to the toilet to mask any airborne offence-giving molecules. It would seem that, based on their website and the commercial, that women are paranoid beyond even medical intervention about the resultant odour of having a bowel movement.
Perhaps the better answer is to not gorge on the triple jalapeno nachos, cranberry martinis and vindaloo chicken wings the night before. And chew your food better.
Note to population: Shit Stinks. Get over it.
RoadDave 