BuzzB comments

We all carry candida fungus around with us in our gut. It is when it gets out of balance with the others and takes over do we have problems. Diet is the main cause. These youngsters should start eating natto, yogurt or drink a Yakult once in a while. That will help the "good" fungus make a comeback and knock down the candida. I bet the affected here are heavy into a western diet.

I noticed on the TV news this morning that the passenger compartment of both cars was relatively intact and that the airbags had deployed as designed. There was no broken or cracked window glass. Just what was it that killed these three?

Also, there is a good reason they outlawed aluminum wiring for buildings fifty years ago.

It's really hard for a propane tank to explode by itself. This is probably the result of a plastic gasoline container going up first then burning through propane hoses and regulators after that. There are too many portable generators at these events all with their own little 18 liter plastic bottle of gasoline nearby.

I'm glad that Okinawa will have a Hilton. This should of happened decades ago.

Okinawa DID have a Hilton decades ago. On top of the mountain in Rycom on the road up behind Kubasaki High School. I was stationed on Okinawa '70 - '79.

Today I noticed a new logo on the mail pages. It was in print. Same purple. Then when log out of mail noticed a new logo that was in cursive. If I go to just the Yahoo front page then the original logo is still there. This something they don't need to play with. They really need to work on protecting the users from email spam instead.

Sounds like Japan finally embracing the AGM battery. Bout time.

Soldave: Optima Red Top is a fine product. That's one tough battery indeed.

I have a Sharp waterproof phone good for 2.4 meters. It is over five years old now. Take it with me kayaing. No touch screen stuff and without any apps but battery still runs for four days on standby. Simple works.

I agree with much is said about Sony's failings but I still use the MD format. Great for capturing music off the streaming services. Best sound comes from AAC+ down to ATRAC. Only MP3 at 128 or higher can match it. Simple works and keeps on working.

Let the jeers begin.

Hardly seems newsbreaking seeing as how Solarius and Goal Zero have been on this for years already. Goal zero even has a larger unit that can run small appliances.

In the early years Hotmail was Rocket Mail. One of the earliest free online email systems. Then it changed to Hotmail and now to Outlook. Over the years I have not had any problems with any of these three systems. The Hotmail spam filters have always worked well.

It seems to me that the Outlook name here is confused with the email accounts that live on your PC. I have always used online email because learned from experience that hard drives did/do/will crash. I can stil use my account with the hotmail.com extension so the new "upgrade" is not an issue.

It is artificial and cannot last. The FED Reserve has been giving away money to investers to keep things looking rosy. This money is simply printed. Companies are not going to use their own reserves when they know unemployment is at 14% and half the population is on welfare. This is a smokescreen. Beware what the near future holds. Politicians at work.

I saw on TV news this morning that claim hydraulic oil in the braking system may have overheated causing brake fading. They even showed a nifty animated computer graphic diagram. Based on the newsreels I've been seeing this looks like a very large bus. Most large buses use air for braking, no? Air brake systems are failsafe. A loss of compressed air would cause the brakes to activate. Could still be a braking problem but not a hydraulic issue. Hard to believe a vehicle of this weight/size having hydraulic brakes.

Now we need to ask the question: How important are these batteries while in-flight? Are they used as backup in any way while airborne? Would they be needed to jumpstart some system in some way? Or are they only used while on the ground? While we can "contain" them sufficiently to preclude fire/smoke problems it won't do any good if the things are rendered useless when actually needed. Someone please reassure me here.

I have not heard. Did they locate the "bad" batteries that were changed out earlier by the airlines? There were more than a few. They were routine changed out before the first "fire" incident. That would be a good place to be studying.

I like the concept of this plane. The wife and I were due to go NRT to San Diego in March on one. Now we are re-ticketed on the 777. Other new airships have had issues at their beginnings. Hope the 787 issues are few and short lived.

Only 89 minutes? Around the block only? The problems are occuring on trans-Pacific long haul flights. They should be testing at 35K feet for 14 hours. Temperature and pressure could be factors.

Actually saw this on NHK TV News at noon today.

Reference the recent public photos of the charred battery. In those photos can be seen one or maybe two what look to be circuit boards at one end of the container. Is this where the monitoring and safety circuits are? Inside the same container as the battery cells?? Does anybody else see it this way? Otherwise why would the investigators be saying the boards are charred? Maybe not such an ideal location for your controls and annunciation circuitry.

I have my eye on the aluminum wire on this plane. It is a well known fact that aluminum wire is tricky to employ especially where there are extremes in temperature and vibration. There is a reason it was outlawed in building wiring systems. Also, do we fully understand how current flows in/on aluminum wire. I've been an electrician for over 40 years. We always learned that DC travels inside the copper wire and and AC travels on the outside surface. This is known as the "skin effect". Airplanes usually employ 400 Hz AC as well as DC. 28 volts DC used to be the standard but I'm betting all these old rules have been bent and twisted for "cutting edge" advantage. So are these aluminum wire bundles a mixed bag? With DC circuits and AC circuits alongside each other? I know how inductive coupling of AC circuits works on copper lines but am not knowledgeable about how that works on aluminum. These systems were no doubt tested to great length individually without fail. But how do they all get along in a big crowd?? If it turns out to be inductive coupling then this will be a costly fix for sure.

These are long boats used for racing. They are not designed for rough water. When the wind came up suddenly it was blowing lengthwise to the river. Thus, when the leader told everyone to "turn back" their boats needed to be broadside to wind/waves. This is when the boats capsized. At least this is what I made of it this morning after seeing some video shot at the scene as it happened.

I sea kayak on flat water in northern Tohoku. It is not unusual for winds to kick up abruptly and for flat waters to turn turbulent in a matter of minutes. The sea kayak can fend off high waves much better than the racing canoes so I can see how these kids got into a tight spot quickly. In these conditions it be best to abandon boats and head for shore immediately. Hypothermia kicks in quickly.

Leadership should write something down in the contingency folder that in the future when these condition arise that everyone head parallel for the shore instead of trying to turn around.

Nobody seriously hurt .... that's the best part of this story.

It seems to be the lay out of food in large quantity that is the problem. A venue is expecting 300 guests at a large gathering so hundreds of trays of pre-cooked/raw foods are prepared and set out on large tables. There is no heat or refrigeration in the meantime while the group telephones ahead to say they will be late. Then there is the issue of cross-contamination. Wearing plastic gloves does no good at all if the same gloves are dipping into the wrong ingredients back and forth.

As for the supermarket food we choose only the foods prepared by workers behind the glass windows and sealed up in plastic containers. We always steer clear of those selections left out in the open for the public to paw over and sneeze upon. Another place to catch the bug is in those vats of ice in restaurant drink bars where the public is allowed to grab ice in their glass. They are supposed to use the tongs but watch some time and be surprised how it goes. Best to use a dispensing machine instead.

Standards and no-notice inspections would go a long way to preventing large scale outbreaks. My question is who would be the inspectors? Think TEPCO/NEXCO inspections.

At only 3.2 mil yen I'm guessing the creature comfort level of this vehicle falls way short of the best Elgrand models.

I'm hearing impaired and read lips. If you are wearing a mask don't expect to strike up a conversation with me any time soon.

Lots of good discussion here. Most of it seems centered on the failure if the steel components. I think it will be revealed that the concrete composition itself failed. Then the bolts were let go. The concrete of the tunnel core is directly in contact with the native rock and all the moisture and minerals within. This can degrade concrete composition faster than galvanized steel.

Yubaru got it right. Roofs in Okinawa are made of concrete. No reason to be up there. Young or old. Hope it loses strength before getting up here in Aomri. The rice crops this year have been spared wind and rain. Until now. And it is so close to harvest time too.

Right now, go ahead and add Pandora to the growing list of "geo-blocked" sites in Japan. Don't believe me? Go to Pandora site now and they will tell you in so many words "sorry, you are in Japan. No service for you".

Everywhere except Japan it seems, judging by the Spotify website. Gotta love that geoblocking!

Since this debri has been traveling a very slow speed can we assume the species clinging to it have been healthy and reproducing all along the way? The offspring probably rode the currents in to shore long before the solid debri. Much of this aquatic life reproduces by spewing forth tiny reproductions to ride the currents to eventually attach to some stable surface. Me thinks cleaning up one float dock shows good intent but has no substantial impact on the overall situation.

There are still large areas of metro Tokyo covered in closely clustered wood structures with heavy tile roofs. These are the same type structures that helped spread the firestorms in Kobe. With roads blocked and covered in debri there will be more loss of life secondary to the quake itself. How much of the subway system is above sea level? Even a small tsunami could be a large calamity here during rush hour. I too think the numbers quoted are way conservative.

Up until now we were led to believe that seaweed helped to fortify the thyroid because it contained iodine. I do agree that too much of any good thing can be bad.

So, we have a NPP that is shut down for maintenance. Is it safe? I mean, sure the reactor core is not burning hot but are the rods safe? If the "shut down" plant is subjected to a similar scenario as Fukashima's plant was last year don't we still have a problem? The quake ruptures the storage ponds. Cooling water is lost. Hydrogen builds up. A hoist crane falls into the spent fuel pool. The tsunami takes out the backup power. A valve gets stuck and a pump falls off the wall. Seems like the same thing all over again. Without constant cooling water flow these plants just self destruct.

So the only really safe NPP is one that has had all its spent fuel and active fuel removed. One that is only shut down for maintenace is still a threat if attacked by natural forces. Do I have this right?