The accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was the most severe accident in the history of mankind. At Unit 1, the fuel rods melted down in about five hours after the earthquake, and molten fuel breached and melted through the reactor pressure vessel. Meltdowns occurred in Units 2 and 3 within one hundred hours of the accident. At around the same time, hydrogen-air blasted in the reactor buildings of Units 1, 3 and 4.
Each reactor building contains a fuel pool to store spent fuel. At one point, there was a possibility of meltdowns in those fuel pools as well. If a meltdown occurs in a fuel pool, which sits outside a reactor, a tremendous amount of radioactive material would be released directly into the atmosphere. nike shoes The continuation of such a release could mean the realization of the worst-case scenario: a situation where 50 million people within a 250-kilometer radius of Fukushima, including Tokyo and its greater metropolitan area, would have to be evacuated. Fortunately, the situation was prevented from developing further thanks to the tireless self-sacrificing efforts of the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the Self Defense Forces, the firefighters and the police force to supply cooling water into the reactors and the fuel pools. Indeed, we were so close to seeing the worst-case scenario unfold. Had it reached the worst-case scenario, Japan would have had to suffer from long-term chaos and the tremendous amount of radioactive material released would have impacted other nations as well.
So who was the first gay pope? shop nike free There’s a whole litany of popes who were notorious for their licentious behavior with men or boys, such as the 15th-century Pope Paul II, who is said to have died of a stroke while being sodomized by a male page. But those “party popes” don’t interest me as much as the gay popes who refrained from sexual behavior, in conformity with the church’s teachings regarding priestly celibacy and chastity. These popes are forever lost to history, so I made one up: Pope Stephen II, who held office from 752 to 757. He’s the central character in my just-published novel, The Donation of Constantine.
The real Stephen II played a key role in turning the papacy into a major political power in medieval Europe, and the story of that transformation is colorful enough: It was achieved by conspiracy, a winter crossing of the Alps, and some splendidly blood-drenched battles. But in my imagination, Stephen was also blessed with homosexual tendencies. free run These never found expression in physical sex, but his attraction to a curly-haired Muslim slave, and what he learned from that youth about the history of Islam, was the trigger that empowered him to lead the church in a radically new direction — one that saved Rome and the papacy from destruction.
Before the Qatar gambit collapsed, Afghanistan’s education minister, Farooq Wardak, said the Taliban was backing off its ban on female education. But Ms. Jan sees no evidence of that on the ground. “I know these people will never do what they say,” she said. “If there is any chance for the women, for girls to get educated, you have to think 10 times before you negotiate with these murderers. nike free run They put acid on girls, cut their throats, cut their noses for just going to school.”
With all due respect to the admirable efforts of Mr. Grossman, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John Kerry and Barack Obama, it is not our duty to negotiate with the Taliban. Not our drones nor our diplomats nor our money will change their minds.
The parties who should be dealing with the Taliban are their friends in the oil-soaked Gulf states who have done the most to promote a despicable ideology for a generation. The Taliban’s Wahhabism was born in Saudi Arabia in the 19th century.
Although we may not be able to see how this works out in the lives of popes, some lowlier members of the Catholic Church have led slightly more transparent lives. I’m thinking of, for example, the Victorian poet-priest Gerard Manley Hopkins, who is believed to have been gay but celibate. nike free run shoe It’s not hard to see how his sexuality fueled both his ministry and his creativity, even though these two parts of him were often at war with each other; read a poem like “Felix Randal” to get a sense of that.
It is possible for mankind to get enough energy without relying on nuclear power — by using natural energy such as solar, wind, and biomass. To help curb global warming, we need to stop the use of not only nuclear power but also fossil fuels. If all nations make serious efforts to develop new technologies, I believe it’s more than possible that in fifty years we mankind will have all our energy needs met entirely by natural energy.
For the sake of the human race and of our planet earth, the desirable path is for the entire world to walk in the direction of zero nuclear reliance. I have become firmly convinced of that.