Nuclear Radiation! Earless Rabbit Born Near Fukushima! Panic Ensues!

The headlines read: "Mutant Rabbit Born Without Ears Born in Namie City, Fukushima Japan!" It's the end of the world. Rabbits breed faster than humans so an earless rabbit being born near Fukushima proves that the radiation is worse than we suspected and that Japan is truly doomed. I was wrong all along....

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III - DEAD SKUNK

Well, no. Not exactly. In fact, not at all. Panic not needed. Read on and then you decide for yourself. Once again, a clear head and some calm, level-headed rational research will do. 


Today we will discuss the rabbit born without ears panic that is now engulfing the west as "proof" of terrible radioactive fallout from Fukushima.

No. This earless rabbit argument carries no basis in fact or reliable data. It is just another example of how people today have lost the ability to think analytically and read critically and I'll prove it to you here. 


In my post of May 31, 2011: Nuclear Panic Time? What's Important to You?  I wrote:


I often wonder what people are thinking and how they deem what is important to their lives or not. I never ever wonder if people watch too much TV (they do) or if they are brain-washed by the mass media (they are)....


We have a saying, "If you go looking for trouble, you'll find it." I think that now, since everyone is so concerned about Fukushima, that we are being much more careful and diligent in our checking of our immediate environment. But I want to postulate one idea that won't be comfortable for most people...  I am wondering if this newly found radiation is not from Fukushima and we found it because we actually bothered to look. The fact is, it came from somewhere else.

Perhaps it came from another nuclear power plant? Perhaps Tokai or Hamaoka? You know, there was a cooling breakdown at the Tokai nuclear reactor on March 14th? Could these sorts of things be the origin of this radiation? Or could it be from something else? 

I suppose we might never know. Like I said, if you go looking for trouble, you'll most probably find it....



I went on to point out that people will panic about unproven or imagined problems that could damage their health, but happily ignore, for example, proven dangers to their health like processed foods, fast-foods, foods high in sodium, excessive alcohol consumption (Did someone call my name?) and smoking, etc., etc...


Ignoring the point of the article and making an illogical argument one writer, named Mark, responded to that post with this comment: 

Any thoughts on the rabbit without ears or the mutated flowers that are going around right now? It's clearly a case of looking for something and finding it, as neither of those things are uncommon mutations. If all the rabbits had no ears, or the entire patch of flowers were different, maybe you could worry, but radiation doesn't really mutate things, it just kills them.

I believe that Mark is being facetious. I responded with: 

Mark, your cynicism is not supported by facts. From the owner of the rabbit video: 

"When accused of posting the video to intentionally cause panic, the user pointed out: “Please don’t get me wrong; I have not explicitly stated that this is a result of the radiation.” http://bit.ly/mSWhVr

Now, let me delve further into this and prove just how extremely illogical Mr. Mark's comments are by using his very same argument.

The fact is that earless rabbits, while sometimes rare, are actually not all that unknown. Here's an article about an earless rabbit that pulled at the heart-strings of the readers of a a famous UK newspaper. He was introduced in What's Up Doc? Meet Vincent the Rabbit Born Without Ears. The article states:

For a moment teenager John Haig thought a guinea pig had found its way into his family of young rabbits. 

One of the young animals that came bouncing out of a hutch with the rest of the brood was lacking something - a pair of ears. 

But the little creature was indeed a rabbit, otherwise healthy and part of a family of ten brothers and sisters.

No horns blaring about nuclear radiation to be found in this heart-warming "tale". I also notice the word "healthy" in that last sentence.

Reader is invited to do a Google search on "earless rabbit" (here I did it for you: http://bit.ly/mcMZ7W) and you will also find a few results from rabbit breeders and their associations discussing this problem. 

The other glaring logical inconsistency with Mr. Mark's comments comes in his last sentence. He wrote:

"If all the rabbits had no ears, or the entire patch of flowers were different, maybe you could worry, but radiation doesn't really mutate things, it just kills them."

Mr. Mark is attempting to be cynical or "cute" but his argument, due to faulty logic, fails him. Of course, radiation can mutate things. That's been proven. But Mr. Mark's conclusion is guilty of at least the fallacy of secundum quid. Which is defined as:

Hasty generalization is a logical fallacy of faulty generalization by reaching an inductive generalization based on insufficient evidence.

And, as he also writes, "if radiation poisoning doesn't really mutate things, it just kills them." I've already proven how earless rabbits are not that unheard of and there is no proof that this particular earless rabbit being earless due to radiation. Let's look at the rest of Mr. Mark's cynicism. If radiation doesn't mutate and only kills, if this is true, then how to explain the rabbit being born earless? At this point, definiteively not by radiation. Using Mr. Mark's  argument, had radiation been the culprit, all the rabbits would have been still born. I know Mr. Mark just attempting to be facetious, and cynical, but his argument is circular. 

I hope most readers can see the fault in it. It is a common mistake and I hear stuff like this nearly everyday. 

It is possible that this rabbit was born earless due to radiation poisoning. It might even be plausible. But that is pure conjecture not substantiated by any data or facts. Rabbits being born earless in the past, as a part of common birth defects, is substantiated by history and facts. 

Finally, my skepticism of this earless rabbit due to Fukushima radiation is also due to my childhood growing up in a rural area. I know that this "earless rabbit" can't be all that rare because, when I was a kid in 4th grade, they had an earless rabbit in our school's 4H animal husbandry club.  Also had a hairless mouse and a sheep who had a common birth defect that caused it to have bow legs. I can't remember what that birth defect was called, but I certainly can tell you that no one suspected any of these animals having these problems due to nuclear radiation even though the USA had tested about 500 nuclear weapons above and below ground by that time. 

Once again here, with this earless rabbit sensationalism, is another example of hysteria ignoring reality and irresponsible people spreading idiotic rumors because they watch too much TV and fail to check facts because they are to lazy to read and think.

In this earless rabbit case, anyone can easily check the facts. I didn't have to. I only had to have nice childhood memories of an earless rabbit in 4th grade.

This Fukushima earless rabbit deal is just like a dog that won't bark (pun intended).

Pocket Notebooks: The Secret of Millionaires and People Won't Listen!?

I've read so many success books written by millionaires. These books about becoming a millionaire all say the same thing (basically): Hang around millionaires and successful people and copy what they do. 

ELVIS COSTELLO - EVERYDAY I WRITE THE BOOK

OK. I started doing that. I'm lucky, actually, I do have friends and work acquaintances who are millionaires. Five of them to be exact.


Five good friends who are all millionaires and they all do the very same thing. 


In Brian Tracey's best-selling book "Goals!" he talks about writing down your goals everyday. He says something like, "How can you be successful and how can you know where you are going without having your goals written down? Writing down your goals gives you a road map to where you want to go."


He also recommends carrying around a pocket-sized notebook. Pocket sized so that you can always have it with you in your pocket to write down your goals daily and things you think about or things so that you don't forget.


The notebook idea is also recommended by Napoleon Hill and Andrew Carnegie too (among others).


This notebook idea was recommended to me by some friends who started companies and built them into corporations that were listed on the Tokyo Stock Market and had earning in excess of $50 million dollars a year before they went public. Of course these guys earned millions when they sold their shares. 


One day, I was at a meeting with one of these friends. He and three others all pulled out their pocket notebooks. I pulled out my notebook pad from my briefcase. I was impressed that all three of them each had a pocket notebook.


After the meeting ended two of them left. My former boss looked up and said to me, "Why haven't you bought a pocket notebook like the kind that I recommended to you?" (He was also the guy who recommended the Goals! book and to read the Napoleon Hill and Carnegie books too.)

Been doing this now for over 4 years. It

really does work! Everything has come true!

Puzzled, I said, "I have a notebook!" I then showed him my B5 sized book.


He sighed and then said to me, "I gave you good advice. I know that you've read this same advice in the books I told you to read. You've been to meetings with me in front of other extremely successful people. Now why in the world do you not take such good advice because of ¥100 (about $1.00)?"


That hit me like a bullet right between the eyes. 


He was right. Here was a millionaire giving me advice. I had read in several books how millionaires all had pocket notebooks. Yet I didn't do it. Why didn't I do it? I don't know, when I stopped to think about it. From the way he said it, it sounded like I was too cheap to use ¥100 to take the advice of millionaires.


I was an idiot. When you think about it like this, then it is complete stupidity not to have a pocket notebook like these people. Imagine what it must have looked like to them when they all pulled out a pocket notebook and I opened up a book that was the size that elementary school kids use. Yes, I was an idiot. 


Not anymore.


I started using a pocket notebook about 4 years ago. I write down my Top 10 goals everyday like clock-work. I also always keep it in my back pocket and pull it out whenever I need it and write things down. I never forget anything anymore.


Now I see people who never take notes at meetings and do not have a pocket notebook. You can imagine what I think now.


I have written before about the value of writing your goals down everyday in One Step to Becoming a Better Parent and More Successful in Life:

I write down my goals every day religiously in the morning when I wake up and, not only does doing so help me to achieve them, it also helps me to relax and stay much more focused through the day. Who doesn't want to stay more focused in this day and age when our "in-box" includes, for most people, several e-mail accounts that are constantly filling up as the day goes by and consistently altering our priorities? Add on an Internet world filled with Social Media like Facebook and Linkedin accounts to attend? Twitter is no longer for just sending messages to your friends, but it too, has been co-opted into the business world and your boss orders you to use them, or blogs and SNS, to get the company message out...

How in the world can anyone today get ahead of the pile in the "in-box"? Any person in their right mind would be stressed.

.....let me point out that writing down your goals and purposes is like having a sort of road map to where you want to go. When you write them down, they enter your subconsciousness and they cause your inner brain to focus upon the Law of Attraction. If you do not write down where you want to go — if you do not have a map — then how will you know where you are going?

All these millionaires and successful people have a pocket notebook and they write down their goals everyday in it. They keep their pocket notebook with them everyday, close-by in their pocket!


Excellent advice on how to get ahead by people who've done it. Now, when you think about it like that, what kind of idiot wouldn't take that kind of advice from millionaires for only a dollar?

Japan!? Rearranging the Deck Chairs on the Titanic - In Step and in Tune!

Hot on the heels of my post yesterday lambasting the government... (What government? Any government. You choose.) Here is an article about how some nitwits in the Japanese government want to enforce their nationalist beliefs and musical tastes on other people.... And how the supreme court actually agrees with them!!!

KIYOSHIRO IMAWANO - KIMIGAYO

THIS IS NOT THE OFFICIAL VERSION

What rubbish! This is complete nonsense.


I can believe this sort of idiocy if it were the United States. That country is full of busybodies trying to inflict their beliefs on other people (as well as their goose-steeping nationalist ideals). Let me prove it to you. Fact of the matter is that, In Indiana, it is illegal to sing any Bob Dylan songs in a public place. I am not making this up.


So I believe idiotic stuff like this coming from my anal retentive homeland, but Japan? Come on. Really! 


Reuters reports:


TOKYO, May 30 (AP) - (Kyodo)—The Supreme Court determined Monday it is constitutional that a school principal made teachers and clerks stand and sing the "Kimigayo" national anthem in front of the Hinomaru national flag at a graduation ceremony, in a landmark ruling that is likely to affect a series of similar lawsuits over the contentious issue.


You've got to be kidding me! Where in the constitution of Japan does it state that a school principal has the authority to make people stand when a song is played? Show me!


This is laughable: 


The four-justice top court panel, in rejecting an appeal by a former Tokyo high school teacher, ruled unanimously that while the plaintiff's freedom of thought and conscience may be "indirectly constrained" to a certain extent, it was within "an acceptable degree" given the "necessity and rationality" for such an obligation.


Riiiiiight.... His thinking was "indirectly constrained" but it was to "an acceptable degree"?.... What a load of BS! It's a "necessity and ration(ity)" for such an obligation!? No. It's not.


If this were a free exchange of business between two consenting partners and a mutually agreeable contract, then let them do whatever they want... But, this is a public school and after hiring a guy, then his cranky right wing boss gets so upset because the guy doesn't want to stand when some tune is played? Horse sh*t!


Upholding a Tokyo High Court ruling, the Supreme Court dismissed the demand for compensation from 64-year-old Yuji Saruya, a former teacher at a Tokyo metropolitan government-run high school who disobeyed the order once in 2004 and was refused reemployment after retirement.


OK. Well, dismissing the guys demand to get paid for not standing up might be the only part of this comedy that does makes sense....


Japanese court rulings have been split over the issue and Monday's ruling was the first time for the top court to issue its judgment on the requirement for teachers and school clerks to stand up at the hoisting of the national flag and sing the "Kimigayo" anthem at events such as enrollment and graduation ceremonies.


Catch that? Not only do you clowns have to stand up now. You must sing. What next? Forced vocal training so that all these off key people don't ruin the song too?


The latest decision is also likely to influence deliberations at the Osaka prefectural assembly where a political group led by Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto has proposed an ordinance that would oblige school teachers to do so.


Great! Today's "Idiot of the Day" award winner goes out to a Mister Hashimoto Toru from Osaka. Step up and collect your prize! 


"Kimigayo," which carries lines originally wishing for the eternal reign of the emperor, is often seen as a symbol of Japan's past imperialism and militarism, making ceremonies involving them a contentious issue that has led to lawsuits.



Isn't this so ridiculous? We are spending tax money on courts for stuff like this?!

Who knows? Had the Japanese soldiers been able to carry 

a decent tune maybe they'd have won the war?

The economy is falling apart; the demographics of this country are the worst in the entire industrialized world; our debt is 225.8% of GDP; we have a big nuclear power plant still not stabilized; due to the nuclear plant troubles, we are running the countries energy grid at 60% capacity; unemployment is up; household spending is down; the current prime minister and his clueless party wants to double our sales tax; ad nauseam.


And these clowns are worried if people sit down or stand up when a particular song is played? Do teachers have to stand up if, say, a radicalized version like the one at the top of this post is played too?


Let's call this an extreme example of government ineptitude and a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic after its hit the ice berg. But, in this case, since this is Japan, it's not the Titanic, it's the battleship Yamato on its last voyage heading for Okinawa... 


Anyone who has studied any history knows how successful a venture that one was! If they don't know it, then I think we should pass a law that forces all Japanese to rent the hit movie about the sinking of the Yamato starring SMAP or whoever was in it and make them watch. 


Then we pass a law making them enjoy it when they are forced to watch it too. 


That'll get this country on the right track!