Fukushima Daichi: How did I miss this?!

I've been following the Japan tragedy closely, and somehow I missed big news on the U.S. impact of the disaster. Did I miss it, or is the news media not reporting it?

In the US, physician Janette Sherman MD and epidemiologist Joseph Mangano published an essay shedding light on a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.

The eight cities included in the report are San Jose, Berkeley, San Francisco, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Portland, Seattle, and Boise, and the time frame of the report included the ten weeks immediately following the disaster. [Emphasis mine.]

This disaster is starting to look Biblical in its proportions.

UPDATE 10:42 PM EST: Here is the essay It is merely suggestive, not definitive. No study has been done, merely an overview of infant mortality rates before and after the Fukushima Daichi disaster.

Why It's Still Good To Live In The USA

Delia Lloyd, an American writer living in London, wrote an interesting article on why it's still good to be the USA. It's an interesting read and a pick me up to all of the gloom out there.

US National Team Player Onyewu Joins AC Milan

For the first time in over a decade a United States National Team player will join a team in the Italian Series A league. Oguchi Onyewu, who is a full back, played extremely well in the Confederations Cup and peaked the interest of AC Milan. He had been playing for a Belgun team. It is nice to see some tangible benefits from the US teams run to the finals in the Confederations Cup. AC Milan is also the team the David Beckham is currently playing for.

Things we take for granted

This observation is profound, and reminds us of some unique strengths of America.

...The colleague had been touring the young democracies of Eastern Europe during the American election, and he found it wasn't so much Barack Obama that immediately knocked out observers but Mr. McCain's concession speech. This is the first American transfer of power they'd seen in eight years, and they couldn't get over the peacefulness and grace with which Mr. McCain accepted the people's verdict...

Welcome to SpaceWar I

There is a lot of talk about the shooting down of a U.S. spy satellite by the U.S. Military, most of it speculating on what spy technology we did not want to fall into the wrong hands. But I think the real reason is that the Pentagon has been looking for an excuse to show off the successful Missile Shield technology, before it becomes an issue in the Presidential Campaign. Now, it will be hard for a Democratic President to talk about defunding the program, because it has shown concrete results.

Unfortunately, it may also encourage China to step up its own SpaceWar efforts, which the USA had previously criticized strongly.