My mother discusses her childhood during WW2 in London, England.

This podcast originally aired on March 11th, 2011:

Robert E. Graves is the author of the book “The Art Of Psychic Dice.” He conceived this book in 1973. By 1976, Robert had spent hundreds of hours playing craps, testing theories,and researching psychokinesis. He then shelved the project to major in film at San Francisco State University. He has penned screenplays, movie reviews and articles. Robert is a writer and consultant in the San Francisco Bay area.
www.artofpsychicdice.com

Since March 11th I’ve been watching closely the events in Japan. The disastrous 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that struck the northwest coast of Sendai has been declared the worst disaster in Japan’s history since World War Two: So far, 7,653 dead, 12,000 missing, and over 500,000 people displaced from their homes. But what was most frightening to watch were the desperate attempts to control the fires and radiation leaks in the six damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Fears of a catastrophic meltdown escalated each passing day as we watched on TV the explosions of smoke and steam from one reactor after another, and the evacuation of people in a 12 mile radius of the plant, while the US military in the area pulled back 50 miles. Then there was the daily confusion over whether the radiation levels in the environment were high, or not, and this alarmed the Japanese public, and foreigners living in Japan, and a mass exodus of Tokyo flooded the airports.

On the internet, some fool posted a bogus map showing a deadly plume of radiation from the Fukoshima nuclear plant heading to the west coast of the USA. This panic sparked a rush on potassium iodide pills (KI), and geiger counters. Amazon.com and other sites, pharmacies and health food stores, were clogged with orders and within hours manufacturers were sold out of the thyroid-protecting KI pills. There was even a seller on ebay who was selling the $5 a box of 24 pills for $300. It was crazy, like someone yelling fire in a crowded movie theater (FYI, there was no “plum” from the Fukushima reactors, plus there’s 5,478 miles of ocean between Japan & California, so even if there was radiation drifting eastbound by the time it reached the US the amount would be minuscule). NOTE: On March 18th, California reported a trace amount of radiation was detected in the environment.

But what has awed me the most are the 50 workers who stayed behind at the Fukushima nuclear plant. In Japan, they are being hailed as the “Nuclear Ninjas” or “Samurai Warriors.” The group, whose identities remain a mystery, stayed at the plant after 700 of their colleagues fled when radiation levels peaked at lethal levels. Of those who decided to stay, five are known to have already died. Two others are missing—possibly swept away in the tsunami, and at least 21 others have been injured. In addition, 180 firemen and Self-Defense Force personnel have used water drops from helicopters, and a “super-pump” to move seawater directly to an unmanned fire truck stationed in front of the reactor, allowing for an uninterrupted jet of water.

The bravery of these workers remind me of the three men who volunteered to swim to their deaths to save Russia during the Chernobyl disaster on April 26th 1986. Engineer Alexei Ananenko and soldiers Valeri Bezpalov and Boris Baranov suited up in scuba-gear and swam through the radioactive waters of the flooded chamber to release the gate valve and allow the trapped water to drain out. In addition, many firemen and rescue workers from Fire Station No. 2 also died from radioactive contamination after rushing to the scene to help. One of the survivors, fireman Anatoli Zakharov, said 20-years after the disaster, the firefighters from Fire Station No. 2 were aware of the risks. “Of course we knew! If we’d followed regulations, we would never have gone near the reactor. But it was a moral obligation—our duty. We were like kamikaze.”

When I watch the Fukushima-50, and the firemen in HazMat suits, risk their lives to save Japan, I wonder if I was in their shoes would I volunteer for a suicide mission like that…a mission that would save millions of lives? Many of us don’t really know what we’d do in an extreme emergency. Often times, it’s in a dangerous situation we learn for the first time what qualities of character we have that we didn’t know we possessed. But I have a feeling human altruism would kick in. A friend of mine, who is Chinese, told me a story that when he was in the Chinese army, heavy rains overflowed a river and flood waters were heading to a town. The soldiers were ordered to lock arms and use their bodies as a dam, and thus they saved the people from drowning.

Maybe this type of bravery isn’t so unusual. Maybe it’s logical the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few—or, the one.

On March 9th 2011, the space shuttle Discovery landed after the completion of its final mission in space. But I supposed after 30 years it was about time to retire the shuttle and move on to something more modern—whatever that’s going to be. I hear we’re going back to launching rockets up into orbit, no different than what NASA was doing back in the 1960s.

I remember the first time I saw the shuttle. No, it wasn’t taking off from a launch pad. I saw it sitting in a hangar in Huntsville, Alabama. It was a long time ago, and before the first shuttle take-off. In those days, I was a struggling photographer. I would get ideas for photo-shoots from reading the newspapers. One day I found a tiny blurb in a news article about women being included in NASA’s astronaut program. I thought this would make an interesting photo essay, so I immediately wrote a letter to NASA. A week later, I was invited down to the Johnson Space Center in Huntsville, Alabama to do a photo essay on the first women astronauts in training.

As part of the story I photographed the candidates at home with their family. I can’t remember the woman’s name in the photo, I know she was an engineer. There were four women in the Space Shuttle Astronaut Training Program. However, when the first shuttle flew—after several years of delay—these women were not part of the crew. I have more photos from NASA, and if I ever get my darkroom set up again, I’ll post those photos, too.

Here’s an amazing scene from an ultra-rare, kitschy, trippy, Soviet-style SF film Ikarie XB 1 (aka Ikaria XB1, Icarus XB1 and Voyage to the End of the Universe). This is Czechoslovakia’s first science fiction film. Made in 1963, the movie takes place in the year 2163 and tells the story of Starship Ikaria XB 1’s voyage to Alpha Centari. (“Voyage” was the savagely cut, English-dubbed version released by American International Pictures.)

In this remarkable scene, the explorers enter a derelict 20th Century space craft, littered with evidence of elitist immorality. The visuals are striking. Vacuum preserved corpses dressed in tuxedo and evening gowns who died in the middle of gambling and partying. The crew killed by their own chemical hand-weapons as they fought over dwindling oxygen. The ship laden with nuclear weapons—still active after centuries.

Ikarie XB 1 is an ambitious, thoughtful, intelligent film decades ahead of its time. It’s an ultra-rare “must-see” for any serious SF fan. The film has high-concept elements galore: a trip to proxima centauri; time dilation; future foods, fashion, music and dance; first-contact protocols; increased longevity; artificial intelligence; bulky socialist robots.

It’s said the screenplay was inspired by the work of Stanislaw Lem, including “The Magellanic Cloud” from 1955. (Credit: trekfancvg)

I know B-films are bad. But, this has to be a comedy. Aside from the wooden acting and an out-of-place operatic duet, watch for the little nuances and props. Gotta love those clunky robots.

The new year has started off with some weird stuff. Birds falling from the sky in Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Sweden, and Canada. In Italy, a thousand turtle doves fell from the sky and all had a strange blue stain on their beaks. The explanation for the bird deaths has ranged from fireworks, thunderstorms, flying into invisible UFOs (that’s a good one), and disease. As for the turtle doves, Rodolfo Ridolfi, a director at the regional zoological institute, said:‘We are fairly confident the birds died as a result of massive indigestion brought on by over-eating. The most likely cause are discarded sunflower seeds that were found on an industrial estate close to where the bodies of the turtle doves were found.

‘In essence the birds were greedy, ate too many of the seeds – which we have found inside them during autopsies – and this brought on the indigestion that led to their death.’

An upset stomach killed them? OK. Where did the blue stain on their beaks come from? Blue-dyed M&Ms?

How about a river turning bright neon-green? This story is from Canada:

Horrified nature-lovers at Goldstream Provincial Park watched as the Goldstream River turned bright green late Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day a fountain beside Veterans Memorial Parkway in Langford also turned bright green, said Langford Fire Chief Bob Beckett.

The fountain turned green, too? How? Is it connected to the river? Do they know how the chemical got in the river and fountain? Duh.

Anyway, Canada’s Pacific Environmental Science Centre in North Vancouver tested the water from the river and the fountain and it turned out to be fluorescein. This is a chemical used to trace leaks from septic tanks and water systems.

I love the way the article says it’s not toxic, and then goes on to say: Fluorescein is also used in medical diagnosis and guidelines warn it can cause reactions ranging from nausea and hives to death from anaphylactic shock.

I don’t know why this video is entitled “Fallen Angel,” there’s nothing angelic about it. To me, it looks more like a nasty gnome. Then on second look, there was something familiar like I’ve seen this image before. But no, it wasn’t an image, it was a story. No, more than a story—an urban legend.