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Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 16:08:02 EDT
Subject: Re: Russian military as ready as they'll ever be -- without help
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
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Good to publicize this and ratchet up the awareness/anxiety level.
----- END OF J.OBERG'S RESPONSE -----
Needless to say I was delighted to get that back. (I'm waiting for another.) The next letter is in response to the same posting:
----- DR. IVO PLANARIAN'S FIRST LETTER (IN RESPONSE TO THE SAME POSTING -- UNCUT) -----
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 08:53:01 -0400
From: "Dr. Planarian" flatworm@erols.com
Reply-To: flatworm@erols.com
Organization: The Platyhelmenthean Society
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win95; I)
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:
To: rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
Subject: Nuclear Power Plants
:
:
:
Although I have found your submissions consistently to be filled with
the most irrationally alarmist claptrap and misstatements and
misapplications of facts that would make even a speechwriter for George
W. Bush proud, I have never yet seen you make such a blatant
misstatement on a fact so generally well known and so easy to check as
you did on your most recent mailing. I had heretofore believed you to
be, but now this confirms that you in fact are, nothing but a member of
the Black Helicopter crowd.
You said, "Ever notice how there are no nuclear power plants around Washington DC? That's probably because of the danger -- dangers the Government is WELL AWARE OF but WON'T TELL YOU!"
Uh huh. What's Calvert Cliffs in Maryland? How about North Anna in Virginia? Thanks to the miracle of the Virginia Railway Express many Federal government employees actually live on the shores of Lake Anna itself, which is the North Anna Nuclear Power Plant cooling pond.
No, they probably wouldn't put a nuclear power plant in Alexandria or Tacoma Park, but that is not due to the danger but because land there is prohibitively expensive and not well suited for industrial purposes (in part because people already live on it). But North Anna and Calvert Cliffs are still easily close enough to D.C. to put the lie to your garbage.
Nuclear power is the safest and cleanest way to generate electricity, as everyone with two or more synapses to rub together knows. How many people would have died of lung cancer or emphysema already if the megawatts generated by Calvert Cliffs were from coal or oil fired generators instead?
Have you ever considered obtaining something resembling a life? Perhaps a good psychiatrist could help.
Dr. Ivo Planarian
----- END OF DR. IVO PLANARIAN'S FIRST LETTER -----
There is no question that coal and oil are also poor solutions to the world's energy needs. But to denigrate hydro (as he does in later letters) while speaking of nukes as a safe solution is sheer utter madness. (I have already debated the comparison with another person and will post that debate soon.) And "Dr. Planarian" has not thought of tidal, solar, wind, geothermal, and dozens of other benign and nearly benign energy solutions -- none of which have the risks associate with nuclear power (especially during Y2K). -- rdh
----- MY FIRST RESPONSE (1 OF 2): -----
Although the rest of your letter is absurd and criminally stupid bunk, I think you may have me on this one -- how close exactly are Calvert Cliffs and North Anna to DC?
--- Russell Hoffman
----- END OF FIRST RESPONSE -----
The fact was, I HADN'T looked that fact up and I had meant to! But what's the big deal? I said there are no nuclear reactors around Washington DC, and that's right, although definitely two were closer than I had realized. Of course, it makes sense that Washington wouldn't want a nuke near them, because anyone who knows what nuclear power plants can do (many can explode) and what nuclear weapons can do (nothing useful BUT explode, and how useful is that?) wouldn't want to be anywhere near one! So our government has some sense after all. They look out for themselves. Now, all we have to do is get them to look out for us too (the reasons why were described in the letter to Mike Orton, sent out a few days ago). -- rdh
----- MY SECOND RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FIRST LETTER: -----
I encourage honest and forthright debate, and because of my basic love of humanity, and despite your sickening insults, I almost took you for an honest debater. I'll know better for next time.
These two nukes sites you mentioned are well outside the blast zone from even the largest nuclear weapons, which is not to say they are not vulnerable to a nearby EMP, but the fact is, top officials in DC would have no trouble leaving town before the poisons from either of these plants' meltdowns got to the downtown Washington area:
FROM:
http://nuke.westlab.com/Plants/Operating/location.html
North Anna, VA:
Location:
40 miles north west of Richmond, Virginia
Calvert Cliffs, MD:
Location: Forty miles south of Annapolis, Maryland.
Please crawl back in your hole and don't bother the world again unless you have some real FACTS instead of your grasping at whatever straws you might think exist (like comparing nukes to coal or oil in order to prove how clean they are. You are one seriously deluded individual.).
Thank you in advance,
Russell Hoffman
----- END OF MY SECOND RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FIRST LETTER: -----
----- DR. PLANARIAN FOLLOWED HIS FIRST LETTER WITH THE FOLLOWING: -----
Date: Thu, 09 Sep 1999 13:49:06 -0400
North Anna is about 65 miles or so away just southwest of
Fredricksburg. The interesting thing about North Anna is that common
wind patterns would carry any airborne discharge from North Anna pretty
much right over Washington, D.C. Calvert Cliffs is, I believe, even
closer. They are two of the main reasons why the Washington area's air
is so very clean.
In fact, Washington, D.C., is not all THAT far away from the infamous
Three Mile Island.
I do not write "absurd and criminally stupid bunk," but to have it
characterized that way by you is an honor.
(His letter included his first letter and my first letter to him; these have been omitted as will similar repeated messages each way in the rest of this sequence. -- rdh)
Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1999 14:17:49 -0400
Calvert Cliffs is forty miles south of Annapolis, Maryland. Washington,
D.C. is 28 miles southwest of Annapolis, Maryland. North Anna is forty
miles northwest of Richmond, VA. Washington, D.C., is 95 miles north of
Richmond, VA. MANY government officials commute to Washington from
Annapolis, and some even from Richmond.
I am not aware of many nuclear powerplants constructed in urban areas,
but these two are in heavily populated areas where many government
officials live with their families and commute to their jobs in D.C.
And because of Virginia Electric Power's foresight in constructing the
nuclear plants at North Anna and Surry before reactionary luddites like
you made it prohibitively expensive, Virginians enjoy some of the least
expensive electricity in America.
Here's a question for you, Mr. Hoffman: How many Americans have died as
a result of commercial nuclear powerplant accidents since the first
commercial reactor came on line? And how many would you estimate have
died over that same period of pulmonary diseases caused by the pollution
emitted by fossil fueled commercial powerplants? Have you asked the
people living around Kane, Pennsylvania, what they think of the
wonderful boon the hydroelectric power produced by the Kinzua Dam has
been to their lives? Why, some of them are old enough to remember NICE
weather before the dam changed their climate!
Or perhaps you would like to return to the 19th century, when we didn't
have to worry about plugging things into electrical outlets.
I wonder why, in speaking of government employees evacuating Washington,
D.C., you assume a nuclear powerplant accident would occur during
government business hours? There is only one chance in three of this
being the case for any given accident; the other two will occur while
government officials are in their homes. Many of your friendly
neighborhood government employees live near the nuclear powerplants at
North Anna and Calvert Cliffs. Contrary to your apparent belief, they
are not stupid or evil men and women plotting to pollute our environment
with deadly radioactive isotopes. But I must point out that a
fearmonger like you, who had to get two of his six legs removed so he
could fit into human clothes, deserves insults in return for his own
childishly insulting style of debate.
Watch out! The black helicopters are gonna getcha!
"Russell D. Hoffman" wrote:
Let's assume for a moment that I am right that Dr. Planarian is Woody Smith. Woody Smith stated (as shown in newsletter #103), "Those RTGs are so safe it's hard to imagine anything that could cause them to release plutonium into the environment here or on any planet." That's what I call a lie. Even NASA's own documents (the 1995 EIS for the Cassini mission) lists all sorts of things that can go wrong! In fact, after a careful read of that document, it's hard NOT to imagine the things that could have gone wrong or can go wrong with one of the dozen or more nuclear missions NASA currently has planned! -- rdh
In any event, he attempts in the above letter to deflect the argument away from the dangers of nuclear waste and instead to the dangers of adding potential energy to bodies of water. I found (and find) absurd -- like comparing apples to nuclear bombs. Yes, some people have probably been KILLED by apples falling on their heads, or else at least, apple trees. Newton, fortunately, only woke up. I wonder what would wake Dr. Planarian up? Would Cassini falling on his head have done it? I doubt it! He would have claimed "no one has ever died from a NASA dispersal of Plutonium" just as he clearly thinks now, despite NASA having distributed over 60,000 Curies of plutonium into the environment already! -- rdh
Who is Dr. Planarian? What is he a doctor of? Where does he work? Where has he made his living? How does he define "urban area"? What makes him think gov't employees actually work 1/3rd of their lives? What does he plan to do with the waste? How does he answer the questions I posed to Mike Orton yesterday? How does he define "fearmonger"? How often does he compare nuclear waste to a cloudy day as equivalent dangers? And what gives this mysterious Dr. Ivo Planarian the right to accuse me of flinging insults, after he started it?
Go away or answer the questions honestly, Dr. Planarian. As far as I can tell, you are a waste of DNA. Please prove me wrong. Good luck.
-- rdh
He didn't go away, though, nor did he answer the questions honestly. -- rdh
From: "Dr. Planarian" flatworm@erols.com
Who is Dr. Planarian?
Dr. Planarian is a pseudonym for one who refuses to have his name
smeared any further by an unethical individual like yourself. His
antecedent (or his antecedent's attorney, more likely) will be
contacting you on a matter you may find to be of some urgency
involving libel regarding some serious and damaging misinformation
you disseminated about him long ago. You may find it amusing.
His antecedent certainly does, because it seems you have SO
much time on your hands you've GOTTA be rich, but perhaps only
temporarily.
What is he a doctor of?
Sp.D. A Doctor of Spinology. Dr. Planarian's antecedent works at
a fairly high level in political campaigns (curiously enough, for
candidates you probably support because of their unusually strong
record on environmental issues). But politics is his hobby, not his
antecedent's profession.
Where does he work?
Washington, D.C. and environs.
Where
has he made his living?
This is classified. If I told you, I'd have to kill you.
How does he define "urban area"?
SMSA
What makes him
think gov't employees actually work 1/3rd of their lives?
He knows a whole lot of them who work harder than any private
sector moron on the planet. You find a far higher level of dedication
among government employees than you do among those in the
private sector because many government employees are actually
interested in the causes of the agencies for which they toil.
24 divided by 8 equals 3; most government offices have nominal
eight hour days.
Go ahead. Keep slandering the "lazy bureaucrat." That'll win you
LOTS of points among those who could help your cause the most.
What does he plan to do with the waste?
The waste can be dealt with, as you know. I personally am going to
do nothing with it. That stuff is DANGEROUS!
How does he answer the questions I posed to Mike
Orton yesterday?
Not being Mike Orton, he has some difficulty responding to this.
Perhaps Mr. Hoffman thinks Dr. Planarian is the Great Carnak.
How does he define "fearmonger"?
One who uses disingenuous arguments to instill an inappropriate
level of fear in his audience. Fits you like a glove, Hoffman.
How often does he
compare nuclear waste to a cloudy day as equivalent dangers?
Well, not yet. But I believe if you research the issue you'll find that
the weather in the area of the Kinzua Dam has been affected
somewhat more seriously than what would be described as a
"cloudy day." First of all, whole thriving towns were inundated by
the resulting lake, which is a problem that I would not describe as
weather-related. But now it snows there almost every day from mid
Autumn to the middle of Spring, which causes more deaths on the
highways each year than have ever been caused by nuclear
powerplants or nuclear waste in the United States..
And what
gives this mysterious Dr. Ivo Planarian the right to accuse me of flinging
insults, after he started it?
Check your constitution. There's this pesky first amendment thing
that lets me accuse an insulting little weenie like yourself of
insulting me, particularly when you have.
But I am not one to complain about ad hominem in political
arguments. They are the spice that keep such discourse from
being bland and featureless.
What you wrote and distributed about Dr. Planarian's antecedent,
however, went beyond the pale and very nearly cost him his job.
There were real, assessible damages involved, as you shall soon
see.
Go away or answer the questions honestly, Dr. Planarian. As far as I can
tell, you are a waste of DNA. Please prove me wrong. Good luck.
Actually I am not a waste of DNA at all. I'm a fictional character.
Now, since I HAVE answered your questions honestly, if you're man
enough, which I doubt, answer MY questions, which were
somewhat more relevant than yours to the issue at hand:
How many Americans have died as a result of commercial nuclear
powerplant accidents since the first commercial reactor came on
line? And how many would you estimate have died over that same
period of pulmonary diseases caused by the pollution emitted by
fossil fueled commercial powerplants?
Just to show you how kind and beneficent the good Dr. Planarian
can be, I will give you the answer to the first question absolutely free
of charge: Not a one.
Now, Mr. Hoffman, what is the answer to the question about how
many people have died as a result of the generation of electricity by
burning fossil fuels in the United States?
It's tough when a true believer in false doctrine has his dogma
challenged like this, isn't it, Hoffman?
-- rdh
Dear Mr. Tapeworm:
My lawyer's name is ............. His phone number is (760) ....-..... If your antecedent has any complaint of substance, he's the man for your attorney to contact as he will be handling the matter, I'm sure, if it ever goes to court or, as it appears to be doing from your letter, heads in that direction.
Me, I'll have nothing further to do with ghosts, made-up people, the criminally insane, or antecedents. If I published something that might have hurt someone unfairly, I'm sure there are remedies which that person would already have taken when the spotlight was on, so I'm not too worried. I have no doubt you do not have anything of substance you can use against me, as I have always striven to debate only those who had arguments worth debating about, and who made statements which needed answering. If it makes you feel any better, though, I'm not rich (for an American), which means there isn't much you can get, so to that extent it would be a waste of your time even if you won, which I don't think is very likely and I suspect you don't really, either. That little matter of the first amendment you are so quick to remind me about might get in your way. As long as I'm honest, I can pretty much say what I want, and that's the way it's been.
Not to mention there are also Good Samaritan laws which can be used to protect those who try to warn others about impending dangers such as those from nukes.
Whoever you are, you have many things yet to learn about the world, that's for sure. I strongly advise you do try to answer the questions I posted to Mike Orton, since if you have answers, the world needs them and I will publish them. Unlike you, I try to be fair, open, and honest.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Still, I had no idea who Dr. Planarian was (though I hadn't looked very hard). Then he sent one more letter: -- rdh
At 04:58 AM 9/12/99 -0400, flatworm@erols.com wrote:
There were reasons for delay which will be made clear to you. Your
arrogant, insulting brand of discourse, though ineffective in achieving
your aims, can do harm to those you so stridently and, in my
opinion, foolishly oppose.
I see you are unable to answer my simple, straightforward questions
regarding the compararive safety of nuclear power generation versus
other methods in a manner that suits your dogma. Perhaps you
should consider examining the validity of your dogma if you find it is
inconsistent with the facts as they exist in the world.
That's just good advice. Thank you for your lawyer's name. We'll
be in touch.
I am not a made up person. "Dr. Planarian" is merely a made-up
name for a very real person who does not wish to subject his good
name any further to your style of defamation.
I have been reading the material you write for quite some time now
and I have yet to see you be right even once about risk. Nothing
you have attempted to make your readers fear has come to pass.
Think about that.
Consider the fact that we are living on a
small piece of dark matter in the accretion
disk of a black hole. Kinda makes you think.
I sent my response to that letter to all the NASA addresses I have, and am now sending it to everyone else as well. The spelling of "doppelganger" has been corrected: -- rdh
Dear Sir,
I certainly didn't say I couldn't answer your questions, I merely declined as I have more interesting people to debate than doppelgangers. Like Mike Orton and Peter de Jager, to name two that have come along since the Cassini flyby. Those were some great debates!
I hope your boss Daniel Goldin concurs with your recent actions, Mr. Woody Smith, Curator for NASA. That IS who you are, isn't it? Just guessing of course, from the quote at the bottom of your most recent message. Whoever you are, you threatened to kill me if you happened to (accidentally or on purpose) reveal your real self to me -- which you have now done, I suspect. I'm sure there are ways to get the missing information for a positive ID.
The real Woody Smith will receive this email; if I'm mistaken as to who you are, I apologize to him in advance, and hope he will set me straight with a sworn statement that it was not him. But I really, really doubt that's going to happen, Mr. Tapeworm, or Flatworm, or Dr. Ivo Planarian, or whoever you want to call yourself today.
-- Russell Hoffman
PS: While it's true that 24/8=3, 168/40 is less than 1/4. Think about it.
Needless to say, I meant 40/168 is less than 1/4th. Gee, does that mean I would have installed a 200 ton reactor backwards? Accuse innocent people of crimes they have not committed? Yes indeed, I might have done that. But I have never claimed to be incapable either of failing, or of learning from those mistakes. If you read the bio line attached to Woody Smith's letters shown in newsletter #103, it is remarkably similar to Dr. Planarian's tagline: "The truth is, we're all living on a little piece of dark matter inside the accretion disk of a black hole. Kinda makes you think." Other striking similarities also exist. NASA undoubtedly has records of whether or not Woody Smith got in any trouble for writing to Evelynn (as shown in newsletter #103). It would certainly have been appropriate that he would have been reprimanded, since he lied, but that obviously isn't my fault! -- rdh
NASA needs to be told in no uncertain terms NEVER to launch nuclear rockets of any type ever again!
To learn about the absurd excuses NASA used to launch Cassini and its 72.3 pounds of plutonium in 1997, ask them for the 1995 Environmental Impact Statement for the Cassini mission, and all subsequent documentation. At the same time, be sure to ask them for ANY and ALL documentation available on future uses of plutonium in space, including MILITARY, CIVILIAN, or "OTHER" (just in case they make a new category somehow!). To get this information, contact:
Cassini Public Information
Daniel Goldin is the head of NASA. Here's his email address:
Here's the NASA URL to find additional addresses to submit written questions to:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/facts/HTML/FS-002-HQ.html
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW WHAT NASA IS DOING TO YOUR HEALTH.
Be sure to "cc" the president and VP and your senators and congresspeople, too.
President Bill Clinton
Vice President Albert Gore
Secretary William Cohen
Secretary Bill Richardson
Always include your full name and postal address in all correspondence to any Government official of any country.
Thanks for reading! Welcome new subscribers!
Home page of our STOP CASSINI movement:
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To unsubscribe email me and say
Published by Russell D. Hoffman electronically.
From: "Dr. Planarian"
Reply-To: flatworm@erols.com
Organization: The Platyhelmenthean Society
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win95; I)
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To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
Subject: Re: Nuclear Power Plants
References: <4.2.0.58.19990909102128.009783e0@mail.adnc.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
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----- END OF DR. PLANARIAN'S FOLLOWUP TO HIS FIRST LETTER -----
----- DR. PLANARIAN'S THIRD LETTER: -----
From: "Dr. Planarian"
Reply-To: flatworm@erols.com
Organization: The Platyhelmenthean Society
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.61 [en] (Win95; I)
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To: "Russell D. Hoffman"
Subject: Re: http://nuke.westlab.com/Plants/Operating/location.html
References: <4.2.0.58.19990909105336.00a52230@mail.adnc.com>
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I encourage honest and forthright debate.........
----- END OF DR. PLANARIAN'S THIRD LETTER -----
----- MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S THIRD LETTER: -----
----- END OF MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S THIRD LETTER -----
----- DR. PLANARIAN'S FOURTH LETTER: -----
To: "Russell D. Hoffman" rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 08:06:30 -0400
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Subject: Re: http://nuke.westlab.com/Plants/Operating/location.html
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References: <37D94B4C.84ACCB7D@erols.com>
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At 02:17 PM 9/10/99 -0400, you wrote:...............
----- END OF DR. PLANARIAN'S FOURTH LETTER -----
----- MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FOURTH LETTER: -----
----- END OF MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FOURTH LETTER -----
----- DR. PLANARIAN'S FIFTH LETTER: -----
Ever.
----- END OF DR. PLANARIAN'S FIFTH LETTER -----
----- MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FIFTH LETTER: -----
----- END OF MY RESPONSE TO DR. PLANARIAN'S FIFTH LETTER -----
(6) United States Government official contact points:
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Pasadena CA 91109
(818) 354-5011 or
(818) 354-6478
Here's NASA's "comments" email address:
comments@www.hq.nasa.gov
daniel.goldin@hq.nasa.gov
or
dgoldin@mail.hq.nasa.gov
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20500; Ph. (202) 456-1111, Fax (202) 456-2461;
e-mail -- president@whitehouse.gov
White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.,
N.W.,Washington, D.C. 20500;Ph. (202) 456-1414, Fax (202)
456-2461; e-mail -- vicepresident@whitehouse.gov
1000 Defense
The Pentagon
Washington D.C. 20301
703-695-6352
Department of Energy (DoE)
1000 Independence Avenue SW
Washington D.C. 20585
202-586-6210
fax: 202-586-4403
(7) Subscription information:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
(Accept NO imitations!)
rhoffman@animatedsoftware.com
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First placed online September 23rd, 1999.
Last modified September 23rd, 1999.
Webwiz: Russell D. Hoffman
Copyright (c) Russell D. Hoffman