BarbaWire, March 17

Panda Baby Now Public
Po, the giant panda cub born at Zoo Atlanta in November, made his public debut earlier this week and he is pretty darn cute. He is named after the main character in "Kung Fu Panda", which I surprisingly haven’t seen. Only four zoos in the U.S. have pandas: Atlanta, Memphis, San Diego and Washington D.C. More.
I remember seeing Hsing-Hsing at the National Zoo as a middle school student and thinking that he was way cooler than colonial Williamsburg.

U.S: Japan's Nuclear Situation Worse
U.S. officials think the radiation bleeding from the damaged nuclear plant in Japan is much worse than the imperiled country has acknowledged.
On Wednesday, Gregory Jaczko, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said in his first public assessment that the No. 4 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi station is now without water, meaning that the fuel rod is exposed and emitting a lot of radiation. That makes the situation harder, because at that level of radiation, workers can’t really get in there and the fuel rod essentially has to be left there to melt down. It would also prevent work on the other three reactors.
According to the New York Times story, officials of Tokyo Electric Power issued a non-answer of sorts, saying that they haven’t been able to check, have been monitoring it, and can’t confirm if any water has been lost. On Thursday morning, helicopters were dropping water on the reactor in hopes of cooling it down.
Jaczko also suggested that Americans in that region get the hell away. He suggested about 50 miles. So far, Japan has suggested about 12. More.
The story further discusses how this waste-no-time situation is being bogged down by Japanese politicians and bureaucrats that are not accustomed to being pushy.
“Everything in their system is built to build consensus slowly,” said one American official.
After I read that quote I realized it was the second time I had read about the importance of consensus for the Japanese.
Apparently, there has been no reported looting in Japan. No one is smashing in windows to steal TVs. No one is crowding the line for food and water. People are just waiting patiently and acting in an orderly fashion. According to this round-up, one of the likely reasons is the Japanese are taught that conformity and consensus are virtues. More.
So, it is a bit of a give and take. The need for consensus might be slowing the nuclear reaction response, but it is keeping windows from being busted.

Clinton is Tired
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that come 2012, she is done. She has no interest in continuing in her current position, taking over the Department of Defense or running for president. For Chelsea, you know this means the pressure to make Hillary a mamaw just got ratcheted up, even if Hillary has said she doesn't want to be one of those kind of moms. More.
I know the Clintons left their Arkansas life years ago, but every time I think of that connection I am reminded of my great aunt and great uncle from Arkansas. They came to visit when I was about five. They brought their granddaughter with them and she called them “mamaw” and “papaw.” I was convinced that those words were there names. I remember being so confused by their accent, but wanting to listen to them. “Ay, BJ, you fixin’ ta play hookey and go to zoo with your papaw and us?” WHAT?

Police in the Panhandle
Ah, Florida, how I sometimes miss thee. Police approach a drunk guy that was sitting in an idling truck. He turns the engine off and rolls down the window. Police ask him if everything is OK. That’s where the so-far compliant drunk gets mouthy! He tells the cop it is none of his effing business and to "just get your fat (expletive) back in your car and leave. I'm a retired police officer.”
OK, that response beats Miguel Cabrera’s “Do you know who I am?” by like 5 million Barba points. More.

Other stuff:
This story made me laugh on the bus this AM. Ha.

In the current real estate market, being underwater is usually not so literal. Yikes.

As a lover of the paragraph, this annoyed me from the second I noticed it. Argh.