“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 [U.S.] cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown, and may well be the result of fallout from the stricken nuclear plant.”

“Japan, Norway and Iceland are the only whale-hunting countries left, Japan being the most notorious. Why do they keep hunting whales, when all they’re really used for anymore is meat?

There’s a lot of political and historical context here. Gen. MacArthur advised that the decommissioned Japanese Navy be turned into a whaling fleet after we bombed Japan in World War II. And when the international moratorium on whaling was about to be introduced, the U.S. specifically said to Japan, “If you stop whaling, we will allow you an unlimited quota to fish within U.S. waters.” It was a direct deal done with the U.S. government. This was in the ’70s and early ’80s. But soon, the quota was halved, and a year or so later completely withdrawn. This is just a political detail, but it’s one of the reasons the Japanese feel so politically undermined and affronted by the whaling issue.”