I am greatly disheartened and concerned, as all of us should be, be it harp players, other musicians, even the average Joe/Jane on the streets. Why? The following link is very grim regarding the ongoing situation in Japan with the failed nuclear reactors. If what the article says is true, no more of ANYTHING will come out of Japan, including their awesome quality harps. I actually cry for the people of Japan.
http://www.infowars.com/fukushima-if-number-4-collapses-japan-will-be-evacuated/
Last Edited by on May 23, 2012 12:58 PM
Let´s say that a halting of the Japanese harmonica production is indeed one of the minor calamities in this hypothetical scenario: the possibility of a world economic collapse ranks a bit higher. Nuclear plants in earth quake zones was never a good idea. (The UK is not in that category.)
I would think this topic is more off topic than anything else and probably should have been marked that way but since im about half a bottle of whiskey through already. ill digress.
I have to agree with Martin on this one. Suzuki, no longer manufacturing harps due to such a calamity would be the least of our problems as opposed to an entire country being displaced which brings me to my second point.
Whiskey: "They did not want their citizens to know about America being a far better & more advanced country." where I come from, this kind of comment is borderline racist. To make an assumption that America is a far beeter and more advanced country is absurd. Last I heard, In the US, there is a massive division in the socio-economic scale and public health is but a pipe dream. Now thats what i've "heard" which is comparable to basing an idea on one race or country being better than another because you heard a report through a biased news media source. But once again, I digress.
Before this thread turns and ends up getting locked...
We are lucky we play harmonica as we are probably the last issue on Big Brother's mind. Had he found harp annoying, he would have had us eliminated long ago.
Others scoff at my foil helmet and doom's day bunker, but like the early mammals and Twinkies, I'll be around when the dust settles after the next big extinction....unless it is via zombie apocalypse. My neighbor/friend has strict orders to let me turn and off me with a crossbow.
To paraphrase Jurassic Park....Life always finds a way.
To paraphrase the band Cake...The moment you are born you start dying; so you might as well have a good time.
I have received " a just-as-legitimate-as-that-one" report from Torchwood that a coordinated attack of Cybermen and Daleks at the Seydel and Hohner factories could shut down our harmonicas from Germany as well.
OK, everybody on earth dial your phones at the same time. Shoot, what was The Doctor's cell number again? The Cybermen have already arrived.
As Rush says, I'm demonstrating absurdity by being absurd. ---------- David Elk River Harmonicas
It's 07700 900461 Millions are calling already We need to have all the phones in the world to ring the doctor, otherwise he won't hear it ring because he is a half second in time behind us. That is the Doctor's actual phone number. I think part of the problem is, to anyone outside the UK, it doesn't look like a "real" phone number.
We have to stop the Cybermen and Daleks from taking over our German harmonica suppliers. The Daleks never ship because they destroy every reedplate that isn't perfect and the Cybermen are terrible tuners.
I'm not too worried about it. The 'expert' didn't really seem to be that much of an expert. Both the far left and the far right have there less reliable sources. :)
Now, as for them coming to take away your harmonica, as Mike mentioned, well, they are already on that. I live near Albany, NY. That means from time to time I have a chance to go down to the nerve center of New York State, the very buildings where our brilliant, hard working, caring legislature meets. (Sorry, they made me say it that way!) After 9/11 they put in all sorts of new security to prevent terrorist attacks. You now have to go through metal detectors to get into some areas, and yes, depending on the guard you get, they will bar you from entering with a harmonica, or any other 'noise making device'. (This was before the Occupy people started using harmonicas, I just happened to have a harp on me because I was going to be sitting at a table handing information and I wanted something to do when things got slow.) They used the threat of terrorism to get the security in place and then used the security to crack down on other things. Ain't that always how it is. :(
That's just plain scary, Nate. What do they do to people with guitars or violins?
Since the 9/11 'if they won't take our freedom we will' policies started, I always take an old harp with me when I fly, just to see if the world has gone mad enough to ban it, secretly hoping to get asked: "what is this for?", and then getting the chance to play some blues in the place that most needs it: the airport security line.
Guess I just don't look that dangerous :)
Perhaps next time I'll grow a beard first. Problem with that is, I usually fly to get to my girl, and with a beard, she'll give me a true reason to play the blues..
Last Edited by on May 25, 2012 12:21 PM
Just FYI, our home office in Hamamatsu is more than 350 miles away from the Fukushima site, and you should never try to get real news from infowars.com.
Oh, and what harp ninja said, too.
Have a great holiday weekend everyone! :-) ---------- -Daron Stinton SUZUKI MUSIC USA Got a question about a Suzuki Harp? Call (800) 854-1594, or e-mail harmonicas@suzukicorp.com
Last Edited by on May 25, 2012 4:03 PM
I did have a security person in Shanghai ask what the harmoinca was, so I picked it up and played a few bars.
I was also told by a security guard in San Diego that the harps in my briefcase looked like ammo clips on the X-ray. He suggested I put them in a clear plastic bag and take them out of the briefcase for security. I followed his advice and have not been pulled to secondary on the account of harps since.
@Bronze. Ahum. Pardon my english. What I meant was (as I'm pretty sure you got the first time round?): when I grow a beard>she dumps me. Thanks for that picture in my head though. How the fudge am I going to get that out! :)
@FreeWilly. I deliberately "misunderstood" your post. Sorry I couldn't resist the chance to poke fun at you. If she did have a beard, that would definitely be a reason to sing the blues, IMHO.
The only time I've had facial hair I got two responses: "refugee" and "terrorist".
Perhaps you should look for a more reliable source for your info...not some fat troll in his stained pants. This article from the BBC gives a slightly different view on the issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18181224
Edit...By Fat troll in his pants I was referring to the person at Infowars, not you Whiskey. The net is full of idiots writing stuff like this. You know it's been proven by North Korean scientists that the taller the story the smaller the storytellers dick. (I just made that up .... I'm in my pants right now, and I'm a few grammes over my ideal weight). BTW pants mean underwear here in the UK. Stains , I beleive are the same the world over. ---------- Oisin
Last Edited by on May 26, 2012 5:08 AM
Oisin, a much better link, although the first sentence is misleading. Any level of radiation can be cancer causing. I was just watching a video on YouTube about how radiation interacts with the human body. (Someone had asked what would happen if you put your hand in the Hadron Collider). Radiation exposure vs. cancer risk is linear. The more exposure you get during your lifetime the higher your risk. The less exposure you get the lower your risk. That means that there is no curve or spike in the charts and no good place to say 'exposure below this level poses no risk' (or even no reasonable risk).
Radiation sickness, on the other hand, is caused by a different process. When radiation strikes the body it can damage us in two ways (well, more ways when you start getting to insane levels, where it can vaporize you). One way is the cancer causing DNA damage. The other, more immediate risk is radiation poisoning. Radiation poisoning is caused when the radiation kills cells outright. The dead cells collapse and all the stuff in them has to be taken out of the body by all the normal filtering systems the human body has. If the radiation exposure is too high there are too many dead cells for the system to handle and the body and the body shuts down. If you survive radiation poisoning you'll usually make a full recovery, although the radiation may still have cause DNA damage that will show up as cancer later in your life.
What the BBC should have made more clear was that radiation levels were back to close to normal, but that even normal levels cause cancer, just at a linearly lower level than higher levels.
The guy at infowars was, of course, not really arguing about the current level, but about the potential for a collapse in the reactor building which would release much more radiation. He seems to be magnifying the risk by a couple orders of magnitude to push an agenda, but it's not impossible. There are worries still at Chernobyl about similar problems. Nuclear has risks, but so do other forms of power production, they just tend to pay out on a different schedule. Nuclear has relatively few events, but they tend to be big. Coal doesn't have big events but it pumps carcinogens into the atmosphere at a regular rate. Oil is cleaner than coal, but also more prone to big spills. Natural gas lines sometimes explode. Dams collapse. Solar and wind take large amounts of land and are still expensive.
the fact that nuclear is clean is far more important than the risks but must disagree that coal does not have big events like mine disasters....there is a small village near me briceville,tennessee where a mine disaster virtually wiped out all the men andsome teenagers over 100 years ago....many lives destroyed from coal,black lung,mob violence,pollution....the list goes on forever
ahh alex jones, the great prophet who said bush the II would suspend elections and appoint himself dictator for life. who said obama was going to have death squads ala mao's red guard. the guy who insists fluoride in the water is like lsd and makes you a willess brainwashed zombie servant of the fascist regime of freemasons satan and aliens AKA the USA. my brother listens to him all day long his willess brainwashed servant. i drink fluoride it does a body good.
Groyster, yeah, there are mine collapses, but for the most part coal kills in drips and drabs (like the miners with black lung, and the people that live downwind from the power plants.) There is also that famous coal field, Centralia, P.A. that has been burning since 1962.
When I was a kid we lived in coal country for a few years. It was strip mining there though, not shaft mining.
There's a bit more to the debate than that. Click. The concerns are legit.
It seems we're off topic, but we're not. Whether flouride is safe or not, the fact remains that Alex Jones cites credible sources. By definition, credible sources can be trusted--especially when there are numerous, independent sources that point the same direction.
There are credible sources that cite the radiation levels in Japan to be high. So maybe Suzukis are contaminated. :)
Last Edited by on May 27, 2012 1:03 AM
hes a nut hes wrong everytime fluoride isnt illegal in europe its in the salt not the water iodine is poison its in your biggie fattie size french freedom fries. anyone who believes in alex jones divinity as a prophet is an imbecile. he talks about the mark of the beast as fact FFS pftttttt save it. they said the same thing when hiroshima happened oh everyone will die all the babies will be monsters nothing will ever be made in japan again. japan will always make shit theyre not the fat lazy usa. you love suzukis affraid theyll go extinct? learn to bootleg them. or just take one to china and say make me a billion or so of these. done!
Homeland Security pulled me over in line on the way down to Hill Country Harmonica last year 2011, in the Memphis airport. They wanted a better look at the microphones, as I was carrying them on the plane along with my harps. Delayed about 15 minutes, and people were staring.
(An excerpt from the above link referencing EU legeslation): "All ingestible substances are either foods or medicines, when fluoride - in ANY form - is added to water with the intent to medicate then that water becomes a medicine, and must comply with the regulations relating to the registration, licensing, sale and administration of medicines.
"This is now an absolute requirement, and enforceable under EU legislation, the UK Government's dispensation for silicofluorides to be used to medicate dental caries is without substance."
(Another excerpt): "There is now compelling evidence from the US that fluorides are carcinogenic linking them with bone cancer affecting young males. Water suppliers are not pharmacists! Its totally unacceptable to add a known cumulative protoplasmic poison to our tapwater. The fluoride dosing equipment must be switched off now!"
The actual ruling and the opinion of the Advocate General can be found in links below this article.
And dig this: I didn't need to resort to name calling. I don't believe name calling doesn't usually do much to prove a point. I know it didn't do much good to promote your cause. What do you look like, now?
Predictions are just predictions. Alex gets a lot of them right, some he doesn't. He doesn't claim to be a psychic. As for the items he claims to be fact, would you like to point out another one he has "wrong?" (I'm not sure about your reference to the mark of the beast. He's drawn comparisons/metaphors ( exampleexample ), but fact? I'm not familiar with that. Have a link?)
BTW: I'll just have to hope the Suzukis aren't too darn radiated! I'm stickin' with 'em. Beats going through TSA scanners!
Last Edited by on May 28, 2012 4:56 AM
Must have missed something; posts deleted maybe? When I was a little kid I recall my folks used to make me take fluoride tablets. Then we moved somewhere with fluoridated water. And it's in my toothpaste. And iodine is in our bread by legislation because our soil is lacking iodine and in the bad old days goitre was a very common problem here. Iodine deficiency is real bad news. ----------
I took fluoride tabs when I was a kid. I was the only kid in my class who didn't have cavities. I've still never had a cavity.
I hadn't seen any articles linking it to cancer before. Most of the anti-fluoride people say it's for mind control, that the government shouldn't be involved in public health or that it makes your teeth fall out. (Excessive amounts can make them slightly yellow. They'll be indestructible, but yellow.) There is also an argument that now that almost all toothpastes have fluoride we are getting enough without adding it to our water, although I remember my brother went through a phase where my mom had to go feel his toothbrush to see if it was wet. He'd swear he'd brushed his teeth, but it was always bone dry. Of course people drink a lot less tap water (and a lot less unflavored water in general) than they used to.
Gene, you'll notice it might be linked to 'a rare' form of bone cancer. If that bears out you'd then have to compare the health benefits to the risks. There are studies showing that poor dental health leads to a fairly strong risk of increase heart problems (the operating theory is that some common infections in the mouth can spread and are particularly dangerous to the cardiovascular system.)
A good journalistic rule of thumb is that if you've got a topic that's controversial, present it in a balanced way. I could spout off 20 things the government is doing wrong off the top of my head, but if I spout off every thing I think the government is doing wrong without good fact checking and balance people will be a lot less likely to listen when I do get lucky enough to land on a real story.
I've got some good examples of government policies that are just silly, by the way. I don't want to go all the way down the rabbit hole though and turn this thread into something really crazy. If anyone wants a couple examples of really crazy rules that cost taxpayers money we don't need to spend... I know, off the top of my head, how some families on public assistance can get two apartments instead of one, without breaking the rules and without paying for the second apartment! I know how a private corporation can get a loan from the government to loan someone money, and if the person defaults, the government covers the loan. What's more, if the person defaults, it's the private company that decides when to write the loan off. If the interest rates they were charging the person they loaned the money to are higher than what they could get in the market they can just keep the account open, accruing more and more interest that the government has to guarantee to pay off when they finally discharge the loan. The best part? These loans can't be discharged through normal bankruptcy!
I don't feel like digging for it, now, but he also predicted TSA would spread from the airports to the busses and even the highways....which they now have.
I sometimes debate an issue I'm interested in even when I know I'm wrong. I find it an efficient way to learn. Is that what you're doing? If so, GOOD FOR YOU!! :)
Last Edited by on May 28, 2012 4:46 PM
Gene, you know, I have a friend in the Air Force. I wonder if I could get him to call in an airstrike against our spammer guest. (I'm going to edit the spammer's name in your post. Part of deleting them from existence (plus I Google search on there name to find all their posts and I don't want to keep ending up on this thread.)) ---------- Nate Facebook Thread Organizer (A list of all sorts of useful threads)
