The book Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen is good in parts, but be wary of it. There are many facts that are wrong or dubious. For instance, this.

Three of the six nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi sustained severe core damage and released radioactive materials, but they did not melt down.

That is completely incorrect. In fact, all three experienced partial meltdown. It just was not a completely catastrophic meltdown, à la Chernobyl in 1986.

In the Fukushima incident, however, this design failed. Despite the efforts of the operators at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to maintain control, the reactor cores in units 1–3 overheated, the nuclear fuel melted and the three containment vessels were breached.

That above is the definition of a meltdown.

I’d recommend this book to anyone who already knows more than is in the book. Which, then, maybe you don’t need to read it. I still enjoyed it because it was such an easy read and refreshed my memory on a few things (at least partially by being woefully incorrect).

The line “She is like a cat in the dark/And then she is the darkness” in Fleetwood Mac’s “Rhiannon” is probably the best line in a pop song ever written. Just so evocative and lovely. Wish I could’ve written that, but I’m glad someone did.

The first ten on today’s playlist:

I don’t think my musical taste is better than anyone else’s. But I do think I listen to more different songs in a month than most people listen to in 15-20 years.

I think this outfit that Rebecca Hall wore in 2015’s The Gift is my favorite one that any woman in a movie has ever donned:

Those collarbones! I have no idea what that neckline cut is called but it’s hella flattering on Rebecca. The film is also very good, which helps.

Soccer is just the worst sport. Boring, absurdly repetitive, about as interesting as a tax return. I’d rather watch competitive donkey-licking.

I still firmly believe that back in 2019, someone in the WIV dropped a vile vial of Covid virus and thus gifted us with the pandemic. A lab leak is the only explanation that makes any actual sense.

Since relations with China have declined greatly since that time, I guess we’d not kowtow to China publicly nearly as much now. Not that it would’ve mattered to the outcome greatly. But the truth still matters.