[quote=Travlin]If you really think it is a matter of “life and death” you will find the money. How are you going to deal with real hard times if you can’t make a hard choice now?
Travlin
[/quote]
I’ve had periods in my life where my bank account was overdrawn and I didn’t know if I’d have money to buy food for the week. Yes, I had Internet access because I needed it for work. You don’t know who might benefit from the information in part 2 - particularly, there are people in Japan who have been on this site reading these Fukushima threads trying to determine whether they need to stay or go to save the lives of their family members.
$30 may not seem like a lot to you but it can be a lot to someone else. That $30 may be the last bit of money needed to get out of Tokyo. Never mind that some people may not have the means to pay online for simple reasons of international payment issues. I’ve run my own little site where I’ve had people in places as far off as Indonesia pay me by Western Union. They could not use PayPal or a credit card. We assume so much living in America.
And once again I’ll submit that the good will generated by giving away life-saving content such as this FAR EXCEEDS the potential loss of profit by not keeping it behind a pay wall. Chris in part generates enrollments and tremendous loyalty because he is perceived by the community as being a very caring person. Now, if you’ve been on the site for a while, and have signed onto the mission, and are a “Chris believer,” you may feel almost personally attacked by someone getting upset over this interview being put behind a paywall. I think what Chris does is great and I don’t presume ulterior motives of Chris.
But look at it from the perspective of the new user: They don’t know Chris. They just see enrollment buttons. And with something as serious as Fukushima, it’s perceived as an ethics thing. If I had the opportunity to save lives by sharing information, wouldn’t I share it freely? That’s how people think. So if a new community member comes by and sees Chris charging for things like this, that newbie may not have the benefit of years of exposure to Chris. It simply comes off bad from a PR angle.
You have to think about the PR aspect of this, and PR-wise, it’s simply better to give these life-saving things away for free while keeping financial wealth management info behind the paywall. Let’s hope we only have one Fukushima in the next few years, so this issue should not come up too much other than that. No-one is suggesting Chris give away everything for free. But stuff that could save someone’s life or help them protect their children’s health? Saving lives should always come before profit - that lesson unheeded is why we have Fukushima in the first place.
PS Still hoping we can move along now and discuss the actual audio 
Click this lit link to go to Part two of the Arnie Gundersen Interview, completely for free …
Best,
~ VF ~
[quote=soulsurfersteph][quote=Travlin]
If you really think it is a matter of “life and death” you will find the money. How are you going to deal with real hard times if you can’t make a hard choice now?
Travlin
[/quote]
I’ve had periods in my life where my bank account was overdrawn and I didn’t know if I’d have money to buy food for the week.
[/quote]
If that is the case that someone is in such difficult circumstances that they can’t buy food then what do you expect that they would be able to do with any information about Fukushima?
I have zero sympathy for people that have time to “surf the net” but no time to hustle a buck to buy some food.
neither having a great skill of demanding give me give me give me, nor having the $30 bucks is going to be much help as we move further into this changing world. in both cases it seems to me, people are wanting to be spoon fed…for free or for pay.
i don’t read this site to tell me what to do, i read it to add to the work i’ve done for myself to adapt to the changes that are upon us now. i spend most of my time online finding out for myself the things i want to know
I have no problem with Chris doing what he did It’s his site and his call and he’s demonstrated his generosity (and forebearance) again and again. What I do have a problem with is the entitlement mentality and especially, the badmouthing. And yes, the truth is indeed ugly. And as someone else expressed and I totally agree with, what is most concerning is that some of these individuals aren’t even aware enough to be embarassed by their actions and understand that it is this very atttitude that has contributed, in part, to our present dilemma.
HowardBeale wrote:
Just one more sight where you can’t trust the motives of the owner… What a great disappointment.
Kem C wrote:
What a ridiculous comment. No one owes you anything - get over it.It has nothing to do with a sense of entitlement. It has everything to do with the fact that Arnie wouldn't even consider charging for such a thing. I'm surprised that he participated knowing that it would be a profit mechanism; lowers my esteem of him if that is, indeed, the case. As a physicist, I find it absolutely unconscionable to charge for such information.
My hat is off for Dr. M and staff. Thank you for making the complete interview free to everyone, and I very much enjoyed the interview.
Because I can appreciate how much work goes into researching, writing, and podcasting about this important subject, I just made a $5.00 donation to the site via paypal.
Perhaps CM.com should integrate a micro-donation feature into the business plan for certain types of content.
Thanks again…Jeff
Thank you Chris for this site and all the information you have provided at no cost, it is of great help in planning for the future which you don’t find in the MSM.
I think he meant steel and iron, stainless steel is almost impervious to corrosion from seawater although I'm not familiar with this subject at high tempertures.Arnie Gundersen: Yes. Seawater and as anybody who has ever had a boat on the ocean would know, saltwater and stainless steel do not get along very well.
I Agree with Bradford and Soulsurfersteph.Yeah. as everyone here agrees, Chris can do anything he wants. But honestly, if he didn’t share that information, I would think less of him. And I would be perfectly entitled to that opinion and I would act accordingly. I probably would be much less enthusiastic about sharing the Crash Course and his site and his message as much as I have on the Internet, if I thought Chris was trying to profit off information that could be saving lives right now.
When it comes to the the consequences of radiation sickness and cancer, maybe people are being paranoid, but their immediate fears are real. Being perceived to be taking advantage of that fear may earn immediate money, but would also weaken perceptions of reputation and trust.
Take me, for example. I am not an enrolled member. But anyone can see I have 700+ posts here and no one can deny that I contribute. - news articles, opinions, smaller insights, etc. What you may not see are the hundreds more other messages and e-mails, as well as comments that I post across discussion boards, Facebook, and in the comments section of mainstream news articles. Personally, I have converted several of my friends and acquaintances, and some have bought the Crash Course book and DVD. That’s money right there. I myself came here because someone posted something in passing somewhere about the Crash Course (which might be why I don’t remember how I got here).
This is the site I visit first from work, during my breaks and at lunch, as well when I catch a few moments between feeding and diapering my babies at all hours of the night. I wouldn’t be spending all this time contributing, or working to spread news of the site, the message, and the man, if I perceived the site, the message, or the man to have a lesser reputation.
If I thought less of Chris, I might instead just link to the Youtube postings of the Crash Course, and say, “Watch the course. It’s really important. But don’t bother joining the site because all he wants is more money for premium content.” That’s a much more diluted and lukewarm message compared to “Watch the Crash Course. Afterwards, join the site and consider becoming a paid member for the market tips and insight!”
Now you might say, “Well this site can do without you, Poet,” and you’d be right. But there are a lot of others like me here. Collectively, we have a major posiive monetary impact on this site’s bottom line. The collective contribution may not be immediately and financially measurable, but it is not at all inconsiderable.
The message is, you’re entitled to do whatever you want, but be wary of turning people off or of turning them negative.
Your dismissive comments to one another will not help if your goal is to make this a better, more inclusive community.
Your disparaging comments will just remind some here of your inner nature every time they see your name.
Your distasteful comments will remind them not to bother being helpful to you next time you raise a question or mention a concern they might have an answer or solution or suggestion to.
Your denigrating comments will turn away, rather than attract, the new people we are all trying to get to read this article or watch the Crash Course, or visit this site, who may potentially be paying customers.
Do it often enough, or make people feel like this site isn’t really into helping everyone and spreading an inclusive message, and people will start turning the positive word of mouth into negative word of mouth.
Good will is not as measurable, so it’s perceived value may be lower. But indeed, good will is very real, and only those who have lost it can realize how difficult it is to regain it and the benefits it provides.
I am glad that Chris and Adam quickly made Part 2 of this interview with Arnie Gundersen available, as they did with Part 2 of the Alert on Fukushima. There are potentially life-saving direct actions people in Tokyo like Gbp79 can take right now, and potentially life-saving actions we on the West Coast of the continental U.S. can take, and things we all can do to lessen the risks to our health. Thank you!
Doing this only further increases the good will people have towards Dr. Martenson and this site and community, and will only further increase people’s efforts at promoting this site. And that’s just awesome for everyone’s bottom line.
Poet
OK
I heard the second part.
I feel very sorry for the Japanese, and I feel very sorry for all of us that love to eat tuna, but I don’t feel that any truly essential information was being withheld from us. Now we know in advance that in the future the time will come when the tuna will be contaminated,. You can change the filter in your air conditioner if you are worried about contamination. Damp mop the floors if you are a lot closer than I am. It’s all very sad.
I admire the fact that Chris has stayed on top of this. He has known from the the first news blurbs that there was more to this story than the press was covering for us.
Good point Jeff. Even if some can’t afford a full enrollment, every little bit helps. Are they willing to put their money where their mouth or is it all talk?
I’m always amazed by folks who complain about not having enough money and how hard it is for them yet they’ll spend valuable time posting for hours and hours when they could be using that time for more productive purposes to benefit themselves, their families, and others. And they’ll find every excuse in the book to rationalize their behavior, never getting out of the trap they’ve created for themselves.
[quote=ao]I’m always amazed by folks who complain about not having enough money and how hard it is for them yet they’ll spend valuable time posting for hours and hours when they could be using that time for more productive purposes to benefit themselves, their families, and others. And they’ll find every excuse in the book to rationalize their behavior, never getting out of the trap they’ve created for themselves.
[/quote]
Yeah, I remember you telling me about that, Ao. In private message even. You don’t need to know the full details of my situation and I don’t feel a need to satisfy you by giving out more. But you have no right to judge me or anyone else here.
Now please excuse me while I step away again to “benefit” my twin babies while my wife is taking a well-deserved nap.
Poet
Thanks Chris and Arnie for a great interview, and giving us so much better insight into what is really going on at Fukashima, and the potential -and as Arnie states in some cases unknowable- consequences.
Kudos also to Chris and Adam for making the 2nd part of the interview available to all. It was a generous thing to do.
I’m also glad that they made that choice because Chris doesn’t deserve to have people thinking that his primary motive is profit. Anyone who has been around this site for a long time knows that not only did Chris give the Crash Course away for free, but that various people who posted back then, when he was creating the course, criticized him for NOT charging!! Their position was that the Crash Course was a huge analytical endeavor, and that a man deserves to make a living from his work. But Chris refused. He refused to charge for the video course because the message was so important, and (I think) because he didn’t want people to think that it was about money.
Anyone who has followed Chris’s site closely for a while also knows that he only just recently even started breaking even and making a profit! Instead, he and his family have been living off their life savings so he could communicate the message he feels so passionate about communicating, motivated by concern over the the well-being of his childrens’ future, as well as our own.
So I am glad that Chris and Adam made the call to make Part 2 of the interview free to the public. Chris is a person of high integrity, and I am glad to have any confusion on that point resolved.
[quote=ao]Good point Jeff. Even if some can’t afford a full enrollment, every little bit helps. Are they willing to put their money where their mouth or is it all talk?
I’m always amazed by folks who complain about not having enough money and how hard it is for them yet they’ll spend valuable time posting for hours and hours when they could be using that time for more productive purposes to benefit themselves, their families, and others. And they’ll find every excuse in the book to rationalize their behavior, never getting out of the trap they’ve created for themselves.
[/quote]
You don’t know people’s stories. In my case, I was struck by a chronic illness (chronic fatigue syndrome) as a senior in high school. It can be debilitating, but not debilitating enough that I can’t do a lot of things much of the time. But there are periods where I’ve gotten really sick. Rather than being on the dole for the rest of my life (and I was on disability at 23), I actively chose to get off the dole and work for myself (because working a day job doesn’t work with my condition). I chose not to burden my parents and move back in with them. I’ve struggled tremendously because of my own pride and stubbornness - sometimes I wonder if maybe I shouldn’t have just taken the disability and be done with it, considering how many people abuse the system now. But I don’t believe in that. So I don’t.
Were you ever young and worked freelance? Those times I’ve mentioned, where rent was due and the bank account was overdrawn, were times where I may have money coming in soon but not soon enough…so no, spending $30 at the moment to get one-time information would not have been an option at that time.
You can go read other comments I’ve posted here where I’ve been highly critical of people who are on the dole for no good reason. Sure, there are plenty of examples of entitlement mentality in this country. But this is not the main issue here.
The issue is taking live-and-death information and using it as a means of making profit. Whether or not people can or can’t afford it doesn’t change the bigger issue of ethics - and the disaste that some will feel about such a tactic.
And as Poet so eloquently stated, many people here who aren’t enrolled serve a vital function to the community. Many of them serve as ambassadors and perform free marketing for the site. Do they not deserve some sort of recognition and respect here?
Regardless, even if someone new coming here had never done anything to help the Crash Course cause, had never paid a dime to Chris, and was a lazy SOB, I don’t think the sentence of “death” should be given to them. In other words, I will go back to the ethical question of:
If you honestly had urgent, life-saving information, would you withhold it for only those who could afford to pay? Or would you give it away to everyone?
I’ve now seen this interview reposted over at ZeroHedge and Enenews.com. Maybe other places are picking it up. I’m sure it is generating good traffic for the site and I don’t worry one bit that somehow Chris will go out of business making this very topical information free. If anything, it may help his business.
Finally, I don’t think Chris had any bad intentions here. It was more the case that this is how these Reports are generally produced and distributed, and it was an oversight. They demonstrated good business sense by making it available once the outcry began. That was smart and the right thing to do - especially since you can figure it 5 people are complaining, 50 may be thinking it but not saying anything.
PS I agree with the idea of making an option for micro-donations. But also remember, that if someone takes the time to retweet, share or let their friends know about this site, that is free marketing, which also has a monetary value. So people can contribute in a variety of ways.
From a free article on the health website mercola.com: Nutrients to protect the body from radiation damage, including Vitamin D, Potassium Iodide, Spirulina, Sweet Whey and others.
"As understanding of Vitamin D increases, it is becoming apparent that its most active form, Vitamin D3 (calcitriol), may offer protection against a variety of radiation-induced damages. Vitamin D’s protective action is carried by a wide variety of mechanisms, including cell cycle regulation and proliferation, cellular differentiation and communication, and programmed cell death (apoptosis).
A paper on the subject argued that vitamin D should be considered among the prime nonpharmacological agents that offer protection against low radiation damage and radiation-induced cancer – or even the primary agent."
According to the paper in the International Journal of Low Radiation:
"... [O]ur understanding of how vitamin D mediates biological responses has entered a new era ... In view of the evidence that has been presented here, it would appear that vitamin D by its preventive/ameliorating actions should be given serious consideration as a protective agent against sublethal radiation injury, and in particular that induced by low radiation".Link to full article:
For what it is worth, I am happy that the Chris took the comments seriously and made the interview public.While it is not much, in response, since I was one of the people who made a comment/complaint about it, I donated $5 via paypal
as a sign of appreciation.
Many thanks for making part 2 public.
Anyone who would believe this shiite and actually pay for this tripe is a fool and deserves to get cheated. Just reading this part makes me realize that this Gunderson doesn’t have a clue as to what he is talking about:
“I have said it’s worse than Chernobyl and I’ll stand by that. There was an enormous amount of radiation given out in the first two to three weeks of the event. And add the wind blowing in-land. It could very well have brought the nation of Japan to its knees. I mean, there is so much contamination that luckily wound up in the Pacific Ocean as compared to across the nation of Japan - it could have cut Japan in half. But now the winds have turned, so they are heading to the south toward Tokyo and now my concern and my advice to friends that if there is a severe aftershock and the Unit 4 building collapses, leave. We are well beyond where any science has ever gone at that point and nuclear fuel lying on the ground and getting hot is not a condition that anyone has ever analyzed.”
What horsesh*t. No. It is June. The prevailing winds in Japan from March to December always blow from the west or south. It’s been that way for several million years, I don’t know why Gunderson thinks it’s going to change anytime soon. That’s why in this season we have monsoons this season in Japan. Any 3rd grader will tell you that monsoons come up from the Phillipines to Okinawa to Kansai to Tokyo then head up and peter out. We just had a monsoon this week. Did it blow upwind? Astounding.
From December to March, winter, prevailing winds blow from north east. Even then, that will blow any fallout over the Pacific Ocean.
Martenson must be desperate for money when he is passing off this tabloid sensationalist crap for journalistic integrity. Any Google search will verify the information I just posted. Martenson loses massive credibility with this article then asking for money to read the rest of this nonsense.
Here are facts and not conjecture - for free! http://bit.ly/m8wQWe
[quote=Mike in Tokyo Rogers]What horsesh*t. No. It is June. The prevailing winds in Japan from March to December always blow from the west or south. It’s been that way for several million years, I don’t know why Gunderson thinks it’s going to change anytime soon. That’s why in this season we have monsoons this season in Japan. Any 3rd grader will tell you that monsoons come up from the Phillipines to Okinawa to Kansai to Tokyo then head up and peter out. We just had a monsoon this week. Did it blow upwind? Astounding.
[/quote]
Always? I would hope you check with historical wind activity before making statements containing “always”. Low pressure cells rotate counter clockwise (diff in southern hemisphere?) An off shore low pressure cell pass just off shore will bring some of those dangerous northern SURFACE winds to bear on the island.
Thanks for the belly laugh Mikey. Why don’t we cherry pick a minor point and avoid discussion about the situation on-site, the type and amount of radioactive material spread where and how far, the immediate and long term recovery prognosis and framing the situation in terms of a possible worst case scenario and instead focus on some arbitrary meteorological nonsense like which way the wind blows.
You talk about credibility yet you feature a story on your site about Chernobyl and proudly display a photoshopped picture of a woman with three ass cheeks??? Well played Judas.
[quote=Mike in Tokyo Rogers]From December to March, winter, prevailing winds blow from north east. Even then, that will blow any fallout over the Pacific Ocean.
[/quote]
I am still trying yo figure how a wind from the Northeast at Fukushima will blow something out over the Pacific.