Author: Bill Smoot File Type: pdf In the spirit of Studs Terkels Working, Bill Smoot interviews master teachers in fields ranging from K12 and higher education to the arts, trades and professions, sports, and politics. The result suggests a dinner party where the most fascinating teachers in America discuss their various styles as well as what makes their work meaningful to them. What is it that passes between the best teachers and their students to make learning happen? What are the keys to teaching the joys of literature, shooting a basketball, alligator wrestling, or how to survive ones first year in the U.S. Congress? Smoots insightful questions elicit thought-provoking reflections about teaching as a calling and its aims, frustrations, and satisfactions.**

Author: Gregory B. Jaczko File Type: epub A shocking expose from the most powerful insider in nuclear regulation about how the nuclear energy industry endangers our livesand why Congress does nothing to stop it. Greg Jaczko never planned things to turn out this way. A Birkenstocks-wearing physics PhD, he had never heard of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) when he came to Washington andthanks to the determination of a powerful senatorfound himself at the agencys head. He felt like Dorothy invited behind the curtain at Oz. The problem was that Jaczko wasnt the kind of leader the NRC had seen before he had no ties to the nuclear industry, few connections in Washington, and no agenda other than to ensure that nuclear technology was deployed safely. And so he witnessed what outsiders like him were never meant to see, including an agency overpowered by the industry it was meant to regulate and a political system determined to keep it that way. After the shocking nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan, and the American nuclear industrys refusal to make the changes necessary to prevent a catastrophe like that from happening here, Jaczko started saying something aloud that no one else had dared nuclear power has fatal flaws. Written in a tone thats equal parts self-deprecating, puzzled, and passionate, Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator tells the story of a man who got pushed from his high perch for fighting to keep Americans safe. Never before has the chairman of the worlds foremost nuclear regulatory agency challenged the nuclear industry to expose how these companies put us at risk. Because if we (and they) dont act now, there will be another Fukushima. Only this time, it could happen here. **Review Gregory Jaczko provides an inside account of the inescapable tension at the heart of nuclear power, its mixing of vast potential and vast peril. Through his front-row seat to the Fukushima disaster, Jackzo demonstrates how the dangers of nuclear power has outstripped our imagination. This isUnsafe at Any Speedfor the world of nuclear power. (Garrett M. Graff, author of Raven Rock The Story of the U.S. Governments Secret Plan to Save Itself - While the Rest of Us Die ) Former Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko is going on the offensive to explain why nuclear energy is nowhere near a perfect solution to the climate crisis.... [Jaczko makes] a compelling argument, and anyone who may be warming to nuclear energy in the fight to reverse climate change should examine it. (Las Vegas Sun) Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator is one part engrossing memoir and another part seething diatribe, depicting a government agency that routinely caves to industry pressure.... Jaczkos account will become standard reading as an antinuclear book. (Science Magazine) The infuriating inside story of how a corrupt, outmoded, and inefficient nuclear industry maintains its market position against safer, more efficient forms ofrenewable energy by hoodwinking and corrupting Congress and co-opting the regulators. Jaczkos book shows us for the first time how the industry is transforming the officials at the Nuclear Regulatory Agency into sock puppets and shills for the hideously dangerous boondoggle they are paid to regulate. This is an urgent wake-up call and a must-read. (Robert F. Kennedy Jr., president, Waterkeeper Alliance ) Jaczko argues persuasively that he was fighting a losing battle with industry lobbyists, pro-nuclear congressional members, and even his commission colleagues. This is a well-written memoir from an insider with a powerful message nuclear power can never be made completely safe, and defining safety is as political as it is scientific. Jaczkos forthright confessionswill help raise awareness on this crucial issue. (Booklist) A cautionary tale with a matter-of-fact tone. (Kirkus Reviews) About the Author Dr. Gregory Jaczko served as Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2009-2012, and as a commissioner from 2005-2009. As Chairman, he played a lead role in the American governments response to the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan. Jaczko is now an adjunct professor at Princeton University and Georgetown University, and an entrepreneur with a clean energy development company. He is the author of Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator.