There is Power, Power, Wondrous Working Power ......

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will ask Congress on Friday for greater power to shrink the federal government, and he would start by trying to merge six major trade and commerce agencies whose overlapping programs can be baffling to businesses, the White House said Friday.

The Commerce Department would be among those that would cease to exist.

In an election year and a political atmosphere of tighter spending, Obama's motivation is about improving a giant bureaucracy, but that is hardly all of it.

To voters sick of dysfunction, Obama wants to show some action on making Washington work better. Politically, his plan would allow him to do so by putting the onus on Congress and in particular his Republican critics in the House of Representatieves and the Senate, to show why they would be against the pursuit of a leaner government.

Obama will ask Congress to give him a type of reorganizational power last held by a president when Ronald Reagan was in office in the early 1980s.

The Obama version would be a so-called consolidation authority allowing him to propose mergers that promise to save money and help consumers.

The deal would entitle him to an up-or-down vote from Congress in 90 days.

It would be up to lawmakers, therefore, to grant Obama this fast-track authority and then decide whether to approve any of his specific ideas.

Decontamination After Radiation Exposure: Simpler Than You May Think

The Japanese government says 20 workers at the disabled Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant have been decontaminated after exposure to radioactive material.

Dozens more, at least, have reportedly been decontaminated within the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant after Geiger counters picked up evidence of radiation exposure.

That made us wonder just how someone gets decontaminated from radiation – which, after all, is invisible, odorless, tasteless and generally insidious. Most people think of it as "rays," which is partially correct.

The answer might surprise you.

"Decontamination is very simple," says Dr. Eric Toner of the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Biosecurity, who has studied what might happen in the wake of a terrorist's "dirty bomb" attack.

"As a rule of thumb, 80 percent of decontamination is removing your clothes," says Toner, an emergency physician. "And 95 percent is removing your clothes and taking a shower — if possible, shampooing your hair. That's all that's involved. No fancy chemicals."

That's because radiation is carried on dust particles. "The air isn't radioactive, but small dust particles are," Toner explains. "You're essentially washing off the dust."