From an American reader living in Japan:
Its taking on a surreal feeling here. I can confirm what most people paying attention know, it is not as bad as we are being led to believe. I found that the difference is split between my Japanese friends regarding what they believe. I actually had one of them do the math when he told me that Japan had lost 10% of its population between the earthquake and tsunami. It was amazing that he told me that this information was coming from outside Japan, he mentioned CNN but I am not sure if that is where he got the 10% of the population number. I will grant that the current government was not rated very high before the crisis but that certainly doesn’t count for all of the mis-information.
My mother called me this morning to tell me that I should plan to leave by boat or plane soon because of the giant radioactive cloud that will engulf Japan. She was serious! She made me promise I would leave before the cloud hit Sasebo.
But the real kicker is that our government is not even going to back up the Japanese government. I was told that by presidential order we are evacuating the US military installations in Yokosuka and Atsugi. They are not really that close to Fukushima and it makes no sense to me but that is what is suppose to start happening tomorrow. A fine freind the US is turning out to be when the Japanese government needs help in stopping the bullshit we are perpetuating the myth. I suppose it is par for the course (excuse the golf analogy) for this president. I would hope it is not true but given the meetings held by the base command and what I have been told this afternoon I believe its being planned.
http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/17/fukushima-17-march-summary/
http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/16/fukushima-16-march-summary/#comment-117138
I would be very concerned if I lived in close proximity to these plants. I would be far more concerned if I or a family member or friend worked at these plants. And I remain generally concerned for those who have to deal with these plants, even if I do not know them. But I think the risks of injury or harm to people in the United States are miniscule (to the point of being nonexistant) and to 99.9% of the people of Japan very remote.
That American Reader in Japan did not send you a C&D letter did he?
It seems obvious the American government doesn’t trust what the Japanese government is saying. Hard to know if that’s based on our observations being inconsistent with what they are saying, or if it’s a result of paranoia and ignorance.
FORE!
I don’t take anything the media tells me about what goes on outside my house seriously, so I take any news reports about Japan with a grain of salt.
if our govt doesnt trust what the Japanese govt is saying, does that mean the Japanese are distorting info, or that our govt doesnt think the Japanese info supports The Narrative?
The “precautionary principle” at work. If you over-react, nobody can accuse you of not trying hard enough.
“never let a crisis go to waste”
britain, israel, egypt, honduras, japan, poles and czechs, is there a pattern?
There is a perspective that is not often discussed. The Japanese do not like to admit imperfections and/or failures. It is quite possible for the government to be lying about how dangerous the situation actually is out of a sense of pride or honor. Or, they might lie to avoid panic over something that cannot be helped, as any government might.
Let me add that I don’t know, I’m not there, I cannot evaluate the situation, and even if I were there I lack the knowledge to make any serious judgment.
As a final caveat, let me add that every time the media discusses something within my fields of expertise, it gets the facts wrong every time. So, I don’t advocate running in terror, nor do I feel very Pollyanna-ish about it. I think ultimately what we’ll discover is that after everything is said and done, the situation will end up being somewhat worse than what has been reported by the Japanese government, but not as bad as the media hype might lead us to think. I tend to believe it will be closer to the government line, but there is no way to tell right now.
Let me also add that I need to fire my editor.
“The Japanese do not like to admit imperfections and/or failures.”
prob solved if you go full in at the start like boooosh/tsunami
Everything about this administration screams that this is a “crisis”, as with BP about a year ago, that they refuse to do anything that might allow it to go to waste. Our future as they see it in to be wind and solar and so they work to plow under all other forms of energy such as coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear. The new shining bright future of living in the cold and dark.
As I pointed out elsewhere, there’s an exclusive relationship to watch out for.
The people inside are working frantically to fix the problem and don’t have time for reporters.
If anybody really knew what was going on, their expertise would be invaluable and they would be immediately drafted to help out, and as a result they wouldn’t be available to reporters.
It follows that anybody pontificating on teevee does not, by definition, know what’s going on.
Regards,
Ric
I realize I could say this about pretty much any news item we cover here, but anyway:
2016 is too late.
Thought that crossed my mind was the aircraft carrier we had in the area when the reactors initially started having problems due to loss of electricity.
If I’m not mistaken, Battleships have been used to supply emergency power to cities in the past.
I wonder if the carrier could possibly have supplied power to the nuclear plant? I understand it’s very possible the water is too shallow to get close enough to run a cable and supply ships power to the nuclear plant.
However, was the possibility ever examined?
“If anybody really knew what was going on,”
true about the fog of disaster. but at this point it is known that the used fuel rod pools are the main problem.
“However, was the possibility ever examined?”
it would have been easier to find spare diesel gens. on the island and move them there by helicopters. i don’t think it is prudent to tie down a carrier to run a few pumps.
oh thank god the newtsters is on hannity. g-d what would we do w/o him.
I actually saw a Disney blog where the blogger was hysterically claiming that Tokyo Disneyland would likely become engulfed in radiation. He even had a photoshopped image of TK with “danger – radiation” signs inside. Unbelievable.
It’s all good to be concerned, but where is the concern for those still missing who might still be alive under rubble? Where’s the concern for all the homeless people? Nature has killed possibly as many as 10,000, yet we’re being constantly breathlessly fed incomplete data and half-baked hypotheticals on something that hasn’t killed anybody yet. The real reason is not concern for workers or those living near the plants but because nuclear doomsday scenarios are more interesting, even more dramatic and better press.
i don’t listen to these people anymore:
Steely Dan live plays”Don’t take me alive”
The main issue is that people don’t understand radiation and what it means. Governments don’t want people to panic, and as far as things go, NOTHING panics people quite like radiation. It’s this nebulous thing that can kill you, and as far as most people are concerned, even just a tiny bit of it is dangerous. What people don’t realize is that if its a rock, made from rock, or gets nutrients from rocks/minerals, it’s probably radioactive in some way. Humans are radioactive, the bricks in your house are radioactive, your sidewalks and roadways are radioactive. The food in your pantry is radioactive. Hell, sea water is radioactive. Oh, and don’t forget the sun, or cosmic radiation that is coming from everything else in the universe. Its everywhere, but people aren’t educated about it.
That being said, there are a lot of people getting out of the Tokyo area, particularily women and children. My bro just left there and was reporting that the airports were full of moms, kids and the elderly. Just too much uncertainty, food/gas shortages, etc.
@newrouter: “never let a bunch of waste become a crisis.”
“Just too much uncertainty”
pbho for 4 years
Here’s a few decent entry-level posts from a blog maintained by MIT NSE students. If you don’t know your milliSeiverts from your millirems, well, this’ll get you up to speed.
What the Japanese need to worry about:
http://cbullitt.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/japan-3-17-11-worry-about-cholera-plague-dysentery-not-neutrons/
Seems like someone is getting kudos for being right and being a leader, again.
Damn.
Check out this developing story:
Nuclear Problem In Japan: Is Obama Partly Responsible?
In the immediate aftermath of the crisis, our offer of aid was contingent on Japan dismantling the reactors. This before there was any fear of meltdown.
If they truly made aid contingent on Japan dismantling the reactors, fuck them.
I rest my case as stated in #12 above.
Fukushima – 18 March morning updates, radiation and tsunamis.
Floyd Norris, at the NYT, speaking of Japan’s financial meltdown…
Interesting thing to remember next time you come asking for bailouts.
“geoffb posted on 3/17 @ 6:57 pm
Everything about this administration screams that this is a “crisis”, as with BP about a year ago, that they refuse to do anything that might allow it to go to waste. Our future as they see it in to be wind and solar and so they work to plow under all other forms of energy such as coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear. The new shining bright future of living in the cold and dark.”
If the “O” is headed for Rio, this must be one hell of a crisis! “Cause, you know, the bigger the crisis, the bigger the “vacation”.
On the one hand, the Japanese govulumentu may be lying to save face.
On the other hand, the US government and media may be lying to promote a radical environmental agenda.
My money’s on the Japs at the moment.
Mencius Moldbug has the theory that all teh Arab uprisings were a modern-day circus, where Americans/Roman plebes got to circle around and see vicious, visceral violence from a safe and entertaining distance. I think the Japanese earthquake/tsunami is doing the same thing — people aren’t predicting a meltdown, they’re rooting for a meltdown. It’s better entertainment!
people aren’t predicting a meltdown, they’re rooting for a meltdown.
Certainly the people you see (the media) are, yes.
As for everyone else, I have no idea.
But I would encourage anyone who’s astonished by the media coverage of this issue to wake the hell up and realize they’re not doing anything remotely unusual. This is how they operate.
#30 geoffb
Did that malignant toad Henry Waxman really say that, or is that someone else’s opinion of his arguments. It doesn’t seem clear, and it would freak me out if he and his fellow Statists actually admitted in public what they are really up to.
The MBM are simply selling whatever is most dramatic. As noted above the public really has little concept of what radiation, or radioactivity entails, so their fears exist much like the unseen bogeyman, or off-screen violence of a well shot horror flick, and the media plays this for full effect.
I caught a little TV news of the disaster S&R efforts yesterday, it was snowing there. There is more suffering and lingering death there right now than those reactors could ever cause. Yet it is merely evident and ongoing, and likely to continue for quite some time. But it is primarily tragic and disheartening. Scenes of bloated corpses or discussions of the finer points of cholera are not the kind of visuals that promote viewer retention, since there is little need to return for updates and ‘future developments.’ Nor do such topics raise the glamor profile of the intrepid
infotainerreporter on the scene.Spiny,
I saw that late at night and it appears to be someones paraphrasein opinion of what those people were saying not a quote though with the post above that has this from another Democrat “Rep. Rob Andrews (D-N.J.) said that increasing oil drilling “off the coast” is “a problem, not a solution” to creating jobs in the United States.” I would bet the paraphrase is close with added clarity for seasoning.
Re: #33
I would bet that this.
Will be the means used to make nuclear power even more expensive and less likely as an option for the future just as the drilling permitting process was/is being used after the BP spill. Any means necessary is their motto.
Entropy, I don’t just mean the “if it bleeds, it leads” media. I mean our own government (State and Energy especially) and the President. Even, quite frankly, a lot of our own ghoulish, iodine-raiding populace. Regular life is dull. Radiation in Japan is Teh Ultimate Awesome! Since the meltdown is so slow, we’re moving on to bombing Libya. Whatevs, so long as I see blood in the streets.
#40 – It’s merely a means to fatten Democratic party coffers via shakedown.
Scenes of bloated corpses or discussions of the finer points of cholera are not the kind of visuals that promote viewer retention, since there is little need to return for updates and ‘future developments.’ Nor do such topics raise the glamor profile of the intrepid infotainer reporter on the scene.
Yes, this. If you’re a news producer presented with visuals of old people walking around in the mud where their town used to be, you figure that’s good for a segment on a news day when neither the President nor Charlie Sheen are saying stupid shit in front of a camera. But an explosion at a nuclear facility? That’s front-page, 24/7 material, baby!
Never mind that the mud killed 10,000 times more people than the reactors ever could. Let’s face it: mud is boring.