Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (March 11, 2011)

[kaizerknight01]

Well Media just love Bad news .... To them No bad news no good rating = no money

Back to the topic how the logistics , are the food n water reaching the affected people/towns ?

[NameGoesHere]

Originally Posted by Jinto

The professor is funny... "there must have been a leakage"... the question is if the leakage was intentional and part of the design. How many times can an emergency venting of the reactor pressure vessel occur until the coolant level becomes critical (only TEPCO employees know how often and how long the ventings were)? Sometimes, I have the feeling, that the interaction of safety mechanisms is poorly tested.

I'm sorry, but could you please clarify what you mean by "the coolant level becomes critical"? I know MITNSE has been linked here before, but it really is an extremely basic overview...

Disclosure: Personally I believe the chances of a sustained reaction in either the reactor and the pool are greatly over-hyped.

[Jinto]

Originally Posted by NameGoesHere

I'm sorry, but could you please clarify what you mean by "the coolant level becomes critical"? I know MITNSE has been linked here before, but it really is an extremely basic overview...

Disclosure: Personally I believe the chances of a sustained reaction in either the reactor and the pool are greatly over-hyped.

Critical in a sense that the fuel rods are exposed. I have prepared a detailed posting here just so that you know whats my source of information. And I am not talking about a sustained reaction.

[sneaker]

Germany will now send the first batch of equipment to Japan after a request by Tepco. More is to follow.

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by Zetsubo

1. They could be opportunistic criminal outsiders from other prefectures that are going to sell them when they return.

2. There are petty criminals opportunistic in every country. Just that in Japan these things happen on a low scale especially for the given population size of Japan 127,560,000 people ( Census 2009). Thus their criminal percentage is low... and the rest of the world is amazed. However, when things like this happen, there are bound to be found... since people are looking for it really hard.

They want to see, really badly, some kind of base human nature in the people of Japan.

I know that some people in the west really wanted to see looting and such.

I venture to say that some media sources got bored with the overall situation in Japan when no Katrina style problems unfolded.

I could be wrong.

I mean I get the feeling that there are people who just want to see bad behavior occurring. But why ?

I believe that the western media feels some want threatened (and annoyed) when they found something they did not expect.
They already(unconsciously) had a script and plan on how to report but when they arrived they found something they hadn't expected and were at lost on how to report it.
Humans expect that all humans are the same and expect them to act the same and becomes threatened (and maybe even intimidated) when observing something different.
I see some phyco-babble on why the Japanese reacted differently saying it is a form of collectivism or even the difference in religion but the truth is we Japanese are only acting what we would in a normal situation and abiding the rules that each and everyone is taught to follow whether it be east or west, a simple principle of do not do what you would not else to do against you(I believe it is the same philosophy written in the bible).
Do you follow rules because there are authorities that may punish you if you do not obey or believe it is to maintain the flow of society?
Basically I believe Japanese believes in the later which is why this society works coherently, nothing more nothing less.

[Anh_Minh]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

I believe that the western media feels some want threatened (and annoyed) when they found something they did not expect.
They already(unconsciously) had a script and plan on how to report but when they arrived they found something they hadn't expected and were at lost on how to report it.

Ashamed, too, I think. I mean, pillaging and whatnot is "fine" if you believe it's what anyone would do in the circumstance. The Japanese just demonstrated that it wasn't an inevitability, though.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

I believe that the western media feels some want threatened (and annoyed) when they found something they did not expect.
They already(unconsciously) had a script and plan on how to report but when they arrived they found something they hadn't expected and were at lost on how to report it.
Humans expect that all humans are the same and expect them to act the same and becomes threatened (and maybe even intimidated) when observing something different.
I see some phyco-babble on why the Japanese reacted differently saying it is a form of collectivism or even the difference in religion but the truth is we Japanese are only acting what we would in a normal situation and abiding the rules that each and everyone is taught to follow whether it be east or west, a simple principle of do not do what you would not else to do against you(I believe it is the same philosophy written in the bible).
Do you follow rules because there are authorities that may punish you if you do not obey or believe it is to maintain the flow of society?
Basically I believe Japanese believes in the later which is why this society works coherently, nothing more nothing less.

Frankly, this is one of the aspects that has long appealed to me about Japanese culture that seems terribly lacking in modern US (and other) society. The US has much it could learn from Japan and Japan has much it could learn from the US... sadly, its often the "bad ideas" that seem to get transferred in such exchanges.

[sneaker]

Originally Posted by Tri-ring

[...], a simple principle of do not do what you would not else to do against you(I believe it is the same philosophy written in the bible).

Known as the categorical imperative.

[Ithekro]

It might be something to do with the general rebellion of sorts against conformity and what some would consider old "outdated" biblical laws and customs. The old rules just are not followed as they once were. Sometimes for the better...and sometimes not.

[Solafighter]

... Give it 2 month and nobody will talk about the risks of an Nuclear Power Plant anymore. ...

Sad but true fact.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Solafighter

... Give it 2 month and nobody will talk about the risks of an Nuclear Power Plant anymore. ...

Sad but true fact.

More like 2 or 3 seconds... today's news cycle has forgotten all about Japan and rushed over to report the Libyan situation because by-the-gods there are EXPLOSIONS and GUNFIRE and CRUISE MISSILES!!!!!!! Never mind that the useful content is about a paragraph long. I had the "Sunday commentary/analysis" shows on this morning... they ran out of things to asks in about two minutes and just kept repeating themselves and their video footage because the officials had very little to tell them.

"Yes, we've thrown the kitchen sink at him"
(exciting footage of boomsplat)
"No, we don't have detailed assessments of the results yet"
(repeat ad nauseum til the officials are looking jaundiced at the reporters)

Meanwhile, the Japanese engineers and response forces are working their asses off and solving problems in the crisis ... incredibly great drama and tension, but with successes. But it requires knowledge and homework to cover properly. Seriously, sometimes I think news people come from the fail side of the classroom these days.

(anecdote: I know a news cameraman who works for a major station... he has no respect at all for most of the "news people" he films.... morons and idiots are the nicer things he says and he always has a new story)

[RRW]

[LoweGear]

Badass of the Week: Hideaki Aikawa

Yes, the guy who swam in scuba gear through the debris-strewn tsunami waters to look for his wife and mother got himself a place in BotW.

[WanderingKnight]

Originally Posted by Vexx

More like 2 or 3 seconds... today's news cycle has forgotten all about Japan and rushed over to report the Libyan situation because by-the-gods there are EXPLOSIONS and GUNFIRE and CRUISE MISSILES!!!!!!!

Yup, the Guardian has dropped the live coverage a few days ago and the BBC just axed it.

[CrowKenobi]

More criticism of how the (US) media failed in the coverage of the disaster:

...I must say that the coverage was, with some exceptions, largely substandard: full of factual errors, misconceptions, and bent towards sensationalism and alarmism.

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/arc...ng_stock_3.php

[Green²]

Originally Posted by NISA

<Common Spent Fuel Pool>

It was confirmed that the water level of Spent Fuel Pool was maintained
full at after 06:00 March 18th.

As of 11:19 March 18th, the water temperature in the pool is 55℃.
As of 09:00 March 19th, the water temperature in the pool is 57℃.

http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/f...110320-4-1.pdf
http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/f...20110318-3.pdf

...I wonder if they will be opening up a few holes in the walls as a precautionary measure to vent out any hydrogen gas, as they did with units 5 & 6.

Other news on the earthquake rescue efforts, they're also sill finding people that needed rescuing since the time of the massive tsunami. NHK World has a video and an short article on it at: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20_29.html

[Zetsubo]

Originally Posted by LoweGear

Badass of the Week: Hideaki Aikawa

Yes, the guy who swam in scuba gear through the debris-strewn tsunami waters to look for his wife and mother got himself a place in BotW.

That is beyond bad ass... I swear that wife is feeling like the luckiest woman on the world.

Can u imagine how she felt ?

Then his mom ?

Make a man teary eyed, thinking about the joy they must have felt.

[Ithekro]

I would wonder if this coverage would signal a wakeup call for news to be reported instead of hype, but I know that is impossible.

[bayoab]

Latest on the food and water.

I believe Iitate in Fukushima is the city with the strangely high radiation reading near the 30km radius that the residents (were?) asked to voluntarily evacuate earlier in the week.

Also, all surface temperatures in the spent fuel pools are well below 100C.

[Zetsubo]

Originally Posted by WanderingKnight

Yup, the Guardian has dropped the live coverage a few days ago and the BBC just axed it.

It seems to me that the issues of the survivors being sheltered, warmed, clothed, having access to food, water and medical care, was sidelined by a non living nuclear facility... it dominated the coverage... the humans that survived the earthquake and tsunami took second place... even as it became evident that the power plant was slowly being stabilized... they did not return to the story of the people... they just ignored it.

I know there is a significant language barrier, so what about the story of the westerners who got caught in the disaster, and the few who stayed... their stories aren't important ?