The foaming at the mouth panic and fear mongering about Fukushima is dying down. The peanut gallery is taking their toys and heading home. The reason why you don't hear much about Fukushima is not because there is a coverup, it's because things are predictable and getting under control.
Now, the worst thing that is going to happen is how people from that area will most likely be discriminated against. I received a few excellent comments from some long time Japan expert friends who are quite knowledgable about Japan, her history and society. I'd like to share their wisdom with you.
The first is from my friend Graham Carpenter who writes:
Now, the worst thing that is going to happen is how people from that area will most likely be discriminated against. I received a few excellent comments from some long time Japan expert friends who are quite knowledgable about Japan, her history and society. I'd like to share their wisdom with you.
The first is from my friend Graham Carpenter who writes:
The big and real damage to Fukushima from this nuclear accident is how Fukushima will now be known as the radioactive prefecture, and its citizens will be discriminated around the country as if they are mutants. Sort of like how Hiroshima and Nagasaki victims were initially treated. And, of course, this is further accelerated with all the doomsday reports and predictions.
The second is from Michael Di Stacio who runs the Rock Challenge Japan Charity who adds:
Speaking with children in Fukushima recently. Their fear of being "labelled" like lepers if they come to Tokyo is very real. The Mayor of Tsukuba a few months ago fed the ignorance. But me thinks that the past Hiroshima/Nagasaki mentality of stigma will smear Fukushima for some time ... due to an archaic education system and small, uniformed minds - both the products of an infantile media system and self-serving politicians.
THE FORTUNES - YOU'VE GOT YOUR TROUBLES, I'VE GOT MINE
So thanks to all those morons who were scaremongering and claiming doom. As if these people in Fukushima and Tohoku don't have enough problems of their own without having you clowns (who live hundreds, if not thousands of kilometers away) scaring people by writing and talking about BS.
The good news is these jerks are starting to fade away. Thank god for that.
Also, my hate mail is also decreasing.
The good news is these jerks are starting to fade away. Thank god for that.
Also, my hate mail is also decreasing.
The last mail I got (along the lines of claiming that I was a paid agent for the nuclear industry) was from a guy who was several weeks late to a party where I was blasting a guy named Arnie Gundersen for scare mongering and stating ridiculous things about Fukushima and the nuclear accident problem in Japan. The last article that I had written bashing Gundersen, entitled, "Radioactive Air Filters in Cars?" was written on June 16th, 2011 about Arnie's nonsense claims of car air filters in Tokyo being found with dangerous levels of "Hot Spot" radiation that will surely kill us all but couldn't be detected with a Geiger counter. That post was penned in mid-June....
The anonymous reader finally got around to reading that story (at least three weeks late) and wrote to me yesterday on July 6, 2011. His letter is funny in a conspiratorial sort of way. I laughed. I hope you get a chuckle out of it too. The guy jumps right into it when he comments:
"At this point, calling Gundersen names puts you in good company...every other nuclear official/scientist (all bought off by the industry) that said nuclear containment issues were a zero percent probability."
Ha! Ha! laughable. "Every other nuclear official/scientist"!? Oh really? EVERY!? All of them? This guy sounds just like Gundersen. They're both just like the child who begs mom for a new toy "because everyone has one!" They are also like the rest of these people (like Global warming alarmists, Swine Flu, Bird Flu, etc.) who always say the end of the world is upon us. They make these wild claims and yet fail to back them up with names or links (remember when "they" said that "2,500 of the word's top scientist agree about man-made Global Warming"? Ha!).
OK, anonymous reader, name one of these "Every other nuclear official/scientist" (who aren't in the pocket of the nuclear industry) please. It's heartening to know that Gundersen stands like the rock of Gibraltar, alone, against the elements of evil.
Guffaw!
Guffaw!
Then, on top of that, he goes and make the even more idiotic claim that these unnamed nuclear official/scientist(s) were "bought off by the industry"? Oh, please.... Got any receipts?
Folks, it is truly embarrassing that our public education system graduates people who write this poorly and have such low critical thinking skills. How in the hell did the west ever win the Cold War? Seriously, this is embarrassing, no?
This argument is pure fiction out of Alice in Wonderland.
Once again, if a writer can't name names or show links to back up claims, then it's all bullsh*t just like the "anecdotal" crap Gundersen says. Then the writer continues trying to be "cute" or "intelligent" of which he is not either...
"Oooppsy-Doopsy! Granted, a metallic taste in the mouth is NOT scientific."
"Oooppsy- Doopsy!" indeed. I think someone watches way too much American TV sitcoms. People in the real world don't talk this way. They only do on the I Love Lucy Show or Mary Tyler Moore or whatever dribble people watch these days.
"...but if all things remained consistent, and I tasted something "metallic", and I lived in Seattle during the disaster, I'd be at least mildly concerned."
You would be concerned if you "lived in Seattle during the disaster"? Oh man, I know Americans are bad at geography, but this is ridiculous. It's almost 5,000 miles from Tokyo to Seattle! You would be worried about that!? You have a 5,000 times higher chance of dying from coal or oil industry emissions and you don't worry about those, but you'd be worried if you had a metallic taste in your mouth if you lived 5,000 miles away? Seriously, you should never drink the tap water anyway either. The crap in the tap water will probably kill you much sooner than something going on 5,000 miles away.
Dude. You need help. Really.
"Especially given the government's consistent under reporting of the actual radiation releases."
Once again, proof, please. Links?
"Bad mouth him all you want, I suspect you were bad mouthing him BEFORE the accident too."
Wrong! Never heard of the guy before.
"I guess it becomes an issue of credibility at that point, and the my money is on Gundersen." (sic)
Your money is on Gundersen? Well, you lost. Gundersen, like Michio Kaku (excepting his Saturday night Sci-Fi TV show), is no where to be seen recently. They've lost all credibility and have quietly gone back to hiding under their rocks.
But I am still here. If you bet on guys like me, you won. Here is what is really going on at Fukushima. Trust that this is boring stuff and is never anywhere near as exciting as Gundersen making up nonsense like deadly radiation that will kill you but is undetectable or Michio Kaku saying stuff like "the Yellowstone National Park was a "super volcano" that was going to"wipe out the United States as we know it."
Instead of betting on Micho Kaku or Arnie Gundersen, I'd say it's a better bet to put your money on Uncle Fester from the Addams Family.... At least he is funny.
Uncle Fester gets a charge
But enough of my complaining. Here's what's going on at Fukushima that you need to know.... Actually a lot is going on, but it is not sensational, so you won't hear about it....
The operator of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has started injecting decontaminated wastewater as a coolant. This is considered an important step to stabilize the damaged reactors. Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO, says it began recycling the water around the reactors on Monday afternoon. The utility has been operating a water treatment system since June 14th and processed about 1,850 tons of radioactive water that had been accumulated at the plant. TEPCO says it will continue injecting 16 tons of water per hour into the No.1, 2 and 3 reactors. 13 tons of this will be the decontaminated water. Workers had been pouring pure water to cool the damaged reactors, but some of this ended up contaminated with radioactive substances and was leaking outside of the reactors. Cooling the reactors without increasing the volume of wastewater is the biggest challenge. With the water circulation in operation, TEPCO has made progress toward achieving its target of stabilizing the reactors by mid-July.
Get that? Even though guys like Gundersen and many others claimed that it would take decades to get Fukushima under control or that we needed to bomb the reactors from the air with concrete and cover them up, they are on schedule to be stabilized with 10 days of this post.
That doesn't strike me as the end of the world or the apocalypse like some writers were claiming. Does it to you?
Work is continuing to reduce radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor 3 building. Tokyo Electric Power Co. has used robots to vacuum radioactive debris and place steel sheets on the floor to decrease the potential for radiation exposure. Pending a reduction in radiation levels, workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17 to begin installing new piping to inject nitrogen gas into the reactor containment vessel. The inert gas will reduce the possibility of a hydrogen explosion in the containment building. The company already is injecting nitrogen into the containments for reactors 1 and 2.
Catch that? "Workers are scheduled to enter the building housing the reactor on July 17th." There is a second article on the same page that talks about how Japan has cleared up the contaminated water issue.
TEPCO said debris may have clogged a hose, temporarily reducing the flow of cooling water into reactor 1 at Fukushima Daiichi by about one-quarter of normal volume. Normally, the cooling system injects 3.7 metric tons of water an hour into the reactors, but the flow was reduced Monday to about 3 metric tons per hour, setting off an alarm. Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour.
The last part of this non-news is "Workers began injecting more water, restoring normal flow in less than an hour." That's "normal" as in "nothing special," "OK," "regular," "not newsworthy." That's why recent news shows things like the Yahoo News top stories for this very moment:
Let me close up on the top news stories that I highlighted in blue for you:
"Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban"? CNN cancels some TV show? Grizzly bear kills man? Jail prepares secret exit? Wow! That's some news! From reading in between the lines and knowing about the government cover up, one can definitely conclude from these news stories that the world is ending soon and Fukushima is at the cause. (HEAVY SARCASM AGAIN!)
As Fukushima fades the prophets of doom become more and more discredited. These clowns who prophesied total disaster and idiocy like "the entire 1/3 of Japan will be depopulated" will go back and crawl into their holes in the ground from whence they came (I've always wanted to use the word, "whence"!)
Of course, they will also conveniently claim that they knew it all along and try to change the subject whenever the BS they said or wrote about Fukushima comes up.
There is a Chinese curse that goes like this: "May you live in interesting times." This year has been very interesting so far.
I hope it doesn't become more interesting... I don't expect that it will.
Let me close up on the top news stories that I highlighted in blue for you:
- Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban
- CNN cancels Eliot Spitzer's show, promotes Anderson Cooper
- Grizzly bear kills man hiking with wife in Yellowstone
- Jail prepares secret exit for possible Casey Anthony release
- Doctor for A-Rod, Tiger brought unapproved drugs to U.S.
- 24-year-old congressional candidate raises $420,000
- Final Defendant Acquitted in Deutsche Bank Fire- N.Y. Times
- Cops accused of rape also accused of…- New York Dai…
- Hip hop mogul hit with new charges- New York Post
"Court orders immediate halt to gay military service ban"? CNN cancels some TV show? Grizzly bear kills man? Jail prepares secret exit? Wow! That's some news! From reading in between the lines and knowing about the government cover up, one can definitely conclude from these news stories that the world is ending soon and Fukushima is at the cause. (HEAVY SARCASM AGAIN!)
As Fukushima fades the prophets of doom become more and more discredited. These clowns who prophesied total disaster and idiocy like "the entire 1/3 of Japan will be depopulated" will go back and crawl into their holes in the ground from whence they came (I've always wanted to use the word, "whence"!)
Of course, they will also conveniently claim that they knew it all along and try to change the subject whenever the BS they said or wrote about Fukushima comes up.
There is a Chinese curse that goes like this: "May you live in interesting times." This year has been very interesting so far.
I hope it doesn't become more interesting... I don't expect that it will.
