Domain: japantimes.co.jp
Stories and comments across the archive that link to japantimes.co.jp.
Comments · 193
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Re:This is how you behave when
Nuclear is not cheap at all. What is "cheap" is the direct cost of constructing and running a nuclear plant the Fuck-you-shima way, by using the political clout of a big project to cut corners on safety.
This is "cheap" until there is a problem, and when there is a problem, it costs a lot.
For Japan, the costs have been awful. First, the ongoing review of the safety of Japan's remaining 50 reactors shows only 2 or 3 of them are as safe as their specifications claimed. The rest are too dangerous to restart and will probably be retired. This is a huge amount of money that Japan doesn't have. It doesn't end here.
The direct costs of dealing with the Fukushima-1 nuclear plant will be at least US$250 billion, but more likely US$600 billion. This isn't a small amount for any country, and is tantamount to a complete financial ruin for most US states.
"Cheap" nuclear power costs a lot even in countries that do not have to be accountable with their expenditure. The Chernobyl disaster was one of two significant factors that brought the demise of the Soviet Union, the other being the collapse of the oil prices in 1982-1983.
Note that the "cheap" nuclear is also calculated without the money that needs to be allocated for spent fuel reprocessing and waste storage, and this money is a number that has at least as many figures as that other number above. Currently the US stores its nuclear waste on the site of the power plant in conditions that are anything but safe, considering the storage time required to handle it property. Reprocessing is done only in Russia and France. The problem is enormous and the costs are so big that nobody within the industry wants to even start talking about it.
Please get an education and stop repeating the nuclear mafia propaganda about the "cheap" nuclear. It is anything but.
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Re:Not good [Re:Good]
Good point. Some people aren't aware of how automation leads to starvation. That is why countries that have automated such as America, Western Europe, and Japan, are impoverished and starving,
Well,
For Japan, this is mostly a distant problem. U.N. statistics invariably put this country in the lowest category of children in need. Still, it is estimated that 3.5 million Japanese children live in households that the OECD defines as experiencing relative poverty (at or below half the median national disposable income). Japanâ(TM)s relative rate of poverty has crept up over the last 30 years to hit 16.1 percent in 2012. That is not extreme, but it is too high.
Automation first brings jobs, then it kills them.
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Re:whare are all the nuclear apologists?
- Chernoby cleanup cost: $235 billion.
- Fukushima cleanup cost: $197 billion
- Total amount of nuclear power generated since commercial nuclear power became widely available: about 86000 TWh
about 20 years ramping up from 0 to 2000 TWh/yr, plus 30 years at about 2200 TWh/yr = (20*2000/2) + (30*2200) = 86000
Cost of the above two cleanups divided by the amount of energy generated by nuclear power: $432 billion / 86000 billion kWh = $0.005 per kWh = 0.5 cents per kWh
I can live with paying an extra half cent per kWh to cover cleaning up after the occasional disaster every 25 years, in exchange for using a completely carbon-neutral power source which boasts the fewest deaths per amount of power generated. Why exactly are you opposed to it? -
Re:Nations will do anything to stop global warming
The 2011 tsunami was one of the deadliest and most expensive disaster in human history, but only two deaths
Try two thousand.
25% of the cost was from the nuclear accident.
Which is still over $600 biiiiiiilion dollars.
And the nuclear accident was caused by straight up incompetency and criminally lax oversight.
And a once-in-a-thousand-years disaster. Just how many nuclear plants in the United States do you think would weather a once-in-a-thousand years tornado, earthquake, flood etc etc without issue?
Still not a single radiation-related death in Fake-ashima 8 years later.
Don't know how cancer works, do you? It can take decades for a person to develop mesothelioma after exposure to Asbestos. Do you think that smoking cigarettes doesn't cause lung cancer because people don't develop lung cancer in their early 20's?
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Re:This should be illegal
I don't know the particulars of all of these, but loot boxes are certainly not banned in Japan. There was a new rule saying that companies had to disclose exactly what was available and with what probability, so they're no longer quite the mystery boxes that they used to be, but loot boxes are still going strong there.
There were no new rules, in fact no changes in rules or laws at all. The lootbox concept was analysed and a legal opinion was issued determining that they constitute gambling. Most companies then removed the features https://www.japantimes.co.jp/l....
Just because some companies skirt the laws (as online gambling companies tend to do) it doesn't change the underlying principle that the practice was banned.
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Re:The Jeffersons: Japanese style.
Here's a good piece from the Japan Times:
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Re:"people could handle that very easily"
Actually chips are one thing that are frequently made outside of China. You’ll see Japan, South Korea and Taiwan as frequent manufacturing locations, outside of the US.
This is topical in this context:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/o... -
Nuclear power is not successful, overall.
Quote: "The real truth is that nuclear power is in unattractive investment..."
Humans have shown that they cannot manage nuclear power in a safe manner. One example: Seven years on, radioactive water at Fukushima plant still flowing into ocean, study finds (March 29, 2018) -
Re:mandated coverage and socialized costs
I have no idea what passes for the "leftist agenda" in your head.
Funny because I just posted a bunch of links to it.
This country does not have open borders, has universal health care, and has an ongoing problem with abuse of the system by foreigners:
Japan has a socialized medical system where people get insurance through their employers or from the government. It's a really good system as well - top notch medical treatment, safe, effective prescription drugs, and costs (unlike in the U.S.) are much lower.
The problem:
You need to be a resident of Japan (or have something more than a 90-day tourist visa) in order to "buy into" the system via insurance and/or taxes. There's an ongoing problem with medical tourism in that country. People come in for the express purpose of gaining (or faking) residency, promptly getting expensive medical treatment, and leaving without paying anything into the system. -
Re:They're dangerous!
Not at all.
One of the biggest challenges of a decision to evacuate people is that evacuating people will also result in deaths.
Here's the full report.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
However, it doesn't cause the suicides among those whose lives were disrupted.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n...Mercury poisoning from burning coal doesn't immediately or outright kill you.
If you look at my other thread, you'll see that I'm cool with Nuclear in limited circumstances.
The implication that nuclear is safer and less expensive than wind power is equally absurd. It's not telling the entire story.
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Living in opposite world...
I like, in a sarcastic way, how you skirted the idea that charities would only help those they deemed worthy. I suspect that 'lazy' has a wealth of meanings for you. I am familiar with Charity Navigator. I would point you towards Rotten Tomatoes, which was, more or less, subverted the moment the big movie studios took a hit in profits they could trace back to the site. Do you think that the mega-churches would fail to do the same to Charity Navigator?
I don't like, in a literal way, how you made an allegation against Charity Navigator without doing any basic research. I looked at the top 4 megachurches (based on average attendance):
Life.Church. Charity Navigator has not rated it.
Church of the Highlands. Charity Navigator has not rated it.
Lakewood Church. Charity Navigator has not rated it.
North Point Community Church. Charity Navigator has not rated it.So yes, I'm confident Charity Navigator won't be subverted by organizations it doesn't rate.
Republicans whine about unfunded liabilities, then spend big.
Yes, I'm very unhappy with Republicans about that. At least they -- unlike the proponents of socialized medicine -- aren't proposing new programs that would cause $218 trillion in additional deficit spending over the next 30 years (to say nothing of what the new programs would do to unfunded liabilities). You complain about hypocrisy on the issue of unfunded liabilities, which is certainly true of some Republicans, but you offer no solutions to that issue yourself.
The only way the system breaks down is if people stop paying taxes
You don't think Social Security will break down if the ratio of retirees to FICA-paying workers grows a lot larger (due to lower birth rate, increasing life expectancy, etc.)? That's what's happening in Japan, and to say fixing that problem is "a major political challenge" might be the understatement of the century. Sorry, rather than trusting your bare assertion, I will trust the official report of the U.S. Social Security Board of Trustees, which back in 2009 had already announced $17.5 trillion in unfunded liabilities. I've never seen a credible definition of "Ponzi scheme" that doesn't describe Social Security to a T.
Again, this comes back to you and those like you. This belief that anything that doesn't directly benefit you is a waste of money, no matter the net benefit to our society as a whole, that people who need assistance are just "lazy." It is short-sighted, narrow-minded, and it is dragging the US down more effectively than any outside agent ever could.
You must live in opposite world, because the facts consistently support the opposite of your assertions.
* I advocate for making the social safety net sustainable, and much more robust. That certainly doesn't benefit me; just the opposite, it requires me to become more charitable.
* I didn't say people who need assistance are lazy. I said they are the opposite of people who are merely lazy, and that they should receive the opposite treatment (more resources directed to them). Does your reading comprehension really suck that much, or do you just -
Re:Website blocking works, the data is coming in
you want a useful study ? https://gizmodo.com/the-eu-sup... SO useful they hid it , SO useful a MEP had to invoke their own laws on data disclosure and free information against them (yea ofcourse pirate party, who else would go against lobbyright these days?) thats how useful it was and it will very likely confirm mafiaa and breinbaf worst nightmares : the only ones losing money are the ones sponsoring the copyright trolls because it barely makes a dent compared to all the lawyer and troll money thrown at it, its not about sounds business, its about competitive psychopaths and their need to "win" even if its against all reason back when the world was young i had the silly idea if you do business you scrap that what costs you more than that what gets you, otherwise you're closer to an NGO (but i always had weird ideas) on top of that : https://torrentfreak.com/japan... https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n... while https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu... https://torrentfreak.com/inter... most people here think anime is cartoons is pokemon shall i rest my case, because its pointless, clearly, like the whole intellectual and expert world advising against internet filtering and then they vote PRO
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Re:Paris Climate Agreement
Since it is a voluntary pledge made by your president as representative for the USA, you are still part of it, no congress approval needed...
As it is voluntary, you can still ignore it, but the treaty was signed anyway!And as the current president only announced that they would exist it, but only in 2020, that pledge is still in effect (but again, you can ignore it without any problem other than destroying the planet where you and your family and friends live!!)
No SENATE [sic] approval needed?
WRONG
It's not a treaty if it's not ratified by the Senate.
The EU parliament RATIFIED the Paris Agreement.
The UK Parliament RATIFIED the Paris Agreement
The Japanese Diet RATIFIED the Paris Agreement.
Every other nation that has a domestic-legislature ratification requirement for a TREATY actually RATIFIED the Paris Agreement.
If domestic ratification isn't needed, why did every other nation with such a requirement that signed the agreement go through the trouble to ratify the Paris Agreement?
Barack Obama never submitted the Paris Agreement the the US Senate for a Constitutionally-REQUIRED ratification.
Ergo, the US is not bound by it own laws to follow the Paris Agreement.
Unless you want Trump's policy decisions that are outside of US law to be binding on his successors, you can't argue Obama's mere agreements outside of US law are binding.
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Will it work as well as their bobsleds?
For the Winter Olympics, the Japanese government decided to build the "world's best bobsled", paying millions of dollars in consulting fees to a consortium of 120 companies including Toyota, Nissan, etc. with no experience in making bobsleds. The government also paid children's textbook companies, TV shows to portray the heroic craftsmen who built the sled. The actual product was built by no-name subcontractors in snow-free Tokyo, with a shoestring budget and no experience in bobsleds. The resulting bobsled was uncomfortable, dangerous, and slow, so the Japanese bobsled team refused to ride it. The bobsled was loaned on contract to the Jamaican women's bobsled team, except they hated it too and ended up using an old Latvian bobsled that they borrowed from the German team.
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Re:fcc?
And how would they do that?
Sure, they can make slashdot.org unreachable for me ... but not spiegel.de or wetter.de or https://www.japantimes.co.jp/ or god forbid https://www.thesun.co.uk/ -
Re:Externalized Costs
If we're discussing costs here, the thing is even the very rare nuclear accidents are incredibly expensive. Estimates of the cost of cleaning up Fukushima run between US$180 - US$600 billion.
Estimating US$400 billion, and wikipedia's claim that about 2 PWh of nuclear energy is produced per year, we get a cost of $200/ MWh year, so substitute in how often you think it's reasonable to assume these things happen somewhere in the world (once every 30 years? Gives $6/MWh), and compare to the latest contracts being signed for dispatchable solar (solar with storage) costing less than $50/MWh. It's a significant proportion of the overall cost, not overwhelming, but should not be discounted. And solar costs are coming down fast.
Cleanup costs:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-...
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2017/04/01/national/real-cost-fukushima-disaster-will-reach-¥70-trillion-triple-governments-estimate-think-tank/
Contracts being signed around US$50/MWh:
US$55/MWh in South Australia, including storage
US$30/MWh in Arizona, not including storage -
While all you septics are worry about Trump
President Xi Jinping is making himself President for Life by removing term limits from the state constitution and and writing the snappily named "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era" into the Party's one.
China has also cracked down on dissent very strongly since Xi's rise to power, under the cover of cracking down on corruption, something China is not short of. The collective leadership and term limits that were the norm after Mao and Deng is going away and the CCP is going back to full on dictatorship.
Which probably bodes poorly for places like Taiwan and Japan.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n...
At a Central Committee plenary session in January, party leaders decided on a plan to write Xi's guiding principle into the constitution at the National People's Congress scheduled for next month. Xi will also be formally elected to his second term at the annual meeting of the rubber-stamp parliament, which opens March 5.
The principle, entitled "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," was added to the Communist Party's constitution last year.
The country's constitution was first adopted in 1982 and has not been amended since 2004. Speculation that Xi might seek to stay in office past his mandate has hit a fever pitch since he unveiled a new leadership line-up in October that didn't include a clear possible heir.
Xi, as the son of a famed Communist Party veteran, is known as a "princeling." He rose through the ranks to the position of Shanghai's party leader in 2007 before being promoted the same year to the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee. A year later, in a sign that he would succeed then-leader Hu Jintao, he was tapped to be vice president.
Since his elevation to the presidency in 2012, Xi has overseen a wide-ranging crackdown on corruption that has helped him eliminate rivals and consolidate his grip on power.
As commander in chief of the Chinese People's Liberation Army, Xi has also been at the helm of a military modernization campaign that poured cash into the country's defense budgets while streamlining its forces.
He has also moved to shore up his legacy, last year taking on the mantle of "core" of the party leadership, elevating him above his predecessors to a position reminiscent of communist China's founder, Mao Zedong.
But at least one analyst said the announcement revealed weakness in the Communist Party's bid to maintain power.
"I interpret this piece of news as evidence that the CCP is weaker and more vulnerable than thought, not strong and stable," Lyle Morris, a China expert and senior analyst at the Rand Corp., wrote on Twitter in reference to the party. "A party that allows a leader through cult and power of personality to re-write the rules of succession is not a political party confident in itself."
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Re:Let Japan settle ...
Why not President Obama since Chia-Head started shooting missiles over Japan during his tenure? His limp-wristed approach to apologetic-foreign policy gave Chia-Head all the impetus he needed to start the tests...
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Re:Sad to see entire industries struggle like this
I guess you didn't read how the Fukushima reactors were built. The pump room was built on what was originally a hill that was removed to make the ground level and pumping easier. Had they not done all this excavation, the pump room would have been at least 9 feet higher and this tsunami would not have flooded the pumps and it is highly likely no cooling system problems would have occurred at all.
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Re: it's what's for dinner
https://www.thebalance.com/che...
Belarus estimates total losses of $235 billion. (Source: Chernobylâ(TM)s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts, The Chernobyl Forum: 2003-2005)
Other source:
Economic damage of the Chernobyl accident is estimated at $235 billion for 30 years on after the explosion, making up 32 national budgets as of 1985. Chernobyl disaster vastly damaged the agricultural sector of the Belarusian economy, which is worth over $700 million annually.
https://www.reuters.com/articl...
Japanâ(TM)s government on Friday nearly doubled its projections for costs related to the Fukushima nuclear disaster to 21.5 trillion yen ($188 billion), increasing pressure on Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) (9501.T) to step up reform and improve its performance.
Other source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/n...Â¥70-trillion-triple-governments-estimate-think-tank/
A private think tank says the total cost of the Fukushima disaster could reach Â¥70 trillion ($626 billion), or more than three times the governmentâ(TM)s latest estimate.
I would not call that: cheap.
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Re:Pee in my butt!
...Asian babes who aren't at all interested in Asian men. Guess why
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Re:Unless you obsessively hate Uber
Breaking news: Uber failed to prevent an invasion of Japan by fire ants!
In a shocking display of indifference and hubris, Uber drivers maintained their normal schedule yesterday even as reports of invasive biting fire ants alarmed and troubled residents of Japan. "I think they should have done something. You know, if they could," said one resident who requested to remain anonymous.
The White House press room declined to comment other than saying this story is "fake news".
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Re:In other Nuclear News
So, you are saying the decommissioning process is going well?
No, I'm saying you attempt to falsify reality in pursuit of your idealogy.
I'm saying TEPCO are clearly not capable, willfully and criminally negligent. I'm saying the sooner this is resolved with an international effort the lower the overall impact will be.
They have no sign of uncontrolled release of radiation, and the exploratory robots are working well. I didn't look at all the photos in detail, is there a North Korean spy that was caught in one of the frames or something?
Everytime you tout your zealotry more of the truth you seek to conceal emerges. Everytime you boast of your ignorance, more fact emerges for everyone else to see. Everytime you fail to acknowledge the situation, more consequences are revealed. Over eight hundred thousand tons of highly radio active water in uncontrolled releases *so far*.
I'm not sure what you think I'm supposed to take away from this.
It's clear you see this as a political issue and not a radiological issue that will affect the genome of every species on the planet for the forseeable future. It's clear you are not stupid but willfully ignorant and actively deny fact placed before you. Your comments are so dogmatically skeptical the only logical conclusion to draw is that you are either a paid troll with an adgenda or a useful idiot prepared to pathologize your own perception of reality in pursuit of your idealogy.
Take away that your trolling is so obviously professional it's unlikeley I'm the only one who can see through the bullshit of your agenda.
I am ignorant because I am an idealogue. I am an idealogue because I am ignorant.
You are an enemy of freedom because you are an enemy of truth. You are an enemy of truth because you are an enemy of freedom.
I meant to point that out to you last time we conversed however something more important came up. I appreciate you delivering an opportunity to excoriate you and once again be entertained by your display of mental gymnastics around the facts.
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In other Nuclear News
Some information about the status of Fukushima NPP:
A billion tons of triated water to be dumped into the pacific ocean
Unit 3 core elements found in the bottom of the pressure vessel
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In other Nuclear News
Some information about the status of Fukushima NPP:
A billion tons of triated water to be dumped into the pacific ocean
Unit 3 core elements found in the bottom of the pressure vessel
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Re: Enlighten us please!
What I can't understand is why you're talking about communists, but I was talking about the misery caused by Capitalists. Which is quite extensive. For example, in China and India, pollution causes several million deaths each year, much of that to drive fa much of that from factories shipping goods for Capitalists across the world. Or the power plants to keep them running. Add in dozens of other countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Brazil, the US, and that is a considerable death toll.
Then we have people killed to take resources like oil, lumber, diamonds.
And let's not forget the folks worked to death because that is easier than implementation of safety measures.
Also, tobacco (sold by Capitalists so brutal they had to be forced to abandon chattel slavery by force of arms) takes the lies of about six million people each year. Not all of them even have a choice about the exposure. Then add in the victims of crack, heroin, and other drugs. That means only two decades or so for it to overtop those individuals you name.
Who actually sold food on the world market, which means that you can blame Capitalism for those deaths too. After all, if you buy food taken from the starving, you are responsible.
Besides, remember, we're talking about the most. Being the fastest car does not make others slow. It just means you need to hold Capitalism to account for all it's murderous slaughter.
It really is a cruel and exploitative philosophy. Morally destitute. And yes, I kills its own.
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Re:"jaw dropping" downplaying - more fuked news
The high levels are inside the containment.
In other words Yes folks, the fuel is indeed outside of the reactor core.
Let's, for a moment, consider what words were spoken inside the TEPCO media relations meeting;
- Engineering: Well the robots have indeed discovered evidence of fuel outside of the reactor.
- Media Relations: how can you be sure it's outside the reactor?
- E: Because we found an area where fuel shouldn't be, a grating melted all the way through and the ES1000 started malfunctioning because the radiation levels were so high. We had to abort before it got stuck in the containment building.
- M: Containment Building?
- E:Yes, were not sure how much containment was destroyed, but the evidence suggests we are close to locating a section of the melted core.
- M:Then all we have to do is reassure people it's in the containment. Susan get me some overalls, we need to do a press conference!
- E
:-O - M: turning back to E oh, great work, robot broke down - we'll run with that...
This is exactly the kind of slimy trick the Nuclear Industry PR would use to downplay evidence of fuel being outside of the reactor, maybe I've been napping however I've not seen the headline Evidence of Nuclear Fuel Found outside of Fukushima Reactor Core anywhere. I'm just supposed to be comfortable that it's inside the containment as if it's no big deal that it didn't melt *INSIDE* the reactor where it should be.
Why yes it is.
M: Susan, make sure the by-story runs that it is *inside* the containment, we need to make sure the fans have a counter argument. People, we're running with the robot broken down story and that we think it might have kinda possibly run into a tad bit of radio stuff,, we have to get on top of this before the mainstream get a hold of the news. Susan, where are those overalls!
to calm y'all down even further
This article from the Japanese daily contains the video feed from the robot. Above the hole you can see the base of the reactor pressure vessel. Your statement seems a trite summation considering the evidence discovered.
It's perfectly reasonable to be angry about the incompetence that led to this disaster, what's weird is trying to say it's no big deal. The international community who shares the coasts of the pacific ocean will suffer the consequences of this over a very long time. This is what a big deal is.
I don't see any justification for supporters of nuclear energy to play the same morally superior dogmatically skeptic attitude they have had over the last decade anymore, this is an INES7 scale accident. Information is available now, and people can read so what need is less downplaying so we can figure out the nature of the mess the nuclear industry has left us and where these 3 cores are.
Evidence of reactor fuel found outside of the Fukushima reactor is the information and the nuclear industry is very carefully avoiding any further criticism.
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"keep on building nukes"
Building NPPs in the west nowadays might be considered economically insane. If you consider nukes a viable alternative, calculate the (actual) cost and see what else might be done for that amount of money.
Don't get me wrong, I get the "let's go all nuke" argument. I just don't buy it. Right now, renewables are taken off the grid / switched off, because we can't store the power produced efficiently -- where I live, we chose to not produce / switch off renewable energy (and subsidy not producing it), instead of converting and storing it inefficiently. If we used the "all nuke" money for things like renewables and storage, it might still be "economically insane" FWIW (though I doubt that), but a lot less risky and, you might say, geeky.
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Re:Whose side is he on?
She fucked up the Middle East? You mean there was some point prior to Hillary coming along where the Middle East was unfucked up? When was that exactly?
I don't know about you but i've been worried about war with China since the 90s, and it was only that late because that's when i first learned the history of the region. Taiwan has been a ticking political time bomb since the 50s, and there was a big uptick in the potential for conflict when the Taiwan Relation Act was passed in 1979, after Nixon and well before Hillary came around.
The First and Second Taiwan Strait Crisises happened in the 50s. The Third happened in 95 and 96. In addition to that in 1951 China "peacefully liberated" Tibet, they've been trying to claim part of India, and there's some Japanese territory they want too. And of course they've never really stopped propping up North Korea.
If you think China's belligerence is some new thing that Hillary is responsible for you're the one who hasn't been paying attention to history.
I certainly don't think Hillary has been perfect, (Benghazi was certainly a fuck-up, even if it wasn't a crime) but you seem to believe in some prior perfect state of international affairs that i don't seem to recall.
And finally, according to the Hillary haters she's been negotiating the trade of political favors for cash, she's been using leverage on the FBI and Congress to get away with treasonous activity, and she's been orchestrating unprovable political assassinations.
So is she a total incompetent incapable of getting anything done, or a master politician and backroom dealer who can literally get away with murder? -
Great opinion piece in the Japan Times
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Re:This...
> You also need young people to do the work
Robots. We need robots to do the work. The Japanese figured this out a few years ago:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne... -
Re:For-profit healthcare in action.
Random, but I saw your username and thought of this article I saw today -- http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/04/15/national/mashiki-quake-survivors-describe-terror-homes-collapsed/
Any connection to you?
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Re: Chernobyl and Japanese flag?
The Japan Times ran it as foreign news, part of a package on the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident (with 30th anniversary and "chemical Chernobyl"). Kyodo did the reporting, as the subject is relevant to Japan and because of the possibility of Japan having a role in dismantling the plant.
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Re: Chernobyl and Japanese flag?
The Japan Times ran it as foreign news, part of a package on the upcoming 30th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident (with 30th anniversary and "chemical Chernobyl"). Kyodo did the reporting, as the subject is relevant to Japan and because of the possibility of Japan having a role in dismantling the plant.
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Re:This story...
What's the Japanese rate of HPV?
Human Papillomavirus and Related Diseases Report
"Japan has a population of 57.12 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk of developing cervical cancer. Current estimates indicate that every year 9390 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer and 3645 die from the disease. Cervical cancer in Japan ranks as the 10th most frequent cancer among women and the 2nd most frequent cancer among women between 15 and 44 years of age. Based on Japan studies performing HPV detection tests in cervical samples, about 1.9% of women in the general population are estimated to harbour cervical HPV-16/18 infection at a given time, and 52.1% of invasive cervical cancers are attributed to HPVs 16 or 18."
Why did they ban it?
Cervix Vaccine Issues Trigger Health Notice
"The panel focused on 38 cervical vaccine recipients who reported widespread pain. Given the timing of their symptoms, the panel concluded that a causal link to the vaccines could not be ruled out in many of the cases.
There were 245.1 reports of side effects per million vaccinations for Cervarix, and 155.7 reports per million for Gardasil — more than two other, separate vaccines that affect both sexes and were added to the regular list at around the same time.
Reports of side effects from the other two medicines came to 89.1 per million for a set of pneumococcus vaccines and 67.4 per million for Japanese encephalitis vaccines."
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Re:Fukushima was NOT WORTH IT
I beg to differ, no it cannot.
I beg to differ, yes it can.
Despite your apparent ignorance on the subject, it is the situation that we *all* faced at Unit 4 Fukushima spent fuel pools for the last four years. Why do you think that TEPCO worked so hard to remove the fuel rods from the structure that is failing. What do you think would happen to plutonium fuel rods in a spent fuel pool without water surrounding them to moderate neutron activity had the structure collapsed?
The answer is Plutonium Fire. The 1300 fuel rods in unit 4 (now removed - thankfully) in storage with another 4000 in a storage unit near by presented the risk of a plutonium fire so large that it would be, IN FACT, an extinction level event that would spread hundreds of tons of fissile ash (mainly plutonium oxide and plutonium chloride) across the entire northern hemisphere via the jet stream.
You can't put a Plutonium fire out with water because it splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is the physics that make a reactor operate in the first place and were the ones at play as a result of the basis design issue of the reactor that lead to the explosions in the first place.
Whilst the structural issues that damaged unit 4's spent fuel pool made the removal of the fuel rods a priority there, whether or not we face the same issue in unit's 1-3 depend on if the radiation levels in those units will allow works to continue to remove the remaining spent fuel. Fortunately the largest risk from unit 4 has been abated.
These are the realities of accidents like this and these are the risks we take on by using Nuclear power. If you want to remove such a risk, go start lobbying your politicians for a geologically sound spent fuel repository because such a risk exists in every plant until we do.
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Re:Public Healthcare / Mental Healthcare
This situation will never really be fixed until the US wakes up to the fact that it is the only modern nation in the world that doesn't have a proper public healthcare system with guaranteed access to all, regardless of ability to pay.
Then how could a man stab 5 people to death in Japan?
You can make mental health care as free as you want, but it is not going to mean the mentally ill will come get care.
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Not just South Korea
This problem isn't limited to just South Korea, Japan this month Japan will start rolling out a similar system called My Number(and of course, this being Japan, it is associated with a cute character) Not sure why countries are so eager to give ID thieves a field day, but apparently they are. The elderly are especially vulnerable as they are the least likely to understand the new system and use the new technology and the most likely to fall prey to scams.
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Re:Another Win For the Anti-Nuclear GuysSome Clarifications to the 1600 are in order;
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...Around 90 percent of those who died of indirect causes were aged 66 or older, according to Reconstruction Agency statistics published in September.
Unlike those caused by collapsed buildings or tsunami, indirect deaths are determined by municipal panels by examining links between the disaster and the cause of death. This occurs when a relative of a deceased files a request.
Causes of indirect deaths include physical and mental stress stemming from long stays at shelters, a lack of initial care as a result of hospitals being disabled by the disaster, and suicides.Many of these deaths happened well after the evacuation. So effectively all deaths of the elderly displaced are blamed on Fukushima. It appears there is extra compensation if you can attribute a death to Fukushima.
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Proper Context
Meanwhile, there's this other bit of news that's gone mostly unnoticed outside Japan: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne... Surely this must be coincidence, right? I think not! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
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Let's not forget outright crime
Korea is busy indicting Kalanick for breaking the law.
They should have tried the legal route first, but here we see that breaking the law is a minor inconvenience for people with money.
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Re:Current level of Japanese debt?
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Re:Current level of Japanese debt?
I would love that to be the case. However, if history is any guide, it won't be: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...
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Re:Color blindness is useful though
Sort of off-topic, but your post reminded me of a little factoid. In Japan, they call the green traffic light "blue". It has to do with the fact that the older term "ao" refers to both green and blue. They have a distinct word for green "midori", but it's understood as a specific shade of blue, and the color boundaries are not the same as what most others would call green. Thus, they have "blue" traffic lights in Japan. They're often the same green as found in other countries, but sometimes they're pushed a bit more towards the blue spectrum.
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Re:I have said it before
Uh-huh. Not one child has become sick due to elevated levels of poisons associated with a nuclear generator? Right - I'm believing that. Try this article: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/op...
Now, I'm not one to attribute every "stress-related illness" to the nuclear plant, but I'm also aware that elevated levels of radiation and contaminants are probably killing people who may or may not have been the healthiest members of society to start with.
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Re:Wrong
"I used to think vitamins had been thoroughly studied for their health trade-offs. They haven't. The reason you take one multivitamin pill a day is marketing, not science."
What the hell has he been reading? Clearly not enough.
In the 1930s vitamins and biochemistry suddenly appeared. By 1948 it had been shown one cures polio with 100% efficacy and zero side effects. But, the commercial pressure from the pharma companies who stood to make billions suppressed it. There are thousands of clinical reports that show clearly some vitamins in therapeutic doses have a rather dramatic effect.
In Japan for example they've treated MRSA with IV C with striking success and they keep asking why no American journal will publish it.
Scott doesn't have enough of a biochem background and hasn't read enough to know what's what. The levels in a multivitamin are too low to be useful, so I guess we agree they're worthless.
In the last 5 years, fish oil, niacin and bad gut flora have been recognized by the medical industry; prior to that they were ridiculed as "alternative" medicine for 100, 50 and 35 years respectively. It takes generations for new advances to filter out to the medical establishment and if Adams had done the proper reading he's see where science hasn't failed us, marketing has. Foster's work on HIV or Shaefer and Potter's work on cancer would open anyones eyes who knew enough to understand what they've written.
First and foremost, what do you think stoped Ebola, Scott? It wasn't a vaccine.
was not found.
"Klenner's paper (Klenner FR. The treatment of poliomyelitis and other virus diseases with vitamin C. J. South. Med. and Surg., 111:210-214, 1949.) on curing 60 cases of polio in the epidemic of 1948 should have changed the way infectious diseases were treated but it did not." - Robert Cathcart
That's amazing! Why are they still messing around with antibiotics to combat MRSA then if they already know that IV C works?
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...It's not all a conspiracy...
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Re:And so it begins
While I would agree on some of your early points, have you seen the xenophobia in Japan? A white person who speaks the language fluently can't even rent a place.
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Good, it should be that way!
After all, we need a government-mandated monopoly on violence.
How else could the Yakuza do their business? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y... I mean, they're considered a semi-legitimate business in Japan, and are armed to the teeth. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...
Of course, they also lie about their crime rates to hide corruption to bolster promotions within their police force (source: Freakonomics, the movie).
Gun control works people! You have a whole country who is paralyzed with fear of the organized crime syndicates that own them!
Just as it should be
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Re:Why just guns?
I wouldn't trust your statistics. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...
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Re:Already commented on this elsewhere
Fukushima Daiichi's problems began forty years ago when they removed the natural 35 meter bluff that use to be there.
The plant is on a bluff which was originally 35 meters above sea level. During construction, however, TEPCO lowered the height of the bluff by 25 meters. One reason for lowering the bluff was to allow the base of the reactors to be constructed on solid bedrock in order to mitigate the threat posed by earthquakes. Another reason was the lowered height would keep the running costs of the seawater pumps low. TEPCO's analysis of the tsunami risk when planning the site's construction determined that the lower elevation was safe because the sea wall would provide adequate protection for the maximum tsunami assumed by the design basis. However, the lower site elevation did increase the vulnerability for a tsunami larger than anticipated in design.
Not considered in the above would be the simple yet modestly more costly possibility of obviating the need for a sea wall by preserving the bluff and setting the reactors back, using modestly sized canals to cycle the sea water to and fro. That, naturally, wasn't the cheapest conceivable option, so it didn't survive the bean counters. Instead, they removed 25 meters of foothill, a feature that was originally 2.5 times the height of the tsunami before they fucked it up. The whole `bedrock' smokescreen is easily dismissed for the lie that it is; they could have reached bedrock from a setback design with no more difficulty.
This was done for one reason; grading the beach provided cheaper access to the ultimate heat sink, sea water. Less construction cost, less pumping, less maintenance, etc. This isn't lost on the perpetrators either. They know they're at fault and they knew it at the time, whatever lies they tell today notwithstanding.
This isn't speculation, either. Fukushima Daini did not get submerged, did not melt down and did not contaminate the land and the sea. Why? Primarily because it was built at higher elevation, which is about the only significant difference between these sites.
TEPCO bean counters. End of story.