Posts by stephen walker
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@linger:
as much as i despise facebook, there seems to be a lot of english earthquake and power blackout-related info on facebook. sorry, can't post any links atm... -
Hard News: What Now?, in reply to SteveH,
the cost of the nuclear disaster will be extremely high. TEPCO has lost a third of its base load generating capacity. the economic losses stemming from electricity shortages in the TEPCO service area alone will be enormous. no once knows how much losss will be caused by contamination--there seems good reason now to think it might get to a significant level. Fukushima I is completely fcuked. the cleanup and decommissioning bill will be huge. for you to sit in nz saying it's not such a big deal really makes me feel ill.and if you think there won't be 100,000 people out of work because of the disruption from the nuclear plants (not the earthquake and tsunami--there are already half a million refugees) you don't know shit about the Japanese economy.
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i'm not aware of any nuclear fallout reaching the Tokyo area yet, but if the wind direction changes, that situation could get nasty quicker than most people think.
life goes on, but, the supermarket shelves are rapidly emptying due to panic buying. the threat of rolling power cuts is having a big effect on a lot of small businesses already.
a lot of people can't get to work, or even if they can it is a huge time wasting hassle. the trains are only really running to the inner suburbs, so i reckon about a third of the greater tokyo population is stuck near their home neighbourhoods.
the electricity situation and the nuclear situation are not even close to being sorted out. people are getting really worried about how this will play out over the next few weeks and months.
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lots of aftershocks in Tokyo (400 km or so from Sendai). probably no trains tonight. time for an 18 km walk home. the people on the coast... oh i don't want to think about it. too awful.
cheers.
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i was trapped on the subway, but only for 10 minutes or so. fuck that was frightening. they have an early warning system to stop all trains. then we shook hard for about 2 mins. i was scared what the surface would look like if it was that bad six stories underground.
Miyagi/Sendai area must be a mess. i feel sorry for those people.
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man, that was fcuked up. i was on the subway. it stopped and shook. luckily only trapped on the train for 10 minutes or so.
gee, i feel sorry for the people up in Sendai. if it was this bad in Tokyo, what was going on up there?
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beliefs in non-rational but popular delusions
oh, you mean like "an economic system based on the premise that infinite exponential economic growth is desirable and possible (on a planet with finite resources (except for solar radiation and gravity))" or other such irrational delusions?
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The recommendation of the relevant Minister may not be challenged, reviewed, quashed, or called into question in any court.
orders in council are still subject to judicial review.
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Glenn Greenwald writes at Salon today:
I've heard a lot of twisted reasoning employed to defend the full-scale immunity which Obama has vested in Bush officials for their chronic lawbreaking. But I doubt even Robert Gibbs would be willing to stand up in public and call it "courageous." Obama's decision to protect Bush-era crimes from accountability earned him the praise of conservatives, the gratitude of leading Democratic officials (petrified that their own culpability would be exposed), and the virtually unanimous support of the entire establishment media class. Initiating investigations and prosecutions of Bush-era crimes would have required substantial political courage; by contrast, blocking all such accountability was the easiest, most cowardly route, as it's what all of official Washington was demanding. That's the path Obama took.
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Gen. Barry McCaffrey said: "We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the C.I.A."
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As Gen. Antonio Taguba said after completing his formal investigation into the interrogation program: "there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
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Hard News: The Wellington Cables, in reply to Matthew Reid,
It’s an embarrassing anomaly that NZ is the only developed country outside the US that still allows it. Leads to undue influence on doctors and alters prescription patterns even when advertsed drugs are no better than alternatives.
nah, Japan has it too.