Wednesday 16 March 2011

Japanese update

A round up of developments in Japan with an emphasis on the Fukushima nuclear complex:
What galls me is how all this reactor hand-wringing is deflecting attention away from the real disaster, which is a major power trying to recover from being literally thrown 12 feet to the left.

1 comment:

Sergej said...

To Prof. Hanson's list of examples, I think I can add how easy the barbarians found it to roll over Gaul once the wall of the border legions was breached. The more civilized Romans were too busy being specialized, while the barbarians were under no such constraints. On the other hand, the Romans were civilized, and the barbarians, again, not so much. In this I think that Prof. Hanson neglects to mention a point: more complexity necessarily requires narrower and deeper specialization. A new MD might know everything from the inner life of the cell to performing orthopedic surgery, but look whom we admit to medical schools---for those less than two s.d. out in the smart tail of the bell curve, knowing more of something requires knowing less of something else. For those more than two s.d. as well, I think. Look how naive the smart ones tend to be about politics.

Apropos of nothing, a thing. Heard recently. Comparison of the behavior of the Japanese people hit directly by this catastrophe to that of the Americans hit by Hurricane Katrina (which was of course, Bush's Fault). No looting, even though the shops are broken and their contents spilled. No murdering and raping, even though no one might be looking. This says something good about the Japanese people, and I'm afraid, something less good about my countrymen. I expect Japan to be back on its feet in months and the rubble cleared within a year, though of course the lives lost can never be replaced.