Here's a fun story about why you should be skeptical of all the nuclear safety experts that seem to be spouting all over the internet.
You'd think that 900 comments would be suffiicient to move any problem to resolution.
1: are you linking that again because this is a new thread? Also, I think it's just about the one dude, as opposed to "all the nuclear safety experts".
2: I wonder what the half-life of a typical anxious thread about a nuclear emergency is?
Oh noes, we're doomed! Change your tin-foil baseball cap to the lead-lined one now! Now! For doggies too! Can I get a geiger counter at Home Depot! Boron AC filters and window screens? Plastic sheets on the windows? Why are the neighbors looking at me like that?
Obama voters, every one of them.
The EU's energy chief Guenther Oettinger has said that in the coming hours "there could be further catastrophic events, which could pose a threat to the lives of people on the island". He told the European Parliament the Fukushima nuclear site was "effectively out of control". "The cooling systems did not work, and as a result we are somewhere between a disaster and a major disaster."
via the BBC
Apo thought it would be tempting fate if everybody tried to shout "Kobe!" when the other thread hit 1000.
"despite having been republished widely around the Web, the post has not held up to scrutiny."
Astonishing!
Wow, and didn't even notice I was pwned on that until just now. I'm off my game without Nate around. Or, arguably, I'm off my game in general and making an excuse.
Ouch. In my defense, I stopped with that thread when I started thinking of it as a suicide watch. Just...couldn't get that out of my head.
5: Who was it recommending we explode nuclear bombs over Fukushima?
Can we still discuss who was the hottest on BtVS was? Because the correct answer is clearly Robia LaMorte, (Jenny Calendar), who also starred in several Prince videos. Sadly, she's now born-again, and spends her time warning us about the dangers of paganism.
Maybe someone should ask Freeman Dyson to give us some magical neutron-eating trees to fix the problem.
15: Because that'd show Obama for sure.
Former gf in Kawasaki says that people are frustrated with TEPCO and government response, but as some people will no doubt be disappointed to learn, it's unlikely to lead to blood in the streets.
Jenny Calendar
So true. You can close this thread now too, Apo.
Is this the point where I say that I never saw so much as a minute of BtVS, because I don't even have a TV?
5: Who was it recommending we explode nuclear bombs over Fukushima?
Seriously. 5 is like the crackpot calling the kettle bipolar.
Sadly, she's now born-again, and spends her time warning us about the dangers of paganism.
I think this retroactively invalidates hotness. But otherwise, yeah, good point.
Seriously. 5 is like the crackpot calling the kettle bipolar.
You misspelled bi-winning.
Oddly, I can't even find the "So, Tokyo" thread any more. It's like it's been vaporized. Actually, it seems that I can't find anything at all below the soy thread. It's juts a sea of white down there. Which is to say, Apo is racist.
I have to voice my support for 16, 19. Though if we are expanding the list to guest stars, I"m sure we can find more.
Also, born again? Ugh. I am trying to think of anything else that results in an equivalent level of immediate de-hottification, and I can't think of anything. I've run through "that weird tongue thing from Species," "leprosy," and "has a wardrobe made exclusively of puppies." Nothing.
It's juts a sea of white down there.
It was a forest of red before I manscaped. There's just no pleasing some people.
I just watched a clip of her "ministry", and she's still hot.
I guess we can't declare comity until Halford weights in on whether Ms Calendar's appeal is "lame pro-nerd nice-guy ism".
immediate de-hottification
Man, you people with your standards and ethical behavior. Being washed in the purifying blood of the Lamb gets one crossed off the relationship list, obviously, but I'd still hit Christine O'Donnell.
24: we'll be here all week, folks.
28. "Ministry" and hot do not belong in the same sentence, unless you're discussing hell. But Ms La Morte was ever a bear of very little brain, to judge from the pedia thing.
24: Fucking blogs, how do they work?
I'd still hit Christine O'Donnell.
With a piece of 4 x 2, yeah.
OK, datapoint for the "We're fucked" faction:
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano has said the situations is "very serious". He has urged Japan to give more information, as he prepares to fly to the country.
After I read that slightly-sad article about Christine O'Donnell's drunken hook-up, I couldn't hear about her without seeing that picture of her in that ladybug costume and thinking "Come here, Christine. I promise I won't kiss and tell."
Sadly, she's now born-again, and spends her time warning us about the dangers of paganism.
Well, she was kinda killed by paganism, to be fair.
35: Apo's wide where it counts.
She's probably the only person in the world with a webpage divided into sections entitled "Buffy", "Prince", and "God".
Is the middle one of those devoted to the artist formerly known as squiggle?
"Buffy", "Prince", and "God"
I believe that trinity makes Sarah Michelle Gellar the Holy Ghost.
"Ministry" and hot do not belong in the same sentence
How about "pastor" and hot?
Hmm, maybe there really wasn't anything else to be said about the Fukushima disaster.
44: Sure there is. No one has even mentioned any of the male leads on Buffy.
43. It's more of a turn on that she appears to be able to read Greek, a rare accomplishment among those anxious to tell us what the New testament means.
40: I'm not checking, but even money that Prince's website has those same three categories.
Soon you'll tell me that the really hot Northern Exposure female lead has turned wingnut.
49: Really? In that case, the radiation can't get here fast enough.
49: If memory serves, her character on Friday Night Lights was a total bitch, so that helps bring fantasy and reality into line, if not in the optimal direction.
Also obviously Xander was the hottest on BtVS. Duh!
And I was so confident that if anyone brought up a male Buffy character it would be Giles.
51 is lame pro-nerd nice-guy ism, if I've ever heard it. Correct answer: Riley Finn.
This Northern Exposure actress? The disembodied hand gripping her shoulder in the photo on Wikipedia is creepy.
It's as though the name "Charles Addams" means nothing to you, essear.
54: The disembodied hand gripping her shoulder in the photo on Wikipedia is creepy.
Oh, everyone from Lincoln has one of those, didn't you know? Most people wear their hair long to cover it, but of course a big part of Turner's appeal was her pixie-cut, so they had to digitally remove the disembodied hand frame-by-frame during post-production of the show.
24: Fucking blogs, how do they work?
Post goes in, post goes out.
50, 54: Yeah, Janine Turner. She was pretty much my first celebrity crush too, which made finding out about the wingnuttery all the more galling.
Riley Finn
The woman I dated between my marriages was all fanatical about BtVS, so I ended up watching the series with her. The first time his character appeared, I spent the entire episode wondering where I knew him from, before it finally dawned on me that he had been the 2 guard for Wake Forest's basketball team a few years earlier, and I'd watched him play dozens of times.
re: 57.last
I definitely had a crush on her, but wouldn't say she was the first. Then again, I'm probably older than you. She was hot, though.
Too bad Riley Finn was so epically annoying on the show.
BtVS
I keep parsing this as "Beyond the Valley of the Sauls".
Kristine Sutherland. Who is now a photographer.
51: Xander?
Even I would have done a young David Boreanz.*
*I cannot over-emphasize the importance of "young" here. I'm aware he's still on tv, but something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Maggie was not my first television crush. I had already experienced the heartbreak of falling for Tasha Yar.
3.1: I missed the first link.
3.2: The case is about one dude, but you should still be broadly skeptical.
16: Amber Benson.
You whippersnappers can stop making me feel old any time now (as if being older than Nate Dogg wasn't accomplishing it already).
From the NYT, finally a headline you can't argue over: "Peril and Confusion at Nuclear Plant". Pretty much sums it up.
Yeah, Janine Turner
I never understood the fuss over her, even though it seemed everyone (including my gf The Anitchrist) wanted to get into her pants.
Tasha Yar
Not even the hottest chick on the Enterprise. That would be Dr. Beverly Crusher.
Oh I forgot about Riley Finn. I guess I should come out of the closet here about the fact that I watched the entire series but never liked it* so like I had to google "Jenny Calendar" and couldn't remember most of the plot details on her wikipedia page (!) Riley, though, hm. I feel like it was mostly about his hair. Xander still wins.
Giles is only wank fodder for them that salivate indiscriminately at the sound of an English accent!
*with the exception of the musical episode.
You're still dating the Antichrist? I may have some advice for you.
watched the entire series but never liked it
Yeah. I didn't actively dislike it, but I almost certainly wouldn't have kept watching it past the first few episodes if I had been dating somebody else.
*with the exception of the musical episode.
I liked the one where her mother died. And the one where nobody could talk.
I never got Janine Turner either. I have a gay guy friend who was all hot for her.
My youthful crushes were the villainesses in the Flash Gordon movie and the Buck Rogers TV show. That means I'm either in my 40s, or in my 80s, I think.
Oh yeah, the one where nobody could talk was good, too.
I guess I didn't dislike it, either, or I would have stopped watching. It's an odd habit, though: I like to have some series going and sometimes will get hooked into one despite not giving a fuck about it and keep going.
While we're filling the nuclear disaster thread with television talk, we started watching Party Down the other night on an old recommendation from somebody or other (Tweety/Blume, maybe?), and it's a winner.
Re Robia LaMorte and Essear's 29, I was never particularly into the series so I don't remember that character, but based on a Google Images search I think we can declare comity. Now that we've settled our differences, let's unite to solve Japan's nuclear crisis. With Essear's knowledge of physics, my knowledge of entertainment law, and Walt's knowledge of whatever it is Walt knows about, I think we're an unstoppable force for good.
not giving a fuck about it and keep going
Hello, Lost.
74: we loved it but I think maybe oudemia gets original credit for recommending it.
75: Hot women, my friend. Hot women. Even as we speak I'm assembling a crack team of the sexiest nuclear physicists the world has ever seen.
Re 43, I do kind of have a thing for Pastor Melissa Scott.
Party Down is really great.
I don't really remember very earliest TV crushes. Probably twee BBC sitcom/soap-opera actresses; but I have very distinct memories of Isabelle Adjani, from some late night Channel 4 film.
78: just please not Denise Richards again.
36- If he's flying to Japan it can't be that bad then, right? I mean, if anyone knows how to avoid getting irradiated, it's the head of the IAEA. Or maybe he's just going to survey from the air then GTFO.
78: She isn't a nuclear physicist, but you should get Neri Oxman on the team anyhow.
Even I would have done a young David Boreanz...I'm aware he's still on tv, but something has gone terribly, terribly wrong.
What? I was never a Buffy watcher but I've seen quite a few episodes of Bones via my wife and daughters streaming it off of Netflix and it doesn't look like he got hit by the ugly bus or anything.
70: Praise God no. Should have said "then-girlfriend". Hmm, that's two exes in one thread, one pure good, one pure evil.
81: Nah, she's not a physicist. She will be able to land those physicists safely inside a cooling tower, though.
Some good news: they may soon have station-service power back on, which will make a lot of things simpler, as a temporary power line is being rigged up. (You know things are serious when you're thinking of building a temporary power line.)
Also, they're going to bulldoze some of the bits of roof and tsunami wreckage and what not in order to get pumps closer to the fuel pond in reactor 3. (Which is not on fire.)
And the US Air Force has lent them a Global Hawk drone to get infrared pictures from directly overhead, although I don't think you can carry an H-bomb on one of those.
PS, I don't approve of Shore-ising Bob.
All my exes live in TFA
And TFA is the place
I'd dearly love to be
But all my exes live in TFA
And that's why I hang
My hat in Tennessee
Oh yeah, the one where nobody could talk was good, too.
You mock, but Buffy fans love Hush. Here's SEK on it.
PS, I don't approve of Shore-ising Bob.
Did this happen?
16 & 22 are spot on, leaving Anya as the hottest regular on the show.
Riley has a big head. Actually, now that I think about it, basically everyone on the show has some slightly distracting physical feature that de-hots them. Boreanaz' eyebrow. Marsters' neck. Xander's lower lip. Seth Green's hobbit stature.
Okay, Giles is perfect, apart from being old and a little pasty.
Hm, I always loved the entire male cast of Buffy, with the exception of Riley. He was just too much of a giant puppy dog. Spike, Giles, Angel, Xander ... why should you have to choose? (Though I could easily kick Angel off that list. Too much brooding.)
I remain disappointed that the Ripper spin-off starring Giles never happened. The Taster's Choice guy as John Constantine! It would have been epic.
84: I think he got hit by the coke bloat bus.
83: Holy crap how did I not know that she existed.
I was going to say this on the Tokyo thread but it got the control rods got dropped before I could. Stupid work, taking me away from important stuff.
Anyway, Ajay mentioned that Chernobyl was extra bad due to graphite moderators - The most ultra-super-bad accident potential was probably the (now shut down) French Phenix reactor. It was cooled by liquid sodium. There were plans for a larger follow on called SuperPhenix, also sodium cooled, but it was abandoned due to nobody being that damn crazy.
I am generally a fan of the Wile E. Coyote approach to engineering, but liquid sodium+actinides is outside my comfort zone.
You mock, but Buffy fans love Hush.
Actually, that wasn't mocking. It was a very clever episode.
Holy crap how did I not know that she existed.
Jaw-dropping, no?
Did they name it after the bird that periodically bursts into flame?
93: I know, right?
I'm pretty sure oudemia has been the biggest Party Down proponent around here. And it is a lot of fun. When Rob Thomas is good, he's very, very good.
Ok, I don't know from Japan except that WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE but I'ma settle this Buffy business:
Men: Anthony Stewart Head > David Boreanaz > Seth Green > Nicholas Brendon > James Marsters > Marc Blucas.
Women: Charisma Carpenter > Amber Benson > Michelle Trachtenberg > Robia LaMorte > Emma Caulfield > Sarah Michelle Gellar > Alyson Hannigan (sorry pro-nerd nice-guys).
I suppose there are nerdier things to think about while waiting for the bobpocolypse, but right now I can't think of what they might be.
Charisma Carpenter is one of those people who I recognize as being objectively gorgeous but somehow feel almost no attraction whatsoever to.
82: If he's flying to Japan it can't be that bad then, right? I mean, if anyone knows how to avoid getting irradiated, it's the head of the IAEA.
I'm imagining the optics of him coming out of the plane in an ET-ish radiation suit and giving a breathy Darth Vader-sounding interview where he says that all is well.
101: Maybe he'll just send out his robot friend Gort.
100 is correct, and 99 is creepy for even ranking Trachtenberg with the adults.
What sort of a name is Charisma, anyway? "Hey, I'm going to make sure my daughter has an inferiority complex her whole life by giving her a name she'll have to live up to or be teased to death."
Also, there's a factory where they make actresses who look like that.
Stay classy, Jerry Pournelle: Japanese nuke workers are risking their lives trying to get shit under control so libertarians can speculate on tuna futures.
100: Exactly.
I discovered when I rewatched all of Buffy a couple of years ago that in my dotage 1. I found Giles a lot more attractive, or, rather, attractive and 2. I had a lot more sympathy for poor old Riley.
What sort of a name is Charisma, anyway? "Hey, I'm going to make sure my daughter has an inferiority complex becomes a San Diego Charger Cheerleader.
What sort of a name is Charisma, anyway?
Still better than Chastity.
101: Maybe he'll just send out his robot friend Gort.
Close, but really:
"There's a prehistoric monster
that came from outer space,
Created by the Martians
to destroy the human race.
The FBI is helpless.
It's twenty stories tall.
What can we do?
Who can we call?
Tobor,the 8th Man!
Tobor,the 8th Man!
Faster than a rocket!
Quicker than a jet!
He's the mighty robot!
He's the one to get!
Tobor,the 8th Man!
Quick, call Tobor,
the mightiest robot in the land!"
-- Richard Ranke 1954
Is she the only person to span both BTVS and VM?
Is there a god strong enough to make an actor who can span BTVS, VM, and The Wire?
109: Or Charnel, Charybdis, Charcoal, Chartist or Charbonnel et Walker.
111: No, there's also Alyson Hannigan as Trina Echolls, Logan's adopted sister. (Remember the scene where he introduced them in his suite at the Neptune Grand? "Rode hard, meet put away wet.")
106 - "Classy" and "Jerry Pournelle" parted ways a while back.
Also, Adam Kaufman played Parker on Buffy and the artist/boyfriend of Veronica's disappearing neighbor in one of the early season 1 episodes.
#102. Right. Imagine her between Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg.
99 is creepy for even ranking Trachtenberg with the adults.
(Rankings based on entrants ca. 2011. No indelicacy intended. Tax and tags not included. Void where prohibited by law.)
I want to believe that you're doing this with the help of the Internet, essear.
115: Technically, Niven's the classy one there. But yeah.
118: I did have to look up the name of the Parker/neighbor actor.
115 Niven did write a sympathetic portrayal of a world where people get executed in droves for offenses as low as speeding just so the (mostly hereditary) rich can get plenty of yummy fresh organs. Though I do have fond memories of the Known Space stories. Pournelle-Niven collaborations not so much.
Alyson Hannigan as Trina Echolls, Logan's adopted sister
Remembering this, I have a better understanding of the Alyson Hannigan thing.
Now I'm wondering if my type leans more towards "psychotic bitch" than is really good for me.
117: I saw 2011 Trachtenberg in a recent issue of Maxim. Which comes to my apartment because the previous tenant subscribed.
She looked like a fucking mannequin, and so, still creepy, although, granted, a very different kind of creepy.
Apparently, California's devastating earthquakes are bout 30 times smaller than Japan's devastating earthquakes:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-quake-california-idUSTRE72E06220110315
Right. Imagine her between Amber Benson and Michelle Trachtenberg.
...Done!
She looked like a fucking mannequin
Which comes to my apartment because the previous tenant subscribed...
for the articles.
because he's a feminist.
for research purposes only.
While I'm capable of appreciating Trachtenberg's hotness, I can't do so without feeling creepy. This also applies to Hermione.
115 - Niven and Pournelle are both classy. (And that's not even touching their apparent attitudes towards black people, which their frequent collaborator, African-American scifi writer Steve Barnes has occasionally mentioned as an aside. Pournelle is an associate of Steve Sailer's happy gang o' racists.)
Niven did write a sympathetic portrayal of a world where people get executed in droves for offenses as low as speeding just so the (mostly hereditary) rich can get plenty of yummy fresh organs.
This isn't actually true.
He wrote in a way that made it sound like he found the world plausible, not that he thought it would be good (I think "The Jigsaw Man" was pretty clear on that point).
[obDisclaimer: I'm never excited to be the Niven defender on this blog, since there are plenty of valid complaints about him, but I still have a lot of fondness for his earlier work.]
Hermione is kind of a spectacular button-pusher, which makes me feel like I'm living the creepy old man lifestyle a little more intently than I'd want to. I guess I need to start buying anime schoolgirl figurines now?
Oh yes. Essear, you are very wise on important matters.
So, Larry Niven vs. Jerry Pournelle: who's hotter?
(And 132 is right; the viewpoint character of those stories, a cop, feels that the legal system is pretty horrendously skewed.)
Essear, you are very wise on important matters.
Know any place searching for faculty specializing in Veronica Mars Studies?
Now I'm wondering if my type leans more towards "psychotic bitch" than is really good for me.
Who's your favorite Powerpuff Girl?
Eliza Dushku is hot, but has always had a sort of strange body.
And that's not even touching their apparent attitudes towards black people
I'll say again: part of what I find so frustrating about the various stories about Larry Niven saying highly racist things is that he wrote, "The only universal message in science fiction: There exist minds that think as well as you do, but differently."
I have always assumed there were real-world political implications to that statement, but apparently Larry Niven does not.
Until this moment I thought that Michelle Trachtenberg was a former member of the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, who had grown to physical maturity with implausible speed.
It's been a very long time since I read them, but I thought that the cop had mixed feelings along the lines of 'really unfair sometimes, but gotta get your organs somehow'. And like I said, I like Niven's early stuff as well. It's nice fun old school hard SF junk food for the brain.
"Women: Charisma Carpenter > Amber Benson > Michelle Trachtenberg > Robia LaMorte > Emma Caulfield > Sarah Michelle Gellar > Alyson Hannigan (sorry pro-nerd nice-guys). 2
This is so crazy wrong I don't know where to begin, but as I don't want this thread to devolve (?) into a ranking hotties thing, I won't begin at all.
so, still creepy, although, granted, a very different kind of creepy.
Hey, man, I just do the rankings. I don't own her magazines.
Hermione is kind of a spectacular button-pusher, which makes me feel like I'm living the creepy old man lifestyle a little more intently than I'd want to.
Likewise, and I'm younger than you.
Hey Populuxe, weren't you going to send me a Festival Quartet cd?
"Ministry" and hot do not belong in the same sentence, unless you're discussing hell.
There is a theology blog that, before it migrated from Wordpress, had a very amusing series of posts seeking to identify the ugliest famous theologian. At least one commenter noted that, according to nominee Stanley Hauerwas, "ugly is not a theological category."
Also, the problem with the Fluffy characters was not their looks, but their Whedonized personalities. When I lived with the Ex-Girlfriend and we watched the show together,* I often mused that many scenes could be improved by concluding every scene of jaw-flapping dialogue with Ring Lardner's " 'Shut up,' he explained."
Anyway, anyone who happens to enjoy beauty in a tragicomic setting can watch ESPN's Erin Andrews interview the misshapen, coal-hearted trolls who masquerade as college basketball coaches.
* The merest sacrifice for love is sweeter than the greatest victory for the sake of hate.
Okay, my ranking of people involved in Buffy:
1. Paul Reubens
2. Donald Sutherland
3. Mario Batali
4. Joel Grey
5. Cliff Richards
6. Ben Edlund
Nobody else really rates.
Remembering this, I have a better understanding of the Alyson Hannigan thing.
Also, keep in mind Vampire Willow. Mmm, vampire Willow.
And I hate to break it to those squicked out by thinking of Michelle Trachtenberg in a sexual way, but the canonical "Season 8" Buffy comic book ends up with Dawn & Xander together.
I'm surprised there's so little love here for James Marsters. Maybe because they made Spike progressively lamer as time went on.
Hermione is a great source of discomfort.
149: Not even Rutger Hauer?
I still don't get 122. I think of Trina as one of the more sympathetic characters.
I'm surprised there's so little love here for James Marsters
As am I.
Hermione was better when she had short hair.
152: okay, also Rutger Hauer and Stephen Root.
I'm with DQ, Nosflow et al on Hermione and discomfort.
Oh, and hey! Let's not forget Amy the Witch/rat. She was great.
She still has short hair, Ben. Or were you referring to something else?
At some point the wwtdd guy seemed to indicate that she no longer had short hair.
I was sure 157 was going to link to wwtdd.
Well look, you creeped out geezers, those are all grown women now. If you're committed to the great-start-'em-young unease: Suri Cruise Grabs Penis Candy.
This has been a remarkably non-panicky nuclear disaster thread.
That was not the link I was thinking of either.
163: presumably today's fresh disaster news will come around 10 EDT tonight; that's been the pattern.
I know what link you're thinking of, Eggplant, and you should be ashamed.
Okay, the combination of these links and the thread more generally have me feeling dirty now, and not in a good way, so I'm going to log off and try to do something more high-minded. Like, I dunno, practicing my Deutsch by watching Schulmädchen Report: Was Eltern nicht für möglich halten.
This has been a remarkably non-panicky nuclear disaster thread.
BtVS is the opiate of the masses.
Like, I dunno, practicing my Deutsch by watching Schulmädchen Report: Was Eltern nicht für möglich halten.
There's always [NSFW] Trachtenstrip.de, which I saw linked to somewhere with the comment "I thought they lost the Second World War."
163: I think appropriately so. I am completely appreciative of why it is really big news and it really, really sucks for the workers and nearby Japanese (and those who just need some basic infrastructure to get going not necessarily being irradiated on top of that) but the ZOMG American reaction part of it is/was pretty fucking annoying. You got the world's lifestyle mix and energy usage across 7 billion people with our current technology and you'll get a little Caesium-137 in the argula from time to time.
Leaving aside the question of what argula is, Stormcrow, but your annoyance apparently did rise to the level where you would feel compelled to avoid the thread on the topic.
I think appropriately so.
Even when ranking the hotness of underage actresses?
Perhaps it helps to keep in mind that the Fukushima disaster isn't something that happened after an earthquake, it's something that's happening amid hundreds of earthquakes (let it roll for a bit, you'll know when you've got to the big one).
172: Yes, +u. Yes I participated, but the thread had many other aspects than just that part of it, and as I said I am interested in the story--it is the particular "doomed" part coming from Americans that gets tiresome.
No I am not consistent.
I am late to this, but I have given this topic SO MUCH THOUGHT over the course of my life that I can't not share:
Men: OMG OZ!! > Spike > Xander > Giles > (steep dropoff) Riley > Angel
(Wesley's not so attractive in BtVS, but he becomes pretty adorable towards the latter part of Angel.)
Women: Faith > Glory > Willow > Buffy > Drusilla > Cordelia > Dawn > Anya > Tara
175.1: ah. Well, fair enough. I think the "doooomed" part is silly, too, I just find the progression fairly rivetugula.
178 cont'd: but then again the NRC is all like "doooomed"
This has been a remarkably non-panicky nuclear disaster thread.
The first rule of nuclear power is to not live near the nuclear power. It makes NIMBYism look good.
176: I pretty much agree completely, with the exception of the top seed. I have plenty of James Marsters love, I just like to pretend that I don't. And Wesley really is amazing.
174: That's really neat (and scary).
This:
The grey line at the top shows the moon illumination percentage (the top of the curve indicates a full moon, and the bottom a new moon), with the blue line showing the distance between Earth and the moon (the higher up the chart, the further away the moon is; the top of the curve indicates apogee and the bottom perigee). These metrics are shown here purely out of interest, to help you draw your own conclusions as to any correlation between the moon and earthquakes.from a related page is kind of weird. I assume debunking is the intent.
180: I live 25 miles away from Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant. Is that too close?
178: And some of it is me reacting to comments that you (probably wisely) don't even see (I think you don't). However, to be fair I will now retract my saying a few days back that the drop in Japanese rice production of 10-20% was way overestimated.
I have the impression the big panic was on Monday and Monday night (from my timezone/newscycle). People have been back on the site for some time now, they've had getting on for two clear days' water injection, and the station service power is apparently going to be back on. It's also been suggested that the one really high (400mSv/h) radiation reading is due to a known issue with the instruments - if you're dealing with radioactive gas, it can get into the detector itself, and because radiation intensity varies with the inverse square of the distance, you'll get a crazy high reading. It apparently happened at Three Mile Island several times.
But it's got a lot worse than I was expecting before getting here.
I always wanted a nuclear powered car. You would never have to refuel that puppy.
Obviously, nobody's going to consult bugzilla before acting on a geiger reading that high...
187: I'm not coming up with anything at the moment, but I'm pretty sure I recall disasters where part of the narrative was a very high (or low) reading (or something similar) of some instrumentation was assumed to be faulty when it was not. I have confidence you guys will think of an example.
And some of it is me reacting to comments that you (probably wisely) don't even see (I think you don't).
Ohhhhhh. There's that.
Why do conservative pundits love hte formulation "[conclusion]. Here's why."?
I hang my head in archive-ignorant shame.
cordelia>eve>jenny>>>>>>>>>>everyone else
what i found inexplicable was how much hotter i found veronica mars than buffy, despite being seemingly the same role
Can't remember if this got linked here or not, but
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM5Kw6LVYlk
is something else newish from SA that I liked. Video's nothing special, though this one's fun:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiNTSm_SDqQ
195.last: Kristen Bell vs Sarah Michelle Gellar. There is no mystery. Bell has acting chops. Gellar has dead eyes.
Gellar was very good at producing charming moments, but I concede I am not very good at evaluating her dramatic abilites.
I'm pretty sure I recall disasters where part of the narrative was a very high (or low) reading (or something similar) of some instrumentation was assumed to be faulty when it was not. I have confidence you guys will think of an example.
Isn't there a scene in The China Syndrome where a control room engineer taps a telltale and it swings into the safe zone? Later in the film, the same telltale is at danger, and is ignored. (Could all be the other way around, it's been a while.) Silkwood goes one better: there's an x-ray analyst who routinely blots out the apparent cracks on x-ray exposures with a felt pen before sending copies to the safety authorities. He explains that the white marks are just artifacts of the x-ray process, not evidence of actual cracks in the pipework. Whether or not this behaviour is justified is never established in the narrative, just as we're never given firm grounds for deciding whether or not Silkwood herself is an irrational crank. Which is why the film is so great, aside from it featuring Meryl Streep.
Of course, American films about doubt all went out with Reagan, right?
American films about doubt all went out with Reagan, right?
You mean Bedtime for Bonzo? I don't see the connection...
170: Well, if you've got the Zeit und Geld für die Mädchen bedeckt mit Honig, flaunt it -- flaunt it!
Cordelia>>>everyone else.
"Dead eyes" is an unfair description of SMG. Plenty of people can't act very well, yet have eyes that are very much alive. Ryan Reynolds, that guy has dead eyes.
I don't understand all you people putting Cordy at the top of the hotness chain. She's so much less attractive than the sum of her parts!
She's so much less attractive than the sum of her parts!
That may be. But Oh! Those parts!
It's like you're asking me to tell you why puppies are adorable.
It's like you're asking me to tell you why puppies are adorable.
Puppies!? Hooray?!
205: It's more like some puppies are more adorable than others, and the perception of relative adorability is some kind of Gestalt thing that seems to vary from person-to-person, not something that can be determined by quantifying such things as the puppy's fuzziness, ear shape, paw size, and so on.
I don't know where those hyphens came from.
I started watching Party Down. My productivity is shot for a while.
I don't get why 204 is presidential.
It was written by Charisma Carpenter's brother?
Or Charisma Carpenter herself! Self-love is unattractive, Charisma.
My roommate's new puppy suffered a severe decline in cuteness when I learned that it's part pit bull. Now I'm just afraid it's going to eat my face off while I sleep.
I don't believe that's a universally held view, text. I believe there are some people who would not mind watching others in the process of self-love.
215: No. I was just sharing the true horror of my living situation.
I find charisma's self-abuse pretty hot, tho.
Based on my experience with my pit bull, the puppy is likely to be dominated by kittens and generally be adorable and harmless, if crazy. We do have a somewhat dysfunctional relationship.
We do have a somewhat dysfunctional relationship.
Wait, so which one of you is the dog and which is the kittens?
I don't get this:
if the water level dropped down to where the top of the fuel was--that's even higher than it would be for a fire (inaudible) started--the dose rates on the railing of the spent fuel pool, if you were looking down into the pool, would be high enough that you would receive a lethal dose in something like 16 seconds.
Some days you're a kitten, some days you're a pitbull. That's life, young Nosflow.
I believe there are some people who would not mind watching others in the process of self-love.
Then why is everybody always telling me to stop?
Then why is everybody always telling me to stop?
Self love is for the internet, not public transportation.
220: it sounds like they do have permanently installed robot cranes at the pool (somebody was talking about how you could see that they had fallen down). Maybe with a single fuel rod -- and with the building sealed, and the movement done remotely -- it's not so bad?
Self love is for the internet, not public transportation.
Then why are there no signs? I'm contesting this ticket.
Come on dog you're hitting my elbows.
you're hitting my elbows
I won't apologize for my endowment.
One with your photographic history should be careful typing "come on dog," gswift.
I won't apologize for my endowment.
HIGH FIVE
Oh man. Fuck whoever recommended Party Down. That shit is on Netflix. I am not getting anything done.
It just keeps getting better, dona.
Unlike this whole nuclear situation, which is really upsetting at the moment.
Heyoh!
Also, hopeless crush. Lizzy Caplan >>>>> everyone on BTVS.
Sorry, guys. It's just true.
No more masturbating to donaquixote's productivity?
233, 234: Oh Christ on SALE I'm done for.
I'm on board with 232. Pretty sure 233 is wrong, though.
(Also, Halford: shut your lying mouth.)
Sucks to be those helicopter pilots, man.
So working in a bar was terrible for my substance abuse issues, but awesome for my sex life. This is making me unrealistically nostalgic.
Some video of the helicopter drops.
Lizzy Caplan's pretty great. Not great enough for me to rank (the relevant portion of) True Blood as worthwhile TV, though.
True Blood actually made it so that it took me a while to warm up to Lizzy Caplan on Party Down.
242:
The expert said the depth of the spent fuel pools at reactors No 3 and 4 meant that at the current rate of operations, the exercise would have to be repeated 100 times to cool the reactors. After four rounds, the helicopters temporarily halted operations while experts assessed whether the effort was having any success.
Meanwhile, Japan's police force was preparing to spray water into reactors 3 and 4 from high pressure fire trucks, each of which has a four-tonne capacity.A squadron of onagers, trebuchets and catapults flinging blocks of ice, maybe? Or maybe just nuke it, like we know Obama wants to.
Also, I assume he means they would have to repeat it 100 times and then hope power would be restored, because otherwise it seems like they'd just have to go on doin' it 'til whenever.
Repurposing military/police tech:
1: The U.S. Air Force said an unmanned drone was scheduled to fly over the Fukushima plant Thursday to collect data and images for the Japanese government, Lt. Gen. Herbert "Hawk" Carlisle, the Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations, said in an e-mail reported by Bloomberg.
2: Late Wednesday, government officials said they'd asked special police units to bring in water cannons -- normally used to quell rioters -- to spray water onto the spent fuel storage pool at Unit 4.
246: "Nuke Luge" would be a pretty good name for a band.
normally used to quell rioters
Japan has riots? My stereotypes don't allow for this.
Is she the only person to span both BTVS and VM?
You're forgetting someone. (#2)
Men: Anthony Stewart Head > David Boreanaz > Seth Green > Nicholas Brendon > James Marsters > Marc Blucas.
normally used to quell rioters
Or perhaps designed to quell rioters, whom one doesn't encounter much in Japan. They're probably top-of-the-line models, though. When my mom visited me there, we got a tour of the Tokyo police crime lab, which had state-of-the-art ballistics forensics equipment, superior to that of any city in the US that might actually have had a use for it.
they'd just have to go on doin' it 'til whenever.
If everything goes to shit, I had assumed that was the plan all along.
256: if they can't get regular AC power back (and fix the pumps) I'd think the plan would have to get a lot more serious (concrete entombment, maybe? Who knows), but yeah, I guess so?
Unmanned water-toting dirigibles.
Impossible! Squirrels with water balloons. (We determined there are squirrels, did we not? I rest my case.)
257: I was making a not-very-funny joke about "doin' it". Because I'm twelve.
259: dammit, can't we keep this discussion at the sober and reflective level of "nuke luge"?
Maybe with a single fuel rod -- and with the building sealed, and the movement done remotely -- it's not so bad?
Single fuel rod would be a lot better than all of them, they'd be doing it with some kind of robot or waldo, and if they wait a year before encasing them it's probably because they lose a lot of activity as the short-half-life stuff winds down. Really, unpleasantly hot while that's happening, though.
...take all of that with "licensed twenty years ago in a much, much smaller reactor" because I'm disgusted by semi-informed bloviators this week.
You found semi-informed bloviators? I think what I've read tops out at milli-informed.
My roommate's new puppy suffered a severe decline in cuteness when I learned that it's part pit bull.
I find pit bulls the absolute cutest. It's just the way it is.
Try reading _To Say Nothing of the Dog_, Stanley.
I find pit bulls the absolute cutest.
Yes, but where do you rank them in the hierarchy with Anthony Head, Alyson Hannigan, James Marsters, and Kristen Bell?
Instead, Stanley, read Three Men in a Boat.
||
I just woke from a dream where I met Lizardbreath. I can report that she's a charming woman in her seventies who is remarkably unfazed by people climbing in through her window to get technical software assistance. She has also stolen Kevin Drum's cat Inkblot.
I may be spending too much time on blogs.
|>
271. Read this, then. It'll help you never sleep again.
Trying to help me stay off the internet?
IAEA has released temperatures for the fuel ponds. Highest is 84 degrees C. They've also issued a list of people injured during the accident or exposed to radiation, which is gratifyingly short.
Brave New Climate has a good update. Some parts of the site are indeed quite hot. If the effort to restore grid power (meant to be back on this afternoon GMT) doesn't fix it, the plan is to clear a path up to the reactor so the fire trucks can fill up the ponds. Apparently the USAF has lent them all the airfield crash tenders it can spare.
Clew mentioned, before the other thread was scrammed, that they had actually been in the control room of a reactor during an emergency. I for one think we'd really like to hear that story.
what i found inexplicable was how much hotter i found veronica mars than buffy, despite being seemingly the same role
Um, what?
The role bit, not the relative hotness.
You found semi-informed bloviators? I think what I've read tops out at milli-informed.
In other words, you've been clewless.
She has also stolen Kevin Drum's cat Inkblot.
Shhhhh. I think he reads here sometimes.
What does your government recommend keeping by?
Bad advice there chris. No point having the dried food if you don't have anything to cook it with - it's tricky to rehydrate noodles with cold water. One portable toilet won't go far either; just carry a folding shovel. And canned food is a terrible idea, it's far too heavy. Foil pouches. Has to be foil. Plastic is not an oxygen barrier.
God knows what the British equivalent would be. I am reminded of the Rab C Nesbitt episode in the Highlands in which a hypothermic Jamesie Cotter is being carried off the hills, amid criticism for not having proper climbing gear.
"This is Govan climbing gear, boy! Pair of trainers, ten fags, and a sarcastic expression!"
re: 282
Heh. I remember a neighbour of mine returning semi-crippled from an attempt to walk the West Highland way, 'wi' the boays', after deciding that he 'didnae need any ae that hiking boot pish' and doing it in wellies. I think he walked a good bit of it on what were basically bloody stumps, before giving up and coming home.
282. I though that re. dried and tinned food. Army iron rations used to be basically chocolate, though I daresay they've cooked up some chemical mix which beats it these days. I'd pack chocolate, a space blanket, a water container and a decent torch, and then think about the rest.
I don't though. Fucking complacent.
The important thing is to bring your manservant to carry the heavy stuff for you.
re: 284
Yeah, and depending where you are, you can always loot shit while you are en-route. Obviously you'd add in warm/waterproof clothes, a knife/multi-tool, lighter, and a phone.
Protein bars, nuts, chocolate, cheese. I'd imagine those are fairly easily available -- no need to go to specialist outdoor shops -- and portable/rich in kcal.
Army iron rations used to be basically chocolate, though I daresay they've cooked up some chemical mix which beats it these days.
Soylent Green. People are a rich source of Omega 3.
Seriously. 5 is like the crackpot calling the kettle bipolar.
This is awesome. AG. I would probably get fired for saying something like that, but, oh, it made me laugh.
Basically you have to take a view of what exactly you're preparing for. 9/11 was essentially a local problem - once you were out of the evacuated zone there was a decent refugee infrastructure over in New Jersey, and electricity and other services weren't interrupted. So you have wash kit, communications kit (coins for payphones and/or mobile phone), spare socks and comfortable shoes for walking in, and vital personal documents. You wouldn't need a torch or a groundsheet or anything like that.
Something more serious would be a disaster that knocks out utilities and transport links over a wide area. Then you might need food and water, and you might actually be staying in place (if your house is still safe and weatherproof) rather than trying to walk out, so we're talking about stockpiles of supplies that you can live off for several days, rather than grab bags.
The big one to remember is decent shoes. No one should ever go anywhere at all without shoes that they can walk in. (This isn't just for disaster purposes but also for not-being-able-to-get-a-taxi purposes.)
You know what rules in a disaster/evacuation? Bicycles!
Or at least, I always figured they would.
The big one to remember is decent shoes. No one should ever go anywhere at all without shoes that they can walk in. (This isn't just for disaster purposes but also for not-being-able-to-get-a-taxi purposes.)
I have this argument with my wife all the time. Not for her, for me. She's always suggesting I buy some sort of spivvy/twatty sandals/flip-flops. The sorts of things Flavio Briatore would wear, on his yacht.
"They'll look nice."
"But what if I have to walk a long way, or run? or get jumped?"
"You are being silly."
etc
290. Bicycles depend on the nature of the crisis too. Less useful if the area is flooded for miles or an earthquake has opened up huge craters in all the roads. For more conventional refugeeing, they're great.
The parents of a friend of mine found themselves being German civilians living in Prague in 1945. Despite the fact that they been there for decades, had no connections with the Reich and were in fact lifelong Social Democrats, this was a poor lifestyle choice at the time.
They had two kids, about 4 and under 2; the only people they knew outside Czechoslovakia were (they hoped) in Hamburg. So the guy put the older kid on his bike and pushed it from Prague to Hamburg, where he eventually found his friends and left the child with them. Then he rode back to Prague, collected his wife and the baby, put what stuff they could balance on the bike and pushed it back to Hamburg.
Yay, bikes!
292.1: flooding would be problematic. Okay, so a bicycle and a canoe, at one's option.
re: 292
One of my Dad's neighbours in Glasgow* had walked** from Lithuania to Glasgow, right after WWII, with her two kids. No idea if she had a bike, but these stories of incredible distances travelled by foot or bike always amaze.
** except for the bit in between that's water ...
re: 294
There must be scope here for a recumbent amphibibike.
293. How robust are shopping carts if you're looking at pushing them 30 clicks on damaged surfaces? I'd guess the wheels would start coming off after a few hours.
Something about the tone of this article was irritating. Doesn't this quote:
So could it happen here? An Entergy spokesman, Jim Steets, said no, at least not the same crisis as the one in Japan. First, the earthquake risk and history there are incomparably more serious than in New York. And second, it wasn't the quake that wrecked the plant. It was the tsunami, hardly an issue here. "The risk that Indian Point could be damaged by an earthquake is extremely low," he said.
297: I take all my advice from Cormac McCarthy.
299: that's exactly what you need in a disaster. Also a parasail, just in case.
OTOH shopping carts make fine braziers, as anyone who has mounted a picket in winter will testify.
Or:
http://www.amphicars.com/acfaq.htm
Bonus that they look nice:
http://www.amphicars.com/acpics.htm
re: 302
Heh. Speaking of pickets, I'm on strike next week.
Oh aye? Which union are you? (Assume this is some aspect of "Fuck the Cuts".)
290. Bicycles depend on the nature of the crisis too. Less useful if the area is flooded for miles or an earthquake has opened up huge craters in all the roads. For more conventional refugeeing, they're great.
Depending on the size of the cratering, still pretty useful. If you can carry the bike over/around obstacles, then it's still really handy, especially compared to cars. In cities they are quite good.
re: 35
UCU. Even though I don't teach at the moment, I'm in an academic-related post, so I'm in the UCU. This is over the pension dispute. There may be further action over the cuts coming as well.
Well, best of luck. Which day(s) are you out?
shopping carts make fine braziers
My undercaffeinated brain turned braziers into brassieres, and then spent a bit of time trying to make sense of the joke that had apparently gone over its head.
Brassieres can also be useful if you're picketing. Especially if you're a woman. But not so good for lighting fires in.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned the utility of giant robots in a disaster. They beat the hell out of an amphibikecoptersub, hands down. They can carry you around, lug your stuff, and help intimidate fellow survivors into submission so you can build your post-apocalypse empire.
Having visited thirty sites with my morning coffee, I am not going back to link all this stuff. Consider this material for your own research
33 milli-Sv/hr reading 30 miles from Fukushima
US Naval base near Tokyo sending instructions to not go out, seal windows, try for closed air circulation
Sea water apparently not a solution for spent fuel rods, because accumulations of salt increase heat or something
Arrival from Japan at distant airport tests positive for radiation
Everybody who can and cares is leaving Tokyo
US Naval ships now told to stay 160 miles away from Fujushima; all missions preemptively given iodine
New monitoring stations set up in Hawaii
I am reading stuff about radiation, the milli-Sv etc; I am told that is all about gamma rays. I am not hearing enough about checks for particulate plutonium.
Everybody who can and cares is leaving Tokyo
James Walsh, in Tokyo, writes: "It is quite clear reading these posts that people inside Japan are trying to remain calm and take each day as it comes. Sensationalist and, at times, voyeuristic foreign media coverage (including that of the BBC) just adds to our anxiety and stokes the fear of family and friends back at home. More sensitivity please."
re: 308
Tuesday and Thursday.
33 milli-Sv/hr reading 30 miles from Fukushima
I need a link for that, I find that hard to believe. That's sickness-inducing radiation within a day and there haven't been reports of people dropping dead 30 miles away.
Wiki:
Symptoms of acute radiation (within one day)
* 0.25 - 1 Sv (250 - 1000 mSv): Some people feel nausea and loss of appetite; bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen damaged.)
314:Junko Habu ...professor, anthopology, Berkeley, currently in Kamakura Kyoto
Two days ago, I temporarily moved from Kamukura to Kyoto. Kamakura is located near Tokyo, about 250 km away from Fukushima Daiichi. Kyoto is about 300 kms southwest of Kamakura, further away from the Fukushima Nuclear Plants. Given the information I had, I judged it best not to stay in the Tokyo area. Most of my American friends have also left Tokyo. My parents, who are aware of possible dangers, refused to come with us. Before I left Kamakura, I spent three days stocking my parents' home with food and with tap water in plastic containers (bottled water was sold out). I also sealed some of the windows of their house. My parents made an informed choice to stay at home. I respect that choice. Many other Japanese people, however, do not have enough information to make a decision about whether to leave their homes or stay. Many also have family and work responsibilities which make moving difficult if not impossible, unless the government urges them to move. This does not seem right, and I fear for the people of my country.
Fuck off
316:I didn't say it wasn't a spike, or that it was sustained, did I. That might imply that the sustained radiation is at "x" level, higher than is safe.
I am so tired of you clowns. Go back to skeeving on young girls.
And I am tired of your anxiety to see as many people hurt as humanly possible in every conceivable situation.
316:Google Result for "33 milli-Sieverts"
Do the rest yourself
I am so tired of you clowns.
We're easily avoided, you know.
Go back to skeeving on young girls.
I resent the implication that I stopped.
Brassieres can also be useful if you're picketing. Especially if you're a woman. But not so good for lighting fires in.
Anti-feminist!
320: I did. So your source for that is an anonymous poster on a Scrapheap Challenge discussion forum? Well, I'm convinced.
322: "The cheerleaders will be smokin' hot, but they will not be actually ablaze, no."
Well, there's this: "Japan's science ministry has observed radiation levels of up to 0.33 millisieverts per hour in areas about 20 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant."
Which makes me suspect the scrapheap-challenge post is missing a decimal point.
But not so good for lighting fires in.
More recent update: "Japan's science ministry says radiation levels of up to 0.17 millisieverts per hour have been detected about 30 kilometers northwest of the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant."
I am so tired of you clowns. Go back to skeeving on young girls.
bob, do you work in a movie theater, or is projection just a hobby?
You know what I've been genuinely shocked by? The relative dearth of outrageously stereotyped articles. Like, I think I only recall seeing one on the likelihood of seppuku amongst the leaders of TEPCO and the Japanese government, and only a few emphasizing how the Japanese experience is so different because they value society over the individual because of rice paddies, or something, and now I can't find them.
I would have bet money on faaaar more offensive coverage. Maybe that'll happen as soon as everyone stops freaking the fuck out.
Go back to skeeving on young girls
I was skeeved on, and now I reserve the right to skeeve. I earned it, goddammit.
329: I've seen a couple of articles along the lines of the Japanese don't loot because their values are blahblahblah something. Also the Japanese don't hoard supplies because they are something something insectlike socialist asiatic something blahblah.
330: I sort of like "skeft" as a past participle.
332: "We skeft on this squee of girls like, all afternoon." Like this? I never learned grammar.*
*How can that be? Seriously?
If you LIKE their race ... how is it racist?
"Squee of girls" is brilliant. But I feel like it's best used as a collective-noun only for more specific groups of girls--"a squee of Whedon fanatics"; "a squee of Yaoi collectors," etc.
I've been trying to think of how to describe a squee when it turns violent and dangerous, because I think that's a profoundly terrifying and hilarious phenomenon, and that combination doesn't come around that often. (Most obvious example that I can think of would be deranged crowds of Beatles fans.) No luck so far, though.
"A squirm" doesn't quite convey the severity of the situation, for example. Though I do kind of like it.
My stupid inner Rev. Spooner has instantly provided me with "A Ghee of Squirrels". Thanks, inner Rev. Spooner, you dickweed.
a squee when it turns violent and dangerous
A squee becomes a squall?
Police had to be brought in to put down the ensuing squelee. Mr. Bieber was reported to be shaken but unharmed.
338: Still posthumously peeved (peft?) at him after his cameo as the lamest Sunday Times Puzzle gimmick EVAR.
Robia LaMorte is almost exactly my age. I'm in the clear.
a squee when it turns violent and dangerous
A squorm?
I've been trying to think of how to describe a squee when it turns violent and dangerous,
A Bacchanal, I think. Look what happened to poor old Pentheus.
The squevolution will not be televised.
346: Probably it will be exclusively televised, with intimate moments and dramatic tension manufactured through applied soundtrack.
The big one to remember is decent shoes. No one should ever go anywhere at all without shoes that they can walk in. (This isn't just for disaster purposes but also for not-being-able-to-get-a-taxi purposes.)
What's that phrase? You only go as far as your feet do.
My sister, who thinks about these things, kept a pair of running shoes under her desk for the earthquake. The boys' school was a couple miles away and she figured the roads wouldn't be drivable. She thought she could be at that school twelve minutes after the quake hit and I believe her.
331 I just read that you're beginning to see issues with theft in the worst hit areas, including those that weren't directly hit by the tsunami but which are very close and thus aren't getting their normal supplies and are loaded with refugees. Sendai city has a population of one million, most have perfectly intact homes but are having trouble getting basic supplies. The relief operation seems to be completely overwhelmed, there's no heat, minimal food with people in shelters getting a tiny bit of rice per day, no fuel, no medicine for the sick, who are often sicker than they were before, etc. This is something that I'd think the US military could be doing something to alleviate.
Six minute miles over quake ravaged lands? Those are some high-end running shoes.
She's a high-end sister. Running towards her babies.
350: So I took, like, one class on Japanese culture in college, which was good mostly because it introduced me to a bunch of books (Sei Shonagon! I did not know you existed), and didn't focus too much on the weirdness of modern Japan relative to modern America.*
But the professor, who I believe was Japanese-born but raised mostly in the states, then went back? Anyway, the first day, he's all, let me tell you a story about how COMPLETELY DIFFERENT AND STRANGE Japan is. When I lived there, I came home one rainy day to find my home had been broken into, and I'd been robbed of obvious valuables. But it took me a while to figure out I'd been robbed, because the thief returned everything to its proper place, and he'd taken his muddy shoes off before coming into the house. In conclusion: even Japanese thieves are polite, precise, and deferential.
And surrounded by white guys who all had asian girlfriends, I was like, dude, you are not helping.
*Writing this made me think of Japanese artwork from the Tokugawa (?) period depicting foreigners from Europe. It's like white demon barbarians with giant noses all over the place. Which, not altogether inaccurate.
This is something that I'd think the US military could be doing something to alleviate.
Well, probably, yes. Are we being allowed to? It seems like everyone's made offers to help, but Japan has only asked for assistance with the apocalypse stuff.*
I really can't imagine our government accepting help for a humanitarian crisis, no matter how badly we needed it.
*I stopped compulsively reading the news on this a little while ago, so this might be completely wrong.
dona you were asking if anybody who knew what they were talking about had discussed worst-case-scenarios. Well, here.
can't imagine our government accepting help for a humanitarian crisis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_response_to_Hurricane_Katrina
355: Wow. Completely wrong, then. I did not know that.
However, I note that the US didn't take most of the other countries up on their offers, so.
Holy shit. The link in 354 is pretty dire.
Or rather, the worst case scenario -- evacuating Tokyo* -- is pretty catastrophic.
*Although, this is only implied. Still.
Dona, I think the international mutual aid for disaster response is pretty strong. I know of multinational committees that coordinate second responders, like the engineers who go in, not immediately to help evacuations and refugees but a week later to inspect and post structures.
Can I just take a moment to mention how awful the NYT coverage of the nuclear accident has been? The ratio of hysterical adjectives to information conveyed is out of control. And I thought this on the scene, real world crisis was the kind of thing that they were supposed to be good at, the recompense for the awful political articles and the style section.
That has actually been a completely unexpected facet of my job. Since we work for the state, the state considers us the second pool of workforce to fight disasters. It is completely within the job description of literally every state worker to go fill sandbags on a levee some rainy night. Or fight fires. In practice, that doesn't get used, since no one wants a bunch of office workers mucking around a disaster.
But. My department (which has an unusual and remarked-upon dedication to training and advancing their workers) thinks that since we're water engineers and all, we should know how to run flood fights. So we have day long classes in sandbags, open to every one. We have several day classes in the organizational structure of disaster response. If there's a flood alert, anyone in the department can ask to be switched to flood, to watch the response and start doing minor stuff.
Actually the senior flood engineers are pretty heavily overworked in bad winters, and are the most eager of anyone to train new people. If you hover in the doorway of operations control, they'll wave you in to listen. Do that two or three times, and you'll end up in rotation to respond to floods.
I like to think my ignorance of 361 is closely related to Halford's point in 362.
An attempt at a new metric, "deaths per terawatt-hour" by energy type. I don't know if nuclear properly ranks as low as they put it, but I can readily believe coal and oil are much higher.
It's not irrational to prefer injuries and deaths to be spread out over time and space, as opposed to coming in rare catastrophes. Still, that's not the only choice being made.
It is completely within the job description of literally every state worker to go fill sandbags on a levee some rainy night.
I have a number of colleagues who would benefit from visiting these re-education camps you propose, Chairwoman.
Come to think of it, I think Megan's honorific should probably be "Great Helmswoman".
If I said you had great helms, woman, would you hold them against me?
In conclusion: even Japanese thieves are polite, precise, and deferential
A friend in Tokyo and her roommate caught a guy who'd broken into their apartment and got him to turn himself in to the police. With no great effort. It was like, "hey, you're in our place, we're calling the cops." "Shit, okay."
Japanese exceptionalism can be bizarre and irritating—and genuinely oppressive to certain classes of people—but the commitment to social order is like nothing I've seen anywhere else. We're talking about a place where whiskey and beer vending machines stand unmolested night after night.
Dude. Sandbag class turns out to be a great class. I didn't expect much, but there's a lot to it. In the morning we diagnose levee problems, in the afternoon we practice laying sandbag walls. There's a ton of technique! People have thought about it a lot!
I was told that the masters of sandbags are the kids in the California Civilian Corps, who'll set up sawhorses, steal cones to make into funnels, fill a sandbag in each hand, then send them down the line. We were taught different technique, but we aren't as advanced. The person running a floodfight wants the CCC out there, not some out-of-shape stateworkers.
Californian Conservation Corps, rather.
What is it? Some kind of volunteer organization, or when you say 'kids', do you mean it's literally a teenager thing?
the commitment to social order is like nothing I've seen anywhere else. We're talking about a place where whiskey and beer vending machines stand unmolested night after night.
How does their desire for social order compare to that of Germans? I remember the first time I saw a crowd standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light to change despite the utter absence of any traffic, and the horrified gaping at me when I crossed without the light.
not some out-of-shape stateworkers
You may be helming the ship of state, but that doesn't mean you get to be rude.
but the commitment to social order is like nothing I've seen anywhere else
When I did social science stuff we were always pleased to test kids in Singapore, because we could make the surveys as long as we damn well wanted and they'd answer every last question exhaustively.
My point about the prof's story was more that Americans really don't need any more encouragement to focus on the otherness of Asia in general and Japan in particular. We've pretty much got that down already.
A state-run program for 18-25-year-olds to do manual labor in nature. I'm looking it up, looks like Jerry Brown created it his first governorship. Trail maintenance, clearing brush, fire fighting. It looks pretty awesome. I wish I had done it.
I bet it would have followed the usual pattern for field work. Awesome for three weeks, while I'm learning what to do and overwhelmed. A completely sweet gig for two more weeks, once I know how and have it running smoothly. Can you believe they pay me to be outdoors, doing this? Boring drudgery for another two weeks, and then the summer is over.
but that doesn't mean you get to be rude.
What if I bring a jar of honey for you to Pub Quiz?
Ok, honestly, I think this is why I find the cultural differences I've encountered in Germany to be mostly funny, and cultural differences I've encountered with native Japanese to be sources of anxiety: Germans tend to react in obvious ways that I easily recognize, and, so far, with native Japanese, they just remain quietly horrified while I blunder on in my ignorance until our relationship is permanently damaged. Germans, though: really awkward moments all around that I can mine for humor.
I can't believe nobody else has called this (or if so I haven't noticed), but it's no more masturbating to Nate Dogg.
How does their desire for social order compare to that of Germans? I remember the first time I saw a crowd standing at a crosswalk waiting for the light to change despite the utter absence of any traffic, and the horrified gaping at me when I crossed without the light.
There is some tentativeness even in big cities, but they definitely jaywalk. A pattern I observed in Osaka was some waiting, then one person darts out, then a couple more, and once more than a third or so of the people waiting start crossing, the entire contingent goes en masse.
What if I bring a jar of honey for you to Pub Quiz?
And now you want me to be fatter? Dictators are so confusing.
379: several people noted his passing.
I like an intermittently bribed and consistently disoriented populace.
Allow me to be the first to point out that there is no more masturbating to Nate Dogg.
And while I'm at it, I might as well suggest Fresh Salt. Just as a general rule.
380 is also my experience. I don't know how vending machines with alcoholic beverages would fare in Germany.
Sixteen in the clip, and one in the hole. I think the problem is that we all recognize the need for a thread devoted to Nate Dogg's passing. This is expressed, subconsciously, in the elocution, "why hasn't anybody told me to stop masturbating to Nate Dogg?" Of course everybody has, but what they haven't done is give the soul what it needs.
several people noted his passing
At the beginning of this very thread, no less.
Perhaps we should all just masturbate one last time (pour one out on the pavement, as it were) to achieve closure.
"7 to 379" is the accepted way to convey such a message.
Speaking of NMM, is anyone else really worried about Zipper? Can we talk about it some?
I think he's dead because:
1. Trudeau would totally make the point that war is stupid and pointless and inane accidents happen with terrible consequences.
f. An American-style miraculous happy ending would be cheap. (Much as I love them.)
ix. It would strand Jeff in the dictator's palace.
12. It would be a turning point for Jeff and his delusions. Will he have any introspection, or is he locked into his narcissistic ways?
But Zipper!?! He didn't deserve that! He was just along for the ride. I suppose he couldn't ever have graduated, but this can't be right!
I would say that Zipper's safe, because that makes Fox wrong. The "Who knew, given two possibilities, Fox selected the more sensationalistic on the basis of no real information, and they turned out to be right" resolution seems out of character.
Also, the Jeff plotline is one of the few moments when I find myself having an inappropriately maternal reaction to pop culture. Having her kid turn out like Jeff makes me worry about Joanie's feelings completely inappropriately, given that she's (a) fictional and (b) a comic strip character.
Yeah, I guess Jeff is stranded in the dictator's palace either way, and I like your argument about Fox. But I'm worried.
Heh. I've had inappropriately maternal reactions to pop culture since I was twelve. (Put some clothes on! At least a sweater! Why are you out so late! Shouldn't you be home drinking hot cocoa, Madonna?) I'm finally of an age where they're appropriate.
They can take away my masturbating to Nate Dogg when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.
I'm going with 392, but it might be wishful thinking. This is the cartoonist who blew his main character's leg off to make a point about wars.
I think Zipper is expendable (this may be my bias talking, as I view all post-1980 characters as expendable). Moreover, as Chris Y says, if GT is willing to blow off BD's leg to make a point, it's plausible that he's gone.
Not at all. The BD strips are done in Trudeau's "serious" style - you can tell when he's taking himself very seriously. These strips have a completely different valence - Trudeau thinks he's being funny. This whole storyline is a goofy/fantasy/satirical storyline, very different from the realistic/sentimental ones Trudeau uses when he offs a character. I don't think he's evcer killed someone without trying for a lump-in-the throat effect. I'd put money on it that Zipper is ok.
But that goes to "it's all fun and games until someone gets his college roommate killed." Hah hah, Jeff's fantasies are all so funny, look he thinks he's a superhero, hah hah, until OH SHIT. They're in the real world and terrible stupid things happen and then they stay happened.
Freight's right about the tone -- Trudeau could be doing the bait and switch you describe, but it's not something he's done before. It's not that he hasn't been funny about killing characters (I can't remember Lacey's husband's name, the one who died adding the Bachman's Warbler to his life list), but not like this.
Eh, we'll know next week. (Probably not tomorrow, which I assume will go back to Jeff.)
I was trying to be friendly, but I suppose if you're offended, you're offended.
I see that scare levels are dropping. Try this. (I confess to having been worried that this particular building - the Sendai 'mediatheque' - had been damaged by the quake / tsunami.)
"what i found inexplicable was how much hotter i found veronica mars than buffy, despite being seemingly the same role
Um, what?
"
um, young wisecracking crime-fighting in southern california blondes with a bit of angst and interest in guys who aren't quite right for her?
Lacey's husband's name, the one who died adding the Bachman's Warbler to his life list
That reminder brought a lump to my throat.
Doonesbury isn't perfect, but what an astonishingly strong body of work.
(this also reminds me that I got out of the habit of reading Doonesbury quite some time ago, and that was a mistake. I should try to catch up at some point.)
I can't compare it to the early years, but it seems as if it is in a resurgence. It has been stellar for several months now.
I'm sort of past the point of being able to tell if it's good or not -- I read collections when I was a teenager to get up to the present, and I've been reading it ever since, so I'm attached to it like someone who watches a soap. There aren't a lot of recent strips I remember as wildly funny -- the lines that stick in my head are ancient. But I'll probably keep reading it forever.
Go back to skeeving on young girls
Funny, I seem to recall seeing a couple of extremely vicious anonymous posts on this theme yesterday that got deleted. Can we ban bob yet?
I don't actually know which posts you're talking about, but of course we get vicious anonymous posts constantly. Annoying as Bob is, I don't think he's the Troll of Sorrow.
399,401: Looks as if Jeff got left behind in the palace, while Bmfrxzkz and therefore Zipper got away clean. So the story continues with nobody dead, yet.
(And now I've revealed that I stalk that comic at 1:00 am, to see the new one, if I'm close to awake.
This doesn't sound like an optimistic assessment.
The U.S. began airlifting citizens from Japan along with military and diplomatic families as authorities struggled to contain leaks from the quake-stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant. The U.S., U.K. and Australia raised their alert levels, telling nationals to keep at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) away from the Dai-Ichi facility. Walt Disney Co. suspended operations in Tokyo, while British Airways became the latest carrier to pull crews out of the city, which lies about 135 miles to the south of the reactors. [...] U.S. nationals "in Japan should consider departing," the State Department said in an e-mailed statement.
It looks informative about nuclear reactors and radiation in general, but there's little new there on what's currently happening in Japan. (Also one of the slides appears to be sourced to that MIT pro-nuclear site, and there's the now-usual line at the end about nuclear being better than coal. Maybe so, but that's doesn't really add any insight into what's happening in Japan.)
Reuters is now reporting that the plant operators are now acknowledging that they might have to bury the plant. But apparently not in the immediate future since they're still trying to cool everything.
IAEA reports that the pool temperatures are steady about 64-65 degrees C, down from a peak of 84. Ops normal is 25. Apparently the power hookup was held up waiting for them to finish with the airfield firetrucks and water cannon and heli drops, which makes sense (I think working with high-voltage power lines while helicopters drop water on you is probably even scarier than radiation).
um, young wisecracking crime-fighting in southern california blondes with a bit of angst and interest in guys who aren't quite right for her?
But, you know, Buffy doesn't fight crime. She fights demons. More to the point, she doesn't usually solve crimes, or demons. If there's solving to be doneit's done by the Scooby Gang/Giles. I'll grant there's some overlap, particularly in the inappropriate attraction stakes, but that's true for pretty much any teen girl protagonist on TV. But they're played totally different. Buffy's character, especially in the second half of the show's life, is all about the burden of being the only person who can save humanity. Whereas Veronica's angst (beyond the obvious) is largely self-inflicted by her choice to become child detective and prioritise that.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-12783832
Not sure if the raise in alert level just reflects the existing conditions on the ground, as they've been for a while, or is a new and more pessimistic view of the likely outcome.
Jeff Lewis said they were going to upgrade to 6 earlier in the week. It does remind me of the bit in Red Dwarf with the red alert: "Go to Red Alert! "Are you sure? It does mean...changing the bulb!"
I see there's plenty of comment material at Brave New Climate. I have to say I think that the EVERYTHING IS UNDER CONTROL, OR WILL BE, SO WHY WON'T YOU STAY CALM tendency isn't going to help the cause of nuclear power generation, whether or not the same group of people end up having made accurate predictions about Fukushima-Daiichi. The situation there looks to be that cascading failures are on pause, and that some but not all areas of the plant are now off limits. If in fact we currently don't have melting of stored fuel rods, or some other worst case outcome, well, I'd say that's more our good luck than the product of foresight and timely intervention. Yes, things are better than they might have been because of concrete walls, procedures for spacing out fuel rods, and such: for that matter, they're better than if plutonium had been discarded in our water supply. And I'm sure everything will be brought under some sort of control eventually.
So what attitude are we supposed to take? It might in fact be safe to be near Fukushima-Daiichi, but it does seem to me that a government can't express itself along the lines of "you quit if you want to, but I'm staying, because I'm rational and I believe that it's safe". A government has to cater for the more cautious. Hence it's not irrational to be alarmed: anything that brings about an official exclusion zone is meant to be alarming. For that matter, alarm over things nuclear forms part of the official deterrence strategy for nuclear states: consider the conjunction of MAD and governments saying that radiation is no big deal.
IAEA reports that the pool temperatures are steady about 64-65 degrees C, down from a peak of 84. Ops normal is 25.
I didn't see that on the IAEA page for the pool in Unit #4 - what I saw was the 84 degree C report from March 13, a long time ago. NYT and LAT are reporting that there's likely some sort of breach in the Unit 4 pool, based on info from U.S. sources. That's consistent with the concerns expressed by NRC Chairman Jaczko a couple of days ago.
What struck me about the BTVS discussion was how young most of the actors still are. Putting aside the retroactive skeeviness factor (which I believe can now be downgraded as the thread seems to be cooling), they have long careers - doing something - still ahead of them.
OK, today's strip is BULLSHIT. Glossing over the escape?! This is total Perils of Pauline territory, right? Where she's tied to the tracks at the end of the show, surrounded by tigers with pointy sticks and a wildfire bearing down on all of them, but the next show opens with her safely riding away? That's crap! I'm glad Zipper's OK, but for real?
My new theory is that Jeff is going to get captured and then held by Americans in Bradley Manning-esque conditions, to make a point about American torture. But we now know that LB's and chris y and freight train's predictions are better than mine, so.
"But, you know, Buffy doesn't fight crime. She fights demons. More to the point, she doesn't usually solve crimes, or demons. If there's solving to be doneit's done by the Scooby Gang/Giles. I'll grant there's some overlap, particularly in the inappropriate attraction stakes, but that's true for pretty much any teen girl protagonist on TV. But they're played totally different. Buffy's character, especially in the second half of the show's life, is all about the burden of being the only person who can save humanity. Whereas Veronica's angst (beyond the obvious) is largely self-inflicted by her choice to become child detective and prioritise that."
Well even if that is all true, my point was that the characters are very similar, not that they exactly the same. (and: veronica had a scoobie gang, and buffy didn't fight demons indiscriminately. she left them alone as long as they weren't being evil.)
and since we are talking about it, dick casablancas is the most awesome character
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTa6-t4igr4
RE: sexy people on TV. I'm not going to say that I don't even own a TV, because that would be a falsehood. But it is true that I watch broadcast television so rarely that I'm still confused about why they let that vampire become an FBI agent.
And I should really stop with this stuff, since I've now gone and frightened myself. You too, most likely, if you follow this link to a recent post of Aaron Datesman at A Tiny Revolution.
veronica had a scoobie gang
Wallace and... Mac? Seems like a stretch.
A relatively less awful TEPCO statement.
Also, a ticktock of how things broke and when.
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