*Radiation reaches USA*
- Thread starter myself
- Start date
Thank you [MENTION=387]IndigoSensor[/MENTION],
I am going to enforce Indy's words.
And I am going to also mention that I sensed something would happen this Spring that would feel "Too close to home". But, we would not be affected. I trust my intuitions now very much, and this along with Indy's posts, just make me feel badly for anyone who is worrying too much over this issue. Yes, the media sensationalizes everything regularly and we all know this.
This is for you @myself;
http://www.intpforum.com/showpost.php?p=230184&postcount=37 said:Now that we're done with that let's talk about the nuclear situation. I'm going to illustrate why you should trust the Japanese media to a much greater extent than the foreign media and I'll talk about the actual nuclear situation.
Let's just start out with something that amuses me shall we?
This is from Fox News, obviously not credible. Let's note that they've placed Sendai about 2,000 miles from where it actually is. They've also labeled Shibuyaeggman as a nuclear plant. It's actually a night club. At least the Japanese know where their own cities and nuclear reactors actually are.
Firstly, most foreign news outlets probably can't name more than 3 cities in Japan and, even if they've been to Japan they probably couldn't point to Tokyo on a map. They would also probably pronounce it as Tokiyo instead of Tokyo. I have still to see a foreign journalist covering the story actually pronounce the name of the nuclear plant even remotely correctly. They don't even need to find a translator for that. All they have to do is listen to a Japanese news broadcast (available for free online). Sloppy.
Secondly, unlike Japanese news, stations like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC are 24 hour news stations. They really have about 5 minutes of actual news and 23 hours 55 minutes of pointless conjecture. So they start talking about Chernobyl, and miniscule amounts of radiation understandably emitting from a damaged plant, without maintaining any journalistic responsible sense of context, aka EVERYTHING emits radiation. In fact, your breakfast food even emits radiation. Scientists from Hiroshima and American physicists (note the article I posted earlier) have said that, even given worst case scenario, the maximum radiation anyone will experience who is not sitting directly on top of the nuclear reactor, is the same as if you ate 3 bananas in a row. (source: Jr. Josef Oehmen, MIT Boston) You could, for a year, consume food tainted with the level of radioactivity being currently emitted and it would still not be equal to one CT scan or a chest X-ray. Every time you go to the dentist you are subjecting yourself to more radiation than if you were to stand directly outside the wall of the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
Thirdly, they aren't even being analytic. They go "OH MY GOD IT'S A LEVEL FIVE EMERGENCY!" But I have yet to see them prove that they've bothered to even google or wikipedia what a level 5 is...much less ask a credible source.
Now, you might say "but you can't trust Japanese news, wouldn't they cover up how bad the situation is to prevent panic?"
Every country's media has an agenda. You may want to side with your country out of patriotism or because you don't speak Japanese, but I do.
1. I am not Japanese. I do not have any nationalistic loyalties.
2. I have read TONS of articles and watched HOURS of news in Japanese and I have no reason to believe they are covering anything up. I have seen everything they have reported, confirmed by scientists and professors from Japan, America, and England.
Now you might say "Why are they dumping water from a helicopter." Easy. It's a lot easier and more efficient to get a helicopter in than a fire truck. They were using fire trucks. But, with the water mains completely destroyed and the roads destroyed and blocked by debris it was not very feasible. It's a lot easier to fly a helicopter out to the ocean, where there is a plentiful supply of water, and fly it over the reactor, where it has much more direct access than to use a hose on the ground. It's not a 'last ditch effort' it's a smarter idea.
Well why would foreign media misrepresent info?
1. I think it is at least half ignorance. There's a lot of shitty science being thrown around by people who don't understand the situation and haven't bothered to do their research. They've freaked themselves out and are panicking to get stories out rather than check if their info is correct.
2. Ratings. A nuclear disaster would be a big story...if there were one. By freaking out about a supposed 'nuclear disaster' they've certainly got people watching their news. The frenzy is feeding on itself.
3. America is still having a huge circle jerk over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I have not seen a single story on the Japanese news comparing what is happening now to the atomic bombings (and I live in Hiroshima). But, the American news is full of these kinds of stories. They're obsessed with it. To quote a Japanese friend who grew up and spent her whole life in Hiroshima, barely a mile from the Atomic bomb ground zero, "They need to get over it already. A-bomb, A-bomb, A-bomb. We don't care. We're so sick of that."
We here living in Japan are calm, collected, and moving on with our lives so isn't it strange that foreign communities are freaking out, hoarding supplies, buying iodine pills, etc.? What's the difference? We're not watching shitty mainstream media in other countries.
Furthermore, let's run with the false assumption that they're "saving face" for a brief moment. What saves face better? 1. You acknowledge a nuclear disaster and evacuate everyone immediately. 2. You cover up a nuclear disaster, the plant blows up, and people are injured/killed. The argument that they're "covering it up" doesn't even make sense. They would lose a lot more face if they covered it up than if they didn't.
As to the interviews they are conducting with Japanese people who say they are frightened. I speak Japanese. I can tell you that they are severely editing those interviews. Often they have put bits and pieces together so that the Japanese doesn't even make sense. Why? Because they don't have any support for their nuclear theories so they have to hack up some interview with some person who knows nothing about nuclear physics to keep their story going. Furthermore, what the Japanese person is saying is usually way off from what the newscasters are saying. Also, these Japanese people don't have access to TVs or radios (there's no electricity there anymore, even in Tokyo). They haven't heard any news about the nuclear power plant. So, when an American reporter runs up to them and says "There's a nuclear disaster and radiation and omfg are you scared!!!??" of course their response is to be worried. Because they have received no info, they don't have any reason to doubt what this American reporter is telling them.
There was some comment made about Americans being evacuated. This is false. I am an American government official. Even I have not been contacted by the American government and I certainly have not been told to leave or even offered a chance to leave. They are trying to remove Americans whose homes were destroyed by the tsunami but not because of radiation. Furthermore, if any Americans are leaving they are paying for it with their own money which, honestly, is a pretty stupid thing to do in my opinion given that there is no danger.
Also, the Japanese think it is absolutely absurd that people are remarking about how calm they are. They're not insulted, they just find it really funny. Again, value the group above all else. That's their culture. It would be really weird if they acted any differently. Thousands of years of culture doesn't just break down because of a tsunami. It doesn't mean they aren't upset. They're really upset. But just because you're upset doesn't mean you run around stealing shit and inciting chaos. Considering that, maybe it isn't strange that the American media has gone into a frantic masturbatory panic. It's their culture. It would probably be strange if they remained calm.
Lastly, the Japanese are not scared nor are they panicked. It's Saturday night here. I was just walking around the city and it's like any other Saturday night. There's drunk people everywhere. There's guys with guitars singing on street corners. There's kids making out at the train station. There's skanky looking girls with grotty hair extensions hanging out in the Peace Park. There's grandmas riding their bikes around. People are acting the same as they always do and doing the same things they always do. I have not yet heard a Japanese person say anything about the nuclear situation but, if you do talk to them about the earthquake, what they're going to tell you is how worried they are about the survivors and how sad they are for those who died. In my opinion, the media outlets who have been causing the frenzy over the nuclear situation should probably be sued for misrepresenting information and for inciting panic.
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A nice chart giving an idea of amounts of radiation given from various sources(including the daiichi plant)
http://xkcd.com/radiation/
yes it's a comic site but hey it's what he does and he does give a disclaimer at the bottom about using this as your last line of defense...
http://xkcd.com/radiation/
yes it's a comic site but hey it's what he does and he does give a disclaimer at the bottom about using this as your last line of defense...
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