ol_borgeaud comments

It is always easier to defend short term gain (Romney) than long term vision (Obama). Romney surfs on known things that made USA strong, while Obama try to move USA to modern era. Innovation and change is difficult to implement, but these are the prerequisite for prosperity. USA used to be a pioneer, and used to be a role model, do not give up!

bass4funk: when and why did the subprime crisis happen? This Cr&%#p contaminated the whole world within weeks. You do not overcome that in a second. Romneysia maybe?

RoemoRII: what is Obama's role in gas price? And in my opinion it is still too cheap in the US while half of the planet is trying hard to reduce CO2 emissions. He should have achieved 200% increase!

I'm ready to get the record thumbs down, don't worry!

It breaks my heart to say that, but if you want to kill the worldwide N-village, the immunity must be given to all stakeholders of the Fukushima disaster that would agree to cooperate in understanding deeply what has really happened in the past 40 years in this industry. Like Italy or US is doing with the mafia. Ethically challengeable, but when you want to look for a better future you need to look at the roots IMAO.

Plasticmonkey: you are 100% right. All the war crap is managed by a few countries, from regulation and weapon making. Look at the biggest weapon maker and the permanent UNO countries. Wow, very nice monopoly! All that is BS. And just money making!

@Matthew: you are right, what is lacking is common sense. The problem is that there is a fake common sense that has been shaped by Big Nukes by building the myth: safe, cheap and clean.

Sorry I did not read properly the article. It was for a plain standard club sandwich. Then it is most likely better in the US or any Hilton hotel for better price! Shame!

Even though I do not like the concept of "luxurying" junk food, food is in the French - or let's say Mediterranean - culture as important as rock/pop in the anglo-saxon culture. Thus price is not an issue as long as the taste and quality is there. And believe me, even people with limited resources will save and spend the money if it is worth. Others prefer cars, clothes or shoes!

Back to the topic, there is a point I would appreciate your comment Zichi: even though the yield is terribly bad, I believe any saving even out of peak hours is good to use the extra capacity to pump water for hydropower, that could be released at peak time. But I don't know if hydropower has this capacity. Do you know? Regardless that any - reasonable - energy saving is good in my eyes.

@Nisegaijin: comparing a plane with a country is totally irrelevant. When you enter a plane, you accept the fact the commandant can take any decision while flying. It is a contract between passenger and airline, and passenger accept to take a risk, while the pilot is certified to pilot an aircraft checked according to international standard. 1) The Japanese NPP are not certified according to international standards, 2) if the pilot makes a mistake he is accountable and 3) the population has the right to refuse to flight or have NPP.

@Nisegaijin: do you know the concept of democracy? If you say the population is unable to make judgment, either you are believing only old fashioned elite can make sound decision, while I think the population should be properly informed to take in hand its own future. Just make things transparent, clear and non biased by political (corruption) games and you will be surprised how mature is the people. This Fukushima happened because of the old fashioned elite, thus it is understandable - and desirable - that the population takes back its role of sovereign.

I recently read a very interesting article from the president of my Japanese company. Basically it says that Japanese people have problem to understand word/concept that are not translatable with kanji. Thus not only English, but any languages is a compelling of songs for them that has no meaning. I believe this is a very deep and difficult to solve cultural issue.

How can anyone make prediction for 1,000 years? The humanity will change drastically much before due to biotech. Life duration and reproduction will become obsolete words in these future dictionaries. Like it or not but I believe more in Matrix projections.

@Choiwa: I have no clue about the relevance of Japanese whales fishing tradition, but the parallel made with Aussies defending Arctic polar bears hunting as cultural activity gave me a good lough!

As far as I know most of European countries impose sealed tachographs for any professional drivers (truck, bus, taxi, ...). This system records speed and driving time, which can be checked any time by police and must be kept by the company. Pretty simple, cheap and efficient to ensure basic safety standard.

Unfortunately, I believe these poor cucumbers are just a drop in the ocean with all what is spread all over via processed food. Thus 1 rule for my kids: no processed food - anyway this is not good - and imported raw food for meals and lunch boxes. Then we keep the joker to enjoy restaurants sometimes and snacks for special occasions. I am lucky enough to being able to afford for this expensive choice, but no big worry and still enjoyable life.

Alpino: It looks like tolerance and solidarity is not part of you vocabulary. On another hand the choice exists: 10 candidates from left left wing to right right wing. In the US you only have the choice of between right right to right wing. And only people from the rich establishment (300 MM inhabitants but always the same - except Obama - Bush father and son, Clinton and wife, ...). France is a far more advanced democracy than the US marketing show.

I don't care what they do. However I am wondering if they like/wanted to do so. It seems more to be a marketing trick asked by ludicrous impresario to create the buzz .... and a lot of $$$$ with immature teens.

timtak: in my humble opinion it is better to die for 2-3 years than for decades or much more. We are not talking about basic safety but about the existence itself of Japan and Northern Hemisphere. None can afford the risk of self-destroying its own country for generations. Business is an important thing but keeping a livable environment for the future is not negotiable. Nuke power is not cheap and if there has been the mistake to build 54 (!) NPP in Japan, it is just time to think about stopping that right now. Other countries might continue for a while and help Japan to get off of that due to the prone quake situation here.

@Yuri: and I am - naively - expecting support to Japan from the Big Nuke countries like US, France, Russia, ... to help Japan to transition off NPP.

@Yuri: If the wrong decision - building NPP Japan - has been done once, it does not means it is not allowed to step back without loosing face. Recognizing a mistake now is a much more honorable than running into a wall for millennium! An NPP MUST be perfect, that is the Big Nuke claim! And they failed as expected!

@Yuri: I agree this is not an easy decision. But can we - you - take the real risk to destroy the Northern hemisphere from a so short view point? My limited knowledge of Japan teaches me the wisdom of long term consideration. And sorry, it was a lie saying it was 99.9% safe. Without mentioning the overlooking of all true scientists saying most of Japanese NPP are vulnerable to J-standard natural risks.

@Robert: I understand your economical viewpoint. However we are talking about something more serious. If SFP 4 collapses or another similar catastrophe like Fukushima happens, Japan is written off the planet, like North America and most of the North hemisphere. In this context, energy cost is irrelevant and CO2 emission consideration must be put on stand by G8, G20, G100! Before Fukushima, the NPP were - supposedly - safe at 99.9%. That is/was a lie. Period!

@choiwaruoyaji: with this logic, obviously you end up to pro-capital punishment. Justice is something different than vengeance and everyone must be treated with dignity by society. What is the problem with rehabilitation? Using the argument of money saving in favor of death punishment is very short minded.

@Michael. I would tend to agree that most likely Japan does technically the best possible to cope with the post disaster situation (speculation based on my limited experience of living in Japan). The problem is that the facts are hidden and at best unveiled months after they happened. Thus yes you contain panic with this tactic, but you build stress because the "harmful rumors" become true. I tell you that 90% of the Japanese people I know who dare talking about this taboo thing do not understand either how Japan is dealing with that. The - totally founded - distrust against the N-Village (not only in Japan) has gone so far that nothing will be believed blind anymore. What is urgently needed is an M9.0 in the worldwide N-Village: TRANSPARENCY! (IMHO this will never happen unless massive, not big, massive protests happen worldwide. But against this financial, army and politic giant I am not expecting too much, unfortunately).

What is shocking me from the pro-nukes is that their argument is "if we need power we have to produce it regardless of its impact". This is an as good logic as stating "if I need space I need to invade my neigbour country". That's to say the objective does not justify the means and if the objective cannot be achieved reasonability, it need to be changed to be achievable and not at any cost. This is serious and require most likely a paradigm shift of our current expectation about living standard. Then, if AC has to be turned off during summer, what's the matter? Let's go working in short, T-shirt and flip-flop, open the windows and go early to work. It will still be better than taking the risk of another Fukushima.

@kchoze: the debate is beyond that. Big EQ can happen any time anywhere in Japan. No NPP is 100% EQ-proof. None is allowed to take the risk to contaminate not only Japan, but the whole North Hemisphere to satisfy 5,6,10 % lack of power. Then the world must understand and grants Japan extra allowance on CO2 emission to stop this bargain.

@ WilliB. The facts you mention are the ones from the N-Village cloud. The real facts about NPP are hidden. That's the way on how has been built the Nuclear Myth. By not disclosing the truth about NPP, the N-Village pushes the people questioning the NPP to make/state sometimes wrong arguments and this gives ammunition to the N-Village. Very well trained and highly financed PR. When truly independent agencies will replace the current ones, I might change my mind about NPP. Until then, NO way!

@Fadamor. That's the point: the A-bomb allowed to kill thousands of civilians while the argument to use it was based on erroneous assumptions (at least officially). Without A-bomb this would have never happened. So the learning is: no more A-bomb, which seems to be now a wide consensus since it has not been re-used even though major conflicts have happened since. Thus only one option: destroy all of them.

There is zero argument to defend atomic weapons, that kill extensively and without any distinction mostly civilians. Using an A-bomb is - in my eyes - nothing else than a terrorist action: massive destruction of innocents to trigger psychological effect. None should have ever been used and none should be used in the future. Period! Thus thumb up to these people making their modest contribution in trying to get rid of the human madness.