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[Nikov]

Well just to tie it back in, it does seem the Japanese mindset is working to their advantage by collectively resisting the urgency they must all feel about the situation to remain reasonable and orderly. If there is a line for bottled water everyone will stand in it rather than mob the truck. If everyone gets one bottle of water, nobody will try to get two, regardless of circumstance, because they don't want to stand out. This national character is one of the reasons I still do not doubt Japan will recover fully from this. They have something akin to the British stiff upper lip. I suspect lives have already been saved thanks to it and perhaps others will be lost among the technicians at the plant, but in all things it is an admirable quality to see.

[Vattic]

I'm mostly posting to join those thanking Vector for posting those stories. Very human, very revealing, thanks Vector.

Noting what Nikov said about the British stiff upper lip; I must admit that the closest I've ever come to experiencing the kinds of things in Vector's post was during the, admittedly less catastrophic, floods here in the UK. It's good to see people pull together.

[Phmcw]

Meanwhile in Japan "12.14pm: A Tepco official has told a press conference in Japan that radiation levels at the site soon after 9.30 am were at 3,750 millisieverts per hour, Ian Sample has just told me. "These are absolutely dangerous levels," Ian said."

I don't know where these measurement have been done but I dearly hope it's within the building. Alost 4 Sieverts an hour is a huge radiation level.

[Tellemurius]

WTF 4? Thats lethal dose now!

[olemars]

That report was thankfully wrong. Some journo mixed up micro and milli, and the report spread like wildfire. The radiation near the power plant is measured to fluctuate between 0.5-10 milliSievert/hour the last 24 hours or so.

[Haspen]

That report was thankfully wrong. Some journo mixed up micro and milli, and the report spread like wildfire. The radiation near the power plant is measured to fluctuate between 0.5-10 milliSievert/hour the last 24 hours or so.

Goddamn media, hire some mathematicians if you have problems with units.

[Willfor]

Goddamn media, hire some mathematicians if you have problems with units.

Proper science wouldn't boost their ratings.

[Keita]

Goddamn media, hire some mathematicians if you have problems with units.

Proper science wouldn't boost their ratings.

The media is advertisement. They say what sells.

[Sergius]

I don't think Japan's culture of "see no evil" worked in their favor during the time the Fukushima nuclear plant owner falsified inspection records to make it "not stand out".

[olemars]

There's a good bit of dirt and coverups around japanese nuclear power companies. It's a trait they share with their colleagues around the world though.

[Tellemurius]

That report was thankfully wrong. Some journo mixed up micro and milli, and the report spread like wildfire. The radiation near the power plant is measured to fluctuate between 0.5-10 milliSievert/hour the last 24 hours or so.

Right then

[Phmcw]

They are dropping water by air on the building, hoping that it will somehow end in the spent fuel pool. That spell "desperation" if you ask me.

Another aftershock occurred, 5.8.

[Leafsnail]

Spoiler: Off-topic cultural discussion (click to show/hide)

When I was learning the language, I was taught to never express an opinion as true and preface everything with "it seems," especially as a woman.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Couldn't that just be a language difference?  I mean, if you think about it literally, saying "This thread is good" or whatever implies that you have some kind of objective proof that it is so.  Prefacing it with "I think" or "It seems" could be seen as making more sense.

Well just to tie it back in, it does seem the Japanese mindset is working to their advantage by collectively resisting the urgency they must all feel about the situation to remain reasonable and orderly. If there is a line for bottled water everyone will stand in it rather than mob the truck. If everyone gets one bottle of water, nobody will try to get two, regardless of circumstance, because they don't want to stand out. This national character is one of the reasons I still do not doubt Japan will recover fully from this. They have something akin to the British stiff upper lip. I suspect lives have already been saved thanks to it and perhaps others will be lost among the technicians at the plant, but in all things it is an admirable quality to see.

I agree.  The usefulness of such a mindset in day to day life is perhaps debatable, but it's a very good thing to have in an emergency situation such as this one.

Not sure about "stiff upper lip", but both times I've experienced something of a crisis situation several passersby have stopped, called for assistance and offered any help they could.  I'm very greatful for it.

[Duke 2.0]

They are dropping water by air on the building, hoping that it will somehow end in the spent fuel pool. That spell "desperation" if you ask me.

I saw this on the news and immediately cried bullshit. I really want to see the source of this, it looks more like they are putting out building fires than dumping water onto the containment. It's a closed system, so unless the containment melted upwards inexplicably to form a hole I don't see why they would go through with this for that purpose.

[Tellemurius]

Its for the fire, i highly doubt they are dumping water into the reactor