Comments on: Nuclear and Market melt downs

By: StevieFinn

StevieFinn — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:46:27 +0000

Scary stuff :-

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Japan/MC23Dh02.html

By: cynicalHighlander

cynicalHighlander — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:54:43 +0000

Mega-Banks and the Next Financial Crisis

By: john

john — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:05:46 +0000

Well worth a read http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=23762

By: JamieGriffiths

JamieGriffiths — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:28:36 +0000

I think it may be simpler - the media rely overwhelmingly on the wires which in turn rely on official sources for information on stuff like this. No news from the official sources means nothing to write.

Nick Davies in Flat Earth News gives a very good account of how global media organisations have gutted their investigative departments over the last two decades or so. Couple that with the fact that you're talking about nuclear power generation which very few people/journos understand (the press has always been weak on science) and you can see why they've switched attention to the middle east - it's more familiar ground.

You can't generate a lot of content from "they're continuing to throw water at it until the point where they decide they just have to bury the whole thing in sand and concrete".

By: 24K

24K — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 15:24:26 +0000

A live map of Japan radiation levels HERE

Fukushima is under survey so they still have no figure for ground zero suprisingly. You think they would have tested that first.

By: The MacPuddock.

The MacPuddock. — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 14:41:04 +0000

hi Ben
I noticed exactly what you noticed.
suddenly it was not a problem.(at least for us).
I am sure there has been some kind of decision between the various news outlets to tone it down, whether by some mechanism such as D notices or just a consensual agreement among the main players.
I think there is a risk of it getting all a bit hysterical. I actually know of people who have been seriously affected by brooding over the events and speculating over the outcome.
I am not arguing for silence but responsible reporting is always an issue.
Not convinced even the outlets that take themselves seriously(guardian) were doing a great job. There was one article asking for suggestions from the general public about how to solve the problem which I thought was in very poor taste. I can see what they were trying to do but it backfired.
There is always an issue of trying to avoid being morbidly interested in disaster when it's best just to get out of the way and shut the f.up.

By: Ben Gabel

Ben Gabel — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:59:10 +0000

Back to the issues in Japan - is it just me or does there seem to have been a sudden news brown-out for the past 36 hours?

About 5pm thursday, all the UK news sites seemed to tone down their coverage. The Guardian for example suddenly lost its dramatic "Status 1-2-3-4-5-6 " graphic of red and amber reactor danger levels.

I don't think it is simply that the events in Libya are more eye-catching; even on dedicated blogs there was a sudden dearth of new news.

All we got, instead of breathless hourly updates by frenetic journalists, was a change in approach - just the old "we're pumping water it will be stable in a bit and by the way we have a long power cable so everything will be fine by next week" repeated over and over again.

Anyone know anything about the D-Notice system? Can they tell the papers to 'tone it down a bit?'

And why would this be the case? I see that the Met Office have modelled dispersion clouds for fallout - but have decided not to release it publicly in case it 'contradicts information from Japan'.

With nuclear disasters, I fear that no news is NOT good news. I hope we are not now adding "Too Big To Admit" to our lexicon.

So I'm off to the attic to dust off the geiger counter. Still thousands of sheep here in Wales too radioactive to eat, from Chernobyl.

Or at least, they say its from Chernobyl - though if you look at the maps of Chernobyl fallout in the UK, they seem to by amazing coincidence to be downwind from Sellafield/Windscale/Seascale. Oh well at least we have lots of electricity to run our laptops and comment sagely on blogs with.

By: JamieGriffiths

JamieGriffiths — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 13:12:48 +0000

Hello,

Can anyone explain what a "coordinated intervention by the G7 to restrain the soaring Japanese Yen" actually is?

What mechanism is being used, what's the inevitable downside and is it purely to prevent huge losses at Forex trading desks at major banks as Golem describes?

By: IanG

IanG — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 06:57:06 +0000

Hi Golem, Just to say thanks for doing all this work. Many people have been educated (myself included) as to what is really happening in the wider world that is not reported by the MSM. I dont think it is conspiricy as such just that they – the media opinion formers – all went to the same (private) schools, same (generally Oxbridge) unis and attend the same dinner parties. Not trying to dis those who took that route I should add just the way it is a clique. Thus we end up with 'group-think'. So we are ill-served and let down very badly just at the time truth and transparency is needed.

Keep the posts coming, I look forward to the next one.

By: Golem XIV - Thoughts

Golem XIV - Thoughts — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 14:00:40 +0000

That's kind of you to say so.

But as you say, it is just my opinion. I try to let the evidence tell the story rather than making it fit the story I want, but we all see the world in light of our prejudices to some extent, don't we.

I used to work at Horizon. It is not what is used to be.