Category: business ethics

Fukushima: Japan’s meta-tragedy – Sandhya Jain (via Bharata Bharati)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I very much enjoyed this and, in particular, I want to call attention to Wikileaks participation in the continuing controversy over both nuclear power and corruption. This story hardly exists in the United States but has generated considerable press in India.

This backstory is fitted into its place in the larger story of nuclear power in this article. I appreciate that.

However, there is a lot of other material here. This is not the kind of material that the pronuclear press likes to see, they prefer the squishy soft claims of possible radiation damage down the road. These claims they can dismiss as ill founded because it takes years to manifest. This article cites facts and history. That gives it some heft. I hope it gets wider circulation.

James Pilant

Fukushima: Japan’s meta-tragedy - Sandhya Jain Fukushima reinforces the threat posed by the scientific arrogance that the Human Race can create structures more powerful than Nature; Chernobyl was a loud warning after nearly 150 significant radiation leaks at n-stations throughout the world were hidden by the secretive nuclear power industry. – Sandhya Jain The tragedy of the earthquake-tsunami induced failure at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, eerily close to the 25th anniversary of th … Read More

via Bharata Bharati

TEPCO screws the pooch – again. (via Thus knowledge flows like water)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

“Water entombment” – Somehow that doesn’t sound very safe or in any way impressive.

And I don’t like any plan that develops by accident.

Read and let me know what you think.

James Pilant

My thanks to “Thus knowledge flows like water.”

TEPCO screws the pooch - again. You already know this isn’t going to turn out well.  Saturday, April 23, 2011 #Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Unintended “Water Entombment” of Reactor 1 They didn’t mean to, but ended up doing what some experts had suggested as a way to cool the melted fuel in the Reactor 1’s Pressure Vessel.Mainichi Shinbun (10:01 PM JST 4/23/2011; emphasis added) reports that TEPCO is “entombing” the Reactor 1 with water by accident: … Read More

via Thus knowledge flows like water

Lady Gaga’s Song Telephone – The Afghanistan Remake by the 82 Airborne Division (via cpuaggie)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I kept breaking up laughing while watching this one. They were really just having a good time.

One of the fun things about having a blog is occasionally being able to go off on a tangent – praising a friend’s blog – featuring something that is just fun. You’ll notice that there are no ads on this site. I make no money from it. I posted eleven times yesterday. It took a couple of hours.

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy blogging and I’d probably do it with a much smaller audience but one does on occasion want to do something else. But you can’t. To fail to blog even a single day damages traffic. So, I’m tied to this thing every single day.

So, please forgive my “once in a while” adventures into the strange, the funny, the interesting, etc. It relieves pressure on the days when I would rather not blog but must.

James Pilant

Hold it against me 266 Rein Marines Official Version

On By southwerkIn business ethics

United States Marines lip synch Britney Spears song – Hold It Against Me.

This video has gone viral and what would viral mean if I were to ignore it?

James Pilant

I did not nominate Bhushans: Anna Hazare

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is the next round. It’s going to be exciting. My general impression is that to discredit someone with a strong reputation you attack his colleagues. And those colleagues in this kind of struggle are likely to be politicians. Unfortunately, if you have been in politics any length of time, you have usually left some questionable decisions not wholly dealt with. What’s more, India seems to have some very creative ways for a politician to make money. In the United States, corruption is more institutionalized, so to see who owns a politician we just go online and look at the campaign contributions or we look to see what Political Action Committees their wives or relatives use to suck up money from the gullible.

My admiration for the Indian press is growing rapidly. I found the reporting informative and challenging. I got the impression that being a press favorite was not as common there as it is here.

The struggle goes on, from my distant perch in the center of the North American continent, I watch.

James Pilant

時間の止まった警戒区域付近　南相馬市　CNNニュース2011年4月21日 (A trip into the “no-go” zone.)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

This is heartbreaking. How many times do you see this before you wonder why this kind of damage doesn’t seem important to the proponents of nuclear energy? I keep reading these guys. They keep talking about the low death toll of nuclear incidents. First, I doubt that the death toll at Chernobyl is anywhere close to the real number. Second, I find land being reduced to a dead zone closed to humans more than a little unsatisfactory.

But I have faith in the nuclear industry. They will come back with tons of PR, promises of safety and the hope of an economic miracle in some small hamlet desperate for jobs. They always come back.

James Pilant

Wife of Fukushima nuclear plant worker: Waiting and worried (CBS News)

On By southwerkIn business ethics3 Comments

You have to watch a commercial before you can see the video.

I’m not entirely happy with the news story. Somehow we found an American angle to give drama to the story. We Don’t Need an American Angle. The Japanese are people and though they don’t appear to look like many American, I find the stories of the Japanese to be just as compelling. What is it with Americans? Can’t we look at other people and recognize their commonalites, their souls, minds, spirits, hopes, dreams, emotions,.. Don’t we get it. We are all the same in the importance of our stories.

James Pilant

The Malcontent (via A Lonely Philosopher)

On By southwerkIn business ethics1 Comment

This is angry. This is a non-conformist, a deviant, doesn’t play well with others, etc. etc.

Fantastic, I loved every syllable. In a world where the obscenity of “emotional intelligence” is taken seriously, it’s wonderful to hear some intelligent resistance!

To the gallant author, “Write your book. I’ll buy a copy, maybe three or four and you are a philosopher in my book, any day.”

Keep up the struggle, You are not alone.

James Pilant

The Malcontent ‘If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave.’ (Epictetus) An employer once told me that I don’t ‘sell myself’ enough, to which I replied that I don’t sell myself at all. Of practical necessity my labour is available for hire for around forty hours a week: the best hours of my life, the hours that run on to my grave. But I am most definitely not for sale. … Read More

via A Lonely Philosopher

Discarded (via marcelgomessweden)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

Art and mood. A story in a picture.

(There is a lot of amazing pictures on this site!)

JP

Discarded I must be honest, i´m surprised how terribly easily forgotten i am. … Read More

via marcelgomessweden

Who will stand up for the public interest, not just the major telecommunications companies? (via Ritajasper’s Blog)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I ask that question every day. Who stands for the public? Who stands for the middle class? Does anybody care?

This is a post directed at Canadian issues in terms of the details but once past the details the problems are world wide. Are we going to allow the new powers of technology to be cash cows for a rapacious corporate mind set? Are we going to be a bunch of proles, peons and sheep, managed like cattle being fed while these huge organizations decide whether or not our material is seen?

I read all the time that these companies have a right to make these charges, to regulate bandwidth – – corporate freedom? That’s a comedy concept. People are what’s important. The right of an organization to make a profit is overborne by the possibilities of human happiness, human welfare and political rights. Whatever our wacky supreme court decides, corporations should have no more rights than any other political concept, that is, none. Corporations are already well protected because the people who run and own them have human and political rights which they are in no way shy about exerting.

It’s time to organize and fight. It time to stop this nonsense of corporate sentience.

Humans are important, not giant collections of cash.

James Pilant

Jack said “I have heard from thousands of Canadians who tell me that internet access and cell phone affordability are critical issues for them. Please know that New Democrats recognize the importance of these issues in today’s rapidly changing society. The following are highlights from our 2011 election plan: – We will prohibit all forms of usage-based billing (UBB) by Internet Service Providers (ISPs); – We will unlock cells phones, allowing con … Read More

via Ritajasper’s Blog