Nuclear lessons for Malaysia (Part 2) (via For A Better Malaysia)

To use or not to use nuclear power? This article focuses on Malaysia but the issues are the same everywhere on our planet.

Costs, safety, and most important, trust, are the primary elements. That trust is on the list might surprise you. But I can’t help but feel the soothing hand of corporate PR every time I read some right-wing blog’s assurances that the amount of radiation is inconsequential and the constant, continuous claims that the technology is better now. Didn’t they say that after Chernobyl? Didn’t they say that after Three Mile Island, etc? It’s one of the classics, reassuringly pointless.

I am tired of PR. If the nuclear industry had ever been in anyway honest over the last fifty years I would feel differently but there is no trust here and without trust there can be no agreement.

This posting is an intelligent analysis and I enjoyed it.

James Pilant

Radiation is invisible and cannot be recalled. In a nuclear crisis, there will be many questions about radiation. As the Japanese people are now discovering, it is a nightmare trying to make sense of the uncertainties. How do you know when you are in danger?How long will this danger persist?How can you reduce the danger to yourself and your family?What level of exposure is safe?How do you get access to vital information in time to prevent or mini … Read More

via For A Better Malaysia

New Paradigms Needed (via Zielona Grzybnia)

Thinking allowed! Wow, I’d like to see more of this.

This essay is entirely correct. We are in the middle of a new age and those that wave the flag while endlessly repeating the failed answers of a disastrous last fifty years are simply out of touch. We are going to have to change and pretense doesn’t cut it.

It’s time to go to the next step. What are the paradigms? Let’s state what the basic principles are going to look like from the worm’s eye view.

As a member of the intelligentsia, I get the new paradigm thing. Around here, paradigms come and go like falling leaves.

Whether I understand them or not is not that important. How can they be stated in a way that is persuasive to a new generation? How can they be stated in such a way that those clinging to the nonsense of the past will realize they have to move on?

Read the essay. I’m sure we will see more from this blog.

James Pilant

Through all its history humanity has been facing challanges which often seemed unsolvable. Nevertheless, we have been able to achieve a solution every time so far – sometimes better, sometimes worse, but we’ve done it. Today again we face a whole spectrum of huge challanges: the climate change with all its facettes. Biodiversity reduction due to general damages to ecosystems all over the world. Poverty and undernourishment. There are many proposa … Read More

via Zielona Grzybnia

The Internet and Social (Network) Conflict (via Only a Northern Song)

This is a fascinating post about how we treat internet posts differently than traditional writing. I enjoyed it. I hope you do too.

James Pilant

The Egyptians worshiped the open eye because they knew attention was redemptive – if you pay attention to things you can understand them and make things better. This resonates with us – we generally believe that paying conscious attention to things is the best way of achieving an objective grasp, a full understanding of what a thing is from itself, rather than simply from our perspective. We improve on this by establishing perspectives which are, … Read More

via Only a Northern Song