Asia

[Typhoon]

. . .

image clubs, etc., or opt for telephone clubs, "delivery health" [recall the famous "Lip my stockings" scene in Lost in Translation], street mongering, or various other venues.

Do tell more please........

__n5Bgxx-68

[Nonc Hilaire]

Odd. We had a Japanese woman visit while I was in grad school and had an evening out discussing social customs.

The only thing I could discern was that for Japanese manners was a first priority in all relations, while for American males manners on the part of Japanese females was interpreted as a type of subservient debasement. It was a rather sad experience.

[monster_gardener]

. . .

image clubs, etc., or opt for telephone clubs, "delivery health" [recall the famous "Lip my stockings" scene in Lost in Translation], street mongering, or various other venues.

Do tell more please........

__n5Bgxx-68

Thank you Very Much for your post, Typhoon.

Blazing Saddles is good but IMHO "History of the World" is even better.

My apologies for my sloth..........

Consulting the Wiki Tiki answered most of it........

[Typhoon]

Odd. We had a Japanese woman visit while I was in grad school and had an evening out discussing social customs.

The only thing I could discern was that for Japanese manners was a first priority in all relations,

Quite right.

while for American males manners on the part of Japanese females was interpreted as a type of subservient debasement. . . .

Observant. Mistaking deference based on politeness for weakness is a common cultural misunderstanding.

Yet behind the polite deference one finds a will of steel. Control is achieved not through confrontation, but through clever social engineering.

[Ammianus]

I sometimes wonder whether the same refined stoicness and measured tranquility that prevented Japan from descending into chaos and disorder last year could also be part of the same mental process that created the crisis in the first place, not to mention the subsequent botched responses...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/world ... ss&emc=rss

Japan’s nuclear regulators and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, have said that the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 45-foot tsunami on March 11 that knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were far larger than anything that scientists had predicted. That conclusion has allowed the company to argue that it is not responsible for the triple meltdown, which forced the evacuation of about 90,000 people.

But some insiders from Japan’s tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected tsunami in northeastern Japan, and thus failed to take adequate countermeasures, such as raising wave walls or placing backup generators on higher ground.

They attributed this to a culture of collusion in which powerful regulators and compliant academic experts looked the other way while the industry put a higher priority on promoting nuclear energy than protecting public safety. They call the Fukushima accident a wake-up call to Japan to break the cozy ties between government and industry that are a legacy of the nation’s rush to develop after World War II.

“March 11 exposed the true nature of Japan’s postwar system, that it is led by bureaucrats who stand on the side of industry, not the people,” said Shigeaki Koga, a former director of industrial policy at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, or METI, which both promotes and regulates the nuclear industry.

[Typhoon]

I sometimes wonder whether the same refined stoicness and measured tranquility that prevented Japan from descending into chaos and disorder last year could also be part of the same mental process that created the crisis in the first place, not to mention the subsequent botched responses...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/10/world ... ss&emc=rss

Japan’s nuclear regulators and the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, have said that the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and 45-foot tsunami on March 11 that knocked out cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant were far larger than anything that scientists had predicted. That conclusion has allowed the company to argue that it is not responsible for the triple meltdown, which forced the evacuation of about 90,000 people.

45 feet ~ 14 metres

But some insiders from Japan’s tightly knit nuclear industry have stepped forward to say that Tepco and regulators had for years ignored warnings of the possibility of a larger-than-expected tsunami in northeastern Japan, and thus failed to take adequate countermeasures, such as raising wave walls or placing backup generators on higher ground.

Historic tsunamis in Japan

Not at al clear to me how one would decide what would be an adequate height for a seawall without the benefit of hindsight given the rarity of such large tsunamis.

On the other hand, that the backup generators should have been placed on higher ground is a given.

They attributed this to a culture of collusion in which powerful regulators and compliant academic experts looked the other way while the industry put a higher priority on promoting nuclear energy than protecting public safety. They call the Fukushima accident a wake-up call to Japan to break the cozy ties between government and industry that are a legacy of the nation’s rush to develop after World War II.

“March 11 exposed the true nature of Japan’s postwar system, that it is led by bureaucrats who stand on the side of industry, not the people,” said Shigeaki Koga, a former director of industrial policy at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, or METI, which both promotes and regulates the nuclear industry.

In other news, water is wet.

Both govt bureaucrats and esp senior TEPCO management can and have been rightly and severely criticized for their response and handling of the Fukushima Daiichi incident.

However, as today is the one year anniversary of the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami,
I'll note that the earthquake and esp the tsunami resulted in 15,850 deaths, 6,011 injured, 3,287 people still missing and unaccounted for.

On the other hand, the number of deaths to-date from the Fukushima Daiichi incident is zero and will stay the same, with a very high probability, for the foreseeable future.

[Ammianus]

In other news, water is wet.

Both govt bureaucrats and esp senior TEPCO management can and have been rightly and severely criticized for their response and handling of the Fukushima Daiichi incident.

Something something Horse's Mouth something something

Historic tsunamis in Japan

Not at al clear to me how one would decide what would be an adequate height for a seawall without the benefit of hindsight given the rarity of such large tsunamis.

On the other hand, that the backup generators should have been placed on higher ground is a given.

On the contrary it means that tsunamis in general are an historical inevitability the government should have either been expecting or repared for. That, and the island being in the Ring of Fire should be a obvious hint not to build a nuclear reactor right by the seashore.

Also, it's probably not a good idea to build, and depend on, so many of them in such a spatially challenged location in the first place. But I guess that's an exceptionally rare 20/20 hindsight that no one could have foresaw.

[Typhoon]

Historic tsunamis in Japan

Not at al clear to me how one would decide what would be an adequate height for a seawall without the benefit of hindsight given the rarity of such large tsunamis.

On the other hand, that the backup generators should have been placed on higher ground is a given.

On the contrary it means that tsunamis in general are an historical inevitability the government should have either been expecting or repared for. That, and the island being in the Ring of Fire should be a obvious hint not to build a nuclear reactor right by the seashore.

On which mountaintop or in the middle of which densely population region do you suggest that the reactors be built?

The largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa,
has a surface area of 670.4 km² and a water volume of only 27.5 km³

as compared to the smallest, by volume, of the Great Lakes - Lake Erie
which has a surface are of 25,700 km² and a water volume of 480 km³

Building inland is not a viable option.

Also, it's probably not a good idea to build, and depend on, so many of them in such a spatially challenged location in the first place. But I guess that's an exceptionally rare 20/20 hindsight that no one could have foresaw.

Well, there is certainly no shortage of armchair experts after the fact.

Given that Japan has no carbon fossil fuel resources, and has to import all of it's oil and nat gas, nuclear power is a natural choice.

What does not make sense is building more commercial versions of light boiling water reactors which are commercialized versions of reactors originally developed for the US military for production of nuclear weapons material and are ill-suited for commercial electric power production in terms of safety.

However, at that level one has to factor in inter-government lobbying . . .

Rather than wasting it's time and effort on costly and inefficient wind and solar schemes,
Japan should focus it's resources on developing safe Gen IV scaleable nuclear reactors such as pebble bed or even thorium + heavy water to replace the existing reactors.

[Ammianus]

Given that Japan has no carbon fossil fuel resources, and has to import all of it's oil and nat gas, nuclear power is a natural choice.

Now, according to whom? the U of Tokyo PhDs? Chief of TEPCO? Members of the Diet? the Prime Minister? internet bloggers? average citizen on the street?

[monster_gardener]

Historic tsunamis in Japan

Not at al clear to me how one would decide what would be an adequate height for a seawall without the benefit of hindsight given the rarity of such large tsunamis.

On the other hand, that the backup generators should have been placed on higher ground is a given.

On the contrary it means that tsunamis in general are an historical inevitability the government should have either been expecting or repared for. That, and the island being in the Ring of Fire should be a obvious hint not to build a nuclear reactor right by the seashore.

On which mountaintop or in the middle of which densely population region do you suggest that the reactors be built?

The largest lake in Japan, Lake Biwa,
has a surface area of 670.4 km² and a water volume of only 27.5 km³

as compared to the smallest, by volume, of the Great Lakes - Lake Erie
which has a surface are of 25,700 km² and a water volume of 480 km³

Building inland is not a viable option.

Also, it's probably not a good idea to build, and depend on, so many of them in such a spatially challenged location in the first place. But I guess that's an exceptionally rare 20/20 hindsight that no one could have foresaw.

Well, there is certainly no shortage of armchair experts after the fact.

Given that Japan has no carbon fossil fuel resources, and has to import all of it's oil and nat gas, nuclear power is a natural choice.

What does not make sense is building more commercial versions of light boiling water reactors which are commercialized versions of reactors originally developed for the US military for production of nuclear weapons material and are ill-suited for commercial electric power production in terms of safety.

However, at that level one has to factor in inter-government lobbying . . .

Rather than wasting it's time and effort on costly and inefficient wind and solar schemes,
Japan should focus it's resources on developing safe Gen IV scaleable nuclear reactors such as pebble bed or even thorium + heavy water to replace the existing reactors.

Thank you Very Much for your post, Typhoon.

Japan should focus it's resources on developing safe Gen IV scaleable nuclear reactors such as pebble bed or even thorium + heavy water to replace the existing reactors.

But development at least here in Uz can take years on end......................

Thorium reminds me of CANDU...........

Why not just use the tried and true CANDU reactor design............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reac ... y_features

[Typhoon]

FT | China's past needs to be rewritten

How would a Chinese superpower treat the rest of the world? Anyone wanting to peer into the future, could start by looking back at the past – or, at least, at the official version of China’s past. The message is not reassuring. China’s schoolchildren are being taught a version of history that is strongly nationalist. The official narrative is that their country was once ruthlessly exploited by rapacious foreigners. Only a strong China can correct these historic wrongs.

This official story has a lot of truth in it. China in the 19th and 20th centuries was indeed the victim of foreign imperialism. The trouble is that China’s official history lacks the quality that Maoism was meant to stress: self-criticism. If you visit the exhibitions in the vast National Museum of China on Tiananmen Square you will see and read about the terrible things that foreigners have done to the Chinese. There is almost nothing about the even more terrible things that Chinese people did to each other – largely because most of these crimes were committed by the Communist party, which still runs the country.

These gaps matter. A more honest debate about the past will be an essential part of China’s journey to a more open political system. A view of Chinese history that moves beyond a narrative of victim-hood, might also make China’s rise to global power smoother.

[Ibrahim]

FT | China's past needs to be rewritten

How would a Chinese superpower treat the rest of the world? Anyone wanting to peer into the future, could start by looking back at the past – or, at least, at the official version of China’s past. The message is not reassuring. China’s schoolchildren are being taught a version of history that is strongly nationalist. The official narrative is that their country was once ruthlessly exploited by rapacious foreigners. Only a strong China can correct these historic wrongs.

This official story has a lot of truth in it. China in the 19th and 20th centuries was indeed the victim of foreign imperialism. The trouble is that China’s official history lacks the quality that Maoism was meant to stress: self-criticism. If you visit the exhibitions in the vast National Museum of China on Tiananmen Square you will see and read about the terrible things that foreigners have done to the Chinese. There is almost nothing about the even more terrible things that Chinese people did to each other – largely because most of these crimes were committed by the Communist party, which still runs the country.

These gaps matter. A more honest debate about the past will be an essential part of China’s journey to a more open political system. A view of Chinese history that moves beyond a narrative of victim-hood, might also make China’s rise to global power smoother.

Chinese nationalist propaganda is pervasive and often hilarious to foreigners, but their wisdom in pushing it is obvious. Certainly it would be more historically accurate to have a nuanced, self-critical view of their national history, but that's not how you gear up for superpower status. They want to be John Wayne, we in the West have turned into Woody Allen. We'd be more comfortable if China was as conflicted and self-doubting as us, but I wouldn't count on it.

[Typhoon]

Given that Japan has no carbon fossil fuel resources, and has to import all of it's oil and nat gas, nuclear power is a natural choice.

Now, according to whom? the U of Tokyo PhDs? Chief of TEPCO? Members of the Diet? the Prime Minister? internet bloggers? average citizen on the street?

Given that Japan has no carbon fossil fuel resources, and has to import all of it's oil and nat gas . . .

Fact.

. . . nuclear power is a natural choice.

My view.

Solar + wind cannot begin to replace the power generating capacity of nuclear.

[Typhoon]

FT | China's past needs to be rewritten

How would a Chinese superpower treat the rest of the world? Anyone wanting to peer into the future, could start by looking back at the past – or, at least, at the official version of China’s past. The message is not reassuring. China’s schoolchildren are being taught a version of history that is strongly nationalist. The official narrative is that their country was once ruthlessly exploited by rapacious foreigners. Only a strong China can correct these historic wrongs.

This official story has a lot of truth in it. China in the 19th and 20th centuries was indeed the victim of foreign imperialism. The trouble is that China’s official history lacks the quality that Maoism was meant to stress: self-criticism. If you visit the exhibitions in the vast National Museum of China on Tiananmen Square you will see and read about the terrible things that foreigners have done to the Chinese. There is almost nothing about the even more terrible things that Chinese people did to each other – largely because most of these crimes were committed by the Communist party, which still runs the country.

These gaps matter. A more honest debate about the past will be an essential part of China’s journey to a more open political system. A view of Chinese history that moves beyond a narrative of victim-hood, might also make China’s rise to global power smoother.

Chinese nationalist propaganda is pervasive and often hilarious to foreigners, but their wisdom in pushing it is obvious. Certainly it would be more historically accurate to have a nuanced, self-critical view of their national history, but that's not how you gear up for superpower status. They want to be John Wayne, we in the West have turned into Woody Allen. We'd be more comfortable if China was as conflicted and self-doubting as us, but I wouldn't count on it.

The problem is that a typical Chinese nationalist makes the most insular xenophobic paranoid American look like a paragon of reason and rationality by comparison.

[Ibrahim]

The problem is that a typical Chinese nationalist makes the most insular xenophobic paranoid American look like a paragon of reason and rationality by comparison.

That's true. The average Chinese I met was like a 1950's American General in this regard.

If they could be convinced that another country was seriously messing with them, the Chinese could be counted on to overwhelmingly support total war against the offending country (even if the offense was imaginary). So this is why the rest of the world would like China to have more self-doubt.

[Typhoon]

. . .

Japan should focus it's resources on developing safe Gen IV scaleable nuclear reactors such as pebble bed or even thorium + heavy water to replace the existing reactors.

But development at least here in Uz can take years on end......................

Thorium reminds me of CANDU...........

Why not just use the tried and true CANDU reactor design............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reac ... y_features

Some pedantry:

CANDU -> CANadian Deuterium Uranium

Deuterium -> D [Symbol]

heavy water -> D2O

[monster_gardener]

. . .

Japan should focus it's resources on developing safe Gen IV scaleable nuclear reactors such as pebble bed or even thorium + heavy water to replace the existing reactors.

But development at least here in Uz can take years on end......................

Thorium reminds me of CANDU...........

Why not just use the tried and true CANDU reactor design............

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reac ... y_features

Some pedantry:

CANDU -> CANadian Deuterium Uranium

Deuterium -> D [Symbol]

heavy water -> D2O

Thank you Very Much for your post & reply, Typhoon.

Fair enough...... so is the problem that Japan does not want to buy the design from Canada.......

Other countries have bought the design..........

Know that D2O is expensive and not good for you unless you are IIRC like bacteria & blue green algae: don't have a true nucleus.....

And that Tritium can form with just one neutron more.........

But think that not having to enrich and instant shutdown if there is a leak, compensate for this....


IMVHO we/US/uz should be using the CANDU or similar: can burn nuclear waste, and as you mentioned, thorium which is much more abundant than uranium.

Over the years, I have noticed that Canada does a number of things better than we/uz do....... IMHO this may be one of them..

[Typhoon]

Political intrigue and infighting in China:

Economist | Bo Bo, Black Sheep

IN A dramatic high-level political shake-up, China used the Ides of March to announce the removal of Bo Xilai from his post as the Communist Party boss of the south-western city of Chongqing. State media reported that Mr Bo has been replaced by Zhang Dejiang, who will also retain his spot as Vice Premier of the People’s Republic.

Mr Bo was badly damaged by a scandal in which his key deputy, Chongqing’s vice mayor and its top police official, Wang Lijun, spent a full day in an American consulate last month. It was apparent that he went seeking asylum. Turned out by the Americans, Mr Wang has since been placed under investigation—leading to widespread speculation as to whether his actions had to do with corruption, political infighting, or both.

[Typhoon]

More on why Bo had to go.

FT | The threat to the post-Mao consensus

The last emperor of China was Mao Zedong. One of Deng Xiaoping’s most important achievements after Mao’s death was to rid the system of an all-powerful head, the charismatic figure around which the whole system revolved. The Mandate of Heaven perished in 1976, which is why the pre- and post-Maoist political systems have almost nothing in common despite the fact that they were both nominally communist.

Deng, the architect of China’s Reform and Opening, was powerful, to be sure, but less quixotically so than Mao. So wary was he of the cult of personality, he actively discouraged busts or portraits in his likeness. Jiang Zemin, who emerged as Deng’s successor in the early 1990s, had less power still than Deng. The current leader, the colourless and robotic Hu Jintao, is weaker than all of them. The purge of charisma is complete. Or at least it was until Bo Xilai burst on to the scene.

[Ibrahim]

More on why Bo had to go.

FT | The threat to the post-Mao consensus

The last emperor of China was Mao Zedong. One of Deng Xiaoping’s most important achievements after Mao’s death was to rid the system of an all-powerful head, the charismatic figure around which the whole system revolved. The Mandate of Heaven perished in 1976, which is why the pre- and post-Maoist political systems have almost nothing in common despite the fact that they were both nominally communist.

Deng, the architect of China’s Reform and Opening, was powerful, to be sure, but less quixotically so than Mao. So wary was he of the cult of personality, he actively discouraged busts or portraits in his likeness. Jiang Zemin, who emerged as Deng’s successor in the early 1990s, had less power still than Deng. The current leader, the colourless and robotic Hu Jintao, is weaker than all of them. The purge of charisma is complete. Or at least it was until Bo Xilai burst on to the scene.

Strongly disagree. The whole "mandate of heaven" concept is still tacitly in effect, but post-Deng it was diffused to the CCP as a whole, just as the Mandarin classes administered the Imperial Chinese state during indifferent reigns or dynastic instability. Purging the party of dissenting voices is less about charisma (that ship has sailed, as the article correctly points out) but maintaining political unity within the party itself. Nothing obsesses the Chinese political elite more than the threat of instability. I think this paranoia has one more generation, until the last people who remember the civil wars die off. Then who knows.


What's also interesting is how clearly the CCP controls all levers of power in the country. In, say, an Arab country the deposed Bo would have a regional power base to fall back on. In Russia he would have his supporters among the military and oligarchs. China keeps its power struggles within the party back rooms, and everything follows from what is decided there. So far anyway.

[noddy]

i find the tension around charismatic populism versus comittee based legalism quite unresolved and contradictory.

like most things human and political, the former is bad when you dont like the agenda, the latter is bad when you do like the agenda.

europes history leaves it quite scared of charismatic populism in one persons hands, other countries havent had such ghastly experiences with dictators and cant accept the downside of losing the ability a leader has to get things done and the charisma to bring everyone on board... many asians and pacific people i know cant stand the lack of direction and focus in the modern western approach... more than this the american president and the english queen represent a hedge on these very issues.

a clumsy way of saying "feh" to this analysis.

[Typhoon]

FT | Beijing on edge amid coup rumours

The Chinese capital is awash with speculation, innuendo and rumours of a coup following the most important political purge in decades, with even some of the most well-informed officials in the dark about what comes next.

Since Bo Xilai, one of China’s most powerful leaders, was removed from his job last Thursday, the bureaucracy and the public have been on tenterhooks, awaiting the next twist in the gripping political saga.

Besides a one-line statement on Mr Bo’s dismissal published late last week, China’s heavily censored media have not mentioned his name, let alone provided any clues about what will happen to him.

But the country’s netizens, in particular those using hard-to-censor Twitter-like microblogs, have been flooding the internet with information ranging from highly implausible to apparently authentic.

In one rumour that spread rapidly on Monday night, a military coup had been launched by Zhou Yongkang, an ally of Mr Bo’s and the man in charge of China’s state security apparatus, and gun battles had erupted in Zhongnanhai, the top leadership compound in the heart of Beijing.

But when the Financial Times drove past the compound late on Monday night, all appeared calm and by Wednesday evening there was no indication that anything was out of the ordinary.

[Ibrahim]

That doesn't sound too likely.

[Typhoon]

That doesn't sound too likely.

Agreed. However, such rumours are symptomatic in a society that tries to control info.

[AzariLoveIran]

.


The China-US rare earth games


The joint United States, Japanese and European Union complaint at the World Trade Organization over Beijing's "monopoly" on rare earths is political theater, creating fear that China will one day unscrupulously withhold elements critical for defense technologies, hybrid cars and smartphones. Washington neglected mention of the abundance of "rare" earths - and that China will likely become a net importer by 2015.


Look, folks

west realized can not compete with China on any platform

Chinese super smart, 1.6 billion people, very hard worker and and and

so

it is not going to work

west headed for confrontation with China

for many many reason

meaning

this rare earth complain , same rubbish as Iranian nuclear weapon BullShit

West looking for a fight with China (and Russia and Iran) .. on phony excuses

no matter what

things going to clash

west does not want to give up on those FreeBees .. free resources , Africa fleeced, South America fleeced, ME fleeced and and and

things not gono work

west knows this

China knows this

Putin knows this

Ahmadinejat knows this

not gono work



.