John Stuart Mill 20 May 1806 – 8 May 1873

Sunday Morning EDT/Sunday Evening Japan Time Scribblings


With the Assistance of 19th Century Liberal Empiricist Philosopher John Stuart Mill 

"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives." 

Radioactive water draining from the core of reactor 2 is still pouring out of the "maintenance pit" and into the sea. There is no word if repairs have been accomplished. What is being admitted is that this flow of water is just part of the  problem. They have been spraying millions of gallons of water on these plants and the spent fuel ponds for weeks now and that water has been getting irradiated and boiling off or flowing away from these places.  Nothing is being done about that water because no one can imagine anything can be done about it.

GE's CEO has kindly offered to help TEPCO generate power this summer in anticipation of shortages arising from the fact that the GE designed nuclear power plants at Fukushima Daiichi are all busted up and are failing to provide safe, clean, and cheap energy.

"The despotism of custom is everywhere the standing hindrance to human advancement."


Evacuees in the afflicted areas of the earthquake and tsunami who have been homeless or suffering without heat and power are beginning to ask why little attention has been paid to their plights. Prime Minister Kan, reacting to the criticism,  visited evacuation centers Saturday and gave a speech at one in which he stated firmly, "The government fully supports you until the end". 


"There are many truths of which the full meaning cannot be realized until personal experience has brought it home."


Mass evacuations of its remaining 1,100 persons have begun in the town of Minamisanriku in Miyagi prefecture. Minamisanriku, which formerly had a population of 17,500 persons, was totally devastated by the tsunami and earthquake. It is expected that it will take six months to a year before even temporary housing can be constructed and residents can return to the area.

"That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time."

It is now confirmed that two workers died at Fukushima Daiichi as a result of the earthquake/tsunami. It had been previously reported and recorded here that five had died at that time. 

"The general tendency of things throughout the world is to render mediocrity the ascendant power among mankind."

Meanwhile, Koreans (North and South), despite their sympathy for the plight of their former Japanese masters, are annoyed that Japanese textbooks and diplomatic positions will claim the Dokdo Islands as Japanese territory. The Japanese Textbook Authorization and Research Council announced Wednesday that Japanese claims on the islands, which they call Takeshima,  will be affirmed in this year's texts. Seoul's position is that these islands are traditional Korean territory. Koreans are also rightly peeved that Japanese textbooks will not mention the use of Korean women as sexual slaves by the Japanese during World War II. Koreans accepted an apology last year from Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan when he said, the country should ``frankly reflect on Japan’s mistakes with the courage to look straight at historical facts and humility to admit them,” regarding Japan's illegal (in Korea's view) forced  annexation of the country on the 100th anniversary of that event.

"All good things which exist are the fruits of originality."

CNN reports on  Japanese skipper Susumu Sugawara, who rode out the tsunami at sea in his boat, "The Sunflower". 

"My feeling at this moment is indescribable," he says with glistening eyes. "I talked to my boat and said you've been with me 42 years. If we live or die, then we'll be together, then I pushed on full throttle."
"Here was my boat and here was the wave," he says, holding one hand low and the other stretched high above his head. "I climbed the wave like a mountain. When I thought I had got to the top, the wave got even bigger."