TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

Yet another self-fulfilling prophecy has come to pass, courtesy of the mass media. Anyone who follows the news (especially technology news) will have heard about the floods in Thailand. It would seem these events are newsworthy not for the infrequency, severity, or consequences of the events.  Indeed, flooding is common in Thailand, as well as other nearby countries and regions.  Disruptions in basic services are also common, as are health problems, food and supply shortages, and their accompanying hardships on the people who live there.  Over one hundred thousand people have been displaced - a number roughly on par with the number of evacuees from the Fukushima area of Japan.  I have not been able to find out how many facilities, factories and homes have been affected, nor what the impact will be to basic necessities and in terms of human suffering. Oddly - or perhaps not so oddly - the media has chosen to largely ignore most of this.  Perhaps floodi...

-------------------------------------------------------- Please donate to assist in the Japanese disaster.  Visit http://disasterjapan.wordpress.com/ for a list of reputable agencies that make a difference. -------------------------------------------------------- Two-plus weeks on, and the ludicrous media hysteria around Fukushima is finally starting to die a painful, gasping death. We also start to see the occasional rational analysis of the entire affair: Your Man In Japan Praying for meltdown: The media and the nukes (The Register) Fukushima scaremongers becoming increasingly desperate (also The Register) Unfortunately, these are still few and far between. As horrible as it may seem, one wonders what would have happened if all the affected nuclear reactors had simply been destroyed. More lives would have been lost.  But they would only be a small fraction of the total lives lost, and probably wouldn't even be remarked upon by the mainstream media. The ...

Ever since the nuclear accident at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station No 1 began, the entire news media has been in an absolute frenzy. And yet, for all of the improvements in the 'information age' - with updates happening in real time from the far side of the world (to us) - there is so little actual information.  The news sites talk, babble, scream, moan, and publish endless one-liners from so-called "experts" that range between guarded optimism to predictions of total apocalypse.  And yet they say nothing, all the while trying to generate excitement about their meaningless utterings. The causes are many.  Certainly Tokyo Electric Power has not been saying a whole lot to reporters.  And why should they?  Do they not have enough to do without further goading the media machine?  Like talk to the IAEA, which they can (and should) be doing better?  Or maybe devoting every second of time towards pursuing every possible, potential solutio...