(Blog Post) Tsunami is a Japanese word – one sign of the island nation’s intimate relationship with the destructive forces of the ocean that surrounds it. Despite the fact that the word is one of the few from the Japanese language to attain universal use, “tsunami” didn’t even appear in Japanese government guidelines and standards for nuclear plants until 2006... Full Story »
Posted by Rory O'Connor - via Kaizar Campwala (t)
Fascinating observation about language limiting vision. O'Connor conjectures that lack of appropriately terrifying terminology in "Nukespeak" has capped the limits of scientific imagination and limited precautionary engineering standards to levels below known prior events.
I can imagine a diplomatic realm wherein nobody says "no one could have imagined" something predictable. It isn't that we don't have enough information. One has only to take a good look at the hybrid map of the "Earthquakes in the Last Week" by Terrametrics: http://earthquakes.tafoni.net/. Invest some time in this tool to take a good look at what satellite images show of the ocean floor. Read a bit of general geophysics, and connect the (earthquake) dots. The Pacific Rim, aka The ... More »
The language of Nukespeak, as we have pointed out for decades, (ever since co-writing the book Nukespeak: Nuclear Language, Visions and Mindset) is one of euphoric visions ... More »
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