Japan
[UPDATE at end of post] Russian President-for-Life Vladimir Putin can show off his pecs and fly with the geese, but Russia is largely a world-power has-been at this point, even with its nuclear arsenal. China, though — China, with fewer nukes, is more dangerous, all the more so because of its internal problems (weak economics [...]
Click on the chart above to see it in full size. The smallest scale is the one at the bottom (labeled (1)). Each scale above that one represents 10x the range of the scale below it. When you hear news reports about “detectable radiation that is above normally accepted limits” around the heavily damaged Fukushima [...]
[UPDATED 03/13/11 -- 1809 MDT] Jerry Pournelle links to the blog of an American engineer in Japan who points out at length just how well everything has worked in Japan during and in the aftermath of the quake, with a gentle reminder of how big Japan is: Quite a lot of the reporting on Japan, [...]
Robert Samuelson is, in my opinion, one of the most level-headed and independent business/economics journalists around. I don’t always agree with him — but when I don’t, I strongly consider that I may be wrong. His latest piece can probably be read as another shot across the bow of the stimulus efforts coming from the Fed [...]