feelgood headline of the week ...'Japan Shies Away from Predicting End to Nuclear Crisis'

[spanone]

wtf? shies away? nytimes?



TOKYO — The work of digging out and rebuilding continued in Japan on Saturday, more than two weeks after a devastating earthquake and tsunami, as a government spkesman said he could not predict when the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex would be brought under control.

Workers on Saturday resumed repair efforts Saturday, restoring lighting to the central control room of the No. 2 unit, Tokyo Electric Power said. It was another step toward restarting the cooling system that shut down after the disaster. That leaves only the No. 4 unit without lighting.

They also began pumping in fresh water to the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 units, after days of spraying the reactors with corrosive salt water. The United States military was aiding the effort, sending barges with 500,000 gallons of fresh water from the Yokosuka naval base. Those were expected to arrive later Saturday.

The effort to restore crucial cooling systems and safeguard the plant continued as a humanitarian crisis mounts along the northeast coast of Japan, where a 9.0 magnitude earthquake triggered a devastating tsunami on March 11, wiping entire towns off the map.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/27/world/asia/27japan.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

[SpiralHawk]

1. Hip Hip Hooooray !!!

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy

[Buzz Clik]

3. Yes, there is much to like in endless nuclear crises.

:party:

[Buzz Clik]

2. That headline doesn't make me feel good.

Not sure how to interpret you title, but it seems dead on to me.

[spanone]

4. guess i needed the sarcasm thingy

[Buzz Clik]

5. Hm. Clarification please:

I got the sarcasm, but I thought you felt that the headline was not nearly negative enough. A lot of DUers are convinced we'll all be dead of radiation poisoning by the end of the week, so I thought your sarcasm (which came through clearly) meant that the headline should have said, "Japanese Close to Admitting That They Have Killed Us All".

After your response, I'm getting the impression you simply meant that this is yet another bit of bad news from an already bad situation.

For me, I take heart in the fact that they are brining in fresh water to wash out the salts, power is being restored, etc.

Not great news, but not it could be worse.

[spanone]

6. you interpret way too much.

[Buzz Clik]

8. I do.

But it's a problem when obvious sarcasm can be interpreted in two, totally contrasting ways. I guess some of us prefer to be shrouded in mystery.

[Bluenorthwest]

7. I don't see what is supposed to be 'feel good' about that at all.

To shy away means to avoid intentionally, usually to avoid that which should be dealt with directly. To say authorities are shying away from making a statement is not a positive thing at all, it suggests a lack of truthfulness, or worse, a lack of any actual knowledge on the part of those who are being evasive, shying away from saying what they mean.
I'm very sorry, but that does not strike me as 'feel good' at all, it seems rather descriptive of the evasion of the authorities in question. The article says that a humanitarian crisis is mounting, and the people in charge are being evasive. Where is the 'feel good' in that?
What do you think 'shy away' means? He shied away from his responsibility. He shied away from taking on the role of father to his children. She shied away from telling him where she was that afternoon. If you ask me for a raise, and I shy away, are you feeling good about that?

[MineralMan]

9. I'm not sure that "shies away" is appropriate there.

How could they predict any time for this to be resolved? They still don't even know exactly what the extent of the problem is. It would be irresponsible for anyone to make a prediction at this point. Bad headline writing, I think.

[Urban Prairie]

10. Where is the radioactive water from the turbine building going?!?

"A Tokyo Electric Power Company spokeswoman, Linda Gunter, said the company was pumping water from the basement, which is now as much as five feet deep. The water, she said, is not being dumped into the environment.”

So the extremely radioactive water is being pumped into what?

Lead-lined tanker trucks?