Thursday, July 7, 2011

07/07 混乱に輪かける唐突な原発テスト表明

2011/7/7付

 海江田万里経済産業相が6日、全国の原子力発電所でストレステスト(耐性調査)と呼ぶ追加的な安全検査を実施すると表明した。地震や津波に襲われたとき、原発の設備が安全基準で定めた水準に対し、どの程度の余裕があるか調べる検査だ。

 福島第1原発の事故を受け、ほかの原発で安全性を念入りに確かめること自体は妥当だ。しかし、定期検査で止まった原発の再稼働をめぐり地元が厳しい判断を迫られているなか、唐突な追加検査の実施表明は混乱に拍車を掛けている。

 経産相はこれまで地元自治体に再稼働の要請を続けてきた。一方で、原発事故の発生から4カ月近くたっていきなりテスト実施を持ち出した。本来なら事故直後に始めるべきテストを、なぜ、この時期に実施すると発表したのか、理解に苦しむ。

 定期検査で停止中の九州電力玄海原発2、3号機では地元が再開を容認する姿勢だった。だが佐賀県知事は「テストを待って判断するのが妥当」と、結論を先送りした。地元の自治体や住民は困惑し、かえって不信感を募らせている。

 このままでは54ある原発すべてが1年以内に止まり、電力不足が深刻化して経済全体に影響が及ぶ。経産相は危機回避へ全力を尽くすというが、それを乗り越えるための具体的な手立てを示さなければならない。

 菅直人首相はテスト実施の理由を自ら丁寧に説明すべきだ。首相は中部電力浜岡原発について政治判断で停止を指示し、これが発端になってほかの原発の運転再開が遅れている面がある。首相は佐賀県知事との面会も先送りしているが、これではあまりに無責任ではないか。

 福島第1原発の事故を受け、欧州連合(EU)は域内の原発で素早くストレステストに着手した。日本でも実施する以上、細目を早く示し、国民が信頼できる検査体制を整えることが欠かせない。国の原子力安全委員会が関与し、「ダブルチェック体制」を機能させる必要がある。

 原発の新設や運転再開では、まず原子力安全・保安院が安全性を審査し、それを安全委が重ねて点検する仕組みを取っている。班目春樹委員長はストレステストで大きな弱点が見つかれば「対策を実施するまで運転をすべきではない」と述べた。

 安全委は原発事故へ対応が後手に回ったことで批判を浴び、政府は原子力安全を担う組織を再編する方針だ。しかし今の事態は急を要する。ここはひとまず安全委が「原子力安全の番人」たる役目を果たさなければ、その存在意義はない。

07/07 春秋



2011/7/7付
 中世から20世紀にいたるヨーロッパ全体の歴史を知ろうとするならば、欠かせないことがふたつあるという。まずはキリスト教。もうひとつが600年以上にわたって君臨したハプスブルク王朝である。(江村洋著「ハプスブルク家」)
▼王朝はオーストリア・ハンガリー帝国が第1次大戦に敗れた1918年についえた。そのとき6歳。最後の皇帝の皇太子だったオットー・フォン・ハプスブルク氏が4日に98歳で死去した。世が世なら皇帝という人は、米国などでの亡命生活を経て第2次大戦後はドイツに住み、「欧州をひとつに」と訴え続けた。
▼家訓といえばいいか。「戦は他の者に任せよ。なんじ幸あるオーストリアよ、婚姻せよ」というのがハプスブルク流だったそうだ。武力より結婚によって版図を広げ、さまざまな文化や言語を持つ民族をゆるやかに束ねる統治の仕方が真骨頂だった。その柔らかさが、まれにみる長寿王朝を築いた秘訣でもあった。
▼かつて帝国のうちにあり民族紛争の舞台にもなった旧ユーゴスラビアのクロアチアが先ごろ、欧州連合(EU)に入ることが決まった。そうなれば再来年には28カ国の集まりになる。苦労しつつ拡大を続けるEUの歩みは、ハプスブルクが刻んだ歴史と無縁ではないのだろう。もちろん政略結婚は別として、だが。

07/07 憂楽帳:福島の子供対策


 「福島県の子供が原発事故による放射能汚染の不安におびえる様子を見てられない。カネ(予算)は幾らでも付けるから、学校や通学路の放射線量低減策を一日でも早く打ち出してほしいと、文部科学省の担当者にお願いしている。新聞も『菅(直人)政権は子供対策を急げ』と書いてください」
 5月中旬、夕食をともにした財務省の中堅幹部は熱っぽく訴えた。「同じ子供を持つ親として、対策の遅れは許し難い」とも。
 それから約1カ月半。菅政権はようやく福島県の学校や妊婦の放射能汚染対策を盛り込んだ11年度第2次補正予算案を閣議決定、国会に提出した。
 先の財務省幹部は、学校で削り取られた放射性物質を含んだ土が校庭に置かれたままな点も心配し、「福島第1原発敷地内に密閉施設を造って、削った土を集約すべきだ」とも指摘したが、菅政権はそこまで対策を徹底する方針は示していない。天下り問題など何かと批判される霞が関だが、政治混迷で遅れる東日本大震災対応に心を痛める官僚も少なくない。【竹川正記】
毎日新聞 2011年7月7日 東京夕刊

07/07 余録:江戸は日本橋浮世小路の「百川」といえば…

 江戸は日本橋浮世小路の「百川(ももかわ)」といえば、落語にも登場する料理茶屋だ。今なら三つ星の名店ということで、幕末にはペリー一行をもてなす日本側の歓迎宴の料理を1000両で幕府から請け負った▲この時は、ヒラメの吸い物、だて巻きや紅ちくわ、車エビやシラウオの炊き合わせ、ヒラメやアジの刺し身、アワビと赤貝のなます、ムツなどの煮物、タイの焼き物など20品目以上の献立が供されている。ただペリー側は日本の歓待を評価しつつも料理の採点は厳しい▲「客人は不慣れの料理でほとんど満腹せず、ひもじい腹を抱えて帰った」とペリーの日本遠征記は記している。肉や乳製品、油脂を用いずに魚介や野菜の持ち味とダシのうまみを生かす日本料理の特質は、当時の欧米人には「貧弱」(同遠征記)と受け止められたのだ▲時は流れ、その同じ特質を「健康的で、洗練された日本食」と世界のグルメが受け止めるようになった今日である。ならばその世界無形文化遺産登録をめざそうとの動きが農林水産省で進められている。これまで食文化ではフランス、メキシコなどが登録されている▲背景には日本食の評価が高まる中で起こった原発事故がある。風評による食材の輸出落ち込みや、海外の観光客の激減という逆風の中、日本の「食」の信頼回復の一助にしたいというわけである。こちらは開国後の日本料理の名誉回復のようには時間をかけられない▲思えば、すしや天ぷらなど庶民の屋台から国際的な人気料理を生み出した日本人だ。ここは高級料理での幕末の失敗からも学び、日本の食文化の元気良さ、奥の深さをアピールできればいい。

毎日新聞 2011年7月7日 東京朝刊

07/07 よみうり寸評

7月7日付 

 またまた菅首相の〈場当たり〉的な指示が出た。全国各地の原発の再稼働についてストレステスト(耐性検査)を実施するという◆安全性確保のためのストレステスト自体は実施に異論はない。が、エネルギー政策の根幹にかかわる決断が、こうも行き当たりばったりでいいのだろうか◆九州電力の玄海原発(佐賀県)は先月、海江田経産相が運転再開について地元自治体に「安全」のお墨付きを出したばかり。任されていたはずの経産相は突然はしごを外されたかたちだ◆佐賀県の古川知事も当惑。いったんは再稼働了承を九電に伝えた地元玄海町の岸本町長は了承を撤回した。途中までは〈丸投げ〉、最終段階では〈場当たり〉指示。これでは周囲も迷惑千万だ◆経産相は「より安心感を得るためのテスト」と位置づけるが、首相は「まずルールを明確にする」と再稼働はテスト後に判断する意向。閣内の亀裂が露呈した◆こんな経緯を見ていると、いつ崩れるのか、首相と内閣のストレステストを見ているような気もする。
(2011年7月7日14時10分  読売新聞)

07/07 編集手帳

7月7日付 

 胸を患った石田波郷はある年の七夕を療養所で迎えた。患者たちがこしらえた七夕飾りのなかに、その二文字を見つけたのだろう。〈七夕竹たなばただけ惜命 しゃくみょうの文字隠れなし〉(句集『惜命』より)◆「命を惜しむ」と読むのが普通だが、感嘆符を添えて「命が惜しい!」と読んでみるとき、短冊を書いた人の息づかいがいっそう切実に伝わってくる。恋愛成就、立身出世、商売繁盛、志望校突破…その他どんな願いごとも、命あってのことである◆今宵こよい、多くの人が胸の奥に飾るだろう短冊の言葉も、おそらくは「惜命」の一語だろう◆七夕に似合う童画風の詩句ではなく、いつにまして病中詠に心ひかれるのは、あまりに多くの死に接したあとだからかも知れない。波郷には、病む胸を詠んだ落雷の句もあった。〈雷落ちて火柱見せよ胸の上〉(句集『病雁びょうがん』より)。雷よ、わが胸に落ち、火柱を立ててみよ、と◆人の命というものをじっと見つめる「七夕竹」の句と、ときに萎えそうな心にカンフル剤を注射する「落雷」の句と――二つの句のあいだを行きつ戻りつしながら、震災後を何とか生きている。そんな気もする。
(2011年7月7日01時30分  読売新聞)

07/07 Cấm sờ đầu rùa: Thi ĐH đợt 1 làm nghiêm, đợt 2 lại lỏng lẻo!



Thứ năm, 07 Tháng 7 2011 07:45

(GDVN) - Vào chiều 6/7, các sĩ tử chuẩn bị tham gia kì thi tuyển sinh Đại học lần 2 đã tới Quốc Tử Giám để cầu may. Rút kinh nghiệm những năm trước, Ban quàn lí di tích đã chăng dây xung quanh khu vực bia tiến sĩ để tránh tình trạng các sĩ tử “sờ đầu rùa” cầu may. Tuy nhiên vẫn có rất nhiều bạn đã thản nhiên sờ như chỗ không người.

Như vậy, có thể thấy, trước đợt thi ĐH đợt 1, nơi đây đã nghiên cấm một cách "bài bản", nhưng đến đợt 2 này, sĩ tử có vẻ lại được... tự nhiên muốn làm gì thì làm.
Chúng tôi xin gửi tới quý độc giả về chùm ảnh hiện tượng này vào chiều 6/7. Ảnh được chụp vào 15h45 tại Văn Miếu Quốc Tử Giám.
Tranh thủ lúc bảo vệ không để ý, một thí sinh đã vào khu vực cấm
Tranh thủ lúc bảo vệ không để ý, một thí sinh đã vào khu vực cấm
 
Và bắt đầu
Và bắt đầu "hành sự" như chỗ không người.
 
Cố với vào trong để xoa cho bằng được
Cố với vào trong để xoa cho bằng được
 
 “Nhanh lên kẻo bảo vệ nhìn thấy!”
“Nhanh lên kẻo bảo vệ nhìn thấy!”
 
Một sĩ tử đã bị bảo vệ nhắc nhở nhưng vẫn cố xoa cho bằng được
Một sĩ tử đã bị bảo vệ nhắc nhở nhưng vẫn cố xoa cho bằng được
 
Bảo vệ đã phải chăng lại dây do sự cố của sĩ tử trên gây ra
Bảo vệ đã phải chăng lại dây do sự cố của sĩ tử trên gây ra
 
 Nhiều cột đứng để chăng dây dã bị lung lay và nghiêng đổ
Nhiều cột đứng để chăng dây dã bị lung lay và nghiêng đổ
 
Phụ huynh ở ngoài cổ vũ và canh chừng bảo vệ cho sĩ tử
Phụ huynh ở ngoài cổ vũ và canh chừng bảo vệ cho sĩ tử
 
Phụ huỵnh và sĩ tử chen chúc xếp hàng để xoa đầu rùa
Hả hê vì đã hoàn thành “nhiệm vụ”
 

Minh Quý
 
Tags: sĩ tử,  sờ đầu rùa  

07/07 Indian gay gaffe spotlights changing attitudes

Jul 7, 2011



Indian Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad gestures during a press conference in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, July 5, 2011. -- PHOTO: AP


NEW DELHI - THE Indian gay community has made great strides in gaining acceptance in recent years, but a minister's description of homosexuality as 'unnatural' this week shows that prejudices still run deep.
Almost two years to the day after a landmark Delhi High Court ruling decriminalised homosexuality, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad shocked gay rights activists on Tuesday with his remarks at an HIV/Aids conference.
Homosexuality was 'unnatural and not good for India' and 'a disease which has come from other countries", he was quoted as saying, though he later said he did not consider being gay a disease.
The condemnation from India's gay activists was quick and forthright, reflecting the growing confidence of a minority movement that is no longer scared of asserting its rights.
Other signs of the community's increasing visibility include the sale of same-sex Valentine's Day cards and gay magazines, as well as the Bollywood blockbuster Dostana, in which a mother welcomes her son's supposed boyfriend into her home.
The country's first gay pride store was launched in an upmarket suburb of Mumbai in December 2009. -- AFP

07/07 Tepco halts cooling system at nuclear plant after sparks

Jul 7, 2011



TOKYO - THE operator of Japan's Fukushima Daini nuclear power plant, located near the tsunami-crippled Daiichi plant, on Thursday halted the cooling system at one of its reactors after electrical sparks were detected, Kyodo news agency reported.
Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), the plant's operator, expects to be able to restore the cooling system at the Daini plant's No 1 reactor before the end of Thursday, Kyodo said.
The Daini plant, about 240km from Tokyo, is located several miles along the Pacific coast from the Daiichi plant, damaged severely by the powerful earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan on March 11.
The Daini plant suffered less damage from the disasters and is currently in cold shutdown. -- REUTERS

07/07 French oyster farmers return favour to Japan

Jul 7, 2011


This handout photo taken and released by French shipping company SDV on July 6, 2011 shows containers of floats and ropes for the cultivation of oysters, in a cargo yard at Narita international airport. The equipment for the farmed oysters arrived from Paris and will transported to the Kesennuma and Miyako earthquake disaster sites. -- PHOTO: AFP


TOKYO - TWICE in the past 40 years, French oyster farmers were saved by their colleagues on Japan's northern Pacific coast. After the March 11 tsunami, they decided it was time to return the favour.
This week they kicked off an aid effort to help oyster growers who lost everything when the seabed quake sent a massive tsunami barrelling into Japan's north-east, destroying entire towns - and their livelihoods.
A seven-tonne shipment of oyster farm equipment - buoys, ropes and fishermen's clothing - arrived from Charente-Maritime and Brittany in western France at Tokyo's Narita International airport on Wednesday.
The gear will be trucked to the Sanriku region, where oyster farmers hoping to rebuild their world-famous industry must hurry to kick off the growth cycle for oysters by the middle of the month.
'It's a race against time,' said Arnaud Rastoul, director of logistics company SDV, in charge of transporting the material. To start off a new generation of oysters, farmers must suspend ropes fitted with shells in the ocean. These attract larvae or embryos that will grow into food oysters within three years.
Operation 'France o-kaeshi' (France returns the gift) recalls those times in 1970 and 1990 when disease outbreaks wrecked French oyster farms, and Japanese growers provided larvae to help them start again. -- AFP

07/07 S.Korea starts work on new N.Korea refugee centre

Jul 7, 2011


South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In Taek. -- PHOTO: REUTERS


SEOUL - SOUTH Korea broke ground on Thursday for a second resettlement centre to help growing numbers of refugees from communist North Korea adjust to life in the capitalist South.
When completed by the end of next year the new facility in Hwacheon county, 120km north-east of Seoul, will accommodate up to 500 refugees at a time, the unification ministry said.
Unification Minister Hyun In Taek said the number of refugees to reach the South since the 1950-53 war stood at 22,000 but would soon reach 30,000-40,000.
Resettlement centres run a mandatory three-month course which covers career guidance, information on the South and basic everyday skills such as buying a subway ticket, opening a bank account and using a credit card.
The refugees are given financial and housing support upon leaving, but often hand much of their cash to professional brokers who helped them escape.
Seoul sees the refugees as 'front-runners' to work for eventual reunification. Pyongyang says the conservative South Korean government has a 'pipe dream' of absorbing it in a German-style reunification. -- AFP

07/07 パーカーら評論家が集結、「ワイン・フューチャー・香港」

 40か国のワイン産業の専門家が集まる「ワイン・フューチャー・香港」が、11月6日から3日間にわたり開かれる。

 米英仏を代表する評論家ロバート・パーカー、ジャンシス・ロビンソンMW、ミシェル・ベタンヌ氏に、スペインのパンチョ・カンポMW、アジアからジェニー・チョ・リーMW、リサ・ペロッティ・ブラウンMWらが参加。生産者サイドからは、ミシェル・ロラン、アンジェロ・ガイヤ、ピエール・リュルトン、ランダル・グラハム、クリスチャン・シーリィら各氏が参加予定。討論の模様はストリーミング映像で流される計画。

 このイベントは、ワイン・アカデミー・オブ・スペインが主催する。2009年にリオハで初めて開かれて、今回が2回目。パーカー氏がボルドー、ロビンソンMWが個性的なワイン、カンポMWがスペインワインの試飲会を開く。また、経済危機、消費動向、環境など多彩な問題を話し合う。入場料は討論だけが1200ユーロ、討論と試飲会が2500ユーロ。

(2011年7月7日 読売新聞)

07/07 4号機プールに冷却装置、今月末にも試運転開始

 福島第一原子力発電所で最も数の多い使用済み核燃料が保管される4号機の一時貯蔵プールに外付けの循環型冷却装置が今月末にも設置され、試運転を開始する。

 装置が稼働すれば、水温は31~35度で安定し、東京電力の事故収束に向けた工程表で、来年1月中旬までを目標とする「ステップ2」が大幅に前倒しして達成されることになる。

 東電によると、プールには計1535体の燃料集合体(燃料棒の束)が置かれる。爆発でプールの配管が損傷したため、仮設配管でプールの上から注水しているが、数日で水が沸騰するほど燃料集合体が熱を出し、プールを支えるコンクリート(耐熱温度65度)の劣化が心配されていた。

(2011年7月7日11時34分 読売新聞)

Jobs market: Men, hit hardest in recession, are getting work faster than women

The recession was hard on men, who saw construction and manufacturing jobs dry up, but the recovery is proving much kinder. In a rare turnabout, men are outpacing women ingetting jobs as the economy struggles back to life — and they’re doing it partly by taking work in fields long dominated by women.
Men are accounting for a growing proportion of jobs in the private education and health-care industries — economic bright spots of the past two years. Simultaneously, women are losing teaching and other local government jobs at a disproportionately high rate as municipalities cut back, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center.
Graphic
Men gain, women lose
Men gain, women lose
More On This Story
The trend is a partial reversal of the recession of 2007 to 2009, when men experienced a much higher rate of job loss than women, with steep losses in the male-dominated manufacturing and construction industries. It also defies the historical trend; women fared better in the job market than men in the aftermath of each of the past five recessions, according to the Pew study, which is based on Labor Department data.
Since the recent recession ended in 2009, men have added 768,000 jobs, while the number of jobs held by women has fallen by 218,000, according to the study.
These are hardly grand times for male workers, though. Unemployment remains a full percentage point higher among men than among women (the rates were about the same before the recession), and 56 percent of unemployed Americans in May were men.
But it is clear that men, having borne the brunt of the downturn, are looking outside their traditional fields to find work. For example, men held about 23 percent of health-care and education jobs before the recession but account for 39 percent of the jobs added in those fields since the summer of 2009.
The shift is apparent in programs that prepare people for the workforce.
At Joliet Junior College in Illinois, for example, the nursing program has had a 10 percent increase in male students over the past five years. During that same period, the number of men studying pharmacy technology rose 125 percent, and there are now 60 men in the radiology technology program, far more than in the past.
Cecile Regner, the school’s dean of nursing, allied health and emergency services, said many of the male students are older and have come from the construction or manufacturing fields or from the military. Most are seeking stability.
“Health care provides good jobs,” Regner said. “In this economy, the fact that they are stable jobs are probably the most important thing. . . . It makes it very appealing.”
Even as historically male-dominated industries remain in the doldrums and men look elsewhere for work, local governments have been slashing their majority-female workforces. Employment in the sector held steady during the recession, but in the past year tens of thousands of schoolteachers and other civil servants have been laid off.
In the past month alone, numerous municipal governments — including Memphis; Tallahassee; Duluth, Minn.; and Nassau County, N.Y. — collectively have laid off hundreds of public-sector employees or said they expect to soon.
In Philadelphia, where the school district already has shed more than 3,000 jobs, more layoffs appear on the horizon. More than 500 layoff notices recently went out to employees of Milwaukee Public Schools. Chicago Public Schools officials are planning to send out roughly 1,000 pink slips in coming days.
Women make up the majority of employees in local government nationwide and have been particularly battered by the recent public-sector layoffs.
“Men were in a deeper hole in terms of jobs lost during the recession, and it make sense that they would come back faster,” said Heather Boushey, senior economist at the Center for American Progress, who has studied differences in employment trends for men and women. “But there’s also a large role played by cuts at state and local governments. We’re laying off teachers around the country.”
Still, something more than sectorial shifts seems to be afoot. According to the Pew study, men have done better than women in 15 of 16 major sectors of employment — in sectors that are male-dominated, female-dominated and evenly divided.
While the Pew researchers were hesitant about drawing firm conclusions from this, one possibility is that men, who are at the moment disproportionately unemployed, are more willing to accept low wages or a job outside their comfort zone than women.
But more fundamentally, with the nation still in the midst of a slow, grinding recovery from the recent downturn, the full results are not in.
“We’re still in rough waters, and this is a recovery where the first two years are telling you what happened in the initial stages of the recovery,” said Rakesh Kochhar, a senior researcher at Pew’s social and demographic trends project who led the study. “The story is still being written, and we don’t know where we’ll end up.”

07/07 Chat video và chat nhóm của Facebook trình làng

Thứ Năm, 07/07/2011, 09:00
TTO - Để giữ chân người dùng không "lạc lối" sang Google+, Facebook vừa giới thiệu hai cải tiến mới rất hấp dẫn: chat video và chat nhóm.
Facebook đã bắt tay Skype để cung cấp cho người dùng tính năng chat video. Ảnh: internet
Trong một sự kiện diễn ra vào rạng sáng nay (giờ Việt nam) tại Palo Alto, california, ông chủ Facebook chính thức công bố “vũ khí” mới của Facebook, và đây cũng chính là hai “điều tuyệt vời” mà người dùng đang mong đợi.
Chức năng chat video dựa trên nền tảng Skype này đã được tích hợp vào công cụ chat quen thuộc trên Facebook. Để thực hiện một cuộc gọi video đến những người bạn, bạn chỉ việc click vào biểu tượng “start video call” và sử dụng. Trong khi đó, tính năng chat nhóm cũng cho phép nhiều người dùng Facebook có thể tham gia trò chuyện với nhau. Rất đơn giản, bạn chỉ việc chat với người đầu tiên trong nhóm bạn, và sau đó nhấp vào biểu tượng “Add Friends to chat” để thêm người cùng bàn luận.
Video quảng cáo tính năng chat video trên Facebook - Nguồn: YouTube
Tuy vậy, nhiều người vẫn tỏ ra băn khoăn với câu hỏi liệu Facebook có tích hợp tính năng chat video vào công cụ chat nhóm hay không? Vì đây cũng chính là tính năng Hangouts đắc dụng trên Google+. Facebook chỉ mới cho phép hai người chat video với nhau, trong khi Google+ hỗ trợ đến 10 người.
Phát biểu tại sự kiện, Zurkerberg không phủ định cũng không hứa hẹn sẽ cho ra đời một tính năng tương tự Hangouts. Trước mắt, Facebook vẫn còn khá nhiều việc cần làm để hoàn thiện hơn hai công cụ mới ra mắt.
Việc tung ra hai tính năng mới cũng đã cụ thể hóa cho sự hợp tác giữa Facebook và Microsoft. Sau khi mua lại Skype với giá 8,5 tỉ USD, Microsoft đã nhận lời hỗ trợ phát triển cho Facebook những tính năng dựa trên nền tảng của Skype, đổi lại Microsoft cũng có được một lượng cổ phần nhất định trong Facebook.
DUY KỲ ANH (theo Reuters và WashingtonPost)