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RE: NIMBY for Nevada residents



If the regulations require that mapmakers portray the world as flat, then that's what they'll do. They're still able to tell people on their own that the world is really round. And when the regulations change, the maps will change too.

Jack Earley
Radiological Engineer

-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Kaletsch [mailto:info@eic.nu]
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 8:28 AM
To: William V Lipton
Cc: radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
Subject: Re: NIMBY for Nevada residents

So if people think the earth is flat, mapmakers should reinforce that belief in order to sell more maps, even though they know better???? That would be unethical. There should be more to human existence than clinging on to one's job at all cost. If a mapmaker can't get rich and be honest at the same time, he should resign to staying poor or he should look for a new job.
 
As mapmakers (professionals), we have the responsibility to produce accurate information. If the public is not ready for the truth and we can't sell any maps (NPPs, Yucca ...) at this time, so be it. If we do anything else, we will loose credibility for when the public becomes ready for the truth.
 
IMHO, one of the worst mistakes the nuclear industry ever made was to try to balance the anti-nuclear nutcases with its own nutcases (PR people talking about subjects they knew nothing about). By doing that, the industry has lost the support of a sizeable proportion of mainstream scientists and engineers, because the industry is seen as lacking substance.
 
(Clarification: When I refer to "anti-nuclear nutcases", I mean a small minority of anti-nukes. I have nothing but respect for most of our local (Saskatoon) anti-nukes. They are ethical, concerned people who try to understand the issues. (They don't come to the same conclusions as I and that's OK.) The nutcases that I refer to are the ones that have to be flown in from the US or eastern Canada. These are the ones that do not try to understand the issues and have made a career out of spreading misinformation.)
 
Kai 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, March 11, 2002 6:29 AM
Subject: Re: NIMBY for Nevada residents

For better or worse, politicians, voters, and homebuyers don't have to pass your "reality test."  The decisions they make are the reality we have to live with.  (If most people think the world's flat, the map makers better comply if they want to stay in business.)  It's called democracry; just deal with it.

The opinions expressed are strictly mine.
It's not about dose, it's about trust.
Curies forever.

Bill Lipton
liptonw@dteenergy.com

RuthWeiner@aol.com wrote:

In a message dated 3/8/02 2:24:09 PM Mountain Standard Time, liptonw@DTEENERGY.COM writes:
 
 
Perception is reality; just deal with it.

No, it isn't (I actually have an editorial in Risk Analysis on this topic).  Instead of bombarding the list with examples that anyone can come up with, just remember the Flat Earth Society.  Even better is Aristotelean mechanics: a moving object will stop of its own accord.  That was not only perception, but observation.  It took Newton to correctly identify the laws of motion: a moving object stops when there is an opposing force that stops it.

The little mantra that "perception is reality" does nothing but promote  and lend credibility to, junk science.  It isn't a harmless idea that anyone is entitled to have (sorry, Bill).
Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com