Bathtubs

I've been watching the news on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident very closely since it happened. There just hasn't been enough of it to even begin to suit me. So, I read or watch everything I can find on the net: The Japanese mainstream media, the TEPCO/NISA/IAEA/WNN/ANS updates, Arnie Gunderson's Fairewinds videos, and blogs published by all types of scientists, engineers, real people and whackos. Luckily, google translate for Japanese is much better than for Persian, and better yet for French, German and Spanish.

I have no idea what's true in any of it. I don't think either TEPCO or the Japanese government yet know what's true about the damage to the reactors and spent fuel pool, but they've certainly demonstrated that they have intentionally withheld at least some information to "avoid panic." I'm thinking it will be many years before either they or the rest of us understand what has happened and why in any detail.

I suspect most of you already know why I'm writing about Fukushima on a blog dedicated to ME. It seems to me that the Fukushima information flow (and lack and inaccuracies thereof) is very similar to what we're dealing with in ME research. The rate of information release is agonizingly slow, some of it is flat wrong, some of it seems solid but incomplete, and it seems like some of it is being withheld or simply blocked.

Just as I've been frustrated by the small amount and slow pace of information coming out about Fukushima, I'm totally frustrated by the amount and excruciatingly slow pace of research on ME. But, in contrast to the state of ME research, at least we can generally assume that the Japanese are motivated to get the facts as quickly as possible to put a stop to the radiation releases. With ME, it's readily apparent, after 30 years, that there are very few decision-makers who have any sense of urgency at all about solving this puzzle.

So, I do the same with ME as I do about Fukushima. I read everything I have time to find and digest, and especially appreciate the forums and blogs and facebook posts and conferences that make it easy for me. I like to read/watch it all -- the garbage along with the good. I definitely don't want anyone to censor it for me or "protect" me from it. And I especially appreciate those knowledgeable folks who will take the time to try to explain and interpret the virology for me.

I want more! I want bathtubs of data on ME!!

(God bless Judy for being willing to speak as openly to us as she does.)

But, until the spigot starts flowing, I'll have to make do primarily with impressions, opinions, speculation and arguments -- some solid info and some just plain b.s.

Please keep it coming. And thanks for the companionship...