Tsunami, Whaling, Employment, Tourism

Now I know why the Japanese opposed restrictions on whaling. The economy of an entire coastal town depended upon it. Unfortunately the sea which provided their living has also taken many lives. Three questions, first what's more important, whales or people? Second, are/were they over-fishing whales to extinction? Thirdly, solving the other problems, can the people be given alternative employment? In an area away from whales and tsunami? First step would be a Tsunami Museum, way back in safety on the hillside overlooking the area.

Japan tsunami breaks wall

Tsunami Rescue Prevention And Cure Problems And Answers

Question/Problem 1 Tsunami-proof buildings?

Answer 1 Pictures of Yamada/ Wakuya show buildings pulverised and swept away; but despite surroundings being demolished, multi-storey ones, some on higher ground, survived as safety islands. Copy those buildings.

Question 2 Government refuses help? Happens too often, dictators on small islands and big modern countries where top families are recluses who never speak.

Answer 2 U.N. must declare a disaster zone and move in.

Question 3 Can the UK help? We can't organise or distribute funds in priority to fix our potholed roads.

Answer 3 Armies should divert from war/unemployment to build roads and bridges.

Q/Problem 4 It takes time. But people buried under rubble don't have time. Nor do those without food and clean water. They need Medicines. Roads.

Answer 4 Have a central co-ordination service like the US wartime hospitals to prioritise needs and direct the assorted aid agencies.

Problem 5 We can't land planes because no airport.

Answer 5 We need helicopters. Need big ships you can land on. Launch small amphibious (land and sea) boats.

Problem 6 But can't risk rescuers because of risk of after-shocks, more tsunami?

Answer 6 Japan and other countries have volunteers in wartime, kamikazi pilots, suicide bombers - surely there are enough risk-takers who find the risk a thrill, or who are altruistic or want the accolade of being a living hero or dead martyr?

Question/Problem 7 But speed is vital.

Answer 7 Forget paperwork. Sukihara issued unappproved transit visas to save lives in WWII. Japanese and UK officials should send real or fake papers or risk government wrath to move in aid. Embassy should hotline to (UK) head of state.

Q/Problem 8 No phones! No info.

Answer 8 Back to basics like in Africa where the whole village is gathered in one building and one TV gives out information and one phone is shared by all.

Wind-up radio.

Satellite is used by newspapers to phone reports home.

Problem 9 Wind-up radios and satellite phones are costly.

Answer 9 Google, Apple, Buffet, aid agencies, public - help!

Tsunami Safety For Cars, Boats, Buildings

Watching the horrific amateur videos of the Japanese tsunami March 2011 on the pages of national newspapers, I saw a ship swept under a bridge and crushed. Then cars swept into buildings.

Noah's Ark are the words which come to my mind. What is the solution? What could the boat designers do? Anchors? Submarines? Bumpers?

What could car designers do? Amphibious vehicles? Signals sent further inland when sea wall are breached. Cars with all round bumpers? But some were tossed upside down.

Oxygen supplies in cars for trapped drivers?

They've done research in London on how to design buildings on stilts so the water passes through. Now they need designers for cars and boats.

Why I like Country Music Stories

I love Country Music. Dolly Garton. Garth Brooks. Patsy Cline. All those wonderful stories told in three verses with a twist end to each one in less than fifty words. Especially tragic and humorous.

For example, unrequited love. Sylvia's mother (mother says she's getting married - punchline narrator sings, tell her goodbye).

Humour and revenge: The day my mother socked it to the PTA.

Humour: The man who steals bits of cars from a factory and makes an absurd car with bits of different models and makes of cars, gets caught and ends up in prison.

Tragic mystery: The song about the car crash and the puzzling ring in the glove box. The narrator realises it shows the woman was having an affair. The punchline says he finally understood and threw into the well the ring, to hide it, because it belonged to - his mother.

The trucker buying flowers to be sent to his Mum. The trucker pays for the flowers for the little impecunious little boy and follows the kid to see if Mum likes the flowers. The kid puts the flowers on his mother's grave. So the trucker goes back to the flower shop, reclaims the flowers and delivers them in person to his own mother.

'What Does A Woman Want,' asked Freud. Listen.

What does a woman want? asked Freud. Many women tell a man exactly what she wants, but he doesn't listen. He tries to persuade her to do what he wants. That's like a salesman trying to sell you something different. Occasionally it will work. But not long term. The customer might change their mind within a week. Most sales courses tell the salesman to listen to what the customer wants.

A man needs to know a woman’s personality type. Is she looking for wild and exciting? (Many young women are. So are some older women ‘looking for a bit of rough’.

Or is she looking for security and safety? Even if she seems wild, she might have a hidden fear. She might be quite happy to get drunk, but be terrified of old houses with mice or spiders.

She might want to be excited by her fears in a horror movie. Or this might turn her off completely. Does she want to face her fears, or seek reassurance?

What Are Her Hidden Fears?

Maybe she doesn’t like remote locations, side entrances, front doors in the dark. (Better to leave a light on over the door if you are planning t bring her back after dark.)

She might not like basements.

She might not like heights. The penthouse is glamorous, he thinks. But not for Miss Timid or Miss Vertigo. When it has a sheer drop from the balcony on a day when the news is about somebody falling or being pushed off a balcony. So only invite her onto the balcony if she wants to see the view. Don’t keep insisting she comes onto the balcony if she looks scared when you suggest it.

Waterside. Seaside. Lakeside. Yacht. Marina. Canal. Great. Romantic. Lovely view of the passing boats in summer, you think.

But the news has three bad news water stories. First about the missing yachtsman. She or you will think, the missing man was more of an expert than you, but he was in a race, though you are talking about the fun of going fast. Second, the couple who died on the yacht near Somalia. But they were in a dangerous area. They said they wanted to die doing what they loved. You just told her the same thing. Finally, thirdly, children screaming as Dad drives the car into a canal. She now starts to think, is this an omen. Is somebody up there trying to tell me something. She is going off this water idea. The more you push it, the more you will bring up reminders.

Maybe she has a horror of canals. She might think they are low class, like her Granddad. Or her ex on a leaking houseboat, in the bad old days. She might think they are for toffs, like her old boss, who thought she would service him and get the bus home. Or maybe she thinks canals and rivers just dangerous, don't like the canal. It doesn't help to be sending pictures of a stormy sea, or a deserted canal at night, when the news is full of unpleasant stories.

A colleague of a friend might have just died in 'an accident'. For example, his family and lifelong friends have no idea why he managed to drive, through a major wall, into water. It could be suicide. But if his family and friends don’t know, how well can she judge an acquaintance. Same applies to potential terrorists. How does anybody in what they perceive as a war zone (this includes any place that’s had a bombing, Ireland, Israel, London, New York, Madrid, Turkey, Kosovo, Glasgow ....)

How do you know that somebody of another religion is not a terrorist, or that their spouse or child or brother is not one, unknown to them? How do you know that your date, if you’ve never met them, has not stolen the identity of somebody of your religion or sect?

Same as skyscraper hotels all found sales dropped after a major fire, no good protesting that they had sprinklers and this and that, sales still went down. Some of the potential customers didn't even realise why they were feeling negative. They instead put more emphasis on totally different reasons, and kidded themselves that what they really wanted was a beach holiday. After the tsunami holidaymakers were all booking holidays in city centre skyscrapers.

Some of them did not tell the beach locations why.

Others didn't even realise why they had chosen the city centre holidays. It was a case of once bitten (by news) twice shy. After the consumers had forgotten, the effect lasted.

Some had not even realised at the time of the earlier incident, what was programming their actions. Same with holidays in countries at war. You can persuade a few people to take the risk, but nine out of ten decide to play safe and stay home. Also a lot of people will book a holiday in a dangerous place and then fall ill at the last moment, their subconscious telling them not to do it.

Also she might not like the suburb or city he suggests. Hull, Burnt Oak, Milton Keynes, Blackpool. Her family might not know of any great attractions in or near his home. Has he offered to show her anything in a public place, or simply ‘Come Up And See My Etchings’.

Do you think mocking her and her fears will succeed? Probably not. Teasing could work. If it's too soon, or maybe any time, she might think, 'He doesn't understand me. He doesn't care. '

How about sympathising?

If they go out for a meal on a second date, he would still have the chance of persuading her to go back to his place after the warmth of the evening, after she'd had more time with him, which she might not agree to in the cold light of day on the basis of one evening's acquaintance.

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She does like him if she engages in a long, tedious, time-wasting correspondence. When she should be working.

But he might be writing to two or twenty girls throughout Saturday until one agrees to call at his place.

If he really wants to see her he should take her to a local restaurant. Unless she has other ideas. (A sporty girl might prefer to be active. A dieting girl might like activity and a meal. After drink, neither of you will feel much like walking or driving.)

Compromise. Find out what both parties want.

She wants to eat out but he is on a budget. She might be quite happy at a carvery or other inexpensive place. Result, a successful date.