Immediate

While listening to the news from Fukushima, a comment was repeatedly made by the authorities:

There is no immediate danger.

Of course there is none. Danger, by definition, is not immediate; it means the risk of injury or death in the future. For example, if you are going to die tomorrow, this is not an immediate danger - after all, I may not be in the office by that time.

Let me share with you a small paragraph about Marie Curie, from Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything:

For a long time it was assumed that anything as miraculously energetic as radioactivity must be beneficial. For years manufacturers of both paste and laxatives put radioactive thorium in their products. Radioactivity wasn’t banned in consumer products until 1938. By this time it was much too late for Madame Curie, who died of leukemia in 1934. Radiation in fact, is so pernicious and long lasting that even now her papers for the 1890’s, even her cookbooks are too dangerous to handle. Her lab books are kept in lead-lined boxes and those who wish to see them must don protective clothing.

Or, maybe I should show you this little scene in Casablanca:

Yvonne: Where were you last night?

Rick: That's so long ago, I don't remember.

Yvonne: Will I see you tonight?

Rick: I never make plans that far ahead.

As Zhuangzi (莊子) said: You can never explain what snow is to a worm that does not live beyond the summer (夏虫不可語冰).