Posts tagged: japan
Japan voiced concern Tuesday over China’s growing assertiveness and widening naval reach in the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean and what it called the “opaqueness” of Beijing’s military budget.
I’m now inclined to think that the growth of PRC’s military-might may actually bring instability to the region. After all, Beijing is not known to be a bunch of peace-loving people. They will use force just to get what they want. Just think about the “liberation of Tibet”.
The project, for which the camera-laden car was plying the streets of Kesennuma last week, aims to provide the disaster zone with a precious record of the damage, and to track the progress of reconstruction. Towns and cities along the coast have signed on to the effort, despite Google’s previous problems with Street View.
Practical application of technology to solving critical and urgent real-world problems. The good thing is that there’s little corporate bureaucracy in stopping such things from happening.
No one knows exactly how much damage was done to the plant by the quake, or if this damage alone would account for the meltdown. However, eyewitness testimony and TEPCO’S own data indicates that the damage was significant. All of this despite the fact that shaking experienced at the plant during the quake was within it’s approved design specifications. Says Hasuike: “What really happened at the Fukushima Daiicihi Nuclear Power Plant to cause a meltdown? TEPCO and the government of Japan have provided many explanations. They don’t make sense. The one thing they haven’t provided is the truth. It’s time that they did.”
They have ruined Japan and surrounding areas with radiation, eroded public trust in the Nuclear industry within Japan, and exposed serious corrupting ethical issues within public administration.
The Japanese have been known to be respectful, but hardly ethical. Remember Toyota?
The TEPCO executive we spoke with expressed similar sentiments: “I hope the Japanese government breaks up the company as suggested by Koga-san, because I’d like to be able to tell people with pride who I work for. Right now, and for the foreseeable future, I’m ashamed to say the name of my employer. We ruined Japan.”
Never trust the Japanese institutions to be transparent and/or truthful.
Three hundred miles southwest of Fukushima, at a nuclear reactor perched on the slopes of this rustic peninsula, engineers are engaged in another precarious struggle.
I think Japan has singlehandedly put a bullet into the world-wide nuclear industry.
When Tomoko-san, a mother of two in Fukushima City, heard from an NGO worker that I was going to be in Fukushima to report on a story about radiation levels at local schools, she was kind enough to volunteer her time to speak to me – and handed me this letter.
We Pray For You—55 Youtubers Edition—Japan/US Tornado Tribute (Original song) (by jriceproductions).
Quite an impressive collaboration. It’s not easy to compile 55 users worth of input into one video and make it sound like a song, sung together.
RDTN.org is a website whose purpose is to provide an aggregate feed of nuclear radiation data from governmental, non-governmental and citizen-scientist sources. That data will be made available to everyone, including scientists and nuclear experts who can provide context for lay people. In the weeks following launch, it has become evident that there is a need for additional radiation reporting from the ground in Japan. This Kickstarter project will help us purchase up to 600 Geiger Counter devices that will be deployed to Japan. (The project minimum will fund 100 devices). The data captured from these devices will feed into the RDTN.org website and will also be made available for others to use via Pachube, an open-source platform for monitoring sensor data globally. RDTN.org field members will be trained by RDTN.org advisors to properly use these devices. The field members will be required to report to the website 8-10 times per day.
You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that’s what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.
Compassion goes a long way. This is a touching recount on how Apple Inc does its small but significant part in helping people in times of need.
Give the full article a read, we can all learn something from it nonetheless.
Donate to the Japanese Red Cross Society directly.
Massive earthquake hits Japan - The Big Picture.
Click-through for more photos.
東北・関東大地震。揺れる新宿の高層ビル 2011年3月11日 (via escot2008).
A video testament to the ingenuity of Japanese structural engineering.
A sympathetic tribute to the strong social fabric of Japanese society.