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17 Apr 2011 11:30

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World: Hillary Clinton visits Japan in show of post-quake support

Here she is with Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko. Hillary does a great job keeping that presidential poise even as Secretary of State, doesn’t she? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2011 11:31

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Tech, World: Fukushima now has its own unmanned remote-controlled mascot

  • This little guy right here? He’s a T-Hawk drone, a little unmanned remote-controlled flying thingamajig, built by Honeywell, that engineers used to get an up-close view of the situation inside the damaged Fukushima reactors. It can shoot both normal pictures as well as infrared shots. Plus, if you own one of these, you’ll be the coolest kid on your block. Engineers say that they’ll have some photos to share with the world on Monday. But we want them now! source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2011 10:41

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Biz, World: How the Japan quake and tsunami has affected the auto industry

  • parts Many auto manufacturers — especially in Japan — are struggling to return to their normal level of production after last month’s earthquake hurt numerous key factories in Japan.
  • labor Manufacturers at Toyota, Nissan and Honda plan to get their workers back on the job very soon — but only at half-time. Toyota’s U.S. factory workers also haven’t had as much work lately.
  • colors Ford, which isn’t Japanese, has its own problems — see, a key metallic pigment they use comes from a factory near Fukushima. Good luck getting a “tuxedo black” car. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

10 Apr 2011 10:24

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World: Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara reelected despite epic gaffe

This dude’s thanking his lucky stars today. See, he suggested that the tsunami was “divine punishment” for the people of Japan. (Ouch!) He still got re-elected. Shockingly. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

05 Apr 2011 20:30

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U.S.: TEPCO: Fukushima’s radioactive water no longer leaking into ocean

  • The leaks were slowed yesterday after we injected a mixture of liquid glass and a hardening agent and it has now stopped.
  • A TEPCO spokesman • Explaining that the radioactive seawater leaks from the Fukushima reactor apparently stopped. It just required some liquid glass, a hardening agent, and a little hope. Which is exactly what we needed that one time we stopped our server from melting down when Andrew Sullivan linked to us. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

04 Apr 2011 14:03

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World: TEPCO begins draining radioactive water, tries to find major leak

  • lesser evil TEPCO has begun releasing thousands of tons of radioactive water into the ocean, freeing up space to store the much more dangerously radioactive water they now have to contend with, a release of which would be much worse.
  • square one Dye was used to determine the location of a leak of highly contaminated water, which TEPCO has fought for days. They didn’t see it in the ocean outside, meaning the leak is not where they’d been trying to plug the past couple days. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 Apr 2011 14:54

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World: Japan’s victims not seeing direct results from donations

  • $1 billion the total donations for Japan’s earthquake relief to the Red Cross
  • none the amount of those donations that have gone directly to victims  source
  • » Yukiyo Edano says speed it up: Edano, the Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary, explained that the standard procedure is for independent panels throughout the prefectures to decide how to handle the money; basically, distribution at the local level. This can slow the whole process when these communities are in such disarray, though, which is why Edano believes the central government should set up an independent committee. The Red Cross, it bears mentioning, has sent over 200 crisis relief teams into stricken areas. And it must be said in the strongest possible terms that we don’t mean to discourage people who either have, or want to donate to Japan’s relief efforts. Rather, we think it’s worth understanding the functional realities that can hamstring those efforts. But the donations are nonetheless noble, vital, and necessary; none of this changes that.
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 Apr 2011 14:27

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World: Unintended consequences, priorities complicate Japan crisis

  • action Lacking the ability to pump water through the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant as they usually would, workers were hosing in as much seawater as they could to try to cool the unstable fuel rods.
  • outcome This consequently left the plant covered in contaminated salt water, and has made it extremely difficult for those in the plant to work near the reactors, thus impeding the crisis control effort. source
  • »And don’t forget about Japan’s other problems: Prime Minister Naoto Kan was pretty unpopular prior to the earthquake and tsunami that decimated the country, and his abilities at crisis management haven’t escaped public criticism. Reuters reports that many Japanese are unhappy with the Prime Minister’s focus on the nuclear crisis, feeling that not enough attention is being paid to other pressing humanitarian tolls caused by the earthquake; the number of dead or missing currently sits at 28,000 people, though obviously that estimate is changing all the time. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink

25 Mar 2011 17:35

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World: Japan Prime Minister on Fukushima: We’re not out of the woods yet

  • Don’t consider the situation at Fukushima settled just yet. That’s the message that Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in his first statements on the matter in over a week, would like to make clear. “We are making efforts to prevent it from getting worse, but I feel we cannot become complacent,” he said. “We must continue to be on our guard.” Kan’s comments come in the wake of high instability at some of the plants — yesterday, two workers got radiation burns on their feet while working on Fukushima’s No. 3 unit, which is the most dangerous of the bunch due to its use of a mixture of uranium and plutonium. The situation led to fresh concerns about whether there might be a leak in that reactor. TEPCO officials are still looking for the cause of the high radiation levels. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

23 Mar 2011 15:11

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World: Tokyo tap water unsafe for babies, young children

  • As smoke again rises, a warning on water: The workers at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant were again forced to evacuate as black smoke began to rise from Reactor 3, which as the video details is the lone reactor to utilize plutonium, making such a sight somewhat more serious than normal (though certainly, smoke pouring from any nuclear reactor is bad news). At the same time, parents in Tokyo are being told that babies and young children should not drink the tap water, as it contains high levels (nearly double the legal limit) of radioactive iodine. source
Posted by Chris Tognotti • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
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