^ Fine solution and great we don't have to volunteer to smoke away the stuff! :mrgreen:
Japan - News/General Discussion
Started by kanae · 23 Sep 2005 · 3,296 replies
General Discussion
Bill Maher Interviews Michio Kaku about the Fukushima Nuclear Crisis in Japan (4/15/11)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtqjC8x42g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLtqjC8x42g
gaijinmark wrote:Miki Endo is my hero:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqQufHbG27E
:shamefulcry: They confirmed her death yesterday:http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/02_25.html
Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/09/international/i021548D23.DTL#ixzz1M0jeVQhR
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/09/international/i021548D23.DTL#ixzz1M0jeVQhR
niknik wrote:Quake shifted Japan; towns now flood at high tide
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/05/09/international/i021548D23.DTL#ixzz1M0jeVQhR
Yow. :sweat:
Japan can't get a break. :(
Japan's stricken nuclear plant has new leak
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy and wires
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant says rods inside one of the reactors have most likely melted after being fully exposed.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has reported a leak from the reactor vessel and another spill of contaminated water into the ocean.
The company says the water level inside reactor No. 1 was much lower than it thought, exposing about 1.5 metres of the fuel rods.
It says the rods have likely melted and workers are still trying to cool them in water at the bottom of the pressure vessel.
The company believes that about half the reactor core in reactor No. 1 has been damaged and has been pumping in up to eight tonnes of water an hour into the pressure vessel to try to keep the rods cool.
The update comes as emergency crews battle to bring the tsunami-hit and radiation-leaking plant into stable "cold shutdown" sometime between October and January.
The giant ocean wave triggered by the magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 knocked out the plant's water cooling systems, leading fuel rods inside several of the reactor cores to partially melt down.
TEPCO says new measurements taken this week, after workers in protective suits fixed gauges in the badly hit reactor No. 1 building, indicate that water pumped into the pressure vessel had quickly leaked out.
The water level inside had fallen below the bottom of the four-metre-long fuel rods, suggesting they had been exposed to the air, increasing the risk of a dangerous full meltdown.
However, the vessel's relatively low outside temperature of 100-120 degrees Celsius indicated that the rods had dropped to the bottom of the vessel and were under water there, TEPCO said.
The dousing operations - in which tens of thousands of tonnes of water have been injected with fire trucks, concrete boom pumps and other pumping systems - have created massive amounts of highly contaminated run-off water.
TEPCO has struggled to stop spills into the Pacific Ocean and has now reported another, saying water had leaked into the sea from a concrete pit near reactor No. 3, one of the plant's six units.
Samples of seawater taken near the plant contained caesium-134 at a concentration 18,000 times the permitted level, the company said, adding that the spill had been stopped by filling the pit with concrete.
"We have continued to investigate the route of the leakage into sea and why it happened," TEPCO spokesman Yoshinori Mori said.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano called the leak "deplorable" and apologised to the fishing industry and to neighbouring countries.
- ABC/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/12/3215377.htm
:shamefulcry:
By North Asia correspondent Mark Willacy and wires
The operator of Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant says rods inside one of the reactors have most likely melted after being fully exposed.
The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) has reported a leak from the reactor vessel and another spill of contaminated water into the ocean.
The company says the water level inside reactor No. 1 was much lower than it thought, exposing about 1.5 metres of the fuel rods.
It says the rods have likely melted and workers are still trying to cool them in water at the bottom of the pressure vessel.
The company believes that about half the reactor core in reactor No. 1 has been damaged and has been pumping in up to eight tonnes of water an hour into the pressure vessel to try to keep the rods cool.
The update comes as emergency crews battle to bring the tsunami-hit and radiation-leaking plant into stable "cold shutdown" sometime between October and January.
The giant ocean wave triggered by the magnitude-9.0 quake on March 11 knocked out the plant's water cooling systems, leading fuel rods inside several of the reactor cores to partially melt down.
TEPCO says new measurements taken this week, after workers in protective suits fixed gauges in the badly hit reactor No. 1 building, indicate that water pumped into the pressure vessel had quickly leaked out.
The water level inside had fallen below the bottom of the four-metre-long fuel rods, suggesting they had been exposed to the air, increasing the risk of a dangerous full meltdown.
However, the vessel's relatively low outside temperature of 100-120 degrees Celsius indicated that the rods had dropped to the bottom of the vessel and were under water there, TEPCO said.
The dousing operations - in which tens of thousands of tonnes of water have been injected with fire trucks, concrete boom pumps and other pumping systems - have created massive amounts of highly contaminated run-off water.
TEPCO has struggled to stop spills into the Pacific Ocean and has now reported another, saying water had leaked into the sea from a concrete pit near reactor No. 3, one of the plant's six units.
Samples of seawater taken near the plant contained caesium-134 at a concentration 18,000 times the permitted level, the company said, adding that the spill had been stopped by filling the pit with concrete.
"We have continued to investigate the route of the leakage into sea and why it happened," TEPCO spokesman Yoshinori Mori said.
Top government spokesman Yukio Edano called the leak "deplorable" and apologised to the fishing industry and to neighbouring countries.
- ABC/AFP
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/12/3215377.htm
:shamefulcry:
For those who are familiar with the film Hula Girls:
'Hula girls' dance for evacuees
Kyodo
Dancers from a spa resort in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, began visiting shelters this month to perform for survivors of the March 11 quake and tsunami while the facility, which was featured in the 2006 movie "Hula Girls," remains closed.
The tour began May 3 at a shelter in Iwaki, the city where the Spa Resort Hawaiians is located, and the troupe traveled to a facility in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, on Thursday to entertain evacuees from Futaba, one of two Fukushima Prefecture towns that host the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.
Five dancers together with Kazuhiko Saito, president of Joban Kosan Co., operator of Spa Resort Hawaiians, visited Tokyo on Thursday and asked Akihiro Ohata, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, to help restore tourism in the city of Iwaki following the disaster and the nuclear crisis.
Spa Resort Hawaiians, popular before the disaster, plans to reopen in October.
I was wondering to what extent the Hawaiian center was affected by the events of March 11; the center and the community were crucial to the movie which is based on actual events.
'Hula girls' dance for evacuees
Kyodo
Dancers from a spa resort in Iwaki, Fukushima Prefecture, began visiting shelters this month to perform for survivors of the March 11 quake and tsunami while the facility, which was featured in the 2006 movie "Hula Girls," remains closed.
The tour began May 3 at a shelter in Iwaki, the city where the Spa Resort Hawaiians is located, and the troupe traveled to a facility in Kazo, Saitama Prefecture, on Thursday to entertain evacuees from Futaba, one of two Fukushima Prefecture towns that host the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power station.
Five dancers together with Kazuhiko Saito, president of Joban Kosan Co., operator of Spa Resort Hawaiians, visited Tokyo on Thursday and asked Akihiro Ohata, minister of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism, to help restore tourism in the city of Iwaki following the disaster and the nuclear crisis.
Spa Resort Hawaiians, popular before the disaster, plans to reopen in October.
I was wondering to what extent the Hawaiian center was affected by the events of March 11; the center and the community were crucial to the movie which is based on actual events.
Japan began evacuating people from outside the official exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant after it was revealed fuel rods there probably melted hours after March's devastating earthquake.
With radiation levels remaining high, small children and pregnant women were the first to be moved, with thousands more to be shifted into shelters and temporary housing.
More details have emerged about the meltdown in Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, with revelations the fuel rods were likely exposed to the air for as long as 14 hours - a fact not discovered until last week.
It appears the rods melted just hours after the earthquake and tsunami struck, dropping to the bottom of the pressure vessel at the core.
It was the news the people of Litate village had been dreading.
A touch further than 30 kilometres from the Fukushima plant, Litate was outside the evacuation zone until now.
Because of wind patterns, Litate and nearby communities have been swathed in high radiation and authorities are not willing to let people stay any longer.
"I'm sure most of you have lived in this village all your lives and have never planned on moving," mayor Norio Kanno told residents.
"To those of you that I now have to ask to pack up and leave your homes, I am deeply sorry."
After the plant's operator, TEPCO, told the Japanese people that things were stabilising at Fukushima, it is now clear they knew far less about the situation than they were willing to admit.
About 8,000 Litate residents and those in the nearby village of Kawamata are being asked to move, joining the tens of thousands who have already been forced out of their homes by the nuclear crisis.
They will be put up in hotels, public housing and evacuation shelters, and no-one knows when they will be allowed to return.
"It's such an incredible shame to have to leave the house I've lived in for so long," one elderly resident said.
"I can't express it in words."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/16/3217488.htm
With radiation levels remaining high, small children and pregnant women were the first to be moved, with thousands more to be shifted into shelters and temporary housing.
More details have emerged about the meltdown in Fukushima's No. 1 reactor, with revelations the fuel rods were likely exposed to the air for as long as 14 hours - a fact not discovered until last week.
It appears the rods melted just hours after the earthquake and tsunami struck, dropping to the bottom of the pressure vessel at the core.
It was the news the people of Litate village had been dreading.
A touch further than 30 kilometres from the Fukushima plant, Litate was outside the evacuation zone until now.
Because of wind patterns, Litate and nearby communities have been swathed in high radiation and authorities are not willing to let people stay any longer.
"I'm sure most of you have lived in this village all your lives and have never planned on moving," mayor Norio Kanno told residents.
"To those of you that I now have to ask to pack up and leave your homes, I am deeply sorry."
After the plant's operator, TEPCO, told the Japanese people that things were stabilising at Fukushima, it is now clear they knew far less about the situation than they were willing to admit.
About 8,000 Litate residents and those in the nearby village of Kawamata are being asked to move, joining the tens of thousands who have already been forced out of their homes by the nuclear crisis.
They will be put up in hotels, public housing and evacuation shelters, and no-one knows when they will be allowed to return.
"It's such an incredible shame to have to leave the house I've lived in for so long," one elderly resident said.
"I can't express it in words."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/16/3217488.htm
Any word on emigrées from Japan?
Fukushima just can't get a break. So sad for the surrounding residents.
Takoyama wrote:Fukushima just can't get a break. So sad for the surrounding residents.
After the proverbial radioactive dust settles, and all the TEPCO boneheads dogeza and commit seppuku, the rest of Japan will foot the bill (i.e. taxpayers) to clean up the mess. And the anti-climatic result will probably be that nothing will change in terms of the corporate culture that led to the unremarkable response that helped contribute to the aftermath which was characterized by bumbling inadequacy and uncertainty.
Same shiet would have probably happened here.
Itazura ichiban wrote:Any word on emigrées from Japan?
Sheesh, can you be any more selfish about the disaster in Japan? :shakehead:
With dozens of villages and towns devastated by Japan's tsunami, there is now growing debate about whether to rebuild the flattened communities or move them to higher ground.
One town, regarded as a model community in preparing for such killer waves, now lies in ruins.
Part of Miyako was hit by the largest recorded tsunami - at 38 metres high, it was the size of a 13-storey building. It left hundreds dead and missing.
Further north however, the village of Fudai survived without a single loss of life. It is thanking its "Great Wall" of protection which, while once ridiculed, has proven effective.
In her empty classroom in Miyako, Ruriko Araya plays the piece she was rehearsing with her students when the earthquake struck.
The music teacher was hoping to help her junior high class prepare for their graduation. Instead she had to help save their lives as a tsunami barrelled towards their community.
"While we were climbing up the hill behind the school we saw great plumes of white smoke from below," she said.
"I was pulling the students up by the hands, while below us there were rooves and cars being washed away."
Like many in Miyako, Ms Araya thought she would be protected from any tsunami by the city's four, 10-metre high sea walls.
Miyako has long been held up as the model for tsunami preparedness, but on March 11, nothing could have stopped the monster waves.
"We don't have a final measurement yet, but we believe the tsunami that hit part of Miyako was 38 metres high," city mayor Masanori Yamamoto said.
The Taro area of Miyako City has been wiped off the map. All that is left are piles of rubble and bulldozers chewing through the debris.
About 900 people are dead or missing.
Mayor Yamamoto survived, but like thousands of his citizens, his house was swept away.
"I can't believe it ... in an instant the place you were born and raised can be destroyed like this," he said.
In Miyako there is discussion about whether or not to rebuild.
"The town our ancestors built is completely obliterated," mayor Yamamoto said.
"Personally I would like it rebuilt in a higher place so we can live safely as a community for hundreds more years."
Seawall saviour
But this is a tale of two towns. A bit further north of Miyako is the village of Fudai, a place everyone once laughed at.
"I think my predecessor was criticised and ridiculed quite a bit by other communities," Fudai mayor Hiroshi Fukawatari said, as he stood on the village's 15-metre high seawall.
"They said 'why is such a big wall necessary'," he said.
"But without this barrier I think half of our community of 3,000 people would have died. We would've been wiped out."
Of course no community coastal community can protect itself from a 38-metre wave, but Fudai made its own luck.
The tsunami that hit here was 14 metres high - a metre short of the seawall.
Fudai is believed to be the only community where no-one was killed.
Eighty-five-year-old Aisa Towa wishes the wall had been around in 1933, when a similar sized tsunami struck the city.
"I lost my parents then," she said.
"I remember my sister and I looked out to sea and we just kept crying.
"Now that memory from when I was seven is mixed up with this tsunami and I still cry."
But in Fudai this time, there are fewer tears than elsewhere along the coast.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/19/3221717.htm?section=justin
One town, regarded as a model community in preparing for such killer waves, now lies in ruins.
Part of Miyako was hit by the largest recorded tsunami - at 38 metres high, it was the size of a 13-storey building. It left hundreds dead and missing.
Further north however, the village of Fudai survived without a single loss of life. It is thanking its "Great Wall" of protection which, while once ridiculed, has proven effective.
In her empty classroom in Miyako, Ruriko Araya plays the piece she was rehearsing with her students when the earthquake struck.
The music teacher was hoping to help her junior high class prepare for their graduation. Instead she had to help save their lives as a tsunami barrelled towards their community.
"While we were climbing up the hill behind the school we saw great plumes of white smoke from below," she said.
"I was pulling the students up by the hands, while below us there were rooves and cars being washed away."
Like many in Miyako, Ms Araya thought she would be protected from any tsunami by the city's four, 10-metre high sea walls.
Miyako has long been held up as the model for tsunami preparedness, but on March 11, nothing could have stopped the monster waves.
"We don't have a final measurement yet, but we believe the tsunami that hit part of Miyako was 38 metres high," city mayor Masanori Yamamoto said.
The Taro area of Miyako City has been wiped off the map. All that is left are piles of rubble and bulldozers chewing through the debris.
About 900 people are dead or missing.
Mayor Yamamoto survived, but like thousands of his citizens, his house was swept away.
"I can't believe it ... in an instant the place you were born and raised can be destroyed like this," he said.
In Miyako there is discussion about whether or not to rebuild.
"The town our ancestors built is completely obliterated," mayor Yamamoto said.
"Personally I would like it rebuilt in a higher place so we can live safely as a community for hundreds more years."
Seawall saviour
But this is a tale of two towns. A bit further north of Miyako is the village of Fudai, a place everyone once laughed at.
"I think my predecessor was criticised and ridiculed quite a bit by other communities," Fudai mayor Hiroshi Fukawatari said, as he stood on the village's 15-metre high seawall.
"They said 'why is such a big wall necessary'," he said.
"But without this barrier I think half of our community of 3,000 people would have died. We would've been wiped out."
Of course no community coastal community can protect itself from a 38-metre wave, but Fudai made its own luck.
The tsunami that hit here was 14 metres high - a metre short of the seawall.
Fudai is believed to be the only community where no-one was killed.
Eighty-five-year-old Aisa Towa wishes the wall had been around in 1933, when a similar sized tsunami struck the city.
"I lost my parents then," she said.
"I remember my sister and I looked out to sea and we just kept crying.
"Now that memory from when I was seven is mixed up with this tsunami and I still cry."
But in Fudai this time, there are fewer tears than elsewhere along the coast.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/05/19/3221717.htm?section=justin
bmwracer wrote:
Sheesh, can you be any more selfish about the disaster in Japan? :shakehead:
What do you mean? We're running out of ways to help those people. The one thing they don't have in abundance is land to resettle refugees. I'd think the US can help in this regard. What's selfish about that? :headscratch:
LSE academic's claim 'black women less attractive' triggers race row
Social scientist made remarks on his blog claiming he had analysed data from an online study of physical attractiveness
Ian Sample | www.guardian.co.uk
Thursday 19 May 2011
Student groups at the London School of Economics are calling for the dismissal of a social scientist who has become embroiled in a racism row after claiming that a study showed black women to be less attractive than women of other races.
Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the institution, published his comments on a blog and claimed he had analysed data from an online study of physical attractiveness.
In his article for Psychology Today, Kanazawa wrote: "Black women are c far less attractive than white, Asian, and Native American women." The piece drew a barrage of complaints from readers and has since been removed from the site.
The row has prompted the University of London Union Senate, the union's legislative body, which represents more than 120,000 students, to vote unanimously for the dismissal of Kanazawa, and to condemn his research.
Sherelle Davids, anti-racism officer-elect of the LSE students' union, said: "Kanazawa deliberately manipulates findings that justify racist ideology. As a black woman I feel his conclusions are a direct attack on black women everywhere who are not included in social ideas of beauty."
Amena Amer, incoming LSE students' union education officer, added: "We support free speech and academic freedom, but Kanazawa's research fuels hate against ethnic and religious minorities promoted by neo-Nazi groups. Not only does he use the LSE's credentials to legitimise his 'research' but this jeopardises the academic credibility of the LSE."
The LSE launched an internal investigation into Kanazawa's comments after senior academics at the school, including the new director, Judith Rees, received letters of complaint over the remarks. Dr Kanazawa is abroad on sabbatical this year.
The incident is the latest embarrassment for the LSE, following the resignation of previous director Sir Howard Davies, in March after admitting that the institution's reputation had been damaged by the acceptance of a ’1.5m donation from a foundation controlled by Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam.
The investigation will look at the data Kanazawa analysed and the quality of his work, before deciding what punitive action, if any, it can take.
In a statement, the LSE sought to distance itself from the researcher's comments, but acknowledged freedom of academic expression.
"The views expressed by this academic are his own and do not in any way represent those of the LSE as an institution. The important principle of academic freedom means that authors have the right to publish their views – but it also means the freedom to disagree. We are conducting internal investigations into this matter," the statement said.
Kanazawa has been criticised in the past for substandard research in the area of race and intelligence.
Social scientist made remarks on his blog claiming he had analysed data from an online study of physical attractiveness
Ian Sample | www.guardian.co.uk
Thursday 19 May 2011
Student groups at the London School of Economics are calling for the dismissal of a social scientist who has become embroiled in a racism row after claiming that a study showed black women to be less attractive than women of other races.
Dr Satoshi Kanazawa, an evolutionary psychologist at the institution, published his comments on a blog and claimed he had analysed data from an online study of physical attractiveness.
In his article for Psychology Today, Kanazawa wrote: "Black women are c far less attractive than white, Asian, and Native American women." The piece drew a barrage of complaints from readers and has since been removed from the site.
The row has prompted the University of London Union Senate, the union's legislative body, which represents more than 120,000 students, to vote unanimously for the dismissal of Kanazawa, and to condemn his research.
Sherelle Davids, anti-racism officer-elect of the LSE students' union, said: "Kanazawa deliberately manipulates findings that justify racist ideology. As a black woman I feel his conclusions are a direct attack on black women everywhere who are not included in social ideas of beauty."
Amena Amer, incoming LSE students' union education officer, added: "We support free speech and academic freedom, but Kanazawa's research fuels hate against ethnic and religious minorities promoted by neo-Nazi groups. Not only does he use the LSE's credentials to legitimise his 'research' but this jeopardises the academic credibility of the LSE."
The LSE launched an internal investigation into Kanazawa's comments after senior academics at the school, including the new director, Judith Rees, received letters of complaint over the remarks. Dr Kanazawa is abroad on sabbatical this year.
The incident is the latest embarrassment for the LSE, following the resignation of previous director Sir Howard Davies, in March after admitting that the institution's reputation had been damaged by the acceptance of a ’1.5m donation from a foundation controlled by Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam.
The investigation will look at the data Kanazawa analysed and the quality of his work, before deciding what punitive action, if any, it can take.
In a statement, the LSE sought to distance itself from the researcher's comments, but acknowledged freedom of academic expression.
"The views expressed by this academic are his own and do not in any way represent those of the LSE as an institution. The important principle of academic freedom means that authors have the right to publish their views – but it also means the freedom to disagree. We are conducting internal investigations into this matter," the statement said.
Kanazawa has been criticised in the past for substandard research in the area of race and intelligence.
^ So Dr. Kanazawa's name translates to English as "Archie Bunker?"
:crazy:
:crazy:
bmwracer wrote:^ So Dr. Kanazawa's name translates to English as "Archie Bunker?"
:crazy:
Seriously. :crazy2:
He should go visit Ethiopia. :inlove:
Itazura ichiban wrote:He should go visit Ethiopia. :inlove:
Hehe. I'm sure there are a sufficient number of people of African descent living in London. It's a wonder he hasn't been beaten up by some of them yet. :sweat:
Dayem. The dollar is trading at $1=80.8 Yen...the dollar is weaker than Urkel vis-a-vis the yen. Not really good for the Japanese export economy, especially in light of the disastrous impact of the recent earthquake and tsunami.
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