Japan imposes fines on evacuation zone

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Japanese residents rushed back into the 20-kilometre evacuation zone around Japan's radiation-spewing Fukushima nuclear power plant today, grabbing whatever belongings and valuables they could before an order went into effect legally banning entry to the area.

After today any people entering the zone will be arrested and fined 100,000 Yen ($1200 USD). They can also be detained for up to 30 days.

The area effected was home to over 80,000 Japanese.

After today residents will have to apply to get brief visits, up to a max of 2 hours to collect necessities. Participants would have to go through radiation screening, and there will be a cap of 1 person per household allowed to take the risk.

No visits will be allowed in a three kilometre area closest to the plant, says Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, that zone would be completely off-limits.

The Japanese government is sending mixed messages about the severity of the radiation leakages.

See Also
Japan ignored Tsunami threat
Japan hit by 7.0 earthquake
Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

Fukushima evacuation widened as radiation spikes

By Ai Lung Nguyen - April 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - Radiation levels coming from the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan spiked today, reaching level 7 (complete meltdown!!!), making it on par with the level of disaster that Chernobyl was in 1986.

As a result Japanese authorities has widened the evacuation radius around the nuclear plant, and the workers trying to bring the radiation leak under control are now in greater jeopardy as the increased radiation exposure will be killing them that much faster. (It only takes 5,000-10,000 milliSieverts to kill a person.)

When the tsunami crippled the plant a month ago, causing the diesel shutdown and cooling system to break, the radiation levels in the days that followed was 400 milliSievert / hour. Today that number went up dramatically, but Japanese authorities won't comment on how high radiation levels now are.

Japan's Prime Minister meanwhile outright lied on camera today, claiming radiation levels are actually coming down.

NOTES:

A couple weeks ago just being within a 20 km radius of the Fukushima plant a person would be getting approx. 1.5 milliSieverts / hour. It would be enough to give a lethal dose within 4-5 months of living near the plant.

When Chernobyl happened the 47 closest workers all died from receiving a dose of 6,000 milliSieverts over a short time period. Its unclear what the milliSieverts / hour was.

The workers trying to fix Fukushima should be dying right now, but the Japanese government is keeping the number of radiation exposure deaths quiet. Japan claims they have workers going in shifts, but there is a limit to the number of workers who are trained in what to do.

See Also
The Fukushima Meltdown and Fallout
Japan hit by 2nd earthquake

Japanese ignored Tsunami threat

By Ai Lung Nguyen - March 2011.

ENVIRONMENT - The Japanese government admitted Tuesday that its safety precautions were insufficient to protect a nuclear plant against the earthquake and tsunami that crippled the facility and caused it to spew radiation. An overhaul of safety standards is in the works.

The Fukushima Daiichi struggle has unfolded with constant missteps and accidents, including an incident where two workers were drenched Tuesday with radioactive water.

A level of imcompetency has plagued the disaster relief efforts as a plethora of other incidents have led to serious doubts about the quality of the workers at the nuclear plant, hired perhaps because of their willingness to risk their lives in exchange for money, and not because of any engineering background.

The March 11th tsunami which killed over 25,000 Japanese (some people are still missing and not confirmed dead) has unveiled a lack of education and safety standards amongst the workers.

Damage from the tsunami exceeds $310 billion, the most expensive natural disaster on record, and has crippled Japan's economy. Coupled with the incompetency of the workers its a shameful exhibition that will hurt Japan's reputation for years to come.

More Accidents and Gaffs:

The Japanese government has been telling residents near the disaster zone to stay indoors and that this will protect them from the radiation. (Radiation goes right through walls, stone, etc. Only lead walls slows down radiation, although not completely.)

Specks of Plutonium has been found in earth samples found near the plant, the result of debris from explosions inside the plant. If someone collected enough Plutonium (10 kg worth) they could make a small nuclear bomb. The region should be sealed off by the Japanese military and they should be checking all people leaving the zone for radiation levels to prevent plutonium smuggling.

The Japanese have been dumping radioactive water into the ocean because they don't know where else to put it. Trucking the water and storing it somewhere safer has not occurred to them. The radioactive water is now causing many countries to be skeptical about fish imported from Japan.

The dirty radioactive water in question includes plutonium debris as well.

There has been proposals that the water could be stored in oil tankers instead, but the Japanese government seems to be too busy bickering. For now the water is being poured into poorly dug trenches, causing the water to seep into the ground and into the local drinking water, rivers and the ocean.

Another mishap happened Tuesday, when three workers trying to connect a pump outside the Unit 3 reactor were splashed by radioactive water that gushed from a pipe. They were supposed to be wearing radiation protective suits meant to be waterproof but ended up soaked with the contaminated water.

Last week, two workers were hospitalized with severe burns after issued ankle-high protective boots and told to walk through highly radioactive knee-high water.

There has also been a lot of miscommunication and lies company from TEPCO, the utility company in charge of the nuclear plant and cleanup has been lying constantly about the radiation levels being released (the same way BP Oil lied about the amount of oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico).

“This quake, tsunami and the nuclear accident are the biggest crises for Japan,” says Prime Minister Naoto Kan, saying that Japan was grappling with its worst problems since World War II.

But Naoto Kan is hardly able to do anything. He is being hampered by opposition lawmakers like Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you handle the crisis,” says Yosuke Isozaki. “We cannot let you be in charge of Japan’s crisis management.”

You would think Japan would learn to work together in such a crisis, but apparently there is always a few bad eggs who would rather resort to partisan politics.

The Fukushima Nuclear Meltdown and Fallout

ENVIRONMENT/HEALTH - On Wednesday March 11th 2011 a 9.0 earthquake took place off the coast of Japan and unleashed a massive tsunami. The recorded death poll at this point is over 7,300 and another 11,000 people missing. But the disaster doesn't stop at the damage from the earthquake and tsunami... Four of Japan's nuclear power plants, including 2 reactors at Fukushima suffered damage and have since released huge amounts of radiation. The Onagawa and Tōkai nuclear power plants suffered comparatively minor damage. A total of 11 nuclear reactors were automatically shut down.

Seismic recordings at the nuclear plants indicate the ground velocity was 6.18–52.62 cm/sec.

However the diesel generator and water pumps at Fukushima I and Fukushima II were damaged by the tsunami, making it impossible to pump cold water into the reactor to cool it down. The reactors began overheating, resulting in a meltdown similar to Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. *Cooling is needed to remove nuclear decay heat for several days even when a reactor is shut down. The cooling process is only possible through large emergency disel generators, all of which were destroyed by the tsunami/earthquake.

The meltdown caused two large explosions at Fukushima I and leakage of radiation, resulting in the immediate evacuation of over 200,000 people from the region.

Since then the scope of the disaster has become more clear.

Japanese emergency crews have been pumping seawater into the reactors in an attempt to cool down and stablize the reactors, but to little avail. The machinery they are using aren't up to the task and there is delays getting new diesel generators and pumps into the region because of the damage caused by the earthquake and tsunami. Under normal circumstances getting the required machinery into the region would be comparatively easy.

Fires at the reactors have since been put out, but the radiation from the meltdown and the nuclear fallout has since got into the local food supply and even into Tokyo's drinking water. Rumours and speculation about the future of Japan and even ideas of evacuating most of Japan until the crisis is over.

There are also confusing and conflicting reports about the amout of radiation being released. If we use the BP Gulf Oil Spill as a rule of thumb (BP lied about the amount of oil being spilled daily, it later turned out to be over 10 times the daily amount they had claimed.) then we can assume that the worst reports are probably the most accurate.

The INES – International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale – ranks incidents from one to seven, with one described as "anomaly" and seven as "major accident". The disaster in Fukushima has been ranked a 6. (Chernobyl in 1986 was a 7.)

Normally a human is exposed to 2 milliSieverts/year of radiation from the sun and other sources. Airplane staff are exposed to approx. 9 milliSieverts/year. 100 can cause cancer, 1000 can cause fatal cancer in 5% of the people exposed, 5000 kills a person within 4 weeks 50% of the time, 10,000 is fatal within a week or two.

According to several reports the radiation leakage is 400 milliSieverts per hour, enough to cause a fatal dose within 25 hours. People closest to the centre of the disaster will be receiving higher doses. There is also conflicting reports the amount of radiation is going both up and down.

As of last week the radiation levels in Tokyo were 20 times normal levels. The local government was warning people not to panic. (Tokyo is approx. 300 km away from Fukushima.)

The radiation was so bad that Japan ordered a no fly zone in the region around Fukushima.

Indeed the radiation levels are reaching far more distances than mere Japan. Heightened radiation levels are now being recorded as far away as the United States.

A Canadian team sent to help tsunami victims was later recalled because they were not equipped to handle radiation and were asked to leave by Japanese authorities.

On the economic side Japan's economy is in a freefall, and will likely suffer serious blows if Japan's government cannot get the radiation leaks under control (possibly resulting in a large scale evacuation of the region around Fukushima). Even if the reactors are stabilized Japan's future will still be dire, both in terms of health concerns from lingering radiation but also from growing demands to dismantle Japan's other nuclear plants.

For other countries it could also mean a dramatic increase in nuclear refugees from Japan, seeking a safe place to raise their children free of radiation.

Food exports from Japan have been banned in many countries and this spells even more trouble for Japan's future.

Power lines have since been reattached to a number of Japan's nuclear plants and there is high hopes of restarting the turbines and the regular coolant system in an effort to cool down the reactors.

Kemonozume & Bamboo Blade

By Ai Lung Nguyen - August 2010.

ENTERTAINMENT - If you enjoy Japanese animation (commonly referred to simply as "anime") then two shows you might enjoy are Kemonozume and Bamboo Blade. We shall start with the latter because its more family-friendly. (See More Anime Reviews.)

Bamboo Blade is a show about a high school kendo team. Most of the team is female, but gender isn't really the issue in this show. Nor is it about girl power either. If anything its just a good wholesome show about friendship. We admit that sounds a bit drab and boring, but for some reason Bamboo Blade does it really well without annoying the viewer. The regular action sequences of kendo fighting are also pretty impressive... and anyone watching the show will feel inspired to want to try kendo themselves. Its just that good of a show.



Kemonozume takes kendo to a whole other level... its essentially a classic samurais vs demons scenario, but with several twists. The demons are known as "Flesh Eaters" because they have a tendency to transform when they get excited or angry and then eat whoever is nearby. The main character falls in love with a female Flesh Eater who is struggling to control her demonic tendencies and they run off together. Unfortunately their love life is strained because she can't get too excited because otherwise she will transform into a demon and eat him. Toss in a mysterious little monkey, a few robotic mechs, some wacky graphics and occassional nudity and you have a show which makes Mad Men look like a cheesy soap opera.



And the good news is that you can watch both these shows for free just by searching Google Videos. The music for the two shows above are also surprisingly good.

China 2nd Largest Economy, Japan lags

By Ai Lung Nguyen - August 2010.

POLITICS - Japan has been overtaken by China as the world's 2nd largest economy. Japan's growth rate has been slower and shaky recently whereas China has been continuing to leap forward due to the undervaluation of the Yuan and high demand for Chinese exports. Japan has been holding the #2 spot almost constantly since 1968, rising from the ashes of WWII to become a manufacturing powerhouse.

Japan's GDP grew at an annual rate of 0.4% in the last year, below the expectations of 2.3% growth. Japanese economists hope Japan will be stronger in the 3rd and 4th quarters, possibly showing 3% growth.

Meanwhile China's growth in the last year has been 10% and has been consistently growing approx. 10% each year for the last decade. China is already the biggest steel producer, the biggest exporter, the biggest auto buyer and is altering the global financial balance. China has passed Japan before, but this time economists believe it will permanent as China is now gaining rapidly on the United States.

The biggest trick in all this however is how the currency is valued. In Japan the Yen has been very rocky during the last year, losing about 8% of its value in the March to May period of 2010, but is overall up compared to last year. That rockiness has hurt Japanese productivity and exports.

China in contrasts pegs the Yuan to the US dollar and is so ridiculously undervalued it really should be worth 3 to 5 times more than it currently is. Taking that into account China is technically the world's largest economy, but because China's currency is deliberately undervalued it skews the whole perspective...

Which begs the question, why do we even bother measuring these things in US dollars when we know currency fluctuations and valuations skews everything.

Japan's economic woes are only getting worse. Their real estate industry was booming during the 1980s until the bubble burst in 1991. They never recovered from the economic malaise of the 1990s and now face real problems due to an aging population, a shrinking birth rate, weak domestic demand, deflation and the strong yen is hurting exports. The only things Japan has going for it is its robotics, computers, cameras and anime industries... all of which Japan is losing ground on as other countries gain market share.

China is hardly playing fair in all this, pegging the Yuan to the US dollar has created a global imbalance. Sure, the average person in China only earns $3,600 USD per year, but that's because they're only paid approx. $10 per day when they should be earning $50 or more. Food prices, rent, etc is all super cheap in China and its difficult to estimate what China's real economic power is.

Multiply it by three perhaps and we might get a conservative estimate.

Pink Panthers strike again

ENTERTAINMENT - Okay technically the Pink Panther was the name of the diamond stolen by The Phantom several times within the film series, but British newspapers have dubbed a team of jewel thieves from Montenegro which have struck in London, Paris, Tokyo, Dubai and have thus far stolen over $250 million USD worth of jewelry.

One of the members, Milan Jovetic, was caught 7 years ago with a diamond worth $1 million USD hidden in his girlfriend's jar of face cream, like Lady Claudine hid the diamond in the film "The Return of the Pink Panther". The British press had fun with that and the name Pink Panthers has stuck ever since.

Milan Jovetic helped rob London's Graff store on New Bond Street of $30 million worth of diamonds.

Since then a pattern of high profile jewelry heists have caused Interpol to set up “Project Pink Panthers” in an effort to catch the jewel thieves. They are investigating 190 incidents in 27 countries across 4 continents.

Jovetic was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison of which he served four. He is now back in Montenegro and something of a celebrity. He won't even talk to reporters unless they're paying him.

Supporters of the Pink Panthers compare them to Robin Hood and note that while they do sometimes carry guns, they have never killed or even shot at anyone. They've been on the run since the late 1990s and most of them have managed to avoid getting caught.

Interpol believes there is about 40 members of the Pink Panthers, but only 25 arrests have ever been made in recent years. There's also been about 400 people investigated as being accomplices or lackeys. Most of the members come from Montenegro or Serbia and are affiliated with Balkan crime syndicates.

Their robbery tactics are much simpler than the cat-burglar tactics used by The Phantom in The Return of the Pink Panther".

Typically a well-dressed man distracts the clerk (often by pointing a gun at them) while a team smashes jewelry casings and loots the place before they flee in stolen cars.

In Tokyo in 2004 they wore wigs, pepper-sprayed the clerk and stole a $27 million diamond necklace.

Last December three members, two men and a woman, were convicted for stealing $31.5 million worth of jewels, including an 125-carat necklace. The jewelry however was never found.

Its believed the group is contracted by someone within a large diamond corporation which is able to fence the jewelry without raising suspicion. The diamonds can be recut and reshaped making them easier to sell.

During a 2007 heist in Dubai two cars drove into a lobby of the Wafi shopping mall and backed into a jewelry store window, grabbing approx. $3.5 million worth of jewels. The incident was caught on a cellphone camera.



Dubai police later arrested 8 suspects, but the Pink Panthers continues to operate under a code of silence making it difficult to get convictions.

Mitsubishi Electric Car

CARS - Japan has unveiled its first mass-market electric car today, making e-cars more affordable in a growing price war.

The i-MiEV from Mitsubishi Motors Corp. is a four-seater, bubble-shaped car priced at a mere $31,000 CDN (after Canadian government incentives) and is built by Japan's fifth-biggest automaker. Mitsubishi already has 2,000 advance orders in Japan alone.

Nissan meanwhile is scheduled to unveil the "Leaf" in December 2010 which will cost $32,000 CDN (after government incentives).

Across the pond General Motors is already selling its electric car, the "Volt".

See Also
The Eco-Car Battleground

Japan elects for change for the first time in 50 years

POLITICS - After 50 years of Liberal Democratic Party rule in Japan (Liberal is a misnomer, because the party itself would best be described as conservative) the party has been toppled with the election of the Democratic Party of Japan and new leader Yukio Hatoyama.

The news is bad for the United States however as the new party wants Japan to assert more independence from the USA. This means less American troops on Japanese soil, a lessening of Japan's refueling of U.S. and allied warships in the Indian Ocean.

But it is good news for environmentalists and small business owners. Yukio Hatoyama wants to put a stronger emphasis on environmental programs and protecting small businesses.

Prior to the election Japan saw its unemployment rate rise to its highest level since WWII and a storm of corruption scandals in the LDP. The election of the new party, which is actually "liberal" as opposed to just having the word liberal in the name, hopes to end corruption.

Unfortunately the DPJ also includes several members who want to abolish Japan's pacifist constitution and go to war against North Korea. Hopefully common sense and peace will prevail.

North Korea has developed missiles capable of reaching Japan, has been conducting nuclear tests and seems to be readying for a war.

The Cove - Dolphin Massacres in Japan

ENVIRONMENT - Normally we wouldn't discuss issues like "Save the Whales", PETA and other animal activist issues (we're meat lovers and proud of it), but every person has a line at which they consider something immoral to eat.

Most commonly is dogs and cats, because they're commonly pets, eating horse is more common but frowned upon by some people. The one in this documentary, The Cove, is the issue of the slaughter and consumption of dolphins in Japan.

Earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival, The Cove premiered to applause and gasps. The film is a dolphin abuse exposé that plays like a spy thriller because of all the cloak-and-dagger stuff the crew had to go through to find out the truth.

In the film director Louie Psihoyos, a top National Geographic photographer, leads a crack team of environmentalists and scuba divers probing reports of dolphin abuse in the marine town of Taiji, Japan, a town known for its dolphin tourism trade.

What they discover, using hidden cameras, is a slaughterhouse where thousands of dolphins are butchered alive, often after watching their terrified offspring killed first. (Dolphins are one of very few species that form life-time affinities with their children and can communicate using a complex mixture of squeaks.)

Blue water turns red from the carnage and for a moment you're reminded of the film Jaws, but with the realization that it is humans that are the killing machines.

Every year in Japan more than 23,000 dolphins and porpoises are killed, harvested for their meat which is sold illegally as a food delicacy, despite having dangerously high levels of mercury caused by industrial pollution. Dolphin meat is often falsely labeled as whale meat, which compounds the problem, since whales are also a highly endangered species.

Some of the dolphins are shipped to water parks around the globe to be used for entertainment, making Japan one of the largest exporters of live dolphins.

American marine expert Richard O'Barry, who helped create the Flipper TV series of the 1960s, says he personally captured the four or five bottlenose dolphins that played Flipper, but later regrets his actions when he realized how sensitive the animals are and how much they suffered. As a result O'Barry changed from dolphin hunter to dolphin protector and now travels the world with his message that these are sentient beings, far more intelligent than anyone imagines.

The Cove also showing how duplicitous the Japanese government is about its commitments as a member of the International Whaling Commission, which is supposed to conserve marine life rather than exploit it.

So now that we know about this abuse, and the corruption within the Japanese government, will people put a stop to it?