Tohoku Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Disaster!!!

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I'm not claiming this is anything other than a coincidence but ....

A 29-year-old friend of mine went to Tohoku to work for an NGO four about a year after the quake. She moved to Shizuoka this summer to start a new job and has been feeling pretty shitty so she went to a doctor and they found a growth on one of her ovaries. She's been told that based on that and her general condition it could very well be cancer. They won't know for sure till they do a biopsy which will be sometime in the next couple of months. Hopefully it's benign.

I'm really sorry for your friend, and almost as sorry to do this, but I hope it's just a case of ovary acting.

[GomiGirl]

Ovary acting!!


To your friend - ovarian cancer is not a rare cancer so it really might be a sad co-incidence. It is a curable one if caught early enough. My Mum had it but she was a bit older than your friend.

Could be a cyst as well - they are super common.

[Samurai_Jerk]

I'm not claiming this is anything other than a coincidence but ....

A 29-year-old friend of mine went to Tohoku to work for an NGO four about a year after the quake. She moved to Shizuoka this summer to start a new job and has been feeling pretty shitty so she went to a doctor and they found a growth on one of her ovaries. She's been told that based on that and her general condition it could very well be cancer. They won't know for sure till they do a biopsy which will be sometime in the next couple of months. Hopefully it's benign.

I'm really sorry for your friend, and almost as sorry to do this, but I hope it's just a case of ovary acting.

To your friend - ovarian cancer is not a rare cancer so it really might be a sad co-incidence. It is a curable one if caught early enough. My Mum had it but she was a bit older than your friend.

Could be a cyst as well - they are super common.

I was thinking cyst and coincidence as well. I'm just surprised how long she has to wait for the surgery.

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

I'm just surprised how long she has to wait for the surgery.

That's usually a good sign.

[Coligny]

Ovary acting!!


To your friend - ovarian cancer is not a rare cancer so it really might be a sad co-incidence.

Yes, and that's a big part of the problem here... (and why you usually apply "better safe than sorry" policies).

She's just a number... and before we can count all the death-per-cause and compare to data set from other place and other times there is no possibility to establish a corelation. Which would be the first step to link to a causation. And when these times arrive, anybody even remotely responsible will be dead and/or forgotten.

Leaving the message that: Nukapollution is all-a-OK, you can totally get away with it.

Now... if we were to stop applying the "innocent until proven guilty" process of law to powerplant shitting themselves that would be a good start...

As of today... any case of cancer affecting people who dwelled through Tohoku can't be blamed on the accident. But... it can't be proved either that it is not because of the accident.

[Coligny]

Next up on Tepco's press release: "the dog ate our homework"

From the wallstreet journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... 17670.html

cutest quote:

BY PHRED DVORAK AND REBECCA SMITH

TOKYO—In a stunning reversal, the operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant said it knowingly avoided implementing some safety measures for the nuclear plant out of fear of causing lawsuits, protests, or the need to close the plant.

It was the first time that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has admitted that previous errors in judgment contributed to one of the world's worst nuclear accidents last year.

"There was a worry that if the company were to implement a severe-accident response plan, it would spur anxiety throughout the country and in the community where the plant is sited, and lend momentum ...

[Russell]

Read this earlier in the day, and I am still scratching my head.

How for fuck sake would one feel safer in the knowledge that intentionally no measures were taken?

Glad that airlines, the JR, whatever companies do not have a similar philosophy.

And BTW, doesn't this intentional neglect constitute criminal behavior, and if it does, why has nobody been arrested as of today?!?

[Coligny]

yes. intresting remark you made here...

Had knowledge but didn't do squat...

That's an admission of guilt... No matter how you frame the "why" (voices told me to kill, dog ate mah homework, too expensive, would make people freak out)...

But being -full of shit- Japan, the cutesy answer will be like mass murderer saying he's soooo sorry... since he's sorry and promise to nevar do it again, no need for a punishiun...

It's funny, because, usually people feel more safe when they know that the autority are fully prepared... if not... why even bother with an army, earthquake construction code or fire extinguishers... You don't prepare only if you want to hide the true scale of a potential disaster... Thanks for even more discredit to the nukular industry... Lucky I never bought Areva's stock... or i'd be really murderousely pissed...

[Samurai_Jerk]

You filthy barbarians just don't understand the concept of 安心.

[Coligny]

I HATE MONKEYZ...

[Russell]

I HATE MONKEYZ...

[Samurai_Jerk]

I HATE MONKEYZ...

Proboscis monkey

The monkey also goes by the Malay name monyet belanda ("Dutch monkey"), or even orang belanda ("Dutchman"), as Indonesians remarked that the Dutch colonisers often had a similarly large belly and nose.

[matsuki]

Next up on Tepco's press release: "the dog ate our homework"

From the wallstreet journal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000087 ... 17670.html

cutest quote:

BY PHRED DVORAK AND REBECCA SMITH

TOKYO—In a stunning reversal, the operator of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power plant said it knowingly avoided implementing some safety measures for the nuclear plant out of fear of causing lawsuits, protests, or the need to close the plant.

It was the first time that Tokyo Electric Power Co. has admitted that previous errors in judgment contributed to one of the world's worst nuclear accidents last year.

"There was a worry that if the company were to implement a severe-accident response plan, it would spur anxiety throughout the country and in the community where the plant is sited, and lend momentum ...

Funny how this "civilized country" has so many decisions made on fear of animal-like behavior from the country. We can't do the right thing because it would be like admitting we weren't as safe as we told everyone.

[yanpa]

Radiation-fearing Tokyoites' weapon of choice? The umbrella
Fear of fall-out from last year's nuclear accident means Tokyo residents hate getting caught in the rain – but they've got no problem eating Fukushima fruit, says British expat Alastair Wanklyn.

People in Tokyo who walk in rain without an umbrella are either unfortunate or insane, many people here think.
Japan's umbrella culture is reinforced these days by an ongoing fear of fall-out from Fukushima – in particular, radioactive rainwater. Locals tend to hedge and keep brollies both at home and at work.
In my office, a large rack contains perhaps twice as many umbrellas as there are staff. Presumably I draw compassion as I walk in the drizzle protected only by a tweed coat.

...more...

Read the rest of our expat guest columns here

WTF, old chap?

Roundly panned in the comments

[Coligny]

that's more an article for the "n00b discoverz japan" thread...

[Taro Toporific]

Radiation-fearing Tokyoites' weapon of choice? The umbrella
...more...
Read the rest of our expat guest columns here

WTF, old chap?
Roundly panned in the comments

The "reporter" appropriately named "Wanklyn" who mostly works as a stringer for the FauxNews Radio (Fox News), which is to say he's the lowest-of-the-low working for a dogshit, fraudulent news network.

foxnews.com Wanker Wanklyn foreign-dispatch in Japan

WANKLYN-is-a-fraud.jpg

[Coligny]

Are you having difficulty finding a place to dump your nuclear waste? Japan has a solution for you: public playgrounds

[Coligny]

1 meter tall
narrow
fragile
heavy mass on top.

The rover seems to use standard RC car wheels on a chassis without ground clearance.

And it seems to have frozen on stage
http://enenews.com/new-nuclear-proof-ro ... away-photo

Video of the disaster here.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20121121_32.html


Hints for the japanese clowns:
When you want to make robots that can move or survive in harsh/bumpy environement, you do like NASA for their rover or the standar disasters intervention robots, wheels or tracks, low center of gravity, everything done to avoid roll overs...


Oh... and I thought robots where not needed... http://www.smartplanet.fr/smart-technol ... apon-1438/

French Groupe Intra robots and mobile hardened shelter. that were ready to board an Antonov 225 in March 2011 but refused by japan as being 'inadapted' (to the country 4 season I suppose):

http://www.groupe-intra.com/pages2/inte ... oyens2.htm
http://www.groupe-intra.com/pages2/inte ... oyens3.htm
http://www.groupe-intra.com/pages2/inte ... oyens4.htm
http://www.groupe-intra.com/pages2/inte ... oyens5.htm

[Screwed-down Hairdo]

1 meter tall
narrow
fragile
heavy mass on top.

For a second there, I thought you were talking about Sarkozy again....

[Coligny]

Who ?

[Taro Toporific]

And it {Toshiba robot} seems to have frozen on stage
http://enenews.com/new-nuclear-proof-ro ... away-photo

Toshiba Shows Four-Legged Robot for Nuke Disaster
ABC News | by Yuri Kageyyama AP Business Writer
Nov. 21, 2012 (AP) YOKOHAMA---Toshiba Corp. unveiled a robot Wednesday that the company says can withstand high radiation and help...enter Japan's crippled Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
The four-legged robot can climb over debris and venture into radiated areas off-limits to humans...But the machine, which looks like an ice cooler on wobbly metal legs, also appears prone to glitches. The robot took a jerky misstep during a demonstration to reporters, freezing with one leg up in the air. It had to be lifted by several people and rebooted.
The robot was also notably slow in climbing a flight of eight steps, cautiously lifting its legs one by one, and taking about a minute to go up each step.
With obstacles that aren't as even and predictable as steps, such as the debris at the plant, it may need as much as 10 minutes to figure out how to clear the object...more...

toshiba-bot-4-legs.jpg

big-At-At-fail.jpg

[Coligny]

And what a proper stair climbing door opening robot should look like:

eole.jpg

Really, they wont be able to claim they didn't deserve it when entire city populations start shitting blood...

[Taro Toporific]

Next up on Tepco's press release: "the dog ate our homework"

Faulty fallout forecasts' firm industry-linked
Japan Times | Nov. 23, 2012
A consulting firm linked to the nuclear industry produced erroneous projections for the spread of radiation from reactors in the event of meltdowns...The revelation casts doubt on the ability of the Nuclear Regulation Authority to serve as a watchdog, as it outsourced the projection work to the consultancy through the Japan Nuclear Energy Safety Organization, which originally made a contract for the project and merely released the forecasts.
The projections were created by CSA of Japan Co. According to a credit research firm, CSAJ is a member of the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum nuclear industry body and does business with JNES and a subsidiary of Tohoku Electric Power Co.
The radiation spread projection work was outsourced to the consulting firm for ¥9.77 million by JNES...
m0aR horseshit!~

CSAJ_faked-radiation.gif

[Coligny]

Who cares, speedy simulations were right and they didn't use them anyway...

[Coligny]

When they stopped the perfectly safe (TM) Superior Japanese (C) Powerplant (run for the hills)... Pipe bursts and metric shittons of seawater flooded key parts of the reactors...

Result... as of now... the plant is totally inoperabul.

http://ajw.asahi.com/article/0311disast ... 1211210004

[matsuki]

That Toshiba retardbot fuckup is censored...the video seems totally gone from the interwebz...

It reminded me of a much better machine that was built many years ago...

[Taro Toporific]

And what a proper stair climbing door opening robot should look like:

eole.jpg

..

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries reveals nuclear plant inspection robot MHI-MEISTeR
gizmag.com | 2012/12/06
Over the past few weeks, Japan has unveiled robotic exoskeletons and quadrupeds designed to work in radioactive areas, and today Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has revealed its own inspection and maintenance robot. The MHI-MEISTeR (Maintenance Equipment Integrated System of Telecontrol Robot) has two arms ...and negotiates uneven terrain, including stair steps up to 22 cm (8.5 inches) on its four independently-moving tank tracks.
More...

MHI-MEISTeR-2.jpg

MHI-MEISTeR-1.jpg

[Coligny]

That half round toptrack design for the upper body is genious... you can either keep it level while climbing or radically shift the center of gravity forward or backward if you need to change the balance...
Come with powerfull arms so it might be able to put himself back on track if he fallsp, and can use same powertools as human...

(Plus I'm ready to bet that the track drivetrain sub-assembly also allow for alteration of the ground clearance...)

It's really made by japanese people ?

[Taro Toporific]

I'm ready to bet that the track drivetrain sub-assembly also allow for alteration of the ground clearance...

You won that bet.
As you can see in these photos, Master MEISTeR can independently alter the positioning of its tracks. By going onto a track's "tiptoes," MEISTeR-kun could gain more ground clearance at any individual track or all of them.

MHI-MEISTeR-track-adjustments.jpg

[matsuki]

It's really made by japanese people ?

Made by...yeah, but I bet you a million bazillion north korean giant rabbits that the concept/ideas behind it are foreign...not that they'll ever get credit for it.