Random pictures - Japanese woodblocks

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Ukoyi-e Japanese Woodblock Print Search  And here's an article on the database: Enter a Digital Archive of 213,000+ Beautiful Japanese Woodblock Prints

Random charts - megadisaster

 

 

 

Source: Learning from Megadisasters : Lessons from the Great East Japan Earthquake (390-pg PDF)

Random charts - economies

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Purchasing Power Parities and Real Expenditures of World Economies Summary of Results and Findings of the 2011 International Comparison Program (104-pg PDF)

Random picture - travel

Source: 13 Gorgeous Travel Posters From 1930s Japan

Random chart - China ADIZ

Click to enlarge:

Source: Why China's new air zone incensed Japan, U.S.

Recently in the news, China declared an Air Defense Identification Zone (or ADIZ) in the Easy China Sea, and started a kerfuffle... with neighbors Japan and South Korea, and with their backer the U.S.

Only in Japan

Picture credit: Japanese weather loach

From the September 3-9, 2011 edition of The Economist, a story on how Yoshihiko Noda, won his party's nod to become Japan's new Prime Minister:

"On August 30th it paid off. Mr Noda became prime minister, replacing Naoto Kan, who was forced out after 14 tumultuous months. The 54-year-old black belt in judo is the sixth new leader in five years; he risks being laughed off even before he starts. What is more, so little known in Japan is Mr Noda that a week earlier supporters were telling him to quit the race to replace Mr Kan as president of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), especially once his more photogenic ally, Seiji Maehara, a former foreign minister, broke a promise not to run against him.

Yet using skills honed at Funabashi station, Mr Noda pulled off what supporters call a miracle. His speech to parliamentarians of the ruling party before they voted for a leader was unusual for a Japanese politician. He spoke plainly, exuding honesty and consistency. And he made people laugh, comparing his puffy appearance to that of a loach, a fish that loves mud.

In a second-round vote, victory was assured when one of the candidates he defeated in the first round took off his jacket. That signalled to the politician’s followers that they should cast their run-off vote for Mr Noda, rather than the puppet candidate of Ichiro Ozawa, the party’s indicted (and suspended) kingpin. Mr Noda romped home, 215 votes to 177. But supporters say his speech also contained a coded message aimed at healing a paralysing rift in the party between those for and against Mr Ozawa. The loach reference was taken from one of the favourite poems of Azuma Koshiishi, a 75-year-old elder in the DPJ who is close to Mr Ozawa, with rare influence over him. It was a deftly cast fly. Soon after Mr Noda was named prime minister, he persuaded Mr Koshiishi to become secretary-general of the party. That put the onus on Mr Ozawa to bury the hatchet."

(....contd).

Only in Japan....

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Source: Economy at risk from spending cuts, warns Koo. His slidedeck.

Great quotes

“While customers are calling, we are just operating on a limited basis. Unfortunately, out of 100 girls, there are a few whose whereabouts we cannot confirm. I just wanted to reassure them by opening the office to offer them a place to stay if they had lost homes.”

« Nos concurrents vont peut-être devoir fermer mais nous ne pouvons laisser éteindre toutes les lumières de Sendaï » ("Our competitors might close but we couldn't allow all of Sendai's lights to be extinguished")

- Managers of two of Sendai's 'deri heru' - "delivery health" clubs i.e. sex-service clubs, apparently motivated (cough!) by concern for their employees and for the town! Before the devastation of the earthquake/tsunami, Sendai's red-light district was the home for over 3,000 bars, restaurants, and sex clubs...

Sendai vu par un tabloïd japonais
Sendai’s sex-service clubs struggle to survive after earthquake

Note the use of the QR code, which decodes to their mobile site:

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Source: Xenon From Fukushima: What Is It Telling Us?

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Click to enlarge

Status of nuclear power plants at Fukushima, March 22nd. Source: The Oil Drum: Fukushima Dai-ichi status and slow burning issues

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Source: Unfall im japanischen Kernkraftwerk Fukushima. Animated map showing the radioactive plume from the Japanese Kukushima dai-ichi reactors....

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Source: The Big Picture: Japan - Vast Devastation 51 pictures...

How bad is it?

Many of the news reports on the situation of the Japanese nuclear plants adversely effected by the earthquake and ensuing tsunami have been criticized for being shoddy, sensationalist, light on facts, etc... In other words 'par for the course' for the media.

Below are some good links that explain in greater detail what has happened, viz. the plants were automatically shut down after the earthquake i.e. there was a scram and the control rods were inserted, shutting down the nuclear reaction. However, even with the active heat generation being stopped there is a very significant residual heat that needs to be cooled... The cooling was initially being enabled by the generators, but when these were rendered inoperable by the tsunami, the cooling systems went to battery power. Unable to restore power there have been problems ever since... See the interactive graphic at: How a Reactor Shuts Down and What Happens in a Meltdown

What's the bottom line? If the containment vessels are not breached (e.g. by one of the explosions that have occurred), then even a partial meltdown in which the fuel melts and pools at the bottom of the containment vessel, should not result in an escape. In Three Mile Island, where half the core melted, it did not even get close to melting through the bottom of the containment vessel (though I've heard reports that the containment vessels here are less sturdy than those at TMI...). The operators have been venting steam to reduce pressure... This steam contains small amounts of radioactive material, so it is 'scrubbed' through filters to remove radioactive components such as iodine and cesium, before being released into the atmosphere. As a result relatively small amounts (thus far) of radioactive materials have been released...

Boiling Water Reactor (BWR)
Some Perspective On The Japan Earthquake
Why I am not worried about Japan’s nuclear reactors
Nuclear Experts Explain Worst-Case Scenario at Fukushima Power Plant
Discussion Thread – Japanese nuclear reactors and the 11 March 2011 earthquake
Information on the Japanese Earthquake and Reactors in That Region
Fukushima Nuclear Accident – a simple and accurate explanation
Drumbeat Special Edition: Fukushima Thread
IAEA on Fukushima

How Black Is the Japanese Nuclear Swan?

Some think that the far greater danger is posed by the spent fuel pools, that are situated "... several stories above ground adjacent to the top of the reactor...", see the links below:

All Bets Are Off: Meltdown at Fukushima
The Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Nuclear Plants
Safety and Security of Commercial Spent Nuclear Fuel Storage: Public Report

Update 11:00 PM: Latest reports seem to indicate that one of the containment vessels was damaged in a blast, and that "... emergency workers were withdrawn from the plant, and much larger emissions of radioactive materials appeared imminent..."

Random pictures

Source: Satellite Photos of Japan, Before and After the Quake and Tsunami. Amazing interactive "before and after" pictures from the NYT...

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Source: World Bank: GDP in current USD Not adjusted for inflation

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Source: Plastic to oil fantastic. "A Japanese company called Blest created a small, very safe and easy to use machine that can convert several types of plastic back into oil."

Ground zero

Source: Hiroshima Peace Memorial

The Manhattan Project: An Interactive History

In Memoriam - Townsend Harris

Many know of Commodore Perry (and his "black ships") who ended Jpanese isolationism... However, it was Townsend Harris who was invited to the court of the 13th Tokugawa Shogun, Tokugawa Iesada, where he negotiated the Treaty of Amity and Commerce Between the United States and Japan, signed July 29, 1858, and subsequently ratified by the United States Senate that December. Every year a delegation from Shimoda, Japan (where he landed) visits his grave in Brooklyn.

Honoring a Man Who Helped Open Japan to the West
Townsend Harris - Wikipedia
The 150th anniversary of Townsend Harris' arrival in Japan

Knocked out of the ring?

"Le numéro un du sumo, le Mongol Asashoryu, a réclamé une augmentation du salaire des lutteurs, pour la première fois depuis sept ans, en citant la crise mondiale du prix des carburants, a rapporté un quotidien japonais."

Sumo's number one, the Mongolian Asashoryu, demanded a salary raise for the wrestlers, the first in seven years, citing the world gas price crisis, a Japanese daily reported...

"Je veux une augmentation de salaire pour les lutteurs. Le prix des carburants et de beaucoup d'autres denrées augmente, mais notre paye reste la même", a dit Asashoryu lors d'une réunion avec d'autres lutteurs, selon le quotidien sportif Nikkan Sports. "

"I want a salary raise for the wrestlers. The price of gas and many other staples is going up, but our salary stays the same, said Asashoryu during a reunion with other wrestlers, according to the sports daily Nikkan Sports."

"Je me demande si nous ne pourrions pas avoir une hausse d'environ 10% ou nous faire rembourser nos déplacements entre les centres d'entraînement et les lieux de tournoi."

"I'm asking if we could have around a ten percent raise or get our trips between our training centers and competition venues reimbursed." he said..

Le sumo atteint à son tour par la crise mondiale du pétrole