Japan's Missile Defense (that doesn't work) is Extremely Effective Against North Korean Missiles (that don't work)... At Least on Paper!

It's a comedy of errors! It never fails to amaze me just how incompetent the government is. What government? Oh, any government. Take your pick. Let's pick Japan's today.

As effective as today's defense system is against North Korean missiles 

It seems that the missile warning system that the Japanese government were bragging would alert the public about the North Korean missile launch as it happened (Japan spent hundreds of millions of dollars on when they bought the system from the United States) failed and the Japanese authorities had to rely on foreign news reports to confirm the launch.

Seriously, this comedian could probably run any department or agency in the government much better than any politician Japan has today... At least he'd be good for laughs...

Hilarious! I burst out laughing on this news.... Maybe they forgot to install the four AA batteries (not included) in the system?


Japan Today reports: Japan's rocket alert system failed due to lack of info from defense ministry

The alert system Japan promised would warn citizens of North Korea’s rocket launch had to rely on media reports because the defense ministry did not pass on the intelligence it had, an official said Friday. 

(You mean this high-tech warning system needs a low-tech telephone call to work? How about two cans and a string?) 

In what appeared to be a humiliating blow for the government after days of hype about the effectiveness of its warning system, security officials at the centre handling the alert were not told of the launch until 44 minutes after Tokyo had first learned of it.


Let's vote. Which government is more humiliated and seems more incompetent by yesterday's failed launch? Is it (pick one): 
        A) North Korea
        B) Japan

In the meantime, the center issued a vague warning, based on international media reports of the launch, some 23 minutes after blast off and when those watching still believed the rocket was headed over Japanese territory.

(No. I believe they read my blog. I scooped the world!)

“We didn’t have the information at that time we issued the message,” a security centre official told reporters on condition of customary anonymity.

How do you say, "Doh!" in Japanese?

I don't know why the Japanese government needs to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on these systems that don't work for monitoring missile launchings that don't work either.... They could just read this blog as I reported an hour ahead of time that the missile launch was a failure...


In fact, both North Korea and Japan could nod and wink and just say they've built the systems and pocket the money. No one would know the difference! Genius!

Japan's missile defense that doesn't work is extremely effective against missiles 

that don't work either... At least on paper!

You know, the Japanese government also claimed that they were prepared for the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, yet they blew it. Now, this. I have a new motto for the Japanese government. Tell me what you think:

Japanese government motto for 2012 and beyond: 

Preparedness in the face of disaster yet dropping the ball just in time.

That works for me.

Worrying Too Much About the Worse-Case Scenario is a Sign of Serious Mental Illness and Paranoia

I wonder if extreme paranoia can be linked to junk and processed foods?


I've said many times that things are bad enough at Fukushima and Tohoku after the 311 disaster for those poor folks, they don't need people spreading unfounded rumors. But recently the shrill voices of terror, gloom and doom have really gotten out of control with their reporting of "worse case scenarios" as being factual occurrences signed, sealed and delivered finished deals.

Worse-case scenario: Oil spill 

I just reported on one article I read at Sh*t Hits The Fan (SHTF) website that was chocked full of foaming at the mouth reporting about secret plans to evacuate Tokyo and how there was "no way to control the radiation" at Fukushima. Please refer to Sensationalism, Scare-Mongering and the Nanny State: 

There is still way too much sensationalism and frankly speaking piss poor writing going on about Fukushima. I found one of the worst examples I've seen in a long time today. This article's title is suitable for a gossip weekly magazine on some US supermarket check out counter along with the Hillary Clinton Adopts Alien Baby story. The title lays bare to the low quality of writing held within: It's Not Over: Government Plans for the Worst - Forced Evacuation of Tokyo. The article goes on stating that the nuclear problem is out of control, cannot be controlled and the Japanese government has plans to evacuate ten million people from Tokyo.

Worse-case scenario: Flesh Eating virus on your face

Interestingly enough, one guy wrote a comment to me that showed just how foolish and insane this subject makes people. He wrote how wrong I was and insisted that I, "Come out right now and admit that you (I) work for TEPCO!" and then actually wrote, "The radioactivity levels in Tokyo have spiked way higher than those in even Fukushima!"

I asked for proof of that claim and no proof was forthcoming or will be. It can't be.

Think about the nuttiness of that bizarre claim! Where did he get such an outrageous idea? That, "The radioactivity levels in Tokyo have spiked way higher than those in even Fukushima"!? Extraordinary! How could Fukushima be such a problem that it is claimed that it is a danger so bad that the radiation is going to end life on this planet as we know it, yet (he claims that) Tokyo has higher radiation levels already than Fukushima? How did this radiation get to Tokyo? Where did it come from? There are no nuclear power plants in Tokyo. Did the radiation jump over the mountains here or did it skip over? 

Or was it transported from Fukushima like James T. Kirk would be in Star Trek? ... Anyway....

"Beam me up, Scotty!"

The point is that there are a lot of nutty people running around. 


Whatever an organization like SHTF writes can be taken with a grain of salt as they are a company that makes their living selling survival gear and foodstuffs for the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI). They want people to buy their stuff. They sell fear... (And, they do a good job of it too!) 


Now, far be it from me to tell you that you shouldn't be prepared for all sorts of disasters, you definitely should. I think you need to have at least two months of food and water and as much gold and silver as you can get your hands on. I wrote about that in: Be Prepared! A Better Investment Than Gold?

Worse-case scenario: The sun won't explode in 5 billion years, 

it will only take 500,000 million years! 

So, on the point of being prepared for natural (or man-made) disasters or economic calamities up to a point, SHTF and I agree... But, unlike SHTF, I don't sell full body radioactivity armor or underground air and water filters, no guns and artillery pieces and ammo for use in the case of a nuclear holocaust.


Perhaps we will have one of those. 


I'm hoping that I can get away to New Zealand or South America before the time that happens. If not, I wonder what good is the quality of life if our entire environment is so radioactive that we have to wear protective suits all the time? Would anyone want to live that way? That's like being old and dying and kept alive by machines. That's not living. That's being alive and living in hell. 

Worse-case scenario: Alien Invasion

No matter what, if I'm lucky and smart enough, my wife and kids will be gone well before anything bad happens. Those arrangements were made way back in 2008 because I fear the economic turmoil I know that one is coming (and people think I over-react!)

But, how everyone handles a disaster and what's best for themselves and their families? That's a practical and philosophical question, perhaps, that I think everyone must have considered. If they haven't they should have. 


For now, I am of the thinking that things in Fukushima are bad enough as it is without people spreading irrational rumors. There are radioactive spent fuel pools in the United States that are ten times higher in radiation than Fukushima, Chernobyl and Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined and have no protection against natural disasters like earthquakes at all, yet you don't hear about them. You do, though, hear about "worse case scenarios" involving Fukushima, though, and "Nuclear Experts claiming that "an earthquake in the vicinity of Fukushima could spell the end of civilization as we know it." 


(Psst! Don't look now, but Japan has always had lots of earthquakes. In fact, we just had seven earthquakes in the area of Fukushima and, as far as I can see from my window, the earth and the rest of us are still here!)


Anyhow, even if there is another huge earthquake and it does cause so much damage that it ends civilization as we know it, what are you going to do about it? Huh? As the leader of the "Good Ol Boys" said to Jake in the Blues Brothers, "What are you going to do about it, huh, Stein? You're going to look pretty good eating corn on the cob with no f*cking teeth!" 

Are you going to run over to Fukushima and hold up collapsing structures like Atlas?

Worse-case scenario: Heavy manual labor and the pay is less than minimum wage

What are you going to do if we are hit by another killer asteroid that destroys life on earth as we know it? What are you going to do if nuclear war breaks out and that ends life on this earth as we know it? What are you going to do when the next ice-age hits? What are you going to do if the next bird flu really is a massive killer and wipes out you and your family? What are you going to do? What are all these Chicken Little's going to do?


Well, I have an idea, you can spend the rest of your life worrying about all sorts of things and stay hidden indoors or you can go outside and realize that danger is a part of life and always has been ("Don't leave the cave, Saber-Toothed tigers might eat you!") and live your short time on this earth to its fullest. 

Our society has a lot of mentally ill people running around. The mere fact that they wish to claim the end of the world and the end of our civilization (as if we have the power to stop earthquakes and natural disasters) due to man's folly (folly that will never end)... Is a true sign of this modern-day mental illness.


I've got my own quirks and mental problems too. We all do. But fearing the end of the world in a situation that is completely out of my control is not one of them. Ninety-nine percent of all deadly car accidents occur within 50 miles from home; Over three-hundred and fifty-three thousand people died from cancer in Japan in 2010 alone and that number is increasing annually; In 2010 cardio-vascular disease killed over 10.8 million people in Japan and the rate is going up! These are known killers. I know they are going to happen. I eat healthy and don't drink or smoke.


These people freaking out about Fukushima and the end of the world? I'll bet you half a donut that 99% of them eat junk and processed foods all the time... And they worry about the end of the world? Ha!


Do you think you or I should spend our time biting our nails and worrying about something that "might" happen in a "worse-case scenario"? I don't.

Be very worried... Indeed.

This is not to belittle a serious problem but I have a life to live and time to enjoy on this planet. I hope you feel the same way too. 


It's a wonderful weekend. Go out and enjoy it with your family and friends... Oh and try to stay away from paranoid people and junk food... They seem to hang in same circles...

"Japan's children of the tsunami " BBC program in full. First aired 1st March 2012

Thanks to EK-SKF Blogspot

Hysterical & Hysterically Funny Maps of Nuclear Radiation and Danger Zones in Japan

I just read some reports saying that Tokyo was so radioactively contaminated that it needed to be evacuated - all 30 million plus of us who live here. That alarmed me so I got out my handy dandy Geiger counter and measured the background radiation here in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. It was basically the same it always has been. And completely within safe levels. (To see the current levels look that the top of this blog for link.)

If you want to read this outlandish reporting, you can. It is here. But I will quote this report at length:

(San Francisco) Widely known Physicist Dr Paolo Scampa, the publisher of the EU AIPRI Blog and an eminent chemical physicist, announced today his latest calculations of deadly radioactivity in Tokyo itself.  Both the nuclear regulatory and media responses have been missing in action.

.....

The Tokyo suburbs are about 100 miles or 160 km South of the six destroyed, deteriorating and badly leaking nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Station for Nuclear Reactors.

Dr Scampa stated:

“An absorbed dose of 2,94 microSievert/hour at 1 meter of soil means an average deposit of 9,065E5 Bq/m2 of Cs137 -0,661 MeV-. This amount for 1 meter is in fact situated between a maximum deposit of  5,439E6 Bq/m2 for low energy gamma rays from radioactive elements such as U238 (0,0495 MeV) and a minimum deposit of  2,176E5 Bq/m2 of very energetic gamma rays from radioactive elements such as Co60 (2,55 MeV). This dose corresponds to 25 times the maximum permissible “artificial” hour dose (0,114 microSievert/h-1) and 5 times the maximum permissible total – natural and artificial – hour dose (0,571 microSievert/h-1). [1]” Dr. Scampa. [End Quote]

This is a tragedy of huge proportions. There are 30 Plus Million People in Greater Tokyo. It is brought home personally to each person who sees the work of Fukushima Diary by Mochizuki.

There are thousands of US troops stationed with their families in Japan. American politicians must remove all US Troops and dependents from Japan immediately.

You might notice that Dr. Scampa's statement is about dangerous levels of radiation. This I don't argue; those dosages are dangerous. My only question is where in Dr. Scampa's statement does he say something like, "Tokyo is experiencing currently dangerous levels of radiation"? He doesn't. This is typical of the wild unsubstantiated claims being made in some circles. 


May I ask that the facts be given and then relevant information also be given? I don't see how a dissertation on dangerous radiation levels - something I can learn in a book - can be directly related to facts on the ground here in Tokyo by what I have read in this article. This reminds me of the claims about a year ago that the "Top 1/3 of Japan is uninhabitable for decades." 


This sort of panicky reporting is still going on... Fear mongering and completely baseless.


But how do the Japanese see it the nuclear problem? Here is a bunch of excellent, funny and cynical maps that have been making the rounds on the Internet here in Japan amongst the Japanese.


This is from the Testosterone Pit: Nuclear Contamination as Seen by Japanese Humor

After an endless stream of horrid reports on the tragedy of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and the subsequent nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, and the hotspots that are cropping up in odd places, and food scares, and even contaminated grasshoppers, we’re ready for something ... lighter. This has been circulating in the Japanese internet community for months, has garnered countless comments, and a lot of nodding, agreement, and knowing smiles. Though it’s not based on science or statistics, and certainly not on any polls, it represents, in the eyes of many Japanese, a larger tongue-in-cheek truth.

Note: the areas seen as contaminated are marked in red.

Thanks to Zerohedge and Testosterone Pit

Japan is Earthquake Capital of the World Visualization Animated Map

After the March 11, 2011 Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and subsequent Fukushima nuclear power plant accident, I was inundated with all sorts of ridiculous mails claiming that I was working for the nuclear industry or an "nuclear apologist." The more absurd ones were from people who claimed that the March 11 disaster was caused by HAARP or, as Benjamin Fulford claimed, "The USA detonating a nuclear bomb undersea off the coast of Japan."

All nonsense. I am no expert on HAARP but I like to think I know a tad bit about Japan. Japan has a hell of a lot of earthquakes. We had two yesterday that I felt. We have them almost everyday... Hell, we have hundreds of them everyday. Don't believe me?

Well, then watch this. Here is an animated map of earthquake activity in Japan in 2011. See if you can find where the nuclear attacks were:

Best Place for Up-to-the-Minute Radiation Readings for All of Japan

In English 日本語もあり ここです （http://blog.safecast.org/ja/）。 Nationwide readings. Proper measurements by independent worldwide volunteer organization called Safecast. If that link doesn't work, see: http://blog.safecast.org


There have been many recent stories of high radiation readings in Tokyo that were proven to be not related to Fukushima. For example, false alarms in the water, in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward, and a litany of others, Safecast data proves that Tokyo is well within safe limits and has lower radiation levels than major international cities such as Rome, Italy or Hong Kong, China.


PBS recently featured Safecast:

From Youtube:


Eight months after a tsunami caused a nuclear accident in Japan, ordinary people are using new technology and the power of crowdsourcing to find radiation hotspots. NewsHour science correspondent Miles O\'Brien reports from Japan.


The results still show several danger zones in and around Fukushima... The Tokyo areas show completely safe levels. Please check your area for yourself.

Japanese Gov't to Rent Land Near Fukushima? Nuts!

There's some things going on about the Fukushima disaster that I just cannot understand. These problems all involve the government handling of the situation. I've written much about my dissatisfaction with that. 

The problem with the entire situation stems from government incompetence and the desire to be all things to all people in this crisis.


Yesterday, it came to fore that areas near the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plants will be declared uninhabitable for many ears to come. Does that come as a surprise to anyone? I wouldn't think so.


Now, it seems that the Japanese government is going to reimburse land and property owners near the Fukushima plant by paying them rent for all the coming years that they won't be able to live in their homes. I am completely against this notion and think this is just another government boondoogle that makes the rest of us pay for something that we had nothing to do with.


The New York Times reports:

TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday.

The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Lawmakers said over the weekend — and major newspapers reported Monday — that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was planning to visit Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is, as early as Saturday to break the news directly to residents. The affected communities are all within 12 miles of the plant, an area that was evacuated immediately after the accident.

Why is this a surprise? Didn't everyone expect this long ago? When the government announced a few weeks ago that they were planning to allow residents to return this year, didn't everyone think they were talking like the fools that they are?

The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period. It will also begin drawing up plans for compensating them by, among other things, renting their now uninhabitable land. While it is unclear if the government would specify how long these living restrictions would remain in place, news reports indicated it could be decades. That has been the case for areas around the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after its 1986 accident.

Like I said, under what twisted rules will the government determine the land value of these areas? Their current value must be zero, right? What is the difference between this and the US government buying all those billions of dollar of so-called "toxic-assets" from the failing uS banking system? There isn't any. It is just throwing public money down the toilet.

Since the Fukushima accident, evacuations have been a sensitive topic for the government, which has been criticized for being slow to admit the extent of the disaster and trying to limit the size of the areas affected, despite possible risks to public health. Until now, Tokyo had been saying it would lift the current evacuation orders for most areas around the plant early next year, when workers are expected to stabilize Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged nuclear reactors.

Ha! No one who has been paying any attention even thinks anything the government says is anything but a sick joke. Once again, they show their total incompetence and lack of common sense and delusion. Kan and his cronies keep hoping that things will get better but as a friend once told me, "Hope isn't a very good business plan." How in the world it is that Kan is still prime minister is astounding.

The government was apparently forced to alter its plans after the survey by the Ministry of Science and Education, released over the weekend, which showed even higher than expected radiation levels within the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. The most heavily contaminated spot was in the town of Okuma about two miles southwest of the plant, where someone living for a year would be exposed to 508.1 millisieverts of radiation — far above the level of 20 millesieverts per year that the government considers safe.

The survey found radiation above the safe level at three dozen spots up to 12 miles from the plant. That has called into question how many residents will actually be able to return to their homes even after the plant is stabilized.

The only good note that can be deemed from all of this is that, with everyone being so nervous and doing some serious checking and investigation, that no one has found any wide contamination in Tokyo is a good thing. Let's hope it stays that way and people remain vigilant.


Frankly speaking, in a nutshell, here's what I think:


1) The TEPCO nuclear power plant is a privately owned business. When they made profits, they kept them. When they lose money (as in the recent accident) I don't understand why the public has to bail them out. They make a profit, they pocket the money. They lose money and the public has to pay through increased taxation? Does that seem fair to you? It doesn't to me.


2) Once again, the government is easy to spread around public tax monies paid for by you and me.... After all, it's not their money.


3) This sounds really cold, but the people who lived around those nuclear power plants profited in their businesses and livelihoods for decades due to the business and economic benefits those nuclear power plants provided as a main source of jobs and revenue for the people living in the area. Why are they different than TEPCO? They profited for many years off of businesses and jobs created by the TEPCO plant. Now that there has been a terrible accident, why do the rest of us have to pay them rent for their houses that they can no longer live in?


4) Who will decide the amount of rent to be paid? Surely we will be paying way over current market value on those properties as their current value - since the disaster - must be close to zero.


5) Why are we, the public, being asked to pay for these properties? What is the purpose of private so-called "fire and marine" insurance? (Insurance for covering accidents and disasters befalling private property?) If the owners of property had no insurance, then that is their stupidity and loss. Why should the rest of us pay for that?  When, say, a property on a mountainside is burned down in a fire, are the rest of us expected to pay for that property owner's loss? No.


The disaster of March 11 is a tragedy for those who lost homes, family and livelihoods. These sorts of occurrences are why there is insurance. There is no good reason that the government has volunteered for the rest of us to pay for these people's losses. They profited from the good times, they must suffer for the bad. 


Paying these people, like paying TEPCO, is not fair. It is the same as the US government using tax monies to bail out the big banks when they were in trouble.


The rest of us didn't experience personal or financial gain from the good times, we should not be expected to pay for the bad.


I am against this sort of expenditure of public monies whether it is to be spent to help a private business like TEPCO or a private landowner like those who lived near the Fukushima reactors. People must have known the risk. They should have moved if they didn't like the chances. The rest of us should not be expected to pay for their poor judgement or bad luck.


That is what insurance is for.


As with all tragic events, I wish for good luck for those people and survivors of these disasters... But I can't see how you or I should be forced to pay for it.

No Nuclear Power? Dangers of Natural Gas!

Here's an interesting video about the dangers of natural gas mining. Food for thought...


"Fracking Hell"

I have written about this nuclear power versus coal or oil issue before. Click here.

Thanks to Douglas Phillips!

Radiation Levels in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:38 am

It's Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:37 in the morning.  A slight rain has hit the Kanto area. Here is a map from Yahoo Japan:

I wanted to use this rainy day chance to measure the background radiation levels here in Tokyo. As you can see from the video, I measured the air and near a drainage spot in the road.

Radiation Levels in Tokyo, Japan, Thursday July 28, 2011 at 8:38 am

The levels were well within safe ranges between 0.11 ~ 0.12 microsiverts per hour. The levels are usually between 0.09 ~ 0.12.

For more up to the minute readings on the air and water with comparisons and simple, easy to understand instructions on how to read and understand them, see

here. If that link doesn't work, use this: http://bit.ly/eESfcx

We're Doomed! Japanese Nuclear Polluted Tires Found in Iraq!

I go to the store, walk around Tokyo, ride the trains, go to the grocery store. The kids are playing in the streets, school is out. Summer is here. Life in Tokyo is as always... 

Even the shat in their pants, run and ask pertinent questions later, panic stricken foreigners who were called "Flyjin" are back and too embarrassed to even bring up the subject (what subject? Oh, why returning to Tokyo now is OK when it's no worse or better now than it was on March 15th or 16th?)... 


Since millions have yet to die from Fukushima and 1/3 of Japan is still inhabitable (but for how long?) the purveyors of doom need something else to freak out about, so they have harped on about beef (in a nation that is a predominately fish eating country)... 


I don't eat beef or pork, but how come the pigs don't get equal billing? Just asking...


But now, this radioactive nonsense has gone surreal. The puppet government of Iraq (who is, I'm sure, absolutely not corrupt) wants a $1 million dollar fine for "tires polluted with radioactive rays" from Japan.


You're kidding me with this sh*t, right?


Wireupdate reports from Baghdad:

BAGHDAD (BNO NEWS) — Iraq’s Planning Ministry announced on Monday that a shipment of Japanese tires which bear traces of nuclear pollution were found to have entered the country.

“A shipment of Japanese tires, polluted with nuclear rays coming from Japan, has actually entered Iraq,” Iraqi Planning Minister, Ali Shukri, told a news conference in Baghdad on Monday, according to the Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

Shukri said his Ministry has previously signed contracts with a French and a Swiss company to check the goods coming from other countries. “In the event that the two said companies, with whom the said contracts were signed, committed any violations, the Ministry will enforce a penalty of one million U.S. dollars on them,” he said.

Radioactive tires!? Riiiiiiiiiiight.


If these idiots had a clue they could find someway to make even more money on them than regular tires.


Thanks to my alert friend Scott McLean for the "hot" tip. 

Irradiated Beef Shows Japanese Government Incompetence

It seems the biggest ruckus about Fukushima is the contaminated hay that has been fed to cattle all around Japan.


Reuters reports:

Turmoil caused by the recent detection of cesium contamination of beef shipped from Fukushima Prefecture, home to the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, is spreading to hurt producers of high-quality beef in other parts of the country. With cattle shipments and bidding suspended or canceled due to people's fears over the contaminated beef, livestock farms and related firms worry they may be forced out of business. Since radioactive cesium above the government-designated limit was detected in beef cattle from Fukushima at a Tokyo slaughterhouse on July 8, it has been discovered that cattle possibly fed with contaminated straw have been transported across the country, except for Okinawa Prefecture.

I don't really have much to say about this excepting that this is once again proof of incompetent Japanese government.

Many might claim that this is proof that the situation at Fukushima is out of control and the government must do something about it... In fact, I gather that's what the vast majority of people think.

Well, I would like to point out something that seems missing from the conversation and ask dear reader a question:

Folks, think about this: That these animals were fed tainted hay is not proof of a situation growing out of control at all. This is only proof of government incompetence. This hay was harvested and feed to animals as feed. This is a past event. Not a current or future one. That this hay wasn't destroyed is proof that the government is unable to act and think proactively and, in any case, it is, undoubtedly, proof and another example of government incompetence.

Now, here's my question: Everyone knows how this event happened and the chain of events that lead to it. Consider that along with the government being unable to anticipate obvious problems, then how in the world would anyone in their right mind want that same government to nationalize TEPCO and take over the crippled nuclear power plants?

Now, that would be madness and would most definitely precede many future problems. It astounds me that so many people express opinions of such a nature

Don't people seem to realize the huge contradiction in their own thinking?

"Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform." - Mark Twain

Radiation, Fukushima Facts and Blogger Frustration

Being a blogger is so frustrating... I guess it comes with the territory... 


At the top of this blog, it says, This blog is about "ALL THINGS ABOUT THE MEDIA, MARKETING AND JAPAN..."

I want to write about Japan and the media and marketing as, good bloggers are supposed to write about their expertise. It is the death-knell of any blogger to go off on subjects that they are not expert in. 

I consider myself an expert on mass media, Japan in particular. 

Surprisingly, this blog never was about nuclear power nor Fukushima. I only wrote about Fukushima when it concerned mass media sensationalism or media reporting. I wrote lots of those....

Especially when idiots said stuff like, "A large chunk of Japan will be  uninhabitable." 

Laughable...

Even so, people still attack my former comments on the prophets of doom. 

Here's one that just makes me want to pull my hair out:

You seem to have gone very quiet about the radiation and how safe we are in Japan since the beef story hit? You have no comment about such a big issue? Are we all still safe living with this risk? You think beef will be the last of it? It is amazing how much faith people have here in the authorities ability to manage such an enormous and complex situation. How they try to show support for the region by buying food that will now damage the thing they were trying to support. Is it not obvious that there is contamination and food safety issues relating to the release of radiation in the region??

I responded:

Anonymous! I've written about this much. I am not a radiation expert. I am a media expert. I have written that I wanted to stop writing about Fukushima. When I wrote about (Fukushima) I wrote about media and sensationalism. I don't eat beef - (Mad-cow, chemicals, hormones, etc. that will kill you)... I've even written that if you want factual information on the Fukushima disaster, go to the right of my blog to recommended blog and go to EX-SKF blog and/or Alexander Higgins blog. 

As I've said 100 times, living in Fukushima area near the plants are not... What do you mean, "(Is it safe) Here in Japan?" Do you mean, Okinawa? Nagoya? Osaka? From the information available, Tokyo is safe. The radiation levels are listed at the top of this blog everyday. See for yourself.

Eating beef from Fukushima is probably not (safe). I don't know. When we get a sensationalist story about how radioactive cows are killing "everyone who eats a burger or at McDonalds," I will probably have a comment. 


I've written several times that I want to stop writing about anything to do with Fukushima. Here is the post where I tried to send people to other blogs who need information on facts about Fukushima:

Need Facts on Fukushima Disaster?

I added a link on my blog to this: http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/

Japanese kid who writes well and his English is awesome! Factual reporting on Fukushima... Often makes my blog posts look stupid. Good stuff. Never ventures into conjecture or sensationalism.

I've also linked to my recommended posts a site run by my friend, Alexander Higgins. http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/ and to an excellent blog by Marc Shaffner: http://www.sheffnersweb.net/blogs/accuratemaps/ 

Anyhow, no. I have no intention of writing about anything that has to do with eating beef. In my, opinion, beef is not healthy - in some cases unsafe - to eat anyway. It is too expensive. We don't eat the stuff. Used to. Mad Cow disease finished us off on that... Never really were big beef fans anyway... 

Like I said, though, if some clown comes out in the mass media and starts making wild claims along the lines of "Fukushima beef is irradiating our food supply and 20,000 McDonald's customers are going to die from eating it!" I will write about it...

But, I would write, if only to say that eating McDonald's food regularly will probably kill a hell of a lot more people than the meat from a thousand cows from Fukushima will.

I've gone silent on this? Yes. 

Arnie Gundersen said that "20,000 people were going to die from Fukushima." 

Yawn! 

Many say that Fukushima is much worse than Chernobyl...

Here's fun fact for you about Chernobyl from Wikipedia: At Chernobyl, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness soon after the accident, of whom 31 died within the first three months.

Here's a fun fact for you about Fukushima: Total number of people reported to have acute radiation sickness from Fukushima; 0 (zero). Total deaths from Fukushima nuclear accident in first four + months; 0 (zero). Total number of affected cows; almost 1500.

Very bad news for the cows who will be destroyed.

Fukushima: You'd think that foreigners in this country would bother

to learn how to read second-grade kanji... You'd think wrong.

Afraid of irradiated beef? Don't eat beef... 

Also, here's another hint.... Learn to read and write basic Japanese. At ALL grocery stores in Japan they list where produce is from. If it says 福島　(Fukushima) and you are worried about it. Then don't buy it and don't eat it.

Simple. Problem solved. 


UPDATE: on Fukushima from Business Insider: Fukushima Stabilized. 


UPDATE TWO: The worst thing so far about this tainted beef is that 240 school children were fed it it Yamagata. Now there' some kids parents who, if I were them, I'd be screaming bloody murder!


Yamagata Shimbun Newspaper (7/20/2011) reports:

Concerning the beef from the cows from Asakawa-machi in Fukushima Prefecture that were fed with the rice hay that contained the high level of radioactive cesium, Sakata City (in Yamagata Prefecture) announced on July 19 that 3 nursery schools in the city purchased the beef in late April, and total 290 children and teachers ate the meat in school lunches.

According to Sakata City, the three nursery schools purchased the meat from the same food grocer in the city. The meat was cooked into "hashed beef" dish and served as lunch. 240 children and 50 teachers and administrators ate 20 to 40 grams per person.

The food grocer alerted the nursery schools . Sakata City traced the history of the meat, and confirmed that the meat that was delivered to the three nursery schools came from the Yokohama City Central Wholesale Meat Market, and the cow had come from Asakawa-machi in Fukushima Prefecture.The city notified the parents of children at these nursery schools on July 19, and decided not to use beef in school lunches until the safety is assured.  

NOTE: If you are worried about the government not testing and checking our food. All I can wonder is why in the world after all the recent deaths from food in the west does anyone in the west complain of Japanese government incompetence concerning beef. Just Google search "2010 food deaths" and you'll find 5,000 people die in the USA from tainted food every year and 40,000 die from eating junk food... The USDA doesn't test USA produced milk for radiation. Read here. That the government is incompetent is a foregone conclusion. Why anyone wants that same government to take over the nuclear power plants is beyond comprehension.