Last week, Japanese earthquake victims began settling into a neighbourhood of new temporary housing complexes in Miyagi. The clean, compact yet spacious modular homes made from shipping containers proclaim the virtues of prefabrication and adaptive reuse and demonstrate, once again, architect Shigeru Ban’s ability to synthesise contemporary sustainable building practices with a historically rooted Japanese sensibility.
Earthquake survivors buried under tonnes of rubble normally owe their lives to drinking their own pee. Not so for Japanese aid worker Miyuki Konnai, who says her laptop helped her through the ordeal.
Japan is hoping to have the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant safely shuttered by the end of the year, but a little radioactive wrench just got dropped: inspectors have discovered evidence of very recent fission. That’s bad news.
The National Park Service has released a video that shows how the top of the Washington Monument looked from the inside during the August 23 earthquake. Obviously, there was a lot of shaking and people running around.
Just like in the bloody old times of the Roman Inquisition, some Italians are trying to blame scientists for the 300 victims of the 2009 L’Aquila earthquake today. How this stupidity has reached trial is beyond me.
