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.
When you’re building in Tokyo, you’ve got a lot of building codes that have to be adhered to; most of these relate to the kinds of natural disasters that have all too sadly plagued Japan in recent years. Sony’s Tokyo HQ goes one better; company representatives claim it’s got a three-storey high pop-up tsunami barrier.
In footage guaranteed to make your stomach drop, watch the tsunami wave approaching from the bridge of a Japanese ship. Although it is hard to believe, speeding straight into the 30+ foot wave is the safest way to approach a tsunami at sea.
CNN has a great story on Akiko Kosaka, the Japanese exchange student in California, and the internet search for her family, who were among those affected by the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in the small fishing town of Minamisanriku.
If you have any friends or family in Japan at the moment, Telstra has announced they won’t be charging landline or mobile customers who call the earthquake/tsunami stricken country. They’ve even backdated it to 6am last Friday to cover anyone who called when the news first broke, and the offer will be in place until 6am March 25. [via Lifehacker]
In addition to their updated Google Earth imagery, Google has created a Picasa album full of before and after shots of Japan following the devastating earthquake and Tsunami.
This first-person view is the most terrifying and unbelievable video I’ve seen of the Japan tsunami. Initially everything seems ok, just a mild wave coming towards the camera. Then, the sea goes Godzilla on the city, destroying everything it finds.
Research into invisibility cloaks, which work by bending light around 2D objects, could end up protecting offshore rigs and vulnerable coastlines from water. Scientists at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille, France said that established cloaking principles can be applied to ocean waves, and built a 10cm model to show how carefully placed concentric pillars make objects in the centre “invisible” to the sea.
