Efforts to search for children orphaned by quake face challenges

Child welfare specialists have gathered from various parts of the country for this unusual mission under the initiative of the central government.

Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, the other prefectures that were most severely damaged, are also preparing to accept those specialists and are expected to request their dispatches soon.

In Iwate, 17 specialists including psychologists and child minders from nurseries in Hokkaido, Aomori, Akita, Tokyo and Kanagawa have arrived. On Saturday, they met local counterparts and started their searches in the cities of Kamaishi, Ofunato and Rikuzentakata and the town of Otsuchi.

The experts will initially work in groups of three and look for children without parents at evacuation shelters along with people in charge at the shelters.

If there are any children who have no place to go, the specialists are planning to entrust them to temporary care homes at child consultation centers or host parents.

FOCUS: Efforts to search children orphaned by quake face challenges | Kyodo News

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Terje Sorgerd: Aurora Borealis

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Machine that Changed the World

A classic 1992 documentary on computers.

Recent Coronal Mass Ejections from the sun.

Sun Prominence Eruption Up-Close (March 19, 2011)



And here's subsequent event on March 24th:



This, 7P EDT March 25th.

Radioactivity levels soar in Japan seawater

World news - Asia-Pacific - msnbc.com

Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Saturday, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Even as engineers tried to pump puddles of radioactive water from the power plant 150 miles north of Tokyo, the nuclear safety agency said tests on Friday showed radioactive iodine had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in the seawater just offshore the plant.

A senior official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama, said the contamination posed little risk to aquatic life.

"Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed," he said.

He initially said the high radiation reading meant there could be damage to the reactor, but he later said it could be from venting operations to release pressure or water leakage from pipes or valves.

"There is no data suggesting a crack," he said.

Nuclear watchdog the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Friday there had not been much change in the crisis over the previous 24 hours.

"Some positive trends are continuing but there remain areas of uncertainty that are of serious concern," agency official Graham Andrew said in Vienna, adding the high radiation could be coming from steam.

When TEPCO restored power to the plant late last week, some thought the crisis would soon be over. But two weeks after the earthquake, lingering high levels of radiation from the damaged reactors has kept hampering workers' progress.

At Three Mile Island, the worst nuclear power accident in the United States, workers took just four days to stabilize the reactor, which suffered a partial meltdown. No one was injured and there was no radiation release above the legal limit.

At Chernobyl in the Ukraine, the worst nuclear accident in the world, it took weeks to "stabilize" what remained of the plant and months to clean up radioactive materials and cover the site with a concrete and steel sarcophagus.

Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Friday the situation at Fukushima was "nowhere near" being resolved.

Meanwhile, the Japanese government has prodded tens of thousands of people living in a 12- to 18-mile zone beyond the stricken complex to leave, but insisted it was not widening an evacuation zone.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano has said the residents should move because it was difficult to get supplies to the area, and not because of elevated radiation.

An official at the Science Ministry however confirmed that daily radiation levels in an area 18 miles northwest of the plant had exceeded the annual limit.

Vegetable and milk shipments from near the stricken plant have been stopped, and Tokyo's residents were told this week not to give tap water to babies after contamination from rain put radiation at twice the safety level.

It dropped back to safe levels the next day, and the city governor cheerily drank tap water in front of cameras.

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Need to know: US nuke spent fuel locations

More info here.

What to do with Color? ONN knew in 2009

What is Color?

Victim of Deepwater Horizon oil spill speaks

Subscribe to jmrexford's YouTube channel.

New images show immediate aftermath of tsunami striking Fukushima nuclear plant

Further waves approach the Fukushima nuclear power plant immediately after a tsunami struck, about 40 minutes following a magnitude 9 earthquake in Tomioka, Fukushima prefecture, Japan in this still image taken from a March 11, 2011 video released by the Ministry of Transport Tohuku Regional Bureau via Reuters TV.

An aerial view shows the immediate aftermath at the Fukushima nuclear power plant after it was hit by a tsunami, in this still image taken from a March 11, 2011 video released by the Ministry of Transport Tohuku Regional Bureau via Reuters TV.

From MSNBC

Video of huge cracks in roads, destruction after 6.8 Myanmar quake

CIA's 'Facebook' Program Dramatically Cut Agency's Costs

Jose Arguelles crosses over the Rainbow Bridge

Farewell man of beautiful visions.

Jose Arguelles on Wikipedia

Valum Votan / Jose Arguelles on The Foundation for the Law of Time.

Conditions of Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station Unit 1（As of 18:00 March 23rd, 2011）

http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/english/files/en20110323-4-2.pdf

Shallow Gulf well is source of mysterious oil sheen near Grand Isle, state official says | NOLA.com

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2011/03/shallow_gulf_well_is_source_of.html

Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests | World news | guardian.co.uk

This is a well done graphical interpretation that helps put the MENA uprising in perspective.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline?CMP=twt_gu

Memorandum of Understanding between International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, International Development Association and the Government of the United States of America on Cooperation Relating to Water

http://www.state.gov/g/oes/158770.htm

Atlantic oil spill threatens endangered penguins

This image made available by Britain's Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on Tuesday March 22, 2011 shows three oiled rock hopper penguins on the island chain of Tristan da Cunha.

From U.S. news - Environment - msnbc.com

Thousands of endangered penguins have been coated with oil after a cargo ship ran aground and broke up on a remote British South Atlantic territory, officials and conservationists said Tuesday.

Tristan da Cunha's conservation officer, Trevor Glass, said oil was encircling Nightingale Island and called the situation "a disaster."

The territory's British administrator, Sean Burns, said more than half of about 500 birds gathered by rescue workers had been coated in oil. An environmentalist at the scene estimated that 20,000 penguins might be affected.

Tristan da Cunha is home to some 200,000 penguins, including almost half the world's total of northern rockhopper penguins. The bird is classed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.

How many of these disasters must we experience before we halt our addictive dependency on oil? How much of the earth do we need to kill before we realize our own survival is dependent upon the species we are massacring to support our lifestyle?

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Conversations With America: Global Water Issues

Water - humanitarian aid or weapon for genocide and population control?
A tool for advancing US Security agenda.

Over 2 million people die every year due to access to clean water.
Those most affected by lack of clean water are women and children.
Lack of clean water "can be a cause of tension".

6 billion people who don't have access to sanitation???? How can this be????

"This is one of the areas we need to think about and work on." - understatement of the year.

Japanese Media Not Relaying Information To The People!

Salman Khan talk at TED 2011 (from ted.com)

khanacademy.org

A world class education for every human being on the planet. FOR FREE! 42,571,793 lessons delivered.

‘USAF EC-130J STEEL 74 transmitting on 6877.0 kHz Libya 20 March 2011’

US Air Force for "psychological operations" in Libya.

What to do with our shit?

Slovoh Zizek on how cultures manage their stinky stuff. A very appropriate follow up to "Nuclear boy has to poo".