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Tokyo Runs Out Of Bottled Water
While the broader population continues to read stories of a stoic Tokyo population, casually taking each day of deteriorating news from Fukushima in stride, the reality is far from what is being represented. The latest escalation: Tokyo is running out of bottle water, now that the government disclosed (with a two week delay), that drinking water is irradiated. From Reuters: "Many shops in Japan's capital ran out of bottled water on Thursday after a warning of radiation danger for babies from a damaged nuclear plant where engineers are battling the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl." And if the government appears to be on the verge of losing control (and no city of 13 million can operate without water, no matter how bullish Douche Bank's chief strategist sounds on CNBC) after disclosing this one factoid, what happens when the true extent of the secondary effects from Fukushima are made public: "The government urged residents not to panic and hoard bottled water -- but many shops quickly sold out."If this is long term, I think we have a lot to worry about," said Riku Kato, father of a one-year-old baby." Perhaps it is time for Malcolm Gladwell to do a tipping point analysis of herding mentality, vis-a-vis a decision to participate in a mass urban exodus. Which brings up tonight's $64k question: is Snake Plissken too old for the "Escape from Tokyo" sequel.
From Reuters:
Nearly two weeks after the earthquake and tsunami that battered the Fukushima complex and devastated northeast Japan, Tokyo's 13 million people were told not to give infants tap water where contamination twice the safety level was detected.
Radiation levels above safety norms have also been found in milk and vegetables from the area around Fukushima, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.
The United States, Hong Kong and Australia have restricted food and milk imports from the zone, while Canada became the latest among numerous nations to tighten screening.
Radiation particles have been found as far away as Iceland, though Japan insists levels are still not dangerous to adults.
Jim Smith, of Britain's University of Portsmouth, said the finding of 210 becquerels of radioactive iodine -- more than twice the recommended limit -- at a Tokyo water purifier should not be cause for panic.
"The recommendation that infants are not given tap water is a sensible precaution. But it should be emphasized that the limit is set at a low level to ensure that consumption at that level is safe over a fairly long period of time," he said.
"This means that consumption of small amounts of tap water - a few liters, say - at twice the recommended limit would not present a significant health risk."
Yet some lobby groups are disputing this, suggesting that risks are being under-played.
Physicians for Social Responsibility, a U.S. anti-nuclear group, called for a stricter ban on sales of exposed food.
"There is no safe level of radionuclide exposure, whether from food, water or other sources. Period," said physician Jeff Patterson, a former president of the group.
Luckily, Tokyo is not a ghost city. Yet
Some locals and members of Tokyo's large expatriate population left the city right after the earthquake and tsunami.
The capital's streets remain unusually quiet and edgy.
"It's not just the radiation in water. I'm worried about aftershocks and it's possible that things could go bad at the nuclear plant," an office worker who only identified himself by his last name Yamaguchi said outside one shop that had run out of water bottles.
How long the tenuous status quo persists depends entirely on just how long the Japanese government belileves that a 10K Nikkei is more important than possible long-term (and lethal) radiation related aftereffects affecting its citizens.
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I respectfully disagree. Karl is very very smart, but has an emotional attachment to the red sock puppet.
Other than that, he's a really smart guy.
Hell, he's shown up at least a couple times on Keiser's show, and Max (though born north of the Mason-Dixon Line), treats him respectfully.
And Karl has taken more than a few pokes at chins from both sock puppet parties.
You need all the friends you can get in this dogfight. Karl, Yves, Mish, deCarbonnel, Magremis, Durden, Organ, Chapman, Cutten, Taibbi, Farrell, Keiser, Tavakoli, Middleton, Ritholtz, Martenson, Smith, Daniel, Wal$treePro2, Harrison--whoever--you name 'em. All good in my book, keeping up the good fight.
Are we splitting hairs here?
We are definitely splitting hairs. I acknowledge that KD is a very smart guy. However his moral compass is lodged in his rectum right next to his head.
I think people are making jokes in an attempt to relieve tension from the horror that is unfolding and getting worse by the minute in Japan. What's happening over there is the stuff of old black and white science fiction movies only now it's real, and worse than fiction. God help them. And us.
http://www.worldvision.org is taking donations for helping the relief effort(s) in Japan -- put yo FRNs where yo mouths be!
Problem with soft storage is just that...it's soft and can break if something falls on it.
55 gallon drums are by far the best way to go and require almost no effort.
The Brighter Side of Radioactivity
Watching Wolf Blitzer talk to former Supreme Commander General Wesley Clark earlier today, I had, thanks to a short smoke break, something of an epiphany.
I laughed at the notion of square-headed Clark being called "supreme" anything. I looked him in the television eye and chortled, as, in the back of my mind was the apparition of a nuclear grim reaper, glowing bright orange and blue, as it were, turning all around him into an uninhabitable, unthinkable, gruesome cataclysm, complete with disformed, tortured humans, screaming for relief, death, anything to halt the searing, invisible heat that was melting their skin.
And there was fire all around, everywhere fire burning and destruction.
Clark, in all his "supreme-ness" and all of his allies in the military, government, business and politics are puny adversaries when compared to the totality of nuclear winter, death to all and no escape.
It was at that point that I became truly free. I looked upon Clark and the powers that be as nothing, mere pawns in the larger scheme, and any fear of them had vanished.
The larger enemy of radiation, invisible, deadly and persistent, dwarfed their machinations of power and supposed superiority in every imaginable way.
Clark - Clark ... oh yeah, "Supreme Allied Commander, Europe" Clark - fired ostensibly for 'character issues':
http://wais.stanford.edu/Individuals/individual_generalclark.htm
Also known as "Ashley Wilkes" from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ashley_Wilkes
we were buddies harold. you, me, and fresno bob.
Keep the calcium hypochlorite sealed in air tight plastic.
The fumes are very, very corrosive. Good shit to keep around and cheeeeeeppp!
AC
Glass is actually better those fumes will penetrate most plastics over time.
japan is history...I know there are some buy dip plays. operation costs for business are going into hyperspace. Gonna shut down huge chunks of Japan's markets.
Dear Japan,
8600 miles to your south is an entire continent larger than Europe that is ripe for the taking. It's called Antarctica.
You now have 35 million people that need a place to live. Get cracking on dome kits, heating elements and farms.
and since its minus 150 f in the winter, the reactors cool themselves passively.
antartica = coolsville
the japanese leaders are among the most corrupt, criminal, and irresponsible since pol pot....."don't worry, don't panic, be happy and joyous - doing otherwise will make matters worse" bullshit....
pbs continues the lies with soothing words of safety and that all is under control....just a minor blip folks....
Maybe the Japanese will re-acquaint themselves with the virtue of breast feeding?
Women drink the irradiated water. Everything a nursing woman ingests ends up in the breast milk.
The Japanese will go berserk soon. Watch out for cannibals.
The Japanese are rather different from the typical ZH reader.
Without food they will do what is necessary. No matter how stupid their culture is. *Bows down*
This is Dawn of the Dead 2011.
Imagine Los Angeles after Diablo Canyon goes critical. How many Angelenos do you think would be sitting quietly in their apartments waiting for the government to tell them what to do, wondering whether or not to give their babies radioactive water.
The number of people that wouldn't leave of their own accord is equal to the combined viewing audiences of DWTS, Idol, and Glee. I'm sure they'll catch the official government instructions during the commercial breaks, though.
" "Many shops in Japan's capital ran out of bottled water on Thursday after a warning of radiation danger for babies from a damaged nuclear plant where engineers are battling the world's worst atomic crisis since Chernobyl."
What are babies doing at the damaged nuclear plant in the first place?
Maybe this is the Govts first move to evacuating Tokyo. First tell parents with kids under 1 that the water aint safe for their kids. Most will leave at this point if at all possible. Next raise it up to 5. All those parents and kids will leave next. And so on... This staggers the exodis and ensures that the smartest and the most at risk have the best chance of survival. No kids =no future.
what the heck amerika
lets get some bottled water
to the peoples of Japan ..
stop the wars
save some lives ..
It took the US Gov 4 days to get water into effin New Orleans and that's right here in the south...
"In the Next World, You're on Your Own!" Apparently, you're on your own in this one, too!
NHK reporting this morning (Friday morning Japan time) that steam or smoke is now rising from reactors 1, 3 and 4.
NHK also reporting that for the first time Caesium has been found in vegetables being grown in Tokyo itself.
Needless to say the MSM outside Japan seems to be ignoring these ongoing issues at Fukushima because they don't fit with their 'things are getting better every day' narrative. Also needless to say - stock markets are bullish.
Sounds stupid. No one had Walmart ship over pallets of bottled water? Dumb. One good part: we see the US military machine looking neutered. The USS Ronald Reagan pulled further way. Who woulda thunk?
Sounds stupid. No one had Walmart ship over pallets of bottled water? Dumb. One good part: we see the US military machine looking neutered. The USS Ronald Reagan pulled further way. Who woulda thunk?
Most ports in Japan were destroyed by the Tsunami. Peeps are starving and have no water in the North. Have you seen the dead on tv?
I've seen the Dead, live at Red Rocks (Colorado) several times.
For those of you who still follow the Fukushima Nuke Plant:
#Fukushima I Nuke Plant: Reactor 3's Basement Water Highly RadioactiveHere is a releaese from the American School in Tokyo...everything seems pretty normal
http://community.asij.ac.jp/Page.aspx?pid=606
Interesting, glistening. Please provide updates.
Oh, you do know the school has been in recess and will be until March 28, yes?
I did a zero hedge search on Yahoo...and this is what I got:
www.zerohedge.com - Cached
I dare any Wall Street Shill...oops, I mean economist/broker come on TV tonight and claim running out of safe drinking water is Ultra Bulluish for the Japan GDP.
I dare them.
But they can brush their teeth in Coca Cola!