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The dogs that roamed free for over a year are exhibiting the “issues” that you’d probably imagine they have. A study showed that, “The dogs from Fukushima showed significantly lower aggression toward unfamiliar people, trainability and attachment to their caretakers,” Nagasawa and colleagues wrote. “Also, urine cortisol levels in the dogs from Fukushima were 5-10 fold higher than those in abandoned dogs from another area of Japan.” (LA Times – Fukushima dogs)
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Despite the protest effort of so many, the first reactor goes online. Nothing the masses can do about it at this time, but the public in Japan have spoken and their voices were heard. Great work, peoples, it’s fairly new ground. (Boston – Japan Reactor)
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160,000 evacuees, suicides and more. This is a video that sort of catches up on what’s going on as the news of Fukushima gets quiet. It’s about Mikio Watanabe who’s wife commit suicide. He’s now suing TEPCO – the company who runs the Fukushima nuclear plant. There are many sad videos about Fukushima, and this is just one of them. (CNN – Fukushima Suicides)
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Nearly 15 months have passed since a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami resulted in the triple meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, and with the prospects of a resolution of radiation-spewing disaster yet decades away, Softbank announced today that its soon to released Pantone 5 107SH smartphone will be the first in the world with a built-in geiger counter. Since the Fukushima disaster, we’ve seen companies release mobile radiation detectors like Scosche’s iPhone-compatible RDTX, an accessory that plugs into an iPhone to give users a reading of nearby radiation levels. The Pantone 5, however, eliminates the need for dongles and attachments. The front of the phone features a button, just beneath the screen, that provides access to a radiation sensor. Once you press the button, the phone launches an app that reads the number of microsieverts, the unit in which radiation is measured, in the surrounding air. [WIRED ~ Gadget Lab]
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As previously posted on GR, I made several trips to the northern countryside of Japan in the days and weeks following the disaster of 3/11. And, though the intent of these ragtag “missions,” was primarily humanitarian, I took many photos along the way, posting them with my reports on these pages. I recently culled the most evocative of those shots for display at the 12th incarnation of the always delightful Nippon Connection Japanese Film Festival, held last week in Frankfurt. Going through these images was difficult and, needless to say, brought back some very sad memories. What a year. GR readers will have seen many of these images before, but here they are (again) as collected for their recent showing at the festival. I know many among you are probably experiencing disaster burnout, but I think it’s worth having another look, and pausing to contemplate the awesome power of nature and, indeed, the transience of our own existence. From Tokyo, m All photos copyright © 2012 Michael Arias. All rights reserved.
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