Fukushima's plead for Help

The world needs to help the people of Fukushima before it is to late. On July 15 2011 the people of Fukushima sent out an S.O.S. video found at http://youtu.be/hFWI1z_i1IQ pleading for the people of the world to help them evacuate there children from the harmful radiation.  The people of Fukushima should have been evacuated immediately once the Fukushima power plant exploded on March 11 but were not. A representative of a network to protect the Fukushima children from radiation named Nakate says, more than three months following the accident, “We know the government is not telling us the truth,” concerning the harmfulness of the radiation to there people. “We ask for an evacuation order for us and our children,” says Nakate. Nakate says that “neither the Japanese government nor the local authorities call for an evacuation,” and thus the people have to figure it out themselves. The people plead for national as well as international support to get them evacuated from the dangerous area. “Please help us save our children,” pleads Nakate.

Robot helps Deaf Speak

Japanese Scientist makes a disturbing yet working robotic mouth. According to information given in an article at http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/180250/20110714/robots-japan-robotic-mouth-sings.htm A Japan scientist invents and constructs a robotic human mouth in hopes it will help the hearing impaired improve their speech. The Japan scientist and Kagawa University professor Hideyuki Sawada decided to design and construct a robotic human mouth. Sawada intends for the robotic mouth to help those who are deaf or hearing impaired improve their speech that the speech of the hearing impaired tends to be of a lower quality or rather harder to understand than someone without a hearing impairment. Most hearing impaired people have to learn how to speak by simply looking at the way other people move there lips and tong in there speech in addition to learning sign language. With this new robot however it is hoped that the hearing impaired will be able to learn the prober lip movements also known as “flaps” that will help them to speak more clearly and regularly. The robotic mouth created by Sawada is made up of metal, an air pump for the artificial lungs and eight vocal cords, and a silicon tongue. This robot can speak, sing and even hear it self speak and then analyze how it could better improve its speech to be more understandable. In other words Sawada’s robotic mouth is a learning robot. The abilities of this robot are shown in a video clip found at http://youtu.be/Bht96voReEo where the robotic mouth sings the popular children’s nursery rhyme “Kagome Kagome” which translated into English means “mesh of basket.”  The robotic mouth also has an artificial nose in order to show patents how our vocal chords interact with our windpipe while we speak. Now since Sawada created a robotic human mouth it is possible that a completely robotic human being could eventually be constructed. 

Surfers' Paradise to be Reborn

Paradise is being restored.  An article found at http://www.relax.com.sg/relax/news/691498/Surfers_seek_return_to_paradise_at_Japan_beach.html revels surfers’ efforts to restore the Namiita beach back to its surfing glory it had before the March 11 tsunami.  The Namiita beach is a place where the waves are picture perfect for surfers of all ability levels in fact locally the Namiita beach of the Iwate Prefecture in Japan has been called “a surfers’ paradise.” One surfer in particular practically lives at Namiita beach. Hiroshi Sugimoto, now a professional surfer, first started his treks to Namiita beach from the neighboring city of Kamaishi when he was a middle school student. Sugimoto eventually opened up his own surf shop right next to the beach and gives surfing lessons to the local high school students. Although his life was thrown through a loop on March 11 when the tsunami hit Japan. Sugimoto recalls that day on March 11 as what appeared to be another normal day at work at his surf shop until suddenly he felt the massive jolt of the earthquake. Upon feeling the immense earthquake Sugimoto fled his surf shop and evacuated to a hill close by. From the hill Sugimoto watched in terror as the entire town was literally swallowed up by the following tsunami. The tsunami destroyed near by buildings not to mention Sugimoto’s surf shop. The debris from the destroyed buildings and other structures were swept into the sea and much of the debris remained in and on the shore of Namiita beach trashing the beach with pieces of houses, furniture and locals random household items, items which were mostly ruined beyond repair.  Sugimoto almost gave up on surfing again at the Namiita beach because of all the debris and damage but after being encouraged by a friend who’s house had been swept away Sugimoto decided to take action in restoring the beach to its former glory. Sugimoto directly contacted surfers and put out a notice on his Web site asking for help in his endeavor to clean up the beach. In response to his plea about 120 surfers gathered together at the beach and started picking up debris. Although this act helped there is still a lot that needs to be done to restore the beach to its former “surfers paradise” but already Sugimoto has scheduled another group clean up and repair date and says that he is willing to continue to work towards restoring the Nimiita beach even if it takes years of effort.

Rising Rice Prices

Many people may have to cut back on the amount of rice they consume. A resent post at http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110713a2.html describes how the price of rice is going up and due to the increase in inventories of the rice from and around a considerable distance in the Fukushima Prefecture. These increases in inventories of the rice were brought to pass due to the resent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan and the fear of contamination of the rice as well as a fear for shortages on rice and other supply. The rise is reasonably backed up according to the resent statistics given by a market research firm concerning the price of rice. The Rice Databank Co. has observed that the Akitakomachi brand of rice produced in the Akita Prefecture was at an average cost of ¥18,700 per 60 kg last Wednesday or rather approximately $233.28 per 132.28 lbs. The price is up 49.6 percent from the last recorded high of ¥12,500, approximately $155.94, in the Kanto region on March 9 which was two days before the earthquake and following tsunami that damaged the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. Other brands of rice have also soared up since the disaster including the Koshihikari brand, which is cropped in the Chuetsu area of Niigata Prefecture. Do to the shortage of rice that is available for trading the prices for rice have increased as an attempt to secure supplies for the supermarkets as well as the other mass retailers of rice. The shortage is also a response to a common fear of shipment restrictions that could be put into place because of radioactive substances that could be in the rice. The prices for rice could very well continue until it is determined whether or not there are or are not in fact any radioactive substances in any of the rice.