The Latest from Boing Boing

---

• Will 2011 be the year this gentleman succeeds in putting 3,000 toothpicks in his beard?
• The Kelly Family: "Ain't Gonna Pee-Pee My Bed Tonight" (music video, ca. 1990)
• Japan Nuclear Crisis: New criticism of safety measures, lack of radiation testing for Fukushima workers
• Japan: radioactivity levels spike in seawater near Fukushima
• Libya: Woman struggles to tell foreign journalists of kidnapping, rape by Qaddafi militia

Will 2011 be the year this gentleman succeeds in putting 3,000 toothpicks in his beard? Posted: 26 Mar 2011 04:24 PM PDT He made it to 2,747 last year!

The Kelly Family: "Ain't Gonna Pee-Pee My Bed Tonight" (music video, ca. 1990) Posted: 26 Mar 2011 09:42 AM PDT [Video Link, and related Wikipedia entry.] (via Mikael Jorgensen)

Japan Nuclear Crisis: New criticism of safety measures, lack of radiation testing for Fukushima workers Posted: 26 Mar 2011 01:16 PM PDT Photo: A handout photo from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency shows Tokyo Electric Power Co. workers refueling a portable power generator at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Tomioka, Fukushima Prefecture northeastern Japan March 23, 2011. Picture taken March 23, 2011. REUTERS/Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency via Kyodo. Mizuko Ito (a cultural anthropologist, and a friend whose observations of the current Japan stories I've been following closely) points us to an article in the Mainichi edited after publication to remove critical comments by a physician who treated workers exposed to radiation from a nuclear accident in Japan in 1999. Mizuko writes: [Tokyo University Professor Emeritus Kazuhiko Maekawa] is probably the most pre-eminent specialist in Japan on health effects of radiation exposure. The original article was edited to remove his comments a few hours after it was posted. The "Tōkai Village JCO Criticality Accident" in 1999 involved high rates of radiation exposure to three workers, where two died. As a result of the incident there were many new training and safety measures put in place for nuclear plant operators and workers. Maekawa has written extensively on the effects of radiation exposure and emergency response, and he was taking to task the lack of safety measures and proper radiation testing on site. Here's the current version of the article, and here's the version that someone found on the google cache for me. Here is the now-missing critical graf, translated for Boing Boing by Mizuko: ＪＣＯ事故の被害者の治療に当たった前川和彦・東京大名誉教授は「（被ばくが）局所的なら、命に別条はないが、そもそも放射線管理員が現場にいないなんて犯罪的だ。東電はＪＣＯ事故の教訓を何も生かしていない」と指摘した。 Tokyo University Professor Emeritus Kazuhiko Maekawa, who treated the victims of the JCO accident, pointed out that "If the [radiation exposure] is localized, there should be no risk of death, but in the first place, it's criminal that there is no radiation management specialist on site. Toden [ "Tokyo Denryoku" = Tokyo Electric Power Company ] is not making use of any of the lessons from the JCO accident." And Mizuko updates this morning, Today the Asahi is reporting that 'various experts' are criticizing TEPCO's sloppy safely procedures and failure to monitor radiation levels for the workers. They quote two faculty from Kyoto University. Here's the link to today's new Asahi item in Japanese, and here's a Google Translate version in (robot) English.

Japan: radioactivity levels spike in seawater near Fukushima Posted: 26 Mar 2011 07:44 AM PDT Japan's nuclear safety agency, NISA, says tests on Friday reveal that radioactive iodine levels have spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in sea water just offshore from the damaged Fukushima nuclear plant. Radioactive water has also been found in three of the six structures that house reactors there, and on Thursday, three workers were burned at reactor No. 3 when they stepped in a pool of "hot" water. They were exposed to radiation levels 10,000 times higher than usually found in a reactor. (Reuters)

Libya: Woman struggles to tell foreign journalists of kidnapping, rape by Qaddafi militia Posted: 26 Mar 2011 08:38 AM PDT "A Libyan woman burst into the hotel housing the foreign press in Tripoli Saturday morning and fought off security forces as she told journalists that she had been raped and beaten by members of the Qaddafi militia. After nearly an hour, she was dragged away from the hotel screaming." (New York Times) Her name is Eman al-Obeidy. CNN's Nic Robertson was present, and his tweeted account is screengrabbed here. "CNN camera was violently snatched, systematically smashed to pieces and video footage stolen," he wrote. "Some journalists were beaten in blatant display of regime thuggery." "Journalists are demanding to see her. David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times and I went to officials in charge who claimed they don't know who took her, or where she was taken." A related Reuters item is here. Above: A related Sky News clip. The UK Telegraph also has video coverage. (via @acarvin).

You are subscribed to email updates from Boing Boing To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610