We hope this letter finds you well, though after hearing that Republican Representative Matt Goetz of Florida has actually introduced a bill to terminate the EPA completely, we imagine some of you are already dusting off your resumes. That’s only kind of a joke, because we think that what’s happening over there is terrifying both for all of…
Safecast News
No, radiation levels at Fukushima Daiichi are not rising
— Yes, TEPCO has measured very high radiation inside Daichi Unit 2. — No, it does’t mean radiation levels there are rising. In response to visual investigation results and high radiation measurements recently taken by TEPCO inside Fukushima Daiichi Unit 2, many news outlets have published stories with headlines like “Fukushima nuclear reactor radiation at…
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Open Data: Now More Than Ever
For those interested in knowing what is in the world around them, the current news is disgusting. All US Environmental Protection Agency grants have been frozen, and employees are being prohibited from discussing the changes or talking to the public. The ban also halts all new contracts and the agency is being told to remove information from it’s website. It’s…
Pull Over Push
Director of the MIT Media Lab and Safecast Cofounder Joi Ito along with coauthor Jeff Howe have just published Whiplash: How to Survive Our Faster Future. This fantastic book dives deep into ideas initially introduced in Joi’s 9 Principals along with detailed examples of each in practice out in the world. Unsurprisingly Safecast plays a significant part…
Earthquake Recap: What Worked, What Didn't
Safecast was formed in reaction to the Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant Disaster, which was caused by the magnitude 9.0 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011. Specifically, our project was begun because of the lack of publicly available data regarding the accident’s impacts and the condition of the nuclear reactors themselves in the days and weeks following the start…
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7.3 Earthquake off Fukushima
Developing – major earthquake at 05:59 JST this morning (Nov 22, 2016) off Fukushima, residents urged to evacuate and tsunami warnings placed in effect along the Pacific coast, including in Aomore, Iwate, Miyagi, Ibaraki and Chiba prefectures. Tsunami warnings downgraded at 9:46 JST, and advisories lifted for all areas except Miyagi and Fukushima. When the tsunami…
Safecasting abandoned uranium mines
[Note from the editors: Safecast volunteer BergiX has uploaded quite a few interesting logs from former uranium mining sites in Germany and elsewhere. In the process of checking with him about some of the surprisingly high readings he posted before approving his uploads, we learned that he is careful, well-informed, and researches sites well before…
Upcoming Tokyo Events
In addition to the SAFECAST x E2D3 visualisation hackathon on Nov. 3, 2016, we have a few more upcoming events in Tokyo. Mark your calendars! Nov 14th, 2016 – 7:30pm: SAFECAST x RSA JFN lecture – “Radiation & Science Journalism” In conjunction with the Japan Fellows’ Network of the UK Royal Society for the Encouragement of…
E2D3-x-Safecast
Please join us in Shibuya on 11/3 for a fun workshop on visualizing open data in innovative ways! E2D3 (Excel to D3.js) is a graph-sharing community enabling everyone to handle and display data. E2D3 has been hosting collaboration events with various companies and organizations. This time, we are holding a joint event with Safecast, the…