Today was the most normal day I have had in a week. While the situation at Fukushima was played up to new levels in the media, I cleaned my studio and got my work organized.
The past week has been a series of days in which a mishmash of things have all run together. Since we’ve been shifting many portions of our schedule in anticipation of blackouts, a lot of things have piled up both physically on desks and digitally in my inbox.
One of my focuses for today, which was a beautiful and very warm day, was to normalize things. I was very successful. The studio looks great, my inbox is empty, and I checked off a lot of items on my to-do list that got some projects completed and others caught up.
We again had no blackout today and are off the list for the next four days. Some friends in other areas did have blackouts, but TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) says they are going to hold off on all blackouts for the next two days unless demand exceeds supply and it is an absolute must. There have been some car accidents as a result of traffic signals being off during blackouts, so there is a desire to minimize this.
As you probably know (since it may be how you got here) I am extremely active on Twitter. During this crisis I’ve really seen how Twitter amplifies the characteristics of different groups within our society. There are those who care so deeply about others, there are those who really believe in something specific, there are those who are really focused on themselves, there are those who warn you that no one expects the Spanish Inquisition (that would be Cardinal Fang). These are things we’ve learned to see in everyday life of course, but somehow Twitter really highlights them.
Anyway, the point is that something really interesting happened today. As I was cleaning my studio I started thinking. Why is it that I—a person who grew up under the spectre of nuclear war and now living 320km (200 miles) from Fukushima—am calmly organizing my work while people 11,000km away (6,800 miles) are buying iodide pills? It could be because I’ve found myself in threatening situations before, like the Soviet coup in 1991, but I don’t think that’s really it. So I tweeted the following:
The Fukushima situation has exposed a grave danger to our world. But the danger isn’t radiation, it’s the poor state of science education.
From the moment I tweeted this until right now as I type 14 hours later, this has been retweeted constantly. Every few minutes several retweets come in.
These are not my all retweets coming from my followers but rather from the public timeline and, of course, from followers of those who pass it on. The message is clear though: there is a widespread sentiment that science education is insufficient. This is important because it comes back to the reason why I am not concerned about Fukushima. I know what the radiation levels mean and I know what the possible outcomes of Fukushima are. I know this because I study science; and that information allows me to bypass the media hype and make a decision for myself based on measurable facts.
TV Asahi news took their own measurements of radiation levels from around the country today. For those who think the Japanese government is hiding something, these numbers come not from the government or TEPCO but from private media. Their measurement in Shinjuku, which is the skyscraper district in central Tokyo, was 0.047 microsieverts per hour. Radiation in Kanagawa Prefecture where I live was 0.063 microsieverts per hour. This means that for me to receive the same amount of radiation that a person smoking a pack and half of cigarettes per day receives in one year I would have to be exposed to this level of radiation for 26 consecutive years.
I’m not going to go into a rant about this (I’m saving that for something else I’m writing :-D ) but I really want to stress to everyone to go and find out what the things you are hearing from the media really mean. Today’s news is entertainment and it should be treated as such. Keep a jumbo-sized shaker of salt in hand at all times. There are plenty of sources of real information. Scientific American is a good place to start.
So back to my day, it was really rather uneventful. I worked, the kids watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we bought groceries to prepare dinner and were able to get everything we needed, and our parents came over as they do every Friday night.
An interesting tidbit about dinner that you won’t hear on Report from the Gates of Hell is that we had salad that came from Disneyland. During the tsunami that followed the earthquake last Friday the parking lot of Tokyo Disneyland was flooded and the park has been closed since. (They are scheduled to reopen on the March 21 from what I hear.) Because they closed unexpectedly they had all of this green salad that they could not use. So it has been distributed to grocery stores and a large bag is being sold for around ¥100 (around US $1.23).
On the transportation front things appear to be similar to yesterday with most train and subway lines running at 70 - 80% normal capacity. Some are not running or are shutting down during the middle of the day to conserve power. I have heard from some friends around Tokyo that some convenience stores are replenishing stocks. Of course things vary from location to location as Tokyo is an enormous city. But regardless, as Mark Twain once said, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Tokyo is not a ghost town, there is no mass exodus, and life, though not perfect and not fully normal, continues.
Lastly, I want to share with you what we were doing yesterday while media ran front pages telling people to run for their lives:
Something isn’t quite jiving is it?
This was at my daughter’s kindergarten graduation. I want to share more but have not yet had a chance to process the video and photos. But I will be sharing more here on my blog so you can see how normal life carries on for Japan in the areas not struck by the tsunami.
As for the areas that were struck by the tsunami, the situation is bad and they need help. It feels that these people have become an afterthought as the media focuses on the nuclear issue. If you would like to help, The American Red Cross accepts donations via text message. Text “redcross” to 90999, and you can make a $10 donation to the organization. It will show up on your next mobile phone bill.
And lastly, watch NHK World in English on Ustream to get a more reasonable view of what is really going on. The information I share with you is not coming only from there but also from about six Japanese-language TV network that we switch between throughout the day. But this Ustream feed will give you a lot of our Japanese-language NHK news interpreted into English on-the-fly.
Thanks as always for your support. I’ll update again tomorrow.
Earthquake Update for March 18, 2011
Today was the most normal day I have had in a week. While the situation at Fukushima was played up to new levels in the media, I cleaned my studio and got my work organized.
The past week has been a series of days in which a mishmash of things have all run together. Since we’ve been shifting many portions of our schedule in anticipation of blackouts, a lot of things have piled up both physically on desks and digitally in my inbox.
One of my focuses for today, which was a beautiful and very warm day, was to normalize things. I was very successful. The studio looks great, my inbox is empty, and I checked off a lot of items on my to-do list that got some projects completed and others caught up.
We again had no blackout today and are off the list for the next four days. Some friends in other areas did have blackouts, but TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) says they are going to hold off on all blackouts for the next two days unless demand exceeds supply and it is an absolute must. There have been some car accidents as a result of traffic signals being off during blackouts, so there is a desire to minimize this.
As you probably know (since it may be how you got here) I am extremely active on Twitter. During this crisis I’ve really seen how Twitter amplifies the characteristics of different groups within our society. There are those who care so deeply about others, there are those who really believe in something specific, there are those who are really focused on themselves, there are those who warn you that no one expects the Spanish Inquisition (that would be Cardinal Fang). These are things we’ve learned to see in everyday life of course, but somehow Twitter really highlights them.
Anyway, the point is that something really interesting happened today. As I was cleaning my studio I started thinking. Why is it that I—a person who grew up under the spectre of nuclear war and now living 320km (200 miles) from Fukushima—am calmly organizing my work while people 11,000km away (6,800 miles) are buying iodide pills? It could be because I’ve found myself in threatening situations before, like the Soviet coup in 1991, but I don’t think that’s really it. So I tweeted the following:
The Fukushima situation has exposed a grave danger to our world. But the danger isn’t radiation, it’s the poor state of science education.
From the moment I tweeted this until right now as I type 14 hours later, this has been retweeted constantly. Every few minutes several retweets come in.
These are not my all retweets coming from my followers but rather from the public timeline and, of course, from followers of those who pass it on. The message is clear though: there is a widespread sentiment that science education is insufficient. This is important because it comes back to the reason why I am not concerned about Fukushima. I know what the radiation levels mean and I know what the possible outcomes of Fukushima are. I know this because I study science; and that information allows me to bypass the media hype and make a decision for myself based on measurable facts.
TV Asahi news took their own measurements of radiation levels from around the country today. For those who think the Japanese government is hiding something, these numbers come not from the government or TEPCO but from private media. Their measurement in Shinjuku, which is the skyscraper district in central Tokyo, was 0.047 microsieverts per hour. Radiation in Kanagawa Prefecture where I live was 0.063 microsieverts per hour. This means that for me to receive the same amount of radiation that a person smoking a pack and half of cigarettes per day receives in one year I would have to be exposed to this level of radiation for 26 consecutive years.
I’m not going to go into a rant about this (I’m saving that for something else I’m writing :-D ) but I really want to stress to everyone to go and find out what the things you are hearing from the media really mean. Today’s news is entertainment and it should be treated as such. Keep a jumbo-sized shaker of salt in hand at all times. There are plenty of sources of real information. Scientific American is a good place to start.
So back to my day, it was really rather uneventful. I worked, the kids watched Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, we bought groceries to prepare dinner and were able to get everything we needed, and our parents came over as they do every Friday night.
An interesting tidbit about dinner that you won’t hear on Report from the Gates of Hell is that we had salad that came from Disneyland. During the tsunami that followed the earthquake last Friday the parking lot of Tokyo Disneyland was flooded and the park has been closed since. (They are scheduled to reopen on the March 21 from what I hear.) Because they closed unexpectedly they had all of this green salad that they could not use. So it has been distributed to grocery stores and a large bag is being sold for around ¥100 (around US $1.23).
On the transportation front things appear to be similar to yesterday with most train and subway lines running at 70 - 80% normal capacity. Some are not running or are shutting down during the middle of the day to conserve power. I have heard from some friends around Tokyo that some convenience stores are replenishing stocks. Of course things vary from location to location as Tokyo is an enormous city. But regardless, as Mark Twain once said, the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Tokyo is not a ghost town, there is no mass exodus, and life, though not perfect and not fully normal, continues.
Lastly, I want to share with you what we were doing yesterday while media ran front pages telling people to run for their lives:
Something isn’t quite jiving is it?
This was at my daughter’s kindergarten graduation. I want to share more but have not yet had a chance to process the video and photos. But I will be sharing more here on my blog so you can see how normal life carries on for Japan in the areas not struck by the tsunami.
As for the areas that were struck by the tsunami, the situation is bad and they need help. It feels that these people have become an afterthought as the media focuses on the nuclear issue. If you would like to help, The American Red Cross accepts donations via text message. Text “redcross” to 90999, and you can make a $10 donation to the organization. It will show up on your next mobile phone bill.
Apple has also enabled donations in iTunes, with collected funds going to the Red Cross.
My friend and a fellow designer in Australia, Tom Bryan, has put together a very comprehensive collection of social media icons he designed and is donating proceeds to Japan quake relief. You can see these here. It’s name-your-price starting at $1. Excellent work and we appreciate Tom’s efforts very much.
And lastly, watch NHK World in English on Ustream to get a more reasonable view of what is really going on. The information I share with you is not coming only from there but also from about six Japanese-language TV network that we switch between throughout the day. But this Ustream feed will give you a lot of our Japanese-language NHK news interpreted into English on-the-fly.
Thanks as always for your support. I’ll update again tomorrow.
Chris