Japan's Latest Radiation Scare Was Caused by Nuclear Paint [Japan]

By Andrew Tarantola Oct 14, 2011 2:40 PM 6,771 20

The elevated radiation levels discovered in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward have been confirmed—thankfully—as not having originated from the damaged Fukushima power plant. So what was causing the Geigers to jump? A stash of radium-226 under a home's floorboards.

The mystery, though, is how they got there.

Japan's Science Ministry discovered the cache Thursday which consisted of numerous bottles and vials containing a white, powdered substance believed to be radium. Some containers bore the label, Nihon Yako ("Luminous Japan")— radium-226 can be used as a luminous paint.

Radiation levels at the surface of the bottles measured 600 microsieverts per hour. The elderly owner of the home said she was unaware of the materials stored beneath her. She reportedly had lived in the home from 1953 until February of this year while receiving about 30 mSv of exposure annually. Radium, when inhaled or ingested, accumulates in the bones and for every 100 mSv of exposure, increases one's chances of dying from cancer by one half percent.

Authorities have removed the isotopes from the property and stored them at a radioactive isotope disposal agency for the duration of their 1,600-year half life. [Japan Times]

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These 3D Printed Masks Are a Mugger's Dream Come True [Japan]

By Adrian Covert Oct 10, 2011 5:40 PM 23,060 36

For $4000, a Japanese company called Real-f will make a photorealistic mask of your face they call a three-dimensional photo form. Sure, you can tell it's fake if you look close enough. But what if you weren't looking so closely?

I could imagine a mugger wearing a mask that looked nothing like their face, and if they acted quickly enough, could potentially get away without victims or witnesses or cameras realizing they had a mask on. That's an unnerving thought! That said, the mask itself looks awesome thanks to some special techniques described by TechCrunch:

The way it works is that REAL-f first shoots pictures of a person's face from various positions and imprints the image on vinyl chloride resin stretched over a mold. According to the company, it's unique production technology makes sure that even details like the iris and blood vessels are replicated accurately (see the pictures to judge for yourself)."

I don't want to look at this picture anymore. The girl in the lower right part of the photo is going to haunt my dreams. [Real-f via TechCrunch]

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This Poop-Powered Toiletcycle Is Touring Japan [Wtf]

You're looking at the Toilet Bike Neo. It's the creation of Japan's commode-king TOTO and is just what it looks like—a toilet-motorcycle hybrid. That runs on human excrement. Wait, wha?

The Toilet Bike Neo will be conducting its roughly 500 mile trip from Kyushu to Tokyo powered entirely by the on-board biogas digester. Biogas systems use an anaerobic bacteria system to convert dead organic matter into a usable fuel primarily made of methane. This system obtains its fuel from the rider—directly from the rider, if you get what I mean. It runs on the rider's poop—he just sits there, unloads, and rides off (hopefully with a step involving pants at some point as well). The system is reportedly efficient enough that it could run indefinitely were the rider sufficiently well fed.

The reason for the tour is to promote Toto's efforts to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50 percent in the next six years. Oh and did I mention it talks? Yeah, the poop-eating trike talks as part of the campaign—just please, not with its mouth full. [Spoon-Tamago - TotoTalk via Inhabitat]

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Magnitude 6.6 Earthquake Hits Japan (Updated) [Japan]

Japan's been struck with another earthquake, right smack in its center. Details are scant, but the immediate worry is if damage has rippled outward to already damaged and internally sensitive nuclear plants bruised by March's quake.

The USGS says the quake's epicenter is 89 miles from Honshu—at sea—which puts it 364 miles from Tokyo proper. No word on a tsunami threat yet. [USGS via Breaking News]

Update 3:56 PM EST: The Pacific Tsunami Center says no tsunami warning will be issued. This is an enormous relief.

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Typhoon Talas Kills 47 In Japan, 450,000 People Evacuated [Typhoon]

Japan can't catch a break. It's not right. After dealing with a 9.0 earthquake earlier this year, they just got swarmed by Typhoon Talas, a tropical storm that was just as bad as Hurricane Irene. These are the pictures of the aftermath.

A typhoon is like a hurricane but happens in the Northwest Pacific Ocean. Similarly, a hurricane is like a typhoon that happens in the Northeast Pacific Ocean and Northwest Atlantic Ocean. Semantics, whatever. They're all tropical cyclones, they're all scary and they all destroy everything in their path. If you consider the wind speeds that Typhoon Talas hit—around 120kmh or 75mph—it could be considered a Category 1 hurricane but since typhoons use a different measurement scale, it's not an exact translation to "our" hurricane terms.

The nut of it though: 47 people killed, 56 people missing, 450,000 people evacuated, 26 inches of rain in one night, and a country who has had too much damage done to them by Mother Nature in a six-month span. It's the worst storm for Japan since Typhoon Tokage, which killed 98 people.

The entire East Coast was freaking out over Hurricane Irene (and some of that freaking out was warranted) but most of us managed to escape it without any damage. Looking at the pictures though, Typhoon Talas did just as much damage (if not more) than Irene yet so few seemed to notice. It seems besides the point to prop up natural disasters and compare them to one another but it seems like the aftermath of Talas deserves a little bit more attention. Life is life. [NY Times, Photo Credit: Reuters] You can keep up with Casey Chan, the author of this post, on Twitter or Facebook.

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Toshiba's Roomba-Killer Packs Two CPUs...in a Vacuum [Japan Only]

The international floor cleaning robot slave arena just got hotter—Toshiba's new Smarbo (terrible name) looks and functions pretty much exactly like the Roomba we love so much, but has two brains inside. Twice the cleanliness?

Probably not. But it could mean better cleaning. It looks like the Smarbo uses IR sensors to detect obstacles like walls, tables, and your cat, which are then fed through room-mapping software to chart a clear path through your pad. Although we don't know the specs of the Smarbo's processors, added crunching power could mean more efficient mapping, which means a cleaner floor in less time. Another nifty touch is a top-mounted camera, which Toshiba says provides optical data to help "remember" what ground the Smarbo's already covered.

Otherwise, the two operate similarly. One big difference? The price tag. Smarbo's debuting in Japan for $1,175—about twice what you'd pay for a Roomba, and a hell of a lot to spend on a vacuum cleaner, robotic or not. I guess that second processor comes at a premium. [Toshiba via TechCrunch]

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