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Crowd-Sourced Radiation Maps In Asia and US
kkleiner writes "In the past few weeks, several crowd-sourced radiation maps have arisen that attempt to give up to the minute looks at the threat level in the areas most likely to be affected by a catastrophe: Japan, Asia, and the US. These maps, available to the public for free online, are a timely example of how user-enabled systems are revolutionizing the way we solve problems. Tracking radiation levels is just the beginning. This is a preview of how accelerating technologies will allow us to monitor anything, anywhere, in realtime."
...slippery slope... something about smartphones... standard fud... etc. etc.
It's always confirmation bias!
I don't want to die from poisoning...
I must resist the urge to start a business selling lead underwear to panicky people.
I must resist the urge to start a business selling lead underwear to panicky people.
I'll write that one hundred billion times on my sharks.
This is a preview of how accelerating technologies will allow us to monitor anything, anywhere, in realtime.
Although to a degree I suppose this is already happening for the most part.
This is a pretty lame attempt at a map :/ Color coded by submissions type instead of something useful (e.g. level or radiation??) and the format of the submissions is inconsistent... as are the units of measurement!! Very difficult to use... more confusing than helpful.
I need more things to worry about right now. Why rely on some government regulatory body to monitor radiation when I could work myself up into a panic RIGHT NOW!
There is no escape. It's better not to know.
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
Crowdsourcing is just Conventional Wisdom 3.0 or Grapevine 2.0, depending on how you look at it.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
That's all very cute, but where is the data from Japan's own nuclear measurement net? From what I've heard they have measurement nodes all over the place (like many countries), but instead of say Germany and The Netherlands, this data is not freely available?
Hmm, what do they mean by 'in the areas most likely to be affected by a catastrophe: Japan, Asia, and the US.'?
Europe has a lot of nuclear reactors. So does Russia.
Do they mean the US is likely to be affected by Japan's current problem reactor site?
Hopefully folks who own a Geiger counter know enough to not be worried about it being a problem for the US. Is the author one of the overhyping idiots that think the 'higher' levels of radiation in Tokyo, which are still lower than those normally occurring in Denver or Mexico City, are a danger?
Is the US "most likely" to be affected by this?
I've sort of gotten the impression that the US was unlikely to be affected.
Is this just fear mongering?
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Tracking radiation levels is just the beginning. This is a preview of how accelerating technologies will allow us to monitor anything, anywhere, in realtime."
Not to mention how we now have unprecedented ability to spread hysteria when there's nothing actively wrong!
Moving along. FTA:
Three days from concept to a working map that gives valuable and reliable data to anyone who wants it for free, and not a dollar was spent in its production. Amazing.
Wait, what? You mean nobody spent ANY time or money to get that data? It just magically appeared on servers? Poof!
Ah:
Their information is gathered from volunteer and official sources and embedded onto an adapted Google Map.
Time != free (even the time of a volunteer has value to that volunteer). Official sources are most definitely not an example of data available without cost -- it's just a question of who pays the cost and when. In actual dollars, at that -- not just volunteer hours.
While many of those wanting to track radiation levels after the Fukushima accident do so out of sympathy for Japanese citizens, let’s not ignore the fact that many others are simply worried about when dangerous radiation levels could show up in their own backyard.
Well, sure. Because at any second, ANY OF THOSE PLANTS COULD EXPLODE!
The problem with bloggers becoming the "new journalists" is that any sense of responsibility goes out the window in the race to get page hits.
This perhaps came across as unnecessarily irritable... but I'm a bit tired of the attention that the "nuclear scare" is getting, while the thousands of people killed in the friggin tsunami are just a footnote.
If you want overhyping, watch Nancy Grace
the reason that almost everybody (natives) here may have had to be killed, way back then, was because there were 'too many' people here already. there may even have been problems getting hotel rooms/takeout, stuff like that? like monkeys they are. springing up everywhere. unapproved breeding everywhere. now wonder we had to invent unnatural/premature death on a wholesale level? in order to survive. what else does history say? we'll see as it (the truth) catches up to us? finding the dead natives dead outdoors supports the 'inn was full' highspot&noose?
The scale runs from "Mild Exposure" to "Shit Your Pants and Make Peace With God."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
on the data for the maps to ensure that OLIGARCHY SOCK PUPPETS aren't feeding FALSE DATA to the maps?
Yours In Moscow,
Kilgore Trout
To be fair, I was watching BBC America the other day and they were making out the iodine concentrations to be the apocalypse.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
the better question is why were any of them killed at all? their extermination was not 'easy', & took quite a while (particularly if you count the previous native population of canada). if one saw the free feature film 'unrepentant', one might see how the queen's 'math', & clergical black-ops minions, were depopulating us (humans) BEFORE we (US) got here? more glowing fear based smoke&mirrors might be needed? the spring solstice looks warm & friendly this year. why must it be blocked? more some&mirrors 'theater' of the bizhard?
all mommys... we're dying here
I looked at one of the maps. The highest value seen (1 microSievert/hr) means that you're barely getting more radiation over a year than you'd get spending just one hour at Chernobyl today. Since the article, at least, links to the XKCD radiation chart showing as much, I consider this actually a reassuring article - while radiation is leaking, it's not a significant amount. Besides some extra inspections on food from that area, it looks like everything is going to be essentially OK.
Inverse Square Ratio:
The US is far more likely due to our close
proximity to a very dense group of lawyers.
And:
Even denser juries.
Pathetic punctuation placed to torment those that care.
I like http://www.pljusak.com/ much better
Anyone noticed there is no data from around the Hiroshima area?
Just a curious observation....not radiation detectors there?...No one wants to submit their results?
100 females with model like figures ( purely for fitness purposes), and possibly naive,
to escape to a radiation free zone on mars to repopulate the human race.
- Applicants without pictures and physical measurements will be rejected.
- Nude photos in various enticing positions will be a plus.
Seriously, while this is going to be useful in some cases, it's just going give a whole group of people license to freak out. Or worse, try to be socially active to "clean up" the world of all radiation.
Part of the issue here is people have been indoctrinated with "all radiation is bad and will kill you no matter what the dose is".
Never mind that people are living in a sea of constant ultra-low-level exposure and would likely become ill were all sources of radiation eliminated.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
For those posting especially high values... Tawkon is NOT a true radiation detection application.
2: Start business selling lead underwear to panicky people
3: PROFIT!!!
"The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes" - Winston Churchill
"These maps, available to the public for free online, are a timely example of how user-enabled systems are revolutionizing the way we solve problems."
It seems to me that this could only lead to hysteria, potentially creating a problem where there was none before.
Do any of these offer baseline measurements as a control?
I look at some of those maps and think, "Man, 25's a big number. I mean, that's a lot of whatever. I should probably think about what to with my family/pets/tape backups." (Hardcore slashdotters can reverse that order.)
But, what if before the big scary nuclear steam cloud, the number was 24 already? Is an increase in 1 really worth worrying about?
What if it was 30?
What if it was 5?
How do I know?
It seems that most of this info might not be that helpful without pre-nuclear-plant-explosion numbers.
Maybe it's just me?
Reeses
Pills with "lead extract" - to protect you from the inside. And since it is an extract, it is not poisonous.
Also, shampoos, soaps and detergents with same extract.
You know... like them hygiene products with pearls and diamonds in 'em.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Take a look at that city getting around 10 mSev/year and that's not even in Fukushima perfecture. Unless a lot of that radiation is from short lived isotopes Japan is looking at a large area becoming uninhabitable, just not the entire country and not immediately.
Hi, I once wrote a Win32 program that parsed audio streams for clicks, from a geiger-muller counter, and logged them, graphed them, and made them available via HTTP. See CDVCounter It doesn't seem to work on Win7, but I've released it open source, so have at it. A Java port seems most appropriate, since the Universe is written in Java.
Follow-the-money. Is there anyone who would stand to profit from severe limiting of nuclear energy? Nosiree, I can't think of five rather influential groups off the top of my head.