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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."
Moreover, this really isn't "monitoring anything, [...] in realtime." The map they set up requires manual, voluntary data input. Open to abuse, and certainly not crowd-sourcing in the sense of remote monitoring.
It's always confirmation bias!
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.
And the net effect will be a whole lot of fear mongering resulting from a few pranksters who'll probably think that's funny as hell.
Like before
There is most likely 20,000 people dead because of the earthquake and tsunami.
The number of people that will most likely die due to the radiation is 0-5.
Even on slashdot, there were headlines similar to "Japan. Meltdown tsunami. 20,000 dead". Ridicules to the extreme. Then we have Nancy Grace talking bullshit alluding that radiation cloud will kill people in the US.
For facts, the water is "too polluted" to drink for infants because Japan's level for water is something along the lines of 2000Bq/m3. How much is that? Since Iodine-131 has halflife of 8d, the amount is about 768,000 atoms of I-131 in 1,000 liters of water. Do you have any idea how tiny amount that is? 1 gram of Iodine is about 4,600,000,000,000,000,000,000 atoms. How did it get there? From the air and any rainfall.
And vast majority of this evil iodine will be gone in next few days. If people could measure extreme toxins at these levels, you would find them everywhere, including stuff that is vastly more potent and dangerous than any radiation (think hormone mimicking plastics turning men into "men" that are quickly becoming sterile)
I lived in areas that were affected by Chernobyl and no one gave any hints of what to do, what not to do. They didn't even say "stay indoors" and people around Chernobyl weren't evacuated for 2 days. What Japan is doing is precisely what they should be doing. So how is water in Tokyo? It's just fine - toddlers and pregnant women should take precaution as an exercise in safety, but that's it. Even if all the babies drink the water, they are more likely to get run over by a bus than have any consequences from the water. Hell, I'm not certain how safe the bottled water with its dissolved plastics is anyway.