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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!
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"
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.
Well, for once we see that radiation level, even in Tokyo and closer, is lower than in the UK's natural background. So, will that make the news? Nope. News is just FUD FUD FUD!! That's how they get viewers.
And try not to get natural background radiation in Ramsar,Iran - that is 30uS/h (mSv/yr), not the "pathetic" 0.2uS/h in Japan "new ground zero" (as BBC put it). And people in Ramsar supposedly have less cancer than "average westerner".. Maybe cancer is more caused by our environmental pollution from coal, plastics and other crap (pesticides, herbicides we *eat* every day) than low dose radiation.
You mean these data from Japan's own nuclear measurement net? Don't strain yourself trying to find it; just piss and moan on the Internet until somebody gives you the link. Wouldn't want you to wear out your Googling fingers.
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
What about lead panties for the whole Tokyo vending machine market?
Oooh, such a tough one.
It's always confirmation bias!
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.
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!!!
Contrary to the prevailing meme here, I've been a little surprised how measured and non-alarmist news coverage has been. I don't think one major news outlet in the US has failed to report that there's no risk in the US, and that the only Japanese who can expect to be severely harmed by radiation, so far, are the workers fighting to control the disaster. Beyond that, I'm sorry, but this radiation leak is still a newsworthy event. The tap water in Japan's water is deemed too polluted for infants to drink. It's not as if nothing bad happened.
Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not noticeably radioactive today. The residual radiation from the bombings is below normal background levels.
http://www.rerf.or.jp/general/qa_e/qa12.html
I am a geek attorney, but not your geek attorney unless you've already retained me. This is not legal advice.
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.
"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