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Nuclear Crisis Stopped Time In Japan

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the now-ramen-twists-the-other-way dept.

angry tapir writes "The problems at Japan's Fukushima-1 nuclear plant have had an unexpected impact on the country's ability to keep time: a transmitter that sends the national time signal to many thousands of clocks and watches has been forced offline making the timepieces a little less reliable than usual."

39 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Worst headline ever. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not only did time not stop, but the clocks didn't even stop. They just aren't being synchronized anymore. Oh no!

    1. Re:Worst headline ever. by captainpanic · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not only did time not stop, but the clocks didn't even stop. They just aren't being synchronized anymore. Oh no!

      In Japan, a country that considers a train late if it arrives more than 20 seconds later than scheduled, that's pretty bad.

    2. Re:Worst headline ever. by frozentier · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I have a hunch that their perspective has changed somewhat in the past month or so.

    3. Re:Worst headline ever. by Ender_Wiggin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      You mean if I don't synchronize my clock with the atomic clock more than every few days, it will be more than 20 seconds off?

      Most wristwatches I've owned have a disclaimer in the manual that they keep time with a margin of error ±15 seconds per month. Those are the cheap Casios. I'm sure TV stations etc. have a better clock than me.

    4. Re:Worst headline ever. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Indeed, due to reception issues it would be highly unwise to rely on a radio time broadcast for accuracy in important situations. You can have a mix of time sources (GPS, NTP, RDS etc.) but basically you need a reasonably accurate clock for when they are unavailable. Fortunately modules with better than 10 seconds/month are extremely cheap.

      I got back from Japan on Sunday, there did not seem to be any time related problems. I didn't even know about it until this story.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Worst headline ever. by captainpanic · · Score: 5, Informative

      I have a hunch that their perspective has changed somewhat in the past month or so.

      Perspective on what? Time?

      I really doubt it. If anything, the near-perfect organisation of Japan has saved countless lives.

    6. Re:Worst headline ever. by rubycodez · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I really doubt it. If anything, the near-perfect organisation of Japan has saved countless lives.

      With tens of thousands of suicides a year, I think not. Another example of a modern society self-driven to neurosis.
      The WHO even disputes Japan's definition of suicide that makes the reported numbers an estimated three times lower.

    7. Re:Worst headline ever. by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      THANK YOU. Last time I pointed out Japan's high suicide rate I was modded down. It's real, and it's a real consequence of a high-pressure lifestyle. Japan is to life what Survivor is to television. The weakest links get voted off the island... forcibly. Emotional and mental abuse are real kinds of abuse.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    8. Re:Worst headline ever. by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      The difference is what is put on police reports and certification of cause of death, often labeled as "accidental". Suicide is not a crime in Japan, as opposed to other places where suicide made illegal to allow possibility person attempting it might be stopped and helped). Suicide is seen as honorable a way to get forgiveness for any transgression or failing, no matter how severe, the successful act seen as heroic.

    9. Re:Worst headline ever. by Teancum · · Score: 2

      Japan doesn't have the federalized system of government like exists in America with dual sovereignty and a federal government that literally can't act until after the state government gets its act together. Katrina was a royal screw up of the Louisiana government (not to mention New Orleans itself was in total chaos effectively without a government after Katrina), but that fact was lost on most international news media.

      FEMA, after Katrina, acted about as fast as it was legally permitted to act. That Louisiana had effectively no emergency response system in place is the blame of the citizens of Louisiana. It was the waiting on Uncle Sam that was the problem there, not the inaction on the part of FEMA.

      BTW, Biloxi was hit almost as bad as New Orleans by Katrina, yet it recovered much faster. I don't think that was just a coincidence.

  2. Caesium clock versus wild Caesium by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Very sorry for being 28 picoseconds late! The radioactive Caesium in the air put out my atomic clock

    1. Re:Caesium clock versus wild Caesium by vlueboy · · Score: 2, Funny

      Very sorry for being 28 picoseconds late!

      Only 28 psecs? Curses! That's still not enough to let us fool your millisecond trading systems.
      Igor, it is necessary to calibrate our earthquake generators a second time.
      Yes, let us triple the taco fuel!

    2. Re:Caesium clock versus wild Caesium by shentino · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Actually this is good if it disrupts the microsecond arbitrage in Wall Street.

    3. Re:Caesium clock versus wild Caesium by asto21 · · Score: 2

      How was this even modded insightful? It's like saying sports cars in Japan will have slower 0-60 times

  3. a French poem about stopping the time, by georgesdev · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Ô temps ! suspends ton vol...
    -- French poem by Lamartine http://astronad.voila.net/Lamartine.htm

  4. And? by mirix · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Good thing there is still GPS, NTP, etc.

    Worst case a few clocks have to fall back to quartz and lose a couple seconds a day, no?

    --
    Sent from my PDP-11
    1. Re:And? by mcvos · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Good thing there is still GPS, NTP, etc.

      That's what I've been wondering. With constant GPS signal all over the place, what do we need land-based atomic clock synchronisation for?

    2. Re:And? by Onuma · · Score: 2

      Redundancy.

      You put all of your eggs in one basket, and sooner or later that basket is going to be wiped out by a tsunami/quake.

      --
      What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
    3. Re:And? by LighterShadeOfBlack · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's what I've been wondering. With constant GPS signal all over the place, what do we need land-based atomic clock synchronisation for?

      You put all of your eggs in one basket, and sooner or later that basket is going to be wiped out by a tsunami/quake.

      If a tsunami or quake takes out GPS satellites in orbit 20km above the surface of the Earth I think accurate time-keeping will be the least of anyone's worries.

      --
      Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
    4. Re:And? by rakaur · · Score: 2

      GPS satellites have atomic clocks on them. Every one.

    5. Re:And? by mcvos · · Score: 2

      It is actually on Wikipedia: they are synchronized from the ground. Not like your "atomic clock" on the wall of course, but they do receive regular updates on their exact orbits, and because of gravity's effect on time, their exact orbit has an impact on their time, so that is corrected with those updates.

      So they rely on their own internal atomic clocks, but they're also synchronized to some extent from the ground. I'm not sure whether a land-based atomic clock is involved, but it'd surprise me if there wasn't.

    6. Re:And? by Carnildo · · Score: 2

      Geosynchronous orbit actually wouldn't be very good: you'd need a more powerful transmitter, you'd be fighting with other users for the available orbital slots, and you'd need to put some of the satellites out of the equatorial plane (with all the complications that entails).

      Low orbit would reduce the power of the transmitters needed, but would greatly increase the number of satellites needed, and atmospheric drag limits satellite life (or requires providing the satellite with much more station-keeping fuel).

      Half-synchronous orbit is a good tradeoff: the transmitters don't need to be as powerful as geosynchronous transmitters would need to be, fewer satellites are needed than would be needed in low orbit, there's no atmospheric drag and little competition for orbital slots, and each satellite follows the same ground track each day.

      --
      "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  5. This site has really jumped the shark by slyborg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I know it's late, and I think this may have been intended as humorous, but really, guys? Has it come to this?

    1. Re:This site has really jumped the shark by discord5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know it's late

      The Japanese currently sure don't... HAR HAR HARHAR

      Has it come to this?

      Sadly yes. The site does tend to more fluff, slashvertising, idle shit and biased politics articles than anything really interesting. I'm betting that by 2012 we'll have videos of cats on here.

      Perhaps the new dysfunctional slashdot design should've clued most of us in that we should be leaving for something new.

    2. Re:This site has really jumped the shark by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 2

      I'm betting that by 2012 we'll have videos of cats on here.

      So that WILL be the end of the world. I guess the Myans were right.

    3. Re:This site has really jumped the shark by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

      Even the shark has jumped the shark.

      It's sharks all the way up.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re:This site has really jumped the shark by digitig · · Score: 4, Funny

      I'm betting that by 2012 we'll have videos of cats on here.

      Or photos of CAT 5s, at least.

      --
      Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
    5. Re:This site has really jumped the shark by anethema · · Score: 2

      What site is there where I can instantly filter out all the crap, see the more relevant interesting/insightful posts on any nerdy news story that is posted?

      Most sites have impossible un-threaded crappy comment systems,with crappy moderation etc.

      I want to see 5-30 interesting comments on any given story,not 250 I have to sort through myself. I would also like there to be a higher percentage of people 'in the know' than the average population.

      Is there another site just like slashdot basically,but with better story picking ? I'm not being sarcastic I'd actually like to know so I can read it.

      --


      It's easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.
  6. Better theory: by n1hilist · · Score: 2

    It was Hiro!

  7. Thanks for getting my hopes up... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Nuclear Crisis Stopped" is not a good way to lead off a story on Japan.

    My short attention span plays horrible games with me.

  8. A man with one watch, knows what the time is by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 2

    A man with two watches, is never sure.

    I guess a man in Japan with a radio signal watch has no clue right now.

    have too many damn things in my apartment to change when daylight saving time hits. The coffee machine, the microwave, the clock on the wall, my stereo system main power supply . . . etc . . .

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  9. Media idiocy by VendettaMF · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is about as accurate, realistic, rational and un-hyped a headline as here has yet been regarding the entire nuclear incident...

    --
    kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
  10. Won't somebody think of the censors! by Gadget_Guy · · Score: 2

    I suppose this means any Simpsons episodes that don't display the correct time on their clocks will have to be banned.

    And don't get me started on those times when the Bart and Lisa are late for school!

    1. Re:Won't somebody think of the censors! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      And don't get me started on those times when the Bart and Lisa are late for school!

      Yes! We have to ban every episode showing schools. Many Japanese children don't even have a school anymore!

  11. Bob Marley again... by dido · · Score: 2, Funny

    I thought we should have no fear for atomic energy, mon, cause they could not stop de time!

    --
    Qu'on me donne six lignes écrites de la main du plus honnête homme, j'y trouverai de quoi le faire pendre.
  12. Unanswered questions by Pesticidal · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So I RTFA and am left wondering why the engineers needed to power down the transmitter just because they were forced to abandon it. I would have presumed it would be controlled by computers and not rely on humans regularly hitting a button LOST-style. Also, I presume the differences in transmission frequency between the two halves of Japan is related to the separate power mains frequencies?

    1. Re:Unanswered questions by Shikaku · · Score: 2

      This video has the answer to all your questions about this incident: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7e0777z7AY

  13. Re:time space math truth all 'suspended' paralyzed by jonamous++ · · Score: 2

    I wish that I could understand that sentence but without becoming insane. Your mind must be a wild and interesting place.

  14. hmmm by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 2

    "You Americans have clocks. We have time." - Some random Mexican I asked the time of in Mexico.

    --
    The game.