NHK reporting that the water decontamination system at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has failed yet again.
The cause is another leak in the system. On 10 July 2011, the system failed because of a leak. Tokyo Electric Power Company is trying to figure out why there are so many leaks.
Since my last posting about Dengue fever, in April 2011, the disease is infecting even more people in even more countries.
Asia is seeing the most increase in cases this year.
As of July 11, the Philippines has tens of thousands of cases, and almost 200 deaths. Officials are warning that when the rainy season hits, they expect Dengue cases to jump.
In India, just one hospital treated 160 children with Dengue, 10 of which died. Indian officials are also warning of a sharp increase in cases when the rainy season starts.
In Australia, health officials are reporting that many Australians, returning from vacations, are coming home infected with Dengue. So far 354 cases have been confirmed. Last year Australia had only 156 confirmed Dengue cases.
“I have to keep an Excel spreadsheet now to keep up to date with all the outbreaks that occur up here.”-John McBride, Cairns Base Hospital, Australia
In Saudi Arabia, just in the capital city of Jeddah, an average of 130 new cases are being reported every week.
In Mexico an experimental Dengue vaccine is being tried on 1,000 children in the towns of Valladolid and Tizimín. The vaccine is in the third stage of study, before it can be approved for widespread use.
In Peru, the mayor of one city has ordered fumigation of the entire city, after 10 people became sick with the hemorrhagic fever. Two of the infected have died. As many as 150 Peruvians are sick with Dengue.
Brazil has been enjoying some success in fighting Dengue. So far this year 340 cases have been confirmed, compared to last year’s 2589 cases (then again this year isn’t over).
Dengue is spread by mosquitoes. Travelers are being warned of vacation spots that have high risk of Dengue hemorrhagic fever: Asia, Africa, Middle East and South America.
Next time you fly to China, think twice about using the airline blanket.
An investigation of Chinese airlines discovered that 80% of their non-disposable blankets are not washed. But don’t blame the airlines, blame the contractor who didn’t clean them, even though they were paid to.
Yingtailong Airline Commodity has contracts to clean blankets from airline companies. The problem, they finally admit, is that they do not have the facilities to wash the 3,000 blankets they get on a daily bases.
The company has 30 employees, but only three washing machines. Company officials told employees to wash only those blankets that were noticeably dirty. As a result about 600 of the 3,000 blankets get washed every day.
After an internal investigation, the Idaho State Police (ISP) discovered that technicians working at the ISP Region 5 Forensics Lab in Pocatello, Idaho, may have tampered with illegal drugs testing.
The ISP actually conducted the investigation some time ago, and is only now going public. Three lab technicians were put on leave, but then they resigned in June.
ISP documents show that the lab techs were concealing illegal drugs in the Region 5 Lab. Testing done at that lab was used as evidence in drug related cases. One lab tech is said to have kept a box of drugs stashed above the ceiling tiles.
The illegal conduct of the lab techs now raise questions about drug convictions going back to 2003.
The mainstream U.S. media is not reporting on the number of New Orleans cops on trial for murders they committed after hurricane Katrina.
A witness for the Federal government, and former New Orleans detective, Jeffrey Lehrmann, testified on July 11, that he helped to cover up murders committed by cops.
Lehrman said the cover ups included falsifying paperwork and planting false evidence, like guns, on the victims.
Five former, and current, New Orleans cops are on trial for shooting and killing people, including a mentally handicapped man, and then lying about it.
Already five former cops, including Lehrman, pleaded guilty. Lehrman is serving three years for his part in trying to cover up the crimes.
Tokyo Electric Power Company reporting that cesium levels inside Reactor 2 building are shooting up. The latest measurements showed 65 times current government emergency limits for reactor buildings.
TEPCo has been monitoring airborne radiation levels inside Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor buildings, using robots, because radiation levels became too high for humans.
TEPCo says the build up of cesium-134 could be from steam and explosions from within the reactor. But they admit they’re not sure why the levels are increasing, and will continue their investigations.
Why didn’t they do what Bill Nye the Science Guy said, and pave the thing over?
Within Japan, at least $3.7 billion has been raised by charities, like the Japanese Red Cross and Central Community Chest of Japan. It was all to help the victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunamis.
A report shows that so far only 23% of that money has actually gone to the victims.
The charities are working with local governments to get the money out, but local officials say the logistics of such an operation, because of the huge number of displaced victims, is making the job difficult. On top of that, local governments are short on manpower. Most government workers are involved with clean up, rebuilding, radiation checks and decontamination.
Here’s an idea: Why not take some of the victims, who’re complaining of not having anything to do because their homes and jobs have been destroyed, and create a disaster relief crew that helps the charities distribute the donations?
The $3.7 billion does not include all the money Japan got from other countries.
Officials with Fukushima Prefecture say the hay that cows were feed in Miniami-soma City, is contaminated with 75,000 becquerels per kilogram of cesium.
They’re still waiting for results of well water tests.
As a result of yesterday’s test results, Miniami-soma City is ordering all residents get tested for internal radiation contamination. So far people from two areas of the city have levels of contamination that call for evacuations.
The contaminated cows got through radiation checks, before being shipped to slaughter, because only the outside of the cows were tested. It turns out they were contaminated internally, because of the highly radioactive hay they ate.
Now more beef in a far off city have been found to be contaminated. Officials in Shizuoka City, more than 300 kilometers (187 miles) from Minami-soma City, decided to check their meat packing factories. They found that beef, bought back on June 10, is contaminated with 1,998 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram (the national safe limit is 500).
To make matters worse, most of that beef went to local restaurants, or retailers. So far at least five prefectures have found contaminated beef.
A prefecture in Japan, is like a county in the U.S. A region in Japan, is like a state in the U.S.
“The slowdown in import growth will last two to three months or even longer due to both falling demand and possible commodity price drops.”-Li Wei, Standard Chartered Shanghai
While China’s industry activity looks great, compared to other countries, the fact is that it’s slowing down. The latest import numbers are the lowest ‘increase’ since November 2009. This means that Chinese industries are buying less materials from other countries.
Imports are at 19.3%, compared to the previous year. But export numbers are down as well.
China’s June export numbers are 17.9%, compared to May’s 19.4%. Export numbers to the U.S. and EU dropped to 16.9%.
“The slow recovery of the global economy and the European debt crisis have added uncertainties to export growth.”-Zheng Yuesheng, GAC statistics
While some Chinese industry analysts remain optimistic, some Chinese officials are not so positive: “Exporters in Zhejiang have experienced a disappointing first half, and the second half will not be better.”-Han Jie, Zhejiang Department of Commerce
“We can’t go on for many more days like Friday. We’re very worried about Italy.”-European Central Bank official
July 11, European Union officials are in emergency mode, after it became clear that the second bailout loan for Greece will arrive too late to stop default, and now Italy is on the verge of financial collapse.
EU officials are scrambling to figure out how to get the bailout money to the Greek government faster, because it is now clear Greece is in much worse shape than thought, and will officially default soon.
“We need to move on this in the next couple of weeks. It’s not a case of waiting until late August or early September as Germany is saying. That’s too late and markets will make us pay for it.”-European Union official
EU officials are also scrambling to plan a possible bailout of Italy’s collapsing economy. On Friday, July 8, there was an unexpected sell off of Italian government assets. Italy is considered the EU’s third largest economy.
Both EU officials, and Italian officials say the bond markets are actually making things worse. That’s because a lot of the money for the Greek bailout, and now a possible Italian bailout, is coming from private sources (like investors). Now many of those private bailout sources are having second thoughts because it’s very possible they won’t get their money back.
It’s not helping that Germany is pushing for a rethink of the second Greek bailout. They say the problem in Greece could take 15 years to fix: “It [second Greek bailout] can’t be something that will suffice for a three-month period but rather has to offer solutions to the problem that will cover the next 10 to 15 years.”-Christian Wulff, President of Germany
Germany has a lot of power in the EU, because they seem to be the only member country who’s economy is booming, thanks to their deals with China.