Fukushima radiation spreading, cooling issues.

Even as TEPCO says that it has connected power to all six reactors, work is frequently stalled by black smoke, and they remain days away from connecting power to the cooling pumps, while there is no guarantee the pumps will work.  But the growing realization, is that high levels of radiation is rapidly spreading far beyond the 30km zone the Japanese government set up.  It's too high in Tokyo's drinking water for infants to drink from; it's too high for anyone to drink from in Fukushima Prefecture; it's in the soil 40 km away from the Fukushima plant; it has spread to more vegetables, leading to more export bans / import restrictions from various nations; it's in the ocean, and any of the cesium that is taken in by fish, .  The radioactive iodine will dissipate rapidly, once it has stopped spreading, but the other materials will take years and decades to decay.

If that wasn't enough, neutron beams (radiation from nuclear fission) have been observed 13 times since March 13th, 1.5km south of the Fukushima plant.

I would hope that the cooling pumps work...though I think most people should not have high confidence.  So far, they have been attempting to stave off what some might call inevitable: a concrete sarcophagus.

Fluorescent dye-fed silkworms produce...fluorescent silk.

Via Make:Online, a report of scientists that have produced silk that has fluorescent dye permanently incorporated in it.

Germany's DT to AT&T: Show me the money!

Deutsche Telekom sells out to the Man, for $39B.

T-Mobile customers are being pushed from one of the (nationwide networks) lowest ARPU networks to one of the highest.  This dog bets that AT&T doesn't really care about T-Mo's customers nearly as much as it cares about the wireless spectrum assets, that would allow it to continue to grow speeds by increasing its backbone and towers and lowering the QOS of T-Mo's customers.

Fukushima Daiichi plant - radiation spread; faked records; progress on power; pressure in #3.

Radiation spread:

Forbes (from AP) reports that Taiwan has discovered small (far below safe levels) amounts of radiation contamination on a small shipment of fava beans from the Kagoshima Prefecture on Kyushu; suspects it was contaminated en route, not at the source in Kagoshima -- though it should be worrying, since Kagoshima is on the far southern end of Kyushu, over 700mi / 1100km from Fukushima.

Kyodo News is reporting that radioactive iodine is spreading downwind: 1300 megaBecquerels per square kilometer (MBq) in Tochigi (77mi / 125km south-southwest from Fukushima); 230 MBq in Gunma ( 125mi / 202 km southwest); 175 MBq in Yamanashi (178mi / 287km southwest); 64 MBq in Saitama (129mi / 208km south-southwest); 51 MBq in Tokyo (135mi / 217km south-southwest); and 21 MBq in Chiba (132mi / 212km), while officials consider a ban on exports and consumption of food from affected areas.

Plotted with data from NIH - Physical decay of radiation of Iodine-131

AFP describes the risks of the various radioactive elements, including the low risks of current readings in Japan.

Fake records:

AsiaOne via AFP has a story on a TEPCO report (issued 10 days before the earthquake) to Japanese nuclear regulators, where it found in an investigation that its Fukushima plant had been falsifying inspection and testing records of its equipment for years.

Progress on power:

Sunday was supposed to be the day TEPCO workers hooked up power to reactors #1 and #2, and right now, TEPCO is reporting partial power at reactor #2. Reactors #5 and #6 are hooked up to power and temperatures are now being normalized.

Pressure on #3:

Pressure inside of the containment vessel of reactor #3 had built up rapidly, and TEPCO was considering venting radioactive gases to prevent an explosion. Less than three hours later, TEPCO decided against venting radioactive gases, as the pressure stabilized even though it remained elevated. Instead, they will focus on spraying water once again, on reactor #3.

Also:

Daiichi plant to be decomissioned; expected quake death toll exceeds 20,000; many manufacturers shifting production away from Sendai, Fukushima and affected areas; people continue to be rescued from the rubble, including a grandmother with her grandson and a former comfort lady turned anti-war activist.

Radioactive milk and spinach...just a little.

Reports from the Japanese government show that milk from cows in the Fukushima area is slightly radioactive - no surprise - but also spinach down in Ibaraki Prefecture is also slightly radioactive.  Neither case is cause for concern, according to Japanese officials.  Ibaraki is 70mi / 110km south of Fukushima, which seems disconcerting, considering that the evacuation zone was only 12mi / 20km, and US and other nations have had an expanded evacuation zone of 50mi / 80km.

According to Bloomberg/Businessweek, officials have connected power to the #5 reactor.  It should be understood, that reactors 5 and 6 were being partially cooled by diesel generators, anyway.  The greatest difficulty will be if they can power up the cooling pumps in the other four reactors, as seen in the severity in IAEA's chart.  The IAEA notes that the fuel rods in reactors 1,2 and 3 are all damaged.

* - Chart directly from IAEA's updated status, as of Saturday, March 19, 4:30 UTC (GMT).

Just a thought: Do Japanese authorities believe 12mi / 20km is the actual edge of safety, or are they taking into account an extra safety factor multiplier, of say 2.0, and therefore they actually believe anyone outside of 6mi / 10km zone around the Fukushima plant is safe? Perhaps they should have considered expanding the evacuation zone at the time they raised the rating of the ongoing crisis from a 4 to a 5, to save face.

Officially official: Fukushima a 5, matching 3-Mile Island accident.

Via Kyodo News, Japanese officials have updated the 4 rating on the Fukushima Daiichi incident to a 5, matching that of France's assessment, and it matches the rating of the 3-Mile Island accident in 1979.  So far, two days of shooting water, and the radiation levels are fluctuating, though not shooting up.

Meanwhile, according to the IAEA temperatures at reactor #5 and 6 appear to have risen slightly.  Temperature of spent fuel rods is supposed to be kept under 25°C.

Unit 4
13 March, 19:08 UTC:	84 °C
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	84 °C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	84 °C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	no data
Unit 5
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	59.7 °C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	60.4 °C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	62.7 °C
17 March, 03:00 UTC:	64.2 °C
17 March, 18:00 UTC:	65.5 °C
Unit 6
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	58.0 °C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	58.5 °C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	58.5 °C
17 March, 03:00 UTC:	62.5 °C
17 March, 18:00 UTC:	62.0 °C

According to Reuters, TEPCO officials understand that burying the reactors in concrete is their last option, but officials are hoping to connect and power up pumps at some reactors by Sunday, to get temperatures under control.  But what if they fail?  It's still not clear that the pumps will work -- seeing as the temperatures may have reached 1200°C (the melting point of the rod's casing, Zircaloy), many things would have failed under those temperatures, including plastics, rubber, and softer metals.


If power cannot be restored to the pumps, will TEPCO concurrently plan for a concrete sarcophagus while pursuing other means of slowing or stopping the meltdown of the fuel rods?  Or will they ignore the planning, and end up being caught unprepared, if things suddenly turn very bad?  Events of the past week suggests the latter might occur.


Note: LA Times has a new article citing a major fear by the US NRC and the Union of Concerned Scientists, that there is a breach in the spent fuel pool in reactor 4, and that the situation is only going to get worse.

Fukushima Daiichi could be a forsaken deal -- are Japanese authorities in denial, especially at TEPCO?

Wednesday night (US) on Nightline (jump to 14:44), Michio Kaku declared that the actions of TEPCO (dropping water from helicopters and shooting water from fire trucks) amounted to a "squirt gun trying to put out a forest fire; too little, too late."  He suggests instead of dumping water, go for the end-game tactic and use concrete to create a sarcophagus to seal it.  (The longer they wait, the higher the risk they lose all containment and the nuclear rods melt and seep out of the containment facility.)

The IAEA reported today in an update of the events at Fukushima Daiichi, that 23 people have been injured at the Fukushima Daiichi plant while two others have gone missing.  At least 20 others have been exposed to radiation, while only one appears serious enough.

The IAEA's update yesterday suggested that the dormant reactors (4, 5, 6) were not critical, but temperatures were continuing to go up.

Unit 4
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	84 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	84 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	no data
Unit 5
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	59.7 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	60.4 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	62.7 ˚C
Unit 6
14 March, 10:08 UTC:	58.0 ˚C
15 March, 10:00 UTC:	58.5 ˚C
16 March, 05:00 UTC:	60.0 ˚C

Japanese authorities dispute the severity of the situation, but one gets a feeling that many people are disregarding their comments, now that the US has expanded its evacuation area to 50mi / 80km, and South Korea has followed suit.

NYT has included a time-based map of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organization's projections of the spread of radiation from Fukushima, noting that the level of radiation is expected to be extremely low (see below).  (Click the map to get to the time-based animation.)

Is this attempt to restore electrical power to the affected plants, going to work?  If - and this is a big if - the heat did not already melt the relatively thin metal wires and affect switches inside the reactors, they could possibly get the cooling mechanism moving.  Except of course, it appears that at least one and possibly two reactors have had their cores partially breached, so cooling might be moot if they can't get water to fill and circulate, due to it leaking out from the breached sections.

And finally - and you might want to sit down for this - AP does a story on the lax oversight of nuclear power facilities:

"In 1989 [Kei] Sugaoka received an order that horrified him: edit out footage showing cracks in plant steam pipes in video being submitted to regulators. Sugaoka alerted his superiors in the Tokyo Electric Power Co., but nothing happened. He decided to go public in 2000. Three Tepco executives lost their jobs"

NASA has posted post-earthquake images from space.

NASA has compiled some photos and information taken from various sources (satellites and space station).

Tokyo residents unsettled?

Reuters video reports that residents have mostly abandoned the streets, and are staying indoors.  As reported in the Tokyo Shimbun, the Union of Concerned Scientists warns that if the situation gets worse, radiation could spread to Tokyo.  Of course, a very limited amount already has, though not enough to panic over.

Apparently, that's not stopping Tokyo residents from fleeing as fast as they can and hording supplies, however.

Radiation leaks from Fukushima plant, US is trying to help, so is South Korea, iodine pill sales 5000 miles away.

Via NYT, a nice graphic showing the radiation leaks measured. I guess it depends upon your perspective -- if you're affected, it freaks you out; if you're not affected, you're concerned but not freaked out (unless you're paranoid and you live on the west coast of the US).

Kyodo News is reporting that the US will send a global hawk spy plane with infrared camera, to take a look at the Fukushima reactors. And via NHK World, the US is sending in its own radiation monitors, but so far, US is not advising people to leave Japan, unlike other nations. Although, US military is keeping its forces 50 miles away from the Fukushima plant.

Some Americans on the west coast are panicking, buying up iodine pills, apparently unaware of that many people have iodine allergies.

Apparently Japan doesn't have enough boric acid to help stop the fission process, so South Korea is sending as much as it can -- I don't know if that's good news or bad.

Fukushima Daiichi plant, reactor #4 photo.

NHK World shows a photo released by TEPCO, of reactor #4.  Looks really bad, because it appears the open web steel joists have deformed, at temperatures around and above 1000°F.

GOP. Cuts for America.

• Small businesses: $81.1M in cuts to the Small Business Administration.
• Border security: $591.2M in cuts from Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
• FEMA: $1.49B cut from FEMA.
• Poison control: $27.3M cut from Poison Control Center.
• Public health: $850M in cuts to the CDC, with specific cuts called out for immunization and public health preparedness and response programs.
• Biological warfare protection: $304M in cuts to Project BioShield, a program first proposed and enacted under Republicans in 2004.
• Head Start: cuts $1.08B in Head Start program that helps the education and feeding of poor and homeless children in America.
• Social Security: cuts $625M from the SSA.
• Accountability: cuts $34M from the GAO.
• Retired Armed Forces: cuts $62.8M from the Armed Forces Retirement Home.
• Military realignment: cuts $5.1B from Republican 2005 Base Realignment and Closure plan (stops the consolidation of bases, to cut operational costs on the defense spending side).
• National infrastructure: cuts $600M from national infrastructure investments (repair national highways, bridges).
• Local law enforcement: cuts $1.08B from COPS program and state and local law enforcement assistance that was used to help local governments employ safety officers.
• Food safety: cuts $174.4M from Grain Inspection, Animal and Plant Health Inspection services (mad cow disease doesn't exist?)
• Clean coal: cuts $18M from research and development of clean coal -- apparently because Republicans do not believe the environment needs to be cleaned up, there's no point to investing in clean coal technology; dirty coal is perfectly fine, acid rain be damned.
• Strategic Petroleum Reserve: cuts $120.2M from increasing size of the SPR.
• Nuclear Energy: cuts $131.8M in support of regulatory program.
• Federal Judiciary: cuts $145.3M in salaries and expenses of judges, and paying jurors.

source: GOP House, list of continuing resolution proposal of cuts for FY2011.

The Great Tohoku Earthquake - according to the USGS

The USGS has been extremely busy.  They've put together a website and poster to explain the what, where and when of "The Great Tohoku Earthquake", which we know now is considered a 9.0 instead of previously an 8.9 (US) or 8.8 (Japan).  A must-have for kids and teachers and those fascinated or otherwise interested in science.

You can tell they rushed it out in the last day, as there's a tiny discrepancy, where the chart of large earthquakes shows the Tohoku Earthquake as a 8.9, but everywhere else, it is updated to the 9.0 number.

Toyo Ito's Mediatheque in Sendai - video inside during earthquake.

Via Archinect, video inside of Toyo Ito's Mediatheque in Sendai.


A Google Map Street View of the Mediatheque -- located in the heart of Sendai city (11km / 7mi from the ocean), not affected by the floods.


View Larger Map

Before / after satellite images of areas affected by the Japanese earthquake.

Via Google Earth/Maps blog, a kml file that loads up in Google Earth.  As you select / de-select the "Japan Earthquake & Tsunami" places layer, you can see satellite images before and after the earthquake and tsunami.  They've also set up a PicasaWeb album, for those without access to Google Earth.

The most striking thing I got from all the destruction, is that in some areas, Mother Nature seems to have taken back what would have otherwise been swamp land, that was seemingly converted to agricultural land.  In other areas, entire towns were wiped out, with barely any proof that a village once existed.

Noticed that there were a number of sea pens off the bay in Yagawahama; apparently much of the area was dedicated to fishing, abalone and oysters.

Some information about Miyagi Prefecture (where much of the destruction occurred, including Yagawahama and Sendai).

Goo.gl url extension for Chrome.

Google has a url shortener extension that now also creates QR codes.  Can be useful for tagging and redirecting mobile folks to websites; not so much for desktop folks, but still has a lot of cool tools within Goo.gl. (via Lifehacker)

Fukushima Daiichi plant, and some other thoughts.

According to Kyodo News, Monday evening (Japan time), radiation at the front gate was 3,130 μSv, which is nearly triple that of a few days ago, prior to when the #1 reactor's outer concrete housing was obliterated.

As noted elsewhere in the news, the Daiichi plant was scheduled to be decommissioned this year, but its operating license was renewed for another decade, just last month.  Age notwithstanding of course, because these plants are inspected and required to meet safety regulations regardless of age, excepting that modern reactors are designed differently, and as such, some of the newer designs may have led to a better outcome than the Fukushima plant, including pebble bed reactors and other advanced design reactors with lower output capacities.

I think these images via NYT sums up the fears of everyone about the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

And unfortunately, helicopter crews running supply distribution operations were exposed to the invisible plume of radiation from the Fukushima plant, though they were easily washed off and the exposure was not exceedingly high - just no more x-rays for the rest of the year.

Incidentally, Kyodo News is now giving completely free access of its Japan-Quake related news, via RSS feed.

And the other day, Japan raised its own rating of the earthquake, from a 8.8 to 9.0.

Could this mark the end of nuclear fission power, and the shift to making viable, cost-effective nuclear fusion power a reality?  -- I think so.

Tea Party budget passed in February -- cut NOAA funding.

Making headlines the last day, the story about how the Tea Party Republican's first budget (H.R.1) proposed cutting NOAA funding 21% from NOAA's appropriations request for FY2011, which would make it about 8% below 2010 levels.  If Congress and the President had agreed to the Tea Party Republican's cuts, NOAA's weather satellite upgrade program would most certainly be stopped in its tracks.

More apropos however, is that it could have led to cuts in the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.

Ultimately, it would have been up to NOAA to determine where the cuts were, and certainly the Tea Party Republican intention wasn't to cut the PTWC, but instead directed to prevent NOAA from documenting changes to the climate by preventing an upgrade to its satellites, IT infrastructure and ship fleet, while cutting research dollars for ongoing science projects.

If you group Homeland Security, Military Construction and Defense spending together, the Tea Party Republicans proposed to cut just 2.9%, while everything else would be cut 18.1%.  Interestingly enough, the Tea Party Republicans proposed to cut the Legislative Branch spending 12.9%, while cutting Agriculture 21.7% -- shows where the Tea Party Republicans' priorities are.

Nuclear plant explosion in Japan.

The #1 reactor is leaking cesium and radioactive iodine, a result of the nuclear core melting, according to NHK World.  After an explosion, four workers were injured.  Reportedly, the radiation level outside of the plant is 1050 μSv, and exposure for one hour would cause nausea; by comparison, 2400 μSv is an average annual background radiation dosage.  Japan is about to suffer a second disaster.

NYT has an image of the explosion

An open letter to Google, regarding the recent earthquake in Japan.

The tragedy along the eastern coast of Japan's main island - Honshu - reminds us all that in such cataclysmic events posterity is significantly altered, lives changed and yesterday is immediately made irrelevant.

People Finder for the survivors of this tragedy is an extremely useful and immensely pragmatic tool for everyone, and we should all be grateful for your actions.  Yet, Google is much more than a search tool.

Save Street View, Google Maps, Earth images, geotagged Youtube videos and Picasa photos (that individuals agree to donate) from the areas devastated.  Save them so that they and the rest of the world will have a permanent record of what life was like before, during and after the earthquake and subsequent recovery.

As an archive, it preserves a part of Japanese history while also allowing many people, whose lives were permanently and destructively altered, to be remembered.  It gives historians the opportunity to recreate a physical and digital models, and present a virtual environment that can be researched and studied.

As an archive, it memorializes but also provides educational opportunities, and therefore, please capture and save your data.

NHK, USGS and photos -- the Japan Earthquake.

512Kbps streaming from NHK (via JIBTV) -- the highest resolution available.

According to NHK, the earthquake's fracture zone may not have been a single spot, but along a line, 100km long, off the coast.  USGS has kmz files to view worldwide earthquakes for the past 7 days; two days before the 8.9 (Richter scale) quake, just 43km away a 7.2 quake had occurred.

Photos appear to show the tsunami went at least 4.5km / 2 mi inland in Sendai.  Much, much more photos available on MSNBC's slideshow.

(via Kyodo via Reuters via MSNBC)

[update 1]

NYT, along with other reporters, talked with USGS on the earthquake.  AP's story says that according to the USGS, a section of the earth 15 miles (24km) below the ocean floor, the size of about 186 x 93 miles (300km x 150km) ruptured, and  moved the main Japanese island of Honshu 8 feet (2.4m) west.

According to NHK, Fukushima #1 and #2 plants are expected to release air, but not before they evacuate residents within a 6 mile (10km) radius (expanded radius on orders by PM Kan).  Both plants have reactors that are overheating, but they cannot get into one of them as the radiation is too high, and they are evaluating their options.  Japan Times confirmed that radiation did leak from #1, as radiation was measured up to 8x the normal level at Fukushima #1 front gate.

Over 570 dead and another 700+ missing, according to NHK World.

At least one passenger ship with 100 people and a bullet train is missing -- as in, disappeared from the surface -- but Japan Today is reporting four bullet trains missing in the Miyagi and Iwate prefectures. 

If the earthquake wasn't enough, it's a repeat of Kobe: FIRE.

The tsunami in Hawaii -- as it happens.

By twitter?  People are reporting via twitter, small waves coming in.

It's now hitting O'ahu in Waikiki at 3:23 am local time.  So far, still keeping to the sandy area, but it's definitely growing.

That was the first wave; it got about 2 feet, and was crashing up to the sea walls, but it did not wash up on Kalakaua Avenue. It had receded and you could see the protective wall...and 15 minutes later, it's starting to come back up again.

Below, you can't really see it, but for hundreds of yards off Diamond Head beach, the water has receded and exposed the entire reef, 3:45 am.  The BIG one coming?  Reefs all over Honolulu are exposed.

Clear picture grab of Diamond Head, of the reef exposed, about 300 feet out, third wave now coming in.

Kahului so far reached 6'; Haleiwa reached 3' and Honolulu has gotten to about 2'; Kauai reached 2.1' so far.  This is going on back and forth as the reefs get exposed as the water pulls out.

Some heights so far:

KAHULUI (Maui): 6.0FT

LAHAINA (Maui): 1.6FT
MILOLII (Big Island): 2.2FT
KAPOHO (Big Island): 0.1FT
BARBERS PT (O'ahu): 2.1FT
HONUAPO (Big Island): 0.1FT
HALEIWA (O'ahu): 3.6FT
MAKAPU`U (O'ahu): 1.6FT
KAWAIHAE (Big Island): 2.8FT
HONOKOHAU (Maui): 1.4FT
NAWILIWILI (Kauai): 2.1FT
HANALEI (Kauai): 2.8FT

The waves keep coming in and going out, three hours after it first started.

About that tsunami wave.

Wow. 8.9 earthquake hit Japan; Hawaii under tsunami WARNING...it could be BIG.

The live video feeds are crazy -- saw a what was a wave over 20' high coming in; a report has suggested there was a 30' wave.  There are people trying to drive away as a wall of water and massive debris pushed in, reaching easily a half mile inland on mostly agricultural land.  4 million people without power, fires in Tokyo, but mostly around areas where the giant waves poured in. Massive freighter ships are turned on their sides?!?

Earlier, Hawaii was issued a tsunami watch, but now it's been updated to a warning, so a wave is expected at about 3:00 am Hawaiian time.  According to an updated article from the Star-Advertiser: "Warning center geophysicist Victor Sardina, however, predicted that 12- to 14-foot waves could hit Haleiwa and Hilo."

The national weather service (not NOAA/Pacific Tsunami Warning Center) has just issued a tsunami watch for parts of Portland Oregon for 1:30 pm Friday...it's just a matter of time before the PTWC issues a watch, it seems.

If you use Google Earth, search:  148.7E, 38.7N -- this buoy was measured at 3.5' high above sea level, which is not the crest to trough, so if you're at the bottom of the trough, it is going to be a lot higher.

What about Kiribati? They're going to disappear, man.

[updated] Honolulu has opened its emergency operations center, preparing for the tsunami. Want to watch the live feed? Hawaii News Now is covering this streaming online here. The most current information suggests at least 6.5' wave. When they changed to a warning from a watch, sirens went off, and mandatory evacuations are now in effect in all inundation zones. The entire area of Waikiki is covered by the inundation zone; instead of moving to higher land, what they do is go up several floors -- the buildings are concrete if you're wondering. They are expecting a wrap-around event, so it won't matter if you're eastward or westward, south or north, ALL coastal sections are being evacuated.

[update 2] Warning now from Oregon's northern coastal border down through California. People are streaming out of Waikiki in their cars, gas stations and grocery stores are packed. Sirens in some areas didn't go off in Hawaii, but they were supposed to. They're planning to fix them and fire the sirens again.

[update 3] Airports in Hawaii are being shut down and evacuated. You can imagine Honolulu's reef runway is exposed, and so is Lihue on Kauai as well as Hilo on the Big Island. If you want to watch NHK World's live feed (English) you can find it here.

[update 4] At 11:30 pm and 12:30 am Hawaiian time, they're expecting to get more information from buoys at Wake and Midway Islands.

[update 5]Navy's fleet at Pearl Harbor is staying put. Roads are beginning to empty out in Waikiki along the beach, and police are starting to close down streets. Areas of Hokkaido are seeing flooding from the tsunami, over 300 miles from Sendai, the main area affected. All over Japan, most train service is suspended. In Sendai, Japan, the ocean flooded Sendai Airport, going in at least two miles.

[update 6]Wake Island buoy - 166.6E, 19.3N - showed 1.3ft amplitude (above sea level, not wave height from crest to trough). Saipan - 145.7E, 15.2N - was 2.1ft. Via the Star-Advertiser, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center believes this means that a wave between 3 and 6 feet is still headed towards Hawaii.

[update 7]More on that Wake Island buoy -- apparently the front side was 1.5' high, the back side was 4' down.  Midway (177.4W, 28.2N) - and this is huge - 2.5 meters high (over 8 feet) -- confirming the direction of the energy towards Hawaii.  Streets are quickly emptying out of parked cars, drivers and pedestrians in Waikiki and elsewhere.  According to NHK World, the Fukushima #1 nuclear plant's diesel backup engines running the cooling plant has failed, while Fukushima #2 is on backup; no nuclear leak yet.  According to Reuters, the biggest wave in Japan was 10 meters, or about 32 feet.

[update 8]There are no more buoys left; just the 1100 miles between Midway and Kauai.  It's just the quiet, long wait for Hawaii.  The period of the waves hitting Midway was 80 minutes; people are going to be fooled into believing that the tsunami danger is over.  Police are sweeping the beaches to get the homeless people out.  They're streaming video from Hawaii, on Portland TV stations in what's probably a continuous news reporting through the morning.

[update 9]Roads in the inundation zones have been cleared out in Hawaii, with about 30 minutes before the first wave arrives in Kauai.  The Hawaii Weather Service (NOAA/PTWC) issued a final prediction:

• Haleiwa (North Shore) 6.5 feet;
• Hilo Bay 6.2 feet;
• Kahalui 4.5 feet;
• Honolulu Harbor 3 feet.

[update 10]A 3 km evacuation zone has been announced, per NHK World, around Fukushima #1 plant.  So far, well over 100 people have died.

[update 11] It continues to shake in Japan.  Hundreds are now reportedly dead.

Google Chrome updated, not challenged at PWN2OWN 2011

Tuesday, Google updated several vulnerabilities a day before the PWN2OWN hacker's challenge.  In the update, Google paid out over $16,000 to researchers who found vulnerabilities/bugs within Chrome.  Makes you wonder why Microsoft refuses to pay people to find bugs in its software, doesn't it?

According to ComputerWorld, in an interview with Peter Vreugdenhil of HP TippingPoint (sponsor of PWN2OWN 2011), the systems being tested (computers and their OSs and browsers) were frozen two weeks ago, so these last minute patches issued by Google, Mozilla and Apple don't actually apply.

Turns out both Safari and IE were hacked; Chrome wasn't; no word on Firefox.  More telling, was that four contestants signed up to try to hack Safari; three signed up for IE; TippingPoint's blog says that there were two contestants signed up for both Firefox and Chrome, though other reports indicate there was only one person who signed up for Chrome -- the person didn't show up.

Google even offered an additional $20,000 for anyone that could find and exploit holes in Google-written code in Chrome (to break out of Chrome's sandbox).  Up next for days two and three of PWN2OWN, $10,000 for anyone that can break Chrome's sandbox from within non-Google written code.

Could be, that Chrome gets through PWN2OWN without even a challenge, just like last year; three years in a row that no one claims the prize against Chrome?

By the way, did anyone notice that it's been nearly 3 years since Microsoft introduced IE8 and the recently announced final release of IE9 next week?  That's a very long time between updates on major features!