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From Quake.tokyohackerspace.org

Have a look at TokyoHackerSpace(THS) website and subscribe to THS' mailing list

PLEASE DONATE to our ChipIn account!

This is the working space for THS' efforts to help those in need after the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, and ongoing disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

THS Tuesday Meetings Agendas and Notes

HOW TO EDIT THIS WIKI

Affected Areas

The prefectures of Fukushima, Iwate and Miyagi have been worst affected. Wikipedia has a list of affected cities: List of cities

Issues:

Food
Water
Shelter
Communications
Sanitation
Economy
Energy

THS Efforts

Projects

Solar lanterns: Akiba
Radiation Mapping with Safecast: Akiba, Pieter, Kalin, Jonwaller
Battery chargers: MRE, Taylan, Akiba
Large solar panel applications: MRE
Wireless data: Akiba
VoIP: Rick, Kalin
Coloring Books/Art Supplies for kids: Lauren
Environmental Sensors (Geiger counters, etc): Akiba, Jonwaller
Second Harvest support
Dome Kits: Karamoon
Forward Planning: Karamoon
Personal Protection Packs
Kamogawa Agricultural Sensor Network: Akiba, Chris Harrington, MRE
Software projects
- Github repository for projects that need it: https://github.com/TokyoHackerspace/tokyohackerspace (contact Rick to add your account)
- Tracking of donations and requests by aid drivers: Rick
- An offline navigation solution for delivery vehicles and other volunteers: Kalin
- Public Volunteer list and tracking volunteer needs requests made by survivors: ?

(please put your name next to anything you're working on)

Hints for iphone / android projects

Collections

Our list

The list: (feel free to send anything directly)

HackerSpaces - Please consider making/sending the following:
- Solar lanterns
- Mintiboost kits
- Solar-powered NiCad/NiMH battery chargers

Personal Protection Packs
Rechargeable batteries (AAA, AA, C, D cells)
Ready-to-eat meals
Hand-held GPS receivers (preferably with Japan maps)
Mobile phone charging cables (USB-to-phone):
- Android (micro USB?)
- iPhone
- Softbank / AU
- DoCoMo

Toys for Kids

You can mail any of the above items directly to us:

Tokyo HackerSpace
5-11-11 Shirokanedai
Minato-ku, Tokyo-to 108-0071
JAPAN

There are addiitonal items that can be of use, but please you contact us first. You can join our google group, or contact via email any of the following members:

MRE: e_premeaux @ hotmail . com
Akiba: Akiba @ freaklabs . org

Extra things: (please contact us first, if you can provide anything)

Camping equipment (tents, sleeping bags)

Other collections in Tokyo

LDS humanitarian Services was collecting FamilyDailyHygeneKits.

These kits were apparently distributed until April 2011.

Volunteering

Information Resources

Understanding Radiation

A very good manga (ja) 放射線の正しい測り方 http://p.booklog.jp/book/30823

Current situation

Safecast.jp: http://safecast.jp/list-of-drives/
Safecast.jp / Keio University / SoftBank stationary sensors: http://scanningtheearth.org/?page_id=90

Realtime updated map (needs Chrome/Safari) http://www.spurs.jp/surfdayz/map/gmap2.html
Government radiation measurements mapped: http://www.naver.jp/radiation
Government radiation measurements mapped: http://www.nnistar.com/gmap/fukushima.html
the above hand-processed: http://kipuka.blog70.fc2.com/blog-entry-397.html
Maps, maps and more maps: http://cegrp.cga.harvard.edu/japan/?q=webmaps
Greenpeace map: http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216097317933419817421.00049f79dd8efb50bf317
Lots of machine readable sources: http://sites.google.com/site/radmonitor311/top_english

Miscellaneous

Radiation 101

http://www.darvill.clara.net/nucrad/types.htm

Government Guidelines

Guideline on Radiation Measurement for Export Containers in Port http://www.mlit.go.jp/kowan/kowan_fr1_000048.html

Iodine, Konbu, What?

Comedy? Hair-tearing idiocy? You decide:

What happens long-term?

http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110405/full/472007a.html
Radiation cleanup? http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110411/full/472146a.html
Effect on marine life? http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110412/full/472145a.html

What's going on with that reactor:

Worst case scenario?

Level 7? Maybe, but not the same as Chernobyl:

Radiation Monitoring

Live geiger counters around the country: http://japan.failedrobot.com/
Greenpeace Scan: http://bit.ly/g0NlVu
US DoE report http://blog.energy.gov/content/situation-japan/
Food sampling database (ja) http://yasaikensa.cloudapp.net/

Geiger Counter Calibration

List of current models

in Japanese

Quake Resources

How to get warning of quakes (sort of)

Japan has an Emergency Earthquake Warning System (Kinkyuu Jishin Sokuhou) that uses arrival of P-Waves to warn of incoming earthquakes. It's not 100% reliable but it's far better than nothing.

Official Explanation (pretty good, actually): http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/eew.html
Wikipedia explanation (more details): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake_Early_Warning_(Japan)
- Most major cell phone companies offer some version of a receiver for the warning system on mobile phones - see the wikipedia article above for more info.
There is also an iPhone app "ゆれくる" that is free and works fairly well: http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id398954883?mt=8
Of course radio and tv news will also announce warnings if they get them in time, so if you don't get the messages on your phone, maybe leave a tv running in the background? (Not very energy efficient, I know.)

How to satisfy your morbid curiosity about just how big that quake was

First, there are two ways of measuring quakes which you will hear about in Japan:

The Moment Magnitude system, which is the successor to, and roughly similar to, the Richter Scale - (and probably the figure most people are familiar with, i.e. a 9.0 for the Tohoku quake): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale
The Japanese Shindo scale, which measures the degree of actual shaking at ground level, and in that sense is actually easier to understand from an experiential perspective: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_seismic_intensity_scale
- Reports of shindo also tend to include measurements over wide areas, not just the center, which is really useful for understand the effect

Resources listing measurements above for Japanese quakes (both will update fairly quickly after a big quake, though it sometimes takes a few minutes):

Japan Meteorological Agency official reports list both magnitude and shindo: http://www.jma.go.jp/en/quake/ (english)
Weathernews also has visualizations that are easier to use and look cooler, but are only in Japanese: http://weathernews.jp/quake/
- (And has an iPhone app for them! http://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/id302955766?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2 )

What is not helpful and harder to measure: how high you are off the ground and what type of building you are in can have a huge effect on what an earthquake feels like. Some buildings (usually modern earthquake resistant ones like skyscrapers) sway and rock, but others (e.g. older, solider concrete buildings) can shiver like diving boards.

What to do in a quake

Not-bad multilingual guide from Yokohama on how to prepare for earthquakes and what to do when one happens: http://www.city.yokohama.jp/me/shobo/kikikanri/jishinpanfu/pdf/jishinpanfu.pdf

Have an Earthquake Disaster Pack ready on your bedside.

Understanding Tsunami

(Needs Info)

Japan's Aid Organizations

Please add any organizations we should maintain contact with. Please keep it to organizations and contacts within the country. (Ex. the Red Cross is fine, if the contact info or site is the Japan local organization)