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Japanese, in Shortage, Willingly Ration Watts. ‘Safety Myth’ Left Japan Ripe for Nuclear Crisis. Dog three weeks at sea saved. Minamisoma Mayor’s YouTube Plea Gets Big Response. New quake disrupts power to cooling unit at nuclear plant - Updated 2011-04-07 5:41 PM Update at 1:11 p.m. ET: NHK World TV reports minor injuries and minor damage from a magnitude-7.1 quake, ranging from cuts and bruises to at least one broken leg. In addition, no major damage has been reported, although power outages have caused considerable travel problems because of outages of street and traffic lights. The quake was initially reported as a magnitude-7.4 quake. See quake photo gallery here. Update at 12:29 p.m. Update at 12: 24 p.m. Update at 12:01 p.m. Hotel guests evacuate a building after an aftershock Friday iin Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, Japan. Update at 11: 57 a.m. Update at 11:34 a.m.

Paul Caruso, a geophysicist at the U.S. Update at 11:22 a.m. Update at 11 a.m. Officials say the quake hit 25 miles under the water and off the coast of Miyagi Prefecture. Last month's devastating quake that triggered a major tsunami was a magnitude 9. Foreign media take flak for fanning fears. OSAKA — Some foreign media coverage of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has been so extreme it has fanned fears of a deadly radiation cloud descending on Tokyo and turning residents into walking zombies, before drifting across the oceans to menace the United States and Ireland. Notification You’ve reached your story limit as a non-registered user. To read more, please sign up or log in via one of the services below. This will give you access to 15 additional stories this month. Quake Deals New Blow to Japanese Towns. Secretary Clinton Signs Book of Condolences at Japanese Embassy.

More:Information on Japan's Earthquake and Tsunamis | How You Can Help | Travel-Related and Contact Information | For concerns about a specific U.S. citizen in Japan, email JapanEmergencyUSC@state.gov. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton signed the book of condolences at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 2011.

After signing, Secretary Clinton said, "...it is with a very heavy heart that I come to pay my respects to the people of Japan who have endured so much in the last weeks. This has been an unprecedented disaster, but it has provoked an unprecedented show of resilience by the Japanese people and a pledge of cooperation and friendship from the American people. We will be with Japan and the people of Japan as you recover and rebuild, and we will stand with you in the months and years ahead. You can read Secretary Clinton's full remarks here and find out the latest information from the U.S. Embassy in Japan. The Economic Impact of the Japanese Disasters - W. Carl Kester - HBS Faculty.

By W. Carl Kester | 4:28 PM March 22, 2011 Human suffering is certainly our main concern in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s 3/11 tragedy. But even as we focus on immediate human needs, we cannot avoid recognizing — and coping with — the long economic shadow cast by this disaster. The direct impact on real economic activity worldwide is already being felt. The destruction will surely cost Japan many times the $132 billion that the 1995 Kobe earthquake did, making it one of the Japan’s most costly natural disasters. The financial consequences are equally alarming. Japan’s economic policy makers are being put to the test once again. Japan often shows itself at its best in times of crisis, setting aside internal differences and responding with inspiring levels of efficiency and self-sacrifice.

W. Japan: N-crisis hinders search for parents /12-year-old Yuki escaped #tsunami by running to nearby. Reuters vs IAEA – The Problem with News « For Your Brentertainment. I know it’s easier to criticize than to write it, but if something that has been this blatantly reported in the last day or two is incorrect, what else in it is wrong? Here’s a twitter post from Reuters from 03/23 4:20am JST with part of the article, pay special attention to the part in bold. Senior IAEA official Graham Andrew said that the overall situation remained “very serious” and that the U.N. atomic watchdog was concerned it had not received some information from Japan about the Fukushima nuclear plant. “We have not received validated information for some time related to the containment integrity of unit 1. So we are concerned that we do not know its exact status,” he said.The IAEA also lacks data on the temperatures of the spent fuel pools of reactors 1, 3 and 4, he said, though Japan was supplying other updates.

Now here’s a quote from the IAEA website about their own role in the whole situation. Once again, pay attention to the bold. Can’t get more clear than that. Like this: Associated Press. Japan Says Small Amount of Radiation Found in Tokyo Tap Water. Samples of tap water taken yesterday in Tokyo and five nearby prefectures showed traces of radiation that were within acceptable levels, the Japanese government said. Radiation was detected in water in Tokyo and the prefectures of Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Chiba and Niigata, Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology said today in a faxed statement. Tochigi Prefecture’s reading of radioactive iodine-131 was 77 Becquerel per kilogram, the highest among the prefectures, while the level of iodine found in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district was 1.5. All the numbers were within the 300 Bq/kg limit, the ministry said. Readings couldn’t be taken in Miyagi and Ibaraki prefectures because of disruption of water supply following the magnitude 9 earthquake that struck Japan on March 11, while Fukushima Prefecture takes its own readings, the statement said.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Drew Gibson at dgibson2@bloomberg.net. Rolling blackouts set for nine prefectures. Prime Minister Naoto Kan announced Sunday that he has approved temporary power outages to prevent a massive blackout in the wake of Friday’s deadly earthquake that struck northern Japan. Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the rolling blackouts, the first ever in Japan, will happen between 6:20 a.m. and 10 p.m. Monday. The prefectures affected are Tokyo, Gunma, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Saitama, Chiba, Kanagawa, Yamanashi and the eastern half of Shizuoka.

Kan appealed to the public for cooperation. “If we continue (using electricity at the current level), there is the possibility of an all-out blackout in the area,” Kan said. “The impact of a sudden, large-scale blackout would be immense and we must prevent it at all costs.” According to Tepco, the nine prefectures affected will each be divided into five areas.

Kan acknowledged the blackouts would affect people in many ways and urged the public to be prepared. BREAKING NEWS: Tsunami warning in effect until 11 p.m.; Guam not in the clear. Japan Quake. Today’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan has had surprisingly limited impacts on the structure and routing dynamics of the regional Internet. Of roughly 6,000 Japanese network prefixes in the global routing table, only about 100 were temporarily withdrawn from service — and that number has actually decreased in the hours since the event. Other carriers around the region have reported congestion and drops in traffic due to follow-on effects of the quake, but most websites are up and operational, and the Internet is available to support critical communications. Those who have been following our blogs on Libya will be familiar with the excellent Google Transparency Report, which summarizes the rate of queries coming from each country over time.

Despite terrible fires, floods, and power outages, traffic from Japanese clients just keeps going. It’s quite a remarkable plot. Why have we not seen more impact on international Internet traffic from this incredibly devastating quake? World : Alerts being lifted in Pacific. No major damage has been reported from Pacific states from high seas in the aftermath of the massive earthquake and tsunumi in Japan, and alerts had been lifted by Saturday evening. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii has cancelled its tsunami warning for the Pacific Basin following Friday's 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan.

Pacific island nations threatened by tsunamis following Japan's earthquake seem to have escaped relatively lightly, according to an international aid agency. Oxfam Australia said it was unable to get a complete picture of the damage to date but initial reports suggest most Pacific islands remain relatively unscathed. However, in Papua New Guinea, the Boram Hospital in Wewak was flooded by waves. About 50 of the hospital's 100 patients were evacuated to a police station where most had to lie outside. The agency is providing tarpaulins, food and water to patients and said heavy rain in the area posed concerns about sanitation. Samoa, Tonga. Japan Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days, Moved Axis. Japan Quake May Have Shortened Earth Days, Moved Axis The March 11, magnitude 9.0 earthquake in Japan may have shortened the length of each Earth day and shifted its axis.

But don't worry—you won't notice the difference. Using a United States Geological Survey estimate for how the fault responsible for the earthquake slipped, research scientist Richard Gross of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., applied a complex model to perform a preliminary theoretical calculation of how the Japan earthquake—the fifth largest since 1900—affected Earth's rotation. His calculations indicate that by changing the distribution of Earth's mass, the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second).

Protective Actions Food Restrictions 3. 4. Japan Death Toll Rises Above 7,000 | News. As the world anxiously watches Japan's nuclear crisis, the death toll from earthquake and tsunami that ravaged the country one week ago is still rising, and many hundreds of thousands remain homeless. Japanese police said Saturday they have confirmed the death of 7,300 people, but nearly 11,000 more are still missing.

The earthquake and especially the tsunami that followed minutes later wiped out entire communities in northeastern Japan on March 11. Emergency crews have been unable to search the entire disaster zone thoroughly, but the hope of finding survivors is now nearly gone. In many ways, emergency crews' focus has now shifted to trying to care for survivors. Nearly a half-million people have been driven out of their homes - either by the natural disasters or the government's mandatory evacuation order for those living near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

Some information for this report was provided by AP and AFP. Japan earthquake: Residents of Japan's quake region wonder where the government is. There may be radioactive particles wafting out of the sky, but Masahiro Hamaguchi has a more pedestrian concern about the air around him: the dribble of cold, wet snow. A week after the deadly earthquake and even deadlier tsunami that have devastated Japan, newly homeless huddle hungry and cold in emergency shelters.

And people are wondering where their government is. "I need something, anything, to warm my body," said Hamaguchi, 58, a burly man trying to stay warm under a thin red raincoat. "I have no winter clothing. It was all destroyed. " Photos: Japan grapples with crisis The only clothing Hamaguchi found in his home overlooking battered Kesennuma Bay was some wet underwear. "I can't worry about a cloud of radiation 120 miles away because the destruction is so big here," he said, noting the lack of food, clothing, electricity, heat and telephone service. Most victims have endured their privations with stoicism, but anger is rising over the lack of basic services.