Greenpeace said significant amounts of radioactive material had been released into the sea and that samples of seaweed taken from as far as 40 miles of the Fukushima plant had been found to contain radiation well above legal limits. Of the 22 samples tested, ten were contaminated with five times the legal limit of iodine 131 and 20 times of caesium 137.
Seaweed is a huge part of the Japanese diet and the average household almost 7lbs a year. Greenpeace’s warning came as fishermen prepared to start the harvest of this season’s seaweed on May 20.
A prefecture just south of Tokyo said it had detected higher-than-permissible amounts of radioactive material in tea leaves, in a reminder that Japan’s radioactive-contamination problems are far from over. […]
According to Kanagawa officials, a sample of tea leaves collected May 9 from the city of Minamiashigara, in the western part of the prefecture, was found to contain 550 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in the first test; the second test of the same sample detected 570 becquerels. […]
Kanagawa tested tea leaves for the first time because local farmers were about to start shipping this year’s tea leaves they had just picked. […]
Scary photo, but a TinEye search of the photo leads to this BBC story (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/somerset/3534361.stm) saying the frog was found in a nursery in England.
that’s why I labeled “said to have come” from Chernobyl. You never know.
I think the point is valid. Radiation is not good for children and other living things.
Yup. The point is valid. The common claim of Chernobyl being a wildlife Garden of Eden do not match reality:
* “Species richness, abundance and population density of breeding birds decreased with increasing level of radiation … These results imply that the ecological effects of Chernobyl on animals are considerably greater than previously assumed.” http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/5/483.abstract?sid=3088e06f-01d2-4034-aecd-f2fff0149458
* Reduced abundance of insects and spiders linked to radiation at Chernobyl 20 years after the accident. “The negative relationship extended to the range 0.01–1 mGy hK1, suggesting that invertebrates are affected even at levels of contamination below one hundred times normal levels.” http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/5/3/356.abstract?sid=3088e06f-01d2-4034-aecd-f2fff0149458
* Elevated frequency of abnormalities in barn swallows from Chernobyl. “The most parsimonious hypothesis for abnormalities in animal and human populations alike is that the effects are caused by the same underlying cause, viz. radiation derived from the Chernobyl accident.” http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/3/4/414.abstract?sid=3088e06f-01d2-4034-aecd-f2fff0149458
I hope the frog picture is a joke of some kind.
It is 2 male and 1 female frogs engaged in amplexus.
In human terms, a ménage à trois, but after bathing in a tub of light adhesive. 😛
It’s been long debunked as misinterpreted, since the primary observers were kindergarteners.
duh, I like frogs.