The Tomigaia Blog

Nuclear Power Blues

As many of you may know, there has been a series of scandals in Japan last
year relating to the nuclear power industry. There was a case of reactor core shroud corrosion that was covered up by TEPCO for four years, then the METI ordered a year-long shutdown of a Fukushima reactor when it was found out that Hitachi had injected air into a containment vessel to make it appear as if the leakage rate was lower than it really was. (For a list of scandals, please see the Green Action Archives.)

There are also many lawsuits taking place in Japan right now that relate to Nuclear Power. For example more than a thousand plaintiffs filed a suit seeking the closure of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant because of the risk of national exposure to radiation if a large earthquake hit the Kanto-Shizuoka region.

In California, home of the power crisis of 2001, the Mercury News announced that Tokyo may face severe blackouts this summer.

This all seems to me to be a sign that there are some systemic problems with the way that utilities and government agencies are operating. It has caused a big rift to develop between Tokyo and the surrounding prefectures (where all the power plants are). It has shaken the public's trust in Nuclear Power. I think that these scandals may be part of the jolt that Japan needs to see that the status quo is bankrupt, and that changes need to take place soon.

I just hope that rolling blackouts will not be final blow that send the Tokyo economy down the tubes for another 10 years!!!

Did J-WAVE interiew. Audio Available

I did the J-WAVE interview this evening (Monday morning, Tokyo time). The nice people at J-WAVE have made the audio of the interview available on the web.

I thought the interview was going to be in English, but at the last minute, the producer asked me to do it in Japanese. I was nervous, but I think it went very well, and I hope it leads to some interest in bringing Thinking Pictures to Japan.

Video Streaming Project to Prevent War in Iraq

An old friend of mine by the name of Klaas Glenewinkel is orchestrating a video stream-in to try to prevent a war in Iraq (aka the "no war media marathon"). I like this idea: it is like blogging, but uses personal video feeds instead of text and pictures. This would be great for mobile video streams from gargoyles! See more here: Remote TV.

Adrian Vacca, a Dutch composer of experimental electronic music

[I am trying to catch up on all the stuff I have been meaning to blog over the last few months... This is old news, but still interesting. ]

When I was in a tiny town called Almen in the center of the Netherlands last year, I met a young man named Adrian Vacca. He has a Web page with samples of his original compositions in SuperCollider as well.

His latest project involved a multisenory performance that included original music, video and SMELLS!

The smells are produced by heating natural ingredients, and then blown into the audience with a fan. A blast of water vapor is used in between smells to clean the olfactory palate.

I hope to get avacca to perform in New York or Tokyo, and then go to see him! If anybody else is interested in contacting him, please send him e-mail at: vacca@civilrevoltage.com

Radio Interview Postponed due to Columbia Crash

I got a call from the people at J-Wave today, and they asked to postpone my interview for a week because on Monday morning they are going to talk to someone in the US about the Columbia disaster instead. I am happy to postpone. I am still in a state of shock about the crash.