THE DAILY ANGSANA

SUNDAY,26-3-2011

THE DAILY ANGSANA

Radioactive wave: Will tsunami lead to meltdown?

Officials in protective gear check for signs of radiation on children who are from the evacuation area near the Fukushima Daini nuclear plant in Koriyama, Japan. (Source: Reuters)

Tokyo (CNN) -- Levels of radioactive iodine in seawater just offshore of the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant spiked to more than 1,250 times higher than normal, Japan's nuclear and industrial safety agency said Saturday. Samples taken Friday morning from a monitoring station 330 meters off the coast were significantly higher than results from the previous morning, when the level was 104 times above normal.

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

The measurements also showed high levels of cesium and were taken outside the discharge canal for the plant's Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4 reactors. Readings from a short distance away, outside the Nos. 5 and 6 units' discharge canal, showed lower but still high radioactive iodine levels some 284 times above normal. These high levels suggest there may have been some sort of leakage directly into the ocean -- unlikely to be because of atmosphere emissions or rain alone, said an official with the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which operates the nuclear plant. A Tokyo Electric official told CNN that authorities are not sure why the levels spiked. The official speculated that the radioactive iodine may have been swept off the coast recently into the Pacific Ocean or the tainted water may have seeped from turbine buildings for two nuclear reactors that have shown the presence of radiation 10,000 times the normal amount. Still, an official with Japan's nuclear safety agency told reporters Saturday that -while drinking such tainted seawater would be dangerous, given the radiation's potential to cause cancer -- the effect on aquatic life may be relatively minimal.
Japan's nuclear emergency Children swept away from school Japan's food fallout Black smoke rises from reactor 3

That's because the radiation tends to dilute, the farther one moves away from the nuclear plant. Data posted on the Japan's education and science ministry website showed relatively small amounts of radioactive particles several kilometers offshore. The International Atomic Agency reported online Saturday that radioactive iodine and cesium was detected 30 kilometers (19 miles) offshore, but it said that these levels differed only slightly from the previous day. That said, its potential effect on Japan's fishing industry -- even if consumers stay away, for simple fear of contamination -- remains a major concern. So, too, is the fact that authorities have yet to pinpoint the exact source of the radiation, and thus to determine if it's stopped. The latest data, from Friday, posted online by Japan's education, science and technology ministry show continuing evidence of airborne radiation in prefectures around the nation. Still, in no cases is the exposure considered harmful to human health -- and, in fact, in many cases, radiation readings have gone down. In the Fukushima prefecture where the plant is located, officials had screened 87,813 people for radiation exposure as of Thursday, Japan's nuclear safety agency said a day later in a news release. Of those 98 people had tested above limits for exposure, but once their clothes were removed and other measures taken, the exposure levels dropped and there was no effect on health.

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

The agency also said screeners have examined thyroid glands of 66 children ranging in age from 1 to 15 and found that the "level of exposure of no problem." The thyroid gland, particularly in children, can readily absorb radiation, health experts say. Meanwhile, authorities continue to monitor radiation levels in tap water around Japan. Information from Japan's education, science and technology ministry indicate the presence of radioactive iodine in the tap water of 12 prefectures. This does not include Fukushima and Miyagi, where measurements aren't being taken because of damage from the March 11 earthquake and subsequent tsunami. The government of Ibaraki prefecture reported Saturday that radiation levels had fallen considerably in the past 24 hours -- to levels that now would be considered safe enough even for babies to drink. Levels of radioactive iodine, taken Friday from water treatment facilities that serve the cities of Tokaimura and Hitachi, range from 31 to 97 bequerels per kilogram of water. This is below the 100 becquerel threshold authorities advise it not be given to infants under 1 year old -- and well under the 300-becquerel threshold for adults. A day earlier, water samples from four sites in Ibaraki had levels between 119 becquerels of radioactive iodine to a high of 230 becquerels, all above the recommendations for babies. A second batch of data released Friday from Tokyo's waterworks bureau showed levels remaining steady at 51 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of tap water. There were 76 becquerels from samples from Asaka purification plant, which serves Saitama prefecture, according to data on the Tokyo government site. The previous day, Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara lifted the previously announced recommendation that babies not drink tap water after tests from Tuesday night showed levels of radiation more than twice the limit for babies. There was also good news Friday's in the Chiba prefecture, where all five water treatment facilities had levels of radioactive iodine less than 100 becquerels per kilogram of tap water. The previous day, two plants in Chiba had

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

KUALA TERENGGANU: A year-old girl drowned during a flash flood at her grandfather's house in Kampung Raja Baram, Chendering, yesterday. Nurhasniatul Nabila Zaidi's parents were asleep in their room when the incident occurred. "She must have woken up and wandered into the pool (of floodwater) which was two feet deep," said her mother Azilawati Ibrahim.

"We only noticed that she was missing when we could not find her. "We found her body on the staircase leading down from the house with her head in the water and tried to revive her, but she was already dead." Torrential rain, which began late on Wednesday night, resulted in the evacuation of 360 flashflood victims in Gong Badak, here, to three relief centres in the district yesterday.

The evacuation involved 80 families from Taman Murni Permai and Kampung Pak Tijah, located in low lying areas affected by torrential rain. State police flood operations centre officer Inspector Suhaimi Hamzah said 289 people from 64 families were sent to Sekolah Tok Jambal, while 62 people from 14 families were relocated to Sekolah Tanjung Gelam. The remaining nine from two families were sent to the Gong Badak Civic Hall at 4.40am yesterday after their houses were flooded in knee-high water.

But most of the evacuees from Tok Jambal had returned home at 4pm after water levels receded. District Welfare Department disaster coordinator Monira Sulaiman said most of the victims had returned home to assess the damage and started cleaning up yesterday evening. "Based on our observation, the water levels had receded and some residents were allowed to return home." However, she said that her department was monitoring the situation hourly to see if the remaining victims could also return to their houses. In Teluk Intan, Hilir Perak police chief Assistant Commissioner Goh Kok Liang said all 81 flood evacuees from Kampung Sungai Tungku had returned to their homes by yesterday.

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

San Francisco (CNN) -- Sunday's debut of the Nintendo 3DS, a hand-held game system with a 3-D display that doesn't require special glasses, isn't just the culmination of several years of research and development for one product. It could be a milestone for a company that's spent decades refining threedimensional technology, only to be met with resistance from consumers. Playing games in 3-D "is something that we've been continually testing and working on at Nintendo," said Hideki Konno, who has directed or produced some of Nintendo's most prized franchises and was a key person in the 3DS's development, through an interpreter. "We've never actually stopped looking at 3-D as a viable product," Konno said. "And it just so happens that the technology in the marketplace now coincides with what we wanted to do. So actually, it was just very fortuitous timing." Nintendo projects that it will sell 4 million 3DS units this month, and many analysts agree. The system was released in Japan last month and in parts of Europe on Friday. Nintendo sold 47 million units of the DS line of systems, which all have two screens, with one being a touchscreen. Even before the U.S. launch, the 3DS is off to the most promising start of any game system in at least a decade, according to pre-sale observations from Amazon.com. Without a doubt, it's Nintendo's strongest foray into the third dimension. And there have been many. The first commercially available 3-D product from Nintendo came in the 1980s. The Kyoto, Japan, company manufactured 3-D goggles and a companion disc player that could be connected to the Family Computer, called the Nintendo Entertainment System in the U.S. The project flopped and never made its way outside Japan. Then in 1995, Nintendo tried again with the Virtual Boy. Players would peer through stationary goggles and manipulate monochromatic red characters that popped out from the screen using a wired controller. The system was designed by the team that thought up the Game Boy, but the machine was barely portable. It had a battery, but imagine setting up this ridiculous hunk of plastic to play on the train, said Konno, who can joke about the defeat now. The Virtual Boy disappeared from shelves less than a year after appearing in stores. "When we launched Virtual Boy, we thought it would work," Konno said. "It's trial and error. We made mistakes. And we build on mistakes." Despite failures, Nintendo's trials continued -- but in secret so that errors weren't subjected to public humiliation. For example, Nintendo internally developed hardware that would allow players to enable 3-D on the GameCube, which was the home console that preceded the Wii. That project never made it out of the laboratory. "It would have required consumers to buy a special LCD screen to attach to the GameCube to actually play," Konno recalled. "We didn't think it was worth that investment for consumers, so it never came out."

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

Nintendo has taken a string of commercial risks in the past decade, racking up an impressive track record. The company released a touchscreen gadget called the DS in 2004, three years before Apple would ignite the mobile market with the iPhone. In 2006, the Wii became an instant hit, and competitors in the game-console industry scrambled to make motion-detection systems of their own. Now, 15 years since the company's last 3-D system vanished from stores, Nintendo's next bet is on an old horse that has never made it far out of the stable. Fortunately for Nintendo, the technology has a number of high-profile backers, including Hollywood. Users will be able to purchase 3-D movies to watch on the device's 3.5-inch screen -- larger than most previous DS systems and about the size of the iPhone's -- or stream video from Netflix. "This is an entertainment device; make no mistake," Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime said. "It's not purely a gaming device."

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

Art of Kinetik Mazokist Genetically modify a 1920s gentleman's launch, cross it with an early Riva runabout and give the designer a brief to fertilize it with some 21st-century shapes, and you have the 9.75-meter Mazokist, built in African mahogany and capable of 40 knots. Builder Art of Kinetik specializes in bespoke wooden yachts and promises nocompromise customization. The owner has a choice of different cockpit layouts, finishing materials and engine options -- even the bespoke steering wheel will be hand-finished. Each boat takes between six and 10 months to create.

Riva by Marc Newson Successful industrial product designer Marc Newson has teamed up with Riva and its designers, Officina Italiana Design, to reinterpret the classic Aquariva speedboat. A limited edition of 22 was launched in September last year, available through that most unlikely of yacht suppliers, the Gagosian Gallery. New features include a redesigned transom, a wraparound laminated glass windscreen, split cabin door entry and separate driver's and passenger seats.

Yachtwerft Meyer 7.6 Meter This 7.6-meter custom design open tender was built for the 60-meter Abeking & Rasmussen (A&R) Elandess, while the standard 10-meter version has been used as the tender for Aviva -- A&R's 69-meter, lauched in 2007. It is a beautiful example of the company's work, though it is not the solid wood that it appears to be: it is built using a lightweight fiberglass sandwich finished with a layer of varnished mahogany veneer. The sterndriven tender can reach a top speed of 34 knots.

Hacker-Craft Sport For over 100 years, Hacker-Craft boats have been hand-built by craftsmen in America. Contemporary 21st-century versions have all that heritage above water but underneath, are utterly modern in design and materials. The 7.6-meter Sport is built with a cold-molded composite hull and finished with mahogany decks and trim. Every hull comes with a 10-year warranty. Propulsion can be petrol, diesel, hybrid or jetdrive, with many options available.

Scalar-Speedster The Scalar-Speedster is a classic motor boat in varnished mahogany and teak, handbuilt to order by expert craftsmen, with fittings and equipment customized to each owner's specifications. The Henningsen & Steckmest yard has been building boats

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SUNDAY,26-3-2011

for over 50 years. In 1973, yard owner Rolf Steckmest established Scalar Yachts as a separate brand and recently designed the Scalar-Speedster.

J-Craft Torpedo The J-Craft Torpedo is a blend of classic style with modern technology from a yard that boasts a long heritage in building robust boats that suit the rugged and beautiful Swedish coastline. For the hand-built 12.6-meter Torpedo, J-Craft has taken its inspiration from the Riviera of the 1950s: it's relaxed, cool and confident. IPS power delivers over 40 knots.

David Villa has become the top scorer in Spanish international history after netting both goals as the world and European champions fought back from going a goal behind to beat the Czech Republic 2-1 in Euro 2012 Group I on Friday. Barcelona striker Villa netted twice in five second half minutes in Grenada to take his tally for his country to 46 goals in just 72 appearances. The 29-year-old had come into the match level with Raul on 44 goals, but the Real Madrid legend played in 102 matches to achieve his total. The match also saw Villa's Barca teammate Xavi Hernandez win his 100th cap for his country, becoming only the fourth Spaniard to achieve that feat after Raul, Andoni Zubizarreta and Iker Casillas. In amongst all the record breaking, the visiting Czechs threatened to cause an upset when taking a first half lead through Jaroslav Plasil's speculative long-range strike.

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But Villa levelled in the 69th minute after being put through by Andres Iniesta and he secured Spain's win from the penalty spot four minutes later after Iniesta had been fouled by Jan Rezek. The victory was Spain's 10th in a row in competitive matches following their loss to Switzerland in their opening World Cup finals match in South Africa. Vicente Del Bosque's side have a maximum 12 points from their four group matches, with the Czechs in second place six points behind.

Ammar Hazrin won the last cup last year in 2010 in the end of the year. He got the first place in Junior Rider which is held at Penang Turf Club. He is an excellent rider from Selangor Turf Club Equestrian Sports Center.

THE DAILY ANGSANA

SUNDAY,26-3-2011

THE DAILY ANGSANA

SUNDAY,26-3-2011

THE DAILY ANGSANA

SUNDAY,26-3-2011