It was an incredibly striking image of a samurai being attacked by a ghostly tsunami, and it was simply the best visual representation of Japan post March 11th I have seen.

I have now removed the image, and would encourage everyone else to make sure that the original, amazing artist gets the proper recognition they deserve.

The work was done by an artist called Boulet.

Please see the work at its original home:

http://www.bouletcorp.com/blog/

and I’ve also been told it is available in a book that pays tribute to Tsunami victims, check it out here:

http://cfsl.net/tsunami/?paged=5#post-750.

Have a read and judge for yourself. I know that no-one believes anything anymore, and instead trade only in invective, ideology and rage, but sometimes things are exactly as they seem.

http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/29/would-i-have-believed-myself/

As of this morning over 27,000 people were dead or missing after the massive earthquake of March 11th.

190,000 people are apparently still being housed in emergency shelters.

The human suffering of this tragedy is simply too big to comprehend. Entire towns have been wiped off the map.

In Tokyo life continues on, for the most part as it did before the quake. I still look like an idiot when I sing the “Hello Song” to my kindergarten students. I still can’t make my Junior High School students speak in class. I still spend too much time trying to finish Angry Birds on my phone.

However some amazing people have done something. Something that will hopefully make a real difference.

It is called 2:46 – #quakebook. It is a collection of short pieces chronicling peoples reaction to the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that has changed so many lives.

Lead by the mysterious ourmaninabiko who came up with the idea, and has done much of the leg work in getting this project up and running, it contains pieces by William Gibson (of Neuromancer fame), Jake Adelstein, and regular people from all over Japan (including me…)

All money from the sales of the book will be donated to the Red Cross to assist in recovery efforts in the affected areas.

For more information please see the following links:

http://quakebook.blogspot.com/

Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quakebook/154517521274195

and Twitter:

https://twitter.com/#!/quakebook

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn20266-how-josef-oehmens-advice-on-fukushima-went-viral.html?full=true

Hopefully it clears up some of the more bizarre stories that have been circulating about me, and Josef, it is sad that people have felt the need to attack him for my mistakes.

Anyway, all of this pales in comparison with the stress and trauma facing the people of Northern Japan. Particularly the many many many Tepco workers who are still facing grave dangers at the Fukushima nuclear facility. If you haven’t already done so, please add comments of support here:

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/support-our-heroic-engineers-2/

I will make sure that these comments are brought to their attention as soon as possible.

I’m not expecting this post to be quite as popular as my last one…but I would be incredibly happy if it was.

At the top of this page is a link to “Support our Heroic Fukushima 50″ it is a place for people who want to send messages of support to the incredibly brave people who are currently working to bring the situation under control.

http://morgsatlarge.wordpress.com/support-our-heroic-engineers-2/

Please leave a comment and send the link to anyone and everyone. It isn’t official, but I will ensure that someway or another the people working so hard get these messages.

Please stay safe.

Morgsatlarge

The post is now hosted and maintained by the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering.

http://mitnse.com/

Thank you everyone for your past and continuing support in our effort to empower the public to make up their own mind. Support our heroes!

Follow Josef on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/josefoehmen

Josef’s new website (April 4): http://www.josef-oehmen.com

Background to the original post here on Jason’s Blog and the current version at mitnse.com by Josef Oehmen, who really was the author

Below my blurb. Also read the story on New Scientist: http://bit.ly/e1It0T

I am a mechanical engineer and research scientist at MIT. I am not a nuclear engineer or scientist, or affiliated with Nuclear Science and Engineering at MIT, so please feel free to question my competence. The text is based on an email that I send to family and friends in Japan the night of March 12. It was posted on this blog by my cousin Jason, went viral and has been equally popular with people who hate it and love it ever since. It aimed at explaining the events surrounding the Fukushima Daiichi-1 reactor. Great lengths of the text are dedicated to explaining how the reactor works, what the different types of radiation sources are, and what safety features have been implemented. I then continue to describe how these safety features were operated to secure the reactor. To the extent that I could, I have verified this information with experts in the field, while the responsibility for any errors remains with me. The version on mitnse.com is the most accurate, and as you can tell in many parts different to the version that appeared here on Jason’s blog. This post is not keeping track of or explaining events after Mar 12. Events kept developing, and many people keep sharing their discovery with me that one is always smarter after the fact.

In my email, preserved through various copies of Jason’s first post around the internet, I expressed my strong believe that my family and friends are safe. This keeps both annoying and reassuring a great many people. Whether my unwavering trust in my fellow engineers of 50 years ago who designed and build the plant, or my complete trust and admiration of my fellow engineers who are currently operating the reactors makes me a level-headed guy or right-out stupid is also hotly debated. Most people hope for the former, but some opt for the latter.

As far as I am concerned, I was just doing my job. Fixing things. In this case, a complete lack of understandable context information that would have allowed my family and friends in Japan to make an informed assessment of their situation.