It’s been an interesting day in Japan for 2 stories which came my way.
The first is regarding an earthquake analysis team, who think there will be an earthquake around Tokyo either on the 16th or 17th.
Understandably this has got a few people scared, and a few more filling up baths, buying water bottles, and generally checking the torch batteries. They base their claim on the fact that certain vibrations and RF fields are behaving the same way they did before other earthquakes. It sounds plausible, except that one of the team has apparently become something of a celebrity (as scientists go I suppose) for getting these things wrong. No disrespect to the man, but I hope he’s wrong again.
The Yahoo Japan story [Japanese]
Another story was a bit sadder, but interesting in some ways I’m afraid – a man from Nagoya killed himself and two others after dousing his old workplace (and himself) in petrol, and then detonating himself. BBC have a story and picture here. Apparently he just wanted 3 months more severance pay after getting made redundant – and he worked for a delivery company, making you wonder if Japan is finally going postal.
Sorry for all the depressing news.