Crowdsourcing Radiation Monitoring In Japan 66
fysdt writes "A new open- and crowdsourced initiative to deploy more geiger counters all over Japan looks to be a go. Safecast, formerly RDTN.org, recently met and exceeded its $33,000 fund-raising goal on Kickstarter, which should help Safecast send between 100 and 600 geiger counters to the catastrophe-struck country. The data captured from the geiger counters will be fed into Safecast.org, which aggregates radiation readings from government, nonprofit, and other sources, as well as into Pachube, a global open-source network of sensors."
There are better ways to spend your money (Score:5, Insightful)
We're talking about their money and of course it's their choice how to spend it, but everyone please remember that the "catastrophe-struck country" is the fourth richest country in the world (even the third one, if we count individual EU states separately).
They don't need money, much less having stuff physically delivered there. If you really want hundreds of Geiger counters in Japan, don't buy them in the US and have them delivered to Japan, just send the money there and buy the thingy things directly in Japan (hint: they're probably manufactured in China anyway, think about the two alternatives on a world map).
And to the people that donated to this cause: that's your money but I assure you that there are way better ways to donate it. Like letting people that are actually experts on the subject [doctorswit...orders.org] decide which part(s) of the world need it more at any given time.
Re:Problematic data (Score:3, Insightful)
You are making the wrong, stupid, bullshit complaints.
If the radiation detector is built with the proper non-removable shield then they will only be able to measure useful types of radiation. But more seriously, they need to clean the probe, they need to take into account standing radiation sources.
Masses of asses COULD collect this data with no training, but it would take a more advanced counter which gave directions similar to an AED, and which had a GPS and an accelerometer in it so you can tell if it's being used correctly. And it would require a supply of plastic baggies for covering the probe, which could be changed weekly.
On the other hand, we are talking about the Japanese, here. These are people who are capable of washing and separating their recyclables. Perhaps with some minimal training they could do a very good job of gathering this information.
What this made ME think was that we need to do this in the USA, since The EPA will no longer conduct Fukushima-related radiation monitoring [enenews.com]. They have literally shut down updates on the radiation monitoring pages so that you cannot tell how much fallout you're sucking down here in the USA. Germany just reported a spike. France has already recommended that its people not eat certain foods due to fallout.
It's hard not to get that creepy feeling in your stomach at times like this...
Re:A really, really bad idea (seriously!) (Score:2, Insightful)
Without calibration, test sample verification, standard equipment, and very precise instructions on sample preparation and measurement conditions, the collected data is absolutely worthless.
Calibration: once every year is more than sufficient. Once every three years serves for most modern devices. Geometry, distance to sample: They are going to be measuring background radiation, so this is only relevant in that you need to move around and see if the reading changes. Atmospheric conditions: The whole fucking point is to measure atmospheric conditions, you idiot. Cleanliness: These are people who go to a housewares store and buy a special soft-bristled brush to wash out their plastic soda and tea bottles before they place them in a recycling container which is only for one type of plastic. They can handle cleaning the probe. They can probably also handle placing a new disposable plastic bag over the probe each week and washing it with soap or spraying it with a purpose-made cleaning solution once a month, utterly solving this issue. Just handing a counter to a lay person is solved through an hour or two of training, or a small pamphlet. I hear literacy rates are very high in Japan.
Why don't you stick that FUD up your nay-saying ass?