"SOTEIGAI" - Outside our imagination

     We where known that Japan's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident was due to the damage in coolent supply line and caused core melt down.

     That was first rated as INES-5 accident (International nuclear event scale), then it was rated level 7 on 11 April 2011 by the Japanese government's nuclear safety agency.

International nuclear event scale (INES)

Emergency cooling system at Unit-1

      An independent report says Japan's response to the nuclear crisis that followed the March 11th earthquake and tsunami was woefully unprepared. The report issued Monday lists problems ranging from an erroneous assumption that an emergency cooling system was working, to a delay in disclosing dangerous radiation leaks.

     The interim report was compiled by an independent panel after interviewing over 400 people, including utility workers and government officials.

    The report criticized the Tokyo Electric Power and government regulators for failing to think beyond the risks for which the Fukushima nuclear plant was designed.

The report criticized the use of the term “soteigai,” meaning “outside our imagination,”

“This accident has taught us an important lesson on how we must be ready for soteigai,” it said.

The report, set to be finished by mid-2012, found workers at Tokyo Electric Power Co., the utility that ran Fukushima Dai-ichi, were untrained to handle emergencies like the power shutdown that struck when the tsunami destroyed backup generators setting off the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

There was no clear manual to follow, and the workers failed to communicate, not only with the government but also among themselves, it said.

Finding alternative ways to bring sorely needed water to the reactors was delayed for hours because of the mishandling of an emergency cooling system, the report said. Workers assumed the system was working, despite several warning signs it had failed and was sending the nuclear core into meltdown.

The report acknowledged that even if the system had kicked in properly, the tsunami damage may have been so great that meltdowns would have happened anyway.

But a better response might have reduced the core damage, radiation leaks and the hydrogen explosions that followed at two reactors and sent plumes of radiation into the air, according to the report. 

http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/article2755175

 The SOTEIGAI is not only for the workers of nuclear powerplant, we also have to learn "Never forget to think outside the box"...


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The man who knew infinity ...........

      Kumbakonam remembers the mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan who brought glory to this humble town in Tamil Nadu.

"The Ramanujan@125 celebrations are being inaugurated in Chennai on Monday, December 26 by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who will declare 2012 to be the National Mathematics Year."

Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar Tamil: ஸ்ரீனிவாச ராமானுஜன் (December 22, 1887 – April 26, 1920) was an Indian mathematician. He is considered to be one of the most talented mathematicians in recent history. He had no formal training in mathematics. However, he still made large contributions to number theory, infinite series and continued fractions.

In 1913, a twenty-five-year-old Indian clerk with no formal education wrote a letter to G.H. Hardy, then widely acknowledged as the premier English mathematician of his time. Srinivasa Ramanujan begged Hardy's opinion regarding several ideas he had about numbers. Hardy realized that the letter was a work of genius.


Thus began one of the most productive and unusual scientific collaborations in history, that of an English don and an impoverished Hindu genius whose like has never been seen again. Hardy arranged for Ramanujan to sail for England, leaving behind his wife and other in Madras. Ramanujan's isolation from his family and the intensity of his work eventually took their toll, and within seven years of leaving India he was dead. For Hardy the collaboration with Ramanujan was "the one truly romantic incident of my life."

     The house in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu where Ramanujan grew up is now the Srinivasa Ramanujan Centre, established by SASTRA University and maintained as a monument from 2000.

Kumbakonam town high school - Where Ramanujan completed his schooling

Government college Kumbakonam - where In 1903, Ramanujan joined this college only to fail in all examinations except mathematics.

Horoscope of Srinivasa Ramanujan

A Magic square formed by Ramanujan containing his date of birth

His popular contributions to mathematics:

Landau–Ramanujan constant Mock theta functions Ramanujan conjecture Ramanujan prime Ramanujan–Soldner constant Ramanujan theta function Ramanujan's sum Rogers–Ramanujan identities

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“An American writer found Ramanujan and wrote a play about him for 10 years. He showed me the draft and I became interested. He wrote a script on it, which later won a prize at Tribeca for best script about science. We have nurtured it,” he says.

Talking about the title, Spottiswoode recalled a famous anecdote.

“When Ramanujan arrived in England, Hardy introduced him to Cambridge with a nice speech and called him ‘The First Class Man' and Ramanujan later thanked Hardy, saying ‘You are a first class man.' My film is more like King's Speech,” he says.

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The most powerful (45) Photograps of year 2011

        Buzzfeed compiled a collection of images from the year’s news stories that will remind you how many really big events happened in 2011, from natural disasters to citizen protests to legislation to war. 

Robert Peraza, who lost his son Robert David Peraza in 9/11, pauses at his son’s name at the North Pool of the 9/11 Memorial.

(Getty Images / Justin Lane)

A whirpool forms off the Japanese coast after the tsunami on March 11.

(Reuters / Kyodo )

his sightseeing boat, Hama Yuri, was pulled 1300 feet from the coast and somehow balanced itself on a two story house during the tsunami in Japan.

Members of the national security team receive an update on the mission against Osama bin Laden in the Situation Room of the White House on May 1.

(Reuters / HANDOUT)

Two lights from the former site of the World Trade Centers shine for the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

(Reuters / GARY HERSHORN)

Phyllis Siegel, 76, left, and Connie Kopelov, 84, both of New York, embrace after becoming the first same-sex couple to get married at the Manhattan City Clerk's office.

(Getty Images / STAN HONDA)

A protester gets sprayed in the face with pepper spray at an Occupy Portland protest. (Randy L. Rasmussen/The Oregonian)

A before and after shot of Joplin, Missouri after a massive tornado on May 22.

Friends and loved ones gather at the Oslo cathedral to mourn 93 victims killed in twin terror attacks from a bombing in downtown Oslo and a mass shooting on Utoya island on July 24.

(Getty Images / Paula Bronstein)

A monstrous dust storm (Haboob) roared through Phoenix, Arizona in July.

A policeman detains an opposition activist in Baku on March 12. Azerbaijan police detained more than 30 activists of the opposition Musavat Party when its members took to the street of Baku to protest against the ruling elite following a similar rally a day before. (Reuters)

Christians protect Muslims during prayer in Cairo, Egypt.

An aerial shot of the damage immediately following the Japanese tsunami.

(Reuters / KYODO)

A girl in isolation for radiation screening looks at her dog through a window in Nihonmatsu, Japan on March 14.

(Reuters / Yuriko Nakao)

A man sits in front of a destroyed apartment building following the Joplin, Missouri tornado. (Reuters)

A University of California Davis police officer pepper-sprays students during their sit-in at an "Occupy UCD" demonstration in Davis, California. (Jasna Hodzic)

A mother comforts her son in Concord, Alabama, near his house which was completely destroyed by a tornado in April.

(AP / Jeff Roberts)

Chile's Puyehue volcano erupts, causing air traffic cancellations across South America, New Zealand, Australia and forcing over 3,000 people to evacuate. (Reuters)

Firefighters of Ladder Company 4 — which lost seven men on 9/11 — perched together on their aerial ladder, watching a news bulletin in Times Square declaring that Osama bin Laden was dead on May 2.

Slain Navy SEAL Jon Tumilson's dog "Hawkeye" lies next to his casket during funeral services in Rockford, Iowa. Tumilson was one of 30 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan on August 6 when their helicopter was shot down during a mission to help fellow troops who had come under fire.

A boy looks at a figure of Steve Jobs next to flowers laid in his tribute at an Apple store in Hong Kong, China.

(AP / Kin Cheung)

Cars are abandoned on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive during the "Snowpocalypse" in February.

Facebook played an extremely important role in the uprisings throughout the Middle East.

84-year-old Dorli Rainey was pepper sprayed during a peaceful march in Seattle, Washington. She would have been thrown to the ground and trampled, but luckily a fellow protester and Iraq vet was there to save her. (Joshua Trujillo / seattlepi.com)

Australian Scott Jones kisses his Canadian girlfriend Alex Thomas after she was knocked to the ground by a police officer's riot shield in Vancouver, British Columbia. Canadians rioted after the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to the Boston Bruins.

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Hurricane Irene approaches the east coast.

Billy Stinson comforts his daughter Erin Stinson as they sit on the steps where their cottage once stood on August 28 in Nags Head, N.C. The cottage, built in 1903 and destroyed by Hurricane Irene, was one of the first vacation cottages built on Albemarle Sound in Nags Head.

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Flowers and tributes are seen outside the home of Amy Winehouse in London on July 24.

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Office workers gather on the sidewalk in downtown Washington, D.C., moments after a 5.9-magnitude earthquake shook the nation's capital. The earthquake was centered northwest of Richmond, Va., but could be felt from North Carolina to Massachusetts.

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Mihag Gedi Farah, a seven-month-old child, is held by his mother in a field hospital of the International Rescue Committee in the town of Dadaab, Kenya. The baby has since made a full recovery.

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A woman jumps from a burning building during the London riots in August. (Amy Weston / WENN.com)

Office workers look for a way out of a high rise building in central Christchurch, New Zeland on February 22. A strong earthquake killed at least 180 people.

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A woman cries while sitting on a road amid the destroyed city of Natori, Miyagi Prefecture in northern Japan after the massive earthquake and tsunami.

(Reuters / ASAHI SHIMBUN)

A demonstrator shows his bottom to riot police during a protest by European workers and trade union representatives to demand better job protection in the European Union countries in Brussels on March 24.

(Reuters / Thierry Roge)

A woman rebel fighter supporter fires an AK-47 rifle as she reacts to the news of the withdrawal of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's forces from Benghazi on March 19.

(Reuters / GORAN TOMASEVIC)

Police spray Ugandan opposition party leaders with colored water during demonstrations in the capital Kampala on May 10.

(Reuters / James Akena)

A student is punched in the face by a police officer in Chile. Students in Chile are demanding a new framework for education.

(Reuters / VICTOR RUIZ CABALLERO)

An aid worker using an iPad captures an image of a dead cow's decomposing carcass in Wajir near the Kenya-Somalia border on July 23.

(Reuters / STRINGER)

A Libyan rebel is pictured with Gadhafi's golden gun.

(Getty Images / Philippe Desmazes)

Harold Camping speaks about the end of the world. The world was supposed to end on May 22 of this year.

(AP / Marcio Jose Sanchez)

A phone hangs off the hook on Wall Street.

(Reuters / LUCAS JACKSON)

US gay service members march in a gay pride parade for the first time ever.

(Getty Images / Sandy Huffaker)

A woman hangs onto a street sign in chest deep water along the flooded streets in Rangsit on the outskirts of Bangkok on October 24.

(Getty Images / Paula Bronstein)

A distressed bride attempts suicide in China after her fiance abruptly called off their marriage. Still in her wedding gown, she tried to kill herself by jumping out of a window of a seventh floor building. Right as she jumped, a man managed to catch and save her.

(Reuters / CHINA DAILY)

A U.S. Army soldier takes five with an Afghan boy during a patrol in Pul-e Alam, a town in Logar province, eastern Afghanistan.

(Reuters / Umit Bektas)

>>Courtesy: Buzzfeed, Damn cool pics<<

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