Free Republic

Sonny Chiba was so much more than just his Street Fighter character. Over the course of a career that spanned over 60 years, he played superheroes, scientists, assassins, samurai, emperors, detectives, soldiers, and more. Born Sadaho Maeda in 1938 in Fukuoka, Japan, Sonny Chiba was a star even when he wasn’t on TV or film screens. He holds six black belts in six martial arts, including kendo, judo, and ninjutsu(!). In 1970, he started his own martial arts school for actors and stunt people named the Japan Action Club. He was the martial arts choreographer for dozens of film and...

In the wake of the unprecedented rainstorms across central China, tens of thousands of people have been evacuated on Thursday as officials raised the death toll to 33 for the Henan province, according to Reuters. Entire blocks of Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, are still submerged after “once in 5,000 years” rainstorms from Sunday to Tuesday devastated the metro area and other surrounding areas. Zhengzhou received eight months of rain within 24 hours earlier this week which triggered flash floods. State broadcaster CCTV said Thursday the death toll stands at 33, with eight people missing across Henan. So far,...

Chiba Pref. city finds major radioactive hot spot on public land KASHIWA, Chiba -- Officials here announced Oct. 21 the city government has discovered a hot spot emitting extremely high radiation of 57.5 microsieverts per hour on a plot of public land in a residential district. The new hot spot was found within a radius of just one meter. Radiation levels in Kashiwa and its vicinity are relatively high because of the effects of the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, but the latest discovery of such an intense hot spot in the city's Nedokoyadai district came as a surprise. City radiation...

One Tokyo Neighborhood Still Oblivious to Radiation Hot Spot Steve Herman | Tokyo Residents in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, the world's most populous with about 33 million people, have taken radiation monitoring into their own hands. They are making some unexpected discoveries following the March tsunami damage to the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Uninformed parents Just meters from where a hot spot of radioactive cesium was confirmed days before by a private laboratory, a Little League baseball game was underway Sunday. A family strolling past the Edogawa City Baseball Stadium, near where high levels of radiation has been detected...

Radioactive ash causes Kashiwa incinerators to shut down National Oct. 04, 2011 - 03:15PM JST ( 25 ) CHIBA — Authorities in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, said Tuesday that levels of radioactive cesium found in ash from garbage disposal facilities can no longer be contained and stored, causing garbage incineration plants to be temporarily shut down. In July, the Kashiwa municipal government detected 365 to 70,800 becquerels of cesium per kilogram in radiation checks conducted at two incineration plants and one final disposal facility. Since then, Kashiwa had been storing ash containing 8,000 becquerels per kilogram or more of radioactive...

Holy cow..

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...