I just arrived this morning in Tokyo. I’m here this week for business, and for the Digital Garage New Context Conference. I’m also participating in the RDTN.org project to help deploy a network of connected radiation sensors around Japan.
It’s been almost exactly one month since the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. The flight here was almost deserted, as many countries still have travel warnings about going to Tokyo (apparently, Singaporeans are actually disallowed travel to Tokyo at the moment). However, as I see it, the amount of radiation I get on the flight to Tokyo is about as much as I’ll get staying here for the week. The flight from Tokyo to Singapore (8 hours length) exposes you to ~33 uSv radiation (taking the measurement of LA-Tokyo as a proxy, which is also 8 hours length). Currently, the level of radiation in Tokyo is around 0.2 uSv/hr. Thus, I would have to spend over 300 hours in Tokyo (over 10 days) to get the same amount of radiation as I would get just getting there and back from Singapore.
Real world stuff from a prolific maker…
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell with Google Hangouts On-Air is every Wednesday at 7:30pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.
