Payroll interview questions

Overview

Key functions of payroll field include: Payroll policies, payroll making process, payroll slips, payroll outsourcing (if any) etc.

Interview questions below can be used for payroll director, payroll manager, payroll assistant, payroll supervisor, payroll engineer…

Tips to create payroll interview questions by yourself: Identify payroll functions, then create tasks for each functions then you can create questions by structure:

1. What are functions of payroll? What are tasks that to implement each function?

2. How to do each payroll task/function?

3. What are output of each payroll task/function?

4. How to measure each task/function?

5. How to control each task/function? etc

Common interview questions for payroll position

1. Tell me about your self?

2. What do you like about your present job for payroll field?

3. What do you dislike about your present job for payroll field?

4. What are your strengths?

5. What is your greatest weakness?

Hot Girls at One ClickA list of 100 beautiful girls. Vote for the one you like the most. See who will comes first. I will add new pictures of girls daily.

5 TIPS TO IMPROVE YOUR IQ

Just as the human body requires exercise to remain fit, similarly human brain also needs exercise to keep itself agile. If you use it in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if we abuse it with harmful living habits, our ability to think and learn will certainly deteriorate. Here are 5 simple ways by which anyone can get more productivity out of this grey matter of our body.

Brain Nutrition
Of all the things that you can do to improve IQ, keeping good overall health is the most important, especially a physically healthier brain improves all other IQ related aspects such as, memory, logic, understanding, and problem solving abilities. Just as nutrition is indispensable for a healthy body, similarly a sharp brain demands good mental nutrition. Take rich diet with a balanced intake of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. There are also many brain nutrition supplements like Omega 3 oil capsules that you could take to support mental functioning. But be careful that such external supplements should be taken only after proper medical consultation.

Sensory　Development
Our mind perceives and interprets everything happening around us. Our thoughts get crystallized in form of images, sounds, feelings and words using our senses. Thus by working on our sensory development we increase our perception. Take up activities that would present challenging scenarios to the mind such as attempting various IQ tests and solving word or number puzzles as these sharpen our mental faculty. Also try to do varied reading as that also provides different sensory stimulus to our brain.

Take proper rest and sleep well
Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than lack of proper sleep and rest. Proper sound sleep is most essential for rejuvenating human mind as that is the time when brain locks down our memories and processes them. So if you are not having enough hours of sleep, it retards our memorizing abilities over a period of time. Follow the age old principle of early to bed and early to rise so that you can make the best out of the early morning hours when the mind is at its tranquil, productive best.

Indulge in sporting activities
Playing games such as chess, sudoku and word scrabble, which involve strategic planning, have been proved to give the right impetus towards improving ones` IQ levels. Even some outdoor games that require intense hand – mind – eye co-ordination, like squash, tennis and ping pong are strongly recommended by experts as the rapid eye movements involved in these sports stimulate mental sharpness and boost your IQ.

Improve memory
Memory is the mental ability to gather information / observations and storing them in a way that we can access it later. Though it sounds simple, but actually the ability to memorize things is a complex process wherein different parts of the brain come into play. A powerful memory is essential for an improved IQ as well as success in life.

IAF Air Man Colleges in India

Defence Academy, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) A-11, VOC Nagar Ganapathy (PO) , Coimbatore (Coimbatore Dist.) - 641006

Ground Zero Defence Institute, Dehradun (Uttarakhand) 9, E.C Road,(opp. s. k. memorial hospital , Dehradun (Dehradun Dist.) - 248001

Guru Nanak College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu) Velachery , Chennai (Chennai Dist.) - 600042

I.S.A. Wings Academy, New Delhi (Delhi) 3rd Floor, B-105, Lajpat Nagar-1 , New Delhi (Delhi) - 110024

North Maharashtra University, Jalgaon (Maharashtra) Post Box No.80, Umavi Nagar , Jalgaon (Jalgaon Dist.) - 425001

Punjabi University: Department of Defence and Strategic Studies,Patiala (Punjab) Punjabi University Campus , Patiala (Patiala Dist.) - 147002

Sainik Academy, Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu) A-11, VOC Nagar Ganapathy , Coimbatore (Coimbatore Dist.) - 641006

Trishul Defence Career Academy , Allahabad (Uttar Pradesh) 316 / 1 b New Mehdauri , Rasulabad Main Road , Allahabad (Allahabad Dist.) - 211004

University of Madras: Department of Defence and Strategic Studies,Chennai (Tamil Nadu) University Centenary Building, Chepauk, Triplicane P O , Chennai (Chennai Dist.) - 600005

University of Pune, Department of Defence and Strategic Studies, Pune(Maharashtra) Ganeshkhind , Pune (Pune Dist.) - 411007

Z.I.S. Institute of Non-Destructive Testing, Navi Mumbai (Maharashtra) G-1, progressive villa-B, plot no-62, Sec-19, CBD Belapur , Navi Mumbai(Thane Dist.) - 400614

Defence Careers Academy, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh)

H-310, Indiralok, Krishna Nagar , Lucknow (Lucknow Dist.) - 226023

Phone : 0522-4010000, 2472191

IAF Air Man : Application Procedure

The advertisement inviting applications for vacancies for the Airman cadre will appear in the leading newspapers including 30 regional newspapers across India. The advertisements are also published in the Employment News or the Rozgar Samachar. The application should be send in the required format mentioned in the advertisement, before the last date. The selection procedure for picking the candidates is quite strict and elaborate. The five steps  involved are

 • Processing of Application  • Testing the Abilities  • Conducting Medical Examination  • Preparing Merit List  • Undertaking Enrolment

Processing of Application :

After checking all eligibility wise application forms, one will receive an Admit Card that will contain all the relevant details like the date, time and venue of your examination. The subjects tested on will depend on the trade you have applied for. The following are the subjects for examination.

• Technical Streams You will be tested in four papers- English, Mathematics, Science and Intelligence and General Awareness.  • Non-Technical/MTD Streams You will be tested for English and Intelligence and General Awareness. (The examination is based on the CBSE (X / XII) curriculum / syllabus.)  • Education Instructors The pattern of the paper is in keeping with the basic minimum educational qualification  required. Here, you will also be interviewed after the examination. 

Testing the Abilities
The selection tests will be held at any of the Airmen Selection Centres across India. (click here for Contacts of Selection Centres) One should take the admit card and all the original certificates to the venue, at the time of the examination. These will be verified before you proceed for the examination.


Conducting Medical ExaminationAfter you have successfully cleared the Exams, you will be sent for a medical examination, which shall be conducted by a Medical Officer of the Armed Forces.

After the medical examination, you are either declared 'Fit' or 'Unfit' or 'Temporarily Medically Unfit' (TMU). 


Preparing Merit List If you have successfully cleared the examination and are declared medically fit / TMU, your name will feature in the All India Merit List. This list will be displayed at the Airmen Selection Centres, where the tests were conducted. A call letter will be sent to you, requesting you to report to the Airmen Selection Centre for enrollment.

Undertaking EnrolmentApart from the enrolment formalities, the candidate should take a Trade Aptitude Test, to determine the right trade for him. Depending upon the score as well as the position in the Merit List, candidates will be assigned to one of the streams in the Technical or Non-Technical Trades.


After the candidate have completed your enrolment formalities, he will be sent to the Administrative Training Institute for 26 weeks for Basic Combatant Training. Thereafter, the candidate would be send to one of the Training Institutes for specialisation in the trade that he is assigned.

Google working on mobile payment technology - WSJ

Google is joining Citigroup and Mastercard to set up a mobile payment system that will turn Android phones into a kind of electronic wallet, the Wall Street Journal said, citing people familiar with the matter.

The new technology, which is in its early stages, will allow consumers to wave their Android phones in front of a small reader at the checkout counter to make payments, the Journal reported.

The planned payment system would allow Google to offer retailers more data about their customers and help them target advertisements and discount offers to mobile device users near their stores, the sources told the WSJ.

Google is not expected to get a cut of the transaction fees, the paper said.

Initially, holders of Citigroup-issued debit and credit cards would be allowed to pay for purchases by activating a mobile payment application developed for one current model and many coming models of Android phones, the paper said.

Google, Citigroup and Mastercard could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular U.S. business hours.

DIRTY SIDE OF MONEY,Don't Count with your Hands.......

DIRTY SIDE OF MONEY

A new study published in the latest edition 

of Current Science has found that every single currency note and 96 per cent of coins carry various strains of bacteria, of which at least three species are highly infectious.

If that weren't enough, this widely handled article may be assisting in the spread of drug-resistant strains of bacteria, found the paper, one of few such studies conducted on Indian currency.

The research paper, titled ‘Screening of currency in circulation for bacterial contamination' was authored by Akshay Sharma and B. Dhanashree of Kasturba Medical College, Manipal University.

As part of their study, the researchers each collected 25 samples of currency notes and coins, using a random sampling technique.

Responsible for diseases

Microbial screening showed that a surprising 96 per cent of coins and 100 per cent of the currency notes were found to be contaminated with different bacterial species. Of these, three pathogenic species — Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella spp and Escherichia coli – were found to be responsible for various gastric and respiratory diseases.

Antibiotic-resistant

Tests showed that the bacteria were considerably resistant to commonly used antibiotics. For instance, S. aureus showed 100 per cent resistance to penicillin, while 50 per cent of Klebsiella spp were resistant to piperacillin. E. coli was resistant to ampicillin and piperacillin.

Bacteria such as Klebsiella spp. were known to cause hospital-acquired infections, and are most commonly involved in respiratory tract infections.

The paper advised medical professionals and food handlers, in particular, to sanitise their hands after handling currency to prevent cross-contamination.

Is Blekko A google Killer ?

Well a new search engine called Blekko has been  hyped as a google Killer.Well in this post I will Dig deep into this search engine and will tell you is It Really a Google Killer or not.Well Blekko is a search engine launched by Rich Skrenta who is also the founder of a popular news aggregating website called Topix.The work on the Blekko search engine was started in 2007 and It was opened for some people in july2010 and now it has been publically luanched.
The results that appear in the blekko search engine are human edited

Blekko provides a list of slashtags that can be used or you can create your own slashtags.You just have to login into blekko name your slashtag and upload a list of websites for that particular slashtag.Now whrnever you will use that slashtag the result will be shown from the list of uploaded sites.You can access blekko’s slashtagshere.
You also have the ability to make your slashtags public or private.What I have found that the results by usingslashtags are not as accurate as they should be.If we compare Google and blekko’s Search results then certainly google is better but what i have found in blekko is that the amount of spam is comparatively less inblekko.
Moreover google also provides the ability to search according to your preferences similar to the use of slashtags.You can Read my post on Google Advanced Search for that.
Blekko has taken one step forward then google in terms of openess.By openness we mean that now you can see that according to what criterion a site is ranking for a certain keyword.You can see the criteria by using the following search   “Your Query here” /rank .Also you will see a Seo button in from of every search result website while doing normal search in blekko which provide information like inbound links,crawl stats,geographicdistribution and other information about the website.
My overall judgment is that though it is good innovative idea but it stills lacks the accuracy to beat google.Only Google can beat google with each new version.

Yes, sex can kill you, US study shows

Sudden bursts of moderate to intense physical activity -- such as jogging or having sex -- significantly increase the risk of having a heart attack, especially in people who do not get regular exercise, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

Doctors have long known that physical activity can cause serious heart problems, but the new study helps to quantify that risk, Dr. Issa Dahabreh of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, whose study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The team analyzed data from 14 studies looking at the link between exercise, sex and the risk of heart attacks or sudden cardiac death -- a lethal heart rhythm that causes the heart to stop circulating blood.

They found people are 3.5 times more likely to get a heart attack or have sudden cardiac death when they are exercising compared to when they are not.

And they are 2.7 times more likely to get a heart attack when they are having sex or immediately afterward compared with when they are not. (These findings do not apply to sudden cardiac death because there were no studies looking at the link between sex and cardiac death.)

Jessica Paulus, another Tufts researcher who worked on the study, said the risk is fairly high as such studies go. But the period of increased risk is brief.

"These elevated risks are only for a short period of time (1 to 2 hours) during and after the physical or sexual activity," Paulus said in a telephone interview.

Because of that, the risk to individuals over the course of a year is still quite small, she said.

"If you take 10,000 people, each individual session of physical or sexual activity per week can be associated with an increase of 1 to 2 cases of heart attack or sudden cardiac death per year," Paulus said.

She said it is important to balance the findings with other studies showing that regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death by 30 percent.

"What we really don't want to do is for the public to walk away from this and think exercise is bad," she said.

What it does mean is that people who do not exercise regularly need to start any exercise program slowly, gradually increasing the intensity of the workout over time.

Japanese engineers strive to restore power to avert catastrophe

Japanese engineers raced on Friday to restore a power cable to a crippled nuclear power plant in the hope of restarting pumps desperately needed to pour cold water on overheating fuel rods and avert a catastrophic release of radiation.

This satellite image of the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in Japan, taken by DigitalGlobe on March 16, 2011 and released on March 17, shows damage to the Units 1, 3, and 4 reactor buildings. Steam can be seen venting from the Unit 2 reactor and Unit 3 reactor buildings.

Officials could not forecast when the cable might be connected, but said work would stop on Friday morning to allow helicopters and fire trucks to resume pouring water on the Daiichi plant, about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

"Preparatory work has so far not progressed as fast as we had hoped," an official of plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) told a news briefing, adding that a cold snap was hampering the effort, as was the need to constantly check radiation levels were safe for the engineers to work.

Washington and other foreign capitals have expressed growing alarm about radiation leaking from the plant, severely damaged by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami a week ago that triggered a series of destructive explosions which compromised the nuclear reactors and spent fuel storage tanks.

Worst case scenarios would involve millions of people in Japan threatened by exposure to radioactive material, but prevailing winds are likely to carry any contaminated smoke or steam away from the densely populated Tokyo area to dissipate over the Pacific ocean.

U.S. President Barack Obama, however, said the Japan crisis posed no risk to any U.S. territory -- although he nevertheless ordered a comprehensive review of domestic nuclear plants.

"We do not expect harmful levels of radiation to reach the United States, whether it's the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska, or U.S. territories in the Pacific," Obama said. "That is the judgment of our Nuclear Regulatory Commission and many other experts."

Yukiya Amano, head of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was due back in his homeland later on Friday with an international team of experts after earlier complaining about a lack of information from Japanese authorities on the crisis.

Graham Andrew, his senior aide, said the situation at the plant was serious but "reasonably stable".

"It hasn't got worse, which is positive," he said. "The situation remains very serious but there has been no significant worsening since yesterday."

Even if TEPCO manages to connect the power, it is not clear the pumps will work as they may have been damaged by the natural disaster or subsequent explosions. Work has been slowed by the need to frequently monitor radiation levels to protect workers.

U.S. officials took pains not to criticise Japan's government, but Washington's actions indicated a divide with its close ally about the perilousness of the world's worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

COOLING POOL MAY HAVE RUN DRY

The top U.S. nuclear regulator said the cooling pool for spent fuel rods at the complex's reactor No.4 may have run dry and another was leaking.

Gregory Jaczko, head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, told a congressional hearing that radiation levels around the cooling pool were extremely high, posing deadly risks for workers still toiling in the wreckage of the power plant.

Japan's nuclear agency said it could not confirm if water was covering the fuel rods. The plant operator said it believed the reactor spent-fuel pool still had water as of Wednesday, and made clear its priority was the spent-fuel pool at the No.3 reactor.

On Thursday, military helicopters dumped about 30 tonnes of water, all aimed at this reactor. One emergency crew temporarily put off spraying the same reactor with a water cannon due to high radiation, broadcaster NHK said, but another crew later began hosing it.

Latest images from the plant showed severe damage, with two of the buildings a twisted mangle of steel and concrete.

"The worst-case scenario doesn't bear mentioning and the best-case scenario keeps getting worse," Perpetual Investments said in a note on the crisis.

FINANCIAL LEADERS BID TO AVERT GLOBAL CRISIS

Financial leaders of the world's richest nations will hold talks on Friday on ways to calm global markets roiled by the crisis amid concern it will unravel a fragile global economic recovery.

Japanese Economics Minister Kaoru Yosano told Reuters the country's markets were not unstable enough to warrant joint G7 currency intervention or government purchases of shares.

That said, the yen surged to a record high against the dollar on market speculation Japan would repatriate funds to pay for the massive cost of post-disaster reconstruction, rising as high as 76.25 to the dollar and surpassing the previous record high of 79.75 reached in the wake of the Kobe earthquake of 1995.

Japan's Nikkei average fell sharply on opening on Thursday, but ended the day down just 1.44 percent. The Nikkei has fallen more than 12 percent this week.

U.S. markets, which tanked on Wednesday on the back of the crisis, rebounded on Thursday, but investors were not convinced the advance would last.

POSSIBLE LARGE_SCALE BLACKOUTS

The government warned Tokyo's 13 million people to prepare for a possible large-scale blackout but later said there was no need for one. Still, many firms voluntarily reduced power, submerging parts of the usually neon-lit city in darkness.

In a possible sign of panic, one bank, Mizuho, said all its automated teller machines in the country crashed twice on Thursday after excessive transactions.

On Thursday, the U.S. embassy in Tokyo urged citizens living within 80 km (50 miles) of the Daiichi plant to evacuate or remain indoors "as a precaution", while Britain's foreign office urged citizens "to consider leaving the area".

The latest warnings were not as strong as those issued earlier by France and Australia, which urged nationals in Japan to leave the country. Russia said it planned to evacuate families of diplomats on Friday, and Hong Kong urged its citizens to leave Tokyo as soon as possible or head south.

Japan's government has told everyone living within 20 km (12 miles) of the plant to evacuate, and advised people within 30 km (18 miles) to stay indoors.

At its worst, radiation in Tokyo has reached 0.809 microsieverts per hour this week, 10 times below what a person would receive if exposed to a dental x-ray. On Thursday, radiation levels were barely above average.

TOKYO RESIDENTS STAY INDOORS

Many Tokyo residents stayed indoors, however, usually busy streets were nearly deserted and many shops were closed. At the second-floor office of the Tokyo Passport Centre in the city's Yurakucho district, queues snaked to the first floor.

"Since yesterday we have had one-and-a-half times more people than usual coming to apply for a passport or to enquire about getting one," said Shigeaki Ohashi, a centre official.

The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the earthquake and tsunami worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected areas.

A tribute to Japan's 2011 Tsunami victims

Japan lays power cable in race to stop radiation

Exhausted engineers attached a power cable to the outside of Japan's tsunami-crippled nuclear station on Saturday in a race to prevent deadly radiation from an accident now rated at least as bad as America's Three Mile Island in 1979.

Further cabling inside was underway before an attempt to restart water pumps needed to cool overheated nuclear fuel rods at the six-reactor Fukushima plant in northeastern Japan, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

Japan's unprecedented multiple crisis of earthquake, tsunami and radiation leak has unsettled world financial markets, prompted international reassessment of nuclear safety and given the Asian nation its sternest test since World War Two.

It has also stirred unhappy memories of Japan's past nuclear nightmare -- the U.S. atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

Working inside a 20 km (12 miles) evacuation zone at Fukushima, nearly 300 engineers were focused on trying to restore power at pumps in four of the reactors.

"TEPCO has connected the external transmission line with the receiving point of the plant and confirmed that electricity can be supplied," the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said in a statement.

Another 1,480 meters (5,000 feet) of cable are being laid inside the complex before engineers try to crank up the coolers at reactor No. 2, followed by 1, 3 and 4 this weekend, company officials added.

Should that work, it will be a turning point.

"If they can get those electric pumps on and they can start pushing that water successfully up the core, quite slowly so you don't cause any brittle failure, they should be able to get it under control in the next couple of days," said Laurence Williams, of Britain's University of Central Lancashire.

If not, there is an option of last resort under consideration to bury the sprawling 40-year-old plant in sand and concrete to prevent a catastrophic radiation release.

That method was used to seal huge leakages from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.

Underlining authorities' desperation, fire engines sprayed water overnight in a crude tactic to cool reactor No. 3, considered the most critical because of its use of mixed oxides, or mox, containing both uranium and highly toxic plutonium.

From R to L) Reactors No. 1 to 4 are seen at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant in Fukushima is seen in this satellite image, taken and released by DigitalGlobe March 18, 2011.

Japan has raised the severity rating of the nuclear crisis from level 4 to level 5 on the seven-level INES international scale, putting it on a par with the Three Mile Island accident in 1979, although some experts say it is more serious.

THOUSANDS DEAD, MISSING AND SUFFERING

The operation to avert large-scale radiation has overshadowed the humanitarian aftermath of the 9.0-magnitude quake and 10-meter (33-foot) tsunami that struck on March 11.

Nearly 7,000 people have been confirmed killed in the double natural disaster, which turned whole towns into waterlogged and debris-shrouded wastelands.

Another 10,700 people are missing with many feared dead.

Some 390,000 people, including many among Japan's aging population, are homeless and battling near-freezing temperatures in shelters in northeastern coastal areas.

Food, water, medicine and heating fuel are in short supply.

"Everything is gone, including money," said Tsukasa Sato, a 74-year-old barber with a heart condition, as he warmed his hands in front of a stove at a shelter for the homeless.

Health officials and the U.N. atomic watchdog have said radiation levels in the capital Tokyo were not harmful. But the city has seen an exodus of tourists, expatriates and many Japanese, who fear a blast of radioactive material.

"I'm leaving because my parents are terrified. I personally think this will turn out to be the biggest paper tiger the world has ever seen," said Luke Ridley, 23, from London as he sat at Narita international airport using his laptop.

"I'll probably come back in about a month."

Amid their distress, Japanese were proud of the 279 nuclear plant workers toiling in the wreckage, wearing masks, goggles and protective suits sealed by duct tape.

"My eyes well with tears at the thought of the work they are doing," Kazuya Aoki, a safety official at Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told Reuters.

G7 INTERVENTION FOR YEN

The Group of Seven rich nations succeeded in calming global financial markets in rare concerted intervention to restrain a soaring yen.

The U.S. dollar surged to 81.98 yen on Friday after the G7 moved to pour billions into markets buying dollars, euros and pounds -- the first such joint intervention since the group came to the aid of the newly launched euro in 2000.

The yen later dropped back to under 81, but it was still far from the record low of 76.25 hit on Thursday.

"The only type of intervention that actually works is coordinated intervention and it shows the solidarity of all central banks in terms of the severity of the situation in Japan," said Kathy Lien, director of currency research at GFT in New York.

Japan's Nikkei share index ended up 2.7 percent, recouping some of the week's stinging losses. It has lost 10.2 percent this week, wiping $350 billion off market capitalization.

The plight of the homeless worsened following a cold snap that brought heavy snow to worst-affected areas.

Nearly 290,000 households in the north were still without electricity, officials said, and the government said about 940,000 households lacked running water.

Aid groups say most victims are getting help, but there are pockets of acute suffering.

"We've seen children suffering with the cold, and lacking really basic items like food and clean water," Stephen McDonald of Save the Children said in a statement on Friday.

Sandra Bullock Gives $1 Million to Help Japanese Victims

Hollywood stars can make millions of dollars a year between films and commercials. Some make money tweeting or hosting parties. It’s good to see when they put that money to good use, and so it’s worth noting that Sandra Bullock gave one million dollars to the American Red Cross to help Japanese earthquake and Tsunami victims. So far, Bullock has offered the largest amount of any celebrity.

Knowing Hollywood, there will also be a telethon of some sort in the near future. There is little to say about the 9.0 earthquake and the aftereffects other than it’s such a tragedy that words do little justice to its enormity. For those looking to donate, the Red Cross has a website.
There are numerous organizations looking to help – though in light of some of the schemes that have come out of great tragedies, it’s always best to go with names and places you know and trust. And on the internet, always make sure that it’s an authentic connection to the relief fund, linked from an official website.
But for those who are struggling with their own finances it’s always good to see someone who has more expendable income than the average person doing what they can to help. The cynical may view this as some sort of public relations stunt – regardless, Bullock did the right thing and in situations like this that’s all that matters.

"Chernobyl solution" may be last resort for Japan reactors

A "Chernobyl solution" may be the last resort for dealing with Japan's stricken nuclear plant, but burying it in sand and concrete is a messy fix that might leave part of the country as an off-limits radioactive sore for decades.

Japanese authorities say it is still too early to talk about long-term measures while cooling the plant's six reactors and associated fuel-storage pools, comes first.

"It's just not that easy," Murray Jennex, a professor at San Diego State University in California, said when asked about the so-called Chernobyl option for dealing with damaged reactors, named after the Ukrainian nuclear plant that exploded in 1986.

"They (reactors) are kind of like a coffee maker. If you leave it on the heat, they boil dry and then they crack," he said.

"Putting concrete on that wouldn't help keep your coffee maker safe. But eventually, yes, you could build a concrete shield and be done with it."

Experts say the cores at the six battered reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, are likely to be safely contained, but worry about the cooling pools for spent fuel, one of which contains plutonium.

So far, authorities have failed to cool the pools, where normally water circulates continuously, keeping racks of spent nuclear fuel rods at a benign temperature.

Helicopters and water cannon trucks have dumped tonnes of water on the reactors, but still the water in the pools is evaporating and the rods are heating up. It is also feared that the quake has smashed the rods into each other, which could cause a nuclear reaction.

"It is not impossible to encase the reactors in concrete, but our priority right now is to try and cool them down first," a Tokyo Electric Power official told a briefing on Friday.

OPEN NUCLEAR WOUND FOR MONTHS

At Chernobyl, an army of workers conscripted by the then Soviet government buried the reactor in tonnes of sand, then threw together a concrete container known as the "sarcophagus" within months of the fire and explosion there.

It failed to set properly and it cracked, leaking radiation into the atmosphere and water. Partly supported by the damaged walls of the reactor building, it has had to be reinforced.

Under a new plan for Chernobyl, a massive structure will be assembled away from the reactor at a cost of billions of dollars, then slid into place over the existing sarcophagus.

Chernobyl-style methods would be even more difficult at Fukushima Daiichi, given the number of reactors involved.

As Japanese officials have said, cooling is still the top priority. Pouring sand onto hot fuel could theoretically produce glass, and that same heat would prevent working on a durable concrete shell.

That means the stricken complex is likely to become an open sore, leaking radioactive particles into the atmosphere, for weeks and possibly months before the Chernobyl solution could even be implemented.

Authorities say radiation outside the Japanese plant is not high enough to cause harm. Still, the 20 km (12 mile) exclusion zone around the plant may end up as a permanent no-man's land, a major problem for small, populous country.

A 30 km (19 mile) exclusion zone remains around Chernobyl.

Tokyo, though, is likely to remain largely unscathed no matter what happens because of its distance from the reactors, no matter how nervous its citizens may be.

It is not accidental that the nuclear plant was built so far away from Japan's biggest city, said Yuki Karakawa, international coordinator at the International Association of Emergency Managers, an extension of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency.

An aerial view taken from a helicopter from Japan's Self-Defence Force shows damage sustained to the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex in this handout taken March 16, 2011 and released March 17, 2011. Reactors No. 1 to 4 are seen from R to L.

"Those reactors in Fukushima are there for Tokyo's power and Tokyo's benefit, not for Fukushima's," he added. "After all, Tokyo is more than 200 kilometres away."

Japan's nuclear crisis

Following are main developments after a massive earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and crippled a nuclear power station, raising the risk of uncontrolled radiation.

* Japan's nuclear safety agency says military will help pump water at the No.3 reactor at the quake-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex in northeastern Japan, and into the spent fuel pool in No.4 reactor.

- Agency also says radiation levels outside the plant spiked around noon but fell back.

- A helicopter was unable to drop water to cool the No.3 reactor, probably because of the high radiation, Kyodo news agency said, quoting the defense minister.

- Police will attempt to cool No.4 reactor's spent nuclear fuel pool using a water cannon, NHK TV says.

- Japan's top government spokesman says radiation levels around the complex are not at levels to cause an immediate health risk.

- Tokyo is safe for international travelers, the Japanese Red Cross says.

- There is no evidence of a significant spread of radiation from Japan's crippled nuclear plants, the World Health Organization says.

- Operator says it is unable to resume work cooling the reactors due to radiation risk. Workers ordered to leave the plant were allowed back in after radiation levels fall. Operator says there were 180 workers on site as of 0230 GMT.

- Fire breaks out at reactor No.4 a day after a blast blew a hole in the building housing spent fuel rods. White smoke seen from No.3 reactor most likely to be steam from the water that is being poured to cool the rods.

- No plan yet to extend evacuation zone near the facility, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.

- Australia urges its citizens with non-essential roles to consider leaving Tokyo and the most damaged prefectures, and Turkey warns citizens against traveling to Japan. France urges nationals living in Tokyo to leave country or move south.

- Radiation levels in Tokyo were 10 times normal at one point, but not a threat to human health, officials said.

- Japan's benchmark Nikkei average closes 4.5 percent up on Wednesday after suffering its worst two-day rout since 1987. The index surged over 6 percent at one point.

- Tens of thousands of people are still missing since Friday's quake and tsunami. About 850,000 households in the north without electricity in near-freezing weather. Death toll is expected to exceed 10,000.