The most exciting news these past few months for me has been the recent release of the book CENSORED 2013: The Top Censored Stories and Media Analysis of 2011-12, the latest edition of a book that is published every year by Seven Stories Press in New York. The book is compiled and organized by the media watch group Project Censored, based in northern California.

It’s exciting because I have contributed, for the first time, a new chapter to this book, titled “On the Road to Fukushima: The Unreported Story Behind Japan’s Nuclear-Media-Industrial Complex”. My chapter concerns the broad issue of news media censorship in Japan and the Fukushima nuclear accident of March 2011.

Today marks the kick-off of the newest addition of this website, my blog on current events and timely topics. “LifeTimes” is the name of this blog, and the blog slogan of “news • opinion • thought • voice” will give you some idea of what I will be covering and why: news and opinion articles that encourage you and I to think over various issues and speak up about how we think and feel about them.