Japan Earthquake/Tsunami

[Chidoro]

Al Jazeera seems to have some good live coverage
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

This is a really really bad one

[Fairweather Pure]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80CH_Xkp ... ata_player

Some footage of the tsunami from the same news. It looks like a real mess.

[Funkmasterr]

Yeah, it's bad.

Thankfully, my cousin and all of my friends there are ok. Any of them that were in Tokyo were stranded there for a long time, trains were shut down, cell phone networks are down. Many of them walked for 3-5 hours until they could find an available taxi to get them the rest of the way home.

[Canelek]

Glad that they are ok. Serious mess over there.

Tsunami warnings have been issued up here, but I doubt they will be much of anything. Also, we have many high, cliff areas along the Oregon coast.

[Winnow]

From the two office videos I've seen, it looks like is was a really long lasting quake. Hard to grasp all the work that going to go into repairing all the damage. The electrical lines alone will take a long time.

Last year it was the Philippines that got worked over by natural disasters. U.S. west coast is due. Earthquake, Volcano, or Tsunami.

[Canelek]

Considering the number of very large earthquakes globally over the last few years... Creepy!

[Funkmasterr]

From the two office videos I've seen, it looks like is was a really long lasting quake. Hard to grasp all the work that going to go into repairing all the damage. The electrical lines alone will take a long time.

Last year it was the Philippines that got worked over by natural disasters. U.S. west coast is due. Earthquake, Volcano, or Tsunami.

I don't know the extent of it yet obviously, but I don't think the repair efforts in Japan will be overwhelming. The bulk of the damage so far occurred in fairly rural areas in north eastern Japan. Not to say it isn't still terrible and a big deal, but it's not like downtown Tokyo got leveled.

[Canoe]

It's a lot more far reaching that you think.

My company has a plant just south of tokyo, and they had pretty severe damage. Reports are while it was an 8.9 quake in NE Japan, it was still in the 5-6 rage when it reached tokyo.

While you are correct in that buildings were leveled per say in the Tokyo, there will be structural damage that needs to be addressed (and who knows how long it will be before they know the total impact) over just about the entire island.

[Funkmasterr]

Oh definitely, I just don't think it's going to be a really drawn out recovery for them, not as bad as it would be if the epicenter was closer to somewhere urban.

Most of the people I know are around Yokosuka and Yokohoma, and they've got plenty of earthquakes/aftershocks there but from what they've said there isn't much damage at all.

Also, like you said though it will be a while before they really know. With 50 something aftershocks now, many of them being 5-6's, who knows when those will die off.

[Winnow]

There will be a HUGE cost to repair all the damage done by just the Tsunami.

Despite CNNs poor music choice, this video shows the massive damage done:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/world/ ... i.wrap.cnn

Direct Earthquake damage will also add a big chunk to the bill.

[Canelek]

Crazy watching those homes, cars and boats getting tossed around like toys.

Flood damage, earthquake damage...decimated local rice crops... yeah, this is going to be a tough recovery effort.

[Funkmasterr]

Crazy watching those homes, cars and boats getting tossed around like toys.

Flood damage, earthquake damage...decimated local rice crops... yeah, this is going to be a tough recovery effort.

The rice crops is probably going to be the biggest part, and I'm not just saying that as a joke. That's like 50% of what they eat for cryin out loud

[Fairweather Pure]

This has the possibility of creating a rather intense chain reaction in the area. So far there have 3 volcanic eruptions as well, all located in the "Ring of Fire".

Two volcanoes in Eastern Russia , Kamchatka and one other in Indonesia, have erupted around the same time as the Japan 8.9-magnitude Earthquake on Friday.

[Aabidano]

Last year it was the Philippines that got worked over by natural disasters. U.S. west coast is due. Earthquake, Volcano, or Tsunami.

Don't forget the New Madrid fault is due "soon", and yellowstone is overdue (iirc).

[Boogahz]

Getting closer to 2012!

[Boogahz]

It was kinda scary watching US news to hear about how the nuclear reactors were fine, and then watching Chinese news to hear about the radiation levels and meltdown status.

Also, Uverse opened up TV-JPN for all users (channel 3680 I think). It is normally part of one of the alternate language packages. Can swap language to English on most of the news programming I have seen so far.

[Funkmasterr]

Yeah, it's gotten quite a bit worse than I expected.my cousin was deployed to go help by that nuclear plant, but I think they moved away due to radiation levels.

I saw a page with before and after pictures, and it was scary. My friend in Yokosuka said they've been passing out free iodine tablets, warning of a high possibility of a 7.0+ in the next few days, another tsunami estimated around 3 meters high and there have been around 350 aftershocks since Friday.

[Gzette]

Here's an interesting before and after interactive satellite photo thing posted to the Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011 ... _LO_MST_FB

I wonder how this will affect nuclear power in the U.S. There had been some tentative support for new nuke plants (which I personally support). This may kill that.

[Aslanna]

Not all power plants need to be located in/near tsunami zones. Or along earthquake fault lines. There could be a lot of safe (as safe as things can be anyway) nuclear plants elsewhere in the US where exposure to natural disasters would be minimal.

[Fairweather Pure]

Here is a great site for photos. For those of you with iPads, keep checking the site out every so often for other events because it looks beautiful in landscape.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/

[Aabidano]

And what disaster would be without the loony fringe. Heard folks today who think this is God's wrath, only atheists "believe in" plate tectonics, and that "since this didn't happen on a fault it proves there's no such thing as continental drift".

I can understand most people's mindset to some degree, no clue how these people's brain works though.

[miir]

For those of you with iPads, keep checking the site out every so often for other events because it looks beautiful in landscape.

Is apple paying you to shill their product?

[Zaelath]

For those of you with iPads, keep checking the site out every so often for other events because it looks beautiful in landscape.

Is apple paying you to shill their product?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-purch ... nalization

[Fairweather Pure]

For those of you with iPads, keep checking the site out every so often for other events because it looks beautiful in landscape.

Is apple paying you to shill their product?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-purch ... nalization

Miir, why the edit buddy? I liked your first "lol 24 inch monitor derp" response much better than the new "don't mention ipads waaaaah" edit.

[miir]

Seriosuly, the screen on the ipad isn't even that nice... why would you feel the need to randomly mention it in this thread?


Unless you're a shill.

[Winnow]

iPad rocks for this kind of thing. It's a touch multimedia device that's great for flipping through images.

I hope you never get one!

[miir]

dumb and dumber

[Winnow]

What a clown.

Watch what happens in the course of 6 minutes in this video:

http://gizmodo.com/#!5781566/this-is-th ... sunami-yet

(best viewed on iPad)

[miir]

pssst, it's flash

[Winnow]

pssst, it's flash

pssst, there's an app for that...and quit fucking up a disaster thread.

[miir]

pssst, there's an app for that...and quit fucking up a disaster thread.

So ironic

[masteen]

This thread just got hit by an iSpam tsunami. Now I know how the Japanese felt.

[Winnow]

As usual, it was on topic until that Miiron jumped in.

[Aslanna]

Someone call Chuck Woolery... I think we have a Love Connection brewing.

[Siji]

I believe the earthquake was caused by Chuck Norris getting angry.


Until our government here in the US can demonstrate they can handle the tinker toys on the oil rigs, it's probably not wise to let them play with the nucular toys. The day will come when we have no choice, however today is not that day.

[Winnow]

The Euros seem to be taking this nuclear crisis seriously

Japan Nuclear Situation "Out of Control" (Updated)

Jesus Diaz — Japan Nuclear Situation "Out of Control" (Updated)The European Union's energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger said today that the Japanese nuclear disaster is a lot worse than what Japan is declaring. In fact, he believes it could be an apocalypse:

There is talk of an apocalypse and I think the word is particularly well chosen [...] I hope that it doesn't happen, but we can't rule out that the worst case scenario [a complete meltdown a la Chernobyl] happens in the next few hours or days.

The European view on the subject is way darker than what the IAEA, the Japan government and most of the United States' media is portraying.

Oettinger said that the situation is "almost completely out of control" and that it's only going to get worse as workers get evacuated. Nuclear emergency experts believe that you can't keep the situation from escalating without enough personnel on site, pointing at the 50 engineers now at the nuclear complex. Spanish radiobiology scientist Eduard Rodríguez-Farré says that Fukushima is like a "slow-motion camera Chernobyl". According to him, the situation is now "running wild."

Yesterday, André-Claude Lacoste, president of France's national organization for nuclear safety, said that the level threat should be 5 and perhaps 6. Today, the French energy agency said that this disaster is only second to Chernobyl and has recommended to raise the alert to 7, the maximum in the nuclear event scale. France has 58 operating reactors, only second to the United States' 104.

Japanese officials previously suggested that the primary containment vessel at the No. 2 reactor of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi may have been breached. European experts, however, are saying that all signs and known data point to a certain breach.

Japan is still insisting that this is a level 4 accident—even after officials removed all workers from the plant and extended the evacuation area to a 30 kilometer radius. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Ka says that, while the situation is bad, "people need to keep calm" after the third explosion. Japanese officials said that, despite the morning spike, the radiation level is now "down to the level that can do no harm." However, all the plant personnel have now been evacuated except for 50 engineers who are managing the situation.

The International Atomic Energy Agency hasn't changed its previous statement yet. Speaking yesterday in a news conference at the agency's Vienna headquarters, the IAEA president Yukiya Amano said that a Chernobyl was "very unlikely"

Let me say that the possibility that the development of this accident into one like Chernobyl is very unlikely [...] there is no chain reaction going on.

Chernobyl veteran slams Japan, IAEA

But Chernobyl clean-up expert Iouli Andreev accused the IAEA of not being "interested in the concentration of attention on a possible accident in the nuclear industry. They are totally not interested in all the emergency organizations." He also accused the United Nations organization and the companies involved of willingly ignoring the lessons from the worst accident in history:

After Chernobyl all the force of the nuclear industry was directed to hide this event, for not creating damage to their reputation. The Chernobyl experience was not studied properly because who has money for studying? Only industry. [...] The Japanese were very greedy and they used every square inch of the space. But when you have a dense placing of spent fuel in the basin you have a high possibility of fire if the water is removed from the basin.

For their part, the Russians are closely working with their Japanese neighbors, and already have nuclear emergency workers on site providing assistance. Andreev said that they need to think creatively and improvise to solve this crisis or face a complete catastrophe. [Reuters, El Mundo, Sydney Morning Herald, RTL, El Mundo, AFP and The Telegraph]

Update: The Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO)-the company that runs the Fukushima nuclear plants-says that 70% of the fuel rods have been damaged on the reactor 1 and 33% have been damaged on reactor 2. "The reactors' cores are believed to have partially melted" according to the Kyodo News agency.

[Aslanna]

Until our government here in the US can demonstrate they can handle the tinker toys on the oil rigs, it's probably not wise to let them play with the nucular toys. The day will come when we have no choice, however today is not that day.

Then it might not be a good time to let you know, or remind you of the fact, there are over 100 nuclear power plants operating in the US.

[Aabidano]

Until our government here in the US can demonstrate they can handle the tinker toys on the oil rigs, it's probably not wise to let them play with the nucular toys. The day will come when we have no choice, however today is not that day.

The day of fossil fuels is over and nothing else is available to fill the gap in the near term. I don't see that there's a lot of choices available to us at present. Nuclear power can be safely done.

Most of the news reports don't seem all that well informed. We're getting nothing but guesses from folks with an agenda at this point.

[Sueven]

I'm anti-nuclear but I'm even more anti-fossil fuel. So supporting nuclear it is, I guess.

Good luck to all those in Japan, hope your radiation situation doesn't get any worse.

[Winnow]

Financially, I place my money in solar stocks, even if it happens to be Chinese solar, but I've read up on the latest nuclear Plant designs and while they will never be entirely safe, appear worth the risks involved.

[miir]

Here's a good slideshow explaining what happened and is happening at Fukushima.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12779512

[miir]

Classy:

BT
@BT
This tweet entitles you to torrent (one) copy of any of my albums, spend your 10$ or more here: #Prayingforjapan http://bit.ly/5rHyVI
39 minutes ago via Echofon Favorite Retweet Reply

[Winnow]

[Aabidano]

The situation at the quake- and tsunami-stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant in Japan was brought under control days ago. It remains the case as this is written that there have been no measurable radiological health consequences among workers at the plant or anybody else, and all indications are that this will remain the case. And yet media outlets around the world continue with desperate, increasingly hysterical and unscrupulous attempts to frame the situation as a crisis.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/03/25 ... ng_debunk/

And then there's the idiocy in our press, whipping up a frenzy to make sure they sell more tampons.

[Spang]

I ran camera 3 on this show.

In Wake of Disasters, Japan Faces Crisis in Communication

Aggressive Western journalists who have flocked to Japan demanding its government reveal the full extent of danger caused by its tsunami-damaged nuclear reactors may substantially change the complacency of the Japanese media, experts said during a televised School of Communication panel discussion Thursday.

“In Japan no journalists ask questions,” said Yoi Tateiwa, chief NHK correspondent and a visiting journalist in residence at American University’s Investigative Reporting Workshop. “Officials make statements and reporters keep writing.”

Yoi appeared with professors Kenki Adachi, a visiting SIS professor from Ritsumeikan University and Quansheng Zhao, director of the AU's Center for Asian Studies, on the SOC-produced program, “Japan: Crisis in Communication.” They were joined by editors of the new digital news service News for the People of Japan via Skype. The panel was moderated by Sharon Metcalf, senior director, Partnerships and Programs at SOC and was produced in SOC’s media production center.

The influence of Western coverage as well as first-hand accounts shared on social media have shown that “We are being told nothing,” Yoi said. “It shows you can’t count on what is being reported. We must dig deeper and challenge the government.”

But one questioner illustrated the deep trust the Japanese have in their media.

Chris Gehring, director of systems engineering at AU, said he was surprised by his Japanese-born wife’s willingness to accept NHK’s report that a video of a smoking reactor was described as an innocuous “puff of smoke,” even as the BBC labeled it evidence of disastrous damage.

Yoi explained that the Japanese government tightly controls its message. For example, he said, while the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) provides continuous briefings on the damaged nuclear reactors, little information is conveyed. And to further control the message, they moved press briefings from a spacious conference room to a tiny office, limiting the number who could attend.

Kazuo Hizumi, the editor of NPJ, said via Skype from the TEPCO briefing room that the company is “hiding a lot of things.” And while foreign journalists are asking questions, the Japanese media, “just are typing.”

The production was put together quickly after Yoi learned from colleagues in Japan how many people were relying on foreign media for news about their own country while resentment of the national press was increasing. He talked with SOC Dean Larry Kirkman and within a week "Japan: Crisis in Communication" was developed by AU students and alumni and was broadcast over AU’s television channel and by Link TV. More than 50 students and faculty attended the event.

Yoi showed a collection of three of the country’s five national papers, all with the exact same headline. In contrast to U.S. editors who strive for unique angles and headlines, Yoi said Japanese editors “like that they are the same because it reaffirms to them they have the story right.”

[Leonaerd]

In contrast to U.S. editors who strive for unique angles and headlines

[Funkmasterr]

I'll try and watch that video when I have some more time, but initial impression: that lady is fucking terrible.. UMM, AHHH, UMM, AHHHH. Not to mention, don't you think she'd have asked how to pronounce their names before the show started?

[Spang]

Shibuyaeggman isn't a power plant, nuclear or otherwise. It's a nightclub.

[Dregor Thule]

But the drinks are totally the bomb!