Massive earthquake, incredible tsunami, and now imminent meltdowns in several nuclear reactors must warrant this disaster its own thread.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around everything that's happened, and continuing to happen in NE Japan. The news footage of the earthquake and tsunami is surreal ... i have a hard time convincing myself that it really happened / is happening. The estimated casualties seem equally unbelievable; the estimates must be incredibly conservative given the massive damage, short warning time prior to the tsunami and the reported numbers of missing that are still unaccounted for. The only positive i can muster for the disaster is that a 1000 yen donation to the Japan Red Cross only costs about $12.25 USD, and of course this is just a meaningless and illusory positive. But at this point i'll take anything i can get.

Watching the tsunami approach shore,live, real-time... Well taht was one of the damndest moments.

On the one hand, I was all: "KEWL!!!!!! TSUNAMI" but,otoh, I was like: "Sad,DETH. "

Some of the more recent amateur films show people just standing there as the water comes towards them, then realising that the water is going to reach them and running away, only to stop again a short distance later.

I also notice that Japanese people only seem to buy white or silver cars.

Another big quake just struck, according to Twitter, 6 on the Richter scale.

Glenn Beck and Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara agree that tsunami was punishment from god.

ugh... I have this idea that God is the anthropomorphization of physical forces. Before we understood, say, electricity, lightning was punishment from Thor against the unrighteous and dishonorable. Before we understood germ theory, disease was a curse from a witch (who calls upon demons) jealous of your children.

Anyway, nowadays we sophisticated modern-day people should understand that the universe in general is mindlessly harmful of living things, that you just get a bad dice roll, and, righteous or evil, an asteroid falls on your city or a tornado tears apart your home or whatever.

Reptiles like Beck fail to grasp the laws of physics are amoral.

I am a Xen0phile-phile.

I just had something of a minor meltdown with yet another bunch of psychopathic Christians claiming this shit is God's punishment for... something or other, their pet hobbyhorse of the moment.

Motherfuckers: if it was true, God would have them in his sights for bringing his name into disrepute.

If it's true, god's a dick.

Jesus specifically said it's not, but it's amazing the mental gymnastics they can manage to overlay their barbarism on his essential humanity.

Sorry 'bout that semi-hijack.

In other news, I've been the anti-Chicken Little on the nuclear stuff. The sky isn't falling, and this isn't Chernobyl. It's bad but not horrible. It could get horrible, but the media hype has been factless and shameless.

I know, the authorities will underplay it. But the media will overplay it, and the truth lies somewhere in the middle.

There will be a big mess, but it will be cleaned up, and there'll be nowhere to play S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Hope you're right Bravus ... my working knowledge of radioactive disasters is pretty much limited to what i gleaned playing Fallout.

Still, the thought of 50 isolated guys trying to manage a 6-reactor facility gives me qualms even without all the smoke plumes and explosions.

Cool before / after maps Boog.

quote:

Originally posted by BIOH4Z4RD:
Still, the thought of 50 isolated guys trying to manage a 6-reactor facility gives me qualms even without all the smoke plumes and explosions.

When I read about those workers, made me think "damn, those guys deserve a bad ass of the year award".

quote:

The sky isn't falling, and this isn't Chernobyl.

Ugh, I hope so. I must admit this scary media coverage is even getting to me, and usually I am stoic in the face of media scares over technology. Vaccines? Cell phone radiation? Hackers on teh yu0r Internets? Pure chicken little shit, trying to grab eyeballs and make the masses ignorant.

I think the part that gets to me about this scare is that everytime I wake up and check the news, it seems to get worse, another explosion, another fire.

quote:

I am a Xen0phile-phile.

d'awww, thanks

off-topic, speaking of media scares about technology, here's a random Fox affiliate's take on 4chan/Anonymous:

edit: dammit, I've completely forgotten how to embed YouTube in the forum
http://www.youtube.com/embed/128IR21ZQa0?rel=0

This message has been edited. Last edited by: xen0phile,

What's the bet a lot of people will get very sick from taking straight iodine instead of potassium iodide? I'm already seeing media images that mix up the two.

too dangerous to fix.

Meltdown imminent?

quote:

"It's more of a surrender," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who now heads the nuclear safety program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an activist group. "It's not like you wait 10 days and the radiation goes away. In that 10 days things are going to get worse."
"It's basically a sign that there's nothing left to do but throw in the towel," Lochbaum said.

quote:

Originally posted by Boogerhead:
Watching the tsunami approach shore,live, real-time... Well taht was one of the damndest moments.

Surreal. The images we've seen a million times, on every blockbuster catastrophe film. Got a message pointing me to a NHK feed and got to hear the anchors keeping their cool as strong aftershocks hit and they showed dark plumes rising from Tokyo skycrapers; and minutes later, the first tsunami hit. Realtime. Narrators barely managing to articulate what to say.
It was hard to watch, knowing those cars, those houses, swiped away like toys, were likely to be inhabited, a false refuge taken in haste. Still we couldn't help but keep staring. This was History, after all.

The flood of hi-res video from that point onward has, strangely, made me uncomfortable, though. Too much misery, too much suffering. Even while, out of a rare decorum, media seems to have contained itself from showing truly graphic imagery.

Around here people comment on the difference on reaction from those affected as, say, those of Katrina or local catastrophes. No looting, no riots. Some try to simplify the complex issues of hugely different socioeconomic situations with basic racist opinions. Most are more understanding; we all still remember what an event of such impact feels like, here in the D.F.

The power plant problems are sure to cause an uproar on the old debate over nuclear power. Here, there were plans for another plant aside from the already 2 working today; this is going to make those negotiations lively. At least one hopes this whole tragedy will help to review & upgrade civilian protection awareness and enforcement of building codes.

And, re: the heroic workers at that plant, one thing I read raised in twitter: what about the robots? Shouldn't this be the ideal job for them? Guess there's still a long way to go for all those uncanny valley toys that parade in the news every month.

Since the plant has now been abandoned, send in the Hondas!