For information on what is going on with the reactors, and what it means, here are a couple of links to a guy who really knows what is going on: updates on the causes of the explosion that happened. http://depletedcranium.com/devistating-earthquake-strikes-japan-media-goes-crazy-over-nuclear-plant/ One of his and my main issues is the reporting, and the lack of basic knowledge by the general public, and the general panicking that is going on. This is a serious event, but the best nuclear scientists in Japan are on the case, and have done an incredible job of keeping people safe, and are taking measures above and beyond to keep people safe. Unfortunately the media has always had an anti-nuclear slant, there is really no way to deny it. When talking about anything involving radioactivity or nuclear power, they will ask one scientist who actually knows what he is talking about, and then bury his response, and then highlight what some quote:"nuclear expert" from Greenpeace (hint, they have no nuclear experts) or the Union of Concerned Scientists, who made the mistake of admitting to the fact they are concern trolls right in the name of their organization has said right in the head line. Basically, now that the tsunami risk is gone, they need something to latch on to to keep our attention focused on, without having to put Charlie Sheen on the air. Ok, rant over.
It's like the difference between the wolf trying to blow down the house made of bricks and the house made of sticks. I'm pretty sure a stiff wind could knock down a pretty significant number of shanties in Haiti.
Just saw an NYT report that the quake released 1,000 times more seismic energy than the Haiti quake. Not that surprising if the entire island moved 8 feet. Further, seawater is going to be pumped into the reactor in an attempt to cool it: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world/asia/13nuclear.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1299938449-MeGKqAO5ZQmErgYnu6Jn3Q" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/13/world ... rgYnu6Jn3Q</a> Based on what was in the link kuhjager shared, it seems that this would result in sacrificing the future utility of the plant. Interesting bit of context, though - Japan has 55 nuclear power generators, 11 of which have been sent offline by the quake, and 4 of which have sustained damage. And this one at issue is 40 years old. When you think about how the engineering and earthquake safety standards of 40 years ago probably aren't close to what they are today, that's not bad, all told. Also, apparently locals in the are are being instructed to drink bottled water, stay indoors, and hold a washcloth over their face if they go outside. Now, I've had a bit of CBRN training (with the bug-eyed respirator masks and bunny suits) and even have an N95 respirator mask (the things used in hospitals for airborne diseases) and have been tested to make sure it works on me, and I'm rather sceptical that holding a washcloth over your face will do nothing but keep relatively large pieces of conventional dust out of your mouth.
According to Wikipedia, which admittedly isn't the best source ever sourced, the TNT equivalent of an 8.35 earthquake is the Tsar Bomba. If that's accurate, that means this quake put out much more energy underground than the total amount of energy released by the largest thermonuclear weapon ever detonated on this planet. How's that for perspective? And fuck every last one of the "PEARL HARBOR!!!!1111" jackasses. Go do humanity a favor and remove yourselves from the population. I'm not sure if I'm more annoyed by the grudge-holding, or by the idiocy required to equate this, on any/b] level, with anything involving Pearl Harbor. Oh wait, I totally get it now. Japan carried out the Pearl Harbor attack, and Japan having a massive and destructive earthquake is like God totally striking down from heaven to defend our righteousness or something. Fuck yourselves.
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12722026" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12722026</a> More insane footage of the tsunami. What gets me more than the force is the sheer volume of water.
What's crazy is that they aren't even predicting high death tolls. I see whole highways of cars and suburban neighborhoods getting washed down the street and Im think there has got to be tens of thousands of people dead. Ive seen some video of people trying to scramble out of the way but it mostly looks like ghost towns with empty cars getting hit. Ive heard that it helped that it hit while during the working day because more people were in office buildings and not their homes.
Tere is just no way there is only a couple of thousand dead. It's swallowed entire towns like they're nothing in minutes flat. There was 84 aftershocks in 21 hours. In the end it will be a day of infamy, this is going to be horrible. The world needs to get their shit together right now.
Tere is just no way there is only a couple of thousand dead. It's swallowed entire towns like they're nothing in minutes flat. There was 84 aftershocks in 21 hours. In the end it will be a day of infamy, this is going to be horrible. The world needs to get their shit together right now.[/quote] Not to belittle the situation but this one seems totally different than the 2004 tsunami in the Indian ocean or the Haiti earthquake. They hit a bunch of third world shanty towns. From the looks of it the quake here even being epically powerful didn't do much significant damage, it was the giant wave of water thats fucked everything up. Other than improving alert warnings how are we supposed to "get our shit together"?
I wonder if and/or how soon there will be some lame ass celebrity telethon that makes it seem like they really care, but there is the underlying promotion of whatever movie/song/show that they are in. What irks the fuck out of me is how transparent the media is for getting a boner for this shit. I don't know why it pisses me off so much. I think its the sensationalism. For example, today on CNN one empty headed moron asked the "expert" empty headed moron about the earthquake: (paraphrasing)"Was this the "Big One" or is there a chance of another big earthquake?" Well hot fucking damn! What kind of loaded bullshit question was that? Of course her answer was: "Well Chuck (made up name), I talked to an earthquake expert and he said that it was possible for a larger earthquake in our lifetime. No fucking shit?
The best part about this was the first morning the talking heads had to say something and they weren't prepared, so they had to wing it. It became crystal clear in about 60 seconds that the newsies are entirely out of their element when they have something that is not spoon fed and delivered to them via teleprompter. Even our local news folks are better at winging it in the face of something unexpected than the national guys. The American media is an embarrassment.
Interesting Q&A with a Nuclear Engineer regarding the damaged nuclear plant here He speculates somewhat as to the damage, though nobody really has all the info at this point. Overall, he see is it as a pretty grave situation, though he explains in layman terms what's happened to the reactor and why a Chernobyl-esque meltdown is impossible. This is also informative I saw a headline of 'Chernobyl spectre haunts Japan' today. There really should be serious consequences for idiotic and irresponsible journalism
Really interesting write-up by an English-Speaking guy who experienced the Japanese Earthquake. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/some-perspective-on-the-japan-earthquake/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.kalzumeus.com/2011/03/13/som ... arthquake/</a>
[/quote] The general panicky nature of the western media's reporting of this, when contrasted with how the Japanese are not panicking is a great show of the difference in our cultures general reaction. The Japanese have remained incredibly calm in what to many must seem like the end of the world. We aren't seeing people running around panicking, but lining up in an orderly fashion, and helping each other out, and not looting. I saw a clip of some American journalists interviewing a man who had lost his house, and the man was concerned that the crew might not have enough food, and offered to share what little he had with them. As I posted earlier in the thread, I live on the San Andreas fault, only a couple of miles from the epicenter of the 1989 quake that took out San Francisco. The community I live in was very small back then, and very close knit, and the county was also very low in population, and the issues were negligible. People worked with one another. I have a feeling that we wouldn't see that anymore here. The community is large, and the surrounding cities have become poor, and with a large gang population. Basically, this would be most people's reaction here in the US: