Just saw an interesting blog entry by a guy named Tim Bray. He's most notable for being the inventor of XML, and is now the Android Evangelist for Google. He's also here in Vancouver, and pretty active in the local tech scene. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/2011/03/21/Mad-at-the-Media" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/201x/ ... -the-Media</a> Here's the tweetstream he mentions, and I have to say, it is quite informative, and I'm now following it. <a class="postlink" href="http://twitter.com/martyn_williams" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://twitter.com/martyn_williams</a>
from MIT's Hub, a pretty good summary of the current status (on the 20th, at least). Couple interesting points, which Nettdata's post above hints at: So things are definitely looking up from the nuclear plant perspective, despite the media's general insistence that we're all gonna die. The damage from the actual tsunami however, is another story. How do people think it will compare to that of something like Katrina/New Orleans? I've never been, but it was my understanding that there are still large portions of NO that show the lingering effects, deserted/destroyed buildings, etc.
Just by looking at the mindset and culture of the two groups and how people were acting after each disaster, I do think that the recovery of Japan, due to their industriousness, will be more complete than that of New Orleans. Large portions of New Orleans were simply dirt poor, and the party and "do for me" attitude didn't exactly help their recovery. You can even compare New Orleans to parts of Mississippi that were destroyed in Katrina. Louisiana received a helluva lot more money than anyone else effected by the storms, but New Orleans still hasn't managed to build back large portions of their city.
Along the same lines of "rebuilding", if you get a chance, check out the first episode of this season of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. He goes to Haiti, and hangs out with Sean Penn. At first I thought the whole Sean Penn thing was a publicity stunt, but I'll be fucked if that hour of TV didn't change my mind. And just look at how a dirt poor nation is dealing with the damage. Pretty interesting, to say the least. But yeah, I think Japan will silently and stoically rebuild. I might even say bigger and better than before.
Shit's getting worse in Japan, it seems. To start with, it seems that Time Has Stood Still with the failure of the reactors. And speaking of failure, it seems that they're now writing off 4 of the 6 reactors.
Indonesia took a hit this morning. http://www.news.com.au/world/quake-prompts-indonesians-to-flee-homes/story-e6frfkyi-1226033263943
Those poor bastards. Yet another 7.4 earthquake just hit Japan, tsunami expected. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.jma.go.jp/jp/quake/2/20110407233752391-072332.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.jma.go.jp/jp/quake/2/2011040 ... 72332.html</a>
Just ran across this photo essay of the cleanup of the earthquake. Hard to believe it was 3 months ago now. <a class="postlink" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/japan-after-the-quake-and-three-months-after-the-quake/2011/06/13/AGMAy1TH_gallery.html?hpid=z6#photo=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/jap ... z6#photo=1</a>