First New Zealand, now Japan.
 

The Pacific plates must be on their period or something.

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Where on earth did you quote that from? The sentence "Three people have reportedly been found dead in the greater Tokyo region; thankfully, no Australians were hurt." provides no Google results other than this page.


It bothers me how parochial the Australian media are. The Age website's second headline (and significant comment within the first headline) was about how several Australian politicians were stuck in a train that stopped because of the earthquake. Stuck in a train! Urgh.

ABC24 did the right thing and just put NHK world on.

Fukushima Nuclear Plant's cooling system is not operating correctly.

They're evacuating local residents as a precaution.

Has anyone heard from Olly?

Oh christ I completely forgot she was visiting Japan, does anyone know what part she was staying at?

Noez, Olly! :(

Latest reports say that the cooling system for that power plant has pretty much failed now and they are looking different ways to cool the reactor. This could go bad quite fast...

I'm sorry if I'm being rude asking this, but, who is Olly?

And this whole event is really sad. The world is just turning crazy bit by bit.

(Egypt/Libya happenings, New Zealand quakes, Japan and other countries had earthquakes...)

Rex Tirano, ex mod.

:O

Ah, okay.

EDIT: Oh, and I hope she is okay! :(

It's a really weird feeling, knowing this all happened while I was asleep. I can only hope for the best for the people in Japan.

8.9 is the highest earthquake i've ever seen.

It must've been quite a quake.

Update on the reactor: It's building up presure rapidly. The US has supplied coolant for the plant to help out but the backup system doesn't work either. Now they want to release radioactive vapors in order to decrease the pressure and prevent a complete leak. Thousands of people have been evacuated in a 2 kilometer area around the plant.

WHY DON'T THEY JUST DIRECT THE FLOOD WATERS TO THE PLANT?

THAT WOULD COOL IT OFF

GEEZE JAPAN WHY YOU SO STUPID


But seriously, what a damn mess. I'm just waiting to see that humungo Tsunami go swooshing past my window.

Oh dear.

I wrote it

Uh, you do know that earthquake buildings are specifically built so they sway easier? Less stress builds up.

I was about to say. Still, I wouldn't risk a hot drink in one of those things.

That was not the point, the point was, look at it swing!

That's nothing. Remember Tacoma Narrows?

Oh yeah, that was such a shame. A real traj.

What's Tacoma Narrows?

Uh, you do know that the point was that they were skyscrapers literally rocking back and forth? But you keep nitpicking about Japanese engineering, Joe. You keep doin' that.

Yes. And they were cool. Thank you for posting this cool video.

And now, flaming water:

This is Tacoma Narrows. Looks like a fun time.

What a mess. Hundreds of people dead just from the flooding alone. HUNDREDS. I can't imagine what that must be like.

And according to my country, this is STILL less of a tragedy than the twin tower bombings of ten years ago.

Yikes!

Statistically it is.

Then why did you quote it?

The reactor is now a few hours away from a complete meltdown, technicians are unable to open the valves to release the presure and they are having trouble supplying enough water to keep the thing cooled. Area's up to 10 kilometers are being evacuated.

When I wake up tommorow they hopefully managed to fix it, but I'm afraid I'll wake up to headlines of a nuclear meltdown.