First New Zealand, now Japan.

[Havoc]

No, it isn't more-so than usual. Terrible things like what's happening in Japan right now are a regular occurrence - It just happens to have a lot of media coverage.

Yes entire cities are leveled weekly and reactors melt down every two years or so.

You know that entire 'it just gets more media coverage' bit only gets you so far. There was media coverage 10 years ago and I don't remember 70 earthquakes hitting in 2 days back then. Back then the Muslims made our disasters for us. Now those were times!

[Disgruntled Intern]

This is Tacoma Narrows. Looks like a fun time.

I drive across her replacement 'sturdy gurdy' to get to work three days a week.

Weird Fact #13: Eight Legs are Better than Two
One of the world's largest octopus species makes its home in Puget Sound. A popular starting point for scuba divers visiting Galloping Gertie's sunken ruins is Titlow Park, just under the current Narrows Bridge. From the late 1940s through the 1960s Gertie provided the backdrop for local fans of "octopus wrestling."

Octopus Wrestling

[Daxter King]

No, it isn't more-so than usual. Terrible things like what's happening in Japan right now are a regular occurrence - It just happens to have a lot of media coverage.

9.0 Earthquakes are not a regular occurrence.

Nuclear plants failing are not a regular occurrence.

You being more ignorant with every post is a regular occurrence.

[Disgruntled Intern]

9.0 Earthquakes are not a regular occurrence.

Nuclear plants failing are not a regular occurrence.

You being more ignorant with every post is a regular occurrence.

Oooboy.

Looking back at my friend Mike's status update, this is kind of chilling:



Apparently he's been trying to stay ahead of everything to the best of his abilities and is now in Indonesia. Crazy stuff for all involved.

[DarkHoodness]

9.0 Earthquakes are not a regular occurrence.

Nuclear plants failing are not a regular occurrence.

You being more ignorant with every post is a regular occurrence.

I know I'm an idiot but there's no reason to be that harsh to me. :P I was only "ignorant" in one post 'cause I worded it wrong as usual (second time I've done that tonight, I need to get my mind out of the gutter). Lemme try again.

Yes, it's terrible that Japan just got screwed over that and many people are dead, and I feel for these people, they deserve lots of aid and sympathy, but I'd hardly call that the world falling apart - More like a country falling apart, except they'll probably recover from this relatively quickly and they were more prepared for this sort of thing than most countries would have been.

Terrible things seem to happen often. Think about the recent disasters that have happened during the past decade (and I don't just mean natural ones). Has everyone forgotten about Haiti already? That was a bigger disaster (between 90,000-200,000 dead compared to Japan's so far 10,000 estimate, even though it's early days) and I don't remember there being as much hype in the media about it.

And yeah I know I'm sort of going back on what I said earlier, but I also find it silly that the media seem to be concentrating more on the nuclear power plant blowing up than on the other, more serious effects of the earthquake and tsunami, and the continuing rescue effort, especially since we know now that a massive spread of radiation apparently isn't likely. And what, because it's more interesting and scary, even though people have already been evacuated?

[Disgruntled Intern]

Think about the recent disasters that have happened during the past decade (and I don't just mean natural ones). Has everyone forgotten about Haiti already? That was a bigger disaster (between 90,000-200,000 dead compared to Japan's so far 10,000 estimate, even though it's early days) and I don't remember there being as much hype in the media about it.

I don't even watch TV and I remember a huge amount of hype. It bordered on obnoxious. TV, Radio, billboards, everywhere. So I don't know what the fuck you were doing, or where you were, but that's just stupid.

[DarkHoodness]

In the UK I remember it being talked about for about a month, then people stopped talking about it except for the occasional article about how they still weren't getting enough aid. I certainly didn't see any billboards anywhere.

Seems it was different in other countries. I stand corrected, then.
Gief spade, plx! I wanna see how deep I can dig my hole!

[Daxter King]

And yeah I know I'm sort of going back on what I said earlier, but I also find it silly that the media seem to be concentrating more on the nuclear power plant blowing up than on the other, more serious effects of the earthquake and tsunami, and the continuing rescue effort, especially since we know now that a massive spread of radiation apparently isn't likely. And what, because it's more interesting and scary, even though people have already been evacuated?

Its the difference between:

"Hey guys lets stop this earthquake from happen.....Oh wait"

and

"Lets see if we can prevent a melt down in this nuclear plant"

[Havoc]

Okay reactor 3 is now on fire. I demand a meltdown headline tommorow damnit, this has been delayed for long enough!

[Nate]

In the UK I remember it being talked about for about a month, then people stopped talking about it except for the occasional article about how they still weren't getting enough aid. I certainly didn't see any billboards anywhere.

Uh... it hasn't been a month since the earthquake yet. Hell, the Christchurch earthquake was out of the news within two weeks. So... what's your point?

[Manco]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...-live#block-26

5.25am: Here is a summary of the latest events from Japan:

• Japan's prime minister says radiation levels are significantly higher around the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The risk of radioactive leaks was rising at the plant, Kan said in a televised statement.

• Nuclear plant operator Tepco reported an explosion at the plant's No 4 reactor, followed by a fire. Tepco called on Japanese and US military to put out the blaze, which may have affected spent nuclear fuel stored in the reactor.

• The Japanese government has imposed a no fly zone over the 30km radius from the Fukushima plant site. Most staff have been told to leave the site as radiation levels soared to dangerously high levels around the plant.

• Residents have been evacuated from a 20km radius of the Fukushima plant, while those within a 30km radius of the plant have been told to stay indoors and seal doors and windows.

• Low-level radioactive wind from the damaged reactors could reach Tokyo later this evening, based on current winds, while scenes of panic in the capital have been reported after minute amount of radiation were detected in Tokyo.

• The death toll is expected to exceed 10,000 from the quake and tsunami, according to public broadcaster NHK. About 2,000 bodies were found on the shores of Miyagi prefecture, Kyodo news agency reported.

• Japan's central bank injected trillions of yen to prop up the country's economy, while the stock market plunged by more than 12% in trading – the worst day since Black Monday 1987 – as fears over the damaged nuclear reactors grew.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011...-live#block-25

5.10am: Here's a rundown of the state of the reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi (number one) plant:

• Reactor 1: Earlier Hydrogen explosion has blown off the top of the reactor building

• Reactor 2: Containment vessel possibly damaged in explosion, coolant pumps damaged by earlier explosions and valves closed, fuel rods exposed and may be leaking radioactive water from suppression pool

• Reactor 3: Earlier Hydrogen explosion, cloud of steam still rising, top half of reactor's building blown off

• Reactor 4: Fire broke out late Monday, probably caused by nearby explosions, now put out, spent nuclear fuel may have been exposed, destroying the reactor's housing. The fire may be the cause of the high levels of radiation at the site

[Bullet Magnet]

Incidentally, the trace radioactivity is likely Radon, of the noble gases. It comes out of the ground naturally because of all the Uranium there, which is why lost of houses in specific areas have radon detectors in their attics and basements. It is the largest cause of lung cancer after smoking, because of how common it is.

[Wings of Fire]

People around the world have been struggling to comprehend the tragedy that hit Japan on Friday. Even Fox News personality Glenn Beck! "I'm not saying God is... causing earthquakes," he told his Monday radio listeners. "I'm not not saying that either."

It only went downhill from there. "Whether you call it Gaia or whether you call it Jesus," he continued later, apparently drawing an equivalency between the earth mother of Greek mythology and the Christian son of God, "there's a message being sent." The message from Gaia/Jesus, he elaborated, is "Hey, you know that stuff we're doing? Not really working out real well. Maybe we should stop doing some of it."

And what, exactly, is this "stuff" we've been "doing" that's led the Prince of Peace and the mythological earth mother to team up and kill thousands of people in Japan? Beck doesn't quite elaborate, except to say that "I've got stuff on Hezbollah. Oh, I have stuff on radical Islam in America that'll make your eyes fall out." But this is not really what Beck is concerned with. He has the "answer," he says. And the "answer" is: "Buckle up. Buckle up, 'cause it's going to be a bumpy ride."

Oh, and he has a "safety tip":

Don't do anything stupid, what do you say we follow the big top ten. You can call them Moses' ten commandments, or ten rules of thumb. What do you say we start doing those things? Because the things we are doing really suck and they're not getting better.

So, from what we can tell, Glenn Beck's theory is that some kind of higher entity sent an earthquake to Japan because of "that stuff we're doing," which "really suck[s]." And some of that "stuff" may involve "radical Islam in America" and not following the "ten rules of thumb." Now, Glenn Beck's not blaming the earthquake on radical Islam! But he's not not blaming it on radical Islam, either.

Well.

[DarkHoodness]

Uh... it hasn't been a month since the earthquake yet. Hell, the Christchurch earthquake was out of the news within two weeks. So... what's your point?

My poorly-illustrated point was that the world isn't falling apart, bad terrible things happen sometimes, the ones that survived are still here, and we should be aware that the media may hype up things rather than keep things in perspective.

I'm not saying that what's going on isn't important at the moment, though. Obviously a radiation leak ontop of an earthquake is serious business for those involved - But why is the BBC giving its audience lots of info-graphics about how nuclear power plants work and what went wrong with Fukushima? A possible 10,000 people are dead because of the disaster, not because of radiation. Some of you were telling me earlier that it's not comparable to Chernobyl - People are aware of what's happening and are being directed to act accordingly to minimise the risk of being harmed. So what's the worst-case scenario with the power station? Low levels of radioactive material being spread about?

Eh, I'll stop digging my hole now.

[Bullet Magnet]

The irritating thing is, we've had the tech to build safer fission reactors for years now that cannot have any of the problems Fukushima is having now, such as those that use Thorium fuel, which can't even have a meltdown. As far as I know only India has proposals to build a Thorium reactor.

I have no idea why it's no on the cards anywhere else. Many countries stopped building any fission reactors at all due to the concerns of the old designs. I suspect the rest just want the nuclear by-products of the old designs for their weapons.

[DarkHoodness]

Now that's interesting. Apparently, the quake was so great that it made the earth spin faster, and some parts of Japan's coastline have shifted up to 4 meters to the east.

The quake probably shifted Earth on its axis by about 6.5 inches (16.5cm) and caused the planet to rotate somewhat faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 millionths of a second.

{Japan's Geographical Survey Institute}'s data show{s} a movement eastwards of up to 4m in coastal areas of Japan.

Dr Ken Hudnut, a geophysicist at the US Geological Survey (USGS) in Pasadena, California, told MSNBC that information resources linking GPS readings to maps, such as driving directions and property records, would have to be changed as a result of the shift.

"{Japan's} national network for property boundary definitions has been warped," he explained. "For ships, the nautical charts will need revision due to changed water depths, too (of about 3ft). Much of the coastline dropped by a few feet, too, we gather."

I wonder what the Haiti and NZ quakes did?

[Manco]

The irritating thing is, we've had the tech to build safer fission reactors for years now that cannot have any of the problems Fukushima is having now, such as those that use Thorium fuel, which can't even have a meltdown. As far as I know only India has proposals to build a Thorium reactor.

I have no idea why it's no on the cards anywhere else. Many countries stopped building any fission reactors at all due to the concerns of the old designs. I suspect the rest just want the nuclear by-products of the old designs for their weapons.

Because nuclear energy causes babies with three penises and no lungs and planes will fall out of the sky and and

Public perception of nuclear energy is pretty skewed.

[Bullet Magnet]

That it is. I blame Joe.

Now that's interesting. Apparently, the quake was so great that it made the earth spin faster, and some parts of Japan's coastline have shifted up to 4 meters to the east.

Earth quakes do that. Jumping does that. It makes little difference, the axis gets shifted around in all directions by these things, they pretty much cancel out. As for rotation, loads of things affect that. and overall the Earth's rotation is slowing anyway. Post glacial rebound affects that (the rising of several land masses after being squashed down by the weight of ice, the effect being like spinning in a chair and extending your legs). Tidal acceleration as a result of the moon's gravity slows the Earth's rotation by about 20 millions of a second every year, so the Earthquake's effect will have been cancelled out in a month. 1.8 microseconds isn't all that much an increase, the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake sped up rotation by 3 microseconds.

[Nate]

Obviously a radiation leak ontop of an earthquake is serious business for those involved - But why is the BBC giving its audience lots of info-graphics about how nuclear power plants work and what went wrong with Fukushima? A possible 10,000 people are dead because of the disaster, not because of radiation.

Because everyone already knows that 10,000 people are dead and reporting it more won't change that fact. But the Fukushima is an ongoing disaster that has potential to be catastrophic. Of course they're going to focus their reportage on it.


EDIT: Can you guys please leave the in-principle discussion of nuclear power (as seperate from Fukushima specifically) to the other thread? It's confusing if topics get duplicated.

[Disgruntled Intern]

Now I understand.

[DarkHoodness]

An old friend of mine told me that Japan's sole reason to exist is to baffle the world - I'm glad to see it's still living up to that.

[Crashpunk]

Now I understand.

I like the part where he Pooed

[MeechMunchie]

Oh Japan, you so crazy.