oh, there you are! good to know you guys are ok. stay safe.

If it happened in the states, the survivors would be looting the stores clean a la New Orleans.

The House of the Rising Sun doesn't care about black people.

New Orleans is one of the most beautiful cities in this country

10,000 people missing from this town

http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/20...buried-in-mud/

Except when it's flooded and its stores are being ransacked. :D

I can see a tragic beauty in that as well. I visited shortly after Katrina. The most hauting things were the markings on the homes that had been checked, with death counts on them. Tragic but moving in a beautifull way. Those ppl came back from disaster and did a pretty damn good job of it. I have never been to a city that is so welcome to EVERYONE without any biased. Especially after the shit they have been through.

Ah gotcha, that makes sense tho. They were already a 3rd world country. Shit only hits the fan when you're really hungry.

Japan was prepared for this technologically. Not that it makes a tragedy any less tragic. Don't get me wrong. However, eh...whatever I dont wanna keep talking about things I havent been through myself.

the abuse of the word "tragic" makes me slightly impatient. tragedy is a species of theatre, not the human suffering it depicts. of course with use the thing got backwards, but it still should keep the flavor of sophocles or corneille or even arthur miller.

here a few handy synonyms for everyone's continuous re-reporting of the news:

catastrophe / catastrophic
calamity / calamitous
disaster / disastrous
cataclysm / cataclysmic

thank you.

Right, then again, non of this is really unnatural. It is all natural.

We should just relax and enjoy the show.

recommendies if you live on the ring of fire:

nterested in your own backyard? My house would survive about an 8, though only about 1/2 would still be standing. I live on basalt with an overlay of highly cemented volcanic ash, it has been stable for, get this 22 million years!

The kitchen and living room is partially supported on pilings, which will probably either shear or slide fail. so there goes the sw 1/4 of the house. Bedrooms, garage and offices are all on double thick shear protected concrete foundations set on the bedrock.

No gas in my neighborhood, so no fires. Check your local gas co for transmission lines, there are some 24" and 36" petroleum pipelines (Williams Gas Co) and also high pressure natural gas lines, some as large as 12" within 5 miles of my house (all running near or through residential areas, by the way)

The houses below me on the flatlands maybe only a 6 (soils will "quick" and earthen dams very likely will fail.)

There's a big neighborhood about 5 miles away that shows evidence of previous large landslides ( basalt columns that are oriented everywhich way, and a "dish shaped" hillside with large amounts of debris slides at it's base) also there are tons of springs on this hill, too, which makes it even worse.....maybe 5 or 6 thousand people live in that area.

So, the conclusion is check your own area, you don't have to live in a dangerous zone. And, without any geologic activity, your property values are probably OK to sell and move to a safer spot

RIP JAPAN

Officially the worst nuke crisis since Chernobyl. I guess those light water reactors aren't infallible after all. 20-25 mile radius around the plant is now in danger. Reactor #4 is now on fire (although #4 successfully shut down after the quake, so I'm not sure if the fire will change anything). 400 millisieverts of radiation confirmed in the area, enough to potentially kill white blood cells or cause infertility. 1,000 mSv/h induces nausea. 2,000-5,000 causes death.

maybe its just my cynical nature but the way the power company keeps saying that everything is under control and that things are going to be alright doesn't fill me with confidence.

if things keep going the way they are in japan my boyhood dreams of a real life godzilla may actually come true!

Well, they're evacuating all the plant workers. If there are no personnel on-site at the plant... I think it's pretty safe to say that the fuel rods will continue to melt down. And fires are the best way to spew radiation into the atmosphere.

OF all places in the world, Japan is BEST equipped for alternative/non-atomic energy sources... I think this should be a lesson to the rest of the world that nuclear power isn't infallible. Even modern light water reactors.

its kinda funny (gallows humor) that they are telling people within a 30km radius to remain indoors in the wake of a tsunami and a 9.0 earthquake that destroyed so much.

I've been following these events mainly via good old fashioned TV (well, cable) - BBC, CNN International and CNN USA:

BBC
"The BBC has learned that the massive waves could reach the West Coast of the United States within four hours. A tsunami alert has been issued by the U.S. government, as well as countries from Mexico to Chile".

CNN International
"The U.S. state of Hawaii is in state of maximum alert as the tsunami approaches! We have a team of seven thousand reporters covering all the angles of this story! We go beyond borders. We're ending slavery. We're the shit. You're at the International Desk; I'm Hala Gorani, I'm an ice queen, and there's nothing you can do about it".

CNN USA
"WE'RE FUCKED! THE WAVE IS COMING! WE'RE GONNA GET FUCKED IN THE ASS! WE'RE FUCKED!! YAAAARRRRGGHHHHH!!!!"

Conspiracy nets are discussing the 600,000 expired fuel rods stored on site - in some cases ON TOP OF THE REACTORS THAT EXPLODED -

you just cant help it can you