Thread is about the various issues surrounding Japan in the aftermath of the recent earthquake. Don't bring the shit side of the internet to the thread, and post with the realization that this thread is very important, and very real, to your fellow members.
Do not post speculative and unconfirmed news you saw on TV or anywhere else. Generally the more dramatic it sounds the less likely it's true.
On March 19 2011 14:00 Jibba wrote: As far as I can tell, it IS the bigger problem. Japan is well equipped to handle earthquakes and without the tsunami, the deathtoll would have been very close to zero. Even after the tsunami, the damage was relatively little compared to what we see from other major natural disasters. This is the major thing threatening lives.
Initial Insurance claims were estimated to be 35 billion, billions more of uninsured damage. The death toll is in the tens of thousands, and there appears to be infrastructure weaknesses that threaten the safety of more. I can't really discuss this at length, mainly because I've heard little about it. The Power Plant is an issue, and it should be watched, but for the love of god, it is not a nuclear bomb that will wipe out half of Japan unless 50 brave technicians improvise methods to shut down the reactor before the ominous glowing red timer in the background reaches 00:00:00. Report how it's affecting Japan, what they're doing about the damage, how future prospects look, how we could possibly help Japan ourselves, anything besides an endless circle jerk of poorly verified "facts" and hype.
On March 19 2011 11:39 Manifesto7 wrote: Stop posting sensationalist bullshit please.
Really wish that the power plant problem didn't exist not even to save lives or anything like that. But simply because at least in the US media it overshadows the actual disaster in japan.
As far as I can tell, it IS the bigger problem. Japan is well equipped to handle earthquakes and without the tsunami, the deathtoll would have been very close to zero. Even after the tsunami, the damage was relatively little compared to what we see from other major natural disasters. This is the major thing threatening lives.
The tsunami washed away at least 10,000 people before people could even evacuate. By the time they knew it was coming, it was too late.
If the radiation gets bad, someone with observational equipment will be able to notify people quite quickly. There doesn't seem to be any possibility that it'll be any worse than Three Mile Island at worst.
I'm more concerned about the people who've been taking potassium iodide or locking themselves inside in the Pacific west. If someone can figure out which press companies started the fear mongering, I would love to see a class action lawsuit filed against them.
There are also hundreds of thousands still in shelters with little heating/food, no medication for the elderly and sick and terrible sanitation problems because there is no electricity. These are life-threatening situations. I would hardly call the damage "relatively little".
On March 19 2011 11:39 Manifesto7 wrote: Stop posting sensationalist bullshit please.
Really wish that the power plant problem didn't exist not even to save lives or anything like that. But simply because at least in the US media it overshadows the actual disaster in japan.
As far as I can tell, it IS the bigger problem. Japan is well equipped to handle earthquakes and without the tsunami, the deathtoll would have been very close to zero. Even after the tsunami, the damage was relatively little compared to what we see from other major natural disasters. This is the major thing threatening lives.
The tsunami washed away at least 10,000 people before people could even evacuate. By the time they knew it was coming, it was too late.
If the radiation gets bad, someone with observational equipment will be able to notify people quite quickly. There doesn't seem to be any possibility that it'll be any worse than Three Mile Island at worst.
I'm more concerned about the people who've been taking potassium iodide or locking themselves inside in the Pacific west. If someone can figure out which press companies started the fear mongering, I would love to see a class action lawsuit filed against them.
There are also hundreds of thousands still in shelters with little heating/food, no medication for the elderly and sick and terrible sanitation problems because there is no electricity. These are life-threatening situations. I would hardly call the damage "relatively little".
My family friend is a humanitarian medical aid worker who happens to be living where the tsunami hit. Trying to put together a fundraising tournament for him and his clinic, which is currently treating victims regardless of their insurance status (i.e. for free). We're getting a lot of enthusiasm, but we'd really like some help from people in the know about tournaments.
This been posted yet... much more accurate than any news report outside of Japan has been all week imo. It's the report made so children can understand the nuclear situation without scaring them.
This been posted yet... much more accurate than any news report outside of Japan has been all week imo. It's the report made so children can understand the nuclear situation without scaring them.
The video's cute (and yes it's been posted at least twice), but I find the responses to that video on the original Japanese upload to be extremely disturbing.
The most common comment on the video is "That's so easy to understand! I feel a lot better now."
First of all it's extremely alarming that there are adults in Japan that are learning something from that video. Second, there's nothing in this video that should make anyone feel better about the situation. I already know that the situation is unlikely to be as bad as Chernobyl, but not once in the video does it explain why Chernobyl-kun ended up soiling itself.
I made note of that on the video -- got thumbs-upped up to 20, then down to 15, and then marked as spam.
It really exposes how irrational people are right now.
In Kobe 1995, yakuza were providing food, shelter and blankets way before the government did that and about half of the city or more was rebuild by them too because they got so many contracts for their construction companies from the government by offering the lowest price (well... they did extort their competition so nobody underbids them) - it made the yamaguchi-gumi (the yakuza tribe based in Kobe) the richest criminal organization in the world. I wonder how this disaster unfolds in terms of strengthening the yakuza.
On March 19 2011 18:06 fanta[Rn] wrote: In Kobe 1995, yakuza were providing food, shelter and blankets way before the government did that and about half of the city or more was rebuild by them too because they got so many contracts for their construction companies from the government by offering the lowest price (well... they did extort their competition so nobody underbids them) - it made the yamaguchi-gumi (the yakuza tribe based in Kobe) the richest criminal organization in the world. I wonder how this disaster unfolds in terms of strengthening the yakuza.
The impact will be far less since the yak presence there is far less. Kobe is basically the HQ of one of the major syndicates.
Tepco workers have finished laying the power cable to the no. 1 & 2 reactors. They can't run the power yet because they still have to inspect the pumps, switchboards etc to see if they need repairing. Because of the debris in front of the plant, they had to run a longer cable of 1.5km around the plant.
The Tokyo fire department are in the midst of a 7 hour operation to spray water into reactor no. 3. They are using unmanned fire trucks with pumps connected to the sea. The Osaka fire department has also been deployed to assist in the operation later today or tomorrow.
WHAT... i didnt keep track of this thread in the last 2 days and now they are saying "LOW LEVEL RADIATION HAS REACH SOUTHERN CALI"??? WTF?? is that true?
Someone please pm me on the info... and what is the radius of this shit. T_T
On March 19 2011 21:49 NB wrote: WHAT... i didnt keep track of this thread in the last 2 days and now they are saying "LOW LEVEL RADIATION HAS REACH SOUTHERN CALI"??? WTF?? is that true?
Someone please pm me on the info... and what is the radius of this shit. T_T
Why yes, it is true; there is a low level of radiation in California. In fact, there is a low level of radiation everywhere in the universe. Please, be more precise about the said rumored level.
As for radiations coming from Japan, I doubt it.
EDIT: for radiations from Japan to have reached California by now, winds would have to be twice as fast as the average, and blow only Eastward for 8 days straight.
On March 19 2011 21:49 NB wrote: WHAT... i didnt keep track of this thread in the last 2 days and now they are saying "LOW LEVEL RADIATION HAS REACH SOUTHERN CALI"??? WTF?? is that true?
Someone please pm me on the info... and what is the radius of this shit. T_T
Why yes, it is true; there is a low level of radiation in California. In fact, there is a low level of radiation everywhere in the universe. Please, be more precise about the said rumored level.
As for radiations coming from Japan, I doubt it.
EDIT: for radiations from Japan to have reached California by now, winds would have to be twice as fast as the average, and blow only Eastward for 8 days straight.
sorry but thats what i meant...
what about china and korea and SEA? will they get affected?
On March 19 2011 21:49 NB wrote: WHAT... i didnt keep track of this thread in the last 2 days and now they are saying "LOW LEVEL RADIATION HAS REACH SOUTHERN CALI"??? WTF?? is that true?
Someone please pm me on the info... and what is the radius of this shit. T_T
No reason for freaking out dude, don't listen to bullshit you hear on some mainstream media. They want to spread fear so they can earn more money. Radiation level is very low even within few hundreds kilometer from the Nuclear plant. If you live anywhere outside Japan, you should be worry about getting hit by a bus than worry about radiation.
@NB: No country outside Japan will be effected with anything. Fact is, if you live within 50kms radius near the nuclear plant, you MAY BE effect. People in Tokyo(250km away) has not been effected at all.
On March 19 2011 21:49 NB wrote: WHAT... i didnt keep track of this thread in the last 2 days and now they are saying "LOW LEVEL RADIATION HAS REACH SOUTHERN CALI"??? WTF?? is that true?
Someone please pm me on the info... and what is the radius of this shit. T_T
Let's think for a second...this is a problem with a nuclear power plant, which is unable to explode and propel radiation into the upper atmosphere because it is a LWR. At most if the spent fuel rods catch on fire and criticality started the surrounding area in JAPAN would be uninhabitable (likely at this point).
In the 1945 the United States dropped TWO ATOMIC BOMBS onto Hiroshima and Nagasaki. And that radiation didn't affect Cali. This one probably won't either.
On March 11 2011 16:01 Jesushooves wrote: Man I have never heard of a quake with such a magnitude, keep in mind the Richter scale is exponential, a quake of 8 on the Richter scale is 10 times the intensity of one with a 7 rating. I hope all the best for those in Japan, scary stuff.
Well the Indian Ocean quake that caused the tsunami in SEA earlier in the decade is also a 9.0 or some say 8.9 quake. But maybe people notice when disaster hits a popular, first world country.
On March 19 2011 18:06 fanta[Rn] wrote: In Kobe 1995, yakuza were providing food, shelter and blankets way before the government did that and about half of the city or more was rebuild by them too because they got so many contracts for their construction companies from the government by offering the lowest price (well... they did extort their competition so nobody underbids them) - it made the yamaguchi-gumi (the yakuza tribe based in Kobe) the richest criminal organization in the world. I wonder how this disaster unfolds in terms of strengthening the yakuza.
The impact will be far less since the yak presence there is far less. Kobe is basically the HQ of one of the major syndicates.
This is very true. Im in kobe staying at a hotel now and you can see mafia connected people quite often here. Very different from Tokyo or the northern parts of the country. That being said a guy was yakuza boss was shot 2 houses from where I live in tokyo like 3 years ago! xD
Well the Indian Ocean quake that caused the tsunami in SEA earlier in the decade is also a 9.0 or some say 8.9 quake. But maybe people notice when disaster hits a popular, first world country.
The earthquake itself wasn't an issue in that disaster, it was the Tsunami that followed. And while the Tsunami probably was the primary cause of damage, the earthquake was most certainly felt and noticeable.
On March 11 2011 16:01 Jesushooves wrote: Man I have never heard of a quake with such a magnitude, keep in mind the Richter scale is exponential, a quake of 8 on the Richter scale is 10 times the intensity of one with a 7 rating. I hope all the best for those in Japan, scary stuff.
Well the Indian Ocean quake that caused the tsunami in SEA earlier in the decade is also a 9.0 or some say 8.9 quake. But maybe people notice when disaster hits a popular, first world country.
There was massive coverage of the 2004 Asian tsunami in the media.
I am working with a small organisation in my country that works for better public understanding of science, aka building a society where children get better tools for understanding the scientific method and where adult culture is forged into one where people have a laymans understanding of scientific principles and data and have a genuine curiosity in it. As opposed to todays dumbed down society where the media can keep people hostage by their own ignorance.
These last few days have really renewed my dedication to this. Looking back at all the panic and paranoia that has spread lately it can most certainly be blamed on the media for taking advantage of people know knowing these things. But to one extent it can also be blamed on all of us who have made ourselves dependant on the media for information.
This thread has given me a lot of pride in teamliquid though, there are so many people here with basic understanding and the ability to question news stories that this thread probably has been the most down to earth one.
But all of this, people in Europe and America buying iodine pills, being terrified of radiation, some expecting a nuclear explosion etc are all things that were created by the media, but only because people had left themselves uneducated enough to be vulnerable to it.
EPT
