The Earthquake Check In thread

Reminds me of US coverage on Katrina where they were reporting as much as 10 million people dead.

I literally laughed out loud, and then the number actually turned out to be less than 10,000

 

£600 for a flight to Hong Kong? LOL

We'd get more radiation taking that fucking flight than staying in Kita-Ibaraki!!

 

Unreal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sakN2hSVxA&feature=player_embedded

 

damn it. I came to post that. :lol:

 

...I don't think my mouth has ever hung open that long in my life short of a dental appointment.

So, keep Nuclear Boy constipated or prevent his diaper from leaking. If this wasn't from a guy in Japan I'm not sure I'd be taking this the same way.

 

Sorry of this was already posted:

What it's like to be minding your own business driving along the coastal highway and OH S*** A TSUNAMI

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00195446.html

 

bugger, that video is now off line. Wanted to see that as well.
ah, never mind. It's on You Tube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7IL37t7Wjg

 

On a cute note: http://www.tofugu.com/2010/11/09/cat-island-japan/

Any news from our Sendai members??

I've lost connection to the NHK transmition. How are things on the reactor site?

 

https://www.facebook.com/notes/the-conscious-cat/update-on-japans-cat-island/10150111228603992

I can't imagine there are many mice left there to feed all of the cats nor can there really be that much food available for the people....

Wouldn't want to be a meaty looking cat right about now.

EDIT:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12779512

Finally, some damned good news. Hopefully the systems aren't so damaged that doing this was a waste of time.

 

That's a magic place! I want to go there someday. ^^

I hope the cats are safe too.

And finally "least worst" news amid so many bad news. The energy cable.

 

Every Monday I go to Ainoshima of the coast of Kyushu. that is also filled with cats. the reason for the cats on the islands is to eat the unwanted fish (these are fishing islands) and keep down pests.

 

I was trying to just lurk but unless every single media outlet is blatantly and knowingly lying they say nearly 6000 confirmed dead and thousands or more missing.

I am no scientist, but unless these people turn up on some crazy final fantasy style floating island, it could very well be a tragedy of over 10,000 dead.

--

Second point unrelated to the quote above:

Talk about cashing in. Philippine airlines is charging upwards of 83,000 yen to fly from japan to manila on practically any route.

This profiteering isn't realized until you see that a trip from Manila to japan costs 1/3 of that.

In terms of what westerners like myself can understand (cause 83,000 of our currency buys a house in many places)

$320 Manila-tokyo
$1020 Tokyo-manila.

There are many Filipino ofw's (overseas Filipino workers) who need to get home and are stranded, being held hostage by prices.

The average person in the Philippines earns $2400 a year.

--

It's sort of maddening.
Should we donate money? Japan has an extremely low corruption index thankfully.

Still the fact that wikileaks has pointed out that in 2008 the alarm was sounded over there plants and anything over a 6.0 quake.

Then there is the false reports that lead to resignations over plant safety.
Heck, otherwise if I didn't watch an extreme left (CNN) and right (fox news) channel and they didn't both agree on this maybe more would donate.

But the word is that westerners do feel japan is self sufficient and needs less than say Haiti.

It'd be lying to say also there is no one who looks at it and says "well you ran a 220% inflationary economy since 1998, what do we just wipe out all debts and rebuild you again like after ww2?"

I hope to god nothing happens. They say Chernobyl shot radiation 30,000 feet up and this only reaches 500m so perhaps it won't be a disaster.

But if anyone out there wants to get any word out at all about how the world views this, tell the authorities over there to start being honest and cut the xenophobic bullshit.

The Japanese would refuse to trade with westerners who wouldn't lower their Christian and national flags. The Dutch were the only people who would surrender God and Country and who could trade with them in the early years... Now this same sense of secrecy seems to permeate the culture from what many of us see.

This isn't a time to be secretive.
Now more than ever japan needs to be forthright and honest. Ask for help and admit that perhaps this is bigger than just their problem.

-Sincerely
--Some westerner who has a little bit of an idea, but admittedly not much.

 

Do we even have any?
an_tutar has been, at best as we can figure, accounted for. Phantasy Star left months ago.

Are you surprised? The entire airline industry is opportunist by nature.

Anyone needs less than Haiti. However, it's extremely short sited to say that Japan (specifically, on an individual level) will not need help. Many people will be fucked by this. The only reason Japan is "rich" is b/c of savings... that doesn't mean everyone has savings. Public debt is ridiculous. Japan also is incapable of dealing with those that can't take care of themselves. They've got basically nothing in place that works for homeless (but that's for another thread). My fear a large portion of displaced people will slip through the cracks and live the last of their days in discomfort or debt.

 

Haiti has no infasucture to rebuild. But nearly 80% I have read of all buildings in port au prince, the largest city were damaged.

This was in a smaller city and there are large undustrualized and developed Portions of japan which are fine.

I do not believe anyone said the Japanese people are not in major trouble, however nearly 65% of japanese live In an urbanized setting. If they must forever close the area around the plant there are places to live.

As for social services... Funny how the Japanese used foreign aid after ww2 to build and now they have... Nothing at all to fall back on? That seems like something that needs as you said a different discussion. However sending aid there will what? Rebuild the infrastructure and then again leave many in a potential setup for the same situation later?

But really, I have read that in the late 40s early 50s people I'm japan worked 70+ hours per week to rebuild, but to what end?

I am not against aid to anyone but welfare will only get people so far.

 

Hmm... the foreign "aid" after WW2 was more b/c of the US policy of destroying a place in war, then rebuilding it with their own influence. Besides, prewar Japan was 3rd world. They had no money.

Nobody is saying they don't have money. But I've read a few that say, "they are rich and don't need any", or at least alluding to it. Japan is one sorely misunderstood place by most non-long term expats. Their economy is a ticking time bomb. Nobody that knows anything about economics will disagree with that. How many ticking time bombs can rebuild after a disaster without aid?

70 hours is not unheard of now. Back then, fuck yeah. How do you think they went from nothing to #2 in like 40 years? 50 hours is probably closer to the norm these days, but that means plenty are working 60 and up. Again, another thread.

I'm not sure I understand your point. What would be the ideal thing to do?

 

Call me cold but I'd rather see aid money go to Japan than Haiti. At least in Japan the money will be used to actually rebuild. In Haiti it just seems to vanish.

 

I think the main issue here, and speaking strictly in terms of the ECONOMIC situation and financial markets, the best way of helping the japanese would be by condoning part of their debt.
That way, the country could emit more bonds without the pressure of falling into a debt trap or a Ponzi scheme...
Then again, this probably will not happen, since the main holder of Japanese debt is China. China is now in a position of power in front of Japan, not only because of its own growth, but also because of the weakened situation of the Japanese economy. They will probably make their position even stronger now, maybe in an attempt of demonstrating their supremacy over the Japanese after centuries of grudges betweeen the two nations.

I think his point here was that aid just for the sake of aid is pretty pointless. The problem in Haiti is that (as it happens in many american countries) the mentality of the people leans more towards receiving aid and doing nothing in return.
I don't see that as a problem in Japan, since they are very hard working people and have a mindset prone to hard work and non conflict. People from South America and Central America are pretty much in opposite poles in this matter, as they are much more prone to conflicts, even among themselves.

As I said before, aid is not a bad thing, but in cases like Haiti, it must be followed by the installment of better infrastructure and EDUCATIONAL reforms. Those reforms are probably not needed in Japan, and that's why you see that helping Japanese people with money is not such a waste of resources.
Ideally, no one should feel that aiding a country in need is a waste of money. But since there are SO many factors that interfere in this equation, some people may think that helping poorer countries when facing a disaster is actually a waste (because the aid just doesn't end up enriching them... it just ends up being alms)

 

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/03/tech-legacy-tokyo/

I guess this is why most of my Japanese made power supplies do 50/60hz but not 220v. Never have once heard of this before today.

 

50 or 60Hz has nothing to do with the voltage itself. it's just about how many times the voltage alternates in a second. while most (end-)loads have no problem dealing with the different speed, it's sheer impossible to connect the powerlines from those two different systems. you would need a huge frequency converter.

 

I'm well aware of that, just seems surprising that both companies would opt for difference frequencies due to procuring parts from different manufacturers but not different voltages currently associated with both frequencies as well.

We Americans use 120v @ 60hz purely because of the time we standardized our electrical systems. Otherwise we might very well use 240v at 50hz.

Regardless Thomas Edison was a prick.

Addendum:
From a purely logical stand point (without having set foot in Japan) it makes sense that anything doing 50 and 60hz for their electrical sine wave would also do 110-240v as you would anticipate it being useful for those who import/export electrical devices. One power supply to rule them all. To do 50/60hz on such a power supply but not 220-240v makes little sense if you're marketing your product world wide using the same pack ins. Hence my initial statement.

My assumption in the past was solely this and that only an idiot would have their country's electrical grid setup in a fashion that Japan's apparently is. I'm going to assume someone over there foresaw this as a problem but was sufficiently ignored for some reason.