Japan Earthquake and Tsunami (March 11, 2011)

[Vexx]

Coroner's personal experience with identifying the dead at this scale of loss.
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110405a2.html

[yezhanquan]

Originally Posted by SaintessHeart

I don't listen to most debates. I wait for manuscripts or minutes to be released so I read them.

Apparently being partially deaf isn't so bad after all.

Ah, but if you have someone like Uncle Joe who takes down the minutes....

Best to listen and then read.

[Ithekro]

All good orators follow that pattern. Listen to Martin Luther King, jr's speech and you will see the same pattern.

[Tri-ring]

Originally Posted by Mystique

Japan tsunami dog rescued after three weeks at sea

Click for video report

Here is a follow up of the rescued dog.

Rescued dog back with owner after drifting at sea for 3 weeks

Other news concerning the aftermath of the disaster that hit last month.

Japan confirms death of 19 foreigners in March 11 quake, tsunami

Closed popular Tokyo hotel to shelter 1,600 evacuees from Sat

Neighborhood watch groups form as theft cases rise in disaster-torn regions

And lastly;
Foreign quake survivors seek multilingual info on relief, nuclear crisis

Although the situation is not the least funny this comment got me laughing.

As my friend said to me recently (shes only been here a year) "I can barely order a cup of coffee, but advanced nuclear physics in Japanese - I'm your girl!"

[Vexx]

Japan's Tourism affected:
http://www.kspr.com/la-fi-ct-tokyo-d...0,552766.story

Searching for your car...
http://www.npr.org/2011/04/04/135110...autos-in-japan

[Mystique]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Japan's Tourism affected:
http://www.kspr.com/la-fi-ct-tokyo-d...0,552766.story

Esepcially since it's sakura season. Many events have been cancelled, including the FMA live concert that I was meant to be going to in May as well as my own opening ceremony which was to be held in the Tokyo International Forum.

The big public arenas it seems are cancelling various things left, right and centre. I heard from my hairdresser who also lost quite a few foreign clientile that most went back to the US or others cause there was simply no work as an entertainer/singer/artist anymore, no one is playing.
More over, I think more than the nuclear threat or slight shortage of petrol is the electrical cuts.

Sure enough, for a power cut to occur mid event would be pointless and we're meant to be conserving, so methinks hence why a lot of things have been, still are being pulled.

If nothing else, this emotionally depresses people where there's nothing to look forward to, in order to get through the hard times. If everyone is reminded of how hard and how depressing it is all is, how are we meant to be supportive and strong as we are when that aura of joy or hope is diminished over and over.

That's not to say, totally forget about those who are dying or suffering up north, but the rest of us have gotta keep going as well

Eitherway, I lost the only two events that I had my heart set on this year to date, the idea of going for hanami somewhere doesn't even appeal at present, since I know quit a few Japanese friends are at the other side of the country, methinks they're still outta Tokyo anyways. :\

Think I need to lock myself in a karaoke room for like 5hrs, which should be remedy enough...

On a side note, it's amusing seeing the trains and stations with lights off in the daytimes when it's sunny like today.
Technically, living life as such isn't a bad idea to conserve energy all around anyways

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Vexx

What Japan's crisis tells us about "peak oil" --
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environmen...aster-peak-oil

The article asks us not to condemn it for apparently turning a great tragedy into a wedge issue...then proceeds to do just that. Ugh.

Spoiler for space:

Japan's situation isn't a peak oil rehearsal. It's a *bleeping* disaster zone. Even most peak oil theorists imagine not a sudden shortage caused by heavy infrastructure damage but a gradual inexorable upwards pressure on demand and downward pressure on supply causing long-term disruptions and sowing havoc on existing geopolitical patterns. A sort of a long-term "famine" situation whereby efforts at altruism and cooperation are fundamentally ineffective, because there simply isn't enough to go around, and people and nations turn for the worse in a brutal jungle struggle for the remaining scraps. Disaster situations are the opposite; cooperation save lives and the sanity of everyone involved, because the problem isn't a long-term shortage but how to ration and assist each other to help everyone make it to the next day until you can rebuild. How to rebuild it "right" is an interesting question but it's not the question that the article is trying to address either.

Not to mention, these theorists tend to be just as blindly obsessed with oil as their purported opponents. The key to the question of transportation and trade isn't oil; it's always been the need to move things from one place to another. If oil is no longer the answer then human society will just find something else. It's already trying to find something else, in the clumsy, nebulous way that societies do (we don't exactly share a hive mind capable of laser-zeroing on a single crucial task...unless you mobilize society for a total war scenario; wars are kind of special that way). If they fear doomsday they should assist in research for alternatives and for improving efficiencies (conservation being part of the latter question), which by the way Japan is already an exemplar of.

I'm far more worried about the plastic in my appliances than the gasoline in the car tank. Actually, I'm far more worried about the people of Japan's well-being than the Guardian article author's personal doomsday scenario.

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Irenicus

The article asks us not to condemn it for apparently turning a great tragedy into a wedge issue...then proceeds to do just that. Ugh.

Spoiler for space:

Japan's situation isn't a peak oil rehearsal. It's a *bleeping* disaster zone. Even most peak oil theorists imagine not a sudden shortage caused by heavy infrastructure damage but a gradual inexorable upwards pressure on demand and downward pressure on supply causing long-term disruptions and sowing havoc on existing geopolitical patterns. A sort of a long-term "famine" situation whereby efforts at altruism and cooperation are fundamentally ineffective, because there simply isn't enough to go around, and people and nations turn for the worse in a brutal jungle struggle for the remaining scraps. Disaster situations are the opposite; cooperation save lives and the sanity of everyone involved, because the problem isn't a long-term shortage but how to ration and assist each other to help everyone make it to the next day until you can rebuild. How to rebuild it "right" is an interesting question but it's not the question that the article is trying to address either.

Not to mention, these theorists tend to be just as blindly obsessed with oil as their purported opponents. The key to the question of transportation and trade isn't oil; it's always been the need to move things from one place to another. If oil is no longer the answer then human society will just find something else. It's already trying to find something else, in the clumsy, nebulous way that societies do (we don't exactly share a hive mind capable of laser-zeroing on a single crucial task...unless you mobilize society for a total war scenario; wars are kind of special that way). If they fear doomsday they should assist in research for alternatives and for improving efficiencies (conservation being part of the latter question), which by the way Japan is already an exemplar of.

I'm far more worried about the plastic in my appliances than the gasoline in the car tank. Actually, I'm far more worried about the people of Japan's well-being than the Guardian article author's personal doomsday scenario.

Argh... sorry about that... didn't read far enough into the article. Deleted from original post.

[-Sho-]

Wow , the medias stopped to tell what's really happening there week ago , only the net are giving the news...

Anyway , "Chinese Syndrom" anyone ? The Corium broke the steel & now it's attacking to the concrete & to finish he'll reach the earth between 2000 - 3000 degrees.

[Irenicus]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Argh... sorry about that... didn't read far enough into the article. Deleted from original post.

No, thanks for sharing actually. It's good to have many perspectives even if one disagrees with what an article is saying.

I was just a little miffed at what I felt was an article writer abusing the tragedy to advance his/her own cause with tenuous leaps of logic.

[RRW]

PlayStation Users Giving Big Money To Japan Earthquake Relief

As of March 31, PlayStation users worldwide have donated US$1.318 million to the earthquake relief efforts. "While we continue to make every effort to help the recovery of the affected communities in the region," Kazuo Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment honcho, said in an official release, "I would like to express our gratitude to every single PlayStation user across the world who made a contribution to the effort."

[SaintessHeart]

Originally Posted by RRW

PlayStation Users Giving Big Money To Japan Earthquake Relief

[Vexx]

Expats lend a hand under the radar...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42420250...ster_in_japan/

Japan game companies delayed/stalled, business hurt...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110406ba.html

[Shinji103]

Originally Posted by Vexx

Japan game companies delayed/stalled, business hurt...
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-b...0110406ba.html

Yeah, I'd heard that Disaster Report 4 was canned before. (I really don't know anything about those games though, but that's not the point) I fear that while the victims of the quake and tsunami are holding together quite well, these game company businessman are doing their own version of panicking. Do they think that people will do anything drastic like riot or boycott their games if there's even the slightest hint of tragedy connection? I can completely understand the power shortages hurting game development, but this is going really overboard. It just sounds too much like bean counters going paranoid to me. It's really sickening watching these companies practically panic like this when people who actually suffered from the disaster are doing so well to hold it together.

[Green²]

"First assessment indicates that one of the IAEA operational criteria for evacuation is exceeded in Iitate village. We advised the counterpart to carefully assess the situation. They indicated that they are already assessing.

-IAEA 30 March 2011 http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/...ima300311.html"

The above was from about one week ago. The results of their assessment are now in.

"Iitate village to evacuate pregnant women, kids

-NHK World http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/06_20.html"

[Vexx]

Originally Posted by Shinji103

Yeah, I'd heard that Disaster Report 4 was canned before. (I really don't know anything about those games though, but that's not the point) I fear that while the victims of the quake and tsunami are holding together quite well, these game company businessman are doing their own version of panicking. Do they think that people will do anything drastic like riot or boycott their games if there's even the slightest hint of tragedy connection? I can completely understand the power shortages hurting game development, but this is going really overboard. It just sounds too much like bean counters going paranoid to me. It's really sickening watching these companies practically panic like this when people who actually suffered from the disaster are doing so well to hold it together.

Agreed.. I completely understand power, logistics, missing developers, etc. But the "omg, we can't release this because event X just happened" is utterly .... cowardly????? idiotic???

I haven't quite figured this little cultural artifact out because they've done it a number of times (anime, movies, etc) because of coincidence with some real life event and it really fails to make much sense sometimes.

[FatPianoBoy]

It's just posturing. 'We're willing to lose hundreds of millions of yen so we don't make anyone uncomfortable or upset the wa. Look how considerate of others we are! Don't you want to buy other things from a company that's so concerned for society?'

[SaintessHeart]

Special Report: Japan quake reveals cracks in insurance system

When it comes to earthquakes, the industry's saving grace has been that consumers just aren't paying attention -- until now, that is. Earthquake insurance is so rare in San Francisco and other places where tectonic plates often slip that even insurers are shocked.

Actually, the real reason is that insurers, despite having quake-plan defined insurances, do not want to offer them. The reason is because if there is one, the claims can immediately wipe out the company's entire capital.

Why? Because earthquakes have a radial AOE : shockwaves travel outwards from a single occurrence zone; unlike hurricanes which will only damage anything in its path. The damage to fixed assets is within zone limits - if the claimant has all of his/her assets within that zone, he/she can effectively bankrupt the entire insurance company in one shot.

[Green²]

"Argentina is asking Japan to reconsider its decision to pull out of the Copa America football tournament, offering the Asian nation until April 15 to change its mind.

Japan withdrew on Monday from the Copa America — the South American continental championship — with Japan federation president Junji Ogura saying the country needed to attend to the catastrophe at home set off by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/can...?docId=6476651"

Japan should play.

[Random32]

I think it's understandable that they don't want to release anything. I think a tv channel got criticized for resumig their normal broadcasts too soon.


still, I don't think that anything bad could happen from releasing a game on time...