[Bernard L. Madoff]

Good god.

Kurihara gone.

Sedanai amazing videos of the wave.

DYOR (I suggest www.bbc.co.uk )

[sydney3000]

It was astounding watching cars drive down the road as the water was rushing across the agricultural fields.

It kind of puts a damper on my third trip to Tokyo at the end of March.

[Chimerica]

There's some serious shifting of the Earth's plates going on, along with volcano eruptions. Could these events be man made (underwater nuclear testing perhaps?) to disrupt the goings on in North Africa, kick start the ailing global economy through rebuilding, GFC II prevention or distraction?

Someone mentioned about Japanese whaling ships being seen off rather easily by the anti whaling brigade a couple of weeks ago. Makes you wonder if there is a connection of sorts.

I'd be cacking my pants if I lived in San Francisco (San Andreas fault).

This post has been edited by Chimerica: 11 March 2011 - 11:32 AM

[Bernard L. Madoff]

[urchin]

this is going to be huge. thousands dead, at least. the only "good" thing is that the earthquake didn't take place a couple of hundred of kilometers to the south. then it would be tens of thousands... for japan, it impacted a relatively sparsely populated area. but the news is just going to get worse and worse. one of the news broadcasts that i saw said that all of the emergency diesel generators used to cool one of the nuclear power plants had been knocked offline. the reactors shut down automatically but, while i'm not a nuclear physicist, i'm assuming that the presence of emergency cooling power generators means that such generators are kind of important. i think we should count ourselves fortunate if we don't get a major nuclear disaster out of this. anything less than that is a good result. this earthquake was just unbelievably big. i've experienced magnitude 6 earthquakes and they are plenty scary. this would be something like a 100 times more powerful... ugh.

as for visiting tokyo though, it shouldn't have any impact. unless you are visiting oil refineries in which case i would recommend a change of plans. tokyo escaped relatively unscathed.

[urchin]

2000 people evacuated in a 2 kilometer radius surrounding a nuclear power plant in fukushima... standard procedure they say, but what else would they say? i would be moving a hell of lot more than 2 km away if it were me. in fact, i would probably decide that is a good time for a vacation to okinawa...

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Body count going up, 2 reactors in doubt, the one Urchin refers has cooling water issues, refinery on fire.

PS Don't forget the sh*tstorm in Libya folks

[tom]

ABC is showing it continuously I have been glued to the chair watching.

Japan appears at least to be well prepared, or as prepared for such things as one can be.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

tom, on 11 March 2011 - 02:45 PM, said:

Japan appears at least to be well prepared, or as prepared for such things as one can be.

+100

Architecturally and socially (EQ training and general discipline and restraint). I still fear 5,000++

As a society they are cool and calm individuals.

[tor]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 11 March 2011 - 03:03 PM, said:

+100

Architecturally and socially (EQ training and general discipline and restraint). I still fear 5,000++

As a society they are cool and calm individuals.

I just woke up. I saw it on the news last night before going to sleep but I was really tired so this morning I just assumed it was a dream. 8.9! Like Urchin says they got really lucky.

[sydney3000]

Chimerica, on 11 March 2011 - 11:27 AM, said:

There's some serious shifting of the Earth's plates going on, along with volcano eruptions. Could these events be man made (underwater nuclear testing perhaps?) to disrupt the goings on in North Africa, kick start the ailing global economy through rebuilding, GFC II prevention or distraction?

Someone mentioned about Japanese whaling ships being seen off rather easily by the anti whaling brigade a couple of weeks ago. Makes you wonder if there is a connection of sorts.

That someone was me. I have a good nose for detecting things outside the norm because I am not normal. Life without conspiracy theories is boring.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 11 March 2011 - 02:04 PM, said:

2 reactors in doubt,

Japan declares nuclear emergency

[Solomon]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 12 March 2011 - 02:19 AM, said:

Japan declares nuclear emergency

The disaster of the tsunamai just took on new dimensions.
From the images I have seen, I'm expecting thousands killed.
But nuclear fall-out being released into the atmosphere might be a different matter.

The TV just can't truly represent the scale of the wave that's for sure.
Bernard, your photo is just graphic reality.
That wave is almost as high as the pine trees it is encountering.
That is a massive weight and power of water.

This planet is certainly alerting humans to our miniscule attempts to think that we can possibly control its awesome forces.

Like all natural disasters of this magnitude, there will be many thousands of people never recovered.
How sad for their families and friends, to not even have a body to lay to rest.
I extend my sympathies to the japanese people.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

Solomon, on 12 March 2011 - 02:57 AM, said:

Bernard, your photo is just graphic reality.
That wave is almost as high as the pine trees it is encountering.
That is a massive weight and power of water.

A photo shortly after...

[tor]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 12 March 2011 - 02:19 AM, said:

Japan declares nuclear emergency

Their reactors are much more modern than chernobyl (which I know is what the media are trying to enhance ratings with). From memory theirs are all coolant shutdown types where the lack of coolant means you can't restart them. You might have to vent a little radioactive gas and, given the paranoia about radiation, this is rated as an emergency but seriously the other sh*t in the air from, say, the oil thing that blew up will totally outweigh the radiation I think.

After all how many people die every year per KW for coal and nuclear power? When you work that out remember just how easy it is to trace any nuclear deaths and really really hard to trace coal related deaths.

[Bernard L. Madoff]

They are releasing radioactive steam to ease pressure...

Govt. orders ‘unprecedented’ release at Japan nuke plant

Nuclear Crisis at Fukushima

[zaph]

Bernard L. Madoff, on 12 March 2011 - 02:19 AM, said:

Japan declares nuclear emergency

I've heard the Americans are sending over some coolant. i sent over a 5l bottle. i think they will be fine. at worst the news report i listened to said they might have to vent some 'harmless' gasses.

[zaph]

tor, on 12 March 2011 - 03:50 AM, said:

Their reactors are much more modern than chernobyl (which I know is what the media are trying to enhance ratings with). From memory theirs are all coolant shutdown types where the lack of coolant means you can't restart them. You might have to vent a little radioactive gas and, given the paranoia about radiation, this is rated as an emergency but seriously the other sh*t in the air from, say, the oil thing that blew up will totally outweigh the radiation I think.

After all how many people die every year per KW for coal and nuclear power? When you work that out remember just how easy it is to trace any nuclear deaths and really really hard to trace coal related deaths.

the reactors are much larger than Chernobyls. if it explodes it's going to be huge. although i doubt the japs are so stupid as to not have a tertiary disaster plan.

carbon fuel burning pumps way more radioactive sh*t into the atmosphere than a nuclear reactor exploding every would. it's just consistent and dispersed.

[urchin]

according to the latest news reports the coolant level has receded to the point where ~90 cm of the fuel rods are exposed... this, it seems, is not a good thing as they will start to melt if left this way...

[urchin]

there appear to be indications that the rods in reactor 1 are starting to melt. the level of the coolant has dropped another 80 centimeters (now leaving 1.7 meters of the rods exposed) since the last update. they have detected the release of cesium which, apparently, indicates melting...

and the same talking heads ("experts" of nuclear safety) that were on japanese tv 2 hours ago telling people in the 3-10 km radius to stay indoors and not panic are now saying that they probably won't be able to get everyone out of the 10km zone before they have to vent gasses (which, it seems, are not as harmless as they said 2 hours ago). 10km? f-that. i'd start driving the opposite direction the wind is blowing for at least 100 kms. the safety "experts" on the japanese news are getting very sweaty and nervous and keep saying how it is a "very serious situation"... that cannot be good...