FA+
Shop
Poor Japan... O___O
14 years ago
"MORELS taste good in omelettes..."
I have some very distant relatives out there- never met them, though, but I feel for them if they were anywhere near the epicentre. Their name is Matsuo, if anyone knows folks in that family, wish them well.
8.9 on the Richter scale. Holy... Supposedly 8000 times stronger than the New Zealand quake that hit two weeks ago (there's was a 6.5). First heard about the tsunamis from my mother- she's in one of the areas affected here in North America, but she's far enough inland that it shouldn't be a problem. She's safe. My brother was in Hong Kong, last I checked- I better find out if he's still there and if he's near enough the coast for me to worry.
UPDATE: No tsunami reported for Hong Kong- too many other poor fucks in the way.
Nuclear reactor with a cooling malfunction is a big scary thing in Japan- the quake damaged some systems, but I think they've gotten that under control and have evacuated a lot of people out. Fires raging through whole districts. Fuck, parts of Miyagi Prefecture look like Hiroshima.
Photos: http://framework.latimes.com/2011/0.....hits-japan/#/0
Aid-centres you can donate to:
http://www.redcross.org/
https://www.internationalmedicalcor......aspx?pid=1967
http://www.globalgiving.org/project.....sunami-relief/
https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/Sh.....ineGiving.html
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
There are many others, and I'm sure, with a little digging, you can find ones specifically in Japan. My extended family thanks you all.
8.9 on the Richter scale. Holy... Supposedly 8000 times stronger than the New Zealand quake that hit two weeks ago (there's was a 6.5). First heard about the tsunamis from my mother- she's in one of the areas affected here in North America, but she's far enough inland that it shouldn't be a problem. She's safe. My brother was in Hong Kong, last I checked- I better find out if he's still there and if he's near enough the coast for me to worry.
UPDATE: No tsunami reported for Hong Kong- too many other poor fucks in the way.
Nuclear reactor with a cooling malfunction is a big scary thing in Japan- the quake damaged some systems, but I think they've gotten that under control and have evacuated a lot of people out. Fires raging through whole districts. Fuck, parts of Miyagi Prefecture look like Hiroshima.
Photos: http://framework.latimes.com/2011/0.....hits-japan/#/0
Aid-centres you can donate to:
http://www.redcross.org/
https://www.internationalmedicalcor......aspx?pid=1967
http://www.globalgiving.org/project.....sunami-relief/
https://app.etapestry.com/hosted/Sh.....ineGiving.html
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
There are many others, and I'm sure, with a little digging, you can find ones specifically in Japan. My extended family thanks you all.
I think a lot of their taller buildings are specifically engineered to be more resistant than usual to earthquakes. Saw a documentary on TV about it once, they had some neat tricks going in there.
And we are talking about a country that survived and came back strong after TWO direct hits by nukes. It takes some serious willpower to drag yourself back to your feet and start running again after something like that. I always admired them for that sort of determination to survive.
Been seeing a lot of these disasters lately, earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes. Have they always been this frequent?
Maybe we're really starting to piss old Mother Nature off...
Japan is an amazing place, from what I can see: they're tough, ingenious, hard-working, wonderfully intelligent in how they design even the simplest of things. They have an aesthetic in their everyday objects that I can only breathlessly admire... We could learn so much from their culture and it's outlook. I'm not as "in love" with their strong sense of social conformity, though. Yey, they still leave room for individual rebellion for a span in their youth, understanding something about human psychology on a cultural level that the rebels will either integrate the rebellion into their day-to-day and make it work, or they'll just give it up and fit in that way. Mostly sensible way to run a society, methinks.
They must have figured out something that the rest of us haven't anyway...
But with my financial situation, I think I'm stuck where I am for life.
Besides, I'm lousy at learning languages, and Japanese seems to be one of the most complex out there.
Things like context and slang might drive you bats for a while, but you'll probably be able to pick Japanese up before to long. I've been considering learning it, too, along with Mandarin and Spanish, though I dunno when I'll actually get to it. I can be lazy.
I'm attention-deficit too. So I have loads of things I've started, but very few I can actually finish
It's really not a good thing for a wannabe writer to have, lol.
Good luck to Japan. Let's hope the upcoming earthquake will be far less strong.
Still really bad mojo, though.
This line especially- "The energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.[2]" Perhaps that's why the report said 8000 times stronger, instead of 2.some-odd orders of magnitude higher...
Still one holy-shit-fuck of a huge quake.
I hope the best for Japan
Back to the serious stuff: yeah, I'm hoping they can get the reactors shut down- one is having a cooling malfunction and if that goes kaboom... Oh maaaan.
One friend is in Tokyo and another is an American living in Kyoto.
Tokyo felt the shocks they aren't as damaged as where the epicentre was. I'd have to see a map to know where in relation to Miyagi Prefecture Tokyo is, though...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukush.....the_earthquake
I donate to Doctors Without Borders, btw - not sure if they're headed to Japan yet but they're a good, non-religious humanitarian group.
Unfortunately though much of my energy is vested in another part of the world, so please forgive me if I appear.. lacking sincerity in my words.