Japan

[dennis_lambert]

Just thought I would send out my Heart and Prayers to all of the people our Friends and Family in Japan,
I wish I could be there to Directly help out!
Its unfortunate how in some respect it takes something like this to make one realize what is really important in life....

[jessef]

x2

[Shaun Van Ramen]

make it x4.
The Hunny and I are off on Monday to the Land of the Rising Sun. Fortunately her family was not in harms way. I really want to take a shovel or something with me to help out. While there we are going to look into direct aid of some kind.

[konadog]

Grim alright - and now the meltdown :( Horrible...

[dennis_lambert]

Any News on the Reactor?..last I heard the outer Building was destroyed but the Core Reactor was still intact..If they can keep it cool.If there is a Melt down a jet stream leads right across Southern BC that might carry Radioactive fallout here!!

[dennis_lambert]

Sounds like there was a second large Hydrogen blast today..Still has not penetrated the Steel outer Shield protecting the Core.They are now pumping seawater in to the reactor as a last effort to prevent a Chain reaction...Melt down.
This is Awful!!
I think we should all pray tonight that the Experts are able to get the Reactor cool and under control...

[tonydca]

The mouth-breathers at CNN are quick to spread a lot of misinformation about the nuclear problems over there.

The fact is that nuclear power plants are inherently safe by design (unless you are building a Russian-designed, graphite-cased reactor with defeatable safety overrides...) The nuclear reaction which normally occurs in the core of an operating reactor was shut down less than a minute after the earthquake hit. All of the explosions and issues over the following hours and days is involved with getting rid of the residual heat from decay products.

If you can get through it, this is a really really good article about how this event will likely play itself out and, while it is no doubt a serious thing, it will not be another Chernobyl:

http://theenergycollective.com/barrybro ... xplanation

More people will die from catching cold and drinking unsafe water over the next few weeks than could possibly happen from their nuclear plants. But that doesn't make for sexy news broadcasts...

My thoughts go out to all of them.

Edit: Here's a small feel-good article in the midst of all this:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/ma ... -fukushima

[jaggedfish]

My brother has been following this closely too and I have to agree with Tony. The news agencies like to 'glamourize' their reports in order to make theirs better than the competition. They are quick to report smoke when it is actually steam. The radiation leakages are far less of a threat than what is being reported also (still a threat, granted). The half-life of what is leaking (iodine, I believe), according to what my bro has told me, is in the hours versus decades and even centuries of other elements.

While this event is a collosal catastrophe and it carries a lot of human tradegy that will last for a long time, I have yet to see a report on how much of Japan was affected by the worst of it. I have not been glued to the TV either so I have likely missed some of it.

My thoughts are with those who are suffering as a result of this event. It is a terrible tragedy whatever the scale.

[marsgal42]

I'm getting really annoyed at the media fixation on the reactors. With thousands of people dead or missing, hundreds of billions of property damage, whole towns wiped out, you know how many people have been killed at the reactor sites?

ONE

A crane fell on him.

...laura

[Spearo]

Let's not feed the negative energy that the media lives on in our nice little part of cyberspace.

You can donate a few bucks to the relief effort and create some positive energy with tangible results by texting 5 or 10$ off your phone bill. Google it or look at your cel provider.

Cheers,
Erik (1200 km inland and not far off the solid Canadian Shield, thanks).

[konadog]

Seems pretty reasonable that there is concern over the potential for reactor meltdown... Pretty serious stuff. And from what I've seen the interest in the nuclear problems haven't taken away from the catastrophe of the quake and the tsunami and the misery they caused...
Good luck to the people there.

[Yokohama]

Japan has enough problems without this. Japanese people are too awesome for all of this! I find Japanese the Japanese people I have meet and the ones I know to be very charming in a very Japanese way.

It was pointed out that many pivotal points in Japanese history occurred in the aftermath of a large quake. I wonder if this could be a kind of point where the nation heads in a new direction.

[Shaun Van Ramen]

Having watched CBC, BBC and NHK, I find the difference in reporting interesting. NHK, for example, never showed images of the reactor explosions. Some people (here in Japan - since that is where I am at the moment) are upset at the Gov't not telling the whole story in regards to Fukushima.

Worse still is that in one town of 17,000 inhabitants, 9,500 are not accounted for and presumed washed out to sea.

Most of the damage is in NE Japan from Tokyo to almost the northern tip of Honshu.

Keep sending the good karma to them and a few $$'s can't hurt either.

[dennis_lambert]

Apparently there has been another a 6.2 Aftershock this morning at 6.30AM...These poor people,
And I heard One of the Reactors is now Boiling....
On a more positive note I received an E-mail from Steve (A Canadian) at Sastrad KK an Exporter of Delicas in Japan and a really great guy and he is OK..all thing considered.

[Profister]

Some aftermath in pictures...
http://totallycoolpix.com/2011/03/the-j ... aftermath/