Japan

[moi621 (imported)]

NBC Evening News

The WORLD aka Earth has been canceled.

Pre-empted by Japan.

which is only devastated.

Forget it Libya.

You have been replaced as news worthy.

Moi

smoke screen news coverage

[Riverwind (imported)]

NBC Evening News

The WORLD aka Earth has been canceled.

Pre-empted by Japan.

which is only devastated.

Forget it Libya.

You have been replaced as news worthy.

Moi

smoke screen news coverage

The difference is we love Japan, they are one of our best friends and they are hurting right now, Libya has never been our friend, ever, going back to T. Jefferson. So yes when your best friend is hurt its news over your worst nightmare. But don't worry, Libya will be back in the news for you and the oil prices will keep going up so you should be back on your cloud by Monday.

River

[moi621 (imported)]

Disaster weary all over again!

I guess bad news sells and the more horrific the better.

It is almost as bad as when the local news stations dedicate their full time to a live action coverage of a police chase. Ever since OJ.

I had to laugh at the headline that there is concern the Japanese are not telling all about the radiation leaks. Surprise. Surprise. Surprise.

For Moi it was more of a "Major Duh-uh".

If the Japanese who like the French are admired for their dedication and safety of Nuclear reactors can experience this catastrophe, the writing is on the wall for nuclear. Is it going to take a Hindenburg experience to convince? Something with a bigger bang then slow poisoning?

Moi

Too close to San Onofre but outside the projected evacuation zone.

[Wellesley (imported)]

Interesting posts,

Anyway, yeah they are probably lying about the nuclear issues, general panic in an area full of old people is not a good idea they remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki (I know it is not the same thing at all but .... they might not get it)

Towns, cities, trains etc are all missing. The news footage reminds me of the cities in Europe after the war (same kind of damage as firebombing to my eye anyway, wood structures are gone and some concrete ones remain)

I used to live up there. Scary stuff.

Thanks for all the concern, we are all fine down here being closer to Okinawa than to Tokyo

[Dave (imported)]

Y'all know that I worked with high pressure hydrogen (that's why turning coal into oil is called hydrogenation and liquefaction) and the buildings are made to fly apart.

THe first job I had was to trace piping and materials through a new plant. I also had to review the hot, high pressure bays and what you do is to locate the control room behind a significantly solid barrier and the hot high pressure portion of the plant on the other side of that barrier. The rest of the building is only to protect the equipment from the weather. IF THE EXPLOSIVE LIMIT IS REACHED AND THE BUILDING BLOWS, then the three sides of weather protection get blown away from the control room.

That's what we're seeing - hydrogen is explosive from 4% in air to something around 90% in air. Terrible, terrible stuff to work with. In 30 years, we (I and my coworkers) never made a molecule go boom. We're seeing buildings designed to blow away in case of an H2 accumulation.

This is still serious, very serious but the metal container holding the core is still intact. The core might have partially melted or (more accurately) suffered severe heat damage but the core's nuclear material is still inside the metal container.

One last thought -- this is why I take safety so serious and seem to get so pissed off at unsafe things. I wrong move and I could have killed people. And I wasn't working with the worst stuff in chemistry and science. Just something very dangerous.

[moi621 (imported)]

Dave.

Your possible mistake and its' consequences would have been very, very local compared to

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjx-JlwYtyE

And such quietness regarding the malignancies.

Deafening silence.

Moi

Just Say No To Nuclear

[bobover3 (imported)]

The news from Japan keeps getting worse. It seems they were close to melt-down at two reactors before flooding them with sea water. According to the NY Times, this flooding will require the permanent closing of the reactors. This cooling process will require the regular release of radioactive steam for as much as a year. Large areas around the reactors will have to evacuated at least that long. At least three workers have already been hospitalized with radiation sickness. And this is just the beginning. The Japanese government has said radiation is lessening. I'm sure it is, but how high was it, and how high is it still, and how high will it remain as they continue to release deadly steam? I suppose there's no point in creating panic, but this is an unmitigated disaster. Added to the devastation caused by the quake and tsunami, Japan may be set back decades.

[Riverwind (imported)]

As long as they don't start eating green glowing fish I think they will be OK.

River

[Caith721 (imported)]

OK, I AM WAITING!! I KNOW it is going to happen, and I am frankly surprised it has taken this long... If I have to point it out it is wayyyyy overdue. So what is it that I just KNOW is going to happen?

Some hyper-religious lunatic now must claim that the Japanese caused this earthquake because they did not send enough money to the "Church of the Lunatic Fringe" or who ever.

Sadly, I just heard it on AP Radio News: The outspoken governor of Tokyo, Shintaro Ishihara, told reporters Monday that the disaster was "punishment from heaven" because Japanese have become greedy.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/art ... om-heaven-

Seriously? How incredibly small-minded are these people?

[JesusA (imported)]

OK, I AM WAITING!! I KNOW it is going to happen, and I am frankly surprised it has taken this long... If I have to point it out it is wayyyyy overdue. So what is it that I just KNOW is going to happen?

Some hyper-religious lunatic now must claim that the Japanese caused this earthquake because they did not send enough money to the "Church of the Lunatic Fringe" or who ever.

The first prominent nutcase I’ve found claiming that the earthquake and tsunami were part of some grand plan is not some pseudo-Christian American, as I had expected, but Ishihara Shintaro, the nutcase governor of Tokyo Prefecture. He’s made some outrageous statements before (he’s nearly a match for Palin or Bachman), but today he announced that the disaster was “Heaven’s Punishment for selfish egoism.” The tsunami would “wash away the selfishness of the Japanese people.”

石原慎太郎・東京都知事は１４日、東日本大震災に関して、「日本人のアイデンティティーは我欲。この津波 をうまく利用して我欲を１回洗い落とす必要がある。やっぱり天罰だと思う」と述べた。都内で報道陣に、大震 災への国民の対応について感想を問われて答えた。

発言の中で石原知事は「アメリカのアイデンティティーは自由。フランスは自由と博愛と平等。日本はそんな ものはない。我欲だよ。物欲、金銭欲」と指摘した上で、「我欲に縛られて政治もポピュリズムでやっている。 それを（津波で）一気に押し流す必要がある。積年たまった日本人の心のあかを」と話した。一方で「被災者の 方々はかわいそうですよ」とも述べた。

http://www.asahi.com/special/tokyo/TKY201103140356.html

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