|
|
Post by Warchief Onyx on Mar 12, 2011 11:41:30 GMT -5
The media today is sensationalist by nature. This isn't just limited to America. But it's an international thing. This includes Glorious Nippon.
So really, let's not turn a thread about a truly horrific event into a pissing contest about Japan being superior to America or whatever. I think it's insulting to the people over there who have suffered so much heartache and loss.
|
|
|
|
Post by Weasel on Mar 12, 2011 12:47:06 GMT -5
Yeah really, that kind of discussion doesn't seem appropriate for a thread about a country that just simultaneously got earthquaked, tsunamied, and radiation-warninged (making nouns into verbs since 1997!) and STILL doesn't give up its fighting spirit.
|
|
|
|
Post by zogbog on Mar 12, 2011 13:49:43 GMT -5
Yea let’s not turn this into a discussion about how the media would prefer to report stories that scare people. Japan just survived a very horrific ordeal and it may not even be over because of the damage it's done to the infrastructure and the potential of aftershocks. I hope they can get over this all quickly and that they can find survivors. Anyone know who is providing aid to Japan or are they getting by quite well by themselves because of good planning and preparation from living in one of the most earth quake happy parts of the world?
|
|
|
|
Post by kitten on Mar 12, 2011 15:49:08 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Mar 12, 2011 19:42:34 GMT -5
I wasn't trying to slander anyone or anything. Finland and Germany have been a bit worse than us in reporting and still won't get the facts straight. I'm merely pointing out that when shit happens, news reporters tend to be fucking morons and make up shit. It is literally impossible for a light boiling water reactor like Fukushima's Daiichi to explode. This took me 5 minutes of study to find out.
Meanwhile we have CNN using Twitter jokes as a source of news. It's honestly really depressing to see this going on and causing needless panic in our populace when we should be helping donate and report the facts. I don't think anyone is superior to anything on Earth but it disgusts me to see a bunch of our own reporters acting all NUCLEAR FUCKING MELTODWN CHERNOBYL 2.0 THE PACIFIC IS GONNA DIEEEEE
Also, I've been hearing that our Red Cross donations aren't getting through yet and possibly may not. Last I heard they hadn't officially been given the green light to send it to the victims. If they have now, I'd encourage giving to them.
EDIT: Let's drop this subject entirely and move on to the science behind this. It's kind of fascinating the things that have been happening. I heard that the Earth was tilted so far from this our day has been sped up by 1.x microseconds. That's baffling to me; I didn't know physics worked that way. Incredible.
|
|
|
|
Post by kobushi on Mar 12, 2011 20:46:47 GMT -5
Good morning, everyone.
Atma, I understand your anger about the sleazy reporting. News organizations feel the need to provide 24 HOUR NONSTOP COVERAGE even when they have nothing to report.
Here's two examples (one American and one Japanese) that pissed me off yesterday:
1. CNN(?) ran this video montage of disaster "money shots" complete with tear-jerker slow piano music, Lost-style. The images speak for themselves, there's no need to ham it up.
2. On one of the Japanese channels (I forget which one, all channels are basically identical right now), there was an exchange between a nuclear expert and a news anchor about the Fukushima problem. It went something like this.
Expert: "The detected radiation has decreased from 1000 micro-Sv to 70 micro-Sv over the last few hours, which indicates that leakage has been suppressed and the nuclear core is undamaged."
Anchor: "But what should people in the area do to avoid radiation?"
Expert: "As long as you get out and stay out of the danger zone, you should be fine. Outside of the 20km radius, the radiation level isn't even detectable."
Anchor: "But if radiation got inside someone's body, that would be bad, right?"
Expert: "....well yeah, but unless you are still extremely close to the reactor, the radiation level is comparable to the cosmic background radiation we all experience every single day."
Anchor: "But what about..."
This went on for several minutes, with the anchor trying to tease some kind of sensationalist worst-case scenario out of the expert. I'm just glad the expert didn't play along.
Incidentally, some radioactive material was detected on the clothes of 9 evacuees, but it was very mild and they are expected to be fine.
It's also just the imprecision of language - in English, "meltdown" sounds like it's the end of the fucking world. In reality, the tips of a couple fuel rods softened a little due to lack of coolant, kind of like a chocolate bar on a warm day. Obviously this is not good, and some cesium was released into the atmosphere, but it's not like the reactor core is a molten ball of death right now.
Meanwhile, the Japanese word for radiation exposure (被ばく - hibaku) literally means "one who is bombed". It's a scary word that obviously originates from Hiroshima/Nagasaki. But having a little cesium dust on your jacket and being bombarded by a nuclear weapon are two very different things, and the word hibaku does a terrible job of making that distinction.
edit: OK, I'm dumb. hibaku meaning "bombed" and hibaku meaning "exposure" are etymologically distinct, and have the same pronunciation by coincidence. But, since the words often appear together when talking about atomic weapons, they are easily confused, and many people (like me) assume that they are the same word.
|
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Mar 12, 2011 21:48:56 GMT -5
Anyone sensationalizing this for panic and/or profit and/or ratings is the scum of the Earth right now. There's even fake maps being circulated online about how much the west and mid-west US and Canada is all gonna drop dead from a massive radiation cloud sent out east over the Pacific (which is almost physically impossible) and it was made just to incite panic. So so gross.
Sorry if I seem like I'm clogging this topic up. My grandmother is on vacation and keeps calling concerned about this since I talk to some people in Japan and I'm trying to help others get some facts out. If I've offended anyone I'm sorry now. It was never my intentions to.
Be safe and well out there. I'll be donating when my grandmother gets back next week.
|
|
|
|
Post by Feynman on Mar 13, 2011 0:11:31 GMT -5
1. CNN(?) ran this video montage of disaster "money shots" complete with tear-jerker slow piano music, Lost-style. The images speak for themselves, there's no need to ham it up. I saw that on the network news yesterday! I couldn't believe it. I was sitting there thinking, "I don't need a montage of destruction with sad music to know that this is a horrible tragedy! What the fuck is wrong with you!?" I mean really, the actual news an the images that went along with it are, as you say, enough by themselves. They didn't need to add extra drama! It reminded me of those "remember 9/11" anniversary montages the news likes to run every couple years, only instead of something that happened years ago, they did it for something that happened like 12 fucking hours ago. Regarding the reactor: A damaged nuclear reactor is nothing to take lightly, but I do think that in this case they're trying to sensationalize it a lot. The nuclear plant is like the least damaging aspect of this entire disaster so far. Of course, it doesn't help that the science behind radiation and nuclear plants isn't something that Joe Schmoe really knows anything about... general society (in the US at least) has been conditioned for decades to view anything to do with radioactivity as super ultra scary and terrifying. When most people think "nuclear reactor," they think about Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. And as you said Kobushi, it doesn't help that the terms we use make nuclear activity sound extra scary in the first place! |
|
|
|
Post by muteKi on Mar 13, 2011 2:50:16 GMT -5
I mean, the best part of how well they have it contained is that this is pretty much the strongest earthquake in recorded history. If there's a better sign that nuclear power is nowhere near as dangerous as a lot of people like to make it sound (*cough cough*Ted Turner*cough*), it's this.
|
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Mar 13, 2011 3:00:54 GMT -5
|
|
|
|
Post by Reiji-kun on Mar 13, 2011 9:02:57 GMT -5
Christ, that's terrible. I'm at a loss for words.
|
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Mar 13, 2011 9:06:17 GMT -5
Hey so I hear Mt Kirishima, a volcano, is spewing ash in southern Japan now.
I give up. I want off this planet.
EDIT: It's apparently been spewing a few months now? If so, damn it has some bad timing.
|
|
|
|
Post by Atma on Mar 13, 2011 21:52:02 GMT -5
Double post. I got more depressing photos. These ones are very very hard to look at so don't click if you couldn't handle the before and after shots. HereAs far as the reactors go, I heard they were only built to survive a 7.9 and that they were built in the 70s, so all things considered, I am impressed with their engineering now. Beyond impressed. Any new ones built should survive an Armageddon. Or three. I've been getting most of my news sources off of live translated feeds and friends so if any of it winds up being wrong, lemme know. EDIT: As far as charities go, I hear the International Red Cross and such are now officially taking donations for this and from the American Red Cross, so I'd use them. They technically weren't and I've been waiting for confirmation of the fact my money would actually get there before doing so. |
|
|
|
Post by Revolver Ocelot on Mar 14, 2011 2:33:43 GMT -5
I give up. I want off this planet. I think it's pretty clear Earth wants us off too. There's no point in me sharing my grief because it would be a parody of the grief the people in the country are feeling right now. All I can say is... if you love your Japanese games and your anime and your manga and whatnot, there's no better time to thank them for all your years of enjoyment than now. Donate. Kamina would want you to.  |
|
|
|
Post by Reiji-kun on Mar 14, 2011 2:53:55 GMT -5
The sheer magnitude of this disaster is unbelievable. I wouldn't want something this bad to happen to my own or any other country, myself. It's both amazing, and frightening.
Makes me wish we had a real live Captain Planet out there to protect Japan when it was facing this disaster, or at least help do something about all that debris.
I also kind of wonder if any game HQs took any serious damage, like Atlus, Capcom, or SNK, on the side of things.
|
|
