HOLY CRAP EARTHQUAKE THREAD

[kobushi]

Fun fact to tell foreign nationals fleeing Japan: a one-way flight from Tokyo to New York exposes you 165 times more radiation per hour than the MAXIMUM radiation level detected in Tokyo over the weekend. Cosmic gamma rays FTW.

I'm also amazed that we have detectors sensitive enough to pick up trace amounts of Xenon-133 in California. The level is low enough to be practically non-existent, and since Xenon is a noble gas, the half-life is barely over 5 days.

[Feynman]

Mar 19, 2011 20:09:52 GMT -5 kal said:

In a ridiculous Australian update - people are buying Iodine tablets en masse or what not in preparation of some sort of nuclear apocalypse I can only assume. I'm not sure if they realise how screwed the rest of the planet would be in radiation levels here reached a point where those tablets would serve any sort of purpose.

Man, I'm really going to enjoy watching people buy ridiculous shit when whatever the hell date it is in 2012 draws near. I'm guessing it will be at least as bad a the Y2K panic.

You can always tell who the gullible morons are when stuff like this happens.

[Deleted]

Mar 19, 2011 20:09:52 GMT -5 kal said:

In a ridiculous Australian update - people are buying Iodine tablets en masse or what not in preparation of some sort of nuclear apocalypse I can only assume. I'm not sure if they realise how screwed the rest of the planet would be in radiation levels here reached a point where those tablets would serve any sort of purpose.

They're not the only ones:

yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/03/finns_seek_radiation_protection_with_iodine_pills_2429257.html

Idiots.

[Atma]

I'm moving back to California on the 1st. I'm gonna go play in the fallout. I hope I get an extra arm. Good thing one of my cats collects bottle caps.

I hear Germany wants to ban all episodes of The Simpsons dealing with the safety of reactors. Wouldn't that be a shitton of them? The whole world has gone mad. Also, I hear they want to decommission their plants soon. Just, you know, as a precaution.

Especially since Daiichi was confirmed to have survived 10x the amount of seismic activity it was built to withstand to begin with AND A FUCKING HUGE TSUNAMI on top of it. And it's still like barely cracked. I can think of no better way to believe in the safety of these things and yet I bet we never see another reactor built again. I'm so fucking pissed you have no idea.

I am two minutes away from selling iodized salt to idiots here worried about TEH RADS. Tell them to sprinkle it on their roof. Then when they leave, loot their houses. I would never loot a victim, but I will loot a moron. That's how angry I am.

I donated $50 to UNICEF today to save the children of Japan. They're the ones who have least idea what to do to survive and the stories of orphans are tearing me apart. I hope this helps.

EDIT: I dunno if I've ranted about this or not yet, but if I have, sorry. Coal and Oil plants are much filthier than nuclear reactors. They give off stuff normally that's more dangerous and radioactive than Daiichi is doing now when damaged. The only reason we don't hear about it is PR. Look up flyash and oil/coal plant related incidents and you'll see that not even Chernobyl compares. The only reason any of this immense worldwide bullshit is happening is shit PR.

Fuck the world. Fuck the panic. Fuck the scaremongers and misinformers. I didn't know shit about reactors or how any of it worked until this week and everything I've learned has made me want to put my faith in it after this. But no. We had to get bullshit.

If anyone overseas gets sick from this incident it's by their own damn worry and fault and self medicating. Fucking idiots.

Sorry I'm so mad but I have just had it. I'm at my limit.

[kal]

I'm not too worried about the future of reactors personally Atma, if there's one thing more consistent than people being ridiculously stupid, it's them being cheap. Once the panic and subsequent nothing proceeds it you can be sure that when presented with rapidly inflating power bills or nuclear power the argument will sell itself

[derboo]

Mar 20, 2011 3:01:19 GMT -5 Atma said:

I hear Germany wants to ban all episodes of The Simpsons dealing with the safety of reactors. Wouldn't that be a shitton of them? The whole world has gone mad.

That's Switzerland, at least for now.

Mar 20, 2011 3:01:19 GMT -5 Atma said:

Also, I hear they want to decommission their plants soon. Just, you know, as a precaution.

Actually, that's kinda funny. Germany has been on a course to shut down its plants since 2000, but the current government has elongated the running time just last year, against the general will of the populace. Now they're trying to decommission the oldest ones in a knee-jerk reaction, since everyone says "we told you so."

This has become quite popular after the elongation last fall:

[Atma]

Wow, that's fucking amazing for all the wrong reasons. Just incredible what the reactions this is getting is, and it's not the right ones.

Anyways, Reactors 5 and 6 are in cold shutdown. 2 may have power very soon. 3 and 4 keeps cooling due to water so rad levels are dropping a bit. Hopefully things look up and progress; a good end may come yet, though all of Daiichi is set to be decommissioned after this. I hope they build something cool in its place, even if it's just an omega reactor that can withstand Armageddon itself.

I need sleep. I pray when I get up there's more good news.

[Deleted]

I might have missed it, but have we looked into doing a collection/donation like we did for Child's Play? I'd say this is a little more important.

Problem is that I'm wary of giving to Red Cross since they fucked up big time with 9-11.

...and apparently this is one of the reasons (mistrust of the organizations) that is keeping people from donating as much as they did for Haiti. Oh, and "Japan is a rich country so they don't need help like Haiti did." I guess people only feel like giving when they can feel like they can look down on someone. Good old-fashioned racism. Fuck America. And fuck our liberal, scaremonger journalists that care more about making a story than telling the truth.

This was pretty fucked up. I hope their funding gets cut:
www.npr.org/2011/03/20/134706192/Japanese-Relief-Donations-Not-Necessarily-Welcome

[derboo]

That is not racism, it's a valid consideration (how valid the conclusion is, however, is another question). Who would donate to Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg if their houses gets destroyed?

If (and only if) Japan was fully capable and willing to adequately aid and compensate the victims, any donations would be better targeted to other locations. People in need are never in short supply everywhere around the world.

Call it false assumptions if you may, but don't call it racism, cause that's a clear overreaction on your part.

[Atma]

There's been more than enough racism by Americans over this, sadly, saying this is "karma" for Pearl Harbor. Their not knowing what karma means and not knowing history aside, I will say that America at least is having some serious problems with this.

A good example of such is here. Facebook comments about how they don't give a shit because Japan sucks overlaid on tsunami photos, so don't click if you don't think you can handle it.

I don't know how it is across the rest of the world right now, but even China and Korea are setting aside differences to help. But not these fuckers. May they rot in the lowest depths of the underworld.

Not really any updates today. They're still working on restoring power, but 3 spewed smoke a while but didn't raise any rads or anything and they're back to work. I heard TEPCO was told to entomb them the second this started but they wanted to see if they could salvage it anyways, no source though, so it may be untrue.

Back to bed with me. It's going to be another long day of transcribing news to my family, as it has been every day since this started. (Which is where I am in case anyone is wondering.) Never tell anyone you even know a word of Japanese. I don't mind helping but it is taking a toll on my sanity and health now, though I'm not giving up until Daiichi is resolved one way or another.

[derboo]

Mar 21, 2011 8:42:13 GMT -5 Atma said:

There's been more than enough racism by Americans over this, sadly, saying this is "karma" for Pearl Harbor.

Well, that sounds more like racism.

[Deleted]

Derboo, while I might have overreacted, I still stand by my opinion that there is a racist undertones at work. Sort of like Atma mentioned, there's a lot of ignorant stuff being said by people over here, and that includes the media. "Celebrities" have been making jokes about the death and destruction and saying it's ok because of Pearl Harbor, or saying things like that they're glad because now there will be less "Chinese women" for their men to chase after.

I'm not sure how things are in Germany; however, in America there's an unwritten rule that it's "ok" to be racist against Asians. You can say and do nasty things in TV shows about East Asians and people from India/Pakistan and adjacent regions without fear of reprisal. Whenever Asian interest groups complain about it, the guilty parties get off with a slap on the wrist, while if they'd made fun of blacks, hispanics, or certain religious groups they would be ruined for life.

So yeah, maybe I'm biased, but I'm also seriously pissed at shit like this happening, because it's unfair and it just adds to the walls everyone seems to keep up between them and other groups.

So yeah, fuck the dipshits in my country.

[derboo]

Yeah, I totally get that. My complaint was geared to that statement:

I guess people only feel like giving when they can feel like they can look down on someone.

... as I don't quite see that kind of racism in the argument of not trying to help people who are capable of helping themselves.

[Deleted]

Mar 21, 2011 18:09:17 GMT -5 derboo said:

Yeah, I totally get that. My complaint was geared to that statement:

I guess people only feel like giving when they can feel like they can look down on someone.

... as I don't quite see that kind of racism in the argument of not trying to help people who are capable of helping themselves.

Yeah, I could have worded that better. I guess I should have said that a lot of the charity stuff here seems very shallow and superficial. Combined with some of the nasty stuff mentioned above, it just has unpleasant undertones, whether they're related or not.

[LouieBee]

Charity is broken anyway. Take a look at this article:

www.thecrimson.com/article/2006/5/15/corrupt-charities-pstrongcorrection-appended-see-belowstrongp/