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#343454 - 17/03/2011 00:53 Events in Japan.
gbeer
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
Something got lost in all of the news about the tsunami and the reactor meltdown.

It seems that Japan's building codes really worked for them.

A quick search of google news (collapsed buildings japan, in the last week) yielded mostly first person accounts of views about how they were worried the building was going to fall.
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Glenn

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#343455 - 17/03/2011 01:02 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: gbeer]
tonyc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
Japanese building codes are strict because they know their risk of earthquakes and tsunamis is so high. There was nothing that could have saved the areas that got washed away by the tsunami, but so many of their buildings did survive because of those strict codes, and in retrospect, I bet their ROI is 10-fold or more, even before you factor in the loss of human life. There isn't an investment out there that will get you that rate of return, and it makes me jealous as I look around at America's infrastructure crumbling to pieces as we defer more and more maintenance of our water mains, bridges, tunnels, and roads, not to mention the complete disregard for mass transit.

I think the Japanese economy will survive this shock, and it's in no small part due to their investment in the country's infrastructure.
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my empeg stuff

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#343458 - 17/03/2011 01:41 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: gbeer]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Japan is one of the most prepared places in the world for disasters that could strike, be it earthquake, tsunami, or volcano. While any loss of life is tragic in situations like these, it could have been far worse had the 5th largest recorded earthquake occurred elsewhere.

It is definitely impressive to see the safety measures working for the most part. Their early warning system gave many people an alert that they needed to take cover. In Tokyo, this warning was close to a minute before the damaging S waves arrived. This system is integrated into quite a few different places, including all the mass transit trains. While the tsunami did cause the loss of a train, not a single train was derailed due to the actual earthquake. Between the warning system, and great public education, countless lives were saved. The government there has a video showing the system, and what to do when it is activated. Eerily, the same site has a video posted about tsunamis a day before the earthquake.

I was still up the night the event occurred, and watched a lot of the initial footage coming out of the country. Many of the early videos showed newsrooms preparing for the earthquake before it struck their area, with people getting face masks on and hiding under desks. Initially, it was reported as a 7.9, and as time went on, it inched up to 8.4, then eventually 8.9. What was truly heartbreaking was watching the tsunami waves wash over so many different areas of the northern countryside.

I'm not sure if we have any active users from Japan these days, but in any case I hope they were out of harms way.

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#343459 - 17/03/2011 01:57 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: drakino]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Originally Posted By: drakino

I'm not sure if we have any active users from Japan these days, but in any case I hope they were out of harms way.


I have several friends that live in Nagoya - all ok.
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~ John

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#343470 - 17/03/2011 11:27 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: JBjorgen]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3582
Loc: Columbus, OH
Just received this email from my friends in Nagoya:

Quote:

Thank you for your continued prayers and encouragement. We are continuing to respond to the situation as we gain new information. First, here is some of the latest information about the scale of the disaster:

* Over 400,000 people are currently living in shelters
* Death tolls are unofficially over 10,000 people
* 1.5 million homes are without running water

The nuclear situation has not improved as concern is growing that the government may not be able to prevent some type of reactor failure. There has also been a significant amount of misinformation about what a worse case scenario may look like. Our best sources indicate a catastrophic failure would only effect a 30 km perimeter around the nuclear plant. While this would have implications for the immediate area, our staff and church are over 400 km away. That said, this situation is very concerning for those providing relief closer to the reactors and we must continue to monitor this closely.

As we mentioned in our previous email, we sent a scouting team to attempt to make it into the disaster zone. Our group traveled for over 12 hours, struggling to find gas and was then obstructed by snow and poor weather conditions. We eventually decided to abort their trip out of concern that they could be stranded without reaching the affected areas. As you can imagine, this was highly disappointing to our team. We are thankful for the valiant efforts of the scout team and are now exploring others ways of providing immediate and longer term relief.

We do have contacts on the ground who we are able to receive reliable information from. We will be working with these contacts in the next 24-48 hours to determine our specific response to the disaster.

[snip]

We will continue to update via Facebook and Twitter

Thank you all for your prayers, generosity and support.


Edited by JBjorgen (17/03/2011 11:28)
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~ John

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#343491 - 17/03/2011 17:36 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: JBjorgen]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
In high school, I visited Japan for a month, and the whole time I stayed with Japanese families. For the first half, I was there as an intern for the Japanese National Geographic. A few days ago there was a notice sent out about the people in the office there. It's not much more than you hear elsewhere, but it was good to know they were all okay. Here's the notice that went around, in case you're interested:

Quote:
Editor’s Note: Tatsuo Ito, president of National Geographic Japan, has been e-mailing updates about how he and his colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami:

On Friday, Tatsuo reported that many of the NG partners who live close to the office or had relatives nearby left work after the quake struck at 2:46 p.m. But with the transportation system shut down, 10 staff members remained overnight in the office. They, too, returned to their homes on Saturday.

On Sunday, Tatsuo e-mailed, “So sad, so bad, so serious, and it still continues.”

He added that many NG Japan colleagues have relatives in the worst-hit areas, and they “are concentrating on ways to support them.”

Referring to the damaged nuclear power plants and the threat of a meltdown, he said, “We also are confronting a possible world tragedy. This is absolutely serious. What shall we do?"

Tatsuo said he was weighing how to approach the tragedy journalistically.

On Friday, when the quake hit, Tatsuo said he was not surprised by the quake itself, but he was surprised by the duration of the tremor. Tatsuo said that, in the weeks leading up to the huge quake, the area had experienced pre-quakes.

“When we felt the quake at 14:46, I imagined a relationship with this series of quakes. Usually, the quakes would stop after around 30 seconds or so,” he wrote. “But this one was different. It took 3 to 5 minutes."

“The gliding, rolling movement was dynamic,” Tatsuo continued. “Everyone felt that the power of the quake must be huge.”

Tatsuo said the walls cracked in some places and paint fell from the ceiling.

“We could see the dark smoke of fire in front of our office (outside),” he said.

Because Japan is earthquake-prone, Tatsuo has felt many tremors in his lifetime.

“This was absolutely the largest one in my life,” he said.

Meanwhile, Tatsuo said the government has announced rolling power blackouts nationwide for three hours at a time. As a result, many trains had been cancelled Monday morning. Despite the transportation problems, Tatsuo said many NG Japan staff would be at work.
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Matt

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#343495 - 17/03/2011 20:09 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: gbeer]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31563
Loc: Seattle, WA

From the twitter feed of Nancy Sathre-Vogel:

Japanese nuclear worker on the news: "I am prepared to die to avoid meltdown." Say it with me: I will not complain about my job today.
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Tony Fabris

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#343499 - 18/03/2011 00:19 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: Dignan]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Originally Posted By: Dignan
Tatsuo Ito, president of National Geographic Japan, has been e-mailing updates about how he and his colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

I know that this is sooo wrong, but I just can't help but think of people running around the rubble of Japan screaming "Tatsuo! Kaneda! Tatsuo! Kaneda!"
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Bitt Faulk

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#343508 - 18/03/2011 12:51 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: gbeer]
Redrum
old hand

Registered: 17/01/2003
Posts: 998
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/03/1...saturday-night/

REM - That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,
an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid......

2012

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#343510 - 18/03/2011 14:25 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: wfaulk]
BAKup
addict

Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
Originally Posted By: wfaulk
Originally Posted By: Dignan
Tatsuo Ito, president of National Geographic Japan, has been e-mailing updates about how he and his colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

I know that this is sooo wrong, but I just can't help but think of people running around the rubble of Japan screaming "Tatsuo! Kaneda! Tatsuo! Kaneda!"


I'm sitting right there next to you in the hand basket since I was laughing so hard when I read that.
_________________________
--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.

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#343537 - 19/03/2011 19:07 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: BAKup]
frog51
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
Originally Posted By: BAKup
Originally Posted By: wfaulk
Originally Posted By: Dignan
Tatsuo Ito, president of National Geographic Japan, has been e-mailing updates about how he and his colleagues are coping with the aftermath of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

I know that this is sooo wrong, but I just can't help but think of people running around the rubble of Japan screaming "Tatsuo! Kaneda! Tatsuo! Kaneda!"


I'm sitting right there next to you in the hand basket since I was laughing so hard when I read that.


Room for one more?
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock

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#343541 - 19/03/2011 19:42 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: frog51]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
I'm sorry, I don't get the reference, and a quick Google search isn't bringing anything up...
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Matt

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#343542 - 19/03/2011 20:16 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: Dignan]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Bitt Faulk

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#343555 - 20/03/2011 01:26 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: wfaulk]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
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Matt

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#343561 - 20/03/2011 08:39 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: Dignan]
frog51
pooh-bah

Registered: 09/08/2000
Posts: 2091
Loc: Edinburgh, Scotland
Originally Posted By: Dignan
Interesting to see where on the scale "living in a stone or concrete building" comes, isn't it.

Trying to find the link to an excellent presentation I saw yesterday on radiation which shows the half lives of all the likely products. Very short in almost all cases:-)
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Rory
MkIIa, blue lit buttons, memory upgrade, 1Tb in Subaru Forester STi
MkII, 240Gb in Mark Lord dock
MkII, 80Gb SSD in dock

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#343592 - 21/03/2011 12:10 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: frog51]
BAKup
addict

Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
Originally Posted By: frog51
Originally Posted By: Dignan
Interesting to see where on the scale "living in a stone or concrete building" comes, isn't it.

Trying to find the link to an excellent presentation I saw yesterday on radiation which shows the half lives of all the likely products. Very short in almost all cases:-)


That was a very interesting chart. I like how he shows how much all of the last chart combined is in the next chart up.

My personal fav on that list was the part about the cell phone: No ionizing radation*

*Unless it's a Bananaphone.
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--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.

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#343603 - 21/03/2011 13:42 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: BAKup]
DWallach
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
It would be nice to work in the dosage you get from the TSA's Rapiscan x-ray scanners (with or without accounting for the objection of the UCSF x-ray xperts).

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#343608 - 21/03/2011 13:58 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: DWallach]
Dignan
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/03/2000
Posts: 12318
Loc: Sterling, VA
Originally Posted By: DWallach
It would be nice to work in the dosage you get from the TSA's Rapiscan x-ray scanners (with or without accounting for the objection of the UCSF x-ray xperts).

I believe I heard it wasn't as bad as a cross-country flight, which is on the chart. But I agree, it would help with the original purpose of the chart, to educate those with concerns about the various levels of radiation they might come in contact with.
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Matt

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#343609 - 21/03/2011 14:08 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: DWallach]
BAKup
addict

Registered: 11/11/2001
Posts: 552
Loc: Houston, TX
Originally Posted By: DWallach
It would be nice to work in the dosage you get from the TSA's Rapiscan x-ray scanners (with or without accounting for the objection of the UCSF x-ray xperts).


Everytime I read Rapiscan, I change the i to an e, since that's what it feels like to me when I've been subjected to it.
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--Ben
78GB MkIIa, Dead tuner.

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#343650 - 22/03/2011 02:28 Re: Events in Japan. [Re: BAKup]
gbeer
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
http://www.kirainet.com/english/ a first hand account.
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Glenn

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