The Core
Why We Are Here => Water Cooler => Topic started by: bill on March 11, 2011, 08:57:58 AM
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I'm in Osaka...nowhere near the epicenter of this quake, but my building was rolling all over the place. No injuries here, and my family is safe.
I fear for all the people up north of Tokyo. That must be awful.
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Caught a few minutes of it on the news this morning :(
News over here was focusing on the tsunami rolling across land, what the hell do you do when there's no high ground and that thing is comes towards you :(
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watching the news is horrible (and before someone else says it, I don't mean anywhere near as horrible as living through it, of course).
Glad to hear you're OK Bill. Sounds like all of Japan is going to feel the impact indirectly at least given the transport and communication issues it's causing. :(
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Just caught wind and though of you Bill.
Looks grim. Good luck.
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Glad you are okay Bill. Looks very grim for the people in N. Japan.
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Glad you are okay Bill. We have tsunami warnings all the way at the west coast of the US.
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Glad you and your family are okay Bill. How about you Dogboy, aren't you on the west coast, are you as well littleman?
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Glad to hear you and your are doing well.
The pictures are staggering as is the fact that the wave was moving at 500 miles per hour toward the US.
Any sailors out there know what this means for any vessels caught out in it? My understanding is that a tsunami at sea is a large, broad wave, so I assume boats would just float above it. But just wondering.
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I think boats at sea are ok, unless they're unfortunate enough to be over a major blip in the seabed which can do nasty things. Its only when a wave finds a blip in the seabed called landfall that it really wreaks havoc.
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Phew, good to know you're ok over there Bill.
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No, I'm on the East coast of Florida, all's well here.
LM is in the Bay Area, so I don't think he should have any issues either, since the bay has a tight 'neck'.
...looks just terrible over in Japan though.
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...maybe I spoke too soon?
"Large waves also hit the U.S. western coast, shaking loose boats that weren't moved in time and tearing apart wooden docks in at least two California harbors."
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I was worried about you, Bill. Glad you're ok.
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On the central coast in Santa Cruz, loose fishing boats crashed into one another and docks broke away from the shore. The water rushed out as quickly as it poured in, leaving the boats tipped over in mud.
Some surfers ignored evacuation warnings and took advantage of the waves ahead of the tsunami.
"The tides are right, the swell is good, the weather is good, the tsunami is there," said William Hill, an off-duty California trooper. "We're going out."
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glad you and yours are Ok, Bill
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I'm actually in DC, but from what I understand the Bay Area is ok. One guy who ignored the warnings and went out to take some pics was killed up North.
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This is the tail end of the tsunami in Emeryvilla in the East Bay. As you can see it was not very destructive in the bay. DB, you are exactly right about the narrow mouth of the bay having a shielding effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdMDCLwblkY
Latest news about the reactor seems pretty scary, one meltdown and another one likely. They are doing mass evacuations.
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everything still ok, Bill? My geography is any good and things look pretty horrible.
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Bill,
I think you are in for a tough time anyway living in Japan, so my thoughts go out to you all over there.
It has made us realise again how lucky we are to be alive and in the UK. Seems the last year or so has been one disaster after another, and this really tops it all.
Keep us posted when you can get online Bill.
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seconded
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Glad to hear your fine Bill
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Sorry I've been a little preoccupied over here as you might imagine. Thanks for all the comments though.
It has been quite awful watching the news here. I was glued to the TV all weekend. As you might imagine we get better news reports and footage in Japanese first. I tried watching CNN coverage and it was like the blind leading the blind. I think they made half the crap up as they were "commenting" and "speculating" over all the video feeds they were showing. Too bad they also don't appear to have any reporters who can actually speak Japanese as their on-site live feeds awkward to watch.
Commerce and industry everywhere from Tokyo on up to the worst hit areas is essentially screwed. Transportation is sporadic. They're conducting rolling blackouts in many areas. And people are beginning to panic a bit. It's going to be a real challenge to get this country back on an even footing.
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>CNN coverage
I've been avoiding it. CNN has just become embarrassing. I've been going to the NHK website and they have had good coverage (along with the BBC). However I just checked my NHK iPhone app and they appear to be streaming the news live with a translator translating on the fly. This is giving a much better picture of what is happening in the refugee centers and remote villages. It is very different from the carefully edited English language broadcasts.
If you have a smartphone, look for the NHK app.
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Thanks for checking in with us Bill. I am reading reports that there has been a run on food and gas in the affected areas. Are they diverting resources away from you?
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> NHK app
I do have that one. It's handy sometimes, but I can get better streams of that on my PC usually. If I'm looking for breaking news I just go to Japanese sites. Like last night there was a 6+ magnitude quake under Mt. Fuji. That was strong enough to wake me up and get me out of bed to check on things. CNN was still showing Anderson Cooper (whom I would like to punch) walking through the devastation, talking about nothing.
I've heard great things about the BBC coverage, but I don't have them in my TV package. I tried on the web, but they say streaming is unavailable in my area. Any 'work-arounds' that you guys know of?
> run on food and gas in the affected areas
They're asking people in the unaffected areas not to hoard. I have a friend who runs a big food and beverage business, and suppliers are telling him to expect shortages. He immediately went out and ordered 5 times more than he usually does. He's down to a 1 week supply of Heineken in Japan, so things are starting to worsen already in the distribution of goods. The whole country will be affected by this.
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bill,
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698 should work ok, i usually get blocked from bbc video content as im in Canada, usually only UK IP addresses can access.
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Even the bbc is struggling a little with this, frankly, they have a lot of people on the ground now, but none of them appear to be able to speak Japanese which is leading to lots of reports about standing at barriers being unable to get closer to things, unable to talk to the soldiers manning the barracade and unable to interview locals as they can't find English speakers. Might just be better if they stayed in the studio with a translator and didn't use up what resources there are ::)
Bill, not sure if you know the answer, but aid efforts here are mostly to get cash to the Japanese Red Cross - is that the ony/best place that is distributing on the ground help or are there other charities out there that desperately need donations?
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i usually get blocked from bbc video content as im in Canada, usually only UK IP addresses can access.
http://www.daveproxy.co.uk/ might help with that.
Edit: Actually, it looks like the BBC blocks the proxy from the video streams.
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I have to agree with Gurtie, to be fair the BBC coverage has been a bit slow, their videos have translations but some of the voiceovers are a little sketchy. I've found Reuters to be a little more up to date.
I'm hoping one day soon to wake up and see this nuclear scare (or at least the headlines) simmer down... it's been one hell of a week over there.
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I saw this hopeful image today.
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Bill, not sure if you know the answer, but aid efforts here are mostly to get cash to the Japanese Red Cross - is that the ony/best place that is distributing on the ground help or are there other charities out there that desperately need donations?
You're probably best off with the Japan Red Cross for donations from abroad. If you give to your local Red Cross I don't know how much of the funds make it over here. There are a ton of new (to me) charities popping up in the wake of this disaster, and I'm incredibly wary of who I give money to.
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There is quite a few plugins for wordpress that people can put on installations. On some sites I am using Japan Disaster Appeal which was written by an Aussie - it is easy to edit to put in charities local to your country if you feel safer.
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yeah I used the British Red Cross initially (with the advantage they can reclaim tax) and then for the work donation we used the Google Japanese Red Cross thing (no tax back but it was a collection so technically we couldn't anyway).
I always wonder who's the best people to donate via though. Normally Oxfam is on the ground but Red Cross was obvious here because they are. That doesn't mean there aren't even better charities that we just haven't heard about though, although the Red Cross would presumably redistribute if necessary.
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Map visualises crowd-sourced geiger counter readings from across Japan. Nice use of technology in the current circumstances.
http://japan.failedrobot.com/
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http://japan.failedrobot.com/
That's awesome! Thank you. They may be out there, but I haven't seen anything out there like this in Japanese. I wonder how tough it would be to copy this idea and localize it...
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My Japanese is non-existent beyond sushi, sashimi and saki (それより) but maybe this is what you are looking for Bill
http://jsdo.it/motoishmz/rdC2
There is also this for levels in drinking water http://www.pachube.com/feeds/21287
There is a list of tools, categorized here http://1rick.com/quaketools
I got these from #geigermaps - maybe you want to have a gander.