[OC Guy]

Originally Posted by OC 335i

I really admire the Japanese culture for quite a few things. This is one of them.

Originally Posted by Blake

stuff like this is why i admire the japanese people so much.

Originally Posted by Blake

it did happen...katrina. look what kind of shitty mess that was.

Originally Posted by OC 335i

e.g. Hurricane Katrina... Where it is still a mess.

We thinking alike here.

[OC Guy]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...,4238012.story

latimes.com

Japan's massive earthquake has little effect on culture's impeccable manners

One injured woman pinned under furniture apologizes for causing trouble in just one example of the nation's trait of exhibiting concern for others even in the worst of circumstances.

By Laura King, Los Angeles Times

March 13, 2011

Reporting from Tokyo --


She was elderly and alone, injured and in pain. When the massive earthquake struck, a heavy bookshelf toppled onto Hiroko Yamashita, pinning her down and shattering her ankle.

When paramedics finally reached her, agonizing hours later, Yamashita did what she said any "normal" person would do, her son-in-law recounted later: She apologized to them for the inconvenience, and asked if there weren't others they should be attending to first.

The worst earthquake in Japan's recorded history left a trail of blazing buildings, inundated coastal communities, wrecked roadways and potentially unstable nuclear power plants. But it barely made a dent in the implacably Japanese trait of exhibiting concern for others even in the worst of circumstances.

Photos: Scenes from the earthquake

The Japanese language is full of ritual apologies, uttered so often as to become almost meaningless: I am about to make a nuisance of myself — please excuse me! Some of this is a matter of mere formality. But at a time of crisis, such politesse can be the glue that holds the country together.

Even though Friday's magnitude 8.9 quake was shocking and discombobulating, few would imagine burdening a stranger with their anxieties.

On a long flight to Tokyo, amid uncertainty almost until the last minute over whether the plane would actually be allowed to land at the capital's airport, a fiftysomething businessman questioned a seatmate closely about plans and contingencies: Where are you staying? Why there? Well, the next neighborhood over is nicer. Is someone meeting you, taking care of you?

Only at the tail end of a nine-hour flight did he confide, almost as an abashed aside, that a close relative was missing, and that he would be trying to make his way north, into the tsunami-inundation zone, to determine her fate. He fiddled with his seatbelt, looked around distractedly, and all but coughed out his doubt that he would find her alive.

Some resent the stifling conformity that can accompany social mores such as these. Even in modern-day Japan, speaking one's mind or making an overt demand can lead to ostracization. Young people, in particular, sometimes feel shackled by rigid conventions of behavior that can seem as arcane as a Kabuki drama.

But in a country where people with a case of the sniffles wear surgical masks in public to avoid infecting anyone, most people seemed determined not to let their anxieties show. That particularly included those attending to customers.

"I am trying hard not to let people see how scared I am," said Masaki Tajima, a hotel clerk in Utsunomiya, north of Tokyo.

Closer to the quake zone, there were cracks in the studied courtesy. At a gas station in Koriyama, about 130 miles north of Tokyo, some customers become anxious and agitated as fuel ran short, attendants said. Kenji Sato, an attendant of 12 years, recited apologies, trying to soothe people. "Sorry, no more gas, very sorry," he intoned.

Elsewhere, though, the ingrained instinct for orderliness and calm has kept its hold even amid difficult moments. In Tokyo and its suburbs, the quake knocked out much of the usually clockwork-reliable public-transportation system. Yet when trains finally appeared on a few crucial routes, the queue was as orderly as on any mundane commuting day.

Once aboard, people sat quietly, gazing at their cellphones in hope of an elusive signal.

"It would be uncivilized to try to push and shove, and what good would it do anyway?" said Kojo Saeseki, helping his wife onto a crowded train on the city's outskirts.

In the city itself, those aboard a nearly empty subway car looked surprised and discomfited when they were asked what had happened to them the day before, but if pressed, they would tell their stories: being trapped in an elevator for hours, or crouching under a desk in a tall building as it swayed like a ship at sea, or seeing a thick pane of safety glass suddenly spider-webbing with cracks.

Some were still telling their stories, haltingly, when the train pulled into a station where a small gap presented itself between the door and the platform. And everyone in the car called out to a departing passenger: Kiotsukete! — Be careful!

[Tondtar]

Hundreds of bodies wash ashore in quake-hit Japan

TAGAJO, Japan – There are just too many bodies. Hundreds of dead have washed ashore on Japan's devastated northeast coast since last week's earthquake and tsunami. Others were dug out of the debris Monday by firefighters using pickaxes and chain saws.

Funeral homes and crematoriums are overwhelmed, and officials have run out of body bags and coffins.

Compounding the disaster, water levels dropped precipitously inside a Japanese nuclear reactor, twice leaving the uranium fuel rods completely exposed and raising the threat of a meltdown, hours after a hydrogen explosion tore through the building housing a different reactor.

On the economic front, Japan's stock market plunged over the likelihood of huge losses by Japanese industries including big names such as Toyota and Honda.

While the official death toll rose to nearly 1,900, the discovery of the washed-up bodies and other reports of deaths suggest the true number is much higher. In Miyagi, the police chief has estimated 10,000 deaths in his province alone.

Miyagi prefecture bore the full force of Friday's tsunami, and police said 1,000 bodies were found scattered across its coast. The Kyodo news agency reported that 2,000 bodies washed up on two shorelines in Miyagi.

Most Japanese opt to cremate their dead, and with so many bodies, the government on Monday waived a rule requiring permission first from local authorities before cremation or burial to speed up funerals, said Health Ministry official Yukio Okuda.

"The current situation is so extraordinary, and it is very likely that crematoriums are running beyond capacity," said Okuda. "This is an emergency measure. We want to help quake-hit people as much as we can."

The town of Soma has only one crematorium that can handle 18 bodies a day, said an official, Katsuhiko Abe.

"We are overwhelmed and are asking other cites to help us deal with bodies," Abe told The Associated Press.

[.:bHd:.]

Originally Posted by OC 335i

We thinking alike here.

if something like the Japanese quake happened in LA this place would turn into an anarchy

[FStop7]

Originally Posted by .:bHd:.

if something like the Japanese quake happened in LA this place would turn into an anarchy

Was just talking about this at work. It would be like Lord of the Flies.

[DougLikesBMW]

Originally Posted by OC 335i

Pretty much what my friend in Japan was telling me. Bottles of wine and stuff are all lines up outside for people to buy. People don't steal stuff. This was before and after the quake.

My friend posted this while on the internet then said, he is getting off now because the gov't is requesting people to keep electricity usage at a minimum.

Japan really doesn't focus on individualism, this can be good and bad but in this case, it definitely is good and better for the community.

Wow, Japan sounds like my kind of place.

I've wanted to visit Japan for a long time now, but I guess it will have to wait a while.

[GregTheStig]

Thanks for posting those articles. The Japanese certainly know how to live through situations like this. We could definitely learn from them.

[TunedM2C]

New explosion at #2 reactor just reported.

[Blake]

Originally Posted by Tuned1

New explosion at #2 reactor just reported.

where'd you see that?

[TunedM2C]

MSNBC reporting.

[Blake]

i wish this NHK world translation was better :\

[Blake]

i've been listening to the live news conference. seems like things in reactor 2 are going H.A.M. they've evacuated all employees that aren't directly working injecting sea water. radiation spiked big time. the blast occurred in the suppression pool, which is at the bottom of the containment vessel. everything points to a meltdown.

[Nedim]

I dont know what to say about this.

EARTHQUAKE WARNING FROM RUSSIAN INSTITUTE of PHYSICS of the EARTH
Posted by Real News Reporter on March 12th, 2011

A new report released today in the Kremlin prepared for Prime Minister Putin by the Institute of Physics of the Earth, in Moscow, is warning that the America’s are in danger of suffering a mega-quake of catastrophic proportions during the next fortnight (14 days) with a specific emphasis being placed on the United States, Mexico, Central America and South American west coast regions along with the New Madrid Fault Zone region.

This report further warns that catastrophic earthquakes in Asia and the sub-continent are, also, “more than likely to occur” with the 7.3 magnitude quake in Japan today being “one of at least 4 of this intensity” to occur during this same time period.

Raising the concerns of a mega-quake occurring, this report says, are the increasing subtle electromagnetic signals that are being detected in the Earth’s upper atmosphere over many regions of the World, with the most intense being over the US Western coastal and Midwest regions.

Important to note are that Russian and British scientists are at the forefront of predicting earthquakes based on these subtle electromagnetic signals and have joined in an effort to put satellites in space to detect more of them.

More ominously in this report are Russian scientists confirming the independent analysis of New Zealand mathematician and long-range weather forecaster, Ken Ring, who predicted the deadly Christchurch quake and this week issued another warning of a quake to hit on or about March 20th.


Ring explains his methodology for predicting earthquakes as follows:

“The planets very much affect the earth, indirectly, by having an effect on the Sun. Some planets are very large. If the Sun was a basketball the gas giants Jupiter and Saturn would be the size of grapefruits, and the Earth would be, on that scale, the size of a peppercorn.

Jupiter and Saturn cause extra tides on the Sun when they get on either side of the Sun (as with Moon – Earth-Sun when the moon is full) and when these gas giants get on the same side as the Sun, (as with Earth -Moon – Sun when the moon is new). These greater solar tides become sunspot activity and solar flares and can be understood as akin to the increase in tides caused by the Moon when it too gets alongside Earth or opposite Earth.

At the moment we have Jupiter and Saturn on either side of the Sun and creating a tug of war with Earth in the middle. That started last September and will continue until about May. In September the Earth was right in line with Jupiter, Saturn and the Sun too.

That’s why there were several 7+ earthquakes around, it wasn’t just us. For instance there was one in Pakistan on the same day as Christchurch. This Jupiter/Saturn alignment continues until about May, and the Earth comes back into line as well in March. It is why there may be an extreme event, perhaps a large earthquake, around 20 March, which is when the Moon may be again in a trigger position.”

According to this report, however, where Ring is correct in assessing blame for our Earth’s earthquakes on the Sun and Planets, his substituting of Perigean Spring Tides (also known as King Tides) for the low pressure systems associated with them may be incorrect.

The mention in this report of massive low pressure systems being associated with catastrophic earthquakes is especially dire to the United States Midwestern region, which even today is continuing to be pounded by horrific rainfall amounts, and most especially impacting the New Madrid Fault Zone State of Arkansas which has suffered over 800 earthquakes in the past 6 months alone.

Equally in danger, this report continues, is the South American Nation of Bolivia which has, likewise, suffered catastrophic low pressure system storms that in the past week have killed over 52 people.

Most ominous in this report, though, is its warning that the fault-riddled State of California may be about to suffer its most catastrophic earthquake in decades as new reports for this region show the mass death of millions of fish [photo bottom left] is now occurring, and just like the mass stranding of whales on New Zealand beaches days prior to the February 22nd destruction of Christchurch.

Making the situation for our Planet even grimmer are the reports that our Sun is continuing to spew forth massive solar flares, the latest warned to hit our Earth today or tomorrow thus prompting the Hermanus Space Weather Warning Centre (SWWC) to issue a Solar Flare warning for the Southern Hemisphere.

Interesting to note in all of these events is the United States Army announcing this week that it is holding a rare training event involving the US Military, the CIA, Canadian officers, US Treasury and State departments, the US Agency for International Development, the Defense Threat Readiness Agency and the International Red Cross between March 21-25 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and which should the worst happen they will certainly be prepared for it.

As this report concludes, that as of yet, “no firmly reliable” method for predicting earthquakes has been scientifically recognized, it is well worth noting the too many to be ignored anomalous coincidences leading up to catastrophic mega-quakes are breaking out all over the World and should only be ignored at ones peril.

In other words, it is always best to be prepared should disaster strike, wherever the warning comes from.

[NBRider88]

^ that's rough news to swallow...I'm literally a block from the beach

[E90SLAM]

Given Southern California region is way overdue for a mega-earthquake, according to geologist.

[OC Guy]

I have lots of water/food.

[infinitekidM2C]

to add fuel to the fire, there is the Mega Moon on March 19

[NBRider88]

Originally Posted by infinitekid2002

to add fuel to the fire, there is the Mega Moon on March 19

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index...LAID=616453549

Link?

[infinitekidM2C]

lol...that's not it silly

also check on the review on those moon shoes..they are gettin trashed. lol

By Bryan from oceanside,california on 1/9/2011
Pros:
Doesnt work
Cons:
Hard to Keep Clean, Hurtful, Unattractive Design
Describe Yourself:
Parent Of Two Or More Children
Was this a gift?:
Yes
Bottom Line:
No, I would not recommend this to a friend

Comments about Big Time Toys Mega Moon Mood Hopz:

your product is not efficient because my son almost broke his foot

And what's with the black kid watching as the ants takeaway what appears to be his Watermelon...That's Racist!!

[TunedM2C]

Anatomy of a meltdown.

[FStop7]

The "meltdown process" of bubbling, then raging, then a red hot dump of acid pretty much mirrors what happens after eating hot wings.

[infinitekidM2C]

LOL