Get off the beach! Tsunami coming!

[desiv]

Anyone care to make further remarks minimizing the potential danger here?

Sure..  because that's how some of us are..
We hope for the best..

Sometimes we're wrong..  I hope not...

I'd rather not worry about how bad it might be when there's nothing I can do about it..

You seem to revel in bringing up the worst possible outcomes..

This is a free country and you're allowed..

But again, I hope for the best, and deal with the worst when it happens..

The quote from you above almost sounds like you're gloating about being right???
That would be sad..  I hope also that it's not the case..

desiv

[XDelusion]

Iggy: I did, didn't taste the same. Hmm... still doing studies. Will report more later when I know something.

In relation to the reactors..I don't watch TV, except for the little I take in while at work at the nursing home. My guess is that if they are in the area that took the hit, then they are more than likely utterly unstable, and we'll probably be looking at another Chernobyl...

Very sad, the Japanese are not getting any breaks. First we bombed the hell out of them tearing apart families and lives, and leaving them with mutated suffering babies for the next few generations, and now this...

I feel bad for them. If the reactors go I can not imagine that that will have a positive impact on the waters all around them, and perhaps even the waters all the way over in California, but who knows, that is just my uneducated speculation. It's just sad.

Though I can say that I'm sure that this disaster and sense of hopelessness is bringing people together and opening them up in ways that TV, Cell Phones, Internet and other such technological gadgets were promised to do, but failed to do and only served to put distances between man in the end.

Sorry, went a little Jay Miner there. I'll try to clean up my act.

[Jose]

Science is about logically proving/finding something, period! You can even apply science to unexplained events, like in parapsychology. That science and religion don't oppose each other should be obvious to anyone with a bit of a brain, it's people manipulating one or the other that screws up things. Otherwise you wouldn't have scientists openly with faith in high positions managing scientific research.
I think what's more sad is that some people don't even know what's an exact science and what's not and still believe anything the scientific trends of the time say. Want a sad example ? The secondary effects of vaccination. It's true that not getting vaccinated is dangerous but guess what, getting vaccinated can have some catastrophic results to your health. Yet some guys in the media sometimes treat anyone worried about the secondary effects of vaccination as complete lunatics.
Another sad example is psychology, the top researchers are the 1st ones to admit they're in just the start of the very infancy of understanding some stuff at the neurological level, yet there are the most stupidly unfounded trends going on that every scientist starting their career swallows, because they probably won't have a career otherwise. It's also funny that the big visionaries in the history of science had to go against the trends of their time and some only were recognized after they died, that should say something about unfounded trends. Some were recent, Einstein's more important theories were not well accepted at 1st for example.

I think these things, as sad as they are, might open some eyes a bit regarding the safety of nuclear plants and what has been shoved up everyone's ass*s for many years. They're not safe and huge numbers of nuclear plants without there even being any breakthrough in the treatment of nuclear waste is completely insane and arrogant.
The next generations will hate us all.

[XDelusion]

Jose: Right on on all accounts, though...

...a true holy man could be involved in a scientific project as his wisdom would come from accepting that he knows nothing and therefore would not have any preconceived notions for the scientific research to contradict.

Now as a Pat Robertson, Billy Graham Inc. or one of those other Bible Belt clowns...

can't trust em' as far as you can throw them, just like the politicians. They draw power from fear, propaganda, hype, and desperation.

[Iggy]

can't trust em' as far as you can throw them, just like the politicians. They draw power from fear, propaganda, hype, and desperation.

"Would I lie to you?"

I never really paid attention to that parallel, but you're right.

Don't worry folks, over half the almost 140 reactors in the United States were built with the same GE technology used at Fukushima.

[XDelusion]

GE Builds weapons of mass destruction as well as all sorts of gadgets to speed you up and get you off to work so you can be more productive and produce more numbers for the man on top of the pyramid scheme we call Democratic Capitalism...

...or Socialism, Communism, what ever. The words never define the reality.


EDIT: (forgot to post the commerical)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yql_HGIYV3g

Anyhow, this commercial never ceases to make my stomach turn. It is using country music to appeal to the middle American blue collar worker. As usual the commercial paints a picture of technology bringing people together and making lives happier. Yet what they don't show is that GE builds the weapons used to blow up little nations, take out their CEO, and replace them with a new one that will allow us to out source all of our work over seas so that it can be done much much cheaper.

For what ever reason, even though this reality is obvious, millions of middle American, country music, line dancing Americans sign up to fight for "freedom" (well because they are hard up and need money usually then get to come home and get the instant title of Hero), then complain when they come back home and half the jobs have been outsourced....

...then they settle for a job at McDonalds and come and get drunk on the couch and laugh while watching a show called Out Sourced which is making fun of this very same predicament. Irony.

"there taking our jobs" - South Park

[Iggy]

"Bringing good things to life"

Like...painful, horrifying new ways to die.

Science!

[runequester]

Most people either don't realize how badly they've been sold out in the name of profit, don't want to realize it, or realize it but are helpless to protest it.

Best you can do is to find your tiny corner of the world and defend it as best you can.

edit: the last category are the people who feel they can somehow aspire to be part of the system if they do and say all the right things, and play the game the way its expected to be played. Cargo cult at its finest.

[Mizar]

Franko:

You're right with the cynicism of humanity.  Governments should be willing to deliver the assistance they promise.  The poor should not be passed over for help.  I have seen time and again the selfish arrogant unscrupulous attitude of total callous denial of definitive reality, as all that so many care about is promoting their selfish agenda.  Technology may be rapidly advancing, but character and wisdom are not advancing at any more than an infinitesimal rate.  The human race could possibly advance in technology to the level depicted in Star Trek by the 24th century, but certainly not the optimistic level depicted of wisdom or egalitarian society so soon as that- that will take millennia longer at least, I think.  Not to contradict my previous point, though, about practical limitations to how much individuals can do about disasters- it does have to be more of a collective effort.

cecilia:

I agree that's notable that the Japanese are calm in such disasters.  Also notable and admirable how they are so disciplined as to be orderly and follow rules, even when it's obvious they wouldn't need to in a particular situation.  For instance, in this crisis the traffic was not flowing, yet they still wait at red lights to cross the street.  Though I think the most notable and admirable thing is how they are not inclined to go looting, or taking advantage of the situation for greedy purposes.  This is markedly different from most of the rest of the world.  I think it demonstrates the Japanese sense of honor, that most of humanity does not possess.

[gertsy]

Franko:


....Though I think the most notable and admirable thing is how they are not inclined to go looting, or taking advantage of the situation for greedy purposes.  This is markedly different from most of the rest of the world.  I think it demonstrates the Japanese sense of honor, that most of humanity does not possess.

Except when there's beer or petrol involved. Humanity abounds.

[Mizar]

It's not the height of the waves that make the tsunami powerful it's the volume.

Actually, it's the mass and the velocity, i.e. the momentum, that makes the tsunami powerful/damaging.  The wave has immense mass (weight) and high speed, hence the irresistible destructive force that no building or any other object can stand up to.  For example, if someone throws a huge thin rubber air filled balloon at you, no matter how hard they throw it, you'd easily laugh it off as it wouldn't cause the slightest bruise.  But if the same size boulder falls on you, no matter how short a height it falls from, i.e. slow speed, you'd be crushed like a bug.  They're both the same large volume, but the first has negligible mass while the second has a great mass.  It's the mass, not volume, that multiplied by velocity determines the momentum, and hence the destructive power.

[Mizar]

@ ceilla

I believe in science for the most part, but even scientists get it wrong and sometimes (in fact quite often) and can't agree with each other about their results and quite often try to de-bunk each others research...

There is quite a lack of discipline in certain sections of the scientific community these days and it mostly seems to come from the same old faces that you see time and time again on documentaries on the likes of the Discovery channel...

Reckon myself some of these so called "Scientists" will do & say anything for their 15 minutes of fame... :rolleyes:

Like with any occupation, you have good scientists, and you have bad scientists.  Part of science is disagreeing with other scientists, and even trying to discredit them with better empirical evidence, or more unambiguous research methodology for acquiring it.

[kedawa]

What's there to loot in the first place?  Everything is wet and buried in rubble, and any area in the disaster zone that wasn't completely ruined is going to be crammed with survivors.
I don't think there's anything particularly special about the japanese or there sense of honour.  If Nanking is anything to go by, I'd say they're as bad as anyone else.

[rebraist]

Once again, i respect franko but i don't agree on his ideas about humans.
We're here after this disaster.
We're here after 2nd world war, we're here after lager and gulag!
We're here after fall of rome.
Barbarians were better than romans said.
To romans barbarians (strangers) were half beasts.
But the barbarians of yesterday are the german, spanish, french and all the other people of this beautiful world that made beethoven, kant, john lennon, pablo picasso, Augustine, Kierkegaard and so on!
Sometimes we think other people are cynics. Sometime this is true. But more often is our fear that speaks for us.
I think always to the tale of Androcles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Androcles) and the lion with a thorn in his foot.
I'm not saying there's no evil or egoism.
But that it's more more little than we think. If we are in our houses continuing to live our lives it's not "bad". "the show must go on". Some people can become cynics but not all people.

[Franko]

@ rebraist

Have to mostly disagree with you when it comes to the human race...

Yes the human race can make and create wonderful things but at the same time they are the most destructive and self serving creatures on this planet...

Who started all these wars... the human race...

Who kills each other for money, land, power, greed, drugs or even sometimes just for the sheer hell of it... the human race...

Who destroys books & knowledge written by some of the wisest people of their times... the human race...

I could go on for ever giving you endless negative examples of why I'm so cynical about the human race, but your wrong when you say it's "fear that speaks for us" in my case I have nothing to fear from the anything that happens in this world not even death itself...

I accepted a long time ago that death is just a part of life and there is nothing to fear from it, so to me until that time comes I just make sure that I enjoy everything in life good or bad and while all the bad things that happen in the world go on, whether caused by man or caused by nature there is no point in worrying about them...

Just enjoy everything you do in life and make the best of whatever situation you find yourself in, as soon enough we all leave this craziest of creations that we call life...

[Firedawg]

Quotes from some great philosophers......

"The purpose of life is a life of purpose."  ~Robert Byrne

  "When  I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not  have a single bit of talent left, and could say, "I used everything you  gave me."  ~Erma Bombeck

" I have a simple philosophy:  Fill what's empty.  Empty what's full.  Scratch where it itches."  ~Alice Roosevelt Longworth

"Just enjoy everything you do in life and make the best of whatever  situation you find yourself in, as soon enough we all leave this  craziest of creations that we call life..."  ~Franko

The Dawg