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[Strict31]

At the same, there are limits to how much we can plan before we all end up in always indoors encased in bulletproof bubbles.

*glances at bulletproof bubble that just arrived from Japan*

Er...yes. Perhaps you have a point.

[sdsichero]

*glances at bulletproof bubble that just arrived from Japan*

Er...yes. Perhaps you have a point.

I do...

*looks at deflated bulleetproof bubble*

[Strict31]

I do...

*looks at deflated bulleetproof bubble*

You should have gotten the knife-proof additional option, bro. You never know when space bitches will use our own technology against us and fire knives at the Earth.

[Arion]

*glances at bulletproof bubble that just arrived from Japan*

Er...yes. Perhaps you have a point.

I want one of those bubbles.

[Strict31]

I want one of those bubbles.

For the longest time, UPS had mine, but refused to deliver it.

[sdsichero]

God it's so depressing but I can't stop following it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187/ns/world_news-asiapacific/

New fire at Japanese nuke building with spent fuel
Unit 4 again ablaze after fire that left 2 workers missing; Units 5, 6 also eyed
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated less than 1 minute ago

SOMA, Japan — The world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl rose to a new level Wednesday as another fire erupted at Japan's stricken nuclear complex and engineers worried about the possibility of blasts at two other reactors. In addition, two workers were reported missing after an earlier fire.

The new fire broke out Wednesday morning at Unit 4 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. A blast and fire at Unit 4 nearly 24 hours earlier opened a hole in the outer building, emitting radiation from overheating spent fuel in a storage pool.
Two workers inside the unit were missing after the first fire, Japan's nuclear safety agency said.
Officials were also concerned about Units 5 and 6.

"Plant operators were considering the removal of panels from units 5 and 6 reactor buildings to prevent a possible buildup of hydrogen," the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement.

There's more but I can't bear to paste it...

[Victorian Squid]

Level 6 of 7.

[Victorian Squid]

Here's one of the giant pandas China gave Japan, clinging to a policeman's leg in terror after the initial quake:

[GOSD]

God it's so depressing but I can't stop following it...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42084187/ns/world_news-asiapacific/



There's more but I can't bear to paste it...

The more I read about it, the more I get upset.

I'm being serious.

[Victorian Squid]

I can't believe 50 plant workers in suits have to deal with the catastrophe for days now, doesn't it seem there should be some sort of international nuclear disaster response team or something? How long can those workers keep going under pressure like this?

[Victorian Squid]

So, my best friend emailed me briefly. Apparently in his area background radiation yesterday was 20x the normal level and today people are scared because they haven't released the levels for the day. He said he found some orange Fanta today but the shops near him are pretty well stripped and talk of food rationing is beginning there. He said yesterday one of his younger students showed up in food-service gloves and shop goggles but today no early morning students showed up and there was very little traffic. I think he is going to try to buy one of those little portable radiation meters.

[Strict31]

I can't believe 50 plant workers in suits have to deal with the catastrophe for days now, doesn't it seem there should be some sort of international nuclear disaster response team or something? How long can those workers keep going under pressure like this?

Don't they have to go in with the permission of the government? I haven't watched the news today because dealing with my sick dog is depressing enough. But didn't Obama's press conference a few days ago say they had teams willing and ready to go in at the discretion of the Japanese gov't?

Have the Japanese requested assistance yet? If not, maybe that's the reason why. Dunno.

But I hope your friend can manage to keep safe somehow. I mean...20 times the normal background radiation? I don't know a whole hell of a lot about how much a human can take, but I'd be worried if someone told me, "Hey, you just snorted down twice the amount of normal background radiation like Charlie Sheen bangs 7 gram rocks, bro!"

And then there's "normal background radiation..."? There's normal radiation? Just in the background? Fuck this shit, I'm going back to my bubble.

[Victorian Squid]

Don't they have to go in with the permission of the government? I haven't watched the news today because dealing with my sick dog is depressing enough. But didn't Obama's press conference a few days ago say they had teams willing and ready to go in at the discretion of the Japanese gov't?

Have the Japanese requested assistance yet? If not, maybe that's the reason why. Dunno.

But I hope your friend can manage to keep safe somehow. I mean...20 times the normal background radiation? I don't know a whole hell of a lot about how much a human can take, but I'd be worried if someone told me, "Hey, you just snorted down twice the amount of normal background radiation like Charlie Sheen bangs 7 gram rocks, bro!"

And then there's "normal background radiation..."? There's normal radiation? Just in the background? Fuck this shit, I'm going back to my bubble.

I feel the same way, after he said 20x normal radiation I expected the next sentence to be "And so I'm on the next plane out of here after they fix the airport up" but it took him three years of enduring a long-distance relationship before he got over there and got a job (he teaches science and "mother & baby dance classes".)

And you may be right about all that with the gov't, I haven't looked that closely at what agencies are there and didn't hear that speech. I was thinking idealistically, of some sort of U.N. nuclear disaster response that probably doesn't exist in real life. And as you sort of allude to I think, many countries wouldn't want them in right away, I guess. But it seems like, outside of any gov't's natural tendency to want to keep the full extent out of the news for as long as possible, more than 50 exhausted and possibly injured guys in hazmat suits could be applied. Maybe not. But if another large aftershock hits those dudes can only take so much.

I do know we've had troops running rescue missions and other operations and they've had to pull ships and planes back from the radiation spreading, and returning soldiers are being exposed to high levels of radiation.

I'm with you though, I never bought "clean" nuclear energy production. (That being said all energy production has public health costs, coal of course as the obvious example.) But the nuclear cat being let out of the bag sends chills down my spine nonetheless, despite the supposed relatively few accidents resulting in the release of high levels of radioactive particles like this. They were talking about the cancers some of the stuff released can cause and I had to turn off the TV. And the environmental & economic costs--am I going to buy rice from Japan or other items I sometimes stock at home? Hell no I'm not! Not even fucking around with that.

And if the wind changes direction, China and a lot of other countries better watch out.

[Victorian Squid]

Oh, P.S. Hope your dog gets well.

[Strict31]

Oh, P.S. Hope your dog gets well.

Thanks. But I'm not very optimistic at this point. Been waiting to see if this medicine has any real effect on him, but it's looking pretty much like it's the end.

Last year, I was doing research on Chernobyl for a story idea, and there's just so much weird and scary looking shit down there. New metals that formed. The geometry near the reactor is like Dali colliding with H.P. Lovecraft at the speed of Bozhe Moi. And I'd have to ask Colossus how fast that is, exactly...

It's like, science-fiction type weird. I mean, the horror is still going on. And to pile that same threat on top of an Earthquake and a tsunami...it's almost too much for the mind to process. Much less for the people who are actually experiencing it firsthand.