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[Victorian Squid]

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.

It's staggering, literally...kind of been distracted thinking about it the last several days. Noticed many people here had next to no appreciation for how scary a 6 out of 7 on the nuclear disaster scale that could still go full 7 really is. (Not to mention, as you say, the 500 year event level quake and tsunami)...I saw some clear footage of the wave rolling in and just throwing boats and vans and buildings all over the place. Japanese society has such strong bonds of societal manners, for lack of a better word at the moment...I can't help thinking it'd be halfway to Cormac McCarthy's The Road here by now already if something roughly akin to that happened.

[sdsichero]

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

That was the HUGE news story a couple of weeks ago. Everyone had panda mania (when I first got to Japan). Within the week, the New Zealand Christchurch earthquake happened (a couple hundred Japanese schoolkids were there and I think most perished).

Now...

And on the news they are saying they are going to evacuate the 50 workers.

Crap. Things look very very grim.

[sdsichero]

I have to stop paying attention to this... I think I am cursing it....

http://en.rian.ru/natural/20110315/163018924.html

Fukushima operator says will evacuate control room personnel (Update 1)
17:17 15/03/11

The operator of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant said on Tuesday that all personnel must be evacuated from the control room at the plant's reactor No.1 after radiation levels became critical, Kyodo news agency said.

The agency did not report the exact radiation level reading.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the container of a plant reactor may have been partially damaged, Jiji Press reported.

The company said earlier on Tuesday the problem could develop into a critical ''meltdown'' situation after part of container vessel in reactor No. 2 was damaged following a hydrogen explosion at 6:10 a.m. (21.10, Monday GMT).

The level of radiation around Fukushima No.1 is high enough to affect human health, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said earlier on Tuesday.

He said 400 millisieverts of radiation per hour had been detected around reactor No.3 at 10:22 a.m. local time (01.22 GMT), four times higher than the acceptable radiation level for humans.
The No.1, No.2 and No.3 reactors are all releasing hazardous radioactive material.
All residents within a 20 kilometer radius of the Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant have been evacuated, Japan's National Police Agency said.

Meanwhile, temperatures have been rising slightly in Units Five and Six of Fukushima No. 1.

Blasts at Fukushima No. 1 in northeastern Japan have escalated concerns about a possible nuclear disaster in the country, which was devastated by a powerful 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami on Friday.

Cooling systems at the Fukushima plant failed following the earthquake, resulting in blasts at Units One and Three on Monday. Unit Two also overheated on Monday, but the cooling system recovered a few hours later.

MOSCOW, March 15 (RIA Novosti)

[Strict31]

It's staggering, literally...kind of been distracted thinking about it the last several days. Noticed many people here had next to no appreciation for how scary a 6 out of 7 on the nuclear disaster scale that could still go full 7 really is. (Not to mention, as you say, the 500 year event level quake and tsunami)...I saw some clear footage of the wave rolling in and just throwing boats and vans and buildings all over the place. Japanese society has such strong bonds of societal manners, for lack of a better word at the moment...I can't help thinking it'd be halfway to Cormac McCarthy's The Road here by now already if something roughly akin to that happened.

Well, compared to the Road, Road Warrior is a way more optimistic and hopeful picture of the post-Apocalyptic wasteland. With any luck, I'll set myself up with a gang and will be called Lord Humongus, and I'll even have a Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy for my dogs of war. Some of them are kinda into...well, I'm just sayin'.

Yeah, this is Thundarr the barbarian type destruction, man. Fucked up thing is, I think every modern society is only one disaster away from this type of shit. Civilization...or perhaps the trappings of it...that's some fragile shit in the face of nature.

[sdsichero]

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.

*Looks at Strict's deflated bubble*

oops

*backs away slowly*

[Victorian Squid]

"The operator of Japan's Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant said on Tuesday that all personnel must be evacuated from the control room at the plant's reactor No.1 after radiation levels became critical, Kyodo news agency said."

That's not good, except maybe for those poor people in the control room.

"The agency did not report the exact radiation level reading."

Not reassuring in any way.

"Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the container of a plant reactor may have been partially damaged, Jiji Press reported."

Seems to me it's either damaged or it ain't.

Yeah, this is Thundarr the barbarian type destruction, man. Fucked up thing is, I think every modern society is only one disaster away from this type of shit. Civilization...or perhaps the trappings of it...that's some fragile shit in the face of nature.

Yeah...I think the way the primate brain evolved, it doesn't or didn't make sense for an organism or species trying to reproduce to appreciate dangers of that magnitude or nature. Even when I hear the nuclear plant experts now saying [some] plants are built to withstand quakes except those so large that they may happen only every 500 years they don't seem to be realizing those events may happen any day out of the blue like this, not 500 years from now. I can't quite articulate what I'm trying to say.

[Strict31]

I can't quite articulate what I'm trying to say.

That humanity is most fragile when it thinks it is at its strongest?

[Victorian Squid]

That humanity is most fragile when it thinks it is at its strongest?

Works for me!

[sdsichero]

Apparently those workers only had a 45 minute break? they are going back in (according to the TV news)

[Strict31]

Apparently those workers only had a 45 minute break? they are going back in (according to the TV news)

Damn, that's workin' hard, bro.

[Herald]

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.

Hate to break it to you, but you expose yourself to a radiation reactor every time you go out in the daylight. It's called THE SUN. Also, anything that's made of atoms can give off a little radiation. (I actually have Dr. Light pretty much point this out in my Dr. Light fanfic. Did you read it?? )

So yes, there is "normal background radiation".

[Strict31]

Hate to break it to you, but you expose yourself to a radiation factory every time you go out in the daylight. It's called THE SUN. Also, anything that's made of atoms can give off a little radiation. (I actually have Dr. Light pretty much point this out in my Dr. Light fanfic. Did you read it?? )

So yes, there is "normal background radiation".

And I hate to break it to you but I was making a joke. See, in real life, I don't have a bubble.

[Herald]

And I hate to break it to you but I was making a joke. See, in real life, I don't have a bubble.

I'm sure it's more of a cube than a sphere.

[Herald]

Japanese society has such strong bonds of societal manners, for lack of a better word at the moment...I can't help thinking it'd be halfway to Cormac McCarthy's The Road here by now already if something roughly akin to that happened.

Yeah, there would be all kinds of looting and whatnot.

The concept of "gaman" (basically, the will to stand discomfort) is strong in Japanese culture. They're going to need every bit of it they can muster.

[sdsichero]

And I hate to break it to you but I was making a joke. See, in real life, I don't have a bubble.

But you do have a Van Allen Belt