7.9 and 8.8 Earthquakes in Japan

yeah, but we can be confident that japan can/will get the money it will need to rebuild and that it has the infrastructure to make sure that money goes to the places its most needed. definitely not saying "dont donate" (i might say "dont donate to japan, donate unrestricted funds to the charity of your choice") just saying that it makes sense that haiti raised so much more money.

yah, MSF has several teams there already

also max otm---by all means give give give but i might also suggest that if you were planning on giving say $50 maybe give half that to MSF and half to a local charity

cool - thanks guys!

many xposts to deej - as hard of a time as I am having processing everything that's going on in Japan, I can't even imagine what you are going through right now.

basically anyone with personal ties to Japan ITT, just want to give all of you much love and hugs and support and whatever you need to make it through each day

<3 <3 <3

Tokyo background readings are more or less normal now that prevailing winds are towards the east.

http://mu.jklmnop.net/japan/radiation.jpg

The present concern is with communities on the shore north of Fukushima. Yesterday I was watching a site withrealtime dosimetry readings from . The highest reading, from a town just north of the evacuation zone, was 4414 nGy/h, which assuming β decay (as in Sr-90 and Cs-137) is 4.414 µSv/hr.

A high altitude flight (Wikipedia uses the example London Heathrow to Tokyo Narita on a high-latitude polar route) has a measured background radiation of 6 μSv/hr.

Presently, the highest dose rate is 1041 nGy/h, roughly 1/6th of that received in high altitude flight. Would you want to live in that for a year? Probably not. Will there be a handful of premature cancer deaths from this incident? Yes. Which is still less than the radiation spewed by equivalent coal-fired power plants over their lifetime.

Note, in my managed investment accounts, I was about 16% exposed to junior uranium explorers, which have been crushed. If you believe, as I do, that fission remains the most practical low-carbon baseload generation for the next 60 years while renewables ramp up, there will be a decadal buying opportunity once the stop loss sales are digested this week.

ty

BTW that should read:

Realtime dosimetry readings from the Japanese System for Prediction of Environmental Emergency Dose Information

When checking these, please consider that roughly 100 nGy/h is normal sea-level background, and roughly 6000 nGy/h is normal for air travel.

So far, it looks like TEPPCO did well given the 40 year-old designs didn't have the modern failsaves of dumping boric acid in distilled into the reactor, and they didn't have the sense to locate backup generation uphill. Their present shareholders will still be more or less be crushed to 0 given the high leverage of the company.

I'm mostly impressed with the fact that their employees working the pumps are showing up having watched 2 fatal and 1 non-fatal explosions from hydrogen buildup. These are the heroes of the quake.

I thought they were pumping in boric acid?

Sea water, IIRC

thought it was sea water laced with boric acid

US Govt orders both warships in the area to move 70 miles from Fukushima.

a lot of ppl arent donating because they think japan has the money for it

My friend said:"The world banks have to help, this is too big a crisis." And also added that this is a developed country so they'll manage just fine. I know it's mainly because I know so many people there and of course because my parents are still in Tokyo, but it saddened me immensely. I also read people's comments about celebrities raising money saying it's easy cause they are filthy rich and they only do it for the fame and being in front of the camera. Okay, whatever, dude. Instead of negative thoughts, think of ways you can fucking HELP. I donated and will continue to do so (like I did with other catastrophes).

My parents are coming back on monday. I can understand why they wanted to stay there, but I am relieved that they are opting to return for a money.

Rescuers in Japan have pulled out alive a man who spent four days stuck under debris following Friday's devastating earthquake and tsunami.

He was found in Miyagi prefecture, some 330 km (200 miles) northeast of Tokyo on Tuesday, according to local media.

The man was pulled out on stretcher in Ishimonaki, 96 hours after the earthquake struck.

for a month. For money? God, does it show I am running on low energy. :-(

This idea that "Japan is wealthy, so these people don't need our help" is so backwards. These are fellow human beings in a truly tragic and desperate situation. What the hell should nationality have to do with helping another person in need?

xps - yes, both sea water and boric acid.
http://www.dcbureau.org/201103141303/Natural-Resources-News-Service/fission-criticality-in-cooling-ponds-threaten-explosion-at-fukushima.html

also read people's comments about celebrities raising money saying it's easy cause they are filthy rich and they only do it for the fame and being in front of the camera.

Fuck these people.

And what did the people who say Japan has enough money do during Katrina?

XP

Obv. don't read that article - it seems to be suggesting a megaexplosion to dwarf all megaexplosions. But it does mention boric acid.

IIRC Japanese dudes went round New Orleans buying new saxophones for jazz musicians after Katrina [via Treme]

Well this was posted earlier but it bears repeating

xp I'm not sure if a parallel with Katrina is quite fair. The US government was clearly doing way less than was necessary. If it turns out that the Japan gov is fucking things up in the same way as the US gov did then I'll rethink, but I'm really not sure if giving money to Japan red cross rather than a local charity or Oxfam or whatever is really the best net use of my cash.

Not giving money != not wanting to help ffs.

the japanese government seems to be pretty well in control of the rescue, so yeah, this isn't analogous to katrina. i donated anyway (to the red cross) because it was either that or a pizza and pizzas are bad for you.

the really grim forecast isn't for the rescue but for japan's long-term recovery as a debt-ridden country halfway climbed out of the hole of the 1990s suddenly experiencing the second-worst disaster in their history. and all the paypal donations in the world aren't gonna put much of a dent in that, unfortunately.

(but essentially this stuff is a tautology: helping always helps more than not helping, so might as well)

^^^ this otm

Contrary to the knee-jerk reaction in the oil market on Friday, the earthquake and tsunami in Japan will be positive for growth, at least given the somewhat bizarre way statisticians calculate gross domestic product. There will be a massive reconstruction effort in Japan, which will be funded by a mixture of quantitative and fiscal easing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/mar/14/global-economy-recession-mervyn-king

although yes this will add extraordinarily to japan's debt burden i would imagine

xpost NotEnough, I certainly wasn't criticising people who don't want to donate for whatever reason, more the tired kneejerk cynicism that Nathalie was describing.

idk i feel like those noting japan from a financial stand point is fully equipped to deal w/this and those arguing giving is good regardless are kind of talking past each other

i mean, theyre both right

yeah sorry just to be clear i was trying to make a point that comparisons with haiti is like comparing apples or oranges. or oranges to another citrus fruit or something.

are you thinking of limes, maybe

grapefruit, say

yuzu, even.

You don't generally get rich by smashing your stuff up though xps. It might help if you were getting better infrastructure out of it, but japan already had great infrastructure. I guess the net effect will be enriching the construction industry at the expense of the insurance/financial industries, but I think japan already does that via huge public projects in a vain attempt to kickstart its economy anyway, so there's probably little net change economically speaking.

is this more or less offensive than gilbert gottfried?

http://intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=747509

Wow.

about as offensive as an office dead pool, imo. or, like, investing in lockheed martin or w/e

makes my head explode with rage

i mean it's p gross carpetbagging but faced as i am as an american citizen with a seemingly endless buffet of crass profiteering at which to satisfy my need to be enraged, i can't help but think of getting angry at "futures trading in tragedy" as being equivalent to some high-concept jello-y confection with fruit in it or something. novel, and there might be room for it on my plate, but i don't really ~need~ it

true laissez-faire headz think markets aren't just good at price discovery but discovery, period. like, of facts and knowledge and stuff. so if the market thinks that x event is likely that means it really is likely.

looks like weak reasoning to me but there you have it, existence of intrade

they got in trouble a while back for wanting to set up futures trading on terrorist attacks. i mean, it was a moral imperative for them, if you're down with the logic.

there's a similar site for trades on entertainment stuff that hollywood studios fought tooth and nail

looks like weak reasoning to me but there you have it, existence of intrade

― goole, Tuesday, March 15, 2011 2:19 PM (4 minutes ago) Bookmark

ha isnt the only way to REALLY make money off of it to say 'goole 100% otm'

tbh i kinda think there's a kernel of truth to that 'weak reasoning,' but i can't really think of how to rationalize it

and really: even though it's kinda gross to make money gambling on tragedy, that's also, like, how the entire stock market works, so getting worked up about it even a little bit would make living in the modern world as i understand it basically untenable

there is a 'wisdom of crowds' but i don't think that 'small batch of dudes trying to game each other for money' is the right crowd to consult for every problem!

ha isnt the only way to REALLY make money off of it to say 'goole 100% otm'

i'm not sure i follow you but i hope you're right

i feel like if there was enough action on that prop it could serve to approximate the collective knowledge of the event, but theyre never gonna get to that volume cause people generally find betting on this sort of thing slightly uh distasteful

goole i gotta app on my iphone that'll change your tune: intrade medical diagnostics

p cutting edge, imo

ps pretty sure you have lyme disease

*koff koff*

really starting to worry about my friends + colleagues in japan now. they mostly live in kanagawa prefecture. last time i heard from them on sunday they were ok but v worried abt the radiation. economic situation worries me a lot too since we are a small company on the verge of securing a second round of investment from VCs in the next few days.