Somehow this will result in another $.30 a gal hike in gas prices.

Well yeah, didn't you see that refinery that was on fire? That will totally disrupt the supply worldwide.

End of the ****ing world.

We can only hope Fred Phelps and company are headed to the airport to go tell them all how much they deserve this.

In the clear light of day, it's obvious. The earthquake occurred off shore. The seismic wave had to travel to the coast where people lived. If there were sensors near the spot of the quake, the message that a quake had occurred could travel at the speed of light in advance of the seismic wave, there by giving people a short warning if a system were in place to do so.

I may have to postpone my boar masturbation schedule to watch the news today.

Just another sign planet x is on the way.

ROFL

ROFL

Something like this usually precedes a giant lizard like thing terrorizing Tokyo.

For a generation that is pretty saturated with all kinds of amazing videos and Hollywood special effects, this is some stunning video.

Thoughts go out to them. Damn.

I remember that. It was so riveting.

This truly sucks.

Don't. I was planning on a pork roast this evening. I am on a budget!!!

They are saying that nuclear reactor could explode.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-crippled.html

That appears to be more of an attention grabbing headline than anything else, atm.

I've never heard of one bigger than 8.1

Nuclear reactors don't explode, they leak or melt down. And that's from the Daily Fail, so take it with a grain of salt.

This quake was 8.9, the 5th largest since 1900.

Yes you could. Actually that's a good idea to get our trade deficit down.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_oWohy-jTYk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

LMAOLMAOLMAO

**** that. Pearl Harbor, never forget.

That was 70 years ago, you ****ing dumbass. The people who perpetrated that are almost all dead.

LMAO

Good Lord, give it a rest.

Our own Government?

Are you like 90 years old? America forgot a long time ago...See: Sony, Honda, Nissan, Mitsubishi, etc....

Neither does he.

my cousins are in maui for spring break.

You know, I would have thought that too, but oil prices have dropped more than $3.00 a barrel so far. Now I know that doesn't exactly mean gas prices won't go up, but....

Worst case, there is a lot of high ground on Maui. On the other hand, Crecent City, CA could be up poo creek. We will have to wait and see.

Japan is a large consumer of crude. Something like top five in the world. I would imagine that this earthquake would result in a large drop in their demand. Hence, lower prices for crude.

I just saw this video report on chiefsplanet

actually they're not....baseless headline that doesn't match article.....

Read up on what reactors actually do. Jesus ari, you're like a mini Maury Povich/ Art Bell combo.

If they had a successful SCRAM, there shouldn't be any concerns. But, a fire is a fire.

That's the big concern.

NUCLEOID FIRE!!!

gdub & the kids are safe & sound.

One of my good friends is in Japan. Heard from him a few hours ago that all is well.

Jeeeez I just woke up and watched some of this footage.

I bet he's not in northern Japan.

It's not white middle American redneck approved. It's them damned ahabs you know.

It's March Madness!

Kyoto

Just woke up, did anything happen to Hawaii?
Posted via Mobile Device

There getting some waves now, but nothing significant yet.

St. Louis in dire peril!!!! IT MOVED...I SWEAR IT MOVED!!!


Japan quake moved St. Louis "a fraction of an inch"
BY KIM BELL • [email protected] >

ST. LOUIS • Friday's massive earthquake near the coast of Honshu, Japan, one of the strongest ever worldwide, actually moved St. Louis up and down but nothing that people here would notice, an earthquake expert at St. Louis University says.

"It has no direct affect on our earthquake problem," says Robert B. Herrmann, with St. Louis University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "It's just too far away."

Herrmann added: "St. Louis moved up and down but it just moved up a fraction of an inch because of this earthquake. But it moved up and down so slowly no one would have felt it. It's too far away to affect us, and it's too far away to do anything in the earth related to earthquakes in the St. Louis region."

"It's just a reminder that earthquakes happen without warning, and it's important to be prepared and trained to respond," Herrmann said.

Herrmann, a professor of geophysics at St. Louis University, said the university operates a seismic network that sends signals to the U.S. Geological Survey so it can quickly locate and assess the damage of earthquakes.

On the research level, the university here helps the U.S. Geological Survey improve their capabilities of quickly locating and defining the size of the earthquakes to make damage estimates. The National Earthquake Information Center in Golden, Colo., has several thousand instruments worldwide that send signals about quakes.

The massive quake Friday measured an 8.9 magnitude. It was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the last two days. The U.S. Geological Survey says the 8.9 magnitude would make it the fifth-largest recorded worldwide since 1900.

Herrmann said, "This is the biggest earthquake in over a hundred years for Japan." That's as far back as the U.S. Geological Survey records go. As for worldwide quakes, Herrmann said, there only very few quakes on record that measured a magnitude in the 9s. "This is one of the major earthquakes in the last 100 years, and it's so close to a populated area."

The quake's epicenter in northern Japan was 231 miles northeast of Tokyo, with a population of 12 million. Herrmann said Tokyo was "strongly shaken" by the quake.

"Japan is aware that they have earthquake problems, and Japan certainly has earthquake drills once or twice a year," Herrmann said. "This could be on the order of hundreds of fatalities and billions of dollars in damage."

By comparison, other devastating earthquakes to hit Japan include the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, which was centered south of Tokyo and killed nearly 130,000 people. In the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, known as the Kobe earthquake, more than 5,500 were killed.

The Geological Survey says the quake hit Friday at 5:46 coordinated universal time. The times in North America would have been 12:46 a.m. Friday eastern standard time; 11:46 p.m. Thursday, central standard time; and 9:46 p.m. Thursday pacific standard time.

The USGS gives damage estimates within minutes of a quake, Herrmann said, so emergency response can spring into action quickly. The estimate is based on where the earthquake is, the size of the quake, the population density, information on the types of buildings, experience of past earthquakes and other factors.

"The purpose of this is to quickly estimate the nature of the disaster so that emergency response teams can be sent," he said. "We saw this about two weeks ago with the earthquake in New Zealand. Immediately after that one, international rescue teams were sent to New Zealand. You've got to be able to get in there quickly to save lives."

President Obama was told of the earthquake at 4 a.m. Washington time by his chief of staff, Bill Daley. Obama said the United States is ready to support the Japanese people "in this time of great trial." Obama said he instructed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be ready to help Hawaii and other U.S. states or territories affected by tsunamis.

At the U.S. Transportation Command stationed at Scott Air Force Base in Belleville, spokeswoman Cynthia Bauer said just after 9 a.m. today that officials there have been monitoring the situation closely and setting up planning teams in case they are asked to respond. Bauer said the Transportation Command would support the Pacific Command, which would be the lead agency.

The first post-tsunami baby has been born. Her name is Tsunami Jones, she weighs 7 pounds, and she has really big feet and gills.

FAX

Al-Jazeera is actually getting a pretty damned good reputation lately in global journalistic circles and is rising in viewership more than any other station (basically because they're more embedded in the hotbed of global activity, I imagine).
http://blogs.shu.edu/diplomacy/2011/...a-on-the-rise/
http://www.policymic.com/beta/global...s-rise-america

Evidently, for many journalists, it's the "cool" place to be, now (Al-Jazeera English, that is).

They're going to need water.

FAX

Think they hire suicide bombers during sweeps week?

I wonder how close I could get to the beach if I drove down there right now. I think the Police aren't letting anyone past a certain point.

They shut down Diablo Canyon as a precaution. That's nice of them.

If you had any nads at all, you would dawn your swim trunks, grab a surf board and go catch a wave, DUDE!!

What's the tide state right now in CA? Low tide?

God hates gays and Japs.

And the Apocalypse is near! I have warned you all. Repent, and thou might not get turned into Zombie mutants!

Low tide. I know you all may be disappointed, but no, we're not getting washed away today.

Lowest tide pretty much.

http://nathancool.com/cool-net/tides...California.png

No kidding!

Well, maybe next time.

Tsunami waves draw in water from the shore before they come crashing in. So, really low tide might not be a good sign.

Folks are taking precautions in my neck of the woods. Residents of Pacifica have been evacuated from their homes. The Great Highway (along the SF coast) is closed. Of course, there are the obligatory nutballs driving to the coast to watch the tsunami...

DAMMIT CARL :cuss:

I just drew this for that other thread but I think it would be on topic in here too.

http://i.imgur.com/1dnEf.png

Just cleansing the gene pool.

I don't think the west coast is gonna see anything from this.

Figures....people in the San Francisco Bay Area are freaking out.

:facepalm:

In case this hasn't been seen. The man waiting for death at 2:36 always gives me chills, and of course, the ship being consumed at 2:26.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RDOuwMj7Xzo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

He is on the west coast isn't he.....LMAO

That guy has went off the ****ing deep end in a matter of months.

RIGHTEOUS!

California surfers waited in water for tsunami

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (AP) -- Some California surfers rode high water from a tsunami caused by the Japanese earthquake, while other beaches were closed.

In Santa Cruz, it was a typical good day for surfing before the water pulled out of Monterey Bay toward the Pacific Ocean when the tsunami hit.

Around 8:10 a.m., within seconds, the water dropped by about 9 feet as the harbor turned into a river as water was sucked out to sea.

Surfers who had been paddling on their boards were able to walk with them on the wet sand. Others stayed in water, despite warnings from lifeguards to come in.

A couple of boats broke loose and part of a dock was also pulled away during one of several surges, each of which took about 10 minutes.

Has teedubya gotten his earthquake survival kit and headed out of the big city yet?

Interesting. The reactor in question did apparently SCRAM successfully, but they are having issues getting sufficient coolant to remove heat from the core.

That's not typically a good thing, but would be a lot worse if the reaction were still critical.

Please forgive my paranoia. I have the misfortune of being an ex-Alaskan NOAA oceanographer who conducted tsunami modeling studies.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...ami_damage.jpg

3 of the 6 biggest recorded quakes have happened in the last 7 years. Based on this data, I think a little panic is acceptable.

That's a tad alarming.

The world is slowly ending. We'll all be surfing in Bennett Springs before you know it.

Things don't happen every "X" number of years.