I don't think Hawaii is getting hit as hard as people originally thought, and they also had a lot of warning before it was going to hit so I think most people evacuated before it came, which is good.

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

The Earth is a dick.

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Not that I like natural disasters or anything, but it just sometimes really amazes me how powerful nature can be. No matter how much the human race advances, we don't stand a chance to nature. It just puts it all in perspective really...

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

That's ridiculous. I hope everyone is going to be fine over in that area.

It seems like Nature is being a bitch to that side of the globe. About a month ago the Queensland's floods in Australia, and now an Earthquake for Japan.

If the Earth wanted to take away the human race, it would be too easy for it to do so.

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Oh I hope there isn't a nuclear meltdown... Japan would be fucked even more...

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

It's crazy how at one moment everything can be exactly fine, and then the next, Earth is completely turning your life upside down. Like I mentioned earlier, it's moments like these that make me thankful that the hardest I've dealt with is bad snowstorms. It really makes you appreciate everything in life more when these poor people are losing everything.

These poor people will have no means of sustaining themselves either. Right at the moment they lose everything, the price of everything will quadruple. Anyone caught gouging them(and many will be gouging as sure as I'm sitting here) should be locked up. Imagine this scenario, your house gets swept away(with all your belongings and valuables), and then some asshole won't give you a bottle of water unless you got $5. Gotta love me some market economy. Gas, medicine, food will all be at a premium, and these people will have no means to acquire them. Here's the worst part. People will donate their hard earned money, and gougers will be all over it.

The earthquake was in Japan, not Zimbabwe.
It's a first world economy, and they're probably prepared better for an earthquake than any other country on the planet.
Yeah it's going to suck for a bit, but they (the Japanese government) can take care of it.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

I'm worried about the 88K official missing persons figure that will keep growing

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mechaphil

Ya, I don't care how great your economy is, pulling bodies from buildings and rubble is going to take a while. This is going to take a long time to recover from. I guess it's like Katrina with no warning. Let's hope they're better than us at this, but there's still fires 24 hours later. Monumental task.

Maybe, but compare and contrast Northridge California and Port au Prince Haiti and I think one could make quite a strong argument that the economy does matter when dealing with such things.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Since I have a very cynical, insensitive, and sometimes cruel mind, thoughts like the "whales are getting revenge" escape me, But I recognize those thoughts as fucked up and unsubstantial, and rarely express them. Unless I'm in front of a keyboard...

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"I love that you know how to do that." Cheryl/Carol/Crystal

"And I love that I have an erection that doesn't involve homeless people." Kreiger

Who in the hell is comparing economies? My point was that they should immediately prevent gouging. Some of these people lost everything, and to them it isn't going to matter that their nation is prosperous. We already saw what happens in "a civilized society" with Katrina, and it wasn't very civilized. Sure, it could have been worse, but that's not really that bright of a side. I really don't think this thread is a good place for an argument anyhow, so I'll skip the compare and contrast for now.

If you're concerned about gouging, lack of authority is what allows it to exist.
In a first world economy, sufficient police, rescue and even military resources will be deployed to discourage such practices and render the basic services that may otherwise be exploited.

You're the one that brought it up. I just don't happen to agree with you.
I think gouging is about #1280 on the list of bad things they have to deal with right now.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

Maybe Spike Lee will do a documentary. We'll see. For now let's hope they get what they need.

Japan can handle such disasters better than most other countries of the world.
people are trained to deal with earthquakes better than anywhere else. I think they do a great job there.

btw: in case of a heavy nuclear accident , the US Westcoast is safe. there will be rain over the pazific a few hundred miles away from the Japanese eastcoast.

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HOCKEY IS BACK!

I was going to say #88,001 but either way... I agree with you. Japan is comparable to the US (including the English speaking!)

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I'm not really sure that a really heavy nuclear meltdown would reach the U.S, but it would sure hurt Japan a lot.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.

It's only about 1K dead and 10K missing though now.

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Second nuclear meltdown likely under way in Japan, official says...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42044156/ns ... ?GT1=43001

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