http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r/movie/index.html

It seems to me that this situation is not under control. Image credit goes to NHK and clicking the image will take you to the English live stream online.

Domestic English-speakers can actually choose English language from the sub-audio options on NHK channels (it's a button on your remote - check it out)

First time since WWII Japan has recorded this many victims

I found a better stream of the NHK site - http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/r/movie/

You can get 512 Kbps from there - a nice size picture if you have the bandwidth to handle it.

The dead and missing now exceed 11,000 - someone state-side was musing that this could end up in the 30,000 range...

Possible? I hope not. That's staggering.

Kobe took 6000, the Twin Towers took 3000 - will Fukushima end up taking 30,000?

And will this be the Tohoku Earthquake dead, the "Big Tsunami" 大津波 dead, or the Fukushima dead?

And do any of the above questions matter that much?

It's time to protect lives. Get away from there - get 10 times further away than the government advises.

Double speak

What the hell is this:

In Tokyo, the metropolitan government said radiation reached around 20 times normal levels in the capital on Tuesday morning but said governor Shintaro Ishihara said the levels would "not immediately cause health problems". (full article)

What does "not immediately" mean? Why isn't anyone demanding an answer to what kind of health risks exists in the "not immediate" future?

3 months? 6 months? What if my life is actually getting shorter from the far end slowly, and I'll only find out when I hit 55 and die from some special complication connected with radiation?

Damn politicians and their double speak. Of course "not immediately" is true - you can't argue with a fact! But you can see beyond the lie and question the integrity of their position.

I saw a quote (an old quote - but one that I had forgotten) today that reminded me why the Japanese government is so effective. Almost from birth - it teaches people not to use their brains.

To find yourself, think for yourself. --Socrates

命てんでんこ

Here is a bit of slang out of the earthquake aftermath. This elderly lady had seen a 10m tsunami in 78 around the Sendai area (though I didn't get the exact location, I think she said Iwate).

命てんでんこ means 自分の命を自分で守る

It's powerful stuff. I'm sure she has a really deep explanation for how she came up with this song (did I mention there is a song?) but I had to leave the room where the tv was before I got to watch the whole program.

Sent from my iPhone 4

Another reason I love Apple

Heart-warming when big corporations do the right thing just because they know it's the right thing to do.

Miracle

Yes - there are such things as miracles.

AWESOME.

30 means 300

The government continues the widen the circle of mandatory evacuation. First it was 2-5 on Friday, then 5-10, then 10-20, and now we have within 30 Km is unsafe.

When the government says "30" I hear "300". Their job is to maintain order in the face of chaos. Their only function is to keep the general population believing that things are under control.

They are all individual human beings with all the same short-comings and frailties as any of the rest of us. They have no great insight, no super powers, and no advantage of the individual brains of the citizens at large.

And people simply refuse to think for themselves.

At this point - it's almost appalling. People we know in Yokohama are saying "what's the problem? It's still perfectly safe here - we're far away!"

Citizens of history will know that the fallout from Chernobyl scared people living as far away as France.

Despite Japan's issues - this guy has cojones

I gotta admire someone with cojones large enough to spend probably a week in the enemy's territory and escape with video without anyone ever knowing.

Huge Cojones.

Tremendous amount of radiation measured

#4 reactor at 福島第一原発 is now burning - and they have measured a "tremendous amount" of radiation near the plant.

So - meltdown is underway it seems. One of the reactor cores has cracked.

Humans !> Nuclear Power

While I think Nuclear Power is actually a good thing - nothing comes without risks. We need to simply understand what we're dealing with better and build a better mouse trap. The world cannot continue on oil and coal - and we don't have green alternatives ready to scale in mass - so for now, we need to take this as a lesson.

So many people are going to cry out against Nuclear Power - but this isn't someone's "fault" - you build a facility to withstand the most dangerous models you can predict using the most data you can collect - but this was beyond "reasonable" in terms of sheer power and force. Nature is pissed the hell off.

Evacuating 20 Km from the plant and staying indoors up to 30 Km

The next thing they will say is that a strong Northern wind has picked up contaminates and is currently blowing them towards Tokyo.

I hope hope hope hope hope they don't, but it seems like everything I'm thinking in my head comes true an hour later.

I should stop thinking. This is a time I want to be wrong wrong wrong.

The world simply cannot imagine the ripple effect this is going to have in all walks of life. Japanese production is so intimately tied to all the electronics that we consume and love in other countries (most especially in the USA) - and the effects of this are going to come a month or many months later. That's just one economic aspect. It's going to hit hard in industrial production, research, politics, etc.

They are restoring train service in Tokyo - but the possibility of another 7.0+ still looms large. I'm sure the city will handle quake after quake - it's built exactly to withstand such events - but the mental toll of continued quakes, or another Tsunami - at some point the psyche is going to turn ugly and in the absolute worse case scenario, people start doing crazy things.

This society is far more hardened against mass panic than other countries - another mystery that attracts me to Japan - but there is only so much a human can take before things start going bad.