A dramatic aerial video:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/11/japan.tsunami.damage/
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Youtube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cxJfe_w9LQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDNIb1vRQqM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yZAaqT0v4s

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/2011/03/11/japan-earthquake-experience-shared-on-youtube-as-citizen-journalists-upload-their-videos-watch-incredible-footage-115875-22981990/
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Photos and other videos:

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/03/11/live-blog-japan-earthquake/

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/japan-tsunami-video-photos-8-9-earthquake-march-11-2011-2765769.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/11/japan-earthquake-tsunami_n_834380.html

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Initial press coverage:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-03-11/earthquake-hits-japan-causing-tsunami-major-damage.html

http://www.khsltv.com/content/localnews/story/Update-1-15-a-m-California-Tsunami-Watch-After/7qnWRWJeoU6C-yC6S1l3ag.cspx
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Reports of expanded tsunami warnings for the areas mentioned in the subject line are being reported by CNN International. Tsunami alerts have gone out to 20 countries, as a tsunami has now smashed into northern Japan and is sweeping up to 60 miles inland.

Reports are also coming in of a fire at a Japanese nuclear reactor, with another experiencing problems with its cooling system. Follow-up coverage, however, claims that Japanese nuclear plants have been shut down safely and that there has been no radiation leakage. (All this said, much of the initial news is sporadic and unconfirmed, given that communication lines have been significantly interrupted).

Further reports are that a tsunami is expected to hit California today around 7 a.m., Pacific time, with the size of the wave being a matter of speculation--perhaps somewhere between two and four feet high.

Coastal evacuations are underway in Hawaii. with the islands expected to be hit by a tsunami in the middle of the night.
_____


UPDATES:

Hundreds killed in Japanese tsunami:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_earthquake


Tsunami swamps Hawaiian beaches, brushes West Coast:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_us/us_pacific_tsunami



Edited 31 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2011 12:23PM by steve benson.

Anyone know how the USAF bases in Japan have fared. I have a good friend and her family out there and I am worried for them. Haven't been able to find anything yet.

European View Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Anyone know how the USAF bases in Japan have fared. I have a good friend and her family out there and I am worried for them. Haven't been able to find anything yet.


I checked with an acquaintance on Facebook who is stationed in Japan. I'm not sure where he is, but he said that civilian airliners have been landing at the military airports (as Tokyo and Haneda are evidently out of service). He said he was OK. He's USAF.

Thanks, Michael, that was kind of you. I managed to get in touch my friends and they are fine.

European View Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks, Michael, that was kind of you. I managed
> to get in touch my friends and they are fine.


You're welcome. I'm glad I was able to be of help.

safe and accounted for. Just got that news here in Missouri.

searching27 Wrote:
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> safe and accounted for. Just got that news here in
> Missouri.


That's helping, but I'm still going to feel much better when we actually hear from our AF friend over there...

Deceptively beautiful.

But always, always deadly.

These stories are just the beginning . . . .

yeah, 'cause jesus is coming.

I live at the beach. For sheer survival, we all understand that the ocean we love so much can turn deadly in an instant.

I was one of the first posters to answer Steve's thread - all I meant by my comments were, "The worst is yet to come." In terms of casualties, lost infrastucture, loss of homes & jobs etc.

I also expected a much, much higher death toll than the early returns in the news indicated.

Carry on . . .

Shannon (who threw out a garage full of "end-times" food storage in 2006).



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2011 09:59PM by shannon.

... because we all know that the one true god ... "Baal" (praise his name) is a jealous god and its been centuries and centuries of "Jesus this" and "Jesus that" ... and Baal is, well, obviously ticked off ROYALLY.

So yeah, you can expect more.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0001xgp/

Location of Earthquake relative to:
130 km (80 miles) E of Sendai, Honshu, Japan
178 km (110 miles) E of Yamagata, Honshu, Japan
178 km (110 miles) ENE of Fukushima, Honshu, Japan
373 km (231 miles) NE of TOKYO, Japan

Thanks for thinking of me. My city, Nagoya, was far enough from the epicenter that there were some long shakes in the university office, but no damage or disruption of services. Phone connections were sporadic when I reached a friend in Tokyo, but I was able to call California okay.

Let's keep our fingers crossed about that nuclear plant...

Here's an email from my nephew on the N. SHore of Oahu, just to give you an idea of what it's like, I think it didn't hit very hard:

All stocked up and hoping the two major Oahu power plants which are low to sea level will be OK. 6 foot tsunami may seem small but could do some damage here. Spent the past two hours contacting friends customers and divers in Christmas Island, Guam, Tarawa and Big Island. David S. should have to evacuate from his near shore beach home tonight. Adam called him and knew about it before us. Many of these Islands have no high ground and even a small tsunami will be devastating!! I pray for all my friends there. I have customers in Japan and a friend stationed in Osaka. hope they all are OK.

Our friend Eric has a big sail boat in the harbor-unable to reach him but sure he is trying to get it out to deep water. Bet all ships in Pearl are deploying out to sea. We were first told by our military renters.

We are several hundred feet high here and stocked up with food etc so do not worry about us. Midnight here and it will hit 3 am our time-about when you all will wake up to the news. Going to try and get some sleep here-sirens hourly and many evacuating shorelines. Many will be on our street like last time. So if we lose power will be up all night with the generator fish and all.

Heres the thing, I lived in Sendai, the hardest hit-city, for 2 years (not on a mission) and was just there a month ago. And I'm moving back there in 2 weeks. Scary.

I think I would delay that if I were you. This nuclear thing scares me tons.

Thanks for the links, Steve, very interesting.

UPDATE: Nothin' but surfers, seagulls and pelicans. Waves normal and beautiful. (Louder this early in the day)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2011 10:42AM by wine country girl.

There's aftershocks set to the pacific islands. At least they have time to evacuate...

weird night on the Big Isle. Earth quaking, new vents opening on the volcano, tsunami coming.

Most of the damage was in Kona side, prolly Kawaihae Harbor took new damage, it's not yet repaired and open since the last local earthquake damaged it a few years ago.

Water went 100ft in at Napoopoo, Kealakekua Bay. Nobody hurt, thankfully.

I hope the people get the help they need quickly. I really like the Japanese. My dad had great respect, and admiration for them, and one of my best roommates at YBU was a nonmember from Japan.

For once I wish fundies, and others could refrain from co-opting tragedy in the name of gawd, and using it to condemn someone. It would be nice if there were no yellow t-shirts or the more subtle exploitation by GA's telling stories of how they supported members during this time or helped in general. The sheeple think TSCC is a great force for good in the world, but of course that is not so. It is propaganda. It would be wonderful if the focus could simply be on helping people in need.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2011 05:30PM by atheist&happy:-).

Fundies come out with their predictable programming and others just as predictably come out with their knee-jerk disgust at it. Domino effect. Whatever people's meta-framing of this occurrence is (including the one that it's only a dream, as the body itself is a dream), 'it would be nice' if they kept it to themselves and concentrated on being helpful in thought, word, deed. That is certainly the case with people in the midst of it.

Actually, to come out with the same lines, even mentally, for each happening evidences an arrested development. If we continue to grow, we do not SEE things in the same way as we did yesterday.

Standard xstian “programming’ is a vastly different thing than PR strategy, and propaganda - one intent is naive, maybe even sincere, the other is deliberate exploitation. Certain people intentionally use tragedy to further their agendas of hate, division or free publicity to generate revenue or status.

So my disgust is knee-jerk, really? Knee-jerk implies an automatic, reaction without much thought. My disgust is disapproval of watching many of the so-called religious sink to this level at every tragedy. Directing people’s reactions towards hatred of gays, some “sin” in a country or city, blaming someone somewhere for the tragedy, etc. diverts their attention from the reality of the situation: the real suffering, and the real good we could do to help. The Japanese people deserve better than having their tragedy turned into a freak show for jeezus. My disgust is valid.

To be clear, when I said “I hope” I was expressing nothing more than wanting people to focus on the Japanese. Thoughts help no one in Japan now; they need actual deeds.

It must be wonderful to have such superior understanding that you can minimize such suffering, and destruction by comparing it to a dream, and for the rest of what you said, I have nothing to say, because I don’t speak woo.

Most people's so-called thinking is repeating established patterns. They come to some conclusion (on who knows what basis), then keep it and reiterate it continually. No need to re-examine it or step out of their comfortable shoes and walk in another's. Additionally, the field of social cognition posits that some 99% (yes, that high) of our "decisions" are neurologically carried out, without ever rising to consciousness (they were once conscious decisions, but have been repeated and so become automatic).

And I live in Japan. I am watching the news of what is going on just a few hundred miles away, plus I have friends much closer to the problems. People around me are aware that their own lives could be affected in a moment, there are shortages of survival items in stores, and the atmosphere is tense. You might want to revise your own superior judgments.

You give no sources, and human behavior is far more complex than you suggest. I know enough to know I am not an expert in neuropsychology or neurology or any other field that borders on this area, and likewise I know it cannot be summed up in a few pithy, unsourced statements. I have changed my views over the years, and do not need to walk in the shoes of a fundie or TBM or the propaganda Heartsell experts at TSCC. If you genuinely want to talk about walking in another's shoes then why compare immense suffering to a dream? That is minimizing, not empathizing.

I know you have stated you live in Japan. All the more reason for me to question your dissociation while you are in the midst of this. Just because you live there does not mean your opinion is valid to me. I hope you can break through to reality instead of repeating back another version of the same old brainwashing. That is my opinion.

John Bargh, "The Automaticity of Everyday Life" (lead article in Advances in Social Cognition, vol. X, Robert S. Wyer, ed., Urbana-Champaign: Univ. of Illinois, 1997).

I'm curious what you mean by "the same old brainwashing"...same as what? old in comparison to what? I really don't know what you're pushing against.

His theory is one competing theory. Most of the references in his book are from the field of psychology. Where are the real science references? Neurology has not even settled this question yet, and neurologists produce real results.

His NYU page says:
“How much free will do we really have? I am interested in the extent to which any and all social psychological phenomena -- attitudes and evaluations, emotions, impressions, motivations, social behavior -- occur nonconsciously and automatically. “

We must have different definitions of “nonconscious, and automatic”, because if you have ever had a partial seizure you would get to experience the difference. I have had many seizures where I recall doing something in detail, but do not recall any action of will or conscious observation about what I was doing. I have been in dangerous situations, with no recognition of the danger, but perfect memory of events. It is like your brain, and memory become a video camera - there is no consciousness or will, but there is recall. There is a huge difference, and we do have free will.

Same old brainwashing:

The cult minimizes individual suffering in favor of supporting the hierarchy, and they minimize individual suffering with excuses like you chose your fate in the preexistence, or that the real rewards, and punishments come in an afterlife (so consequently this life has less value than it should), etc. - You minimized suffering by comparing human life to a dream! You say our thoughts, and opinions are automatic, and predetermined (how is that for preexistence on earth?)

The cult devalues individual, rational thinking. - You devalued mine as knee-jerk, just a mindless reaction.

The cult gives out pat answers that do not reflect reality. - Your canned answers reflect the same disconnect.

The cult thinks prayer works just as well or better than actions. - You said thought was helpful.

The cult says when the profit speaks the thinking has been done. - You claim the thinking has been done automatically.

You both profess these "truths" with the arrogance of a priesthood with the twoo knowledge.

You both write nonsense.

My favorite little town on the north coast, Crescent City, got hit by the tsunami wave. It took out the little marina they have there. It damaged a lot of small boats.

The town has a richly forested peninsula to the south. Every evening a thick fog rolls in, obscuring the forest, tree by tree. The beach is cool and wind-whipped. Gulls dart around and fight over scraps of bread or whatever you toss to them. I can still hear their keening. There's a lonely lighthouse called Battery Point. To the south lies the northernmost forest of giant redwoods. To the north, Brookings, Oregon with its craggy beaches and hiking trails.

To me, no better place on Earth.

Saw the video of Cresenct City this eveing. Tsunami didn't come in until 10:30 AM then came in with a lot of power, low waves, but just kept coming and coming.
I hope the Aquarium is okay. we love going there!

My son in Vegas said all of the cell phone videos that were being posted to Ytube were being taken down after
ONE VIEWING from Japan (camera making nation) last night when the tsunami hit.

How frustrating. My heart goes out to all of my friends/family in Japan.