I'm guessing everyone here has heard, but there was a massive earthquake 
in Japan about 12 hours ago.  Reports say it registered as 8.9.

My brother in Osaka just reported that there have been (so far) 18 
additional earthquakes over 6.0 and over 100 aftershocks of at least 4.0 
(with 3/4 of them over 5.0), and that local news is saying this could go 
on for days or weeks.

I don't even know how to react to this.  He's about 500 miles from where 
the first quake hit, and nearly all of the reported events are east and 
northeast of Tokyo, so he (and his family there) don't appear to be in 
any danger at the moment, but I've also got friends and colleagues in the 
Tokyo area.

It's just staggering.

Jim

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On 11/03/2011 9:02 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> My brother in Osaka

I hope he and his get through it okay.

>
> It's just staggering.
>

I assume, no pun intended.

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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Jim Henderson escreveu:
> I'm guessing everyone here has heard, but there was a massive earthquake 
> in Japan about 12 hours ago.  Reports say it registered as 8.9.
> 
> My brother in Osaka just reported that there have been (so far) 18 
> additional earthquakes over 6.0 and over 100 aftershocks of at least 4.0 
> (with 3/4 of them over 5.0), and that local news is saying this could go 
> on for days or weeks.
> 
> I don't even know how to react to this.  He's about 500 miles from where 
> the first quake hit, and nearly all of the reported events are east and 
> northeast of Tokyo, so he (and his family there) don't appear to be in 
> any danger at the moment, but I've also got friends and colleagues in the 
> Tokyo area.
> 
> It's just staggering.

yes, been following.  I also remember Kobe some years ago.  You can see 
where giant youkai and Godzilla legends originate from the sheer 
devastation left...

I have a nisei aunt who says geologically Japan will eventually be wiped 
off of world map, much like Atlantis of myth.

best regards to your brother!

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:26:42 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 11/03/2011 9:02 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> My brother in Osaka
> 
> I hope he and his get through it okay.

So far, so good, or at least as good as can be expected.

>> It's just staggering.
>>
>>
> I assume, no pun intended.

Nope, I didn't even think of it - but as puns go, it's not bad. ;-)

Jim

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On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:29:59 -0300, nemesis wrote:

> yes, been following.  I also remember Kobe some years ago.  You can see
> where giant youkai and Godzilla legends originate from the sheer
> devastation left...
> 
> I have a nisei aunt who says geologically Japan will eventually be wiped
> off of world map, much like Atlantis of myth.

I guess something like that could happen, given where they're located.  
The view on the USGS map of the activity is just incredible.

> best regards to your brother!

Thanks, much appreciated. :-)

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On 11/03/2011 9:42 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>>> My brother in Osaka
>> >
>> >  I hope he and his get through it okay.
> So far, so good, or at least as good as can be expected.
>

I hope that continues. Some of the footage, especially of the tsunami, 
is horrific. :-(

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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On Fri, 11 Mar 2011 21:46:42 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> On 11/03/2011 9:42 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> My brother in Osaka
>>> >
>>> >  I hope he and his get through it okay.
>> So far, so good, or at least as good as can be expected.
>>
>>
> I hope that continues. Some of the footage, especially of the tsunami,
> is horrific. :-(

Yes - the thing that really shocked me was seeing the damage from the 
tsunami in *California*.  That an entire bay was essentially destroyed in 
CA from this gave me pause just because of the distance it traveled 
before causing that damage - and thinking how much worse it is in Japan.

Jim

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nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> You can see 
> where giant youkai and Godzilla legends originate from the sheer 
> devastation left...

  AFAIK, the concept that Godzilla (Gojira) and other kaiju originate
from ancient Japanese folklore seems to be just a misconception.

  Youkai are part of ancient folklore and mythology, but they consist
mostly of supernatural creatures taking various forms of small animals
such as raccoon dogs, foxes, cats and wolves, or sometimes even humans.
The closest youkai is probably a mountain ogre (but I don't know how
large the mythology says they are, but from the description it probably
wasn't deemed anywhere even close to gigantic; I'd guess human-sized or
slightly larger.)

  Godzilla and other kaiju were most probably a pure invention of the
1950's Japanese movie industry, mostly inspired by King Kong. (In other
words, gigantic monstrous animals as a movie plot were actually invented
in the US before they were in Japan. This is not to say that there were
not pieces of fiction, mostly literature, that had gigantic animals even
earlier. However, none of them were probably based on Japanese folklore.)

  I suppose that the closest you could get in ancient oriental folklore
is dragon myths (which were probably inspired by dinosaur bone fossils).
In a way this could ostensibly be a source because Japanese dragons were
most often associated with rainfall and bodies of water. (I wouldn't be
surprised if some myths associated tsunamis with dragons for this reason.)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> I'm guessing everyone here has heard, but there was a massive earthquake 
> in Japan about 12 hours ago.  Reports say it registered as 8.9.

  I have always wondered why there are so many huge cities at places
where earthquakes are very common. One would think that the danger would
kind of deter big populations from forming there.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 11/03/2011 10:00 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
> Yes - the thing that really shocked me was seeing the damage from the
> tsunami in*California*.  That an entire bay was essentially destroyed in
> CA from this gave me pause just because of the distance it traveled
> before causing that damage - and thinking how much worse it is in Japan.

You can get the BBC sites. You may have seen this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12709850


-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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