News you can use - holy God, Japan

Who's saying what

And now the NY Times is describing nuclear catastrophe in Japan as "a likelihood": http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/world/asia/15nuclear.html?_r=1&hp

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Well it's hard to imagine a more relentlessly grim process than that which is unfolding in Japan right now. Despite being as technologically and socially prepared for events of this nature as our species is essentially capable of the quake and its watery aftermath have shown exactly how fragile our grip on this planet can be. One shudders to think what might have occurred had the quake afflicted say Haiti instead. At a magnitude of 8.9 the quake struck with such force that it both moved the island of Honshu 2.4 metres and shortened the Earth's day by 1.8 microseconds. Recalibrate your atomic watches accordingly. It also qualifies as the fifth strongest earthquake since 1900. I think what's most affecting about the devastation being reported from Japan's northern areas isn't so much the death toll per se - although with predictions rapidly climbing above 20 000 that still remains a pretty awful affair - but rather the concentration of the carnage: one beach in Miyagi prefecture with a thousand bodies washed up on it a nearby town missing over half its population other towns that no longer exist. Matsushima historically regarded as one of Japan's three most beautiful places has been essentially eradicated. These before and after satellite photos give some sense of the scale of destruction we're talking about:





And now with 300 000 people homeless the mass shutdown of much of the country's fabled transport system power cut to huge swathes of the northern reaches and a possible cost of $35 billion audemars piguet jules audemars replica watch there is the further question of what might be about to occur at one of the affected nuclear plants at Fukushima. With certain amounts of radioactive gas already escaped and multiple explosions seen there are distinct fears that the nuclear rods in one of the reactors have become exposed the precursor to a possible meltdown. While even in an aging plant such as Fukushima the safety systems in place are extensive and well-maintained the situation is far from stable. And if anybody makes a Godzilla joke a Pokemon joke or a reference to Pearl Harbour they will be officially evicted from the human species.

One of those times when the rest of the news suddenly doesn't seem all that relevant but Libya is still going up in flames. There are now legitimate fears for the future of this revolution as the sheer imbalance of pitting a fully fledged and armed army against a ragtag group of angry young men in jeans and Kalashnikovs becomes increasingly apparent. However there is still the overwhelming sense that with everybody from America through to the Arab League desperate to see Gaddafi go it's merely going to be a question of time and casualties. The once sympathetic Arab League has even gone so far as to demand the UN set up a no fly zone over the country to prevent Gaddafi from using his air force against the rebels which is giving the motion renewed momentum but could still see the Security Council dither for a number of days. Meanwhile Gaddafi presses east franck muller casablanca watches bussing journalists out to see the towns he has freshly recaptured and the people he has "liberated". One hopes we have enough political and media attention to continue pressing the issue even while Japan surveys the wreckage. And then in other regional happenings Bahrain has brought in the Saudi army to suppress the protest movement while Yemen has begun expelling foreign journalists always a good sign. The euphoria of the Egypt moment is beginning to seem awfully long ago.

Local poll news and further suggestion that Gillard's legitimacy has taken a major pounding over the carbon tax issue with the two party preferred vote stretching to a 46-54 margin in favour of the Coalition and Kevin Rudd once again topping her as preferred Prime Minister. Although before Tony gets too excited by the news it should probably also be pointed out that Turnbull tops him by quite a considerable margin as well. Perhaps they'll both be reinstalled and we can all pretend the sheer awfulness that has been the last year and a half of Australian politics just never happened...

Features

Memories of going to the London School of Economics with Saif Al-Islam better known as the son of Muammar Gaddafi and the once putative heir to the regime.

David Brooks on why a limited understanding of what it means to be human leads to our most abject policy failures.

Oddities/Curiosities

Potentially apt given the aquatic carnage unfolding in Japan but researchers believe they may have finally found the city of Atlantis. Or rather what was once the city of Atlantis. These days it is not a broadly inhabited place.

Science is finally looking at the important issues and trying to work out why time seems to dilate when you think you are about to die.

Video

I can't embed this video due to the way it has been uploaded replica longines watches but this is what a tsunami looks like as it tears through a city. Not as majestic and instantaneous as Hollywood would have us believe but no less insistent and terrifying.