What are you doing right now?

[EndOfTheEarth]

Besides posting on here and replying to this thread. Original credit for this goes back to Fate and Nathan on MX.

[EndOfTheEarth]

On a national scale, billions of dollars is spit. The Tokyo Stock Exchange opened on a high note recently. None of the main business centers were hit.

 

And new reactors should be up an running in a few years, with relief reactors up in a few months. No sweat.

[Fake]

^_^

 

Ah, that's good. Excuse my ignorance, I tend to not really watch/read/whatever the news. Also, I'm lazy.

[o0_flying high_0o]

Curious as to where you've heard that from, because it doesn't line up with anything I've heard. The yen is going up, sure, and they stayed steady today instead of crashing again, but the stock market is still in very bad shape.

 

And the nuclear issue is a long way from being solved. 

[EndOfTheEarth]

The stock market regained over 500 of the lost points since the event. The rest of it is being held down by the media concern (if you want to learn stock economics, read the front page of your favorite newspaper, they drop whenever people are worried, not when anything is actually damaged) but will likely spring back up in four weeks, making this likely a good time to invest. The Yen is actually gaining value this week, as you pointed out, and competition in Japan is fierce, so economics around the event are sure to support a swift recovery. I was in Kobe after the huge quake they had in the 90s, you could barely tell anything happened.

 

The issue with the nuclear plants isn't as bad as they're trying to make it appear. When problems happen in a nuclear plant, you get a large amount of hydrogen generated. Now, in Chernobyl, all the hydrogen built up in the reactor itself and caused the reactor to crack open and explode. This happened because the Soviets didn't understand nuclear safety protocol. The Japanese reactors, on the other hand, have a hydrogen shunting system so that any hydrogen that builds up in the reactor is shunted out to another part of the building, so when that accidentally interacts with the atmosphere and explodes, then while the building blows up, the reactor itself is unharmed. Then, the Japanese are filling the reactors with seawater, which permanently kills the reactor, but prevents any further issue from occurring. The worries are about the still-intact reactor buildings, because you get worried about sending someone into a building that may blow up due to hydrogen over pressurization. Again, the nuclear reactors themselves are safe. The other issue is that of a spent-fuel cooling pool, which is overheating, and the coolant is steaming off into the air. While this isn't a good thing, it's nowhere near the radiation levels of Chernobyl (again, there you had solid irradiated matter particles going into the air).

So it's tricky, but it isn't the doom-and-gloom disaster that the media is making it out to be.

[o0_flying high_0o]

Mmkay, economics is... not my strong point, but I did read about how the yen rising was a bad thing because it makes it more expensive for anyone using international currencies to invest in Japan, and so that was yet another turn off. And in areas like nuclear power the drops were up to 23% just yesterday, so the market is going to take time to bounce back. 

 

I don't know that anyone is saying there'll be another Chernobyl, but, I mean it can be bad and disastrous without being to the level of what is pretty much the worst nuclear accident to have occurred. There's also the fact that the Japanese have admitted to underreporting the threat in order to avoid a huge panic, which means it's hard to gage exactly how bad it is. As for the seawater thing, the /only/ reason they resorted to that was because the levels of radiation are such that it was too dangerous for a helicopter to dump water on to it, as they've been doing with other the other damaged reactors. 

So basically, the situation is not yet under control, radiation is still being emitted into the air, which will have residual effects, and while it may not look like a meltdown, it's a tad early for you to be saying there's nothing to worry about. 

 

Also, the death toll you used in your first post was way off. 

[Contradiction]

One of the techie kids likes the Dresden Files.

 

My life has been made so many times over this week.

[Contradiction]

Having writer's block. Can't begin to think about analyzing much of anything, much less writing it into a coherent paragraph. Now is not the time, brain. >.<'

[EndOfTheEarth]

Tally, thought you should know that I'm using your age-to-smarts ratio as evidence in one of my arguments.

[Mudkip]

Having one of those "I can't do anything right and my art sucks goddammit why can't I start a story my head hurts and why the hell do I feel depressed I shouldn't feel that way I have a lot aren't I just so selfish my hand hurts I can't draw for some reason ugggh" moments.

[EndOfTheEarth]

Sometimes, disclaimers make me laugh.

 

"In the event Sponsor is prevented from awarding prize(s) or continuing with the prizes as contemplated herein by any event beyond its control, including but not limited to fire, flood, natural or manmade epidemic, earthquake, explosion, labor dispute or strike, act of God or public enemy, satellite or equipment failure, riot or civil disturbance, terrorist threat or activity, war (declared or undeclared) or any federal, state, provincial or local governing law, order, regulation, public health crisis (e.g. SARS), order of any court or jurisdiction, or other cause not reasonably within Sponsor's control (each a "Force Majeure" event or occurrence), then subject to any governmental approval that may be required..."

[Contradiction]

ohlol 

Where did you find that?

I like how they grouped 'God' and 'public enemy' together. Heh heh.

[EndOfTheEarth]

The Angel quote contest on the MDW homepage.