Merged 8.8 quake in Sendai, Japan

[Christian Klippel]

I'll type slower. Japan has no concern for 'the individual'.

You mean, like the US when they dropped the nukes on Japan?

 

[gumboot]

So, ...---... doesn't really mean "Save Our Soles" ?

No. It was originally incorporated at a national radio standard in Germany for being a simple to remember transmission.

It also happened to be the International Morse Code signal for SOS, so SOS was adopted as an international distress signal because it made it easier to remember the signal. The "Save Our Ship" and "Save Our Soles" phrases were invented afterwards.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

It's not any language. It's a visual distress signal. Derived from ...---... which is an aural signal.

I always thought SOS was short for, Save Our Ship, but I see that is not true. How funny. SOS originated as a German signal! That's ironic.

But the bottom line, there are many INTERNATIONAL symbols and signals. It's very USAcentric to think anything we use is therefore English.

 

[Soapy Sam]

I always thought SOS was short for, Save Our Ship, but I see that is not true. How funny. SOS originated as a German signal! That's ironic.

But the bottom line, there are many INTERNATIONAL symbols and signals. It's very USAcentric to think anything we use is therefore English.

Including the alphabet.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

So, ...---... doesn't really mean "Save Our Soles" ?

Save our shoes?

Soul

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You mean, like the US when they dropped the nukes on Japan?

I was thinking more along the lines that half of the country consistently votes for corporate benefit over individual welfare but I didn't want to muddle the thread.

As an aside, however, I visited Nagasaki. It was very emotional.

 

[manofthesea]

I will assume you're intelligent enough to work out the difference between three months of volunteer relief work organized in the wake of the 1995 quake and reaction to an earthquake which occurred yesterday for yourself.

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Thousands upon thousands of people are in distress RIGHT NOW.

Tell you what, I'll leave you guys to talk about beer and molasses in this thread, mocking their misery.
But I'll be back in a week. We can then discuss the lack of response to the survivors.

 

[Bell]

Save our shoes?

Soul

No, really, shoes. It was a girls only cruise.

 

[BenBurch]

Never owned a British car, have you?

You know why the British don't make televisions?
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They couldn't think of any way to make them leak oil.

 

[Molinaro]

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Thousands upon thousands of people are in distress RIGHT NOW.

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[Travis]

More likely they got water in them- or in the fuel. What we lack (or I have not seen) is a report of what tsunami damage the power station infrastructure may have taken. If they were hit with the sort of debris wave we have seen sweeping across towns and fields, then it's easy to understand why backup systems failed. They may have ruptured fuel lines, fuel tanks underwater, anything. Backup diesel generators and pumps are pretty reliable- and they would have regular test schedules.

There may need to be new regulations for such things. Rare as they (tsunamis) are they generally try to design reactors to deal with anything that can be thrown at them. You can bet the coastal nuclear plants in California will probably have to account for this now.

A pumping system doesn't really have anything in it to explode. There just isn't enough information yet to know what happened.

As far as the diesels...they are very reliable in general and periodically tested to ensure they will start. I would be that seawater go into their electrical system and possibly into their diesel fuel...speculation, but water and electricity are typically a problem.

glenn

My guess on the explosion is that it was one of the pressure vessels outside the reactor. It couldn't be hydrogen inside the reactor because there is no oxidation agent. And if it was hydrogen outside the reactor then they have other problems.

 

[MattusMaximus]

If anyone is interested in discussing the scientific aspect of the situation, especially concerning the nuclear power plants, there is a good thread in the Science subforum on it. Just an fyi.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You know why the British don't make televisions?


They couldn't think of any way to make them leak oil.

My old Ford fit the nickname, 'fix or repair daily' quite nicely. And I did finally have to leave it, 'found on the road, dead', when it took its last breath in the Colorado Rockies.

 

[gumboot]

It's very USAcentric to think anything we use is therefore English.

Heh...

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

If anyone is interested in discussing the scientific aspect of the situation, especially concerning the nuclear power plants, there is a good thread in the Science subforum on it. Just an fyi.

With more plant cooling systems failing, one does have to consider design problems here. Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Heh...

Well we don't speak American. How else could I put it?

And to be fair, he was implying the SOS somehow meant they were signaling for someone speaking English rather than Japanese to help. Someone had to point out how incredibly bizarre that was to draw such a conclusion.

 

[Christian Klippel]

I was thinking more along the lines that half of the country consistently votes for corporate benefit over individual welfare but I didn't want to muddle the thread.

As an aside, however, I visited Nagasaki. It was very emotional.

Yes, it's always strange when people talk about individuals from one side of their mouth, but neglect their own doings or decisions.

For me people are just that: people. That makes them the same like me. I find it disgusting when people "condemn" whole groups just because of what some of them do. And it's even more disgusting that in the face of such a tragedy they need to refer to such low-blow tactics.

I'm wondering what they would think if they would need some help and someone told them "Go away, your ancestor's did X and therefore you are worth nothing at all". Then they are the first that would scream about human rights and all that.

As said, simply disgusting.

Greetings,

Chris

P.S.: Sorry for contributing to the derail.

 

[Rolfe]

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jrb_20061121_Tsunami_Evacuation_Platform_001.JPG

These might have helped some people.

That's good. I haven't seen these mentioned in our TV coverage.

I reckon if the death toll from this doesn't get into five figures, there's no praise high enough for the systems in place.

Rolfe.

 

[Puppycow]

What then?

Well, all Japanese know what 'SOS' means. Just like English adopted the word 'tsunami', Japanese have adopted certain English words like 'SOS'.

 

[gumboot]

Man, our media is having a field day with the hyperbola:

TOKYO - Workers have been desperately dousing a nuclear reactor with seawater to prevent it overheating, and causing an explosion that could wipe Japan off the map.

Frantic Efforts Inside Nuclear Powerplant

Ridiculous.