7.1 Earthquake in Japan • Hacker News Board

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#111

Post by positron26 » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:52 PM UTC

smrq wrote: post #96

positron26 wrote: post #88

8 is serious. 9 is Pacific subduction rupture. 7 is not really top news of the day. People with friends and family exposed don't really appreciate being false-alarmed with 7s and 6s.

I'm sure everyone in the hospital and with collapsed houses would agree with your assessment that it's not a big deal.

Okay. Let's make every such instance news?

HN is exaggerating to feel close to the action. It's childish.

There is a trench off of Tokyo that is likely to rupture in our lifetimes, and people who have other people to check on don't care about HN's disaster fantasies.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#112

Post by benj111 » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:53 PM UTC

dfxm12 wrote: post #101

traceroute66 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards. Since the mid-2000s there has actually been a push by Japanese utility companies for adoption of what they call "all-electric" オール電化. Adoption has been reasonably good with new-builds because they can also have solar panels. But adoption in older properties has been slower. First in general, electricity in Japan has tended to be more expensive than gas. Seco…

The study doesn't appear to be blind (not sure how you can do a blind cooking test). Also, The panellists were satisfied with cooking when they could control the heat as desired suggests inexperience with electric is a part of preference (as a personal anecdote, it took me a few months to get used to an electric stove in a new house after a lifetime of cooking on gas). This is also over a decade old. There have been…

If you aren't using induction, it's also slow, slow to heat, slow to cool.

Yes you can get used to turning the heat up 5 minutes before you want hot. A down 5 minutes before your food is done. But it's a pain.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#113

Post by qurren » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:54 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #90

traceroute66 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The mall had a (most likely gas) explosion If the internet searches are to be believed, that is indeed sadly likely to be the cause. The internet suggests the explosion happened on the second floor of the mall where a large food court is located.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

And compressed flammable gas canisters, which are sadly common all over Asia. If they leak due to structural compromise, e.g. being squashed by falling concrete, there isn't really a shutoff valve you can use.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#114

Post by qurren » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

lstodd wrote: post #102

bombcar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

Electrical is inadequate power delivery-wise and requires completely different cookware to the point that it's a different cuisine. For example to replicate a gas burner you have to have above 15KW continious power. Good luck wiring that into your apartment, or feeding this with local solar. Or even finding an induction stovetop that won't melt its insides in a year or two at a measly 5KW.

https://www.impulselabs.com/ achieves this by storing energy in a battery. 120V15A in to charge, 10kW out for short durations. I don't have one, but it's an interesting concept.

That said, I don't know what's better, a massive lithium battery in the kitchen that can be set into thermal runaway, or a gas line.

But also, most Japanese styles of cooking doesn't need those levels of power anyway. 4-5kW induction hobs running on a proper 240V outlet or whatever the Japanese industrial equivalent is are usually plenty for most professional cooking.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#115

Post by UltraSane » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

kalleboo wrote: post #91

bombcar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

Yeah it's crazy to me, especially in earthquake-prone places like Japan or California. I bought a house here in Japan last year and replaced the gas with all-electric due to concerns of not only leaks and disasters but also just in day-to-day use gas isn't good for indoor air quality.

The one place gas makes sense is heating in cold climates because furnaces are externally vented.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#116

Post by rawgabbit » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:57 PM UTC

traceroute66 wrote: post #95

bombcar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

> Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards. Since the mid-2000s there has actually been a push by Japanese utility companies for adoption of what they call "all-electric" オール電化. Adoption has been reasonably good with new-builds because they can also have solar panels. But adoption in older properties has been slower. First in general, electricity in Japan has tended to be more expensive than gas. Seco…

I see some places in the Japanese countryside where homeowners get propane tanks delivered to them for cooking? I believe in an earthquake prone country, this is safer than having natural gas piped to their homes?

The problem I think is that Japanese culture values hot baths daily. Heating water for the bath using electricity is still too costly.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#117

Post by vondur » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:58 PM UTC

ktallett wrote: post #68

akg_67 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NHK TV is showing extensive damage including fallen smokestacks at Nippon Paper Factory facility, bridge road separation, fallen bridge lane, road cracks, fire, water coming out of drainage etc. It was a huge earthquake and will take some time to assess the damage.

There is a collapsed roof of a shopping centre as well in Kumamoto. The Aeon Mall.

That mall was also damaged in a similar earthquake that happened in 2016.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#118

Post by UltraSane » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:59 PM UTC

lstodd wrote: post #102

bombcar wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

Electrical is inadequate power delivery-wise and requires completely different cookware to the point that it's a different cuisine. For example to replicate a gas burner you have to have above 15KW continious power. Good luck wiring that into your apartment, or feeding this with local solar. Or even finding an induction stovetop that won't melt its insides in a year or two at a measly 5KW.

Most heat from gas burners is wasted heating the room. Induction is vastly more efficient.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#119

Post by doublerabbit » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 2:59 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #90

traceroute66 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The mall had a (most likely gas) explosion If the internet searches are to be believed, that is indeed sadly likely to be the cause. The internet suggests the explosion happened on the second floor of the mall where a large food court is located.

A hundred years from now people are going to be absolutely flabbergasted how we just piped gas everywhere all the time. Electricity allows for so many more automatic safeguards.

Ehh, without gas we wouldn't have electricity.

Gas was the most efficient way to produce electricity for its time. I agree money should of been piped in to infrastructure upgrades when the ability came yet still.

Re: 7.1 Earthquake in Japan

#120

Post by klausa » Tue, Jul 28, 2026, 3:01 PM UTC

smj-edison wrote: post #73

kalleboo wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earthquake isolation can be pretty amazing. Here’s a video of a data center during the big 2011 quake. The camera is attached to the outer wall so the point of reference makes the wrong side look like it’s shaking, but you can see the people walking without difficulty during some pretty heavy shaking. A fab will have even better stuff. https://youtu.be/GXwQSCStRaw

Wow, it's incredible how far civil engineering has come in the past 600 years. To think that we used to have bridges collapse all the time, and buildings crack and collapse, and now we have buildings that can withstand a whole earthquake.

“A whole earthquake” is a very funny way to phrase it when it comes to Japan. That building has withstood tens of smaller ones before that big one, they’re just _incredibly_ common here.