Airport 2 km inland is flooded, amazing helicopter shots of the water sliding across the land.
This is the Tokyo International Airport?
I think he is referring to the sendai airport.
8.9 earthquake hits Japan
41–50 of 269 posts
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
How are people notified to get the hell out of there?? Are you familiar with the term "air raid siren"? The coast is wall-to-wall peppered with squack boxes. About a minute prior to the earthquake there would have been a "Earthquake is imminent -- brace yourself." broadcast and within a minute there would have been a "A tsunami warning is in effect for (here). Go to shelter immediately. Repeat..." There are a couple…
Thanks Patrick, that's refreshing to hear.
Problems Japan does not have #1: insufficient spending on public works projects In Case Shit Happens, because shit happens so often that when people in several dozen countries say shit they're speaking Japanese.
Can I tell you my favorite outsourcing story? Apologies for those who've heard it (and yes, this actually happened):
India: We can't log into the test server.
Patrick: Then you didn't set it up right.
India: No, we did, but we get an error message.
Patrick: What error message?
India: We can't read it.
Patrick: sigh Please take a screenshot then.
India: Here you go.
Patrick: Oh, that is just a weather report which correctly reflects the state of the test database. The system is operating normally. Please proceed with your testing of the function you were assigned.
India: Are you sure it isn't an error? It is written in red. And why would you put a weather report on the login screen anyway?
Patrick: Q1) That is because if you ignore it you'll die. Q2) See Q1.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#43Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??
Besides what patio11 said, there is something similar to the US National Alert System which gets used quite often. It puts alerts on the top of every TV channel when an earthquake starts... unfortunately my TV then fell off the cabinet so I took that as an alert and climbed under my table.
Right about the tv. I was just thinking "what if it had been in the night?" People will be asleep so if there's any window of warning available, how can they get the message?
On CNN the newscaster is repeatedly mentioning how people on the ground are waiting in line to use the pay phone to notify loved ones etc...
I use my phone as an alarm so that's why I just thought it might be helpful if there was a public alert service you can sign up for or even a part of the phone (like emergency 911 always works on a cell phone even if you don't have minutes) that will make it ring, beep or do soemthing stupid to get your attention.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#44Is there any system currently able to mass-call all cellphones from any/all carriers within a given geo-location radius? Or any type of push notification service for natural disasters. Seems like this happened during the day but watching the news made me think about disasters that happen at night. How are people notified to get the hell out of there??
Sirens are common. Cell phones? You'd just overload the network.
There's just such a system for several municipalities in the U.S - the reverse 911 system, which robo-calls your home or cell phone in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency. I just signed up for it in Mountain View CA, and my mom got a reverse-911 call for the Boston water main break this winter.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#45Zynga in japan:
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/199150_899666...
and they are still working apparently
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#46I just talked to my parents in Hawaii, there's a tsunami warning for 3 am HST. I reminded my dad to sandbag the doors of his restaurant in Waikiki (Vit's Hawaiian Steakhouse) before he closes for the night. It's just outside of the "tsunami zone" in Waikiki, so I know my dad will probably be working until the police make him evacuate. He did that on the last tsunami warning, and Vit's was pretty much the only restaur…
Howzit! I lived down there for a few years and miss it dearly. Remember seeing that place a lot but never went inside.
Hope your family and the restaurant are safe. I have a lot of friends down there as well. I actually wish that I could be there for this, the last time there was a tsunami warning (almost a year ago exactly) I was out of town on the mainland =/
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I actually first heard about this earthquake on Twitter (all eyewitness reports, no second hand information). I immediately checked all news sites I could think of (European, US) but none were yet reporting on it.
Facebook for me; I know two people living near Tokyo that instantly updated their statuses and it just snowballed from there. It took the US news (nytimes.com) at least 20 minutes to have anything up, but twitter and facebook exploded instantly.
I just want to make clear that my comment was in no way intended to criticize mass media. It’s just an interesting new development – if you are not directly affected mass media is no longer the fastest way to get breaking news.
I want mass media to diligently collect all the information they can get and I know that that takes longer than just sending a tweet. Whether the New York Times writes about the event five minutes or an hour after it happens doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#48Is this post appropriate for HN?
No, it is not. From the HN guidelines: Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. And unlike cosmok, I do mind it, because this type of news is slowly turning HN into something it shouldn't be. There's a reason for this particu…
it shouldn't be downvoted anymore than cosmok's (which as of now, is sitting at karma 0).
I upvoted you to keep you closer to cosmok's comment.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not according to the guidelines: "Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic." But, I don't mind it all as I get to read views and firsthand accounts from fellow hackers that is much different from what I see on TV.
I was particularly interested in "is patio11 ok?" (and, are there any transpac fiber cuts?) I think it's fair to post stories which are headlines in ~all news simultaneously, even if not "hacker news" -- nuclear explosions, assassinations of G7 leaders, major wars, etc.
I'm touched, but there are several dozen HNers in Japan who I've met personally (just an FYI) most were closer to it than I was.
Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan
#50Interesting to view of all 5+ quakes the past 3 days http://cl.ly/3G0f0t0d1C2Z381s3O31 . Loads of activity in the area. Is that kind of activity common, or could that have been an indicator that there was a chance of a major quake?
It's not normal at all. Something was building up