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8.9 earthquake hits Japan

earthquake.usgs.gov

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Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#61

Post by patio11 »

patio11 wrote: post #42
apsurd wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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:…

Holy cow, I've been on Hacker News far too long:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=422043

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#62

Post by rottencupcakes »

jarin wrote: post #6

I 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…

Do they shut off the warnings at some point, or do they have to listen to this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfZkdIVcfEA) for the next 5 hours?

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#63

Post by veidr »

T-R wrote: post #60
veidr wrote: post #56

An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street. At first, I didn't think to use a ph…

Is the cell network still down/overloaded?

Hmm wow, apparently yes. , I still cannot make a call. Press call and it goes directly to call failed. (SoftBank iPhone 4)

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#64

Post by ars »

yena wrote: post #50
bradly wrote: post #40

Interesting 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

From http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqinthenews/2011/usc0...

"The March 11 earthquake was preceded by a series of large foreshocks over the previous two days, beginning on March 9th with an M 7.2 event approximately 40 km from the March 11 earthquake, and continuing with a further 3 earthquakes greater than M 6 on the same day."

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#65

Post by po »

T-R wrote: post #60
veidr wrote: post #56

An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street. At first, I didn't think to use a ph…

Is the cell network still down/overloaded?

Yes. I've heard softbank sms are starting to go through just now.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#66

Post by oldstrangers »

harisenbon wrote: post #11

Also I found this interesting: > A massive 8.8 magnitude quake hit the northeast coast of Japan on Friday, shaking buildings in the capital Tokyo > Why would you talk about the earthquake in Tokyo, when it happened in Miyagi? Tokyo only got hit with a 3 or 4. [EDIT: updated to 5 JMS. Tokyo got hit pretty hard too] The actual earthquake was around 240 miles away. That's the same distance from New York to Boston.

10 to 12 percent of Japan's entire population lives within Tokyo. 25% of Japan's entire population is within 30 miles of Tokyo. This is why.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#68

Post by ramchip »

tuhin wrote: post #35
apsurd wrote: post #17

Is 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??

Interesting. However, it is something that the governments should be handling rather than a private company. Just an opinion. Or a central database and disaster management site where you just register the contact details of your loved ones including yourself. Also a good idea is a general notification for groups. So say I learnt about it and am in the other end of the world, I would want to leave a beep so shrill tha…

I think close cooperation between private companies and the government has been a trait of Japanese society for a long time. Instead of a single governmental alert service, you'll get the government, NHK, cell phone companies, transport companies, etc., cooperating to get the information out there quickly. For example, the weather service website was being hammered and rather hard to access, but you could see reports on the NHK and Yahoo! websites while the quake was still going on, including tsunami predictions - it's automated, very fast and effective.

The siren systems are also automated. The signal is relayed by governmental offices.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#69

Post by waterlesscloud »

veidr wrote: post #56

An interesting thing I noticed was that all cell phones were completely useless for a pretty long time following the quake. That's normal, but one difference this time, compared with several years ago, is that most people I know no longer have a landline phone at home. People were queuing up for like 20 minutes to use the one old green plastic coin-op pay phone accross the street. At first, I didn't think to use a ph…

I live in L.A. and I've kept my landline for precisely this reason.

Re: 8.9 earthquake hits Japan

#70

Post by rooshdi »

po wrote: post #25

I'm still feeling shakes every few minutes. It's like living in a house on a block of jello. Long rolling waves. I'm in central Tokyo and our china cabinet was shaken pretty badly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostre... I know some people up in sendai that I'm a bit worried about.

Be careful man; thought I should post this:

What to Do During an Earthquake

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_during.shtm

What to Do After an Earthquake

http://www.fema.gov/hazard/earthquake/eq_after.shtm

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