AWKWARD ZOMBIE

As emergency responders made their way today into the hardest-hit coastal villages of Japan, the country's Kyodo News Agency reports that 9,500 people are unaccounted for in Minamisanriku -- roughly half the town's population.
The town, located along the Pacific Ocean on the northeast coast of Japan, has a population of 17,000 residents.

When news of the disaster first spread Friday, Chinese leaders were quick to offer condolences and support. China is also earthquake-prone -- a deadly 5.8-magnitude tremor just hit southwestern Yunnan province Thursday -- and officials here immediately put a trained rescue team in place to dispatch to Japan if needed.
The Chinese defense minister, Liang Guanglie, called his Japanese counterpart, Toshimi Kitazawa, to offer military assets. The Chinese Red Cross Society pledged 1 million yuan, or about $152,087, to help Japan. Premier Wen Jiabao also had a telephone conversation Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, and offered China's condolences and help.

Japan's Daiichi 1 reactor north of the capital Tokyo began leaking radiation after the 8.9-magnitude earthquake triggered a tsunami, and swiftly prompted fears of a nuclear meltdown.
But experts said pictures of mist above the plant suggested only small amounts of radiation had been expelled as part of measures to ensure its stability, far from the radioactive clouds that Chernobyl spewed out when it exploded in 1986.
"The explosion at No. 1 generating set of the Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan, which took place today, will not be a repetition of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster," said Valeriy Hlyhalo, deputy director of the Chernobyl nuclear safety center.

Japan's nuclear safety agency says Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant No. 3 reactor's emergency cooling system not functioning.

Tokyo, at least, appeared to have got away without the scale of casualties seen in other parts of Japan. That was before news of an explosion, and warnings of a possible "meltdown", at the Fukushima nuclear power plant. As the evening turned to night, the world's second-largest metropolis was still waiting to know whether it had been exposed to what would be perhaps the world's worst nuclear disaster.

About 140,000 people have so far been evacuated from areas near two Japanese nuclear power plants after Friday's earthquake, the U.N. atomic watchdog said in a statement citing information from Japanese authorities.

"Evacuations around both affected nuclear plants have begun," the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

In a 20-km radius around Fukushima Daiichi an estimated 110,000 people have been evacuated. In a 10-km radius around Fukushima Daini about 30,000 people have been evacuated.

"Full evacuation measures have not been completed," it said.

Japan nuclear safety agency says there is a possibility at least 9 people have been exposed to radiation from Fukushima facility.

Evacuees are all scanned for radiation.

Reporting live from Japan, CNN's Anna Coren just reported feeling another major aftershock. There have reportedly been more than 250 aftershocks since Friday's 8.9 magnitude earthquake.

The nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan arrived off the coast of Japan Sunday to support Japanese forces in disaster relief operations, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a statement.
More U.S. aid -- in the form of equipment, staffers and search-and-rescue teams -- was expected to arrive Sunday to address the widespread devastation caused by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has notified Japan's nuclear safety agency that the radiation level at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant has exceeded the legal limit, the agency Sunday.
Hourly radiation at the site was measured at 882 micro sievert, in excess of the allowable level of 500.

http://youropenbook.org/?q=pearl+harbor&gender=any

People are fucked in the head

So is that oil refinery still on fire? I really haven't been keeping up with all the tsunamis and explosions and what not.

Kyodo News is reporting that the number of individuals missing and feared dead now exceeds 2,000.

Kyodo News is reporting that radiation levels are small and under control at Fukushima's No. 3 reactor, whose cooling system failed earlier today.

The massive 8.9-magnitude earthquake that shook Japan and triggered a powerful tsunami on Friday has had a profound effect on both the surrounding terrain and the planet as a whole.

Dr. Daniel McNamara, a seismologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told The Huffington Post that the disaster left a gigantic rupture in the sea floor, 217-miles long and 50 miles wide. It also shifted Japan's coast by eight feet in some parts, though McNamara was quick to explain much of the coast likely didn't move as far.

McNamara found the way in which the quake actually sunk the elevation of the country's terrain to be more troublesome than coastal shifting. "You see cities still underwater; the reason is subsidence," he said. "The land actually dropped, so when the tsunami came in, it's just staying."

In the aftermath of the largest earthquake in Japan's history, scientists have scrambled to gather concrete data to quantify such a powerful tremor's effect on the Earth. But the numbers don't always add up. For example, McNamara pointed out that reports claiming the sea floor's rift measured 93 miles wide are incorrect.

Additionally, conflicting reports over whether and how far the enormous tremor shifted the Earth's axis have been circulating.

According to CNN, the earthquake moved the planet's axis approximately 4 inches, though other sources, like The Vancouver Sun and The Montreal Gazette, report the estimate even higher -- around 10 inches.

"I don't know about that. That sounds extreme," McNamara said, claiming the smaller estimate was likely more accurate. "There are all kinds of different numbers floating around," he added.

Conflicting figures aside, the shift in the Earth's axis wouldn't be noticeable. Last year's 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile, which also reportedly moved the planet's axis slightly, only resulted in shortening the day by 1.26 microseconds. (A microsecond is one-millionth of a second.)

As for any claims that the earthquake somehow relates to climate change, McNamara didn't hesitate to dismiss that connection. He explained that while evidence shows melting glaciers can cause small tremors directly underneath as their weight on the Earth's crust reduces, what happened in Japan "is not connected in any way to that process."

In a prior interview with The Huffington Post, McNamara said Japan's 8.9 quake was "not a surprise" due to how active the region is, but maintained that scientists "can't predict earthquakes."

Documents show that Tokyo Electric tested the Fukushima plant to withstand a maximum seismic jolt lower than Friday's 8.9 earthquake. Tepco's last safety test of nuclear power plant Number 1-one that is currently in danger of meltdown-was done at a seismic magnitude the company considered the highest possible, but in fact turned out to be lower than Friday's quake. The information comes from the company's "Fukushima No. 1 and No. 2 Updated Safety Measures" documents written in Japanese in 2010 and 2009. The documents were reviewed by Dow Jones.
The company said in the documents that 7.9 was the highest magnitude for which they tested the safety for their No. 1 and No. 2 nuclear power plants in Fukushima.

Japan aside, can I just say the governor of Wisconsin is the biggest douchebag ever?