Up, close and personal

I think that the overwhelming amount of information that all of us have available these days sometimes makes us skip over situations what should have us holding our breath. I'm not saying we are not aware of international news, only we give then just a glimpse of attention and move to other issues. Take, for example, victims in suicidal terrorist attacks in Irak. In the end, we get used to them and they become numbers. Today we are waiting for the earthquake 8 Richter replica that hit Japan a few days ago and hoping for the best, because we are not sure Japan can take it anymore. I'm compiling data and videos today.

Even though Japan is probably the most organized country I've ever been to, we can see it in numbers. The Japan earthquake was a 9 Richter one: the Richter scale is a base-10 logarithmic one, meaning that each point is 10 times higher than the previous one in terms of shaking amplitude.Earthquakes between 9-10 devastate several thousand miles across. A 10.0+ has never been recorded and would probably provoke planetwide devastation. This quake is the sixth largest of all time and the worst to hit Japan.

Fortunately, Japan is well prepared against earthquakes and buildings hold quite well. They do that by swinging with the waves rather than trying to resist them. During the last one, they moved like bamboo in a storm.



The worst was yet to come, though. Ships, trains, buildings and cars were swept away as monster 33ft waves smashed into the port city of Sendai. A boat carrying 80 dock workers was swept away in the 500mph tidal wave while a cruise ship with 100 passengers is also thought to be missing. Officials have lost contact with four trains which are feared to have been engulfed by the tsunami along the coastline. They include two of the famous bullet trains, one of them with 400 passengers. Bridges were swept away and a packed hotel in the city collapsed. While these waves were far from the highest tsunami ever (1720 feet tall in Lituya Bay, Alaska), they penetrated far into the land (up to 5km) and reached as high as 7.3 meters spots.



And, if this was not enough, Japan depends on nuclear power, and Fukushima is close to meltdown. There have been explosions in the nuclear plant and most people think it is a goner. Reactor 1 has no refrigeration and there has already been some partial fusion. Reactors 2, 5 and 6 are also on catastrophic temperature levels. The International Atomic Agency said radioactive material is leaking 'directly' into the air from the stricken plant at a rate of 400 millisieverts per hour. Anyone exposed to over 100 millisieverts a year risks cancer. Population in a 30 km area haa been evacuated. Authorities advise not to go out of home these days.

People are referring to Chernobyl in comparison, at it was equivalent to 10 Hiroshima detonations. A single one wiped out the city in 1945 (over 100000 dead).



As direct results, Japan has shifted 13 feet to the east (4 meters). At the moment, there are already 3373 dead and 7588 missing persons (in the 11S terrorist attack there were 2973 dead and 24 missing persons). There are continuous power shortages on the country and people are massively storing food and fuel. Noone is really sure about the radiation propagation, even though the government states it is safe at the moment. Anyway, radiation in Tokyo is 10 times higher than usual. Nikkei index has sunk and there have been several government rescues to refloat it. There are still 2 tsunami alerts and 14 replica alerts on.

This was a report status from a few days ago:
Status summary:

(1) Tokyo is OK. Transportation is disrupted but recovering.

(2) Entire coastal zone of Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, and a part of Ibaraki are basically eliminated. Coastal zone means about 2-3 Km within the original shoreline.
Some places damage extend 10km inward. Tsunami was about 10m high. Geography seems to have changed. In many places, coastal zone ground subsided and underwater.

Center of Sendai seems OK, although there are a few fire and damages. Most serious damages are cities in coastal zone.

All infrastructure is down. No transportation, no electricity, no water.

(3) Self-defense forces are all mobilized. US Navy battle group is heading to the region. this includes USS Ronald Reagan, also US Marine Corp's amphibious assault vehicle, etc. USAID will be deployed as well.

(4) Radiation leakage in FUKUSHIMA #1 power plants. and cooling system is also lost now for Fukushima #2. Leakage is at low level. Self-defense ground force (ARMY) special unit for nuclear incidents arrived on-site to take measures. The most recent report indicate Core Melt Down starting in #1 plant.

(5) A new earthquake in Nagano-Niigata area in early morning hours. Almost a same scale as CHUUETSU earth quake. land slide and damages has been confirmed.

(6) There will be power shortage in Tokyo later today. Electric supply is 10-20% short of demands now as many power plants are down now and will not recover anytime soon.
There will be Rolling Blackout throughout east Japan including Tokyo.

(7) Death toll will raise up as situation unfolds. some cities are simply gone. those numbers are not counted yet.

(8) Despite these, things are in order in affected regions. People helping each other and supply of food and water have already started. While people are worried and shocked, there is no report of riot, chaos, or any unrest. We do not expect unrest or any disorder to take place.

(9) the fault line extending over 600Km have collapsed. M8.9 that is 5th largest in the recorded history of mankind. Plates moved about 4m horizontally and 70cm vertically by GPs based estimate. because of this, there are a series of earth quake in Nagano-niigata area to compensate for plate pressure change. At this moment, most of aftershock is taking place Niigata-nagano area, rather than the original epicenter.

regards,

****


Anyone who wants to help can probably find how to channel their support at their local bank or through reliable institutions. Finally, here is a request from a japanese girl living abroad that you might find easy to grant.

Imagen tomada del magnífico blog de Raul Salazar Un respeto a las canas. ¡No os lo perdais!

Two weeks ago, I bought 5 Xbox games (NEW) from Amazon UK. 3 of them are already here. All in all, I paid for the whole 5 (post costs included) what I would have paid for 1 game and a half in Spain. I usually buy 2 to 5 books every couple of months from Book Depository (no post costs). I usually pay half of what I would have paid here. Just an example: any Discworld novel (TP) is around 7 EUR. Just ask in your bookstore for the same. And don't get me started with hard cover books! I used to go to the movies twice a week when I was studying at the university. I watched everything I found remotely interesting then. Of course, now the ticket is around 7 EUR (more if you go IMAX), so I only go to see flicks I'm really interested into, that have lots of FX and just if I'm going with friends. I also used to buy a couple of CDs each month, and they were around 6-8 EUR in Madrid (NEW). A few years later they magically became 20-24 EUR each. Needless to say, I don't do that anymore. I do buy music at concerts or from people playing in the streets, though. And, guess what? they are still 6-8 EUR from them.

Now, on the other side, I work as an engineer, i.e. I have to use electronic equipment, PCs, etc on a daily basis. Each time I use an USB, HDD, CD, DVD, etc, I'm paying a tax to the so-called society of "creators" just to do my job. Even printers have this tax and I'm sure they are not charging paper just because they still can't. Why? Because I COULD BE using that stuff to store multimedia copyrighted content. Not because I HAVE, but because I COULD BE. I don't know if you people know about the base of our law system: presumption of innocence. Well, the SS (Sinde and SGAE) are assuming just the contrary, that everybody is guilty unless proven so. Not only they charge us for this, but they also think they are morally so above us that they feel they can insult every person using the Internet (Internauts as a whole) by calling us thieves. I've got some serious concerns about this. First, why are we thieves if we are paying in advance for anything we are (or are not) downloading? Not to mention that we have probably the most expensive Internet service in the whole world (thanks, Internet providers, speaking of thieves ...). Second, why does this tax go to spanish "creators" (most of them haven't created anything for years, just take the SGAE president, for example) if it is a proven fact that most downloaded material is american or english? And what is a spanish creator? Someone who speaks spanish? Because some very loud "creators" don't even pay taxes in Spain -like Alejandro Sanz-.
In fact, why pay for spanish movies twice, if most of the costs of producing it are taken from our taxes? A few exceptions aside, I DON'T like spanish movies, so can I just NOT pay for them to be produced? Third, why has a person with clear and proven ties to SGAE been chosen for the ministry of culture? There is a thing called incompatibility in laws that easily leads to corruption (prevaricación, para los hispano-parlantes). In fact, what do we know about culture since Sinde is head of the ministry except for SGAE and illegal downloads? Is there no culture in Spain at all except that?

My guess is that the current government owed it big to SGAE for support in the elections and gave them whatever they wanted, even a ministry to one of their members so they can do what they want. Do you know, for example, that if the tax they impose on electronical equipment and such is not over a threshold they have freedom to get the rest of the money from somewhere else? And if any of you is thinking, "ok, I don't use electronic equipment", don't forget that each time you have a drink at a coffee shop or a pub, or you listen to a tune at the dentist waiting room or whatever, you are indirectly paying, because those people have to pay the tax and they will charge YOU their costs. They charge everything, from music in funerals to charity concerts. They have gone as far as to sneak into weddings and other ceremonies to check if they were playing music.

I simply do not want to know what they may have promised to the different political factions in the country to make the Sinde law succeed (we will also pay for that, mind you). It takes a socialist government to remove a basic freedom (like writing in your web whatever you want) and not only get away with it, but also laugh at and criminalize anyone opposing you.

Guess what? I'll keep buying my stuff from other countries via the Internet and let these "creators" work for their food. Too bad the government -and specially the SGAE government- will take from my taxes anything they need to pay these guys whatever they estimate they deserve. In the movies, when a group of guys walked from one shop to the next asking money for "protection", they called it mafia. In Spain, we call it SGAE.

After re-reading the title, most of you could probably be waiting for something else, but, nope, this is exactly about games. Board games I played this weekend until we couldn't stand awake anymore (that's 6am to you, buddies) while the guys who could not join the board played Left for Dead 2 in team (we managed to end it in a run and everthing :D)

NOTE: We are NOT the people in the videos. Not that we are not freaky enough to tape it, only we did not think of it soon enough ;P



The first one was one of my faves: Galactica. It is obviously based on the TV series, shortly after the pilot, and you can start playing as one of the main characters or as a cylon in disguise. There are many tests you have to deal with, like lack of food, cylon attacks, low moral ... and everyone has to contribute to the trial with cards from their hands; only cylons in disguise may contribute negatively, mind you. For the first time, I got to be the skinjob and did pretty well my job :D In the end, I got all humans in prison or infirmary before revealing myself and Galactica surrounded by ships and crowding with centurions. After I burst the presidential ship, their moral went down to the sink and we won. It's good to be bad! The best part was that I based my whole strategy on the other's paranoia, just like in the series :D



A second game was Pandemia. In this case, it is a collaborative game, were players conform a team including doctors, scientists, engineers and managers that have to fight four different plagues before they outbreak in the unsuspecting world. This game is strange. Initially, it seems quite complex. After five minutes, you realize it is easy. And only after you've lost like 5 times you realize that it is indeed complex, but not because of the game rules, just because it is really easy to lose even when you think you've got everything under control. A really nice game and it's got an advantage: you won't end in a hand to hand combat with all the other players :D



The final choice was Last Night on Earth, a survival zombie game where part of the players play the zombies and the rest need to end one out of five missions in the game. The zombies just want dinner, but they get 4 nifty cards they can use against you, like "lights out", "oh, the horror", "I just forgot the keys in..." and such. Humans are faster, but they only get one card per location (not turn) and if they don't get a weapon, they might as well be wearing sauce. Oh, and if you get infested ... you'll become a very fast zombie in the next turn. Gross! In this case, I was very happy running around the board with the bad guys on my track until I arrived to a location with a male human player and the zombies used their "Last night on Earth" card on me. Go figure. I lost my last three turns and they won. No hard feelings, I had just blasted a few hundreds of them before in the XBox :)

No soy muy amiga de los mails en cadena, pero estoy totalmente de acuerdo con este que me acaba de llegar y, como soy más de blogs que de mails ...
Sentíos libres cada uno de distibuirlo a vuestra conveniencia.

ES JUSTO QUE SE SEPA


Me llega este escrito y me 'invitan' a que NO LO PARE.
NO LO HARE ya que, casi todo lo que dice, es para tenerlo en cuenta.

EL GOBIERNO: Ha bajado el sueldo a los funcionarios, suprimido el cheque-bebé, congelado las pensiones y reducido la ayuda al desempleo, (PARO), para afrontar la crisis que han generado los bancos los políticos y los especuladores bursátiles.

Nos gustaría transmitirle al Gobierno lo siguiente:

Dediquen su empeño en rebajar LA VERGÜENZA DEL FRAUDE FISCAL, que en España se sitúa alrededor del 23% del P.I.B. (10 puntos por encima de la media europea) y por el que se pierden miles de millones de Euros, fraude que repercute en mayores impuestos para los ciudadanos honestos.

TENGAN LA VERGÜENZA de hacer un plan para que la Banca devuelva al erario público los miles de millones de euros que Vds. les han dado para aumentar los beneficios de sus accionistas y directivos, en vez de, facilitar el crédito a las familias y a las empresas, erradicar las comisiones por los servicios bancarios y que dejen de cobrar a los españoles más humildes, el 30.01, cada vez que su menguada cuenta se queda sin saldo. Cosa que ocurre cada 1º de mes, cuando les cargan las facturas de colegios, comunidades, telefonía, etc, cuando aun, no les han abonado la nómina.

PONGAN COTO a los desmanes de las empresas de telefonía y de ADSL que ofrecen los servicios más caros de Europa y de peor calidad.

ELIMINEN la duplicidad de muchas Administraciones Públicas, suprimiendo organismos innecesarios, reasignado a los funcionarios de carrera y acabando con los cargos, asesores de confianza y otros puestos nombrados a dedo que, pese a ser innecesarios en su mayor parte, son los que cobran los sueldazos en las Administraciones Públicas y su teórica función puede ser desempeñada de forma más cualificada por muchos funcionarios públicos titulados y que lamentablemente están infrautilizados.

HAGAN que los políticos corruptos de sus partidos devuelvan el dinero equivalente a los perjuicios que han causado al erario público con su mala gestión o/y sus fechorías, y endurezcan el Código Penal con procedimientos judiciales más rápidos y con castigos ejemplares para ellos.

DIJO la Vicepresidente del gobierno "que es indecente que mientras la inflación es -1% y, tengamos más de 4.000.000 de parados, haya gente que no esté de acuerdo en alargar la jubilación a los 70 años".

Nos gustaría transmitirle a esta "Sra. Vicepresidente" y a todos los políticos, lo que consideramos indecente :

INDECENTE, es que el salario mínimo de un trabajador sea de 624 mes y el de un diputado de 3.996, pudiendo llegar, con dietas y otras prebendas, a 6.500 mes. Y bastantes más por diferentes motivos que se le pueden agregar.

INDECENTE, es que un profesor, un maestro, un catedrático de universidad o un cirujano de la sanidad pública, ganen menos que el concejal de festejos de un ayuntamiento de tercera.

INDECENTE, es que los políticos se suban sus retribuciones en el porcentaje que les apetezca (siempre por unanimidad, por supuesto, y al inicio de la legislatura).

INDECENTE, es que un ciudadano tenga que cotizar 35 años para percibir una jubilación y a los diputados les baste sólo con siete, y que los miembros del gobierno, para cobrar la pensión máxima, sólo necesiten jurar el cargo.

INDECENTE, es que los diputados sean los únicos trabajadores (¿?) de este país que están exentos de tributar un tercio de su sueldo del IRPF.

INDECENTE, es colocar en la administración a miles de asesores, (léase amigotes), con sueldos que ya desearían los técnicos más cualificados.

INDECENTE, es el ingente dinero destinado a sostener a los partidos y sindicatos pesebreros, aprobados por los mismos políticos que viven de ellos.

INDECENTE, es que a un político no se le exija superar una mínima prueba de capacidad para ejercer su cargo (ni cultural ni intelectual).

INDECENTE, es el coste que representa para los ciudadanos sus comidas, coches oficiales, chóferes, viajes (siempre en gran clase) y tarjetas de crédito por doquier.

INDECENTE No es que no se congelen el sueldo sus señorías, sino que no se lo bajen.

INDECENTE, es que sus señorías tengan seis meses de vacaciones al año.

INDECENTE, es que ministros, secretarios de estado y altos cargos de la política, cuando cesan, son los únicos ciudadanos de este país que pueden legalmente percibir dos salarios del ERARIO PÚBLICO.

Y que sea cuál sea el color del gobierno, toooooooodos los políticos se benefician de este moderno "derecho de pernada" mientras no se cambien las leyes que lo regula.

¿Y quiénes las cambiarán? ¿Ellos mismos? Ja.

Juntemos firmas para que haya un proyecto de ley con "cara y ojos" para acabar con estos privilegios, y con otros.

Haz que esto llegue al Congreso a través de tus amigos
ÉSTA SÍ DEBERÍA SER UNA DE ESAS CADENAS QUE NO SE DEBE ROMPER, PORQUE SÓLO NOSOTROS PODEMOS PONERLE REMEDIO A ESTO,
Y ÉSTA, SI QUE TRAERÁ AÑOS DE MALA SUERTE SI NO PONEMOS REMEDIO, está en juego nuestro futuro y el de nuestros hijos.

(Y para que este mail no se convierta en un spam, por favor, borra la dirección de quien te lo envió y escribe las direcciones de las personas a las que se los envíes en CCO.)

DONDE ESTAN LOS ESPAÑOLES?
QUE LEVANTAN MASAS PARA EL FUTBOL
Y NO PARA DEFENDER NUESTROS DERECHOS.