What Caught My Eye Today

So you think you've had a tough week? I'm sure you are familiar with the cliche that "things could always be worse." Ordinarily, I embrace such thinking, however recent events have given me pause.

Japan (Part I) - Last Friday, a megathrust earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale hit about 80 miles off the east coast of Japan. Megathrust earthquakes occur at subduction zones at destructive plate boundaries, where one tectonic plate is forced under (subducts) another. These earthquakes are among the world's largest. Since 1900, all six earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater have been megathrust earthquakes. No other type of known tectonic activity can produce earthquakes of this scale. The total energy released for the quake was equivalent to approximately 600 million times the energy of the Hiroshima bomb and if that energy could have been harnessed would have been able to power the city of Los Angeles for a year. If those numbers don't blow your mind, consider this next item. The quake moved portions of northeast Japan 8 feet closer to North America and shifted the Earth's axis by almost 10 inches. This deviation has increased the speed of the Earth's rotation, shortening the day by 1.8 microseconds. As catastrophic as you might imagine the damage would be from this quake, it turns out this was just the beginning...

Japan (Part II) - On those occasions when earthquakes occur in the oceans, there is sometimes a displacement of water. There is a term for this sort of thing--tsunami. The earthquake caused a massive tsunami which wrought massive destruction along the Pacific coastline of Japan's northern islands. The tsunami propagated across the Pacific, and warnings were issued and evacuations carried out in many countries with Pacific coasts. Chile's section of Pacific coast is furthest from Japan (about 12,400 miles) but still was struck by tsunami waves over 6 feet high. The damage in Japan caused by surging water was far more deadly and destructive than the actual quake. Whole towns were wiped away by waves reaching 3 stories in height. Through today, The National Police Agency has officially confirmed 4,314 deaths, 2,285 injured, and 8,606 people missing across sixteen prefectures. These numbers are expected to significantly increase, with casualties expected to reach tens of thousands. As horrific as this was, if you have been watching the news, the tsunami is only the second worst thing that Japan has had to cope with. What could possibly be worse than this?

Japan (Part III) - The Fukushima I, Fukushima II, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant and Tōkai nuclear power stations, consisting of a total eleven reactors, were automatically shut down following the earthquake. At Fukushima I and II tsunami waves overtopped seawalls and destroyed diesel backup power systems, leading to severe problems including two large explosions at Fukushima I and leakage of radiation. Oh crap. Japan declared a state of emergency following the failure of the cooling system at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, resulting in the evacuation of nearby residents. Officials from the Japanese Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency have reported that radiation levels inside the plant are up to 1,000 times normal levels, and that radiation levels outside the plant are up to 8 times normal levels. Later, a state of emergency was also declared at the Fukushima II nuclear power plant. This brings the total number of problematic reactors to six. As if one exploding nuclear reactor wasn't bad enough.

Japan (Part IV) - I think it goes without saying that getting hit by a 9.0 earthquake, a tsunami and the explosion of 6 nuclear reactors is going to result in some collateral damage, no matter how well prepared you are. And honestly, who in their right mind could dream up something like this? At least 1.5 million households were reported to have lost access to water supplies and around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan are without electricity. Initial estimates suggest the economic loss may be around $171–183 billion just to the region which was hit by the quake and tsunami.

So if you think you have it rough, think again, my friends. And while you are at it, take a few minutes to donation whatever you can to the relief agencies trying to help Japan cope with this disaster (Frankly, I cannot think of a word that adequately describe what has happened here).

Basketball - March Madness starts today along with the decimation of my brackets. Nonetheless, it's a tradition that for two weeks every March, fine folks across the land find yet another reason to slack off at work. Personally, I find that I can blow off my job with or without a college basketball tournament to distract me, but that's just me. And now, without further delay, I give you my losing Final Four picks. For the men, I'm taking Ohio State vs. Connecticut and Kansas vs. Pittsburgh in the Final Four and Ohio State over Kansas in the final. For the women, I've got Connecticut going up against Tennessee and Stanford taking on Texas A&M, with Connecticut over Stanford in the final. For those of you who follow the game, picking the Connecticut women is not exactly a shot in the dark. They have only lost one game in like the past decade, though that lose was to Stanford. On the men's side, I've got 3 one-seeds in the Final Four. Again, I'm not wandering too far off the reservation here. The problem, is that all 4 one-seeds have only made it to the Final Four once (in 1979). I think the important aspect to all this is win or lose this sure beats the heck out of my day job.