Giant Robot Store and GR2 News
What seems uninteresting, a mayoral vote in a small fishing village in Japan is symbolically huge. Kaminoseki isn’t in the earthquake area, it’s further south, yet they’re in an interesting quandary. Imagine, after 3/11, the idea of nuclear anything has been divided. Some say nuclear power is the way to go, and many are now against it. This village is set to have a nuclear power plant, and the political side in favor has won 8 times in a row. The town is now just over 3,000 people, so do they really need to be another Simpsons-like Springfield? (WSJ – Kaminoseki)
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The stories never end, and here’s yet another recovery question. Is it possible for a town to move? Futaba is in the Fukushima prefecture but wants to simply take it’s name, move in entire political base, population, and rebuild elsewhere. It’s a concept that’s hard to understand. Can a town of 7,000 just find new land and move? It seems easier for them to just migrate to another town but instead, the officials wish to relocate. We’ll venture to guess this won’t happen, but the sentiments of what ‘home’ means to people resonates, especially in a place where the location has been passed from generations. It’s not a bunch of apartments. (Washington Post – Futaba)
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Six swimmers took on the Japan Sea waters and swam to Taiwan. Japan Sea is notorious for being rough, and in the history of Japan, ancient attacks by China were all thwarted by the body of water. However these six made it to Taiwan, to thank the nation for their Japan Earthquake relief efforts. Before you imagine that the short swim to San Francisco for a prison break on Alcatraz Island should have been easy, the six Japanese swimmers did swim in relay and it was over two days. (msnbc – Swim to Taiwan)
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Side by side there are comparisons from Fukushima to Chernobyl. Both were evacuated, both have ghost time like scenes. Here’s a set. (Dailymail -Fukushima Chernobyl)
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This view of the tsunami shows a moment in a small town at ground level. The locals are running and they probably have no idea how bad or large it really is. Imagine that it’s only water, you can swim in it and it’s rising. It won’t reach that high. It’s behind us, and the worst is over. Yet this one builds momentum as it gets pinched between buildings. There’s an older man who’s walking on the left side of the street. He’ll be fine, the water is still far behind. People know he’s there, but they’re moving as fast as they can. I watch thinking, I’d have maybe given him a lift since he could do no more than walk. At perhaps 120 lbs, could I have carried him up a hill? The video cuts at the exact moment where everything gets worse. Did the camera person think, “I could do something” and shut off the camera but then realized in seconds the opportunity disappeared? The people are frozen in their tracks as they watch the elderly man cling to a building. They can’t reach him. They should be running, but their humanity is telling them to wait and try. Maybe the debris of cars smashing into each other will subside and they could help. The buildings begin to get lifted off of their foundations, and alas there is nothing they could do except run. [youtube]BAuWa77vYDU[/youtube] Saw this one on Reddit.
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