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Not directly topic related, but wanted to share anyway.
 
The Fukushima Fifty: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1367125/Japan-tsunami-Fukushima-Fifty-suicide-mission-battle-nuclear-meltdown.html
 
Heroes in my book. [&o]

Sadly they will probably be forgotten as individuals except by their families. But as a group they have no doubt immortalized themselves. There is no greater heroism possible than what they are doing. [&o]

Let us pray that they succeed! Dear God, let not their sacrifices be in vain!

ORIGINAL: sven

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Japan does need our help. I cannot believe what they are going through now and I keep them all in my prayers. Please keep this thread non-political.

What I'd like to see posted here is suggestions on where to donate, if anyone has good info on the organizations that are doing the best work over there that will immediately benefit the people who are currently lacking shelter and possible low on food, clothing and medicine.

We also have customers in Japan. Our thoughts and prayers go out to you. If you have any advice from a local perspective, please post it.

Regards,

- Erik

so just to be clear Erik Terminus' offering in post 8 "sit on it and rotate" and such is what we're looking for in this thread and from shadow "staff"?

Looks that way dosn't it? A case of double standards here I think.

Oh well if thats the case then Terminus can suck my fat one (to quote Will Wheaton).

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

....What I'd like to see posted here is suggestions on where to donate, if anyone has good info on the organizations that are doing the best work over there that will immediately benefit the people who are currently lacking shelter and possible low on food, clothing and medicine....

According to The Christian Science Monitor:

• CARE: To support CARE, call 1-800-521-CARE or donate online at care.org.
• International Medical Corps: To donate, go to the Corps' website (internationalmedicalcorps.org) or call 1-800-481-4462.
• The Japanese Red Cross: You can donate to these projects via the American Red Cross by giving online at redcross.org or by calling 1-800-RED-CROSS. To give a $10 gift through your cell phone, text "RedCross" to 90999.

Another The Christian Science Monitor article gives additional information.

Pinon Accelerated Middle School is raising funds to be sent to

http://www.shelterboxusa.org

So far we've raised over $100. Shelterbox sends boxes with a family sized tent, blankets, cooking gear etc to people who have lost their homes. CNN just did a feature on the founder as part of their "Heroes" series. I think the video is still available online.

ORIGINAL: Mac67

so just to be clear Erik Terminus' offering in post 8 "sit on it and rotate" and such is what we're looking for in this thread and from shadow "staff"?

Looks that way dosn't it? A case of double standards here I think.
Oh well if thats the case then Terminus can suck my fat one (to quote Will Wheaton).

Terminus is not staff. I don't appreciate any of the comments like this, including his original one but I was hoping that taking the high road would get this thread back on course. Now give it a rest.

Regards,

- Erk

You might empty your PM box Erik.

I am gonna relent and not air this too openly...

the lack of calling out the person who constantly flouts the rules was noted.

Well done, Oliver! [8D]

I'm gonna donate just because of this thread, maybe especially because some folks had to poor taste to rain on this particular parade - none mentioned, none forgotten - [:-]

I feel like I should start a thread for those of us who have not sent money, but have been sending good vibrations.

While my heart goes out to the Japanese and their families, I still fail to see how a wealthy highly developed country like Japan deserves my money. This is JAPAN, NOT Haiti where most of the population is living in poverty and there is no way they could recover on their own.

Seems kind of cold, but come on let's be real.

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

While my heart goes out to the Japanese and their families, I still fail to see how a wealthy highly developed country like Japan deserves my money. This is JAPAN, NOT Haiti where most of the population is living in poverty and there is no way they could recover on their own.

Seems kind of cold, but come on let's be real.

The Japanese suffered a minimum of 18,000 dead, 300 billion dollars worth of damage, and are a FAR more important nation to the US than haiti. It was important to help haiti to engage in an act of kindness for a disadvantaged neighbor, it is VITAL for us to help japan because she is a friend and a close trading partner. Unless the japanese have massive vaults like Cheyenne Mtn all over their nation I am pretty sure they need a hand up.

I harbor some pretty cold hearted ideas about how sheer population size combined with ever-increasing standards of living are the ultimate cause of most human suffering, including natural disasters like Katrina or this Japan catastrophe. While it seems a bit callous to say so right after one of these unsafe areas has been hammered by a natural disaster, it deserved to be pointed out: not all areas of Earth are equally suited for human inhabitation. Many areas like large chunks of California, Hawaii, Japan, etc., are quite prone to Earthquakes. There are areas that are vulnerable to volcanoes. Various areas in the American midwest are vulnerable to tornadoes and flooding. Coastal areas are always subject to the vagaries of the sea. Mountainous areas suffer landslides and avalanches. And then of course there are droughts, which can occur pretty much anywhere, but certainly seem to favor certain areas more than others. If you conservatively estimated the sum total of areas on Earth where it was "safe" to build a nuclear plant, let alone safe for people to live, there probably wouldn't be enough room for a billion of us. Moving to areas that are not subject to certain natural disasters is an option for some of us, but for those who stay, periodic catastrophes are just going to happen, and it is foolish to think that they won't. From that standpoint, building nuclear powerplants on that particular chunk of Japan (if not the whole island? I don't know its geology that well) is one reflection of the poor decision making which large population demands and the normalization of those demands exert.

I'm not saying I'm glad anyone suffers, and I'm certainly not suggesting something like "a few more dead people is good because it reduces the population size." But these catastrophes are a good time to be reminded about the real, ultimate causes of such suffering, and how, in the long turn, we humans can avoid such needless suffering if we would transform our societal values relating to families and reproduction. If only those who really have a calling for parenting became parents, we could conceivably in 500 years have this planet back into something like a "normal' state.

ORIGINAL: sven

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

While my heart goes out to the Japanese and their families, I still fail to see how a wealthy highly developed country like Japan deserves my money. This is JAPAN, NOT Haiti where most of the population is living in poverty and there is no way they could recover on their own.

Seems kind of cold, but come on let's be real.

The Japanese suffered a minimum of 18,000 dead, 300 billion dollars worth of damage, and are a FAR more important nation to the US than haiti. It was important to help haiti to engage in an act of kindness for a disadvantaged neighbor, it is VITAL for us to help japan because she is a friend and a close trading partner. Unless the japanese have massive vaults like Cheyenne Mtn all over their nation I am pretty sure they need a hand up.

Hundreds of thousands died in Haiti. This is a very poor country as I previously stated,so 18,000 in a highly developed country is child's play with some candy on the side in comparison. Massive Vaults? Any country that can afford to spend billions apon billions on Fancy High-Speed Trains alone, does not need a hand up.

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey



Hundreds of thousands died in Haiti. This is a very poor country as I previously stated,so 18,000 in a highly developed country is child's play with some candy on the side in comparison. Massive Vaults? Any country that can afford to spend billions apon billions on Fancy High-Speed Trains alone, does not need a hand up.

Japan suffered a minimum of these numbers.

Glad to know if we build high speed rail here we'll never merit any help or sympathy on the world stage.

ORIGINAL: sven

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey



Hundreds of thousands died in Haiti. This is a very poor country as I previously stated,so 18,000 in a highly developed country is child's play with some candy on the side in comparison. Massive Vaults? Any country that can afford to spend billions apon billions on Fancy High-Speed Trains alone, does not need a hand up.

Japan suffered a minimum of these numbers.

Glad to know if we build high speed rail here we'll never merit any help or sympathy on the world stage.

You missed the point. It's not the fact that they have HSR that does not make them deserves any help(although to build HSR requires you be a fairly wealthy nation anyway), it's the fact that they are ABLE to spend billions on it. If a country can spend billions on Trains ALONE do you honestly think they need financial help? And no, the USA does not deserve any kind of help on the World Stage regardless of HSR. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do we really need any help, especially considering how much we spend on military trying to HELP other countries with their problems. Oh, and America does have HSR in Northeast called the Acela Express. So your point failed before you even finished it.

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey


You missed the point. It's not the fact that they have HSR that does not make them deserves any help(although to build HSR requires you be a fairly wealthy nation anyway), it's the fact that they are ABLE to spend billions on it. If a country can spend billions on Trains ALONE do you honestly think they need financial help? And no, the USA does not deserve any kind of help on the World Stage regardless of HSR. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do we really need any help, especially considering how much we spend on military trying to HELP other countries with their problems. Oh, and America does have HSR in Northeast called the Acela Express. So your point failed before you even finished it.

No I think we're sailing at cross purposes here champ.

Oh and saying Amtrak is "high speed rail" compared to what the japanese have wrought is a lot like my saying that my bottle rocket is a lot like the Saturn V moonshot booster.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express

The Acella Express turns a mild profit for a company that loses between 32-45 bucks a passenger depending on who you ask.

Japan needs aid to get back on her feet and assume her place in the economic order. It is a different kind of charity than haiti....also in my opinion *if* we are to start assigning aid based on "need" and "merit" I would rather donate to a nation that does not have the multiple layers of graft and corruption hamstringing her economy.

We'll agree to disagree I'd wager.

V22,

Please re-read my post about the purpose of this thread. Then take a trip to Japan and to Haiti and talk to some of the people affected by these disasters and see if you still feel the same way and if there is such a difference between someone who has lost their home and loved ones in one place or another. I never said Haiti did not need help, but this thread is on Japan. Adding your opinion here on who is "more worthy" of assistance was poor manners and I'm getting mightily disappointed that we can't have a thread like this without people jumping in and derailing it.

Regards,

- Erik

ORIGINAL: sven

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey


You missed the point. It's not the fact that they have HSR that does not make them deserves any help(although to build HSR requires you be a fairly wealthy nation anyway), it's the fact that they are ABLE to spend billions on it. If a country can spend billions on Trains ALONE do you honestly think they need financial help? And no, the USA does not deserve any kind of help on the World Stage regardless of HSR. We are one of the wealthiest countries in the world, do we really need any help, especially considering how much we spend on military trying to HELP other countries with their problems. Oh, and America does have HSR in Northeast called the Acela Express. So your point failed before you even finished it.

No I think we're sailing at cross purposes here champ.

Oh and saying Amtrak is "high speed rail" compared to what the japanese have wrought is a lot like my saying that my bottle rocket is a lot like the Saturn V moonshot booster.....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acela_Express

The Acella Express turns a mild profit for a company that loses between 32-45 bucks a passenger depending on who you ask.

Japan needs aid to get back on her feet and assume her place in the economic order. It is a different kind of charity than haiti....also in my opinion *if* we are to start assigning aid based on "need" and "merit" I would rather donate to a nation that does not have the multiple layers of graft and corruption hamstringing her economy.

We'll agree to disagree I'd wager.

I will drop it Erik, I just have one thing to say and me and sven can go to PM.

I thought the whole point of donations was to help people with needs and that merit it?

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

I will drop it Erik, I just have one thing to say and me and sven can go to PM.

I thought the whole point of donations was to help people with needs and that merit it?

V22,

I can only hope that when you're older you'll have the maturity to understand the "merit" part of your question doesn't come into play when dealing with disasters like discussed here. If you see somebody drowning you don't stop and ask how much money they have or if they merit assitance.

ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish

ORIGINAL: V22 Osprey

I will drop it Erik, I just have one thing to say and me and sven can go to PM.

I thought the whole point of donations was to help people with needs and that merit it?

V22,

I can only hope that when you're older you'll have the maturity to understand the "merit" part of your question doesn't come into play when dealing with disasters like discussed here. If you see somebody drowning you don't stop and ask how much money they have or if they merit assitance.

I was just waiting for you to comment.[:D] Yes, I know you think I'm less of me compared to other members on the forum just because I'm younger. You ALWAYS have to comment on anything I say. It's almost like you are watching everything I say and feel the need to comment on my maturity. Plus, saving someone from directly from drowning and providing the cash to the people that help the people in need are completely different things because the government can pay for the money to help those people.