The Exxon/Mobile Shiogama Oil Terminal near Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, resumed operations on Thursday (Japan time).
Local officials in north east Honshu, Japan, say the oil refinery, which makes gasoline and heating fuel, is key in helping local economic recovery after the 9.0 quake/tsunami.
Hillary Clinton said that NATO members have agreed to take over the military lead in the action against Libya.
She also admitted that there is no unified military plan among the coalition forces. “All 28 allies have also now authorized military authorities to develop an operations plan for NATO to take on the broader civilian protection mission.”- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Can you say: Ad Hoc, last minute, willie nillie, rushed, haphazard, last minute lack of planing?
In one north eastern Honshu coastal town, a city employee manned the emergency loudspeaker system, right up to the very end.
In video from NHK you can hear the woman’s voice echoing through the city (it’s truly haunting when you realize what is going on) even as the tsunami sweeps over all the buildings, including the 3 story town hall. Miki Endo told residents to get to higher ground, over and over, with an intensity that caused some residents to think twice about going back home. One woman said if it wasn’t for Miki’s announcements she would not have realized the severity of the situation, and would have returned home instead of seeking higher ground.
Here’s a Spanish language news report that has the haunting NHK video. I had a link to the original NHK report but apparently it’s been removed from the internet.
The 3 story steel I-beam framed town hall is nothing but a skeleton now. The walls, floor and roof are gone. Workers in the building rushed to the roof when they realized the tsunami was taller than the top floor. The roof was still not tall enough, and most lost their lives, the survivors said they held on to exposed pylons for dear life. The whole time Miki Endo, still inside the town hall, stayed at her post telling the towns people to get to higher ground, telling them they must go higher.
From left to right: The top of the 3 story Disaster Center (where people had fled thinking it was safe) completely covered by water, the water begins to recede, in just a few seconds the tsunami had totally striped the 3 story building killing almost everybody.
To update the story, and since so many people continue to read it, it turns out that Miki was not the only one who stayed at her post. Miki’s boss stayed by her side, he also urged residents to get to higher ground, he was lost as well.
Miki has not been seen since, and her parents refuse to leave the devastated town, hoping to find her.
Toyota announced that if the supply problems in Japan continues it will be forced to close plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
Toyota continues to delay restarts of its plants in Japan, for the same reason.
Toyota has already cut overtime work at its North American plants.
Today’s announcement is meant as a warning, so North American plant officials can prepare.
Germany, a member of NATO, pulled out of Mediterranean operations against Libya.
Germany, along with Turkey, are reasons why NATO can not take the lead in actions against Libya. NATO must have all members on board, which it does not. It’s sure looks like Obama (U.S.), Sarkozy (France) and Cameron (U.K.) fail when it comes to coalition building.
This is why Obama will not keep his promise to Congress. He stated that the U.S. would relinquish its role in the attacks on Libya in “days”. It now looks like it could be weeks.
Sarkozy is such an idiot his people think the “coalition” can not only carry on without the U.S., but without any unified command and control. In other words, everyone in the coalition does their own thing.
This is looking more and more like a literal circus of war mongering clowns!
Oh, Germany says it’ll increase its presence in Afghanistan so other NATO countries can pull their troops out of Afghanistan to fight the Libyans. Kind of a roundabout way of supporting the attacks on Libya, while denouncing the attacks at the same time.
The majority of the lower house of the Russian Duma (Parliament) approved a resolution condemning the military action against Libya, and demanding it be stopped.
“The State Duma expresses concern over the scale and form in which the military force is used against Libya and calls for parliaments of France, Great Britain, United States, Italy, Canada and other states that are conducting the military operation to assist the immediate end of combat that damages the peaceful Libyan infrastructure and most importantly causes new casualties among civilian population.”
Russian politicians point out that UNSCR 1973 does not have specific limits on military action. Also, each of the UN coalition members are interpreting it differently, which is why the operation looks so haphazard.
This lack of specifics in the UN resolution is partly why President Obama is still trying to work out who will take the lead from the U.S., days after he told Congress that the U.S. involvement would end in a few days.
Trying to provide the accused soldier with an “out”, the military officials asked Army Specialist, Jeremy Morlock, if his unit was just trying to scare the locals, and it “got out of hand.” Morlock’s reply: “The plan was to kill people.”
Morlock pleaded guilty to murder. Four other soldiers face murder charges as well. All together 12 U. S. soldiers are charged with murder and conspiracy to cover it up. Charges also include drug use, mutilating bodies, keeping body parts as trophies and taking photos of dead bodies.
The Japanese government has told people not to eat the vegetables, and not to drink the water, because of radiation contamination. At the same time they say “There is no immediate threat.”
What they mean by that is, that the levels, and types, of radiation contamination is such that you will not notice any bad effects “immediately”. However, if you continue to eat, drink, or expose yourself to even the lowest levels of contamination, over time you will suffer bad effects.
For example: Iodine-131 is a short life span radioactive isotope. It collects on your thyroid glands (just like iodide), and if it builds up will cause cancer. Even low levels of iodine-131 will build up on your thyroid if you keep eating, drinking, or exposing yourself to the contamination. This is why the Japanese government is telling people to stop eating the vegetables, and stop drinking the water, even though there is no “immediate” threat.
In other words, it’s still bad, bad, bad!
More proof that the British Empire (aka British Commonwealth) is taking over the United States.
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) is asking for money from the U.S. taxpayer (Department of State). This while Congress debates cutting major funding from our own PBS (Public Broadcasting Service).
BBC is dealing with huge cuts from the government of United Kingdom (aka Britain). U.S. State Department likes the BBC because of it’s world wide audience. It’s possible that the BBC might be used to spread U.S. propaganda (isn’t that what Voice of America is for?).
Is this what Hillary Clinton meant when she asked Congress to increase funding for a stronger “American” media presence around the world?
Britain taking over U.S. oil industry. Britain taking over U.S. municipal water systems. Now Britain taking over U.S. public television! Our founding fathers would commit suicide if they were alive today!
The United States Geological Survey has vast data on earthquakes. I looked at their “Largest and Deadliest Earthquake” list, which spans 1990 to 2011.
I looked at just those quakes on the Pacific Ring of Fire. I was looking to see if there was an increase in frequency and/or magnitude over the past 21 years.
There were a total of 31 “largest/deadliest” earthquakes on the Pacific Ring of Fire. The magnitudes ranged from 6.3 to 9.1 Richter scale. It looks like the amount of activity is spread evenly over the past 21 years, but it’s deceptive. From year to year the pattern of activity is interesting.
1990 one, 1991 two, 1992 one, 1993 one, 1994 two, 1995 three, 1996 one, 1997 two, 1998 one, 1999 one. At this point it looks like there is a loose pattern; 1/2/1/1/2/3/1/2/1/1.
2000 two, 2001 one, 2002 one, 2003 one, 2004 two, 2005 one, 2006 two, 2007 two, 2008 zero, 2009 two, 2010 one, 2011 two. The pattern is different; 2/1/1/1/2/1/2/2/0/2/1/2.
Where the most quakes hit changes as well. In the 1990s Japan was hit by one large/deadly quake. From 2000 to 2011, Japan has been hit by two large/deadly quakes. But check out Indonesia. In the 1990s the Indonesian islands were hit with two large/deadly quakes. From 2000 to 2010 the Indonesian islands suffered six large/deadly quakes. On the Americas side of the Pacific Ring it looks like quakes are more evenly spread out over the years. From 1990 to 2011 a total of eight large/deadly earthquakes were spread from Alaska to Chile.
What is clear is that the activity is more frequent, and stronger, on the Asian side of the Pacific Ring (probably because that’s where the Pacific plate slams under the Eurasian plate). But that’s no reason not to prepare, if you don’t live on the Asian side.
Note: The Japanese islands and the Indonesia islands are affected by several plates. Japan sits on the Eurasian plate, which is being hit by the Pacific plate and Philippine plate. Indonesia straddles the Eurasian and Philippine plates, which are getting hit by the Pacific plate.