Moderator Message

No more racist terms or foul language.

They are NOT acceptable in here under ANY circumstances.

End of message.

GA

99% of the people i know have thrown the senseless in the bin

Then 99% of the people you know are looking at a potential £1000 fine.

i’ll never forget sitting in council training about ten years ago

a council big wig insisted that our biggest immigrant section was italians

i fully remember sniggering and muttering LANGUAGE

it was later found out that many other nationalitys were giving their nationality as italian

but even all those groups combined could nowhere near compare with pakistanis

i often wonder where council officials live and if they actualy hang around in real british areas with real british people !!

You’ll have some kind of evidence for this charming little anecdote, of course.

Care to share it with the rest of us?

Not doubting that it could have been worse this time but don’t the major fault-lines lie off these huge cities too…

…is it a question of when rather than if?

Very much so. A certainty in terms of geological timescales.

Worryingly, the BBC are reporting 10,000 people to be missing in the port of Minamisanriku.

As is usually the case with large-scale natural disasters, the true scale of the damage only becomes clear once communication is restored with the worst affected areas.

The only scant comfort to be drawn is that it could have been much worse if, for example, the epicentre had been offshore from a major city.

Imagine the devastation if the tremors and tsunami that hit the north-east of the country had struck Tokyo or Osaka instead.

Looks a reasonable enough interpretation to me.

I see your money is on ‘797’, then. 🙂

Being an island right on a fault line, they have no choice…..

Yes, I suppose you’re right.

Japan’s economic might and global cultural and technological influence makes it easy to forget just how much of Japan’s surface area is unsuitable for habitation, industry or agriculture.

They have no choice but to use what little space is available to them, as Lincoln7 says.

Flippant attempts at humour (including those by a Mod) are not really welcome. 😡

And neither are attempts at vigilante moderation, Bob.

If you have a problem with a posting made by another member either use the report button, PM a moderator, or keep a stiff upper lip and carry on regardless.

Now, to return to the grim topic of the thread, matters seem to be getting worse at the Fukushima nuclear power station: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12720219

It does seem a bit odd to build so many nuclear power stations so close to major fault lines.

Moderator Message

This thread is now wandering off in some rather predictable directions.

I think we’re about done here, gentlemen, all the more so since we already have a live thread on Libya.

GA