The current news, as near as I can gather:
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A grocery store during the quake. Don’t know us this is Sendai, Tokyo or somewhere else:
The Ichihara oil refinery on fire:
The tsunami coming in:
More tsunami flood footage:
Still more:
Archive for March, 2011
Japan Earthquake News Update
Friday, March 11th, 2011Pictures From the Japanese Earthquake
Friday, March 11th, 2011Correction: As the commenter below notes, this picture is from the 1995 Kobe earthquake, not today’s quake.
This one is particularly scary:
The apartment buildings behind it seem intact. Maybe the tsunami surge tossed a ship into the highway.
(Hat tip: Instapundit.)
8.9 Earthquake, Tsunami Hits Japan
Friday, March 11th, 2011The quake hit at 2:46 p.m local time about 230 miles off the coast of northern Japan near Sendai. A Wikipedia entry is already up, and they’re calling it the largest earthquake to hit Japan in recorded history. It looks pretty bad, although thankfully not “sink into the sea” bad.
But it looks bad enough:
This CNN story also has embedded footage of the tsunami coming inland carrying debris, boats and burning houses with it.
This NNK report is saying the tsunami waves were 10 meters high.
Compilation of live quake footage:
Here’s footage of the tsunami inundating a Japanese airport:
If there’s one comfort in this, Japan is very good at earthquake and tsunami preparation. If something this big hit, say, Haiti, just about everything on the island would be gone.
Bruce Sterling Donates Books and Papers to the Ransom Center
Thursday, March 10th, 2011Including the manuscript for The Difference Engine, among others. I knew he was planning to do this, since he talked about it several years ago when I went over to his house to buy some books from him.
The Penniless Shakespeare Scholar
Thursday, March 10th, 2011This story of an itinerant Shakespeare scholar with no job and no fixed address, who lived in a succession of homes by the kindness of strangers, is fascinating reading. It also reminds me, ever so slightly, of someone I know…
The History of Science Fiction
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011
Not exactly how I would do it, but worth taking a look at…
R. A. Lafferty Estate for Sale?
Thursday, March 3rd, 2011Assuming it’s not a hoax or scam, the estates of R. A. Lafferty is being auctioned off, including the rights to all his novels and short stories, etc. The ad says the current bid is $70,000.
How much is the lafferty estate worth? Artistically, millions. Lafferty was perhaps the greatest, most original writer science fiction (and the world) ever knew. Financially? Harder to say. I have been noticing that his rarest books (Tales of Chicago, etc.) have all but disappeared off the collector’s market, so maybe a Lafferty revival is in the offing.
Maybe some rich fan should buy the estate and work top bring it all back into print. Anyone know if Paul Allen is an R. A. Lafferty fan?
(Hat tip: SF Signal.)
Texas Doesn’t Lead the Way (Thank God)
Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011In arrests of college football players, that is. SI and CBS news listed the arrest records for every team in the preseason top 25, and the two Texas teams in the list did comparatively well. Texas came in third-to-last, with only two players charged, while TCU came in dead last with none at all. Oklahoma came in tied for seventh with nine players arrested, and Pittsburgh ranked first (which is to say last) with a whopping 22 players charged.
The usual caveats (arrest is not conviction, innocent until proven guilty, yada yada yada) apply, but this is one ranking Texas football fans are happy to see their teams rank last in.
(“Texas leads the way” shtick blatantly stolen from Bill Crider.)
The Vocabulary of Cthulhu
Tuesday, March 1st, 2011A list of the frequency H. P. Lovecraft used certain words in his fiction.
I suggest you check out these hideous, foetid, eldritch, nameless, unutterable words.