My thoughts goes to Japan and every one else struck by the tsunami

[OlaHaldor]

I woke up today, looking forward to a day full of color grading and joy. Played a few tunes on the stereo while I started up the software, switched on the lights and video monitors.

I logged on Echofon, the twitter client. And what do I see? Loads of tweets about Japan, but so cryptic I had to go to one of the major newspapers website to see what's going on.

It struck me with video after video with destruction. It simply makes me depressed, and really killed the mood.

My thoughts goes to anyone directly or indirectly hit by the tsunami and earthquake. I feel terrible about feeling helpless. And I can't let go of the thought, "what would I do if I were there?"

[Oliver]

My thoughts go out as well, I was watching the news this morning and they reported 10 meter waves... roughly 33 feet  :'(

[Simmo W]

My thought too. A horrible 2011 so far. Japan hardly needs a disaster to further damage it's economy.

Let's hope all the warnings about Tsunamis in the next few hrs are false.

[YYZatcboy]

My thoughts and condolences to Japan. We are following the tsunami closely since we have flights operating in the areas where it might hit NA.

[Jack Skieczius]

I sure hope we don't see a ton of deaths in this one.

i have been watching video after video of this all morning. Lots of damage. I haven't seen any videos of people caught in the waves path, which is a plus.

Lots of cars being swept away.

Mother nature once again reminds us that she is in control.

[Gjalp]

As some of you know I live in Christchurch, we had a small shake but nothing as serious as Japan. My wife is Japanese an she took our daughter over there after the last shake here. I managed to get her on Skype and she and the family are fine but the quake has really taken its toll both physically and mentally. All of Japan seems to be on edge but are well trained in these situations as Japan gets quite a few earthquakes a year.

Well, back to watching the news on telly.

Slainte.

Andy

NZCH

[Simmo W]

Glad all is ok Andy, wow you've had some bad luck lately. Your city seems to be coping as best it can considering. I saw they're delivering 13000 chemical toilets, incredible. But yeah, the Japan scale is in another league, like most things Japanese.

[Gjalp]

Hi Capnsully,

the world is getting weird.....first the shake in NZ last September, then the floods in Queensland, another 2 shakes here and now Japan! What next??

Thanks for your thoughts, they are much appreciated. I wonder if we need to send some of those chemical toilets back to Japan?

I noticed on the web that the first casualty in the States has been found... a guy went to the beach to take some photos and got swept awayby the Tsunami that hit there thismorning (?).

Take Care evryone.

Slainte,

Andy

NZCH

[Ben Russell]

It's mother natures planet, we're just living on it.

If we want people to change, we need to change the war cry: "Save the Planet" clearly doesn't work. "Save Humanity" might.

It's been said that the biosphere is about as thick as a layer of varnish on a basketball, stop and think about that for a second.

[YYZatcboy]

and those satalite images are taken from the equivilent of holding your eye an inch above a globe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PaleBlueDot.jpg

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known. ~ Carl Sagan

[Simmo W]

Carl Sagan was a God, marvelous author (Contact), presenter (Cosmos).

A coincidence, I was about to post this, happenings in our little ball: