Oh, yeah - cool stuff!

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*having similar reaction re: whassup in news after being mostly off-line/away from world news all weekend* GAH!

Here's a good article with some real hard numbers in it about the power systems in Japan and the supply situation around the Tokyo metropolitan area. Quick summary: it's going to be a long hot summer in a very large metropolitan area that depends on air-conditioning to be livable.

http://spikejapan.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/after-the-earthquake-a-long-hot-summer/

The Cascade volcanoes from the air can be impressive.

Seeing them from nearly the top of one of the other Cascade volcanoes is also pretty dang impressive.

AotD: Every time I fly from Seattle to Texas to visit my mother [g].

I'd love to hear Rush Lamebrain's explanation for the king crabs.

The article you posted on Fukishima somewhat over-states the problems onsite at least in the first page. For a more balanced update translated into clear english by a Nuclear Engineer and his Geologist daughter, check out http://georneys.blogspot.com/ - they're doing updates and taking questions daily or almost so. The IAEA also finally has some comprehensive updates on the situation at http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/tsunamiupdate01.html but those are relatively new.

But the point is, they now have power and water onsite at all 6 of the plants; 2 of them aren't as seriously damaged, and the other 4 are much more stable. Also, no way Chernobyl could happen there - the fuel and plant designs are completely different; even if the spent fuel was fully exposed to water (which to the best understanding never happened, just partial exposures) the meltdown wouldn't be the same - it would be more like TMI or just a level worse than that, not Chernobyl.

Scarily, I was at my grandmothers a few miles away from TMI when it happened; we have no idea if the health problems (particularly adrenal and thyroid failures) are related. But a lot of people who lived close to the plant at that time have had serious health failures that are most likely related. So a TMI scenario is still scary and dangerous, but Fukushima is not going to blanket most of the planet in fallout, which is a good thing.