News and Weather from the White Rabbit Channel

Seeing June out, three rabbits kept one earthquake (Friday) and two typhoons (Saturday, Sunday) at bay. 

Rabbit Power! 

WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT.

Stay or Leave?

A catastrophic earthquake is predicted for Japan’s Pacific coast...

Izumi: Did you see Professor Kakuda explaining the data coming from the Nankai Trough.

Kenji: I saw that. He says predictions are for 2035 plus or minus five years either way.

Izumi: So the danger starts to increase from 2030.

Kenji: Might be a good time to think of an alternative place to live.

Izumi: If you can get away. I mean, a Magnitude 9 will take out a lot of infrastructure like roads, airports. Not to mention buildings. And the economy? Will the Japanese yen collapse?

Kenji: It’s a gamble, it’s fate, it’s destiny. You move: you avoid a short-term catastrophe. You stay: you avoid a longer-term disruption to your career, housing, community.

_________

Voice-over

"A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it." 

Jean de la Fontaine.

Framing the earthquake story

In the newsroom…

100 aftershocks of Magnitude 1+ per day

First Journalist:  Headline: Japanese city Kumamoto flattened by by Magnitude 7 earthquake.

Editor: We’re not a tabloid newspaper. We need a less sensational, more scientific approach.

Second Journalist: Lead: The first shock was Magnitude 6.2 on April 14 and killed nine people, injuring 800. The next night another earthquake, Magnitude 7, struck killing 39 people and more than 1,000 people were injured.

Editor: That’s better. It’s curious. Reverse of the usual. Foreshock followed by a main shock.

First Journalist: As a result, houses standing after the slightly weaker first shock fell down in the stronger main shock. Human interest: some people survived the first shock, but died in the second.

Editor: Verging on the tabloid again, but a fair follow-up.

______________

Voice-over

The article:

Kumamoto suffers a foreshock and a main shock

Kumamoto’s first shock was Magnitude 6.2 on April 14 and killed nine people, injuring 800. The next night another earthquake, Magnitude 7, struck killing 39 people and more than 1,000 people were injured. Some people survived the first shock, but died in the second. Usually the main shock is followed by a series of aftershocks. As a result, houses standing after the slightly weaker first shock fell down in the stronger main shock. Later shocks often exacerbate damage.
...