There have been hundreds of earthquakes in Japan in the week since the magnitude 9 quake struck at 2:46pm on March 11th. Trying to visualize their impact with simple epicenter/magnitude plots doesn't really tell you about the one thing that really matters: how much did the ground shake where you're standing?

Rather than looking simply at the epicenter and magnitude, this graphic was created using data from thousands of accelerometers around the country, to accurately represent the level of movement someone standing on the ground in each location would actually feel. This is much more descriptive than the wild guess [...]
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In an AP story by Eric Talmadge and Mari Yamaguchi, "Japanese choppers dump water on stricken reactor", the second paragraph starts with

This "reporting" by Talmadge and Yamaguchi is a perfect example of the wild sensationalism I've seen in the US media about the situation in Japan. The depth and breadth of the destruction can't possibly be sensationalized because it's already unimaginable, but everything else seems to be looked at in the US press in the most exaggerated, dire way possible.

In what world is dropping water with fire-fighting equipment a "combat-style mission" rather than a "firefighting-style mission"? In a [...]
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There was just another mildly strong (mag 6.4) quake in Japan, but this time in Fujinomia Shizuoka, near Mt. Fuji. This is much closer to Kyoto than the ones on Friday, but still far enough that I didn't feel it, though Fumie did (which is odd, because having been in two major quakes in my life -- Loma Prieta in '89, and Kobe in '95 -- I tend to be quite sensitive and often feel even very mild quakes).

This one occurred inland, so they say, a least, no danger of tsunami this time.

Also, initial reports indicate little damage, [...]
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My 8-year-old son, Anthony, came into my den while I was watching video of the devastating tsunami that hit up north a few days ago. We're untouched here in Kyoto, but of course he's heard that some bad event happened. I showed him a few of the less graphic videos, and described a bit about the hardship that the survivors must be enduring. He seemed to grasp that it was a bad situation, and wandered off.

Later, we found the note above on my wife's desk. It says:

ままへ このお金はぼくのおこづかいです。 いまとうきょうのへんでつなみとじしんがおこっています。 そして、でんきがないばしょがあります。でんきがなかったらだめだからこのお金をわたしてください。 Mommy, This money is from my allowance. Now, [...]
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When I stopped to photograph the large blossoms seen in last month's "Signs of Spring Start to Bud in Kyoto", on the same outing that yielded "Stark Tree" and "Still a Bit Of Snow In Kyoto", I also snapped pictures of the fields visible off the side of the road. I think they're pretty and so intended to post them with the other photos from the outing, but realized today that I had prepared them but not posted them, so here they are.

The Japanese landscape can be brutally ugly with utility poles and wires everywhere, but at the same [...]

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