Japan

If you haven't heard the news by now, allow me to enlighten you.  Japan has been devastated by what began as an 8.9 magnitude earthquake, followed by tsunamis that wiped through Sendai, Japan.  At the moment it is the homepage of CNN and will no doubt continue to make headlines for several days - seemingly the only good to come of it is the fact that it's safe to say Charlie Sheen is finally out of the news for a little while.

Now I'm not going to attempt to turn this into some argument with religion, but it's a little saddening when a top trending topic on twitter is "#prayforjapan".  While the thought behind it is obviously good-natured, there's something beneath it that I just can't help but think.  No doubt they could do much better off with some help, or money donations, but instead the rest of the world is just watching and talking to themselves in the dark ("praying"), hoping it helps a nation and culture that they just previously insulted as "godless", "secular", "pedophilic", and "sex-crazed".  Funny how a little devastation always humbles the world and reminds us that we're all just animals who inhabit it.

When you step back and look at the situation geographically, it starts to make sense why such a catastrophe would happen, however.  Building a huge industrious nation right smack dab on the ring of fire wasn't a great idea, but it had to happen.  There have been realistic Japanese anime shows about such an earthquake too - it wasn't totally unexpected.  One strange detail that many ignore is the fact that the lunar perigee - the time when the moon is closest to Earth - is only about a week away.  Of course, the perigee has little control over geologic phenomena, as shown in this article.

Other details to come as more is learned about the event.