This:

is why I love Jackie Chan. As soon as he heard the news about the horrifying earthquake in central China he rallied and got an amazing donation ready. He had been working on an anti-piracy campaign in Beijing and dropped everything to get money to the people in the hardest hit areas of China. Together with Albert Yeung he donated 10 million yuan! (approximately a million and half dollars) I love that he is so giving and caring despite being the biggest star in China. And whenever there is bad press about him, he does his best to fix the problem and make sure that his side of the story is heard. I hope he never changes that about himself. (He COULD change his glasses - those are worse that Rain's!)

Note: This picture is from his official site, and if you want to help the Chinese and donate to the relief fund you can do so right here on his site. Be sure to select China Earthquake Fund from the drop down menu!

Leaky Reactor

Another side effect from the devastating earthquake that hit Niigata Prefecture yesterday is that nuclear radiation was leaked into the ocean. I would be a bit freaked out but they explain it away in this statement:

"About 1.2 tons of water apparently leaked from a pool containing spent nuclear fuel in the No. 6 reactor that was not working at the time of the temblor. The water contained 60,000 becquerels of radiation, equal to the amount contained in six liters of radon hot spa water, and is not harmful to the health of people." --Mainichi

If you ask me they were actually pretty lucky, considering that they were only 9 kilometers from the epicenter of a high 6 earthquake. In case you haven't read it, the death total is up to 9 and the injured is somewhere around 930 people.

Disaster strikes Japan

In the wake of typhoon Man-yi, Japan was hit with a devastating earthquake. The earthquake hit when the faults slipped early on Monday, July 16th, 2007. Niigata prefecture was hit the hardest, with 7 reported deaths and hundreds injured people. Houses were destroyed and landslides occured in great numbers. The local power company had to shut down their nuclear reactors after a fire broke out in an electricity transformer. TEPCO reports that there was no radiation leakage. Trains were de-railed in various areas, causing all the bullet trains to be shut down and other area's were suspended. Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan, left his campaign trail to return to Tokyo in order to better handle the disaster and direct aid to the affected areas.

Credits to Mainichi for the photos.