Worst Japan Earthquake Ever: 100s of Deaths, 'Nuclear Emergency'

If God was angry about those Peter King hearings, he shouldn't have taken it out on Japan. But here's the verdict at this hour: Hundreds of bodies have washed up from the tsunami, people are being evacuated to and fro, and dozens of what would normally seem to be very bad earthquakes are hitting Japan in the aftershocks. About 88,000 are said to be missing. Thankfully, Japan is a first-world country that has developed and used many technologies to make earthquakes and tsunamis less deadly, so this would all be a lot worse anywhere else in the world. Still, worrying things like this will continue to emerge throughout the day: The country has declared an "atomic power emergency" after the cooling system failed at a nuclear power plant.

Here's video of what Glenn Beck sees constantly, whether his eyes are open or not. But this time the rest of us can too:

Japan declared a state of atomic power emergency after the country was hit by its largest-ever magnitude earthquake, while saying no radiation leaks have been detected at or near any nuclear power plants as of Friday evening.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is scrambling for details from contacts with Japan's industry ministry, while saying in a statement that at least four nuclear power plants ''closest to the quake have been safely shut down'' after the 2: 46 p.m. quake with a magnitude 8.8.

If you need any more evidence these are the end times, Gallagher collapsed during his watermelon-smashing routine last night.

Scary stuff! And in other, unimportant news, Wonkette's Jack Stuef is still scheduled to fly to Tokyo tomorrow, and considering he paid upfront for a hotel reservation that seems to be unrefundable, well, it'll be more interesting than cherry-blossom season. [ NPR / Kyodo News ]