A masked boy walks past nearly-empty shelves at a supermarket in the Japanese city of Akita.

In the wake of Japan’s deadly earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant explosions, we have witnessed the almost indescribable chaos that follows a disaster of this magnitude: loss of life, severe injuries, homelessness, lack of water, food and proper medical care, the physical destruction of towns and cities, and a growing fear of radioactive contamination from power plants that seem beyond anyone’s ability to control.

But one heart-wrenching byproduct of disasters like this one has been missing in Japan, and that’s looting and lawlessness.

Looting is something we see after almost every tragedy; for example: last year’s earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, the floods in England in 2007, and of course Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. It happens when some people who’ve seen life as they know it get tossed out the window feel that all morality has been tossed out too. It’s survival of the fittest and whatever you can get your hands on is yours, no matter who it belongs to.

But that’s not happening in Japan.

Journalist and social commentator Ed West wrote in the UK Telegraph yesterday how struck he was by the Japanese culture throughout this ordeal. He observed how supermarkets cut their prices in the days following the quake and how vending machine owners were giving out free drinks as "people work together to survive." And West was most surprised by the fact that there was no looting.

Many have pointed to the popularity of Japan’s distinctive Buddhist and Shinto religions as well as how the values of conformity and consensus are considered virtues in their culture. That’s one explanation, but it probably has something to do with remaining true to your moral code even in the darkest hours.

Here’s my question to you: Why is there no looting in Japan?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Kim: Because Japanese culture, unlike all other modern cultures, is based primarily on honor and dignity. Unlike our Katrina disaster, the Japanese don’t see this as an opportunity to steal everything in sight. The so-called civilized world can learn much from the stoic Japanese.

Greg in Arkansas: Two words: National pride. The people of Japan love their country and do what is best for the nation, unlike the United States where we love our country and do what is best for ourselves.

Natasha: The Japanese are resourceful, innovative and disciplined people with a great sense of national pride. While they also have criminals and felons, it is not quite in comparison to the sleaze balls we have in our streets. It was disgusting to watch these scum bags loot stores in New Orleans during Katrina when they should have helped their fellow citizens in need. While watching the devastation in Japan is heart wrenching, it is so refreshing to see the civility of people within the calamity they are facing.

Larry in Georgetown, Texas: Jack, I was blessed to visit Japan several years ago on business and was told that if I lost my wallet in downtown Tokyo that the person who found it would make it their mission to return it to me in tact. These people are very gracious and kind.

Carol: Sociologists will tell you that the lack of looting is just the result of large numbers of people developing a more orderly society to cope with living in a smaller land mass. Personally, I’ve always thought it’s because they’re a more highly evolved race.

Joy: It’s the Japanese culture – very refined, dignified, disciplined and civilized. We should all learn from them. They’re the types of people you help out willingly because you know that they’ll make full use of any opportunity to get back on their feet.

Richard: I don’t really know. It would be easy to say that they are a very homogeneous society and perhaps in a way consider each other family. In any case they are to be applauded.

Got this yesterday, including the lanyard

Black = Committee + Advisors + Me
Red/Blue/White = Everyone else

And i got a new mentor group
So now, i’m taking care of Boys 9-10 (Year 9-10, not 9-10 year olds )
And the other mentors are: Adam Lo and Amos Wong.

I’ll also like to congratulate the other committe members: Nelson Hsieh, Jess Lau, Anita Lau, Joash, Joseph, Angie Wong Ang Chi, Racheal Wong, Joshua Zhong Sheng Kong, Joshua Teoh, Jacob.

Also, congrats to the new Vice Chairperson Josiah Lian.

And this wouldn’t be possible without the JYF Coordinators Adam and Vicky.
And the other advisors Aaron and Amos.

Seems Chris Brown finally has friends?

As afew of you might know, i’ve set up 2 cameras.
1: www.eq008.joeylau.com
2: www.eq021.joeylau.com

Unfortunately, EQ008 is hosted by a dynamic IP, which makes it very time consuming to login to cPanel/WHM to update the IP’s

I’ve attempted to make a PHP page which will pretend to be the DNS page and submit the new IP to the server, but it looks harder to break than a normal form.
I uploaded the javascript here: http://pastebin.com/AK1fg9hw

After reading several websites, it appears that cPanel/WHM have a API, which i have access to.

After reading the documentation at, it only took me afew minutes to intergrate it
API Manual: http://docs.cpanel.net/twiki/bin/view/AllDocumentation/AutomationIntegration/XmlApi

So, if anyone views the page i coded, it’ll set the DNS zone to the viewer’s IP
Which will allow me to view EQ008 no matter what IP it uses

The white one looks kinda like Chanel.
And i was chatting with Chanel’s owner:

Them (11:35): Chanel will like to play with her??
Me (11:35): Or eat her :p
Them (11:35): LOL

And if you want to see what Chanel looks like:

Isn’t Chanel cute?

The old “Puppy Cake” post can be found here: http://www.joeylau.com/2010/04/03/puppy-cake/
Or attached below

Report suicidal content: http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=suicidal_content

Facebook is launching a system that allows users to report friends who they think may be contemplating suicide.

The feature is being run in conjunction with Samaritans, which said several people had used it during a test phase.

Anyone worried about a friend can fill out a form, detailing their concerns, which is passed to the site’s moderators.

It follows reports of several cases where Facebook users announced their intention to commit suicide online.

The reporting page asks for the address (URL) of the Facebook page where the messages are posted, the full name of the user and details of any networks they are members of.

Suicide-related alerts will be escalated to the highest level, for attention by Facebook’s user operations team.

Police alert
"When a report is made, they then assess whether they need to call the police immediately or forward it on to us," said Samaritans’ Nicola Peckett.

Facebook said that it had always been its policy to notify police if a user was at risk of imminent bodily harm.

The system had been operating in a trial mode, without publicity for three months, during which it received several genuine reports and no hoaxes, according to Samaritans.

It is hoped that the new reporting mechanism will help prevent cases like that of Simone Back, who died on Christmas day after taking a drug overdose.

The charity worker from Brighton had written about her intention to kill herself on her Facebook page.

Several of her friends commented on the message, however no-one raised the alarm.

Samaritans said that the new system was not launched in relation to one specific case, but to raise awareness of the ways in which people could get help.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-12667343

Bought a new iPhone game…

And i’ve finished it already…