http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42688590/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/
Tsunami warnings, written in stone, saved some
Sentinels mark previous waves: ‘Do not build your homes below this point!’
Ko Sasaki for The New York Times
A stone tablet in Aneyoshi, Japan, warns residents not to build homes below it.
By MARTIN FACKLER
updated 4/20/2011 5:55:02 PM ET
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ANEYOSHI, Japan — The stone tablet has stood on this forested hillside since before they were born, but the villagers have faithfully obeyed the stark warning carved on its weathered face: “Do not build your homes below this point!”
Residents say this injunction from their ancestors kept their tiny village of 11 households safely out of reach of the deadly tsunami last month that wiped out hundreds of miles of Japanese coast and rose to record heights near here. The waves stopped just 300 feet below the stone, and the village beyond it.
“They knew the horrors of tsunamis, so they erected that stone to warn us,” said Tamishige Kimura, 64, the village leader of Aneyoshi.
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Technology is in the eye of the beholder. These stones were placed for the purpose of warning their descendants.
Now the Japanese government is looking for a 21st Century equivalents.
Seems like those stones were are pretty good equivalents!
Reinke Faces Life 