Troops are working to plug holes in a major dam upriver of the earthquake site. Hopefully they will fix it in time before it bursts. It is also interesting that CNN is quoting government officials as acknowledging problems their people face. IIRC, isn't it relatively uncommon for this to happen in all but the most  blatant of problems (such as the blizzard where the trouble became so bad it could not be ignored anymore)?

[first: props to p0157 for a great writeup, I must have missed it while writing my own which is now in the subq, only link worth adding is this youtube video of the quake as it happened]

This is a tremendous disaster for China as it represents both a massive loss of life and infrastructure. Given China's population problem, the harsh reality might be that the loss of infrastructure might cause more problems for China than the short term loss of life. With 80%+ of buildings destroyed in some areas, it will be sometime before the Western Region of China's economy recovers.

Undoubtedly the government is bound to execute a few builders/inspectors who took bribes to 'send a message', but I bet there are a lot of BCP/DR departments of multinational companies in Shanghai casting a skeptical eye towards their own buildings durability.  

It will be interesting to see whether China can do a better job dealing with this disaster than the US was able to do after Hurricane Katrina. Also interesting will be how world opinion will see China (worth of empathy/sympathy for the country's loss  or derision for failing to take reasonable precautions in becoming a rising power).

One also wonders how Global Warming will be used as explanation for this disaster.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.

Well, this is interesting especially as contrasted to what's happening in Myanmar.  You have to give the Chinese government some credit - they are clearly taking this seriously and they're not necessarily trying to use it to score PR points - they're admitting that there is a problem and they are asking for help (and it appears they're doing everything they can to get aid to the area).  This stands in stark contrast to what has happened in the past - even very recently in the past an event like this would have been covered up as much as possible.  Still, my feeling is that the government probably is doing all of this relatively grudgingly - more because in this day of cell phones and the Internet it's much more difficult, if not impossible, to engage in the sort of mass media blackouts that were used to cover up the level of destruction / poor government responses of the past.  The government simply can't get away with not doing anything, like they used to.  So, we see both the good and the bad of the current Chinese government system here - the good in the sense that there's obviously some increasing accountability to the public (as opposed to a place like Myanmar) and a desire on the part of many portions of the government to do the right thing (again, contrasting China to Myanmar - while corruption certainly exists in China, there's not the same sort of gangster mentality in the government - government officials are expected to do their jobs, even though they often fail to live up to expectations, while in places like Myanmar, the expectation is failure or even active pillaging).  Still, there are certainly many problems exposed by this.  The biggest, of course, is what has long been obvious - China's regulator scheme is hardly up to snuff.  The lack of standardized building codes and the lack of enforcement of what there is almost certainly contributed to many of the problems we see (although, to be fair, many of the houses out in the countryside which collapsed were probably quite old and even if the area had California style construction laws, probably would have been "grandfathered in" and faced problems in any event).  Also, China has shown some recalcitrance in accepting foreign aid (although, again, to be fair the US wasn't entirely willing to accept foreign aid after Katrina - there is some expectation that a developed nation should be able to take care of its own, and China desperately wants to be viewed as a developed nation that doesn't need aid anymore).  

How much crap are the people at the bottom of the totem pole over there willing to put up with? If the response to this sucks as bad as the one to their blizzard, yet the government can still shell out for the Olympics, I would imagine there are going to be some very angry ChiComms.

How bad does it have to get before the people start picking up pitchforks and torches? What would a civil war or revolution in a nuclear power like China look like?

I expected shoddy construction to play a major role in this disaster, but given that the quake occured at 2pm local time, schools have been heavily affected.

On the optimistic side, children's bodies are a lot more supple than adults and I'd guess that the survivor rate (assuming rescue workers can get to them fast enough) should be pretty good.

However again I must point out the infrastructure issue -- even if the kids survive, you lay future traps because the schools no longer exist. This shows up 10-15 years from now when these kids become adults and can't compete as effectively in the global market.

My heart goes out to the many families in China who are no doubt in mourning today. For Asia's strong family culture this earthquake is a huge traumatic disaster for the survivors as well.

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.