Somewhat OT, but maybe worth mentioning:

I was one of those who went around and said "Meh, no big deal, just another earthquake in Japan". When I first heard about the quake [1], it was basically just the automatic report and some twitter noise. I tried to find more Information during the rest of the day, but while a lot of reports came in, none mentioned much damage.

So, my reaction was "Hey guys, there was a big earthquake in Japan. 9.0! That's a lot. But I don't think it caused huge damage, after all, Japan is prepared for such things." I think this is a nice example how the media shapes our thinking: Just because I didn't saw any "Deadliest earthquake ever!"-headlines, I tought that it couldn't be a big deal. I mean, we have Airplanes, Satellites and the Internet, surely everybody would know the extent of damage by now...

[1] about three hours after it happenend, thanks HN!

It was a big deal. The point is that statistically such incidents kill and injure far fewer than coal, natural gas, or even hydroelectricity.