After the tragedy in Japan, the main tape plant for Sony was destroyed. As of late March, many major suppliers are out of Sony MiniDV tape!
When we received this news, we rushed off to our supplier and luckily they had a good supply left of the Fuji tapes that we use. We managed to scoop up a good chunk of their stock, which should last us until the summer.
Also, the New York Times has a really neat thing on their website where you move the slider to compare satellite images, taken by GeoEye, from before and after the disaster.
Give it a try on their website! They have many of these sliders: