Mapping Ground Zero with Lasers

securitas writes: "Amazing how the WTC disaster has shone a light on technology (pun intended). LIDAR (Light Detecting and Ranging) is the optical equivalent of RADAR. It's being used to create hyper-detailed maps of the WTC disaster site from an altitude of 5000 feet to detect shifts in the rubble as well as areas in danger of collapse."

Comments

Interesting

[fjordboy]

This is really cool, and I hope it helps the rescue effort a lot. One of my friends told me that they were implementing some form of sonar to test for structural stability and whatnot...does anyone know anything about that? I couldn't find it on any news page, so I think my friend might have been mistaken. I think this would probably work better than sonar, and I really hope it is helpful.

Re:Terrible Sense of Levity

[ergo98]

Yeah you ARE being oversensitive. The maps on CNN are nifty. It is amazing that technology moves forward by an event so tragic (in fact it's amazing that most of the technological advances tend to come in periods of war when we're really motivated to find ways to kill people). It if fascinating that a terrorist group used the latent energy in the WTC, coupled with jumbo jets, to achieve their deadly goal. It is amazing how the buildings held up for about an hour after being hit, until finally collapsing because of heat. It is very sad that 6000+ people died (though 1000+ were of other nationalities actually. It would probably seem more reasonable if you cut out the "6,700 innocent Americans" and left it as human beings), but it doesn't diminish from the amazing/neat/fascinating/stunning/awesome factors of the technologies or breakthroughs determined. Now if someone said it was "neat" that people were dismembered or something then you and your croonies would have a case to run to Slashdot shedding your crocodile tears and slowly waving your flag while singing Amazing Grace or something, but otherwise just save it: The overwhelming number of Slashdotters are just thinking "Aw STFU".

Hyper-sensitivity does nobody any good

[securitas]

I understand that you are somewhat sensitive right now as many of us are. However if you read carefully, as others have pointed out, I in no way make light of the disaster. I refuse to be morose and publically flagellate myself because someone may misinterpret what I said, even though I said it very clearly.

Regarding wiredog's comments about being a typical sociopathic geek ... speak for yourself. Don't generalize your social limitations to the rest of the world. You may not think of people when you are wrapped up in the technology but others do. Why do you think I submitted the story? Technology exists to serve people, not the other way around.

FYI to both of you: I know many people who worked in the WTC and the surrounding areas. I still have not heard from some of them. Until I do, I still have to live my life as do many others. Allowing myself to be consumed by fear, loathing and grief is a disservice to the memory of all who perished.

Be careful who you judge, especially without knowing the whole story.

Re:Hyper-sensitivity does nobody any good

[brianvan]

I'm quite glad that you read this and took the time out to respond.

I'm do agree with you; this is not the time to be over-sensitive. And you did not make light of the disaster; to some extent, I think that the "pun intended" part was somewhat distasteful but only in the sense of juxtaposition of serious matters and a cheeky phrase like that. I guess it's a bit hypocritical, cause I thought it was funny when I heard that Howard Stern said that all the hookers in NYC should go downtown and give the rescue workers free blowjobs. I suppose that I wouldn't have made that wording choice after any length of time after the disaster. But it's not like a grudge thing or something like that - it's just your writing style. I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder.

As for michael... well, on a different level, he's supposed to "catch" things like that. As an editor with no bias to writing style, he definitely should have removed that "nifty" from yesterday's story, at least. For him to post two stories in a 24 hour period with a questionable juxtaposition of references to light words and a serious disaster... well, to some extent he's not doing his job. The stories were at least good. But he can edit the descriptions a little bit to keep things in a somber mood for the general populace. It's a tough job sometimes, but in my mind this would have been obvious: Just get rid of those words, they don't contribute to the "story" and they clash with the somber mood of the event itself.

All that stuff about patriotism... well, I'd be saying the same thing if it were an earthquake that killed 6,000 people.

Finally, that guy who said "Well, we're nerds, we're antisocial, we don't have to mourn"... well I told him, and I'll say it again: that's really sad. And that does not speak for all of us. I think it's terrible if you're a human being, you hear of something like this, and it doesn't make you upset. Yea, we can't cry about it forever, but I think it affects many of us deeply. I mean, it's just sad to think that on some level, we have NO support from these BOFH's that sit in their Fortresses of Solititude and only care about their IRC channels. They don't care about society, they don't care about freedom, and they don't care about America. To that extent, they're not Americans, even at this time when most people in the world agree, for right now, "We are all Americans".

With things like this, I wonder less why I hated some of the people in my (CIS) major in college... not all of them, just the people like this who are selfish and rude, unapologetically so. (You're not, though. Thanks for the response)