Arthur C. Clarke Reports From Sri Lanka

Jeff Patterson writes "Sir Arthur C. Clarke has filed a damage report from his home in Sri Lanka on the Clarke Foundation page. He is fine, however 'among those affected are my staff based at our diving station in Hikkaduwa and holiday bungalow in Kahawa -- both beachfront properties located in areas worst hit. We still don't know the full extent of damage as both roads and phones have been damaged. Early reports indicate that we have lost most of our diving equipment and boats. Not all our staff members are accounted for -- yet.'"

Comments

Re:Actually, Rama plummeted into the ocean

[glassjaw rocks]

Who cares about 2130! The world ends on 2029.

Oh, wait.

Cancel that.

Or maybe..

[KinkifyTheNation]

"Arthur C. Clarke Reports From Sri Lanka, Says It's Pretty Wet"

Very sad, .. still going on

[Gopal.V]

Diving stuff and boats were the major disaster area.. I think Sri Lanka is a bit more exposed than Kerala was.

The wave in kerala went nearly 4 kms inland (though it's through the backwaters) and I'm still having painful memories of seeing a white mercedes floating around in the basement of a building ...

The Marine Drive is around 6-7 feet above sea level and is the major business/market area in Cochin - thankfully we're on the right side of India to be compared to the earthquake.

Thanks to a timely news on radio and TV , only a few hundreds were caught unawares ... East coast was not so lucky.

Re:Very sad, .. still going on

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Not that this in any way compares to the devastation you are seeing, but I've seen flash floods in person. My uncle used to live next to a creek that had a habit of overflowing it's banks. I still vividly remember towing pizza and a generator in a Canoe past submerged cars and trucks, and thinking to myself, "inanimate object in boat, people wading next to boat, something is seriously wrong with this picture."

Come on slashdotters, what are your good flood stories?

Re:Very sad, .. still going on

[Naikrovek]

well in my homedown, the house i grew up in was in a depression. rain kinda puddled around my house. my dad did an EXCELLENT job of waterproofing the walls and stuff so that wasn't a problem.

The City of Abingdon, Illinois, doesn't like rainwater in their sewers, so they pump it out - and right into customer's homes. since my house was the lowest in town, all the rainwater from the sewers (and sewage that was carried with it) went into my basement. the entire town's turds and femine hygene products wound up in our basement after every heavy rain. The city would not stop pumping, even after legal action was taken. Apparently a city can do whatever it wants to protect city assets. Such is the case in Abingdon, Illinois, anyway.

My father took an old tire inner-tube, cut it from an "O" shape into a "C" shape, rubber cemented and wirewrapped the ends, waterproofing and airproofing them. then, we waited for a rain. when it began to rain hard, we shoved this tube down into the main house drain. in the basement, where the drainpipes left the house, there was a drain grate - we took the grate off, shoved the innertube down into the pipe that led outside, and inflated it. no more of my city's sewage found its way into our house! Yahoo! no more weekends spent hosing toilet paper off our basement walls... But the story does not end here.

When we blocked our sewer, we just diverted the problem. someone else had to deal with it now. then that person figured it out, and the next had a problem. eventually everyone connected to that pump blocked their sewage drains somehow, and the next time it rained, the city's pump kicked in, but that sewage had nowhere to go. The pipe outside our house (which later we learned had been cracked by a nearby tree root) failed, and our front yard erupted with the same familiar sewage. Since the pipe was between our house and the street the city declared the problem to be ours, and went on their merry way. our sewage made it out through that pipe okay, but when it rained, and with the route into every other house blocked, the sewage piled up in our front yard several times a month.

Legal action proved fruitless. My father started attending city council meetings and raising a "stink" about the problem. The city asked him to stop attending city council meetings. He did not comply. He would pull cops over (!) and ask them when the pipe would be patched. He would knock on the mayor's door and ask about the pipe at least once a week. He would bring the issue up with his dentist (also the mayor). He basically performed a very gentle and 100% polite campaign to annoy the decision makers into doing the right thing. None of that worked. This went on for 10 years.

I don't know the rest of the story, but from what I've heard he got a little help from some organization who had a lot of members in the city council. Next day the pipe was dug up, replaced, dirt put back on and new grass planted. My guess is that the Freemasons helped him but I don't know.

A year later, after all that work, my father died.

That's my flood story.

Re:Very sad, .. still going on

[Naikrovek]

Nah. The moral of that sentence is that I miss my dad.

This is Good News

[Mycroft_VIII]

Glad to here he's alright. Although someone who had said he was a neighbor (in another /. article on the tsunami) said Clarke's house was to far inland to be affected there was still a chance he had been spending the day at the beach or some such.
I'd really hate to see one of Great Authors taken by this disaster, not to diminish the loss of life that did occure.

Mycroft

Claaaaaaaaaarke!

[konmem]

Curses! Foiled again!!!

Humorous, in a dark way

[elpapacito]

Curiously enough, in my first book on Sri Lanka, I had written about another tidal wave reaching the Galle harbour (see Chapter 8 in The Reefs of Taprobane, 1957). That happened in August 1883, following the eruption of Krakatoa in roughly the same part of the Indian Ocean.

Maybe some people should have remembered Krakatoa cataclism or just simply should have seen Clarke book. Damn, some people should just read to help prevent disasters.

I know it's dark humor, but what can I say ..the tide was predictable, nothing or very little was done. Ok not everybody could have been saved , but even one life was worth it, in my humble opinion.

Re:Day after Tomorrow

[rokzy]

if they stay, that's more people who need food, water and shelter. all of which are in short supply.

and more people to catch disease and use up scarce medical supplies.

rebuilding will take years. it is not feasible for them to stay.

if you really want to help then forget about token gestures designed to make you feel good about yourself and just give them your money (directly through appeals or indirectly via foreign aid).

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[pappy97]

No, it's not a foreign 9/11, it's WORSE. This tragedy, which cost thousands upon thousands more lives than 9/11, was not preventable.

Sure if warning systems were in placed it could have helped lower the death toll, but there is no way to prevent deaths altogether in this situation. At least 9/11 could have been prevented, but right now we have no way to stop earthquakes/tsunamis from happening.

But hey, we Americans don't care. Since only 8 Americans died (thus far) in the trajedy, the news isn't covering it the way you might think they would for a single event that has caused (so far) over 20,000 dead.

Why isn't primetime TV pre-empted for round the clock coverage of this? 8 Americans dead isn't enough to pre-empt programming.

It's events like this that can get one easily pissed off (yet again) over the bias in the American Media.

What's really sad is that the bias reflects most Americans: They don't care about it, since Americans weren't affected that much (except the 8 that died). Typical Americans, at most, only care enough to ask "Could this happen to us in America?"

Everytime I see FOX NEWS show little coverage of this trajedy and move on to the War in Iraq, I am reminded of the hilarious satire song from Team America: World Police:

"America...f*ck yeah!"

Re:WTF?

[Drantin]

He was referring to the focus on one specific person.

Re:Bah

[Ghostgate]

I think you missed the part where he said not all of his staff is accounted for. Or the part where he said he is contributing to the relief efforts. Instead, you picked out the most irrelevant part of what was said, and went with that. Good work.

wikipedia as a news source

[pamri]

Wikipedia has two articles churning out information about things as they happen besides info about the disaster that have already happened and they contain plenty of links to other news sources. See, 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake in India

Re:wikipedia as a news source

[Troed]

here

Re:You won't read anything about it...

[Anonymous Coward]

DG is fine, asshole.

bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[circletimessquare]

fyi: bbc radio is reading angry messages from listeners directed at the noaa and the usgs

the criticisms are that all you had to do was pick up the phone and call cnn: 3 hours before it hit indian coastline, something could have been done to save lives

the indian ocean has no warning system like the pacific does in place, and no one knew the extent of the wave, and even if someone had acted like the world was ending, calling everyone in the world, the fact that nothing like this has ever happened before in the indian ocean in a few centuries would mean that the bureaucracy in india, sri lanka, etc., and the media, would have moved slowly... and even if the local authorities had somehow miraculously gotten megaphones on the beach in time, you can be certain people there would have just yawned them away...

additionally, unlike in japan and the philippines, for example, the people in the indian ocean do not know to head for high ground if they feel an earthquake... this is simple education that would have saved thousands of lives

but there is no experience with tsunamis on the south side of sumatra, for example, so for the people there, where a warning system would have made no difference, simply feeling the ground shake would be all the warning that was needed to get the heck to high ground asap

so, given the anger and grief and role hindsight plays in how people judge how their reactions would have been different, and you can see a shit storm of blame and finger pointing coming: "americans don't care if we drown"

just like the tsunami, here comes a massive wave of political shitstorms

it is most important to remember that thousands died needlessly in this event had their been a system of warning buoys in place in the indian ocean like in the pacific, and the onus is on the governemnts in the indian ocean to have done that, but considering the fashionable anti-americanism in the world right now, you can easily see how this tragedy can be spun for political ends

political tsunami warning system activated

Re:bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[miu]

I can't believe it. 10s of 1000s of people are dead and all you're concerned about is how the USA will be perceived.

I doubt the fellow believes that the way in which the world perceives the US response to the tragedy is the most important thing, only a real scumbag could be cold enough to think like that. But world opinion regarding the US is important enough to be worth considering, events of the last decade have really brought home the knowledge that hostility and negative public opinion can be manipulated to create terrorism and justify brutality - being aware of that and trying to head off some of the vitriol is probably a good idea.

Re:bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[PerlDudeXL]

its not that easy...

a) the indian-ocean area has no tsunami warning system

b) the people in control of the system in the pacific area tried to sent out warnings. but without a clear recipient thats a little tricky.

c) you need a working warning system -> needs money. the area is poor.

d) you need a working civil defense

e) you need to know how to conduct evacuations.

(based on the stuff the correspondent said on TV here yesterday evening)

Re:bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[kalidasa]

What makes you think they didn't try? Even if GWB got on the phone and called the heads of government of all the countries likely to be affected, without an emergency response system, by the time the news filtered down to the people who could do something about it, it would have been too late.

Anyone who blames the US for this is simply looking for excuses to blame the US for everything.

Re:bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[HeghmoH]

Anyone who blames the US for this is simply looking for excuses to blame the US for everything.

Events like this can make for good filters. If anybody actually seriously tries to put any blame on the US for any part of this disaster, you can safely ignore anything they say about almost anything.

Re: bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[CaptainCheese]

This is properly a "tough luck" situation. The planet shrugged, and some people fell off.

If it had happened to California, thousands would have died too, regardless of the USGS. In that situation, I doubt the most citizens of Sri Lanka or other other countries would have given a damn about the loss of life. They would only have been mildly interested for the entertainment value.

Most of us don't care if anyone that they don't know dies. Humanity does not currently have a dangerously low breeding population, so no problem.

Re:bbc radio is broadcasting angry missives

[kalidasa]

Come on man! don't be naive. A red scrolling bar on CNN or BBC would have saved lives. We know that the governments are not the most efficient ways of doing this. Anybody sufficiently powerful alerting news media would have helped.

The lives of some of the tourists, maybe. Other than that, how many lives do you think would have been saved in fishing villages where most folks don't have a TV, and have learned to distrust much of what CNN has to say in the first place? You need to have the message go to people on the ground who are able to implement an existing emergency management plan (in this case, an evacuation plan), or the best you can hope for is panic in the streets.

The solution to problems like these is for governments to have Emergency Management Agencies, and for there to be coordination of the various EMAs so they can communicate with one another in times of crisis. Imagine if the folks at USGS and NOAA could have just picked up a phone, called the FEMA contact person for international emergencies, and he could have just turned to the phone banks and called his opposite numbers in Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, the Maldives, etc. That might have been effective.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Scarblac]

It's events like this that can get one easily pissed off (yet again) over the bias in the American Media.

This isn't bias in American Media, this is bias in human brains. The further away something is from us personally, the less we care. It's not at all unique to the US.

Re:Day after Tomorrow

[ovatto]

Just heard on the radio: at least some of the finnish tourists who are not injured (and thus are not among the first to leave) are helping out the locals in Thailand.

Wouldn't be surprised if others did too.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Dhalka226]

Why isn't primetime TV pre-empted for round the clock coverage of this? 8 Americans dead isn't enough to pre-empt programming.

Because by and large:

1. It does not affect most Americans. That is not to say people do not care or are not interested; I have not yet found a person I've mentioned this to who hasn't already told me that they know about it. But the reality is, the number of Americans touched directly isn't high. This isn't media bias, it's audience. Saying the media is biased against this is like saying networks should pre-empt programming to talk about elections in other nations. In many ways that would even be MORE important to us locally than a tsunami that, while terrible, is done with. And that said,

2. It is pretty much done with. Yes, there is a TON of cleanup and humanitarian things going on, but how much is there to say about it? "The UN is helping." Okay, great. Do we need to break into programming or dedicate 24/7 coverage on CNN to say that? Do we need experts brought in to talk about what food is or something? Be reasonable. Things like 9/11 are covered in depth not only because of how directly and vastly it affects the average American, but because of how many questions remain unanswered. This was an earthquake, and a tsunami caused by it. It doesn't NEED vast coverage.

Humans are a virus...

[Spy Handler]

j/k

Human death is always unfortunate, and tens of thousands dying is a major tragedy indeed. But there are so many people now, living on just about every habitable patch of ground on earth, that any kind of a natural disaster happening anywhere in the world kills massive numbers.

The thing is, vast majority of humans today still live in impoverished, technologically backward societies. 6 billion is too many people for a primitve infrastructure to handle.

Actually Earth can easily handle hundreds of billions, but we would need advanced technology like the Puppeteers. And not just advanced technology, but also advanced cultural and societal organization far ahead of what we have today... plus a fundamental change in how people think and behave. Now we can't just suddenly become a herbivorous herd society like the Puppeteers, but we can be nicer to others and try not to be such assholes.

Solution to earthquakes, tsunamis and other natural disasters lie in advanced technolgy. Fleet of Worlds!

Terrible tragedy

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not only the death toll.

This tragedy affects the life of millions of people.
I was in Sri Lanka two weeks ago and I got to
know a few inhabitants there, who are living from
tourism.

They now have to go back to fishing again (I'm not joking) until the tourists are coming back
(hopefully next year).

Worry is not over

[tanveer1979]

The death toll here in india is mounting with over 4000 dead in the far flung andaman and nicobar islands and 13000 still missing. An air force base with 100 officers, their families has vanished into the sea. Due to the earthquake the indian techtonic plate has sunk 30 meters deeper. Scientists say its the biggest displacement of the plate ever recorded and it may result in new volcanos forming in near future as well as similar or larger earthquakes.

Moreover this region is not linked to the pacific ocean tsunami network. There are no bouys here. Now the Indian Govt is planning to place deep sea sensors as well as tsunami detection system. This data will be linked with pacific ocean tsunami network.

Re:Worry is not over

[pe1chl]

>Moreover this region is not linked to the pacific ocean tsunami network. There are no bouys here.

Why do you need a tsunami detection system when an earthquake detection system is already in place?
What you would have needed is an alarm system, something that can be used to quickly alert people along the coast. A common contact number or e-mail address where a warning could be sent that all local radio stations will broadcast, for example.

It was wellknown to all seismic centres around the world that the quake had happened, but they had no way to warn people to stay off the shores. A system with detection bouys would not have helped, it was *known* that this would happen.
(apparently even the news that Thailand was hit was still no reason to try to more actively warn India and Africa)

Re:Earth's Rotation

[Anonymous Coward]

in the pacific the UN countries have set up a system out of hawaii. what happens is seismometers (sp?) read every earthquake, if they are above ~6 then tidal tracking stations are alerted. the stations report any tsunamis to the Hawaiian coordination station which phones all the ocuntries possibly effected. In fact, while there are no stations in the indian ocean the stations did pick up this tsunami/the strong likelihood of one occurring and attempted to warn the countries, however the major handicap was that they did know who to contact and therefore never got a warning out to anyone who could od anything about it.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Morlark]

It's not at all unique to the US.

I disagree. Here in the UK there has been rather a lot of coverage. Most of the newspapers here have several pages worth of articles covering how bad things are, and how the humanitarian efforts are proceeding in the various affected countries. I'm not sure how many British people died in this tragedy, but I think it's got to be a dozen at most. So this tragedy is no 'closer' to us personally in the UK than it is in the US, but if the media coverage really is as bad in the US as grandparent poster seems to imply, then I think that really is a clear indication of the different attitudes taken by the media in our two countries.

South Asian Bloggers unite for Tsunami Help Blog

[sanspeak]

Some south asian bloggers have created a blog tsunamihelp.blogspot.com blogging about the latest news and information about the tsunami, agencies suppoting the victims and involved in relief, places where donations can be made, volunteering information and much more.

Oh, please

[el-spectre]

This wasn't an attack, it was an unstoppable and unpredictable event. Yes, it's sad. No, it's not an ongoing threat nor can we do anything about it (except send food and hope for the best)

So far as I can see (and I live in CA, Earthquake country), the media is covering this quite a bit... But it's not incredibly important to someone on the other side of the world.

Incidently, several thousand people starved to death today, more died in accidents, civil wars and from disease. Why no outrage over the poor media coverage for these?

Re:The worst hit

[cocotoni]

Sorry to disagree with you, but worst hit would be the natives that will stay there to face all the conseqences of the disaster, people that have lost everything they had, people that have lost their loved ones.

Sorry, but I got really pissed today watching the news and seeing a tourist comming back from Phuket complaining that they (he and his wife) lost everything they took on their holidays. What have you lost, little men? Two suitcases of clothes and a digital camera??? Look around you, little men, and see all those people that had little and now have nothing, look at the corpses floating and mothers mourning for their children. Then go on complaining about your digital camera little men. I won't cry for you.

Re:Earth's Rotation

[Flaming Foobar]

I have seen on the AP wire that this quake was large enough to affect the earth's rotation. Could that possibly in turn affect the earth's magnetic field.

No, the disruption isn't big enough. The rotation sped up by a 10,000th of a second. It's hardly worth mentioning in the news. Earth's orbit changed, too, according to this article.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[el-spectre]

I haven't seen anything else on CNN in 2 days...

Re:You won't read anything about it...

[Morlark]

I still hope that it will soon be gone. Not through some horrible disaster, because that's not a very nice thing to wish on anybody, but through continued political pressure. The military base on Diego Garcia was made possible by the forced removal of the local population. And for what? To make it easier to bomb people. The continued existence of the military base at Diego Garcia really makes me wonder at what humanity can inflict upon itself.

Re:The worst hit

[medraut]

I find that statement a little left of center. The worst hit will be the tourists? Hell no. The worst hit will be the hundreds of thousands of poor people whose livelihoods have been destroyed/changed forever. Not mention the fact that 1/3 of the dead are children.

Yes many tourists have lost their lives, but many of those who have not will be able to get back on the plane and go home to their easy lives back in suburbia. The citizens in the likes of Sri Lanka, Thailand etc have no way of escaping this nightmare.

*shrug* Maybe Im just being overly sensitive.
Medraut

Re:Earth's Rotation

[PGillingwater]

I am no geologist, but I wonder too about the relationship here between Earth's magnetic field changes and the two recent high magnitude quakes. Yes I know that these quakes are linked to subduction zones of the major plates, but at the same time I am thinking about the rotation of earth's magnetic core. If there is a major flip of the field, can we assume it is purely associated with field changes, or might there be some physical turbulence at lower levels, which manifest as quakes.

How can we test this hypothesis? Simple. Do some comparitive measurements of magnetic field strength and direction at the two locations which experienced major quakes. I suspect there may be a correlation, and further predict major tremblors in the near future, linked to an acceleration of magentic field changes, especially ELF magnetic signals.

that is exactly what i am talking about

[circletimessquare]

thank you for illustrating how prejudice works

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[D H NG]

A lot of the countries affected are Commonwealth nations. In addition, about 10,000 British tourists were estimated to be in the area.

It will never be the same

[AnuradhaRatnaweera]

We spent most of yesterday trying to contact relatives and friends to make sure they are okey. Now we are keeping an eye on this page for new potential earthquakes.

We used to enjoy walking and relaxing on those beaches regularly. I don't think we will ever be able to do that again in a free state of mind. :-(

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Yaztromo]

This isn't bias in American Media, this is bias in human brains. The further away something is from us personally, the less we care. It's not at all unique to the US.

I disagree. Coverage here in Canada has been massive. The disaster has been the top story, and has been dominating newscasts. The CBC last night even presented twice during its newscast a big list of organizations accepting donations, and how to reach them via phone and the web to do so.

But then again, about twenty years ago it was Canadians that spearheaded sending aid to Ethiopia on a massive scale. I guess our brains are just wired differently.

Yaz.

tsunami Video

[nodnarb1978]

Video here high bandwidth server, no worries. 4 different videos. Amazing footage.

Re:tsunami Video

[AnuradhaRatnaweera]

More videos are here. One is 9 MB and the other is 105 MB!.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[lga]

I doubt England, Iraq, or Brazil are pre-empting their programing either.

Actually in the UK the 3 main news channels (BBC News 24, Sky news, ITV News) haven't left the earthquake / tsunami / asia story at all in the last 48 hours apart from the occasional 2 minute headlines roundup. CNN europe and CNBC are barely touching on it, but that's all I would expect from US owned channels. Our main channels also show news occasionally, and when they do it's 90% about the disaster.

I would say that's enough coverage of the disaster for everyone to know about it, and for anyone who wants it to get round-the-clock coverage. What more is needed?

Steve.

that's funny

[circletimessquare]

american lives are being lost right now so that nonamericans can live in a land of political freedom someday

it is interesting that you speak of human lives and rights, and you can protest american actions that are actually promoting such a thing, while you fall so very silent on what is happening in the sudan for example

your conscience seems to have an unhealthy obsession with america, no?

is the usa the center of the world?

i don't think so, but you apparently do

Re:That's good news anyways

[Mugros]

Fact is, _most_ have survived, not "some". The death toll is high but the affected area is also huge.

According to Various Agenceies

[OverlordQ]

The countries that bore the brunt of the tsunami had no notice of what was coming but the earthquake, the largest for 40 years, had been monitored by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Honolulu.

"We don't have contacts in our address book for anybody in that part of the world," National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration director Charles McCreery said.

Story here. Since that didn't work, they called the State Department, who ALSO tried to find out who to contact, but again, due to lack of adequate warning systems/organizations, they failed as well.

take your words to their logical conclusion

[circletimessquare]

so, you are suggesting that the usa put warning buoys in the indian ocean i assume? ..."usa spying on indian ocean! usa ignoring maritime rights of sovereign nations!"

and then, in the spirit of your words, the usa has to set up warning systems in the mainland... why? because the local authorities aren't doing so... and you are expecting the usa to shoulder this burden, right? ..."usa ignoring sovereignty and is doing actions tantamount to declaring war!"

how about this stunning idea for you: accountability and responsibilty are concepts that the usa doesn't have a monopoly on

Donations

[riteshm]

I am from India so I can talk about my country.

Any of you planning to donate some money? Dollar may be losing ground but it still has 44 times more value than Indian Rupees. So if you donate 100 dollars that means 4400 Indian Rupees (INR). And to give you an idea what this could mean.. a normal meal in India is around 40 INR while cheap clothing is around 100-200 INR. And medicines per day per person won't be more than 100-200 INR. Taking some conservative estimates, your 100 dollars can save an Indian for 10 days till things get under control and one can start living on one's own. Kindly consider donating... Visit my blog http://ritesh.blogspot.com/ and this blog http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/ for some info on how/where to donate. Redcross and UNICEF are also accepting donations now.

Regards, Ritesh

Re:Donations

[Derek Pomery]

The AC is right.
Deltas are what are important with currencies, not relative unit sizes. (well, deltas and how they reflect a whole complex mess of loans in the form of currency, bonds, stocks, confidence in a country, mortgages etc etc)
If the USD and the INR stayed perpetually at a ratio of 1:44 what would matter is how much you can buy with that currency.
If 1 USD will buy a loaf of bread, but 44 INR will buy the same loaf of bread, it makes no difference and the INR could not be considered "weak".

But yeah, there *are* economic gradients.
If I moved from the area where I live (where a single bedroom apartment is between $1000-$1500 a month) to some other part of the U.S. where it is only $250, then sure I'd be saving money.
Helluva commute though.

So, anyway. I totally agree that sending money will help. Just that it doesn't matter whether you send it in USD or INR - and if the INR is stable, who cares? What matters is where your particular area is in the economic gradients. Just like someone in a city in india probably has way more INR than someone in the country.

Re:Donations

[Erisian Pope]

Wow... fuck you people. We're talking 50,000+ dead and all you can think about is your wallet?! They're now facing an epidemic of disease from all the rotting human and animal corpses. They need money for tarps and drinkable water. There is _no_ comparison with september 11th. These people need help, people like you make me ashamed to be American.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[rlowe69]

So this tragedy is no 'closer' to us personally in the UK than it is in the US...

Many of the countries hit by this earthquake/tsunami are former British colonies (India, Sri Lanka/Ceylon, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar/Burma) and others were formerly under the colonial power of European nations (Indonesia was once Dutch ruled, Madagascar was French ruled, etc).

It seems that the UK (and Europe) has much closer personal ties to these countries than the US, so that could explain the increased coverage in the UK.

I agree though, the short attention span of American media definitely has something to do with it. It's interesting that some people are saying "that could never happen to the US, so that's why people don't care."

There's a volcano on the Canary Islands that could erupt and trigger a tsunami that would deluge the Eastern coast of the United States. The west coast of the US is vulnerable to tsunamis created by the "Ring of Fire". Maybe this disaster will not only get counties around the Indian Ocean to take tsunamis more seriously, but also people on the coasts of the US as well.

Re: You won't read anything about it...

[Black Parrot]

> I still hope that it will soon be gone. Not through some horrible disaster, because that's not a very nice thing to wish on anybody, but through continued political pressure.

The US's lease runs out in 2016, though I can't imagine that the UK would fail to renew it.

BTW, an interesting/informative article about the history and current military/pollitical arrangements at Diego Garcia can be found at globalsecurity.org.

Given its location and elevation (4' average, 22' maximum, according to the article), it's somewhat surprising that they didn't get washed away.

Wobble != Orbit

[EvilTwinSkippy]

The Earth's orbit DID NOT change. What may have changed (slightly) is the angle at which the Earth sits in relation to the plane of the ecliptic.

Short of a major loss or gain of mass, or impulse from a massive impact, the Earth just keeps trucking along in it's rut. While the energy is tremendous in an Earthquake, the energy just moves mass around within the same system.

Re: In this thread, we say what we really think...

[Black Parrot]

> If this happened to America, I wonder who they would bomb?

Until a couple of years ago, Iraq. Even now, they might go for Fallujah.

the usa is not the savior of the world

[circletimessquare]

but when madmen from the middle east kill thousands of my fellow countrymen in office towers, then the responsibility has been thrust upon my country to remedy the socioeconomic, geopolitical, and theohistoric forces that conspire to turn men who would otherwise be doctors and lawyers into cold blooded murderers

tell me, you who has all the answers, what an american is supposed to do after 9/11?

you are wrong

[circletimessquare]

you fail to concede that responsibility and accountability is not the sole province of the usa, and that if something happens in the indian ocean, the usa should help, and it is helping...

but the failure to act in a timely manner and not having a system in place to save lives is something the governments local to the indian ocean have proved shameful about, not the usa

because your pov seems to demand of the usa to respect other people (warn them appropriately to save lives)... by disrespecting other people (set up a system that disregards their own abilities to take care of themselves)

the usa is a member of the global community, not an owner of the global community

you cannot condemn the usa for not doing something that your own pov insists they cannot do

follow the logic of your position to its conclusion, and you will see the logical inconsistencies in what you are saying

This is not the first time

[AnuradhaRatnaweera]

Most media are reporting that this is the first of this kind in Sri Lanka. I think it is wrong. Sri Lanka has a written history of over 2500 years in a book called "Mahawamsa", which is still maintained, and it reports (along with many other books and of course fork tales) a huge natural disaster in 2nd century B.C., where sea waves came upto Kelaniya (close to Colombo).

This Sunday times article starts with the latter part of the story. Complete, but brief, story can be found here and here.

This article gives a list of kings, but nothing about the disaster.

Re:This is not the first time

[TheLink]

If the last time this sort of thing happened in Sri Lanka was in 200 BC, then I suppose one can't be so harsh on the Sri Lankan Gov for not being that prepared for such an event (even though IMO after a 8.9 Richter (or anything over 7) event anyone in coastal areas around the epicenter should obviously prepare for tsunamis).

Oh well. Hindsight 20-20...

Technology of tsunami prediction

[Aku Head]

From what I have been able to determine, we don't really predict tsunamis. We detect an earthquake under the ocean and wait for the tsunami to hit. If the earthquake is less than 6.5, we ignore it.

The tsunami is detected by buoys that measure the tide. If the tide goes way up at the wrong time, it must be a tsunami. If the buoy is close to the epicenter, we can then warn people that are farther away. The buoys only work when they are in shallow water. It has been reported on the news that the buoys are very expensive and this is why the nations that were hit by this disaster did not invest in tsunami prediction. It seems to me that a shore based tide detector would be very cheap if it was connected by land line.

A massive displacement of the seafloor or an undersea landslide is required to create a tsunami. There doesn't seem to be any theory for predicting this other than going with the intensity measurement of the earthquake. There doesn't seem to be any large effort to place instruments on the ocean floor to detect this movement. (It would probably cost too much)

What about the high energy wave that travels vast distances through the ocean? Shouldn't there be some way to detect this wave?

Re:Technology of tsunami prediction

[EvilTwinSkippy]

How are you planning on warning people in countries that barely have working phone service? These are countries where fire claims lives because there are no fire codes, and people don't know to evacuate during a fire alarm.

You are going to need a massive education program to accompany said warning system, in nations where large portions of the population can't read. While it can be done, and it should be done, all the technology in the world is not going to fix this problem. Education will.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Mr2cents]

I heared in the news that in the US, people living near the coast are informed/learn at school that when the sea retreats suddenly, it's time to find out how fast you can run.. Not a bad idea, imho.

Anyway, to the US slashdotters: is this true or not?

The difference is...

[Amata]

Ok, maybe this is just showing how my brain works, but...

There is a very great difference between a human's knowing intent to cause pain and suffering, and nature once again reminding us who is really the boss.

With willful human intent, you have the questions of who did it, why, how, where did the money come from, are we going to go after their bosses, what scale is the conflict going to be on...?

With a natural disaster, the conversation is more along the lines of "told ya we shoulda had a better warning system" and "told ya we shoulda had a stricter building code" or whatever.

Don't get me wrong, in both cases there is the question of "is my relative OK?" I'm not quite that machine-minded. Also the "who's going to clean this up?" If they weren't already spread thin as hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the answer to the last one was US Soldiers. Believe me, the government keeps tabs on stuff the public could care less about/doesn't know about.

Good Grief

[The Tyro]

All the recriminations now begin, even before the bodies are buried (or even counted). Bottom Line: This is an unprecedented natural disaster, and the same warning/response systems that existed in the pacific didn't really exist in that area of the world.

This is something so far out of the realm of most peoples experience, that it's quite natural to assume some incredulity on their part. Do you pay attention to the wide-eyed guy on the street corner with the sign that says "The end is near?" I thought not... most people ignore him, just as you probably do.

Just to add to the political fray, some reports have UN officials already complaining that the US and other western nations are being "stingy" with their aid packages... and even suggesting that those countries raise taxes on their citizens to pay for more aid (if you believe the Wash. Times).

Maybe some of these folks should focus more on helping, rather than wasting their breath trying to find a scapegoat.

Re:Good Grief

[teg]

Just to add to the political fray, some reports have UN officials already complaining that the US and other western nations are being "stingy" with their aid packages... and even suggesting that those countries raise taxes on their citizens to pay for more aid (if you believe the Wash. Times).

That particular official is from Norway. Norway, with less than 1/60th of the US population, has already donated 50 million NOK (a bit more than 8 million US dollars), mostly through NGOs. The US has donated 15 million US dollars.

In both countries, people are also donating themselves.

Re:Good Grief

[Martin Blank]

The US is also moving naval assets in the region -- which often have helicopters -- into place to assist with operations, and is deploying P-3 Orion reconnaissance aircraft to take pictures of the coastlines to assist in planning recovery operations.

I expect US donations from private citizens and aid groups are ramping up fairly quickly.

Re:Good Grief

[Hallow]

That's 15 million to the UN for aid, and that's for "starters". Forget that we contribute over 20% of the UN's budget, and in the past few years have actually paid in the billions.

With the oil for food fiasco, the UN is not the logical place to put all the money for this, unless you want it horribly mismanaged.

Personally, I think groups like the Red Cross/Red Crescent would be able to make better use of the funds.
Links:
American
International/Red Crescent

Re:Good Grief

[Martin Blank]

It's unprecedented in recent times. The explosion of Krakatoa in 1883 killed about 36,000 people, but since then, the tsunamis have been pretty rare, with the most powerful one killing only a few hundred in India. The region really had no reason to concentrate on a tsunami warning system, because there were always more important (and less expensive) things to deal with.

What this should remind everyone is that no one is immune to tsunamis. Even the eastern coasts of the Americas and the Caribbean Islands are in the direct path of a significant tsunami should the unstable side of one of the Canary Islands collapse, which it will likely do sometime in the next 200 years.

what does "intent" mean to you

[circletimessquare]

i kill 2 children on a schoolbus on purpose, planning to do it for months, and i am proud of the fact after i do it

versus

i kill 10 children on a schoolbus by accident, rushing medical supplies somewhere, and i am saddened of the fact after i do it and try to make amends

learn what the word "intent" means, and how it should inform judgment (but obviously doesn't inform yours) and then get back to me

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[EvilTwinSkippy]

I live 100 miles inland, and I know the warning signs of a tsunami. I know enough to know that if you see them, you are fscked.

Run, you will be swept away. Grab something and you will be hit by debris, then swept away. It's like catching the flash of a nuclear blast, sure there is stuff you can do, but you are simply doubling your chances of survival from 0.1 to 0.2 %.

Re:the us and japan

[Carewolf]

I seriously doubt CNN would carry a story of a potential catastrophy, at best they would prepare to cover it when it happens.

The procedure would be to call the secretary of state and let them inform the proper authorities and local media in the area. What is interesting is that they _did_ call the embassies, but somehow the message didn't go much further than that.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[JackAsh]

Hehe - I'm a spaniard living in America and I too was in Madrid over the weekend (still am, actually). I agree with you that Europe is covering this quite a bit, but not outside the normal shows. TV is still going on, regular shows are being programmed. During the news this gets absolutely top billing and the same footage is repeated over and over again. Still, it's nowhere near 9/11 news reporting. During that tragedy EVERY SHOW on EVERY CHANNEL was preempted, in many cases there wasn't even any advertising. Channels that had no good news reporting simply switched over to the CNN feed.

Nonetheless, I have to point out a flaw in your reasoning and the grandparent post's - the reason this is different than 9/11 is not because of the distance, or evil americans not caring about foreign citizens. That influences only how much time you spend on the specific story in the news shows.

The difference is, 9/11 was a man-made disaster. Back in 2001, someone decided to take down those two towers, and do it in a particularly gruesome way that set back american civil liberties pretty seriously. Some asshole in a hat figured that he didn't like us for a some reasons that I'm sure feel perfectly logical to him and attacked us. Had it been a nation doing the attacking and not a group of terrorists hiding all over the world they would have gotten nuked off the surface of the earth.

This disaster however was natural. The mole people didn't get up last week and figure out they had to kill Arthur C. Clarke before his satellites discover the extent of their underground lair - no, it simply happened. It is tragic, it is terrible, but Mother Nature did not declare war on the Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India - it was just a very unfortunate event. One that could have been ameliorated with the proper warning systems, but that's besides the point now - hopefully they'll be better prepared for the next one.

-Jack Ash

i see it like this

[circletimessquare]

in a world where 9/11 is possible, we are already at rock bottom

you correctly point out the risk of us actions in iraq of creating madmen

i say to you in reply that the risks are still palatable, because you have to consider the alternative: inaction

and inaction carries probably even more risk of madmen being created instead of doctors and lawyers

Re:The worst hit

[eggstasy]

Does your witty one-liner do any better?

Re:The worst hit

[tomrud]

> "What have you lost, little men? Two suitcases of clothes and a digital camera???"

- Four childs lost their parents.
- One man lost his wife and his four year old doughter
- One newly married man lost his pregnant wife.

Here in Sweden theese kind of reports goes on and on. Still 1600 swedes are missing, and if you live here there is a good chance that you know someone on vacation in Thailand. They say about 20.000 swedes were on vacation there, thats about 0.2% of our population. On every office and workplace now we are counting in: Are those we know there safe or are they still missing.

In Sweden everybody has been chocked by this, it could well be one of the largets disasters that has hit us.

This will not dimish the sufferings of those who live in the disater areas, they have har times now and hard times to come, but even turists will mourn the loss of loved ones.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Momoru]

I think you're just assuming the US isn't covering this much, as another poster said, i have seen almost nothing else on the news, and it is the top story of every newscast. Yes, people who are not directly effected will not "care" as much as those who are, for instance do you think the Ukraine is preempting all their election news with Tsunami coverage? It's doubtful, so while the US is covering the Tsunami coverage EXTENSIVELY, the news channels are also covering Iraq as many people are worried about what is happening to their children.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[pedestrian crossing]

The sea retreats just before the tsunami hits because the wave is symmetrical. When the wave is out at sea, it is very deep. When the bottom of the wave hits the shallows, there is nowhere for the water to go but up. This pulls the water away from the shore as the wave builds up.

A lot of people got swept away (or dragged over the coral) because they were naturally curious when they saw the sea suddenly retreat and walked out to see what was going on, only to get hammered when the wave arrived.

Re:ah, i understand now

[CmdrGravy]

You seem to be implying that I somehow don't care about all the people who died in 9/11 and you think the reason I don't care is because of my over powering hatred of the US ? Obviously that is complete rubbish and makes about as much sense as the rest of your post does.

When a terrorist organisation carries out an attack on the scale of 9/11 and you realise that these terrorists are largely the same people your country was funding, arming and training in the recent past you should be considering the truth that actions have consequences and sometimes knee jerk reactions influenced by badly thought out morally guided policies are not necessarily a good thing in the long term.

The kind of terrorism espoused by Osama Bin Laden is terrorism which has no sympathy from any country anywhere - virtually nowhere is hard line enough for their fundamentalist policies, before the US became the main target they were targetting other Middle Eastern countries. It is largely because they were so ineffective at gaining any kind of popular support with their actions there that they decided they may get more support by attacking the US.

Had the US simply channelled their resources and power into getting rid of the actual terrorists themselves then everyone would be be applauding loudly and thinking the US is next best thing since sliced bread.

Instead the US administration have used "Global Terrorism" as the next big Evil against which the US can fight and are less interested in actually doing anything about terrorism as using it as an excuse to flex it's muscles and continue it's Cold War policies to build a more powerful, stronger government machine.

The main thing the Iraqui invasion has achieved with respect to global terrorism is the creation of many more terrorists and a massive increase in the popular support in the Islamic world.

From your post I can't really see what it is you are trying to say except that it is probably a good idea to force the entire Middle East to Americas will and some crap about "original sin". Possibly you are also saying that the US is justified in doing what it likes so long as it suits the US. You really need to wake up and mayeb try to think for yourself a little, learning how to do up your shoelaces would probably be a good start for you.

How did most people die?

[AtlanticCarbon]

Drowning? Physical impact of wave? Earthquake? If you're supposed to get in a doorway when there's an earthquake, what are you supposed to do when a tsunami hits anyway?

Re: preventing disasters

[TheAcousticMotrbiker]

Maybe some people should have remembered Krakatoa cataclism or just simply should have seen Clarke book. Damn, some people should just read to help prevent disasters.

If you look on the ACF website, you'll find this tidbit: (in the projects section)


PROJECT WARN in Partnership with the Japan US Science Technology and Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP)

The purpose of Project Warn is combine enhanced communications and IT systems to provide warning of impending natural or man-made disasters and to provide on-going communications and remote sensing and GIS support during disaster relief operations. The Clarke Foundation is working with the Pacific Disaster Center, the Asian Disaster Mitigation Organization, the United Nations, and the US and Japanese Governments as coordinated through the JUSTSAP organization to carry out a suitable test and demonstration in this area. In particular a simulation and test is being planned in the Pacific Region in 2005 to determine to how to use the latest information and sensing technology more effectively in the advent of that a major Tsunami might impact an Asian country or island. Clarke Foundation personnel are providing technical advice and support on a volunteer basis to this project.

There is a much worse Tsunami impending for USA

[GuyFawkes]

I forget the exact details, but there is a MASSIVE mountainside in the canaries, which are just the sticky out above the surface bits of FAR larger undersea mounts, that is very unstable and waiting to slip.

This slip is in a sense like the NASA tracked 2004 MN4 in that nobody knows WHEN it will happen, but unlike it in that it WILL happen as there is no way for it to miss.

From my recollection the waves, when they hit the eastern US seaboard, will be much higher than the indian ocean event, due to the mass of water displaced by the falling mountainside, I believe wave heights of 100 feet were mentioned, and flatlands like florida being scoured as far inland as orlando etc... deaths would probably total millions, not tens of thousands.

Re:There is a much worse Tsunami impending for USA

[jergh]

There is a reference to this theory in a CNN article, talking about "a wall of water more than 164 feet high" hitting the U.S. east coast.

Don't panic.

But other researchers in Britain discounted the prediction as the product of a speculative computer model. They said that over the last 200,000 years there had been only two huge landslides on the flanks of the Canary Islands and that there was geologic evidence indicating the slides broke up and fell into the sea in bits instead of one big whoosh.

Who are you gonna call

[TheAcousticMotrbiker]

Oddly enough, the Arthur C Clarke Foundation is actually working on just that. Setting up an alert system for Tsunamis:

http://www.clarkefoundation.org/projects

PROJECT WARN in Partnership with the Japan US Science Technology and Space Applications Program (JUSTSAP)

The purpose of Project Warn is combine enhanced communications and IT systems to provide warning of impending natural or man-made disasters and to provide on-going communications and remote sensing and GIS support during disaster relief operations. The Clarke Foundation is working with the Pacific Disaster Center, the Asian Disaster Mitigation Organization, the United Nations, and the US and Japanese Governments as coordinated through the JUSTSAP organization to carry out a suitable test and demonstration in this area. In particular a simulation and test is being planned in the Pacific Region in 2005 to determine to how to use the latest information and sensing technology more effectively in the advent of that a major Tsunami might impact an Asian country or island. Clarke Foundation personnel are providing technical advice and support on a volunteer basis to this project.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[Vasan]

Many of the countries hit by this earthquake/tsunami are former British colonies ...

I bet if it happened in the U.S., the British media would give it the same kind of coverage!!

Oh wait...

Nevermind :P

Found the reference

[GuyFawkes]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/ne ws/2001/08/29/nwave29.xml

BRITAIN faces a natural disaster that will flatten the Atlantic coastline for several miles inland, a scientist predicted yesterday.

A massive landslide caused by a volcanic eruption in the Canary Islands would create a giant wave that would hit the coast at up to 500mph.

The largest mega-tsunami ever seen would be generated when an eruption of Cumbre Vieja on the island of La Palma caused a part of a mountain twice the size of the Isle of Man to plunge into the Atlantic.

"The first impact will be when 330ft waves crash into the west Saharan coast of Morocco," said Simon Day, of the Benfield Greig hazard research centre at University College London.

"It is not a question of if it will happen, only when it will happen. It could be in the next few decades; it could be hundreds of years hence."

Devastation from the tsunami was also highly likely in Florida, Brazil and the Caribbean. There the wave would reach heights of 130ft to 164ft - higher than Nelson's column - and could sweep four and a half miles inland.

Dr Day said: "It is a geologically definite process, a bit like a pressure cooker, with the volcano heating up the ground water and pressure building up inside the mountain."

In 1949 the mountain moved 12ft in two days, but the disaster waiting to happen would be much greater, according to Dr Day's report, published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The collapse of the mountain on the west of Cumbre Vieja would release enough energy, equivalent to the electricity consumption of America in six months, to generate a wave more than half a mile high and tens of miles long.

This would collapse and rebound on the Canaries. As the landslide continued to move underwater, a series of waves would develop, creating enormous surges all over the Atlantic.

"After only 10 minutes, the tsunami will have moved more than 150 miles," Dr Day said. It would reach America in little more than six hours.

There have been at least 11 tsunamis in the past 200,000 years, one of which wiped out Minoan civilisation on Crete.

The largest recorded wave to hit Britain was the Lisbo tsunami of 1755, when 12ft seas pounded Cornwall.

About 7,000 years ago, the Storegga tsunami, caused by a landslide off Norway, deposited silt several miles inland in northern Scotland.

"When the wave from the Canaries reaches Britain, it could be as high as the Storegga, which may have been up to 60ft," Dr Day said.

"It is difficult to know how far the ramifications will go. We should be looking at the doomed civilisation of Crete when assessing the effects."

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=canary+is la nds+mountain+landslide+tsunami&spell=1

just remember folks...

[bani]

...everything bad that happens anywhere in the entire world can be blamed on americans, even tsunamis.

Re:The worst hit

[cocotoni]

These reports are not limited to Sweden. They are present everywhere. I too have a friend that left for Sri Lanka just 5 days ago for a wedding of a friend. I don't know what happened to him. I hope he is safe.

You will notice that in my previous post I did mention the people that lost their loved ones. That was a part of the list of people I mentioned:

Sorry to disagree with you, but worst hit would be the natives that will stay there to face all the conseqences of the disaster, people that have lost everything they had, people that have lost their loved ones.

What irked me was this ONE man (you can probably see him in the report on Euronews if you have it available in Sweden) that was complaining about his lost belongings. This is the "little man" I was talking about.

And in proportion, even 20,000 Swedes or 10,000 British or 10,000 Germans that were in the region (and by reports about 10% of those are not yet reached), even though tragic stories, are puny to millions of natives present, tens of thousands killed, million displaced, whole nation of Maldives sweapt, risk of desease for numerous natives that will remain there, and the whole livelyhood of people, the whole economies destroyed in matter of minutes.

The tourists will be found, evacuated to their home countries, and by next Christmas forget about the whole thing. But people will stay there to cope with the devastation and try to rebuild their lives in the years to come.

And I commend Sweden for the prompt and heavy donation to the relief funds. Unfortunately, some countries with similar numbers of their nationals involved, but with much greater interest in the region than Sweden (and I am not talking about US) have yet to measure.

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[zwaffle]

Amazing how some posters always manage to find some angle to blame the US. This thime "Americans don't give a shit!"

Yet, I saw on the BBC that the USA is the country that's giving the most money to help out with that disaster (way more than all EU). Go figure...

Re:Protip: Do not live along known fault lines

[teg]

I'll probably lose a lot of karma for this, but just like the past summer's hurricane disasters in Florida, people have to realise that there is a price to pay when you choose to live in a natural disaster zone.

A couple of issues:

1. Tsunamis aren't a regular occurence here. And the earthquake was in the top 5 list since 1900. The combination... fatal. People are so unused to it that no warning system was in place, and that when the water disappeared just before the big hit, people went down to the beach to catch fish.
2. People in this region have less knowledge and choices available to them than people living in or moving to Florida.

Your points definitely apply to Florida (hurricanes) and California (earth quakes), though.

Re:It's a bummer

[Overzeetop]

It's called the proper chain of command. If there's no contact point for this kind of information, then there's no quick way to get people to realize the severity. CNN probably saw it on the AP wire and said *yawn
8,"Another earthquake. Jim see if you can run down a 20 second bit for the 10 o'clock news."

Three hours isn't long enough for a warning when there's no efficient mechanism in place for dealing with the event in rapid fashion. Hell, it takes an hour here in my corner of the US for the local TV/radio stations to get school delays/closings up and running when we have an unexpected snow. If Sri Lanka monitored an earthquake off the Atlantic coast of the US, and suspected a possible tidal wave headed for a group of barrier islands in the mid atlantic region, which TV or radio station would you call? I live 400 miles away, and I have no idea. If you did call, and spoke with a heavy accent (you do know all the languages in the world, right?), do you think they'd believe you and put it on the nes immediately? Of course not, they'd try to verify it before they broadcast such a warning. For an area with so few tidal waves, this sounds like a prank call to me.

Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy before those with the means decide it is worth their while to prepare for such disasters. I'm sure that this will spur more countries to create the pathways of communication necessary to mitigate damage in the future.

This is a tragedy, and a terrible one. I agree that it is worse than the 9/11/01 attack - far worse in human loss.

[aside] I believe it is less shocking because natural disasters occur on a fairly regular basis, whereas terrorists flying passenger jets into buildings is crazy. More improtantly, the cameras were rolling when the real tragedy occured - the buildings collaped on/with many occupants. Drama, horror, immediacy. [/aside]

My thoughts and prayers go out to all who have lost loved ones, and I hope that the country can pull together and get the physical damage repaired as soon as possible.

Re:Day after Tomorrow

[jacksonj04]

The difference is that writing a cheque can actually be done - the average citizen if dropped into that situation would only add to the problem because they have no experience. However, donating will help the aid organisation get what's needed, get it into the country, and use it.

On the other hand, humans have strange minds. Helping someone rebuild their house to make takes precedence over giving them money. Give me a shovel and fly me the hell in there.

and now land mines too

[phr1]

From http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3934945

Land Mines Add to Sri Lanka's Misery

Tidal waves that hammered Sri Lanka have uprooted land mines that threaten to kill or maim survivors trying to return home while endangering relief workers, a Unicef official said today.

The tsunami have scattered mines and destroyed warning signs, said Ted Chaiban, the aid agency's Sri Lanka chief.

"Land mines are posing a new risk to Sri Lankans, and to relief efforts," he said. "Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are and the warning signs ... have been swept away or destroyed."

The greatest danger will come when survivors begin to return to their homes, not knowing where the mines are, Chaiban said.

More than 1.5 million mines have been planted across Sri Lanka by the army and Tamil Tiger rebels have been fighting for a separate homeland since 1983.

Re:and now land mines too

[EvilTwinSkippy]

which btw cover another treaty abandoned by the Bush administration.. the Landmine Ban Treaty http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/02/27/usint76 84.htm not to make things anti-US, but just a pointer to yet another reason the issue should be addressed by sane people - landmines apparently float in floodings. beware thus. why not ban them?

Because they still make up a large part of our defensive perimeter between North and South Korea. The Land Mines are there to slow down advancing columns of North Korean troops.

You asked.

Re:i see

[PhoenixFlare]

You're NOT the saviour of the world - and you would know all this if you actually studied the facts instead of listening to the official doctrine along with the rest of the american sheeple.

Way to generalize. I love how Americans would get figuratively flayed alive if they tried spewing such things about other countries, but somehow it's okay for everyone else to assume that all US citizens are mindless drones and support the "official doctrine" unconditionally.

And since it seems pertinent to this point, from your website:

To my american readers. You're not under attack. There are no wars you need to fight. You should look after your own country instead of pretending to be the world police. You need to elect a leader with at least half a brain - and get rid of your two party system as quickly as you can

Almost half the country (including myself) tried, my friend. I get the feeling people like you wouldn't be happy with anything short of a violent revolution, though.

Again, you seem to think that the entire country is akin to a hive-mind - we're all fat, warmongering, right-wing nutjobs.

Indonesian Archipelago needs warning system.

[MtViewGuy]

With all the hand-wringing going on we have to ask this question: why hasn't the governments of Indonesia and New Guinea instituted a tsunami warning system that covers the entire Indonesia Archipelago and the Indian Ocean?

People forget that the Indonesian Archipelago sits on one of the world's most geologically-active areas, the Indonesian Subduction Zone just south of the archipelago. As such, Indonesia is very prone to earthquakes and is home to some of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recorded history (Tambora in 1815 and Krakatoa in 1883) and prehistory (the Toba supervolcano eruption about 75,000 years ago).

The Indonesian and New Guinea governments should have put a tsunami warning system in place after the 1998 tsunami that killed 2,500 people in New Guinea after an undersea earthquake.

Re:i see

[Fnkmaster]

Yes, we all take the official doctrine hook line and sinker. That's why about 49% of us worked so hard to get Bush out of office, and why in almost every one of the states with a well-educated populace he was defeated soundly.

I know, I know, you're really just pumping your blog and trolling as you always do Troed. You could at least acknowledge an "ends justifies the means" debate when one exist.

Clearly Afghanistan is far more democratic now then it was under the Taliban, this isn't even worth discussing - you can't compare Afghanistan with the democracy of a modern first world country, which will take decades to achieve there. And Iraq, of course, I will reserve judgement for, but it's hard to get less democratic than Saddam Hussein's regime (doesn't mean I think the invasion of Iraq was justified however).

Check USGS website....

[Chanc_Gorkon]

Everyone should check out http://www.usgs.gov and see alot of the data collected on this. I know this seems kind of cold to look at the data, but the thing that impressed me the most was the animation they have that shows just how large of an area that this has affected. It's staggering. BILLIONS of dollars will have to be spent over many years to get things back to the way they were on Christmas day. Lives of MILLIONS will be affected in one way or another. The most disturbing thing that I have heard has been the greens blaming this on global warming....um..ok....whatever dudes.

Tsunami speed explained in bad english.

[Ch_Omega]

It is true that tsunamis travel really fast, but only when in deep water. When the tsunami enters more shallow water, the speed goes down to about 40-50mph, while the wave itself starts to grow in height because of the higher-speed water pushing from behind. This is also the reason that the tsunami is more or less invisible when traveling across deep water.

My house ...

[Vinnie_333]

My God ... it's full of starfish...

Plenty of coverage in the U.S.

[rbanzai]

I'm not sure where these weird claims are coming from that the U.S. media is not giving this story enough coverage.
The first day there was not much but I think that's because the initial damage reports sounded outlandish.
By the second day it was the top story of every newscast I've seen, both national and local and that persists to today.
I don't watch Fox news so I can't tell you if their coverage is weak. I'm watching CNN/headline news, NBC and ABC national and local news.

Connetion of earthquakes and whale suicides.

[bluenote39]

There seems to be a connection between suicide in whales and earthquakes. Around two weeks ago, an Indian Doctor had predicted this earthquake on Princeton's mailing list based on whale behaviour in Australia. Interesting...

like when 9/11 hapenned

[tempny]

I remember every website/tv show/whatever media acknowledged it somehow for the next few weeks, and people did too. Red white and blue ribbons were on google and slashdot (I think), yahoo went black and white, people wore pins on their lapels. The world as a whole just sufferred a massive loss, again, why not acknowledge it in the same way? What could do more for the image of america abroad than the knowledge that every other person is wearing a pin to acknowledge a tragedy that hapenned on the other side of the planet?

Re:Here's your foreign 9/11

[NullProg]

I heared in the news that in the US, people living near the coast are informed/learn at school that when the sea retreats suddenly, it's time to find out how fast you can run.. Not a bad idea, imho.

True. I lived in California for three years. When I got there the first thing I was told was watch the ocean after a quake. If the water starts to recede, run for the hills.

Enjoy,