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Tsunami Satellite Images
JakeisBland writes "Here is a collection of before/after satellite pictures of the devastation in Asia due to the tsunami/earthquake."
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This really puts the disaster into perspective, im shocked.
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch.
Rumour has it that he's living with Elvis and Tupac in an apartment in Queens.
Don't beleive everything "they" tell you.
Even Cisco has posted Earthquake and Tsunami Relief on their main page. I guess a good chunk of their CCIEs are affected by this :)
This is simply amazing. I think that every so often Mother Nature decides she needs to show everyone who's boss, a sort of bitchslap to bring the nations of the world together; if only for a little while.
it's worth noting that the pictures show Kalutara, a town about 25 miles south of Colombo, and situated on the west coast of Sri Lanka, which pretty much escaped major damage and loss of life compared to the the south and eastern coastlines.
Flooding caused at least 40 deaths in Kalutara, though...
wow, tsunamis are totally antihammer --;
Yep.
I'm a bit confused by the Kalutara series, it appears to show a LOT more beach, but no damage to the buildings. Could this be in that few minutes when the water level dropped before the tsunami hit?
Or is Kalutara not in the direct path and this is after-effect on non-direct impact sites?
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Don't get me wrong, but this is beautiful stuff. It could almost challenge 9/11 for the title of Ultimate Art Exhibition.
Yes, because every single country east of Europe worships Allah. Get a clue, please.
http://eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage s/images.php3?img_id=16774Verye s/images.php3Devastating
http://eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImag
If you donated to lokitorrent but not this, I don't know what to say to you...
It's almost disgusting to see how much the color of the water changed... it's bad enough they have hundred upon hundreds of bodies lying around rotting, but the water looks disgusting even from the sky... just imagine the smell. I wonder how long it will take, with all the flooding and then the following withdrawl of the water, before it's a nice, clean blue ocean beach again?
From the CIA world book on Sri Lanka;
Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%, Muslim 7% (1999)
I can see why you wouldn't, but continue to play your banjo...
wow an american that knows geography !!
amazing !
Here you can find videos of the tsunami captured by tourists.
Here you can find torrents of said videos in case the original site dies under the load.
This is far worse than 9/11,
9/11 is a pin prik compared to this,
quite a different scale my friend, 9/11 what?
Aha I bet you (see further up) .. well kinda .. I jumped the gun by three minutes..
Y'know, it seems that after a disaster like this one, or 9/11, etc. there is always a period of total chaos where everyone is trying to match up family and other loved ones and find out where everyone is. Usually there are numerous avenues for doing so-- 800 numbers, various government agencies, ad hoc web-sites, the red cross, etc. that individually try to keep track of this massive information that comes sporatically and from different sources.
I was thinking that an open-sourced database project might be a good way to centralize such information. Something where say, a family member who hears from a survivor can update the DB ("Uncle Mike is okay. He called to say he's on his way home..", etc.) so that other friends/family know not to worry and/or spend resources looking for that person and do not take up resources from authorities who could better be used. This could also be a place that someone can report in directly themselves to say they are okay. It could also be a centralized place for various agencies to keep track of potential victims and compare data w/names and images.
Because it seems right now, everyone scrambles, puts photos up on random buildings, etc. It could be more efficient if there were one "go to" system that everyone (at least the groups dealing with the disaster) used.
Obviously, in a disaster people in the disaster area don't have instant access to the Internet, and the last thing on their mind may be "reporting in". But for those concerned family members and for the various organizations I mentioned above, it seems like this could be useful.
Does anyone know of such a project already existing, whether open-sourced or otherwise? Is there one such system used by various disaster relief (FEMA, RED CROSS, etc) organizations?
I was just thinking about this the last few days. Maybe someone will reply why this is stupid/infeasable. Or maybe someone might have an idea for refining the idea...?
When 9/11 happened Slashdot had about hundred stories about it. Now that something 20 times worse has happened, there's only one or two stories about it.
But this is common attidute at US. The amount of aid they promised reflects their view on the problem that concerns rest of the world.
Only thing I ask is, that why should we care when they don't care either?
Here some Emule/Edonkey Links to private videos of this destater... You want to beat these people either for:
u y.WMV
tsunami_sri_lanka_db_2004.12.26.wmv
tsunami-indonesia12-2004.qt
- just standing there and taping when the wave is approaching instead of running for their life.
- just standing there on a safe spot and taping not helping people crying for help in the water
gigant.tsunami.tidal.waves.in asia.recorded.on.koh.lanta.thailand.by.a.danish.g
Spelling errors were made for your amusement only...
http://globalsecurity.org/eye/images/tsunami-indon esia12-2004.mov
http://globalsecurity.org/eye/andaman-refs.htm
http://globalsecurity.org/eye/andaman-pix2.htm
tho, i don't remember hearing too much "America is great" or "God praise America" or "Praise God" when a couple of airplanes slammed into a couple of buildings...
I've no idea why i even bothered to reply to a racist AC...
then again, i'm an AC too...
I do believe that the pictures are 50/50 of Aceh and Sri Lanka.
o k/geos/ ce.html#People
Aceh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aceh
Est. 4.2M population
Sri Lanka
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbo
19.9M population
So the facts?
The Canadian one, at least, is a fast online credit-card donation. You can print out your tax receipt right away. (hey, before midnight gets it in for this tax year, right?)
Or, there are plenty of other organizations that would be happy to receive a donation.
Only if you believe in free will.
that's like asking if its worse when a landslide kills 25 hikers or when a crazy person kills 2 people at a gas station. The events have to be considered in different lights
Not if you believe in god(s): then both are a question of why they were allowed to happen.
and you can't compare massive devastation from natural disasters to massive devastation from acts of terrorism.
Depends on what you believe in.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
Indonesia (aceh etc) : largest muslim country
on earth.
now go read a book.
you need it.
Quickly! We need to de-emotionalize this disaster fast before we go declare war on somebody.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
what an ass-hat !
the guy taping would probably go under as well
if he tried to help anyway...
racist ? since when is religion a race ???
/. dweebs ?
:)
and 9/11 is man-made...
why do I bother replying to
I'm too good
Yeah but who would really miss them.
Are you Damien Hirst ?
Sounds like you, you sad little coke-addled twat.
i mean, is it just part of the natural cycle... a random event, global warming... what is it?
Good point! I'm ashamed to be American right now. Mr. President invested more money in his voting campaign than what was given to help these people.
Speaking as an Indian, a big heartfelt THANKS for all of you who've empathised with the tragedy and have helped the rescue efforts. It's in trying times like these that one's faith in humanity is restored.
Thankfully, in spite of Indian bureacracy being well Indian bureaucracy, rescue and rehabilitation efforts are going on VERY effectively. An enormous number of people in India, be it the government, armed forces, or even the common woman/man is pitching in. Most companies here have setup collection boxes and at the very least, we're donating medicines, soaps, toothbrushes, disinfectants, clothes, utensils, non-perishable food items etc. There's also an army of volunteers who's landed in the disaster struck areas with truckloads of donated stuff and are distributing it to the needy.
Strangely enough, it seems that too many clothes are being donated! A friend of mine is physically helping out with the rescue efforts and he tells me that there's piles and piles of clothes lying around but of little use to anybody. Well, i guess too much help is always better than too little help.
Another thing that amazes me is the resilience of the common man or woman. Here are people living on the edge of poverty, getting hammered everyday with issues like eking out an existence. Perhaps they've scrounged and saved enough to get their daughters married, hidden a few hundred rupees in a hole in the wall. Perhaps they've just bought a shiny new radio or a bicycle. What do they wake up to? A tsunami that takes away their children, their friends, and everything they own. What do they do? Shrug it off eventually and mark it off as karma, god's will, or god's punishment depending on their religion (no, most poor Indians cannot afford the luxuries of athesim or agnosticism). Then, they take it one day at a time and slowly start rebuilding their lives.
You want to see miracles, mental strength, and the answer to life, the universe, and everything? You don't have to look far in times like these.
...President Bush and his International coalition (of which the next largest nation is contributing half of what we are) has just added Mother Nature to his axis of evil, saying that she is helping terrorists, as well as committing terrorist acts herself. Bush has given Mother Nature an ultimatum, telling her to leave this planet within the next 24 hours or we will declare war on her. It is expected that Mother Nature will stay and fight, but looks as if this will be another victory by the Bush administration.
...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
a global tsunami detection system is in place
the risks were known
why was no warning network in place?
don't give me the 'poor third world' crap.
if you've traveled, you know there is adequate communications capability in all the densely populated areas which were affected. all that was missing was a plan. volunteers, with minimal advance training and a plan, would have saved thousands of lives.
something as simple as a network of volunteers equipped with pyrotechnics (easily made from locally available materials for next to no $) could have warned everyone!
The scale in the pictures is different - at first glance, it looks like the water in the later picture is quite a bit more to the right, but further investigation shows that it's in EXCTLY the same spot, with some flooding in the interior. Match up the landmarks - the buildings in the earlier picture are smaller because the scale is smaller. The later picture shows exactly the same buildings, slightly larger, but with the waterline in the same spot. Anyway, everything is still there.
paintball
All the major cities and most of the citizens in Finland have decided not to fire any rockets this New Year's eve. They will all donate the money to help out these people instead. There's a good example to America!
While there there has been an International Tsunami Warning system in place since 1965, the affected countries were not part of that system and had no mechanism in place to allow for early warning.
NPR has a few good reports on the problem.
Cringely has a rather interesting solution that does not rely on governmental action, though with a serious flaw. It only relies on earthquake data, which isn't necessarily conclusive, nor the only cause of Tsunami's.
The reason people post pictures on buildings is because they are DESPERATE. It's a waste of time, but it's the only thing they can do other than nothing, and nobody wants to just admit that there's nothing they can do.
Governments maintain a list of people who are missing, and people check in as they are found. If people can't call their own family (either because they're lazy or they're injured or they're dead), there's really nothing you can do to accelerate the process: If they're lazy, there's no way for you to find them other than them finally checking in, and if they're injured or dead, you're not going to know they're injured or dead until they get to a hospital or you find the body (or part) and match them to someone on the missing list.
The bottleneck isn't tracking who is missing/found. The bottleneck is reaching/finding, identifying, and being able to communicate who is found. A database isn't goign to get soemone to call their mother or help you find a body.
paintball
Most (all?) of the official New Year celebrations and fireworks have been cancelled. The money will be given to aid helping those who suffered from the tsunami.
At the moment there are more than 200 Finns and over 2000 Swedes missing and most likely all of them are dead. To see things in perspective: Finland has a population of 5.2 million, Sweden around 9 million. Everyone with basic math skills can calculate what that would mean if it had happened for tourists from US.
40,000+ people die in car accidents every year. Thousands are killed in floods every few years. Millions die every year from famine.
Death, and to a lesser extent, death from natural disasters, is pretty common. A lot of death from a natural disaster is less newsworthy than a little death from a terrorist attack.
There's also an information problem - it was a lot easier to get information out of new york on 9/11 than it is to get information out of a devastated remote area in Thailand.
paintball
As bad as this is and the amount of life loss, I'm very curios to see if anyone got this on film as it happened wither it is still pictures or home camcorder.
~~ Behold the flying cow with a rail gun! ~~
Actuallly they do. So do most americans. They just use a different name,
WWI: 16-18 million.
WWII: 40 million.
On a single day in the American Civil War, approximately 30,000 men were killed.
Feel free to dispute those figures, they vary from source to source. You'll not escape the orders of magnitude.
That's what war is like in the age of modern machinery. 9/11 was murder, not war.
...or make poor tsunami jokes when there were no pictures that showed the magnitude of the tragedy.
Seeing the BBC report that showed the young coupld silently carrying their two dead children and seeing the picture of the beach covered with debris -- and then realizing the "debris" consisted of human bodies -- brings the point home that real humans suffered a real tragedy halfway across the world.
Damn, I'm getting tears in my eyes just remembering those pictures.
The sattelite images show the extent of damage, but remains impersonal. This picture graphically shows the actual devastation and number of deaths..
i ita4ft.jpg
http://img145.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img145&image=ruum
Points to a well-written editorial at nytimes (bugmenot.com is your friend, I used cpunk89/asdfasdf) about US aid to the relief effort. Worth a read.
This is news for nerds.
Or do you think no geeks were living in asia, or holidaying on the beach?
Nobody is left untouched by this disaster, whether its friends, relatives or enemies. As you know, many lives have been lost, and we are only just beginning to see the problems that lie ahead.
Linux, sco or microsoft aren't mentioned directly, but even they are effected.
liqbase
This is in reply to all those who got infuriated by the comment that America does not care. And responded that one cannot equate the actions of the government with all the citizens. It is pretty much common that the actions of the government are referred to as the actions of the country. After all it is the "representative" of the country. "America elected George W. Bush as president", "America invaded, err liberated, Iraq", "India conducted nuclear tests"
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
We don't have any extra money. We are spending 200 billion on Iraq. Whether you support the war or not do you think money grows on trees? There isn't any left.
Denmark: 300M DKR (USD$55M) at a population of 5.4M .. that's $10,14 per capita .. .. that's $0,15 per capita
USA: USD$45M at a population of 293M
both theese sets of numbers are what the Government provides, not what is collected privately. (no taxreductions are given for donations in Denmark)
I guess that every country will give what it can.
As the image formed on the top of my screen, you first notice the smashed buildings. As as I scrolled down I though 'are those bodies ?' and I scrolled further I realised yes there are bodies in there. Eventually you reach the bottom of the screen and the true horror of the situation is shown.
Lots of images and video of the tsunami and aftermath at http://www.waveofdestruction.org/.
Speak truth to power.
What about the money US privite companies are giving? Goverment is not the only way to send aid! I will put the $$ given by US citizins and companies vs any company....
Is there a cholera epidemy going on there? Unless there is some source of contamination, sewage wouldn't be particularly dangerous in that respect. OTOH, can't say the same about some intestinal parasites that are more or less endemic in most tropical regions. That's why one of the major items being sent by disaster relief organizations is water-purifying tablets.
I think your humour is ill conceived, however you do hint at something I find even more distastefull.
Insurance companies are already trying to evade paying out to the survivors by calling this an act of god.
I saw the entire thing first hand. The sattelite images do not really show the damage. Try www.haveeru.com.mv for some good photos.
This is my sig. There are thousands more, but this one is mine.
here
In the end, the American government will contribute more money by far than any other country for relief efforts. We always have and always will.
Article regarding US spending on international aid efforts: http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/12/28/stingy.a mericans.ap/
Just because America doesn't throw money at it right away doesn't mean we don't care. I'd rather see the money used wisely for maximum effect and that can take time.
I was going to post this as anonyymous but wtf, Slashdot-USA centric?? you arrogant, ignorant buffoon. Where do you think "Slashdot-internet-and most new good shit is invented/implemented??? The fuckin moon.?? Get off your USA bashing horse you fuckin twit and take your stupid comments and post them someplace where the sun never shines.
*--- Sometimes a majority only means that all the fools are on the same side. ---*
mod me down as flamebait/troll if you want, but I would like to compare the media's attitude now and during 9/11. When 9/11 happened, western media refrained from showing gory scenes out of respect for the dead. But when it came to this disaster, they had no-holds-barred coverage - showing people's arms and legs and devastation. Is it not double standards? According to an article in Indian Express, a CNN executive Chris Cramer justified by saying that they showed no images of 9/11 because there were no images to show. The bodies had been incinerated. Lame excuse, if there ever was one, don't you think? PS: I have submitted an article to slashdot on the same, but it was rejected.
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2004 22:04:31 -0200
From: Futurepower [futurepower_usa (-AT-) yahoo.com.br]
To: "U.S. Geological Survey National Earthquake Information Center" [sedas (-AT-) neis.cr.usgs.gov]
Subject: NEIC: Why didn't you warn about the Tsunamis?
Question:
I haven't seen this discussed anywhere.
Why didn't the NEIC call the U.S. State Department, so that they could warn people about the Tsunamis?
The earthquake position and magnitude was known 6 hours before the waves arrived in Thailand, I understand. Wouldn't almost every person's life have been saved if Thailand, for example, had had warning?
Michael
_____________
Reply:
Michael,
Phone calls were placed to the State Department operations center, the White House situation room, the U.N. Department of Humanitarian Affairs, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, as well as several other organizations within 90 minutes of the occurrance of this earthquake.
The problem is the absence of local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local populace.
Stuart Sipkin
USGS/NEIC
_____________
Stuart,
I have a suggestion for a local tsunami warning system. There continues to be an enormous amount of earthquake activity in the area around Indonesia. It seems likely that there will be another big earthquake. Next time there is an earthquake that is likely to cause a tsunami, call me, any time of night or day. I will promise to call at least 30 hotels within 2 hours. I will promise to get 10 friends involved. They will promise to call 30 hotels each, also. We would each take a different country.
My suggestion is that we would use Google to find hotels, for example in Sri Lanka. This is one of the hotels I found there, a 5-star hotel with more than 400 rooms:
Galadari Hotel
The Businessman's Home in Sri Lanka
64, Lotus Road,
Colombo 1.
Sri Lanka.
Tel: 94-1-544544
Fax: 94-1-449875
E-Mail: galadari (-AT-) sri.lanka.net
"The Galadari Hotel is in the heart of the city in Colombo, over looking the beautiful Indian ocean."
Big hotels answer their phones 24 hours a day. Presumably there is a staff of at least 200 at that hotel, for three shifts. I think if one person were told, everyone else would know soon. They don't want their family and friends and neighbors near the water to die, and they know how to reach them, even if they have to ride a motorbike to those who don't have phones.
There are two easy ways to prove that a call about an earthquake is not a hoax. I would tell the person who answered the phone that it is an emergency and I need to talk to a manager. I would tell the manager to check the USGS web site at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Any 5-Star hotel, and most others of any size, have internet access. I would also tell the manager that, if the water at the beach receded, people had only a few minutes to get to safety. I would ask the manager to get staff members to call radio and TV stations in their area.
You said in your message, "The problem is the absence of local warning systems in the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. There were no systems or response plans in place to warn the local populace."
It seems to me that this is a workable plan for a local tsunami warning system. It wouldn't cost much. Using Skype, a two minute call to any land line phone in Sri Lanka is about 40 U.S. cents, for example. Using iConnectHere's most expensive service, a two minute call is 80 cents.
And this is modded "insightful"!!! Give me a break!
I'm much more funny, interesting and insightful than the moderators think
DOOOOMED
Slashdot-internet-and most new good shit is invented/implemented??? The fuckin moon.??
Japan, EU come to my mind.
that with the pervasive poverty and generally attentant ignorance associated with the affected region, the subsidization of these people living in such a place, with such poor infrastructure can only invite future disasters. Which will kill even more people. In a sort of perverse sense the "call to give" is paying to kill people later so one doesn't have to feel bad now.
Hell, US Aid to some of the regions will likely be misconstrued as a form of imperialism. Quite the ethical dilemma.
CNN.com has a few of these pictures, as well as one from Maldive which shows the only international airport pretty much completely swamped.
-jls
Techno-pagan
in the last seven days here. The Andaman and Nicobar islands has experienced more than 60 aftershocks ! ..
In related news, the tsunami split one of the islands in Andaman & Nicobar into two. Here is what one of the officials say
Another island, Trinkat, appears to have been split in two, said S.B. Deol, inspector-general of Andaman and Nicobar. "Part of the island has been submerged, while one half is visible," he said.
>> Techflock-flock onto the best bits of technology
By your own statistics,
Foreign aid
The USA comes bottom of the graph in terms of giving as a percentage of GNI/GDP. (page 25)
And considering the percentage of this aid going to Israel, let alone Iraq. Your generosity does not seem so shiny.
what the pictures also show is that areas with many trees look less damaged than areas with few trees.
http://demmer.ipax.tk/gallery/Verschiedenes/banda_ aceh_northernshore.jpg
red line indicates size of island before the tsunami
that poverty prevented people from:
Building numerous and sturdy roads.
Collecting to form an effective local government to help them prioratize projects and pool reasources.
Hell, I guess God must have magic'd the West industrialized. Because if you've always got to remain poor if you start poor, and by our standards hunter-gatherers are poor, no one can become wealthy without divine intervention.
Maybe it's the handouts that hurt. Maybe it's the poor infrastucture despite continuous habitation by humans for millenia. Maybe it's governments that while democratic, are generally concerned with the perpetuation of oppression of segments of their populations. Maybe their populations are still hobbled by deeply ingrained xenophobia that prevents a strong and deeply rooted national identity. Maybe institutionalized corruption is a massive drag on their government preventing a judicious use of resources. Maybe an over-reliance on handouts, whether from a country across a sea, or a magic guy in the sky, encourage an ask first - do later mentality.
There are a lot of reasons why this was as catastrophic as it was. "Because I bought my Nikes on sale" was at the bottom of the list below "Jesus hates poor children."
Here's a good rule of thumb for you. Where there is serfdom, there is fuedalism. It's that archaic system of familial alliances and bribes, combined with rampant xenophobia and a deep belief in magic that's causing the pain. By helping only after the fact, we practically insure each disaster will be catastrophic, saving just enough people to make the next one a great deal worse.
Good roads, good education, good communications, a good quality of life, and a stable effective local government are what is needed to help save people when there is this kind of devestating event. It's not something that rich nations can just gift unto them. It's something they have to want, believe in, and provide for themselves. It's made up of them. It says something that Japan and Korea each made the switch in decades, and much of the region in question is into their second century of effort.
And if it weren't for capitalism there wouldn't be surplus food or medical supplies to send them. If our economies were like their economies we'd be in a perpetual shortage ourselves.
Oh wait... no I can't...
Personally, I'm so sick of people talking shit on America that I'd like to build a bigass wall around it and watch the rest of the world go to shit from inside. That's what makes most of my fellow Americans better than me; they'd rather help you assholes out than tell you to go fuck yourselves. Me, I'll give you the finger, load my gun, and tell you to get the fuck off my property.
But apparently that video was shot in a place where the tsunami wave wasn't that severe. According to this MSNBC article, entire towns were completely wiped out in some parts of Indonesia. An Indonesian ambassador says that the death toll in just one Indonesian province could exceed 400,000.
That's just.... unbelievable. This is probably going to be the biggest natural disaster in human history.
Whatever you do, don't donate to the Red Cross. When 9/11 occurred they took donations intended to help victims of 9/11 and used it elsewhere. Your money is better allocated to other relief organizations if you want it to get where you intend for it to go... In my eyes, and many others, the Red Cross lost their credibility. They may do a lot of good, but I no longer trust them.
Food, water, and medicine are most important right now. Donate to a food drive in your community. Donate to an organization that will give food and water to the people who need it.
Alright, I think I have it figured out. Kalutara did NOT get the primary impact of the tsunami, it's off on the west end of the island, while the tsunami hit the east.
No doubt the area got major flooding, and the pictures we're seeing of kalutara are all the water draining from the land back out to the beach.
As for the person who claimed that an entire section of the houses was gone, look closer, the houses are all still standing and th pictures are not exactly on the same scale.
The area got flooding, but no direct 'wall of water' impact, like the opposite side of the island or northern thailand.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
is located here. I don't run this blog either...I've just found it to be a helpful resource.
Also, there's some amazing footage there in these torrents: 1) tsuanmi hits Kenya
2) ABC Australia reports
3) Part 1/4 of CH9 Australia | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
And make no mention of the fact in in absolute dollars, we give more than anybody else, and if you added up private, corporate, religious charities, the US basically wipes the floor with the rest of the world.
American generosity is simply far and away the greatest in the history of the world. That is FACT.
Attach $500,000 to each surplus ICBM and deliver both payloads at once. To solve a fourth problem simultaneously, make sure the $500 is in pennies.
Not an aerial map, but still related to tsunami event. link.
Warning: Very gross and disturbing!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Come on now, don't be so one-sided and misleading. In the same document you reference, look at page 24 (the page before the graph you point out). The total dollar amount given by the USA has ranked first for most of the last several decades. In 2002, the USA gave more than twice what other nations gave (besides Japan). And this does not count private contributions, which are quite common in the USA. I am an American and have donated to the aid efforts for the Tsunami.
The images look a lot more powerful when you stack two in layers and set the top layer transparency to around 80%. You can really see all the homes under water. I put some together here
If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land,
it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. -James Madison
I think assuming America couldn't care less is stupid. We have not heard any aid from many Oil rich countries. Up here in India, we are very thankful to all the nations which have supported us in this awful disaster. Really, every $/Rupee/Euro counts. if possible please contribute to your fav. Disaster relief fund.
I'm rather tired of Europe and their high-horse. Let's play with some more statistics, shall we?
Average Household income - $42,000
Average Household charity in 2001 - $1,620
or roughly 3 percent. Of course there is also corporate contributions, but we won't even get into that. The difference between Americans and Europeans when it comes to charity is that you seemed to have to be taxed in order to hand over the money, while Americans seem to give of their own free will.
BTW How much foriegn aid was given to the US for the 4 Hurricanes that hit Florida. Well, couldn't find anything that made headlines but I'm sure it amounted to "We'll be happy to give you a loan."
One other thing. While the large amount of death is horrendous, and this comment in no way is meant to belittle those who lost their lives, the dead usually do not require money. The money being given is for rebuilding the countries and helping the living. The World Trade Center at the time it was hit had something like 50,000 people in it (complete guess). If those 50,000 all had died, do you think that it would cost more money to rebuild and provide aid to the living?
There really were very few bodies produced by 9/11, the way the buildings imploded/collapsed shredded pretty much everything.
I had friends down there in the neighborhood who said the most they saw were dust-covered finger-sized chunks of flesh, there weren't many 'bodies' at all.
Also, it's not really a malicious double standard to show gore in the far corners of the world while reserving yourself for homeland gore, it's human nature. I'll be flat-out honest and say that I care slightly more about local lives than I do for foreigners, not to say that I don't feel absolutely horrible for those affected by this.
Anyway, it's not time to point fingers and bitch about the media, they seem to do a decent-enough job of covering this. I think the BBC is doing a fantastic job, making sure to cover all the affected areas and to keep the news flowing. Local news placed it in the top story, but they are sort of obligated to switch topics every thirty seconds.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Any magnitude 9 earthquake 10 KM under the sea, as was the one that did the damage, must be presumed to cause a tsunami. Remember that a magnitude 9 earthquake is 10 times more powerful than a magnitude 8 earthquake.
Your point number 2 was already answered. Have a manager look at the USGS web site to verify that there was a huge earthquake.
If you are one of the people on the tsunami warning team, you would probably select your hotels in advance, and get to know the managers. You would teach them how to verify the size of an earthquake, and its location. Even my own friends are impressed when I call them from another country. It might go like this:
"Hi, Sandeep, remember me, it's Michael from the United States. Remember last year we talked about earthquakes? Well, there's been another one. If you don't have your notes, the site to check is http://earthquake.usgs.gov/. Remember we discussed the fact that all
After more than 100,000 people have been killed, I think the people still alive would take a tsunami warning seriously. It should not be imagined that people outside your own country are irresponsible and have no education.
America would rather spend money killing innocent Iraqis than helping here. It donates less money per GDP than the rest of the western world.
What did you do? Post as AC on Slashdot? How helpful.
Do try to remember there are ugly people everywhere, not just in the U.S.A., and conversely there are GOOD people everywhere, even in the U.S.A.
Maybe when you are a little older you will understand. It's your brand of hatred and bigotry that fuels things like, oh, the Iraq war, the attack on Spain's trains, etc.
You're only taking into account government foreign aid in your % of GDP analysis. Perhaps I shouldn't call it analysis since you aren't thinking or analyzing anything, just looking for another way to bash America.
In the CNN article I originally linked, you can quite clearly see that if you total US government aid as well as private organization and individual aid, America is a very giving country. If you total all those, I'd be willing to bet that America is or very near tops in charitable giving per person.
I just saw a Discovery Channel piece on the Boof of Revelations/apocalypse. Any theology experts out there?
Life is tough. Boo hoo. Now move on.
Here's the American POV, without any liberal sugar coating: http://www.aynrand.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle &id=10688&news_iv_ctrl=1021
And make no mention of the fact in in absolute dollars, we give more than anybody else, and if you added up private, corporate, religious charities, the US basically wipes the floor with the rest of the world.
American generosity is simply far and away the greatest in the history of the world. That is FACT.
While I am impressed by your use of uppercase letters, how about some numbers to back up your claim.
Why hasn't Slashdot's coverage of the tsunami been more extensive? On and after 9/11 much front page space was devoted to the disaster and yet now with many many more people dead and arguably more that *we* can do to help, Slashdot's coverage is minimal.
Even Google now have a 'how to help link' on their homepage.
I don't know if this has already been said, but whilst it may not be 'news for nerds' specifically, it truly is 'stuff that matters'.
Please donate money to help the relief effort.
Americans, I think you need to ask yourselves why your government can find hundreds of billions to invade and occupy a foreign nation that doesn't want you there, but cannot find more than 35 millions for helping victims of this tragedy.
It used to be that America was looked up to in the world as a shining example for others. Now, you are increasingly the most despised nation in the world. Only you can turn this around. The rest of us can only watch in sadness. It is the actions of your country that make you hated, and those CAN be fixed if you try.
Those billions used to occupy Iraq could have made such a huge difference here for a good cause.
The amount of money donanted after 9/11 was large in relation to the need. That seems to be less likely with this disaster.
Remember, kids, this is from the NY Times, so take any facts they might produce with a grain of liberally-biased-salt.
It may be the case that the U.S Gov. is prosecuting people who have pirated versions of photoshop, but are you suggesting that america close up the justice department and divert all the funds to tsunami relief? there are an abundance of private relief efforts that are willing to help the situaion. what would be nice to see is the media stepping up and giving this as much attention as say 9/11. i think it's kind of messed up that just because we don't have an human entity to blame for this particular disaster it is given less weight in the media. The point was made that it is as though there were 4 9/11's that happened on the same day in the same place. but we havn't gotten a presidential speech yet. This disaster happened in a foreign country, but don't we care what happens in other countries...isn't that why we're in Iraq?
I'm from the United States and I've completely had it with the rest of the world. We can't seem to do anything right in your eyes. We spend the most in total dollars on foregin aid but, oh no, that's not good enough. "The USA comes bottom of the graph in terms of giving as a percentage of GNI/GDP."
So let me ask you... would you rather have the total dollars or nothing? We could cure cancer and you would still point out how we support Israel. You are a rather petty person.
I'm continually dismayed by the extent to which blatant anti-Semitism has become socially acceptable these days.
It's a damn shame how quickly we forget what that kind of thing leads to.
A little light on the depth here (Biblically) can be seen gained from Calvin's thoughts. I am not a strict Calvinist but this is good background: from: www.gracebible.org.au/church/sermons/data/60-003.h tm
"[One cannot simply import a nonbiblical assumption about the nature of human freedom and then denounce Calvinism as incapable of meeting that (nonbiblical) criterion (cf. Ibid., p. 344n54).
Whatis clear biblically (last week): we cannot make a choice for God until we have a desire to please Him - a desire which no unregenerate man has!
[Now, all may have a desire to escape eternal punishment, or to long to be reunited with departed loved ones. But there can be no holy motivation to believe in Christ where there is no desire for the honour, beauty, and glory of Christ!]
Second, why "bother" if the end has been declared from the beginning? [moral]
This is where Calvinism shows itself to be so different from 'fatalistic determinism.'
Why bother, if God has already ordained things?
This question is like asking, "if God has decided I will live through Tuesday, why breathe on Monday?"[4]
KEY: "One must not assume that the end (our faith) has been decreed to occur apart from the means (our preaching)."[5]
In short, God ordains the means as well as the end!
Calvin himself said:
"Now it is very clear what our duty is: Thus, if the Lord has committed to us the protection of our life, our duty is to protect it; if he offers helps to us, to use them; if he forewarns us of dangers, not to plunge headlong; if he make remedies available, not to neglect them. 'But no danger will hurt us,' say they, 'unless it is fatal and in this case it is beyond remedies.' But what if the dangers are not fatal, because the Lord has provided you with remedies for repulsing and overcoming them?"
Thus, Calvin did not and Calvinism does not deny real choices, real cause-and-effect, real responsibility, i.e., biblical free will.
Note: not even Arminians can live with an unlimited free will, as one prominent Arminian commentator confesses,
"Prayer also influences men....The wills of men can thus be affected by prayer or else we would not pray for them. To believe in prayer is thus to believe in some kind of limitation of human freedom, and in some kind of incomprehensible influence upon the wills of men."
]"
PayPal is now doing fee-free donations to UNICEF.
http://donations.paypal.com
I recommend UNICEF over Red Cross for a variety of reasons including RC spending $100 million of $500 million 9/11 donations on themselves.
This does not diminish the horror. Still, you should maybe invest in a calculator:
130K/3K (approximate figures) = 43K
this is FOURTY THREE 9/11's. And yeah, it is still very sad.
I think the US response has been quite poor so far, considering the size and wealth of the US there has been a very muted response, Sweden has already donated 100$ million, compared to some very small amount so far from the US (although there are 3500 Swedes still missing maybe dead which is a huge amount for a country with a population of only 9 million).
These days it seems the US is only serving itself.
....from DigitalGlobe's QuickBird satellite truly says it all in regards to ENORMOUS scale of this tragedy without needing to show the pictures of the massive number of dead piled up.
:-(
It looks like the tsunami pretty much scoured the town of Banda Acheh completely clean--it leaves you totally speechless.
CNN reporting at 12:54PM Eastern on 12/31/04 that the US has upped its aid from $35M to $350M.
So shut up.
Given the precarious nature of the volcano off the Canary Islands, as discussed here http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/2 9/1910241&tid=14
...could a group with an agenda muster enough energy to "intentionally trigger" that volcano's landslide and thus trigger the Mega-Tsunami?
(I'm going to try to say this politely)
It is not unthinkable that certain groups who suffered loss of their own, including their own religious edifices, might wonder if they could CAUSE the same loss to other religious groups, nationalities, and their religious and governmental edifices and establishments, many many of which are located on The East Coast.
Starglider29a
"I'm not saying what I'm saying.
I'm not saying what I'm thinking.
Hell, I'm not even THINKING what I'm thinking."
-- Capt. John Sheridan, Babylon 5
Then, of course, there are those who vehemently believe you need shock and gore to get aid pouring in.
More than mere navel gazing.
I'm not a huge fan of Bush by any stretch of the imagination (I voted against him in November), but I can't fault the US government's behavior so far. They authorized a small amount of money to begin with, to help with the most urgent needs (sending food, clearing bodies, and so forth), and over the next few weeks and months will continue to increase the commitment as the specific needs of the countries who have been hurt are ascertained.
The world rallied around the US after 9/11, irrespective of past tensions and difficulties, and I don't think anyone here has forgotten that. We'll do everything within our power to help rebuild those countries devastated by the tsunami, just give us time to get through the bureaucracy, and to make sure our money is going to the right place (someone earlier posted about how in India, so many donations of clothing have been recieved that there are piles of stuff no one wants to wear just lying around. Imagine if the US sent over $100 MILLION of unnecessary clothing).
"The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than that of whether a submarine can swim" -EWD
This report, backs up the factual statement that Israel has been the biggest recipiant of US $ than any nation since 1976, and has recived, by far, the largest total amount of any nation.
Oh, and also that Jews are planning to take over the world via Hollywood.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
I'm not your parent (sic), but so far I've:
- personally donated $200
- persuaded our company to match donations from employees to charity (and it sounds like they'll put in even more than double).
Longer term we're looking at getting involved with a local Sri Lankan charity to help rebuilding work in a specific village.
Some people actually do care about the shit that that goes on outside of these borders.
It sounds like you've been shat on pretty bad at some point in your life - to have a chip that big. I'm sorry to hear that. There *are* people who care about more than themselves and actively try to do something about it. I sincerely hope that one day you feel financially secure enough that you too can start to see what good your money and time can do.
I may be way off the mark on your circumstances, but you sound so bitter, I find it hard to believe that you're otherwise happy.
Why can't we get these images from Fallujah?
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
(Yes I am aware this one was not the doing of the U.S.)
C.f. the U.S.: from a missing forty acres/mule to a "Kick the Queers Out '04" in a hundred years.
The U.S. ensured his demise. "If you aren't for us, your are against us" in 1961. America's man was the humanitarian giant, Joseph Mobutu "Sese Seko".
The Soviets were also merciless and cynical in their posturing with the U.N. Security Council. They sacrificed a chance at Congolese freedom for embarrasing the Western bloc.
hello, its me again.
you'd think after the flaming i got for my last post, i would have quit by now.
just for the record, i stand by much of what i said (in fact i have put a whole post about that below my last post) but i will say this. i AM saddened by all the innocents who died. the ones who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
i would like to thank all of you who have given so much. not just to sri lanka but to the many who have suffered. but unfortunately in sri lanka at least, things are getting bad.
please note these are based on anecdotal evidence.
1. the ltte has grabbed some of the relief supplies going to the north. presumably to distribute themselves. or maybe to distribute among themselves.
2. an aunt of mine went to a refugee camp down south. what she had to say was disturbing. apparently the entire camp is now run by thugs. she took 500 lunch packets with her, but was not allowed to distribute them by the thugs who demanded that she hand the food supplies to them, and they would take care of the distribution. please note, these were not people in charge of the administration of the camp but thugs from the area who had taken over.
3. she also took some plastic toothpaste packets (the 10 rupee good for one week plastic sachet.) even the shopkeeper had given them to her at cost because they were going to the refugees. the first thing she had been asked by the people was "aren't you giving the big ones?"
4. the thugs in the area have got themselves registered as "refugees" even if they live far inland and have lost nothing. their families are inside, waiting for the food and the supplies and most of all the money. they have already registered themselves for disaster compensation.
5. in a church run camp it is the same. the local people have taken over, making sure they get all the supplies while the real refugees get the leftovers.
6. another friend of the family was taking lunch packets to the camps when they were stopped by the cops who had demanded 5 packets for themselves.
many of the stories are corroborated by people who have been living in the camps.
there are also reports of corpse looting and cases of rape in the refugee camps.
it is sad that even in this time, (or especially in this time) man's baser instincts come to the fore.
i am a cold hearted realist, but i i personally think that the old punishment for looting should be brought back. summary execution of a few looters would have a prophylactic effect.
atb
Suchetha
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Learn more here.
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
As a Christian Libertarian... I half agree with you and halfway don't.
My faith says that yes, we should help our brother in time of need, however my political philosophy says the government shouldn't be the ones to do it.
Legally, internationally, politically we are under NO obligation or responsibility to do such - nor should we be. However since we do have an abundence of wealth, I don't see a problem with the government having am emergency aid fund, or even low interest loans for foreign countries in times of crisis. But this should be used rarely and saved for large scale disasters such as this.
I don't think that the US Gov should dispense money to anyone out there who has a papercut however. The country shouldn't be overly philantropic.
As a Christian, yes I feel obligated to help anyone who needs help when they do - it is just the right thing to do. I would rather give my money to a private fund that I know, respect, and trust to properly distribute my donations. The government is usually the LAST place to trust in terms of spreading goodwill.
Libertas in infinitum
I don't think it's wrong to count my government's generosity as partly my generosity. It is OUR government, so it's OUR giving (or otherwise), but don't let's confuse and kid ourselves by calling ourselves the most generation nation on earth. If 1000 people band together and donate $1000 and another 10 people band together to donate $500 I think it's obvious that the 10 have been more generous. And if the a millionaire gives $100 and a pauper gives $20 it's clear who's sacrificed more (and sacrifice is the soul of all generosity).
So let's not break our arms patting each other on the back. This nation is as rich as it is BECAUSE other nations are as poor as they are and if people choose to be blind to their social responsibilities then we've simply got further to travel before we finally live the truth that The Real Welfare Of Man Is The Real Welfare Of Men.
Excuse my gender specificity. I quoted it as I heard it...
are talking about FOUR HUNDRED 9/11s here.
"It will be like 9/11 times a hundred. Yes, 91,100."
Kekekeke ^___^
Sorry, dont mean to sound insensitive, but the way you phrased that totally reminded me of Team America. Humor is a good way to ease the pain, remember.
Joseph?
Please visit:
:-)
http://dec.org.uk/
And put your money where your mouth is
also checkout http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/ covering an equally important issue
thanks
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. - Mark Twain
Has it occured to anyone that this might not be natural? Undersea nukes or some technology that's far beyong the reach of the common man... this could be Bush testing his _real_ weapons of mass destruction.
You can say that again...
just look how vexed they get when you state
the truth to them
every one of my replies gets modded down.
I wonder why ? lol
From one AC to another:
American corporations have donated well over $100 million in money and much-needed supplies such as medicine, water, and generators. The American people have collectively donated millions in the past few hours alone to provide help to those affected and towards a successful recovery. I myself, horrible American that I am, have donated $500 to the international relief efforts.
Despite your exaggeration of millions of dollars spent hunting 12-year-olds over piracy, I'll address it anyway. Just because there is a horrible disaster in one region of the world does not mean any country should stop enforcing the laws or continuing business in their own. To do so would create a worse economical and societal breakdown which would prevent said country from even being able to assist those affected in these regions.
I may be responding to a troll but it pissed me off anyone marked it "Interesting". Ignorance is "bliss", not "interesting".
First of all, it's a government's job to look after its own citizens. I would certainly hope the government of Bangladesh spends more time worrying about Bangladeshis than it does about Americans or Germans or Kenyans. There's nothing shady or racist going on there. When disasters like this strike, we all try to help each other out.
Americans will donate a lot more than they'll be given credit for, but they'll do it through hundreds of NGO's rather than directly through the government, because that's how we tend to do things here. Other countries are more financially centralized. One should not interpret our decentralization as stinginess.
So far as the media is concerned, this has been the top story on every news source I watch since it happened last week. They don't seem to be covering up anything; they seem to be reporting what they see. What more do you want?
He brings up a valid point. If we're to take everything seriously, we'd really be a constantly depressed bunch of people. When you can't affect something yourself, one of the best things to do, in my experience, is laugh it off and try to forget about it. It sounds heartless, but the world doesn't stop every time something bad happens. It just wouldn't make sense.
(However, in this situation, if you could aid the victims of this disaster, I would encourage you to do so, but that doesn't mean weep daily for them. You need to go about your lives.)
Not exactly. The RedCross responds to ALL disasters and many more places where relief is needed. The only error was that many people expected their donations to go directly to 9/11 only.
5 -02.html 0 5dsfunds.html
In response the Red Cross changed their donation policies and guidelines to better reflect what actually happens with the money.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/redcross_06-0
http://www.redcross.org/press/disaster/ds_pr/0206
Basically now, if you give to the "Disaster Relief Fund" they use it wherever they see fit, and if you give to the "International Response Fund" if you want the funds to go exclusively to the tsunami relief efforts.
In addition they have all sorts of other areas you can "designate" such as Military efforts, Local chapters, Vaccination efforts, etc etc.
When it comes to charities - the Red Cross and Red Crescent(American and International) are about as real and helpful as you get. They help everyone everywhere.
If you are worried that your donations won't reach the right people then consider donating to CARE. They seem to have some of the lowest administration costs among relief agencies. Over 90% goes to affected victims.
i agree...this same group of people, who i mentioned previously, were obsessed with the scott peterson trial, but barely noticed the gutting of a woman and theft of her fetus that you mention.
this happens every few years, interestingly enough. apparently a woman who loses her own fetus late in pregnancy has a tendency to go psychotic, and stealing another baby by any means necessary is one of the rare, but not unknown, manifestations of the illness.
You sir, are SO correct.
:) !) Don't give water, canned goods, or clothing, give the RED CROSS MONEY! they said it over and over again on every channel. By the following week, most of the TV stations had rented trucks themselves and were willing to accept water, clothes, and food as donations which they then had driven down to Port St. Lucie. Port Charlotte, and Wauchula (amongst others, these came to mind quickly...) which the red cross could not get its greasy hands on.
The same sort of baloney is going on all over the country. In San Diego, the Red Cross always clamors out after every fire or disaster and claims to be accepting donations to aid the local victims. Then, almost everytime, this money goes into a GENERAL FUND and no one locally gets the money, except perhaps the local offices and chairpeople who get new MAHOGANY DESKS and BONUSES in CASH (search the almeaty Google for uniontrib, east county, red cross, and "decreasing donations".)
They also ran a scam where they overcharged the local government by falsifying documents claiming that they had transported the needy and disabled to medical visits with their medical taxis when they had actually NOT DONE SO. (also findable via ooogle-gay). Then the fuckers had the nerve to complain that the number of donations had GONE DOWN when the next set of wild-fires had hit santee. These morons also like to get on TV right away and claim quickly "DO NOT DONATE GOODS, GIVE MONEY [for it is more fungible] {I do paraphrase with fungible here]", when their real meaning is "we can't skim any money from cans, water, or clothing. It's easier to skim and take our share of COLD HARD CASH".
They did the same thing in Florida after the hurricanes hit. (i was visiting relatives, and they wanted to blame ME for the plague o' hurry-canes
I didn't know about the blood scam, but it's believable. Autologous blood donation is a lot safer and you SHOULD have been allowed to do it.
Arg.
Rant End.
Once again, the rush to post by the Slashdot community has revealed that geeks can be just as irrational as others.
The images presented here are nearly useless for before/after analysis. Here are some of the things that are necessary for proper analysis:
(1) Images for comparison should be taken with the sun in approximately the same position. Changes in shadow and illumination can exaggerate or obscure local effects. A brightly reflecting roof in the before image can appear so dark in the after image that is looks like the building has been destroyed. This is the case in many of these image sets, since they have been obtained up to twelve hours apart. Compare the shadows to see this effect.
(2) Ideally, satellite images for comparison shall be obtained from approximately the same angle. Many of these are not, with the result that walls exposed by the lower angle of the before image and shining brightly in the sun appear to be missing entirely in the after image. In fact, they are missing, but not because of destruction; these walls are simply covered by roof overhangs. Their absence does make the difference between before and after seem more extreme, however.
(3) Satellite images for comparison should ideally be cropped identically. These images are cropped in such a way that a casual comparison between them would suggest that entire coastal areas have been inundated when, in fact, they are not. In most cases, the coastlines remain, but because of the cropping it looks like they are under water.
(4) Georeferencing is not essential, but it is highly desireable. The absence of latitute, longitude or scale markers on these images makes them unfit for serious analysis. At the very least, Slashdotters should perform their own georeferencing with a GIS program before commenting, lest they be mislead.
Naturally, no one will read this post since it was the result of sober reflection rather than a foaming, irrational outburst written within minutes of the appearance of the article.
We're looking at Page 25, Figure 12
(starts at ZERO, full scale is 1%):.
The parent comment has NOTHING to do with the main story, which is about the tsunami.
What does this US-bashfest have to do with the main topic? That's right, nothing. Then why is it modded up to +5? This is blatant abuse of mod points.
And btw, if you mod me offtopic, then the parent is just as offtopic, and should be modded down too.
> And this does not count private contributions,
...
..
.
> which are quite common in the USA
Ohhhhhh, see..., none of the rest of us do that.
[/sarcasm]
AstroDab, nice concept. I've corrected the allignment and posted results here.
You're welcome to post these to your own site, crediting DigitalGlobe (as you should your own work) and myself.
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
People complain that we lost 1000+ American soldiers in iraq. What shocks me, is that our soldiers death is valued more than 100,000 people's lives. In a week, most Americans would have forgotten about this.
It's unfortunate this has been marked "troll." I'm not sure whether I agree with it, but it's a valid point of view.
The Red Cross doesn't commit fraud. If you donate to their funds, you will be helping someone. The objection is that the Red Cross refuses to permit "restricted donations," where the donor can specify exactly what his funds will be used for. In other words, you're not donating to a specific tsunami fund. You're donating to the Red Cross' International Fund -- so theoretically, your dollars could just as easily end up in Iraq.
There are other organizations, like UNICEF, that do allow restricted donations, so you can be certain your money will be used to help tsunami relief. Some people feel more comfortable with this option, and many people are critical of the Red Cross for refusing to offer it.
It's not a troll. It may not be politically correct to criticize the Red Cross right now, but it's a valid concern.
You've gotta feel bad about someone who has such an anger problem that he can't fell sympathy for hundreds of thousands of affected people.
any one feel like a surfing safari?
So let me ask you... would you rather have the total dollars or nothing?
Do what you like. But at least stop calling yourselves a Christian country if you think it's the absolute amount, rather than the relative amount that matters most.
I stopped considering myself a Christian a long time ago, but that doesn't stop me being offended by hypocrisy.
Oh, and by the way, the US pledges lots, but frequently doesn't deliver.
it is worth complaining that we are loosing troops. It is a valid complaint.
That doesn't mean we don't feel for the victims of the tsunami.
We relate to the soldiers, it is harder to relate to the victims of the tsunami.
Thats not bad, thats the way it is. If you feel every tradgied around the world personal, you owuld be unable to function.
This is no diffrent then any country in our position.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Spring-cleaning, my friends. Shiva is cleaning all the trash off his land. All the people that are still alive are the ones Shiva loves.
thank are donantion giving overlords...
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"what the pictures also show is that areas with many trees look less damaged than areas with few trees."
Waterbreak, and helps hold the soil together. Nature knows what it's doing.
"Also, would I be allowed to credit modified versions of these images without permission from the copyright holder? "
Derivative work. Just credit (takes a minute or two) and we can bicker later.
I've converted the videos to Flash Video (FLV) (my blog).
DigitalGlobe is allowing use of its images "with credit to DigitalGlobe". So I'm tagging the images themselves, which should cut it. I suspect they're happy for the exposure. Could say the same for myself ;-)
What part of "gestalt" don't you understand?
Since the visualisation was such a good one, I went and did some really rough rectification using GIMP.
Banda Aceh
Orindarily, I'd set up Ground Control Points (GCPs) and use those to calculate a transformation, but I just fudged it by eyes. I clipped out the part of the image where my transofrm started getting really poor. Even then, the bottom left is significantly off. Note the strip of "before" on the bottom right as it demonstrates the degree of rotation that was required.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
I was listening to a charity worker (Red Cross, I think) on the local radio recently. She was stressing that apart from the headache that non-monetary donations cause, one of the major reasons that they prefer money is that they can then use it to help the long term economy in the affected areas.
If a company or person donates lots of blankets, for instance, it may help in the immediate future if the blankets can be transported and so on. If money is donated, it can be used to purchase blankets locally to the disaster, whenever it's possible to do so. Beyond the immediate term, buying locally also helps to revive the economy after a disaster. It helps businesses to get re-established, but even after that the money often stays local, near the disaster, and is recycled again and again. If the agency brings in goods and services from overseas, whatever money is involved goes to an economy that doesn't need it as urgently. Unlike local purchases, the money is also gone as soon as it's spent.
America, FUCK YEAH!
Coming again, to save the mother fucking day yeah,
America, FUCK YEAH!
Freedom is the only way yeah,
Terrorist your game is through cause now you have to answer too,
America, FUCK YEAH!
So lick my butt, and suck on my balls,
America, FUCK YEAH!
What you going to do when we come for you now,
it's the dream that we all share; it's the hope for tomorrow
FUCK YEAH!
So your god was unable to stop those men?
"what the pictures also show is that areas with many trees look less damaged than areas with few trees."
That's not all that's unusual.
"YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka (AP) -- Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the tsunamis - indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground."
Yes, 10 times in amplitude, far more in energy, but in this case it is the amplitude that counts.
It was easy for anyone connected with earthquake science to know that there was a devastating tsunami. They could just check with populated areas near where the earthquake occurred, such as Aceh Province. There is an Airport near there with a phone. English is the standard language in aviation.
Knowing that there was a significant tsunami, it was easy to know that other areas, still an hour or more away, would have huge waves also.
To me, it's shocking that no one in the government did anything effectual to warn people.
...that we are not collectively obligated as a culture, people, nation, country, etc to help anyone.
;-)
'Simple human ethics' don't really exist and are NOT universal. 4000 years ago if another country had a disaster such as this, one might think it would be a great time to invade, pillage, plunder, and conquer while the their chips were down. During that time period no one would've thought of that act of invasion as unethical - it was called a 'strategic advantage'.
I guess my point is that we are not collectively responsible for anyone else, nor are we personally responsible for anyone else either. However you are right that most faiths (various flavors of Xianity at least) call on individuals to help others in time of need. Based on the concept of free will, we can do whatever we want and ignore those in need if we should so choose. Therefore it is an option and not mandatory
This is kind of like the yellow speed limit signs on exit ramps here in the US. We really should follow them because we are to assume they are the safest speeds, however they are completely optional and for our own discretion. Sorry for the lame analogy but its 4:17am at my location on NYE and Ive had some drinks
I know it sounded contradictory and I apologize for not explaining things clearly. I did want to point out that there is a difference however.
If you would like to learn more about Christian Libertarianism visit this URL:
http://www.theadvocates.org/christian
Libertas in infinitum
This is why people hate reading slashdot, because there are some people that try to make everything political. Our response should be a positive one, like how much money can slashdotters raise to help the tsunami victims; not "Why is Bush a prick?","The UN blows", or the like.
Jonathan B.
With the EUCD (EU's DMCA) and DRM in place laws of this type don't make any sense.
The world has a word for people who "need" "help", and it's "loser". Don't sit around with flies buzzing around your mouth waiting for foreigners to bail you out -- no one else cares nearly as much as you do, and in a year's time even the ones who noticed you will have moved on to a new cause.
In particular, don't wait for Washington to rescue you with tax dollars that belong to the American people -- such officials (and we call them "Democrats") get voted out and for good reason. The world doesn't work that way.
What you need is a model for society that actually works. A "reality", so to speak. Lack of this understanding is what is sending liberals (with "empathy") the way of the dodo -- they defy all aerodynamic principle. And good riddance.
"your god"
ahahah you really are living in the middle ages !
There is no such thing as Deus Ex Machina.
Only chaos.
The Sandinistas overthrew the corrupt, repressive, nun-killing, on-camera newsreporter-killing, martial law rule of the democratically elected Anastasio Somoza in 1979. Junta rule lasted until 1984, when free elections were held with no assistance from the United States. Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega received a majority of the popular vote.
Democracy expert Ronald Reagan denounced these elections as "not free" for three reasons:
- Minimum voting age was 17 (this in a country were the average life expectancy was 35), skewing the vote toward the Sandinistas
- Military were allowed to vote (right, good thing we don't allow that in the United States), skewing the vote toward the Sandinistas
- Third reason forgotten, sorry it's been a while. If someone remembers, please fill me in (I'm confident it was pathetic tho).
Reagan's government dealt with this purported travesty by (illegally) backing (and then lying to Congress about doing so) (then covertly selling arms to Iran to raise off-ledger funding -- you've heard all this, right?) the "Contras", a mercenary-supplemented team of Somoza partisans.As the Contras never picked up much popular support -- they were unsavory fascist thugs, PR nightmare all around, and anyway the general populace had few fond memories of Samoza -- they stuck to tearing down whatever the Sandinista government built up, blowing up health clinics, schools, and basicly any improvements the Ortega government implemented. What trolls would (but for lack of CIA training) do to weblogs, the Contras did to Nicaragua. They are also said to have killed a few american pro-Sandinista volunteers, tho apparently not any nuns or reporters.
While Ortega's government enjoyed tremendous popularity in their initial years (someone at Mother Jones mag got in trouble for calling this period "Leninist", meaning the people/proletariat had become the revolutionary vanguard, so to speak, and worked rather selflessly to improve the country), the citizens of Nicaragua voted them out in 1990, mostly over the lack of progress. Ortega, while understandably not happy with the unlucky deal of having Sandinista initiatives sabotaged for 5 years, left the official mansion more peacefully than did Nancy Reagan. Ortega remained the leader of Nicaragua's Sandinista political party.
I notice you are being rather quiet about Iraq. And spinning (to put it politely) the CIA-backed coup against Allende. Come on already. If neoconservatives so strongly favor this kind of intervention, why are they so sheepish about admitting it has occurred?(I'll leave how Afghanistan is being handed to warlords for someone else to go off on.)
null
Libertas in infinitum
"More men were killed or wounded at Antietam on September 17, 1862, than on any other single day of the Civil War. Federal [Northern] losses were 12,410 men and Confederate losses 10,700 men. What you most dont understand is that More died in the Civil War(amoung ourselves) Then ALL OTHER WARS WE HAVE FOUGHT IN COMBINED!!! Fighting among ourselves is the only way America can be defeated.It was starting Before the election, and got realy heated, however im glad to see things have cooled down.And John Kerrys name hasnt been said or heard since Nov.2 Communism almost snuck in the door, well its nicer word Socialism, due to things that had NOTHING TO DO WITH HERE!!! Most people accualy voted on the war in iraq, or Micheal Moores GREAT EDITING JOB fim 9/11. What most sickened me about learning about americans the most lately was that NOT ONE Person in the media called out 9/11 as a MOVIE not a DOCUMENTRY.. A documentry is based on facts, not a persons opinion.Re-watch the movie, and tell me that you SEE M.M. standing in the same FOOTAGE asking the ? with the person answering the ? I know i didnt, and that is called editing.Alot of people fell for that shiz.Some things may hold meritt, however the majority was M.M asking a ?, and finding the best footage (already on tape) that made Bush look retarded with his answer.. Now watch this drive!!! The war in iraq ISNT Illegal.. As posted before, Saddam violated santions placed on him from 92 on a day to day basis with no punishment for over 12 years.WHY?? Cause 2 of the 4 VETO powers in the U.N have energy contracts with iraq.Two in ? are France and Germany.Its just not in their best intrest for us to be in iraq.U see now WHY( cost of oil went up) So there heating and cooling cost more.However ive said this before, 30 countries are in iraq.I personaly dont care if you send One or 30,000.U know its a hostile situation, and that its possible for your people to be killed.Therefor you believe in my cause to send ANYONE! Now we all know Terr. isnt a country thing, its world wide.Now Iraq was OUR issue, wouldnt be intelegent to KEEP the majority of your troops at HOME to protect YOUR HOME??? Thats what all these other countries are doing, they send what they can, however protecting the home front is still their priority.They believe in our cause, however must do whats right for its people!!! GOd some of you are so slow! As for Iraq! Its a battlezone for the war on Terr.. Is it right??? Not realy , however i still understand that over 40 million people cant get 40,000 under control, and that is pathetic to me!! U know why the U.S. doesnt need troops in the streets??? Do i need to answer that?? I have a Class 3 weapons licence, and have nice Norenco for any who come with hostile intentions.Most of you who post on here had to be about 12 when the first gulf war was on.You were in Little League and watching the tracers on the first night of bombings thinking oh that looks kol.. Well war isnt kool,people die and the more better the Tech. the more that die in shorter time.Kennetic Energy weapons and Ray guns are the way of the future but thats another topic. Something i want you to think about.Look at all the wars fought in history in the last 100 years.They are all fought for one thing.. Democracy Vs Communism.. It might not be U.S.S.R vs USA, however the faces are the same.. Its the same in Iraq, Dictatorship is alot like communism, why you think in Vietnam they had Mac-10s and Aks? Why in Korea Aks and Migs? Why in Iraq RPGs and Aks.. One day in our lifetime there will come a time when the U.S.S.R and USA will be at it again.They would be as nieve to let themselves be fooled into an armsrace again and backrupt their country, however im sure we will out smart them again.. Besides 1000s of years passed over there with no light.. Ben Franklin comes over here and lo and behold invents electricity... Then comes along the MODERN day assembly line, and The United States was on the rise.Now we teach the world our ways.. WE DONT FORCE! We Teach, leaving them with choices to make change.. People in
your lack of knowledge is disturbing. retard.
(boortz.com) Well, what a difference a week makes. After the initial charge that the United States of America was being stingy with its response to the tsunami disaster, the glare of scrutiny has been focused elsewhere: Arab countries. First up, Kuwait. Kuwait has pledged $10 million, up from an earlier pledge of $2 million. Some are pointing out that's not much, when you consider how wealthy that country is. The price of oil has roughly doubled, and Kuwait now has a $10 billion budget surplus. They've got the cash. So how's come the figure is so low? More on that in a minute. Other wealthy Muslim countries have contributed as follows: Qatar - $10 million, Saudi Arabia - $10 million and The United Arab Emirates, $20 million. So what's the problem? Well, there really isn't one, since money apparently isn't the problem right now anyway. What's interesting to note here is that these wealthy Muslim countries are not jumping at the change to help their fellow worshipers of Islam. Indonesia, the most affected country, is the most populous Muslim nation. Yet, countries with enormous sums of money aren't really putting their money where their mouth is when it comes to helping their people. Some believe that the earthquake and tsunami were the work of Allah, punishing Thailand, for example, for prostitution. These Muslim nations sure can whine about the way Muslims are treated around the world, but when it comes time for them to step forward and show how much they really care, they're out to lunch somewhere. That's okay, though....as always, the United States, who has freed more Muslims from tyranny than any other power, will be there to pick up the slack.