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Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami
Iphtashu Fitz writes "This week the UK's Royal Navy presented images taken by the survey ship HMS Scott of the damage to the floor of the Indian Ocean that triggered the tsunami two months ago. The Scott has a high-resolution multi-beam sonar that let it generate highly detailed images of the sea floor, some 200m to 5000m below sea level. An image showing the scale of the damage, and the full presentation made by the Commanding Officer of HMS Scott (38MB PowerPoint) are available. The presentation contains a number of images that have more detail than those available on the websites."
damage to the floor of the Indian Ocean
BZZZT! The surface of the earth cannot be damaged. Changed, yes, but not damaged. Unless you're suggesting that we need to get back to Pangaea somehow.
Look, there are natural tectonic processes that have been going on for as long as the earth existed. Volcanoes and earthquakes are CONSTANTLY reshaping the surface of the earth. THIS IS NOT DAMAGE. This is normal behavior for the ecosystem.
Next we'll be hearing that the predator/prey relationship needs to be banned because it damages animal populations, or that animals need to poop more because the coprophilic bacterial populations are abnormally low.
Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami
I think people really really like saying "tsunami". Too bad most don't even pronounce it the right way.
The floor was not the effect of the tsunami, it was the effect of the earthquake, of which the tsunami was also an effect.
See, I like saying "tsunami" too!
tsunami. tsunami. tsunami.
Thinking about it scientifically, along with the terrible loss of life in this event is incredible.
To me, this is a huge reminder that the planet in itself is capable of incalculable (in terms of lives affected) violence. And also that there will be in due time, something comparable. Or worse.
And to think about the squabbles we have, our territorial ambitions, our day to day lives, it really means nothing in the face of these kinds of forces.
Blacker than my baby girl's stare. Black like the veil that the muslimina wear. Black like the planet that they fear...
So wait, you're saying that the news media should cease covering all news other than that of the Tsunami until the multi-year long process of rebuilding is over?
...
This just in: Poodle soaked! Tsunami still a tragedy! Goth's flock to Sri Lanka for mass suicide, just like lemmings!
Oh yeah, and some important stuff happened elsewhere too
This is getting ridiculous. Why does Slashdot continue to post stories with direct links to massive files that are hosted on sites that will obviously be killed instantly, once users start clicking the link? Would it be too much to ask to begin mirroring the files, or provide a torrent?
These stories that reference some outside source are useless half of the time, because the source instantly becomes unavailable for a few hours until some new story comes up. It's getting really old.
Images of Ocean Floor Show Effects of Tsunami
The damage to the ocean floor was a result of the cause of the tsunami - not the effect thereof. Tsunamis do not damage the ocean floor until they get into very shallow water (i.e. the coastline).
I've made up my mind and now I've got to lie in it.
I'm sure the reduced media coverage is why President Bush asked Congress to approve $600 million in new money for tsunami relief. That was... Wednesday: http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/02/09/tsunami.aid/index .html
The lack of media coverage is just because nothing new is happening. The event has happened, and now the affected areas are entering a long rebuilding process. We're still helping them. It's just not a new story anymore. There's a reason it's called the news.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
No offense, but why not use Coral Cache, etc where you *dont* have to install some plugin/3rd party app?
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
Heh.. I was going to make the same comment but you got it first.
When a tree grows out of the ground, it pushes soil aside -- would you then describe the ground as "damaged?" Is the moon damaged because it has craters?
The word "damage" is only meaningful in the context of human activities. As you succinctly stated, this is change, not damage.
I wouldn't say it's not damage, I would rather say that it's this type of damage is just a normal part of the Earth's processes. It's still damage, although I understand your point that that is probably too abstract for Joe Public to grasp by him/herself, and so the term is misleading to the public, who only think of damage in purely negative terms.
Next we'll be hearing that the predator/prey relationship needs to be banned because it damages animal populations
Similar but true: For a long time people thought that forests and other ecosystems such as grasslands and vynbos should be "protected" from fires, because it "obviously causes damage", or so people intuitively thought. This causes problems such as excessive amounts of flammable material building up on forest floors, making fires far worse when they do occur, and complicating necessary natural decomposition processes. More importantly, fires have been burning in these ecosystems for so long that the plants and animals have evolved to in some cases require them to occur, for example some types of seeds will only germinate once they have been burned or smoked. Nowadays the focus is usually on better management through controlled burnings so as to avoid the burnings causing problems for human activities.
As with all complex systems, the natural world is not always intuitive. Also, wanting to protect nature and *understanding* nature are two different things. The problems stem from incomplete knowledge (as with global climate change). The answer is always more knowledge.
yo whack-o-jack-o,
He wasn't bashing the US rather he was being a little critical of the US media which in my opinion, not only needs a little ribbing, but also a full on figure-four-leglock. And maybe a few kicks to the skull for good measure.
If being critical of the US media makes a person an american agitator , then forward my name to the committee of Un-American Activities.
btw, i find your username particularly ironic in contrast to the tone of post. back to the quaaludes for you, baby.
Nearly a billion dollars is pathetic?
How much have you PERSONALLY given to the cause? And then, can we see how much you have spent on other, not-necessary expenses?
If you want to cast stones, one should be ready for the return volley.
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
We once hosted an 80MB video that hit the national wires (yes, slashdot included) ... you wouldn't believe how much traffic you can serve if you know how to tune apache correctly. Two virtual servers running an on IBM x335 (P4 xeon, 1.5GB RAM), each VPS serving 750-1000 requests at a time ...
Besides, large single files have nothing on, say, large (filesize) sites that hit Oprah. *That* is lots of fun.
Whether or not the money is sufficient, the fact remains that we're willing to spend 1000 times as much money per capita on war as on humanitarian activities. No matter how you slice it, there's something wrong there. Iraq is not like World War II which had to've been won at any cost.
My argument about your personal giving is valid. If someone doesn't but their money/actions where their mouth is, then they are generally not worth listening to.
I didn't say it was an invalid argument, merely that it's silly because I could simply lie and tell you I donated $1000 personally and you'd have no way of checking. So what's the point in telling you whether I've donated? You can conveniently claim I'm just making it up.
I too did not vote for Bush. In fact, you could say that I voted against Bush. This doesn't mean I believe everything he does is wrong. In regard to the tsunami relief effort, I feel we are doing a good job. Now this isn't one of those "America is the most generous countries in the world" posts. We had our soldiers flying in on relief missions and we stayed around providing drinkable water and food to people. We've also worked with other countries to help with the long term reconstruction.
Some people will say we are not spending enough no matter how much we spend. Sure Iraq was a war of choice -- it was also a war I opposed. Once we made a commitment there as a nation we had no choice to follow through with that commitment. Iraq is our obligation at this point.
What happened to the people effected by the tsunami is tragic. Of this there is no question. However, our obligation there is not the same as our obligation in Iraq. In many ways it is pointless to compare the two situations.
When peole bash Bush, just to bash Bush they loose a lot of credability. If you want to criticize his private social security accounts thing, hey there is a lot to support your critizism. Fell free to criticize how he handled the occupation of Iraq. I personally think he fucked that one up. However, if you think everything he touches turns to poo, you're just going to be considered a left leaning extremeist.
-- john
The Joint Academic Network also pays per unit of data transferred over the transatlantic link. You've just bankrupted them!
On a slightly more serious note, I think the fact that Slashdot can bring down some fairly beefy servers demonstrates that there is a fundamental flaw in the architecture of the Internet. Slashdot is "popular", but not overwhelmingly so. I don't think I've ever seen a topic go above a few thousand posts and it's very likely many people posted more than once. Slashdot's total circulation is probably in the 5,000 - 7,500 bracket. In comparison, a typical British broadsheet might be read by 175,000 people. Give Slashdot 30 times the readership, and admins of even the most powerful sites would cower in terror.
Network overload is not confined to the realms of Slashdot, however. The tsunami early warning system is to be placed in a highly active region. There may not be many real tsunamis, but there will be a great deal of information flooding in. Unless those monitoring and administrating the system have a reliable and effective means of filtering out what is useful and what isn't, they'll either be causing a panic on a daily basis, or blithely ignore the next catastrophe as it unfolds.
Raw information is like raw chicken - hazardous in that state, but beneficial when correctly processed.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)