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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."
For god's sake did anybody running this site really think that a direct link to a 38 meg ppt wouldn't bring down that server?
Can someone please reply with sites that are like slashdot but not run by monkeys?
What if Digg added local news and a Slashdot inspired comment karma system? ---
http://houndwire.com
Besides all the other posts, I seem to remember the US being told to "go home, we don't want you here" by some governmental agencies over there. Makes me wonder why we trippled our aid . . .
-nB
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Bravo, sir! You have amused me, as well as intelligently disagreeing with me. Truly is it said, "If I can't have a good friend, at least let me have a worthy opponent."
Now, to refute your refutation.
The car is a human artifact. It exists solely because human beings created it. It has a purpose to its existence. When any circumstance makes it less fit for its purpose, we call the result "damage." I don't think you can disagree that this is the generally accepted view of things.
On the other hand, if I take my dented car to an auto-body shop, an old-school one where they still fix things instead of ordering replacement panels, I will find that they dent the car further, and drill holes in it, and scrape it with abrasives. Are these damage? I would suggest not, since these, in the end, make the car more fit for its intended purpose.
(I think I have here the beginnings of a Theory of Intelligent Design for cars.)
"Damage to an ecosystem" must not be semantically entwined with "changes to the ecosystem." Human ecological catastrophes must not be confused with natural ecological changes. Otherwise you will get anti-environmentalists excusing human damage to ecosystems as one more example of nature red in claw and fang, humans as the ultimate predator and shaper of their environments. Beaver dams changing the course of a stream? Normal. Humans building a hydroelectric dam that floods hundreds of square miles? Hey, why not? Beavers do it, right?
Anyway - that's my point (one of them, at least). Start calling natural events damaging...and you've handed the anti-environmentalists a get-out-of-jail-free card. "Sure, we've eradicated 43 species this year - but giant meteors from space have historically done 1,000 times more damage! So it's OK!"