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Tsunami Warning System Up and Running
SEWilco writes "UNESCO has announced that their Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System is up and running as scheduled. From the article: 'Twenty-six out of a possible 28 national tsunami information centers, capable of receiving and distributing tsunami advisories around the clock have been set up in Indian Ocean countries. The seismographic network has been improved, with 25 new stations being deployed and linked in real-time to analysis centers. There are also three Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART) sensors. The Commission for the Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is also contributing data from seismographic stations."
While this is a welcome achievement, a key challenge is to get the local processes in place to effectively utilize the early warning. Unfortunately some of the most vulnerable spots are far-flung areas with lack of resources and processes to handle effective evacuations etc.
" The Commission for the Nuclear-Test Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) is also contributing data from seismographic stations."
Nice to know something good came from the Cold War.
While I feel that this system is generally useful and productive, how often do tsunamis happen? I wonder if this "early warning system" will even be used in the next 50 years.
"300 foot wave approaching at 200mph. Grab your ankles and kiss your ass goodbye"
Let's hope the warning system is quicker than a speeding Slashdot editor. From TFA : "Publication Date 29-06-2006 8:00 am" - over a week ago.
Before the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, American researchers actually knew it was coming but didn't have a way to worn the people in its path. They literally in the same position you or I would be in if we too knew it was going to happen.
Who would you phone, in a couple of minutes? The embassies?
That is about as effective as standing out on the front lawn and yellowing "There's a tsunami coming!"
So as I said, this is great news. It will allow international researchers to warn places of the impending wave, and helpfully save a few lives.
easy since a "tidal wave" is a huge amount of water coming inland for dinner it needs a bit of time to gather itself and get going (kind of like any large family)
so since earthquakes out at sea can cause to happen they can watch for tremors and such and say "the chances of an event are slim -> bad --> decent ---> good ----->
OH $41T head for the hills we have one coming" and have enough time to be watching the tide go OOOUUUTTT !!!! from a tall location (thats a good distance inland)
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The biggest problem with my country, India, is that an early warning system won't make much of a difference because there is no way to inform most of the thousands of villages and settlements on the coastlines. In face of this, even a warning hours in advance won't make a significant difference.
At the same time, regardless of these problems, an early warning system like this will save *some* lives, and any life saved is precious!
-Shaunak
Great work by UNESCO. Another example why the UN has become such a vital organisation after WWII.
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Huh? I read the linked article, and it didn't say anything about anyone blaming Bush... Yes, a US government department is listed, but that's not the same as saying "Bush is to blame."
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Fish everywhere have turned to the Internet for advance warning of tsunamis. Using Ocean Internet Explorer running on Windows XP for Aquatic Environments (also known as Windows for Water), they can check the UNESCO site for peril. The only real issue for these Internet users is sharks performing phishing. Identity theft by sharks is a growing problem. In late-breaking news, the RIAA is threatening to sue Charlie the Tuna for file-sharing. Sorry, Charlie.
This is tried and proven technology, put down for a highish initial investment and minimal maintenance requirements. All credit to UNESCO for getting it up and running so quickly.
The logical next step is to link the new Tsunami grids around the world and crunch some data. There could be very interesting research into deep ocean wave effects.
I have never once seen anyone blame either Repubs in general or Bush in particular for tidal waves. We're talking about seismic events here, which aren't affected in any way by human activity (though our vulnerability to them can be worsened by poor building standards and lack of planning or foresight). I could see this humour maybe working for the hurricane (where blame was placed on global warming), but the two events aren't similar.
I realize this is a joke, but who do you think you're mocking? Did anyone ever actually blamed Bush et all for the tsunami? If you have any credible source of someone actually blaming global warming or politicians for the disaster, then link it. No nutjobs either - I did say credible.
Until you do, you're just putting up a sarcastic strawman.
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Huh? That article doesn't mention Bush once. What in the world are you talking about?
Did anyone ever actually blamed Bush et all for the tsunami? If you have any credible source of someone actually blaming global warming or politicians for the disaster, then link it. No nutjobs either - I did say credible.
There wasn't anybody credible, but plenty of heavy breathers at places like moveon.org and democraticunderground.com and various political blogs were saying that, since global warming made this tsunami more likely (a position espoused by some global warming alarmists), George W. Bush is responsible because he didn't magically cause our senators to accept Kyoto. Or something.
Fortunately, nobody took them seriously. But it does make you wonder at what people are willing to believe just to give themselves yet another outlet to vent. The hatred must run miles deep.
I got my Linux laptop at System76.
While this is a welcome achievement, a key challenge is to get the local processes in place to effectively utilize the early warning. Unfortunately some of the most vulnerable spots are far-flung areas with lack of resources and processes to handle effective evacuations etc.
I can't wait until these processes are set up so that real time data from UNESCO's Tsunami Warning System is available over the Internet. My roommate and I are setting up a huge network of 28800 LEDs across our walls that will show the tsunami data in real time! It's going to be a huge map with the Indian Ocean on one wall, and the Pacific Ocean on an adjacent wall. It's also going to pick music from our collection using an algorithm that takes real time tsunami data as input, to set the mood.
I recall there was also some conspiracy theories on the left that massive oil drilling in the ocean made underwater earthquakes (and thus tsunamis) more likely, since they were messing up natures delicate balance of internal pressures or other such nonsense. So in that way, Republicans were all responsible since they're all tired to Big Oil and don't Respect The Planet.
Bruce
Apparently it's a little known fact that Bush is actually four thirds Thai!
This sig is exactly seventy characters long and a real waste of space!
This is basically USELESS. Huge Tsunami's can be 50 feet ABOVE sea level. What exacyly does early warning do?
Say "Kiss your ass goodbye"?. How does this help? In waht way does this mitigate the destruction or human suffering?
Are you posting "feel good" news, or news that has a REAL effect on people?
Put tracking devices in various animals in the area. Dogs, goats, sloths... whatever. If they all inexplicably go berzerk and start heading for the hills, follow them.
Seriously, it was well reported that the local wildlife at the locations where the Tsunami hit were safe in the hills away from the disaster. What were they sensing?
Tsunami stations are all well and good, but will they continue to operate after the mega ice storms freeze the entire ocean solid the Day After Tomorrow?
Perhaps the money would better be spent installing giant space heaters, especially along the northern border states.
Wast the boxing day tsunami the deadliest day in human history? Has there ever been a day in which more people died? which day was that? Any idea?
Survivors of tsunami victims will find a way to claim that the system did not perform adequately and hire an attorney to discover who they can blame for an unspecified amount monetary damages.
Asked to comment, Charlie's lawyer claimed this is impossible, since Charlie's computer experienced the Deep Blue Screen of Death, and won't be fixed until the Geek Squid pay him a house call.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
I've recently been to India.
People live along the banks of rivers. In some places the slums go pretty much down to the high water mark. As I was travelling near one of these rivers I noticed warning signs with loud speakers atop them.
The signs (in English and Hindi) warned people to leave for higher ground if the alarms sounded.
I gather it was a flood warning system, but a warning system is a warning system, and the same action (in this case) is also appropriate for a tsunami.
If you have any credible source of someone actually blaming global warming or politicians for the disaster, then link it. No nutjobs either - I did say credible. Until you do, you're just putting up a sarcastic strawman.
You're new to slashdot, aren't you?
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After a conference talking about the responses to the Sumatura (sp?) tsunami I've come to the conclusion that South East Asian Distaster Preparedness Manager is about the worst job ever:
* You've got about three hours to six hours from the time the earthquake is detected to the time the tsunami makes landfall. The US, which has none of the problems I'm about to outline, can barely accomplish a passable evacuation over three days (72 hours).
* In those same three hours, you have to evacuate between several hundred thousand to several million people, spread over multiple countries and an absolutely gigantic geographic region.
* The overwhelming majority of them live in coastal cities which have no significant landmass which is high above sea level.
* Your challenges include the fact that most of these folks do not own a television or radio, many of them do not trust your government (and some will shoot your agents on sight), road conditions are poor and gridlock is a fact of life *every* morning to say nothing of when everyone is taking the one single-lane dirt road to safety, and you've got to coordinate the efforts of multiple national governments, most of which are barely competent in the best of times.
* The first time you have a false alarm and order the *immediate and that means NOW* shutdown of 6+ national economies for a day, your program will get canceled. Murphy's Law being what it is, you will be shut down just in time to miss The Big One.
* Pick an hour, any hour, for the tsunami to occur. If it occurs in mid-morning your populace will be gridlocked and unreachable for warning alerts. If it occurs during the workday, ditto. If it occurs after work hours or, God forbid, during the night you'll never get the news to everybody in time.
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My wife grew up in Hawaii and California, so while I was learning things in elementary school about "that's the local volunteer fire department siren" and "if the CONELRAD Alert says the Russians are attacking, hide under the desk and kiss your ass goodbye", she was learning things like "that's the tsunami warning siren, if it goes off Run Uphill", and "if there's an earthquake, go stand in the doorway where the ceiling won't fall on you." First decent-sized earthquake after we moved to California, she went over to the doorway and yelled at me for not knowing to do the same thing, but I was just as clueless about that as I was about what the Granny Goose commercials on TV were trying to sell.
When Hurricane Iniki trashed Kauai in 1992, about 6 people were killed, 1400 homes destroyed, and 5000 seriously damaged, but there was enough advance preparation that most people were safe; that's the sort of thing that happens when you've got useful local management, and back in those days FEMA had just been dealing with Hurricane Andrew so they had a warmup round, and they were much stronger politically as opposed to being a dumping ground for Bush the Younger's less competent friends.
Bill Stewart
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Will this reach everybody? No - as other people have commented, there are lots of areas without much infrastructure, and small non-touristy islands are at high risk, but the number of places that have some kind of TV in a bar is huge, and in places with government-run TV, they probably monitor CNN and Star to know what else is happening even if they're not broadcasting it.
And by now, 90% of the world knows who won the World's Cup...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
This has been debunked time and time over, especially with the late tsunami where uncountable number of land (ad sea) animals cadaver were found, all of which were caught unaware waayy away from he hlls. Too bad the *well reporting* did not follow very well on that one, uh ?
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