Earthquake In China

Several readers sent in links on the earthquake that hit 10 hours ago near the Sichuan city of Chengdu in China. The Telegraph focuses on the citizen journalism that got word on the quake out on the Net instantly (the first report was via Twitter). Science magazine speculates that deaths from this event could exceed the 240,000 killed in the Tangshan quake in 1976, though the estimated death toll is below 10,000 at this writing. Hundreds of videos are up on YouTube, including this footage from a security camera — keep your eye on the goldfish.

Comments

This is the future

[Robert1]

The instant an event happens anywhere in the world you have hundreds of cameras on it. This is a very, very good thing. Reporters and ground crews are no longer necessary to capture footage, you can get it de novo, unfiltered, unbiased. Of course, this only happens in a sufficiency advanced nation that has ubiquitous means of recording and means of transmission.

Which is interesting because I could swear China had a Youtube block to prevent such uncontrolled proliferation of footage.

Re:This is the future

[Ritz_Just_Ritz]

I'm sitting in my flat in Beijing watching the "goldfish video" on youtube right now. The download was a bit slow, but it's not blocked.

Don't get me wrong, China's censorship is lame and probably won't last much longer as it just becomes too difficult to accomplish, but it's not as all encompassing as people think. The pr0n must flow.

Cheers,

Slashdot-proof?

[Raineer]

I don't know if it's possible for the youtube link to get /.'ed but the shaking starts almost 5 minutes into the video and lasts for about 90 seconds. I have never been in an earthquake and certainly not sure how I'd feel about one that lasted so long.

Re:Slashdot-proof?

[Dreadneck]

I was in the Loma Prieta earthquake that happened during the World Series back in 1989. I was stationed at the Presidio of Monterey and standing on the 2nd floor balcony of my barracks smoking a cigarette when it happened. It was the first and hopefully last earthquake I'll ever experience. It was a frightening and unnerving experience that seemed to last forever. The earthquake in China was almost 10 times more powerful and lasted 6 times longer than the one I went through - it must have been terrifying.

Re:Slashdot-proof?

[joggle]

I was a kid watching that game on TV. I remember seeing things begin to shake, then the signal was lost, then it came back for a bit and then I think there was a minute or more of no signal (just a screen saying they were having technical problems). And then they canceled the game so I was bummed out.

Then the next day I found out how bad the earthquake had been and was sorry for the people living there and the victims but also glad I lived in an area that experienced no earthquakes.

I recently went to Japan and experienced a couple of small earthquakes at night. I slept through the first one but the second one felt like somebody was trying to wake me by shaking me. I literally said out loud "I'm up already" before I realized nobody was shaking me and it was just an earthquake. It was so small that it didn't scare me though, although it was a bit unnerving (it was the first earthquake I ever experienced).

Re:News for Nerds?

[Revenger75]

They had to find a semi-worthwhile story to put up because they were running out of advertisements like the one here and this one. Interesting how this disaster gets a slashdot article, but the cyclone in Burma didn't, unless I missed something.

Re:Twitter?

[kcelery]

http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1006/4/3/1/100643181.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=100643181&mdate=0513002548

Early warning from toad migration on May 10.

Ouch

[WindBourne]

First, that was NOT the entire's US response to Katrina. It was the feds, not citizen's. Many of us sent in money and did help how we could. Home were opened, jobs created, etc. But your characterizations of the bush response is actually kind of wicked. I had not thought about it in that context, but you are right.

Re:Heart ?

[Ex-MislTech]

The "whites" were Europeans that came to the Americas,
primarily Spanish, French, British, Dutch, etc etc.

They did things like hand out small pox blankets.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smallpox_blanket#Biological_warfare

The Native Americans were many different tribes, and
they really did not have a large unification til around the
time of Custer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer#Battle_of_the_Little_Bighorn

Some Native Americans tried to flee to canada after fighting
and were pursued all the way to Canada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nez_Perce#Chief_Joseph.27s_surrender

Some fought brutal guerilla style war for many years

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo

The skull and bones society stole his bones back in the day

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geronimo#Theft_of_remains

So that is who the "whites" are.

The whites are the ppl who signed many treaties, and did not
honor most of them.

Their were some instances when Native Americans who had family
members killed went on rampages as well thou.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_treaties#U.S._Native_American_treaties

There are still many tribes, several names known by very few.

My tribe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen_Potawatomi_Nation

I credit my grandfather with my dim view of so called society.

He was one of the most brilliant men I ever personally knew.

My tour of duty in the US military working on RADAR showed
me that the killing of local indigenous ppl by profiteers
has been justified by said profiteers for a very long time.

It continues to this day...