I believe that Arthur C. Clarke pointed out that the chunk of Sri Lanka that was devastated by the Tsunami of 2004 was also taken out by a tsunami generated by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883.
That was a pretty Legendary event. People forgot it.
You missed my point. Handing FM radios out to every man woman and child in SE Asia means zero if they don't understand where to go and what to do in an emergency. That's nothing technology can cure. It's man months of work site surveying the area, analyzing the topography, and posting intelligable signs telling people were to go when the shit hits the fan.
Then the REAL fun begins. Explaining to folks what the signs mean, and what that "BEEP BEEP BEEP" of the emergency broadcast system means, and that you really don't have time to go back to your hut, if you value your life you drop what you are doing and run.
One of my jobs was a theater operator in an Imax. Every few months I had to empty the theater because of a fire alarm, and every time we had campers who would stay in their seat, complainers who, while I'm trying to conduct the evacuation insist on grabbing my attention so I can personally answer questions that I had already answered over the PA, or would have no way of knowing otherwise (after all folks, I was watching the show with YOU), and finally the cro-magnons who, despite explicit instructions to leave through the top of the theater (both before the show, during my announcement of the evacuation, and finally with 8 foot tall letters on the screen), insist on going down, and attracting a herd of lemmings in the process.
which btw cover another treaty abandoned by the Bush administration.. the Landmine Ban Treaty
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/02/27/usint76 84.htm
not to make things anti-US, but just a pointer to yet another reason the issue should be addressed by sane people - landmines apparently float in floodings. beware thus. why not ban them?
Because they still make up a large part of our defensive perimeter between North and South Korea. The Land Mines are there to slow down advancing columns of North Korean troops.
Not that this in any way compares to the devastation you are seeing, but I've seen flash floods in person. My uncle used to live next to a creek that had a habit of overflowing it's banks. I still vividly remember towing pizza and a generator in a Canoe past submerged cars and trucks, and thinking to myself, "inanimate object in boat, people wading next to boat, something is seriously wrong with this picture."
Come on slashdotters, what are your good flood stories?
The fact that these soveriegn countries lack an emergency response system is America's fault, or course. After all the USGS CAUSED the Earthquake in the first place.
(Sarcasm, by the way, for the black humor impaired.)
How are you planning on warning people in countries that barely have working phone service? These are countries where fire claims lives because there are no fire codes, and people don't know to evacuate during a fire alarm.
You are going to need a massive education program to accompany said warning system, in nations where large portions of the population can't read. While it can be done, and it should be done, all the technology in the world is not going to fix this problem. Education will.
I live 100 miles inland, and I know the warning signs of a tsunami. I know enough to know that if you see them, you are fscked.
Run, you will be swept away. Grab something and you will be hit by debris, then swept away. It's like catching the flash of a nuclear blast, sure there is stuff you can do, but you are simply doubling your chances of survival from 0.1 to 0.2 %.
The Earth's orbit DID NOT change. What may have changed (slightly) is the angle at which the Earth sits in relation to the plane of the ecliptic.
Short of a major loss or gain of mass, or impulse from a massive impact, the Earth just keeps trucking along in it's rut. While the energy is tremendous in an Earthquake, the energy just moves mass around within the same system.
How come every US made car I use at work sucks. They ficken craws compares to stuff made by Honda, and chew up twice as much gas to boot.
Real Word Example. Start my honda. Rev it up to the yellow line 30 times. Also adjust the mirrors. Then, start the radio playing. Drive around for a little bit. And did I mention I haul ass?
Now, I get out of my honda and I chain the Ford Focus to 30,000 lb trailer. Now, I rev the engine and I put the car in gear, and the tires start smoking, and I get nowhere. Then I redline the engine and thing fills with smoke, and I get parts flying everywhere.
Yeah, I've heard the Ford trannies are a little delicate. I think that's still a hit against Ford...
----
Seriously, a PDF viewer written in Java? Why not write a Fast-Fourier transform to run under GW basic.
I've run into mystery meat problems with Windows. We were developing a 3D simulation way back in the days of Windows NT 4.0. Development was slow and plodding because, despite running under Java, and despite our best efforts, the program would blue screen the entire system.
We spent months trying to isolate the problem. It would sometimes work, and sometimes not work. We would think the problem was solved and BAM.
At the end of the day, we ported that app to Linux. Initially it was just an experiement. Same hardware. Same libraries. Same version of Java. The app ran perfectly every time. We spent less time porting the app to Linux than we spent debugging the windows version.
The Dinosaurs didn't fund their NASA, and look what happened to them.
Well maybe they DID fully fund NASA, but NASA decided it's priorities should be to develop a high-capacity, low-cost, manned, and re-usable spacecraft. Then wouldn't change it's goals for nearly 30 years after discovering that you could have one, or the other, but not all four. At least very well.
Nuclear detonations work a bit differently in the vacuum of space. Without much in the way of material to heat up and acellerate outward at hypersonic speed, all you really get is a massive flash of X-rays.
What we generally see on the Earth's surface as an atomic bomb explosion is mostly the effects from superheating a large volume of air, which is why fuel air bombs look so much like them.
(crackle) in case of rapid cabin depressurization a mask will drop down from the ceiling. Of course, you have about 10 seconds of conciousness before you pass out with which to put it on. And did I mention that your mouth will swell to about twice it's normal volume, and be flash frozen by the rush of air and water vapor from your lungs. And should you actually get the mask on, and somehow manage to breathe from it, the nitrogen dissolved in your blood will form bubbles making your last minutes of life excrutiatingly painful.
Oh, and don't hold your breath. You will only suffer a burst lung, or at the very least embolisms...
Note, this law is not designed to protect those who travel to space. They are designed to protect the rest of us from the debris field that results when they fail.
While I'm all for re-factoring as a practice, this is a pretty cut and dry case where the legislature is breaking new ground.
The rail gun is a nice way of getting around a lack of readily usable fuel on the moon. With a negligable atmosphere a rail gun COULD deliver a rock to orbit. Between this and surface gravity that is 1/6th of the Earth's, the moon is an ideal place to do heavy construction for spacecraft.
Actually, the firing of individual neuron is not nearly as interesting as the pattern in which large groups fire. If you know the transform equation, you can derive what the whole thing is doing by sampling from a few key points.
I'm pretty sure someone else mentioned this. The point is that with a flash/nvram based player, it's immune to shock. People who work out at the gym, jog, bicycle, whathaveyou can't really use an iPod (at least for long) because of the constant shock the hard drive would be subjected to during operation. Idle with the disk parked it's pretty invulnerable. Playing music, and you are asking for a head crash if you bang it, or try jumping jacks or step aerobics.
When you are working out you really don't want the screen, and you only need an hour or two of music.
Slashdot Mirror
If you are going for body count, sure Krakatoa was peanuts. But altering climate, and sheer power, I think this one wins.
You are asking the people whose answer to effects of Global Warming is the Sport Utility Vehicle...
That was a pretty Legendary event. People forgot it.
Then the REAL fun begins. Explaining to folks what the signs mean, and what that "BEEP BEEP BEEP" of the emergency broadcast system means, and that you really don't have time to go back to your hut, if you value your life you drop what you are doing and run.
One of my jobs was a theater operator in an Imax. Every few months I had to empty the theater because of a fire alarm, and every time we had campers who would stay in their seat, complainers who, while I'm trying to conduct the evacuation insist on grabbing my attention so I can personally answer questions that I had already answered over the PA, or would have no way of knowing otherwise (after all folks, I was watching the show with YOU), and finally the cro-magnons who, despite explicit instructions to leave through the top of the theater (both before the show, during my announcement of the evacuation, and finally with 8 foot tall letters on the screen), insist on going down, and attracting a herd of lemmings in the process.
Because they still make up a large part of our defensive perimeter between North and South Korea. The Land Mines are there to slow down advancing columns of North Korean troops.
You asked.
Come on slashdotters, what are your good flood stories?
Well, that would be at the Core of all this wouldn't it.
(Sarcasm, by the way, for the black humor impaired.)
You are going to need a massive education program to accompany said warning system, in nations where large portions of the population can't read. While it can be done, and it should be done, all the technology in the world is not going to fix this problem. Education will.
Run, you will be swept away. Grab something and you will be hit by debris, then swept away. It's like catching the flash of a nuclear blast, sure there is stuff you can do, but you are simply doubling your chances of survival from 0.1 to 0.2 %.
Short of a major loss or gain of mass, or impulse from a massive impact, the Earth just keeps trucking along in it's rut. While the energy is tremendous in an Earthquake, the energy just moves mass around within the same system.
Real Word Example. Start my honda. Rev it up to the yellow line 30 times. Also adjust the mirrors. Then, start the radio playing. Drive around for a little bit. And did I mention I haul ass?
Now, I get out of my honda and I chain the Ford Focus to 30,000 lb trailer. Now, I rev the engine and I put the car in gear, and the tires start smoking, and I get nowhere. Then I redline the engine and thing fills with smoke, and I get parts flying everywhere.
Yeah, I've heard the Ford trannies are a little delicate. I think that's still a hit against Ford...
----
Seriously, a PDF viewer written in Java? Why not write a Fast-Fourier transform to run under GW basic.
(Awaits the volley of flames)
I've run into mystery meat problems with Windows. We were developing a 3D simulation way back in the days of Windows NT 4.0. Development was slow and plodding because, despite running under Java, and despite our best efforts, the program would blue screen the entire system.
We spent months trying to isolate the problem. It would sometimes work, and sometimes not work. We would think the problem was solved and BAM.
At the end of the day, we ported that app to Linux. Initially it was just an experiement. Same hardware. Same libraries. Same version of Java. The app ran perfectly every time. We spent less time porting the app to Linux than we spent debugging the windows version.
Except in a democracy where if WHEN > TERM_OF_OFFICE they don't care.
Well maybe they DID fully fund NASA, but NASA decided it's priorities should be to develop a high-capacity, low-cost, manned, and re-usable spacecraft. Then wouldn't change it's goals for nearly 30 years after discovering that you could have one, or the other, but not all four. At least very well.
Nuclear detonations work a bit differently in the vacuum of space. Without much in the way of material to heat up and acellerate outward at hypersonic speed, all you really get is a massive flash of X-rays.
What we generally see on the Earth's surface as an atomic bomb explosion is mostly the effects from superheating a large volume of air, which is why fuel air bombs look so much like them.
Just look surprised.
Oh, and don't hold your breath. You will only suffer a burst lung, or at the very least embolisms...
Linq
While I'm all for re-factoring as a practice, this is a pretty cut and dry case where the legislature is breaking new ground.
Interestingly, Roddenbury served in the US Army Air Corp during WWII, not the Navy.
The rail gun is a nice way of getting around a lack of readily usable fuel on the moon. With a negligable atmosphere a rail gun COULD deliver a rock to orbit. Between this and surface gravity that is 1/6th of the Earth's, the moon is an ideal place to do heavy construction for spacecraft.
We don't know what conciousness is made of. Thus we do not know its true limitations. And that's not voodoo talking. That's the scientific community.
Actually, the firing of individual neuron is not nearly as interesting as the pattern in which large groups fire. If you know the transform equation, you can derive what the whole thing is doing by sampling from a few key points.
When you are working out you really don't want the screen, and you only need an hour or two of music.