| Current mood: |  tired |
| Current music: | Wu-Tang Clan - Run |
quake, tsunami, 10000 dead
earlier today there was a big quake in the indian ocean - about 8.9 richter - which resulted in a large tsunami (津波 - literally "habour wave") that looks to have killed at least ten thousand people [update: the count is now over twenty-five thousand and still rising] in countries across southeast asia。 unlike japan and california， there was no early warning system in place， so people didn't move to safe ground in the three hours between the quake and the strike。
here's a site with pretty maps of seismic activity， currently showing the mess in the indian ocean。
a summary of the places hit and respective damage， with a map。
a seismologist describes what happened。
cf. the niigata quakes earlier this year in japan。 that link also has more on various earthquake measures， including richter and shindo。
powerline comments on a reaction that i know i also have：
It's always struck me that casualties resulting from natural disasters inspire less horror than those caused by violence. More people have been killed today by tidal waves in Asia than have been killed in the last year and a half of violence in Iraq. Yet it is unlikely that today's earthquake will stay in the news for more than a day or two. I'm not sure why this is, but, frankly, I share the tendency to pay much greater attention to political violence than to natural disasters. But that shouldn't make us indifferent to the tragedy suffered by so many today in South Asia.
then again， i tend not to emote over the deaths in iraq either。 it probably comes done to "
there is no point worrying about what you can't change"。
aid is now flowing in from around the world。。 outside america most aid is provided by governments， inside america aid is mostly provided by
individuals：
Europeans and the Japanese continue to give primarily through their governments, but the OECD's outdated measure fails to take into account how Americans now give abroad. In 2000, the last year for which comparative figures are available, U.S. ODA totaled $9.9 billion. This figure includes the budgets of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Peace Corps, contributions to the World Bank, and some State and Defense Department humanitarian assistance. Together, these programs account for just over one-sixth of total U.S. assistance -- public and private -- to developing countries. Private giving makes up more than 60 percent. The remainder -- $12.7 billion in 2000 -- is government aid that, although not within ODA guidelines, is still foreign assistance. This includes aid to Israel, Russia, the Central Asian Republics, and central and eastern European nations and support for the National Endowment for Democracy and international organizations such as the International Monetary Fund.
what it is to live a free country！
i wonder if both
google and
blogspot being down is related。 ；－）
updates here，
here and
here。 also related items by abelard
here and
here。
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