Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sandwich on December 26, 2004, 05:35:36 am
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[q]The world's fifth-largest quake in a century hit southern Asia on Sunday, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India, drowning thousands and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives.[/q]
http://news.google.com/?hl=en&ncl=http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml%3Ftype%3DtopNews%26storyID%3D7179121
:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
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now this is unnerving.
*thanks god he has relatives that live on a rather high plateu.
*goes to call mom
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Holy ****!
My dad's boss is on vacation around there. Hope he's alright :(
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:no: And of course, there being christmas around here, hardly no news coverage either. I guess 3000+ people dead isn't just enough to break the news barrier :doubt:
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Oh dear god! :(
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well, my parents are ok. So far as I've heard, no relatives were down near the affected areas either.
Damn bad thing that happened tho. The entire coastline of Andhra pradesh was hit, and Madras had a wave come into a significant portion of the city. lots of deaths on both areas :(
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Well us stupid evil americans will be sending some Aid to India and Sri Lanka ASAP. I do feel really sorry for those folks.
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eh? Keep politics to one side Redmenace, this isn't the thread for it.
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Man that sucks. During the holiday season to boot. What horrible timing indeed.
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Damn. Just damn. My condolences. Any idea on damage, beyond what the press is saying, or do they seem to have it right?
And Redemance, shut up. This really isn't the place for political bull****ting from *anybody* at the moment.
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Truly awful.......
Glad to hear your parents are ok, Singh.
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Guys... wasn't Steak going to Malaysia on holiday? :(
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Originally posted by Moonsword
Damn. Just damn. My condolences. Any idea on damage, beyond what the press is saying, or do they seem to have it right?
And Redemance, shut up. This really isn't the place for political bull****ting from *anybody* at the moment.
well, having being to Madras and seeing the facilities there, i'd say enormous just there alone. Even if a tidal wave goes a few hundred meters in-land, it'll cause a significant amount of damage to the people who live and depend on the industries right next to the shore, most especially the fishermen who were probably out to sea at that time.
However, its just estimates for now. I'm looking through www.timesofinida.com right now to get an accurate figure (who better to trust than the local media, right?)
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this is what concerns me the most:
" Thousands fled their homes along the coast after cars were hurled up, boats were washed inland and water seeped into major buildings, including the police headquarters and the nuclear power plant at nearby Kalpakkam."
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Oh, ****...
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There's a fair amount of variation in the death toll... Anywhere from 2000, to 6000...
Its a sad event however :(
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Reporting from Malaysia here. Inland KL wasn't affected, but the island state of Penang took a tsunami hit. 6 taken. Setekh shouldn't be facing anything more drastic than a mugging.
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Some good news at least.
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While very bad, it is also very good, a quake that size could have easily made a wave 3X that.
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Ah ****. Death toll just went up to 11,500.
My God...
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News talked about 11000+ dead. :sigh:
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Oh ****.
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Heh, I just talked to my friend who's sister was in India. She said "suddenly there was water all around our hotel, and cows were floating here and there".
It can't be that bad. Some sources give 11 000 dead, more expected.
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wasn't there a huge earthquake in Iran the day after Christmas last year?
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only saying that the US will be sending aid ASAP.....or atleast I think they should.
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I was just talking with a friend of mine, and she said her dad said something about having heard that... *phew* ... the earthquake actually caused a change in the tilt of the globe or something.
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The earthquake that ended global warming!
In seriousness, this is a horrible, horrible happening. If I were a praying man, I'd pray for these people.
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Bad news.... the wave even reached as far as Africa. They are saying 11,500 dead right now...
:shaking: :(
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When Krakatoa exploded, the tidal waves went round the Earth, twice.
It's bad from a human point of view, but the Earth itself will barely notice, the crust is about 3% of the planet compared to the core, it doesn't really affect orbits etc.
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http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7180384
12,300.
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Yahoo says 11,500, Reuters says 12,300. either way, it's really bad.
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(http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/asia_quake_path_map.gif)
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from what I read the quake had the equivilent of 30Gt worth of energy
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death toll rose up to 14,500....
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Reuters count is up to 15.500.
Bob : yes, the earthquake in Iran occured Dec 26, 2003, with more than 43.000 dead. If something like that happens again next christmas, it'll be more than startling.
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Yahoos count is up to 19,930
:(
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It is quite unrealistic to expect a natural disaster of this magnitude to have "just" 3000 dead. Sad, but true.:(
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CNN
Asia quake toll tops 20,000
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Minimum 21.000. Oh hell.
And I fear this game of increasing numbers will continue quite a while.
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BBC:
Sri Lanka: 10,800 dead
Indonesia: 4,500 dead
India: 2,958 dead
Thailand: 839 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Maldives: 32 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
God, this is really bad indeed.
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There's also unconfirmed reports of fatalities in Somalia.
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Setekh just posted in the Staff forum, so apparently he's okay.
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Originally posted by Goober5000
Setekh just posted in the Staff forum, so apparently he's okay.
Good to hear that. :)
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Just herd the Death toll is close to 24,000.:(
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****. This is just out of control now. But, considering how many nations were affected, I'm not surprised that the death toll is as high as it is.
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Especially as it (well, many of the deaths - maybe half to two thirds) would have been avoided if they'd implemented a tsunami warning system. But they'd decided against that last year.
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I heard a disturbing report on the radio a while(2-3 hours) ago that said something to the effect that contact had been lost with the quake-side of one of the islands and that as many as 1,000,000 people were known to live on that side of the island.
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The indonesian government has warned that fatalities in that country alone may rise to 25,000 )in the Aceh province); Sri Lanka have also warned fatalities there may rise to 20,000.
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death toll is above 40,000 now.
Btw, that earth tilting thing is true, also seems many islands moved sometimes up to 20 meters south east. Funky.
The tilting thing will have no impact whatsoever on climate or anything, they said.
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any link to a news article?
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4129371.stm
(toll given at 31,000) EDIT; now 38,000
The extent of the disaster in some remote regions is not yet known but, as rescue workers discover more bodies, the true extent of the tsunami's devastation is becoming clearer:
# The bodies of more than 700 mainly foreign tourists have been found in the Thai resort of Khao Lak - the government says the death toll in Thailand may rise to about 2,000.
# Sri Lanka's government says it believes the number of dead there could rise to 20,000.
# Hundreds of bodies are still strewn around the devastated streets of Banda Aceh, capital of the Indonesian province of Aceh.
# In Meulaboh town on Sumatra's west coast, one of the areas closest to the quake's epicentre, 10,000 people - 25% of the population - are confirmed dead.
# About 7,000 people are feared dead in the low-lying Andaman and Nicobar islands, say Indian officials, with 20% of the population on one island, Car Nicobar, believed killed.
Sri Lanka: 13,000 dead
Indonesia: 19,000 dead
India: 4,371 dead
Thailand: 1,400 dead
Maldives: 52 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
Somalia: 100 dead
Kenya: 1 dead
Seychelles: 3 dead
Tanzania: 10 dead
It's basically a disaster on an incomprehensible scale...when you see the news footage, of (the resorts on) entire islands in the Maldives wiped off the face of the earth, and bodies lying in the streets and beaches, it's heart-wrenching.
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I know of that, unfortunately. All too well.
I was referring to the article on the tilt...
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ah.
er.
*cough*
Originally posted by Singh
I know of that, unfortunately. All too well.
I was referring to the article on the tilt...
EDIt; here
http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/27/quake.seismic.ap/index.html
Sieh and other scientists said it probably jolted the planet's rotation. "It causes the planet to wobble a little bit, but it's not going to turn Earth upside down," Sieh said.
Researchers also speculated on the extent to which the jolt might have changed Sumatra's coastline. Extensive damage and flooding was preventing investigators from immediately reaching the scene.
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jolted the planet's rotation?!
:blah: :blah:
oh jeez, I didn't think it was that severe.
Woah.
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Originally posted by Rictor
jolted the planet's rotation?!
:blah: :blah:
oh jeez, I didn't think it was that severe.
Woah.
Of a power equivalent to detonating a million atomic bombs, apparently.
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yeah, I'm reading the same thing right now.
It just makes you realize, for all our science, we're still nothing compared to what nature can dish out.
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Wow...
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Death tole's up to about 44,000 as of this morning.
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Death toll is up to 55.000 now =/
Can only find a couple of news sources confirming that, but it probably won't take too long until the death toll rises beyond the current one.
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Images of Tsunami (http://www.nbc10.com/news/4026938/detail.html)
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http://www.nbc10.com/slideshow/4028629/detail.html?qs=;s=12;w=320
:shaking: :shaking:
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>59,000 dead, with thousands more missing
The title of this thread seems like hopeless optimism......
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Hmm...
*edits thread title*
:(
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Us in the U.S. and in Europe need to look really closely at this. If a big earthquake hit the central Atlantic, it would send waves higher than that toward NY City and Boston and places in Europe. I've read alot about the coastline along NY City and storm surge. NY's coastline is very shallow, if a Hurricane hit there it would bring storm surge to over 15 feet high. Now think about what a 8.0 earthquake would do. *Thinks of scene from "The Day After Tommorow".:shaking:
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The US, Japan etc already have a Tsunami warning system in the Pacific ocean (there's an average of 8 tsunamis a year there - obviously not as severe - the area has heavy seismic activity)
I'm not sure if the atlantic is unstable enough to be a risk; there was a suggestion that a super-tsunami could be cause by a massive landslide from a number of places (this super-tsunami would be powerful enough to wipe the entire east coast of the US, the UK and a great deal of europe off the map), but the likelihood of such an event is disputed (it relies upon a single massive landslide; it's debatable whether this can actually happen).
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This is just horrible. At least Thailand's offering free flights out of the country for tourists. And the people who've lost everything except the clothes they wear. :(
Well guys, don't forget about global warming. If that cap on the North melts, it'll submerge low-lying regions like Florida and Bangladesh...*shudders*
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They were talking last night about how the death toll is going to go up to even more obscene levels once the water born diseases like malaria and cholera start spreading.
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I don't know how much the atlantic is unstable, but earthquakes happen out there, and as far as I know so do volcanos. But, most people don't think about it, same way with huge quakes the hit the Tennesee area back in 1812, changed the flow of rivers.
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A classmate was/is in Thailand. I hope she's alright.
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Originally posted by WeatherOp
I don't know how much the atlantic is unstable, but earthquakes happen out there, and as far as I know so do volcanos. But, most people don't think about it, same way with huge quakes the hit the Tennesee area back in 1812, changed the flow of rivers.
The Atlantic is apparently a lot more stable than the pacific in particular....apparently there's simply not the potential for the same size of tsunami as in the Indian or Pacific ocean. There's obviously additional danger from landslide-based tsunamis.... either way, there is no Atlantic warning system.
EDIT; apparently the Portugese & Spanish have built a warning system for Western Europe, though.
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Originally posted by WeatherOp
Us in the U.S. and in Europe need to look really closely at this. If a big earthquake hit the central Atlantic, it would send waves higher than that toward NY City and Boston and places in Europe. I've read alot about the coastline along NY City and storm surge. NY's coastline is very shallow, if a Hurricane hit there it would bring storm surge to over 15 feet high. Now think about what a 8.0 earthquake would do. *Thinks of scene from "The Day After Tommorow".:shaking:
15 foot waves? You're far more heavily f**ked (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml) than that.
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Originally posted by aldo_14
The Atlantic is apparently a lot more stable than the pacific in particular....apparently there's simply not the potential for the same size of tsunami as in the Indian or Pacific ocean. There's obviously additional danger from landslide-based tsunamis.... either way, there is no Atlantic warning system.
EDIT; apparently the Portugese & Spanish have built a warning system for Western Europe, though.
Iceland. Eurasian and American tectonic plates are separating.
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Originally posted by karajorma
15 foot waves? You're far more heavily f**ked (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml) than that.
There's apparently an arguement over how likely that is; some scientists say that such a large landslide would fragment up and hit the water in 'pieces'... I think the analogy was between dropping a brick in a bath, and dropping the same brick broken up into pieces.
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Originally posted by Janos
Iceland. Eurasian and American tectonic plates are separating.
Indeed, and that's why we're safe: no frictions, nothing.Iceland is on a sideway and tortuous part of the crack, and it doesn't suffer from earthquakes anyway.
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This is unreal.
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50,000 confirmed, it just keeps coming...
Sri Lanka: 18,706 dead
Indonesia: 27,174 dead
India: 4,371 dead
Thailand: 1,516 dead
Maldives: 52 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
Somalia: 100 dead
Kenya: 1 dead
Seychelles: 3 dead
Tanzania: 10 dead
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so what do you think the number's going to end up at?
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also, anyone plan on taking any action to personally help the victims? by that i mean, rather than going "OMG that's horrible", actually sending money, or volunteering for the relief efforts?
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Um I am thinking about sending a couple hundred dollars my self. I know there are many US organizations taking donations to provide food and clothing.
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Originally posted by Stealth
so what do you think the number's going to end up at?
the shady side of 200,000 at least.
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I'm donating money
Friend of mine suggested sending rubber dhingy's :rolleyes:
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At least. 60,000 now, projections are doubling just because of disease alone from contaminated water. 150,000-200,000 is my estimate.
Jeez... and now people are criticizing the US for being 'stingy' with our cash (only $35 million dedicated as of now)...
...considering as how we're doing more to help the relief effort that just about any other country. Some people just don't appreciate our generosity and aid...
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well let's keep this on personal contributions, rather than a nation as a whole, cause that's bound to stem into some political flamewar.
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A very cool story I just heard on the radio. They found an infant, alive, on a floating mattress. They also found a 2-year old sitting by the side of one of the few remaining roads, his uncle saw his picture on the internet and is currently enroute to claim him. One word: miracle
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Indeed. :nod:
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so sad...
Anyone know where I could find some videos of the wave?
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Originally posted by Stealth
also, anyone plan on taking any action to personally help the victims? by that i mean, rather than going "OMG that's horrible", actually sending money, or volunteering for the relief efforts?
Funny you should ask. Just last night I was at my offices watching a movie with some friends (from work and from elsewhere), and my boss had been listening to the news on the radio as he was driving there. He felt an urge to have basically the whole company (3-4 guys - yeah, we're tiny) fly out to lend a helping hand wherever we could.
So, long story short, we might be flying out in.... 6 hours. I'll try to let you know more definitively when I find out, but considering the short time span, I may not have the time to. If that happens I'll probably SMS Kalfireth or Darkage on the way to the airport and have them post for me. :p
EDIT: Ok, my boss's son has a birthday on Friday, so he didn't get the OK from his wife to go until after that. So I'll probably be flying out Friday night or Saturday morning.
As for where, looks like Jakarta is the destination. Hmm. I've never been south of the equator. :p
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Originally posted by nuclear1
...considering as how we're doing more to help the relief effort that just about any other country. Some people just don't appreciate our generosity and aid...
Hmm..I believe Japan has donated twol hundred million dollars worth of aid, according to figures here.
The total amount will go >200,000 probably touching 250,000. Disease is going to be rampant everywhere, especially in India, since it has some of the densest population figures in the world, but the most victims will actually come from Sri Lanka or the locations near the epicentre itself.
What worries me most however, is that figures of starvation deaths will come in from the Andamar and Nicobar islands, which are almost totally cut off. Some of the islands dont have any means of travel in and out except by boat...
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Originally posted by Sandwich
As for where, looks like Jakarta is the destination. Hmm. I've never been south of the equator. :p
the water of the toilet flush spins the other way. ;7
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Originally posted by Singh
Hmm..I believe Japan has donated twol hundred million dollars worth of aid, according to figures here.
The total amount will go >200,000 probably touching 250,000. Disease is going to be rampant everywhere, especially in India, since it has some of the densest population figures in the world, but the most victims will actually come from Sri Lanka or the locations near the epicentre itself.
What worries me most however, is that figures of starvation deaths will come in from the Andamar and Nicobar islands, which are almost totally cut off. Some of the islands dont have any means of travel in and out except by boat...
The only figures I know of are $35m US, £15m UK (approx US$28-30m).... these are the 2 highest pledges AFAIK.
Also, apparently Burma was hit by the tsunami, but the government there is not of a nature to comment on casualties.
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Japan : 30 Mio
EU : 30 Mio + some extra Mio from several member states
Australia : 20 Mio
US : increased to 35 Mio
That's the current figures.
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Mio?
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Mio = Million i think.
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Dollars, pounds, or euros though? Because the US is defo giving $35m, and the UK ~$29m (15m GBP), which would thus mean that the contribution of other EU countries was miniscule in comparison if they add up to $29m (inclduing or excluding the UK contribution)
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Sorry, I forgot that. The US payment was $, the others were given in €. My bad.
The EU funds come directly from the EU as an organisation. Several member states, including the UK, have proposed additional funds.
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I just found out my boss was in the Maldives. He's alright, though; waves never hit where he was for some reason.
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Originally posted by ubermetroid
so sad...
Anyone know where I could find some videos of the wave?
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/527/
[l]edit: any idea how much Canada is sending?[/l]
4 million dollars! Cheap basatards, they could easily do 10 times that without breaking a sweat. Hmm, I guess its better than nothing :doubt: :doubt:
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4.2 million from Canada. Probably US$.
http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=cfcaa660-1cc6-48e6-8818-f5cc6483c329
Edit : I should not open browser windows and post half an hour later...20 million € from Germany, btw.
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The only thread I know of that has managed to stay on topic for 5 pages.
Very uppsetting tragedy indeed. Not only have tens of thousands died, but it has altered the terrain quite a bit due to its natural size.
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Originally posted by Sandwich
Funny you should ask. Just last night I was at my offices watching a movie with some friends (from work and from elsewhere), and my boss had been listening to the news on the radio as he was driving there. He felt an urge to have basically the whole company (3-4 guys - yeah, we're tiny) fly out to lend a helping hand wherever we could.
So, long story short, we might be flying out in.... 6 hours. I'll try to let you know more definitively when I find out, but considering the short time span, I may not have the time to. If that happens I'll probably SMS Kalfireth or Darkage on the way to the airport and have them post for me. :p
EDIT: Ok, my boss's son has a birthday on Friday, so he didn't get the OK from his wife to go until after that. So I'll probably be flying out Friday night or Saturday morning.
As for where, looks like Jakarta is the destination. Hmm. I've never been south of the equator. :p
hey i may end up meeting you then, because there's a fairly big chance that in the next few days i'll be shipped off to Asia too :p
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Really? That'd be cool - I'll be on the island where the city of Medan (http://www.medanphotos.com/) is located, probably working with the 7th Day Adventist church there in rescue operations. I'll be there from this Sunday for a week. Don't ask if a guy by the name of "Sandwich" is around, though. ;)
Anyway, here's an article (http://news.com.com/Quake+may+have+altered+Earths+rotation/2100-1028_3-5505951.html?tag=nefd.top) specifically about the affect the quake may have had on the rotation and tilt of the Earth. Awesome stuff (in a "I am filled with awe" way, not a "whoa, that's sooo cool" way). :p
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That is, indeed, Awesome. What's more Awesome is the fact that it took an energy release as massive as the quake(not The Quake) to alter it as much as it did. BTW, does anyone know where I could find out how much energy is associated with the various Richter values? The scale is logarithmic so a 9.0 is very large indeed.
*update*
n/m
The energy released by an earthquake follows a logarithmic type relation: log(E)=5.24+1.44M where E is the energy release in Joules.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Mathematics/geomath/logsnb/logeg2.html
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/intensity.html
If an 8.0's energy release is equivlent to a 6 nuke then a 9.0 is equal to a 60 megaton nuke. Holy Smokes!!!
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That doesn't sound right at all. The initial news reports on the quake compared it to a thousand (million? I don't recall...) A-bombs, IIRC - and that was when it was still thought to have been an 8.3 quake or so.
And aren't there nukes or H-bombs in the gigaton range?
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The Russians have/had a 0,9GT bomb, IIRC. But that was too large to be practical.
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it was originally to be 100 megaton but they scaled it down...
http://www.zvis.com/nuclear/showexpinfo.shtml?data/tzar.dat
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Yeah, here we go (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/27/quake.seismic.ap/index.html)... it was merely an estimation, though:
[q]How powerful? By some estimates, it was equal to detonating a million atomic bombs.[/q]
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Wow, in Holland alone people have donated roughly 4,000,000 USD in 2 days. :eek: I am so proud to be part of this country right now.
I donated €50 btw.
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You do realize that a Gigaton is 1000 times a megaton right? The most powerful deployed weapon is in the 45 megaton range, IIRC. Anything larger and you're talking about regional destruction not city level(assuming you ignore the radiation)
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Originally posted by Liberator
You do realize that a Gigaton is 1000 times a megaton right? The most powerful deployed weapon is in the 45 megaton range, IIRC. Anything larger and you're talking about regional destruction not city level(assuming you ignore the radiation)
Yeah, I guess I was remembering the ratings on SW's turbolasers and ST's phasers/photorps. :p Still, that CNN article had estimation of it being a million a-bomb power quake. :eek:
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That would roughly be 15 gigatons.
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lol no i won't go around asking people "have you seen 'sandwich'?"
i'll let you know if i end up going though, and vice-versa :D
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Originally posted by Liberator
That is, indeed, Awesome. What's more Awesome is the fact that it took an energy release as massive as the quake(not The Quake) to alter it as much as it did. BTW, does anyone know where I could find out how much energy is associated with the various Richter values? The scale is logarithmic so a 9.0 is very large indeed.
*update*
n/m
The energy released by an earthquake follows a logarithmic type relation: log(E)=5.24+1.44M where E is the energy release in Joules.
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Mathematics/geomath/logsnb/logeg2.html
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/UPSeis/intensity.html
If an 8.0's energy release is equivlent to a 6 nuke then a 9.0 is equal to a 60 megaton nuke. Holy Smokes!!!
It was mark 9.0 on the movement and not richter scale, though (according to wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moment_magnitude_scale )
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I heard 60 Gigatons
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Originally posted by Rictor
http://www.compfused.com/directlink/527/
THX Rictor! I will have to watch it when I get home thouhg, the site is blocked at work...
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That video is highly disturbing.
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I'm wondering why the guy is just calmly filming it, rather than fleeing for his life. But I guess you can't really do much in that type of situation except hope for the best. What surprised me was the speed at which the water level rose. It must have gone up a good 5 meters in a minute or so. One second the water level is below the house and the next you have the room half full with water. Scary stuff.
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Agreed. Kind of puts the WTC attack into perspective, doesn't it? Death toll now predicted to exceed 100, 000.
Did you see George Bush at that press conference though? Smug prick...
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Like Lib said, it will probably hit 150,000 and beyond, when/if the dieseses start spreading. The governements and aid agencies are doing their best to prevent it, but I don't think its altogether avoidable.
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pyro don't make this political please.
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I wasn't trying to, and I apologise if it seemed that way. I won't say any more here. People who want to know can PM me for more info. :)
This kind of event is horrible, because we are entirely powerless as a species to prevent it from happening. We think that we're so advanced, that we can do what we like and get our own way most of the time, but then the world decides to land something like this on us, and we realise how small we really are.
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Well, I'm not going in the end. :-/ It's for a combination of reasons. One, my continued back problems preventing me from being able to do any heavy lifting (like bodies, debris, etc). Two, the shots one needs to get before going to such locations take a week to 10 days to take effect, and since I didn't have them a week to 10 days ago, they'd just start taking effect once I got back to Israel. Not the smartest thing in the world. Ah well... the other two guys from my company are still going, so at least someone is.
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My mate's girlfriend is going out somewhere over there for medical training next summer: Is she in for a culture shock or what?
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I just heard that our govt. has donated 8 million euros to the disaster relief. And that got me thinking:
If my miniscule little country gave 8 million euros, howcome the US and Canada are being such cheapskates?? Portugal is a poor country, the size of Florida state, and we manage to give about half of what the biggest economical power on Earth? That shows just how much they care...
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U done any conversions on those figures though? What's the exchange rate?
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The euro is currently exchanging at 1.33 dollars. 8 million euros makes for over 10 million dollars.
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Aren't the yanks giving something like 30 Mil?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=371055
The UK is giving about the same.
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The people of Holland have donated ~4 million dollars themselves (not the government). The government has donates 2.7 million dollars and is planning to give more. The Dutch Red Cross has donated 140000 dollars.
Thats a total of almost 7 million dollars and the money is still coming through buckets at a time thanks to donations. Tonight there will even be an entire TV-show dedicated to raise money.
That's almost 17 million dollars from Holland and portugal alone (if what Swamp_Thing said was right).
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Our government encouraged the people to not spend their money on fireworks for New Year's eve, but rather donate it.
And what does the industry do? They complain that all those appeals for donations may ruin their business. :blah:
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Originally posted by mitac
Our government encouraged the people to not spend their money on fireworks for New Year's eve, but rather donate it.
And what does the industry do? They complain that all those appeals for donations may ruin their business. :blah:
Some idiot told me today that I shouldn't buy any fireworks, instead just give it all to charity.
Me: "OK what if I donate AND buy my fireworks?"
She: "no ur bad just donate it all"
Me: "Because 100 000 people that I don't know at all died somewhere I'm not supposed to have fun in New Year's Eve?"
She: "yes"
Me: "wtf get off my face and let me do whatever I want"
She: "No think of the children!"
Me: "I don't know them, I will donate money but I am not going to spoil my party because of it."
She: "ur bad"
Me: oh ok then i guess so
FIREWORKS ARE A SYMBOL OF SELFISM AND GREED
It's a nice idea to give your fireworks money to charity and whatever, but it immediately spawned so much of holier-than-thou hypocricy and idiotism that later today I decided to buy the fireworks just for the hell of it. The event is sad, but it did not shatter my sanity and I don't cry about it all the time. I'm not even supposed to.
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Originally posted by vyper
Aren't the yanks giving something like 30 Mil?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=371055
The UK is giving about the same.
Uk has raised its donation to £50m. Public have donated over £25m overnight. Queen is giving a 'sizeable' donation. Doubtless the same in many other nations; but we need to keep up pressure to keep tge governments & people giving more.
NB: spending money on fireworks; there are people out there who are dying from thirst, starvation, drinking from fetid water with dead bodies lying in it.... what's more important - a simple, miniscule gesture of a few pounds (or euros, or dollars) or spending the same money on 10 minutes of flashy lights that go bang.
EDIT; I just donated £50 in case you're wondering - UK people can see www.dec.org.uk for donations
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Janos, you selfish, greedy bastard! :p You should sell your car, your house, anything you own and donate it AT ONCE. Then go begging to the lady's house - she won't even open the door. Practical hypocracy.
I hardly ever buy fireworks for New Year's eve. Nobody will lose profit from me donating a few bucks. If that helps a bit, that's okay for me. I sure won't start telling people how to spend their money and whether they should donate or not. Just the bit of help I'm able to give.
But let's not drift into a debate on charity and selfishm here. Though posting the newest figures for the estimated dead isn't really encouraging.
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Originally posted by Janos
It's a nice idea to give your fireworks money to charity and whatever, but it immediately spawned so much of holier-than-thou hypocricy and idiotism that later today I decided to buy the fireworks just for the hell of it. The event is sad, but it did not shatter my sanity and I don't cry about it all the time. I'm not even supposed to.
I've got to agree with this. If it helps you any tell her to think about the poor sods who are going to lose their jobs in the fireworks industry cause idiots like her are insisting on not giving them any money on their second busiest day of the year (I'm assuming 4th July is their busiest of course).
Donating to charity is good. Making people feel like **** cause they don't want to give up everything they own is not. I fail to see anything wrong in giving the same amount you would have spent on fireworks and still buying fireworks.
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Okay, I'm not going to pretend like what the Government of the USA has sent over thus far(it's only been 4 days remember) is going to be anything like enough. But where in the budget would like for them to get the money? We aren't a Socialist state where the government has control of all the money. You can't budget an aid level for disasters of this scale. Don't forget that we've also sent a Carrier Group into the area to help with relief efforts.
That said, I'm a little sick of you Euro-peons, whining and *****ing about how the USA is the worst thing since Hitler, but when you need help or money we're you're first stop with you're hand out. Can you get a little more hypocritical please?
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I have to agree with Lib here... Everyone starts saying the Us is evil and all, and yet we donate millions to countries when disaster strikes, but does the same get done for us? Did you see countries rallying to donate money to the WTC survivors? How about in just about every earthquake to ever hit California. Do you see outside nations donating to releif aid there?
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Originally posted by Liberator
Okay, I'm not going to pretend like what the Government of the USA has sent over thus far(it's only been 4 days remember) is going to be anything like enough. But where in the budget would like for them to get the money? We aren't a Socialist state where the government has control of all the money. You can't budget an aid level for disasters of this scale. Don't forget that we've also sent a Carrier Group into the area to help with relief efforts.
That said, I'm a little sick of you Euro-peons, whining and *****ing about how the USA is the worst thing since Hitler, but when you need help or money we're you're first stop with you're hand out. Can you get a little more hypocritical please?
(http://img69.exs.cx/img69/8420/massiveq0rl.gif)
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Originally posted by Hippo
I have to agree with Lib here... Everyone starts saying the Us is evil and all, and yet we donate millions to countries when disaster strikes, but does the same get done for us? Did you see countries rallying to donate money to the WTC survivors? How about in just about every earthquake to ever hit California. Do you see outside nations donating to releif aid there?
Eh?
Your talking about disasters which are (no pun intended) a drop in the ocean compared to this - during, for example, the 4 hurricanes that hit Florida, most UK aid & charity went to the carribean nations that were virtually wiped out. Not because we're biased against America, but because the US is the biggest, richest country in the world and needs it least. It can absorb these, and handle them - did the US even appeal for outside aid and money? (excluding the disaster specialists who would be automatically sent there)
It's that simple; in an ideal world, we'd have enough money to help everyone. We don't, so we try and help those who need it most.
Just look at India for an example; not only are they declining aid, they're donating to other countries. The same as the US did for aformentioned hurricanes, may I add (to Haiti in particular I believe).
What are you grudging? Aid to asian nations? Why are you whining about european nations - we're giving as much as you, more even - meet and beat what europe gives and then whine about us 'standing with out hands out'.
Everyone, every country that can afford to, should be giving as much as possible.
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Originally posted by Hippo
I have to agree with Lib here... Everyone starts saying the Us is evil and all, and yet we donate millions to countries when disaster strikes, but does the same get done for us? Did you see countries rallying to donate money to the WTC survivors? How about in just about every earthquake to ever hit California. Do you see outside nations donating to releif aid there?
1). America can take care of its own. Its a rich-f*cking-country. South-West Asia is amongst the poorest parts of the world.
2). NO ****ING DISASTER IN THE US HAS CLAIMED OVER A HUNDRED F*CKING THOUSAND DEATHS. :hopping:
Sorry, but I find it so incredibly dense of you people to even start comparing a few hundred dead in a wealthy country to thousands upon thousands death and dying as we speak. Get off your high horse and smell the pile of ****.
Ow, wow, the US has a little tornado that claims maybe one or two lives. BOO-F*CKING-HOO! Ow, wow, a plane is crashed into a building claiming a tiny fraction of lives compared to what is happening down there and has billions of dollars to compensate. It's sad that lives were lost in these mere accidents (in comparison to this), but you don't need our help to recover from it. THEY DO!.
Ugh, instead of thinking how you are somehow sad and pathetic and blaming other people for some **** that has absolutely nothing to do with this appauls me.
Stop acting so goddamned innocent and do whats right. Stop acting like you are somehow the victim. :ick:
F*cking appauling of you. Seriously.
EDIT: Sorry for the harsh wording here but it just pisses me off immensely how you can turn this around while you're sitting in your comfortable chair probably with a big bag of patato chips and a soda in front of your $2000 computer. :ick:
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There hasn't been any US-bashing so far. Well, not in excess of the average level. ;)
So, please don't start it now. Hell, I could also start complaining that we Germans are still called Nazis by a lot of people, but as soon as someone needs financial or material aid we are called upon. But that's not the topic. This thread is not about evil superpowers, it's about dead people in southern asia. So, please cut it out.
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Originally posted by mitac
There hasn't been any US-bashing so far. Well, not in excess of the average level. ;)
So, please don't start it now. Hell, I could also start complaining that we Germans are still called Nazis by a lot of people, but as soon as someone needs financial or material aid we are called upon. But that's not the topic. This thread is not about evil superpowers, it's about dead people in southern asia. So, please cut it out.
I'm sorry if my post appeared to be as such.
To put it bluntly; no-one is giving enough until they have nothing left to give. This is the worst disaster in our lifetimes (certainly in mine), and we have to keep pushing and pushing politically and socially.
I think the US can afford more, but I think the UK can afford more as well, and probably so can other nations. And indeed, people.
EDIT; latest death toll is 134,000.
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Originally posted by mitac
There hasn't been any US-bashing so far. Well, not in excess of the average level. ;)
I'm not bashing the US, I'm just bashing the persons that claim that somehow now, the US is the victim here. :rolleyes:
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Originally posted by aldo_14
I'm sorry if my post appeared to be as such.
To put it bluntly; no-one is giving enough until they have nothing left to give. This is the worst disaster in our lifetimes (certainly in mine), and we have to keep pushing and pushing politically and socially.
I wasn't aiming at you or Tiara. In fact, you posted while I still wrote. ;) But I couldn't agree more.
Originally posted by aldo_14
latest death toll is 134,000.
Oh hell.
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Now that's a lot.
And Lib, hush child.
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Liberator - I thought you didn't want this to get political?
If we're going to get picky, then the US donates proportionally tiny amounts of money to foreign aid.
A great way for countires to drastically increase their contribution would be to cancel something useless and expensive. For the USA, a few F22 fighters. They cost so much money (over $100million each IIRC), and they'll never be used. And it's not like the USAF hasn't got more than enough planes already. The UK should scrap it's ID card scheme and spend the god-knows-how-many billions on useful stuff instead (or turn it into something useful, like amalgamating the passport, driver's licence etc. into one card, thus saving money and not pissing me off). Or cancel some Eurofighters. Waste of money, and there's no way we need 200 of them (or whatever the current order is now). These two things alone would more than pay for all the aid and reconstruction needed for the region.
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Originally posted by Tiara
I'm not bashing the US, I'm just bashing the persons that claim that somehow now, the US is the victim here. :rolleyes:
I'm not in any way trying to make the us a victim here. I'm simply stating my observation, that the us (generally, though there are exceptions) usually puts out more aid then it ever receives, and yet its still critecised when it doesn't lend out every penny it can. I'm not saying the us even NEEDS aid 99% of the time, but there's no obligation for the government to give anything at all. I agree, that 30mil or whatever we're sending isn't enough, but saying that its being stingy, and holding back for one reason or another isn't helping any either.
I'm sorry I even stated my opinion now, since i generally value everyone's, and apparently noone valuse a us citezin's at all.
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Tiara, pryo, Lib, please, take this outside to Different thread? This isn't exactly about whining or *****ing at the americans, so i'd recommend stopping it.
latest death toll is 134,000.
The very rapid rate of increase is starting to both surprise as well as scare me :eek2:
Just to confirm, no cases are of disease yet right, and it's still mostly figures from the missing and/or dead from the Tsunami itself, right?
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I'm gonna get a fundraiser together at my school, see if we can't all donate a bit and send a few thousand dollars over.
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Originally posted by Singh
Tiara, pryo, Lib, please, take this outside to Different thread? This isn't exactly about whining or *****ing at the americans, so i'd recommend stopping it.
The very rapid rate of increase is starting to both surprise as well as scare me :eek2:
Just to confirm, no cases are of disease yet right, and it's still mostly figures from the missing and/or dead from the Tsunami itself, right?
From what we can find in the news..
No, the diseases haven't begun spreading yet.
Which is kind of scary in itself, considering how extremely high the death toll is already.
The death toll jumped by almost 60.000 in a day.. :eek2:
It won't surprise me if the numbers surpass 200.000 before the diseases starts spreading :(
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Singh: There are reports now of diarrhoea and the like, which usually indicates the onset of water-borne disease.
It's not really surprising that the toll is rising so rapidly. Most of the places hit are very remote or have limited access, so it takes time for news to get out. As time goes by, we're just getting a more and more accurate picture of events. I wouldn't be surprised if the final figure hit something like quarter of a million, probably more once disease really starts to kick in (give it a week).
And just to set things straight, I wasn't trying to bash America. I was making a point that there are a lot of countries (I deliberately included my own) that could be doing a lot more to help these people.
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Originally posted by pyro-manic
Singh: There are reports now of diarrhoea and the like, which usually indicates the onset of water-borne disease.
Crap.
Just crap.
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[size=10]Read this or risk getting banned.[/size]
Yes, the US aid donation is so far relatively small. But it is also merely the sum so-far, so quoting the amount like it's the final donation is stupid - don't do it anymore. As a matter of fact, I will not tolerate any more political ANYTHING in this thread - nothing. No explanations of what you meant before, no complaints, no bashing, no pimping.
Nothing.
The next person to get political in this thread will be banned from posting in the General Discussion forum section for a week.
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So spoketh the hoagie from the mountain.
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This was the largest earthquake for 40-odd years, and certainly the most destructive natural disaster for a long time, but what was the biggest EVER? I'm assuming it was Krakatoa (at least in "recent" times), but I could be entirely wrong. I have a vague recollection that there was a round-about-9 on the Richter scale in Alaska back in the 20s or something, but again, I can't remember. I'm certain there weren't anything like this number of casualties though...
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Biggest recorded was 9.5 (Chile, 1960 apparently). That cause a tsunami as well,; apparently killed 3000 people.
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Originally posted by Singh
Crap.
Just crap.
Literally... they're worried about dysentry, cholera, etc - I think the symptons of which include diarrhoea - and the problem will be dehydration as a result. Worse still, there's no proper sewage system there.
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You're right - the 3000 died in Hawaii. That's a long way from Chile.
The 1920s one wasn't in Alaska after all, it was in Honshu in 1923. Killed 140,000 in Tokyo and it's suburbs.
The Tangshan earthquake in 1976 was the most deadly in recent history (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangshan_earthquake ), killing at least 240,000 people. I have a feeling that this one will come close to that.
I'll have to donate some money when I get paid on the weekend...
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Perhaps one should start considering how the rise of the sea level and the melting of the ice caps has helped this disaster coming to bare. And that in the future stuff like this will get ever more common. A simple rise of 20 cm in sea level is enough to get from a place where coastal towns remained well above and dry, to a situation of cataclismic floods, going inland for several miles...
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wierd, no animals are dead
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20041229/sc_nm/quake_lanka_wildlife_dc
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Well, they probably either ran for the hills, or got swept out to sea when the water receded. Strange to find none though...
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No, animals have a strange sixth sense where they can avoid things like this. People need to pay more attention to nature, as much as they do technology.
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This has been said for years, humans can do it too, I know when there is going to be a thunderstorm, for example, lots of people can do that particular trick, but animals have far more trust in their own senses than humans, we lump responsibility onto our governments and our technology expect them to be our senses for us.
E.g. when did you last hear 'Dammit! I'm a rabbit, I ain't gonna run away from some glorified rat!'
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Originally posted by karajorma
15 foot waves? You're far more heavily f**ked (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml) than that.
Not to start a flame or anything, but if you read what I said, 15 foot "STORM SURGE" not Tsunami, Big difference. Just to clear that up. A Tsunami would be WAY WAY bigger than that.
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The animals likely sensed the tsunami from the pressure wave in front of it and were able to run.
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Originally posted by WeatherOp
Not to start a flame or anything, but if you read what I said, 15 foot "STORM SURGE" not Tsunami, Big difference. Just to clear that up. A Tsunami would be WAY WAY bigger than that.
The tsunami here was seen to be between 30 and 40 foot high IIRC.
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Wow, Just on the news. Holland has given 27 million Euro plus 9.7 million Euro in donations. (For the non-European people this is roughly 36.5 million USD) and the EU wants to give 300 million Euro (or 410 million USD).
Ofcourse this is just the money raised so far.
:eek: :)
Note, this is not meant to be any sort of political arguement! I'm just very glad to see that such help is extended to those people. They really need this money to rebuild their infrastructure. And I hope that the people here have donated some money as well. :)
And Sandwhich, if you want to ban me for quoting donations, go right ahead. :doubt:
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I was reading a little while back that out of the £500m donated so far the UK had donated £50m. That's 1/10th of all the money donated by the entire world.
For once I'm very proud of my country :) I'm not getting political but it does prove that for all our other faults no one can knock the british people for their charity.
Originally posted by WeatherOp
Not to start a flame or anything, but if you read what I said, 15 foot "STORM SURGE" not Tsunami, Big difference. Just to clear that up. A Tsunami would be WAY WAY bigger than that.
Actually no. I've heard reports of 15 foot tsunami's causing devestation. Everyone watches Deep Impact or movies like it and expects the tsunami to be 100 foot high or something.
Anyway what I was pointing out is that there is a big problem waiting to happen. Even if Aldo is correct that the landslide would break up and cause less devestation I think we can all agree that it would have some effect on the eastern seaboard.
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Originally posted by karajorma
I was reading a little while back that out of the £500m donated so far the UK had donated £50m. That's 1/10th of all the money donated by the entire world.
For once I'm very proud of my country :) I'm not getting political but it does prove that for all our other faults no one can knock the british people for their charity.
That's just the government, too.... there's been £34m (about $60m) in public donations over the last 3 nights, and that's excluding the cheque and stuff donations that have yet to clear.
Kudos in particular to Sweden, who are the second highest national donor ($75m). But it's good to see that people not only care, but that they are doing something to help rather than simply give lip service to it.
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Death Toll may Exceed 400,000 in Indonesia
http://www.drudgereport.com/flash5.htm
this is Aceh, before and after:
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041230/i/r3693364070.jpg)
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041230/i/r372630745.jpg)
(http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041230/i/r360470591.jpg)
:(
I did donate 300$ today
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Why are they stripping the copyright notices off the images, though? I noticed that the uk tabloids (er, images of their pages on the morning news; I don't buy that crap) do the same, usually pasting a caption over the (C) notice.
Um.... 400,000 is probably possible. I have no idea how many are missing, I don't think anyone really does at the moment; entire towns have been wiped out and are only just being reached by air or land.
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http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html
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They said Tsunami's will suck back the Ocean, before they come inland. Now what a scary sight that would be, even worse if you knew whats coming.:shaking:
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Originally posted by Tiara
And Sandwhich, if you want to ban me for quoting donations, go right ahead. :doubt:
No, but I just might if you keep on misspelling my name! :p
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how long does it take for you to see I do that on purpose? :p
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Probably until you come out and say it, like you just did. Of course, now I have to decide whether you're just covering up an inconvienient mistake or not. ;)
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Vatever you say, Comrade Sandveech...
:p
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Yeah yeah.
Anyway, good news. The US has boosted their aid x10 (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/) to $350 mil. I just hope the relief efforts can be coordinated properly - I'm hearing about distribution problems. :(
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:):yes: Good to hear that!
Yes, distribution is a problem. the only way to get to most places is by boat or chopper. Planes can't land in the vicinity, all infrastructure is litterally destroyed. It's a mess.
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Air-drops? Most supplies could probably be parachuted in on pallets...
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Originally posted by pyro-manic
Air-drops? Most supplies could probably be parachuted in on pallets...
And watch the mob storm at it, killing dozens in the process? No, it needs to be regulated or it will be total chaos.
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Originally posted by Sandwich
Yeah yeah.
Anyway, good news. The US has boosted their aid x10 (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/US/12/31/us.aid/) to $350 mil. I just hope the relief efforts can be coordinated properly - I'm hearing about distribution problems. :(
:yes: (to the aid, not distribution problems)
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Japan has raised it's aid to $500m... I'm hoping there is now a sort of one-upmanship over who can donate most.
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Seems India has stopped counting the casualities...
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I think Canada upped its donation to $40 million, as opposed to the $4m it was at the beggining. It has also issued a moratorium on debt relief to the affected countries.
And props to the Japanese and Americans as well.
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I heard an interesting, and possibly disturbing, factoid about this quake. It occured 58 minutes to the day that the Bam quake happened in 2003. Something funny is going on over there methinks.
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Cthulhu?
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Well, I was thinking something more conspiritorial.
Somebody on Coast to Coast was muttering about some mutual disarmament treaty mentioning something about not intentionally altering the weather patterns or performing other acts that could be explained away as Acts of God.
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Haha. So they've developed an Earthquake Bomb? Those eggheads at Groom Lake must be running out of ideas.... ;)
Seriously, we're decades (if not centuries) away from that kind of technology. We simply don't have the means of generating enough power to make an earthquake happen (this one was in the Gigatonne range). The only thing we have that can produce that kind of energy is a fusion bomb, and there hasn't been a warhead built that's anywhere near that size (biggest was about 50Mt IIRC).
We can sometimes make it rain, yes, but we can't affect plate tectonics just yet. Besides, I doubt very much if something like that would be at all practical as a weapon...
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all the nukes in the world couldn't cause an earthquake of that magnitude....i think.
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umm, you guys do realize that you only need to have a small fraction of those yields to create a massive shift on a fault line? Just place an odd 100 1-5MT nukes underneath the surface on a fault line and you'll be guaranteed to create a massive shift. The fault lines will become 'unstuck' and shift, creating an earthquake. (The more/heavier the nukes, the heavier the shift and thus the quake)
We don't have the bombs to directly create an earthquake, but we do have the bombs to indirectly create an Earthquake. :drevil:
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Why don't all you conspiracy nuts just shut up? God, that's the dumbest ****ing **** I've ever heard. Turning a huge tragedy like this into some US world domination scheme.
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Originally posted by Unknown Target
Why don't all you conspiracy nuts just shut up? God, that's the dumbest ****ing **** I've ever heard. Turning a huge tragedy like this into some US world domination scheme.
:wtf:
Calm the f*** down. Most of this is harmless conjecture anyway. Hell, nobody here even takes it seriously (at least I hope so). No need to get all offended.
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*points at Liberator*
I'm doubtful no one here is at least considering it. And I'm sorry, but it's bad enough you're turning something like this into an anti-US conspiracy, but I'm also so sick of the fact that basically every thread is anti-US. Sure, I'm a US citizen, but I'm not blind to the ****hole my country is. If it was the other way around, I'm sure you wouldn't like it if every five minutes someone kept insulting your home.
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It's like an avalanche, you can cause an Earthquake at the right time in the right place, by hitting the ground with a hammer. However, science currently has no precise way of knowing the right time and place.
I have neither positive nor negative feeling towards the US over this, it's a tragedy, it's one of Earths little tricks, and the cause is tectonics not capitalism or pollution. Pollution can be blamed for freak weather conditions, but this is seismic, not meteorological, as far as I'm aware, theres very very little we can do to influence that.
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The Washington Post has a "good" collection of photos and information (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/daily/graphics/tsunami_122804.html).
Damn. :(
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A lot of holidaymakers:
Germany: 60 dead
1,000 missing
Sweden: 52 dead
2,915 missing
Britain: 40 dead
159 missing
France: 22 dead
Up to 560 missing
Norway: 21 dead
400+ missing
Japan: 21 dead
Italy: 18 dead
570+ missing
Switzerland: 16 dead
500 missing
US: 15 dead
Australia: 12 dead
700+ missing
South Korea: 11 dead
:(
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Atleast 4000-5000 americans are missing in Asia, Colin Powell said in bangkok to press
:(
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Originally posted by Clave
A lot of holidaymakers:
Germany: 60 dead
1,000 missing
Sweden: 52 dead
2,915 missing
Britain: 40 dead
159 missing
France: 22 dead
Up to 560 missing
Norway: 21 dead
400+ missing
Japan: 21 dead
Italy: 18 dead
570+ missing
Switzerland: 16 dead
500 missing
US: 15 dead
Australia: 12 dead
700+ missing
South Korea: 11 dead
:(
Where'd you get those stats? Tell me that isn't supposed to be comprehensive... :doubt:
EDIT: And an interesting story from the Arizona Daily Sun (http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=101035):
[q]AUROVILLE, India (AP) -- A premonition about floods led an Israeli couple living in an international community in southern India to build their house on stilts -- a move that saved them from the fury of the tsunami that tore through the region this week.
Yuval Skoles and his wife, Hannah, moved from Israel 20 years ago to live in Auroville, a spiritual retreat community, near the former French colony of Pondicherry on India's eastern coast.
When Skoles began building his beachside compound, his wife had dreams about floods, so he built the main house on stilts 16 feet above the ground.
In a part of India where ocean surges and tsunamis were unheard of before last Sunday, it was, frankly, a bit odd.
"It's the only house of its kind on the coast," Yuval Skoles said.
When the tsunami struck, the couple were in the main house. Their daughter, her husband and son were staying in a guest house -- at ground level. The tsunami swamped the guest house.
His wife urged him to jump into the raging torrents to rescue their daughter and grandson; she even threatened to jump in herself. But they were nowhere to be seen.
"For 45 minutes I thought I had lost my daughter," Yuval Skoles said.
But his daughter and her family had sought refuge inside a hilltop Hindu temple. They later walked back to the A-frame house on whitewashed concrete stilts.
They lost most of their possessions, and they have a lot of rebuilding to do.
But Yuval Skoles said he was happy. After fearing his family had died and then learning they had lived, he said nothing can get him down.
"Everything is great," he said.[/q]
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The BBC, sourced from Reuters, so it's probably a lie....
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It's highly unlikely you'll ever get anything near comprehensive stats for any aspect of the disaster........
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BBC, eh? Fine, whatever - I don't want to get political.
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Somewhat remarkable story of survival (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/4139779.stm)
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It's about 200.000 victims. Probably the worst natural disaster in the human history. And one that could be way less horrid with just some few spare millions dollars to buy tsunami detectors.
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In human history? Uhm, I remember reading an article about the worst natural disasters on the BBC website, an apparently there were several that were more devastating.
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Annihilation, there have been far worse tradgedies in human history. It is, however, the worst natural disaster of the last few decades possibly a century.
I'm not trying to downplay this, but it is being fluffed up a bit by the networks(the 24 hour news cycle has ruined any sort of perspective humanity used to have) and greedy politicians who are using this as a stepping stone to power.
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Originally posted by Annihilation
It's about 200.000 victims. Probably the worst natural disaster in the human history. And one that could be way less horrid with just some few spare millions dollars to buy tsunami detectors.
tsunami detectors?
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He probably meant warning system.
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Originally posted by Annihilation
It's about 200.000 victims. Probably the worst natural disaster in the human history. And one that could be way less horrid with just some few spare millions dollars to buy tsunami detectors.
[q] 2004 Asian quake disaster - toll so far exceeds 150,000
2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran - official casualty figure is 26,271
1976 Earthquake in Tangshan, China, kills 242,000
1970 Cyclone in Bangladesh kills 500,000
1923 Tokyo earthquake kills 140,000
1887 China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000
1896 Tsunami kills 27,000 in Japan
1815 Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island kills 90,000
1556 Earthquake in China's Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan provinces kills an estimated 830,000
[/q]
Not the worst, but it will get worse over time as disease sets in... you could end up with 300-400 thousand dead by the end (whatever you would define as the end, given that it will take years - maybe decades - to rebuild).
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Some of those other disasters become far worse when you take into account that the population was far smaller compared to today.
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Originally posted by Liberator
He probably meant warning system.
yep, that. The words slipped my mind.
:eek: Boy, I didn't know so many people died in these others disasters.
Almost all in Asia. Life there is a lottery...
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Holy crap! A combined TV-show this night has raised 112,144,000 EURO!
All sorts of famous Dutch artists, TV-Icons, politicians, etc etc were on the show.
Once again; 112,144,000 EURO! Thats close to 150 million USD
I am so proud right now.... :eek: This means that on average EVERY person in Holland donated 10 USD. :D
EDIT: And they predict that this isn't all by far! :eek:
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It's worth noting that Doctor's Without Borders have taken an ethical stand and are no longer accepting donations, stating that they have enough money to continue their operations both in the devastated area and elsewhere.
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Title updated to 150k.
And Tiara, that's great! I just hope that it's used effectively.
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Originally posted by Liberator
It's worth noting that Doctor's Without Borders have taken an ethical stand and are no longer accepting donations, stating that they have enough money to continue their operations both in the devastated area and elsewhere.
That's only one organisation, though.
And even if the money isn't needed in the Tsunami zone, there's plenty of places that do need it.......all of Africa, for one.
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Here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4145259.stm)'s the current status of the international financial aid.
The german government raised its proposal to 680m $. :eek2: I have not the slightest idea where they're taking the money from. Additionally, private donations add up to 200m $.
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holy **** Australia :yes: !
we need to do more...
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Holy crap! For the first time my income tax is assured to go to the right place! Last year's income taxes have been donated by the Dutch gov. :eek:
I just watched a replay of last nights show. It's so awesome. Artists auctioning off their golden records, etc. In total there were 160 (!) famous artists and famous people on the show. I still can't believe they raised 160+ million frickin' US dollars.
Also, Mitac, those are wrong numbers for Holland. the gov donated 36.5m USD and the people donated 160+ million USD. And the taxes are still going to add to the government donation. :D
I'm so proud that people can come together and be generous for once when other need it. I mean, we have enough money to bath ion and they need only a fraction of the money we have to even survive.
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Oh, I completely forgot to update you guys on the rescue mission my company went on: http://www.israelshop.com/
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Originally posted by Tiara
Also, Mitac, those are wrong numbers for Holland. the gov donated 36.5m USD and the people donated 160+ million USD. And the taxes are still going to add to the government donation. :D
I noticed that. And I doubt that'll be the final figures, for whatever country's listed there. Though I have the impression that in this huge effort to donate for south asia, people tend to forget there's other places in the world that need help. The UN voices that, but it's often overheard these days.
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Originally posted by mitac
I noticed that. And I doubt that'll be the final figures, for whatever country's listed there. Though I have the impression that in this huge effort to donate for south asia, people tend to forget there's other places in the world that need help. The UN voices that, but it's often overheard these days.
That might be true, but now people have opened their eyes. There were millions and millions of people who hadn't thought of donating to anything before this disaster. Maybe after the dust settles down a bit, they see that this isn't the only place that needs help.
I for one certainly hope so. :)
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Originally posted by Tiara
I for one certainly hope so. :)
Couldn't agree more. :nod:
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Heh, something in the show last night; Paul de Leeuw, a gay tv-host, kissed our Prime-Minister on live national TV. :lol: I laughed so hard... :D
I wonder what would've happened if a gay TV-host kissed Bush or Blair on national television. :lol: I bet there'd be some sort of riot and all.
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he'd never make it past the SS
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Blair would kiss him back and Gordon Brown would laugh with glee.
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Interesting critical article (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,335706,00.html) on the financial aid.
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Originally posted by mitac
Interesting critical article (http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,335706,00.html) on the financial aid.
Well duh that not all the money gets there in actual goods. What do you think it costs to transport the stuff from all over the world to a place with virtually no effective infrastructure left?
And some people seem to underestimate the cost of rebuilding infrastructure as a whole. It costs containers full of money to clear all the debris, you don't just need to rebuild houses you also need to rebuild powerplants, factories, transport facilities.
People are complaining that most of the money doesn't go 'to the people'. Bull**** if you ask me. People don't pay attention when money gets poured into anything besides food and the immediate concerns. That's like the very tip of the iceberg.
Not to mention that in the current chaos money IS going to be wasted. there is no fighting it. it's a fact that not all moey will be spent with 100% effictivity. Such a thing is impossible to begin with.
Sorry, but that article seems a little bit (read: very) presumptious.
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Originally posted by Tiara
That might be true, but now people have opened their eyes. There were millions and millions of people who hadn't thought of donating to anything before this disaster. Maybe after the dust settles down a bit, they see that this isn't the only place that needs help.
I for one certainly hope so. :)
or, more realistically, people will remember that this other place which needs help is still one ****ed up continent after all the billions poured into it in various ways and go on to ignore it more or less since no amount of money is going to solve anything there unless the people living there change their ways...
What this shows is that people are still willing to donate to sudden disasters, not that they arenecessarily going to care more about places that have been a mess since most were born.
Tough cookies, but that's how it is.
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Well, I heard this weekend that the Brazilian government may be sending the carrier São Paulo there with choppers to help on the rescue/aid delivery efforts. It's a lot more practical than just sending money, and will do a lot more to save the lives that need saving now than sending just money would.
I hope they actually send it.
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Actually, I hear that diaster crews aren't really in such demand anymore. The Canadian government sent their diaster crew to the area, and basically what they were told is "thanks for showing up guys, we really could have used you two weeks ago. Now, uh, go clean up that rubble over there".
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Last night on the news; a man has survived a whole week drifting at sea and ended up in a pool of mud with only his head sticking out. He was barely conciouss and could only say his own name as they found him.
A small miracle I'd say. :) A whole week...
And also, Holland just announced a 200 million Euro donation for the rebuilding of the disaster areas on top of the 40 million for immediate aid. All-in-all 355 million Euro has been raised here (~466 million USD).
Now, let's hope all the money can make difference. :)
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At least he'll have good skin. Heavy price mind - worse than the body shop dare I say.
Anyway, I wonder what everyone thinks of Indonesia banning aid workers from going outside the two main areas.
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Stupid, stupid people.
Finnish Minister of Culture decides to spend her vacation - one she propably booked long, long time ago - in Thailand, playinggolf.
This is obviously bad, according to several suckass newspapers and some of the idiotic masses.
"OH NOES SHE MUST NOT TRAVEL THERE AND SPEND HER MONEY BECAUSE THE THAILAND NEEDS MONEY AND NOT HER MONEY SHE WOULD SPEND THERE oh wait"
Hey let's stop buing Thai products as well because it would be tasteless! And let's put their country on embargo! AND DECLARE WAR ON THEM
Idiots.
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Originally posted by vyper
Anyway, I wonder what everyone thinks of Indonesia banning aid workers from going outside the two main areas.
Did they actually ban them? I thought they were just strongly reccomending people stick to the main streets and stuff because of all the rebel groups and suchlike. It kind of makes sense when you take into account the fact that all the military people from other nations are there unarmed.
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They banned 'em.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4189883.stm
220,000 confirmed dead
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Yep, considering the time that has passed since the event, if a missing person hasn't been found, the odds are heavily in favor of them being dead, so they just declared everyone on the list(70,000?) dead.
Sad, but not the worse natural disaster to strike the region. There was something about a century ago that killed 900,000.
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Oh man.... :(
Thread title updated.