Seeing stuff like this, I have to wonder how the big old karmic wheel can hit so many innocent bystanders and still miss the sick cunt who should have been drowned at birth.
A 40-year-old British man has been accused of emailing the relatives of people missing since the tsunami tragedy to tell them their loved ones had died.
Police have revealed a hoaxer, who claimed to be from the Foreign Office, emailed anxious relatives who had placed appeals for information on the web site of a British satellite news network.
The hoaxer used a bogus email address, which contained the phrase 'UK gov office', to convey word that their loved ones had been confirmed dead.
Police have arrested a 40-year-old man in connection with the fraudulent emails and warned similar cyber correspondence should be treated with caution.
Last week's earthquake and its aftermath claimed the lives of at least 40 Britons and hundreds are believed to be missing.
The Foreign Office will not confirm the actual number who remain unaccounted for.
I got an email back from my friend that was in Sri Lanka. He was on one of the beaches that got hit just the day before. He has some distant relatives that are lost. He says 1 in 500 are dead or missing.
Couple of things there Scott: I wrote "mitigate" not "stop". There are buildings that stood up to the wave fine. People would still drown, but instead of 150,000+ dead, maybe you could have a situation where "only" 10-20,000 are dead?
And if we're really lucky, we might be able to achieve that margin of safety simply through good planning principles, not just what you build, but how and where. Over time the real-estate pressures might want to force a development into one area versus another, and then it comes down to the discipline of the community as to where they want to risk it.
This morning I spoke to a man with 6 dead in his family: mother, brother, sister, nieces.
There has to be a way to mitigate that sort of damage within acceptable lifestyle and economic parameters...
I understand this phenomena to be a one-in-700 years event.
The proposed $27 million warning system should be adequate, but the question is whether or not it will be even used once the event fades from memory.
This has a lot of precedent. Ontario is no longer maintaining SARS scanners at airports since the public crisis faded from view. And the Town of Pickering, Ontario is home to a nuclear reactor, but won't install the warning sirens they have in storage because they might 'alarm' people and drop property values.
I understand this phenomena to be a one-in-700 years event.
This is impossible to tell. I heard it has happened six times the last 200 years. And is much more common in the pacific.
One thing we do know is that the Thai Sea-Gypsies, the only people who have a tradition of living in these areas, close to the water, for a long time. Actually knew what to do. They followed old tradition and ran for the hills. None died.
So this has probably happened before. And probably more more than once, since they have it in their traditions. So it will probably happen again as well.
Somebody had posted some of these pics somewhere but the guy has now got them online as before and after shots. What's a tsunami like?
Hell Mind blowing. Entertainment? No. Understanding? Yes.
And the most extraordinary and impressive piece of reporting I've seen in a long time. Transcript only available. It's all you need when a seasoned journo is severely
We were just beginning to find out how awful the situation in Aceh really was.......All he had left was the electrical meter from his house and the blanket he'd shared with his wife...........Over the next 24 hours, the government in Jakarta formed the impression that Aceh's administrators were so overcome by loss and trauma that the operation had lost any sense of order.......Daylight, and the streets of Aceh were apocalyptic.......In fairness, it has to be asked: what government anywhere could have handled this? From aerial videos, we finally saw the devastation of the west coast. It was inconceivable.......And then, there it was: Lapung - the worst. It seemed nearly all of 10,000 people were picked up here, washed against a cliff, then swept back out to sea. Some were later dumped on the beach with the splintered detritus of whole communities churned together by returning waves.
Quote:
The refugees have made it to Mataee. Some walked for six days, all the way from Meulaboh, to reach this place. After everything we'd seen this week, the sounds of any signs of life are overwhelming, especially the laughter of children.
MAHABALIPURAM, India (AP) _ Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town.
Three rocky structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram, which was battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
As the waves receded, the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered the structures, which appear to belong to a port city built in the seventh century, said T. Satyamurthy, a senior archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India.
Mahabalipuram is already well known for its ancient, intricately carved shore temples that have been declared a World Heritage site and are visited each year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists. According to descriptions by early British travel writers, the area was also home to seven pagodas, six of which were submerged by the sea.
The government-run archaeological society and navy divers began underwater excavations of the area on Thursday.
"The tsunami has exposed a bas relief which appears to be part of a temple wall or a portion of the ancient port city. Our excavations will throw more light on these,'' Satyamurthy told The Associated Press by telephone from Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
The six-foot rocky structures that have emerged in Mahabalipuram, 30 miles south of Madras, include an elaborately carved head of an elephant and a horse in flight. Above the elephant's head is a small square-shaped niche with a carved statue of a deity. Another structure uncovered by the tsunami has a reclining lion sculpted on it.
According to archaeologists, lions, elephants and peacocks were commonly used to decorate walls and temples during the Pallava period in the seventh and eighth centuries.
"These structures could be part of the legendary seven pagodas. With the waters receding and the coastline changing, we expect some more edifices to be exposed,'' Satyamurthy said.
Something allegorical leaps to mind.... though it's hard to measure the loss of life and not weigh it heavily, the fact that there are positive outcomes ought to provide some hope.
Comments
Hoaxer
Hoaxer arrested over tsunami death notifications
A 40-year-old British man has been accused of emailing the relatives of people missing since the tsunami tragedy to tell them their loved ones had died.
Police have revealed a hoaxer, who claimed to be from the Foreign Office, emailed anxious relatives who had placed appeals for information on the web site of a British satellite news network.
The hoaxer used a bogus email address, which contained the phrase 'UK gov office', to convey word that their loved ones had been confirmed dead.
Police have arrested a 40-year-old man in connection with the fraudulent emails and warned similar cyber correspondence should be treated with caution.
Last week's earthquake and its aftermath claimed the lives of at least 40 Britons and hundreds are believed to be missing.
The Foreign Office will not confirm the actual number who remain unaccounted for.
Un-fucking-believable.
And if we're really lucky, we might be able to achieve that margin of safety simply through good planning principles, not just what you build, but how and where. Over time the real-estate pressures might want to force a development into one area versus another, and then it comes down to the discipline of the community as to where they want to risk it.
This morning I spoke to a man with 6 dead in his family: mother, brother, sister, nieces.
There has to be a way to mitigate that sort of damage within acceptable lifestyle and economic parameters...
The proposed $27 million warning system should be adequate, but the question is whether or not it will be even used once the event fades from memory.
This has a lot of precedent. Ontario is no longer maintaining SARS scanners at airports since the public crisis faded from view. And the Town of Pickering, Ontario is home to a nuclear reactor, but won't install the warning sirens they have in storage because they might 'alarm' people and drop property values.
Originally posted by Frank777
I understand this phenomena to be a one-in-700 years event.
This is impossible to tell. I heard it has happened six times the last 200 years. And is much more common in the pacific.
One thing we do know is that the Thai Sea-Gypsies, the only people who have a tradition of living in these areas, close to the water, for a long time. Actually knew what to do. They followed old tradition and ran for the hills. None died.
So this has probably happened before. And probably more more than once, since they have it in their traditions. So it will probably happen again as well.
Hell Mind blowing. Entertainment? No. Understanding? Yes.
And the most extraordinary and impressive piece of reporting I've seen in a long time. Transcript only available. It's all you need when a seasoned journo is severely
Disturbed
We were just beginning to find out how awful the situation in Aceh really was.......All he had left was the electrical meter from his house and the blanket he'd shared with his wife...........Over the next 24 hours, the government in Jakarta formed the impression that Aceh's administrators were so overcome by loss and trauma that the operation had lost any sense of order.......Daylight, and the streets of Aceh were apocalyptic.......In fairness, it has to be asked: what government anywhere could have handled this? From aerial videos, we finally saw the devastation of the west coast. It was inconceivable.......And then, there it was: Lapung - the worst. It seemed nearly all of 10,000 people were picked up here, washed against a cliff, then swept back out to sea. Some were later dumped on the beach with the splintered detritus of whole communities churned together by returning waves.
The refugees have made it to Mataee. Some walked for six days, all the way from Meulaboh, to reach this place. After everything we'd seen this week, the sounds of any signs of life are overwhelming, especially the laughter of children.
Some good news from the disaster...
It appears that the power of the waves to move sea and sand has an unintended benefit in the realm of serendipitous scouring of shoreline...
Tsunami Uncovers Ancient City in India
MAHABALIPURAM, India (AP) _ Archaeologists have begun underwater excavations of what is believed to be an ancient city and parts of a temple uncovered by the tsunami off the coast of a centuries-old pilgrimage town.
Three rocky structures with elaborate carvings of animals have emerged near the coastal town of Mahabalipuram, which was battered by the Dec. 26 tsunami.
As the waves receded, the force of the water removed sand deposits that had covered the structures, which appear to belong to a port city built in the seventh century, said T. Satyamurthy, a senior archaeologist with the Archaeological Survey of India.
Mahabalipuram is already well known for its ancient, intricately carved shore temples that have been declared a World Heritage site and are visited each year by thousands of Hindu pilgrims and tourists. According to descriptions by early British travel writers, the area was also home to seven pagodas, six of which were submerged by the sea.
The government-run archaeological society and navy divers began underwater excavations of the area on Thursday.
"The tsunami has exposed a bas relief which appears to be part of a temple wall or a portion of the ancient port city. Our excavations will throw more light on these,'' Satyamurthy told The Associated Press by telephone from Madras, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
The six-foot rocky structures that have emerged in Mahabalipuram, 30 miles south of Madras, include an elaborately carved head of an elephant and a horse in flight. Above the elephant's head is a small square-shaped niche with a carved statue of a deity. Another structure uncovered by the tsunami has a reclining lion sculpted on it.
According to archaeologists, lions, elephants and peacocks were commonly used to decorate walls and temples during the Pallava period in the seventh and eighth centuries.
"These structures could be part of the legendary seven pagodas. With the waters receding and the coastline changing, we expect some more edifices to be exposed,'' Satyamurthy said.
Something allegorical leaps to mind.... though it's hard to measure the loss of life and not weigh it heavily, the fact that there are positive outcomes ought to provide some hope.