some relief links for the earthquake/tsunami devastation

[somedaybitch]

[tim blair] has some links to relief organizations up that are accepting donations for the victims of the recent 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. reports of the dead, from the resultant tsunamis all over South East Asia, range from the low 8000's to the mid 11,000's.

eta: it was the coast of Sumatra, just to be more specific. and cretkid [links] to an excellent report on what happened from the Christian Science Monitor.

update: the Command Post has additional relief links [here]. not sure if they're duplicates or not.

the earthquake was bumped to a 9.0 and the death toll is over 12,000 now. African coastal cities on the Indian Ocean side are being evacuated as a precaution.

update 12/27/04: [Daniel Drezner's] reporting the death toll now at 24,000. dear God.


thoughts: why couldn't people prove me wrong once? just once. i joked yesterday that people were going to find a way to blame Bush for this, and i read comments at Tim Blair's blog that people have essentially done just that.

and then of course there have been the comments from people that this was God's wrath. i utterly, absolutely, deeply and fully loathe religious fundamentalists. they make a mockery of religious belief and i hope they all burn in whatever Hell they believe in. taking advantage of this tragedy for their own agendas is unforgivable. taking advantage of people's grief and trauma is equally so.

another: update there's a blog for info about the relief efforts [here.]

they need clothing. all kinds. badly.

update: new year's eve

Via Tim Blair, Chuck Simmins has tried to tabulate contributions by American individuals and companies to tsunami relief efforts. His total so far: $169 million.

And that doesn't even count the aircraft carriers.

UPDATE: The New York Times says:

The huge response from individual donors who want to help victims of the tsunami in Southeast Asia, spurred in part by a year-end spirit of gift-giving, has stunned officials at the world's largest private relief agencies.

Many relief agency officials, accustomed to begging for donations after a disaster has hit, called the response "unprecedented." They said that while no one has tallied all private giving, the numbers reported by individual organizations indicate that the amount will far surpass contributions for previous disasters.

from powerline

Comments

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

I have found that the Christian Science Monitor seems to have some of the most in depth, factual reporting when it comes to events on a national/internation scale such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the ilk.

Yes, the quake was 'upgraded' to a 9.0 after more seismologists reviewed the records. In the coming days, that number will likely change again. It all depends on how much data is available and what seismic waves are studied to come up with the actual magnitude.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

i read your explanation about determining magnitude at your lj. much with the helpful.

so, i have a question about that italian guy saying this effected the earth's rotation. is he full of it or no?


and ita totally about the CSM. they are an exceptional news source.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

I think there was a miscommunication - an earthquake is NOT going to effect the earth's rotation. MUCH too short a timescale.

The ice caps affect the earth's rotation, but that's a time scale of 10,000's of years, not 30 seconds.

[somedaybitch.livejournal.com]

'k good, cuz i thought that sounded odd, and no one else was reporting it.

[cretkid.livejournal.com]

Fox News just asked a geologist about this: while yeah, he said it could have changed the earth's wobble (and claimed the Chile earthquake of 1960 did) it's not gonna change the wobble much at all; it will be imperceptible to us on the surface of the planet.

I still think it's bulldren.