Bad bad bushfires in South Australia – it looks like 9, possibly 10 dead and maybe 14 missing according to the ABC, making it possibly the most lethal bushfire in Australia since the "Ash Wednesday" fires in 1983 when 75 people died, 47 in Victoria.
There are more updates at Google News.
This is pretty good fun.. A Lego animation of Spiderman. 🙂
Found on Groklaw, there is a website with links to many amateur videos of the Tsunami coming ashore in Asia, India and Africa.
Absolutely terrifying.. 🙁
The Australian Governments official Tunsami Assistance website has been launched. Includes hotline numbers, lists of appeals from charities, etc.
The Australian ABC is reporting that the US is working on plans for detaining suspects for life without trial when they don’t have enough evidence to take them to court or to a tribunal, as part of their “war on terror”.
Two quotes spring to mind:
Digital Globe have put up a series of QuickBird satellite images of Banda Aceh and Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami devestated the region. They also have a review of the images for each region.
Some of the Sri Lankan ones seem to have been taken very shortly after the tsunami hit.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is accepting donations for disaster relief in Asia as a result of the earthquake on the 26th December. You can also donate directly to the Red Cross / Red Crescent society in your own country, the IFRC maintains a directory for all countries RC organisations.
Aussies, here is the Australian Red Cross donations page.
The USGS has upgraded the Sumatran quake to magnitude 9 from 8.9.
This may not sound much, but because the magnitude scale is logarithmic it means a much larger impact and release of energy.
There are hundreds of news reports of the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra and resulting tsunami’s in S.E. Asia.
The BBC has a page of eyewitness reports and includes a form for those directly affected to submit their reports.
A happy Newtonmas from myself and Donna. Yes, today we celebrate the birthday of one of the worlds most influential people, Isaac Newton. Drop an apple on your head in his memory (and no, not on anyone else and especially not from a great height!).
Hmm, with the name Newtonmas one has to wonder if that’s intertial or relativistic ?
PS: Thanks for the idea Alec. 🙂