Reactions to story from IHT

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  Death toll from China earthquake nears 12,000

  http://300-epic.blogspot.com/2008/05/death-toll-from-china-e...
  202 days ago in 300 Worldpremiere · Authority: 4

  Death toll from China earthquake nears 12,000 Tens of thousands of people across southwest China remained buried beneath rubble on Tuesday as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake that has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of others injured and homeless. From: www.iht.com Posted by TriBorg
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  Death toll from China quake exceeds 12,000

  http://300-epic.blogspot.com/2008/05/death-toll-from-china-q...
  202 days ago in 300 Worldpremiere · Authority: 4

  Death toll from China quake exceeds 12,000 Thousands of people across southwest China remained buried beneath rubble as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake. From: www.iht.com Posted by TriBorg
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  In Brief - May 13, 2008

  http://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2008/05/in-brief-may-13-...
  203 days ago in Northwest Progressive Institute Advocate · Authority: 112

  Around the Northwest A new study shows human trafficking is a concern in Spokane.If your regular coffee just doesn't do enough for you, Starbucks is adding +Energy to the menu.Ada County, Idaho housing sales rise and prices drop, as the market takes an upswing. Around the Nation Tornadoes are deadlier, more powerful and greater in number than in past years.Real estate auctions have become a way for high-end property owners to unload property quickly in Atlanta.ACLU membership has doubled since George W. Bush took office.Around the World The earthquake in China has claimed over 12,000 lives.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is being investigated for corruption.Irena Sendler, who saved thousands of Jewish children from the Nazis in the Warsaw Ghetto has died. This Day in History 1846 - The United States declares war on Mexico, starting the Mexican-American War.1917 - Our Lady of Fatima.1981 - Mehmet Ali Ağca attempts to assassinate Pope John Paul II.
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  Structural Failure in Wenchuan

  http://www.concretejungleblog.com/?p=21
  203 days ago in CONCRETE JUNGLE · Authority: 1

  Last Update: May 20, 2008 Monday afternoon, May 12th, a 7.8, 7.9, 8.0 magnitude earthquake rocked a region of small cities and towns, set in the steep hills north of Chengdu, so hard that tremors were felt as far away as Thailand and Vietnam. In the city of Yingxiu, near the epicenter, over 70% of roads were damaged and every bridge had collapsed. Rescuers attempting to reach the city were forced to hike through the mountains to reach it, while army helicopters were preparing to airlift food, medicine and water to the surviving residents. Over 900 students were buried alive when the quake brought down two primary schools in the city of Chongqing A chemical plant in Shifang city cratered, burying hundreds of people and spilling more than 80 tonnes of toxic liquid ammonia from the site. Railway lines in various areas are currently inoperable and around 180 trains were stranded at different locations. (149 cargo trains and 31 passenger trains) A 40-car freight train carrying gasoline derailed and caught fire and was still burning Tuesday (5/13/2008) evening. [Little remains of this man’s home in Yingxiu, AFP] [A hospital in Dujiangyan, China] [A building’s Facade crushes two automobiles] [This woman barely survived] [This student did not] As I write this, the death toll is rising above 12,000 people. [UPDATE] May 14, 2008 Official death toll 14,866 [UPDATE] May 15, 2008 Official death toll 19,565 [UPDATE] May 17, 2008 Official death toll 28,881 and 198,347 injured [UPDATE] May 18, 2008 Official death toll 32,476 and 220,109 injured [UPDATE] May 20, 2008 Official death toll 40,075 and 247,645 injured (39,577 confirmed dead and 236,359 injured in Sichuan Province alone) The affected areas have experienced hundreds of powerful aftershocks measuring above 4 on the Richter scale, causing massive landslides which have damed water ways creating unnatural lakes set to burst their banks, torrents of mud that have swallowed the still trapped, living or not, and the rescuers trying to free them, and even devoured entire village remnants leaving behind an unrecognizable brown barren moonscape. [Landslides like this one blocked rescuers from reaching disaster areas for days] [Not merely dirt and dust, but also raging boulders crushing everything in their path] ~ Natural Disasters happen frequently as part of the natural order of how the world works. The only reasonable thing we can do is study them, develop ways to mitigate their effects and learn to live with them as part of life. We cannot control this organized chaos that is the natural environment, we can only adapt. Adaptation is how we grow as a species. If we cannot adapt to hazards in our environment, then one day or another, in one form or another, natural disasters will kill us all. Andrew Jacobs, in the International Herald Tribune, made a rather interesting comment about the authorities searching for a group of Americans on a Panda Watching Tour: A spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, which sponsored the trip to the Wolong Nature Reserve, said they had yet to hear from the Americans, although he added they were in a rural area and presumed to be safe. Presumed to be safe in a rural area means presumed to be safe because there were no concrete buildings. The people pictured below feel the same way. An exodus has begun back to the country. The fear of falling buildings, collapsing bridges, and ravenous landslides has driven the people from their remote towns and cities hidden in the mountains. The unreliability of what they once called home leaves them in sojourn to other areas of China. Those whom happened to survive the quake and numerous aftershocks have, in most circumstances, lost everything. The Ministry of Civil Affairs stated 5.36 million buildings have collapsed and more than 21 million were damaged by the earthquake. The government now estimates that 4.8 million people are homeless due to the damage. 4.8 million people. Citizens remaining in cities like Chengdu, the capital of the province so devastated by the quake, express the peoples collective fear of the built environment by sleeping in the streets, afraid that powerful aftershocks will cause even more damage and loss of life. As the tragic death toll continues to rise, we uncover the social effects of a disasterous earthquake: a lack of trust in the built environment, a loss in the security home provides, and a fear of modern city life amidst this disaster. Some other pics:
• 

  Twitter me this

  http://www.bryan-crosby.ca/2008/05/13/twitter-me-this/
  203 days ago in Bryan Crosby Dot Ca · Authority: 1

  This post most likely provides ample evidence that I was not swallowed by the earth or buried in rubble. Unfortunately, many other people have. Tens of thousands of people across southwest China remained buried beneath rubble on Tuesday as rescue workers struggled to reach areas cut off by a powerful earthquake that has left thousands dead and hundreds of thousands of others injured or homeless. By late evening Tuesday, the official death toll had exceeded 12,000, according to state media, quoting provincial officials, making it China’s deadliest natural disaster in three decades. Officials said they thought the death toll could still climb dramatically higher. Another tragedy to add to an already troubled year. Nanjing did receive some waves…some of which were noticed by those residing/working in taller structures. I continued my day, completely ignorant…just like all of the earthquakes I have apparently experienced. Being the vibration-impaired person that I am I was therefore was unable to quickly produce my blackberry/PDA/phone or current mobile device of choice and send a tweet, or possibly retweet someone else proclaiming/reconfirming to the world that “YES, I FELT IT!”. But I sure feel like I’m the only person in China who didn’t. I wouldn’t come close to calling myself tech-savy or much of a tech hipster, but I do feel that I am tech-aware. I own several mobile devices, run this web 2.0 capable blog, utilize RSS feeds and have been know to lurk around Facebook from time to time. If I had co-workers, I would probably find an excuse to own a Treo. I had even heard of Twitter back when it was still a geek thing – but I fell asleep at the wheel on this one, big time…probably somewhere in between the moment I initially read about Twitter and the Burma cyclone and the recent Sichuan earthquake. Some time during that period Twitter completed an insurrection within the web 2.0 community, took on the mainstream media, chewed on Facebook, inflated web self-narcissism to unseen levels and earned its very own verb. People are calling it the micro-blog…or even going as far as calling it the new blog. Journalism on the run from any mobile platform. Apparently Twitter and its equivalents are responsible for considerable amounts of information flow in, around and out of areas affected by the earthquake as well as the cyclone. Another layer of democratic and freedom-of-information has just been slapped on the internet cake and I feel like I’m missing out. So the question is…do I sign up? Drink the “Twitter Kool-Aid” as I’ve read it being referred to as? Do I even have enough hip colleagues and friends who use this service to make it worthwhile? Is it really that good? I’m I a dork? Mmmmm…Kool-Aid….. I’m slightly skeptical regarding micro-posts as I never bought into the Facebook status feed – I played with it a little, throwing the odd update here and there and lurked around, but the novelty wore thin quickly and I am generally unimpressed by single sentence status updates. I’m truly sorry and with all respect, but the fact that you are ‘feeling groovy’ is essentially meaningless to me…I need more…blogs are good…more blogs and less micro-management! While a Facebook profile has become somewhat of a necessity these days (one was set up for my Grad program as an orientation platform) and it was (admittedly) a guilty-pleasure adding lost acquaintances, I’ve relegated Facebook to a secondary role as a blogpost advertisement vehicle for this website (via Wordbook) and as a contact form. …sort of a moot discussion…while writing this post I created a new account at Twitter. I am presently following…a total of zero people…and currently have…zero people following me.

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