Archives for December 2004

Tsunami Relief
Like so many others around the world, we at Google are following the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami that has hit many parts of Asia and east Africa. Below are a few sites already set up to provide information and handle donations for victims throughout the region. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected.

Mark Frauenfelder:
The massive undersea earthquake that caused the tsunami gave a boost to our planet’s spin. As a result, days will be a fraction of a second shorter from now on.

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth’s center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

Link
…excerpt from: www.boingboing.net…

Xeni Jardin:
Author and wireless geek Mike Outmesguine announces a disaster relief project aimed at bringing connectivity to tsunami victims cut off from communications services by the disaster.

I am working to organize a disaster relief effort to help those affected by the Indian Ocean tsunami. I’d like to send wireless equipment and expertise to damaged areas to help reconnect the people. I’m still working out the details and will update you as more develops. It will be organized with folks from the Southern California Wireless Users Group, SOCALWUG and other wireless groups that wish to participate. I started calling it the Post-Tsunami Reconnect.

Xeni Jardin mentioned the effort today on Fox News Channel during an interview about bloggers and the tsunami. I will have a video excerpt available soon. Here is a statement I sent to the Center for International Disaster Information about the effort:

“We are a Southern California based user community of experts and advocates of wireless data communications. Wireless community members supplied technical expertise and wireless equipment for the Florida hurricane relief efforts and to military personnel stationed in Iraq. We would like to organize, collect, and deliver wireless data equipment to disaster relief workers and others in the affected region to help maintain a high level of communication and internet access ability. We would also be able to send engineers into the area to help bring connections online.”

For more information or to discuss a donation of funds, equipment, or your expertise, contact Mike Outmesguine by email “mo at wifi-toys.com…” or voice:
+1-818-889-9445 ext. 102

www.boingboing.net…

Xeni Jardin:
The group responsible for tsunamihelp.blogspot.com… have launched two new collaborative blogs: tsunami enquiry, with numbers for emergency help services in affected areas, and tsunami missing persons, which aims to assist people in connecting with loved ones.
…excerpt from: www.boingboing.net…

Xeni Jardin:
Strangely, amid massive loss of human life, there seems to be little or no dead wild animals in Sri Lanka. Snip:

Sri Lankan wildlife officials are stunned — the worst tsunami in memory has killed around 22,000 people along the Indian Ocean island’s coast, but they can’t find any dead animals.

Link
…excerpt from: www.boingboing.net…