Earthquakes!!!
However, horrific or not, I have to say China is behaving remarkably well. Have you noticed? They're being "just like a real country!", as we'd say in Fiji. Everyone's been talking about this over the past few days and we all reckon they're doing it just to show up all those hideous Burmese generals, who are screwing up in the most appalling way. Also, as someone commented yesterday, they're also showing up America's shocking mishandling of the Katrina Disaster, which is a total bonus. My thoughts are that they're modeling themselves on Australia's handling of N.Q.'s Category 5 Cyclone Larry, which, we all must admit, was the most brilliant piece of Disaster Management seen in decades.
Never thought I'd say this, but KUDOS TO CHINA!!! BRAVO!!!
And there's something else about this earthquake that needs to be mentioned: Taiwan had a massive one 18 months ago, and now this one. Is the earth readjusting in some way?
If so, this is kinda worrying because ... well ... if so, the earthquakes appear to be moving eastward ... and there have been recent rumblings and tremors in Hunan Province ... and, well, HK doesn't seem to be aware of it, but we really, really, really need to worry about earthquakes in Hunan.
See, how I know this is National Geographic has this really great website where you can simulate natural disasters and see what happens. (I'll find the link and put it in here.) (Saturday update: it's deep in there someplace and after 5 minutes I gave up and decided that if you're interested, you can find it yourself!) (And let me know when you do and then I'll put it in here.)
I discovered this site months back and spent an entire joyous afternoon creating all sorts of nightmare scenarios to inflict on HK. Not kidding! The things I made, godlike, happen to it ...
... giant typhoons, storm surges, yes, I got things like that but the damage was always so minimal I started to get into the more serious stuff: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hand-of-god type horrors ...
... but I got nothing!
Yup, NOTHING! There's nothing in the local geothermal forces that can shake this city. Yup, this is a fine region to be living in. Rock solid!
But then, just as I decided to give up the game, I did "one last one!" and created a 7.8 earthquake up in Hunan!
It took exactly 7 minutes to wipe out HK.
It's called "Liquifaction". Do you know about this? Seems that, when an earthquake hits in a certain spot in relation to some other certain spot, the reverberating rumble creates spaces within reclaimed land built on the sea for thousands of miles. And then the sea rushes into those spaces and the earth turns into mush and all buildings on that land collapse, bam!, into the puree! (I'll have to find a link that explains this all sensibly) (This one!)
And most of HK is built on reclaimed land on the sea! And we're directly in line for Hunan's killer reverberating rumble!
Oh well! There were 18 months between Taiwan's killer earthquake and Sichuan's killer earthquake, and so, if the earth is indeed readjusting eastward along a fault-line, that's probably the same length of time before we get a Big-One in Hunan, so it won't be killing us this week!
But, anyway, that's still my prediction: this week, earthquakes! I'm going out now to pick up a copy of HK Magazine, and see if I've got it this time!
Nope! Lost again. This week, according to HK Magazine, HK is in a panic about Genetically Modified Foods! Apparently, Korea and Japan are in an uproar about it and it's featuring large in the Chinese language newspapers.
So, that's twice now I've been wrong. I'm just not good at this! But, not to worry, I'll try again next week.
Don't know if you're hearing lots about the 7.8 one in Sichuan Province. Quite horrible.
We're getting near-saturation coverage here as the HK media is following various stories closely, like that young girl with her legs trapped under rubble. Know about that? They can't move her because it'll bring down the building, so she's been there for three whole days while local surgeons prepare, as soon as they have a spare moment, to go in and cut her legs off. And she's remaining just so brave and cheerful. "Oh, yes, I expected they'd have to cut them off." she says, really ho-hum and insouciant! I so admire her spirit. And she's just so pretty too!
Saturday Update
And we're also watching them bringing poor little kiddies out of the swathe of schools and hospitals that have collapsed. (Someone needs to look into the government engineering departments who build these civic buildings.)
We're getting near-saturation coverage here as the HK media is following various stories closely, like that young girl with her legs trapped under rubble. Know about that? They can't move her because it'll bring down the building, so she's been there for three whole days while local surgeons prepare, as soon as they have a spare moment, to go in and cut her legs off. And she's remaining just so brave and cheerful. "Oh, yes, I expected they'd have to cut them off." she says, really ho-hum and insouciant! I so admire her spirit. And she's just so pretty too!
Saturday UpdateShe's Out!
Her name is Yang Liu
and she's just the sweetest and bravest
person, EVER!
Her name is Yang Liu
and she's just the sweetest and bravest
person, EVER!
And we're also watching them bringing poor little kiddies out of the swathe of schools and hospitals that have collapsed. (Someone needs to look into the government engineering departments who build these civic buildings.)
(Saturday update: local people have already started to ask why all the older buildings are still standing while the newer ones are all gone! Yeah, you go, angry Sichuan citizens!!!)
However, horrific or not, I have to say China is behaving remarkably well. Have you noticed? They're being "just like a real country!", as we'd say in Fiji. Everyone's been talking about this over the past few days and we all reckon they're doing it just to show up all those hideous Burmese generals, who are screwing up in the most appalling way. Also, as someone commented yesterday, they're also showing up America's shocking mishandling of the Katrina Disaster, which is a total bonus. My thoughts are that they're modeling themselves on Australia's handling of N.Q.'s Category 5 Cyclone Larry, which, we all must admit, was the most brilliant piece of Disaster Management seen in decades.
Never thought I'd say this, but KUDOS TO CHINA!!! BRAVO!!!
And there's something else about this earthquake that needs to be mentioned: Taiwan had a massive one 18 months ago, and now this one. Is the earth readjusting in some way?
If so, this is kinda worrying because ... well ... if so, the earthquakes appear to be moving eastward ... and there have been recent rumblings and tremors in Hunan Province ... and, well, HK doesn't seem to be aware of it, but we really, really, really need to worry about earthquakes in Hunan.
See, how I know this is National Geographic has this really great website where you can simulate natural disasters and see what happens. (I'll find the link and put it in here.) (Saturday update: it's deep in there someplace and after 5 minutes I gave up and decided that if you're interested, you can find it yourself!) (And let me know when you do and then I'll put it in here.)
I discovered this site months back and spent an entire joyous afternoon creating all sorts of nightmare scenarios to inflict on HK. Not kidding! The things I made, godlike, happen to it ...
... giant typhoons, storm surges, yes, I got things like that but the damage was always so minimal I started to get into the more serious stuff: volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hand-of-god type horrors ...
... but I got nothing!
Yup, NOTHING! There's nothing in the local geothermal forces that can shake this city. Yup, this is a fine region to be living in. Rock solid!
But then, just as I decided to give up the game, I did "one last one!" and created a 7.8 earthquake up in Hunan!
It took exactly 7 minutes to wipe out HK.
It's called "Liquifaction". Do you know about this? Seems that, when an earthquake hits in a certain spot in relation to some other certain spot, the reverberating rumble creates spaces within reclaimed land built on the sea for thousands of miles. And then the sea rushes into those spaces and the earth turns into mush and all buildings on that land collapse, bam!, into the puree! (I'll have to find a link that explains this all sensibly) (This one!)
And most of HK is built on reclaimed land on the sea! And we're directly in line for Hunan's killer reverberating rumble!
Oh well! There were 18 months between Taiwan's killer earthquake and Sichuan's killer earthquake, and so, if the earth is indeed readjusting eastward along a fault-line, that's probably the same length of time before we get a Big-One in Hunan, so it won't be killing us this week!
But, anyway, that's still my prediction: this week, earthquakes! I'm going out now to pick up a copy of HK Magazine, and see if I've got it this time!
Nope! Lost again. This week, according to HK Magazine, HK is in a panic about Genetically Modified Foods! Apparently, Korea and Japan are in an uproar about it and it's featuring large in the Chinese language newspapers.So, that's twice now I've been wrong. I'm just not good at this! But, not to worry, I'll try again next week.
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