231–240 of 269 posts
Red Cross and others will likely be jumping to the aide of those who have been affected by this disaster. If you have a website, please consider adding a message and link to the Red Cross donation website or the link to the donation page of any other website. To get it up ASAP, I've used the HelloBar ( http://www.hellobar.com ) on my site. You can see a working version of it at http://www.webdesigncompany.net but rea…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Have we all forgotten what the word broadcast means? If sending everyone the same signal at the same time is hard , you're doing it wrong.
The doesn't work very well when each device requires a separate communication channel like a cell phone.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
From Wikipedia: The energy release of an earthquake, which closely correlates to its destructive power, scales with the 3⁄2 power of the shaking amplitude. Thus, a difference in magnitude of 1.0 is equivalent to a factor of 31.6 ( = (101.0)(3 / 2)) in the energy released; a difference in magnitude of 2.0 is equivalent to a factor of 1000 ( = (102.0)(3 / 2) ) in the energy released.[2]
How does energy scale with distance from epicenter?
However earthquakes may be "flat", in which case it's by r (i.e. r^1). It's probably somewhere in between those.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's because everyone in Japan started sending SMSes to everyone they knew practically before the shaking stopped and that DOSed the network. This happens fairly regularly (e.g. for a few minutes after midnight on New Years, when a large portion of Japanese people send well wishes within the same 15 second window).
Although it may not have happened in this instance, cell towers are prone to fall down if shaken violently.
Japan has declared a state of emergency because of the failure of the cooling system at one nuclear plant, according to the Associated Press. Officials say there has been no leak of radiation. Let's hope this does not get any worse than it is right now.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US Air Force in Japan has transported coolant to the plant. Officials say the facility should be back to normal soon. That's good news.
I just talked to my parents in Hawaii, there's a tsunami warning for 3 am HST. I reminded my dad to sandbag the doors of his restaurant in Waikiki (Vit's Hawaiian Steakhouse) before he closes for the night. It's just outside of the "tsunami zone" in Waikiki, so I know my dad will probably be working until the police make him evacuate. He did that on the last tsunami warning, and Vit's was pretty much the only restaur…
My childhood friend is in Waikiki..I don't think I have any nails left to bite.
I'm still feeling shakes every few minutes. It's like living in a house on a block of jello. Long rolling waves. I'm in central Tokyo and our china cabinet was shaken pretty badly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/poswald/5516954100/in/photostre... I know some people up in sendai that I'm a bit worried about.
I can't imagine being in one of the top floors of a high-rise with it wobbling around. I'd be paralyzed with fear clinging to the carpet. Mighty respect to the architects and engineers, though.
This is what I like about HN. This isn't a particularly "hacker" story, but the perspective here is unique. On the main stream media, I'll get a couple of statistics and video, then an empty comment about "loved ones trying to make sense of this senseless tragedy". On HN, I get the facts, but both broader and deeper, from the geological nature of the quake to the effect on other locales. And I get real, unfiltered pe…
What's funny is that I was around just after the quake was reported and thought.. "Ooh, no-one's posted it to HN! I should post it." Then I thought "Nah, it's just world news. HN won't care directly about a quake." Then minutes later, this got submitted anyway.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the US Air Force in Japan has transported coolant to the plant. Officials say the facility should be back to normal soon. That's good news.
I was wondering about this. What kind of coolant are they sending? Don't nuclear plants just use water?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does energy scale with distance from epicenter?
Probably goes down by r^2 However earthquakes may be "flat", in which case it's by r (i.e. r^1). It's probably somewhere in between those.