p2pnet.net:- The count of the number of people killed in the tsunami, spawned by the earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, has reached 71,000 (updated). And it’ll certainly rise well beyond that.

It’s both a horror that defies description, and a reminder that we shouldn’t take anything for granted.

Eric emailed us, citing http://46664.ewikis.com/, a url that leads to a series of on-the-spot photographs.

“Im hosting a mirror of Ernests Whirrled Pictures,” says Eric. “Following are photos that he took while in Phuket, Thailand during the tidal wave. http://46664.ewikis.com/earthquake.html.”

There’s also a BitTorrent CNN video link.

If you’d like to do something, there’s a Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund donation form here, or use your search engine to find other ways to help. For example, check out the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog with news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts, as well as a link to BBC News Message Boards for Missing Persons.

There’s also a list of religious and secular relief charities which are setting up special funds to help victims. It’s here.

And there are a lot more.

In the meanwhile, here’s a /. post from kernel panic attack that gives a small idea of the magnitude of the quake:

“This week’s deadly Asian Quake and Tsunami may have been so powerful, that it changed the rate of Earth’s rotation. In a Reuters article, a NASA geophysicist theorizes that the quake compacted the Earth enough to speed up the planet’s rotation by 3 microseconds. A second article says the quake moved undersea tectonic plates by up to 98 feet, shifting islands near Sumatra out to sea an unknown distance. Also, a USGS team wants images from commercial satellite operators to help pinpoint coastline damage. Lastly, an interesting article from the Australian Spaceguard Survey about the need for a Tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean. The author comments that tsunami warnings may not help much, as people often flock to the coastline to see the giant waves. The current estimated death toll is now nearly 70,000; Amazon and Google, among others, have added front-page links to simplify donating to the disaster relief effort.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 29th, 2004 at 2:56 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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