NASA Details Earthquake Effects on the Earth
January 10, 2005NASA scientists using data from the Indonesian earthquake calculated it affected Earth’s rotation, decreased the length of day, slightly changed the planet’s shape, and shifted the North Pole by centimeters. The earthquake that created the huge tsunami also changed the Earth’s rotation.
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I was just over at ArsTechnica, checking up on the lastest news and noticed in their
Looking back at 2004 article that WP had been declared the Web app of the year. Way to go WordPress devs!
Web application of the year
We asked forumgoers to choose the best web application or development framework of the year.
Web-based applications provide interaction for all users regardless of platform or location. If you can connect to the web, you can use it. Forums, blogs, administration tools, collaboration frameworks; there were many excellent options to choose from in 2004.
Winner: WordPress
Let’s face it. Blogs are in fashion, and why not? Vanity knows no bounds, and there are some people who actually do something productive with theirs. From the influence of blogs on the coverage of the US presidential elections to every random teenager who has problems with their partner/parent/teacher/cat, blogs are out there allowing your most intimate feelings to be shared with random people at wifi hotspots. WordPress is the most prominent rising star of weblog software, completely free and with a large and active community. Styles, plugins and hacks are readily available, with problems such as comment spamming being addressed far more rapidly than competing applications.
After doing a bit of house-cleaning1 and trying to fix a problem with Ariesna‘s computer2 when I decided to take a break and read some blogs off my portal page. At AWelkin‘s page, I ran across this link: 2005 Inaugural Celebration.
Estimated cost of the 2005 Presidential Inauguration celebration: $40 million
Amount currently pledged by the United States to aid victims of Sunday’s tsunami: $35 million
….
I read that the cost of your upcoming inauguration has surpassed $40 million. I also read this morning that the tsunami death toll has reached 114,000, and that more than 1,300 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq since our 2003 invasion. I know too that many Iraqi civilians have suffered this past year.I think it would be a magnanimous and inspiring act of Christian goodwill and worldwide solidarity if you were to forgo the planned inaugural celebrations this year and instead pledge those funds to worldwide disaster relief and the rebuilding of civilian infrastructure in Iraq. I think it would be a gesture that Americans, and indeed, the world, would never forget.
….
I thought that was rather inspired and stopped a moment to do the same. I post about it here to try spreading the word to encourage others to do the same.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. I hope you all have a happy, safe & properous new year!
1 Stop that sniggering! Everybody has to clean their place some time and while I dislike doing it; sometimes the mood hits me. Today it hit me because I was drying a rug on the shower curtain bar and the water that came out of it was funny colored. It rather resembled the cat vomit that hit the rug last night; hence my desire to clean the tub before using it today.
2 Sorry dear, it’s still not working. I’ve got an alternative plan in mind now but it’s ugly. Tell you about it later.
Pukka forwarded me this link today and killed any hope of me being productive. How’s that work? Well the link ends up leading you to this article over at 1UP. The article takes a couple of today’s youth and exposes them to some of the classic games of my own youth to get their reactions. Here’s a quick snip to give you an idea of how well the games went over.
EGM: What do you think this character’s name is?
Parker: Dot. Or Adventure? That’s what this game is, isn’t it? Go up, go up, go up.
Bobby: Stupid duck. I hate the duck. The duck is evil.
Don’t tell anyone but my secret name is “Sneezy Dancing-Cracker”, at least that’s what this article on the BBC is telling me.
Everyone has a special, secret Christmas name.
It works like this: When we are born, Santa needs to know who we are and where we live.
Because we all use so many different languages and have different names it gets really confusing for poor old Santa Claus.
…
Kudos to Les for the link