Jez's Blog

'At least 529 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the government says.' -- BBC

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province in of Indonesia. The earthquake has brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides. More than 400 people have been seriously injured, and the death toll is expected to rise.

The first earthquake of 7.6 struck at 5:16PM local time (10:16AM GMT) on the 30th of September, Wednesday. One of the biggest damage was a collapse of school in Padang. Police said that nine children had been found alive, yet that eight bodies had also been pulled from the rubble so far. And even moreover, David Lange, a doctor with Surfaid International, told the BBC one that of the hospitals was 'completely destroyed'. Then, on the next day, the 1st of October, Thursday, the second earthquake of 6.8 struck close to Padang at 8:52AM local time (1:52AM GMT). However, there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

People were trapped in destroyed towns with no food nor money. The rescuers struggled to find survivors in rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings; and health ministry teams and Indonesian soldiers have arrived in Padang to aid the search for survivors.

In addition, the earthquake struck nearly 12 hours after a powerful quake in the South Pacific that triggered a devastating tsunami but experts said the two events were unrelated.

I felt a deep sense of pity after reading this news report. It reminded me about the Morakot Typhoon in southern Taiwan, August. The typhoon, just like the earthquake, has ruined thousands of people's houses and families. The typhoon has caused bridges and buildings to collapse, and a flood that whipped out an entire town. People were trapped, and the power lines were cut so that there was no way for the trapped victims to contact the outside.

However, these are the horrible things that we do not have the power to control. Like many other natural disasters that has caused certain changes in either environments, or humanities throughout the history.


- http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-indonesia-quake-pg,0,3901580.photogallery [Picture of the Indonesian Quake. Copied by Jez. 1st of Oct. 2009]

'According to the Mayan prediction, the 21st of December, 2012, will be the end of the world.' This is the main theme of an up coming movie called 2012. It might seems quite foolish to worry about something that happens in a movie, but what if it is real? 2012 is not as far from now as we thought. In fact, it's only 3 years later!



In the movie, there are scenes of hundreds of aerolites shooting down from the sky, buildings collapsing, ocean drowning the land, and earth cracking...etc. However, according to the information from So The Maya's Were Right After All, the Mayans had never predicted anything specific about what will happen on the day. The thing that is known, is basically that on this day, the Sun will be posited on an unique spot. Which the Sun will sit precisely on the heavenly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfrctly alignment with the center of the galaxy.

Personally, I think what happens on the day, in the movie, is quite unbelievable, and unrealistic because first of all, everything just happens so suddenly; and further on, I've been thinking that maybe things are already happening right now, instead of all happening at once on the day. The climates have been changing oddly, and there are more and more natural disasters been occurring such as Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan on the 7th of August, 2009. Also, Earth's magnetic field is in a constant state of change. And so the Earth might have been gradually devastated until the day of the 21st of December, 2012. Though, what will happen specifically is still an open question. In fact, I believe that to many people, it's still a question that rather the day is real or not.

Hoever, What should we do if it is true that the world ends on the 21th of December, 2012? Should we just lay back, doing nothing, and wait for this very day to come? Should we start running around, screaming, and panic? Or, with all those highly progressed technology, and those smart brains that we have in our world, it is possible for us to do something about it?


- http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/Y2003/29dec_magneticfield.htm
[Info. of Earth's inconstant magnetic field, copied by Jez. 30th of Aug. 2009]