Via /., Computerworld has an interesting article on how an ISP was back up and running 72 hours after their office was flattened by a hurricane. Interesting stuff…
The Jackson, Tenn.-based company that serves about 10,000 Internet and 2,500 telephone customers was closed for the weekend, awaiting the return of its 17 employees the next morning. Just before midnight, however, all hell broke loose. An F-4 category twister touched down just outside of town, then tore through Jackson’s downtown area, leveling houses, historical sites and municipal buildings alike. The tornado ripped straight through Aeneas’s one-story building, leaving only a pile of rubble.
Reminds us all just how important being prepared in the event of a disaster is.
Heard about this on the news this morning, and the BBC has coverage of the guy why skydived acros the english channel.
He wore only an aerodynamic jumpsuit with a 6-foot (1.8-metre) carbon fin strapped to his back, an oxygen tank from which to breathe, and a parachute to land.
Cool stunt, but I still beleive the main reason they teach pilots to land in one peice is so you don’t have to jump out of the plane.
If this was published on April 1st it’d be written off as a joke, but apparently there is something like a 20% chance that Australia would become part of the US in the next 50 years.
The visiting research fellow at Adelaide University, who has lived in Australia since 1971, said the chances would increase significantly in the event of a major Al-Qaeda attack on Australia or if Indonesia became a fundamentalist Islamic republic.
Apparently there are advantages to Australia though…
He listed the advantages of American statehood for Australia as:
* Access to the world’s best higher education system.
* Large savings on embassies.
* Being part of the world’s most effective defence system.
* Merger with the world’s strongest currency.
* Being part of the world’s biggest economy.
* A constitution bringing a republic and a Bill of Rights.
* Fielding teams in the US national basketball, baseball and gridiron competitions.
Scott Rosenberg says…
Moments like the present offer a strange sense of suspension on the edge of a precipice. War is 99 percent inevitable. Yet I keep thinking, what if? Surely… But…
… and follows it up with same solid reasoning. Agreed
In the last 24 hours things seem to have changed very quickly. On the news this morning, came the news that George Bush had called our PM asking for troops to help fight the war. Sortly thereafter, cabinet met and the likely became definate as Australia commits troops to war.
“The government has authorised the chief of the Australian Defence Force, General (Peter) Cosgrove, to place the Australian forces already deployed in the Gulf region as part of any US-led coalition operation that may take place in the future, directed in accordance with existing authority under UN resolutions to disarm Iraq,” he [John Howard]said in a statement to the press.
We were also told that George Bush would make a speach at about midday our time, and then received news that Bush gives Saddam 48 hours to go or it’s war.
“Saddam Hussein and his sons must leave Iraq in 48 hours. Their refusal to do so will result in military conflict to commence at a time of our choosing,” he said.
So now we have 48 hours to wait and see what happens, but war looks almost innevitable now. I have this great sense of foreboding that I didn’t have last time around. I don’t beleive it’ll be the quick campaign that the planners would like to think it will be. The Iraqi’s will put up some sort of a fight, even if its mostly around Bagdhad, but if they decided to drag it out in the manner that Jon Robb suggests is possible.
Lets face it, it was pretty much innevitable after aussie troops left for Iraq, that if war broke out, we’d be fighting despite what the government said at the time. So John Howard said yesterday that “We won’t sit on the sidelines”, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it’s confirmed.
“Alliances are two-way processes and our alliance with the US is no exception. Australians should know there is no nation more important to our long term security than the US.”
Surely we can’t just be crawling to the US on this. Which makes me wonder, what are we getting in return? Its not oil, we’re self-sufficient in oil, so what are we getting?
OM World has an excelent FAQ on the Collumbia loss.
Only in America would victims of a terrorist incident sue the terrorists.
Relatives of about 900 Americans killed in the attacks, along with some survivors, lodged a class action suit on August 15, 2002 seeking more than $100 trillion damages.
Of course if they actually success in getting a large amount of cash from the terrorists it might not be as stupid as it first seems. The more money they can take out of an organisation, the more it’ll hurt its operations, but I still have to wonder if it’ll do any good.
Just thought I’d point out that my entry on a mandatory draft seems to have atteacted a few comments.
1416 GMT (9:16 a.m. EST)
This was the time of Columbia’s landing. What we know is contact was lost with the shuttle at about 9 a.m. EST and a sighting by residents in Texas reported a debris cloud following the plasma trail as Columbia streaked overhead.
Spaceflight Now has excelent coverage of yesterday’s loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
Time’s science correspondent offers his theory.
There are three possible scenarios that explain this event. The first, which I believe is the likeliest explanation, would be an aerodynamic structural breakup of the shuttle caused by it rolling at the wrong angle.
A former NASA flight controller, offers something slightly different.
The video shows a large object separating, then a flash and puff in the contrail and then the breakup. I believe the large object was the left wing and it was probably during a roll reversal. The left wing was struck by External Tank debris during Ascent. The wing leading edge temperature is ~3000 deg during Entry.
Dave is collecting links here.
