More on the Christchurch Earthquake: News, Science-y stuff, and Helpful/Relevant links

May 19th, 2011 @12:39pm

* Grant Jacobs over at Sciblogs.co.nz has been constantly updating information on Christchurch since Day One.  He is a font of information.

March 21st, 2011 @11:14om

*short segment on TVNZ on Animal Aid’s efforts to help pets

* from Sciblogs.co.nz – What Archaeologists are doing in Christchurch

* continued news, updates, multimedia from the NZHerald

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March 9th, 2011 @ 12:14pm

As you all know, I’m an animal girl.  I would like to re-post links to a couple of sites which have comprehensive pet information – lost and found, pictures, donations, help, adoption, fostering, etc.

* Animal Aid: Christchurch Earthquake – it’s a Facebook page/group – it has many resources

* petsonthenet.co.nz – is another site that posts info all year round on pets and has added Christchurch Earthquake pets to its info – it also has a Facebook page/group, which looks like it’s super helpful on which they have also been specifically posting pets lost in the earthquake

also, more images from space of the earthquake area

* NASA Spacecraft Images

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March 8th, 2011 @ 3:10pm

I got a couple of new links for you today.

* Before and after the quake photos – drag and slide the panes to reveal the pics

* Satellite pictures from Japan’s Alos spacecraft of the ripples caused by the earthquake in Christchurch plus solid article with sciency stuff from a scientist at Oxford who knows about these things:)

Also, I’ve created a new category for this post and related posts in the Categories menu over on the right, so you can always find it there.  (I’ve stopped messing with the time stamp on the post.)

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March 7th, 2011 @ 1:57pm

Is it really March?  Eeek.  Time goes fast!  Here are some more bits I picked out for updating purposes.   I am no longer going to mess with the dates on this post, but I did create a new (temp) category on the menu to your right: Christchurch Earthquake.

* No bodies was found in the cathedral, which is good news.  It was thought that there were more people in there when it collapsed.

* Unfortunately, families are continuing to report missing loved ones.

* The National State of Emergency will be in place for a while.

* keep up-to-date with NZ Herald – other stories here.

* Video project called “Voices of Christchurch“.  Hear from our people about what they’re doing.

* AirNZ extended it’s 50 dollar fares to and from Christchurch until the end of March.  Now THAT is how an airline should act!

* Some comic relief as a boulder that fell through a Cantabrian’s house goes up on sale at TradeMe. Read the comments – lol!  And, this morning, the boulder sold – for 10,500 – all proceeds going to the Christchurch Earthquake Relief Fun:)

* Finally, we all know dogs are awesome.  Here’s yet another reason.  We love you Kiwi!

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March 1st, 2011 @10:10pm

* Two time capsules were found, surfaced by the quake in Christchurch.  Anthropologically speaking, it will be really interesting to see what’s in them!

* A one week retrospective, and this TVNZ site is another good one for updates

* Well, the aftershocks will keep going for at least a year:(  They do seem to be on some sort of predictable schedule, though.

* In the meantime, Wellington has had its own earthquake tonight.  See next post.  *Sigh*  Feeling a little nervous about the land I’m standing on right now.  Especially since the wind is ridiculously strong right now and is not helping, because the house is shaking from that right now also.  Sleep will not be forthcoming tonight.  I’m hunkering down and hoping my eyes get tired.

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Feb 26th, 2011 @ 5:00pm

Hello:)  Spent a very pleasant day going to the Greek fair and stuffing my face with moussaka, risogalo and loukoumades, going to a street fair (found a birthday pressie for someone) and the to the Pasifika Festival down by the water in town where we listened to a brass band from Tonga for a bit and i had some shaved ice:)  I hope you guys are going to have a pleasant weekend:)

On to the earthquake updates:

* from Animal Aid: Christchurch Earthquake (FB)

Below is the latest update.  There is also need for kitty litter, etc.  Go to the site on FB to see what there is to do.  They have a lot of information.

URGENT CALL FOR VETERINARY NURSES: NZ: The Christchurch after hours emergency clinic has moved out of their damaged central city premises and are now operating out of Hornby Vet 7 Tower St. They are desperate for nurses if you know anyone who can help, please contact them on 03 349 5311. Other clinics are in a similar situation since they have lost staff who have left the area after their houses were lost.

* Around 800 student volunteers have descended upon Christchurch to help with the cleanup – like shoveling the massive amounts of liquefaction generated by the quake.  Cheerful  and helpful young people=always a good thing.

* Power is back for 80% of Christchurch. That still leaves some 37,000 people without, and it’ll be a while, but it’s still good.

* The kind people at Contact Energy have offered free gas at select service stations – 9kg LPG gas bottles can be filled:)

* Tragically, as of this morning, the death toll is now at 123, with approx. 200 people still missing.

* And, again, a very important, WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW to get on in Christchurch right now page.  Again, at the NZ Herald website, you will see the little black box, with more relevant links, news, and eyewitness accounts.

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Feb 25th, 2011 @21:53pm

I don’t know how many of you heard/saw/read about the Australian woman who was trapped under her desk in the Pyne Gould Guinness Building.  She had her cell phone and was talking to reporters, her son, etc.  Rescuers finally got her out today. And she’s recovering in hospital.  That is good news, and I will be posting the good news as well.

Some more interesting stuff. So, Steven had a meeting this afternoon that was canceled.  (For those of you who don’t know, he’s a Labour Economist).  This meeting was related to the NZ census that is done on March 8th of every year.  I just read that as of today, the census, which is supposed to be every five years and was slated for this year, has been canceled.  But, apparently in order for it to be canceled, it takes a big old change of law.  Didn’t know that.  So, now this whole legislation thing and official revocation thing has to be done by March 8th to ensure that Statistics NZ is not in breach of the Statistics Act of 1975.  Read more about the implications of this here. Wow.  Filed under things  I don’t normally think about in these situations.

Feb 25, 2011 @ 11:54am

For those of you able to help our furry cousins and the people who love them, there is a group on FB that is posting resources, links, missing pet information, numbers etc.  The following is the latest update.

URGENT MESSAGE: There is concern for animals without families within the cordoned area of the CBD. Many residents have left and animals are thought to have been left behind, and possibly trapped inside without food or water. Do you know of addresses where animals are left inside homes that need immediate attention? Accurate information and detail is important. Email safe@safe.org.nz

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Feb 25, 2011 @13:15pm

Hello again!

I’ve decided to simply append this update to the original “Hi, We Live in Wellington, which is far enough from Christchurch and we’re okay.  Do Not Worry” post and keep updating the post with news, information, technical stuff, and helpful and relevant links to this post as I find them.  I’ll just keep resetting the date on the post to make it show up as a new post.

I can’t really handle talking about my friends who’ve lost people right now, so I’m going to get right into the links and info.  The technical stuff helps me understand the science behind these disasters.  And, that’s what I like to read up on at times like these, not the least of which because there are at least four active fault lines around the Wellington region and one big one running underneath Wellington.  We lived in LA, and Seattle and I’ve been in a few tornadoes, having grown up in Ohio.  So, I’m not normally overly freaked out, but I have to read about the science, or I just can’t cope.  It calms me.  I’m kind of like that.

First, Where you are, What do you see in Christchurch, Report what residents need to know  – numbers to call, free shortcode texts, map

1. Help Christchurch by Reporting

So, this earthquake was actually an aftershock from the last earthquake in September, which actually created a new fault line!  That earthquake was a 7.1, but even thought this aftershock/earthquake was less strong at 6.3, it was shallower – at between 3-5 km deep (as opposed to September’s earthquake – 10km deep).  Here are a few sites with more information.

2. BBC News: New Zealand Earthquake: Depth and Location Key

3. NZ Herald: Hamish Campbell: Technically, It’s just an Aftershock

4. NZ Herald:Seismologists explain aftershocks (specific to Christchurch – video around 1.5 min)

5. scienceblogs:Why Does NZ have so many Earthquakes? – I got this link from Snowy (thanks, Snowy!)

The NZ Herald has been running 24/7 coverage and updates on Christchurch – there’s a little black box on most of these pages with more links – there are many articles, pictures and videos, including these

6. Christchurch earthquake updates (by time)

Thank you to everyone.

7. NZ Herald: Who’s Sending Help

8. NZ Herald: Christchurch earthquake: What you Need to Know (Where to get help)

There is also a group set up on Facebook to help people, which is basically a lost and found for pets. It has lots of  information and helpful links

9. Animal Aid: Christchurch Earthquake

Finally, I’m going to re-post the link to the interactive Quake Map – it is a time lapse visualization of the earthquakes and aftershocks in Christchurch – it has detailed quake map+depth and notations of the quake/aftershocks that happened on Tuesday in Christchurch (and I think all since September as well as since Tuesday): First, you must chose the correct date on the drop-down menu (Tuesday 22/02/11). Then, the time counter starts at 0:00. Just wait for the hours to go by. As each quake happens, the data comes up and the map lights up.  You can zoom in and zoom out.

10.  Christchurch Quake Map

11. If you keep scrolling down this post to the original bit, there is also a map of NZ, so those of you who don’t know where the cities are situated here can see locations and topography and so forth – click through the map twice, and you can get to the bigger version.

Oh yes, another thing.  If any of you happen to actually live in or near Wellington, like we do, there is a something called “The Great Sunday Bakeoff” happening.

Step 1: Rally up friends and family.

Step 2: Head to the supermarket or local dairy and get some ingredients for your favourite baking treat.

Step 3: Get to the kitchen and start baking (Try baking something that won’t melt).

Step 4: Once baked, carefully place it in a ice cream container

Step 5: Pop down to Civic Square, on Monday the 28th of February between 7am and 9am, and drop off your baking to the ‘The Great Sunday Bake Off’ Delivery Crew. The crew will be driving down that day to Christchurch to deliver the goodies.

I hope you all find these links helpful and informative.  If you have an questions or need a link to something, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will do my best to find the information for you.

Tomorrow (Saturday), I’m going to spend the day with my best Kiwi friend.  Her husband was in Christchurch on business during the earthquake, is fine and home in Wellington.  He was in his car, 100 meters away from the Pyne Gould Guinness Building and saw it collapse.   (One of his colleagues was not so lucky and did not survive the earthquake.)   We have other friends who have lost loved ones.  New Zealand is so small, we are all affected in one way or another.

Please take the time to tell your loved ones how much you care for them and how much they mean to you.  Hug them hard:)

And, thank you all for your concern, wishes and thoughts.   You are a very treasured community of mine, and I appreciate each and every single one of you.  Good night, my Peeps:)

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Feb 22, 2011 @21:55

Hello all! We are fine here in Wellington. It is far enough away from Christchurch. Do not worry!

It’s just terrible.  Really, Really Terrible.  I was actually out at a mall with one of my very good friends and her new baby.  We were in the mother’s room/bathroom while she was feeding her daughter .  There’s a television in there and it was all over the news.  My friend was a bit confused at first, because she thought it was just footage from the last big one.  But, no, it wasn’t.  It’s SO awful.  It happened in the middle of the day.  (The last big one happened at night, so there were very few people in the CBD).  There are many, many casualties this time.  Christchurch hasn’t recovered from the last one.  My heart goes out to them.

Below is a relief map of New Zealand, so you can see where we live, in relation to Christchurch. (If you click on it – two times through – you’ll get the bigger one.)  It is an hour flight time to Christchurch from Wellington or a three 1/2 hour ferry + four hours of driving – to give you an idea – 3ookm/186miles.

Also, here is a link to some aerial photos taken today of the damage – and another to some on-the-ground photos here.

And, I just found this interactive quake map of the Christchurch quake from today and the ensuing aftershocks: First, you must chose the correct date on the drop-down menu (Tuesday 22/02/11). Then, the time counter starts at 0:00. Just wait for the hours to go by. As each quake happens, the data comes up and the map lights up.

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Male Circumcision No Aid to Women in Study – New York Times

Male Circumcision No Aid to Women in Study – New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/us/…

February 4, 2008 Male Circumcision No Aid to Women in Study By LAWRENCE K. ALTMAN BOSTON — A number of studies showing that circumcision among men reduces their risk of infection from the AIDS virus has raised the hope that the procedure would also benefit their female sexual partners. But the expectations were challenged Sunday by a new study showing that male circumcision conferred no indirect benefit to the female partners and, indeed, increased the risk if the couples resumed sex before the circumcision wound was fully healed, usually in about a month. The study did confirm the benefit of male circumcision in lowering the incidence of herpes and other genital ulcers among men. Findings of the study, which was conducted in an area of high incidence of H.I.V., the AIDS virus, were reported at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Although the findings did not reach statistical significance, they still underscore the need for more effective education among men who undergo circumcision and their female partners, the authors of the study said. The study — conducted by the same team of researchers from Johns Hopkins and Uganda who had shown circumcision’s benefits among men in earlier studies — is believed to be the first clinical trial to provide scientific data on the effects on women of circumcision in their male partners. For many years, epidemiologists observed that the incidence of AIDS was higher in areas of Africa where men were not circumcised and lower in areas where men were circumcised. But many scientists were skeptical that circumcision played a role in acquiring H.I.V. Then in recent years, three scientifically controlled studies in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda convinced the skeptics by showing that male circumcision could reduce the risk of H.I.V. infection by 50 percent to 60 percent. Although circumcision is no cure-all, the World Health Organization endorsed the procedure last year, increasing …

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