Please note places to send donations for tsunami victims relief. They are only accepting cash donations at this time as transportation and distribution is extremely difficult, as can be imagined...
Any amount will help!
The Salvation Army International
The American Red Cross Credit Card Contribution Site
Again, any help is always appreciated.....
Cat
An entry to thank those who assisted in my journal update....
To Stacy and Nae for finally getting me through ftp....
To The Tag Lounge for providing some of my remain to be used tags...
To all those who offered help to me.... gosh you're all so good....
And to Brian for the music and loading info, and the picture....
**trust me....he 'air brushed' A LOT! :)
You guys rock my world.....
Cat
For those who don't know.....
A tsunami (pronounced soo-NAH-mee) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by a pulsating or abrupt disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life.
Tsunamis are often called "tidal waves" as they may resemble a non-lunar-tidal rush of rapidly rising water, rather than big cresting waves reaching the shore. However, the term is discouraged by oceanographers since tsunamis are not related to tides.
The term "tsunami" comes from the Japanese tsu (harbor) and nami (wave).
Causes
Tsunamis are unlike wind-generated waves on a local lake or at a coastal beach, in that they are characterized as shallow-water waves, with long periods and wave lengths. The wind-generated swell one sees at a surf beach, for example, spawned by a storm out in the pacific and rhythmically rolling in, one wave after another, might have a period of about 10 seconds and a wave length of 150 m. A tsunami, on the other hand, can have a wave length in excess of 100 km and period on the order of one hour.
As a result of their long wave lengths, tsunamis behave as shallow-water waves. A wave becomes a shallow-water wave when the ratio between the water depth and its wave length gets very small. Shallow-water waves move at a speed that is equal to the square root of the product of the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s/s.... hey, that's meters per second squared.... I bet Ms. Goth 'Genius' Daughter..knew that!) and the water depth - let's see what this implies: In the Pacific Ocean, where the typical water depth is about 4000 m, a tsunami travels at about 200 m/s, or over 700 km/hr. Because the rate at which a wave loses its energy is inversely related to its wave length, tsunamis not only propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses.
Tsunamis can be generated when the sea floor abruptly deforms and vertically displaces the overlying water. Tectonic earthquakes are a particular kind of earthquake that are associated with the earth's crust deformation; when these earthquakes occur beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position. Waves are formed as the displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium. When large areas of the sea floor elevate or subside, a tsunami can be created.
Large vertical movements of the earth's crust can occur at plate boundaries. Plates interact along these boundaries called faults. Around the margins of the Pacific Ocean, for example, denser oceanic plates slip under continental plates in a process known as subduction. Subduction earthquakes are particularly effective in generating tsunamis.
A tsunami can be generated by any disturbance that displaces a large water mass from its equilibrium position. In the case of earthquake-generated tsunamis, the water column is disturbed by the uplift or subsidence of the sea floor. Submarine landslides, which often accompany large earthquakes, as well as collapses of volcanic edifices, can also disturb the overlying water column as sediment and rock slump downslope and are redistributed across the sea floor. Similarly, a violent submarine volcanic eruption can create an impulsive force that uplifts the water column and generates a tsunami. Conversely, super-marine landslides and cosmic-body impacts disturb the water from above, as momentum from falling debris is transferred to the water into which the debris falls. Generally speaking, tsunamis generated from these mechanisms, unlike the Pacific-wide tsunamis caused by some earthquakes, dissipate quickly and rarely affect coastlines distant from the source area.
Physics
In deep water, the energy of a tsunami is constant, a function of its height and speed. Thus, as the wave approaches land, its height increases while its speed decreases. A tsunami has a very long wave length (in the order of 100km), which makes it act as a shallow-water wave. Since the speed of a shallow-water wave is 
Considering the fact that a tsunami can cause damage thousands of miles from its origin, there may be several hours between its creation and its impact on the coast, more than it takes for seismic waves to arrive.
Typically, tens of minutes before a tsunami, the sea will recede from the coast, exposing part of the seabed. If the slope is shallow, this recession can exceed 800 m. People unaware of the danger may stay at the shore, due to curiosity, but this may be a warning sign of a coming tsunami. There can be several waves, at two- to 45-minute intervals.
MegatsunamisEvidence shows that megatsunamis(*1), which are caused by significant chunks of an island collapsing into the ocean, are also possible. Related to a tsunami is a seiche(*2). Often large earthquakes produce both tsunamis and seiches at the same time and there is evidence that some seiches have been caused by tsunamis.
Warning systemsMany cities around the Pacific, notably in Japan but also in Hawaii, have warning systems and evacuation procedures in the event of a serious tsunami. Tsunamis are predicted by various seismologic institutes around the world and their progress monitored by satellites.
Bottom pressure recorders with buoys as communication link are used to detect waves which would not be noticed by a human observer on deep water. The first rudimentary system to alert communities of an impending tsunami was attempted in Hawaii in the 1920s. More advanced systems were developed in the wake of the April 1, 1946 and may 23, 1960 tsunamis which caused massive devastation in Hilo, Hawaii. The United States created the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (http://www.prh.noaa.gov/pr/ptwc/) in 1949, and linked it to an international data and warning network in 1965.
One system for providing tsunami warning is the CREST Project (Consolidated Reporting of Earthquakes and Tsunamis) implemented on the West coast (Cascadia), Alaska, and Hawaii of the United States by the USGS, NOAA, the Pacific Northwest Seismograph Network, and three other university seismic networks.
Tsunami prediction remains an imperfect science. Although the epicenter of a large underwater quake and the probable tsunami arrival times can be quickly calculated, it is almost always impossible to know whether massive underwater ground shifts have occurred, resulting in tsunami waves. As a result, false alarms are common.
No system can protect against a sudden tsunami. A devastating tsunami occurred off the coast of Hokkaido in Japan as a result of an earthquake on July 12, 1993. As a result, 202 people on the small island of Okushiri lost their lives, and hundreds more were missing or injured. This tsunami struck just three to five minutes after the quake and most victims were caught while fleeing for higher ground and secure places after surviving the earthquake.
While there remains the potential for sudden devastation from a tsunami, warning systems can be effective. For example if there were a very large subduction zone earthquake (magnitude 9.0) off the west coast of the United States, people in Japan, for example, would have up to 18 hours (and likely warnings from warning systems in Hawaii and elsewhere) before any tsunami arrived, giving them some time to evacuate areas likely to be affected.
HistoryAlthough tsunamis occur most frequently in the Pacific Ocean, they are known to occur anywhere. Many ancient descriptions of sudden and catastrophic waves exist, particularly in and around the Mediterranean. Thousands of Portuguese who survived the great 1755 Lisbon earthquake were killed by a tsunami which followed a few moments later. Before the great wave hit, the harbor waters retreated, revealing lost cargo and forgotten shipwrecks. In the North Atlantic, the Storegga Slide is a major incident.
The Krakatoa incidentThe island volcano of Krakatoa in Indonesia, exploded with devastating fury in 1883. A series of large tsunami waves was generated from the explosion, some reaching a height of over 40 meters above sea level. Tsunami waves were observed throughout the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, the American West Coast, South America, and even as far away as the English Channel. On the facing coasts of Java and Sumatra the sea flood went many miles inland and caused such vast loss of life that one area wasnever resettled but went back to the jungle and is now the Ujung Kulon nature reserve.
22 May 1960 Chilean tsunamiThe Grat Chilean Earthquake, the largest earthquake ever recorded, of the coast of Soutch Central Chile, generated one of the most destructive tsunamis of the 20th Century. It spread across the entire Pacific Ocean, with waves measuring up to 25 meters.
26 Dec 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
The tsunami that struck Malé in the Maldives on December 26, 2004.
The most recent series of lethal tsunamis occurred on December 26, 2004, in the Indian Ocean, with fatalities last reported at 68,000, ranging from those in the immediate vicinity of the quake in Indonesia and Thailand to people thousands of kilometres away in Bangladesh, India, Sri lanka, the Maldives, and even Somalia in eastern Africa. Unlike the Pacific Ocean, there is no organised alert service covering the Indian Ocean. This is in part due to the absence of major tsunami events since 1883 and an emphasis on developing a tropical cyclone warning system.
Tsunamis caused by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake under the sea west of Banda Aceh on the island of Sumatra in Indonesia caused severe devastation in the form of loss of property and lives on the Asian coasts of the Indian Ocean, particularly Sri Lanka, indonesia, India (most casualties have been reported in the state of Tamil Nadu and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands), Thailand (Esp. Phuket, where thousands of foreigners are missing), Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Bangladesh; and also in Somalia and Kenya in Africa. As of 10:14 pm EST on December 28, 2004, news reports estimate the total death toll at over 80,000, with Indonesia facing the brunt of the devastation with over 27,000 feared dead. The number of deaths caused by thistsunami is expected to double due to wide spread illness. Who fear that large number of corpses, if not handled properly, may cause contamination to the water, causing hasty dispersal of plague. Many foreign tourists are among the dead.
In 2001, scientists predicted that a future eruption of the unstable Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary Islands could cause a supergiant undersea landslide which would cause a 100 m megatsunami to devastate the coast of northwest Africa, with a 30-50 m tsunami reaching the east coast of North America.
*1) A megatsunami is a rare tsunami more than 100 meters (325ft) high. Aside from some large tsunami in Alaska, including one 520 m high, the last megatsunami to hit a populated area is believed to have occurred 4,000 years ago. Geologists say it is usually caused by a very large landslide, such as a collapsing island, into a vast body of water such as an ocean or sea. (This is oneof the dangers of Global Warming and the glaciers of the North Pole and Alaska melting. If it warms up too fast, the ice will sheer off in massive arrow head form.)
Megatsunamis can rise to heights of hundreds of meters, travel at 890 km/h in mid-ocean and potentially reach 20 km inland in low-lying regions.
In deep ocean, a megatsunami is barely noticeable. It moves as a vertical shift of only a meter or so throughout the volume of water, with a crest to crest distance of hundreds of kilometers. However the huge amount of energy in the motion of this massive volume generates a much higher wave as it approaches shallow water.
Underwater earthquakes do not normally generate such large tsunamis unless they also trigger an underwater landslide — typically they have a height of less than ten meters.
Landslides that are large compared to the depth of water hit the water so fast that the displaced water cannot settle before the rocks hit the bottom. This means that the rocks displace the water at full speed all the way to the bottom. If the water is deep, the displaced volume is large and the lower parts are under high pressure. The resulting wave contains large amounts of energy.
Some have conjectured that historic megatsunamis underlie the deluge myths that are common to many cultures throughout the world. However this is unlikely, considering that megatsunamis usually occur without any warning, only hit coastal areas, and do not necessarily occur after a rain.
*2) A seiche (pronounced SAYSH) or an underwater wave is an underwater, irregular fluctuation or rhythmic rocking of the water level of a lake, first noted in Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Observers on the surface may not know a seiche is happening.
Scientifically, a seiche is a standing wave in an enclosed body of water and the definition does not include the causes.
Seiches are common between warm and cold-water layers, notably in Loch Ness, Scotland, and some evidence cited for the Loch Ness monster and the Lake Champlain monster may trace to seiches.
Small rhythmic seiches are almost always present on larger lakes, and the frequency of the oscillation is determined by the size of the body, its depth and contours, and the water temperature. On the North American Great Lakes seiche is often called slosh. It is always present but is usually unnoticeable except during periods of unusual calm.
Major seiches often occur during earthquakes and may be caused by wind or underwater landslides. Lake Erie, because of its shallowness and elongation can occasionally have wind caused extreme seiches of up to 15 feet (5 meters) between the ends. The first appearance is similar to a storm surge like those caused by hurricanes along ocean coasts, but the seiche effect can cause oscillation back and forth across the lake for some time. Hurricane Hazel piled up water along the northwestern Lake Ontario shoreline near Toronto, causing extensive flooding, and established a seiche that subsequently caused flooding along the south shore.
** All info and images from Wikipedia
So, now you know....
Cat
Not much to write about today. Grace is out of class until Jan 5th, so I'm spending my days playing with trains, puzzles, and playdoh.....
If I could only get her to play with me, maybe things wouldn't have gotten so hectic. She was in a mood all day again, from sun up until bedtime. Not enough sleep, I'm sure....
Kitty is going in to get her first shots and be spayed in the morning. She went into heat yesterday, and she's a notch above tolerable right now. Besides, its the responsible thing to do. She comes home Thursday afternoon, when we'll take Forrest in for his rabies shot. Then the dogs separately on Friday for theirs.
Am horrified at the more than 55,000 lives lost from the Tsunami. Most of the countries didn't have the warning system in place (buoys with wave motion sensors on them) and were caught totally off guard. Disease experts are saying the numbers will increase should Cholera or dysentery break out. Numbers could double....
There was criticism by the UN to the Western (wealthier) nations that they're being "stingy". So far (after prompting by Colin Powell to add another $20 million to the already given $15), the US has contributed $35 million to the relief efforts. To put that in perspective, $11 billion was given to Florida after the hurricanes over the summer....
Did anyone read about that 16 month old girl that was abused to death here (in Indiana)? I'm trying to get all the details, but what I know is her mom's boyfriend said she wouldn't stop crying, so he "slammed her against the metal part of the playpen". Doctors discovered a previously broken arm and wrist, fractured larynx and crushed esophagus..... What the hell?!
Authorities are checking into mom as a suspect for the previous injuries. If that's not a case for sterility, I don't know what would be.....
Gosh, I hope this week gets better. I don't like it when years end on a bad vibe.
Night all.....
Cat
Another Christmas down. And it gets marked as a great one. From this one on, I'm sure Gracie will remember Christmas now....
I'll start at the Christmas Eve Open House. We call it an open house because when we started having them, it was for those friends who didn't have a place to go. This year's started with an afternoon of shoveling snow....about 14" of it, out of the driveway. We still could only get about 6 others in, so some people had to park across the street at my friend Mel's Dad's old place.
As children on Christmas Eve, my parents used to drive us around to look at all the lights and downtown to walk around Monument Circle, which is turned into the world's largest Christmas tree. They did that to tire us out so they could get the presents under the tree in peace :)
The open house began a few years after we moved here, when my brother and I were teens and Santa's anonymity wasn't an issue. My dad, the keeper of lost sheep (mostly black ones), had some friends he had known since college. These are the type people most would judge by looking and want no part. I call them lost souls, people who've forgotten their way whether by addiction or choices. But as odd as they were, I learned great lessons from them.
An example was Kay. Kay was an artist, into numerology, and all things cosmic.... When I graduated from college, she had made me a 'neck-roll' type pillow. It is beautiful (I still have it), covered in an off-white satin print with scalloped lace at either end. A nice normal gift, right? For Kay, most definitely. At both ends were stuffed boobs, complete with nipples and areola! On the card was written in calligraphy "Congrats, kid! Now go grab life by her tits." True to form--Kay. She blew her brain out after getting into an alcohol-full tiff with her friends.
Don't apologize or feel sorry about that. Kay was capable of many things. I wasn't surprised and am not sorry for her. I love her until I die, too.
So, now you see a glimpse into the first attendees. As we got older, it was our friends who'd show up for the party. Our place was always the gathering spot. My parents were also the ones that our friends came to for advice. Mom and Dad just let them talk about anything and depending on severity, told those who needed to know.
Now, I see as a parent, how that might look bad (if my parents withheld information) but in these cases, their parents fully knew and trusted mine. We had at least 6 kids here from Thursday until Monday when we were growing up. We weren't even close to being angels. But most of us have made it into adulthood fine.
Time has moved on, and now its my family (Dad, Mom, Charlie, Me, 3 uncles, 1 aunt, and Grace) and a few of our friends (Johnny, JC, Dennis, my 'sister' Mel and her live-in, Brian and her son, Ricky). It used to be standing room only through the house. It dwindled to all in one room.
Kind of sad.... but hey, we still were partying at 5 am... it just a lot quieter... sometimes. Charlie and Johnny usually would stay up all night getting louder as the night (morning) progressed. But with my brother living here now (and at Johnny's house), this year they attended a Christmas Eve Eve party (I can't believe not many people have heard that before, by the way). They stayed out until about the same time, so they were wiped out and toned down for ours.
Grace woke up at the usual 6:30 am saying "Its Christmas, Happy Birthday, Jesus...Lets open presents now",but Mom and Dad (Mom got up with Gracie... thanks Mom) kept her busy until 9. It was time to open them... can't put it off any longer. So we divvied up the packages to their respective owners, most going to Grace, of course.
She started opening hers and each one she got more excited over. Mom, being the queen of garage sales, got her a ceramic dog with 3 puppies for .50. When Grace developed an immediate love for her puppies and put them in a bag so she could carry them around all day, Mom used it to point out how we didn't need to spend a lot of money to make her happy. Mom's will be moms, won't they. But then Gracie got to her gift from my brother--the Geotrax Railway System!-- Mom got put back in well, maybe a little money mode :)
I went to serve my penance at the food shelters today. Normally I would take Gracie, but she was having too much fun and she did go on Thanksgiving with me. With all the snow, I knew the place would be packed and it was. Pastor Dave said its been that way for 3 days, non stop. You really don't notice how many people have it that bad on a sunny day.
I stayed there for 4 hours today before being told that 'meals on wheels' hadn't been served since the snow fell because some people couldn't get their cars out. I can't have that, so I called Johnny to come get me and take food out to some of them. (People who voted for Bush should come and see how all the 'unnecessary' items were cut from the budgets).
We stayed out another 4 hours and got to everyone on the list. Some hadn't eaten anything but canned beans. Mostly elderly people who suffer the worst. I look in their eyes and they tell me it shouldn't be like this. It shouldn't. But I feel like I left them happy for the day, so that's good.
When I finally got back home, Grace was still playing with the trains. She's played with that train for two days now. She wanted to take it to breakfast this morning and then refused to go because it couldn't go too. (Yeah, that lasted about 2 minutes before 'Militant Mom' went into action).
Normally, we gather for Christmas breakfast on Christmas Day. But my aunt had to work (the same hospital mom, and I work(ed) at), so we did that this morning. The meal itself is an interesting story.
My aunt had a boyfriend who is Jewish. He and my aunt lived with my Grandma (the one who was born in our house) at the time. He served bagels, lox, pate' and some other traditional Jewish food for our Christmas breakfast and we've had it since.
I began dating an Arab man about 8 years ago, so he made traditional Middle Eastern food for us to have also. Well, he's not around, but the food still is. So, we say its the only time the Arabs and the Jews can get along... at our table. They go together quite well, too. ;)
Then we opened presents there. Got our rum cakes to take home. And shuttled everyone back to their respective cars. It was a very nice time.
Charlie and I went to watch football--Way to go Manning! for breaking Marino's TDs a season record. Congrats to the Colts for a new record for 3 WRs having 1000 yds each and 10 Tds each, too....a day for records!
My beloved Steelers are still on a tremendous roll, but I dread the future playoff setup... one of my teams has got to go out :( I have to go with the Colts. Roethlisberger is a rookie, the Steelers will be contenders a long time. Then on to New England, the luckiest team in the NFL. The Steelers took then out this season, but they beat the Colts... many times. Would like some revenge, but hoping... somehow... the Patriots will face the Steelers first.
So, that's my holiday wrap up. Sounds like you all have had a great one also!
Onto New Year's......
Cat
Just wanted to get these out of my head.....
Thoughts on Christmas minus Christ.....
I don't know where the people are shopping who complain about the Holy Day being anti-Christ. Every store I've been to had a Nativity, along with the Hanukah and Kwanzaa decorations. The one that was lacking, actually, was of Islamic faith for Ramadan, which started in November this year...I believe.
I pass churches (there are 4 in my neighborhood) who no longer put elaborate Nativity displays outside for fear of vandalism... aren't they giving in to the wrong people, for the wrong reason?
It seems to me, by not portraying a Nativity on the very (sacred) ground that the belief of Jesus dwells... a message is sent.
Maybe its not the marketplace with the problem. Maybe the 'Christian Right' just doesn't want to share the holiday.....
Thoughts on J-land....
Does anyone really read the sidebar(s)? Do you ever go to any of another person's favorite links? I get so caught up... in catching up... in reading them... I never have time to wander around here anymore....
To all my reader's kids.... SANTA SAID for me to tell you all....JAKE, LIAM, JUSTIN, SARAH, BRODY, CIARA, ALEX, JULIE, JARED, JOEY, JOSH, GOTH DAUGHTER (Yeah, you too), PRINCESS ALLY, SPIDERSON DRAKE, ROWAN, PEY, J-MAN JASON, JESSICA, NICK, and DARRIN..... to go to sleep Christmas Eve like your parents tell you to...
To all my adult reader's.... have a drink (or two), eat, be merry.....most of all enjoy your festivities...and your families.
I will not be here tomorrow. Maybe Christmas Day... if not, then I'll be back on Monday. Everybody be safe. Those who are dealing with snow and frigid temps, please be careful and prepared if driving. I only want to be reading happy stories when I return :)
Merry Christmas, friends......
Cat
I wanted a white Christmas. I wished for snow. Boy, did I get it. Be careful what you wish for.....
Indiana is now under a snow emergency and called in the National Guard to start digging us out. Mom and I shoveled a path through the 12-18" snow to get her car out this morning. There are drifts more than 3' tall now.
It wasn't cold out today.... that comes tonight and tomorrow. We're talking a high of 7 degrees (Fahrenheit for all my non-American readers).
I have no idea how people who make it over here for Christmas Eve are going to get in (or out) of the driveway. :::wishing for a snow blower::: Not looking forward to shoveling in the cold......
Dad took Gracie out to refill the bird feeders (we have a red-headed woodpecker this year!!!) and she had a ball being a dog in the snow.
I had her thermals on under some thin pants and sweats on top of that, two shirts, two pairs of socks, and of course her outside wear.... because I knew from yesterday the girl refuses to stand in the snow.
I had to catch her before she jumped off the wall because she wanted to bounce in the snow below..... I tried explaining that snow doesn't make for good bouncing.... well, maybe only once :)
So when he took her out today (she wanted to build a snowman, but its not packing snow...its light and fluffy, blowy snow) in the back, I watched from the kitchen windows as she crawled..on all fours.. the whole time they were out there, getting mouthfuls of snow as she made her way through.
Gracie is 38" tall and standing, the snow came up to her chest... I have no idea how she managed to get through on hands and knees. It looks like we have a bunch of huge moles tunneling through the yard..... But oh well, she loves it.She came inside all red-cheeked and snotty with a bucket full of snow, so I wiped her nose, stripped off the top layer and felt if the second was wet. It wasn't, so I sat her on the couch under the electric blanket and made some hot cocoa from the back of the Hershey's Cocoa box (I love this stuff!).
While she was sipping on that, I made her a grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup for lunch and warmth. Her bucket O' snow is on the back porch..she only had to check it every 3 minutes.....to make sure it didn't melt.
I forgot how much playing in snow can tire you out. She was ready for bed at 6 pm tonight. I was ready for her to go, too ;) She had a good day.....
Merry Christmas Eve Eve to all you guys.....
Cat
