Earthquakes in the Past Few Weeks

Today, an 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck Turkey.  This follows the series of earthquakes that occurred in the past few weeks.  It is easy for us to forget how fortunate we are to have whatever peace and safety we presently have, until we see how terribly wrong things can turn out.

In the “Sutra on the Eight Great Realization of Great Beings” 《佛說八大人覺經 》, the first stanza of the first realisation is

世間無常,國土危脆

The world is impermanent, the country and land are fragile.

Let us not take things for granted and assume things will be, must be or should be in a certain manner tomorrow just because it is today.  For all are impermanent, and that which is impermanent is subject to change.  Something that is subject to change, tends more towards agitation than not.  Something that is subject to change and tends towards agitation brings uncertainty, anxiety and unease.  This in turn does not promote happiness.

If we forget this, we become complacent and start having presumptions about things and people around us.  We become used to how things are and when they suddenly change, or more rightly exhibit significant change, we fret, we tremble, we are vexed.

References

Earthquakes in the past few weeks
Please join me in dedicating to those who perished or are still suffering.

8 March 2010 – Strong quake hits eastern Turkey

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8554857.stm

TURKEY — A strong earthquake has struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 38 people, officials have said.

The 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck the village of Basyurt in Elazig province at 0432 (0232 GMT). It was followed by several aftershocks.

4 March 2010 – Strong earthquake hits Taiwan; injuries reported

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jG5hZlCCO3i3V4jYnlNrmMShKbrAD9E7IR500

TAIPEI, Taiwan — A powerful 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked southern Taiwan on Thursday, causing widespread damage and disrupting communications around the island. Local news reports said several people were injured.

The quake was centered in the county of Kaohsiung, and struck at a depth of about 3.1 miles (5 kilometers). Kaohsiung is about 249 miles (400 kilometers) south of the capital Taipei.

No tsunami alert was issued.

27 February 2010 – State of Catastrophe Declared
in Chile After Massive 8.8-Magnitude Quake

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587565,00.html

CHILE — Chile’s president declared a state of catastrophe in the aftermath of a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake Saturday that left bodies, crumbled buildings and outages in its wake.

Chile’s interior minister says at least 214 people had been found dead as of Saturday afternoon, and the pre-dawn quake, the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half century, also cut electricity, water and phone lines to many outlying areas, meaning there was no immediate word of death or damage there.

The quake also unleashed a tsunami across the ocean, putting much of the Pacific Rim on alert for potentially devastating waves.

12 January 2010 – A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8455629.stm

HAITI — The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards.

There is still no official word on casualties and the extent of the devastation is only now becoming clearer with dawn breaking

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/01/earthquake_in_haiti.html

HAITI — Tuesday afternoon, January 12th, the worst earthquake in 200 years – 7.0 in magnitude – struck less than ten miles from the Caribbean city of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The initial quake was later followed by twelve aftershocks greater than magnitude 5.0. Structures of all kinds were damaged or collapsed, from shantytown homes to national landmarks. It is still very early in the recovery effort, but millions are likely displaced, and thousands are feared dead as rescue teams from all over the world are now descending on Haiti to help where they are able. As this is a developing subject, I will be adding photos to this entry over the next few days, but at the moment, here is a collection of photos from Haiti over the past 24 hours.

 

State of Catastrophe Declared in Chile After Massive 8.8-Magnitude Quake

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,587565,00.html

Chile’s president declared a state of catastrophe in the aftermath of a massive 8.8-magnitude earthquake Saturday that left bodies, crumbled buildings and outages in its wake.

Chile’s interior minister says at least 214 people had been found dead as of Saturday afternoon, and the pre-dawn quake, the most powerful quake to hit the country in a half century, also cut electricity, water and phone lines to many outlying areas, meaning there was no immediate word of death or damage there.

The quake also unleashed a tsunami across the ocean, putting much of the Pacific Rim on alert for potentially devastating waves.

We may be thousands of miles apart from those who perished or are hurt in earthquake, but let us take a minute out of our busy life and keep them in mind.

May those who can offer them help, offer them open-handedly.

May those in need of food, drink and shelter, receive them.

May those who need some to comfort, receive comfort and solace.

May all beings be well and happy.

Sabbe sattā sukhi hontu

HOME : A MOVIE HAPPENING

HOME : A MOVIE HAPPENING

DHL is pleased to invite you to a special screening of Home on Saturday, 21 November 2009, 9.00 am at Lido 3, Shaw Centre. Together with our partner, the Singapore Environmental Council (SEC), we hope to spread the word about this remarkable movie, as well as its important environmental message, to a wider audience.

With its stunning visuals and eye-opening narration by Glenn Close, Home, a film by famed photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand, delivers the environmental message about the need to conserve our perishing planet, and restore its natural beauty with unmistakable clarity.

DHL is the world’s leading logistics company with 500,000 employees in almost every major community on planet earth. As such the company recognizes its special responsibility to the communities it operates in and to the minimization of its impact on the environment.

Your participation is important in raising awareness and inspiring individual efforts towards environmental conservations. Please contact the Singapore Environmental Council at 6337 6062 or joe@sec.org.sg to confirm your attendance or for more information.

HOME : A MOVIE HAPPENING

HOME : A MOVIE HAPPENING

The movie HOME directed by Yann Arthus-Bertrand and co-produced by Elzévir Films and EuropaCorp (Luc Besson’s company) and supported by PPR

Yann Arthus-Bertrand became famous through the “Earth from above,” a photographic portrait of aerial shots of our planet. Three million copies of his book have been sold and his free, open-air exhibitions have been seen by more than one hundred million people.

HOME carries on this tradition. This feature will be made up of aerial images which have been filmed in more than fifty countries around the world. A voice-off will offer constructive hindsight into the major environmental and social challenges facing our world.

The worldwide release of the movie will be organized by EuropaCorp on June 5th, 2009 – World Environment Day – in cinemas, on television, on DVD and on the Internet around the world. The aim of this simultaneous worldwide broadcasting is to enable as many people as possible to watch the movie together.

The objective of HOME is not to make a profit. Its only benefit will be to contribute towards increasing awareness of our responsibility towards the planet. Profits will be donated to Goodplanet.org.

HOME IS CARBON OFFSET
Greenhouse gas emissions which are caused by air-travel and hours of photography by helicopter will be offset by supporting clean development projects (biogas production project in the Hassan district in India, cf. appendix)
Log on to www.actioncarbone.org

Participate and act, “Watch this movie !”

Earth Hour … Why I Kept It Burning

Earth Hour … the hour for tree-huggers to switch off the lights and

* Take a photo on the night, upload it to flickr and add it to Earth Hour’s flickr group and tag it with your city and country.
* Make a video of your event, upload it to YouTube and add it to our YouTube group.
* Write a live blog post during the event and tag it with earthhour or voteearth, and your location.
* Update your Twitter on the night and write #earthhour or #voteearth and your #location in your update to tag it.

according to their official Earth Hour website anyway. Read More …

Earthlings

Earthlings - Make the connection

Earthlings – Make the connection

EARTHLINGS is a feature length documentary about humanity’s absolute dependence on animals (for pets, food, clothing, entertainment, and scientific research) but also illustrates our complete disrespect for these so-called “non-human providers.” The film is narrated by Academy Award nominee Joaquin Phoenix (GLADIATOR) and features music by the critically acclaimed platinum artist Moby.

Does Air-Conditioning Work?

Many years back, I learnt about how air-conditioning works. It basically works by transferring heat through conduction from the cooling fins to the air outside of the room/house/unit that it is supposed to cool.

Outside air < — Cooling fins <— metal tubes <— freon gas <— internal air (from room etc)

In the process, some heat is generated. This heat generated is due to inefficiency of the compressor, electronics etc found in air-conditioning units. This inefficiency is common in practically *all* electrical devices, where some electrical power is converted into actual intended work, while others are lost, either as heat, sound or kinetic energy or a combination of them all.

In a sense, air-conditioners do not create “coolness”. “Cold” cannot be created. Only heat can be created. Coldness appears to exist only in contrast to the lack or relative differences in heat. So while a heater generates heat, a cooler (eg air-con) does not actually create cold. It merely displaces it. Coldness itself is also empty of inherent characteristics.
Further to that, heaters do not actually generate or create heat as well. They merely release the potential energy “trapped” or “stored” in the fuel, or convert energy from one form to another, eg convert electrical energy to heat energy. In the process, most heaters “lose” some energy through ambient heating (ie, heating up the appliant itself in an unintended manner), unintended lighting, sound etc. We can perhaps say that heat itself is dependent arising, that it is also inherently empty.

Read More …