I just cant wrap my head around this

Quote :

"Aid workers fear Burma cyclone deaths will top 50,000"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3879492.ece

by the way, what the heck is a cyclone?

5/6/2008 7:57:46 PM

Think tornado,
add ocean.

Then add a bunch of dead people.

5/6/2008 8:01:53 PM

think tornado hurricane

cyclones = hurricanes in different parts of the world / what ocean they form in

5/6/2008 8:02:37 PM

I thought those were typhoons?

5/6/2008 8:11:24 PM

hurricanes = typhoons = cyclones, depending on geography basically

i believe Jelly Donut was referring to a water spout

5/6/2008 8:12:08 PM

i thought typhoons were in the pacific ocean and cyclones were in the indian ocean

5/6/2008 8:12:44 PM

that might be right i cant recall, but thats the basic principle

all three are physically the same entities...only difference in physicality is if they're in the northern or southern hemisphere in which the coriolis effect dictates if their currents rotate clockwise (northern) or counterclockwise (southern)

[Edited on May 6, 2008 at 8:15 PM. Reason : .]

5/6/2008 8:14:32 PM

i dont think thats all right though...i'm pretty sure they call tropical systems on the pacific side that go up near the baja of cali hurricanes

[Edited on May 6, 2008 at 8:16 PM. Reason : .]

5/6/2008 8:15:39 PM

i think hurricanes are mostly referring to a storm "born" off the west coast of africa but practically, all 3 are the same

5/6/2008 8:16:41 PM

OMFG THE GLACIERS ARE MELTING AND WE ARE GONNA GET PWNED

Quick! Gore!! Order us up some global cooling!

5/6/2008 8:30:40 PM

remember when we had global warming and didnt get rain?

5/6/2008 8:31:54 PM

actually, a cyclone is a classification for any system of inward spinning winds (ccw northern hemisphere cw southern hemisphere). Tornados can be cyclones, noreasters are cyclones, hurricanes are cyclones, and any basic low pressure system is a cyclone.

In North America a cyclone of tropical origin with winds over a certain amount is referred to as a hurricane

In East asia the same is referred to as a typhoon.

In Austrialia it is called a willy willy i think?

and in the indian basin they don't have a special name for them so they just call them cyclones or tropical cyclones but they are all cyclones.

5/6/2008 8:35:19 PM

that sucks for these people, they're still recovering from the typhoon then this
i wonder if this counts as a major world event, hence a biblical sign

5/6/2008 8:35:36 PM

whats a monsoon?

5/6/2008 8:36:02 PM

^^^ whoa, knowledge

5/6/2008 8:38:12 PM

clinton in her victory speech had like a freaking 20 second blurb about this...totally odd...anyone else catch it? all about her campaign and then shes like "i'd like to say a prayer for burma....hopefully the junta do something to help" then back to campaign stuff

5/7/2008 1:54:13 AM

i think that was easily the best section of speech too. it really showed that she realizes there are larger things going on than presidential primaries.

5/7/2008 1:57:01 AM

GEORGE BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MYANMARIAN PEOPLE

5/7/2008 3:00:52 AM

^^Like trying to get the evangelical vote.

5/7/2008 7:19:32 AM

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/51616a52-1c5e-11dd-8bfc-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1


this is getting rediculous, estimated 100,000 dead, that seems to be an exaggeration, at least i hope so

5/7/2008 8:44:08 PM

nah, it's probably true... it hit a pretty heavily populated place.

5/7/2008 8:47:38 PM

there's a headline on Drudge about it being a million...i can't even fathom that

5/12/2008 10:51:34 AM

talks about it being a million if disease hits the survivors

5/12/2008 10:56:27 AM

^ Hard to conceive of... but with something like 1.5 million people at risk of starvation, the Junta's denial of outside assistance could very quickly turn one of the largest (if not the largest) natural disaster deathtoll into de facto genocide.

5/12/2008 10:58:13 AM

What the fuck is wrong with that part of the world. Seems like everytime the wind blows the wrong direction 100,000 are dead in either Bangladesh or Myanmar.

5/12/2008 11:14:02 AM

Bangladesh is the Lower 9th Ward of the world

it floods everytime there's high tide

5/12/2008 11:16:17 AM

what the hell is wrong with their government?


I'd like to hear those of you who support dictatorships to support this bastard as well.

5/12/2008 11:16:39 AM

im not going to condemn their govt.
they dont like the rest of us and thats up to them, i cant say that they are wrong
but if their poeple wanted aid and they blocked it then they are wrong

5/12/2008 11:24:05 AM

^^ i don't think anyone supports them; but what are we going to do? Go invade myanmar and bangladesh since we don't like their leaders? This is why it burns me up when people justify the Iraq war because "Saddam was a dictator and gassed his own people"; well guess what there are a great deal many other countries in this world whose leaders are guilty of gross atrocities against humanity. Invading every country whose leader is a despot is logistically complicated, financially infeasible, and diplomatically suicidal.

5/12/2008 11:30:44 AM

Is there oil in Myanmar?

5/13/2008 12:27:56 AM

Quote :

"Go invade myanmar and bangladesh since we don't like their leaders?"

There may be information regarding the stability of the Myanmar regime that I'm not privy too, but, pending that, it's exactly the sort of thing that a few well-placed airstrikes could topple. There is, then, the matter of who would take over, but unless there's a large, powerful, and vengeful minority group there waiting to kill everybody, it would be pretty much impossible for the next regime to be worse than the current.

In the short term I'm willing to trade incredibly evil dictatorships for merely evil ones, especially when doing so requires very few boots on the ground.

Quote :

"well guess what there are a great deal many other countries in this world whose leaders are guilty of gross atrocities against humanity."

I remain pretty much in favor of killing all of them, too, though the exact method varies from country to country. Invasion is infrequently necessary. An appropriate force, with appropriate support (both within our nation, the nation in question, and to a lesser extent the international scene) could quite frequently achieve the desired ends, or at least crucial steps towards them, without necessitating invasion/occupation.

Air power alone was largely responsible for the removal of Milosevic, I'll remind you. Couple that with liberal distribution of support for the right opposition forces, and I think you could (comparatively) easily replace governments like Burma's with far more acceptable ones.

Sadly, this requires a money:ass-kicking ratio very different from the money:actual results ratio, and the population of this country overwhelmingly favors the former.

5/13/2008 5:13:57 AM

http://youtube.com/watch?v=n3D7t7Z5F74

5/13/2008 5:48:42 AM

Am I the only one that thinks a military dictatorship for a country such as Myanmar is a little silly?

Why even have a military in the midst of countries such as China, the US, Russia, etc. What purpose would their military server as far as national defense? - none. Their military exists for the sole purpose of keeping the common people controlled.

5/13/2008 9:11:53 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080530/ap_on_re_as/myanmar;_ylt=AlyZUphPtkw2Y3zBY39ckOSs0NUE

un-fucking-believable

5/30/2008 2:51:56 AM

^^

The terrorist threat.

5/30/2008 6:38:27 AM