Turkeys Earthquake- post #4

As soon as I walked into my house my cousin tells me in a frantic manner that there had been an earthquake in Turkey an hour ago.  I was stunned for a second after he had told me but I continued on with my journey. Hearing about a natural disaster has become almost a daily thing to me recently as with others. But still I thought about how the situation is in Turkey, and how the people are coping with the disaster.

            The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.2,which is the strongest to hit Turkey in a decade, which struck eastern Turkey, with over 1000 people reportedly killed so far as with tons of crumpled buildings. Official rescuers are expecting the death toll to rise as they shuffle through the rubble, with hopes of finding any survivors, a hope that is dimishing as the days go on. The earthquakes epicenter was underneath Ercis,which got hit the hardest. It is an eastern city with a population of 75,000 which is known as a earthquake-prone zone. Another city that also took substantial damage was the city of Van that has a bustling population. The local authority in Van believes that over 1,000 people have died

in its city due to a substantial amount of buildings collapsing, which is one of the main issue in the aftermath of the quake, and more are expected to break down in the aftershocks. According to the officials, atleast 2000 buildings have so far been destroyed which has made the matter worse for Turkey. A lot of buildings are going to need repairs which is going to be costly for Turkey as they are going to need whole new infrastructures for the affected cities.

Other countries around Turkey, such as Armenia, and Iran have also felt the quake in its cities. But no or no substantial damage was done in these regions.

            Local Officials have advised that the residents of the affected cities should stay away from any sort of infrastructure to be safe from any threat of building collapse. Residents that were near the epicenter lit campfires prepared to spend the night outdoors away from any buildings. While some stayed in disaster relief centers, others went to stay with relatives in nearby villages. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured the residents that assistance will be given to them. “We won’t leave anyone to fend for themselves in the cold of winter,” he said. But according to Nazmir Gul, a politician in Van, “We can provide food, but they desperately need shelter.” Veysel Keser,mayor of Celibibag, also states that "People are in agony, we can hear their screams for help. We need urgent help.” But when help is being provided, many of the aid trucks are being looted, which some believe are to be sold in the black market.which makes the situation worse for the people still in need of help. Also many of the populus still don't have a shelter and many complained that they weren't getting the help they needed. In van, in the aftermath of the quake many inmates set fire to a jail and fought their guards because the authorities refused to let them out.

            As soon as the Earth Quake occurred, many nations around the world sent calls to the government of Turkey to offer assistance where it was needed. Nations such as United States, Israel, and Greece. Even though of the bad past conflicts between Turkey and Greece over the island of Cyprus, Greece still offered Turkey aid. But in Israel case, even though Israel had raided and killed 9 Turkish nationals, it offered help to Israel when it was struck with a wildfire disaster. So in return Israel wants to help Turkey out with this earthquake. Which in the beginning Turkey had denied, but is now accepting aid from Israel or any other country as the situation worsened for Turkey. Also disaster relief organizations such as the Red cross and its counter the Red crescent, which I never knew existed until now had also given their assistance to Turkey. President Obama said in a speech that “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time”

            Turkey lays in one of the worlds most dangerous and most active seismic zones and is crossed by many fault lines, and is in the middle of 3 major plates which further increases its risk of being pancaked by an earthquake. Turkey's government plans to reduce the damage in the future by building earthquake-resistant buildings, and being more prepared for a natural disaster.

Turkeys Earthquake-post #3

Turkeys Earthquake

As soon as I walked into my house my cousin tells me in a frantic manner that there had been an earthquake in turkey an hour ago. I was stunned for a second after he had told me but I continued on with my journey. Hearing about a natural disaster has become almost a daily thing to me recently as with others. But still I thought for a moment how the constant occurrence of disasters is unusual in many ways, and makes me fear the future.

The earthquake was a magnitude of 7.2 and struck eastern Turkey, with over 100 people reportedly killed so far as with tons of crumpled buildings. Official rescuers are expecting the death toll to rise as they shuffle through the rubble. Veysel Keser, the mayor of the district of Celebibag, states that “People are in agony. We can hear their screams for help.” The earthquakes epicenter was underneath Ercis, a earthen city with a population of 75000 which is known as a earthquake-prone zone. Another city that also took substantial damage was the city of Van that has a bustling population. The local authority believes that over 1,000 people have died due to a substantial amount of buildings collapsing, which is the main issue of the aftermath of the quake, and more are believed to break down in the aftershocks. A lot of buildings are going to need repairs which are going to be costly for Turkey.

Other countries around Turkey, such as Armenia, and Iran have also felt the quake in its cities. But no or no substantial damage was done in these regions.

Local Officials have advised that the residents should stay away from any sort of infrastructure to be safe from any threat of building collapse. Residents that were near the epicenter lit campfires prepared to spend the night outdoors away from any buildings. While some stayed in disaster relief centers, while some went to stay with relatives in nearby villages. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured the residents that assistance will be given to them. “We won’t leave anyone to fend for themselves in the cold of winter,” he said. After the quake many inmates also escaped when the tremor destroyed a prison, but some would later return.

As soon as the Earth Quake occurred, many nations around the world sent calls to the government of Turkey to offer assistance where it was needed. Nations such as United States, Israel, and Greece. Even though of the bad past conflicts between Turkey and Greece over the island of Cyprus, Greece still offered it aid. But in Israel case, even though Israel had raided and killed 9 Turkish nationals, it offered help to Israel when it was struck with a wildfire disaster. So in return Israel wants to help Turkey out with this earthquake. But so far Turkey has declined to accept any aid from Israel. Also disaster relief organizations such as the Red cross and its counter the Red crescent, which I never knew existed until now had also given their assistance to Turkey. President Obama said in a speech that “We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Turkish ally in this difficult time”

Turkey lies in one of the worlds most dangerous and most active seismic zones and is crossed by many fault lines.

Study on effects of Internet-2nd post

                  In the past year, a study was done about whether or not internet makes us smarter. It was a test for experts and internet pioneers who have been using the internet before 1993. It was a web based test that took the opinions of 900 surveyors that gave their perspective on how the internet is affecting human intelligence. 371 out of the 900 surveyors were experts who have some credibility when it comes to the Internet. The experts were chosen in two ways, one was whether or not the expert had ventured predictions about the future impact of the internet in the 1990-1995. The other way was they were handpicked due to their positions as stakeholders in the development of the internet. This study was administered by the Imagining the Internet Center at Elon Universaty and the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

Impact of Internet

One of the topics of the study was on the impact of Internet on reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge. As the study shows “ three out of four experts said our use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the internet has improved reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge,” said Janna Anderson, study co-author and director of the Imagining the Internet Center. According to the study, 65% of the amount of people who took the survey believed that by 2020 it will be clear that whether or not Internet has really improved our skills to read, write, and render knowledge, while only 32% disagreed with that statement.

Is Google Making us Stupid?

The study also was focused on whether or not Google is making us stupid. About 76% of them disagreed with that statement that Google is making people stupid. In 2008, Nicholas Carr, who also took the survey, wrote a cover story that had the line “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, which sparked this part of the study. He argued that the ease of online searching and distractions of browsing through the web were possibly limiting his capacity to concentrate. Whereas majority of the other testers believed that as people are are allowed unprecedented access to more information, they become smarter and make better choices. One person also challenged Carr, states that while the media can challenge humans' capacity to concentrate there were signs that we are developing “fluid intelligence- the ability to find meaning in confusion and solve new problems, independent of acquired knowledge.” Jamais Cascio.

Prediction of Future Technology

The last topic that was gone over in the study was whether or not future technology can be anticipated in the present, and whether it will take innovators by surprise or not. 80% of the testers believe that by 2020, the technology will often come “out of the blue” and won't be anticipated by innovators, while 17% believe the opposite. Such as one of the experts said “ Our ability to predict hot gadgets has shown to be poor, and this isn't likely to change.” Wojciech Dec, Edge Engineering Group. While another argued that “Ten years isn't very long, even in internet years.” and that “looking at todays popular technologies, I don't see many that weren't already thoroughly conceived of ten years ago.” Bill Woodcock,research director.  

      The survey, in general pondered on the question of whether or not internet makes you smart.

News:  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/02/19/the-internet-makes-you-smarter/

Survey :http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Future-of-the-Internet-IV.aspx