Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Tech? (Part Two)

So I got totally side-tracked in Part One, because the social responsibility aspect kept wanting to be heard, so I addressed it as much as I could at that point in time.

But here's what I originally wanted to say.

If you recall, I started off with that most "excellent" of blame-shifters: "guns don't kill people, people do!"

Banning/severely restricting the sale/possession/use of guns wouldn't make much difference to someone who is intent on killing someone else. There are plenty of other weapons that can be just as deadly: Your fists. A baseball bat. A nearby rock. A 2x4. An unfortunate "accident". Arsenic. You name it. If the determination is there, the killing will happen.

BUT.

It is important to take note that the [totally non-exhaustive list of] examples involve getting up close and personal with one's target. The first 4 involve putting the attacker at similar risk as the target - what if the target fights back? wrests the bat out of your hand? Grabs a larger rock? Swings that 2x4 more viciously than you ever could? Chances are, the attacker would not emerge unscathed from such an attack. The other two examples involve patience and planning: less exposure than the previous examples, but perhaps less satisfying? After all, the killer may not be able to actually witness the death of its target, or, the death may not be dramatic enough, satisfying enough...

A gun, on the other hand...

Joe and Jane Average will probably freeze in fear just at the sight of such a machine in your hand. You can get off on the power surge of the control you have over them, and on the fear you elicit.

Depending on what you want, you can achieve loads of blood and gore, or you can leave a nice neat little bullethole. You can snipe or spray from the top of a building or open window, or up close and personal.

So many options.

So much destruction.

And so easily achieved results, compared to a baseball bat, a 2x4, etc etc etc.

Wanna get into WHY people kill people? There's no one easy answer. But in this day and age, we "society" as well as we "experts" have a good idea about causes, and therefore have set up many opportunities for identification, prevention and treatment.

However, we know from sad experience that all too many people make it past all these potential stops.

And when they do, guns seem to be a particularly destructive weapon of choice.

So what I'm saying is, while it's true that it's people who kill people, if the weapon chosen is a gun, things get nasty, fast.

Guns are not to blame for Cho Seung-Hui's behaviour. But guns certainly were a factor in Cho Seung-Hui's high body count*.

* NOTE:
Some might argue that if only other students had guns with them, they would have been able to shoot at / kill Cho Seung-Hui and minimize his damage. Yes, but, how do you know that these armed students wouldn't have added to the body count due to getting all panicked because they've never used their guns outside of a controlled environment like a shooting range??

Also, I wouldn't want to go to class wondering *who*'s gonna get pissed off at someone else and whip out a gun, threaten to shoot, etc etc... I'm all for responsible gun ownership. Unfortunately, my impression is that a lot of the noise about gun control and ownership comes not from problems with the responsible ones, but from those idiots who shouldn't have their hands on any weapon of any kind but because they can, they do,,, and then use guns to express their irritation that their neighbour's dog barks too loudly, that a passing car has too much bass, or their classmate cracked a joke they found offensive.

So yes, again, it boils down to the PEOPLE rather than the weapon.

But yet again, mixing people of certain characteristics with guns gives a particularly lethal combination.

The gun folk can't just sit there and point to everyone else.
Well, they are... but they shouldn't; they can, however, so they will.

Ugh.

I'm not even going to try to suggest a solution. There isn't one. There is no magic bullet. A whole variety of changes need to take place, among so many people, within so many systems, that it seems just a pipe dream.

But if we sit back and do nothing, nothing will ever change, except perhaps for the worse.

Ah, what fun times we live in....

[I realise I still have some loose ends to tie up: in Part Three!]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Tech? (Part One)

"Guns don't kill people, people do!"

Ummm,,, yeahhhhh,,, but it's not that simple, is it?

How many pieces are there in this equation? Just three?
- Killer
- Weapon
- Victim
IMHO, there's at least one more piece, which encompasses a huge variety of stuff and overlaps with the above factors. I'll get to that in due time. [In Part Two!]

But first, let's just play along with the premise of the above quote, which shifts the focus [and blame!] squarely on the shoulders of the killer.

Thought, word and deed

All actions we undertake are the result of the chain of occurrences involving thought, word and deed. So for someone whose train of thought is chugging away along a homicidal track, having the opportunity of PREVENTION at every step will go a long way to derailing or turning back that train.

At the thought level, a huge portion of prevention rests on having a well developed internal value system [usually provided by religion*...] in line with society in general: but if we grow up being told that killing is wrong / a sin and yet we observe too many examples where killing is not only ok, but a must, or "is cool", or just plain happens all the time, how do we reconcile this internally? Where do we draw our line? Why?

At the word level, the killer is communicating intention to harm, or indicating potential capability to harm . Perhaps the communication isn't cogent and coherent, but it does happen. This is an opportunity for intervention, but this involves other people - family, friends, colleagues, strangers - who would a) notice, b) understand/recognize, and c) do something. And to have these other people to get to "c" is admittedly tough in this and age [for a variety of reasons we won't go into]. And beyond these "filters", the few potential killers who make it past all of them will probably get into the the mental health system - and how effective is that in treating them???

At the deed level, the killer then puts thoughts and words into action: gets armed, and does the deed. So gun control fits as a preventive step here, one of many prevention measures required at this weapons acquisition stage: after all, guns are not the *only* weapons out there! And finally, when actually carrying out the deed, the police and other similar services then serve as both preventive and reactive functions. It looks like prevention at this stage is a function of established "systems", although it is important to remember that systems are created and run by people, and will thus have flaws in both.

[Note that the above triune perspective works whether a killing is spur-of-the-moment or meticulously planned. A bit more about that in Part Two.]

At this stage I find myself forced to digress from my original post intention [hence requiring a Part Two], because me being me, "solutions" are jumping out at me and clamouring to be addressed.

What we, as general individuals, can do:

Thought
1. examine our own value system*: how consistent are we? what sort of example are we, whether to our children, or people in general? Figure out what you stand for, and live it! No more lip service, please!
2. similarly, examine the messages/examples being communicated by others: a major factor here is of course the media! Have you really thought about any conflicts between your values and those trumpeted by the propaganda-spewing yet tabloid-like news reports?

And if children are involved, and you're having trouble with #1, perhaps some "positive hypocrisy" might be better than mixed messages? But still need to be consistent!! As for #2, I know many choose to control media access, which works for the young'uns but such restrictions will certainly backfire as soon as the kids are able to rebel. A much more valuable action -- when children are capable of intelligent conversation -- is to encourage discussion *about* the conflicting messages of media vs values: after all, teaching your child to think critically provides a valuable skill needed through life!

Word

3. To quote the CTA: "If you see something, say something!" But say to whom? Well, you need to figure that out for yourself, depending on what you are comfortable with. "But what's the use?", you ask. Lecturers in Virginia Tech had actually referred Cho Seung-Hui to Mental Health services due to his disturbing behaviour and "creative writing" output, but it's unclear [to me; I haven't read deeply of the details] whether anything was really done. Ditto about his stalking history. But you know what? That's others who [might have] dropped the ball. But if everyone who avoided "mr question mark" had expressed their disquiet with the relevant authorities, perhaps the sheer volume might have gotten the ball picked up again? Who knows,,, no use getting hung up on What Ifs. And I'm certainly not saying we should get even more paranoid than we already are. What I'm saying is, do your part, don't just think that "Oh, someone else should do it, it's not my problem." What happened in Virgina Tech shows just how much it *can* become your problem!

By the time we get to deed, as "individuals in general" about all we can do is educate ourselves, voice our opinions and push for change where change is needed. Like I mentioned earlier, by this time it looks like prevention seems to be in the hands of "systems", and just how flawed are these systems created and run by people who might have political and personal biases that overshadow the the true function of health care, gun control, police or whatever? Are the systems themselves slaves to administrators, bureaucracy and red tape that negate the true function they were supposed to serve? Can people within the system fix things? Do we need to throw out the system and start anew? Is there anything we can do about it? All I can think of is that no matter what, systems are made of individuals, and if this collection of individuals do the self-questioning etc above, perhaps they can make the difference required so these systems actually do serve their intended purpose...

It boils down to all of us as individuals doing the right* thing.
... While educating our kids
.. While interacting with others
... While doing our jobs
.. While living our life.


So back to the premise of shifting blame totally on the shooter/killer: bullshit.

More in Part Two.
I'll let this simmer a day or two, though, just because.

* NOTE; yes, "right"/"value system" seem relative, and may mean totally opposite things to two different cultures, usually as a result of their different religious beliefs. My take on this is, if I could get them to cut through the crap and just look inward, challenge their own precepts and traditions, and see if their actions really jive with the spirit of their religion, with their ultimate inner compass, I think there might be some hope. After all, do you not believe that if Moses, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammad and other religion-establishers were put in the same room, they would embrace each other and recognise the similarity of their messages, while if you were to put their followers in the same room they'd end up killing each other? Call me idealist, but I think a lot of problems in this world can be solved if only we had the awareness to seek our true selves, and the courage to face up to what we find; and then to help others with the same journey.

Heh. This seems more appropriate fodder for another forum. Maybe I'll repost this elsewhere too ;-)

Ciao.

p/s> h/t Monsoon for triggering this post. yes, pun intended. sorry.

probably one of my last forays into this topic

1. I'm not surprised to see this sort of thing. Are you?

2. Aiseh Man has numerous excellent posts, check them out.

3. Wikipedia is the place to check out the entire 43-pg dossier distributed during the Danish clerics' "tour". Hurry, it is slated for deletion. At least now I've seen *one* 'toon *I'd* consider offensive (the "This is why Muslims pray" one) BUT take note it's one of those "of undetermined origin" 'toons, not anything published by that Danish paper. (Thanx to Muppetlord for this link!)

... of ends, means, and justification thereof ...

There's that saying / defense / excuse: the end justifies the means

What was the "end" for Imam Ahmed Abu- Laban, the Danish Muslim cleric's "tour", anyway?
- Publicising the offensive Danish 'toons (that were published last September! a bit out of date, eh?)?
or
- inciting hate & violence?

Then we start to hear about three FAKE 'toons were part of the "evidence" handed out during this "tour"?

What, someone didn't think that the original dozen or so offensive 'toons might just not cut it in terms of garnering support (read: inciting hate & violence!), so someone decided to add more ooommph to the mix?

Bad enough to have such a tour which seemed to be intended to incite violence rather than peacefully highlight to and educate the non-Muslims how and why such 'toons are offensive.

Then to be exposed as using fake / other toons, thus destroying any credibility of theirs, and indeed calling into question the intention of the tour...

And of course, protests over the 'toons have degenerated into incoherent emotional outpouring of anger and resentment and hostility and dissatisfaction towards the Western/non-Muslim world in general.

I watched the news the other night, and saw these white-robed, sarban-wearing, wau bulan beards on their chin, youth in Indonesia throwing themselves against police barricading the Danish Embassy, hurling obscenities at police trying to keep the peace. So many countries, so much havoc and destruction. Flag burning. Riots. All these people, so caught up in their righteous rage. Selfish. Irresponsible. Blind. Lost. And worst of all: parading their own ignorance of their own religion for all the world to see, for the world to take as "the true face" of the religion. Drowning out calls by more "aware" Muslims and citizens of the world for an end to all this mindless violence.

All I could do was shake my head in disgust, roll my eyes at the screen, and flip the channel.

Way to go, y'all... excellent work in providing total negative publicity AND further confirming the Western world's view that being a Muslim means you are a fanatical violent extremist terrorist.

If THAT was your "end", well then, I guess everything's just dandy, eh?

*sigh*

Excuse me while I wrap a cloak of apathy and indifference around me.

I'm going back to devoting my energy to things that are productive and fulfilling, not this lost cause.

...yet another muddying of waters...

The world in general has no real idea of what Islam is.

I don't claim to be an expert, oh no, not me, but still... the actions of those terrorists who claim to be fighting for the cause of Islam are really *not* helping with the stereotype and misinformation and misunderstanding...

So I'm not surprised when I read about some Danish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) that have the Muslim community all riled up.

That the cartoons were concieved and published shows a deep ignorance a few Danes had of how highly-regarded the Prophet is by Muslims.

I do think they should have known better than to publish a cartoon that depicts the prophet as a terrorist with a bomb in his "turban".

But, again... am I really surprised? no.

hello, Muslim world -- that such a faux pas would occur in this day and age, when we should be showing the world what Islam really is all about (i.e. NOT that terrorist bullcrap), is a failing on all of us too.

Don't just hit out at the ignorant "Westerners". What have you been doing to educate them, to provide an alternate view of the religion, one that is not supplied by the extremist terrorist whatever-ist organisations, that is eagerly reported and propagated by the media all over the world to further some nations' agendas??

Then the Danes hide behind the excuse of "free speech";
... the media focusses on Muslims hurling ridiculous pro-Zionist accusations, torching Embassies & burning flags;

... people start picking sides ... (btw, I wonder how many have actually *seen* the 'toons for themselves....)

aaaaaaand everyone pretty much stays stuck in their respective ruts.

yay.

*sigh*

Haven't seen the 'toons? Try HERE.

Other reading material:
1. MWU's "What Would Prophet Muhammad Have Done?"
2. Basque News & Information "U.S. backs Muslims in caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad dispute"
3. The Times Online "What price must be paid for free speech?"
4. ridiculopathy.com "Muslims Outraged Over Blasphemous Garfield Cartoon" (Not to be taken seriously)

quickie @ Paris

I'm aghast... I happened to pick up a newspaper today and saw pictures of riots in Paris.

Riots in Paris???

It seems it's been going on since ~ Oct 27th : that's 8 days already, and I only hear about it today?

And as I get online now, I see one headline on the Yahoo! main page about Paris riots.

Is today the first time this particular piece of news breaks it into the u.s. news system?

I have caught the tv news once or twice, but usually the local news (as opposed to "national" news)... but that usually doesn't stop them from covering big events like these... Then again, I often forget that the Americans rarely think anything outside of their own borders is worth reporting on...

And I'm disappointed at the online news too.. usually I scan the headlines on the Yahoo main page... again, only today do I see anything about Paris.

Anyway... I am pissed off that I never knew anything about this till now. So I will be reading up on this.

So there.

Will post more later.

Katrina & the Waves?

Dunno how many people in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc could claim that they are "walking on sunshine" though...

It's been dubbed the worst natural disaster in the U.S. since the 1906 quake in San Francisco... and probably the costliest to date, too! Thousands estimated dead, and the number is only going to keep rising...

Yep, talkin about hurricane Katrina...

Saw images on the news about places in Louisiana being totally inundated, and while just waiting for the flood waters to recede is going to take a while, the rebuilding of roads, etc, all point to many (most?) parts of the state actually being uninhabitable for AT LEAST three months!

Q: What's worse than reading about the floods?

A: Reading (and seeing on tv) about people who take this opportunity to break into houses and stores, and loot what they can. In New Orleans, several television networks reported 1,500 police from search-and-rescue missions had to be pulled out and reassigned to deal with looting and lawlessness in the streets.

I wonder how many lives that could have been saved were instead lost because of the looters?

Humans can be really ugly & selfish creatures, sometimes...

~~

on a related note: oh my did gas (petrol for my Malaysian readers) prices go up!! From USD2.40-ish per gallon a few days ago, it jumped to USD3.18/gallon yesterday (today it's 3.14, whoohooo!!). A Yahoo!News article on that HERE.

It's when things like this happen that people in Malaysia should be thankful for and appreciate the government's current policy of capping/controlling petrol prices at the pump. If my very rough math is correct, over here we are currently paying about double what you pay for petrol! And try comparing to gas prices in Europe.. even higher, trust me!!

While I certainly appreciate the "cap", I *do* have a problem with the Malaysian government's tendency to firstly deny rumours of a price hike, then, if you're lucky you may hear official announcement about it at the 11th-hour, otherwise you wake up one morning and ooops, it's 10sen more per liter, and everyone feels cheated out of a full tank of gas at the "old" price.

But with oil prices rising high due to Katrina's impact on the oil refineries down there in the Gulf of Mexico, be prepared for another hike, y'all...

~~

So, back to Katrina... here are some alternate reads:

1. a blog entry by a katrina survivor: the blog design makes the entry a bit hard to read, but it could be worth your five minutes to take a look HERE

2. a more political blog entry on the Bush administration, plus featuring a New York Times editorial on Bush himself HERE

3. snippets of news wrt effects of Katrina, as compiled by the Times Online UK HERE

4. I'm sure there are plenty of pix featured all over, but HERE's one run by Reuters AlertNet: good photos, with descriptive captions for each.

~~

Okay, that's it for now... will be leaving for an extended Labor Day weekend up in Chicago-land... may be able to sneak onto the net for some blogging, otherwise, I'll probably be silent till Monday... stay tuned!!

do u sudoku?

Tip o' the hat to: CosmoBlogger

Ugh!! I am addicted!!

This insiduous collection of nine columns and nine rows, put together into nine 3x3 boxes, filled with numbers 1-9, all of which must appear only once in each row/column/box ...

Different amounts of different numbers are given... it's up to you to fill in the rest... by pure logic... and maybe for the diabolical ones - by trial & error

Sounds simple... but oh boy, it takes quite a bit of brain power, logic, and most importantly to me - a system to jot down possible number combinations...

I first heard about it about a week ago: walked into a bookstore, and there were all these books on Sudoku - wondered what it was, but didn't take it further than that...

Then I saw Cosmo's little article about it...

And I figured, I might as well see what the hoo-ha was all about...

And... well... the rest is history....

Will write more later... it's 50mins past midnight, and I need sleeeeeeeeep!

Planet X?

It's official: a planet has been confirmed beyond Pluto, and has been catalogued as 2003UB313 while awaiting its official name.
I'm no astronomer, but see here for an easy-to-read NASA article.

Is this Planet X? Or Nibiru? (X here as in unknown, not tenth)
Here are Wikipedia entries on Planet X and the tenth planet.

Thanx to this starting point, saw a mention about a Kolbrin "Bible", but there's not much information on it tho it seems to be yet another ancient text, one that explicitly links the Great Flood with the passing by of a deadly comet ("the Destroyer").

Following this trail a bit more, found the website of the person who seems most associated with the Kolbrin: James McCanney. His site is a bit messy (he says he does it all himself, so I suppose that explains it... so hard to navigate! Makes it a bit more difficult to find what it is he's talking about...).
Here's a pro-McCanney book review from MUFON-LA.
Here's an anti-McCanney website: Bad astronomy.

And McCanney refers to the one and only authority and copyright holder for the Kolbrin: the Culdian Trust.

This is all so interesting!! Oh, to be able to surf on something OTHER than dial-up!! aaarrrggghhhh!!

A short note: robots and crashes...

Back from a weekend trip to mark some kids' birthdays... oh my, but it was a Star Wars fest.. never seen to much Star Wars merchandise in one place (apart form the toy store lah!). It was actually fun playing with really cool lightsabers :D

On another topic.... i feel ... "special" ... i see that I somehow have drawn the (unwanted) attention of "comment bots"!! Three comments in my "Alliterative Anecdotes" are from bots! Grrr... if there are more of them over the next week, I may have to limit comments to registered users only... :( In the meantime, will delete those fake comments when I am next online...

And on another note: noticed the headline on Yahoo news today, and got the chills reading about the airplane crash in Grammatiko, Greece... "A Cypriot plane full of vacationers slammed into a mountainside north of Athens on Sunday after at least one pilot lost consciousness from lack of oxygen, killing all 121 people aboard, more than a third of them children. The cause of Greece's deadliest plane crash appeared to be technical failure — resulting in high-altitude decompression..."

The article states that the two Greek F-16 fighter jets that were dispatched to intercept the plane after 30mins of losing radio contact saw "...the co-pilot slumped over his seat. The captain was not in the cockpit, and oxygen masks dangled inside the cabin... the jet pilots also saw two people possibly trying to take control of the plane; it was unclear if they were crew members or passengers. The plane apparently was on automatic pilot when it crashed."

I'm sure there are lots of articles to read up on, if you wanna know more:
1. Mystery surrounds cause of Cypriot plane crash in Greece - Yahoo! News, Aug 14 2005, 5:46 PM ET.
2. 'No survivors' in Greek air crash - BBC News, Aug 14 Aug 2005, 13:46 GMT.

London Bomb Blasts

saw sms about 7 london bombs at my 820am

immediately switched on tv to try to find some news coverage (I only have basic cable, so no CNN. Have caught BBC news before, but that's like a special slot rather than a 24/7 thing), and found one channel that was running through it as "Breaking News: Terror Alert". Had live feeds from London, where the correspondant was saying things were strangely quiet & calm in the heart of London. Then they went to New York City and wondered why New Yorkers weren't panicking. Ugh.

at the same time, got online to see what the online news sites have to say about it... but combine dial-up with graphics-heavy pages with probably plenty of readers: turned out to be a pretty frustrating experience.

Was 'glad' to see that the number of blasts had been reduced to 4, tho it included an aboveground blast that ripped the roof of a double decker bus. Of course the death & injured numbers will keep chaning. Will have to wait till maybe this evening for things to be more coherent.

In the meantime, I will have to hope that people I know in London have not been too badly affected by this. A friend of mine is a nurse working in the heart of London, who i bet will be having her hands full helping out with this crisis. Twin sisters of a family friend are in the London area too, wonder how they are doing. Mash's sis also in London area. An ex-colleague who, the last I heard, was doing numerous trips to London for business. All that and more.

Curses to Al-Qaeda and its followers & derivatives: while they have valid issues to be highlighted, publicising and furthering their cause by murder is NOT the way to go. They do so much more harm than good, perpetuating terror, fear, hatred.

Do they really think they will get what they want (do they really know what they want in the first place?) through these murders?

Ugh.

[picture from CNN.com]

... a sign??

Arriving back from visits on Easter weekend, I was vegetating in front of the tv when I caught a news article about yet another quake off of Sumatera. The seismic map shown seemed to indicate that Malaysia was pretty much "protected" by Sumatera itself, so I didn't think twice about it.... until a day later, when I finally unearthed my handphone from my bag, and saw sms'es from my brother and mom about how the apartment building in PJ was SWAYING and that they were evacuating the building...

oh my....

The impact on Malaysia/KL occurred around midnight - in a way that was an ideal time... After all, if it had struck during the daytime, ALL high-rise buildings, including the world's tallest twin towers, would have been choc-full of people... I can just imagine the panic that would have ensued within KL's Golden Triangle! At least with it striking late night, families could escape together - no kids stuck at home with a maid who freezes in terror, y'know?

Oh - and at least this quake did NOT create a tsunami to go with it...

Once again I must state that I am surprised at Malaysia experiencing such tremors... It's so rare for us to feel them, and now it's what - 2 in 3 months?

And what *is* it about that faultline that has shaken us twice in three months?

And how about this - for those who want "signs": One struck the day after Christmas, and this recent one just after Easter, which happen to be the main "Christian" events. Is "God" trying to tell us something?

For those who picked up on it - yes, I put Christian in quotes - you know why, right? When the roman Emperor Constantine attempted to consolidate his power base through Christianity, some "reverse engineering" was done to superimpose Christian events on preexisting ones. After all, so long the common people still had their few festivals and days of cheer that helped alleviate the drudgery of life during those times, it didn't really matter *which* deity was officially worshipped.... Quantity was more important than quality.... hmmmm, that sounds soooo familiar....

1. "Christmas" - it's NOT Jesus' birthday... if you remember that December 22nd is the shortest day of the year, and if you can put yourselves into the shoes of the people of ancient times who did not know about earth spinning around its axis and around the sun, every year around this time they saw the days getting shorter and shorter (and of course the nights getting longer and longer) and they would wonder it the end of the world was coming... then december 23, 24th would show that the days' decline wsa reversed - days were going to get longer again, whoohoo, so they would end up having a huge festival to celebrate the triumph of the light over the dark... THAT is what is celebrated, not Jesus' birthday... Oh - a side note - nowadays it's referred to as Krismas in Malaysia, but I still remember when I was younger, it being called Hari Natal.

2. "Easter" - there is the resurrection story... which just so happens in the start of springtime... when the earth shrugs off the last feelers of winter, and the process of greening the earth happens... the time to celebrate rebirth, copulation, fertility... and the festival is actually named after Eostre of the Dawn, tho there is also a Hindu deity Usha with a similar function. The symbols associated with Easter - eggs, rabbits - are all fertility symbols. btw - did you ever wonder about the practice of providing "bunga telur" at Malay weddings??

I hope I taught some people something new today....

Peace.

megathrust: shaken, not stirred?

It was a bit disconcerting, getting a frantic phone call asking if my family was all right - huh? earthquake in sumatra? tidal waves? since when?????

I remember bits of my geography lessons, where i heaved a huge sigh of relief seeing that Malaysia was not at risk of earthquakes, but Indonesia was due to its location above a tectonic plate/fault or whatever. Of course, I also remember the few rare occasions where tremors HAD been reported in Malaysia... but those were always tiny, and as a result of a quake with an epicenter nowhere close to home.

My sms'es to a few family & friends helped me get a better picture of what happened... and while I can rest easy that my family is fine, my heart goes out to the 53 (and counting) deaths from the northern states of Penang, Kedah & Perlis, including the island of Langkawi. ... Mithz ... A-A ... salehmo ... and others from that part of the country - I hope all is well for ya...

And.. well... I do like to surf /research stuff online, and this quake led me to discover some interesting site on earthquake monitoring, run by the U.S. and Australia - I bet there are others out there, but hey, let's not overload it :-)

I found the report on this earthquake (9.0 on the richter scale!) very informative and educational - did you know that it is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake?

From the website, I also see that there have been a few more quakes in the same region, but about 6.0 or lower on the Richter scale... watch out for them aftershocks, people!!

Drop me a line, let me know y'all are alive and kicking!