Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: The new wave

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  • Simon Grigg,

    blows against the empire...?
    no Krakatau, no Islam

    But, volcanoes, earthquakes or whatever, holding this country transfixed right now is the first release from the Noordin Top autopsy. It seems that the fundamentalist terror hero of parts of central Java (where his poster keeps appearing in the streets, and the police tear it down to have it appear again) had either been sodomised, or had been keeping explosives up his butt.

    Either way the media is loving this as it the public, and it's gone a long way to destroying the post death mystique of this prick.

    The police clearly took some pleasure, if you will, from releasing this as quickly as possible (and other such inevitable jokes doing the rounds).

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Lucy Stewart,

    aren't Volcanoes great generators of CO2?

    The major CO2 input to the atmosphere pre-humanity, yeah, but the sulphates and dust cancel out the warming (c.f. Pinatubo and the dip in the warming trend in the early '90s.)

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Rich Lock,

    Just interested in how climate change can be linked to volcanes
    I am aware that volcanoes can change the climate but the other way round or are you thinking of the raising of the sea level

    What exactly are you getting at with the climate change, out of curiosity?

    I believe what Andre is getting at is the recent research which suggests that climate change and the warming of the seas and atmosphere is having an effect on the earth's tectonic plates.

    One relevant link from a quick google search here.

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report

  • Lucy Stewart,

    I believe what Andre is getting at is the recent research which suggests that climate change and the warming of the seas and atmosphere is having an effect on the earth's tectonic plates.

    Interesting, but given the scales involved, deeply unlikely to have an appreciable impact on things like eruption rates any time in the next few million years. On a list of "climate change impacts that worry me", it'd come in somewhere around #157329043.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Andre,

    @ Lucy et al. I was referring to this (as posted earlier in this thread)
    How about the fact that warming of the sea and atmosphere results in increased volcanic activity and causes other changes in the earth's crust: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327273.800
    This is the biggest news for months. "Even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet's crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides."
    So if the temperature rises, the crust weakens and we get more earthquakes and volcanoes - and landslides. And those landslides might occur on the coast, causing tsunamis etc as well.
    These reports are the first on climate change from the international organisations representing geologists. Up until now we've only heard from meteorologists. It's not a great time to live in a volcanic field...

    New Zealand • Since May 2009 • 371 posts Report

  • LegBreak,

    Another impact of climate change on what a tsunami does is that if the sea-levels are higher to start with, then the effect of the wave will be greater.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1162 posts Report

  • Lucy Stewart,

    Even slight changes in weather and climate can rip the planet's crust apart, unleashing the furious might of volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and landslides

    Well, landslides are kind of a no-brainer. They could well be onto something with the rest of it, but I'd be very interested to see comparisons ofworldwide eruption sequences during interglacial v. glacial periods; the only study they mentioned doing anything of the sort was the Iceland one. I'd still be much less worried about it than about the rest of the effects of climate change, though.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2105 posts Report

  • Andre,

    It is the first time that anoyone has ever posited the idea that an incease in temperature affects the earth's crust. We've known for years that volcanic eruptions cause global cooling a la nuclear wnter but not the reverse.
    http://feww.wordpress.com/2009/09/16/climate-change-for-what-youre-about-to-receive/
    It may take a while to happen - but is cause for concern. It does mean it is more likely that earth changes can happen catastrophically rather than gradually for example.

    New Zealand • Since May 2009 • 371 posts Report

  • BenWilson,

    It may take a while to happen - but is cause for concern. It does mean it is more likely that earth changes can happen catastrophically rather than gradually for example.

    Chaos theory would concur. The ability of chaotic systems to flip from one strange attractor to another at unpredictable times seems likely to have any number of practical analogies. It's generally going to be the exception, rather than the rule, for that to happen, and it seems unlikely that we could predict it, and thus unlikely we could stop it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 10657 posts Report

  • Tim Hannah,

    We've known for years that volcanic eruptions cause global cooling a la nuclear wnter but not the reverse.

    So how long until Bob Carter or someone suggests that even if the globe does warm, it'll end up setting off a few volcanoes that will inject a bunch of fine particulates into the atmosphere and cool the globe down?

    Voila - climate equilibrium (with added CO2 and fertile volcanic soils for that maximum crop yield).

    Wellington • Since Jan 2007 • 228 posts Report

  • Raymond A Francis,

    Thanks for the link Andre
    Interesting theory but there are a lot of ifs and buts. Just something else to worry about if these sort of things keep you awake at night

    Of course there has already been huge sea rises since the last real ice age (you used to be able to walk across Cooks Straight)
    I wonder if there is any evidence of increased earthquakes over that time
    Personally I think that is the least of Aucklands worries, Rodney being far higher on the scale of disasters about to happen

    45' South • Since Nov 2006 • 578 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    emanation...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Christopher Dempsey,

    blows against the empire...?
    no Krakatau, no Islam

    But, volcanoes, earthquakes or whatever, holding this country transfixed right now is the first release from the Noordin Top autopsy. It seems that the fundamentalist terror hero of parts of central Java (where his poster keeps appearing in the streets, and the police tear it down to have it appear again) had either been sodomised, or had been keeping explosives up his butt.
    Either way the media is loving this as it the public, and it's gone a long way to destroying the post death mystique of this prick.
    The police clearly took some pleasure, if you will, from releasing this as quickly as possible (and other such inevitable jokes doing the rounds).

    Charming. Abso-fucken-lutely charming. What better than to take a terrorist down a peg than to suggest he was a HHHHOMOSEXUAL terrorist.

    Juxapose that against this horrifying story about Muslim gangs luring gays and murdering them and I feel a little queer.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    Charming. Abso-fucken-lutely charming.

    I think you miss the point. In Indonesia there is little real bigotry against homosexuals, and this has nothing whatsoever to to with the Islamic mores of the masses here. Homosexuality and transsexuality are both legal and widely accepted in Indonesia, perhaps more so than many Western nations, and what did or did not happen in any part of the Islamic world is rather beside that point (Iraq is a very long way from Java both physically and in every other way), which was, as much as anything, a ploy by the authorities to illustrate just how normal, despite his narrowly held fundamentalist ravings, Top was.

    He was no Islamic super-hero, no twisted moral leader, and a hypocrite who killed people.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Christopher Dempsey,

    Ta for that... context is king.

    Parnell / Tamaki-Auckland… • Since Sep 2008 • 659 posts Report

  • Joe Wylie,

    . . . a ploy by the authorities to illustrate just how normal, despite his narrowly held fundamentalist ravings, Top was.

    Once again, just their way of handling the nuances of dealing with a demanding media?

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    context is king.

    Indeed, and apologies for not making the context clearer.

    Once again, just their way of handling the nuances of dealing with a demanding media?

    Not that far from the nightly news bulletins where the polisi can be seen dragging their latest suspects from the cells, bruised and bloodied, for show to the cameras and are often seen smiling and sharing a kretek with them before throwing them back in.

    Indonesian TV takes some getting use to. The coverage this week of the horror in Padang on primetime news has been especially gruesome, with extended zoomed shots of mangled corpses cutting to extended closeups of the faces of their distraught relatives as they're shown the body.

    But for all that, the nation is utterly traumatised by this second major killer quake in 3 years, and 5 since Aceh. You wonder how much a people can cope with.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

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