Tag: EARTHQUAKE

In just a day and a half, the massive virtual populations of Zynga's FarmVille, CityVille, and FrontierVille have donated more than $1 million in aid for victims of the natural disasters in Japan. Zynga has added special virtual goods to several games which players can purchase to donate funds. It's a very clever use of in-game purchases, and one even the most jaded of FarmVille detractors ...

Over the weekend, large corporations have been scrambling to offer support to the devastated north east of Japan, where a tsunami destroyed towns and farmsteads and looks set to claim over 10,000 lives. Google, as always, was the first to respond with a Google Person Finder for Japan. There is now a full Google Crisis Response page for the earthquake and tsunami, which is full of extensive ...

Google has teamed up with its satellite imagery provider, GeoEye, to create updated satellite images of Japan since the devastating earthquake and tsunami hit. Google has integrated the images into both Google Earth, using a KML file, and Google maps. They've also released the high resolution images through a Picasa album, all in the vein of trying to help co-ordinate relief efforts and help ...

Tragedies like the massive earthquake which recently hit Japan are bad enough, and they're compounded online by nefarious types who want to profit from the inevitable increase in search engine queries. It's a common way to trick users into installing malicious programs like fake antivirus or fake system maintenance tools. By getting in quickly on new search terms as the become popular, ...

Google is at it again, helping people locate loved ones caught in the earthquake that hit New Zealand on Tuesday. First put to use after the Haiti earthquake of last year, Google Person Finder is a handy tool that lets you search a user-created database of people using a missing person's name. If you don't find a match for the person you're searching for, you can leave information about her or ...

It is with dubiously raised eyebrows that we bring you this gem: using accelerometers in hard disks to detect seismic activity, IBM can divine a wealth of natural disaster-related information. These hard disk sensors are so sensitive that they can detect the tiniest of vibrations. The seismic data, along with the sensor's geographical location, are then sent to a mainframe computer to be ...

Good afternoon! I have good news and bad news. This will be my last Firefox Friday for July, because I'm going on holiday. Lee and Matthew will pick up the slack while I'm gone. A different point of view is always interesting and I thoroughly look forward to reading the column while on vacation, sprawled across a babe-blanketed balmy beach somewhere in Eastern Europe... Anyway, there's a lot of ...

It's very simple, short and sweet -- in true Google style -- and in this case that's a very good thing. Person Finder: Chile Earthquake lets you search a database of records, or submit details of someone you have information about. If you're yet to hear from a friend or family member in Chile, go search. If you're in Chile right now and you have information about survivors, or victims, please ...

As I write this, there's a viral Facebook status message sweeping across profiles all over the world. It's even been translated into Spanish! The premise? At 9pm, five minutes of silence for the victims of the Haitian earthquake will take place on Facebook. Yes, it's as ambiguous as you think it is. 9pm when? Where? What DAY?! Am I meant to observe the five minutes of silence at 9pm in ...

What's been on the Internet 12 hours too long, is 5 years too old and demonstrates the gaping chasm between blog journalism and credibility? This Huffington Post piece pointing to a five year old YouTube video as footage from yesterday's tsunami in American Somoa. Are you getting all your news on the Internet? Constantly cruising a mix of major and minor media sites, or sucking them all in at ...

This one's for geology geeks and gelatin fans only: Wiglet is a great little desktop widget for Yahoo! Widget Engine. It looks like a green Jell-o mold, and when USGS reports an earthquake it will jiggle with a velocity corresponding to the magnitude of the earthquake. When Wiglet reports an earthquake, you can click on it to see a map of the affected area. How cool is that? Oh, and it's free. ...