i.justrealized

My brother just left for Batam this morning and it is least comforting to know that an earthquake occurred in Indonesia early this morning.

Indonesia quake kills two, tsunami warning lifted

(CNN) — A 7.5-magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia early Monday, leaving two people dead and 37 injured, health authorities said, but warnings of a possible tsunami were soon lifted.

The quake struck about 1:02 a.m. Monday (12:02 p.m. ET Sunday), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was nearly 1,900 kilometers east-northeast of Jakarta, the capital.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said the quake had “the potential to generate a destructive regional tsunami along coasts located within 1,000 km of the earthquake epicenter,” and Indonesia’s National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency warned of a possible tsunami.

No tsunami formed, and Indonesia dropped its warning. But before it was dropped, local TV reports in Gorontalo described panicked residents outside their homes. (Source: CNN)

He arrived at the hotel already. I hope things would be fine there. He’s going for some trip to help build schools or something. He said he was forced.

AUTHOR MICHAEL CRICHTON HAS ‘DIED UNEXPECTEDLY’

Prolific novelist and “ER” creator Michael Crichton has passed away. He was 66.

Perhaps best known for being the author of Jurassic Park and its sequel The Lost World, which were turned into a hugely successful movie franchise, his numerous books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide.

In what his family calls an unexpected death, it was revealed that he was waging a private battle against cancer.

“While the world knew him as a great storyteller that challenged our preconceived notions about the world around us — and entertained us all while doing so — his wife Sherri, daughter Taylor, family and friends knew Michael Crichton as a devoted husband, loving father and generous friend who inspired each of us to strive to see the wonders of our world through new eyes,” his family tells ET. “He did this with a wry sense of humor that those who were privileged to know him personally will never forget.” (Source: ET)

It’s Heidi Klum’s costume!

(Most scary Halloween costume by Heidi Klum.)

She’s trying to be Kali:

(Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction.)

Read more about Kali at IndHistory.com (image is from here).

Kali, also known as Kalika (Bengali: কালী, Kālī / কালিকা Kālīkā ; Sanskrit: काली), is a Hindu goddess associated with death and destruction. The name Kali means “black”, but has by folk etymology come to mean “force of time (kala)”. Despite her negative connotations, she is today considered the goddess of time and change. Although sometimes presented as dark and violent, her earliest incarnation as a figure of annihilation still has some influence. More complex Tantric beliefs sometimes extend her role so far as to be the “ultimate reality” or Brahman. She is also revered as Bhavatarini (literally “redeemer of the universe”). Comparatively recent devotional movements largely conceive Kali as a benevolent mother goddess. (Source: Wikipedia)

Heidi Klum is blue!

BBC reports that a man has killed his wife in a Facebook row. His wife had had her Facebook profile updated to “single” and had posted entries that humiliated him.

Man killed wife in Facebook row

Wayne Forrester, 34, told police he was devastated that his wife Emma, also 34, had changed her online profile to “single” days after he had moved out.

The Old Bailey heard Forrester drove to her home in Croydon, south London, and attacked the mother-of-two.

He stabbed her with a kitchen knife and a meat cleaver on 18 February. He beat her, tore out clumps of her hair, and repeatedly stabbed her in the head and neck.

Forrester, who pleaded guilty to murder, was ordered to serve a minimum term of 14 years.

‘Devastated and humiliated’

The day before the murder, he called her parents and complained about his wife’s Facebook entry which he said “made her look like a fool”, the court heard.

“She then posted messages on an internet website telling everyone she had left me and was looking to meet other men. (Source: BBC)

This is tragic.

I do admit that the thing that caught my attention is the word Facebook.

American and U.K. media is feeding you lies about what happened in Georgia the night of August 7th, 2008. CNN claims that Russia invaded Georgia. The truth is Georgia had committed the act of genocide against people of South Ossetia, and Russia had no choice but to protect its own citizens!

The truth about South Ossetia War, Georgia attack, and Russia’s response

I’ve been reading a little on the South Ossetia incident. I haven’t heard of this place before this attack. I thought Georgia is a place in USA actually. But news reports have been bias here. The media seem to pay more attention to Georgia as a victim instead of presenting a more objective view of the situation. This could possibly be due to Russia’s politicians reluctance to release statements on the war, but the media seems to be siding Georgia on this one.

[Note: Most of the news I read is USA new sites.]

When everyone’s talking about Olympics, Russia goes to war. 1,400 people dead.

Georgia: Russia has invaded and we are under attack

Russia sent troops and tanks into the breakaway Georgian province of South Ossetia today as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared “the war has started”.

1,400 reported dead. Georgia to withdraw troops from Iraq for use in South Ossetia.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “War started today in South Ossetia when Georgia attacked Russian peacekeepers in the disputed region.”

Georgian President Mikhail Saakasvili told CNN: “Russia is fighting a war with us in our own territory.

Witnesses claim Tskhinvali is devastated. “I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars,” said one.

“It’s impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged.”

The Georgian government said it will try to protect Russian peacekeepers who are in the disputed region. However Russia claims 10 Russian peacekeepers have already been killed. (Source: Belfast Telegraph)

It’s a rather interesting article. You can view New York Times take on why we have the urge to end it all.

Some interesting notes on jumper-type suiciders:

• With regards to jumping on a suicide attempt, there’s “high degree of impulsivity associated with that method”.
• For generations, the people of Britain heated their homes and fueled their stoves with coal gas. This released very high levels of carbon monoxide. “Sticking one’s head in the oven” became so common in Britain that by the late 1950s it accounted for some 2,500 suicides a year, almost half the nation’s total.
• By the early 1970s, the government phase out coal gas in favor of the much cleaner natural gas. During those same years, Britain’s national suicide rate dropped by nearly a third, and it has remained close to that reduced level ever since.
• In a moment of deep despair or rage or sadness, they turned to what was easy and quick and deadly - “the execution chamber in everyone’s kitchen,” as one psychologist described it - and that instrument allowed little time for second thoughts. Remove it, and the process slowed down; it allowed time for the dark passion to pass.
• Many who choose to jump seem to be drawn by a set of environmental cues that, together, offer three crucial ingredients: ease, speed and the certainty of death.
• “At the risk of stating the obvious,” Seiden said, “people who attempt suicide aren’t thinking clearly. They might have a Plan A, but there’s no Plan B. They get fixated. They don’t say, ‘Well, I can’t jump, so now I’m going to go shoot myself.’ And that fixation extends to whatever method they’ve chosen. They decide they’re going to jump off a particular spot on a particular bridge, or maybe they decide that when they get there, but if they discover the bridge is closed for renovations or the railing is higher than they thought, most of them don’t look around for another place to do it. They just retreat.”
• A man was grabbed after passers-by noticed him pacing and growing increasingly despondent. The reason? He had picked out a spot on the western promenade that he wanted to jump from, but separated by six lanes of traffic, he was afraid of getting hit by a car on his way there.
• Once someone attempts a suicide and survive, they are unlikely to have another impulse toward suicide.

And… On an unrelated note, New York Times has this short paragraph on Scott Anderson, the writer of the article. It says, “Scott Anderson is a frequent contributor to the magazine. His last article was about the war in Lebanon in 2006.” How is an article after 2 years considered frequent.