Disaster Relief

I landed safely in Pakistan after a 36-hour journey from San Francisco to Islamabad, Pakistan on March 19. This is my first visit to my home country after the devastating earthquake in October 2005. Just a few hours after my arrival, the northern Pakistan, including, Islamabad was shaken with yet another moderate earthquake of 5.0 magnitude. Even though there were no deaths or destructions reported this time, but it is a reminder that I have arrived in the earthquake active zone. Already, there have been over 1780 aftershocks that have been felt through the region since the devastating earthquake in October 2005. Last week, an earthquake of 5.2, had caused the death of at least one individual and injury to 16 people in Pakistan’s Kashmir region.

Alertnet: Hundreds feared dead in Philippine mudslide

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone who had expressed concern on whether I have friends/family affected in the disaster area. Thankfully, there are none. I live on the southern part of Mindanao island in the Philippines and Leyte island is located somewhere in the middle. (map image below)

Candle Light Vigil for Earthquake Victims in Pakistan

The situation in Pakistan is still worse. People are still suffering and dying. Aftershocks are still rocking the country and making it impossible to work and live. 

I and a colleague in the Philippines are helping Sam in his Reliefopedia project by building a prototype for the extension of existing protocols that will allow users to search and view up-to-date feed entries from blogs, people finders and relief websites through any mapping service, allowing for real-time monitoring of disasters and relief operations through a visual/graphical interface.

OK< so now I have your attention [this should be Shel Israel & Robert Scoble's moment - they the authors of soon to be published Naked Conversations...]. Speaker Graham Flint revealed the powers of magnification - in multiple dimensions of the term - of one if his densely packed, ultra-giga-resolution photographs of "ParaGliders @ Torrey Pines - La Jolla CA" in which magnification by several orders of magnitude reveals naked men walking the beach. 

Earthquake has shaken the country to its core. More than 20,000 are feared dead and the toll is rising. This is by far the severest quake in the history of Pakistan registering 7.6 on the rector scale. The Northern Pakistan including the capital, Islamabad are devastated. Many small towns and villages have been flattened to the ground. And landslides as a result of series of earthquakes have washed away roads thus making it inaccessible for rescuers to get anywhere in time. Pakistan is going through one of its worst disasters ever.