Apple's home page: message about tsunamis

[Diatribe]

The sad thing is that the Honolulu warning centre tried to warn those states when they registered the earthquake but due to those earthquakes happening only every 700 years there was no evacuation plan not even a central agency to handle things like that.
Now those governments will rethink their policy on that. It is just so sad that it always takes a wake up call. Why can't we ever try to prevent something from happening without a major disaster to happen before?

 

[McMakMac]

The sad thing is that the Honolulu warning centre tried to warn those states when they registered the earthquake but due to those earthquakes happening only every 700 years there was no evacuation plan not even a central agency to handle things like that.
Now those governments will rethink their policy on that. It is just so sad that it always takes a wake up call. Why can't we ever try to prevent something from happening without a major disaster to happen before?

First of all. applause to Apple, Google and Yahoo! and everyone using various means to make a difference. This shows perfectly how corporations care about the rest of the world.

It's hard for countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonisia to alert everyone in the country with such a serious warning. Honestly even if they did, it'll cause panic, but where would they go? Personally, if i was going to Thailand for vacation, i probably would ignore such warning. shrug it off, no one could imagine such an incrediable disaster.

Living in a country like that is different than living in the US or Europe. If Hawaii did know about it, then why didn't the US government send out a travel warning?

 

[ChrisH3677]

I checked Dell, IBM, Microsoft, Symantec, Adobe, Macromedia and Gateway. They all have nothing. I don't hold that against them - it just makes me more proud of Apple.

 

[pinto32]

Its good too see that there are some companies who are doing something that doesn't completely revolve around the pursuit of profits. Now all we need is for people in this country (USA) to realize just how little the $35 million our government has pledged is...less than 13 cents per citizen of the world's richest country is just pathetic....

 

[Diatribe]

Living in a country like that is different than living in the US or Europe. If Hawaii did know about it, then why didn't the US government send out a travel warning?

Yep your are right, the problem was though that there were just a couple of hours between the earthquake and the tsunami. Still, if there had been an evacuation plan there wouldn't be 100,000 deaths now. Anyway, I just hope we learn from things like this.

 

[gwuMACaddict]

wow- very cool apple. as disheartening as this story is, its always amazing to see how well people can work together and get along for a greater common good. its a shame we cant work this well together all the time.

 

[pawnstar]

well done, every little helps. I think it's great!

It's so important that at a time like this everyone pulls together and does everything they can to help.

/asif

cheers

people around the world do seem to be pulling together

 

[Juventuz]

If Hawaii did know about it, then why didn't the US government send out a travel warning?

They did. NOAA sent out a warning to all nations involved in the Pacificri tsunami system. The warning stated that there were possibilities a tsunami could occur, it's not an exact science.

 

[wdlove]

A scientist spoke on NPR yesterday about that subject. He said that he had visited many nations in South East Asia. Wanted to inform them that many indicators were right for a massive earthquake and a tsunami. He said that if they heard warnings, they should seek higher ground immediately.

 

[theimacguy]

Even the software companies are helping out

Check out Skype

http://www.skype.com/

 

[rueyeet]

It's insane. I can't even fathom 60,000 people dying. That's nearly the population of the island I used to live on. (Isle of Wight, south of Britain)

And the count is up....this morning the Washington Post was saying something like 112,000 and rising. 60% of the main city on that portion of Sumatra's coast destroyed. Entire villages wiped out, just like that. And more deaths feared from disease, lack of basic sanitation, drinkable water, even so much food as the instant noodles that's being air-dropped in the more remote areas....

It just boggles the mind.....it's beyond the comprehension of safe pampered little me who is lucky enough to live in a non-disaster prone area of one of the safest and most advanced countries of the world. Times like this drive the point home of how blessed and lucky I am just to have enough to eat...a privilege not shared by nearly enough of the world's population.

Well, they'll get more than 13 cents from this US citizen....*off to Amazon*

 

[cheekyspanky]

I wonder how much Bill, Steve, and all those overpaid footballers/pop stars/rappers will donate..?

Good to see so many companies helping to get donations - something to consider when making purchases in future maybe..?

 

[sebisworld]

I wonder how much Bill, Steve, and all those overpaid footballers/pop stars/rappers will donate..?

Bill usually donates loads of his cash. There's just nothing else to do with it.

something to consider when making purchases in future maybe..?

So... not really.

 

[jemeinc]

I have to mention that Microsoft.com hasn't done anything to their page. Way to set an example. ... .

Now, now- let's be fair - Bill Gates donates more money to charity than anyone- including Steve Jobs & Apple inc. I'm no M$, or Gates fan, quite the opposite, but fair is fair afterall...

 

[Mechcozmo]

Bill usually donates loads of his cash. There's just nothing else to do with it.

Toilet paper made out of $5 bills.

And while I don't ding other companies for not putting up a banner like Apple did, it makes be feel pretty good to show that off to other people and say "Look here!" so they can donate. And the big logo makes an impression. I like what Google did too. A simple link like that will get millions of clicks, because millions of people go there a day.

 

[EJBasile]

I knew apple would do something like this.

If you view Dells homepage you can learn about Oprah's Favorite Things 2004
Dell. Who cares about 120,000 people getting killed by a disaster, wouldn't you rather learn about Oprah's favorite things and spend money on Dells "Top Quality" (yea it even says that).

 

[Apple Hobo]

m-w.com (Merriam-Webster online dictionary) and eBay also have links.

This shows perfectly how corporations care about the rest of the world.

It's good that large companies are giving attention to this disaster, but I wouldn't go that far.

Who cares about 120,000 people getting killed by a disaster, wouldn't you rather learn about Oprah's favorite things and spend money on Dells "Top Quality" (yea it even says that).

That reminds me of Safari's default home page, http://apple.netscape.com/. I liked the design of the page, but the news content was--and still is--always about nauseating celeb-gossip. I quickly switched homepages because of this.

There's only a small headline at the top that mentions the thousands of missing Americans. Other than that, not much tsunami news. So what stories are getting the headlines?

•Tsunami could hit U.S.
•Hollywood's hottest bachelors
•Top 10 New Year's parties
•Why renting may be better
•Change your image in 2005
•Find some love in '05
Mixed in with the above garbage is a small link to a disaster help page.

It's sad to think that some people care more about celebrity gossip than 100,000+ dead people. Netscape news service, YOU SUCK!

 

[HiRez]

To be fair, M$ does have a prominant link on their homepage now, to a whole list of charitable giving links. They may be a ruthless, heartless, soulless company when it comes to business, but I don't honestly believe the people who work there care nothing about human beings in tragedy. Bear in mind it's the week between Christmas and New Year, most companies (even large ones) are running skeleton crews at best, and getting the "ok" to go ahead and take over the company's home page is probably not the easiest thing to do, even once someone gets the idea to do it. I still hate Microsoft, but I'm not going to blame them this time. If you want to see someone dragging their feet and not giving, let's take a look at out own President, who took days to even acknowledge the tragedy, and even then appeared defensive and rote.

Disaster relief pledged by the U.S. (including the recent increase): US$35M. Cost of George W. Bush's inauguration festivities: US$40M-50M. Cost of the war in Iraq each day: US$178M. Sorry to get all political, but it's a pretty disgusting sight to behold.

 

[Chaszmyr]

Now, now- let's be fair - Bill Gates donates more money to charity than anyone- including Steve Jobs & Apple inc. I'm no M$, or Gates fan, quite the opposite, but fair is fair afterall...

Lets continue to be fair - Bill Gates donates far more than Steve Jobs is worth... Therefore Steve Jobs couldn't donate that money even if he wanted to, so we don't know, maybe if Steve Jobs made 100 billion he'd donate 90 billion of it, maybe he wouldn't donate any of it.

 

[tosoil]

The sad thing is that the Honolulu warning centre tried to warn those states when they registered the earthquake but due to those earthquakes happening only every 700 years there was no evacuation plan not even a central agency to handle things like that.
Now those governments will rethink their policy on that. It is just so sad that it always takes a wake up call. Why can't we ever try to prevent something from happening without a major disaster to happen before?

IMHO, it is a little bit unfair to say "Wow, they are stupid!" That kind of thing (once in every 700 years) is not REALISTIC to anybody. Remember that US had enough time to stop the second and the third plane in 9/11. But, US Air Force or whatever never imagined that kind of thing could happen, so they did nothing but to wait for the second and the third plane hit. I think 9/11 and this Tsunami have many common characteristic.

 

[Diatribe]

IMHO, it is a little bit unfair to say "Wow, they are stupid!" That kind of thing (once in every 700 years) is not REALISTIC to anybody. Remember that US had enough time to stop the second and the third plane in 9/11. But, US Air Force or whatever never imagined that kind of thing could happen, so they did nothing but to wait for the second and the third plane hit. I think 9/11 and this Tsunami have many common characteristic.

Nobody said that they are stupid. But to say this only happens every 700 years so there's no need to consider things like this is dangerous.
That it took the U.S. so long to get fighters in the air is a thing that I don't really wanna discuss here. It took them way too long to get those up after the 2nd plane hit but that's another story.

All I am saying is that they should've had at least a central disaster center the fact that they did not is just nuts.

 

[Darwin]

Disaster relief pledged by the U.S. (including the recent increase): US$35M. Cost of George W. Bush's inauguration festivities: US$40M-50M. Cost of the war in Iraq each day: US$178M. Sorry to get all political, but it's a pretty disgusting sight to behold.

I guess you have a point when you look at the list, just seeing it on the BBC site:

World Bank: $250m
UK: $96m
Sweden: $75m
China: $60m
France: $56m
EU $44m
Netherlands: $36m
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Japan: $30m
Australia: $27m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m
Norway: $6.6m
Taiwan: $5.1m
Finland: $3.4m
Kuwait: $2.1m
UAE: $2m

 

[Zenith]

I guess you have a point when you look at the list, just seeing it on the BBC site:

World Bank: $250m
UK: $96m
Sweden: $75m
China: $60m
France: $56m
EU $44m
Netherlands: $36m
US: $35m
Canada: $33m
Japan: $30m
Australia: $27m
Denmark: $15.6m
Saudi Arabia: $10m
Norway: $6.6m
Taiwan: $5.1m
Finland: $3.4m
Kuwait: $2.1m
UAE: $2m

I just need to correct one thing here; Norway has given $50 million dollars! $17 million coming from the government of Norway, and about $43 million collected from the Norwegian people.

During the following days all these numbers are about to change, and I think we'll generally see a great increase in numbers from all countries.

 

[Applespider]

These are just the official government donated figures - none of them take any account of any money donated by the public or private companies. But you're right - both are likely to grow appreciably in the next few days.

Last I saw, the UK figure was the $96m donated by government plus an additional $60m from the general public

 

[pinto32]

I take back everything I said about the US government not sending enough money. You know why? Because we are sending the governor of Florida!!!! What else could they possibly need?!?!?


***Does anyone know if there are any legal issues I should know about if I wanted to put canisters in stores to collect money? (I live in Pennsylvania)