Sumatran quake sped up Earth's rotation

Natural disaster shaved millionths of a second off planet's day.


The Earth has been rocked on its axis.
© NASA
The devastating earthquake that struck the Indian Ocean on 26 December was so powerful that it has accelerated the Earth's rotation, geophysicists have declared. They estimate that the shockwave shortened the period of our planet's rotation by some three microseconds.

The change was caused by a shift of mass towards the planet's centre, as the Indian Ocean's heavy tectonic plate lurched underneath Indonesia's one, say researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. This caused the globe to rotate faster, in the same way that a spinning figure-skater accelerates by tucking in her arms.

The blast literally rocked the world on its axis, add Richard Gross and his NASA colleagues. They estimate that Earth now tilts by an extra 2.5 centimetres in the wake of the jolt.

news@nature.com�-�Sumatran quake sped up Earth's rotation

Daily Kos :: Iraqi Candidate Names Not Released for 'Security Reasons'

Pretty unbelievable - the names of the people who you might actually vote for can not be released for security reasons. While it is obvious that the slates on which they are running will be the critical factor for determining voters' preferences, one imagines, it still boggles the mind. As a commentator notes - now there is a secret ballot.

This observation from Juan Cole just blows my mind:

Candidate name recognition doesn't appear very important, however. For security reasons, the actual names of most candidates on the 78 party or multiparty lists have so far not been released. This odd situation, in which the candidates are not known a month before the election, attests to how dire the political and security situation in Iraq really is.


Diaries :: pontificator's diary ::

I know the Bush administration has a lot of political capital tied up in not pushing back the date for the Iraqi elections. Pushing the date back would be an admission of failure, and the Bush administration would rather gnaw off their own arms then admit failure. But, at a certain point, don't you have to admit defeat, or become a laughingstock? I think having an election where the names of the candidates have to remain secret so they don't get assassinated might be awfully close, if not right up to the edge, of that point. I guess it adds a whole new meaning to the phrase 'secret ballot.'"

Daily Kos :: Iraqi Candidate Names Not Released for 'Security Reasons'