The Difference Between a Wave and a Tsunami

Saw this posted on Reddit and found it was easier to intuitively understand than most demonstrations or explanations. Think of the shore as being on the right side of the image. The wave is the top illustration, and the tsunami is the lower illustration.

And, just because it's incredible and people don't understand unless they see it, here are links to some videos:

The water rushes in. And in. And in.

Camera Crew runs to safety, helps others.

The water covers everything as it carries devastation inland.

The thing to remember: IT JUST KEEPS COMING. More water, then more. It's not the force of it that kills, it's the sheer volume. People successfully outran the waves, but if they stayed too long they were dead.

A pilot has a report of what happened in the air during and after the earthquake.

Animation of Earthquakes near Japan

This is a quick video (2:41) showing earthquakes in Japan between the 9th of March and the 14th of March. Each second is about an hour of real time. The big one is around 1:17.

Michael Sensei...

He let us know that he was ok, and now he's wondering what's next.

Stay safe, Michael.

Thursday Links

Bizarro Sports Illustrated. Despite the M's horrid record, I'm cool with any season in which the Yankees suck.

Is this video of a Tokyo Hotel an advertisement, or a warning?

She's 6-foot-1, and plays basketball extremely well. And now she's been kicked out of a boys' league because she puts the boys to shame.

Yikes: remote bricking is possible (making a computer useless remotely by overwriting the BIOS).

Our paper money is unfair to the blind. I honestly never thought about that before, and I'm ashamed I missed such an obvious problem.

A Lost Parrot gives his name and home address to a vet.

Fuel cells are getting closer to being something useful and world-changing.

What, you mean that restaurants lie about calorie content in their food? And use dubious definitions of "serving size"? Who would've guessed? This is why eating out is a rare treat for me now.

Slate looks at lab-grown meat. I still think getting to the point where hamburgers in massive fast food chains are made with lab-grown stuff will make a huge positive difference in food safety and quality and no noticable different in taste.

A supernova is caught in the act of being born. Cool.

A very cool Back to the Future shirt design.

Congrats to my first TV crush, who plans to marry in California soon.

If you have a few bucks and want to fight breast cancer, please donate to support us in the Race for the Cure: Laura Gjovaag, Eric Gjovaag, or Lisa Dunham (my suggested donation is $5 to each of us, if you have $15 to spare, or $5 to one of us (flip a 3-sided coin) if you're poor like me).

Pugs for the in-laws. And a bonus pug.

Thursday Night Links

I've always been a fan of Gail Simone, I'm even more in awe of her now. Here's the thread from the start.

Michael Sensei talks about smoking in Japan. The ads are great. I want to see more of them.

Heh, Pontoon got some paved roads finally. I wonder what comes next? If enough folks visit, we might find out. Otherwise it's just the owner of the city and me checking it every day (you can visit once a day to "add a new citizen"). I claim one of the houses on the paved road.

The funny pages will have a bit of activism coming up this Sunday. I just want to say that Herb and Jamaal is one of my favorite comic strips of all time.

Check it out: scenes from the Amelia Rules! Musical.

Speaking of music: one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve!

Is it legal to sell something you find in the trash? Well, yeah, but not in this particular case.

What does it take to scour YouTube for Alex Trebek bloopers?

I think I might like to buy this. Brad "Evil Inc" Guigar and Dave "Sheldon" Kellet alone make it worth the price.

If you were born via sperm donation, would you be curious about your siblings?

Seattle 911. I wish there was one for Bothell, too. Allows me to be nosy and yet stay completely out of the way. It would've been slightly useful that day the swat team moved into my neighborhood to find a criminal.

NASA is still looking for Astronaut Candidates. If you are a teacher, you qualify.

Ah, Puppy Bowl! I want a kitty to play with! I want the PuppyBowl DVDs!

Is it art if the pictures are taken by a cat?

Linkdump

Mercury Studio has grown and become Periscope Studio.

Lea Hernandez on the ugly Flash cover that really is a complete grossout. Complete with a visual explanation of why Flash is represented more heroically than the gals in the Heroes for Hire debacle of a cover.

Making me into an American Girl. Yikes.

Scott Adam's Best Story Ever.

North Dakotan Farmers want hemp.

Oooh, that's a cool toy.

Kalakala. I just like saying it. "Kalakala!"

UFO over Salt Lake City becomes an IFO.

Google Sightseeing catches Street Fight in San Francisco.

Oh give me a home, where the children can roam...

The Ghosts of Pike Place Market.

In case I didn't already mention it: Ice Cucumber Pepsi! Sometimes I'm glad I don't drink much pop anymore.

Can't afford Canada???

Iron Age Mickey Mouse resembles the character more than licensed popsicles do.

More Pug-itude for the in-laws.

Packing

I'm pretty busy packing for our trip. Just a little thought...

Michael Sensei sent me some awesome snacks called "Penguin's Lunch". The treat comes in a box with a plastic toy penguin and a small bag of fish-shaped snacks. While the penguin alone made me extremely happy, the snacks were also quite excellent (and at 60 calories for the box, they also aren't a threat to my weight loss).

Now I've seen another goofy Japanese snack that I wish I could try out on Boing Boing. I really need to find a good Japanese import shop that might sell these things:

If only American snack food was so creative and silly.