Thursday, December 30, 2004
USELESS INFORMATION
The International Herald Tribune reports:
Early on Sunday morning, powerful computers in a Vienna office building received seismic data on the earthquake that spawned the devastating tsunamis across south Asia - information that might have saved lives in the hours between the quake and the waves hitting the coasts of Sri Lanka, India and several other countries.
But the data streaming into the computers of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty Organization served no purpose Sunday.
The 300 staff are on vacation until Jan. 4.
There were other barriers to using that information, as you’ll find if you read the entire piece. Nevertheless, it’s a little surprising to read of such a large organisation - with an annual budget of $100 million, by the way - closing down entirely over Christmas/New Year.