"Gogarty" wrote in message
...
In article s.com,
llid says...
"Larry" wrote in message
. ..
(Snip)
Even elephants are intelligent enough to head for high land when they feel
an earthquake. Why is it that human sailors are too stupid to see to their
own safety by heading for deep water?
Because we have traded intelligence for instinct. Instinct says run like
hell,
never mind what it is. Intelligence says Hmmm. I wonder what that is.
But, shouldn't intelligence, especially for a sailor, mean acquiring some
knowledge of what a tsunami is and how they work? How tsunamis represent
little or no danger in deep water where they are often not even noticeable
other than perhaps seeming to be a series of large swells? Little more than
basic wave theory is all that need be considered. It doesn't take a rocket
scientist.
If you can feel and hear an earthquake on land it generally means it is
probably within a couple hundred miles of you. (in this case it was about
150 miles away). Intelligence also means you know the typical tsunami
travels about fifty miles per hour. A little knowledge of the geography in
that part of the world also means the likelihood that the epicenter was
under the sea is great. This means the likelihood that there would follow a
tsunami was great. That means these Rubes should have known they had less
than three hours to get well out to sea.
Notice how the author lied and never mentioned this elapsed time period? Is
it because he didn't want everyone to know how stupid he was? Instead he
made it sound like the tsunami occurred almost immediately after the ground
shook. Pathetic!
So, instead of getting underway immediately and safely out to sea, this is
what they did. They stood around shooting the bull, arrogantly drinking
coffee and, if the truth be known, probably coffee heavily spiked with rum.
Oh my, but people like this sure can flap their lips. Sadly, that's ALL
they're good for. That's what's so disgusting about most people these days.
They can talk a good game but when it comes to action they are paralyzed.
They confuse commotion with motion. It's sad that so-called seamen are
nothing more than a bunch of chattering old women who become self-inflicted
victims because of their own ignorance, arrogance and sloth.
Wilbur Hubbard