Nepal

[Haruo]

I have 21 Facebook friends listed by Facebook's "Safety Check for Nepal Earthquake" as "in the region" of yesterday's strong earthquake in Nepal. Of these, eight (all from Kathmandu) have still not been marked "Safe".
Indu Devi Thapaliya
Anil Ratna
Navaraj Budha
Alinka Chhetri
Trekking Nepal
Krishna Bashyal
Krishna Neupane
Nepal Bodhisattva
I am praying for their health and wellbeing, and hope I that I will soon learn that they survived the unhappy occurrence.

[Haruo]

Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has out yesterday, based on one she did about Haiti a few years back.

[Dave Roberts]

These folks are indeed facing amazing need. Prayers and relief contributions are needed.

[KeithE]

Terrible tragedy. Can’t blame this one on human misdeeds.

[Haruo]

Although if it were in Oklahoma you might be able to. Have you seen the amazing growth in earthquake frequencies there, attributed to fracking and other aspects of oil and gas extraction? And since we're all interconnected, who knows what effects may be at a distance. I remember how the Mt. St. Helens eruption in 1980 disrupted the timing and frequency of geysers in Yellowstone NP, including Old Faithful.

[Haruo]

The two Krishnas are now marked safe; the other six are still unaccounted for.

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Anil Ratna has been marked safe.

[Haruo]

I discovered a major glitch in the Facebook emergency safety check system today. Two of my 21 friends who are marked "Safe" were so marked in error by mutual FB friends, not native English-speakers, who clicked on "Mark Safe" by their names in an effort to find out whether they were safe. This resulted in the page showing them as "Safe" although the people who so marked them in fact had no knowledge of their safety. And here's the kicker: once so marked, there is apparently no way to unmark them. So the system is misinforming all of their friends about their safety.

[Haruo]