Tsunami: Three Minutes of Silence

Adrian Patrut suggested that we take a look at the results for an organized moment of respect for the victims of the Tsunami in South Asia. It was organized as "Three Minutes of Silence".

Millions of people of all countries that belong to the European Union plus Switzerland fell silent for 3 minutes on Wednesday 05.01.2005, between 11.00 - 11.03 UTC. Schools, rail stations, offices and shops paused in the memory of the victims of the Indian Ocean area disaster. Buses, trams, subways also stopped, while TV and radio stations broke into normal programming to broadcast special commemorations and solemn music.

I did an exploratory analysis for that time period, based on Prof. Patrut's suggestion, which I appreciated. I had seen a brief item on the TV news about the moment of silence but didn't get much information. What I chose to use to represent this meditative moment is a period of a few minutes leading up to it and following it. The graph is striking, and gives the suggestion that just before the time, there was an unusual coherence in the global consciousness. This is of course not a formal scientific observation, but it is a suggestive picture. The actual 3-minute period is marked.

Tsunami: Three Minutes of
Silence


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