I'm still overwhelmed by the SE Asia disaster. I don't feel I can add anything more than what others are already providing - links to first hand accounts, aid organizations to donate to, etc. One story did catch my eye today, though: Animals spared from Tsunamis. Which once again proves that instinct can be so much more effective than intelligence. We humans can be so incredibly stupid. Sometimes I feel like we get what we deserve in that area.

Take for example today's post by Olbermann, which reveals that apparently the official meteorological agency of Thailand not only knew of the Sumatran earthquake an hour before their own coastline was inundated - they wasted that entire hour debating about how their tourism industry would be affected if they issued a warning and then no tsunami showed up. Am I just nuts to think that common sense would dictate a false alarm would have an infintessimal affect compared to what actually ended up happening - no warning, tens of thousands of tourists dead/ injured as a result, and more natives dead or dying from disease having lost everything? What affect do they think *this* will have on their tourist trade? Sure tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean... but when they do happen they're catastrophic. There is historical proof of that from the Krakatoan eruption.