Urgh

An anonymous reader wrote in to make me feel even more nauseous about the horrific effects of the tsunami. See the Oily Mess website, here. According to a Wall Street Journal article the site liberally excerpts, a certain type of economic development may have destroyed natural features -- coral reefs, sand dunes, mangrove forests -- that would have mitigated the tsunami's fury and lowered the death toll.

As Oily Mess says:

Governments in India, Indonesia, and Thailand are so eager for export-oriented development that they have encouraged the widespread elimination of mangrove forest and coral reef coastlines in exchange for hotels, shrimp farms, and ports... And what do we use mangrove wood for? According to my pal the food industry consultant, they make the most splinter-free chopsticks. Ah yes, now I can eat farmed shrimp with mangrove disposable chopsticks. Can we cook the sauce from the blood of the local people?

Ha ha! Yes, I've always felt we'd have a different economic system if, like conscientious hunters, we had to eat what we killed.

ALSO: Stevan Alburty mentions in comments that it would be worth pressuring the people planning the parties after Bush's inaugeration to cancel them and give the money to the tsunami victims. His thoughts are here.

ALSO ALSO: If you've ever wanted to shoot televisions in public places, or at least make them stop their goddamn yakking, this article in the New York Times will give you hope.