News report

The death toll from the tsunamis has passed 30,000, with many areas still out of contact. There is a blog here, where you can find out where to send your donation. It is a sort of information clearinghouse for relief efforts. If you want to know what it is like on the ground, and find out just how desperately your help is needed, check this out. Not for the faint-hearted.

For those who wish to know more about tsunamis, Librarianguish has put together some useful information and links. Thank you, Librarianguish.

This quake was so big it made the earth move, and changed the map. Geologists and cartographers, accept all invitations. You will be a hit at parties for at least nine days.

That awful man has been making low-budget home movies again. Nobody is watching. We're all preoccupied with one of the biggest natural disasters in human memory, and he is not it, despite what some people would like us to think. We will survive him. We might not survive global warming, however.

About three hours ago there was another earthquake in Niigata. It was a low five on the Japanese scale. No damage or casualties reported, yet, but this is quite large enough for those people, who have endured enough to last a lifetime. When will it end?

In other news, Liza Minelli fell out of bed. Also, Americans with delicate sensibilities are warned not to visit Japanese aquariums, which are infested with penguins who have obviously not been reading their Bibles, or they would not indulge in such shocking, unChristian behaviour.

And finally, Badaunt spent the day washing the entire contents of her closets, because now that the dry weather is well and truly here she is determined to get rid of the smell. Four full loads of washing later the smell has gone. Badaunt would be happy if that were the only urgent housekeeping job she had to do, but it isn't, so she isn't. She spent her time waiting for the washing machine to do its thing surfing the web, as the sharper of her readers may have already deduced.

That is the end of today's report.