Happy new year!

Good-bye 2004 - hello 2005!

Happiness, health and success to everybody! I hope you spent new year's eve in company of your best friends: Ms. Cliquot, Mr. Perignon, handsome Moet (my favorite buddy), the dynamic trio Jack, Jim and Chivas - or whatever their names were! If case you passed out before midnight and were not capable to see any fireworks - this website offers a fantastic 360 degree panoramic impression from the gigantic new year's party on Times Square in New York and other places like Lisbon, Dubai, Amsterdam and beautiful Zermatt! In vino (or similar stuff) veritas - these timeless words of wisdom were obviously known also to the great Irish poet and dramatist William Butler Yeats. Almost 100 years ago he wrote - obviously not sober - this great and meaningful sippin' poem:

Wine comes in at the mouth
And love comes it at the eye;
That's all we shall know for truth
Before we grow old and die.
I lift the glass to my mouth,
I look at you, and I sigh.

By the way: These inspiring lines are best viewed with a glass of Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey (so it says). Cheers!

Ecriture automatique

New year's resolutions? No. Maybe a wish: Capture my river of thoughts with ultra-speed writing. Let it go, let it go, the surrealists reminded us. They called it 'ecriture automatique' - automatic writing. I will follow this advice - and just do it!

A daily dose beach

Life is a beach.

The powerful winter storm which hit Southern California in the last couple of days went away. It's sunny and beautiful again today. But apparently this is only temporarily. The weather forecast predicts more rain and thunderstorms in the following days. A wet new year's eve? We'll see...
Live webcam from the beautiful Will Rogers Beach, Santa Monica, California.

Apple to launch computer below $500

According to Think Secret Apple is expected to announce a bare bones, G4-based iMac without a display at Macworld Expo on January 11 that will retail for $499. The new Mac, code-named Q88, will be part of the iMac family and is expected to sport a PowerPC G4 processor at a speed around 1.25GHz. The new Mac is said to be incredibly small and is expected to have a Combo drive only.

America's 'stingy' tsunami aid

Initial aid pledged by the United States in the wake of the Indian Ocean tsunami: $15,000,000 ($15 million)

Total GDP of the United States: $11,000,000,000,000 ($11 trillion)

That comes out to 0.000136 % - a little more than one millionth of the GDP. In reaction to that pledge, Jan Egeland, the U.N. humanitarian aid chief called the United States 'stingy'.

Latest news is that the aid has been increased to $35 million. That's much better. Now the aid is a whopping 0.000318 % of GDP. (Via Uggabugga Blog)

Asia tsumami deaths pass 80'000

The dimension of this catastrophe is beyond our comprehension:

Relief agencies struggled to rush aid to more than 3 million people in Africa and Asia who lack food and medicine as the number of fatalities from the weekend's earthquake and tsunamis passed 80,000, with more than half the dead in Indonesia.
The death toll climbed as more corpses washed ashore and tallies came in from remote parts of the countries along the Indian Ocean hit by giant waves, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia on December 26.(...)
UN officials said dozens of airplanes are carrying food, medicine, water purification tablets and body bags to Indonesia, Thailand, India and other nations. Governments pledged at least $220 million in cash, and an equal amount in supplies, transport and military help, according to the UN. Japan promised $30 million, and Australia said it would give $27.7 million to the quake zone. Germany offered $27 million, and France pledged $20.4 million. (...) Amazon.com, the world's biggest Internet retailer, collected $2.5 million in about 24 hours after rearranging its home page yesterday to make a pitch for donations to the American Red Cross. The Red Cross has received total donations of $18 million so far.

Support the relief efforts and make a donation! According to Unicef, 5 dollars can already provide an emergency health kit for one person for three months, with medical supplies and drugs to cover basic health needs! Some links to donate:

Unicef
American Red Cross
USAID
ReliefWeb

Catholic church sex scandal

In a Reuters story about the church's financial woes, we can read:

Nearly 11,000 people have accused priests of child sexual abuse from 1950 through 2002, according to a church-commissioned study released this year. There could be thousands more who have not yet come forward.(...) Los Angeles, the largest archdiocese in the United States, could face hundreds of lawsuits, with some estimates putting a possible total settlement there at $1 billion or more.

Again: beyond comprehension...

Powerful winter storm hits California

Flooded streets near downtown L.A.

Heavy rain, strong winds and flooding - no weather conditions to wear a T-Shirt in these days:

A slow-moving storm walloped Southern California on Tuesday, dumping record rainfall on some communities, and forecasters expect the wet weather to continue through New Year's Day. More than 4 inches of rain fell at Chatsworth Reservoir in the 24-hour period ending at 4 p.m. Tuesday, while nearly 4 inches fell at the Hansen Dam Reservoir during that same time. Upper Matilija Canyon in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura County received nearly 14 inches. Downtown Los Angeles got a record 4.32 inches of rain by Tuesday afternoon, more than doubling the 2.09 inches set December 28, 1931. "This was a real energetic piece of work by Mother Nature," said Bill Hoffer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "Everyone is always saying we need rain - well, here it is." Plus: A small tornado hits Southwest Los Angeles.

Asian Quake Death Toll Approaches 9,500

Horribel, horribel, these news:
One of the most powerful earthquakes in history hit southern Asia Sunday, unleashing a tsunami on Sri Lanka and India and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives to kill almost 9,500 people.
The tsunami — a menacing wall of water — caused death, chaos and devastation across southern Asia. The tsunami, up to 30 feet high, was triggered by an 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra.