Here is a map and a report of the current situation in Indonesia. According to the report, between 4,500 – 5,400 people have perished (a more recent estimate put it at over 6,000) and the homeless population could be as much as 200,000 (a more recent report estimates as many as 600,000 people have been displaced). 9 out of 12 water treatment plants are down. This kind of devastation is just unfathomable to me.
This article, titled Smoke and Mirrors: Deficiencies in Disaster Funding (written in February, 2005, in the wake of the 2004 tsunami) talks of a need to change the way the world deals with disaster relief. They propose a new system: 1. UN relief agencies should be funded by member countries rather than having to appeal for donations after a disaster has struck. 2. Pledges for financial relief should be tracked to make sure they don’t fade once disasters recede from the headlines (and that they are not merely reallocations of existing relief funds pledged to other regions, or loans disguised as donations, or attached with unreasonable strings). 3. Vulnerability to disaster should be taken into account in economic development strategies (I assume they are referring to developing nations, but Katrina has taught us that the distance between the first world and the third is not as great as we might think, in the arena of disaster preparedness). They claim that in southern countries, where the economic cost of disaster are lower than in the north, but human costs are higher, the emphasis is not placed on examining the risk of disaster and protecting against its effects on infrastructure.
Until these plans are put in place, appeals for donations are necessary. Here are some links to well-known organizations’ donation forms:
Via ResourceShelf
Le Noir 71% from French makers,
For my birthday, along with a cd of 
I’ve been looking for a good 88 note MIDI keyboard controller. It’s a surprisingly challenging task given how many new choices have sprung up recently. For me, the main thing is the feel of the keys. Beyond that it’s icing.
Amon Tobin is one of my favorite electronic music artists. Everything he does is very evocative, almost cinematic, if only action movies were this good. He has his own unmistakable style, yet it is more a planet than a palette, which is very hard to pull off as an artist. Which is why it is odd that it took me so long to grab his last full-length album, especially considering it is high definition surround mix on DVD-Audio. I suppose the fact that it was a game soundtrack (“Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3″) was a stumbling block for me. How good could incidental music loops for yet another first person shooter be? I needn’t have been so cautious. It’s a great album. Maybe not his best, but it’s up there. Moody and atmospheric, yet driving and adrenaline-pumping all at once. Vintage Amon Tobin. Also, this time there are credits to actual performing musicians, including an orchestra. Now I understand — writing for a game was just a way to get someone to front the money for even more grand sound sculpting options. The surround mix is very well done, allowing the spatial placement of sounds to become almost another instrument.