Nosce te ipsum

Watching the results of what happened in the eastern part of the world over the last 48 hours and it's just horrible. Literally over night the death toll more than doubled from 20,000 to 56,000 as of today. It is difficult to comprehend those kinds of numbers and the tragedy inflicted upon the families and entire cultures in that part of the world.

My thoughts and prayers are most certainly with the people of Asia and Africa - I really hope we see some coming together on a massive scale to help these poor people recover and rebuild their lives and countries. I fear that as bad as it appears, we don't know the full depth of the loss of lives at this point. A truly sad day indeed.

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From the article:

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- The number of dead in Indonesia has risen five-fold to 27,174, almost doubling the death toll from the massive underwater earthquake and the equally massive tsunami that followed it.

The latest numbers, confirmed by the Ministry of Health in Jakarta on Wednesday, push the final toll from Sunday's catastrophe to over 56,000. Officials could not reach some remote areas, like Indonesia's Aceh province, India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the Maldives, until Tuesday, and once there, they found scenes much worse than they imagined.

The "putrid stench of the dead" hung heavily Tuesday over Banda Aceh as officials slowly came to grips with the devastation. The 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off the western-most portion of Indonesia's northern Sumatra Island early on Sunday.

"The center of Banda Aceh has been absolutely devastated," said CNN's Mike Chinoy from the capital of Aceh province. "There are still bodies lying in the street."As far away as Somalia on Africa's east coast, reports trickled in of fishermen swept out to sea and swimmers lost.

Jan Egeland of the United Nations said entire villages were swept away in Somalia, and Kenya television reporter Lillian Odera said "hundreds were killed" there.In all, at least 12 countries -- including the Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Tanzania -- were affected by the monstrous waves.

Along with many private humanitarian aid groups, the United States, Australia, Germany, Japan and other nations have pledged relief to help victims throughout the region.More than 18,000 of those confirmed dead were in Sri Lanka, where the giant waves swept a 1,000-passenger train off its tracks, and the dead and injured overwhelmed hospitals and medical workers.

"It's a huge situation, and there are instances where bodies are decomposing, and they're being photographed and fingerprinted" before being taken to mass graves, said Harim Peiris, spokesman for President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. "And there are instances where entire families have been wiped out."

Kumaratunga announced that Friday would be a national day of mourning.

Feds Convict Warez Dealer

News.com has a story that says the DoJ has '...landed its first conviction against an American defendant trapped via Operation Fastlink, a multinational law enforcement effort undertaken against online software piracy. The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa said that Jathan Desir, 26, of Iowa City, has pleaded guilty to charges related to his role in a criminal enterprise that distributed pirated software, games, movies and music over the Internet.' Desir is the first conviction that Operation Fastlink has done. He will possibly serve up to 15 years in prison when his sentencing is in March 18, 2005.

Slashdot discussion on this story here.