Ezra Klein talks about printing books while you wait in your local bookstore.

About five years ago I tried to sell this concept to a company that made high-speed page printers. They didn’t get it. They couldn’t understand the concept. I think the real problem was that someone talked to a publisher about the idea, and the publisher hated it.

Imagine going into a store and asking for any book ever printed, and in minutes leaving with a newly printed copy, in large print if you need it, in a foreign language if you want it.

In my design the system automatically calculated and posted the royalties to authors and a payments to the publishers. No inventory in warehouses, no returns, no removing covers and pitching books into the dumpster, a cover and the first few pages on racks for browsers.

I suggested starting with college bookstores and textbooks as a way to reduce the cost of going to college, and opening up to the broader market after the bugs were out. The files would be encrypted with a hardware key device to prevent theft.

It will happen and I will get the satisfaction of a “I told you so” e-mail to the guy who killed it way back then.

Andante has a post about the island of Simeulue which was feared to be a scene of major loss of life.

There were a minimum of casualties on the island because there had been a tsunami a hundred years ago, and ever since the people knew to run away from the shore after an earthquake.

Learning from history – what a concept!

Susie also has a story on a guy who decided to see how much better he would have done investing his own Social Security taxes, instead of letting the government do it.

Hint: he’s not unhappy to have had his money invested by the Social Security system.

I ran into this at Susan Madrak’s place. As if the US’s paltry relief attempts weren’t bad enough, we are making stranded US citizens pay for photographs for a replacement passport.

These people have lost everything except their lives, and their government is charging them for a replacement government document. Hasn’t anyone told the embassy that there’s an emergency and it is in America’s interest to get as many of its citizens as possible out of the area so they don’t use scarce food and water.

All of Acme, Inc. is staffed by jerks, and it is of little surprise that the rest of the world dislikes the US.

John McKay at archy reports that Sir Arthur C. Clarke has survived the earthquake and tsunami in his home in Sri Lanka.

For some reason CNN, et al. felt it was more important to report on swimsuit models and other glitteroti than an internationally famous author and long time resident of Sri Lanka.

The death toll is sure to exceed 60,000 as more areas are reached. Millions are without homes and the infrastructure in the affected areas has been crushed. Some in the Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra would have been trapped by the earthquake and would have lacked the time or ability to flee from the water that washed over the island.

Geologists are reporting that the island of Sumatra was moved 100 feet to the southwest. Sumatra, at about 181,500 square miles is more than 130 times larger than Long Island, it is the sixth largest island in the world.

While the US still hasn’t committed to more than $35 million, it has at least sent two carrier groups to the area. The modern US aircraft carrier is a floating city as well as an airport: it has the ability to generate electricity and purified water; it has a fully equipped modern medical facility; it has a skilled work force; it has aircraft available for transportation and search and rescue. I would assume that the military suggested this response.

Bush is still cutting brush at Crawford, rather than making a public statement of concern. I suspect that whenever he leaves his ranch an army comes in to replenish the supply of brush, because I never notice much growing in West Texas. Of course, he may have taken another header while riding his bicycle and doesn’t want people to see him.

Of note: China has only offered $3.5 million to the recovery effort, while Canada has already offered an initial $4 million. China is more interested in threatening Taiwan than helping its other neighbors.

Sweden has reported that approximately 1,500 of its citizens are missing in the affected area. Thailand is a popular winter vacation for Swedes.

Aid cannot reach the area as fast as anyone would like. The dismemberment of the roads and rail network impedes progress. The loss of thousands of small boats and the fishing gear that was on them has cut off an available of source food. Any crops in the fields are destroyed and the land has been salted by the ocean water that washed over it.

The destruction is not over and it will be decades before there is anything like a return to normalcy.