hoarding, from the inside

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/07/AR2010060703807.html?sid=ST2010061104123

I do a certain amount of this, but it's mostly informational--books and computer files. (It may be a very good thing that computers, and their hard drives, don't tend to last for more than a few years--otherwise I'd still have files back to 1990, probably.)

At the same time, having Too Much Stuff stresses me the hell out, and cleaning stuff up often feels therapeutic. And while we do have a lot of books, they're all alphabetized and in categories and on shelves. (Well, the kids' books aren't, but then the kids are responsible for putting their own books away.)

Anyway, this article is an interesting perspective on hoarding, written by someone who's been doing so their whole life.

Nigeria: and you thought the Gulf looked bad...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/30/oil-spills-nigeria-niger-delta-shell

Apparently the Niger Delta gets this much oil spilled on it _every year_.

With 606 oilfields, the Niger delta supplies 40% of all the crude the United States imports and is the world capital of oil pollution. Life expectancy in its rural communities, half of which have no access to clean water, has fallen to little more than 40 years over the past two generations. Locals blame the oil that pollutes their land and can scarcely believe the contrast with the steps taken by BP and the US government to try to stop the Gulf oil leak and to protect the Louisiana shoreline from pollution.