Boston dot com photography

 Here’s a link to photographs taken by Boston dot com that covers Katrina-then and now.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/08/remembering_katrina_five_years.html

 

 

Joe Walsh -

In a true self confrontation of his alcoholism/partyism - musician Joe Walsh speaks for my generation. Well, the ones that partied.

Lovely Long Weekend

Hubby and I made the right decisions this weekend to take advantage of the low temps and humidity to do one of our favorite things - see how some of our nature trails were doing.

On Friday we checked out Lake Road in Lacombe. Anyone familiar with this area knows that Lake Road is a narrow gravel road with a few houses that is a fantastic place to fish and crab. The end of the road is called "Goose Point" and it offers a great view of Lake Pontchartrain and a skyline view of the city of New Orleans

Here are our pix


Crabbers crabbing


Sea birds enjoying the day....that pelican had a HUGE wingspan!


Here the pelican is "flexing" his wingspan

Here is a link to a FB friend with pictures taken the same day we decided to check out Lake Road in Lacombe.

After visiting Lake Road (former home to the BEST boiled crabs in SE Louisiana - Glockners) - we decided to head west to Mandeville for lunch and shopping.

During our trek on I12, we spotted a site something neither of us have ever seen


Both of us asked "why didn't they just fly the dang helicopter to its destination?"

Sunday morning we got up early to begin our trek at the Big Branch National Wildlife Refuge 10 minutes away from home in Lacombe, La.

This has got to be the most peaceful place I've found in my area. Let's let the pictures tell the story.












The kudzu - wild vines - has taken over a Katrina-killed pinetree and to me (because I'm getting ready to go to WDW) looks like Mickey Mouse.


Hubby finally got a decent photo of me (can you tell by my arms I've been working out? LOL)

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This was one of the most camera hungry dragon flies I ever met!!!! He/She spent at least 15 minutes "posing" for us.


Ooops, hubby took this picture on Friday when we went to check out the bridge across Bayou Lacombe on the Tammany Trace. I don't know if this was a parent transporting a baby or a dirty old man grasshopper having sex with a young grasshopper. Which ever, he did good, didn't he?


The Boy Scout trail is 2 miles one way and leads the traveler thru 2 miles of so many different ecosystems.

Hey, y'all this trip is free and is an easy jaunt. Your tax dollars are paying for the upkeep of this area and I must say that the money is well spent.

This is a trip for those willing to explore the other parts of southeast Louisiana that are NOT New Orleans.

Scuzzbucket of the Week

His name is Dan Hampton, a retired football
player who turned into a "sports analyst". Dan has all the class of a wild boar in his statement that
he makes in this video. Check him out at the 20 second mark



nice touch, Dan.

Is this WWII - checking for papers

Amtrak is "checking for papers" of passengers in upper New York State

Signs of paranoia circa the 1940's.
Scary

Corexit in swimming pools?

From Crooks and Liars blog (http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/corexit-found-swimming-pool-sickened)

This is disturbing news, via Florida Oil Spill Law. If toxic levels of Corexit are making people sick in Florida, that's not good:

“Our heads are still swimming,” stated Barbara Schebler of Homosassa, Florida, who received word last Friday that test results on the water from her family’s swimming pool showed 50.3 ppm of 2-butoxyethanol, a marker for

the dispersant Corexit 9527A used to break up and sink BP’s oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

The problems began for the Scheblers a few weeks after the April 20 blow-out. “Our first clue were rashes we both got early in May. Both my husband and I couldn’t get rid of the rashes and had to get cream from our doctor,” Schebler noted, “I never had a rash in my life.”Then, on “July [23], my husband Warren mowed the lawn. It was hot so he got in the pool to cool off afterward. That afternoon he had severe diarrhea and very dark urine. This lasted about 2 days,” she revealed.

Initially, they reasoned this was caused by the heat. The following week Mr. Schebler again mowed the lawn and went in the pool, and again he was sickened with the same severe symptoms.Suspicious that the pool may be a problem, the family set out to get the water tested. “We have a 15 year old and felt we owed it to him to live in a clean, healthy environment,” said Mrs. Schebler.

The Scheblers found Robert Naman, a Mobile, Alabama chemist who’s performed multiple tests (1, 2, 3) for WKRG Channel 5, also out of Mobile.“Warren collected a water sample from the pool filter on August 17th… packed the sample according to Mr. Naman’s instructions, and overnighted it to his Mobile, Ala. lab that same day,” she noted.

The results were delivered by Naman over the phone on August 27 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. A copy of the findings were then e-mailed to the Scheblers. To view the document, click here.“Naman [said] our pool water sample we sent him contained 50.3 ppm [parts per million] 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit,” according to Mrs. Schebler. Tests for arsenic came back at less than .02 ppm.

A July letter from four top scientists noted, “Corexit 9527A contains 2-BTE (2-butoxyethanol), a toxic solvent that ruptures red blood cells, causing hemolysis (bleeding) and liver and kidney damage (Johanson and Bowman, 1991, Nalco, 2010).”The safety data sheet provided by Nalco, the manufacturer of Corexit 9527A, warns, “Harmful if absorbed through skin. May be harmful if swallowed. May cause liver and kidney effects and/or damage. There may be irritation to the gastro-intestinal tract.

”Mr. Schebler’s “severe diarrhea and very dark urine” appear to indicate gastro-intestinal tract irritation.BP Press Officer Daren Beaudo released a statement on August 28 that reads, “Unified Command records indicate that the last date of use of the Corexit 9527 was May 22,” almost three months before the samples were taken from the pool.

Yet, the Schebler’s report is the second time in the last 10 days that the 2-butoxyethanol marker for Corexit 9527A has been discovered near the Gulf. It has also been found near the Florida border in Cotton Bayou, AL, at about 1/4 the level as in Homosassa, FL. A WKRG segment from August 19 featured an inland water sample that tested for 13.3 ppm of the Corexit dispersant.The question remains, how did this chemical find its way into the Schebler’s pool in such a high concentration?

“At night we would hear very low aircraft, including helicopters. We figured they were just heading to help out in the Gulf,” and Mrs. Schebler added that she was told, “The prevailing winds from the Gulf are easterly — and when they spray, it is airborne — and that we are right in the path of those winds.” It was also noted that, “We had a lot of rain here before my husband got sick, and wondered what was going on… We had been having daily downpours in July.”

 

Independent Environmental Sampling

LOUISIANA ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION NETWORK AND REPRESENTING ATTORNEY STUART SMITH CREATE WEBSITE FOR PUBLIC EXAMINATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING DATA IN AREAS IMPACTED BY BP CATASTROPHE

http://bostonchemicaldata.com/LEAN/

For weeks, Attorney Stuart Smith and researchers Dr. William Sawyer and Marco Kaltofen have been providing evidence contrary to the federal government's assertions that the oil from the BP DEEPWATER HORIZON catastrophe is gone and that seafood from oil-impacted waters are not compromised.

Now, citizens can examine for themselves data compiled by Gulf Oil Disaster Recovery and the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) at a public website maintained by Dr. Kaltofen's company, Boston Chemical Data.

"We are thrilled about this new resource," said Marylee Orr, Executive Director, LEAN. "This website allows anyone interested to see what chemicals were found, where they were found, and how much was found. We feel the public has the right to this information."

The website, http://bostonchemicaldata.com/LEAN/ provides oil spill data and mapping resources. You can compare where EPA, universities and independent labs have sampled. An individual must download Google Earth in order to view the site's various downloads and maps.
"This should be useful to environmental groups and the unified command," said Mr. Smith. "We've always believed there should be more transparency in this process."

Most recently, Mr. Smith's team has documented a large oil plume offshore of northwest Florida which is killing seafood. Samples have been sent to Canada for independent assessment.

"As state and federal officials continue to open Gulf waters to fishing, we have to again point to evidence that the 'all clear' is being sounded way too early," said Mr. Smith, who represents the United Commercial Fishermen's Association, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, public entities in the Gulf Coast, as well as private property and business owners. "One of the cautionary notes is that our experts have documented that toxic chemicals remain in the water and food chain - and pose a significant health risk. Those studies have shown that PAHs (polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons) are present in shrimp from the impacted area. And the PAHs in off-shore Florida are at levels 43 times the levels of shrimp from inland, low-impact inland areas sampled in Louisiana. In our estimation, it may take eight months before the toxic soup has had substantial enough biodegradation to announce an 'all clear' on seafood."
###

________________________________________

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
www.smithstag.com
www.gulfoildisasterrecovery.com
www.oilspillaction.com
www.leanweb.org

Dr. William Sawyer: Chief Toxicologist of Toxicology Consultants & Assessment Specialists, LLC., Sanibel, FL (Registered d/b/a 1990, Incorporated January, 1994, 2009-FL)

Marco Kaltofen, P.E.; President of Boston Chemical is a Registered Professional Engineer (Civil, Massachusetts) and an environmental scientist with more than 25 years experience in environmental, workplace and product safety investigations in North America and Eastern Europe.

________________________________________

CONTACT:
S. Smith: (504) 593-9600 C. Brylski/H. Harper (504) 897-6110

FORGOTTEN BY FEMA

Here’s a video about Slidell 5 years ago

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/08/19/VI2010081903120.html

 

 

Huffpo on MRGO

Here is a link to  a huffington post by Greg Palast where he gets it right about the MRGO:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-palast/bushd-again-new-orleans-m_b_697515.html

 

And here is an excerpt:

 

Until the Army Corps made this crazy gash in the Mississippi Delta fifty years ago, Mother Nature protected the Crescent City with a green wreath of cypress and mangrove. The environmental slash-job caused the government's own hydrologist to raise alarms from Day One of construction.

Unless MR-GO was fixed or plugged, the Corps was inviting, "the possibility of catastrophic damage to urban areas by a hurricane surge coming up this waterway." (I'm quoting from a report issued 17 years before The Flood.)

A forensic analysis by Dr. John W. Day calculated that if the Corps had left just 6 miles of wetlands in place of the open canal, the surge caused by Katrina's wind would have been reduced by 4.5 feet and a lot of New Orleaneans would be alive today.

The Corps plugging its ears to the warnings was nothing less than "negligence, insouciance, myopia and shortsightedness."

That list of fancy epithets poured from the angry pen of Federal Judge Stanwood Duval who heard the evidence in a suit filed by the surviving residents of the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard's Parish. His Honor ruled that the drowning of the Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish was a man-made disaster.

Still, the Administration drags its feet on payment under the legal theory of "Discretionary Function." In lay terms, that means, "Nyah, nyah, nyah! You can't hold the Army Corps responsible for gross negligence." The Justice Department also argued that the court should not consider the number of people drowned. Ugh.

Judge Duval slapped away the government's cockamamie defense.

So then, why oh why oh why would Obama, after his grandstanding about BP's responsibility to the people of the Gulf Coast, refuse to compensate some of the same people for the far greater damage caused by the Corps?

Let me tell you: it goes beyond the money. To "make things right" means Obama would have to face down powers fiercer than any Taliban: Big Oil.

The widening of MR-GO drowned New Orleans; it was not an Act of God. It was an Act of Chevron. An Act of Shell Oil. And, yes, an Act of BP.

Thanks, Greg.

Bird releases provide hope in Gulf oil spill response

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Birds released on Rabbit Island, Louisiana on August 26, 2010.

Dear Friends and Supporters,

This past week we released more than 150 clean birds after successful rehabilitation at the ongoing Gulf Oil Spill bird rescue. They were returned to the wild on Rabbit Island, another clean bird nesting island in western Louisiana.

We've had a fair amount of storm activity in the last few weeks and have had to schedule bird releases around heavy wind and rain. That's unfortunate for us but will not impact the birds who can wait a few extra days before they return to the wild. We have made the best use of that time by providing live fish for them to eat so the young pelicans can continue to play and develop hunting skills as they plunge feed and chase live minnows in their pools.

Why are we still getting oiled birds?

While the number of oiled birds has slowed down tremendously, and especially in the last month, we are still receiving fledgling pelicans, gulls and terns. These fledgling birds became oiled while they were playing and bathing in the puddles in the inland areas or on the shorelines of small islands. In July a strong storm surge pushed oil onto some of the nesting islands in the Grande Isle area. These islands are primarily made up of sand, gravel and shell and the highest elevations are typically no more than 4 feet high.

One of the Laughing Gull chicks released last week.

Some islands have low growing mangrove forests and many of the islands are covered with tall grasses. The storm surges pushed oil through the grasses and mangroves and much of it settled in shallow inlets and pools that are located throughout the inner areas of the islands. Some of these young birds have been oiled for a while and the only reason they survived was because the warm weather and hot sand allowed them to stay warm.

As they begin to fledge and hang out on the edges of their islands they are easier to capture without frightening the other birds. Since early July we have received around 500 oiled fledglings. We not only have to wash and rehabilitate them, we must take over the role of their parents and help them to learn to eat on their own and become decent hunters and foragers. That is where the live fish and other stimulating foods come in. So, in essence we are now operating a nursery and classroom for the feathered orphans of the spill. The birds now ready to be released have graduated to a state where we think they have a good chance for survival. They may be delayed for a few days but when they are ready they will be released into colonies of their species so that they can pick up where they left off in their education.

Watch: Video of young Brown Pelicans feeding on minnows

As of August 29, 2010 the Tri-State Bird Rescue and IBRRC Response Team have successfully cleaned and released 1,129 healthy birds back to the wild in Texas, SW Louisiana, Florida and Georgia. See: Updated bird numbers

You can follow IBRRC's ongoing rescue efforts on Facebook, Twitter and our Blog.

We continue to remain hopeful and part of that comes from your encouragement and continuing support.

Sincerely,

Jay Holcomb, Executive Director
International Bird Rescue Research Center (IBRRC)

 

 

MLK vs Glen Beck

Click on image to get a legible copy (unless you need a microscope like me. )



h/t Lisa Villano Mulvey from FB.