Death Comes To Louisiana - a BP Protest Song by MOTU @ The 2010 Barrier ...

End of an Era

An article at this link ( http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1436) details the activities of mating the Space Shuttle’s orbiter to the External Tank (ET) and Solid Rocket Boosters (SRBs). At the end of the story are some excellent pictures. Below are the author’s closing remarks

STS 133 is the 39th and last scheduled flight of Discovery .

It's a melancholy moment for the Discovery shuttle team. Everyone is excited to be processing the orbiter for launch. But at the same instant, excitement is mixed with great sadness. Because barring a miraculous extension this is the last launch for Discovery.

The shuttle program is being terminated for lack of money from the Federal Government in Washington, DC - not because of safety concerns. Top shuttle managers have told me that the shuttle has never been safer to fly than now during its 30 year history of operations.

In the midst of the Great Recession, about 8000 shuttle workers at KSC will be laid off and about another 10,000 to 20,000 jobs are expected to evaporate in the local economy in the communities surrounding the Kennedy Space Center. 900 layoffs are set to occur at KSC on Oct. 1. Thousands more layoffs will occur across the US at the Johnson Space Center, Michoud Assembly Facility, ATK and elsewhere as the shuttle program is prematurely shutdown at the height of its operational capabilities.

Much of this technological know-how will be dispersed or lost. America's manufacturing capacity will be further dismantled. And America will have no capability to launch people into space on American rockets for many years to come. NASA will have no choice but to pay Russia more than $50 million per seat to launch American astronauts aboard Soyuz rockets to the ISS.

James Carville: “We Have Been Greatly Wronged”

James Carville: “We Have Been Greatly Wronged”

Oil is STILL coming ashore.....day 145

"Everyone thinks this is over, but it's not - not if we can still get soakings like this."

Quote for an article in the sports section of the times picayune Headline "New Wave of Oil Comes Ashore West of the Mississippi". Read more here

Sealife returns to site of Deepwater Horizon

Native Orleanian dot com blogs about a trip taken last week by plane to photgraph the state of the Gulf.

They encountered leatherback and loggerhead sea turtles, whale sharks feeding, and a sperm whale. Click here to view more of the photos from that day, taken out the window of a moving airplane, but sharp and clear.

FUN WATCHING

Jackson Square Cam….a lot going on

 

http://www.nola.com/jacksonsquarecam/

 

 

The BP Crud

The Locust Fork News-Journal : "Thousands of People Along the Gulf Coast Suffer ‘BP Crud’"

An excerpt from the story:


The Washington Post was given an opportunity for first, exclusive rights to publish this story today, but took a pass “because of the complicated nature of this story and our concerns that it’s too early to judge the real health effects.”

bastards

When the Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew up in the Gulf of Mexico on April 20, Robin Young, a 47-year-old director of guest services for a property management company in Orange Beach, Alabama, was gearing up for what promised to be the best tourist season on the coast in years. From the city of New Orleans to the Florida panhandle, communities were finally starting to feel like they were recovering from the devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina and Ivan.

Since suffering a debilitating bout of what locals are calling the “BP Crud,” however, like thousands of other people along the coast due to their exposure to the oil and chemical dispersants, she is now part of a growing community of activists along the coast who are worried about their health.

Just a few days after BP’s oil made landfall along the Alabama Gulf Coast in June, Ms. Young’s symptoms started with “a fiery, burning sore throat,” she said. Then came the horrible, constant cough, followed by an achy feeling much like a severe flu virus — and a lethargy that kept her in bed for two weeks solid. Her memory started playing tricks on her, and her motor skills and even hand-to-eye coordination went south.


She started communicating with other sick folks over the Internet, and attending local meetings with corporate and government officials. At one meeting early on, she asked for a show of hands in a room of maybe 400 people to see how many had suffered symptoms similar to hers.

“Half the people in the room raised their hands,” she said in an interview at her cottage right next to the Intercoastal Waterway, which was polluted with oil and chemicals at the height of the disaster. Clearly, this was not some isolated event unrelated to the oil rig blowout.

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.