| Meanwhile, on the Riverfront |
[19 Apr 2012|02:23pm] |
In more pleasant local news, It's "Navy Week" in New Orleans, with some tall ships visiting the riverfront at Woldenberg Park in honor of the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.
Seen from the Algiers Ferry.
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| Spills May Come and Go, But BP Toxic Sludge Keeps On Giving |
[19 Apr 2012|01:35pm] |
Links to more new articles on the continuing effects of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.
Mother Jones: BP's Corexit Oil Tar Sponged Up by Human Skin Excerpts:
"Sadly, things aren't getting cleaner faster, according to their results. The Corexit that BP used to "disperse" the oil now appears to be making it tougher for microbes to digest the oil. [...] The persistence of Corexit mixed with crude oil has now weathered to tar, yet is traceable to BP's Deepwater Horizon brew through its chemical fingerprint. [...] Worse, the toxins in this unholy mix of Corexit and crude actually penetrate wet skin faster than dry skin [...] The stuff can't be wiped off. It's absorbed into the skin. And it isn't going away. "
"The use of Corexit is inhibiting the microbial degradation of hydrocarbons in the crude oil and has enabled concentrations of the organic pollutants known as PAH to stay above levels considered carcinogenic by the NIH and OSHA.
26 of 32 sampling sites in Florida and Alabama had PAH concentrations exceeding safe limits.
Only three locations were found free of PAH contamination.
Carcinogenic PAH compounds from the toxic tar are concentrating in surface layers of the beach and from there leaching into lower layers of beach sediment. This could potentially lead to contamination of groundwater sources. "
AlJazeera: Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists
Eyeless shrimp and fish with lesions are becoming common, with BP oil pollution believed to be the likely cause.
"Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.
According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets."
"Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes... they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."
Darla Rooks, a lifelong fisherperson from Port Sulfur, Louisiana, told Al Jazeera she is finding crabs "with holes in their shells, shells with all the points burned off so all the spikes on their shells and claws are gone, misshapen shells, and crabs that are dying from within... they are still alive, but you open them up and they smell like they've been dead for a week".
Rooks is also finding eyeless shrimp, shrimp with abnormal growths, female shrimp with their babies still attached to them, and shrimp with oiled gills.
"We also seeing eyeless fish, and fish lacking even eye-sockets, and fish with lesions, fish without covers over their gills, and others with large pink masses hanging off their eyes and gills." "
Gambit Weekly: The oil disaster, two years later: seafood, human health in jeopardy Covers some of the same material plus a couple more details.
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| Happy Carnival Time |
[13 Feb 2012|11:09am] |
Playing at a Carnival party at a bar on Tchoupitioulas Street, Uptown New Orleans. We're such fashion plates!
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| Festive Holidays! |
[24 Dec 2011|08:05am] |
Christmas Eve Night, Canal Street, New Orleans, 1884.
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| Kim |
[21 Dec 2011|02:54pm] |
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Anyone heard from Kim Jong Il recently? He hasn't replied to any of my Farmville requests since last week.
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| Thanksgiving Linkery |
[24 Nov 2011|02:11pm] |
Daily Background: Presidential turkey pardons through the years.
There are some U.S. customs I'd feel daunted at having to explain to people from elsewhere, so just look at the gallery of photos. No, I don't know what crimes the turkeys were convicted of before they were "pardoned".
The shot of Nixon shaking hands with the turkey is topped only by the classic shot of the turkey getting overly friendly with Bush II.
Another gallery of Presidential Turkey Pardon pix with added snarky comments at "Wonkette": White House Turkeys: A Children’s Treasury of Dumb T-Day Tradition
My favorite comment: "In '74 the turkey pardoned Nixon."
On the local scene, some friends went up to New York City. YouTube video of New Orleans own "610 Stompers" in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. "Ordinary men with extraordinary moves" -- the group that decided synchronized parade dancing was too much fun to just be for high-school girls.
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| Political snark of the day |
[07 Sep 2011|02:30pm] |
I hear the leading Republican presidential candidates are going to mark the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attack by inviting over a group of 9-11 first responders, and lecturing them about how using taxpayer money to pay for their oxygen masks would destroy America.
Meanwhile, fundamentalist Republican voters will please note: God's response to Rick Perry's prayer for rain was to set the state of Texas on fire.
(H/T to Rob Fontenot and David Pacheco )
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| Dancing on the Ceiling and off the Cliff |
[29 Jul 2011|10:10am] |
New Orleans Magazine: Steppin' Back: The golden days of dance halls
I had the pleasure of going to a private event (musician friend's wedding reception) at the 2nd Luthjen's with live jazz last weekend. Could be a nice venue again if they can get permitted.
Of course, I'm so much of an old timer that I can remember when it was the far LEFT fringe that wanted to destroy the dollar and bring down the US Government. (And I didn't really think I'd ever see the day when Barry Goldwater would seem like a responsible moderate.)
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