Posts from — June 2010

The Miami Herald reports on the latest attempt at eliminating Native Americans in this area: Gulf oil spill threatens tribe’s livelihood in Louisiana

POINTE-AUX-CHENES, La. — There is an ages-old expression among the people of southern Louisiana’s Indian bayous. “Pas tout là,” they say with smiles.

“Not all there,” it means.

As in, “not right in the head.”

This is how the Native Americans of Pointe-Aux-Chenes have come to describe one of the guilty parties of the worst oil spill in American history. “Pas tout là,” they say with a grin when asked about BP.

The Indians here have borne the consequences of the work of oil and gas companies for nearly 100 years, but the oil that is now only a short boat ride away has the potential to slam a death nail into this fishing village and the cultural identity of Indians who have populated it for centuries.

And Cajun cuisine is also under threat if you can’t harvest Gulf seafood. Without crayfish, shrimp, red snapper, oysters, etc., it won’t be the real thing.

They way things are going we will be left with red tide and jellyfish, which means you can’t even swim or surf in the Gulf, even where the oil doesn’t come ashore. The Feds have already closed more than a quarter of their waters to fishing, and that includes some of the most sensitive areas of the Gulf – the spawning grounds of many species that spend the majority of their lives in the Atlantic, like the blue fin tuna.

The Times-Picayune has a graphic of BP’s current effort, and I have to say that it looks an awful lot like the funnel I proposed back on April, 30^th.

Now I’m wondering where I screwed up, because if BP is doing it, there is probably some basic flaw I missed during the 10-15 minutes it took me to come up with the plan.

Of course, back then, I wanted to install a shut off valve as step two, but after a month of additional sand blasting neither the riser nor the BOP may be in any shape to withstand the pressure of stopping the flow.

In order to generate “local excitement” [sell stuff] the chamber of commerce is once again annoying people with the Billy Bowlegs Festival. This year the unavoidable part runs from Friday, June 4^th and finishes up on Monday with a really annoying parade that screws up traffic and sends a lot of noisy people through my neighborhood.

Almost at bad as the Monday traffic jam are the Friday fireworks. I know a lot of people enjoy fireworks, but they probably have not seen what loud noises and flashes of light can do to people and aircraft – I am definitely not a fan. OTOH, with the oil situation this might be only time this year that they can set off fireworks, as it’s done from a barge on the water for safety reasons. At any time the water could be flammable which would cancel the show, if anyone wanted to brave the fumes to watch.

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June 1^st:

The official start of the hurricane season.

Events:
1495 – Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
1660 – Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered by some to be the last religious martyr in what would become the United States.
1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns.
1967 – The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

Births:
1563 – Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, English statesman and spymaster (d. 1612)
1780 – Carl von Clausewitz, Prussian general (d. 1831)
1804 – Mikhail Glinka, Russian composer (d. 1857)

For some reason I didn’t make the list.