Back in 1900 Galveston was wiped off the map. Basically. Prior to that it was _the_ seaport in Texas.
After 1900, Texas wised up and
1) moved the seaport to Houston, much further inland
2) dredged up the bottom and raised Galveston 20 feet
Hopefully, New Orleans does the same. Keep the kitchy touristy stuff, but build it on higher ground (say sea level + 10 or 20 feet) , and move the seaport and industry back up river, where it’s safer.
Always liked that Led Zeplin song…
Anyway…
From what I understand, the levy in New Orleans was designed and built to withstand a category three (3) hurricane.
Katrina was a (very high) category four (4), an order of magnitude (or more) worse. What’s suprising is that it’s held up so well, not that it’s got two 200 foot breaks.
I do wonder if the city of New Orleans did not maintain it as they were supposed to…
And Mr. Mayor, and Ms. Governor:
If y’all, and your predecessors, hadn’t squandered and wasted and stole all the federal, and state, money dedicated to shoring up the shore, we wouldn’t be in this problem. Think about that, before you scream that it’s all the Feds fault for not doing more.
First off, if it was sooo important, and vital, why didn’t the state do it? Or the City, or the Parish (they don’t have counties in Louisiana)?
Second, what did y’all do with all the federal funds since Camille? Besides pay for nice houses, boats, cars, and other such things.
Speaking of looting:
City a woeful scene
Tuesday, 10:14 p.m.
By Brian Thevenot, Gordon Russell, Keith Spera and Doug MacCash
Staff writers
“Those trapped in the city faced an increasingly lawless environment, as law enforcement agencies found themselves overwhelmed with widespread looting. Looters swarmed the Wal-mart on Tchoupitoulas Street, often bypassing the food and drink section to steal wide-screen TVs, jewelry, bicycles and computers. Watching the sordid display and shaking his head in disgust, one firefighter said of the scene: “It
Be Prepared is the Boy Scout motto.
Looking at what’s going on in New Orleans, I think we can all see the wisdom in having proper emergency supplies.
You need water, enough for a few days.
You need food, something that will not soil or require refrigeration, enough for a few days.
You need a camp stove and fuel for it.
You need a pot or three.
You’ll need some extra clothes and some blankets.
That’s it, really(*)(**).
This stuff does not take up much room, aside from the water. Remember that water weighs eight pounds a gallon, so you need to be careful where you put it, if you’re storing it on shelves. Rinse out your milk jugs real good, put in a few drops of clorox (non-scented clorine bleach), and fill them up with water and they’ll store fine for a while.
Get a bunch of canned meats when they’re on sale, tuna fish, canned turkery or chicken, salmon, sardines, whatever you like, and some ramien noodles. Get three can openers, all mechanical, just in case one, or two, is lost. Throw in some bottles of spices/seasonings for taste. There’s your food. Yummy five-star meals? No, but it’ll get you through the tough times.
Or you can load up on MREs or dehydrated foods, but they’ll most likely be more expensive, and you can’t pick them up at the grocery store.
Instead of throwing out that pair of jeans that are ripped about the knees, stick them in a plastic bag inside a rubbermaid container along with some extra socks and underwear and a shirt or two. Three changes of clothes should be good. Duct tape the container to make it semi-waterproof. Dry clothes are better than wet clothes. Don’t forget hats, and maybe sunglasses.
Get a Coleman stove or something simillar. In New Orleans right now there is no dry wood, so there’s no building a fire to cook on. Better to have a camp stove and some fuel, just in case. Gallon cans of fuel are available at sporting good stores. Keep five or so in another rubermaid type container out in the garage, easy to get to if you need it. Might keep the stove in there, too, along with some (waterproof and windproof) matches.
* Remember, this is the basic list. You’d also want to add stuff like a battery operated radio (and extra batteries), flashlights (and extra batteries), any medicine y’all need, a decent first aid kit, some good cutlery, but, this short list will get you by, barring major calamity, for a few days.
** Of course, I’d also add a good long gun and pistol for each person in your group. And some ammo. What you don’t want is some looters taking all your carefully stored stuff and leaving you up shit creek. The mere presence of armed folks should scare off most looters, and if it does not, well, you’d be fucked by them for damn sure if you weren’t armed, at least now you have a fighting chance.
So, the US was hit by a freakin’ horrible hurricane yesterday, as I’m sure y’all all know.
I’m waiting to hear reports of aid coming in from other countries.
I’m guessing I’ll be waiting a looooong ass time.
S’ok.
We’ll remember this next time your country is invaded by someone, or you are hit by a natural disaster.
Zombies descend upon Erwin Center
RTF senior foments zombie renaissance as fad spreads
By Rachel Pearson
“Thursday outside the Frank Erwin Center, a horde of zombies attacked the “American Idol” auditions. No one was hurt.
The zombies, 15 fake-bloodied actors in all, lurched out from under the IH-35 overpass and shuffled toward the Erwin Center, where they encountered the pop-star hopefuls.
Most of the 100 or so young people gathered outside had just been rejected by the “American Idol” review board, and they were talking, singing and waiting for rides home when the zombies arrived. “Braaaaaaains!” the zombies said. Nick Muntean, a UT radio-television-film graduate student who organized and participated in the zombie horde, added, “Television rots your braaaaaaains!”
The pop-star wannabes were largely unimpressed. “I don’t get it,” said Jacob Gandia, a singer.
Muntean organized the zombie horde using the online forum Craigslist. He posted an ad soliciting people who would like to “raise awareness about the brain-melting nature of television by pretending … to be a zombie, and terrorizing throngs of vapid pop-star hopefuls at the ‘American Idol’ auditions.”
Muntean says that the event, although meant to be subversive, was mostly for fun.
Little did the zombies know that the “American Idol” organizers had seen the Craigslist ad.
“We’ve been on 24-hour zombie watch,” said coordinating producer Patrick Lynn. “We thought it would be fun to have them on the show.”
And that is how the zombies ended up squatting down on the concrete of the Erwin Center’s second level, signing release forms to allow their images to be broadcast by Fox TV.
“Zombies, I need you back here!” Lynn shouted. “All you zombies, I need to get a group shot!” The undead complied, waving their bloodied limbs about for the TV cameras.
Even flesh-eating ghouls, it seems, want to be on TV.
…
“In this office, we mostly deal with serious crimes: rape, assault and robbery,” said APD spokeswoman Toni Chovanetz. “Zombie-related crimes - I don’t think that’s ever been brought to our attention.”“
I expect that gas will go up to $4 a gallon very quickly.
Why?
‘Cause most of the oil-to-gasoline refineries in the US are along the Gulf Coast, with most of them being in Louisiana, specifically around New Orleans. Which is right where Katrina is kicking ass and taking wallets.
There will be damamge done. It just depends on how much, and how long it takes to fix them, and get them back at 100%. The longer it takes, the higher the cost of gas.
I blame the envirowakos for this.
If, these last 30 years or so, we’d been able to build new refineries, we’d not be having a problem. “Oh no, we don’t want a refinery built here. They are BAD. No, not HERE.”
Baka!
Also, although this is kinda minor, really, but the oil platforms out in the Gulf will be shut down for a while while they get repaired. Which will reduce the amount of oil available to the US, but, with the refineries down, that really should not impact the price of gasoline. It will, because they use any excuse to fuck us at the pump, but it shouldn’t.
Perhaps not too long from now the US will turn into Austrailia from the Road Warrior. 
Roving gangs of gasoline hungry bandits. Time to break out the welder and start adding spikes to my truck
Got an email that Botach is selling Glock mags for $12.95. Can’t really beat that price with a stick. 33 round mags are $10 more, or only $22.95, which is also a great deal.
Glock 17/34 17rd 9mm
Glock 18 33rd 9mm +$10
Glock 19 15rd 9mm
Glock 20 15rd 10mm
Glock 21 13rd .45 ACP
Glock 22/24/35 15rd .40 S&W
Glock 23 13rd .40 S&W
What an unusual, yet oddly cool, van. Kinda like the sad love child of the A-Team and Star Trek.
I’d like to think that I’d be that weird excentric when I’m older.
from the PakistaniDaily Times:
“LAHORE: Ulema in Saudia Arabia have issued a fatwa (religious decree) declaring football an un-Islamic sport, and have urged the youth to quit it immediately, BBC radio reported on Saturday.
According to the report, the clerics urged the youth to indulge in jihad and other constructive activities that could help the Muslim ummah, the radio reported. The ulema argued that football wastes a lot of time and the participants wear shorts, which they said was an un-Islamic dress, the radio reported.
Following the decree, some players of the famous Taif Football Club have quit the game, the report added.”
I was concerened till they said “the participants wear shorts.” Then I realised that they were issuing a fatwa against soccer, not football. Whew!
I see that the Revrend Al Sharpton and a bunch of losers nazis “white patriots” will be headed to Crawford to support Cindy Shehan ON THE SAME DAY! (this Sunday, August 28th!)
Man, that’s almost worth driving down there, to see the Rev. Al and a bunch of skinheads agreeing on something. Or rather, seeing them both forget what they are there to support and instead fight each other.
How to swear, insult, cuss and curse in Farsi (Persian)!
How to swear, insult, cuss and curse in Arabic!
Man, I wish I’d found this site before I went over there.
They even have Egyptian cursing!
Abook Sharmoot!
??? ??.
What’s this mean? It’s Korean.
Anyone?
Grave robbers force farm to stop breeding guinea pigs
“In October 2004 grave robbers removed the remains of their 82-year-old Gladys Hammond, from a churchyard in nearby Yoxall.
…
“We now hope that, as a result of this announcement, those responsible for removing Gladys’ body will return her so she can lie once again in her rightful resting place.
…
A spokesman for Stop the Newchurch Guinea Pigs, who gave his name as Johnny and would not reveal his surname, said:
“This is the most fantastic day of my life.
“It’s a victory for the animals and it’s a fundamental victory for the animal rights movement. I feel so unbelievably proud to be part of the movement.””
WTF?
“I feel so unbelievably proud to be part of the movement.”!!!!!
Proud to have desecrated a grave? Proud to have stolen a dead gramdmother?
wanker
But.
What the Brit guinea pig ranchers should’ve done, instead of give up, is say “We’ll skin, alive, 10 guinea pigs every hour, on the hour, until grandma’s corpse is returned.” And then done it.
Or, dug up some of their relatives, and demanded a trade.
“We’ll trade you Aunt Millie, and cousin Earl, for granny, but if you want your grandpa Wilson back, you have to give up the silly anti-guniea pig thing. ”
Acts of hate: full list of ‘deportation’ acts
By Times Online
“The Home Office today published a list of “unacceptable behaviours” which will lead to the deportation or exclusion of any foreign national who commits them from the UK.
According to the Home Secretary the list is indicative rather than exhaustive and covers any non-UK citizen whether in the UK or abroad.
Terrorist violence
Cannot foment, justify, glorify terrorist violence in furtherance of particular beliefs
Terrorist acts
Cannot seek to provoke others to terrorist acts
Criminal acts
Cannot foment other serious criminal activity or seek to provoke others to serious criminal acts
Inter-community violence
Cannot foster hatred which might lead to inter-community violence in the UK.
Method
Individuals who do the above by any means or medium are caught by the legislation, including:
- writing, producing, publishing or distributing material;
- public speaking including preaching
- running a website
- using a position of responsibility such as teacher, community or youth leader“
Why is it that more and more often when I see police officers, they are hiding their face?
Take a look at the pics here, of a police raid on a rave/dance. Ignoring the raid itslef, look at the pics of the officers. All are in black or camoflague. All are wearing masks. Why?
Are they hideously scarred? I’m guessing no.
Are they experiancing a bad case of acne? Again, I think not.
Are they all memebers of an elite undercover unit and exposing their faces could put them and their familys at risk? Probably not, but if this is the case, why not just oh I don’t know, use other officers?
Are they covering their faces in order to induce terror in the “bad guys” (in this case young folks at a party)? This is my guess. Kinda crappy, if you ask me. Why try to scare the shit out of people? Aren’t they there to “protect and serve”?
Flowchart for determining when copyrights exipre:
(click on it for the full size image)
1“Fixed” means fixed, by the author or with the author’s permission, in a tangible means of expression, including, for instance, paper, CD-ROMs, film, or other media. The federal copyright statute does not cover unfixed works (such as oral stories or performances that have not been recorded or were recorded without the author’s permission); they may be protected under state law.
2“Published” is a technical term that is both broader and narrower than the lay definition. For instance, in general it requires, among other things, the copyright owner’s authorization. In some situations, distribution of even a single copy of a work may constitute publication for copyright purposes.
Before January 1, 1978, the copyright term began on the date the work was published or, if a work was registered as an unpublished work, on the registration date. Registration of unpublished works was relatively rare, as only certain types of works, such as lectures, photographs, works of art, and motion pictures, were accepted by the Copyright Office for registration as unpublished works. All other types of works, including books and periodicals, could be registered only upon publication. In reading the flowchart, if a work was registered before publication, replace “published” with “registered” and “publication” with “registration.”
Publication in the U.S. before January 1, 1978 without a copyright notice did not start the copyright term. If the published work had a copyright notice, but the notice showed a year of publication that was earlier than the actual publication, the copyright term could be correspondingly shortened. With respect to foreign publication, there is a split of authority as to whether publication in another country could start the clock running on the copyright term if the work was published without a copyright notice.
3Because of various exceptions, it is not possible to conclude simply by virtue of the absence of (or a defect in) a copyright notice on a copy of a work, that the work has entered the public domain. For example, copyright was not lost if the copyright owner did not authorize the copy, if the notice was omitted in violation of written agreement with the copyright owner, if the notice was omitted from a small number of copies (under some circumstances), or, for works published between January 1, 1978 and March 1, 1989, if the work was registered within five years after publication without notice, if reasonable efforts were made to add notices after the omission was discovered.
Copyrights for certain foreign works (with at least one non-U.S. author and first published abroad), lost due to omission or defect in the copyright notice, were restored (on January 1,1996 for most countries) if the work was not yet in the public domain in the country of first publication and if certain other requirements were met. Finally, some authorities have held that the copyright notice requirement did not apply to publication outside of the U.S.
4Although copyright notice has not been required since March 1, 1989, notice does provide certain benefits and should be used.
5As mentioned above in note 2, in general, publication requires the copyright owner’s authorization. The courts have not yet addressed whether distribution that was not authorized by the copyright owner constitutes “publication” for purposes of determining whether a work created before January 1, 1978 is entitled to a term until at least December 31, 2047 by virtue of being published before January 1, 2003.
6The same law mentioned above that restored the copyright in certain foreign works that entered the public domain in the U.S. due to lack of copyright notice also restored copyrights in such works that were lost due to failure to renew the registration. For such works, copyright expires 95 years from publication (or registration as an unpublished work).
7These terms of copyright run through the end of the calendar year in which the copyright would otherwise expire.
Good God this is complicated!
Need to print this out and bring it up next time some *AA wankers starts babbling about “educating consumers about copyright.”
??? ???????.
or maybe it should be:
Looks like one of them is backwards, but I’m not sure which one.
anyone know what this means in Arabic?
http://www.1-800-translate.com/
