#1
What is most remarkable, is that when the man came to his senses and the doctors suggested he stay at hospital, he refused and left the hospital that very evening.
Well of course he did. His pals gave him two cases for his birthday.
Mayor Ray Nagin, whose shoot-from-the-hip style was both praised and scorned after Hurricane Katrina, narrowly won re-election over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on Saturday in the race to oversee one of the biggest rebuilding projects in U.S. history. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Nagin had 52.7 percent, or 51,885 votes, to Landrieu's 47.3 percent, or 46,625 votes.
N'Awlins voters get the gummint they deserve...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I was thinking about this today, Nagin who actually tried to make a difference or Landrieu, whose family's screwed LA for decades.
Decisions, decisions......
Does this send a message to Mary? Is her seat secure?
#5
The choice may not have been 'for' incompetence and corruption, but between them. Landrieu is definitely more competent at 'politics' - it's the family business, and all he has ever done. As current Lt. Governor, he was also a 'proxy' for the state efforts and results related to Katrina (I know Lt. Gov. has no real authority, but if he had ideas and leadership he could have injected them and forced authority to smack him down, but he did not; he was just as shell-shocked as everybody else.)
Regarding corruption - Nagin's primary focus his first two years was fighting corruption, and he even made some progress for a while until he ran into more powerful political obstacles (note the city voted out the majority of its incumbent councilmen yesterday.)
Regarding evacuation and the infamous busses - the city did not evacuate people because it could not find places to take them, not so much because it did not have ways to get them there. They did not have the resources (manpower or communications) to arrange small lots (a few dozen to a church somewhere), and had to work with places that could take refugees in the thousands. That should have been arranged in advance, but never has been. Still isn't. And given the wonderful behavior of so many of our evacuees, probably won't be (would YOU take them in?)
This was the least racist election I have seen in New Orleans. Both candidates had substantial support from both races. Sure, they pandered to specific audiences, which is offensive, but they did not do it city-wide.
The election results will shut down national sympathy (which was mostly gone by about six months) and the money pipeline (but most of the money was imaginary, or siphoned off elsewhere along the way).
And yeah, we know hurricane season is only two weeks away - why do you think I haven't put carpet back down yet? Army Corps of Engineers is trying to restore protection levels to pre-K status, and probably won't make it for a couple more months. We're digging/diking retention ponds to 'buffer' rainwater flow to fit reduced pump capacity due to plans to close canals against storm surge. I'm not sure it is all a battle worth fighting, but Nero is most assuredly not sitting here fiddling.
I'm glad Nagin won if only because it takes the race card away from the race baiters. They now expect Nagin to get the city rebuilt, the garbage picked up, and root out corruption. Ok, maybe not root out corruption - but at least run the city. Now when things go wrong, we won't have to listen to Anderson Cooper interviewing Jessie and Al telling us how it's all white people's fault that it's all messed up down there.
#7
#5 Glenmore - Y'all really didn't have much of a choice, did you? Good luck- you're gonna need it.
#6 2b: "Now when things go wrong, we won't have to listen to Anderson Cooper interviewing Jessie and Al telling us how it's all white people's fault that it's all messed up down there."
Sure we will. You don't think a little thing like reelecting Nagin is gonna stop the race-hustlers, do you? :-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 10:33 Comments ||
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#8
Good analysis, Glenmore. As near as I can tell Nagin got about 20% of the white vote and Landrieu got at least 20% of the black vote.
And pralines. And beignets. Keep the chickory, though.
Posted by: me too ||
05/21/2006 12:34 Comments ||
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#14
I fully intend to keep the chicory all to myself, thank you.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/21/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#15
I think this is what happens when most of the smart people take their FEMA money and get an apartment in a more sane area like Houston or Kansas.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/21/2006 12:38 Comments ||
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#16
I'm not sure how much saner Houston is. It has more ways out than New Orleans, but more people too - I was in their Rita traffic and in New Orleans' Katrina traffic, and I prefer New Orleans. Houston is mostly above sea level, so won't be submerged for weeks at a time, but it is low enough and close enough to the coast that a whole lot of it will submerge for a while. Plus it has even more refineries etc. to contaminate the submerging water. Give Houston a hard whack and it might be an even bigger disaster than New Orleans was (bear in mind New Orleans can still get whacked a lot worse.)
Kansas? Sorry, Dorothy, somehow I don't think I'm up for Kansas anymore. (Maybe Tennessee though.)
#2
Uhmmmm - assume for a moment they do make a viable hydrogen engine.
What do they think those of us who have gasoline-powered cars are supposed to do with them? And what's going to happen to all those discarded gasoline cars and trucks they claim companies want to replace?
They say hydrogen - I say Hindenburg.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 1:38 Comments ||
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#3
I say Hindenburg.
maybe. But it can't be worse than all of the suicide bombers exploding and Iranian nukes flying.
I say go for it. Kill the goose that laid the Wahaabi golden egg. The sooner the better.
It comes from electricity, you say. Well, we just generate more electricity.
More electricity comes from peak load generating stations that all run on oil or imported natural gas, you say. Just import more oil and gas that solves the problem.
Energy independence using hydrogen just takes someone who can think through the problem.
#7
We're working on it. Interesting dilemna for enviros in NY ... for years they have protested the Indian Point nuclear power plant (which serves NYC and much of the southern Hudson Valley).
Now some are praising the need to go to nuclear power to save the planet from global warming ... but they're divided over Indian Point itself.
But the Indian Point plant isn't going away. Most NY homes are heated by oil and the economy sucks because of massive taxes and regulation which , along with 9/11, have driven away a lot of business. So there is zip ability to absorb more energy costs in the name of green.
More nuclear power plants will be built, although it will be a long painful process to site them. The real issue will be for the north east to accept more coal-based generation .... after acid rain from coal-burning plants in the midwest really did do a number on New England forests, it will take a while for people to accept that the new scrubbing technologies can allow coal burning without the pollution.
#11
You've never had to deal with cryogenic fluids or hydrogen embrittlement, have you?
Posted by: Phil ||
05/21/2006 12:36 Comments ||
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#12
What do they think those of us who have gasoline-powered cars are supposed to do with them? And what's going to happen to all those discarded gasoline cars and trucks they claim companies want to replace?
Sorry Barbara, it's the same engine we now use, only the burnable fuel is changed, no problem to change from one kind of fuel injector (Liquid petroleum) to another kind of fuel injector (Gaseous Hydrogen)
Don't fall for the popular lies that "Hydrogen is clean fuel" it's what burns in petroleum, it's the "Hydro" in Hydrocarbon
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/21/2006 12:41 Comments ||
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#13
Jim, I doubt it's that easy. I'm certainly no expert, but I haven't read anywhere that our present internal combustion engines can just run on hydrogen without some kind of conversion.
Assuming the present gasoline engine can be converted to hydrogen (and it probably can), what's it going to take? And who's going to pay for it? [I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one - since I work and pay taxes, I'm going to have to pay for mine and a couple of other people's. :-( ]
Unless we build more nuclear plants to get the hydrogen from, this magic bullet will simply burn the oil/coal/gas at the power plants instead of in the cars.
I don't object to hydrogen, but I don't think it's going to magically cure our oil problems. Keep working on alternative fuels that make economic sense, but open ANWR and the coastal areas to drilling, and build more, modern refineries.
We need first and foremost to get off oil dependence - especially oil from Arabia and Venezuala. We have the capacity to do that. We need the will. Hell, we needed the will 30 years ago.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/21/2006 14:18 Comments ||
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#14
Assuming the present gasoline engine can be converted to hydrogen (and it probably can), what's it going to take? And who's going to pay for it? [I'm pretty sure I know the answer to that one - since I work and pay taxes, I'm going to have to pay for mine and a couple of other people's. :-( ]
Okay, folks, it's not that difficult, but it's not a "conversion" process per se, it's more of a "cracking" process similar to that used to crack gasoline from petroleum.
Running a static electrical charge through a slow stream of water will "crack" hydrogen out of the water molecules (ie, you separate H2 from the H2O) which leaves you with O which promptly recombines with other oxygen molecules [O2]).
So, in theory, a simple electrical cracking system could be made which would crack H2 from H2O and separate the three molecules from a stream of water and then recombine them in a fuel injection system - the hydrogen is injected along with a small amount of oxygen and you get a "bang" which powers the cylinder stroke.
The concept is simple. The application in an efficient manner which gives you sufficient power to drive modern internal combustion engines is more difficult - but maybe not as difficult as many experts seem to think or many inventors have attempted.
You can power vehicals with water. It can be done. It is extremely efficient and extremely cheap (hydrogen being the most common element in the universe). The problem is getting the engineers (who often can't see the forest for the trees) to build a system that is efficient, cheap, and easy.
It's done in basic chemistry classes all the time.
#15
In other words, it's easy to do on an insignificant scale and you've decided that means it's easy and cheap, and the only remaining problem is getting those darn engineers to see it your way.
There's an old saying, "Everything is easy to the person who doesn't have to do it."
Posted by: Phil ||
05/21/2006 17:26 Comments ||
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#16
You can power vehicals with water.
In a narrow sense this is true, but irrelevant to the discussion. Water or hydrogen cracked from water is not a primary energy source. Therefore you need to get energy from a primary energy source to your cracking system, which would require soemthing like burn oil in power station, distribute over transmission system, store in battery (in vehicle), power cracking system from battery, burn hydrogen in combustion chamber, use energy to propel car.
That's 5 energy conversions. Assume each is 50% efficient and that's way generous, then overall efficiency is 3%. Yes, that's right, 3%.
The hydrogen powered vehicle you describe will be horribly inefficient and require ten to fifteen times as much oil as burning gasoline to propel the vehicle.
#17
This article could have been written in 1978. All these technologys were available then and
little else has changed except the need to upgrade them to higher EPA standards. Propane
and natural gas powered equipment and generators are very common in industries where these fuels are readily accessable.
Generally speaking engines operating on alternative fuels operate a lot
cleaner and last a lot longer, but the cost of buying and operating on alternative fuels is a
lot higher and negates any savings in extended life span. Converting a gasoline engine to operate
on propane, for example, is relatively simple and inexpensive. But even at todays prices, if you
think you are going to be saving money at the pump by using alternative fuels, you are very wrong.
And that is the problem. "Gasoline obsolete?" GIVE ME A BREAK... PLEASE!
#18
junkirony: But even at todays prices, if you
think you are going to be saving money at the pump by using alternative fuels, you are very wrong.
And that is the problem. "Gasoline obsolete?" GIVE ME A BREAK... PLEASE!
People say they want alternative energy, but what they mean is that they want cheaper gas. That's the reality. No one's going to pay the equivalent of $6 a gallon gas to fuel an alternative energy vehicle when he can pay $3 a gallon to drive his present car.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2006 18:09 Comments ||
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#20
Ford has actually had hydrogen-combustion powered cars since the late 70's, other car manufacturers are going for fuel-cell cars which require hydrogen, and have had working models since the early 90's. a shortage of energy nationwide and a bit of cowardice in investing in hyodrogen fueling stations was, is, and will be the main hindrance to hydrogen power. hydrogen is a clean fuel, when burned in a combustion engine, it's the energy source, not the carbons, so the only carbons that burn are those that leaked in. the burning process can actually turn some of the more harmful carbon compounds into co2, making the air coming out of the engine cleaner than the air/fuel going in.
anyplace with power/water can produce hydrogen and store it in tanks until a vehicle comes by needing refueling, so a national hydrogen network doesn't need to be established, although more aqueducts would be likely. that still leaves a need for a primary power source to split the hydrogen from water. for political reasons, it will remain the major stumbling point for a long time to come.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The former college student known as the Naked Guy, who gained notoriety in the early 1990s for attending class in the buff, has died in jail, authorities said. Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down strolls at the University of California, Berkeley, got him expelled and prompted the city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found unconscious Thursday in a Santa Clara County jail, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi. Officials are investigating the death as an apparent suicide. He had been in custody since Jan. 10 on charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.
In 1992, Martinez organized a Nude-In protest at the university. He said he was trying to make a point about free expression. The message caught on, and nude spottings spiked on campus. Martinez, who landed on national talk shows, was expelled the next year after the university banned nudity.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Former 'Naked Guy' at UC-Berkeley dies in jail in a orange jumpsuit.
#2
Naked Guy was a campus hero among the free speech crowd, until the feminists started claiming sexual harassment. Only then, or more realistically, could the campus act against him. Too bad, RIP Naked Guy.
#8
Girls would attend clases wid their beach bikinis just barely holding up - no comments, no nuthin' from the profs or TA's. Some females deliberately came in looking used and abused, the so-called "just raped " look - A well-clothed male coming in wid a mere baseball cap or beret on his head, and the profs scream and critique like there's no tomorrow.
#9
A de facto threat to empire and humanoid existence, like Tribbles to Klingons. MALCOLM IN THE MIDDLE > Dem critters got murder in their eyes and all along their tiny cute furry bodies.
Tammy Emery used to think of deer as sweet and adorable, like Bambi. An encounter with a hard-charging doe changed that. The 31-year-old secretary was among at least seven people threatened or injured by female deer last year on Southern Illinois University's campus attacks that have prompted the school to wage a safety campaign during this spring's fawning season.
Websters: Doe - a deer, a female deer
The attacks in the woods at the 20,000-student university have been attributed to a combination of protective motherly instinct, squeezed habitat and, in some cases, a little too much human curiosity. The message now: Keep your eyes peeled for deer, don't approach them, and if a wild-eyed deer starts bounding your way, run.
"Before last year, no one really had heard of this sort of thing," says Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at the university. Nielsen believes different deer were responsible for the three attacks that sent Emery and at least three others to the hospital, mostly with minor injuries. "It wasn't like it was one crazy animal," Nielsen says. But some of the attacks may have been avoided, he thinks, if the victims hadn't committed an absolute no-no: moving in on a fawn to pet it.
Now, with fawning season soon to peak last year's attacks happened June 7-15 Nielsen and other campus officials are using signs, radio spots, e-mails and fliers about the deer in Thompson Woods. Later this month, Nielsen will lead a seminar titled "Avoiding Deer-Human Encounters of the Third Kind on Campus."
The effort also includes a two-year study by Nielsen and other researchers to count the deer, pinpoint how the animals affect the campus' ecosystem and gauge what locals think of them. Nielsen says the study will offer no recommendations on what to do about the deer, leaving that difficult issue for administrators.
All of this comes too late for Emery, a secretary in the political science department who still winces when she recounts what happened to her on the June afternoon she took a shortcut through Thompson Woods. Emery heard a rustling and saw "this deer was headed right toward me, full charge." Emery never saw any fawn, only the adult deer with eyes wide. "I could tell it was angry, but I wasn't sure what about," she says. "I know by the time I was in the area she was really mad and going to take it all out on me. I couldn't have run if I tried."
In an instant, the deer knocked the woman to the ground and delivered a flurry of kicks. Emery, screaming, curled defensively into a ball as the snorting animal rained blows on her, slicing open one of her ears and leaving her with huge bruises and a hoofprint on her hand. "I thought, `This is crazy, this can't be real. I'm being attacked by a deer,'" she recalls. The deer was scared off by passers-by. Emery has not been back in that stretch of the woods since.
While taking a shortcut through the woods this week, Stephanie Eastwood, a biochemistry major, wondered what all the fuss was about, saying deer were the least of her worries. "Deer are docile creatures they don't just attack," said Eastwood, 26. "I find it amusing to see the animals in the park, but all I've seen here is squirrels and snakes, and snakes bother me more."
Nielsen suspects various factors conspired in last year's attacks, including an increase in the deer population and the clearing of trees and windbreaks around the campus' edge. That shrinking habitat has forced the animals into Thompson Woods, which is 20 or so acres with hundreds of yards of paved trails. "It's the result of having a beautiful campus that we have to deal with wildlife," Nielsen says.
Emery says she thinks differently deer these days: "When they're mad, they're vicious. They're not the pretty creatures they were to me before." N.B.: "Suckers"==People from Illinois.
I blame Disney. Call my lawyer, they've got really deep pockets!
I sense a high concentration of RFSP who should not be allowed out without a responsible adult chaperon. Especially in the woods where there are real, like, animal things and creepy-crawlies and such like. BTW, these are the Mommy deer - the ones without the sharp pointy things on their heads you saw on Animal Planet. But be afraid. Be very afraid. Stay home. Bolt your doors and windows. Whatever you do, stay away from nature - just watch it on TV. They're coming to get you. BWahahahaha!
Posted by: random styling ||
05/21/2006 2:48 Comments ||
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#3
The 7mm Rem mag solution, I think.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
05/21/2006 5:35 Comments ||
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#4
Wait until the 100 kgs+ wildboars come into the picture.
#9
OOOh, child ... look at the wild free lions. SIMBA! See how noble nature is when not being oppressed by the partriarchal technocratic speciesist ... AAAIIIEEEEEEEEEEE
#14
#6: All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population.
Then where would they get more students?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/21/2006 12:30 Comments ||
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#15
All campusses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population.
Is that the deer, or the Students?
As far as the deer goes, you can import red-necks like me to help control the deer. Bow-hunting, by preference.
As far as the students go, well there's importing lots more alcohol. Maybe they will drink themselves to death, or possibly annoy an armed red-neck like me...
Posted by: N guard ||
05/21/2006 12:33 Comments ||
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#16
As far as the deer goes, you can import red-necks like me to help control the deer. Bow-hunting, by preference.
The best way, N guard.
Posted by: best way ||
05/21/2006 12:35 Comments ||
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#17
ed: All campuses should introduce large predators to control the stupid population.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Mayor Ray Nagin, whose shoot-from-the-hip style was both praised and scorned after Hurricane Katrina, narrowly won re-election over Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu on Saturday in the race to oversee one of the biggest rebuilding projects in U.S. history. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, Nagin had 52.7 percent, or 51,885 votes, to Landrieu's 47.3 percent, or 46,625 votes.
SAN JOSE, Calif. - The former college student known as the Naked Guy, who gained notoriety in the early 1990s for attending class in the buff, has died in jail, authorities said. Andrew Martinez, 33, whose stripped-down strolls at the University of California, Berkeley, got him expelled and prompted the city to adopt a strict anti-nudity ordinance, was found unconscious Thursday in a Santa Clara County jail, said jail spokesman Mark Cursi. Officials are investigating the death as an apparent suicide. He had been in custody since Jan. 10 on charges of battery and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.
