Day 1091: Desi DNC Tees
August 22, 2008 - Filed Under blogistas, desi / india, government, louisiana
Abhi Tripathi of Sepia Mutiny will attend and liveblog from the Democratic National Convention in Denver next week. Since a desi guy in a button-down shirt and khakis will most likely be mistaken for IT support staff, Manish Vij of Ultrabrown helped Abhi design t-shirts, which Abhi will sport at the convention. You can see all designs here and ORDER THEM HERE (more coming), but I want to point out two that may amuse my Louisianan friends.
The reference for the above design is available here.
I love the placement of India (the outline of which sorta resembles Texas) alongside Louisiana. “India Louisiana bhai bhai!” Which leads us to the next t-shirt design of relevance:
All Louisiana netheads should get this reference, especially since our very own Jeffrey broke the news way back in 2003 and The Daily Kingfish has covered it since.
The Mutiny could try sending some shirts to Obama and see if he will wear them. After all, he did just tell a gathering of South Asians in San Franciso that he considers himself one of us.
“Not only do I think I’m a desi, but I’m a desi,” he said, using a colloquial term that describes South Asian immigrants. The remark was greeted with laughs. “I’m a homeboy.”
… To applause, he said he became an expert at cooking dal and other ethnic dishes, though “somebody else made the naan,” the trademark Indian bread. “Those are friendships which have lasted … for years, and continue until this day,” he said. “I have an enormous personal affection for the people of South Asia.”
Surely a far cry from McCain who probably thinks a Desi is Lucille Ball’s Spic husband.
Day 1061: Links For 2008-07-23
July 23, 2008 - Filed Under computing & internet, desi / india, digital rights, football, green bay packers, louisiana, movies/tv, music
* Favre Allegedly Used Packer Cellphone To Call Vikings
Nothing but forthcoming and cooperative with us, huh, Brett? You’re still under contract with the Packers and it is dimwit moves like this that make a whopping 200 people desire your return and relegate you to a simple link and not a whole post on this blog. Please go fishing.
* Raw Story | GOP cyber-security expert suggests Diebold tampered with 2002 election
When a consultant working for the Republicans serves you up for election-machine-related wrongdoing, you must have done something really bad.
* First an album, now Radiohead open sources a music video
Plus, the video for House of Cards uses computer rendering and visualization techniques.
* Bolly-Hinduism: Not Only For Jessica Alba But Also Natalie Portman
Devendra Barnhart and girlfriend, Natalie Portman, created and starred in this Spanish-language music video which has nothing to do with the Ramayana but uses it as the basis for the video’s set, costumes and makeup. I agree with Ultrabrown’s take that “the whole shambolic shebang is highly exoticist.” Then again, the East has yet to let go of its assessment of the West as being overrun by bikini girls with machine guns.
* D points out that former governor Edwin Edwards is waiting to learn if his sentence will be commuted. Edwards Now More Than Ever!
Day 1045: Aging Infrastructure + Stormy Weather =
July 7, 2008 - Filed Under energy, environment, louisiana
2TheAdvocate.com | Louisiana often leads U.S. oil spill list (HT, NolaDishu)
… Aging infrastructure and the volume of oil either produced or moved through Louisiana is part of the reason the state saw an average 1,500 reported oil spills a year between 1991 through 2004. That’s about four reported oil spills a day, most of which go unnoticed by the public.
Between 1991 and 2004, reported oil spills in Louisiana involved between 91,000 gallons and 701,000 gallons a year. In percentages, Louisiana accounted for between 5.8 percent and 53.6 percent of the reported oil spill volume in the United States, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office. Those are the spills reported in state waters and don’t account for reported spills in federal waters. In Louisiana, federal waters begin three miles from the coast.
… Another contributing factor to oil spills is coastal erosion. In Louisiana, 22 square miles of the coastline are lost to erosion each year. As the land is lost, oil pipelines, old oil equipment and some old oil waste pits become exposed, he said. “Every time there’s a storm, we have leaks,” [Roland Guidry, oil spill coordinator with the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office] said.
… During hurricanes Katrina and Rita, numerous large and small oil spills occurred along the coast. A preliminary count from the two storms is 464, but [Karolien Debusschere, deputy coordinator with the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office] cautioned that those report numbers remain under review and could change.
… the spills ranged from tiny to 90,000 barrels. “It was worse (than expected.) We didn’t expect that kind of surge,” Guidry said of Hurricane Katrina. The storm surge moved tanks with tens of thousands of barrels of oil and floated them away, he said. “That’s power. That’s power,” he said.
… “Louisiana, they have their oil spill response down pretty well,” [Dean Blanchard, habitat enhancement coordinator with the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program in Thibodaux] said. “They clean up efficiently and pretty quickly.” Blanchard said the office doesn’t get calls from the public concerned about oil spills.
… But that could change, [Jill Mastrototaro, Sierra Club senior regional representative for the northern Gulf of Mexico] said.
Day 1038: Jindal’s Hail Mary
June 30, 2008 - Filed Under government, louisiana
I mean the above title wholly as a football allusion. No Catholic puns intended, honest.
NOLA.com: Jindal Vetoes Pay Raise Bill
Stuck between Republican lawmakers in Louisiana and pressure from voters and the larger national Republican scene, Jindal was forced to make a move, sided with his national backers, threw the ball and killed the pay raise. Jeffrey thinks it is because he wants Clancy DuBos to like him again, but I personally credit Candy Crowley’s tough and candid questioning of Jindal on the issue when there were two seconds left in the CNN’s Late Edition interview. Yes, I’m being sarcastic and no, DuBos still doesn’t like Jindal.
Some in and outside Louisiana think that the pay raise veto is Jindal pushing back the liberal agenda in his legislature. Earlier this month, 13 members of the the Louisiana House and Governmental Affairs Committee voted for the pay raise, while 4 voted against. 8 of that 13 are Republicans. Does it seem like much of a liberal agenda now?
My take on this is that the Republican Party is losing ground and needs more success stories going into November’s election. This is why
- * “utterly predictable cosponsors” David Vitter and Larry Craig have the audacity to co-sponsor the Marriage Protection Act despite their personal dalliances,
- * Jeff Sessions, David Vitter and five other Republicans are acting to block “a widely respected, bipartisan program to fight the spread of AIDS in Africa,” citing abstinence, although one of them and, who knows, more can’t keep their own wangs in their pants and
- * every conservative talking head from Newt Gingrich on down to Louisiana’s own governor denies any oil spills caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to promote rampant drilling in US waters, while even oil company executives state unequivocally that future work should increasingly concentrate on renewable/sustainable forms of energy.
Whether or not Jindal runs for Vice President, his Valorous Slaying of the pay raise is yet another Oooh Look Shiny Ball! to hold in the face of swing voters and Republican voters disgusted by their party who are looking to jump ship. Despite hypocrisies and outright untruths, conservative voters will hold these acts to be self-righteous and Louisiana will remain the Red State it was destined to be. Thank God.
Day 1009: Surfing The ‘Tubes
June 2, 2008 - Filed Under books, computing & internet, desi / india, gizmos & hacks, louisiana, movies/tv, new orleans, photographs, science & technology
Not at work, hacking like a tuberculosis-ridden dog, dutifully not passing germs along to co-workers, and bored out of my skull despite five books that are waiting to be read, I present you with the results of today’s internet scouring:
* Desi Fix: Proving that there are desis a lot less lame than me, Sameer Mishra won the 2008 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Friday, May 30th. In true spelling bee fashion, Sameer beat out another bhaiya, Sidharth Chand, to claim his first prize. As Jon Stewart said in 2006 after Anurag Kashyap’s 2005 spelling bee win, “Your names already have like 20 letters in them. That’s a huge advantage. That’s always going to win against the Bob Smiths.”
* New Orleans: Wonderful visual aid for those on the don’t-know-where-this-is-going-but-can’t-get-off New Orleans Recovery School District Express Train: Andrew Turner and Francine Stock have created a mashup of schools facility data. Much thanks to Cliff, G, Liprap, Sarah Elise and E for keeping us informed on the state of education in post-K New Orleans via their lengthy, personal posts.
* New Orleans: In Lies, Damned Lies & Statistics, Mominem points out that Mayor Nagin’s assertion in the last State Of The City address that “Downtown office occupancies are the highest they’ve been since the 70s oil and gas boom” is a damned lie. Incidentally, I hear that Chevron’s new Northshore offices already have a mouse problem.
* Louisiana: Louisiana drivers aren’t the worst in the nation, they’re only the eighth-worst. (Did they count Wet Clay PIleup Jerk?) According to the 2008 GMAC Insurance National Drivers Test, Top Lousy Driver award goes to New Jersey and the best drivers are from the Midwest. To paraphrase D, does this include the FIBs, I mean, Chicagoans?
After many rounds of Lost In New Jersey, we made it into the Lincoln Tunnel. Even on a weeknight, it was packed and scary, yet very cool.
* Movies: Best indirect review of Sex And The City: The Movie, which I refuse to watch, from Jezebel:
If you don’t get married, or if you botch your prenuptial agreement, or if he leaves you at the altar (a.k.a. Big) or sleeps with a random stranger (a.k.a. Miranda), you lose all dignity; all of it, gone. And without that dignity, what is left? Shoes. The end.
* Books/Science: To bring our collective IQ back up again after that last topic, Michael Shermer’s beautifully-penned review of Alan Sokal’s Beyond The Hoax.
“Beyond the Hoax” is an essential text for anyone interested in the history and philosophy of science, or for that matter science itself … Why did academics fall for [Sokal's 1996 hoax]? The hindsight bias and the confirmation bias. Once you believe that science holds no privileged position in the search for truth, and that it is just another way of knowing, it is easy to pull out of an article like Mr. Sokal’s additional evidence that supports your belief. It is a very human process, and since science is conducted by very real humans, shouldn’t it be subject to these same cognitive biases? Yes, except for one thing: the built-in defense known as the scientific method.
* Fashion/Photography: First Bo Diddley, now Yves Saint Laurent. Interesting retrospective from The Luxist on a Dior and Saint Laurent photo shoot in Paris, 1962.
* I Can Haz Internet?: Explosion at Texas data center may explain why our ‘tubes are often tied these days.
* Srsly, I Can Haz?: In other outage-related news, the Center Networks posts on Twitter are funny!
* Technology: Lastly, another reason I need an iPhone
Day 976: On Barry And Houck
April 30, 2008 - Filed Under We Are Not Ok, environment, geology, louisiana, new orleans, recovery
Each time someone asks why protecting New Orleans and the Louisiana coastline is America’s responsibility, I wonder what a stupid question that is. We are Americans and the providers of so much to this country, culturally and economically. Was 9/11 New York’s or D.C.’s problem? Of course not, what a question, so why are New Orleans and Louisiana constantly in the position of explaining themselves? This past week, John Barry, author of Rising Tide, and Oliver Houck, local environmental lawyer, professor and activist, have each written a piece on why it is an American duty to save New Orleans and the Louisiana coast. Please read both articles in full before returning to this post.
LA Times: Who Should Pay To Protect New Orleans?
Oliver Houck: When Bad Neighbors Spoil Good Fishing
The question is not Can America Save New Orleans? It’s What Have You Been Doing All This Time? Moreover, it’s a shame that almost three years after Katrina/Flood, we still need this level of advocacy. However, in so doing, let us not stand accused of the same provincialism and lack of analysis of which some other Americans are guilty.
Both articles are problematic in that they do not take into account that damming and agricultural discharge from the north are a result of necessary farming. The Midwest is America’s breadbasket - just as we create and convey seafood and petroleum products to the north, Midwesterners make and give us meat, grain (corn, wheat, anyone?) and dairy, with severe environmental stresses to their own soil and waterways that are then sent to the Great Lakes and down the Mississippi. Where else is the waste going to go but downhill, given the way our midcontinental drainage currently works? Wanting to sue the Midwest for sending down agricutural effluvium is like telling the oil refining industry downstream not to flare or spew other chemicals or the rest of America will take you to court for polluting the air. Those upstream and downstream of the Mississippi River are, pardon the pun, in the same boat when it comes to self-pollution, spreading the pollution and creating products that the other party and the rest of America needs. We suffer, but we enjoy the fruits of each other’s sacrifices as well.
The patch of the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans isn’t called Cancer Alley because of Midwestern agricultural effluents alone. Also, how does an area host pipelines, refineries and chemical plants as a basic part of its economy and expect to get to zero levels of toxins? Why not threaten to take every single one of these industries to court, too? It’s easy to first throw angry, culturally-loaded words at nameless fellow citizens, but not display the same ire to the companies and governmental bodies that are also equally as culpable.
Not a big fan of dams, I’m all for breaking most of them down starting with the headwaters of the Mississippi. But, how about letting the river flow where it should - into the Atchafalaya - instead of constraining it to its current course to keep the Port of New Orleans alive? Let’s face it, a lot of the problems that we currently experience are very much local- and state-made.
Again, thanks so much to John Barry and Oliver Houck for keeping us on the radar screen and so effectively. We are all Americans, like it or not, as we can and do offer to and learn from one another. Anger is one thing, goodwill is another, but the growing and misinformed American Us-Versus-Them mentality is not going to get any of us anywhere.
Day 960: Of Interest
April 14, 2008 - Filed Under environment, government, louisiana, movies/tv, new orleans, recovery
* NYTimes: Agency Is Under Pressure to Develop Disaster Housing
Isn’t there a solution somewhere between “flimsy little white boxes [which] are unpleasant to live in and tainted with toxic formaldehyde fumes” and “mansion”-like Mississippi Cottages that “are colored like Easter eggs — rose-hip pink, malted mint, cloudless blue?” As long as FEMA is flailing, in return for my tax money, I demand expedition khaki. “Too nice,” my hind.
* Gambit Online: Big Oil’s Rosy Shades
The largest challenge facing the industry, [Chris John, president of the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil & Gas Association] told lawmakers, involves workforce development — a top priority for Gov. Bobby Jindal. “We are going to need hundreds of thousands of people in the near future trained in a certain way,” John says, “from computers to engineers to roughnecks — the whole range.” Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, gave lawmakers a rosy picture, saying historic rig counts in northern Louisiana will continue to grow at astonishing rates with new discoveries, and that Gulf drilling is about to rebound. He says the Gulf rig count has fallen because it’s the “most expensive place to drill in the world.”
Never mind where the aforementioned workforce and rigs are going to come from given fiscal reality, does this mean I am now a computer? Awesome!
* All corporate bankruptcy are belong to us.
* Now watching America: The Wright Way in New Orleans. From the show’s website, “Ian Wright dives right into the flavors of New Orleans on April 14. Stops include the Blue Nile, Po’ Boys and Beignet’s [sic] at Cafe Du Monde.” And the Lower Ninth, Lafitte’s Blacksmith Shop and Rock ‘n’ Bowl from the looks of it. The woman interviewed at Rock ‘n’ Bowl must also be on FEMA crack as she told Wright that the lanes warped from the whole building being flooded. I was under the impression the upstairs was untouched by the floodwaters. At any rate, back to Ian Wright exploring the wa’ers and baaah-yews in and around Nyu Orleenz.
AP: Hurricane Victims Added To Housing Bill - “By a 74-5 vote, the Senate approved an amendment by Mary Landrieu D-La., to ensure that residents of Louisiana and Mississippi who receive home rebuilding grants don’t have to pay taxes on them.” Michael Homan breathes a sigh of relief. 3 comments #
