Wetlands and Marshes and Bloggers, oh my!

Look at what rising sea levels will do to the coastlines around the world. It starts off over in Europe, but scroll over to see Louisiana's coast. Time to start buying beachfront property in Baton Rouge!

Oh yeah, and the US is spending 100 million to restore Iraqi marshes. They've also got plans and are taking action. They're not studying it to death. It's an old headline, but I figure I'd bring it up again.

Great article about bloggers, libel, and the evolution of the 4th Estate (PDF).

Would you stop?

Excellent social experiment written up in the Washington Post

I'd be willing to wager they'd have much better results in New Orleans.

Blakely in the NY Times

HOT DAMN, SOME FUR IS GONNA FLY OVER THIS ONE!

Blakely tells it like it is, even when it's things we'd rather not talk about.

New Orleans now is “a third-world country,” he said.

Hmmm. Maybe we should just erect a new sign:


UPDATE- This has really divided the New Orleans blogging community. Some are Extremely upset. Some think he hit the nail on the head. It's fascinating. I definitely side with the second group, but it's great watching the (productive) back and forth.

Blakely clarifies his comments.

UPDATE 2- Well, you knew this was coming.

UPDATE 3- The best roundup of buffoon-gate. The Tony Amato parallels are starting to scare me...

Nagin and History

From Gambit
Why does a politician with charisma to burn waltz across the public stage, changing like a chameleon and tossing verbal hand grenades like some Comedy Channel wannabe?
Ouch.

This article is charitable towards Nagin, which is shocking. When you read it, you'll see why.

Nagin will probably end up in the trash heap of history. Right next to Marrion Barry and David Dinkins...

UPDATE- I was thinking it over and there is one thing good I get from the article. The next mayor should be selected based off their ability to get on their knees and beg for assistance from the state and the feds.

Todler with AK-47

I believe this is called a "poisonous environment" by Social Services. Sick.

Oh yeah, it's also the #1 most popular video on CNN.com right now. Another great example of New Orleans Thugs acting as our ambassadors to the country...

Lusher Crawfish Boil

I know there are more Lusher Parent bloggers out there than you can shake a stick at.

Anyone know when the Lusher Crawfish Boil is?

Thanks,
Clay

Interesting articles to read

Our Crumbling Foundation

The levees are failing!!! Oh yeah, and it's not in Louisiana...

City's evacuation plan still in disarray (video)

Lest we forget, here's a list of Nagin's Campaign Contributors

The Iraq War, by the numbers.

Eddie Jordan's Bodyguard Arrested. This one just sort of slipped through the cracks.

These are the guys behind Sanjaya or whatever his name is still being on American Idol. I hate Idol, but I really admire what they're doing. It's subversion at its finest. These people don't seem to be too happy about it, though.

Update- A great Op Ed about the rebuilding "plan." Tip of the hat to Adrastos.

Fun with photos

I've heard some people refer to her as Hedgehog, because of her prickly personality.

Looks like there are now MANY new opportunities for torture fun! Speed Racer, Sonic the Hedgehog, ... the list goes on and on!

Cynthia's alter-ego

Seems the woman has a thing for her wheels, especially SUV's. I will give her one thing, the Times-Pic could have at least picked a better file photo. This one looks like she fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.

PS- I really want to get Photoshop or at least something close. Anyone know any good, cheap equivalent for OS X? Or a cheap source for an older version of Photoshop?

This will lift your spirits...

"Do you know who I am? Yes Ma'am. You're a fool.

The sad thing is the trooper probably saved her from getting a Darwin Award. Driving 100 mph on the shoulder (hell, on any Louisiana roads) is a sure way to get yourself killed.

Murder Pool

The Nola.com Crime and Safety forum is a good place to find reports of shootings that don't get reported on the news. There are a lot of disgruntled NOPD taking out their frustration there. Here's one of the most shocking recent threads. It's their "Murder Pool." Guess how many murders there will be by the end of the year...


Sneaky Birdie 258
Punisher 240
Ops 300
Critter 299
JoeHopeless 225
Watchout 365
57936 190
fantastic 423
Flossy 275
DirectDeposit 317
sdmoretti 329
Loyola 325
Paul 315
1vande 232
Waupee 321.5
MSXDA 242
bodyaid 293
LAPerson 344
Cat55 304
jimzak 225
nolanative 323
allfedup 216
kmsoap 283
chitownwave 217
RueRoyal2 266
OWW 285
Oldpops53 253

About 25% of those handles are for NOPD officers. What's your guess? I'm going to be an "optimist" and say 229. That will be only a little bit more than a 40% increase in murder.

UPDATE- Oyster 223
UPDATE2- Adam 205

Lunar Crime Wave?

I normally don't give any credence to astrology-type BS, but it's been pointed out to me that the previous weekend's murder spree happened during a particularly full moon...

Thought I'd just pass that along.

More Murders

I update my mapping and then there's a huge wave of violence. I think I double counted one or two murders, but a quick (or at least as quickly as can be done, given the HUGE number of murders) gives me the following totals:
* 8 on the West Bank
* 1 in the Lower 9th (+ 1 Justifiable Homicide)
* 7 in N.O. East (+ 1 Justifiable Homicide)
* 4 in Hollygrove/Black Pearl
* 2 in Irish Channel/LGD (+ 1 Justifiable Homicide)
* 8 in Central City
* 29 in Treme/7th Ward/(everything between Canal and the Industrial Canal).

I'd be nice if someone double checked my efforts, but that gives me a total of:

59 Murders*

* +3 Justifiable Homicides

Crime WILL go up as the weather gets warmer. Bet on it. Things will get far worse before they get better.

UPDATE- And another murderer goes free...

If someone could go in and double check the neighborhood by neighborhood tally, that would be extremely helpful. I might have double counted the markers in Treme. Don't forget there are a few double homicides in there.

Google Earth Reverses Course

Google Earth has their post-flood satellite photos back up. Noticed it this morning.

Crime Mapping - 1 April

Updated 2007 Crime Map
Unfortunately, this is no April Fool's Joke

I did crime mapping with religious fervor from August 2006 to February of this year, and then it's sort of tailed off. It got sort of depressing and I got busy at work, so I just let it slide.

Well, I went to the Geek Dinner last night, met a bunch of people who were pretty impressed by it, so I decided to update it.

Today, I woke up, made a huge pot of coffee, put in a Bush CD and just started rolling. I went on a caffeine and angry-music fueled crime mapping rampage.

Download Google Earth file.

UPDATE- Damn, only a fraction of the updates are showing up. Here's another post of the KML file. Open it in Google Earth to get the good stuff.

UPDATE 2:
After doing this latest crime map, I believe Riley, et. al. have lost whatever thread of control on the situation they may have had. We need to shove it in their face. I would like to start putting together animated You Tube videos using narrations of crime reports. If you've got a good narrator's voice, please shoot me an email. I'll send you a script, you read it, send me back the audio file and then I'll whip up a video.