René O'Deay gBlog

What do you miss most in post-Katrina N.O.? - In Your Own Words - NOLA.com:
"Posted by aylicat on 08/25/07 at 12:04PM
I miss the sense of community and the sense that people really looked out for each other. I miss the friendliness and greetings of strangers walking down the streets. I miss going shopping with my grandmother at Krauss, Maison Blanche, DH Homes, and Godchaux's. I miss going grocery shopping at the little neighborhood store, ZARA's. I miss McKenzie's bakery and all the goodies there. There are lots of things that will never be the same again. I live in VA now, and dread coming to visit NOLA, knowing that every fond memory in my childhood is just that--a memory. The landmarks are gone, the storefronts now turned into unbelievably high-priced condos, and businesses once patronized are out of business for good. "

There is just no way to express the loss of this special community.
But from an article I wrote "After the Deluge"

I remember from the 90s hot summer nights wandering down some of the side streets of Mid-City, finding castoff treasures like an old cast iron chaise lounge, the scents of delightful flowers covering hints of rot and mildew, music drifting from the corner bars, lights spilling out from Mom and Pop deli/convenience stores, and mingling with the odor of Creole and Cajun cooking .

The community of Mid-city then and actually all of New Orleans was somewhat cowed by the violence of the druggies and gangs, mostly blacks, but gangs of all different nationalities: Hispanics, Columbians, Jamaicans, and Asian. So people tended to mind their own business in vain hopes of not getting “involved.” But the exuberance of most of this unique community broke through at Tipitina’s, Bayou Barn in Lafitte, in the Quarter, at the music fests.

What do I miss most? It is indescribable!

A mere visitor, even for a few weeks, can't even touch on what seeps into your soul. But frequent visitors will miss the streetcars and many of the buses, the street artists and musicians, vendors and fortune tellers, clowns and mimes, on Royal Street during the day and around St. Louis Cathedral and Jackson Square day and night. All the great seafood and volleyball places out on the Lake.
Bakeries and the great Natural food and deli/bakery out on Esplanade near the racetrack. Cairo Cafe.

Mid-City and all the great rents for places not recently renovated. Gone forever with rebuilding costs and triple tax assessments on many homes.

But the rental situation had already begun to seriously deteriorate after the riverboat casinos and the Sultan of Brunai tried to take the town. A lot of speculation and renovation started up, rents were raised all over the commercial districts in the Quarter and in the CBD (Central Business District, on the other side of Canal from the Quarter) and the residences that were leased out to visitors who came for Mardi Gras, JazzFest, football and other events. Long-term rentals were also often raised in hopes of driving out the renters so the flats could be leased out to the increased number of visitors vainly expected.

See more blog posts on the Times-Picayune blog.

What do you miss most?

René O'Deay

Did you Know?



Some of the facts used may be dated in this presentation created by a college professor for a faculty meeting, but the ideas are highly relevant to everyone.

Food for thought.
Technological advances at the speed of thought present many problems of keeping up to both professors and their students, not to mention sometimes bewildered parents.

Take it as a challenge.
Outsourcing only aids the competition in the long run. Course they welcome it.

René

Return to Zandria -YA Fantasy Adventure novel by Christine Norris
More-Than-Ordinary 14-year-old Ivy gets an urgent message, a desperate plea for her help, delivered by an old friend, the beautiful tiny fairy, Kaia, from the Wizard of the magical land of Zandria after an exasperating last week of school and a fight with her Mom.

Eager to escape the frustrations of school and the unhappy relations with her Mom and her baby brother, Ivy leads her best friend, Lori, through a magical gate on a non-stop adventure in a land of fantasy.

Lori, whose main interest is mall-shopping, at first finds this magical land of Zandria unreal and even begins to think she must be dreaming. What finally convinces Lori is not their encounters with Zandria's magical beings, but the drastic change from summer in their world to the deep cold chivering winter that holds Zandria hostage.

The two girls encounter another one of Ivy's old friends, the young apprentice wizard, Connor, who leads them through a land devastated by the ever-lasting winter and entirely covered with snow to the castle of Empress Lionors whose baby had been abducted by her cousin, Duke Drake of Faeolin.

Rescue of the abducted Princess has become a matter of life and death with winter prolonged for over a year and starvation threatening the people of Zandria.

The quest to rescue the princess involves winged horses, elves and fairies, dragons and unicorns, the Queen of the mermaids, and Ivy and Lori as guides to their world, the "Otherworld", where the Empress's daughter had been hidden. Both Ivy and Lori play important roles in the rescue of the Princess, then Ivy discovers that the abduction is only part of a larger plot to seize power in Zandria with the threatened return of the exiled evil sister of the Empress.

This intriguing fantasy for young adults can catch the interest of a more mature reader and keep the reader glued to the book. There’s none of the more commercial type padding seen in recent adult novels to distract from the story.

Christine expertly ties all the traditional elements of myths and fairy tales together in a most enchanting way with all the magical characters from Dragon King and Mermaid Queen to a tiny gnome skillfully portrayed.

Return to Zandria is the stand-alone sequel to Talisman of Zandria, Christine's popular debut novel inspired by the Harry Potter series.

Author Christine Norris is an avid Renaissance afficianado and an elementary and middle-school teacher. Christine has been involved with the Wizard Academies Publications, a collaborative effort involving a number of authors from around the world with stories inspired by the Harry Potter books by J.K. Rowling. Wizard Academies Publications include anthologies of short stories and full-length books of young adult fantasies about magickally-gifted youngsters training to be the "Wizards of Tomorrow."

Find out more about Zandria and the author on the Christine Norris website.
( http://www.christine-norris.com/ )

Return to Zandria is available as an eBook at LBF Books: http://www.lbfbooks.com/

Publication is scheduled for July 28, and can be ordered at the LBF Books site.
Or ordered on Amazon at:


Book Review by René O'Deay

Time Magazine ranks my community news website among the 50 best of 2007.
- 50 Best Websites 2007 - TIME Magazine: "NowPublic now counts nearly 97,000 contributing reporters in more than 140 countries around the world. During Hurricane Katrina, NowPublic was there; eight contributors filed on-the-scene reports from London's Heathrow Airport during the August 2006 terrorism lockdown—while the regular press was forced to wait outside. On June 6 NowPublic's coverage of a storm in Oman made it to the top of the AOL and Yahoo news sites. As part of its partnership with the Associated Press, NowPublic reporters now help the wire service gather footage on the ground. 'We wanted to build a next-generation wire service that counted for the accidental bystanders, the storm chasers,' co-founder Leonard Brody says. 'And with digital capturing devices now in the average person's hand, they can be first when there's breaking news.'"
NowPublic.com - 50 Best Websites 2007 - TIME

You can check it out, but I no longer belong or recommend this program.
It is just another MLM, where I hear the directors drive $200k cars, and if you join, you won't.

Now the largest UK lottery syndicate in the UK, the Virtual World Direct (VWD) eLottery Syndicate, brings you a new way to play online games and earn money through social networking. The program called -->evo is in it's pre-launch phase, "Project Eplay."

I invite you to sign up for free now and get in on the beginning of this 'New Wave.' Launch is scheduled for July 15.

Not sure how this works, as I have never done any online gambling or very much online gaming. But it looks like it might be fun, and if it pays off. Well!

I might have to create a new site just for games.

Do be sure to let us all know what you think of this new App and how you're doing if you do sign up.

Got the invite from my new friend on -->MySpace. As she said in her bulletin: 'It was W.C. Fields who once said, “All I ask is for an unfair advantage.” ', -->the Bookwise gal

And what about those Spring Widgets? What do you think of those?

If you leave a comment and it doesn't get posted right away, that's because I am offline for a while. It will get posted if it is not spam.

René

Dirty snow may warm Arctic as much as greenhouse gases

Burning cleaner fuel would brighten snow and lower temperatures.

If you are really worried about the Arctic Ice melting, Scientists suggest measures everyone can use right now to prevent the Arctic Ice from melting so fast! With much faster results than trying to reduce carbon dioxide.

Irvine, Calif., June 6, 2007 The global warming debate has focused on carbon dioxide emissions, but scientists at UC Irvine have determined that a lesser-known mechanism 'dirty snow' can explain one-third or more of the Arctic warming primarily attributed to greenhouse gases.

“When we inject dirty particles into the atmosphere and they fall onto snow, the net effect is we warm the polar latitudes,” said Charlie Zender, associate professor of Earth system science at UCI and co-author of the study. “Dark soot can heat up quickly. It’s like placing tiny toaster ovens into the snow pack.”

Since the Industrial Revolution, in the past 200 years, the Earth has warmed about .8 degree Celsius, dirty snow caused the Earth’s global temperature to rise .1 to .15 degree, or up to 19 percent of the total warming.

In the past two centuries, the Arctic has warmed about 1.6 degrees. Dirty snow caused .5 to 1.5 degrees of warming, or up to 94 percent of the observed change, the scientists determined. 94 percent!

Zender said. “A small amount of snow impurities in the Arctic have caused a significant temperature response there.”
Reported June 7, 2007: Today@UCI: Press Releases

Zender suggested we could see immediate results in the Arctic from consumers reduction of energy use, using more energy-efficient appliances, use of cleaner fuels, and limiting outdoor burning and fires. (putting out forest fires?)

Less airborne soot from industry and fuel combustion would yield brighter snow, less melt. Especially since it only takes a small amount to cause a significant temperature response in the Arctic.

Here's news: NASA has been warning about the effects of black soot and dirty snow on climate for years now. NASA also reports black soot is causing an increase in the flooding and droughts in China recently.

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date:December 23, 2003: Black Soot And Snow: A Warmer Combination
New research from NASA scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century."

Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Date: September 27, 2002:
A new NASA climate study has found large amounts of black carbon (soot) particles and other pollutants are causing changes in precipitation and temperatures over China and may be at least partially responsible for the tendency toward increased floods and droughts in those regions over the last several decades.

You can blame governments for reducing the emission limits on industrial pollutants or not even imposing or enforcing them. The heaviest-polluting coal-burning Four Corners Power Plant on Navajo lands located near the junction of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado and Utah, has operated with impunity and absolutely no controls since 1960! Sierra Club Clean Air Lawsuit against the EPA

Why does the Environmental protection Agency have to be sued to force them to do their job? And even when the EPA loses, why do they still drag their feet at enforcement?

I suggest everyone help hold their feet to the fire: EPA and Congress and the President!

What I have a hard time figuring out is what those small Celsius degrees represent in fahrenheit degrees?
Surely 1 degree of Celcius is NOT 33 degrees F ?!

Maybe one of my readers can give us a clue.


René O'Deay

"Archaeologists from Leiden University and from the National Museum of Antiquities have discovered the remains of a further 3300 year old tomb in a cemetery in Saqqara. It belongs to Ptahemwia, who was the ‘King’s cupbearer’ in the time of pharaoh Akhenaton (1353-1335 BC)."

The newly found tomb provides important new information about the so-called Amarna period (named after Akhenaton’s capital city in Central Egypt).

The Dutch archaeologists are doing an incredible job on these sites. There will be some posts on Tales of King Tut's Blog with some photos and their reconstruction of tomb layouts in Saqarra.

Dutch Expeditions: Egyptian tombs

See my post about this "New" 3,300 year-old tomb: 'Who's that Sexy Mummy?'


René