René O'Deay gBlog

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie start new project in New Orleans. Announcement to come Monday.

A few blocks in the Lower 9th Ward, along the levee from North Derbigny to North Galvez streets, were studded with odd, very large pink blocks, as big as houses, 100 or more of them, with pink roof shapes lying beside them on empty lots.

The empty lots had been a neighborhood until they were scoured by surging floodwaters after the levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, then were scoured again months later by bulldozers after the houses that had stood there were deemed unsalvageable. Now big pink blocks stood everywhere.

The pink blocks look stark and strange in the otherwise brown and olive landscape, like enormous, blank Monopoly houses. They could be mistaken for art, as if Christo, the master environmental artist who wraps whole buildings, bridges and even islands in garish fabric, had been at work.

But the pink blocks may be more than artistic. They may be symbolic stand-ins for real houses to come.

On Monday at 11 a.m., actor Brad Pitt is scheduled to stand in the surrealistic scene and announce details of his "Make It Right" project, a plan to create more than 100 affordable, ecologically sound homes where the pink shapes now stand.

On Nov. 9, at the Clinton Global Initiative in Manhattan, Pitt pledged $5 million to the project, challenging others to match his largess. Producer and environmental philanthropist Steve Bing contributed $5 million. A team of architects led by John Williams of New Orleans began

Source: blog.nola.com via René

Here they are:

"So what are those Big Pink Houses?" 

Some claim this is just a 'band-aid', but ask residents what they think, and they are excited, elated, and filled with hope that someone besides a nonresponsive federal agency is doing something to bring New Orleans back. 

Tags: Hurricane | Angelina Jolie | BLOCKS | Brad Pitt | Green Project | houses | Katrina | levee | Life | lots | lower | lying | new_orleans

WASHINGTON -- Louisiana's hopes for repairing and restoring its tattered coast took a major step forward Thursday as the Bush administration approved the state's plan to use $255 million in federal money for more than 100 conservation and diversion projects, including major efforts in the New Orleans area.

Louisiana's share is based largely on the royalty revenue from oil and

gas production off its shores, MMS spokeswoman Eileen Angelico said.

Source: blog.nola.com

Does that mean Louisiana will finally get it's "fair share"?

Tags: Bush | federal | hopes | Louisiana | New Orleans | Washington | Administration | approved | coastal | Conservation | diversion | efforts | eligible | Environment | finances | gets | including | Management | MINERALS | projects | REPAIRING | restoring | SERVICE | tattered | thursday | tier

By Peter Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters) - A "cyber cold war" waged over the world's computers threatens to become one of the biggest threats to security in the next decade, according to a report published on Thursday.

About 120 countries are developing ways to use the Internet as a weapon to target financial markets, government computer systems and utilities, Internet security company McAfee said in an annual report.

Intelligence agencies already routinely test other states' networks looking for weaknesses and their techniques are growing more sophisticated every year, it said.

Governments must urgently shore up their defenses against industrial espionage and attacks on infrastructure.

Source: reuters.com via René

Cyber attacks stem from China and Russia among others.

Mcafee Report

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Tibet’s spiritual and political leader says that he or the Tibetan government-in-exile will recognise successor. Lama tells AsiaNews that first option “is the best choice possible, an exceptional move decided in a moment of need.”

Rome (AsiaNews) – The Dalai Lama’s decision to name his own reincarnation to avoid further Chinese influence on Tibet “is currently the best possible option. The Tibetan people agree with its leader who is taking an importance decision right when it is necessary,” Lama Geshe Gedun Tharchin, founder of the Lam-Rim Institute of Tibetan Culture and professor at the Institute for Oriental and African Studies in Rome, told AsiaNews.

Source: asianews.it

This is becoming decidedly strange.

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Dhaka, Nov 24 - Several hundred activists of the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir staged protests here before the arrival of two ships of the US Navy for distributing relief supplies among cyclone-affected people.

Two warships, USS Essex and USS Kearsarge -- each carrying 20 helicopters and 3,500 marines on board with emergency relief supplies, medical and emergency evacuation teams -- are scheduled to enter Bangladesh waters Saturday and Tuesday.

The

protesters Friday carried a banner reading 'Prevent American ships from

entering the Bay of Bengal in the name of distributing relief' and

chanted slogans 'Go back to America' and 'US has no place in

Bangladesh'.

Source: earthtimes.org via René

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Here's an offer to win a free LapTop without filling out endless surveys. All you have to do is blog about it. Like this example provided:

Big Giveaway, Real Prize: RuffBook Water Resistant Laptop! ~ The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared: "The Thinking Blog is holding a free laptop giveaway and to participate, you just have to write about it! Sponsored by Ruff PC, it is a brand new, rugged, water resistant laptop called RuffBook Tech with magnesium alloy casing built to survive under harsh conditions where ordinary laptops fail. So, this is my entry - now give me the laptop! "

But Ilker has me just wondering if he will update the RuffTop prize with all the microsoft substitutes he lists on his list of great Microsoft Substitutes

The rest of his requirements are posted on the links provided.

More joy. He's got some great sites.

René

Source: reneodeay.blogspot.com via René

Tags: Blog | giveaway | Laptop | Microsoft | Prize | provided | resistant | RuffBook | substitutes | Technology | thinking

Here's an offer to win a free LapTop without filling out endless surveys. All you have to do is blog about it. Like this example provided:

Big Giveaway, Real Prize: RuffBook Water Resistant Laptop! ~ The Thinking Blog ~ Knowledge Grows When Shared: "The Thinking Blog is holding a free laptop giveaway and to participate, you just have to write about it! Sponsored by Ruff PC, it is a brand new, rugged, water resistant laptop called RuffBook Tech with magnesium alloy casing built to survive under harsh conditions where ordinary laptops fail. So, this is my entry - now give me the laptop! "

But Ilker has me just wondering if he will update the RuffTop prize with all the microsoft substitutes he lists on his list of great Microsoft Substitutes

The rest of his requirements are posted on the links provided.

More joy. He's got some great sites.

René