It was a grim holiday weekend for some fishermen in Louisiana's Sportsman's Paradise. Fishermen returning to the Rigotlets Marina this morning brought back samples of tar balls they collected while out on Lake Pontchartrain according to the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (ABC 26 Video Report).

Ann Rheams, Director of the Foundation, estimated to CNN that the amount of oil reaching the Eastern shore of Lake Pontchartrain near Slidell at under 100 barrels, with tar balls about the size of a silver dollar. Though hundreds of miles away, Hurricane Alex stalled Gulf Coast oil containment and the resulting storm systems have pushed the oil inwards.

Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Robert Barham announced precautionary closures to fishing in parts of Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Plaquemines parishes because reports of oil, easterly winds and high tides. Closures of recreational and commercial fishing are based on information from field biologists, staff and trajectory models from NOAA. Once reports of oil are received, the Department initiates a field survey and seafood testing. LDWLF updates maps of closed fishing areas daily as the oil pushes inward.

Coming during a popular holiday fishing weekend, today's closures are a gut punch to parishes fighting to keep the BP Oil Spill at bay.

In late May, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and St. Tammany Parish President Kevin Davis asked the U.S. Coast Guard to approve the building a series of earthen berms and rock dikes in Lake Borgne from Alligator Bend to the East Pearl River. The Alligator Bend and Seven Lagoons Shoreline Projection Projects were originally developed to restore the coast as part of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act, but can also prevent oil from encroaching into the marshland along Lake Borgne and can protect the lower Pontchartrain Basin.

“I was out at Fort Pike earlier this morning and can attest that our assets are in place and crews are picking up tar balls as quickly as the weather conditions permit,” Landrieu yesterday. “We have always asserted that this is going to be a long, tough slog, but I remain confident that every asset we have available is being deployed to protect the Lake.”

And finally, because 11 workers died in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion, it seems important to remember them on this weekend of national reflection.

Full Article and ABC 26 Video Clip Posted at NewOrleans.com.

BP’s Gulf spill is getting all the press, but China’s pipeline blast in a northern port famous for its beaches is nearly as scary. Dan Levin reports on workers cleaning oil with their bare hands, the media clampdown, and more.

An explosion sends crude oil gushing into the sea. Authorities close beaches as frantic cleanup efforts commence, followed by government officials arriving to take stock of the damage and investigate the cause of the spill. Local tourism and fishing industries suffer. Environmentalists cry foul, accusing the government of failing to protect the nation’s natural resources in favor of profits. Reports surface that journalists are being kept away from the scene as those in power attempt to limit the political and economic fallout.

“Any criticism launched at the company would be considered an attack on the government, so the media is very quiet.”

If this sounds like the BP oil spill, think again. For the last week, this series of events has taken place here in China after a state-owned pipeline belonging to China National Petroleum Corp., Asia’s largest oil and gas producer by volume, exploded last Friday off the coast of Dalian, a northern port city famous for its beaches. The blasts sent 1,500 tons of crude oil into the Yellow Sea and sparked 100-foot-high flames that burned for 15 hours. While media has reported that the leak has been stopped and Dalian’s vice mayor said he anticipates the cleanup effort to take only five days, oil has spread over 165 square miles and other government officials have said they think the operation could last weeks, with environmental damage possibly continuing for years.

According to Greenpeace China spokesman Wang Xiaojun, the government has failed to warn tourists of the danger washing ashore at the height of beach season. Despite the spill, Greenpeace staff members have seen playing in the contaminated waters off beaches that have not been closed. “It’s really scary,” said Wang.

Also clueless about protecting their skin from the crude oil are local fishermen, who are doing most of the cleanup using their bare hands, without wearing face masks.

Others tasked with removing the crude are just barely better prepared“We don’t have proper oil cleanup materials, so our workers are wearing rubber gloves and using chopsticks,” a local official told the Beijing Youth Daily newspaper. “This kind of inefficiency means the oil will keep coming to shore.”

Thanks to the inefficiency of BP and American government regulators, China’s cleanup efforts trigger a disturbing sense of déjà vu. More than 1,000 workers, from soldiers to local fishermen, have joined in cleaning up the spill, using oil-eating bacteria, solvents, straw mats, and even buckets, along with 800 fishing boats and 40 ships. One soldier drowned on Tuesday when he was swept away by a wave after he and another soldier jumped into the oil slick to fix an underwater pump.

The Chinese media has hailed him as a martyr and splashed dramatic pictures of soldiers rescuing the survivor across official newspapers and websites—until Thursday afternoon, when the stories about the spill sank from the homepages of China’s news websites. The coverage was drowned out by news of major floods elsewhere in the country and ominous headlines about the looming U.S.-South Korean naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, which the Chinese media has been lately flogging as evidence of a Western plot to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty.

While the spill in the Gulf of Mexico and scathing criticism of those responsible for its cleanup have dominated Western headlines and editorials for months, China’s state-media has avoided assigning blame for the spill or criticizing the government’s regulatory shortcomings in risk management and energy policy.

Nobody in China is the least bit surprised by these omissions. Unlike BP, China National Petroleum is a state-owned enterprise with deep connections to the central government. “Any criticism launched at the company would be considered an attack on the government, so the media is very quiet,” said Liu Junning, an expert on political science at the Institute of Chinese Culture in Beijing. “The company’s management team consists of high-ranking officials, which makes it nearly impossible to hold them accountable.”

pozycjonowanie

Your Life Can Be Blessed If You Have God Guiding the Way

Your spirit is something that has to be grown over time. We are all truly the temple of the Holy Spirit and we must learn that giving God our attention is necessary tooffer on a daily basis. At times, we may find that
 it is to hard to pray or to hear a word from the Lord and that is when we have to get on our hands and knees andpray.

Prayer and worship must be a part of our daily lives. Many people walk through their day not even saying one prayer to God. Many people find that God is distant from their minds andheart. It is important to realize that God wants you to be involved with him forever and that it's only a matter of time before he can really move into your life and make some changes.

Change is always a good thing. When we stay in any one area of our life for to long, we usually are stale mate. We do not want to do anything or change anything. Life is about learning and going through different experiences so that we can touch the lives of others and so that we can see which direction we have to go into. If we do not allow ourselves to grow with time, then we truly cannot see or hear what God is trying to show to us or to give us. Life is an inward journey and a challenge. We have to go through changes in our life in order to see where we are going and headed.

Trust in God requires us to first act with faith. No relationship has never been built without faith. You have to believe that someone is going to be your friend in order for you to believe that friendship is possible to have with that individual. The same is with God. We have to believe that God is going to be our friend if we are truly ever going to start a relationship with him.

The Lord is someone that we cannot see or understand at times. The only way to get to know God is through reading the Holy Bible, prayer and meditation. If we just carry on with our lives every day without long prayer time with God or praise and worship, then we cannot see God in his loving terms or arms. God is familiar with love and with serving others. He is the one that will give others a chance at being free so that they can serve him.

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Kickin' it Kosher

Kosher Food is a growing industry and it's not just for Jews anymore. With the growing desire for good health and wellness, people are realizing that kosher food is a delicious healthy option. Here are five tips for
 taking the leap into the wonderful world of kosher cuisine.

1) Bring more kosher foods in to your diet and explore the explosion of new kosher products hitting the market. Eating more kosher food is going to bring you healthier food and assurance that the food is of better quality. In the United States there has been a rise on contamination in the food supply. When you eat kosher there is guarantee that the food has been carefully prepared and processed.

2) Buy a book on eating kosher that will give you information and break myths of what kosher food actually is. There is something that I like to call “the kosher myth”. The myth is that for food to be kosher, it has to be blessed by a rabbi. Another myth is that kosher food is bland and boring. Kosher food can be hot, sexy, delicious, and down right fun. A book that I recommended is “Kosher for Everybody” by Trudy Garfunkel; it breaks down kosher food in a way for everyone to understand.

3) After you have done a little research on kosher food, go out for a nosh at a nice kosher restaurant! There are wonderful kosher restaurants all over the world and new restaurants popping up everyday. In New York City there is Darna on the Upper West Side and The Park East Grill on the East Side, Kosher Chicago in Chicago, Jestine's in South Carolina, and the list goes on and on. Check out www.kosherdine.com for options.

4) Begin paying attention in the aisles of the supermarket and look for the kosher symbol. When you see a product with a K, U, KSA (or a variation of) it symbolizes that the product is kosher. It depends on the kosher certifying agency that determines the kosher symbol. Sometimes the kosher symbol is placed after the ingredients of a products, so do not forget to check that area if you can not find the symbol .

You are certainly aware of this, but today is not just any Monday. In the same way that we all remember September 26, 2006 as the debut of Burger King's Chicken Fries, April 12th, 2010 will be seared upon our historical consciousness as the premiere of the new KFC sandwich, the Double Down. I'm afraid I must confess that when I—a connoisseur of speedily-prepared foodstuffs—first heard about this sandwich, I found the concept distasteful and thought myself unlikely to sample it. But here I am, having eaten both of the available versions and writing about them on the internet.

If you aren't familiar with the Double Down, here's some marketing language from the Colonel's website that breaks it down:

The new KFC Double Down sandwich is real and it's coming April 12th! This sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel's Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun!

One of the ideal things about this blurb is that they had to make sure people understood that this was not actually some sort of entertaining prank or illusion. Which makes sense really. If someone told you KFC was coming out with a sandwich that used either grilled or fried chicken in place of bread and bacon as the "meat," accompanied by multiple layers of cheese, and then a sauce, you might assume it was some clever comment on America's obsession with fast food and subsequent obesity. So I suppose an assertion of the product's actuality is both warranted and necessary.

Also, KFC is not lying. An accurate review of the sandwich is pretty much: "This product is so meaty, there's no room for a bun!" In fact, I should probably stop wasting everyone's time because that's the most systematic description of the sandwich that could ever be written. But you know what? I ate both of these things. You're going to sit here as I walk you through each component of this "sandwich"/"product" and like it.

So let's get to it and break the Double Down piece by piece.

The "Buns"/Fried Chicken and Grilled Chicken

There are two options when ordering a Double Down: one can either choose the grilled version or the fried version (or, in my case, both). The grilled version offers the breakout (right?) KFC item of last year: the Grilled Recipe filet. It evokes a less ambitious Boston Market/Kenny Rogers' rotisserie chicken. It's not terrible, and is actually probably superior than you would think it to be, but it's definitely not good. (to clarify the comparison, let's establish in the context of this review that the Boston Market/Kenny Rogers' rotisserie breasts are adequate but not exceptional.)

The fried option is essentially the chicken breast they serve in the buckets that you may or may not remember from your childhood depending how awesome or unawesome your parents were. While undoubtedly palatable, I've never found the Colonel's blend of flavors to be my cup of tea. Which should not be taken as a disparagement of all fast food fried chicken; I am no stranger to Bojangles' and Popeyes—the former being much better than the latter, but both ranking significantly above KFC for me.

What I'd point to as the major flaw in this sandwich—in its underlying principle, really—is that both varieties of chicken, particularly the fried, out-muscle and overpower the rest of the sandwich with the intense taste of saltiness. Make sure you get a drink. Actually, if you're ordering the Double Down, you should probably get water instead of a fountain soda, because you are going to be really parched both during and after the act of consumption. Also, you don't NEED a soda.

The Bacon

Sadly, the belly of the hog is pretty much an afterthought. To be frank, by the time I had turned my attention to the grilled version I was unable to perceive even the existence of bacon. I thought to myself, "Hey, maybe the grilled one is the 'healthy' version! Maybe I could try this again!" But nope, that wasn't the case: There was bacon in that one too, only I just couldn't tell. It's either because the chicken, cheese, and sauce are all so flavor-full/salty and the bacon is kind of "meh," or because the bacon is kind of flimsy and afterthought-y. Or maybe it's because I was eating my second KFC Double Down in the span of 15 minutes and at some point your palate gives up and says, "F you, if you're not going to treat me with respect you don't deserve to taste." I'm still not sure.

The Cheese

If you like gooey cheeses that promise the suggestion of a flavor with which you are familiar without actually presenting such flavor, this is going to be up your alley. The cheese, much like the chicken—or perhaps because of the chicken—has sort of a salty and nutty thing going on. It's more identifiable than the bacon while eating, but this may be more a product of consistency than actual flavor.

The Colonel's Special Sauce TM

It's pretty much Thousand Island dressing. I think it's safe to that when a fast food chain promises a special sauce, it's going to be Thousand Island dressing. If you're share my affections for the McDonald's Large Mac, note that that special sauce is also Thousand Island dressing, although if have waded this far into a review of a fast food sandwich that uses chicken instead of bread this is nearly certainly a fact of which you had prior knowledge.

(Sidebar: Did you know that there's actually a place in the world that is called Thousand Islands, somewhere between us and Canada, that may be the origin place for Thousand Island dressing? It turns out that there's a pretty interesting—relative, perhaps, to this review—debate about it on the Thousand Island dressing Wikipedia page! Spoiler alert: passive aggressive comments arguing about salad dressings are behind that link!)

Nutrition (LOL!)

So KFC claims that the two Double Downs only have 540 and 460 calories each (fried and grilled, respectively). At the risk of being unfortunately unpleasant, I'm forced to express my disbelief of those numbers, because there's no way that these things have less calories than a Large Mac (without cheese!). Also, if you look on the board at your local KFC (or at least at my local KFC), there's a calorie count for the meal, which comes with potato wedges and a drink (you fatty!), that counts the calories at 475-1080.

Further to this issue, Susan Levine, the nutrition education director for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, has issued a letter to Yum! Brands Inc. (operators of KFC, obvs) insisting that the shouldn't advertise the Double Down to children. Levine feels that the "sandwich" is a "troubling symbol of corporate irresponsibility." She also believes that the FDA should restrict Double Down advertising in a similar manner to the way it handles tobacco advertising. Sorry, phallus-faced Camel who's eating bacon surrounded by pieces of fried chicken, your kind isn't wanted here.

(Sidebar 2: Did you know that KFC also offers a Double Chocolate Chip Cake that is 1700 calories? I mean, truth be told, it looked pretty dope, but 1700 calories? Holy crap.)

Overall

Should you eat this? Probably not. It is very much what you think it is, a sloppy and salty mess, and will make your stomach for several hours after you've consumed it.

Still, I asked the KFC employee behind the counter how the Double Downs were doing, mostly in the hope that I would have been the first one to order this creation. It was not to be: Apparently my local KFC affiliate has been serving them for "a few days" already. In fact, they are "selling a lot so far." So I guess that's cool. America, we did it! We, like the Double Down, are pretty much exactly what people think we are.


Awl publisher David Cho previously reviewed the products prepared on the new Burger King broiler. The Awl has no financial arrangements with KFC or its parent company Yum! Brands, which should be pretty obvious right now.

Dear God: KFC's Chicken-as-Bread Sandwich Is Coming

Are you looking to commit suicide very slowly with food? KFC is here to help! Its new Double Down sandwich is coming to a KFC sad factory near you on April 12th.

You see, it's a sandwich, but instead of bread it uses fried fucking chicken. And in between those two pieces of fried chicken? Bacon and cheese, of course. And what looks like a mayonnaise of some sort, just to add some more fat to the equation.

The sandwich will be available in two forms. The Original Recipe sandwich will set you back about 540 calories, 32g of fat and 1380mg of sodium. The not-as-bad-for-you Grilled Double Down totals 460 calores, 23g of fat and 1430mg of sodium.

This seems like the sort of thing that should be taxed highly to pay for health care, no? Because anyone who eats this on a regular basis will be requiring expensive hospital visits, guaranteed.

Send an email to Adam Frucci, the author of this post, at adam@gizmodo.com.

Site Images at PaulaBarr Chelsea will be presenting the "Live Jazz Soirée to Benefit Gulf Coast Relief & Haiti Recovery" tomorrow night at their gallery. The benefit will combine Paula Barr's photographs from before and after hurricane Katrina with jazz music by Mark Rapp and Derek Bronston.

Paula Barr's "Gulf Coast Echo, Our Moral Compass" is a compilation of photographs that Barr took of her home and surroundings before Katrina - a span from the 1970s to 1990s. These images show a thriving and vibrant south, full of hope and the future. From a simple, but beautiful front porch to the preparations of Mardi Gras.

Also included are photographs from after Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast. Barr returned to visually explore the culture after the disaster. What Barr found was quiet and dismal. A weed infested, covered-over pool and an abandoned tamale stand.

Celebrate the Gulf Coast and take in some lively music and curious photos at this worthwhile event, Thursday, March 25 at 7:00 pm. The suggested door donation is $20 per person. Your tax-deductible donations at the door support relief and recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast and Haiti (checks & cash accepted).

Site Images at PaulaBarr Chelsea
508 West 26th street - 9G
(between 10th & 11th aves)
NYC - NY 10001
9th floor - fully accessible

For information and to RSVP send e-mail to rsvpsiievents@gmail.com.  

 

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Fine isnt that ?

Guest Passes let you share your photos that aren't public. Anyone can see your public photos anytime, whether they're a Flickr member or not. But! If you want to share photos marked as friends, family or private, use a Guest Pass. If you're sharing photos from a set, you can create a Guest Pass that includes any of your photos marked as friends, family, or private. If you're sharing your entire photostream, you can create a Guest Pass that includes photos marked as friends or family (but not your private photos). Learn more about Guest Passes!

Guest Passes let you share your photos that aren't public. Anyone can see your public photos anytime, whether they're a Flickr member or not. But! If you want to share photos marked as friends, family or private, use a Guest Pass. If you're sharing photos from a set, you can create a Guest Pass that includes any of your photos marked as friends, family, or private. If you're sharing your entire photostream, you can create a Guest Pass that includes photos marked as friends or family (but not your private photos). Learn more about Guest Passes!

Mad about old Hollywood? Now may be your chance to nab a classic photo from Tinseltown's storied history.

Thousands of classic Hollywood glamour photographs from the Michael H. Epstein and Scott E. Schwimer collection will be auctioned off on March 26 and March 27 by Profiles in History, a dealer in guaranteed-authentic original historical autographs, letters, documents, vintage signed photographs and manuscripts.

The collection is recognized as the world’s largest of Hollywood photographer George Hurrell's work, and includes more than 1,000 original vintage photographs from the lensman, as well as 500 camera negatives. 

Included in the lot is Hurrell's iconic portrait of Jean Harlow on a white bearskin rug (created for Vanity Fair magazine, it's expected to sell for well over $20,000) and dozens of valuable 8-by-10 camera negatives from Hurrell’s career, including portraits of Ann Sheridan, Gary Cooper, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth and Veronica Lake.

In addition to Hurrell's work, there are dozens of rare prints of Hollywood legends, including a Louise Brooks from 1925 before she signed with Paramount, Marlene Dietrich by Edward Steichen and formerly unseen prints of a teenage Marilyn Monroe.

The impressive collection also includes an avalanche of "master prints" by Richard Avedon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Man Ray, Helmut Newton, Herb Ritts, Cindy Sherman, Julius Schulman, Jock Sturges, Howard Zieff and Edward Steichen, Len Prince and Mel Roberts, among others; 50,000 vintage prints, black-and-white and color negatives and transparencies by legendary Hollywood photographer Harry Langdon; and even fine art pieces by Andy Warhol, Richard Duardo, Keith Haring, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein and Beatrice Wood.

Epstein and Schwimer decided to sell their collectible photographs to benefit their favorite charitable organizations, primarily the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center (Epstein served as board member for seven years).

Worldwide bidding begins at 12 p.m. PST both days. Bids can be placed in person, via mail, phone, fax or live on the Internet by visiting profilesinhistory.com or liveauctioneers.com.

– Emili Vesilind

Photo: A young Diana Ross, by Harry Langdon. Credit: Profiles in History

Guest Passes let you share your photos that aren't public. Anyone can see your public photos anytime, whether they're a Flickr member or not. But! If you want to share photos marked as friends, family or private, use a Guest Pass. If you're sharing photos from a set, you can create a Guest Pass that includes any of your photos marked as friends, family, or private. If you're sharing your entire photostream, you can create a Guest Pass that includes photos marked as friends or family (but not your private photos). Learn more about Guest Passes!

Fine is not it ?

CheckSee|Look at} few home photos i love.

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