[Norman Borlaug, "father of the Green Revolution," during his 1970 Nobel Laureate lecture]

Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

[Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel of Luke 12:48b]

I lived in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Central Gulf Coast region on August 29, 2005.  Rather than staying in my dorm at the time, I evacuated east to my hometown of Mobile, Alabama.  When I left, I had no idea I wouldn’t be back for months.  When I moved back in June 2006, I immediately took stock of what was gone, what was left, and what was being rebuilt in the city.

From UNO Lakefront Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana | June 2006

One of the first places I went was north to the University of New Orleans campus at the lakeshore. UNO didn’t flood and many of those who were stuck in their homes after the waters rose found their way to the campus. After the city drained, the parking lot of the UNO Lakefront Arena became home to hundreds of FEMA Trailers, creating what my friends and I called a FEMA Farm.

From the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans, Louisiana | July 2006

Largely considered the most devastated neighborhood in New Orleans, the Lower 9th Ward’s condition was pretty well covered by the media. I’m still not sure how I feel about the big bus tours and disaster tourism that became the norm after Katrina. Making money from others’ destruction just doesn’t feel right. As someone who lived in the city, I did make it a point to visit the area though. My friend Doug took a few of us through the Lower 9th, where I took the photos above and below.

From Chalmette, Louisiana Near New Orleans | July 2006

The boat photos were taken in Chalmette, just downriver from the 9th Ward. Chalmette is not a part of Orleans Parish (it’s in St. Bernard Parish), but it backs up to Arabi and the Lower 9th. Water from Lake Borgne to the north topped the levees and swept the SS Dolphin into someone’s front yard. I’ll write it again: the water rose so high that a shrimping boat floated across the levee into this front yard.

[In the autumn]
I built this greenhouse with my hands.
I could not fit it through my door,
so there it sat on my floor.

[Until with help]
Into pieces it was tore.
Now there it sits
On my patio floor.

[Fin.]
The end.

First, the good news: I’ve only seen one ant since I got back Saturday night.

The bad news: my air conditioning is still sketchy at best.  All day long today, even with the A/C set between 70 and 75, I wasn’t able to get it below 80.  It topped out around 85, and right now it’s at 79 (it’s been dark now for over 2 hours).  The A/C doesn’t stop running; it just doesn’t do its job.

And in the bathroom I kept finding black flakes and specks around, so I checked the vent.  Mold.  I took pictures and I’ve written a letter to apartment management.  I’m going to take it in tomorrow, but rest assured I’m going to get this dealt with.

Here’s a question for you former apartment dwellers: is this normal, or should I be upset?  I’m trying not to throw a fit when a fit need not be thrown, but I’m also not interested in getting shafted by crappy management.  Thoughts?

I saw an ant on my nightstand and thought about Leanne’s comments, so I further inspected.  Found about four working their way into my closet, so I evacuated it and discovered a fifth front.  I killed a scout in the kitchen today, but that was just one.  I now have battled ants in virtually every extremity of the apartment- the pantry, the fireplace, the study, the bathroom, and bedroom closet.  Had I not made this discovery tonight, I’m sure it would have become a very intense battle in the coming days.

Wait… I see one now… and it just met the Thumb of Joe its forefathers spoke of.  My Ortho seems to be ineffective.  I find myself looking around constantly.  Feeling phantom itches.  They’re here.  They’re watching me.  They taunt me….

Anyway, he got it working this time, and explained that somehow everything got disconnected outside.  I asked if he knew how that could happen.  He said it could have been a million things.  A million things indeed.  I think we all know what happened.

In war the first thing to attack is means of communication.  It’s doubtful anyone will ever convince me the ants didn’t do this.  The war continues.

Turritopsis nutricula is a hydrozoan (jellyfish) with a life cycle in which it reverts back to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the first case in which a metazoan (animal) is capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage (Piraino et al. 1996, p. 302). It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation. This cycle then repeats, rendering it effectively immortal. (Lifted straight from Wikipedia)

This is why I love marine science.  That right there is the coolest thing I’ve heard all day.  I’m watching a show on the Science Channel, and they said that the Turritopsis nutricula could be used in stem cell research, replacing the need for human/embryonic stem cell research.  I can get behind that.

For more information:

• Developmental Biology Online: Cheating Death: This article has diagrams
• Illustrations of cnidarians; Immortal jellyfish Turritopsis nutricula
• Turritopsis nutricula on Wikipedia

The show mentioned that Turritopsis nutricula breaks the rules of biology by turning itself back into a child- and we’re not sure why.  Regardless of what others may say, I’m left in awe of the Creator once again.

I’ve been reading Bob Roberts’ Glocalization along with some other books, like Jared Diamond’s Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner’s Freakonomics, and Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us. First my mind was on nation-building, then it transitioned into sustainable development. I remember an old economics professor of mine repeating to us every week, “Economics is a social science.” Usually it had to do with the impact of fear and greed on society. Now I’m reading these books and seeing how they all connect. More on all this later.