Oil Spill

Good Monday, um Tuesday.

Brianne Bilyeu, , , , 822 Comments

Let’s start this short week off easy with a few grab bag pieces.

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Storefront in a Box

I was alerted to an exciting series of events that is happening this summer in my South Minneapolis neighborhood.  In her Stribe article, A new store every week,  Kara McGuire describes Arise! Bookstore’s entrepreneurial efforts to keep their small store occupied in a move they’re calling “Storefront in a Box”.  This summer they’re renting out their store week by week to various artists and small business owners for approximately $200 a pop. 

The summer rental schedule can be found at the Storefront in a Box website.  So far the renters include Boneshaker Books, an Art Gallery and Gift Shop, Nerd Party, Bicycle Film Festival Presents, Pop Punk Emporium, Paper Darts Magazine Gallery, Internet Variety Store, Theateropolis, Courtney McClean & The Dirty Curls’ Weeklong Naughtybilly Hoedown, and Art Swap in a Box.  Phew!  There’s literally something new every week!

From McGuire’s article: 

There will be the Pop Punk Emporium, with a pop punk cover band, free punk haircuts and a museum with audio guide. There’s an art swap — for people to bring art and take art — and a bicycle film festival. There’s even a “Weeklong Naughtybilly Hoedown” filled with bad cowboy movies and jam sessions.

The Paper Darts literary journal will sell the summer issue as well as host readings, and the recently closed Play by Play Theatre bookstore of St. Paul will have some books for sale and host Theateropolis — a week of theater-themed classes and events.

 This is what I love about living in a big(ish) city – there’s always something to do!

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For my favorite mad engineer, Senja.

Source: Cowbirds In Love   Click on the link for greater resolution.

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And two stories via Pharyngula – One sobering, and one fun:

Sobering: There are over 4,000 oil rigs operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

oilrigs.jpeg

Everyone is fixated on that one burning mess in the Gulf, which is probably exactly what the oil companies want — they are probably sweating pungent carcinogenic petrochemicals at the thought that someone might look around and notice all of those other rigs, which almost certainly have a paper trail of shortcuts and risks and shoddy management.

Scary.  Insert *shudder* here.

And now some FUN from Pharyngula:

Snazzy T-Shirts from HideYourArms.com:

Clever:

iWant:

Good Monday, um Tuesday.
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This is a crude post.

Brianne Bilyeu, , 1,069 Comments

Crude oil flowing from BP’s Deepwater Horizen oil rig explosion has started washing up on Louisiana’s shores. 

Last night rough seas pushed oily water over the protective booms standing between the on-coming oil and Louisiana’s coasts.  Oil has entered the Mississippi River and is spreading into the river’s offshoots and surrounding wetlands, and toxic chemicals from the oil are leeching into delicate aquatic environments and threatening wildlife.  Alabama’s coastline is also threatened, and wildlife with the potential to be affected by the spill include hundreds of species of fish, birds, and mammals including Atlantic bluefin tuna, plankton, sea otters, sperm whales, oysters, menhaden fish, and endangered turtles.

The above paragraph is a summary of the TimesOnline article located here.  The article has very good writing and includes a current video of the situation unfolding in the Gulf of Mexico.  Please click the link for more information.

From YouTube:

Other coastal wildlife at risk: Mussels, crabs, shrimp, fish in nurseries, dolphins, manatees, brown pelicans, terns, gulls.  NOLA.com has posted what they claim is a comprehensive list of all of the birds, mammals and and invertabrates under threat from the oil and toxic chemicals from the spill.

View from space.  Photo source.

The worst part of this spill is that we’re not sure how much oil is going to escape before we can plug the oil leaks.  Everyone ready to do this again?

photo source

This is a crude post.