Gustav

(Ninth Ward New Orleans, February 2008)

In the winter of 2008 I was lucky to have the opportunity to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in Slidell Louisiana. Slidell was one of the inland communities about 30 minutes north of the City of New Orleans. The town lost quite a lot of structures to Katrina. As the prospect of a hurricane Gustav impacting the gulf of New Mexico looms, I am forced to recall the vast regions of New Orleans and the surrounding areas which remained utterly destroyed when we visited. The devastation of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans, which still remains unprotected, and largely uninhabited, was a particularly significant experience. The photo above is one I took while I was there. The central point of all this is the notion that the City and southern Louisiana have not recovered from Katrina ,and they are far from ready to weather, for lack of a better word, another. The population sat at roughly 60 percent of it's pre-Katrina level in a 2007 estimate and whilst I was there, this was quite evident. Certainly the Federal Government has spend quite a lot of money strengthening the stormwater infrastructure of the city since 2005. Popular Mechanics has channel on their site dedicated to Hurricane Katrina related lessons, rebuilding and redesign efforts. So the the City may be more resilient to hurricanes but one cannot make a place 'hurricane proof', it's simply not possible. This misses the point though, even if we've prepared the infrastructure to survive a category 5 hurricane, the heath of a city or a populace for that matter cannot be measured by it's infrastructure alone. The 'people' it's economy, it's culture, in all the connotations that that term has, have yet to heal.

There is some encouraging news though, the residents of the City are, at least in part, already mobilizing to leave or leaving the city currently. The Mayor has issued a voluntary evacuation order for the city and a mandatory one may come sometime this Sunday. The New York Times has a write up of the current efforts to date. So hopefully, if Gustav does make landfall around New Orleans, the people will not be there to greet him.

RED Digital Video

skate - shot on red - 120 fps from opus magnum prod. on Vimeo.

A stunning piece of video created with the new RED digital camera. RED created a digital camera designed to directly address the common shortcomings of existing high quality digital cameras used in movie making. It seems as if they knew what they were doing as they have been lauded by the likes of Steven Soderberg and Peter Jackson for their efforts. Wired has an interesting write up here which outlines the history and evolution of the company, founded by the creator of Oakley. For the full experience, follow the video to the Vimeo page and watch the clip in high def.

Let's blow this popsicle stand

So exams are over for me, forever...unless I go the PhD route. This is quite a relief, as I now can focus soley on research. The prospect is exciting and daunting as my research is siginificantly different than any of my undergraduate work.

The picture above is one I took at the Hillside festival this summer. One of a few pleasant diversions I've had during this summer. Another diversion that just occurred was seeing Radiohead at the Molson Amphitheatre.

The oppening act was a band from Brooklyn called 'Grizzly Bear'. While I did enjoy some of the studio tracks Grizzly Bear had up on their site, their live performance left something to be desired. This may have had something to do with fact that we were being thoroughly soaked by rain during their set. Fortunately, during the hour before Radiohead's set the weather cleared. The weather was bizzarely apropos for a performance of their new materials as not one but two rainbows were present before their performance. It was a pretty awesome show, their lighting rig for the tour is amazing. Highlights for me include:

• Talk Show Host
• Climbing Up the Walls
• Reckoner
• Airbag
• House of Cards

A full set list can be found here, photos here.

On the whole it was a great show, good mix of old and new. I've seen them three times now. In 2003 at the skydome and in 2006 at the hummingbird center previously. The hummingbird was probably the best show, they were already playing stuff that ended up on the in Rainbows album and it was really intimate. That being said, every time I've seen Radiohead has been a great expeirence.

Stunning Photos of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN

(Maximilien Brice, © CERN)

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a massive particle physics project that the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has undertaken. Upon completion it should run CERN somewhere from 3.2 to 6.4 billion euros at completion. The essence of particle physics is...'smash stuff together and watch the outcome'. In this case, lead ions and protons are shot at each other. The hope is that, the results of the experiments will either confirm or refute a lot of theoretical constructs in particle physics. One of the things they're looking for is the 'God Particle', AKA Higgs boson, a theorised particle that 'give mass to matter'. It's also hopped that breakthroughs in dark matter may occur aswell.

Alan Taylor author of 'The Big Pitcture" - a column on boston.com examines 'News Stories in Photographs', has put together a stunning set of images of the Large Hadron Collider. Click the image above to see the article.

National Geographic has a good write up of the project here

Who said science can't be sexy?