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Plaquemines parish president, Billy Nungesser makes a plea to the government to take over the project and stop British Petroleum's control over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as he watches the coastal marshes become irrevocably destroyed by the oil slick...
District 1 Council Office
Updated 7:45 pm May 19, 2010
Governor Bobby Jindal and Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser took a boat trip to see the thick oil first-hand in the Pass A Loutre marsh today.
The Barrier Island Protection Plan, develop by President Nungesser, is an aggressive plan to add a new line of protection for coastal Louisiana's unique estuaries, marshes, and wetland habitats which face devastating effects as the oil reaches the marsh and continues to leak from the well site. The plan calls for the immediate utilization of the U.S. dredging fleet to begin dredge operations to build a "sand boom" along the existing barrier island chains. The sand boom would stretch along the alignment of Chandeleur, Barataria Bay, and Timbalier Bay barrier islands to provide a more reliable means of protecting against oil intrusion as compared to the current booming methods. The length of the barrier island project is approximately 80 miles.
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority filed an emergency permit on Thursday, May 13, 2010 with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and is still awaiting the Corps to issue the permit. President Nungesser demands that the Corps issue the permit and the U.S. Coast Guard direct BP to initiate this plan.
In anticipation of receiving a permit from the Corps, the state has already begun steps to prioritize and determine the capacity of each sand borrow site needed to construct the sand boom. The state has boats out conducting surveys. Magnetometers were used to identify existing pipelines, and side-scan sonar used to develop images of the seafloor. Sampling and assessments are being performed to identify contaminated sediments and to ensure that the materials are safe and the receiving areas are clean.
OIL IMPACT
According to NOAA, the total amount of Louisiana shoreline with oil impact to date is 34.52 miles. DEQ has confirmed shoreline impacts to date on: the Chandeleur Islands, Whiskey Island, Raccoon Island, South Pass, East Fourchon/Elmers Island, Grand Isle, Trinity Island, Brush Island, and the Pass a Loutre area.
Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity.
LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company's ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He's been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times...
In June 2007, Wired.com reported that Davis had been the victim of identity theft after someone used his identity to obtain a $500 loan from a check-cashing company. Davis discovered the crime only after the company called his wife's cellphone to recover the unpaid debt.
About four months after that story published, Davis's identity was stolen again by someone in Albany, Georgia, who opened an AT&T/Cingular wireless account using his Social Security number, according to a police report obtained by the New Times. The perpetrator racked up $2,390 in charges on the account, which remained unpaid. Davis, whose real name according to police reports is Richard Todd Davis, only learned a year later that his identity had been stolen again after AT&T handed off the debt to a collection agency and a note appeared on his credit report.
Then last year, Davis discovered seven more fraudulent accounts on his credit report that were opened with his personal information and have outstanding debt, according to the police report.
Someone opened a Verizon account in New York, leaving an unpaid bill of at least $186. An account at Centerpoint Energy, a Texas utility, was delinquent $122. Credit One Bank was owed $573, and Swiss Colony, a gift-basket company, was seeking $312.
In addition to these amounts, Davis's credit report showed five collection agencies were seeking other sums from accounts opened in his name: Bay Area Credit was pursuing $265; Associated Credit Services was seeking two debts in the amount of $207 and $213; Enhanced Recovery Corporation was chasing $250 and $381.
A spokeswoman for the Albany police, who investigated the AT&T/Cingular account but never made any arrest, told the New Times that Davis's publication of his Social Security number created more victims than just himself.
"It's unfortunate he chose to conduct business in that way," spokeswoman Phyllis Banks said. "It's not fair to [AT&T] because they're losing a pretty substantial amount of money."
The company was fined $12 million in March by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising.
Lifelock promised in ads that its $10 monthly service would protect consumers from identity theft. The company also offered a $1 million guarantee to compensate customers for losses incurred if they became a victim after signing up for the service. The FTC called the claims bogus and accused LifeLock of operating a scam.
Conan O'Brien visits the Google offices and hilarity ensues as he takes control of the Interview and decides to break his moratorium on being publicly funny.
Someone won't friend you on Facebook and you want to stalk them, or maybe find out more personal info?
No problem. Due to Facebook's new "features", here's a clever way to gain access to their profile as if you were their friend!
There's been a lot of hoopla lately about Facebook's privacy term changes, but they've done another thing that's pretty unorthodox.
Perhaps you've noticed now you can no longer be a "fan" of a page; instead you can choose to "like" it, but that's not the only change. If you "like" something, according to Facebook, you now have a "connection" with that page, and the page appears to have access to your profile as if they were a friend.
So the new technique to gain access to someone's more personal information is to merely create a page that centers around some universally-agreeable topic and as soon as people "like" it, it appears to be as good as making someone a friend.
If you want to see for yourself, go to Profile in Facebook and "Edit Friends" and suddenly you will be pages listed as if they were friends.
Facebook undoubtedly gives you the ability to set more restrictive privacy levels for these groups, but by default, it all appears to be open.
The operative factor here is, every time there appears to be a Terms of Service, policy or "feature" change, it's reasonable to expect you'll have to wade through miles of configuration screens to restrict access you thought was limited to a small, carefully-selected group of friends.
This past week, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would "personalize your experience using your public Facebook information." The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit "Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked." Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site.
More specifically, these sites "may access any information you have made visible to Everyone ... as well as your publicly available information. This includes your Name, Profile Picture, Gender, Current City, Networks, Friend List, and Pages." On Monday, Facebook announced a transition where a "new type of Facebook Page" will make the "current city, hometown, education and work, and likes and interests sections of your profile" publicly available after you go through the transition tool (or those items will be deleted).
By default, the "Allow" checkbox for Instant Personalization is checked on your privacy settings. If you don't want the websites that you or your Facebook friends visit to know your information, you must opt out. Since this process is a bit complicated, we have made a quick video showing step by step how to do so.
Simply unchecking the "Allow" box is not sufficient. As Facebook explains, "if you opt out, your friends may still share public Facebook information about you to personalize their experience on these partner sites unless you block the application." Nor can you go to the Block Applications setting to block these partner sites. This setting is only for showing which applications and sites are blocked, and unblocking them.
So, to opt out of this fully, you also need to go each page for Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelp and push the Block Application button. If Facebook adds another partner site to the program, you will need to block that as well, so be sure to check back often.
You may also want to review the settings for what friends can share and sharing your profile information.
Ever wonder how much seafood in your market comes from overseas and how much testing goes into it? And why is it that there are fish here from half way across the world that can be found in area waters?
In 1983, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 57-minute film, "Anybody's Son Will Do". Arguably the best documentary on military recruitment ever made, and tailored for public television, it scared the hell out of the U.S. military machine, which has done its best to "disappear" it. For years it has been nearly impossible to find a copy, until now.
The film shows the process by which young men become psychologically engineered to kill or die on command. While the model used is the U.S. Marine Corps, it's made clear that the modern techniques for creating soldiers are refined, dehumanizing and universal.
Military forces will take boys as young as the law allows, as witness African militias that, unrestrained by regulation, recruit children as young as ten. People into their twenties, having begun to think for themselves to too great a degree, tend not to be sufficiently malleable. In the U.S., recruitment below age 17 is not legal.
The video is an illuminating look into the indoctrination process that goes into turning a young kid into a soldier.
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Plaquemines parish president, Billy Nungesser makes a plea to the government to take over the project and stop British Petroleum's control over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill as he watches the coastal marshes become irrevocably destroyed by the oil slick...
Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity.
Ever wonder what a modern hospital might be like if you replaced all the scientifically-trained doctors with New Age Gurus? Here's a glimpse...
Conan O'Brien visits the Google offices and hilarity ensues as he takes control of the Interview and decides to break his moratorium on being publicly funny.
Comedian-Rapper Reggie Watts turns out a hilarious video parody of all other rap videos...
Someone won't friend you on Facebook and you want to stalk them, or maybe find out more personal info? 
What if almost every copy machine made in the last year has a secret in it? That undermines everyone's privacy and personal security...
This past week, Facebook announced Instant Personalization, whereby select websites would "personalize your experience using your public Facebook information." The initial sites are Pandora, Yelp and Microsoft Docs. As Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained, this means that when you visit "Pandora for the first time, it can immediately start playing songs from bands you've liked." Pandora, and other partners, can also link your real name and other Facebook information with everything you do on their site.
In 1983, the National Film Board of Canada produced a 57-minute film, "Anybody's Son Will Do". Arguably the best documentary on military recruitment ever made, and tailored for public television, it scared the hell out of the U.S. military machine, which has done its best to "disappear" it. For years it has been nearly impossible to find a copy, until now.