Lagniappe

Negative Aspect of the Job
This article is a little old, but I have been wanting to write about it for some time, and now I have finally come around to writing my take on the story. I am down here to help with the recovery efforts for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and when I find stories like this one, I get very frustrated at the inability of people to do things for themselves.

Recently, FEMA has mandated that all remaining trailer parks be closed and are trying very hard to move people out of the FEMA Trailers who still have them on their property, like the photo above. With this push to get people out of these trailers, FEMA has provided these people with housing assistance until they are able to find a place to live. Well...what do they do with YOURS and MY taxpayer dollars in the hot Gulf Coast summers?

"The scorching heat puts many at the Quality Inn poolside, but for Gwenester Malone, she chooses to beat the heat by setting her thermostat to sixty degrees. Malone's room for the past three months, along with three meals daily, have all been paid for by taxpayers."

I completely understand this in the months following the hurricanes, but nearly THREE years and countless handouts later, it still a "what are you going to do for me?" mentality that is a big disappointment for me and the work that I do. This is not the case for everyone, which is highlighted by the marked improvements in New Orleans and other hard hit area's, but its this, for lack of a better word, laziness, that leaves me with some bitter memories of "The Rouge" and Louisiana. Like the saying goes, one bad apples spoils the whole bunch...defiantly true when it comes to this disaster.

Biological Passports to 3 Quadrillion Dollars

So what would you do with $3 Quadrillion? With just $1 quadrillion you could buy the world...literally. In 2006 it was estimated that the world GDP (or GWP) was around $65-70 trillion ($US), well short of $1 quadrillion. If you would stack 1 quadrillion US pennies, it would reach 986,426,768 miles into space and weigh 3,125,000,000 tons (English units). So whats with the quadrillion rant? Well one individual who was affected by Hurricane Katrina decided to sue the US government for that exact amount. Crazy...well this is Louisiana!

The sporting world is trying to make the process of getting a passport even more tedious. Not only do you have to supply your birth certificate but now you have to give blood. Ok, just kidding. But in the hopes of trying to get the cycling world and the Tour la France clean, the powers that be are trying to develop a biological passport that each athlete would need in order to compete in the race. Basically its just a baseline reading of your body's chemistry so that when testing is performed, if you are significantly different than your baselines you could face punishment. Lets home the FAA doesn't get ahold of this...think of having to pee in cup just to get on a flight to Memphis...whew.....