I'm out of here for CO in a half-hour, so can't do my usual sterling contribution, or even stainless steel. Be good while I'm away, although I won't actually be away....computer goes with and and and....
As usual, I`m back on Fridays to post my coral reef images & to lend my small support to all the people from the gulf, & for all the plants & animals, above & belowthe surface.
I fear the damage will affect more the denizens of the deep, than the more visible surface land inhabitants.
As I`m sure you`ll all concur, I believe this was by design, ... to minimize the visible surface damage, at the much greater expense of the out-of-sight underwater damage.
I`m encouraged, albeit minimally, of the renewed pushback against the mantra of "the oil is gone", a magical feat, (read, pack of lies) akin to the (mushroom cloud from WMD`S in Iraq).
Lately, I`ve been not so enthused about the progress in the gulf.
I see the ramping up of activism in diaries with multiple posters, that, great unto themselves, the collective impact is much more than the sum of it`s parts.
It seems there has been a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the government to push for a final & definitive push to do a bottom kill .
I would not expect the officials at BP to listen to us, but you`d think the government would.
I realize I`m a dreamer, but when I think of all the damage, seen & unseen, to plant & animal life, I seem to be in a constant nightmare.
It`s Friday again, time to temper my anger with a sharing of some of my images from my reef tanks.
You may have noticed that my images are often of a same specimen.
I liken that to taking more than one picture of your cat, dog, bird, lizard or child.
Every image is a close encounter with what one loves doing with the loved ones one does it with.
I titled this diary with "memorial days" not because I want to have anyone remember these specimens, but for you to remember the days the authorities wanted you to forget.
They want you to forget how much oil was spilled.
They want you to forget how much was hidden, by the use of toxic dispersants.
They want you to forget the harm they`ve done.
And they want you to forget, they`ve been trying to make you forget for years.
Well that will not happen. There are too many who will always remember.
Just reading through the blogs, we can see that there are Gulf Watchers everywhere.
From here,
http://www.dailykos.com/story/... (please rec them)
to here
http://www.docudharma.com/diar... to here
http://healthygulf.org/ And to many others, we are watching you.
Being Friday again, I`m here to try & keep the gulf coast on the minds of as many people as possible.
Lately I feel that the media is trying to give the gulf, the bum`s rush. We keep hearing about wrapping up the booming under the guise that booms do deteriorate. I can`t argue that, but let`s have new booms available & on hand, since this is hurricane season.
I will not be sold on wrapping up the gulf cleanup till they at least plug the well permanently, & keep monitoring the gulf for the next few years.
Right now Bob Cavnar is speaking on TV & mentioned the posters at Daily Kos, specifically the ones guiding everyone through this disaster with the Mothership & it`s "Babies" (my qualifier)
He is also one of the people I listen to & believe, when I see him on the big TV machine, over any one else on their Propaganda machine.
I normally post my images as distractions from all the travails of our daily lives in these trying times, but these are not to distract, but to point you towards what some would have you be distracted from. Please do not fall for that old ploy.
Even if the specimens I post do not all live in the gulf environment, they are the best I can post from these taken in my reef tanks.
Twilight of the Gods
(Shot at a friend`s outdoor tank around the corner)
I`m a day late this week, in posting reminders of what kind of life we stand to lose due to the oil gusher in the gulf.
I know it is presently capped, albeit temporarily, but I worry about the situation going south fast.
I feel that the decisions that were made in the last few weeks, are to hide to the public, the fact that they (BP) are not very confident they can stop this disaster, even with the relief wells so near completion.
But I post these images in hopes that people will never forget this disaster, man made, I should add, & never allow it to happen again.
It seems like greed has taken over, regardless of the consequences to the livelihood of humans, & the lives of all the defenseless animals above & below the surface.
I`m back with more underwater images in support of the gulf coast, it`s inhabitants above & below the surface, & to all who`ve worked so hard to keep the daily developments on the front pages.
I would like to also mention a big "Thank You" to all the workers out on all the skimming boats, the oil retrieval crews on the beaches, & the crews out working on the rigs, tankers & the ROV operators who have worked nonstop to end this gusher.
I cannot blame them for the bad decisions of their managers.
Now that the gusher is stopped albeit temporarily, I think we can have a little breather.
Then we`ll have to get back to keeping this catastrophe at the top of the news, since we all know how the style of news cycles here can rapidly shift away the important issues to iPhones & Lohans.
PURPLE CONTORTIONIST
(An Anemone)
I must stress that the images I post are not necessarily gulf inhabitants, they are my tank inhabitants, but it`s the only way I can personally do my part to make others aware of what we stand to lose, when we are not proper stewards of our planet.
With that in mind, we have to be prepared to work for years to clean up this disaster.
The oceans are the heartbeat of this planet, & we just gave it a stroke.
Here I am once again & as promised I will only post images of life that is not visible from the surface.
Many people tend to think that life in our oceans consists mostly of fish, crabs, shrimp, & shellfish, like oysters, scallops clams & snails, plus mammals like dolphins, whales, & I have to also mention turtles, the darlings of the gulf.
What many don`t realize is that the above mentioned species make up a small fraction of the biodiversity of the oceans.
In the following images, try & look beyond the main subject, & look to the backgrounds of the images. Every bit of color is a living organism.
The purple on the reef structure is coralline algae.
Every little nook & cranny has little "bugs" living in them.
Every little filament you see is some kind of worm.
The reef is covered with billions & billions of life forms, & I`m just talking about these numbers, pertaining to my reef tanks.The sand at the bottom contains billions of these per cubic inch.
Now these are the bottom of the food chain, but also sometimes the first to die off when the water chemistry is changed by even parts per billion.
When the first link in the food chain is destroyed, the other links fall apart in rapid succession. That`s why I post these images. They are not spectacular in any way as images, but as examples of the spectacular life in the oceans that the planet depends on.
Regardless of their microscopic sizes.
(welcome to the sett, jess! - promoted by pfiore8)
Well, OK, we can tell it, its short, and you have given me wine.
The people we took this place from talked with Coyote, clever golden tricky Coyote, but this story is from after Rat came, after she cheated Coyote and burned his house and ate Coyote's babies; Rat was wild in those days! Well, Rat was looking, one day, at all the things she'd stolen from Coyote. She found a magic stick at the bottom of a pile of chicken bones and baby mice in nests and books opened for some spell or recipe a thousand years ago and left piled on each other's bindings. She knew it was a magic stick, instead of a regular stick, because when she picked it up she had wished that the chicken bones were more meaty and a whole chicken had run at her from the pile. So she took the magic stick with her. She wished she could fly, and suddenly she was far above the rim of the world, looking down on the thin skim of atmosphere and a sea of clouds. She wished she could run faster, and she was flying a foot above the landscape. She wished to be sleek and glossy and beautiful, and her clumpy fur became smooth and rich, her filmy black eyes took on a deep black sheen, and the last foot of her tail grew back. Well, thought Rat. This is the best stick ever.
As I previously mentioned, I shall post only images pertaining to underwater life.
Helping me choose these images from my archives, I have my good friend Coconut, a parrot I rescued many years ago.
I therefore will include him in the opening.
Plus I promised Ekaterin I would.
I feel the situation in the gulf is being slowly moved back in the pages of the national newspapers & the gulf is not in the collective minds of the people of the country as a whole.
The pain & suffering to the whole nation will be felt for/in years to come, but the immediate stress is surely being felt among the people directly impacted by this man made catastrophe. Those who live there, breath there & wanted to die in peace there.
These people are our brothers & sisters, sons & daughters, & mothers & fathers.
They are us.
Although many of these specimens imaged are not endemic to the gulf, they are nonetheless part of our planet`s heartbeat, & will ultimately be affected as time goes on, no matter how far our planet`s blood, (the oceans) is pumped to.
I post these to impress upon you, the life forms that many will never have the opportunity to ever see in the wilderness of the unseen.
It bothers me that this was allowed to happen, especially when we can see the devastation we`ve caused on the visible surface of the earth, & which only is a 1/4 part of our pale blue dot.
Another thing that comes to my mind right now, is my anger at the responsible parties to this mess, was temporarily forgotten today, while I attended a funeral for a longtime dear friend.
A funeral!! Damn, I needed a funeral to distract my anger.
But my friend Coconut makes it better albeit only momentarily.
As I previously stated, I would only post images of underwater life from the oceans of our planet, which I`ve stolen a little of, to put in my reef tanks, till the oil gusher is stopped.
That`s the least I can do.
I feel so much for the people on the gulf coast.
I want as many people as possible to see what is being devastated below the surface, even if it aggravates their sorrow at what is being devastated above it. The only way for the gulf coasters to be "made whole" is if all the damages are brought to the light of day.
I`m sorry for all you are going through.
I hope my little bit helps.
I live on the California coast, so I know how your paradise feels to you.
I`ll start off with a shot of my coast, which I will defend as much as I`ll try & defend yours.
Since last week, I decided that until the oil gusher in the gulf was stopped, my image posts would be exclusively about underwater life.
I know BP has been distracting us all to keep our eyes away from what`s really happening, especially with the use of dispersants, which hide the extent of the amount spilled from the surface view.
What many of you may not know is that the dispersant in the water column, is maybe even more dangerous to subsurface life than is the oil.
Here is a series of images not necessarily native to the gulf, but you get the picture.
All this would soon be dead if it was in the gulf.
CORAL BANDED SHRIMP
here's what has come into my thoughts these last months. we need to stop worrying about the future. i know that sounds strange. but the future hasn't happened. in fact, it never happens does it? we never get there. we only ever get here. now. we are always in NOW. in fact, why worry about tomorrow? today is fucked up enough. let tomorrow go. concentrate on now.
oh, yeah. and that change thing? i'm done with CHANGE. no.more.change. fuck change. i've had enough CHANGE. any more change and there's nothing left of the gulf coast. my country has changed into fashionably fascist with tons more regulation of private citizens. yet ... somehow ... those causing the problems, like gun and drug dealers and bankers, continue to make tons of money. but drug dealers never get called "terrorists." i wonder why that is.
i don't want to hear any more predictions about the future. really. i want my life right now. i don't care about 10 years from now. i work it now. make it better now. live it now. fuck the power brokers. their petroleum, plastic, and toxic obsession with wealth and power. fuck them. i want to live outside of their constructs.
in large part, i've stopped thinking about them. i shop small. got rid of my credit card. live in a house, mortgage free. the only bad thing i do is fly home twice a year. oh, and one other really terrible thing. the snails and slugs were eating my flowers and i put down poison. i did that. and when i saw what i did, i couldn't believe it. i'm not over it yet.
it's still there in me. that sense that i can just erase what ever gets in my way. i can simply clap my hands and dispose of inconvenient things.
i'm like them in that way. a little bit like them. still there. but every day i try to move farther and farther away from it. not fighting them. not being like them. not obsessing.
no. it's not the oil spill. it's still NOT health care or any of the myriad things listed where urgent action is urged.
it's us. it's simply up to us. has been. is now. will be. i've stopped expecting the bad guys to be better. it's me who has stop poisoning the snails and the slugs.
Tonight, I decided I needed to be distracted myself, so I went out at 4:30 this afternoon with my iPod on, my camera, & went riding my bicycle on the street.
Thinking I`d get away from the catastrophe in the gulf & the murderous piracy in the sea off Gaza, the first thing I saw was a snake. A snake in the grass. I thought of the CEO of BP immediately, then shut those thoughts down, called the little twins & their dad (they were getting in their car) over to see The Snake, then put bad thoughts out of my mind.
I caught this also, with which I decided to start over again.
Governor Jan is going to meet President Obama at the OK Corral at high noon today. She's talkin' some smack and is ready to put that lily livered liberal in his place!
