You are currently browsing the daily archive for August 29th, 2007.
A friend of mine sent me an odd story about how Italian police officers are now spending their time: stopping the heinous crime of washing your car windows at a stoplight. At first, I thought, well that’s a bugger-all odd thing to be concerned about (I always think to myself in incorrect, bastardized British slang). Then it became clear:
“Foreigners are also blamed for much of the street crime in a relatively safe country. Most people wielding sponges on street corners are Romanian gypsies, often young women and children.”
And there we have it. The gypsies. For as long as there have been gypsies, the good people of Europe have shunned them. And now they have found one more way of making their lives that much harder. Anyone caught committing this godless act (window-washing) is subject to confiscation of the tools of the trade (sponge, rag, dirty water), fines, and imprisonment. The magnificent mayor of Rome justified these draconian regulations:
“People must realize that behind the window-washers there is exploitation of minors, which is a crime. Like prostitution this is a racket that must be smashed.”
I can just see him banging his fist down on a podium as he says that last bit. So now window washing is on the same level as prostitution, which is exactly what these gypsies might have to resort to if they want to eat.
I am going to say this even though it is not politically correct. Abandon New Orleans. Help the people there move out and establish new digs. It has long been known that New Orleans is sinking. As sediment is poured into the ocean from the Mississippi River, the Earth’s crust (1) bends under the weight. Currently this is resulting in the city sinking at the rate of 1-8 mm per year. So when the next Katrina comes, and everyone agrees that it will, all of this effort and money will have been for naught. Plus more people and pets will probably die.
So why are we down there rebuilding on rotten ground? It seems like there is almost some religious zeal driving people to reestablish this Mecca of jazz, Mardi Gras and debauchery. Is that too harsh or prudish? Seriously, is it just so that we can have a great party town? The arguments I have seen tout the Army Corps of Engineers new plan to protect the city against future disasters. Geologists say this is futile. There is nothing we can do when the whole crust is bending beneath the weight of the sediment dumped by the fourth longest river in the world.
Now granted, there is a lot of historical importance to New Orleans. Preserving that is not a complete waste of time. It doesn’t mean people should be building their homes there. Let me just conclude with these thoughts from Geology.com:
- Hurricanes will repeatedly impact New Orleans
- Sea level is rising and reduces the effectiveness of any levee system over time
- The city is subsiding and this also reduces levee effectiveness
- The current levee system is vulnerable to terrorist attack at many points
Discovery News: “Two Years Later, New Orleans Still Sinking”
(1) Actually it is the entire lithosphere that is bending which includes the crust, the Moho, and the upper mantle.
