This has been a hella busy few weeks. Plus dealing with the sadness from Katrina - it is at least partly a geological story, and overlaps with my specialty. It is a tragedy that likely could have been averted for the short term (decades) - what happened this month could almost certainly have been prevented with better levees. However, the combination of geologic and engineering circumstances made things a bad proposition in the long run. The ground is compacting (the fine grains are settling closer together, and the water is squeezed out), and sediment from natural flooding is no longer allowed to replentish the top of the column. New Orleans sank 1 meter (about 3 feet) over the past century, and is continuing to descend at a similar rate. One answer is "don't rebuild" - but there are a lot of cities built on deltas, including most of the nation of Bangladesh, so I think we need to come up with a better answer.
On the short list of non-work happenings, Mr. Underhill finally got his new cage setup. Though I am beginning to suspect more and more it is actually Mrs. Underhill. The new cage has less ventilation, so I am still working out the temperature gradients and basking spot temperatures. S/he has some beautiful colors coming in - oranges and yellows.
I will be catching up with correspondence and other assorted responsibilities this next week. This includes thanking my wonderful Knitty SP4 upstream SP,
jpknits - I am blown away by the range of gorgeous greens you sent (incl socks!), and I hope my photography skills are up to documenting just how luscious they are. And my new SP5 - wow! a weatherpixie mug - I didn't know such things existed...