Maybe, it got lost in the summer heat, written off to the humidity? The one thing we are not talking to much about is not talking too much. Whether, we admit it or not, tension has been running high since Maccondo blew her top. Cheryl Wagner tackles the unspoken in an almost-great article.

So, now that Sandra Bullock has put the gossip baby and the divorce behind her, the Oscar winner has moved on to applying her fame to a good cause: Gulf Restoration. She filmed a PSA for America's Wetlands Foundation. BUT! She has now withdrawn after discovering some of the cause's facts are dubious, like who should pay to restore. the funny thing is that claymation superstar, Mr. Bill, had to withdraw from an earlier campaign promoted by the same foundation.

A federal panel is meeting in Boise (Idaho (USA)) to decide which city's federal courts will handle Big Oozy-related lawsuits. Victims and the feds are angling for the lawsuits to be settled in New Orleans, while BP is aiming for hearings in Houston. And, just in case we weren't clear, all this is being decided in...BOISE!  At first, the idea of going to a far, far away place to make crucial decisions that will affect Gulf Coast residents for years seemed like it had the makings for classic South Louisiana cluster courtesy of the federal government. But given the reputations of our local slate of federal judges, seems like Spokane is worth a shot.

by Arielle Schecter

Explosion and fire alarms are regularly turned off aboard oil rigs so as not to disturb workers' sleep, according to a Transocean technician's testimony before an investigative committee last week. False alarms are apparently common enough aboard oil rigs to warrant the disabling of the sound and light alarms that would otherwise communicate the presence of fire and explosive or toxic gas. The technician also indicated that some of the equipment aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig was faulty and outdated, referring to one on-board computer as the "blue screen of death." Anyone who's encountered such a crash on their office PC could understand why you wouldn't necessarily want to wake up at 3am to the sounds of an exploding ship, especially when you could just sleep through that baby.

Once again reality proves stranger then fiction in Louisiana. This past week has been full of quotables, such as Dr. Larry Hollier when he described a grim meeting in Baton Rouge, where State University administrators proposed education cutbacks due to the expiration of Federal stimulus funds as ³wonderful for motivation and team building². Based on uncertainties on the exact budget for the next fiscal year, we are looking at a decrease of 20% to 30%  in State Funding at the University level. The encouragement ensues with LSU System Chancellor John Lombardi, "This is gruesome, this is painful- this is extraordinarily serious²

READ MORE... The Absurdity Increases!

Sniffing sardines aside, we have to assume that The Powers That Be have been doing some serious checking up on the seafood being brought out of the Gulf. But so far nobody has been doing anything about the highly unknown chemicals used to attack the spill. I say unknown but of course they are known, to the people who invented them. The recipe used most extensively in the Gulf, the optimistically named Corexit, is kept secret under strict trade laws.

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Coming soon to New Orleans, NYC comedienne and femme fatale, Jessica Delfino teams up with photographer, Alex M. Smith, to document the oil spill disaster and relief effort. This project was conceived with the notion that if you want to do something and you feel you can’t, well actually you can.

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This man speaks (and sings) for us all! Must Watch!

Before Betsy, we had a white christmas; the next white christmas gave us Katrina. We had no snow this yule, but the World Meteorological Organization has given us something worse... the fifth major storm to fly over our oil filled gulf will be named "Earl." Get those generators ready, and keep your eye on the cones.

My name is Marissa Allweiss and I am currently working with the nonprofit organization Rebuilding Together New Orleans, a supporting Member of The ReUse District.