Maine Memory Network

Link - This looks like it will be an interesting project.

Imagine being able to search for, and view, documents, letters, photos and objects from over 160 historical societies, libraries and museums in Maine, all on your computer!

My Baby!

Have a Cow!

Before Katrina

This is the harbor at Pass Christian, Mississippi back in March 2005.

Long Beach, MS - First Baptist Church

Link - I've finally located more info on First Baptist of Long Beach, Mississippi. I'd visited that church earlier this year while on the coast. I knew it had been demolished from articles in the Sun Herald and from the NOAA satellite photos of Katrina damage. Florida Baptist Witness has this to say:

Disaster relief volunteers from First Baptist Church, Milton, have made almost daily trips to Mississippi since Hurricane Katrina to deliver water, food and ice, and offer clean-up assistance. They made it as far as Laurel, Miss., on the first trip and Biloxi, on the second. On Sept. 1, a group including Pastor David Spencer delivered water, ice, disinfectants, diapers and other supplies to Long Beach, a city west of Gulfport, and they have returned to Long Beach almost daily since then.

Spencer served as pastor of First Baptist Church, Long Beach, 16 years before moving to Milton in 1996. Hurricane Camille heavily damaged the church, located only a half-block off the Gulf, in 1969, and the church built a new sanctuary in 1973. Hurricane Katrina demolished all the church facilities, along with most of the city.

Spencer baptized Long Beach Mayor Billy Skellie, and Spencer made use of that connection to obtain permission to minister to the devastated community. Residents of Milton have filled the garage of Long Beach Pastor LaRue Stephens with water and supplies, and are currently working to fill a donated warehouse with everything from diapers to gasoline.

First Baptist, Milton, mostly recovered from Hurricane Ivan in 2004 but still suffering the effects of Hurricane Dennis in July, is reciprocating the kindness shone to them by the Mississippi congregation. First Baptist Church, Long Beach, brought 10 truck loads of supplies to Milton after Ivan struck there a year ago.

“They were so kind to us,” Spencer said. “They brought all kinds of supplies – fuel, food and even fresh fruit- right off the boats in Gulfport.”

Evacuating NOBTS

Link - How the last people on campus got out of New Orleans!

Katrina Response Not Slow

Link - A resident of the Mississippi Gulf Coast says response was not slow. (I happen to agree.)

Ramblings on Katrina

I haven't posted much lately. I've just been too overwhelmed by what I've been viewing on the television. I was well-acquainted with the Mississippi Gulf Coast and New Orleans. It is so sad to see such utter devastation. I've seen the images on television, the NOAA satellite images of the destruction, and the photo galleries posted by all sorts of photojournalists on the Web. Many of the images leave me in tears.

Disasters such as Katrina make us realize what is important and what isn't. I am so tired of hearing the "blame game." No amount of preparation could have prepared us for the enormity of Katrina's devastation. It takes time to clear roads and get into affected areas. The response was may not have been as immediate as anyone wanted, but I don't think that the blame game helps and I'm not sure that large level response was possible sooner because of the damage to roads and logistics of moving aid workers into the areas affected.

I have admired Haley Barbour's leadership in the crisis, but I've been dismayed with that of Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco. Why was the New Orleans disaster plan not followed? Why are there enough buses left in the city of New Orleans to have transported nearly 15,000 folks out sitting there underwater? Why did they put people in the Superdome without having emergency items such as food and water there? There are lots of questions to answer. Maybe one day we'll have them. I'm not saying Nagin and Blanco are to blame, but I do want answers to some of those questions. I've not seen a satisfactory answer yet.

After waiting all week, Knoxville finally received some evacuees. One lady that I'm sure had never been outside of New Orleans in her entire life was very impressed with the beauty of the region. I'm sure we'll hear more of their stories in the days to come.

Vend-a-Book

Link - A vending machine that dispenses low-cost books to a variety of reading tastes.

Computers & Incan Archaeology

Link - A couple of Harvard researchers believe they have deciphered some Incan inscriptions using computer technology.

Gas Prices

I found Donald Trump's post about high gasoline prices an interesting read. The one thing I do know is that gas prices continue to climb, we're going to have a major economic recession.

Love These Pictures

Blue Ridge Blog is a photoblog from just across the state line in North Carolina. Marie Freeman always has great photos of Appalachia!

Non-Existence

I found out what it is like to not exist today due to being accidentally purged from the accounts at work when they were deleting student accounts. I lost all my email, my network drive space, my personal files, etc. I couldn't even log on because I didn't exist on the network. I was about to give up and go home if I didn't exist but then they started restoring me.

RIP Thomas Clark

Kentucky Historian Thomas Clark is dead at 101.

Weapons Cache Found

My nephew's unit, the 155th BCT, has located a critical weapons cache in Iraq!

Colonial Hurricanes

Most of the early European settlers knew virtually nothing about hurricanes; however, they discovered the power of these storms early. Harvard Business School has a great article about colonial hurricanes. Thanks to Everything and Nothing for the Hat Tip. The article was excerpted from "Weathering the Storms: Hurricanes and Risk in the British Greater Caribbean." Business History Review, Vol. 78, No. 4, Winter 2004.

Stupid Things Preachers Say

I visited a church this morning in the Charleston area. The preacher got off to a bad start when he was doing jokes about "tourist season" and how many tourists can folks bag and so forth. If they have that many tourists, would it not stand to reason that there would be a tourist in the crowd who would feel unwelcomed by his jokes? Well, that is exactly what happened today. He was actually a pretty good speaker, but his opening remarks made me lose any respect for him. On top of that, I felt the church cold and uninviting. Hardly a person spoke up. If the preacher makes cracks like that, maybe they just hope they'll drive the tourists away. I don't think I'd visit that church again. As I was sitting there, I recalled a visit I'd made to a Mennonite Church in the heart of Amish country in Ohio which also hosts a lot of tourists. I don't recall what the subject of the pastor's message was on that particular day, but I do remember that one of his applications was that if his church members were charging locals one price and tourists another that they were doing wrong. Somehow, I don't think this Charleston area preacher would ever preach a sermon like that. He'd probably tell them to charge tourists double so they wouldn't come back. I'm sure that the Charleston area depends on tourism for a good portion of its economy. To have a pastor speak ill of the "bread and butter" of his members is unethical in my opinion.

Charleston

I'm really enjoying my stay in Charleston. However, I have worn out my feet. Friday I walked all day in the historic section and downtown in Charleston. Yesterday (Saturday) we spent the day out at Magnolia Plantation & Gardens. Magnolia is a much more enjoyable plantation than Boone Hall which I had visited on another trip to Charleston. The seafood has been superb, but I've found something I like nearly as well as the seafood. I call them Charleston potatoes. It's really a baked potato with cheeses and other goodies similar to what you'd find in a loaded potato. We stopped at the cross stitch shop in Summerville on the way into town. It is a very nice shop, and I recommend it although there are some booths in the city market that have some cross stitch, you can't beat the stores that offer varieties in fibers and a full range of cross-stitching goodies.

NGS

National Genealogical Society's Conference in the States was held last week in Nashville. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the entire conference. A couple of friends shared my room at the conference hotel. This year's conference surpassed the last NGS I attended in a number of regards. The hotel was more convenient; the food options in the area were more plentiful; and the planning by local personnel was superb. Next year's conference is in Chicago!

NGS

National Genealogical Society's Conference in the States is coming up next week in Nashville! The speakers are always great and so are the exhibits.