Categories
Photography Weather

Burning Croft and Indiana Bird

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Isabel is churning her way closer to landfall in North Caroline, and my crossed fingers and good vibes go out to all the people I know in her path. I hope the worst you all suffer is a little power outage, giving you a nice little break from your computer. Stay off the roads, stay out of the water, and watch your heads. I suggest books and junk food.

In the beginning of the week, I actually planned a trip out to hurricane alley to see Isabel up close and personal. My plan was to stay in Virginia and then drive down the coast where possible and catch the storm coming in. I wanted to see if I could capture some photos of Isabel for my portfolio, something that might stand out a bit and open a few doors. If you think it’s difficult gaining an entry into the world of professional writing, it’s even more difficult establishing bona fides for your photography. Most folks won’t even touch you if you haven’t published previously. And weblogs don’t count.

What changed my plans was getting a call from the motel I was going to stay at, canceling the reservation. I could have tried elsewhere, but by that time I was starting to come to my senses. Who the hell did I think I was? A female Indiana Jones?

I could see myself heading into unfamiliar territory in the midst of a deadly storm with my little bitty lightweight sedan, and either plowing into a flooded road, getting hit by a falling tree or other flying objects, or running into road blocks and pissing off the local constabulary. The folks there have a tough enough job helping out the people who live there without having to waste time on rescuing a middle-aged Laura Croft. Instead of being out in it getting a great photo, I’d most likely be at the motel or some shelter somewhere, sitting in the dark listening to the storm by the light of a flashlight.

Do you ever get these little brainstorms that leave you hitting your head going “Gah! What was I thinking?” What was I thinking?

At this moment, instead of being on the road driving to the coast I’m writing this, and putting more photo albums online, using a new approach I devised for the Mt Faux PhotoBlogs. I’m also thinking about joining the Pirate Talk day on Friday because it sounds like fun, and when was the last time I did something just for fun? Tomorrow I’ll write a bit more on a story I hope to interest a publication in buying (waiting ten weeks to hear will they or won’t they), and work on a possible money making idea because someday I have to make some money from all this writing and picture taking, or give it up as a hobby pure and simple, and apply for that job at Wal-Mart.

I’m in the mood for a bit of coding, too, which is getting rarer and rarer for me lately. I’ll be damned, maybe something in the For Poets series, too.

I’m glad I didn’t go see Isabel and add to the problems in the area, but there’s still a small part of me that’s disappointed that I backed out – the part that’s game for an Adventure. Not adventure, such as hiking the hills of Missouri or writing to a weblog or working on a piece of software or taking photos, but Adventure, with a capital ‘A’.

‘A’, as in Alive.

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Categories
Critters Legal, Laws, and Regs

Will first horse meat plant open September 23

update

Looking through the Decision Document, given as an attachment to the court filing mentioned earlier, I found that the wastewater treatment plant that the USDA based its environmental review on is located in Gallatin, Tennessee, not Gallatin, Missouri.

Oopsie.

Earlier

Last Friday, the USDA filed a motion in the Front Range Equine Rescue et al v. Vilsack et al federal lawsuit to add Rains Natural Meats from Gallatin, Missouri, to the Temporary Restraining Order (TRO). The reason given is that Rains has now met the guidelines for being given a inspection permit, and is demanding the presence of inspectors at the plant by Monday, Sept. 23.

From the court document:

Rains Natural Meats has informed FSIS that it is ready to begin operations, and has requested inspectors at its facility in Gallatin, Missouri, no later than September 23, 2013. Because FSIS is required, as a matter of law, to provide inspectors for these operations, see 21 U.S.C. § 603(a), FSIS must do so, in the absence of an amendment to the Court’s temporary restraining order, as specified above. Federal Defendants have advised Plaintiffs and Defendant-Intervenor Rains Natural Meats, through counsel of record, of Federal Defendants’ positions on the issues discussed in this Notice and that Federal Defendants intended to file this Notice.

A Missouri state judge has issued an order prohibiting the Missouri Department of Resources (DNR) from giving Rains Natural Meats a wastewater discharge permit because of the strong possibility of equine drug residue that can contaminate both land and water. However, according to the attachment provided with the USDA filing, it would seem that Rains has found a way around this injunction by contracting with a rendering plant and the City of Gallatin to use their facilities to handle solid and liquid waste:

Following section 401(a) of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. § 1341) (“CWA”), 9 CFR §304.2(c)(1) requires any applicant for federal meat inspection at an establishment where the operations thereof may result in any discharge into navigable waters as defined by the CW A to provide the Administrator, FSIS, with certification, obtained from the State in which the discharge will originate, that there is reasonable assurance that said operations will be conducted in a manner that will not violate the applicable water quality standards. On September 3, 2013, Mr. Rains provided the Administrator, FSIS, with an attestation that equine slaughter operations at Rains Natural Meats will not result in any discharge into any navigable waters as define by CW A. Mr. Rains also provided the Administrator, FSIS, with copies of letters from Darling International Inc., a rendering company, and the City of Gallatin agreeing to dispose of Rains Natural Meats’ liquid and solid waste.

Darling International Inc is in Iowa, and not impacted by a Missouri court order. The City of Gallatin’s wastewater treatment system already has a permit, and presumably would not be impacted by the Missouri Judge’s order. According to MO-G822, which is the general permit Rains applied for, a plant would be exempt if it discharged wastewater into an existing sewer system:

Facilities that are of the types listed above and do not discharge into a public sewer system will need to either obtain this General Operating Permit or a site-specific permit. [emph. added]

Again returning to the USDA attachment:

Rains Natural Meats’ disposal of wastewater is governed by Missouri’s Clean Water Law (Mo. Rev. Stat. 640.006 et seq.). In accordance with the Clean Water Law, Rains Natural Meats will discharge its wastewater into the City of Gallatin’s wastewater collection system which consists of over 191 miles of sanitary sewer lines and 22 sanitary sewer pumping stations. 14 This system will transport water from Rains Natural Meats to the Gallatin Wastewater Treatment Plant for processing and eventual discharge of a high quality effluent back into Old Hickory Lake.

As of this morning, Judge Armijo has not modified the TRO in the Front Range Equine Rescue federal case. I have asked the attorney representing the animal welfare groups in the Missouri state case, Stephen Jeffery, for confirmation or correction, and will post an update, accordingly. I’ll also post an update if Judge Armijo modifies the TRO to include Rains.

Categories
Critters Travel

Travel Agent

zoehelping.jpg

As is usual when I’m planning a trip, my favorite travel agent helped me with my maps and with my itinerary. I don’t know where I’d be without her.

I took this photo as I was experimenting with uncompressed TIFF and RAW format photos. Though TIFF is the only supported format with my digital camera, there is a utility you can download that puts a Nikon 995 into a debug mode, which produces RAW formatted photos; however, it doesn’t work with any of the other graphics utilities so I switched it back.

The move away from compressed JPEG is motivated by thoughts of filthy lucre and commercial gain. After reviewing sample photos sent last week, an editor of a travel magazine expressed appreciation of one in particular, and invited me to review the magazine’s editorial calendar and submit photos for upcoming stories.

However, as another editor explained, most print publications demand an uncompressed high resolution large format digital photo, and many prefer film; so I’m trying to push the 995 to its limits, as well as digging out my 35mm cameras. (Well, borrow them from my roommate whom I gave them to. )

Can one return to film after the joys of digital? One can when it takes 10 seconds to record a high quality TIFF image. Life doesn’t hold its breath and freeze in 10 second chunks.

Categories
People

Balance

Wood s Lot has been pointing to sites dedicated to rock art, such as Oasis Design a few days ago, and Ceprano Rock Arts. I have another site on rock art to point you to, Rock On, Rock On, created by Daliel Leite in honor of Bill Dan, the famous San Francisco rock artist. I’ve been chatting with Daliel for a few months now as the site has come together, sharing feedback and photos.

I asked Daliel why people balance rocks. He answered:

Human beings have been picking up rocks for a very long time. Some have used them to build absolutely stable pyramids designed to conquer time. Others would be tempted to balance a rock on the top of that pyramid, knowing that chance, a brisk wind, a slight earth tremor, or even an experimental poke by an incredulous observer will topple it over.

The art of Briton Andy Goldsworthy plays with this interation between “rivers and tides” of time, and his constructions have been the irresitible inspiration of many would-be balancers. In California, Jim Needham, “The Rockstacker”, has maintained a web presence and a Gravity Garden from his home on the Monterey Peninsula in recent years.

Far to the north, the Inuit of the Arctic traditionally build enormous stone figures of carefully placed boulders along waterways, announcing both their presence and their resourceful strength. Food may be found here, even shelter, say the stones — as long as they stand, so shall we.

Yet even the arid “balancing rocks” of the vast Southwestern deserts, perched in unlikely configurations, are merely frozen in their travel towards sand and sea. We know they could fall, should fall, will fall, in the fullness of time.

Balancing is play and it is work. It is dance and, for some, it is prayer. Human beings stand upright against gravity; balancing on slender legs; toppling over in the controlled forward fall called walking.

And then, of course, there is beauty in this craft. Each rock in a balance sculpture becomes perfect in its placement, its center of mass and gravity either directly above that of the one below it, or intricately interacting with others to share a mutual center, much as the Earth and moon orbit around a point somewhere between them.

You asked for some “philosophy”, Shelley, how’s this? Seeing the universe in a grain of sand; balancing all of life on the tip of a stone.

Daliel is balanced. Wood s lot is also balanced, eschewing an apostrophe and balancing a possessive among a plural, or is that plurals that are possessed, without the crutch of a wasteful, flirty, come hither character.

Am I balanced? I have never tried to balance a rock on end. I’ve never built a pile of rocks, layered one on top of another. I have skipped stones, flat beauties built for distance and tossed them at perfect angles across waters as still as death — but the stones have never traveled more than two hops. Never a third hop, that bedamned third hop.

I’m happy if I can just get through life, balancing one day after the other, without it all coming crashing down.

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Categories
Weblogging

Gone fishing

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