Nov 10
30
CASUALTIES OF THE GULF OF MEXICO DISASTER: Beneath the Surface
CASUALTIES OF THE GULF OF MEXICO DISASTER: Beneath the Surface Videography and song by Gale Mead www.galemead.com Lead guitar: Eric McFadden. Tenor Sax: Federico Martinez. Carpets of crinoids – cousins of the sea-star – stretched their long limbs languidly into the current for morsels of planktonic food. Colorful tropical fish drifted among gracefully spiraling wire corals. Somber-faced grouper hovered warily while jacks and sharks cruised by, curious about the submersibles lights. Fifty miles south of Mississippi, I was the first human ever to lay eyes on the teeming, thriving, dazzling undersea metropolis that was Salt Dome Mountain. As rich and diverse as Texas Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary to the west, or Floridas coral reefs to the south, but a little deeper, and totally unexplored. It was July 29, 2002, and I was a submersible pilot with the Sustainable Seas Expeditions, a joint project of National Geographic and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, led by my mother, Dr. Sylvia Earle. Fishermen and oilmen have long known the Gulf of Mexico by what they could extract from it with their nets and their drilling rigs. We were there to study it from the inside out. Salt Dome Mountain is an unexpectedly shallow seamount rising from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico to within 200 feet of the surface. Its just south of the Mississippi coast, just north of where a raging gusher of oil now spews death and destruction with no end in sight. And no …
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Crochet Garden: Bunches of Flowers, Leaves, and Other DelightsBuilding on the success of her first book, Crochet Bouquet, Suzann Thompson presents a delightful collection of garden-inspired creations. After briefly reviewing the basics, Suzann arranges her designs in four distinct sections: Botanical Gardens, featuring well-known varieties; Inspired Gardens, based on decorative motifs; International Gardens, incorporating flowers from throughout the world; and Fun and Fantastic Gardens, with imaginative takes on traditional favorites. Simple and fun, they all use widely available yarns. Inspirational projects show how to use the motifs to decorate garments, accessories, and home décor items.
