The swath of destruction left by hurricane Katrina is awesome to contemplate. For days, weeks, the news was understandably about the lives lost, the sheer destruction on a broad scale. But as time goes on we start to see things on a more specific level. The amount of help pouring into the Gulf is amazing and wonderful. What I find interesting is that there is so much that it can be targeted. If you have a specific interest, you can help out people involved with it; for example, there are several groups trying to help the animals left homeless after the hurricane. If you’re reading this blog (and you are), you probably have an interest in space and astronomy, and that’s where you come in.
Aaron Price has started a fund for astronomy-minded folks to help devastated planetaria and astronomical societies in the Gulf region. Aaron is a good buddy of mine, an Astronomical Technical Assistant at AAVSO, and one of the triune brains behind Slacker Astronomy. As he says on the fund page,
New Orleans and Louisiana are areas with a rich astronomical heritage, including one of the first observatories built in the United States (Pierre Baron Observatory). Much astronomical equipment was lost in Hurricane Katrina, including two public planetariums. Let’s unite and rebuild the astronomical culture of New Orleans and Southeast Louisiana!!
Aaron is a guy who cares a lot about others, and wants to help. If you do too, click on that link and give what you can.
October 12th, 2005 at 6:26 am
What a wonderful fundraiser. I have already donated to the Red Cross, but it’s a little unnerving not knowing where my chunk of change is going. In this case I’ll know exactly for what it’s used!
October 13th, 2005 at 7:08 am
Phil,
I have a totally off the subject comment/question for you, but I have to see if I can get some answers/solasce to what I hear this morning on NPR. Why is it goint to take us until 2018 to get back to the moon? The news report I hear this morning on NPR was discussing the new (really very old) concepts that are being submitted to the government in order to get us back. NASA has insisted that the capsul design be used, and it is to sit on top of the rocket. Execpt for being bigger, it is going (from what I understand) to be just about the same as what was built before. If this is the case, why 13 years to get it done. Didn’t we do all this in the Sixties in about 6 to 9 years? Of course, a friend of mine said it is because we really haven’t been to the moon yet. He said it as a joke but it does lead to my confussion on why the delay. Any comments on this would be greatly appreciated. BTW.. I am very disappontied in our counties lack of advancement in space.
October 14th, 2005 at 1:09 pm
The amount of resources (on a percentage and buying ability basis) being thrown at this project is far less than the Apollo Project, so it will take longer to pull off.
October 17th, 2005 at 8:00 am
David,
you want to look at wikipedia: Space Shuttle Program
The short version?
The space shuttle was a 40 year wrong turn into technological loserville which destroyed the existing high-quality ’space-fleet’ the US had at it’s disposal.
Bloody white elephant with wings… Grrr…mutter…should have cities on the moon by now…
October 18th, 2005 at 12:07 am
http://www.CrisisSearch.com is a disaster related portal I created after the Katrina hurricane (in hopes to help). It is basically a web based software application that stores and searches through an online database of helpful links that is available anywhere the internet is