Today was a seven hour plus trek from Austin to New Orleans. The transition seems to be complete from the agricultural economies we have been traveling through since leaving Madison, WI to the industrial economy that started raising its head in Texas. The oil fields of west Texas transitioned into the urban areas of central and east Texas and full blown industrial and chemical complexes of Louisiana.
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| The last exit in Texas and we drove on almost every one of those miles. That was a very long state. |
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| This truck has a child in the back, it flew past me while I was doing 75ish. One of the scarier sights we saw. |
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| Another scary sight, drive through mixed drinks. Welcome to Louisiana! |
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| The bright yellow piles are sulfur at a fertilizer factory. |
En route to New Orleans we stopped at Oak Alley Plantation. It was pretty amazing. The oaks that make up the alley are Virginia Live Oaks that are over 300 years old (the trees generally have a life expectancy of 600 years) and are thick with resurrection ferns. These ferns turn brown and dry until the next rain when they green right up. We arrived on a green day. They are spectacular. And HUGE!!
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| All the green on the trunk is the resurrection fern. |
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| Close up of resurrection fern. Note that the ferns are starting to brown again, until the next rain. |
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| 28 Virginia Live Oaks, 14 on each side flank the quarter mile entrance to the main house |
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| The full length of the alley as viewed from the balcony of the main house. |
This plantation is currently owned by a traditional historical non-profit foundation but it also is a functioning sugar cane plantation. So, for those of you who don't know what sugar cane looks like this one is for you. It's actually quite pretty, especially when the wind blows.
FUN FACT: There have been many movies, TV shows, and music videos filmed on location at this plantation. Two of the notable films are Interview with the Vampire and Primary Colors.
The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson
This book tells the story of the discovery of Pluto and its naming. The predominant matter discussed is Pluto's ultimate demotion from its status as a planet to something less than that, a celestial object, but not a planet. The book also discusses the planet's cultural significance, including its link to Disney's Pluto (not much).
The author recounts the story of the demotion in the context of the reopening of the planetarium at the Museum of Natural History in NYC where he runs the educational programs. The museum recently rolled out a complete renewal of the planetarium at the cost of about a quarter billion dollars. It was a very high profile project in scientific circles. He tells the story of the museum's decision to demote Pluto from the status of a planet long before that opinion was widely accepted as it is today. This is a gross simplification of the situation but it will suffice.
You are probably aware of the author as he is the media's go to scientist on all things planetary. He is quite smitten with himself and at length discusses the hardship the museum's decision brought upon him. He also loves to recite very long lists of things, like the variations of the mnemonics people use to remember the order of the planets. He must have offered up 15 different variations. He also read throughout the course of the book literally dozens of emails he received over the years the book follows. Yeah, we get it. Did I mention he read the book as well? The book was not very long but it was too long. It would have made a great story, in highly redacted form, in the Sunday New York Times magazine.
A&L
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