(no subject)

[katallison]

[crossposted to MetaFilter] As part of its coverage of the hurricane disaster, the New Yorker has posted on-line John McPhee's excellent and lengthy 1987 essay on the Atchafalaya basin and the Army Corps of Engineers' long-running efforts to control the Mississippi. The piece is available in print in McPhee's book The Control of Nature, but I'm delighted that TNY decided to make it available electronically--it's fascinating, and rereading it reminds me of what a stellar writer McPhee is.

It's a great read for anyone, but especially those of us who need a break from the ongoing disaster news and are interested in learning more about the larger-scale historical background of political/economic/engineering decisions that led us to try to thwart Nature in the Mississippi delta.

Comments

[auroramama]

I was blown away. I love McPhee. It's so damned clear...

[kassrachel.livejournal.com]

I didn't know you had an account at MeFi! :-) Would you consider posting there about this volunteer effort? The idea is to get people to donate some data entry, to combine the zillions of different missing-people and found-people lists and databases all over the web.

Read about it here: Need volunteers for data entry (http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=167). (The project itself is here: People Finder Volunteer (http://192.122.183.218/wiki/index.php/PeopleFinderVolunteer).

[namastenancy.livejournal.com]

thank you for all these wonderful links; I'm often cross posting them in my blog

namaste SF nancy