Aww, Newfies! I love big black dogs (Rotties, Newfies, black labs).

Am I totally addled to read this as a taking a shot at poor black Katrina victims?

Nope. I'm seeing the same things, and just a disturbing tendency in general to compare the flooding to Katrina, and it's pinging me the same way. I don't always think it's a conscious desire to belittle the victims of Katrina -- and I haven't seen anyone actually asserting that our flooding was anywhere near as bad as Katrina -- but it is, at the very least, really distasteful. There's a natural tendency to play up the drama inherent in one's own situation, but (as one commenter put it so well) "nobody wins in the Disaster Olympics."

Oh, no, the Monterey Bay Aquarium has an otter cam!!

Cockpit style workstation is way cooler than any cubicle

Is it just me, or does this look like it was designed to fight Daleks?

Every natural disaster from here on out will be compared to Katrina, and everyone will search for ways to prove that they handled it better than Katrina.

Do you have experience with the breed, Sue?

I've been around them, but never had one. And my friends had a Pyrenees, who share many issues, who had hip and back problems.

everyone will search for ways to prove that they handled it better than Katrina.

I'm not trying to be a smart-ass or offensive or stupid, but I would honestly hate to see a disaster that was handled worse. At least from where I was which was in LA, but from all I read and heard from folks here, it was handled in a ginormous clusterfuck that resulted in more deaths than the hurricane and subsequent flooding caused primarily.

And please - if that is an incorrect way that I am perceiving it, feel free to correct me.

Oh, no, it was totally a clusterfuck. I'm just saying, now people will forever think "Well, at least it's not as bad as Katrina," and sometimes they won't think about how that sounds.

I'm with Aims and Dana. Katrina was handled so poorly that "handled better than Katrina" (without more) is almost an insult. As for whether the current oil spill is a worse disaster than Katrina -- I think it's too soon to calculate the full effect of the oil spill, but if (as the current predictions are) it's going to take months just to stop the oil from continuing to spill, I suspect the oil spill is going to end up being worse.

I need to vent for a second. I'm reading various articles and posts about the Nashville flooding, and I keep encountering variations on "WE didn't whine about being victims, WE just helped each other." Am I totally addled to read this as a taking a shot at poor black Katrina victims? Because that's how I'm reading it and it is making me angry.

Me too. Actually more sad than angry. I have no desire to get into a pissing match over "My natural disaster was/is worse than yours."