I’m scheduled to appear on Fox News tomorrow (Wednesday, Sept. 7) sometime between 12:30 and 1:00 PM South Bend time (1:30-2:00 PM East Coast, 10:30-11:00 AM West Coast).

UPDATE: It’s been cancelled.

Following up my aside in this post, I’d like to point out another gallery — with another set of heroes, in a thousand small ways. CNN’s ‘citizen journalist’ galleries have captured how regular people are raising funds for Katrina relief, down to the neighborhood lemonade stand. Truly wonderful.

(Note says: I hope whoever gets this teddy bear will feel love and support from the donating people. I’m glad you survived, from Danielle in California)

Brian (Briandot)

CNN — as well as many news organizations — has an impressive (if gruesome) gallery, or set of galleries, from New Orleans. Most recently I was struck by their NOLA fires gallery, which shows some of the fires burning in the city, as well as those sent to deal with them.

Aside: My close friend and best man at my wedding last year is a doctor, volunteer EMT and fire fighter (yes, sometimes all at once) and he was thinking about going down. (Unfortunately, as he’s working the ER at Penn State Pediatric Trauma, he has his hands full right now.) I’d like to say that the guys willing to go down to NOLA and put themselves on the line — soldiers, firefighters, and medics alike — are true heroes.

Brian (Briandot)

Pumping the toxic water now filling “Lake New Orleans” out into the Mississippi River and/or Lake Pontchartrain will create an environmental disaster of epic proportions, scientists say. Unfortunately, as Sam Gamgee would say, “there’s nothing for it” — there’s simply nowhere else to put all that water, so you gotta do it. But people (and all manner of other living creatures) will be feeling the effects of this for years to come.

As promised, pictures of tonight’s lovely celestial encounter:

That’s Venus at left and Jupiter at right (and, obviously, the Moon and the Golden Dome in the middle).

Pretty neat, eh?

UPDATE: Here are my last two pictures of the Moon “setting” behind the Dome:

If anyone wants larger versions of any of these pics, let me know. (The tight shot of the Dome and the Moon, if cropped correctly, makes a lovely wallpaper image.)

UPDATE 2: As if this evening hadn’t already been a good one for stargazing… I saw a meteor while walking the dog just now!

Ten days too late, Mayor Nagin has decided to order a mandatory evacuation that’s actually mandatory.

“New Orleans mayor issues order authorizing the forced removal of people refusing to leave the city. More soon.“

Brian (Briandot)

Just a reminder to look west during the hour or so after sunset tonight. If the sky is clear, it should be a lovely sight.

It looks like the wispy clouds that have been over South Bend today are moving away. Hopefully the western sky will stay clear!!

Geraldo Rivera and Bill O’Reilly are seriously b*tch-slapping the New York Times on the O’Reilly Factor right now. It’s quite amusing.

UPDATE: O’Reilly just told the NYT writers that if they attack Fox’s reporters personally, “Geraldo and I are going to come to your house, and you don’t want that.” LOL!!

Earlier, Geraldo said the NYT “thinks its crap doesn’t stink.”

UPDATE 2: Context here. Transcript here.

Following up on a guestblogger’s post yesterday, the Superdome will probably have to be demolished, according to CNN.

“Lake New Orleans” has 45,000 times more sewage bacteria than would be considered safe for swimming in a pond or lake.

Here are some more statistics about the hurricane.

You know, if we really want to honor both Katrina’s victims and Chief Justice Rehnquist, shouldn’t we lower the flag to quarter staff? You know, half and then half again? Just sayin’…

Incidentally, for my fellow Domers who might be concerned that my newfound audience means I’m going to abandon my blog-roots… never fear! I will keep blogging about interesting Notre Dame and NDLS news, post pictures of campus (see above), etc. And I’ll keep blogging about other things, too, including (but not limited to) Katrina. The BrendanLoy.com community is a big tent — there’s room for everyone here! :)

UPDATE: Here another flag pic, showing the Stars and Stripes being folded up at the end of the day:

The new college football rankings are out, and Notre Dame is #20 in the AP poll and #23 in the ESPN/USA Today poll. Woohoo!

USC, of course, remains #1. But BoiFromTroy is worried.

Bob Denver, Gilligan from Gilligan’s Island, just died. He was 70.

(Guestblogger Em)

Aaron Greenspan, whom you may remember from some of the comments and/or forums, has written something up that some of you might find interesting. He runs a computer company in Dallas and attempted to help the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts — only to be met with a surprising amount of resistance. I suspect his experience is indicative of others’ attempts to simply help in any way they can. Check it out here.

Brian (Briandot)