Gulf of Mexico

Spring Breakers is a thrilling corruption of the Disney princess set

Slideshow: 18 Spring Break Movies to Watch If You're Not Going on Spring Break

Nitrate Pollution in Mississippi River Basin Remains High Despite Conservation Efforts

Kelly Brady, USGSUSGS personnel sample water on the Missouri River at Hermann last month.​A new study out today indicates that the Mississippi River Basin (that includes the Missouri and Illinois Rivers) remains just as polluted from nitrates today as it was in the 1980s.The news comes despite eff ... More >>

Before Computers, Giant Model of Mississippi River Determined Flood Risks

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers via PlacesThe Mississippi River model during its last days of use in the early 1970s.​This spring, computer models helped the Army Corps of Engineers determine the exact outcome of flooding when the agency made the controversial decision to blast the Birds Point Levee ... More >>

Mississippi River Flooding Could Create Dead Zone in Gulf the Size of New Hampshire

This year's dead zone from Mississippi River flooding could exceed the 2002 record shown here.​We know it's just a coincidence that the motto for New Hampshire is "Live Free or Die." Still, we couldn't help but see some gallows humor in that slogan when the U.S. Geological Survey announced today t ... More >>

Ptarmigan Uses Actual Tree Limbs, Bugs and a Tortoise on New Album: Listen

​Columbia dream pop outfit Ptarmigan has been relatively quiet over the past couple years; front man Peter Marting spent four months of that working in the Peruvian rainforest. And the album the band just released, Forest Darling, became a massive undertaking involving field recordings from at ... More >>

Battle Limited-Time Tacos: Taco Bell Pacific Shrimp Tacos vs. Qdoba Mini Street Tacos

​Fast-food chains became America's sixth food group by mass-producing cheap, gut-filling, handheld eats with indulgent, uncomplicated flavors the public could depend on. It's dietary crack, and it works every time. Occasionally, though, fast-food and fast-casual chains mix it up by introduci ... More >>

Study: Oysters "Functionally Extinct"

Image via​Do you love oysters? Looks like you might have two choices:1) Eat all you can now before they disappear for good.2) Don't eat them at all -- for a while, at least -- until the population rebounds.A new study from the Nature Conservatory and the University of California has found that oys ... More >>

Food TV Sees First Decline in Viewership

Food TV's popularity is waning. The New York Post says that the network's 2010 numbers showed the first decrease in the network's history. In the fourth quarter of 2009, viewership plunged 10.3 percent among viewers ages 25 to 54. The slide continued with 3.3 percent in the second quarter and 4.5 pe ... More >>

Artgasm: This Weekend's Art Openings, October 1-3, 2010

When Katherine Bish saw a news photo of an oil-slicked pelican after the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, she did something about it. She doused people in chocolate syrup, to be exact. Bish's black-and-white photographs attempt to capture the tragedy and imagine how humans in that scenario would look ... More >>

Organization Sues to Get Bluefin Tuna Endangered Species Protection

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the National Marine Fisheries Service for failing to protect Atlantic bluefin tuna after the BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. In a press release the agency states that the species has been threatened by overfishing, with the oil spill endangering br ... More >>

Missouri Official Proves It's Possible to Advance Career No Matter Your Job Performance

Leaving Missouri's E. coli waters, for the Gulf's oil-tarred.​A man suspended from his job for two weeks without pay last year, today has himself a new, high-profile job overseeing a $20-billion trust fund for those impacted by the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Mark Templeton, head of the Missouri Dep ... More >>

A Life in Pictures

Factory Farmers and Animal Groups Strike Deal to Expand Chicken Cages

The New York Times reports that factory farms are starting to provide more space for confined animals in light of consumer preferences and changes in farming laws. They look at West Mansfield, Ohio, where farmers and animal rights activists have struck a deal that will stop construction on tightly c ... More >>

Europe's Largest Fruit Seed Bank Endangered by Real Estate Development

Yesterday we mentioned that a heat wave has threatened Russia's wheat crop. Now the country's in danger of losing its fruit seed bank. Marion Nestle writes in The Atlantic that the Global Crop Diversity Trust has issued a warning that real estate developers are threatening the home of the Pavlovsk E ... More >>

BP Honcho Says He'd Gladly Eat Gulf Coast Seafood

BP's COO says he'd eat seafood from the Gulf of Mexico. The AFP reports that Doug Suttles issued his statement of faith in Gulf seafood two days after Louisiana reopened 2,400 square miles of coastal water for fishing. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Louisiana have been testi ... More >>

MSD Blames Barge, Flood Debris For Misssissippi River Craptastrophe

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Sewer District says the potentially massive leak of human urine and feces from a waste water treatment plant into the Mississippi River that started last Thursday was caused by a barge that struck a fence near the lift station by Jefferson Barracks in south St. Louis ... More >>

Local Protesters of Big Oil to Put Hands Across the Sand, Er, Mud and Silt

Hands Across the Sand​On Saturday, dozens of St. Louisans will gather on the riverfront beneath the Arch to hold hands in a silent protest against offshore oil drilling. Local event organizer Stacey Critzer anticipates 50, maybe even 100 participants. It's not exactly Hands Across America, but the ... More >>

Lush Cosmetics Employees Stripping to Stop Canadian Oil Production

Artist's butcheringLeft, soaps sold by Lush Cosmetics. Right, the Canadian tar sands. Only if a good scrubbing by one would clean the other.​While the Deep Horizon oil well in the Gulf of Mexico continues to cough up oil underwater, a chain of organic soap shops is planning a separate protest this ... More >>

May Sees World's Biggest Bowl of Hummus, Fattest Falafel and Longest Sausage

Image viaLadies and gentlemen, we have a wiener!​When historians write the final chapter on May 2010, what will be the top story? The horrendous oil spill still spreading in the Gulf of Mexico? The looming threat of war on the Korean peninsula?How about a sausage longer than 24 football fields?Tha ... More >>

Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Leads Group to Seek Endangered Status for Bluefin Tuna

Last week swordfish fans rejoiced at news that the species had bounced back from overfishing. Now it's time for bluefin tuna fans to panic. The Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit conservation group, has filed a formal petition to have the North Atlantic fish added to the endangered-specie ... More >>

Homophobes, Governors, Preachers and Artists: Who is Ass Clown of the Week?

Who's it gonna be this week?​You know the rules: Read the following credentials and then cast your vote for the person whose words or actions you think made them the biggest Ass Clown of the past seven days. And the nominees...1. Lewis Greenberg: The Ballwin resident sentenced to 20 days in jail t ... More >>

Quantifying the Extent of the Gulf Oil Spill. Where Does it End?

Oil, oil, everywhere, and not a drop to drink.​There appears to be no limit to the ways in which the media has tried to help us all visualize the extent of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. There've been reports that the amout of oil gushing into the Gulf would cover all of Manhattan, Ch ... More >>

Controversial Wash U Prof Jonathan Katz Cut Loose From Gulf Oil Spill Relief

Jonathan Katz ​Well that didn't take long.Yesterday Daily RFT covered the White House's controversial appointment of Jonathan Katz, a physics professor at Washington University in St. Louis, to a team of five scientists asked to help the Department of Energy and BP stem the flow of oil gushing int ... More >>

White-Sand Beaches of Destin, Florida Are NOT Covered In Oil, But Cancellations Have Begun

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaplanbr/ / CC BY-SA 2.0Calm down, St. Louisans - no oily sheen yet.​St. Louisans love love love Destin, Florida. Nary an oil glob has washed ashore, but officials down there just told KTVI that the gigantic BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico has spooked would-be visitors: ... More >>

Jonathan Katz: Wash U Prof Tapped By Obama to Solve Gulf Oil Crisis is "Homophobe, Climate Change Denialist"

Image sourceJonathan Katz describes himself as "a homophobe and proud"​Washington University physics professor Jonathan Katz is part of a five-man team of the nation's "best scientific minds" assembled by the Obama administration to help BP stem the flow of oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. He' ... More >>

Atlantic Swordfish Lovers Rejoice! NOAA Says the Fish Can Return to the Plate

It's not a good time for seafood lovers, what with the Gulf of Mexico filling with bubbling crude, mercury- and bacteria-riddled marine life, and tuna populations being demolished by sashimi-crazed masses. But there is some good news. Last week the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration' ... More >>

Before Filling Up at BP/Amoco, Check This Out

​60 Minutes last night ran a two-part story on the disaster of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. In interviews with a survivor of the explosion and with engineering experts, the early evidence suggests that that blame lies squarely with BP for ignoring warnings about the well an ... More >>

Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster Spills Over to St. Louis Seafood Scene

Image viaThe Gulf of Mexico oil spill as seen from the International Space Station​Nearly a month after the explosion that sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, killing several workers, oil continues to gush into the Gulf of Mexico. While the federal government and BP struggle to contain the en ... More >>

River Water Worries

A Man, a Camcorder and a Very Long River

A Man, A Camcorder, and A Very Long River

Palazzolo up river. In December St. Louisan Karl Palazzolo returned to town after a four-month sojourn on the upper Mississippi River. The 46-year-old Palazzolo initially set out to paddle solo from the river's headwaters all the away to the Gulf of Mexico. He only got as far as St. Cloud, Minnesota ... More >>

The Morning Brew: Wednesday, 1.28

In today's news: yet more trouble for Peanut Corp. of America, mercury in high-fructose corn syrup and fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico.

Craptastrophe: Record rainfall has created a dung dilemma for Missouri farmers

The Morning Brew: Thursday, 2.7

The Strange, Strange Tale of the U.S.S. Inaugural

An old warship meets its most formidable enemy — the Mississippi River.

Essay It Ain't So

Unreal uncovers the dark side of the drunk-dial, sips some warm beer (blargh), considers buying a (tiny) yacht and checks in on a design intern at the Post-Dispatch.

Scotch Frisky

The Scottish Arms is a wonderful wee place -- and yeah, there's haggis

The Case That Haunts

The most notorious cold case in the history of the St. Louis Police Department still haunts homicide detectives

Sleeping Beauty

Washington University tries The Awakening on the stage

Mississippi Drifting

Twenty-eight straight days pushing freight up and down the Big Muddy -- and oh-so-slowly

Best Fresh Seafood Counter

Bob's Seafood

Net Profit

In this age of shrink-wrapped food and health scares, there are still folks who crave the taste of fresh-caught river fish. Jim Beasley casts his nets every day to feed that hunger.

After the Deluge

Since the Flood of 93, Chesterfield boosters have used millions in public money to raise a levee and turn the bottomlands into a boomtown. But betting against the river is risky business.

ON SHAKY GROUND

The earthquake hazard here may be greater than you think. And planning for it is less than you'd expect.

Golden Rockets

Of Wetlands and Wal-Marts

One development at a time, Missouri has lost 87 percent of its wetlands. And that means more floods, more damage, more levees, more bucks. The story of one Supercenter and how progress comes at a price.