BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA

Today is Easter Sunday, the holiest day in Christianity, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ three days after his crucifixion.  What is the truth about this day?  According to Google AI:

• The Resurrection Theory: The traditional view that Jesus physically rose from the dead, which accounts for the empty tomb, the sightings, and the disciples' sudden courage.
• The Hallucination Theory: Suggests the disciples were so grief-stricken that they experienced "grief hallucinations." Critics of this theory point out that group hallucinations are psychologically rare and wouldn't explain an empty tomb.

• 
  The Swoon Theory: Proposes that Jesus didn't actually die but merely fainted on the cross and revived in the tomb. This is generally rejected by medical experts who note that Roman executioners were professional killers who ensured death.
• The Displacement/Theft Theory: Suggests the body was moved or stolen. However, there is no historical record of the authorities ever producing a body to debunk the growing movement.

About Easter:

• Tomorrow is a normal work day for most.
• Easter is hardly celebrated in the Orient, except for the Philippines, which is 80% Catholic.  And in case you missed it, the President is Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.
• Also, Taiwan which might have around 5% Christians, here and there, will have an Easter parade, and people there also paint eggs.
• Interestingly enough, because there are only a few Christians in the two largest countries, Inda and China exchange eggs.
• Why are eggs so prevalent on Easter?  Kind of represents rebirth.  Read this.

I yestererday indicated that our tours from the American Melody to Vicksburg and Natchez were less than exciting.  I lived in Baton Rouge for almost four years, and was looking forward to this tour yesterday.  Well, you can stop reading here, for this tour might have been the all-time most boring one ever for me.  At least the tours I took were free. For those who persevere on, I'll show photos and slides, after I first report on Baton Rouge.

• I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana from January of 1969 to August of 1972.  I was here to gain a PhD in biochemical engineering from Louisiana State University.

• 
  Why to this school?  Because the sugar company I was working for, C. Brewer, the oldest in Hawaii,  sent me there for a Master's degree in sugar engineering.  LSU is the only university in the world with this program.  They paid my full salary, plus I was able to get a full fellowship from LSU for tuition waiver, room and board.  In addition, my wife worked as a nurse.  So for the only time in our marriage, we had so much money coming in, we actually built up our savings account.  Anticipating all this, we actually bought a brand new Barracuda, picked up in Los Angeles, to drive cross country to Baton Rouge.
• 
  We lived in married students housing for the entire stay, right next to the Mississippi River.
• However, after a few months, I decided to remain for a PhD in chemical engineering.

• 
  C. Brewer was nice.  
• They told me, okay, we'll stop your salary, and when you return to Hawaii, let us know, so they could ask, me take on a project to pay them back. 

• 
  Nearly 4 years later, all they requested was a simple environmental report of a sugar company on the Big Island,  
• Thus, during my 27 years at the University of Hawaii, I tried to help them convert bagasse (sugar cane fiber waste) into biomethanol.
• Our lives in Baton Rouge were wonderful.
• 
  About the tour we took today, we left on a bus to Baton Rouge, almost an hour and a half just to get there and back, with nothing worth seeing.
• The four-hour tour was cut to three hours,  Why?  Not sure, but it did rain,

• 
  I wanted to see the LSU campus, for this was 54 years since I graduated,  But, this tour did not include that stop.
• The bus mainly stayed at the State Capitol area, and never made it to the campus,
• The group mostly walked around, but I stayed in the bus and essentially saw only the State Capitol building,  Well here are a couple of photos and videos, but if you just return tomorrow, you are excused.

The bus ride to Baton Rouge had two items that interested me: Angola Prison, nearby to St. Francisville, plus there is a nuclear power plant in the vicinity.   From Google AI:

The Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola, is widely considered one of the most notorious prisons in the United States. Sprawling over 18,000 acres in West Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, it is the largest maximum-security prison in the country.

The State Capitol, the tallest in the nation.

Not sure what this was,

The corridor from Baton Rouge to New Orleans is mostly the petro-chemical industry,

I might add that there must be a law here for all buses to stop when a rail track crosses the road  We did this around eight times on the main highway for the driver to be sure that no train was coming either way.  So while we were not moving, cars and trucks were whizzing by at more than 65 MPH in the other lane.  This was on the main highway, and if it rains hard, a following car cannot really see the stopped bus.  I cringed a few times.

Well, anyway, there is a lot more to Baton Rouge than the above,  From Wikipedia.

• Is the capitol of Louisiana.
• Population of 227,470, although the metropolitan area is closer to a million.

• 
  Baton Rouge is a major industrial, petrochemical, medical, research, motion picture,^[9] and tchnology center of the Southern United States.^[10] It is the location of Louisiana State University, the LSU system's flagship university and the state's largest institution of higher education.^[11] It is also the location of Southern University, the flagship institution of the Southern University System—the nation's only historically black college system.^[12]
• History.

• 
  Goes back to 6500 BC,
• French explorer Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville came in 1698.
• Baton Rouge was incorporated in 1817.
• The USA acquired this area in 1803.
• Was made the capital in 1846 to replace "sinful" New Orleans.
• When the Civil War began, the population was only 5,500.
• The petrochemical industry began in the 1950s.
• The city took on 200,000 displaced residents from Hurricane in 2005.
• New Orleans is 79 miles south.
• White population around 34%, Black 54%.

We retuned for dinner, starting with champagne and chocolate dipped strawberries.

Salad, Itallian Wedding Soup and Pork Belly.

Dessert of German chocolate cake,

For entertainment tonight, we enjoyed cajun/zydeco music with the Cajun Fiddle Frenzy, featuring our own Hannah.

I've been showing Donald Trump's singing enhanced by AI, so today, so to balance my presentation, something from 20 years ago, Shimon Peres's 80th birthday, President Bill Clinton singin John Lennon's Imagine with then 16-year old Israeli phenom, Liel. No AI here.

Liel still records today.  Watch Endless Sky, released this year.  That's her below.  Bill Clinton?  He is AI'd in Blurred Lines.

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