Dates and course numbers.

Biology dept has some info on semester details.  Go biology dept!

Miss the beat, you lose the rhythm.

Students,

I wish I could tell you more about exactly what’s going on at Loyola, but I hear different things and therefore consider everything still at the rumor stage. And I am still in Jackson and will be for a while. Yes, of course, we are starting up in January, but the details of what courses will be offered within what sort of semester I’m still not sure about.

After talking to a sample of you, however, my judgement is that the same graduate courses offered in the fall should be offered in the spring: the research core class and a grad-only elective. I realize several of you now want to register for thesis hours and graduate as quickly as possible, and so we will be trying to accommodate that as well.

Of course, it now becomes ever so important that you prepare for your graduate thesis hours prior to the beginning of the spring semester. That would be NOW. All pursuing thesis hours (or wanting to) in the spring should have a clear prospectus in hand NOW.

This prospectus should outline your thesis topic – with appropriate references to relevant theory and research – and describe, in brief, the research methodology you plan to employ to investigate your topic. More than ever, a time schedule for thesis completion should be included in the prospectus you submit to your three (3) thesis committee members prior to registering for thesis hours. Do this soon RIGHT NOW.

I can look over these and give you feedback as soon as you get them to me.

***

Well, I complained about not being able to read Biguenet’s column on one day, and then, on one of the very next days, it shows up here. (With the proper permissions noted, of course.)

Being made aware of such quick and serendipitous remedies to my complaints would lead me to believe that I should complain about everything I can as often as I can. But then, on looking back over this blog, I see I’ve already done that.

So I will just sit here and wait for all the stuff I’ve complained about to get fixed.

Holding my breath… now.

My golf clubs are a rusty orange.

Playing City of Villains.

Some say it’s the new golf.

Since I seem to have somehow let my country club membership expire, anybody want to join me?

Devil in the details.

Say you bought your house for $75K a while back. House across the street recently sold for 210, but figure you would get no more than 180, nor less than 125. Say a fair market value of $150K before the storm. Just for discussion.

Your mortgage remaining at time of flood: $45K.

Flood insurance at time of flood: $80K structure, $10K contents. Homeowners insurance doesn’t matter, despite the waste-of-time lawsuits, so forget about it.

You get full settlement from the flood insurance: 90K. You pay off the mortgage with half and are left with $45K cash, the lot, and your once-upon-a-time home that now needs to be demolished. Had three weeks of eight feet of water. And another month with no mitigation possible. If so, then repair very unlikely at this point. Plus, say you have a slab on pilings — no easy way to raise that. And even more discouraging: NO INFO.

Say your house sits in a floodplain (duh). But the level of the floodplain is currently uncertain because of bad, outdated FEMA maps.

If you gut and try to rebuild what’s now there, insurance likely to go way up (if you can get it at all). In fact, rebuilding in much of Lakeview, Gentilly, and 9th ward should probably be illegal now, if anybody knew what they were doing and if they were paying attention, but of course they don’t and aren‘t. Nagin seems more concerned with appeasing voters than making tough decisions.

Seems like a fair number of Lakeview residents are now gutting and rebuilding — which is a boon for the consulting structural engineers letting it happen, but it’s not doing the community any good. Even if all those houses could be returned to something semi-safe and healthy, the Corps is talking about CAT3 protection. Maybe. By next year sometime. Maybe. And do we really trust the Corps at this point?

And then there’s the school board. And the jobs. And the health care. And the grocery stores. And the police department. And the mayor. And the governor. And the same Tom-Benson-bs.

So, with the details you have, your options are 1) raise your current house (what’s left of it) above the floodplain (40K is what I hear to do that; FEMA might help with 30K) and rebuild, which would take a significant SBA loan (up to ~200K possible), or 2) just go live somewhere else.

The details — those you have and, even more, those you don’t — support Option 2.

Any support for Option 1? Can’t find much. A buyout program would be welcome — like say, the one in Harris County, Texas.

***

City Business had some interesting stuff recently. Wireless, baby. Wireless.

As long as I can talk, as long as I can see

The important stuff:

All students should really fill this out. I know I’ve asked you to give me similar info before, but nvm that. Now read and do this.

***

About now, I would be having my Theory & Research class listen to the original Mercury Theater radio broadcast of the War of the Worlds.

My favorite character is intrepid reporter Carl Phillips.

CARL PHILLIPS: Ladies and gent… Am I on? Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, here I am, back of a stone wall that adjoins Mr. Wilmuth’s garden. From here I get a sweep of the whole scene. I’ll give you every detail as long as I can talk and as long as I can see.

Unfortunately, later in the script, Carl meets an untimely end.

ANNOUNCER TWO: Ladies and gentlemen, here is a bulletin from Trenton. It is a brief statement informing us that the charred body of Carl Phillips has been identified in a Trenton hospital.

***

I’m sort of interested in reading John Biguenet’s column in the NYT, but it requires a subscription.

So I’m not going to read it, and I don’t expect many students will either. Hope we aren’t missing anything. If you want an example of why the Internet is not being used the way I would have hoped, I might point you to the TimesSelect business model.

Those "influential Op-Ed writers" hawked by TimesSelect remind me a little bit of the Joe Bastardi story. I used to read Joe Bastardi back in his younger days, because he was interesting to read.

Now, Joe has gone on the pay-per-read circuit at Accuweather. And I haven’t read a thing he’s written since; and, frankly, I don’t like to listen to him on Fox either. He doesn’t seem like an interesting ex-wrestler anymore. He seems like a mercenary old bald man.

And thinking of Joe Bastardi weather as performance art somehow reminds me of Vic "The Brick" Jacobs, who I first saw doing the sports way back in Austin in the 70s. I didn’t remember that much at first, but then the blogosphere made up for it:

From http://oemperor.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_oemperor_archive.html

I first saw him back on the Channel 13 (Los Angeles) 10:00pm news years ago. His gimmick at the time was to throw a brick at anything he didn’t like.

For those who haven’t heard Vic the Brick, who primarily covers sports but also ventures into stock market coverage with hilarious results, has a broadcasting style that can best be described as "insane." Think of a Crazy Eddie who loves sports instead of electronics.

From his XTRA Sports 690/1150 biography:
If Jacobs is the future of sportscasting, traditionalists will have no one to blame but their local stations. Perhaps unconsciously, Jacobs has created a persona that is a brilliant, cutting protest against the hundreds of sportscasters named Scott and Kevin who wear their ties straight, blow-dry their hair according to regulation and read the scores cheerfully before chitchatting brainlessly with the weather nerd.

"America’s kids have gotten so sophisticated… you can’t just give ‘em the score anymore or they’ll tune you out," says Jacobs. "The networks are going crazy. They’re asking, ‘Why aren’t they watching? Why are they all watching cable?’ It’s because the networks are staid and cable is alive and vibrant. Most sportscasters are still in the ’50s and ’60s, uptight with the polyester, give ‘em the score, don’t get emotionally involved. Me, I can’t even explain what I’m doing."

And I really have to stop there for today since I now feel a strong urge to talk about NPR and the United Way. And that would take forever.

***

Note to self:  Describe the information the homeless need to know — and what they don’t.

Getting physical.

Physically, Loyola is fine. Very clean. No debris. Toilets work.

I wasn’t able to see all of it. I really only walked from the CMU bldg on St. Charles to the Danna Center to get my free box lunch. Didn’t see much of anyone I know. Certainly not a strong University official presence. Saw Father Carter in the distance, I think.

The National Guard is in control of the campus. Checkpoint to get into library. Bivouac in the Danna Center. No access to Task Force Cafeteria (that’s what they call it); we ate our sandwiches in the piano-room area in front of the cafeteria. You can read the message here, and then read between the lines.

I asked the young guardsman on duty at the library checkpoint if the Guard had an exit date. He said some are rotating in, some are rotating out. I said I meant a final exit date for the Guard as a whole. He shook his head.

I saw no students. Zip. None. Might have been some parents roaming around. Three or four maybe.

Of course, I was only there on Monday. But a new Loyola employee (transplanted from Xavier) giving out the box lunches said few showed up on Fri-Sun.

I got the stuff I needed to get from my office. That was a big help, though after two months, I find I have pretty much already made do.

***

Visited the house again. Kinda like a more tiring (and more interesting) version of Hudson’s Dirt Cheap (the everything-for-a-quarter, no-refunds, no-returns table). Cracked out some more of the windows. Threw some of the endless smelly debris into the yard. Found some jewelry and various tidbits in the girls‘ rooms. Stunk up my hands going through old, soaked baseball cards worth, in pristine condition, about 25 cents.

Listened to the radio. Since every single damn station is WWL now, listened to talk radio. Three kinds of callers: complainers (the most numerous), big idea folk (with grand plans for somebody else to do something), and govt/business spokespeople (making the most of their freely provided promo time).

What I got out of listening to the media: Everybody is doing a heckuva job (even the new FEMA New Orleans guy). But most particularly the WWL talk-show people are doing a really heckuva-heckuva job. I think the other United Radio staffers are doing a heckuva job too, but I can’t tell for sure since they don’t get to say much when paired with the WWL blatherers.

***

In the news. Let’s see.

Breaux was appointed appointed to get legislation through congress. Thought that was the job of our senators and congressmen/women, but guess not. I remember that Blanco earlier appointed hired some former FEMA director/professional lobbyist, to help the state do something… coordinate with FEMA, I guess. But that’s all I remember about that. I’m sure that guy is doing a heckuva job.

I’m sure Breuax will do a heckuva job, too. They will probably interview him on United Radio Broadcasters. Here’s my question: How many commissioners, politicians, lawyers, well-known jazz musicians, levee-board-member cousins have their noses in the swill now? Anybody keeping track?

Speaking of politicians and lawyers. Hmm. My sister is a lawyer; my friends are lawyers. I don’t think lawyers are bad people. But the clock is chiming on get-real time.

Saw that Quigley filed a motion to protect the rights of renters and delay the eviction process. Okay, I’m for the downtrodden too. And now Loyola and Quigley are the good guys.  But all I read is cards being shuffled in a still untouched and heavily stacked judicial deck. After all, that’s what politicians do, isn’t it? That’s what lawyers do, isn‘t it? File a motion, write a brief, hold a hearing, give an interview?

                      And when the radical priest come and get me released

                      We was all on the cover of Newsweek.   —  Paul Simon, Me and Julio

Here’s a radical idea:  Build the levees.

I will be at Loyola tomorrow.

I will report what I see thereafter.

***

Other notes:

The Interdictor has now faded into a rehash of bloated newswires.  I will have to remove it from the links on left soon.

Wouldn’t it be interesting to read a blog by some member of the national guard stationed (previously, currently, continuously) at Loyola?  Say Task Force 536 of the Texas National Guard, for instance.  Would it be more or less interesting, you think, than the information we’re gotten so far concerning the state of the Loyola campus/New Orleans area?

***

Gus Grissom quote (from the The Right Stuff):  The issue here is monkey.

The Mercury astronauts (according to The Right Stuff script) rebelled against engineers treating them as chimps strapped inside an enclosed capsule strapped atop a Titan.  These first astronauts, reasonably enough, considered themselves pilots and demanded the engineers put a window — any sort of window — in the Mercury capsule design.  And they got it.  Admittedly, the window was tiny, and Grissom and the boys could only see everything outside using a mirror on a stick.  Nevertheless, with the window:  information available to fly the craft.  Without the window:  mindless passenger.

With the window:  pilot.  Without the window:  monkey. 

New Orleans is strapped atop a helluva Titan at the moment.  And I’m strapped atop New Orleans.  I’d like some information to fly my craft, plz.

Enough with the pr.

The issue isn’t lack of patience.  The issue here is monkey.

Horses and water.

Earlier, Jennifer asked me if I had any thesis topic ideas about all the Katrina goings-ons. Sure.

Here are some: How did students use the Internet for educational/informational purposes in the immediate wake of Katrina? What sources did they turn to for news? What means did they use to communicate with their family, friends, fellow students, professors, and university officials? Mail, telephone, Internet, etc.?

One quick measurement to take would be the number of messages left on the various forums and bulletin boards set up immediately after the storm. As you know, you can find a (slowly) growing list here. I look now and see relatively few messages left by relatively few people on relatively non-recent dates.  Hmm, maybe everything has gone private.  Or maybe not.

My first impression is that public areas of the web have been vastly under-utilized – as much by faculty as by students. But why exactly?

I’m interested because I would like to see the news gathering, reporting, and consuming activities of students become much more involved with Internet-based resources and tools — and not just involved at the this-is-currently-how-it-is-done level, but involved at the this-might-work-and-be-a-really-neat-idea level.

Of all the barriers preventing innovative use of the web, education and access may be less important (and difficult) to overcome than simple inertia and the bias to depend on, trust, and place our welfare (and, during Katrina, our lives) in the hands of all those existing, non-innovative, commercial news-gathering systems: the blah-blah boys and girls.

More ideas here.

So many annoying things to post about…

…and I’m posting about this.

Which makes you watch an ad.  And comes from the annoyingly conventional MIT Technology Review.

Nevertheless, the Salon article makes some decent points with some decent information,and it has some interesting links, including one to the moronic Pete Sessions bill.

And Sessions ("a former SBC executive") reminded me of Nagin.  And that, for today, is the rest of the story.

The problem with information.

The problem with information is that it doesn’t matter what you think.

It only matters what you do.

Nevertheless, this is cool.