The Road Home Hoho.

For the second time, our scheduled Road Home closing has been cancelled.

This time — based on what we’ve been told by the First American Title Company (no word whatsoever from the Road Home or ICF or whatever other shell company is in charge) — because, as a part of receiving the SBA loan that we used to relocate outside flood-prone New Orleans, we were asked to (and gladly) signed a document confirming that our property in New Orleans (which flooded with 8 feet of water and had to be demolished) is in a flood-prone area and, therefore, ineligible for future federal disaster assistance should anyone ever be stupid enough to build a home there again.

The reasoning now seems to be this:  Although we are eligible by all other criteria for Road Home funds, because of this document — "Notification of Disqualification for Future Federal Disaster Assistance" — the Road Home program is uncertain that they will be able to resell our flood-prone property to some poor unsuspecting sucker who might have otherwise, in the absence of this document, not realized that the property is in a flood-prone area.

Assumedly, if the Road Home program buys properties in flood-prone New Orleans that are actually in flood-prone areas but have not been designated as such by an SBA document such as the one we signed, then all is okay and these properties can be sold to as many poor unsuspecting suckers as the Road Home can find.

And, no, I could not make this up.

Justing kidding on the just kidding stuff.

Corps corrects its correction on flooding estimates

Oops. Maps on Old Metairie, Lakeview risks are right after all

Monday, November 19, 2007

***

Like, whatever.

Army Corps of Engineers: “Just kidding.”

Remember this post –> http://masscomgrad.blogs.com/mass_com_grad/2007/08/odds-are.html ?

I was fairly negative about the T-P’s fairly positive portrayal of how much improvement the Army Corps of Engineers had wrought.  Now, it turns out, when the T-P, doing its professional media thing, spruces up what they are told and wraps it in a pretty graphic ribbon and doesn’t know or care or have the time or resources or expertise necessary to find out the information they are reporting on themselves, then they tend to report whatever extraordinarily and shamefully inaccurate bs falls into their laps.

So the T-P in this case — and probably most media news in most cases — ultimately rely on conventional wisdom.  And, if you rely on conventional wisdom, then you don’t really need to do any reporting whatsoever.  You can just do the talk show thing and talk about what other people said about what other people said.  Which, I guess, is exactly what happens.

In any case, turns out that the Army Corps of Engineers made a boo-boo.  All that hurricane protection stuff that the T-P blew up into a major news story marking the anniversary of Katrina was wrong.  Extraordinarily and shamefully wrong.  So the Army Corps of Engineers made a boo-boo and the T-P made a boo-boo.

http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/11/flooding_estimates_are_off_by.html

But everything’s okay:  No penalty, no foul.

The facts.

Here’s how the conventional newspaper coverage goes…

"The American Society of Civil Engineers accepted close to $1 million
from the corps to compensate the external review committee members for
their time and expenses during the two-year investigation."

…which is, based on cultural convention, deemed unobjectionable.

Here’s how those same facts are presented in a different way…

" ‘The Army Corps of Engineers asked the American Society of Civil Engineers to hand-pick some members to find the truth. Then they paid them nearly a million dollars and awarded them medals of honor. Way to go, guys!’ "

… which is then deemed — by the Army Corps of Engineers — to be objectionable.

[The full context of version #2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_ezG_ahQOw]

***

Now, is a news story that contains BOTH versions objectionable?

Engineer group not amused by online spoof of levee review

Posted by The Times-Picayune November 13, 2007  9:32PM

Archive this.

I look at different models of game-related courses from time to time.  This one still looks the best to me.  It’s nice to keep it handy.

http://www.cyberchimp.co.uk/U75105/index.htm

One big reason why:  The numerous free game links.

Visuals.

http://www.life.com/Life/cover_search/

http://www.michaelhoppengallery.com/exhibition,past,1,0,0,391,37,0,0,0,_vj_day,_times_square,_new_york,_august_,_.html

http://www.neatorama.com/2007/01/02/13-photographs-that-changed-the-world/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_images_in_the_Soviet_Union

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:OJ_Simpson_Newsweek_TIME.png

http://www.poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=106490

Future CMMNA100 assignments.

http://www.jot.com/index.php

http://www.backpackit.com/

http://www.writeboard.com/

http://www.wikispaces.com/

Couple of notes.

1. The Deadbeat Dad syndrome, politico version.

No one budges on DA’s legal bills

Posted by NOLA.com November 01, 2007 12:52AM

"So far, the only player in the prickly affair to win a concession
appears to be Jordan: Business leaders helped him secure private sector
work in exchange for an embarrassing resignation that likely ended his
political career."

2.  Enjoy the free for as long as it’s gimped.

Wireless Internet access now available at N.O. airport

Posted by The Times-Picayune October 31, 2007  8:32PM

"…where Internet pages took five to six seconds to load.

Wilcut said the airport is bound by a state law that limits the speed of free Wi-Fi connections."

RE: the recent CMMNA400 quiz assignment.

How Television Commentary Affects Children’s Judgements on Soccer Fouls

Johannes W. J. Beentjes, Marianne van Oordt, and Tom H.A. can der Voort
Communication Research, 2 2002; vol. 29: pp. 31 – 45.

http://crx.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/29/1/31