Teen-Friendly Flash: Smoke Kills

Funny flash movie from Russia about how one thing leads to another. Lots of fun with tons of cultural allusions (it's not-so-factually-accurate, but it's fun, so who cares); rated PG-13.

New Orleans Atrocities May Not Have Occured

Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan said authorities had confirmed only four murders in New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina - making it a typical week in a city that anticipated more than 200 homicides this year. Jordan expressed outrage at reports from many national media outlets that suffering flood victims had turned into mobs of unchecked savages.

Four weeks after the storm, few of the widely reported atrocities have been backed with evidence. The piles of bodies never materialized, and soldiers, police officers and rescue personnel on the front lines say that although anarchy reigned at times and people suffered unimaginable indignities, most of the worst crimes reported at the time never happened

(from The Times-Picayune).

The Register Google Maps Contest - spot the black helicopter, win t-shirt

Our recent spate of Google Earth and Google Maps probes - highlighting how the firm's tasty satellite imagery is threatening all decent Christian, democratic values with its hi-res imagery of military hardware - has provoked a mini-airburst of reader activity.

In fact, so great have been the number of recommendations for Israeli nuclear installations, Russian trailer-launched nukes and US stealth aircraft that we have decided to run a small competition to find the best that Google has to offer

(from The Register).

tags: google maps, contest, military

Video: FedEx Castaway

Funny in a I'm-Happy-That-Didn't-Happen-to-Me kind of way; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=747]

Video: Target ad - Darth Vadar and Heidi Klum

Juxtaposition is your friend; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=193 ]

"Pay" what?

Seth Godin brings up interesting points about what businesses pay, but I'd say this is even more true of individuals who, since they are singular, have less attention to spend. As the books The Attention Economy and The Experience Economy suggest with their theses, economics may be moving more toward what the consumer experiences and pays attention to in any situation. This may not be a utopia of consumer-centic life, but it makes things less about stuff and money, and more about action.

Google Map Plot of Rita (2005) Google Maps Hurricane Track Overlay

Excellent use of technolgoy to track the storm.

Teen-Friendly Video: Who Touched My Butt?

Amusing commercial; rated PG-13.

Family-Friendly Video: Man vs. Bear

A funny ad for salmon, yummy fish; rated PG.

Nagin Taunts Nature, Nature Makes Tropical Storm RITA

Despite pleading of President Bush, Mayor Nagin rushes civilians into New Orleans and possibly into the path of another storm (and levy break). Fool me once, your fault; fool me twice, my fault.

Current score: Nature 1, New Orleans 0. Nagin is playing again.

Video: French Rap Video

Wait for the words to come in... it's a little funny; rated R (because of the ads next to the video and the site it's on, the video itself is PG-13). [offline http://www.danerd.com/Show.php?vid=291 ]

Family-Friendly Video: Skydiving Fun

Several different clips of skydiving and parachuting edited together; rated PG.

Fake News: God Smites News Anchors for Blaming Katrina on Mortals

September 15, 2005 (by David Lawrence - staff writer):
And there's more smote where that came from bellowed the deity while standing in the smoldering remains of the CNN Domestic Desk in Atlanta, GA. Staffers described the event as unexpected and expressed regret that no one was able to capture it on film. As the deity stomped away, He was heard muttering The next one will be worse.

Teen-Friendly Flash: Commandos in the Classroom

Fun little parody-ish educational film-stripy thing. Rated PG-13.

New Orleans Blame Game: Read this Site

Excerpt:

[New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco] let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans–in one trip–get ruined in the floods.

In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsiblity for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it

(from dcthornton.com).

Rebuilding of New Orleans - raise it up

The Chicago River was reversed many years ago. Part of Chicago exists on fill that was built to extend out the shoreline along lake Michigan. Part of the city was raised one story (with jacks and such) to compensate for the swampy land. Perhaps New Orleans can be raised up. The technology exists to vastly change a city's layout and depth.

Existing buildings can be raised up above sea level and the void beneath can be filled in. The rest of the area can be filled and the boundaries (where the levies now are) can be reinforced. This could have several benefits over restoring the pre-storm set-up:

1. cataclysmic flooding would be next to impossible
2. the reinforced periphery would only need maintenance every 100 years or so (like Chicago's shoreline).
3. if the city of New Orleans in the future were to fail to maintain it, there would be no catastrophic failure; the edges of the city would slowly erode away. This would give time for residents of affected ares to slowly react.

Rebuilding a city in a soup bowl is a foolish recreation of the city-in-jeopardy we had a week ago. Fill the soup bowl and rebuild the city on top.

Thank you

tags: New Orleans, Katrina, Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane, civil engineering, Politics

To Become... Clay

Family-friendly .wmv stop-motion video of some wire and clay becoming more.