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Written by Alan Kline (admin)
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Friday, December 11 2009 18:04 |
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We're delighted to see that our comments seem to have attracted some attention at FEMA. Looking through our server logs, I noticed quite a few hits yesterday from a user accessing our site from "mwpoker-1.fema.gov". Strangely enough, they looked at the home page and spent about 5 minutes looking over the pictures of our cats, but didn't go to the Hancher Auditorium comments. Hmm. This wasn't a random hit--the referrer was a Google search for us by name and city. The visitor came back about three hours later for a quick look.
Aren't you glad our Federal taxes are being used in such an effective way? You don't suppose that maybe they should actually be helping people? Naahhh... that would require some actual work.
Anyway, FEMA Person: KC, Lacey, and Callie say hi. They hope you liked their pictures...
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Written by Alan Kline (admin)
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Wednesday, October 21 2009 11:38 |
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The Des Moines Register published our comments about the University of Iowa's foolish plans to replace Hancher Auditorium in its October 21 "Opinion" section. That article seems to have disappeared from the Register's website, but you can still read it (at least for now) in Google's cache... |
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Written by Alan Kline (admin)
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Thursday, October 08 2009 16:20 |
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Iowa is in a fiscal crisis. Governor Chet Culver has announced an unprecedented drop in state revenues, and an equally unprecedented across-the-board cut in state spending. Yet, the University of Iowa and the Board of Regents insist on pursuing a needless project which will cost Iowa taxpayers more than $100 million and have a negative effect on UI students.
By now, most Iowans know that a number of University buildings, including the Hancher Auditorium and Art Building complexes, suffered significant damage in the floods of 2008. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved funding for the repair of the existing facilities, and their protection from future floods. Based on early estimates of $30-40 million to restore the existing Hancher facility, and the state’s responsibility to provide ten percent of that to match the FEMA grant, restoring that facility would cost the state in the range of $3-5 million.
Yet inexplicably, the University has pursued what FEMA refers to as an “alternative project”—a FEMA grant to demolish and replace Hancher with a new building, with additional facilities not existing in the current building. Replacing the building with a new one is far more expensive, and with the enhancements proposed for the new structure, the University’s share would be somewhere around $100 million.
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Read more...
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Written by Alan Kline (admin)
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Wednesday, September 02 2009 12:30 |
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...although I don't think it was meant to be that way. The Detroit Free Press published an article over the weekend detailing what could be pretty serious charges being made against Michigan's football program. A number of current and former players claim that UM and its coach, Rich Rodriguez, are violating NCAA rules regarding the time spent by student-athletes in team activities.
The hilarity isn't the article itself--like I said, these are pretty serious charges, if substantiated. The hilarity is in the reader comments that follow. Michigan is infallible! Shoot the messenger! Those players are just wimps--get them out of here! Besides, everybody does it!
No, not everybody does it. There are plenty of respectable programs that follow the rules and still win. Oh, and it sure did Michigan a lot of good--what were they, 3-9 last season? Cheat and lose--serves 'em right. |
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Written by Alan Kline (admin)
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Friday, July 31 2009 19:32 |
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...or, "How to make a splash with a new website." NBC just launched its new series of local websites--NBC Chicago, NBC Los Angeles, and so on. If you used a so-called "browser" like Internet Exploder, with Javascript enabled, you probably didn't notice too much. But, if you surf like I do, using Firefox with scripts disabled for new sites, you might have seen this:
I didn't even know that Chicago has topless beaches!
Well, it's obvious that the site had a small bug that let it display improperly if Javascript isn't enabled--you can tell because the "NBC Chicago" logo is cut off at the top by the "Register | Login" pane. But you do have to admit that it's interesting to see a Top 5 market O&O appearing to endorse public nudity. One would think that the NBC folks have a few other things to worry about right now, like making sure that the new Jay Leno show doesn't totally ruin the affiliates' late newscasts... |
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