Architecture in New Orleans

(nytimes.com)

Last summer I interned with a company called Evolve24, which was in the business of tracking companies' reputations and giving them advice about the future. My job the whole summer was reading every article written about a couple companies. One of the clients was an insurance company that took a lot of flack for their policies in Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida because of Hurricane Katrina.

So basically I learned the ins and outs of the insurance industry for three months. Not too great for summer hang out conversation, but I learned a lot. Here's what the issue was in a nutshell (sorry for the typos, it's finals week): People bought home insurance from a company, in which 'hurricane insurance' is included. Hurricane Katrina hit and wiped out millions of homes in the Gulf. The insurance company claims adjusters came in and looked at the houses and said "no, no, this is flood damage. that coverage is extra and you didn't sign up for it." People were pisssssed.

But, after a summer of reading these articles, and comparing this American insurance company with ones overseas (UK, France, etc.) I learned that for insurance companies to actually offer full hurricane insurance to everyone in the Gulf who gets hit by hurricanes every ten years, no one would be able to afford the rates. In some areas of the UK, no insurance companies will offer coverage at all. You just live there at your own risk and rebuild after your house is blown over.

All this to say (I've been long-winded lately...), I had a conversation with my boss last summer about what houses would withstand a hurricane. A bomb shelter? Then I asked Julie's brother Andy (who's at architecture school in Arkansas) about it and he said that some people came up with an idea for a house that was on an axis, so the house could be blown by the wind and just move with whichever direction the wind was going. Weird. But then I was looking at my friend Marion's architecture and design magazine (Metropolis) and they had an article about Brad Pitt trying to figure out the same issue: what houses can withstand hurricanes in New Orleans?

Well, he started a campaign called Make It Right, where he had a design contest for architects to design homes that would withstand a hurricane and be under $150,000. The house above is designed with pylons underneath the house so it will float if there is a flood. Pretty sweet idea.

nytimes.com "Brad Pitt Commissions Designs for New Orleans"
Metropolis Magazine "Saint Brad" - click here for pictures of the designs

Brazil: I'm glad people like this exist

(rr.gov.br)

"I ended up here in late November by invitation of Lance Ranger, an Englishman living in Switzerland whom I met in Newfoundland last summer. Ranger, 47, bought the camp in the Amazon earlier that year. He fell in love with the raw beauty of the place when his brother-in-law took him on a fishing trip here. I met up with him at the camp, or, rather, intercepted him, as he was on his way to Antarctica to ski to the South Pole to raise money for his charity for disabled children in Mauritius. (link to Ranger foundation here)

One night I asked Ranger why he bought the camp. He laughed and said, “I’m looking forward to finding the reason.” He listed a series of personal setbacks, including the death of his father and a separation from his wife, that drew him to do it, then added: “I plan to spend as much time as I can here. This place has affected me. I want to be a good steward of this river, just keep it the way it is.”

What appealed to him most about the Amazon? “It’s all out there,” he said, and explained that he liked how nothing was concealing its true nature. “Everything wants to eat you.”"
- "River of Danger, River of Peace" by James Proseck, nytimes.com

Freakonomics!

(link)

Like the book Freakonomics? The New York Times has a blog on the book (here), with tons of interesting stuff.

Want to bet money on world events? The Freakonomics blog has an offshoot site: The Freakonomics Prediction Center, where you can bet on when the next US Political scandal will hit, who the 2008 NBA champion will be, and tons of other stuff. Zach Osborne, I feel like you would be good at this.

Anyone remember the show Freakazoid?

Very cool: self-charging mp3 players

she loves her natural mp3 player and so should you (link)

Today in the New York Times there's an article called "Cranking Out Music Off The Grid" which highlights a couple mp3 players that can recharge themselves through a hand crank or solar panels. Very cool.

"There's a secret bonus feature, too: you can use these players to recharge other portable gadgets. Yes, these players can drag less environmentally enlightened electronics off the grid along with them.

To make this work, you connect your secondary gadget to the eco-player's U.S.B. jack using the appropriate adapter cable. The eMotion Solar comes with 12 such tips, most intended for cellphones and things that can be charged from a U.S.B. jack (including BlackBerrys, Treos and even iPods). The Eco Player, on the other hand, recharges only cellphones (it comes with five cable tips), and only while you're cranking."

eMotion Solar from Media Street for $169 for 2GB of memory (solar power)

Baylis Eco Media Player at $200 for 2 GB of memory (hand crank)
(info and video from cnet)

• fyi - here's a DIY crank charger you can connect to your iPod
  

Kid Sister ft Kanye West - Pro Nails

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/arts/music/27shep.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2




I like Santogold.

Articles & Fragments

• the celebrities in Nigeria are priests and generals. odd. BBC News: "Nigeria's new celebrity class"
• To read later: David Brooks' "The Segmented Society" and "Questions of Culture"
• From "Questions of Culture":

  · "Economics, which assumes people are basically reasonable and respond straightforwardly to incentives, is no longer queen of the social sciences. The events of the past years have thrown us back to the murky realms of theology, sociology, anthropology and history. Even economists know this, and are migrating to more behaviorialist and cultural approaches. The fundamental change is that human beings now look less like self-interested individuals and more like socially embedded products of family and group. Alan Greenspan said that he once assumed that capitalism was "human nature." But after watching the collapse of the Russian economy, he had come to consider it "was not human nature at all, but culture.""

• What I want to study: "It all amounts to this: Events have forced different questions on us. If the big contest of the 20th century was between planned and free market economies, the big questions of the next century will be understanding how cultures change and can be changed, how social and cultural capital can be nurtured and developed, how destructive cultural conflict can be turned to healthy cultural competition."
• My love for Sasha Frere-Jones is growing and growing. His look at artists on MySpace: "Full Exposure: Making it on MySpace"
• NYtimes on Facebook advertising: "The Evolution of Facebook's Beacon"
• To read next: Rajan and Subramanian's report: "What Undermines Aid’s Impact on
  Growth?"
• New book on my Amazon.com wish list: Culture Matters: How Values shape human progress
• "This collection of essays addresses a difficult question: Are some cultures better than others at creating freedom, prosperity, and justice? Although Culture Matters offers varying responses to this politically incorrect question, its editors, Lawrence E. Harrison and Samuel P. Huntington, as well as the bulk of its contributors, answer in some form of the affirmative."

paper, paper, everywhere

If you have any interest in the direction the church is going, check out this article that I had to read for my sociology class. It's fascinating. The Soul of the New Exurb - New York Times Magazine. I'm using it for my large paper that is due today at 5pm on campus ministries at Mizzou and cultural consumerism. It's been super-helpful.

Something to look up later: e-paper by Siemens

In the Spirit of Christmas

...I've been listening to the only Sufjan Stevens albums I can stand: his 5-disc Christmas Songs collection. It's wonderful in a slightly-sad elvish Charlie Brown Christmas way.

I stumbled upon this article about family Christmas by Cintra Wilson (who writes for Nytimes and Slate.com) and it's the first time I've laughed out loud in the computer lab at an article in a long time. Read it here.

(nytimes.com article: "High Tea, India Style")