New Orleans

NYT has an interesting article about the challenges in rebuilding New Orleans faced by the state and federal government regarding which neighborhoods to develop

a study by the Rand Corporation estimated that in three years the city would have a population of no more than 275,000, down more than 40 percent from its pre-hurricane population of 465,000

As the article identified, the questions around rebuilding are certainly more complex than just a demographic and geographical study.

This has not deterred RAND which has set up a new institute to study the long term solutions for gulf coast's recovery. RAND corporation, which was setup in 1946 to provide research and analysis to the U.S military has come a long way from its initial mission.  However, it has not always received praise as has been blamed for being too theoretical and academic. Critics have quipped that RAND meant Research And No Development.

RAND was also parodied in Stanely Kubrick's classic spoof on cold war, Dr. Strangelove, where it was referred to as the BLAND corporation.   The 1964 movie has many interesting trivia associated with it, including the fact that the Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb himself was the model for the character of Dr. Strangelove. This fact has been widely denied by the makers of the movie, but what is more certain is that Major Kong's plane's primary target, Jonathan Swift, the ICBM complex at Laputa, is inspired by the Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's travels.

Laptua in Gulliver's travels is a flying island with educated people who are fond of mathematics, astronomy, music and technology but fail to make practical use of their knowledge (RAND !!). Gulliver's travels has been an inspiration and basis of other artistic ventures including the  Walt Disney released, Japanese anime called the Castle in the Sky.  In that movie, Laputa is a flying fortress propelling itself through the sky concealed within the swirling clouds of a violent hurricane.

And it was the impact of such a violent hurricane which made the rebuilding of New Orleans a news story to start with.

New Orleans - RAND - Dr. Strangelove - Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels - Laputa - Castle in the Sky - Hurricane - New Orelans... everything is connected