Sunday, June 29, 2008

Yahoo and Google

I don't know if anybody else will find this useful, but I was just able to find three or four links using Yahoo that I couldn't find with Google. While looking for evidence to support the assertion that the RTA is basically Nagin's baby, I found thst many of the links to Times Picayune articles, that I used in earlier posts, no longer worked, a Gambit link that indicates that the mayor bought responsibility for that agency worked fine.

So I tried doing a Google search for some of the quotes that appeared in those earlier posts. I either found a link to my old post but nothing to the Picayune:
Under the plan, General Manager Bill Deville would move into a new position: director of capital recovery. Deville would be replaced by Mark Major, the RTA’s deputy general manager for finance and administration.

Reiss said he will recommend that Deville retain his $125,000 salary and that Major’s $100,000 salary increase by $25,000

Or, the Google search led to nothing at all:
RTA commissioners sat slack-jawed Monday during their monthly meeting as they listened to staffers explain the challenges associated with cleaning a bus -- inside and out -- with a skeleton crew of about a half dozen laborers and a single pressure washer.(earlier post)

I finally decided to try a Yahoo search of the quotes in question and found links to both "Moldy City" and the Picayune.

So, if you have a quote from an article, but not the headline, Yahoo sometimes works better than Google. I guess I had gotten into the habit of using Google at home and just waiting to use LexisNexis at the library if I couldn't find what I was looking for using Google.

If you're curious about what prompted those searches, it was this from Friday's Picayune:
The agency's cash crunch has had a huge effect on its payroll. A total of 1,357 employees before the storm has been cut to about 550. About 100 of those are administrators, with the balance being union drivers and mechanics who have some degree of job protection because of their collective bargaining agreements.

Almost one out of every five employees is an administrator. That's Nagin's RTA, but it's too late at night to add more right now.

Friday's article also contained a statistic that seemed meaningless, or difficult to interpret, under the circumstances or:
The bid document cites the city of Dayton, Ohio, as a similarly sized transit system that averages 2.6 employees per vehicle. In contrast, Veolia's bid notes, the RTA has an average of four employees per vehicle.

But that will also have to wait.

Comments:
If you have a public library card, you can search the Times Pic at http://lalibcon.state.lib.la.us/ and then click on NEWSBANK. It covers the Pic from January 1989 to current.
 
I didn't realize Mr Turducken was also a librarian.. That means I know 4 librarians.

Can any of you look for the news article with the value of that gutting contract to NOAH?
 
$15M according to this.

Who's the fourth?

Thanks for the tip, Anthony.
 
My friend Mario, he lives down the street but is in J.P.

Thanks for this. I have to see if the contract was actually let for 15 million.
 
Karen, I hope you're not counting me there. I only count as like a third of a librarian or something like that.

I think my actual title is Incidental Library Monkey Dude
 
I was counting you as a librarian..and you mean to tell me after all this time I am wrong?

I applied to the library sciences program in 1973..the department head told me I was too attractive.

I assumed Jeffrey that your freakish bad looks would qualify you for head librarian.
 
Hey, I'm a librarian too! A real one.
 
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