Coral, Algae, and Culture

The NY Times had an interesting article on coral and algae that hits the slow food and cultural markers as well. Carrageenan comes from algae and is used in industrial food (i.e., ice cream). But the algae that were brought into Pacific areas to be farmed are now endangering the coral reefs. And solving the problem is hard:

"Then there are cultural factors. Some Pacific countries, like Kiribati, are populated by what ethnologists call nonconsumers: people who need just a little cash to get by and once that need is met, prefer to spend time with their family, go fishing or sleep.[instead of gathering algae]

There is also “pubusi,” (pronounced poo-boo-SEE) the local tradition in which one person can ask another for pretty much anything, using the magic word, and the other person has to hand it over or face public opprobrium.

“What’s the point of making money if you have to pubusi it all away?” says Kevin Rouatu, a stocky, cheerful former banker who runs the Atoll Seaweed Company in Kiribati."

The conflict between market and non-market thinking/culture exists not only in Amish communities in the U.S. but in Kiribati.

Foolish Optimism from Michael Gerson

Who says in today's column in the Post that:
"Chevrolet and Toyota are only a couple of years away from offering plug-in hybrids that could average hundreds of miles to the gallon. [enphasis added]"

The column segues from fuel economy to hunger to insufficient food stamp funds.

I Never Rode a Bike, But Like the Tour de France

And this feature of Google Maps (offering a bike-level view of the Tour), via the Monkey Cage, is cool.

EU Fights Fat by Free Food

The EU is proposing to provide free fruits and vegetables to kids 6-10 to fight obesity.

A Different School System

Dirk Beauregard on the French system, now 200 years old:

"For better or worse, the Baccalauréat works, and is still a reasonable indicator of educational excellence, furthermore the Baccalauréat is national and nationalised. Candidates sit the same papers in the same subject at the same time all over France. There are no private exam boards. State education mobilises thousands of teachers to get everything marked within ten days, and all candidates get their results in the first week of July. There is no single Baccalauréat that is easier than another. There is no exam board reputed to be more difficult or better than another. It is true educational equality, and it works. Why reform it, other than the fact it is 200 years old and therefore has to be modernised in the name of fashionable progress.

So, all the candidates, for better or worse, have their results, and this week they are signing on at university. Come Friday, everything will be sorted for the start of the new university year, and France can go on holiday. Kids in Britain will get their results in late August and spend the rest of their summer trying to get a place at university. Seems a bit late to me."

For someone with no children, it's probably easy for me to overestimate the fragmentation (that may not be the right word) of the US education system. I know we have the SAT's and I assume the National Merit exams and the application process to college is being standardized and No Child Left Behind has forced some uniformity. But I'm still amazed at the difference between our system and the Europeans.

Best SEntence Today

"Sex and food — that's what NYT readers care about the most."

(From a discussion of the long article on Rush Limbaugh in the Sunday magazine and NYT's readers reaction.)

Most Surprising Factoid of the Day--Africans

"African immigrants in the United States have a higher level of education than all other groups, including white and Asian Americans, staying in school an average of 14.5 years. They have a median household income that is higher than that of black Americans, West Indians and Hispanics."

That's from a piece on their support for Obama in today's Post.

[Update: I suppose there are a number of possible explanations for this: Opportunities in the African countries sending emigrants could be particularly limited for the most educated. The cost of emigrating might be such as to screen out the less educated. Relatively speaking, the US is more attractive to the most highly educated Africans than are other countries which attract immigrants--i.e., Canada for example might attract more than its share of Asians and less than its share of Africans.

We don't know whether they come here into more highly paid slots or, once here, rise more quickly so it's not clear what the data might say about the opportunities to prosper here.

We don't have a feel for the proportions of Africans migrating, do more or less migrate compared to Southeast Asians, for example.

Bottom line: facts are tricky.]

Only Animal Farmers Are Real Farmers

That's a bold claim, sure to tick off all the grain and fiber producers, but read this post from the Life of a Farm blog and you may understand. As he says: " Thing is the chickens don’t take days off."

(He's under contract to raise layers and finding it more work and more tedious than he anticipated. He also complains about the lack of help, neighbors who cheat SSI, and the possible need for immigrant labor.)

As I say, a dairy or poultry farmer is the only real farmer, because animals will drive you to drink. You may work 18 hours a day planting or harvesting grain, but it's not every day. You can get away. Caring for dairy cows or poultry is a job 365 days in a year, with no breaks, no vacation, always chained to the schedule of feeding and watering, milking and collecting eggs. If any farmer writes about traveling or camping, be assured they're either not a real farmer by my lights or they have some gullible relatives.

Two Southern Products I Couldn't Stomach

Grits and Jesse Helms. I ran into both of them at the same. When my boss sent me to NC in 1969 to learn how the agency really worked, I ate breakfast (and probably supper) at a diner near the motel. Of course I got grits with my eggs, without asking, and the Raleigh TV station had Mr. Helms spouting off about dangers to the American way of life from the radicals in Washington and those who would change the southern way of life. Needless to say, I rejected both: tasteless pap for those with no brains. (Although, to be fair, grits and the "Cream of Wheat" I sometimes had as hot cereal growing up weren't that much different. )

Thoughts on the Fourth

I read somewhere the difference between conservatives and liberals is:

• conservatives believe the U.S. was perfect when created, and the job is to preserve it. That, as Powerline posts today, in the words of Calvin Coolidge, the principles of the Declaration of Independence are perfect and final. Period, end discussion.
• liberals believe the U.S. was imperfect and the job is to perfect it. "All men are created equal" may be a noble principle, but it meant "white men" in 1776.
  

I'm on the liberal side. So was Lincoln, whom Powerline also quotes, though he made his point through clever lawyering. "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish..." did liberal work in conservative clothing. In the midst of a war redefining "men" as men of any color Lincoln made it seem as if war was preserving the meaning of the Declaration.