Google Government

The Post has a piece by a man who tries to go 24 hours without Google. (He succeeds in not using Gmail, but he does contact pieces of Google.) He's suspicious of Google's accumulation of data. He concludes:

I went into this experiment fairly certain that it would require the cursory change of an odd habit or two. I learned that my dependence on Google runs deeper than that, encompassing not only my personal Internet use but the nested dependencies of the people and institutions surrounding me. This is perhaps less a celebration of Google's tenth birthday than it is the harrowing revelation of our tenth anniversary. So goodnight, dear Google -- congratulations, and sweet dreams.

It led me to some other thoughts. Googling yourself may be a reason Google isn't as fearsome as it might be. You're on a par with all other users of Google--it doesn't play favorites. And that's somewhat true with the historical stuff--you can see your own web history, at least for a while. Granted there's stuff Google stores I can't see, but they claim, at least, the data is depersonalized--no connection to my name and ID.

Moving on to government--why shouldn't government operate like Google. Why shouldn't it be a principle: you can see anything the government has on you.

Speculation in the Commodity Markets

The Post carried this AP story on a commodity investment fund which was closing down--it had suffered big losses because of the recent declines in commodity prices (oil, corn, etc.). IMHO that settles the question of whether the rise in commodity prices was speculative. Of course it was, it was a bubble just like the housing bubble and the tech bubble and the railroad bubble (couple centuries ago). A bubble means speculation. Now I'd agree there were real market forces at work and it may well be impossible to curb speculation as some might like; people are people after all.

But those right wing blogs/economists who denied the speculation went too far.

Total Loss Farm, Revisited

For those who weren't living in the '60's, this book review covers some of the communal living farms which received press back then. I'm probably unjust, but I get a little whiff of the same romanticism now from some of the advocates of "biodynamic farming" and related themes.

"Unassuming"--You Break My Heart

I've liked Keira Knightley since "Bend It Like Beckham", so this line was a surprise (from an LATimes article on her new movie, on Georgiana Cavendish, the 18th century dish.)

"Keira is quite unassuming-looking in real life,"

What Is Farming in China?

Terrace farming
Originally uploaded by Klobetime

This photo from Klobetime at Flickr says a lot about Chinese farming, at least traditional Chinese farming. Lots of manual labor went into this. You can't use machines, not big machines well. And it makes maximum use of the land.

Why McCain Can't Do Away with Earmarks

From a good Slate piece summarizing various Palin controversies:

Does she oppose federal earmarks?

Alaska has long been the recipient of astounding amounts of federal funding. While Palin slashed pork requests in half during her tenure, the state still requested $550 million in Palin's first year in office. This year she has requested about $198 million—$295 per person—which is still the highest amount per-capita in the country, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. And when she was the mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired an Anchorage-based firm to secure $27 million in federal earmarks for the town.

Now the McCain camp will defend this by saying she was only acting on behalf of Alaskans, doing just what we'd expect any elected official do to. Which is true. There are very, very few people who can retain elective office without bringing home the pork, I mean bacon.

The problem is similar to the base closing problem--the idea that every federal installation (i.e., military base, USDA office) must be retained because it benefits the local economy. DOD has bypassed the problem by setting up the periodic base closing commission, which makes recommendations which get an up or down vote in Congress. I'm not sure what you can do for earmarks that would work similarly.

A Lack of Form Design Bureaucrats

Technically, forms designers are bureaucrats at a remove; they design the systems by which bureaucracies interface with real people. This post on The Hill Blog on ballot blunders notes the failure of our society to produce enough good forms designers (and now we've moved to computer-based voting, user-interface designers), which screws up our elections.

Funniest Lines Today:

"We were able to build most of it in about two months - two adults, a 14 year old and a 10 year old plus the help of a three year old."

This is from a long post at Sugar Mountain Farm, explaining the construction of earth air tubes and the "tiny cottage". (Not that I have any personal experience with 3-year olds, but "help of a ..." sounds like an oxymoron to me.)

Locavores Rejoice--A Local Dairy for Chicago?

Not local, perhaps, since it's the other side of the state, but at least a lot closer than California. The Blog for Rural America has the story(a big dairy applying for permits in Jo Daviess County, IL.)

(Yes, my tongue is in my cheek. My father's dairy milked 12 cows, I don't like a 12,000 cow farm. And neither does BRA.) But it's an example of the complexities of the current discourse. I'm assuming this move would get milk production closer to more people, cutting transportation costs and energy usage, reducing the carbon footprint, providing fresher milk, etc. But it's to be accomplished by a huge operation, non-organic and a CAFO. So what trade-offs do we accept? When is NIMBYism justified? Do we ever cap the size of business enterprises? Do we break up Microsoft or Google?

You'll note I'm good with questions, not so much with answers.

One Bureaucracy, Two Countries

Dirk Beauregard again offers insights into how differently France is run than the U.S., bureaucratically speaking. But a uniform bureaucracy doesn't mean uniformity of culture:

"France may be one country on paper, but the regional diversies and differenes are so great, that this is several countries in one. We speak one common tongue, share one basic set of republican ideals, but north and ssouth are almost two seperate countries.[sic to all errors--Dirk never bothers to spell correctly]

Maybe our differences are as great, but I don't hear anyone talking of two countries (except maybe the Alaskan Independence Party).