Technology Is Often Upsetting

Reading a chronology of the Pennsylvania railroad (the historical site has very detailed ones by year) I stumbled on this entry for April 4, 1839:

Alarmed by the fact that steamboats and railroads provide quick and superior escape routes for runaway slaves, Maryland Legislature passes act prohibiting any slave from traveling on a steamboat or train unless in company of a master or with a signed pass; captains and railroads to be fined $500 for each violation; owners of runaway slaves may recover full value from and railroad or boat line involved in escape. (PL)

And for Apr. 6:

P. Lucianna, passenger contractor on Northern Liberties & Penn Township Railroad, complains of people stealing rides on freight cars rather than ride his pleasure cars. (MB)

Google Generosity

From a post by on a talk by Google's chief economist:

Why does Google give away products like its browser, its apps, and the Android operating system for mobile phones? Anything that increases Internet use ultimately enriches Google, Varian says. And since using the Web without using Google is like dining at In-N-Out without ordering a hamburger, more eyeballs on the Web lead inexorably to more ad sales for Google.

So, it's enlightened self-interest. This comes from a long piece in Wired, which explained the auction logic behind Google's sales of ads. Complete and interesting.

The End of Tobacco

A little tobacco was grown in Alabama, but now the tobacco program is gone so too is AL baccy. So says this human interest piece from the Birmingham News. I liked the quote about tobacco and handling hay as the two hardest jobs on the farm. I miss the smells of haying, but not the scratches.

That Ol' Devil Walmart

The left used to love to bash Walmart for many crimes, some still do. But this Treehugger piece on the top 10 buyers of organic cotton illustrates one of my themes: things are usually more complicated than you believe.

So Much for the Family Dairy Farm

Half the nation's dairy farms use immigrant labor according to this.

And milk prices are dropping and Jim Goodman at grist has a tirade about the dairy industry based on Mr. Bunting: "Milk prices, like the rest of the world economy, crashed because of a globalized, unregulated free market system, not because of surplus product."

And John Phipps is feeling guilty because his high grain prices are causing problems for dairy.

And the foodie who writes ObamaFoodorama wants us all to help

And I Thought Asians Were Lactose Intolerant

Not so if one takes this post at extension.org at face value:

We are constructing a mega dairy farm in Asia with 30,000 milking cows. My greatest concern is to find out the best way for manure treatment. Would you please help me in this regard?

Bureaucrats and Rats

No, I'm not saying bureaucrats are rats. The only relationship between the two is "bureauc rats". But here' Margaret Soltan, whose pleasure is good writing, commenting on a great piece about Baltimore rats with a final kicker. And it's educational.

Napoleon's Mother

According to Mr. Beauregard, Napoleon originated the idea of Mother's Day in France.

"Clinton Pal Wins Dem Primary in Virginia"

That was the heading on the link to MSNBC's story on yesterday's VA primary. The story was right, as the current piece says: "Country lawyer tops McAuliffe" but whoever had set-up the main page for the coming story was totally mistaken, as Creigh Deeds won easily. VA's not that Democratic, yet.

Wilbon and Karnal Bunt

When ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption" was covering the French Open, Michael Wilbon had a thing for the word: "Monfils". (That is, he said it probably 50-60 times over a period of 2-3 shows.)

I know what he was feeling; I've the same fixation on "karnal bunt". (Perhaps because I'm a puritan at heart and am therefore intrigued by the sonic associations.) Anyhow, that's the phrase for today.