5 Million Dutch Paintings?

That's from a Smithsonian article on shell collecting--the claim Dutch painters of the 17th century produced over 5 million paintings. Apparently the Dutch collected tulips, paintings, and sea shells, paying more for some tulips and shells than for paintings.

The Most Important News of the Day

A small item in the NYTimes reports East Africa now has fiber optic connections to the Middle East and Europe.

PART and the Obama Administrations

Government Executive has an article on performance evaluation of federal agencies, with the hook being the confirmation hearings of Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director for management and chief performance officer, who is revising the Bush's PART system. I'm disappointed because there's no indication that Zients is trying to sell Congress on using any system. If the people who hold the purse strings don't use the system, it's mostly a waste of time.

My Investment Earned 23 Percent

From the Post:

"Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the government received an annualized return of 23 percent on the $10 billion in rescue funds it gave to Goldman Sachs last year."

Of course, this factoid won't get the ink the bailout did.

Reciprocity of Licenses

Yesterday there was a vote in the Senate on whether states should be required to honor the concealed-carry licenses issued by other states. Pro-gun Senators argued one way, pro gun-control Senators argued another way.

If there were a vote in the Senate on whether states should be required to honor the marriage licenses issued by other states, the positions of most would be reversed, as would the argument.

My point?

Principle is fine, but usually politicians use principle only to justify a position.

Humans are not consistent, nor should we expect politicians to be.

The USDA Blog and Garden

I wonder why they don't allow HTML syntax? Seems rather behind the times to me (although I've forgotten most of the HTML I learned in the 1990's).

And I wonder if the People's Garden at USDA has harvested its first tomato. The last list on the site is June 2.

There Are Some People With Whom You Can't Compete

Tyler Cowen being one:

"Cowen readily acknowledged he’s an atypical library user, visiting four times a week libraries in three systems near his home in Virginia: Arlington Public Library, Fairfax County Public Library, and Falls Church Public Library. “I am drowning in wonderful public libraries,” he said, though he also noted, “I probably buy more than a book a day.”

Fifteen years ago, Cowen said, he was more likely to go to academic libraries. (He teaches at George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.) What he finds useful at public libraries, he said, “is not really books per se, but the way of organizing information.”

White House Garden--First Tomato?

I tried to find a recent update on the White House garden, but the last piece I found was a month ago. Inquiring minds want to know--do they have tomato plants, do they have a ripe tomato yet, is the White House hiding something?

Efficient Healthcare Bureaucracy

A factoid from the head of the Civil Service Commission--whoops--the Office of Personnel Management:

To spotlight one example of our increased responsibilities: in 1980, just under 50 million people were enrolled in Medicare and Medicaid, and the programs were administered by 4,900 federal workers. Today, the agency has 4,600 workers - 7% fewer, and guess how many people are in Medicare and Medicaid. Almost 81 million. They're serving 64% more enrollees with 7% fewer Federal workers.

Merging with the Money Economy

We watched The Cave of the Yellow Dog last night. It's by the director of the Tale of the Weeping Camel. The subject is a family of Mongolian sheep/goat herders, living in a yurt. It's sort of filmed anthropology, with a wisp of a story (eldest daughter of the family wants a dog she found in a cave, father fears it's too feral and will lead wolves to the flock).

A couple things struck me:

• one of the issues in American history is the emergence of the market economy, when and how did it emerge? Here the family is mostly self-sufficient, but the father takes the hides of a couple sheep killed by wolves off to the city to sell, using an old motorcycle for transport, and bringing back a new plastic ladle. They also have a portable windmill/generator to provide juice for the electric light.
• Michael Pollan famously says we mostly eat corn in one form or another--these people eat milk in one form or another. (Nomads don't have gardens.)
  
• the family is torn between continuing its nomadic ways and perhaps moving to the city.
  

This links to an article on the future of the way of life.