Management Lessons

I liked this list of 10 lessons for managers who want to change things from Government Executive.  I won't claim to have been particularly successful, but they make sense to me.  I'm not sure that President Obama is following them, particularly the "limit your goals" one.

It Takes a While to Change Agency Names

See this article on the Livestock Forage Disaster Program which uses the "Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service" (quoting someone who probably had a senior moment) from Seguin and Guadeloupe counties, TX.  There's also a complaint about the crop insurance requirement:

Federal relief for farmers is tied to a number of requirements that weren’t completely clear — including a requirement that those who apply for aid have crop or livestock insurance, which many smaller operations don’t carry.

“They had to take certain steps or be participants in certain programs in order to be eligible for assistance,” Wiggins said. “My question is, if a farmer has insurance, why would they need to apply for assistance?” [Exactly so :-) ]

The Learning Curve for Fluorescents

This Treehugger piece on choosing fluorescent bulbs notes the learning curve:

When you used to go into the hardware store, you were faced with a wide array of different shapes and wattages of bulbs, different ratings for lifetimes, there were dozens, if not hundreds of choices.
When people look at CFLs, they have no frame of reference of a lifetime of bulb shopping and just pick the cheap spirals and stick them everywhere. They don't go in pot lights, they shouldn't go upside down, and they should be chosen according to the specific condition, just like you used to when you bought a spot for a pot and a seven watter for the fridge. It is no more complicated.

Females Are Bigger, Dairy Industry Suffers

We can blame females for adding to the ills of dairy farmers. Turns out because the X chromosone weighs more than the Y, bull sperm can be fairly reliably separated into male and female. So, inseminate your cows with sperm with the X chromosone, you'll very likely have female calves.  And when the calf matures and is bred, you'll have another milk producer, which is just what dairy farmers need in an era of over-production and low prices.

The NYTimes article (click on title) says the sperm-weighing process became available in 2006, so the impact is just hitting.

(I note one of the dairymen quoted in the piece sounds Dutch--the Dutch have been migrating to the US for our cheaper land.)

Defending Our Liberty--NYPD and FBI

Mr. Zazi's case, as described in the NYTimes, reveals how our governmental structure protects our liberty.

I've mentioned Understanding America (at least I thought I had, though search does not find it--anyway it's a collection of essays on various topics emulating Tocqueville)--I think it's James Q Wilson who writes in the essay on the legal system, while Britain has essentially one police department, we have many thousands.  In the op-ed I link to, Mr. Sheehan describes the tensions and infighting between the FBI and the NYPD, which since 9/11 has developed its anti-terrorism units and deployed even overseas.  My point is, although my lead sentence is a bit sarcastic, basically the US relies not on efficient and effective government, but on our decentralized ineffective governments to protect liberties.  As a bureaucrat, I mourn that preference; as a failed historian, I understand it.

Enough Doctors?

I've suggested we need more medical personnel if health care reform goes through.  Here's a contrary opinion
passed on by Ezra Klein here.

Catch the Movie then the Interviews

Wife and I saw The Informant this week.  We ended up really liking it.  Then C-Span reran its interviews with the author of the book, Kurt Eichenwald, which I caught part of, but the transcript is here.  As he says, a betrayal of capitalism. And, incidentally, a revelation of how what C.Wright Mills called "the power elite" works. It's a great story, but I'm too cheap to buy the book; I've got it on hold at the library.

Great Piece on Health Care

Via Marginal Revolution, this piece describes how airline travel would work if it was run like health care. It's good for a laugh, and some thought.

Sometimes I Think Free Marketeers May Be Right

This post on the USDA blog boasts about the new advances:

MyFood-a-pediashould be your first stop. Here you’ll find quick access to nutrition information for over 1,000 foods.[emphasis added] MyFood-a-pedia has calorie count information and can help you figure out how what you’re eating contributes to your health. It also shows the number of “extra” calories in foods from solid fats, added sugars and alcohol.

Sounds good, right?  But then I remembered reading Ms. Slatalla's Thursday column in the NYTimes about her efforts to reduce her middle age spread:

Lose It! [an Iphone app] has its own database listing the calories in a few thousand different foods. And if a food was not listed? I could always find it in another iPhone app, the LiveStrong calorie counter, which lists 450,000 foods.

So maybe Mr. Vilsack should call Mr. Jobs? (I actually doubt there's 450,000 foods in the world, but maybe food/quantity combos is reasonable.  Anyway, rather than nitpicking the Times again, the important point is this is a case where private initiative can do better than the government.  What USDA should do is doublecheck the data Lose It! uses.)

Food and Population

This is in the nature of a followup to the post on the NY Times article--FAO is estimating we need 70 percent more food by 2050.  But world population is expected to rise by only 1/3; the remaining increase is needed for a higher standard of living, among the poor and the rich.