Looked at my Google Web History today and found some mysterious searches in my top 10. Specifically, they're in the format: ocean2-*.org where the asterisk represents a string of numerals. Clicking on the link produces a "Server not found" message. Doing Whois for "ocean2.org finds very little. So, big concern.
However, this page at serverfault provides a possible explanation--it's a byproduct of doing searches on Google Books (which I often do in my genealogy pursuits).
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Friday, December 11, 2009
Payment Limitation Rules Proposed by Christmas?
From the Delta Farm Press:
I might even rouse myself to read the darn thing (I assume an interim final rule) but I'm sure it will be fun and games for FSA and farmers to figure out.
“I expect — and I don’t want to create any more anxiety out there than already exists — but I expect we will be announcing our proposals for rules governing payment limits and actively engaged as well as a memorandum of agreement with the IRS,” said James W. Miller, undersecretary of agriculture for farm and foreign agricultural services.
Miller, the keynote speaker at the USA Rice Federation’s Rice Outlook Conference in New Orleans on Thursday, said he anticipates the regulations for the new payment limit rules and the implementation of the new crop disaster program known as SURE, could be published by the end of the year.
Most Incredible Sentence Today--Robin Hanson
" Even if we gained from other kids’ schooling, that only suggests we subsidize schools, not that governments run them. "
Robin Hanson is usually interesting, but occasionally I find him obtuse, as in this discussion of why we have public schools. His argument is that public schools are a means of propaganda for the government and vested interests (i.e., Protestant theology in the 19th century). What stops me dead in my tracks is the "if" in his sentence, as if there were any doubt. In my mind, the big argument for globalization is the idea it gets more minds working away at hard problems, like maybe how to prevent Alzheimers (or whatever issue rings your bell).
Robin Hanson is usually interesting, but occasionally I find him obtuse, as in this discussion of why we have public schools. His argument is that public schools are a means of propaganda for the government and vested interests (i.e., Protestant theology in the 19th century). What stops me dead in my tracks is the "if" in his sentence, as if there were any doubt. In my mind, the big argument for globalization is the idea it gets more minds working away at hard problems, like maybe how to prevent Alzheimers (or whatever issue rings your bell).
Electronic Health Records Advance
My healthcare provider is Kaiser, which has had electronic records for a while now. They've improved the setup--my wife was able to schedule an appointment online very easily (about as easily as I was able to schedule an appointment for the car to be serviced).
Today, though, I got an email from the vet (for our two cats)--they're going electronic as well. So far I'm less impressed with the software than the others I've mentioned, but the march of progress is carrying all before it.
Today, though, I got an email from the vet (for our two cats)--they're going electronic as well. So far I'm less impressed with the software than the others I've mentioned, but the march of progress is carrying all before it.
Losing Historical Data
"Climategate" has in part focused on the loss of climate data supporting the research. From another realm, that of high energy physics, comes another tale of scientists losing data, and the audit trail between raw data and published results. No one will allege conspiracy here; it's a non-controversial field of science.
(I do shed a tear for the idea that Fortran is an endangered language--if people can worry about the languages of the remote areas of the world being endangered they surely should also worry about Fortran and Lisp. )
(I do shed a tear for the idea that Fortran is an endangered language--if people can worry about the languages of the remote areas of the world being endangered they surely should also worry about Fortran and Lisp. )
Worst Sentence, Punctuation of the Day
"Our relatively youthful and socially diverse population includes a large component of people,..."
Apparently this conservative isn't sure what else our population includes. But since we liberals try to be half-way fair to our conservative brethren, here's the full sentence, with the proper punctuation inserted: ". Our relatively youthful and socially diverse population includes a large component of people, particularly males[,] with limited skills and education." Still not graceful writing, I wouldn't use the word "component" in this context.
From a Politico opinion piece attacking Obama for his climate change policies.
Apparently this conservative isn't sure what else our population includes. But since we liberals try to be half-way fair to our conservative brethren, here's the full sentence, with the proper punctuation inserted: ". Our relatively youthful and socially diverse population includes a large component of people, particularly males[,] with limited skills and education." Still not graceful writing, I wouldn't use the word "component" in this context.
From a Politico opinion piece attacking Obama for his climate change policies.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
A Mystery for Political Scientists
It's commonly agreed farmers have greater influence in the EU than in the US. That accounts for the greater subsidies in the EU. But, as reported by Dan Morgan via Farm Policy, EU politicians ignore farmers when it comes to climate change, while agriculture looks to be a key player in Congressional debates over cap and trade information. Why?
"...American farmers often wish they wielded the same kind of power and influence [as EI farmers].
“So I was surprised recently by the answer I got from a senior official from Brussels when I asked him about the role agriculture was playing in the European debate over climate change. After a pause and a momentary blank stare, the European Commission official replied that the farm lobby hadn’t been a major factor.”
Those Learning Curve Glitches with FSA Payments
There's a post here (Illinois Farm Bureau) saying that the glitches with centralized payments from Kansas City have been so bad that some House members are considering forcing the payment process back to the county offices.
Updated: NASCOE has a piece on this (click on "Nascoe Now" to download the Word document) which essentially says there's no going back (rather like Obama with Afghanistan, maybe).
Updated: NASCOE has a piece on this (click on "Nascoe Now" to download the Word document) which essentially says there's no going back (rather like Obama with Afghanistan, maybe).
Megan McArdle Reveals a Mystery
Ms. McArdle is usually interesting and often sensible, even though she's a bit too libertarian for my tastes. But today she revealed something--I quote the full post:
"Designer handbag rental. Terrifyingly, this actually seems rather sensible to me. I mean, if I didn't buy most of my bags at Target. In fact, I largely moved out of Manhattan so that I could buy most of my bags at Target. But if you're going to try to stay at the forefront of fashion, this seems like a cost effective way to do it."
I'm sure every male will see the mystery: why does a woman need multiple handbags?
Eating Your Own Dogfood--Kid's Food
A minor theme of the health care debate over the years has been that Congress should not have better health insurance than the rest of the nation, or put another way, that Congress should live by its own standards. (Come to think of it, that was one part of Gingrich's Contract with America with which I agreed--making a series of laws, like OSHA, apply to Congress.)
In the the IT business it used to be called eating your own dogfood: if you were working on a word processor, you ought to be using it to do your writing.
If I've followed the debate, the Senate health care bill does put the top echelon of the government, including Congress, in the new healthcare exchanges. And now there's at least a temporary extension to food--Jane Black in the Post reports Congressional staffers are getting fed the same food USDA provides for school lunches. Too bad the law wouldn't allow a continuance--staffers are typically lowly paid and would welcome a low cost lunch every day. There's no magic to dogfooding, but it gets people outside their usual routine and such change can generate improvements.
In the the IT business it used to be called eating your own dogfood: if you were working on a word processor, you ought to be using it to do your writing.
If I've followed the debate, the Senate health care bill does put the top echelon of the government, including Congress, in the new healthcare exchanges. And now there's at least a temporary extension to food--Jane Black in the Post reports Congressional staffers are getting fed the same food USDA provides for school lunches. Too bad the law wouldn't allow a continuance--staffers are typically lowly paid and would welcome a low cost lunch every day. There's no magic to dogfooding, but it gets people outside their usual routine and such change can generate improvements.
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