Master Gardeners in Fairfax

I blogged recently about the Extension Service's Master Gardener program (its blog) and noted its absence from the Reston library.  In fairness I should note other branches of the Fairfax library do have Master Gardeners in attendance.

Convergence of Capitalism and Communism, Circa 1931

From the News from 1930 blog:

Editorial by T. Woodlock: Sen. Nye intends to modify antitrust laws to “protect the small manufacturer ... and merchant.” This is a misunderstanding of the laws, whose purpose is to preserve competition and competitive prices, not guarantee success; competition “means ... a winner and a loser.” Our attitude toward antitrust law comes from the dominant theory early in the industrial revolution that “free and unlimited competition of individuals” assures “the greatest good of all”; this contrasts with the Socialist principle of complete cooperation. However, our much more complex modern economy requires cooperation to a large degree; “so far as the visible structure ... it is well on the way to the structure contemplated by orthodox Socialists. ... The modern problem is to reconcile” these principles; “somehow, the necessary planning must presrve the largest freedom possible for individual action ... so as to bring into play the largest possible percentage of the existing individual ability-potential.”...

Note that the Wall Street Journal is not voicing a full-throated defense of the free market and capitalism.  "Cooperation" was a popular concept in the 1920's with Hoover and the early 1930's.  The idea was that human intelligence, which had accomplished so much in innovations and technology, was up to the challenge of creating social arrangements which were better than those arising out of the chaos of the market. That's the sort of thought which led to the creation of the Federal Farm Board and then the Agricultural Adjustment Administration .

Will Spouses of Presidential Candidates Compete in Gardening?

That's the question raised in my mind by this piece on the different gardens of the wives of the candidates for Prime Minister in Britain. It seems it's the "in" thing to garden there.  Now in the US Michelle may have given more prominence to gardening with her White House garden.  But I don't remember in past elections there was any direct competition among the candidates wives.  There's always speculations about what they'll do in the White House, and comparisons of their lives and careers before the election, but no further. 

Why Judge Garland Shouldn't Be the Nominee

The prediction is the Dems will lose about 5 Senate seats this fall, maybe more. So what happens in 2011 and 2012 if one of the current Supreme Court Justices retires? Obama needs a strategy, and the Reps are giving him one.  The commentary on his list of possible nominees to fill the seat of Justice Stevens says Judge Garland would have no problem getting confirmed.  That means, to me, that Obama should hold the Judge in reserve for a possible future vacancy. The Reps would have trouble opposing a nominee in 2011 or 2012 if they had no problems with him in 2010.

Congress and E-Government

The Golden Mouse awards were announced, recognizing excellent Congressional websites. Unfortunately neither agriculture committee nor either of my Senators was recognized.  My representative, Joe Moran, did get a silver award.  I'd hope some people will do as I just did: write their Congresspeople commenting on how well or poorly they did.  The more feedback they get, the more likely they are to improve. However, don't do as I did--read about the methodology used before writing..  I assumed, and was wrong, that the rankings were on the usability of the sites.  Turns out there's lots more involved.  So my comments were fine, but they could have been better.

Typo of the Day

Only expose your baby to true and FDA-approved heroines.

From the Freakonomics RSS feed (not in the actual post): " Infants exposed to this heroine substitute in utero experience vision problems. "

An IPAD Plant ID App?

Back in the days of Infoshare (i.e., 1991), one application NRCS (then Soil conservation Service) was eager to share was their Plants database. Frankly, I was dubious then, although out of respect, or cowardice, I tried not to show it.  We were in a situation where each agency was pushing its own ideas, so it was the classic logrolling situation: the end project included the top priorities of each agency, not necessarily what the farmers would find most valuable.

Anyway, over the years I've occasionally looked at it on the NRCS web site.  Even tried to use it once when I was trying to identify some weeds in the lawn.That experience convinced me the database wasn't particularly intended for such uses.  But I may be wrong.

Today in the NY Times there's an article on the new IPhone and IPad apps for birders.  My aunt and uncle were avid birders, and they had their manuals to look up birds with which they weren't familiar.  Me, I wasn't familiar with much more than robin, sparrow, crow, blue jay, blackbird, wren.  To become interested in birding I needed something easier than the Roger whats-his-face books [ed. Tory Peterson], something more like these apps.  Apparently they build upon the existing databases of Audubon and Cornell, adding all sorts of bells and whistles. They sound great, even if they aren't quite ready to identify a bird from the sound of its song.

I wonder why NRCS, or more likely some private person, couldn't create similar apps for plants? I would think much of the logic and the user interface for birds could carry over to plants: species, location, looks, etc. Of course, when you google: "plant identification" you get lots of results from different enterprises with different takes on the subject.

Kevin Drum Misses the Best Info

Kevin links to a study of SAT scores.  Which major had the highest math score?  Which major had the highest reading score?  But he didn't highlight this from the conclusions:

2. Overachievers exist in most majors, with low SAT scores but very high GPAs. These
overachievers are disproportionately female.
3. Underachievers exist in all majors, with high SAT scores but very low GPAs. These
underachievers are disproportionately male.

I'm sure we're all surprised by these results, but maybe it explains why women are in a majority on college campuses these days.

The Tragedy of the Common Coffee Pot

Technically, it's an espresso maker, but Tom Hanks observed: ""You know you are supposed to clean this after every use."  He gave the maker to the White House press corps 6 years ago and thereby demonstrated his unrealistic liberal faith in people, only to be disillusioned when he visited this week.  Bottom line: if it's everyone's job to clean, it never will be cleaned.  Or as someone said: no one ever washed a rental car.

Jamie Oliver Costs Money

The Post has an article on Jamie Oliver, a Brit who had a short ABC TV series on his attempts to transform school lunch food in Huntington, WV.  I admit I haven't watched, but it seems he had some impact:

"Oliver has made notable progress. But the hard work, compromises and setbacks continue after the cameras have disappeared."

One of the problems for the future is that good food costs money, money to buy the raw ingredients and money to pay the people to prepare them.  So the forces of evil, as foodies see them, always have an opening argument: "we can save you money." Tie that to  the reports in both the Times and the Post about impending teacher layoffs this fall and a cynic has to believe Mr. Oliver's impact will not last long.