From a post on a supposed epidemic of "hooking up":
"There was plenty of uncommitted sex when I was college.Uncommitted sex was one of the reasons many of us went to college. "
Friday, June 11, 2010
The Truth From an Old Guy
No, not me, but I guess Ta-Nahesi Coates qualifies as an old guy to his son, and perhaps some other people.
From a post on a supposed epidemic of "hooking up":
From a post on a supposed epidemic of "hooking up":
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Improving School Lunches
I've been a bit skeptical of efforts by the food movement to reform school lunches. However, the sort of incremental improvements and changes in the food and the presentation described in this Post article make sense. Remembering the past I suspect school lunch programs never got much respect, so getting smart people involved can only improve things, even if it doesn't make major changes in our obesity problem. I have to admit I'm skeptical of how long chefs will remain involved, but I'd hope people will learn.
I wonder what are school lunches like in other countries? I typed that, then said to myself I should do something to satisfy my curiosity. This BBC piece from 2005 has interesting data, but what's even more interesting is the range of comments from viewers all over, not all over the UK, all over the world. It's an incidental reminder of the scope of the British Empire and the legacy it left behind.
I wonder what are school lunches like in other countries? I typed that, then said to myself I should do something to satisfy my curiosity. This BBC piece from 2005 has interesting data, but what's even more interesting is the range of comments from viewers all over, not all over the UK, all over the world. It's an incidental reminder of the scope of the British Empire and the legacy it left behind.
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
The Field Versus the National Appeals Division
GAO released a report on FSA's 2001-8 disaster programs, page 20. This paragraph seems to say the FSA field offices don't respect the NAD, perhaps unjustifiably, given the statistics. This sort of culture gap isn't unexpected in an organization like FSA.
In commenting on crop disaster payments that they believed were based on suspicious crop insurance claims payments, some FSA county officials stated that they did not challenge or deny the applications for these crop disaster payments because they expected the applicants would appeal any challenge to USDA’s National Appeals Division.16 These officials added that in their past experience with appeals, USDA rarely upheld FSA couoffice decisions to deny payments. One official said that USDA generally approved appeals related to crop disaster applications unless the FSA county office produced evidence that the payment applicant did not meet program eligibility requirements. The official added that he did not collect such evidence because, at the time of the crop loss, he did not anticipate that a disaster program would provide assistance for those crop losses. However, according to our analysis of data from USDA’s National Appeals Division, FSA was more likely to be favored in an appeal related to the 2001 through 2007 crop disaster programs than were the farmers. We found the National Appeals Division upheld FSA’s denial of crop disaster payment applications for about 72 percent of the appeals, and the division overturned FSA’s denial, deciding that the farmer should have received a crop disaster payment, for the remaining 28 percent.This also sounds like the gripes you hear from police (as relayed by conservative media and/or TV shows--I don't have any aquaintances in the police) about the lenient courts which let criminals go free. But I wonder if FSA will respond to the audit by publicizing such statistics.
The Problem of Definition: Agency
The question is: what is an "agency"? To OMB, when they say "agencies" or to GAO, I think it mostly means cabinet-level departments and the individual agencies (SSA, FTC, etc.). To someone who worked in USDA, it means FSA, NRCS, FSIS, FNS, etc. Although there's been a long push to build up department level resources and oversight, it's still true, I think, that the individual agencies within USDA are where the rubber meets the road.
This was triggered by GAO's suggestions for OMB oversight of agencies, as outlined in this Federal Computer Weekly article.
This was triggered by GAO's suggestions for OMB oversight of agencies, as outlined in this Federal Computer Weekly article.
The Amish Have Pollution Problems?
I'm stunned by this NY Times article: it seems EPA is trying to work with Amish dairy farmers in Lancaster County, PA, to alleviate problems from pollution of the Susquehanna River/Chesapeake Bay watershed by manure running into streams.
Why am I stunned? Because I grew up on a dairy/poultry farm in the Susquehanna. Our farming was close to Amish in methods (horses until the early 50's, then a small John Deere tractor). From reading Prof. Kraybill on the Amish, it seems they limit their equipment to horse-drawn stuff, going just so far as to have hay balers powered by a gasoline engine on the baler. Those limitations keep the farm size down to family size--maybe 60-70 milkers. That was a big farm when I was growing up, but they handled manure as we did.
First, during the growing season (early May to maybe October) the cows would be on pasture 20 out of 24 hours, so little manure accumulated in the barn. During the months they were being fed hay in the barn, maybe 22 out of 24 hours, the manure accumulated in the barn gutters, so cleaning them was a daily chore. But the manure went into a manure spreader, which we used to spread the manure on the fields. If the snow got too bad, we'd pile manure and have to spread it in the spring. In all of this, I wasn't conscious of any manure getting into the Page Brook (which ran into the Chenango, which ran into the Susquehanna). So we weren't aware of being polluters; our hearts were pure, at least in that regard.
So how are the Amish screwing up? My guess is three-fold: (1) we weren't aware of the possibility of manure being washed away when rain fell on frozen ground; (2) we weren't aware of the urine seeping into the water table and then into the brook (we were aware Mom's organic garden profited by being down slope from the spreader); (3) we weren't aware of rain washing the pile manure. In our case, the pollution was probably minimal. But with the Amish having bigger operations, each cause could be significant. That's why apparently EPA is pushing manure lagoons and pits. But my impression is that the farmer empties a lagoon into a big tank spreader, too big to be pulled by horses. Unfortunately the article doesn't describe the emptying, just the building.
Also of some interest is the fact that the article mentions, in addition to EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the NRCS (at least the Lancaster County Conservation District), and a consulting outfit. That's lots of bureaucracy for the Amish to negotiate.
Finally, from the LCCD:
Why am I stunned? Because I grew up on a dairy/poultry farm in the Susquehanna. Our farming was close to Amish in methods (horses until the early 50's, then a small John Deere tractor). From reading Prof. Kraybill on the Amish, it seems they limit their equipment to horse-drawn stuff, going just so far as to have hay balers powered by a gasoline engine on the baler. Those limitations keep the farm size down to family size--maybe 60-70 milkers. That was a big farm when I was growing up, but they handled manure as we did.
First, during the growing season (early May to maybe October) the cows would be on pasture 20 out of 24 hours, so little manure accumulated in the barn. During the months they were being fed hay in the barn, maybe 22 out of 24 hours, the manure accumulated in the barn gutters, so cleaning them was a daily chore. But the manure went into a manure spreader, which we used to spread the manure on the fields. If the snow got too bad, we'd pile manure and have to spread it in the spring. In all of this, I wasn't conscious of any manure getting into the Page Brook (which ran into the Chenango, which ran into the Susquehanna). So we weren't aware of being polluters; our hearts were pure, at least in that regard.
So how are the Amish screwing up? My guess is three-fold: (1) we weren't aware of the possibility of manure being washed away when rain fell on frozen ground; (2) we weren't aware of the urine seeping into the water table and then into the brook (we were aware Mom's organic garden profited by being down slope from the spreader); (3) we weren't aware of rain washing the pile manure. In our case, the pollution was probably minimal. But with the Amish having bigger operations, each cause could be significant. That's why apparently EPA is pushing manure lagoons and pits. But my impression is that the farmer empties a lagoon into a big tank spreader, too big to be pulled by horses. Unfortunately the article doesn't describe the emptying, just the building.
Also of some interest is the fact that the article mentions, in addition to EPA, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the NRCS (at least the Lancaster County Conservation District), and a consulting outfit. That's lots of bureaucracy for the Amish to negotiate.
Finally, from the LCCD:
"Under Act 38, Concentrated Animal Operations (CAOs) are required to develop and implement a Nutrient Management Plan. CAOs are defined as agricultural operations where the animal density exceeds 2 animal equivalent units (AEUs) per acre of land suitable for manure application on an annualized basis."Seems to me that must indicate the Amish are importing feed, but maybe not.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Historical Ironies--Wallace and King Corn
Tom Philpott has a post at Grist on "King Corn" stating the food movement's usual case against " the companies that dominate the global agrichemical, seed, and grain trades: Archer Daniels Midland, Cargill, Monsanto, Syngenta, BASF, Dow AgroSciences, Bayer CropSciences, and Dupont’s Pioneer agrichemical/seed business."
The food movement is generally seen as a movement on the left. But ironically, the Pioneer seed business started with the Wallaces of Iowa, notably Henry Wallace, the Secretary of Ag and later Vice President for FDR and the Progressive Party's candidate for President in 1948. He was a good progressive, meaning he had faith in the ability of human reason to transform the world, just as his hybrid seed corn
The food movement is generally seen as a movement on the left. But ironically, the Pioneer seed business started with the Wallaces of Iowa, notably Henry Wallace, the Secretary of Ag and later Vice President for FDR and the Progressive Party's candidate for President in 1948. He was a good progressive, meaning he had faith in the ability of human reason to transform the world, just as his hybrid seed corn
Nostalgia for the Good Old Days of Early PC's
Via the American Historical Association blog, here's a link to James Fallows in the Atlantic in 1982.He describes his experiences with a $4,000 PC: 48K RAM, 2 tape drives, Selectric printer, etc. But there's a sentence there which foreshadows the future, as described in today's NYTimes, in an article on a family that's consumed by its devices, and always on line:
Fallows writes:
Maybe that's one definition of human progress: we keep creating new ways to become addicted.
Fallows writes:
"CAN HARDLY BRING myself to mention the true disadvantage of computers, which is that I have become hopelessly addicted to them. To the outside world, I present myself as a man with a business need for a word-processing machine. Sure, I have a computer: I'd have a drill press if I were in the machine-tool business. This is the argument I make frequently to my wife. The truth, which she has no doubt guessed, is that I love to see them work [sic: "love to make them work" would be more accurate.].The Campbells in the Times article love to be online, checking their email, playing games, etc. The $4000 PC has transformed in a bunch of network devices, laptops, IPads, Iphones, etc., linked to communications networks, but the addiction continues. And they are really really addicted.
Maybe that's one definition of human progress: we keep creating new ways to become addicted.
Monday, June 07, 2010
Obama as Executive
Richard Neustadt's book on Presidential power quoted Harry Truman on the futility of ordering things done: Presidents may order, but agencies don't necessarily jump to and ask how high. That truth is demonstrated once again with Obama--from the Federal Eye
A March report by the National Security Archive found that less than a third of the 90 federal agencies that process requests have significantly changed their FOIA practices since President Obama ordered them to "adopt a presumption in favor"
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