Public Works Projects

Understanding Government has a post citing an article skeptical of the high speed rail project planned for California.  I commented on it, recalling my awareness of Dulles Airport and its access road.  While it seemed to be a boondoggle in the 70's, it no longer is.  Sometimes it takes a while for infrastructure to prove its worth.  Sometimes it doesn't, as the Erie Canal proved its worth immediately.  And sometimes boondoggles are boondoggles, as in the case of the Chenango Canal.

Manual Dexterity on the Band Saw

Via John Phipps, the end result is incredible, at least to a klutz.

The Downside of Absentee Landowners

Back in the day every farmer owned and operated his quarter section (my "day" was long, long ago and in a different country).  But today most farms are a combination of rented and owned land (at $5-7K an acre, it doesn't take long for land ownership to involve some real money).  And Chris Clayton, whose thoughts never stray far from business, wonders if the dead zone in the Gulf isn't related to the renting. (Actually, the dead zone is my attempt to amp up the significance.)  He and his family float down a river and see corn and soybeans planted with no filter strip bordering the river, consequently nitrogen, phosphorus and top soil fall into the river, thence to be flushed down past New Orleans to the Gulf.  His guess is that the farmers were renting and going for max production, not worried at all about the land.

The Easy IT Projects

This glowing piece in Federal Computer Weekly praises the woman who accomplished this:

In the end, the board awarded a contract July 10, 2009, to build Recovery.gov, and work on the project started the same day. FederalReporting.gov launched Aug. 17, 2009, and Recovery.gov went live Sept. 28, 2009.

Far be it from me to knock a dedicated and successful bureaucrat, but remember that was an easy project. Easy because it was done from scratch, I believe.  The tough projects are those which try to redo existing systems, particularly those integrating separate stovepipes.  All that said, getting software done in 70 days is good work.

The Empire, er Republicans Strike Back

From Politico, on a study of the use of Web 2.0:

"the study found Republicans have “struck back,” with GOP senators averaging more than 5.5 IQ points higher than their Democratic counterparts.
Of the seven senators who scored “genius” social media rankings, four were Republicans: McCain — the top tweeter, Jim DeMint of South Carolina, Scott Brown of Massachusetts and John Cornyn of Texas.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/41278.html#ixzz0xAeLxv9E"

History Repeats Itself: ACRE

Farmgate reports on an analysis of why and which farmers enrolled in ACRE.Two points strike me:

1. in terms of farmer education, only 25 percent of farmers used the spreadsheets available on the web, while 90 percent apparently talked to FSA personnel.  That tells me that even though PC's and the internet have made inroads, the in-person contact is key.  It's also a clue as to the bureaucratic success of FSA and the farm programs: the FSA clerk technician may be a bureaucrat in my eyes, but in the farmer's eyes she's a trusted source of information.
2. as usual (I'm reading between the lines) the bigger farmers and those more active in managing their risks took advantage of the program.  I say "as usual" because that's been the pattern since AAA days. The biggest and most "modern" farmers have always taken advantage of government programs; that's one reason why there's some truth in the accusations the greenies, foodies, and others make against them.

Best Advice of the Month

From Dan Drezner: "10)  Quit reading blogs.  They rot your brain and give you cooties. "  (Actually, I prefer his no. 9.)

Is 600,000 Chickens Small?

A discussion in Farm Policy about confusion in California about the enforcement of humane standards for hens includes this quote:

The Journal article pointed out that, “John Lewis Jr., president of Farmer John Eggs in Bakersfield, says he doesn’t know what to do with his small, family-run company’s 600,000 hens. He doesn’t want to put them in a cage-free environment because, he says, they would be running around in their own feces and he would have to feed them antibiotics.
“Plus, when they are on the ground, he said, ‘If something scares them, they all run into a corner and pile on top of each other and suffocate very quickly.’”

As we never had more than 1700 poultry (all ages) at one time, I disagree with the "small". But I agree: chickens are stupid, I do not like chickens, and chickens easily panic and smother (just like humans--where was that crowd that stampeded and 19 were killed?).

Immigration and Housing

I've still got that bee in my bonnet about the relationship of housing, immigration, and the economy.  Succeeded in getting a question answered on Ezra Klein's blog here.

Black, Black Clouds for Cotton

Via Chris Clayton, a link to a review of the prospects for cotton in the future farm bill.  Basically it's bad for cotton if the Republicans take Congress but also bad if the Democrats retain control, because Collin Peterson likes crop insurance and not marketing loans, while the cotton people like loans and not crop insurance.

As I'm in a sadistic mood today, I enjoyed a good laugh at their predicament.

A Dem like me finds a bit of solace in their support for the South Korean trade pact and support for regulation of derivatives in the financial regulation law just passed.