"Part of my recent weight loss strategy (down a bit over 60 pounds since the beginning of March)" x
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Yglesias Buries the Lede
"Burying the lede" seems to be the phrase for not recognizing and promoting the real story. Matt Yglesias is posting on the value of frozen vegetables, not as good as fresh but still good and very convenient, and says:
Bill Signing Ceremonies
Bill signing ceremonies are one of the rituals of our democracy. I remember one ceremony for a bill GWB signed, forget which one, but the picture was above the fold on the front page of the Times. Showed the audience arranged in a big crescent, facing the President and maybe a handful of bigwigs: Cheney, et.al. Best I could tell everyone in the room was a white male of a certain age, or above.
This post on the White House blog shows Obama signing the small business bill yesterday. Some nice diversity on the dais watching the signature, but below the dais seem to be a group of white males of a certain age, almost all of whom are displaying their shirt cuffs, simply because they're holding their cellphone/cameras above their head to capture the historic moment.
This post on the White House blog shows Obama signing the small business bill yesterday. Some nice diversity on the dais watching the signature, but below the dais seem to be a group of white males of a certain age, almost all of whom are displaying their shirt cuffs, simply because they're holding their cellphone/cameras above their head to capture the historic moment.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Tobacco Growing in Canada
Via Freakonomics, an article, part of a series, on tobacco growing in Canada. It seems there's an underground trade in tobacco, grown in Canada and sold to contraband manufacturers, who sell the cigarettes tax-free on First Nation (i.e., "native Americans") land.
"We" (i.e., I) usually think of tobacco as a Southern crop, grown in the Carolinas and Kentucky. Not so, Wisconsin and Connecticut have been/still are growers of certain varieties and it turns out Ontario also grows tobacco. And, like the U.S. but a little slower, Canada had a buyout of tobacco growers who had tobacco quotas. Three paragraphs:
"We" (i.e., I) usually think of tobacco as a Southern crop, grown in the Carolinas and Kentucky. Not so, Wisconsin and Connecticut have been/still are growers of certain varieties and it turns out Ontario also grows tobacco. And, like the U.S. but a little slower, Canada had a buyout of tobacco growers who had tobacco quotas. Three paragraphs:
"The federal government offered a controversial buyout of Ontario tobacco growers in 2009. Though most took the payments — designed to usher them out of the business — more than 200 have returned to producing tobacco through a loophole that allows them to rent their land and hire themselves out to licence holders, often their non-farming children.
Edward VII and Coronation Dinners
Watched the Brit TV series "Berkeley Square", which is sort of an Upstairs, Downstairs with the focus on three nursemaids/nannies in different households on the exclusive Berkeley Square. A feature of Episode IV was a coronation dinner (Edward VII), where the posh set served the poorer classes. Difficult to find anything on it, a NYTimes article here on the coronation mentions the dinners. There's a photo for sale here showing the setup.
This sentence: " Born in 1841, he built up a huge potato enterprise and supplied all the potatoes eaten at a dinner for the poor of London to mark King Edward VII's coronation." This from a cached Worthing piece: " To mark those three previous coronations, Worthing’s civic fathers settled for a lunch or tea party for the young, poor and the elderly (on one occasion, all three together), with a small procession of local organisations as a kind of bonus. Not many were impressed." And another picture.
I didn't know Edward suffered appendicitis right before the scheduled date for his coronation, and the successful surgery put that operation on the map. His illness delayed the coronation, but not the dinner for the poor.
This sentence: " Born in 1841, he built up a huge potato enterprise and supplied all the potatoes eaten at a dinner for the poor of London to mark King Edward VII's coronation." This from a cached Worthing piece: " To mark those three previous coronations, Worthing’s civic fathers settled for a lunch or tea party for the young, poor and the elderly (on one occasion, all three together), with a small procession of local organisations as a kind of bonus. Not many were impressed." And another picture.
I didn't know Edward suffered appendicitis right before the scheduled date for his coronation, and the successful surgery put that operation on the map. His illness delayed the coronation, but not the dinner for the poor.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
A Bit on Reston
Q: What is the biggest change you have seen in Reston during your time here?
A: Without question it would be the number of jobs. In the beginning Reston was slated for one job per household, which would mean 22,000 jobs. Now there are close to three jobs per household.
From an interview with a guy who's been in Reston longer than I. Robert Simon thought Reston should be a place where people lived and worked, a source neither of jobs for outside commuters nor of commuters for outside jobs. That vision was flawed, perhaps because he didn't allow for the impact of Dulles airport and the access road to the Beltway. That allowed the development of the parallel toll road and made the area attractive for businesses with lots of air traffic. Another omission was the development of the military-industrial complex. And finally, he missed the development of the government-contractor complex. Both complexes meant big outfits developed which needed easy access to both federal offices mostly in DC and to the nation. So jobs developed along the Dulles corridor.
A: Without question it would be the number of jobs. In the beginning Reston was slated for one job per household, which would mean 22,000 jobs. Now there are close to three jobs per household.
From an interview with a guy who's been in Reston longer than I. Robert Simon thought Reston should be a place where people lived and worked, a source neither of jobs for outside commuters nor of commuters for outside jobs. That vision was flawed, perhaps because he didn't allow for the impact of Dulles airport and the access road to the Beltway. That allowed the development of the parallel toll road and made the area attractive for businesses with lots of air traffic. Another omission was the development of the military-industrial complex. And finally, he missed the development of the government-contractor complex. Both complexes meant big outfits developed which needed easy access to both federal offices mostly in DC and to the nation. So jobs developed along the Dulles corridor.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Freudian Slips in Pledge to America
Brad DeLong quoting another site on the people pictured in the Republican Pledge to America. (The title of the post says it all.)
Urban Farming, Its Ironies
I don't know the history of the garden, but in Ben Affleck's The Town some key scenes take place in the Charlestown community garden (can't find a link to the garden on line, but Google gives some possibilities and the picture link shows it's rather lush. Cynic that I am I'll be interested in the director's commentary on the garden.
The food movement loves to embrace urban farming. That's fine, if there's a vacant lot, if you don't have park money the best use you can make of it is to open a community garden. It's good for the community and good for the environment.
However, and you knew there was a however coming, the environmental benefits of the urban setting come from density. New York City is one of the best places to live to have the smallest impact on the environment, simply because it's efficient to live and work in dense places. (Recently there's been challenges to the benefits of telework because it might be more efficient to heat and light offices for 1,000 people than 1,000 homes each with its own officeworker working from home, even considering the costs of commuting.)
The market tells us it's not efficient to have permanent farms in the heart of the city. I'm enough of a conservative to believe it.
The food movement loves to embrace urban farming. That's fine, if there's a vacant lot, if you don't have park money the best use you can make of it is to open a community garden. It's good for the community and good for the environment.
However, and you knew there was a however coming, the environmental benefits of the urban setting come from density. New York City is one of the best places to live to have the smallest impact on the environment, simply because it's efficient to live and work in dense places. (Recently there's been challenges to the benefits of telework because it might be more efficient to heat and light offices for 1,000 people than 1,000 homes each with its own officeworker working from home, even considering the costs of commuting.)
The market tells us it's not efficient to have permanent farms in the heart of the city. I'm enough of a conservative to believe it.
The Limits of Planning: Reston and Jobs
"Q: What is the biggest change you have seen in Reston during your time here?
A: Without question it would be the number of jobs. In the beginning Reston was slated for one job per household, which would mean 22,000 jobs. Now there are close to three jobs per household."
From an interview with a guy who's been in Reston longer than I. Robert Simon wanted Reston to be a place where you worked and lived, but you can see it's not the way it's developed. With the coming of Metro to Wiehle Avenue I suspect the jobs/household ratio will shift further.
A: Without question it would be the number of jobs. In the beginning Reston was slated for one job per household, which would mean 22,000 jobs. Now there are close to three jobs per household."
From an interview with a guy who's been in Reston longer than I. Robert Simon wanted Reston to be a place where you worked and lived, but you can see it's not the way it's developed. With the coming of Metro to Wiehle Avenue I suspect the jobs/household ratio will shift further.
Ezra Klein Is Right: No Government Waste
"There's no such thing as government waste." from a good post by Ezra Klein
The point is, of course, that while probably 70 percent of Americans think farm program payments are an example of waste, the nation through its elected representatives and senators has determined otherwise. And that's just an example. Personally I think there's lots of "waste" in DOD, but the nation doesn't agree with my wisdom.
The point is, of course, that while probably 70 percent of Americans think farm program payments are an example of waste, the nation through its elected representatives and senators has determined otherwise. And that's just an example. Personally I think there's lots of "waste" in DOD, but the nation doesn't agree with my wisdom.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Kudos for Sibelius
The NYTimes today had a chart grading the first 6 months of the PPACA healthcare reform. Regardless of one's opinion of the act, it's worth noting and appreciating the fact that HHS has done a good job the first six months in getting regulations written and other practical steps needed to implement. We all can agree if the act is poorly implemented it will be a bad thing. Some of us think it will be a good thing if well implemented.
One item where the authors give poor marks is the effectiveness of state governments, though that seems to reflect the opposition of Republican governors to the act. (Which leads me back to the theme of the weakness of the federal government.)
One item where the authors give poor marks is the effectiveness of state governments, though that seems to reflect the opposition of Republican governors to the act. (Which leads me back to the theme of the weakness of the federal government.)
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