The Monarch and the President

My wife and I watched a DVD on Windsor Castle last night--very good for Britophiles among us.  But I'm struck this morning by the contrast between an image last night and one this morning. 

Last night the DVD showed the Windsor flag raiser: the man whose job it is to raise Her Majesty's personal flag over the castle whenever she arrives.  So the movie maker shot from the flagraiser's perch atop the tower down to the drive approaching the castle showing the Queen arriving: arriving in two black cars. 

This morning Obamafoodorama has a post on a party the President attended last night, traveling in seven black SUV's. 

So the ratio is 2 to 7, which must tell us something, either about pomp and circumstance, past history of assassinations and attempts, relative power, paranoia, or culture.

Fixing Social Security--Kelman

Mr. Kelman has a post at Federal Computer Week suggesting options for a trade: delay the date at which you get social security in order to get higher benefits, such as long term healthcare insurance later.  Like, don't take SS until age 80, in order to have an assisted living home covered.

I don't have a dog in this fight since I'm not on SS and I'm paying for long term healthcare insurance from OPM  The initial logic is attractive, but it works only for the small subset of people who continue working and/or have enough investment income to retire on, as Mr. Kelman does but most people don't.  But just because it doesn't work for many isn't a bit argument for not providing the option.  I keep believing computers permit us to be more flexible without much administrative cost. 

97 Orchard, by Ziegelman

97 Orchard is a book, using a New York City tenement building, now a museum, as a way to link Irish, German, and Jewish immigrant families (who lived there) and to discuss their foodways, their recipes, and the general immigration and Americanization process.  Among the facts I found interesting:

• 10,000 pigs in city streets in 1842
• pigs and butter were the primary sources of fat in the cuisine of Irish and Germans, but problematic for Jews who turned to geese (goose fat = "smaltz").  They raised geese in the tenements, then in larger numbers in sites near the East River, until geese were ousted by reform efforts and the availability of chickens from the country.
• Italian "rag pickers" were much like Dicken's "dust" men (Our Mutual Friend), scavengers who sorted garbage and salvaged usable materials and food from the remains.
• lots of push carts selling everything in the streets, until Mayor La Guardia finally got rid of them right before WWII
• there were a number of places/times where WASPs provided food to immigrants: Ellis Island (food was free, paid for by steamship companies), school lunches, Home Relief (in 1931).  WASPs believed in no spices, no strong tastes, lots of dairy (as befits Northern Europeans) and lots of meat.  
• Irish drank tea at home, whiskey in public at saloons; Jews drank wine at home, tea in restaurants (as in the Russian Tea Room).

The book is good, not great (earning about 4.5 stars on Amazon) but recommended for anyone interested in the area.

USDA's GIS Portal

Nextgov reports USDA is doing a portal to all of its GIS stuff.  The catch is schedule:

The new portal, which is hosted in Amazon's public EC2 computer cloud, is already available to a few divisions within Agriculture and will be launched departmentwide in the next couple of months, Lowe said. The site should be available to the public about six to eight months after that.

Why, if it's operational, does it take 6-8 months to make it available to the public?  Esri is the vendor doing the protal.

More Technology, Less Productivity: Touch Typing

Technology Review has a post noticing that many schools don't teach typing anymore: kids are learning to type on their own, on multiple gadgets and in different ways.

When I had typing class, back in 1957-8, I was possibly the only male in the class, definitely just a handful.  My sister had ordered me to learn to type; she had picked up money by typing college papers for a bunch of males who didn't know how.  Not being the most coordinated of people, I struggled with the class for a good while.  Then finally the drills kicked in, and I was able to pass the 40 wpm test with relative ease.  Later in a work environment, I was able to push my speed even faster.  Though I worked with Ralph Olson, who had started work as a typist for Social Security Administration after WWII, and talked of the high standards they used to have to maintain and how far the current generation (me and the younger people in the office) had fallen away from the standards.

I suppose the need for speed and accuracy in typing is related to the degree to which the typist is serving another's needs and the ability with which errors can be corrected.  So the need for fast touch typists diminishes with the years, just as the need for shoe repairman has diminished. 

Obama Needs to Dress Down Vilsack [and IL Governor]

Obama sometimes seems not to understand the government of which he's head. The "shovel-ready" projects is one instance.  Another came up on his Midwest tour, and Politico nails Vilsack's scalp to the post. They couldn't find anyone who could discuss possible regulations on dust and noise.

[Update: After blowing up, I reread the story.  I suspect the truth is the Illiinois EPA is responsible for any dust and noise regulations applicable to farmers, as mentioned in the story.  What probably happened was the IEPA person got the buck slip late in the day (either 3:57 or 4:57, it's not clear in the story, or was away on leave.  IEPA should have gotten back to the reporter the next morning.

What I do ding most of the phone responses is not knowing which agency is responsible.  I'd also ding USDA for their ham-fisted response to Politico (last paragraph). Presumably the USDA PR type realizes they're on the wrong end of the stick for this story but their approach is wrong.  You call IEPA to nail down the person who can answer, you get the answer from them so you can handle future inquiries, and you call the Politico to apologize (after all, the problem started with Obama and Vilsack) and offer the answer and the IEPA's name and number.

I'd also ding USDA offices and the Farm Bureau for not being current with the issues and rumors floating in the fine fresh air of Illinois.

Finally, I owe an apology for a too-quick reaction to the story. ]

[Further update: in Obama's defense, he may have been briefed on the Agenda 21 rumors, see Kevin Drum here.]

The Guard

We really liked this movie.  See it. [94 percent on rottentomatoes.  The Irish accents are surprisingly understandable.] 

1,800 Motorcyclists = 2 Hours

I've long been skeptical of the "Rolling Thunder" claims to have 50,000 motorcycles participating in their annual Memorial Day ride.  My skepticism is reaffirmed by this alert from the Virginia Department of Transportation, concerning the 1,800 motorcycles which are expected to participate in a 9/11 memorial ceremony this Friday.  The alert says:

The riders are expected to enter Loudoun County from Maryland at 2 p.m. with the
final riders estimated to enter the county between 3:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. The Loudoun
County Sheriff’s Office and the Virginia State Police will be stopping traffic at the
intersections on Route 15 from the Maryland line to the Leesburg town line

 Granted Route 15 from MD to Leesburg is a 2 lane road with a 45 mph speed limit, and the routes Rolling Thunder takes are wider.  Usually the pictures of Rolling Thunder show a double column of motorcycles, so say 2,000 cycles an hour can pass a given point.  That means RT must take 25 hours.

I'm not aware VDOT has ever issued an alert for Rolling Thunder, although to be fair that's not on a workday. 

Walt Finds a Limit to His Ingenuity

One reason I read Walt Jeffries Sugar Mountain Farm blog is my admiration of his ability as a craftsman/handyman/jack of all trades.  There seems to be nothing he and his family can't do on their farm. But he finally met his match.  Judging by the length of this post, recognizing his limits was not easy, perhaps even painful, but we all have to admit there are bounds. It's a sign of maturity.  Not everyone can make a pig plucker that works.

I should add that most farmers, at least those I'd call farmers, are jacks of all trades, even if they don't take it to the extremes Walt does.

Safety on the Farm

Farming is one of the most dangerous occupations, but farmers have one of the best lobbies.  I suspect that's the truth behind this POGO post on Cass Sunstein delaying a revamp of child labor rules. Note the injuries/deaths cited in the piece relate to grain augers and detasseling corn.