Improving Federal Websites

If you've bitched, you can offer input.  See this link for a schedule .

[Update--Another link   ]

[Second update: link to the government site]

Papa and the Bulls--Barcelona's Last Bullfight

By chance the Sunday paper had a review of a new book on Hemingway and this morning I see on Treehugger that Barcelona held its last bullfight.

My impression is Hemingway's reputation started slipping in the late 50's, even before his suicide, and continued to decline until recently.  He certainly loomed large in the early 50's, writing for popular magazines and being a presence.  My first contact with his writing was a bullfight article, though I can't remember where it was published.  One thing which he thought he saw in the bull ring, but left to us all, is: "grace under pressure", his definition of "guts".  The popularity of that phrase is still growing.

Great Untold Story: James Angleton's Offspring

James Angleton was the long time head of counter-intelligence for the CIA.  Some say he was paranoid about moles in the CIA; others say he was right. 

Anyway, his widow's obituary was in the Post this morning--sounds as if she was an interesting person in her own right: a history scholar and a poet with several volumes published.  But what struck me was this final paragraph:

Survivors include three children, James C. Angleton of Los Angeles, Guru Sangat Kaur Khalsa of Great Falls and Siri Hari Kaur Angleton-Khalsa [emphasis added]of Espanola, N.M.; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

How does one connect these dots, particularly when you throw in the fact that in the CIA, dominated by Ivy Leage WASPs in his time, he was apparently half-Hispanic, albeit a Yalie and a poet?

US Refrigerators 3X European

That's a factoid from a NY Times article on an automated refrigerator recycling facility: US refrigerators are three times the size of European ones.

Eliminating Earmarks = Eliminating Ag Research?

That's from Farm Policy: "Sen. Stabenow noted that, “And in the current budget situation, the way we fund ag research has been eliminated, a lot of that through direct funding to universities and through community designations and so on, what’s been called earmarks in the past. And that’s fine to change that structure, but it wasn’t replaced with anything. And so we’ve seen huge cuts in the current budget that are very concerning to me."

Yellow Margarine

Via Ezra Klein, a history of coloring margarine. New York was one of the states in which Parkay margarine was sold white, with a packet of coloring which you kneaded into the product to turn it yellow. I remember my mother doing this, so it must have been right at the end of WWII.  I'm sure mom, being a true believer in the virtues of dairy, was not using margarine willingly.

Picking on FSA

Just a late afternoon Friday thought:  my impression is that FSA was the first government agency to be dinged by GAO/IGs for issuing payments to dead people.  That was maybe 3 years ago, but since then there have been a number of agencies hit the headlines for the same problem, including this week OPM.

Was that just chance, because someone has to be first, or do the dark forces have it in for FSA?

Obama Overreacts Again

With the Shirley Sherrod incident the Obama administration over reacted: fearing adverse publicity they pulled the trigger first and then worried about their aim. They may be doing it again in the case of conference costs (the $16 muffins which were reported in the Post earlier this week.).  The Washington Post piece includes a reaction from the Hilton Hotels explaining, including this: " In Washington, the contracted breakfast included fresh fruit, coffee, juice, muffins, tax and gratuity, for an inclusive price of $16 per person."  The Post rather weakly says they relied on the DOJ's OIG report, which cited "$16 muffins"--in the print paper this morning this correction was buried inside on the Federal page.

In Obama's defense, there's a very small window in which to calibrate one's reaction, and the politics of modern media are such it's usually better to shoot first.

Gee Modern Technology Works

Was at a Starbucks this afternoon to get coffee, a deviation from my usual routine of getting coffee at the Starbucks in the local Safeway. Was struck by the guys ahead of me, both of whom paid by using their cell phone (I've no idea which one). The Times today had an article on Google Wallet, which makes your phone into a credit card.  I've no idea whether the guys I saw were using that, or some Starbucks application.  Anyhow, it's amazing.

Copier Jams Are So Twentieth Century

This MSNBC piece reports that the Federal Reserve's decision yesterday was 7 minutes late because they had a copier jam, preventing them from distributing the release to all reporters simultaneous

You see, in the arcane world of covering the Federal Reserve, reporters are "locked up" in a room at the Treasury and forbidden to release the Fed statement until every reporter has a copy. This is to ensure a level playing field.
Then all the reporters get a signal to transmit the news. The idea is to get the Fed statement out there before the next reporter because the financial markets hang on every word, comma and period.

This sounds like the process used for NASS crop reports, which can also move markets.  John Kenneth Galbraith's only novel dealt with a plot to get an early look at the crop report and exploit the information.

My question: why don't all such institutions just post their data in the cloud, with email/twitter notifications to the relevant people.  Avoid this 20th century stuff and recognize everyone and her brother has an Ipad now.