The Masters and IBM

Both the Post and Times have pieces on women and the Masters Golf Tournament.  The Masters, of course, along with Bohemian Grove, is one of the last redoubts of male-only membership.  They've hung tough over the years, even after they finally admitted a black member.  They've always, of course, made the CEO's of their advertising sponsors members--that's only right and proper seeing as how the ads and TV have made the tournament. 

Everything was fine until...IBM, which is one of the three sponsors, named a woman as CEO.

Kickstarter and Walt Jeffries

Walt Jeffries will be able to receive money via Kickstarter for completion of his Vermont butcher shop.  I probably will wait a bit to see what Kickstarter is all about, and I'm not clear on why he qualified on the second try but not the first.

I've the vague idea that the JOBS bill which just passed with bipartisan support is somehow related to Kickstarter, at least at the minimum encouraging small enterprises to get investment dollars.  It's all about reducing "friction", as some blogger I just read said (he was able to use an Apple app to buy something from an Apple store in 2 minutes without going to the salesclerk).

It's an amazing world.

Something for the Garlic Eaters

Obamafoodorama posts before and after shots of the White House garden.  What stands out when you click on the before photo and enlarge it is the garlic they have growing.  Back in my youth, garlic was something used in cooking by southern European immigrants.   Times have changed.  (I tried garlic once but it was a tricky crop to grow.)

Looks to me as if each helper had about half a flat of starts to put out.  Not exactly a hard day's work, but the symbolism is important.

Obama's Garden

Obamafoodorama has posts on the actual planting of the White House Garden.  Apparently they're planting cool weather vegetables, mostly starts instead of seeds.  If they were sowing seeds I'd call them a tad late, since they're in a warmer area than we are. But starts makes sense: that way you can see where your untrained helpers are planting; wouldn't want to have any irregular rows, or rows which drift to the right in the garden.  Planted potatoes for the first time which makes sense in terms of productivity.

I observe Mrs. Obama favored girls, particularly Girl Scouts, in selecting her volunteers.  I also observe the idea that the Obama kids will garden has faded away.  It was a nice idea but this is a show piece with lots of different people with their fingers in the soil, which doesn't make for a good learning experience for the kids.

Modern Architecture

As you might expect from a geezer I'm not a real fan of modern architecture, particularly the modern architecture of the 1960's and 70's.  I do love Saarinen's Dulles Airport and St. Louis Arch. 

And this building in Reston, now vacant, works pretty well for me.  Not great, but okay.

White House Garden

Today's the day Mrs. Obama is getting her garden planted.  I'm almost reminded of Tom Sawyer and whitewashing the fence, given the number of kids who will be working for her. It's really a two-fer, since as Obamafoodorama observes, some of the invitees are from key battleground states for the fall election.  (In DC, it's politics, always politics.)  But planting is really the easy part, once the ground has been prepared, which we can assume was done by adults over the weekend. 

She's got good weather for it, a little windy as the cold front moves in, but I don't know whether she's planting tender vegetables or not.  March 26 is late for the cool-weather ones (our peas, lettuce, onions are doing well, thank you) and a tad early for warm weather, though given the availability of hoop beds, they can probably manage okay.

Options in the New Farm Bill

Farm Policy reports House Ag leaders are talking of "options" in the new farm bill.  I'm not quite clear on whether it's different strokes for different commodities, or offering choices for the same commodity.  

This sounds like bad news for FSA managers, IT types, and field staff:  the problems of explaining programs to farmers and of implementing software, regulations, and manuals for programs grow as the number of programs grows.  And I'd guess the relationship is not arithmetic, but more geometric.  Part of the problem is that each new program distracts from the previous: if you do A for program X, are you going to do A for program Y, or maybe you should do A1 or maybe A2?  So maintaining a focus becomes very hard.

If you combine more options with the possibility of more cutbacks in staff and/or government shutdowns you've got problems.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water...

Since 1994 NASA has required program managers to document "lessons learned" and put the documents in a database.  The IG now says the effort isn't working according to this FCW piece.

Bureaucrats resist the idea we don't know something, so it's unlikely we'll exert any effort to look up lessons learned by someone else.

Wickard and Healthcare

How did a ladies dress shop owner become involved in the battle over the constitutionality of Obama's healthcare act? Jim Chen has a law article on Wickard vs. Filburn (1942) which will play a large role in the Supreme Court debate.

The issue in that case was the constitutionality of acreage allotments and marketing quotas on wheat, given that Filburn grew his wheat, in excess of his allotment, for consumption by his animals.

As best I could see in a scan of the text, Chen has the program and agriculture pretty close to right, and he's a good writer for a legal beagle.

How To Be an Assertive Woman

Follow Joan of Arc (Ken Anderson at Volokh Conspiracy posts her declaration of war).