Restaurants and Their Customers

The NYTimes had an article on how restaurants are tracking their customers, recording their preferences:

Even a single visit can prompt the creation of a computer file that includes diners’ allergies, favorite foods and whether they are “wine whales,” likely to spend hundreds of dollars on a bottle. That’s valuable information, considering that upward of 30 percent of a restaurant’s revenue comes from alcohol. Some places even log data on potential customers so that the restaurant is prepared if the newcomer shows up.

That a waiter you have never met knows your tendency to dawdle or your love of crushed ice may strike some diners as creepy or intrusive. But restaurant managers say their main goal is to pamper the customer, to recreate the comfort of a local corner spot where everybody knows your name.

Is this an invasion of privacy or the way technology enables the free market best to satisfy customer desires?

What Robots Can't Do

Robots can do more and more every day, and I'm eagerly waiting for the day when they can drive a car.  But what they can't do is use a toothbrush to fix a space station, as described here.

Organic Food

Jonathan Adler at Volokh Conspiracy posts on a meta-study of the nutrition values of organic food.  It says no consistent support for the idea that organic food is safer or more nutritious. Apparently it's true there are differences between organic and non-organic food, but the evidence that the difference is enough to make a difference in human health is lacking.

Why Congress Drives Program Developers Crazy

Yes, I was crazy by the time I retired.  Chris Clayton reports Sen. Grassley is guessing a 1-year extension of the farm bill.  Where does that leave the MIDAS people.  I don't know.  If I were in their shoes a year or so ago, there would be these choices:

• develop to support current programs, in which case if Congress does its job, you've wasted your efforts
• develop to support current programs, minus the direct payment and counter-cyclical ones which the conventional wisdom says are going to bite the dust, in which case if you believe Grassley you've missed the boat and need an emergency effort
• develop to support only the basic records, with some sort of bridge to existing software to provide support for ongoing programs, in which case you run the risk of hanging counties out to dry, sort of like the SURE program under the 2008 legislation.

I've no idea which way they went; maybe there's another option which is better.  But it points out the difficulties of software development scheduled to coincide with farm legislation.

The Bidens' Net Worth

TaNehisi Coates had a post talking about meritocracy and the revolving door--big shots moving back and forth between government and private business, making money.  That spurred me to check Joe Biden's net worth, which, at least according to this, is less than mine, and less than zero.

Farmland Prices

John Phipps links to this post, which is a year old, but is still interesting.  Describes land prices in 15 countries and mentions the land tenure laws.  Very large differences in land values with New Zealand shown as having the priciest land.

Ouch--Obama

From a Politico piece on the Obama Administraion:

Beyond policy debates, Obama has not been especially creative in using the moral platform of the presidency to force change. This is an arena in which all presidents, naturally cautious and self-protective, tread carefully. But the contrast with some of Obama’s own role models is notable. When JFK faced an integration crisis at the University of Mississippi in 1963, he gave an Oval Office speech saying: “We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the Scriptures and as clear as the American Constitution.” When Obama decided to endorse gay marriage, he gave an interview to a morning television anchor and made clear that he was merely stating his personal preference and that the issue should be left to the states.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80578_Page4.html#ixzz25QTvRXwn

Reston Has a Forest

Local photographer won a photo contest for urban forests.  Have I mentioned the two deer seen twice this week outside my townhouse?

High Income for 2012?

Very interesting farmgate piece on the possible implications of the income figures for 2012.  Farm income will be up, farmers with the harvest price option on their crop insurance will make out well, and taxpayers might question what subsidies should be in the farm bill.

[Updated to fix link]

What Prof. Mankiw Forgot to Point Out

Prof. Mankiw of Harvard notes a Wall Street Journal piece on the growth of entitlement, showing 50 percent of U.S. households now get Federal benefits.  He doesn't note this interesting bit of the article:

In current political discourse, it is common to think of the Democrats as the party of entitlements, but long-term trends seem to tell a somewhat different tale. From a purely statistical standpoint, the growth of entitlement spending over the past half-century has been distinctly greater under Republican administrations than Democratic ones. Between 1960 and 2010, the growth of entitlement spending was exponential, but in any given year, it was on the whole roughly 8% higher if the president happened to be a Republican rather than a Democrat.

Mankiw was, of course, a part of the GWBush administration.