White House Garden

Obamafoodorama has a report on the winter harvest--cabbage and broccoli.  Given their hoop houses and the relatively warm winter we've had, the garden should be productive.  (We've had some cold spells, with lows into the teens, but neither terribly low nor prolonged.)

Security Software

NY Times reported  that hackers based in China had been attacking their computer system and the identities and passwords of their staff.  Buried in the article was a factoid: their security software provided was Symantec, and its software failed to identify all but one intrusion.

James Fallows Defends Bureaucracy

Though he may not know it.  This observation from a blog post relating to software is true:

Almost any organized human activity is much more complicated and interesting than you would expect, once you examine its particularity. For instance: I have never taken mail delivery for granted after my earliest paying jobs as a parcel-post sorter and then letter carrier at the local Post Office. People scoff at the USPS, but it pulls off some amazing feats of volume management -- even as today's volume sadly goes down.

Candy Thompson

I see I'm late in realizing that Candy has been appointed to be Associate Administrator for Administration and Operations and her bio hasn't been posted yet.  I remember her 27 years ago when she and Chris Niedermayer were in Kansas City working on testing the price support software for the system/36.

For all the newbies, yes, it's true that we walked to and from Ward Parkway uphill both ways in the snow barefoot.  Those were the days. 

Animal Rights/Welfare

Extension.org has a series of posts in this area.  Here's one on cages and chickens.

What Was on Their Minds in 1787?

Stumbled on an item from New Jersey in 1787.  After the NJ convention had ratified the new constitution, they adjourned to a tavern to celebrate.  "After dinner, the following toasts were drank:

1. The new constitution
2. The united states in congress.
3. The president and members of the late federal convention.
4. The governor and state of New Jersey.
5. The states of Delaware and Pennsylvania.
6. May the independence of the union, reared on the basis of the new constitution, be perpetual.
7. The princes and states in alliance with the united states.
8. May the interest of the united states be ever deemed the interest of each state.
9. Religion, learning, agriculture, arts, manufactures, and commerce, in harmony and mutual subserviency to each other.
10. The memory and posterity of those who have falled in the late war.
11. May the gratitude of the American citizens be equal to the valour and patriotism of the American soldiery.
12. The daughters of America.
13. May the united states be the asylum of invaded liberty.

Volunteer [sic?] May the American drums soon beat reveille to the dawn of the new government, and tattoo to anarchy and confusion.
Ditto.  Universal liberty, justice and peace. "

Stolen From DeLong: 14th Century

"A Commonplace Book: Buying Power of 14th Century Money: "In the second half of the 14th century, a pound sterling would: (i) Support the lifestyle of a single peasant laborer for half a year, or that of a knight for a week. Or buy: (ii)( Three changes of clothing for a teenage page (underclothes not included) or (iii) Twelve pounds of sugar or (iv) A carthorse or (v) Two cows or (vi) An inexpensive bible or (vii) ten ordinary books or (viii) Rent a craftsman’s townhouse for a year or (ix) Hire a servant for six months…. It should be obvious from the above list that the conversion rate depends a great deal on what you buy…""

Stole this from Brad DeLong verbatim.  Can't wrap my head around the various conversions.  It seems a knight is worth 26 times a peasant or a servant.  That's not a bad ratio, given the relationship of the wages of modern CEO's and their lowest employees, but it would seem bad to anyone before 1970.

Industrial Farming and "Soiling Cattle"

"Industrial farming" usually includes "factory farming".  I think the usual assumption is that in the good old days, as when I grew up, dairy cattle were pastured and only recently have they been confined with the feed brought to them.  As is often the case, that assumption is wrong.  It seems in the old days "soiling cattle" was a recognized method, promoted in this Google book of 1874. Other references found by Google are earlier.

CAP

Chris Clayton at DTN reports on the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.  They're not following the Americans in moving from direct payments to crop insurance.

Gun Nuts Should Use Puritans, Not Hitler

Politico has an article where the Anti-defamation League warns against using Hitler in the context of the current debates over gun safety.  That's fine, but one does need an extreme example in any political argument, so I'll offer one: the Massachusetts Puritans.  I'm reading Bernard Bailyn's Barbarous Years which is interesting.  He observes that in the early days of the Bay Colony, when there was a raging conflict between Wheelwright and Hutchinson and the leaders of the colony (I'm sure that was covered in your history class--Anne Hutchinson being the first prominent woman protestor), the leadership took the step of confiscating all the arms possessed by the 60-70 people who supported the dissidents.

So instead of using a photo of Hitler, use one of the standard pictures of a Puritan, like John Winthrop, the man who used "city on a hill" before Ronald Reagan.