A Question for Presidential Candidates

The governance of schools is different in different parts of the country.  In Broome County, NY, there were a number of central school districts, each with their own elected school board.  In Fairfax County, VA there's one county elected school board.

I note from today's papers that several of the Republican candidates for President participated in an education forum, many (all?) of whom plugged for state and local control of education.  

I'd challenge each of them to declare whether they voted in the last school board election, and who they voted for.  I may be cynical but I suspect most people couldn't answer the question, which says something to me about the value of local control.

For the record, I can't answer my own question. 

EU Cartels in the Food Chain?

Politico has a piece on the problems which European sanction on Russia are causing for the farmers, particularly French farmers.  (Does anyone here remember the problems Pres. Carter had imposing a grain embargo on the Soviet Union after the invasion of Afghanistan--that and the boycott of the Olympics were the major sanctions we imposed, IIRC?)

It includes this paragraph:

While French industrial purchasers normally agree to absorb a set volume of local production at controlled prices agreed during roundtables, this time some of them balked over the huge difference between the cost of French meat and products from Germany or Spain — around 30 euro cents per kilo.

Some complained that buying French meat at inflated prices would put them at a serious economic disadvantage. The refusal of just two moderately sized groups, Bigard and Cooperl, to buy a certain volume of pork at an agreed price of €1.40 per kilo was enough to upset the tightly-controlled system, shutting down the Brittany pork product exchange for eight days. 

I wonder what "roundtables" means--do the French equivalents of McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc. meet together to set volumes and prices of meat they'll buy?  It's what it sounds like.

I sort of assume that the contract growing of livestock in the US extends all the way up.  Jane Doe signs a contract to grow chickens for Tyson, Tyson signs a contract to deliver chicken breasts to KFC.  But how are the prices set--subtle signalling between KFC and McDonalds (like the airlines do)?  When I'm reincarnated I'm going to study economics.

GMO Seeds and the Chinese Spies (?)

New Republic has a piece on Chinese espionage against US intellectual property, specifically genetically modified seeds.

Think about that: The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI now contend, in effect, that the theft of genetically modified corn technology is as credible a threat to national security as the spread to nation-states of the technology necessary to deliver and detonate nuclear warheads.

It's a long piece, rehearsing the development of hybrid corn and then GMOs, and touching on farm policy from the New Deal through Earl Butz.  Inevitably such a summary must be incomplete and contain errors, but I'm not up to nitpicking today. 

WWII: Ratio of Soviet to US Losses

60 to 1, roughly

Netflix and USPS--Working Together More Closely

USPS has dropped its overnight guarantee for first class service.  That adversely impacted Netflix's DVD service.  My household subscribed to the 4 DVDs, which usually meant we had one in the mail to us, one in the mail to Netflix, and 2 at home.  The extra one at home would cover weekends, holidays,etc.  Very occasionally the DVD at the top of our queue would require a long wait, long enough that Netflix might send an extra DVD just to make us feel better about skipping the first choice until it became available.

But through the magic of bar codes, and computers, USPS and Netflix have worked out a work-around.  For the past few weeks, in addition to the 4 DVD's for which we pay, we see a little note about an additional DVD in the mail.

What's happening?  My guess is that Netflix's computers know not only the bar code on the DVD we've been sent, but also the bar code on the envelope containing the DVD.  And the USPS has computers which can scan both sides of the envelope (both sides because I think the unique bar code is on the reverse from the address). [Updated:  I often make mistakes the first time.  What's really happening is that when you insert the sleeve with the DVD into the mailing envelope correctly, the bar code on the sleeve shows the window on the back of the mailing envelope, so the USPS computer can  scan the DVD sleeve.  ]So when I mail a DVD back, the envelope goes through the USPS processing plant in late afternoon/evening, and triggers a message to Netflix which in essence says: "Harshaw is returning Wolf Hall, Disc 1".  In turn Netflix can trigger the mailing of the next DVD on the queue.

I wrote "guess" above, but it's confirmed by a comment in a reddit thread.

What's totally mystifying to me is that I don't see any publicity from Netflix.  Maybe they or their USPS partner are worried whether someone will challenge the arrangement?

Growing Meat the New Way

Vox has a long piece on the prospects for lab-grown meat.  In short, progress is being made but it has yet to attract a whole bunch of researchers.

Having just been commenting over on Grist on the prospects for RNA interference (see my post here)
I have to wonder: will the food movement which resists gene modification in their food chain be comfortable with eating man-made meat?

"Bureaucrat Is a Dirty Word"

From an interview with David Simon tied to his new HBO series on integrating housing in Yonkers.

Bureaucrat is a dirty word.

David Simon:

Except I covered Baltimore, and [Bill] covered Baltimore government. How much respect do you have for the guys who actually knew their job and did it on the public wheel? There were a lot of people like that. Not everybody. When it's bad, it's bad, but when it's good, it's good, and at a price that should be worth a lot more, and it never is.

Mormon Church as Typical American Settlers

Vox has a piece explaining that Ben Carson's proposal for a tax system based on tithing was tried by the Mormon church in the 19th century.  I was struck by this quote in the article:

"Essentially, the church was the government of Utah, for all practical purposes, for quite a few decades," says John Turner, a historian at George Mason University and the author of Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet. "So there was an expectation that one would pay 10 percent of one's income as taxes."

 There's an echo there of the experience of some of my ancestors.  They moved from York county, PA to Ontario county, NY in the early 1800's.  There they joined the Presbyterian church at Stanley, NY.  Based on a history of the church, and reading some of its records, the church fulfilled a lot of the governmental functions in the early years: determining when members were bad and their punishment and providing education for the children.  While American historians know that churches were integral to the founding of New England, I think they often miss how important churches were in creating new communities as the frontier moved west.

How We Forget: Watts 50 Years Later

The NYtimes had an article on the improvements in Watts 50 years after the riots.

But Watts — once a symbol of urban strife and racial tensions — stands as a stark contrast. There were fewer than a dozen homicides in the neighborhood last year, compared with hundreds in 1965.

There were something like 700 murders for all of California in 1964.  I can't find a breakdown for LA, much less Watts but I'd suspect that the writer of the article didn't do any research, just assumed that the murder rate was high.  Actually the first half of the 60's saw a low murder rate generally, it started to climb in the late 60's.

Messing With Plant Genes: the Fourth Way.

If we're counting, there were three ways for humans to mess with plant genes:

1. the time-honored method of selective breeding, picking the good ones from a crop and reproducing them.  The only way approved of by all.
2. direct genetic manipulation in the laboratory, inserting a gene from one species into the germplasm of another species.  This is called GMO, and it is considered bad by many, particularly in Europe, because it creates "unnatural" combinations of genes.  Many believe people must be given the information that they're eating/using such plants.
3. direct genetic manipulation in the laboratory, using CRISPR to remove genetic material from  germplasm.  Not sure that people have made up their minds about this.

Even before we make up our minds about CRISPR, scientists have come up with another way to mess with genes, using "RNA interference".The appeal is that it offers control over genes without modifying a plant’s genome—that is, without creating a GMO. From the piece:

That means sprays might sidestep much of the controversy around agricultural biotechnology. Or so companies hope. What’s certain is that a way to accomplish the goals of genetic engineering without having to develop a GMO could bring commercial rewards. Sprays might be quickly tailored to do battle with an insect infestation or a new type of virus. Not only could this be faster than creating new GM crops, but the gene-silencing effects of RNA interference last only a few days or weeks. That means you might spray on traits such as drought resistance in times of water shortage without affecting the plant’s performance in times of normal rainfall.

I know I don't understand this but the bottom line to me seems to be that the scientists are advancing faster than society is making rules. It's hard to see how those who object to GMO's (no. 2) could object to this.

[Update: Grist weighs in on RNA interference.  Suggests that Monsanto follow Google and change its name.]