A while back I ran across a reference to "hand milking", which turned out to what dad would have called "machine milking". Now the distinction is whether it's a robot putting the teat cups onto the cows or whether it's a human.
I was reminded of this by a Newshour piece on the advance of robots in dairying.
My wife and I order the occasional pizza from Dominos. For years our usual order was about $17 plus tip. These days it's up to $31. Part of that is the inclusion of a delivery charge, part is a more generous tip. I suspect not only are the ingredients a bit more costly, but salaries for the help are up and management has been scared by the ups and downs of operating through the pandemic, thus becoming more cautious. And the reality is that demand likely has stayed strong because of the pandemic.
We've seen reports that the International Space Station has had to maneuver to reduce the chances of being hit by debris. That's pretty straightforward--ISS can maneuver, the debris can't.
What happens if ISS and one of Elon Musk's satellites are on a collision course, or any set of two active satellites, each of which can maneuver? (My guess is that such a collision is less likely than the debris/satellite scenario, but it must be possible.) If both maneuver there's the possibility they will increase the likelihood of a collision. On the sea, or on the road we have well-established conventions to minimize collisions. But in space?
Reading "Public Citizens: The Attack on Big Government and the Remaking of American Liberalism".
I may write more about it, but I want to note that "civilian lawsuits" were proposed by Ralph Nader and his followers to enforce stronger standards for clean air and water.
Can we see this delegation of authority to sue as paving the way for the Texas SB 8 legislation on abortion? Is there a difference in them?
Washington Post yesterday had an article on the difficulties caused by SSA's switch to remote service. The agency has over 1200 field offices.
I'd love to see a comparison of SSA and FSA operations during the pandemic. FSA would, I think, come out better, mostly because farmers have a history of interacting with their local office because farm programs are annual while usually people only need SSA once. That may be oversimplification, but that's my guess.
But I'd also expect other differences, partly due to the county committee structure, partly the clientele, partly different histories and norms.
SSA does have unions, as opposed to the NASCOE and farm loan groups. They also have at least one Facebook group, as with FSA restricted to active and retired employees.
William Goodman said: "in Hollywood no body knows anything" about what makes for a hit movie.
One lesson from covid is the limitations of knowledge, of expertise. Over 2 years we've seen a lot of predictions, some were accurate within their frame, some were correct at the general level (i.e., the virus would mutate and the mutations would have different characteristics), but all had trouble tracking the changes over time.
Another lesson is how vulnerable we the public are to misinformation.
GAO questions USDA's approaches to calculating MFP benefits. Too long, didn't read. (i.e., too complicated for an old man.)
Here's a discussion of which election since 1945 has been the most important. Sadly, the experts omit any discussion of my favorite: 1952. (They focus on 2020, 2016, 1964, etc.)
Why 1952? What was critical was the Republican nomination: Robert Taft versus Dwight Eisenhower. Either could win, as the country was tired of the New Deal at home and of the Korean War abroad. Taft was the more conservative, with an isolationist history from before December 7, 1941. Ike was the more internationalist and the more supportive of NATO.
On paper, if Taft had won the nomination and the presidency the course of the Cold War looks very different than what happened.
I say "on paper" because Taft died in 1953 and we don't know who he would have chosen as vice president. It might have been someone from the Eisenhower wing of the party in an attempt to present a unified front against the Democrats. Or it might not.
Bob Somerby notes that the texts Donald Trump Jr. sent to Meadows (and others) show that Trump's associates didn't expect a takeover of the Capitol. Elsewhere Eric Trump said in an interview that the Trump campaign was too incompetent, too inexperienced to collude with Russians, which only confirms a Dana Milbank column of months ago.
I think that's true. Everything I've read about the former guy and his White House operation suggests he and they really didn't know what they were doing. So my assessment of Jan 6 is that it was throwing a bunch of darts at the wall, hoping that one of them would find a bulls-eye.
