Self-Driving Cars

Sunday in the print editions: 

The Post had an essay by Mr. Zipper on self-driving cars, arguing they won't save lives (at least not 94 percent of current fatalities) and won't be good for the environment.

The Times has an opinion piece by Mr. Manjoo praising the Cadillac Escalade, including its self-driving package.

Both writers seem to agree that by making driving less onerous self-driving cars will encourage more driving, more time spent in cars, and therefore hurt the environment.

I'm still looking forward to more advances, though not ready to spring for an Escalade.  But my need and interest in driving seems to be waning, particularly in the context of the pandemic. 

Expropriation/Appropriation of Culture/Ideas

 Reading Johnson's book "The Broken Heart of America"--early on (page 26) he refers to the expropriation of Indian knowledge by the Lewis/Clark expedition.   Somehow it struck me wrong.  Checking the definitions of "expropriation" and "appropriation" it seems their meaning has been concerning property or assets.  

Johnson applies it to intellectual knowledge and intangible assets. To an economist I think the distinction rests on what is "excludable", which intellectual property isn't as a rule. IP is shareable.  It's appropriate to refer to the expropriation of land or the appropriation of personal property, but to my mind not appropriate to expropriation of IP or appropriation of culture. 

That leaves a question of what label to use instead of cultural appropriation--imitation or emulation or copying, perhaps adding an adjective like "superficial". 

A note from a biography of Josiah Wedgwood I'm reading--there's a quotation from an eminent writer in the 1760's pontificating that the classical past (which was being revealed by excavating Pompeii and the tours of Europe by young English men) should be considered the common patrimony of all, so emulation and imitation was fine.

Douthat in the Times

 Ross Douthat had an op-ed which interested me. He argued both conservatives and liberals have divisions, basically along two dimensions: trust in people and trust in expertise.  

Conservatives have over their history distrusted democracy, the mob. That continues today in attempts to limit voting. What's newish is conservative dislike of experts, of science.  Education used to be a conservative force but now both science and education are associated with change.

Liberals have a history of expanding the right to vote, which continues. But since the Progressive era they've developed a belief in educated elites, particularly science and social science.

The tensions on both sides make for instability. 

(The above is what I took from the essay without going back to doublecheck my summary.)

Douthat's analysis works for me as a liberal. I don't agree with some liberal positions, but I maintain my faith in science.

Budget -Wise We're Better Off?

 Congressional Budget Office does estimates of the effects of laws and proposed laws on the economy. Such estimates get media play.  What doesn't get media play is corrections:

In its March 2020 projections for fiscal year 2021, CBO underestimated revenues by 15 percent and overestimated outlays by 4 percent. CBO’s projection of the federal budget deficit in 2021 was more than the actual amount by 3.9 percent of GDP.

AFIDA Holes

 This points to possible problems in how FSA enforces the AFIDA legislation. I once was responsible for that.  I hoped someday to integrate AFIDA reports into the general system for updating land ownership once we got a common geospatial database with SCS.  

I retired before that happened.  It sounds as if it hasn't happened since.  Just another silo.

Farm Efficiency--Big Versus Small

 This post says big farms are more efficient when capital is important; small farms when labor is more important.

It makes intuitive sense: if you're doing small plots with hand tools, the expertise and attention of the tool wielder is important.  If you're doing thousands of acress with equipment worth hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars, the ability of the tractor driver is less important than getting the most use out of the equipment. 

Views of USDA--From Outside and Inside

This report says the federal government doesn't get good marks for its services.  But USDA is one of the highest ranking departments.  Meanwhile I remember seeing the results of a survey of employee satisfaction within different agencies--IIRC USDA scored near the bottom.

Why? I'd suggest part of the answer might be this: farmers served by FSA seem usually to have close relationships with their local office--that was my impression early on in the 1970s and it seems to be continuing now, judging by the Facebook FSA group.  But the local employees seem often to be unhappy with the national office; again I think it was true in the 70s and remains so now. (More accurately I think the employees are ambivalent, so they might easily voice discontent on a survey while being more balanced in a face-to-face. 

Granted FSA is only a small part of USDA but the dynamic might well work for most of the agencies.  My guess anyway. 

Is the Midwest Real?

 I've seen a few polls online trying to determine which states people would include in  the "Midwest".  There's no unanimity, just a core of states almost everyone would include (those beginning with "I") plus others--is Ohio in, how about western PA? Is Nebraska in or out, etc.?

It struck me this morning that the term "Midwest" has a similar relationship to the geography and society found in that general area as the term "race" has to the people who might be included in a specific "race". 

This is all in the context of discussions of whether "race" is "real"--many on the left would say race isn't real. I think it's real in some sense, but once you start defining it you find the concept fuzzy and sometimes evanescent.

What Is "Food Waste"?

 I'm a bit skeptical of the commonly used statistic that we waste x percent of the food we grow/produce (where x usually is 30 or more).

I'm not sure of the units of measurement--is it calories, volume, weight? It makes a difference.

And what is counted--if considering volume or weight, do you include the skins of bananas or the rinds of citrus?

And what is "waste"? Is corn grown for ethanol wasted?  Are animal parts used for pet food wasted?  

Vaccinations

 Until I read this twitter thread I wasn't aware we now had this many vaccinations for the early years. I wonder how many other shots come up later in life?

 

I post this regularly, and many express surprise.

This is the current childhood immunization schedule. Many childhood vaccines are three+ doses, sometimes a booster.

This is one reason why, unlike earlier centuries, we don't have cemeteries full of children. We've forgotten. pic.twitter.com/H01WqNg7uj

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) January 27, 2022