Inflation in Machinery

Via today's Farm Policy, an illustration of the economics of farming at the farmdoc blog  (“Machinery Cost Estimates for 2012 and 2013”) that farmers are price takers: ”

": Prices of new machinery have increased for most machines between 2010 and 2012. For example, the list price of a 215 horsepower tractor in 2012 is $215,000. A comparable sized tractor in 2010 has a list price of $181,500. Between 2010 and 2012, the price of this tractor has increased by 18 percent."

 Now I don't remember any big price increases on cars or trucks in recent years, so what's happening is the implement manufacturers are raising their prices to what the market will bear, and there's not enough competition to keep the prices down.   Any guess as to implement prices if and when corn drops to $3?

I Smell

Research proves that old people smell [different than younger people].

Rooting for Clothes

Dave Berri at Freakonomics uses a Seinfeld phrase on politics: "rooting for clothes".  The idea is that Cleveland sports fans loved LeBron until he moved, Redskins fans haded Deon Sanders until he switched from Dallas to the Skins, etc. etc.

We can also apply the idea to politics, since in many cases the parties switch positions depending on whether they're in power or not.

Mrs. Obama's Garden Book

She's on the move promoting her book.

I'll give her credit; I was originally afraid the garden was just a fad thing.  It's still a vehicle for spin, but that comes with the territory.

[Updated: here's a pretty full description of the contents at Obamafoodorama.]

Guinness Puzzle Solved

The world has waited with bated breath to find the answer to the puzzle: why do bubbles in Guinness fall, instead of rise.  We now know, thanks to some Irish mathematicians.  (The tongue is firmly in the cheek in this piece at Technology Review.)

"Heroes": The Devaluation of Standards

There's a kerfuffle over some guy on MSNBC voicing reservations over calling people "heroes", thinks it encourages war..  And Mitt Romney  has a video in which he says: " “But every woman and every man who has or now defends American liberty share in their heritage of greatness. Every veteran is the greatest of his generation.”

To all of which, I say b.s.  We're now living in Lake Woebegon, where all the women are good-looking, all the children above average, and all the veterans/military are heroes and the greatest.  It's also the country where the "gentleman's C" has become everyone's B.

In fact, some served, some did not. Some did their jobs, some did not.  Some were very brave on some days, some were not.  Some received medals, some did not.  Some were Americans, some were not. Some were Germans, Japanese, Russians, Vietnamese, some were not.  Draw a Venn diagram and the sets will overlap.  All were human. Read "The Red Badge of Courage", then read Audie Murphy's memoir.

[Update: Tom Ricks provides some backup to my position here. Conor Friedersdorf has a long post on the original MSNBC program and the reaction thereto.]

Props to Jimmy Carter

Obituaries this week for Wesley Brown, who graduated from Annapolis in 1949 as the first black to make it through.  From the obits his time was not easy, being hazed continuously for four years.  Both the Times and Post obits observe a handful of whites were friendly, including a young Jimmy Carter who was a teammate on the track team.

Congress: No Negative Earmarks

One of the things Congress likes to do is the "negative earmark", by which I mean sticking a provision in an appropriation act stating that no money shall be spent for such and such purpose as authorized in an existing statute.  It's like an earmark, because it scratches some specific itch, and it's done through the appropriation process which means, usually, there's no up and down vote, but because it bans spending of money it's negative, not positive.

Well, the gun nuts have used the negative earmark to make it impossible for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to review any application for relief from provisions of the law, including the complete ban on ex-felons possessing firearms.  This provision has now bitten former Representative Randy Cunningham, who is nearing release from  prison (for bribery) and would like to be able to hunt. The link is from a TPM post, containing the letter written by the federal judge back to Cunningham.

It's so funny, I could cry. 

[Updated: changed title and added clause to last sentence of first paragraph.]

I Lost My Wallet: USDA

This post on Govloop describes an approach the Portugese government had set up:

Essentially, it was a place you went when... you lost your wallet. What the government had done was bring together all the agencies that controlled a document or card that was likely to have been in your wallet. As a result, rather than running around from agency to agency filling out your name and address over and over again on dozens of different forms, you went to a single desk, filled out one set of forms to get new copies of say, your social insurance card, your drivers license, healthcare card and library card.

It reminds me of an episode back in my career, perhaps in connection with USDA's InfoShare project.  Someone's parent had died, leaving her some farmland, I think in the Shenandoah valley.  She had tried going to the USDA offices to get help with what to do, but found the whole process confusing and very frustrating. 

There should be a simple process for such cases, although it's much more important (and equally as unlikely) for there to be an "I lost my wallet" office sponsored by any government at any level in the US.

Everything Is Owned, Except Feral Hogs

If you had asked me, I say everything in the US has an owner but not so.  Feral hogs in Texas are unowned, and you need no license to hunt them.

Extension has been having a lot of posts on feral hogs--just another thing to worry about.