"Today, Estonia is regarded as one of the most
advanced e-governments in the world. The use of technology and digital
services is widespread in both the public and private sector. We can set
up a new company and have it legally up and running within 20 minutes.
Nearly 95 percent of Estonians declare their income online, because it
takes less than five minutes and no accountants. All this brings tax
administration costs down to only 0.3 percent of net tax revenues, and
saves each citizen an average of 5.4 workdays a year."
From a World Bank post on how Estonia got there.
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Farm Kids and "Our Kids"
Reading Robert Putnam's "Our Kids"
Farm kids seem naturally to have a childhood closer to that enjoyed by those with highly educated parents these days than kids with parents in standard-issue suburbia. There's differences, of course. The cultural/intellectual environment isn't as rich and you can't assume a lot of emphasis on words. I suspect there's less diversity among the kids in a rural school these days than there was in my time, but still more than in most suburban settings.
Farm kids seem naturally to have a childhood closer to that enjoyed by those with highly educated parents these days than kids with parents in standard-issue suburbia. There's differences, of course. The cultural/intellectual environment isn't as rich and you can't assume a lot of emphasis on words. I suspect there's less diversity among the kids in a rural school these days than there was in my time, but still more than in most suburban settings.
Friday, January 15, 2016
Grazing Allotments and Base Properties
Nathanael Johnson continues to impress me.
His piece on the Oregon Malheur sit-in/occupation offers a new piece of info: grazing allotments are connected to "base properties" and their value is capitalized into the market price of the property (much as tobacco allotments were capitalized into the value of the land to which they were attached).
[Update--apparently the local FSA office in the area was closed as a precautionary measure--not clear whether it's still closed.]
His piece on the Oregon Malheur sit-in/occupation offers a new piece of info: grazing allotments are connected to "base properties" and their value is capitalized into the market price of the property (much as tobacco allotments were capitalized into the value of the land to which they were attached).
[Update--apparently the local FSA office in the area was closed as a precautionary measure--not clear whether it's still closed.]
Thursday, January 14, 2016
RIP Alan Rickman
I seem to be on a culture kick this week. Alan Rickman died at age 69. The obits talk about Harry Potter and Die Hard, and the stage. I'd like to mention the Barsetshire Chronicles, a BBC series based on the Trollope novels in 1982. Rickman played Obadiah Slope in a memorable performance. Slope is an ambitious young clergyman, a villain, but whose love for the girl almost redeems him. The books were great, but Rickman's performance is greater.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
El Chapo's Escape Is Not a Crime
I was looking back to see when I first started blogging. It was January 2005 and my first post linked to a Post article on an escape from Mexican prisons. According to the article, merely escaping from prison was not a crime in itself.
On "Whippersnapper"
As a geezer, I often use the word "whippersnapper". To me it means someone younger than I who is less serious and more assertive than I. It's definitely ageist, (Ageism is perhaps the one dichotomy which will last the longest. We've seen race and sex and gender being dissolved away, distinctions fading, epithets being outlawed.) But everyone is young and everyone will be old. Only if we finally conquer death will the distinctions between the generations fade away.)
Today I wonder about its origin. Google shows that the origin is fuzzy, perhaps from "whip snapper". However a British site says it's a combination in the 17th century of "whip snapper" and "snipper snapper". From meaning a street boy who had no ambition but lazily snapping a whip for recreation it came to mean "A diminutive or insignificant person, especially a sprightly or impertinent youngster" in the sites definition.
Today I wonder about its origin. Google shows that the origin is fuzzy, perhaps from "whip snapper". However a British site says it's a combination in the 17th century of "whip snapper" and "snipper snapper". From meaning a street boy who had no ambition but lazily snapping a whip for recreation it came to mean "A diminutive or insignificant person, especially a sprightly or impertinent youngster" in the sites definition.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Another Cultural Disconnect--Star Wars
We just saw the new Star Wars movie today. While I saw and enjoyed the original Star Wars movie, I have to admit I never saw any of the others. I suppose that impaired my enjoyment of the new one. While I enjoyed parts of the movie, particularly the Harrison Ford bits (he's about a year younger than I) it didn't turn me on. Using the Netflix 5 star rating system, I'd give it a 3, while apparently most critics are giving it a 4, even a 5.
Monday, January 11, 2016
Cultural Disconnect--Bowie
I've never been up on popular culture, but the reaction to the death of David Bowie shows how far off I've been. For me, the name was familiar but I never followed his music or his movies or whatever else he did. From the reaction today it seems he was a much more significant figure than I would have guessed.
The Impact of History and Chance on Discrimination
Somewhere in the last few days there was a report of a study on discrimination against women scholars. As I remember it, in economics, if a paper has multiple authors, their names are listed alphabetically. In physics (?), the convention is to list the primary author first.
I wonder why those different conventions arose in the first place: chance, some difference in the way papers are developed between the two disciplines, something else? Anyhow, the bottom line is: in economics a woman who is part of a team of authors gets no credit for her work. (Credit was determined by counting the publications according to sole-authorship versus team, then seeing the correlation between no. of pubs and the academic position achieved.) Only sole author pubs helped a woman economist. In physics there was no such impact.
I wonder why those different conventions arose in the first place: chance, some difference in the way papers are developed between the two disciplines, something else? Anyhow, the bottom line is: in economics a woman who is part of a team of authors gets no credit for her work. (Credit was determined by counting the publications according to sole-authorship versus team, then seeing the correlation between no. of pubs and the academic position achieved.) Only sole author pubs helped a woman economist. In physics there was no such impact.
It Was My Mother's Fault
Specifically:
"Although mostly I suspect it was because my mother raised me badly, so I didn't have the good manners to show proper gratitude in a normal way. Definitely my mother's fault, one way or another."
That's from an InsideHigherEd post, interviewing Prof. Pietsch, the guy whose acknowledgments in his book have gone viral, thanks to John Fea's spotting them at the AHA convention.
"Although mostly I suspect it was because my mother raised me badly, so I didn't have the good manners to show proper gratitude in a normal way. Definitely my mother's fault, one way or another."
That's from an InsideHigherEd post, interviewing Prof. Pietsch, the guy whose acknowledgments in his book have gone viral, thanks to John Fea's spotting them at the AHA convention.
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