23 Feb 2006
Ketchup is a Vegetable, Milk is Junk Food

Remember when the USDA decided that ketchup is a vegetable in the Reagan years? Well, it seems as though the State of Indiana is trying to do them one better: Senate Bill 0111 would effectively classify whole milk as a junk food. Milk that's been processed, dried and had every bit of natural goodness sucked right out of it would be just fine - but not whole milk, and certainly not real milk. Hel, that's illegal to sell in Indiana, if you want to drink it you have to own a cow share.

If anyone out there still suffers from the delusion that our government is run by rational folks, this should go a long ways to dispelling it.

00:00 /Agriculture | 5 comments | permanent link

China Bans Cartoons That Blend Animation

Conservatives are constantly complaining about the "Hollywood elite" and their often rabid support of protectionist measures and general anti-globalization attitudes. They don't seem to understand that Hollywood is acting in it's own economic self-interest in these initiatives: it's frequently American cultural products (such as the ones being banned here) that bear the brunt of foreign protectionist measures.

Nobody has yet explained to me what's free about trade that allows China to sell their products here, and also allows them to ban imports of our products. I'm sure that the US Trade Representative will engage in "serious negotiations" with the Chinese on this issue - for at least ten years, with the Chinese dragging their feet all the way. By that time their native animation production facilities will have overtaken ours, by way of having a captive audience in the worlds largest market. We'll finally reach an agreement allowing the import of our films into China, but we won't have any to sell. The whole incident will be declared a "victory for free trade" ... and another American industry will be left in shambles.

Is it any wonder that Hollywood uses it's political influence to try and stem the tide? There can be no such thing as free trade on a one way street.

AP - "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" could be out of the picture in China — along with many other cartoon favorites.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

We own all your rich internet media

You don't need a law degree to read this patent (linked in the article below), nor do you need to be a genius to figure out that it's entirely bogus. I have no idea how the USPTO could possibly have been so stupid as to grant this patent. It's truly unbelievable - read it for yourself.

Design shop learns from patent big boys

(link) [The Register]

00:00 /Copywrongs | 0 comments | permanent link

Misreported Boxed Beef Prices

A lot of folks wonder how corporations take advantage of producers: this case illustrates a classic scam. Commodities markets depend on transparency: information is the currency that's being traded here, and perfect information makes for market equilibrium. Of course, information is never perfect, and so prices constantly move and flow, adjusting themselves in a sort of feedback loop to try to find the balance.

If the information can be controlled and skewed, it can be used to leverage huge advantages in trading. This is exactly what happened here: this should be a pretty open and shut case. It'll be interesting to see how the packers try to defend themselves.

I strongly suspect that this kind of thing goes on pretty much all of the time, behind the scenes, in various commodity markets, including such non-agricultural goods as energy and metals. It was a variation on this theme that got Enron in so much trouble trading electricity in California before their collapse - and it wouldn't surprise me a bit to see a major "agribusiness" follow in it's footsteps at some time in the near future.

(Aberdeen, S.D.) A federal jury trial will begin here April 3 to consider claims made against the four largest United States beef packers arising out of the misreporting of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's boxed beef prices that occurred between April 2 and May 11, 2001.

(link) [The Prairie Star]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

U.S. Ports Raise Proxy Problem

This is the first rational analysis of the whole port security controversy - by a well known and respected cryptographer, no less! Read it and understand the fuss... I can certainly see my own initial reaction in light of this analysis, and it goes a long way towards explaining why this seems to have become a truly bipartisan issue.

The controversy over President Bush's plan to turn over management of six U.S. ports to Dubai is a proxy war between competing interests -- and it's not clear which ones are ours. Commentary by Bruce Schneier.

(link) [Wired News: Top Stories]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link