econ

I am doing reading on agricultural/applied economics in my spare time and came across this gem of an interview. Lots of classical logic errors (straw man arguments, omitting/distorting facts, replying on anecdotes), and this man gets paid huge amounts of money.


My favorite comment on it was the following:

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As a farmer (completely unsubsidized), I always wonder how it is that economists can continually get it wrong and still get a paycheck. Look at the housing crisis — less than two years ago, most economists still would not admit that the housing market was a bubble. Somehow, they found data to support their beliefs. Six months into the crisis, they said the market had hit bottom. Now, they are saying the bottom is still not in sight.

Every year when I plant my crops, I have to use a combination of experience, research, and guesswork. If I get it wrong, I don’t get paid that year. I would love to see economists — especially free marketers like the author of this piece and his friends at the AEI — voluntarily shift to get paid on commission. That is, if they get it right, they paid, if they don’t, tough luck. Maybe then economists would finally have a REAL incentive to provide us with some answers that will actually benefit us (Aren’t they the ones always telling us how important incentives are?). Otherwise, they should stop pretending to be scientists and just admit that they are flipping coins just like the rest of us.

Economists at the University of California and other public institutions are making six figure salaries on the public dime. At least the subsidized farmers are providing something useful for the tax money. Get a real job and then maybe you’d actually understand something about how the economy really works.
— Paul

And then he wrote:

When are we going to see the study detailing the potential savings to the U.S. economy by outsourcing all of our economic research to India? I hear the environment in India is much more conducive to producing good economic research, at a fraction of the cost that we spend doing it here.
-Paul
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Probably the biggest problem with the kind of agriculture many economists are promoting (large-scale) is the inherent lack of biodiversity in the system and the non-sustainability of that system. You want more biodiversity, you need lots of smaller, preferably organic farms. And you need biodiversity for soil health and sustainability, sufficient nutrients, avoiding pest/weed problems, etc. You can't get away from that in the long-term. But it's not economically beneficial in the short-term because it is less efficient.

road trip and weeds

I'm going to this next week! I leave on Weds and get back Sat night. It's about 3.5 hrs away and they are really progressive and vegan-friendly, it should be lots of fun!

Back to reading about weeds. I love them, they are brilliant. The history of weed science is pretty funny. In the 50s and 60s they were saying that weeds would be eradicated in ten years. Then they started to see that a single bullet approach never works and just causes weeds to develop resistance (plus, the whole ecocide issue). I can't help but admire these sturdy, nutritious plants (since they are great at scavenging for uptake) that make it where nowhere else can, when humans are hellbent at destroying them, to the point of endangering their own health. Now everyone is realizing you have to have a more ecological/systems approach to get anywhere, that you have to manage but not destroy them, that you can look for intercropping with cash crops or using weeds for special things (biofuels etc), and other interesting things. I will have a focus on weeds for my project, so it's all good to know.

New book

Went to M&L's for dinner and they had a pomegranate they didn't want. I was so happy to eat it for them.

Also got a book by Alan Watts, a brilliant Western scientist and philosopher who was able to make sense of Eastern ideas and translate them for Westerners. I believe he is Buddhist. The book I have is "The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are." It's very good, and challenging without being ridiculous. It's why a super logically minded friend got into Buddhism (though not as a strict religion)--it was a cohesive worldview that put everything together.

I made coconut-oat muffins yesterday, and banana cornbread muffins today.

R said something funny the other day, that maybe after this, it would be fun to move somewhere a little further south, for something different. "Because this move worked out so well?" I asked. "Well, it would be different." I wonder if we could put aside our southern prejudices (and by southern, I mean, anything south of MN, not Alabama-south) in exchange for some warmth.

"Learned Optimism"

Optimism – reacting to setbacks from a presumption of personal power

Bad events are temporary setbacks
Isolated to particular circumstances
Can be overcome by my effort and abilities
Pessimism - reacting to setbacks from a presumption of personal helplessness:

Bad events will last a long time
Will undermine everything I do
Are my fault
Optimism psychology is in the field of cognitive science. It is not magic. But, the event-explanations of optimism can be practiced and learned, even by those who have not consistently used them previously.
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Pessimism is not constructive, whether or not it is accurate. Optimism is helpful, and the only way to go if you're going to keep going.

From this blog:
http://vedamithra.blogspot.com/
H.H.Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, used to quote very often " The quality of Control is possible only for strong minds, because weak minds, trying to control,result in more stress." Therefore first it is necessary for us to develop and enhance to lead ourselves to a platform, from where the control of anything becomes very easy, very natural and spontaneous

So, I need to meditate first and everything else follows naturally afterwards. Funny because I have always practiced and been interested in what I later found out are the yamas and niyamas of yoga--observances and restraints--which would follow naturally afterwards. I was not religious but liked the idea of discipline for personal improvement. I also watched TV all the time, didn't exercise, and ate french fries for lunch, so it's funny to think about. But I was careful about sexuality and drugs, was vegetarian, and did my schoolwork. I often felt like I was 15 going on 70.

I'm starting to understand the idea of the maya "dream world" as I've read about in readings on Advaita Vedanta or people like Yogananda. I wake up in the middle of what I'm doing, like lucid dreaming. It happens randomly and unpredictably. I would have thought the idea was stupid a few years ago, because it was a way of perceiving I had never experienced. And it was a stupid idea for me back then, in the sense that it was too much to be useful and I had no way of understanding it. Now, bit by bit, it's getting so obvious. I don't know why things are like this, that's beyond me, but it's clear now that they are.

What has the practical effect been? I stop worrying about something I was worrying about, or I don't do something I had felt compelled to do but was conflicted about--I realize I don't have to do anything. And I decide to do things I was struggling with. It would be useful to me if I could get woken up more often, because I keep thinking about way too many unimportant things and not doing tasks that need to be completed. But I can't speed the process or it's too unsettling.

High of 42 today, verrrrry nice for biking.

I ate four pomegranates today--I got them extra cheap. They were great.

Coops

I went to a coop "town hall" meeting today. It's funny how the same arguments occur in progressive communities everywhere, and keep things from progressing. You don't want to be disorganized to the point of financial insolvency like North Country Coop, but you don't want to be so Whole Foods-like that you prioritize money ("happy meat", limited member involvement because it's inefficient, and anti-union behavior) over your mission. So I see both sides, and both tend to act very silly.

Goal

My new goal is to be able to do a chin-up by the end of the semester and a pull-up by the end of the summer. A chin up has your palms towards you and is much easier. Pull-ups are more practical in my opinion so I was working towards that, but it will take a long time, so chin-ups are a nice intermediate goal. It will help both my back and arms a lot, and if I'm ever hanging off a ledge like in the movies, it will be awesome.

Lessons learned

1. Bike is 100x easier to ride when tires are properly inflated, compared to when it's so low you can feel the wheel frame against the tire frequently
2. Wear rainboots, not mukluks, unless there are MN-like temperatures. Otherwise you get wet feet, and that is much colder.
3. Couches are great! Especially when obtained for free, from friends. Now we can invite people over! Sleep on it! I'm on it right now!
4. Free lunch is great. I am the only one who eats massive amounts of fruit, so I get as much as I can eat. Seminar, meeting, the reason is unimportant.

The end. Must continue literature review.

"What I’ve Learned From Meditating"

Because my thoughts are torturing me right now, even though I'm safe at home in a warm bed and everything is fine--

From http://www.realization.org/page/doc0/doc0081.htm:

5. Everything of which you can be aware is a mental event, including the "me" who thinks it's aware.

6. That "me" is the thought that Ramana Maharshi says is last to go, his "I-thought." His method aims at suffocating that thought by placing all attention on it.

13. This instruction sums it up: don't daydream. Or does it?

14. And this one too: be aware. But it makes a difference whether you are aware of something or of anything.

15. You can play a lot of games with meditation that are pure wastes of time.

19. Small children hum like cats when they eat. The memory is worth recovering.

I don't care about PeTA, but donations to animal groups is increasing. People are thinking of beings other than themselves! This is great.

The only way out is through

I am so glad I started meditating, otherwise I never would have made it as far as I have. I'd be cycling through anti-depressant meds instead, probably. The only things that matter in life, in my view are being kind and meditating, otherwise you get stuck in the same old cycles. The funny thing is that the benefits of meditation are scientifically documented. So why isn't it being taught everywhere yet? Why don't more people do it. Even just ten minutes a day would make a big difference after a year. Because people don't want to go there. It is frightening to tap into everything deep inside. It's much easier to think, "This isn't doing anything. This is stupid. This is a waste of time." Really? Why can't you just sit there and try not to to think for ten minutes? Because at some point, you'll start to tap into things you insisted weren't there. Then you can finally let go.

The only way out is through. I wonder if I'll be through this crappy patch by spring.

Yes, organic can yield comparable to conventional

In doing a literature review, I am reading about nitrogen and its impact on yield. There is a great myth that organic agriculture requires more land than than conventional; that is simply not true if you read the literature. Improperly managed organic systems yield less, and properly managed organic systems have comparable yields to conventional.
[Nitrogen is often a limiting factor, which is why I'm going through the literature for ideas on maintaining nitrogen without overfertilizing (leading to pollution) for my particular system].
Organic agriculture is in fact more efficient because it is much, much lower-input (as far as calories in, calories out go--making organic local all the more important) and is more sustainable because it requires recycling nutrients. So they will use cover crops and manure from a local farm and so forth. In a conventional system, you may do some of this, but you will also take a lot of shortcuts and import inorganic fertilizers from who knows where.

The problem is that so knowledge has been lost since the Green Revolution, which is why research into different organic systems, modified for different environments and needs, is so important. The price premium is also important in this time of transition. Organic farmers work much harder than the majority of people, period, and make much less money. They deserve every cent.

A car story

The other day I was biking and a car honked, ostensibly at me, loudly. I ignored it and kept on biking. It kept honking. I thought, why don't they just pass? I almost never have a problem with drivers here, so I was disappointed, but I'm used to it from the city. So I just ignored it.

Finally it passed me and the guy slowed down and he HAD MY SHOE! So this nice guy saw that I dropped one of my running shoes, picked it up, and I ignored it because I'm so used to getting honked at by drivers (either angry drivers, which I prefer, or creepy weirdos trying to hit on me). I remember when Roman biked with me a few times, he learned not to ever honk at a biker, even if it's just someone you know, because the biker has every reason to believe it's a negative thing. But most car drivers have no idea, and I'm glad I was pleasantly surprised. He really helped me, I need that shoe!

Yesterday we had dinner at another couple's house and we started talking about China. Their government makes the US look great; I'm so glad to be born here. Everyone who disagrees is out of there, so you have a country of homogenous thinkers. It's impacting their ability to do research, and at research universities, they pick up on facts quickly and do very well on exams (much more so than Americans). But they have been taught to not explore what is semi-known, or ask critical questions, or question the dogma, and they are much much worse at research as a result. Someone they knew was in China for awhile and left because the fact that no one questioned the government (even privately, in their heads) and just assumed it was a benevolent father figure, and that there was no propaganda. There are so many people there--1 out of 5? I know very little about it. But the whole thing is awful, that so many people live stuck in that state of thought. Any idiot in the US will still question things a little bit; since we have the two-party system (really the same but looks different), people are used to questioning the other side's thoughts, even if it's very shallow criticism and they can't see the same thing going on in their own thinking. China can't innovate for that reason, but they can copy technology from other countries quickly enough.

Yesterday was really horrible, but then I went to the spa and made a friend interested in natural birthing and breast feeding (and she doesn't want kids now, either). She is actually in training to be a doula.

http://www.livescience.com/culture/081229-literacy-cities.html
Minneapolis is the most literate city and St. Paul is #4.

"We often promise developing countries that if they will only adopt good policies — for example, institute honest government and a free-market economy — they, too, will be able to enjoy a first-world lifestyle. This promise is impossible, a cruel hoax: we are having difficulty supporting a first-world lifestyle even now for only one billion people."

The farmer's market had stored root veggies, apples, crafts, and alcohol. It was very cute, but I came at the end and only had ten minutes. I had Golden Delicious apples. I've eaten so many every day this week. I'm an appletarian.

So classes start the 19th but end May 2nd. And I have a break the week of March 14th. I really want to go somewhere sunny.

I went to a tai chi class today. My mom is so into it but I know almost nothing about it. It's not much of a workout but still very good for you. I can feel my legs and pelvis more in balance from my two Rolfing sessions over break. Actually, I feel the imbalance more than before, but before I couldn't even sense it, which is much worse. I have a habit of not distributing weight to the outside of my feet, to tip my pelvis back too much, and this affects everything.

Cute animals

Super cute.

Fermentation

Today I went to a food preservation workshop. I went to one on fermentation, which not only preserves foods from local harvest, but also is a source of beneficial bacteria--very healthy. There were tons of people and I still ended up with a giant jar of sauerkraut, and two of kim chi (which just have to ferment a few days to be ready--the cabbage used in thinner than kraut cabbage). There was also a potluck ("dish to pass" they say here) and I got leftover fruit and baked squash. I am going to learn all this food preservation stuff so I am better prepared for next years harvest.

Other methods--canning, drying, freezing, root cellar. I plan on mucho drying next year with my inefficient 60 watt light bulb method. I still have frozen corn and peppers from the summer that I've been using. I didn't blanch it or anything and it's fine, I usually add it to soup so the texture doesn't matter.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire, it was very good but also very sad. People in our society don't have all those problems but are not much happier--we take things for granted and create our own problems. So, money and wealth don't lead to happiness. But people deserve to have their basic needs met.

Field trip to grocery store-day

It was warm today (40, warm compared to zero) and rainy and grey. I biked to the Salvation Army and a woman offered to give me a ride and another guy wondered how I can bike on the ice. It is actually much easier riding on melting ice mixed with dirt (better traction) than below-zero temps (even with no ice, the water in the air seems to freeze when it is that cold, and everything is more slippery). But, I hate biking in rain. It's gross; I'd rather freezing but sunny. I am 100% MN-an.

I went to a standard grocery store. I almost always go to the coop but thought maybe I would buy some conventional produce and save some money (organic is more an ethical thing for me and I spend loads, so a bit spent on conventional is no big deal). Nope. Most conventional foods are not that much cheaper, except for leafy greens (which I won't buy conventional, this time for health). They cost the same or just slightly more, what a scam.
I had fun looking at the foreign foods section (I used to do this all the time, going to Mexican and other stores) and was fascinated by the regular grocery section. People eat really disgusting stuff. There was also a huge Lean Cuisine section. I remember seeing the 260 kcal meal of nothing my co-workers would eat (trying to be healthy) and wondering how they got full with such small portion sizes. It's meat and fat and maybe a little starch and a tablespoon of veggies. Almost nothing your body needs and low fiber. Seeing it was like being in a museum--"Ah, so this is how the standard American female eats when she's trying to lose weight." I was fascinated. Kashi has two vegan meals that look decent-tasting, though still low in veggies for my taste.

The one thing I do buy conventional is jicama, because you can't find it organic anywhere that I've seen. And it's one of the most delicious foods ever. Also pomegranate. Maybe I will stop at some point, though. I prefer being an organic localvore (BTW--easier to find winter local foods in Ithaca--they have root veggies, leafy veggies, apples, and beans--a delicious diet).

I also ran along a creek, almost 4 miles. I love running by water. I love sitting and doing nothing, too, but that isn't very good for my brain chemistry.

Dog and elephant

This dog and elephant are best friends. When the dog had a spinal cord injury, the elephant held vigil and waited until the dog came out, and the dog got happy as well.

I went running today--I hope to make it a habit since I feel so much better when I exercise tons. I went to the gym and it was closed until next week (there are several at Cornell but the one I went to was closed). So I walked back down to my bike, put my bag there (no valuables, only books) and went for a run before I lost my resolve. And the bag was there when I got back!
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What did I do this year? I quit my job, got into grad school with a research assistantship and learned a bunch about that, saw the desert, learned how to sprout, learned not to take home for granted (and maintained a bunch of relationships with people back home), went to Peru for a month and developed a meditation practice. I guess that's a fair amount.

Back to work

Thursday I have to drive to a place 1.5 hours away to buy organic alfalfa meal. My first time doing winter driving--alone.

I bought an organic mint plant, hopefully it will live. The other plants did very well in our absence. And my old plants moved with my old roommates to their new place--they look very happy there.

I have to do a big lit review that's finished by the end of the month. It'll be modified in some form and put in my thesis, so I don't mind doing the work now. In the thesis it will probably be about 30 pages double-spaced (that's my guess), so I think I can do it, especially if I can do 5-10 pages this month; have a nice head start.

My time here is almost done--very sad. So when I go back I want to go to salsa classes and meet up with people and make things more fun and create that meaning I have felt lacking. I am a shining star.

Classes start in two weeks and I have to do a lit review beforehand. I am taking physiology of vegetables and flowers, biometry 2, and weed ecology. Also I want to read about linguistics before classes start.

I have done not much the past few days! And it's great. I don't ever want to leave and go back to that place where people don't care all that much about me. Even if it is warmer. I have to start going to the gym in Ithaca... hiking up that hill is not enough for me. I was getting over 2 hours a day of exercise in Minneapolis. 30 m lunch walk, 40 minimum biking, plus gym/dance/yoga. It made me feel so good and happy. I have to make things the way I want them. I will! New resolution!

I also learned about the underground pick-up artist subculture online. I am going to read all their things to learn all their tricks. 99% of the time it wouldn't work on me, because I am not like other girls. But what if one catches me in a moment of weakness, that 1%? Reading books meant for other audiences is the BEST way to learn. Like when I was ten and read "How to Talk to Your kids so they will listen and listen so they will talk." I learned all the ways parents might try and trick a kid, it was great for me at that age. Sadly (kidding) my mom didn't try to manipulate me so I never got tested. But it was still good to know.

Anyway, reading it is really funny. Sadder is the observations they make, the truth that is there. Like, you give a pretty girl an insult. She is so used to hearing how pretty she is all the time that this will really throw her off. You don't seem desperate but interesting and now she feels a little insecure. I think this is true. But it wouldn't work on me. I don't invite compliments so if some guy made a dig at my looks I would just look at him for a minute and then figure he was shallow and not worth my energy. If I was annoyed I would probably tell him looks aren't that important and he needs to rethink his values (this I have done before).

Other things they say, they should tell all males. Like, single women will get together and make a list of things they don't like about guys at some point (true). Women don't like desperate men, clingy men, men who don't know what they want, etc.
Generalizations but generally true. I guess a lot of women do like jerks because they meet certain criteria still, and the women are messed up themselves. They would love these pick-up artists.