Tricky little buggers

So I saw this article on the Washington Post's website today saying that Bush is planning on cutting farm subsidies by $4.5 billion over the next 10 years which will affect an estimated 80,000 wealthy families that are enjoying the current loopholes in the system. Yep, it's not the small-town farmers that are receiving the greatest benefits from the system.

I emailed one of my professors the article and asked his opinion and this was his response:

The reduction in the "agricultural" subsidies will probably be more than offset by the ethanol subsidies! Those farmers are pretty clever guys, but a rose by any other name is still a rose!

The end.

Chris got published!!!

Chris got one of his photos published in today's edition of the Star Tribune! Here's his post about it:

If you pick up today's Star Tribune, you will find a photo that I took at the bottom of the inside page of the sports section under "the daily buzz." The article discusses Macalester's last home basketball games before they build a new gym and they ran one of my photos, crediting Chris Mitchell, Sport Shot Photo.

I'm so proud! And guess who's going to get a copy of the paper after work :)

Corny new method of measuring CO2 emissions

The Discovery Channel reported that scientists are using a new method to track the emissions of CO2: measure carbon deposits in corn tissue. A great thing about it is that not only is it a cheap way of measurement as well as being able to see the distribution of carbon emissions over the continent, they can also determine the source of the CO2 emissions.

This quote explains a little more:

So where plant tissues are loaded with lots of carbon-12 but little carbon-14, there is more fossil fuel burning. Likewise, where plants have the expected levels of cosmic ray and nuclear-created carbon-14, there is less fossil fuel burning diluting that global signal.

Although the method is imperfect, it may be able to shed some more light onto the subject. Back to the basics.

"I didn't do anything (hee hee)"

I recently moved all of my photos to Shutterfly and in the process, I once again came across this picture of Pokey, the family puppy. She is a huge dork and I love it! She was playing underneath her indoor doghouse (the coffee table).

My Professional Paper Topic

I've finally decided on a topic that I'm actually interested in: exploring the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA would combine all countries in both North and South America (excluding Cuba of course - we wouldn't want to associate ourselves with communists) into one gigantic free trade agreement. If it sounds ambitious, it's because it is. I will be looking at the various ways negotiators are proposing to create this trade agreement as well as explore the feasibility of it.

I wrote a paper about the subject last semester for my National Security Policy course, arguing that the agreement was an issue of national security since more economically-integrated countries are more likely to be cooperative and friendly. This argument was of course sparked by my need to write about a national security issue in my "post" on our mock National Security Council: Director of International Economics.

Any suggestions would be very helpful :)

Doha trade talks are set to resume

I was unsure that it could be done, but the Doha round of trade negotiations are going to resume after stalling last July due to disputes over agricultural subsidies and import tariffs. It is unclear if there has been any advances, and it is likely that agricultural policies will continue to be the greatest stumbling block. I am really curious to see how the United States and Europe respond to these challenges. The industrialized countries want access to more markets and the developing countries want to not be priced out of the markets in those industrialized markets. Who will give the concessions? The President loses fast-track authority this July, so the pressure is on to reach an agreement. I am really hoping that the developing countries stick to their guns and insist on lowered subsidies.

Apple isn't feelin' the love

Norway has declared iTunes illegal since any music downloaded from the iTunes store is not compatible with competing devices. Europe is a huge market for them, and although Norway is the only country taking action against Apple at this time, a ruling in their favor could significantly hurt the company.

I for one cannot stand the fact that music purchased from the site as well as any CDs you upload to the program is incompatible with other devices. It makes it a pain in the ass to manage your music. The software is less than desirable as well, and iPods, while great for mobility, have a very short lifespan, making the system all the more irritating. I received an iPod as a gift about a year-and-a-half ago, and I have been having problems with the internal battery for about a year. I also have problems with playing my music in the car. Right now I am playing the iPod through the radio, but the charger that I have, which is less than a year old, already decided to die on me and I have already had to replace the radio receiver. Enough ranting :)