Agricultural Finance

Posted on by

Years (decades!) ago, I worked briefly for a bank. I recall that ag lending was, at the time, at best a poor stepchild to commercial lending. This Economist article provides a fascinating look at Rabobank’s (Dutch Bank) acquisition of Farm Credit Services – a US Government sponsored lending entity. Perhaps some Wisconsin Financiers should think about this…

AGAINST THE GRAIN
Aug 26th 2004
Why is a Dutch bank moving into agricultural finance in America?
WHAT on earth is Rabobank up to? This Dutch co-operative bank has been
busily expanding its franchise in farm-finance, an area American banks
have done everything to avoid since a meltdown in the 1980s. If that
was not odd enough, Rabobank’s most recent move is truly unique. At the
end of July, it reached an agreement to buy Farm Credit Services of
America, an institution that is a component of America’s odd network of
government-sponsored entities (GSEs). That agreement has unleashed an
unholy row.

(more…)

The Mad Assemblage Clock Maker

Posted on by


Cory Doctorow:

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s Zed show has done a segment on my pal Roger Wood, the mad assemblage clockmaker.
Roger Wood creates with time in mind. Yet even though the clock can be a consistent element of his work, it’s often secondary to its creation. Whether it’s a curious timepiece or a unique assemblage, Wood thrives on working with an immeasurable array of findings from the tarnished and forgotten to the odd or intriquing. He is a devoted collector of usual and unusual objects with one thing in common, a history

iPods and Cars

Posted on by


Xeni:

BMW is revving up some vehicle models (including the 330Ci coupe I reviewed) with a new sound system integrated with the Apple iPod. What’s new and cool about this: it’s touted as the first-ever fully integrated iPod/car interface you can drive right off the dealer lot. Costs under $500 as an upgrade to price of the new car. Plenty of aftermarket systems are available to hook your iPod (or other digital music players) to your car stereo, but many of these use your FM radio or a cassette player to interface, reducing sound quality in the process. Here, the sound quality was super-sweet.

Keep in mind that Democrat Pat Leahy and Republican Orrin Hatch are carrying water for Hollywood with the induce act – which would outlaw the iPod. Noah Adams

New Study: Who is building large WiFi Networks, and why

Posted on by

Nancy Gohring:

The University of Georgia?s New Media Consortium recently conducted a study examining large Wi-Fi deployments in the United States: The study differentiates between what it calls Wi-Fi clouds, which have continuous coverage and Wi-Fi zones, which offer interrupted coverage. The researchers found 38 clouds and 16 zones. The study examines who owns the networks and what the owners hope to gain from building the networks. It?s a thorough report on the intentions of hotspot builders today.
The next step will be trying to figure out if the intentions of hotspot network developers are being met. For example, 43 percent of cloud developers cited stimulating economic development as a motivating factor for building the network. But it?s not clear if large Wi-Fi networks in small towns actually succeed in stimulating economic development

With respect to economic development, my view is that we need to, somehow, as fast as possible, offer true, economic bi-directional high speed internet to all Badger resident (speeds 20x+ faster than current rather slow “broadband” services). These type of pervasive networks will support video, VOIP as well as personal web services.

Best Law Money Can Buy: House votes to support junk faxes!

Posted on by

Dan Gillmor:

In one of the most dishonestly named bills of all time, the House recently passed the “Junk Fax Prevention Act of 2004“. The legislation would, in fact, open the floodgates for these intrusions into our lives.
The bill, S 2603, would allow anyone who’s done any kind of business with you during the last seven years — seven years! — to send you faxes without getting your permission first. You would have to opt out each time.
The FCC’s latest regulations, which proposed to tighten the current rules against junk faxes, were too much for corporate America and its marketing wizards who continue to invade every corner of our lives. Their power with Congress is far greater than yours, so far.
At least they could tell the truth, naming S 2603 the “Junk Fax Enabling Act.”

Contact Tammy Baldwin and urge her to repeal this absurdity.

GPS used to spy on Detectives

Posted on by

Jacqueline Seibel:

Suspicious that his detectives were not hard at work solving the latest crimes in Muskego, Police Chief John Johnson spied on his own investigators using high-tech surveillance equipment usually used to keep tabs on drug dealers and gangbangers.
Secretly placing a global positioning system tracker in a squad car shared by the department’s two detectives, police supervisors learned that the pair were driving to a tanning salon, shopping at the Geoffrey Beene Outlet Store in Kenosha County and running personal errands while on duty, according to reports released Tuesday.

This is not a new story, there have been previous examples of GPS (Global Positioning System) used to track rental car users among others.

The Core and The Gap

Posted on by

Thomas P. M. Barnett, author of the Pentagon’s New Map makes sense of our Iraq strategy:

The only way America can truly achieve strategic security in the age of globalization is by destroying disconnectedness. We fight fire with fire. Al Qaeda, whose true grievances lie wholly within the Persian Gulf, tried to destroy the Core?s connectedness on 9/11 by triggering what I call a system perturbation that would throw our rules into flux. Its hope was to shock America and the West into abandoning the Gulf region first militarily, then politically, and finally economically. Al Qaeda hoped to detoxify the region?s societies through disconnectedness.
But the president decided correctly to fight back by trying to destroy disconnectedness in the Gulf region. We seek to do unto al Qaeda as it did unto us: trigger a system perturbation that will send all the region?s rule sets into flux. Saddam Hussein?s outlaw regime was dangerously disconnected from the globalizing world?from our rule sets, our norms, and all the ties that bind the Core together in mutually assured dependence.

Immelt’s Dartmouth Commencement Speech

Posted on by

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt gave this useful commencement speech at Dartmouth this past spring. Immelt formerly ran Waukesha based GE Medical, prior to replacing Jack Welch.

This is the second graduation I have attended at Dartmouth, and here is what I remember from the commencement speaker at my graduation. Hmm, hmm, see, so I know my role today is to be brief and I promise to pay more attention this time…
[T]o be honest I’m a little intimidated [giving this speech]. You know The Dartmouth quoted students calling me an uninspiring and uninteresting choice for commencement speaker. You would have preferred Bono or Jon Stewart or Colin Powell and you have every right to expect that the fortune your parents paid for your education should get you a world leader. But do you really believe that an aging rock star would speak to the class that created Keggy, a human beer keg, to be the new college mascot?

Via Powerline.

Buffalo: Three “New” Frank Lloyd Wright Buildings!

Posted on by


Fred Bernstein on Buffalo’s plans to add three new Wright “inspired” buildings, in hopes of capturing more architectural tourists. (Monona Terrace is mentioned – along with comments on “executing” the designs of the long dead Wright:

Mr. Puttnam, 70, is best known for “executing” another Wright-designed building, a convention center in Madison, Wis., called Monona Terrace, which opened in 1997. Theodore Marks, the president of a nonprofit organization that hired Mr. Puttnam for one of the Buffalo projects – a boathouse on the Niagara River – described Monona Terrace as stunning.
Stunning perhaps, but not wholly accurate. “We used Wright’s exterior religiously,” Mr. Puttnam said, “except we made a six-inch mistake in height. There were hand-done drawings, and we thought we saw a zero. Years later we blew up the drawing for an exhibition, and we said, ‘Whoops, it’s not a zero, it’s a six.’ ”
Robert Twombly, a Wright biographer, has accused the architect’s former apprentices of muddying his legacy with mediocre “Wright” buildings.