Vermont Tiger

Seen With Mine Own Eyes - "Global Warming" Ravages Africa!

By Daniel Foty

 

This is Africa?!

The southern hemisphere has been having a very rough (historically rough) winter.  Australia and New Zealand have received hard bouts of cold and snowy weather, with the latter recently having a widespread heavy snowfall the likes of which hadn't been seen in decades.

As your humble correspondent noted a couple weeks back, South Africa has also been on the receiving end of a harsh winter.  A couple weeks back, heavy snow fell in the Drakensberg mountains - among other consequences, this blocked the main highway between Johannesburg and Durban for several days.  Accumulating snow even fell in the suburbs of Johannesburg; even for snowflakes to appear at all in Johannesburg is a rarity (according to my local friends, the odds are about one year in five - as they told me when this happened.... last year), let alone for the snow to accumulate.

When I arrived in Pretoria last week, as is usual for mid-August there were just a few hints of the onset of the southern spring.  The mornings were chilly, but the days were sunny and mild.  Everyone was complaining about the harsh winter that they had just been through; someone I know had been up in the Drakensberg a few days before, and reported that there was still snow on the ground up there.

After a few days of idyllic weather, on Sunday evening showers and thunderstorms moved in - and the weather changed drastically....

Alternative Vote Rejected by United Kingdom

The final numbers haven't been tallied yet, but it's nearly certain that a UK-wide referendum on "Alternative Vote" (or as we fondly know it here in Vermont, Instant Runoff Voting) has been rejected by the British public. Perhaps the voters across the pond noticed how "fair" and successful election results were using IRV in Burlington and took the hint...

 

About That "Vermont Brand"....

By Daniel Foty

As many readers know, Estonia is a regular stop for your humble correspondent - and one of his favorite places.

Several years back, a day or two after I had arrived, I was sitting at my desk minding my own business - when one of my friends/colleagues walked into my office.... and, chuckling, tossed something onto my desk.

Due to the size and shape, I knew immediately what it was - and since the package contained a product that I do not use, I was just about to ask why he had given me this gift... when I immediately noticed why it was so funny....

"It just came out.  There's a big eye-catching new display for it in the shop where I found this."

And indeed there was - as I found out a couple days later when I made an effort to see for myself.

The main display graphic was a glowing dusk - backlighting a rocky, wave-washed shoreline, topped with a lighthouse.

To learn what this is all about, go here and scroll down to the appropriate alphabetical location.

The line-up of offerings has clearly expanded since that initial incident....

Universe Inverted

By Daniel Foty

I've been hesitant to write this one up since the source is so generally screwy - but what the heck:

Can Cuba turn to capitalism? It seems that the answer is yes. In any case, this is what can be concluded from the words uttered by head of state Raul Castro on August 1.

Speaking on Sunday, the brother of the leader of the Cuban Revolution said that the country will have an “updated economic model.” It will include restriction of government intervention in private business development, changes in the tax system, as well as layoff of every fifth employee working for state enterprises. 

.... Wow....

Burlington International: Losing Altitude

By Daniel Foty

Geoff and I have been discussing airport issues of late - and while I was in California last week, he pointed out this story about some possible future improvements to Burlington "International" (sic) Airport (BTV):

Within 20 years, the easiest route for motorists to reach Burlington International Airport might be via a spanking-new exit 14N off Interstate 89 in South Burlington.

Flight-bound passengers might scoot effortlessly onto a new loop road and — if they arrive the night before their flight — they could spend the night in an airport hotel.

As a heavy user of that airport (who does indeed come down I-89 from the north), a more direct access would be nice.  And while I wouldn't need it here, from a great deal of experience elsewhere I know that "airport hotels" can be very helpful - as a very convenient place to stay within a short walk of the terminal when you have to catch a very early morning flight.

But there seems to be one critical factor missing in these discussions.... which we'll broach below the fold.

King of the Road

By Daniel Foty

I was in Romania for a short catch-up visit earlier in the week.

We were convening in Oradea, which is up next to the Hungarian border.  While Oradea now hosts a NATO Center of Excellence (cached in a beautifully-restored Habsburg-era building), air connections to there remain poor; thus, on Saturday I flew in to Timisoara, and one of my colleagues drove down from Oradea to collect me.

I have a long familiarity (all over the country) with Romanian roads - so I was quite surprised, as we headed north, that the two-lane highway on which we were traveling was just marvelous, with smooth new pavement.  I commented on this, and my colleague laughed - and told me that the road from Timisoara to Arad was very good, but that the road from Arad to Oradea was not nearly as good.

Indeed, he was right; that road was worn and bumpy.  My colleague apologized for the roughness of the road and the (relatively) bumpy ride.

Well, yesterday morning found me driving on Route 15 between Cambridge and Johnson.  It was as bad as it's been for some time - downright awful.

But you know what?  That stretch of road between Arad and Oradea - the one that my colleague apologized for - was much better than that (dilapidated) stretch of Route 15.

This is embarrassing.

This will probably be the legacy of the "flowerchildren" in Vermont.  Having squandered our resources on a variety of ideological vanities, the infrastructure has been under-cared-for.  Now that those ideological vanities have trashed the economy, we can't even afford to maintain roads anymore.

The rewards of dominance by economically-illiterate children....

The Sinews of Modern Prosperity

By Daniel Foty

I was going to put this in as a comment to Chris' post on the latest jibberings from the Official State Fossil - but it seems to merit a post of its own.

One has to wonder why this sort of babbling goes on - since it represents merely the rantings of a frustrated kleptocrat who has found himself a nice coterie of frustrated micro-kleptocrats to whom to preach.  (And as is usually the case in such matters, the "leader" grows rich and powerful, while the "followers" serve merely as disposable cannon fodder.)

It's a shame that in this jurisdiction, the "screwball vote" is apparently large enough for electoral viability.  However, ponder the rantings of the Fossil; would you be inclined to invest in a jurisdiction that had a top politico who talked this way?

Last week, I noted that it's a bit shocking to find sane talk continuing to come out of (of all places) Russia.  Now, as I noted therein, Russia is a very problematic place about which I harbor a boatload of doubts (and on that count, stop by Monday morning for another one of those historical essays).

But when one compares rhetoric - and (at least attempted) plans - one can't help but note once again that we're being outflanked (and outplayed) on the right by a bunch of old KGB cronies.

And with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev visiting Silicon Valley this week (and talking more sense while there), it's worth noting the notion over there that they want to build their own "Silicon Valley."  And it's also worth noting some of the advice that they're getting on that count.

More below the fold.

California - The Nightmare Continues

 By Daniel Foty

As some of you folks have noted, I've been bouncing out to the (San Francisco) Bay Area on about a monthly basis of late.  Last week, Palo Alto had reached the summer dry season, and each day featured a sky of delirious, burning blue and daytime temperatures in the 70s (which I got to admire through my office window, but what the heck).

It's also become evident that while California is much wealthier and much more economically-modern, California and Vermont have something in common - they're two lovely places that have mismanaged themselves into fiscal and economic catastrophe, and have yet to find the stomach to get themselves back out.

So when someone bounced this into my inbox this morning, it demanded sharing...

Irvine business relocation specialist Joseph Vranich  has added another 12 companies to his growing list of companies that are moving part or all of their operations out of California.

“It’s no mystery what causes companies to leave California: high taxes, undue regulation, workers’ comp costs, a legal environment stacked against businesses, and lengthy and costly construction permitting requirements,” Vranich says.

Well, Mr. Vranich, it's indeed obvious - to everyone but those inflicting those things (and their hangers-on); that lot continues to come up with the most amazing methods of fooling themselves.

So what's the competition doing?

Vranich’s list doesn’t yet include Numira Biosciences, which started in Irvine but recently moved to Salt Lake City.

CEO Michael Beeuwsaert said the major reasons for the move were “taxes, quality of life and ability to recruit quality people.” But he added, “The tipping point was when someone from the Orange County tax (assessor) wanted to see our facility to tax every piece of equipment I had.” (It’s called the business property tax.)

“In Salt Lake City at my first networking event I met the mayor and the president of the Utah Senate, and they asked what they could do to help me. No (elected official) ever asked me that in California,” he said.

I can't add any meaningful commentary to that, so I won't even try.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Utah will gain at least one more Congressional seat after this year's census - while for the first time since it joined the Union, California may lose seats.

You can take paradise and foul it all up.... but Tiger readers (for the most part) had that one figured out a long, long time ago....

Breakfast in Pretoria

Last week, my work-related travel took me once again to Pretoria (South Africa) for a brief visit.

This past Tuesday, I had breakfast with a businessman who was in town from Harare, the capitol of nearby Zimbabwe.

He had a number of fascinating things to say about the present situation in Zimbabwe, which I’ll share below the fold.

Trade, Then and Now

    by Art Woolf

It's somewhat ironic that an anthropologist studying Native Americans in Vermont has a better handle on the benefits of trade than a U.S. Senator.  The Freeps reports on Johnson State College students, under the supervision of Professor Corbett Torrence, doing an archeological dig on the banks of the Lamoille River:

The students have uncovered evidence of trade. The rocks for spearheads came from New York, New Hampshire, the Lake Champlain shoreline and the Otter Creek area.  Trade was not simply an economic exchange, Torrence said. “We need to think about it in a social context. Trade is friendship,” he said. “Vermont has a long history of barter, exchange and cooperation. We see that in the original Vermonters.”

Trade is friendship.  It's a simple concept but exactly right. 

Then we go to Senator Sanders' website and find

Senator Sanders is a leading opponent of our disastrous trade policies, including NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, and others. Sanders believes that our unfettered free trade policies have largely contributed to our shrinking middle class, job loss, and the ever-widening gap between the rich and poor.

Maybe Prof. Torrence's students will find evidence that some Native American chief was protesting about the disastrous impact free trade with the Native Peoples of New York was having on the local community.  But I doubt it.