WWJD .... Will this work in the PC world?

A local firm has a catchy email circulating with subject line citing "...humor in marketing."  I took the bait and followed the link.  The material deals with the television show Seinfeld, a program about nothing.  

WWJD.... What would Jerry Do?

The crafty play on words (e.g., WWJD) does not really become obvious until the end of the newsletter.  

The newsletter has a concise summary of using humor in a marketing newsletter.  There are times when it is fun to slide a word in from Anu Garg's A.Word.A.Day email, like "causerie ".

Ciao!

FDIC review & mandates from the Dodd-Frank Act

In a recent issue of the Corn & Soybean Digest, the changing environment for agricultural lenders was summarized at the 59th ABA National Agricultural Bankers Conference in Indianapolis, IN.

1. Portfolio concentration
2. Exposure to economic shock under various scenarios
3. Evidence of profit, liquidity, working capital, and collateral
4. Break-even analysis and owner draws
5. Accrual adjustments to tax records

Sounds a lot like the Four C's of Credit.  Of course, the ultimate back-stop is the Fifth "C" of Credit, which might involve engaging a Competent appraiser, the Sixth "C" of credit.

1. Character
2. Capacity
3. Capital
4. Conditions
5. Collateral
6. Competent Appraiser (Geography, market, and intended use are possible factors for consideration.)

Some topics are probably good for one's entire career in business.

Ciao!

Legal building permits - online

The process of gathering "legal" building permit data and assembling a personal and/or property profile is gathering steam.

I wonder if this is a program that will allow an individual or a property to opt-in or opt-out? How close is this material getting to being a credit report?

Wonder if the providers of the original material, local building departments, are selling the data?

Wonder if there is any way to correct errors or mis-statements?

Ciao!

USDA Millionaires - Senator Coburn's Report

Yesterday, Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) released a report that provides a considerable amount of data on various programs at the USDA.  Taking the press release and popular media account as a starting point, it did not take long to drill down to the report from Senator Coburn.

The report gives a lengthy list of programs and a brief summary of what each program is expected to accomplish.  Contained within the report is the USDA's summary of various policies and protocols.

To help the interested reader along, portions of the report are highlighted.

If you want to skip my highlighting, the source material is published on Senator Coburn's website.  You can also search "Coburn Millionaire Report".

Informative reading.
Ciao!

Litigation and Legislation-- Pesticides and Clean Water - H.R. 872

The players and script for the play are summarized by the National Cotton Council on November 4, 2011.  There are so many acronyms that's hard to navigate the tall grass, but I'll give it a go:

• NPDES - National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
  
  
• EPA's 2006 Final Rule on Aquatic Pesticides
  
  
• PGP - Pesticide General Permit
  
  
• Pending litigation relevant to the situation - U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals (National Cotton Council, et al. v. EPA)
  
  
• Legislation - H.R. 872.  The status of the bill and positions taken by congressional leaders is summarized in the material published by the National Cotton Council.
  
  
• Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act (HR 872) is a positive-sounding name for the legislation.  There is  another side to the coin, as illustrated by the talking points published by the Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides.
  
• Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) are summarized in the November 7, 2011 edition of Ag Professional.
  

Ciao!

Silly Season of Politics: The Code of Ethics

When candidates face questions from the media, the all-too-common approach is framing the exchange in a "gotcha" sound-byte and as an adversarial ambush.  Everything seems to depend upon fifteen seconds of fame.  


Perhaps, it is time for a refreshing to review of the foundation for the profession of journalism- the Code of Ethics.  

Grassroots - Guerrilla Marketing

Conveying a message with a call to action can be time-consuming and more importantly costly.  Every month I wonder about the advertisement in the yellow pages and am driven to distraction by tele-marketers with their irritating recorded messages.  Worrying about my web page not having a premium spot on the mega-search engine is not high on my list.

However, this past week a national conservation group sent  an email.  It was concise and included three topics that had talking points for each action item.  As an illustration for this blog posting, I have bundled portions of the conservation group's email to show the positive points and effectiveness of their lobbying campaign.

From my perspective, it would certainly be handy if more national organizations facilitated and actively supported a similar campaign for a variety of functions:

• Alert members to issues show the pros and cons without taking a stand.  Let the reader decide.
  
  
• Call for individual action in regional or state-specific matters.  It does not have to be the first tier reader taking action, but it can be a resource document for re-distribution to a second or third tier readers.  Service providers can circulate the material to their banker, lawyer, or accountant. The campaign may generate referral business from one of the down-stream recipients.
  
  
• Offer timely webcasts or email blasts that can be re-packaged for individual clients - cut & paste.
  
  
• Inform reader/clients with a couple or paragraphs or a two to five minute webcast a snippet of continuing education. It is an opportunity to set the hook for future business and possibly connect with others having a similar professional interest.
  
  

Pushing the name-recognition, without paying a fee to an advertising agency, seems to be a worthy goal for a guerrilla marketing campaign.

Yellow Book Appraisal Resource

Appraisals for Federal land acquisitions have a special set of documentation requirements that are different from the typical report prepared under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice (USPAP).

The Yellow Book - Uniform Appraisal Standards for Federal Land Acquisitions - can be purchased or downloaded from a couple of online sources.  The Department of Justice provides a link that appears to identical to the published hardcopy version of the textbook (ISBN: 0-922154-66-X). 


For reference, it is probably worthwhile to have a copy of USPAP available.  Perhaps, modifying USPAP's Advisory Opinion No. 11 to incorporate the special topics from the Yellow Book is a worthwhile exercise.  Keeping the similarities and differences between USPAP and Yellow Book in focus may be helpful for some readers.


Another interesting resource has been published by a real estate school based in Florida and is linked to a publication of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Florida.  Jumping past the first few pages and looking at the reference section in the addenda.  There are several documents and court cases cited for support documentation.  


A large project that is coming through the farm fields and towns of the San Joaquin Valley is California's Bullet Train.


Ciao!

Shameful Community Organizer-- The Dilbert Principle

Fresh out of the gate from Sonoma County's own, Lew Perdue, a new blog.

Shame On You Obama

Mr. Perdue provides links and commentary to political and economic topics facing us daily.  It's a move beyond his usual venue--the wine industry insight.

For those readers wanting to dig a little deeper into the inner workings of government, the task is most likely going to be tougher.... Well, so much for transparency!  It is F.O.I.A. foiled!  Public records an oxymoron.

Although tempting, the Peter Principle just did not cover of the issue. 

Then, I discovered the Dilbert Principle.

Holy Dogbert!  ... a bull's eye.

Ciao!

Super Committee and Political Theater

I have listened politely over the past couple of months to Washington-based insiders and pundits give their spin on the Super Committee plowing into uncharted territory.  

Here's my take on the situation:

Okay, there is this timeline of October 14th (passed), November 23rd, December 6th, and December 22nd.  There is the noisy chant about the super committee presenting a bill that must be voted on without any amendments.  Without the up-or-down vote on the super committee's bill there will be  "sequestration".  Well, so what?  The sequestration process is not an even-handed, across-the-board cut.  It is pre-defined surgery that hits the military budget hardest and protects (minimizes the impact) on the social entitlements.  By and large, sequestration plays into the hands of the the America-haters-- the Occupy Wall Street crowd.   

In fact, it is Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby played out live in the halls of Congress.  

The no-fight Rinos and the elite power brokers (country club Republicans)  seem to think they have the liberal progressives (Democrats and their fellow travelers) right where they want them--in a box and forced to make a decision.  Wrong again!  It's just American folklore revisited before our eyes!  The budget-busting progressives/liberals appear to be stuck to their tar baby (the sorry, collapsed economy) and begging not to be tossed into the sequestration briar patch.  

Well, hammering the military, tearing down America is exactly what the progressives appear to want.  The legislative machinery to do that is already in place in the sequestration mandate.  

Gosh, it's all theater that will be updated with a data-dump every Friday night for the next thirteen months. The American voter will suffer through the quasi-analysis by the bobble-head media.  It's a pretty sad state of affairs watching the economy go down hill and tossed over the edge of the cliff just to achieve political advantage.  

Where is the Phinehas in our country to stand up and take charge of this mess? (Numbers 25:11)

GPS & LightSquared - the Controversy

The country has a phenomenal navigation system, the GPS, that was developed by the military and has been available to the public for years.  Most of us have come to depend upon its reliable operation.  Now, there is a threat to accurate operation of the system by allowing a startup cellular phone system to transmit on a portion of the bandwidth reserved for the GPS system.

The agricultural community is alarmed at the threat posed by the operation of this new system.  Furthermore, professionals in the technical side of the business are equally upset at this change.

For the curious, it is worthwhile to examine the ownership and financial interests of this interloper into the GPS bandwidth.

• What's the economic incentive to enter this segment of the cellular market?  
• What Federal agency regulates the bandwidth, a publicly funded resource?  
• Why is the change in use given more weight than the intended use that was funded by taxpayers?
• What are the unintended consequences of forcing the existing industry to re-tool, if possible, to reduce the interference on the signal transmissions?

For some interested in the activities of the K Street lobbyists, this situation seems to demand a unified voice of opposition and inquiry into the manner in which this change in use moved through the bureaucratic maze.

Ciao!

Budget Zombie

The internet’s quick news summaries often have short teaser stories.  A few days ago ABC24 ran a brief story captioned “Gov’t claims ‘zombie’ program is reducing deficit”.  With Halloween just a few days away and the endless wrangling inside the Beltway, I was curious to read the article with the reference to "lurching along indefinitely".

The initial "zombie" story refereed to a budget gimmick and phantom savings linked to publications by the Concord Coalition and the citation of the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program (CLASS).  With the hook set, it led to even more surfing of the internet to refine these two leads.  

My first stop in the zombie-surf led me to the Concord Coalition.  Their website has explanations of “dynamic scoring” of the budget proposals and other related topics.  There is one particularly intriguing reference to legislation entitled “The Honest Budget Act”, which is sponsored by Senators Olympia Snowe and Jeff Sessions.  It does make one wonder if the existing budget process has a more catchy nick-name inside the Beltway. 

Finally, I hit pay-dirt in my second effort to find the description of a "zombie-program".  The word-picture arising from “lurching along indefinitely” is colorful and is used to describe Community Living Assistance Services and Supports program (CLASS).  

The most recent zombie story deals with the alleged gaming of the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) scoring rules. According to Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar in the AP story on October 14th, he described pulling the plug on CLASS with it’s $80-billion of faux-budget reduction.  Eliminating a lame program still has consequences because it forces other programs to take up the slack mandated by the current deficit reduction program of the 12-member super-committee.  Examining the budgetary gimmick led me to a series of articles written by Peter Suderman at the reason.com/blog.  

Mr. Suderman has been reporting (blogging) on the budget-zombie in a series of articles in Reason.com.

• On May 27, 2011, Suderman blogged about the CBO having scored the premium payments from CLASS as a $70-billion in deficit reduction.  Apparently, the rules for scoring a piece of legislation allows the analysts to ignore the future payout of “benefits” contemplated by the bill.
  
• On September 14, 2011, Suderman blogged about gaming the CBO’s scoring rules. The failure discuss the absence of financial feasibility seems troublesome, when analysts in other agencies had concluded it would take 230-million people paying into the program to make CLASS financial feasible.  The troublesome part is the U.S. workforce is a number smaller than 230-million.  Once again, the devil is in the details.  Mark Twain could probably have a field day with this set of facts and figures. 

• On October 10, 2011, Suderman blogged about the CLASS zombie and referred to other federal programs (Medicare and other “trust funds”) that are counted twice in the budget process.  The Washington Post also referred to the double-counting.

My checkbook only has three elements “in”, “out”, and “current balance”.  It would be helpful for the politicians to quit wandering in the tall grass and adopt a similar guideline for balancing the books. 

California's water and the EPA

In the 11-October-2011 digital edition of The Western Farm Press provides the agricultural community with a concise summary of a recently issued report by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA's report is part of the regulatory requirements of the Clean Water Act.  

The Western Farm Press also provides a link to the supporting material at the EPA’s web site: :http://www.epa.gov/region09/water/tmdl/california.html.  

For the curious, there is also an opportunity to dive into related web sites related to environmental regulation:  

• State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) 

The state's website segregates the topics into groups, like groundwater, wastewater, agriculture, and more.  Besides the three that I cited there are a total of 26 topics on the quick-links at the top of the page. 

Ciao!

Farm Management Training Tool - GIS on the Farm

Interesting tools available for farm management, consulting, and rural appraisal activities include free software from a variety of providers. [Yes, I said "free".]

On the Android platform, there is OruxMap, a "free" application that can be used to create a variety of tracks and points for uploading onto GIS software platforms.  When searching for OruxMap, it is recommended that you download the English version because the author is in Spain.  It is a handy program to upload onto EveryTrail to illustrate location and rate of travel.  If you screen print, it provides quick documentation for individuals needing to document hourly billing.

The 800-pound gorilla is ESRI's ArcGIS.  In my opinion, it is largely geared to the corporate and public agency users.  The tech support has really upgraded in the last few years. With a high-speed connection, the tech support staff can reach out to your desktop and demonstrate how to do a particular manipulation of the imagery or data.

ScanControl also has recently released an application for the iPad.  The company has a number of tools that are currently used in the farm management of vineyards.   The company has an active training program to acquaint users with applied GIS programs.

Pending legislation - HR 1161 - C.A.R.E. ACT

For businesses in the wine-making industry and related service providers, this bill could dramatically impact the business economics for wineries, particularly small wineries.  It is interesting to examine the choice of names for a proposed bill and compare the stated purpose with the groups supporting the legislation.  In this case, HR 1161, the C.A.R.E. Act, is a noble acronym that for the "Community Alcohol Regulatory Effectiveness Act of 2011" and is an amendment to the legislation approved in 1913, "Webb-Kenyon Act".

Gosh, everyone wants "effective" regulation. It is curious to see beer and spirit distribution associations aligned for more regulation.  The alignment with the Neo-Prohibitionists even adds to the drama.  If this is a "support" item for the distribution business, then the obvious question is identifying the group taking the "oppose" position.  Members of the Senate and House have taken positions on this legislation.

It sure looks to me like the distributors have a economic interest in preserving the existing distribution network.  The distributors have existing warehouses, a sales-book of available product, marketing effort associated with keeping their hands on the flow of product from the winery to the consumer.  Right now, it appears the distribution community fights a brush war in each state.  With this legislation, they can confine the legal arguments to over-turn state-level regulation.  A representative of the wine industry summarized the situation:  "This bill would allow them [supporters] to work the state legislatures to pass anti-competitve bills and we [wine producers] would have no legal recourse to overturn them."

 

In my opinion, the C.A.R.E. Act will most likely have an adverse impact on the small wine-maker, which are the folks that rely heavily on direct sales to the consumer.

In recent history, HR 1161 is mostly a rehash of HR 5034 from the prior session of Congress.

Questionable legislation needs to be exposed to the glaring light of day. It would be helpful for the general economic health of small agricultural businesses to have a united front opposing legislation like HR 1161.

For reference, I have gathered documents that include the actual bill and commentaries by a number of interested parties.

USDA Specialty Crop Block Grants

The USDA released the list of Specialty Crop Block Grants for Fiscal Year 2011.  It is a state-by-state summary of the programs and the amount of funding for each grant.  It is a comprehensive list that provides insight into spending by the Federal government. 

Ciao!

Food Safety - Webinar

The Plex Online webinar provides an opportunity for introducing plant managers with the development and operation of a "Food Safety Plan".  Certainly, recent events in Colorado involving listeria bacteria in cantaloupes is fresh in every consumer's mind.  The popular press has mentioned the difficulty of tracing the resale of melons to other fresh market retailers or handling by fresh-cut processors.

The webinar addresses topics that need to be on the checklist when looking at a processing plant or a farm.   Since the main speaker for the webinar has recent experience at the FDA, the opportunity to consider regulatory over-sight will also be helpful for grasping the changing business environment.

Webinar and other online education

The daily video feed from ThinkBigWorkSmall hits on the residential market sector and particularly on the residential mortgage broker.  Many times Brian and Frank are leading the charge on issues impacting the real estate lending industry. 

 Just looking at the method or medium for distributing information, a related website, Real Estate Marbles, has several tools and training aids for setting up a blog.  The talking head is in a window in one corner and the rest of the screen is a "how to" screen showing each step. For example, here's a tutorial for setting up a blog on Real Estate Marbles.

If you miss something, just stop the video clip and restart the segment.  That's something you cannot do with a live instructor!

Ciao!

GAO's Audit report on Federal Reserve

Senator Sanders from Vermont summarized the audit report prepared by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).   The senator's two-page summary also includes a link to the GAO's full audit report, which includes detail, charts, glossary, timelines, etc.  It is all slow reading but informative.

Ciao!

Farm Bill - National Milk Producers Federation

To me, it is interesting to look one or two layers below the article in the popular press and examine the underlying data and research.  Here we are in the fall of 2011 and the USDA's Farm Bill is pending and is probably going to be impacted by the action of the "super committee".  Clearly, the preceding sentence is a monumental understatement.

The Western Farm Press published a story on 23-September-2011 entitled the "Proposed dairy legislation full of hidden costs?"  The last line of the story had a hot-link to the underlying research.  Counting the cover page and the biography of the author, it is 15 pages of commentary that includes translations of the acronyms associated with the dairy-related programs in the current Farm Bill.  For example, SNAP is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and was formerly known as the Food Stamp Program. 

Just reading the report's assumptions, comments on data availability, and description of the entity funding the research provides the reader with insight into the mechanics of formulating policy in DC.  

 For some, it is immensely interesting to examine the support data, identify the players, and agent-lobbyists. 

In closing, I would not have been motivated to spend the time, if I had not had the opportunity to learn about the mechanics of policy formulation at a recent training institute sponsored by a national professional association.

Webinar Education Model

With high-speed internet connections and the evolving acceptance of online education, the webinar appears to be business model that can deliver a desirable product:

• The cost per hour of education is easy to calculate.  My baseline is the aggregate of class fee, travel, lodging, and meals.  If  I can find an interesting course with an aggregate cost of about $20/hour, it may be an educational product that gets my attention for Continuing Education.  For residential appraisers, it is interesting to see the strides made by one of the national education providers.   I am sure there are probably other firms delivering competing products, but I happen to like the way I have been treated at their courses. 
  
• No travel costs
  
• No lodging costs
  
• No meals

It is interesting to note that one national organization,  the Appraisal Foundation, has kept its core staff size small at their headquarters, while expanding the scope of their reach by using well-known education providers to produce material for dissemination over the internet and compiling the pool of test questions for USPAP-related examinations.   It is hard to ignore the path taken by the Appraisal Foundation when the directors of the Appraisal Foundation are familiar with the operations of many different professional appraisal associations.   

For folks interested in education, it reasonable, in my opinion, to utilize the existing services and technology of specialized providers to deliver the message.  The creation of the core content and identification of the key concepts is left in the hands of the professional experts to formulate the course content and monitor quality of th presentation to the students. 

Using specialist to control costs is good management.  For example, modern agriculture is replete with custom service providers: grain harvesting, fertilizer application, and custom-crush wineries come to mind. Let's look at one segment of the wine business in California to illustrate that a custom service provider can be utilized effectively.  

• Using the services of a custom-crush wine-making facility is a business model that works well for a small and/or specialized enterprised.  The winery is largely a "virtual" business with all or some of the services provided by the custom-crush facility.  There is a check-list of individual fees for the use of the crush/press, pumps, filters, tanks, barrels, wine-making personnel, etc.  With the capital-intensive facility and machinery available on a piece-meal basis, as needed, the wine-making entrepreneur can focus on purchasing the desired quality of grapes,  perfecting product quality, and on marketing the finished product to the consumer.   In my mind the blue-sky of business value is in that last step of delivering a pleasing product to the retail customer.  Often times, the consumer is seeking a predictable quality of product.  Attaching a credible story to go with the label is part of brand development.

Hopefully, as we all approach the uncharted territory of the 21st century, it will be possible to consider business models that are outside the box and incorporate the new technology into more facets of daily life.

Ciao!

Livestock Handling Systems - Temple Grandlin

The website for Grandin Livestock Handling Systems is interesting on several levels:

1. The detailed photos are step-by-step instructions for the construction process.
2. The "plus" sign in the lower right side of each photo has commentary explaining the picture. 
3. Her personal story is equally compelling and though provoking.  Use StartPage and search for "Temple Grandlin".

Ciao!

Leadership Institute 2011 - Visiting DC

The second trip to the 2011 Leadership Institute gave me an opportunity to get a better grasp of the budgeting process and the arcane terminology.

• Budget process and agencies (OMB, CBO, GAO, & CRS).
• PAYGO
• Sequestration

For those wanting to walk in the tall grass, then check out "CHIMPS" in the glossary cited here.

On first blush, the word "baseline" conjures up a static level line, but that is not how things work inside the Beltway.  The current CBO outlook  for fiscal years 2011 to 2021 reveals many of the critical assumptions. Another glossary for budgetary government-speak is extracted from the CBO outlook.

The Tax Policy Center (Urban Institute and Brookings Institution) published a very brief summary of the CBO's projection for 2008-2018.  The four short paragraphs reveal a great deal about what was known in 2008 and the critical factors left out of the analytical process.  In retrospect, the dangers of making projections with highly constrained assumptions should have been trumpeted far and wide by the media and the leadership of all of the political parties.

The program is a fine opportunity to learn about the inner working of government, lobbying, and policy.  Many "thanks" to the financial sponsors Pioneer and DuPont and the speakers because I truly appreciate the educational opportunity.

Geography and Demographics - NewGeography

A friend sent me a story published in the NewGeography.  After reading the story about California's economic malaise, I stumbled onto "The New Geography of Population Loss and Gain".

On September 20, 2011, Adam Nagourney wrote an insightful article about the challenges facing Jerry Brown, the governor of California.  Even with a life-time of service in public service, Mr. Brown is apparently perplexed by complexities of the management and financial issues facing elected officials in Sacramento. Refer to "Political Shift in California Trips Brown".

Uniform Appraisal Dataset - UAD Form

A satirical view of the residential appraiser's latest challenge, the UAD Form.

Why the next thing you know, someone will want a replacement cost estimate on anything with two walls and a roof. In some cases that might include the dog kennel, the chicken coop, or the pen for the 4-H pig.
Ciao!

Section 2032-A IRS Revenue Ruling 2011-17

Special use valuations for the years 2010 and 2011 are covered by this ruling.   California is linked to the interest rate published by  U.S. Agbank, FCB.

Table 3 of the Revenue Ruling cites all of the Farm Credit Banks and the various chartered states.

Refer to Revenue Ruling 2011-17.

Google Docs Uploading Procedure

Posting a document online for the world or friends to see.

Using Google Docs is quick and easy. SAMPLE UPLOADING SCREEN

Once the file is uploaded, you can change the setting from private to public.  Copy to URL link, which is at the top of screen.  Just like copying a YOUTUBE link.  Bingo!! The file is online.

Ciao!

FDA's Park Doctrine - Food Safety Prosecution

On 01-September-2001, The Packer published an interesting story about food safety.  The article included insight into the new regulatory environment.  Furthermore, the reader comments also provided hints for further research.  Ultimately, I found an FDA Law Blog that cited the "Park Doctrine".

Read the seven steps for prosecution by the FDA.

Ciao!

Panoche Valley - San Benito County

There are several very large ranches in southeastern San Benito and western Fresno Counties.  One of them is the Ashurst-Silver Creek Ranch.  Over the years, there have been many owners who have each contributed in different ways to colorful history of the ranch. 

Clarifying the situation - Opinion by George Will

The op-ed by George Will really brings matters back into focus.   >CLICK_HERE<

Software that really works! Comic Life2 by Plasq

Comic Life 2 by Plasq is very easy to use and create a PDF or JPG file as exported output. There are both pre-configured frames and blank pages that can be customized. Drag the photo or clip from the internet right onto the Comic Life page. Bingo! That's it.

There are pre-configured labels and balloons/bubbles for commentary. Use the top row of tabs to get "insert" and then "shape" for customized arrows and lines. Click on the "shape" to edit the high-lighted vertices in the shape's features. Just save those shapes to a dedicated file and future editing will be a snap.

There are versions for the Mac and Windows machines. The Mac version has the most up-to-date usability, of course.

Support assistance is responsive and actually handled by a helpful member of the human race. Another good feature.

Software that really works! xplorer2 and Path Finder

Both of these programs are for file management. Both programs make it easy to rearrange files and folders.

Xplorer2 is for the Windows system and can be configured to have one window with two side-by-side panes open.

Path Finder is for the Apple Mac platform and also has one window with two panes. A slow left-click brings up the name change option for a file. Alternatively, you can bring up Finder and change a file name.

WINE - 35th Anniversary of the 'Judgement in Paris'

'Judgement in Paris' marked global arrival of California wine
Wed, 2011-06-22 | Katie Gorscak, Public Affairs Specialist, Foreign Agricultural Service

If we’ve learned anything from the ‘Judgment in Paris,’ it is that competition is a good thing and it pushes producers to improve their products overtime. On May 20, the Wine Institute of California partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) office in Berlin to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the ‘Judgment in Paris’.

The tasting in Germany took place at the picturesque U.S. Embassy in Berlin, overlooking Berlin’s Brandenburg gate. It was led by sommelier Gunnar Tietz from Berlin’s Palace Hotel and Christine Berthold from the Wine Institute of California. U.S. Ambassador Philip D. Murphy kicked off the event, noting that global competition has made good wines available to more people than ever before. Participants included German wine trade journalists, bloggers, and culinary press.

Since 1976 when the wine competition began, French judges have conducted a blind tasting of top-quality chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon wines from France and California. The brainchild of a British entrepreneur, the ‘Judgment in Paris’ was a watershed event that marked the arrival of U.S. wines to international markets. At that time, the French were historically revered as being master wine-makers, and the rest of the world’s winemakers resided in their shadows. For Californian winemakers—and for winemakers around the world—the event revolutionized the industry.

The blind tasting involved two French judges, who both ranked the California chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon best in each category. As would be expected, this caused an uproar within the wine community. That 1976 tasting was not just a defining moment for California winemakers, it also invigorated the global wine industry and inspired grape growers and winemakers from unknown wine regions in Chile, Spain, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia and the great states of Washington and Oregon to expand their ambitions.

Like a good wine, the global wine market just gets better with age.
Source URL: http://westernfarmpress.com/grapes/judgement-paris-marked-global-arrival-california-wine

Big oil and their email

On several occasions, I have received emails from the BIG_OIL/Denver group. I suppose that I got on the list by being a private vendor doing business with BIG_OIL's legal group. Since I'm just a private consultant, it amazes me that my name can stay stuck in the BIG OIL email list.

Now, the most fun that I have had was when one of the BIG_OIL honchos up in Wyoming sent an email indicating that he had gotten his Blackberry wet. (It must have fallen out of his shirt pocket into a white porcelain vessel that is normally filled with water.) But I digress... I told him to slip the Blackberry into the microwave and give it jolt for about 20 seconds to dry out.

Smile.... Now, let's see if this story becomes an urban legend at BIG_OIL.

Calpers takes a 92% haircut in their Goodyear land deal

It is easy to understand stumbling and fumbling in the current real estate bust, but it takes real skill to blow 92% of the investment in suburban desert west of the Ak-Chin Indian Reserveration in southern Maricopa County, Arizona. Try diving into the press releases posted on the City's website in 2006-2008 to get a flavor of the rosy forecast followed by the reality of a failed deal.

Look at the City of Goodyear's website and their general plan map to see how far out in the desert this property is located. Hint...It is in the far southeast corner of the general plan map. That map is one that only a gerrymandering politician or a scheming land developer could love. Just look at it!

Photos from Google of nearby Mobile, Arizona.

Photos from Google of nearby Mobile, Arizona.