Why supermarket tomatoes taste flat

It's not because Florida tomato growers can't produce good-tasting tomatoes.

Art Carden explains:

Florida tomato grower Joe Procacci came up with a tomato that tasted great and could be produced economically. After intervention by the Florida Tomato Commission, however, Procacci was barred from selling his tomatoes to willing buyers.

After a decade of experimenting with Heirloom tomatoes, Procacci developed what he called the UglyRipe tomato, which the Florida Tomato Commission barred from export because it didn't meet its standards for roundness.

Gary Galles wrote in 2005:

In effect, the government has delegated [the FTC] the power to criminalize selling fruit other growers deem unfit to sell or selling it in ways they don’t approve of, even when buyers, fully in­formed about any shortcomings, would be eager customers. (Procacci had to turn away out-of-state buyers and take about $3 million in losses when denied an exemption from the roundness rules in January [2005].)

Whatever this is, it's not the free market at work. The FTC apparently wanted to protect the reputation of the state's tomato growers by limiting export to lousy-tasting tomatoes that were round.

Phelps vs. Cavic

I salute Michael Phelps for his incredible accomplishments at the Beijing Olympics. I also salute Milorad Cavic, whom Phelps beat by .01 seconds in the 100 meter butterfly to win his seventh gold medal, tying him with Mark Spitz. It was the closest race Phelps has had, with one more to go. According to what I've read, it is the smallest margin of victory possible in the Olympics.

But I am nagged by doubt. I watched the race and the video replays immediately after. The replays were far from conclusive. The Serbs filed a protest, but Olympic officials stood by the results, in spite of what the video showed. From a Reuters report:

Serb Olympic team officials believed Cavic had touched first and the timing system may have failed but Ben Ekumbo, the race referee, ruled the result should stand.

FINA [the sport's governing body] also said Phelps would not have lost the gold medal if the Serb protest had been upheld.

"It was a question to share or not share first place," said Cornel Marculescu, FINA's executive director. "With everything we saw, the first arrival was Michael Phelps."

According to race referee Ben Ekumbo of Kenya:

"I personally looked at the video footage and it was very clear that the Serbian swimmer touched second after Michael Phelps," said the Kenyan.

"It was clear from the video that it was an issue of stroking. One was stroking and the other was gliding.

If these officials saw video that convinced them I would like to see it. Michael Phelps is Big Money -- big money for more than Michael Phelps. A loss in his quest for a seventh gold medal would have deflated his market value considerably. It would have deflated interest in watching the Games. There were too many people in positions of power who stood to lose too much money if Phelps lost.

I don't know if the race results were fixed in any way. Maybe Phelps won because he really touched first. Maybe Phelps won because Cavic was too soft on his touch, as Ekumbo claimed. But saying Cavic was too soft on his touch is different than claiming Phelps touched first. Marculescu said "the first arrival" was Phelps. Ekumbo agreed. It sounds like the officials want to say Cavic touched first but not hard enough to register, and that he didn't touch first, Phelps did. Which is it, guys?

Given all the politics and money involved with the Olympics, this case is far from settled, for me, at least. But regardless, Michael Phelps is still a great champion, and I wish him well.

Tomatoes, anyone?

I have ten tomato plants growing in my backyard and today's haul was the best ever - 35 tomatoes, with more ripening on the plants.

Growing your own tomatoes (or other crops) can be very satisfying.

Lobbyists spend billions

The U.S. government's 2008 fiscal year budget is $3 trillion.  Should we be surprised that there are over 15,600 registered lobbyists trying to snatch a portion of this loot?  Who are the biggest lobbyists?  According to AIER writer Richard Ebeling, the biggest industry lobbyist is pharmaceuticals and health care, followed by insurance, computers, and electric utilities. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the largest individual lobbyist, having spent over $52 million in 2007 attempting to shape government to its advantage.  Southern Company, my former employer, ranks No. 10, with 2007 expenditures of $14,560,000.

Freddie Mac ($8.5 million) and Fannie Mae ($5.6 million) have seen their bribes pay handsomely, securing for themselves a government bailout.  Or more precisely, a bailout provided by taxpayers. 

The taxpayers, of course, are always the forgotten ones. 

Kindle or Kindling?

According to an article on Wired.com, Amazon has sold 240,000 Kindles since the hand-held reading device went on sale last November, for a revenue of $100 million.  But what is the future of e-readers like Kindle?  Is the market saturated?  The heaviest readers are females 50 or over.  (Book writers, take note.) Quite possibly Amazon can get more customers by lowering the price significantly and making textbooks available as Kindle downloads.  They might also consider talking to Apple about redesigning it.  It's too clunky to get excited about.  

Hurricanes frequently happen

The politically-correct and taxpayer-funded global warming movement has critics who say, essentially, that the conclusion is not supported by the evidence.  But the critics don't get the funding.  

Scriptwriting in one page

Wired has published a short article about how to write a script.  Called Turn Anything Into a Screenplay, its utter simplicity could serve to keep new writers on track.  If you feel inspired after finishing the article, be sure to check out Screenwriting Sanctuary.

G8, not Olympics, real threat

As Bush and other world leaders gather in Japan for their annual G8 conference, some reporters are asking them why they aren't boycotting the Olympic Games in China next month.

Critics have called for world leaders to boycott the ceremony to protest China's repression of dissidents and support for pariah states Burma and Sudan.

Boycotting the Olympics would hurt the Chinese not the Chinese leaders, nor would it make the government loosen its restraints on domestic freedom. As for China's support of pariah states, they have plenty of company.

If people want to protest an abominable event, they should rise in opposition to the G8 itself. Consider:

Meeting in a resort on the northern Japanese island Hokkaido, the leaders of the G-8 nations – the United States, Japan, Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Canada and Italy — will work through a packed three-day agenda: global warming; soaring energy and food prices; economic uncertainty and financial turmoil following the collapse of the U.S. housing market; and the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran.

When world governments gather to "do something" about any problem, the results are predictably bad. Governments treat problems through the force of decree or legislation -- or sometimes war. Such intervention is the common pedigree of most problems facing us today. Politicians like the phrase "all options are on the table," but that's just another lie. "All options" never means de-controlling, never means free markets and free trade, never means staying free of foreign entanglements.

"I am for free commerce with all nations, political connection with none, and little or no diplomatic establishment. And I am not for linking ourselves by new treaties with the quarrels of Europe, entering that field of slaughter to preserve their balance, or joining in the confederacy of Kings to war against the principles of liberty." --Thomas Jefferson to Elbridge Gerry, 1799. ME 10:77

The problems G8 members will discuss are largely creatures of government meddling.

Headlines

I was greeted this afternoon by these headlines on my iGoogle page:

Navy's newest attack sub christened

and below it,

How to be safe in a foreign country

I have some questions:

1. Isn't there something unholy, or at least contradictory, about "christening" an attack sub? When was the last time we needed a super-duper attack sub to defend our country?
2. It's nice to know how to be safe in any country, so why limit the discussion to foreign countries? Does the article tell us how to be safe in a country that repudiates its constitution?

A second book by Halloween?

When you're trying to sell a product you think of as many ways as you can to attract customer interest. Of course, there's nothing like a highly desirable product that sells itself, right? But then, even an intriguing product like Amazon's Kindle has to be priced right to generate huge sales. Amazon claims the Kindle sells as fast as they can get it, but I know they won't sell to me until the price takes a big nosedive.

I have several things in mind to increase sales of Flight. One, of course, is to lower the price. I cut the price the other day then noticed Amazon had tacked on a "sourcing fee" equal to amount I had lowered it, $2. I intended the $2 reduction to benefit customers and boost sales, but Amazon has scooped it up. They've scooped up nothing so far. I've contacted CreateSpace for an explanation. I really hope it's a mistake.

[If it's not a mistake, it might be a penalty for not using BookSurge for creating and editing the book. I did everything through CreateSpace -- another Amazon company -- but BookSurge apparently doesn't like people bypassing them. In doing a Google search I found discussions about that and about certain books getting hit with huge sourcing fees that Amazon claims are difficult to obtain. But my book had been with Amazon for a month without a sourcing fee. It's in stock, requiring no additional work on their part that I'm aware of. And I perused a list of other CreateSpace books for sale on Amazon and couldn't find any that had a "sourcing fee." Quite possibly all the books I looked at took the pricey path through BookSurge. At any rate, I'm hoping Amazon removes the penalty fee on my book. It benefits no one.]

Another thing that would help sales is good reviews. I've mailed complimentary copies to several people hoping for a good word somewhere but so far nothing. I will continue looking for potential reviewers.

Third, it would help if my book were paired under Amazon's "Better Together" promotion with another that sells well, so . . .

Why not write another one myself? I'm tentatively planning a nonfiction book based on the research and writing I've been doing on money and banking.

Both books would have a better chance if they were ready for the year-end shopping season. Having them both "Better Together" by Halloween would be ideal.

Yet another possibility is to contact traditional publishers. With the popularity of Revolution, which has moved up to No. 1 on Amazon, I might be able to get one or two of them to take a look at mine.

Amazon No. 16: Ron Paul's Revolution

The demand for Ron Paul's new book is enormous, today sitting at No. 16 on Amazon among all books, and holding the top spot in these categories:

#1 in	Books > Nonfiction > Philosophy > Political
#1 in	Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Leaders & Notable People > Political
#1 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > Political Doctrines

Congratulations, Dr. Paul. Even if you're not a Ron Paul fan, his book is worth reading if only for the government corruption it exposes. My review of Paul's book can be found here.

We have lost our belief that freedom works, because we no longer have the imagination to conceive of how a free people might solve its problems without introducing threats of violence -- which is what government solutions ultimately amount to. [p. 85]