Keeping Sweet Corn Sweet

If you are no longer young, you may be able to remember when the only true sweet corn on the cob was that picked the same day, meaning corn on the cob in supermarkets wasn't sweet. We'd look for roadside stands selling corn, and sometimes be lucky. And most ears of corn had a worm in the top we'd cut off before cooking.

Today, supermarket corn is often sweet and worm-free, and the credit belongs to a federal agency it's likely you've never heard of - the Agricultural Research Service, of USDA. Their scientists (and university plant geneticists working on grants they provided) bred corn that stays sweet for days after picking, and it is much more often insect free too. 

As a result, here in WY - over a mile high, with a too-short growing season - we can buy good sweet corn for several summer months in the supermarket. A favorite summer meal is a charbroiled boneless rib eye with an ear of corn, we'll eat that a lot all summer long.

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I spent two years with ARS on loan from the university back in the late-ish 1970s. Not for my ag. knowledge which was minimal, but for my work in management development. 

The task was turning ag. scientists into managers of ag. science, while not interfering too much with their current assignment doing ag. science. It was a good experience, and we won some kudos for our program.

Friday Meme Fest

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Cartoons of the Week.

Regional Public Universities

Colleges and universities are often in the news, particularly those with high profiles - elite schools. These however do not educate most of our college graduates, nor is life on the second tier of schools necessarily like that of those in the limelight. 

Washington Monthly has a column dealing with this group which it labels “regional public universities.”  The DrsC both graduated from CA RPUs, went on to elite schools for doctoral work, and then spent our work lives teaching at various RPUs.

The article reports results of a survey of students at RPUs and finds them to be as we experienced them. Within the RPU group, there are some variations. 

The RPU at which we both spent the preponderance of our higher ed. careers was located in rural northern CA. Unlike most such schools, its students mostly came from other parts of CA. They’d chosen not to attend other RPUs of our system much nearer home.

Far fewer of them were holding down locally scarce off-campus jobs which in turn meant their parents were more affluent. And fewer of them ended up staying the region after graduation as most jobs were elsewhere. 

Intriguingly, recruiters told us they preferred our graduates to those of RPUs in more urban areas. We privately speculated this was a reaction to the grads’ somewhat higher social class profile, though of course no one said this.

Barely Satire

Image courtesy of the Babylon Bee.

How Rape Gangs Were Enabled

Perhaps you’ve wondered how the rape gang phenomenon was covered up for so long in Britain. I have for you an explanation to consider.

An article from Breakpoint explains how elements of Islamic tradition and law supported or excused the behavior of Britain’s Pakistani rape gangs. It also looks at how elements of British culture - Critical Theory - caused those in power to ignore what was happening, or cover it up. 

Lack of Coverage Explained

Six days ago I wrote about the rape gang crisis in Britain. The legacy media here and in the UK have been boycotting the story, as it doesn't fit the "narrative" to which the left is committed. The AMAC website explains why.

The liberal media is attempting to bury the story because it utterly shatters the “progressive” worldview which holds that Christians and especially white people cannot be victims. It destroys the notion that non-white individuals can only be victims and never aggressors. And it crushes the liberal belief that multiculturalism is an inherent and universal good.

Truly, it does all of that. Notice that feminists, to their shame, have also ignored this epidemic of rape.

The Bottom Quintile

The following was posted at Instapundit by Ed Driscoll, variously attributed to a Bill Brindley or a 'Wanye' Burkett.  "Authorship unknown" is probably accurate.

Maybe the most important thing you learn by attending public school is that we are all at the mercy of the bottom quintile. The rules you follow in life will be based on the behavior of the bottom quintile, the taxes you pay are to support the bottom quintile, the greatest risks to your life and property will come from the bottom quintile, the dearth of comfortable public spaces is because you have to allow the bottom quintile to be there, our zoning laws are developed for fear of the bottom quintile.

The bottom quintile is the lowest 20%. There is much truth in this observation. 

A Fine Wisecrack

David Burge, who blogs as Iowahawk, cracking wise about the British PM stepping down. Sourced from Stephen Green blogging at Instapudit.

I assume the UK is like Chicago, no matter how awful the last guy was they'll manage to find somebody even worse.

Count on it. Ditto NYC, Seattle, LA, Philly, Boston, and Minneapolis ... it's a movement.

Barely Satire

Babylon Bee image courtesy of Instapundit.

Oops

Yesterday was Father’s Day and I forgot to note it. The DrsC’s fathers are long gone, but still remembered with fondness. 

Many are noting this year that fathers continue to be important players in family life; kids without resident dads are at a substantial disadvantage. Fewer people are marrying and having children, and that should concern us.

And so, a salute to Fathers. The patriarchy, for all its faults, got us this far. Will its replacement do as well? That appears unlikely.

Update

One of the annual milestones of our summers here in WY is when the mule deer first bring their spotted fawns into our backyard. Deer have been around since we arrived in late May, but no fawns.

This morning a doe brought her twin fawns into the backyard and the other DrC is excited. She may post pix at her blog, if any meet her high standards. The little ones have springs in their legs and are fun to watch.

We don’t feed the deer or make pets of them, that would do them no favors. On the other hand, we don’t pester them except inadvertently. 

Our ‘backyard is primarily forest understory and they’re welcome to eat whatever grows, it is their wild diet anyway. We coexist, mostly viewing them from the windows or from our large screened porch.

The porch acts as what hunters call “a blind.” We can see out through the mesh, the deer really can’t see in. Whenever the weather is warm enough, we eat lunch and supper out there, protected from the forest’s insect life. 

The porch has a dining table with chairs, a TV, and some cushioned patio chairs. It is the other DrC’s favorite lounge, whereas I tend to sit in my office at my desktop computer.

Perhaps an Accurate Climate Model

If you are interested in climate change and the impact of mankind thereupon, John Hinderaker at Power Line writes about a new model based on the 'recently' discovered Constructal Law of Thermodynamics. 

For those with a better physics background than I, here is the law.

For a flow system to persist in time it must evolve in such a way that it provides easier access to its currents.

And this explanation follows: 

In terms of the Earth’s climate as a whole, what this means is that the climate system is always working to maximize the flow of power from the tropics to the poles and from there out to space.

It is claimed that a model (see diagram) incorporating this law tracks recent temperature trends almost exactly. My gut sense is Gaia has many tricks up her sleeve. 

Ideological Toxic Waste

Instapundit, aka Glenn Reynolds, is a professor of law at U. Tennessee and a prolific columnist. Today his New York Post column unloads on the ideological bias in higher education, and he doesn't hold back.

One industry in America pumps out toxic waste day and night, but suffers no penalty for the damage it causes.

It operates at enormous public and private expense, sucking up hundreds of billions of dollars in government money.

Its toxic bilge poisons much of society, but those who complain about it are often dismissed as ignorant or bigoted.

Its product is largely free of state and federal regulation.

That industry is higher education.

And the toxic waste it emits isn’t chemical but intellectual sludge, in the form of racial bigotry, antisemitism and crude Marxism.

I've been retired for roughly 20 years, and it was less bad when I was still active. I wish I could say he is wrong. Alas, I cannot. 

One Voice or Two?

I've been wondering if "Iran" the country is able to speak with one voice these days. The New York Post has a story that suggests the answer is "not always."

Shortly after the MOU was signed the IRGC messaged the Strait was closed due to violations of the treaty, while the Foreign Ministry said the Strait was open.

The differing messages mirrored internal divisions in Iran over whether it should keep fighting the US or seek a truce — strife American and regional sources have cited as a significant reason why it took roughly two months of negotiations for finalize the MOU.

One presumes the Foreign Ministry has the interests of Iran at heart while the goals of the IRGC are pan-Shia Islamic and ideological/religious, viewing Iran as a current base-of-convenience, not as a homeland. 

Saturday Snark

But Keir will not go on.

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Lazy Memes of Summer.

The Summer Solstice

Tomorrow morning at 4:24 a.m. EDT, we will experience the Summer Solstice. Today and tomorrow are the northern hemisphere’s longest days, and consequently shortest nights. Spring ends and summer begins. Six months from now we will experience the winter solstice and our shortest days.

All of this is based on the fact that the earth’s axis of rotation is not perpendicular to the plane described by the earth’s rotation around the sun. Hence we have hot and cold seasons, long and short days. It is for this reason that the seasons in the north and south hemispheres are opposite.

The DrsC happened to be in Fairbanks, AK, on this day some 40+ years ago. At one a.m. I stepped outside the RV and could read a newspaper with ambient light. I didn’t tarry long as the mosquitoes were fierce. Good times.

Since Fairbanks is roughly 200 miles south of the arctic circle, the sun was barely below the horizon. There was enough twilight to read, if not entirely comfortably. In those years the haul road north of Fairbanks wasn’t open to tourists, I gather it now can be driven.  

If you are in St. Petersburg, Russia, at this time of year locals will be celebrating the “white nights” and will be out and about after midnight. Of course, today’s wartime Russia may be less festive than when we last visited, during a peaceful interlude.

More on Fauci

 A couple of days ago I wrote about Tulsi Gabbard’s document dump showing Anthony Fauci was at fault in the Covid scandal. He was funding gain of function research at the Wuhan lab and lied about it under oath.

Now comes news that he and his attorneys were begging President Biden for a pardon for Fauci up until the day Trump was inaugurated to replace Biden. It seems Fauci knew he had broken the law and was desperate for absolution.

So … we know he perjured himself before Congress and it’s likely he was indirectly responsible for thousands or millions of deaths, without intent to do so, meaning manslaughter in most jurisdictions. Fauci badly needed that pardon, and dementia-ridden Biden gave him one … a travesty.

Enjoying the USA

Image courtesy of Stephen Green posting at Instapundit.

News from Peru

A column at Townhall reports that it appears Keiko Fujimori will win the runoff to be Peru's next president. She is conservative, US educated, and part of a wave of conservative leaders taking office in Latin America recently.

Keiko is the daughter of Alberto Fujimori, the former president who did for Peru what Augusto Pinochet did for Chile, clean up a leftist mess and massive corruption. Neither was much constrained by human rights niceties. Much of the mess subsequently returned, Peru has had nine presidents in the last decade.

When we visited Peru, the DrsC liked the country. I wish them well.

Friday Meme Fest

Both are guilty.

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The Nation's Cartoonists on the Week in Politics.

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Cartoons of the Week.