Do You Want Fries With That?

Stephen briefly mentioned the Irish Potato Famine in the first news story of tonight's show. He should have talked about it more. It's really important. The pathogen that caused the potato crops to fail has been identified. It's Phytophthora Infestans Herb-1 strain. Although the famine was 170 years ago, the research has potential for today's crops. That's good news. Also, if you aren't familiar with the Irish Potato Famine, you can get a good sense of what it meant over at Wikipedia's article about the Great Famine. I must admit, when I first heard about it when I was a young lass in school, about the potato crop being ruined in Ireland back then, I did not realize all the implications. I figured if there weren't potatoes, then eat something else. The problem with that is that for many of the people in Ireland at the time, potatoes was what they ate. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. That was it. So, if no potatoes, then no food at all. The Great Famine meant that a lot of people died. It also meant that a lot of people left Ireland for other places, including the United States. To this day, Ireland's population remains lower than what it was before the Famine. So, go to those links and read up a bit. If for no other reason than that those people are Stephen's people.

But, back to the show. I'm pretty sure Stephen should have gotten into the Guiness Book by his excellent reciting of a whole list of pills with long, complicated names. The pills are to help with such things as your heart and blood pressure. Luckily, Prescott Pharmaceuticals has a better product. It's the Vacsa-Towel. Just take it out of the jar, apply it to the front lawn, lay down in the treatment rectangle and soak up the sun's rays. You see, there's new research that shows the sun can help lower your blood pressure. Of course, then there's the problem of trying to choose between high blood pressure or skin cancer.

Jeff Duncan is trying to curb the Census Bureau. He thinks they are too snoopy. Of course on the other hand, we do rely on lots of information gathered by the Census Bureau. Stephen had some quotes for Jeff Duncan from May 1. "Right now the Census Bureau can ask citizens very invasive questions, and if they don't respond, the government shows up at their door and threatens them with a fine. Americans are fed up with these mandatory census surveys and they're asking us to stop the harassment." Also, "As a former small business owner, I recognize that some economic data gathering is beneficial. However, it should be voluntary, industry driven and not mandated by the government under penalty of law."

My take on it is that Jeff Duncan should read up a bit on the Census and what it means to this country. For example, some, but not all people get a longer form to fill out for the Census. Questions might seem ridiculous, for example how long it takes you to drive to work, But that information is used to help develop policies and plans for roads and transportation. Here's a link to the Census for Jeff Duncan and anyone else who wants to learn more. United States Census. You would be amazed at what you can learn. It's just one way we can plan for our future. If you want to know why all those questions are asked, go to this link and then click near the bottom of page to watch the video about "How Do We Know About Our Nation." It's short, only about five minutes. By the way, it was our Founding Fathers who came up with the idea of a Census every 10 years.

And really, really. Just take a minute and think. What good is it to know how many people are living in the United States if you don't have any other information about them? How many people are old or young? Should we build more nursing homes or should we build more schools? What state do people live in? You do know that is how we decide how many Congressional Representatives each state gets, right???

By the way, right now, as I am updating this post, there are 315,899,055 people in the United States. Remember that number for the quiz later on.

Harvard Rhodes Scholar Noah Feldman was on to talk with Stephen about his new book, " Cool War - The Future of Global Competition."

The United States and China have an interesting relationship. They are both a bit leery of the other but also need what the other country can provide. Stephen says China is Capitalist Curious. I think the Cool War is not actually all that cool.