Posted on 06/14/2007 7:08:30 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Sadly true. As a systems engineer (that’s my living) I know that sets of complex rules interact less and less predictably as the number of rules increase. What we have here is 2nd and 3rd order effects which grow to outweigh the benefits of the primary rules. This is why, for instance, that our tax code, while it fulfills its general purpose to fund our government, is now so inefficient and costs so much to implement.
On a historical note, James Madison saw where we were headed as early as 1787.
“Among the evils then of our situation may well be ranked the multiplicity of laws from which no State is exempt. As far as laws are necessary, to mark with precision the duties of those who are to obey them, and to take from those who are to administer them a discretion, which might be abused, their number is the price of liberty. As far as the laws exceed this limit, they are a nusance: a nusance of the most pestilent kind. Try the Codes of the several States by this test, and what a luxuriancy of legislation do they present. The short period of independency has filled as many pages as the century which preceded it. Every year, almost every session, adds a new volume. This may be the effect in part, but it can only be in part, of the situation in which the revolution has placed us. A review of the several codes will shew that every necessary and useful part of the least voluminous of them might be compressed into one tenth of the compass, and at the same time be rendered tenfold as perspicuous.”
Looks like I attributed it to Political Affairs Magazine to me, which is where it came from.
Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I take it you approve of welfare queens as long as they are farmers?
With the price of corn being so high, farmers are getting few subsidies. Countries that we would normally flood with cheap grain, because of subsidies, are now finding they can grow their own. Not a bad deal.
If it's such a great deal, then why is it exempt from the taxes that gasoline is subject to?
Without the exemptions, ethanol would not be even slightly viable.
Agronomy Dept., Purdue Univ. West Lafayette, IN 47907-2054 Email address: rnielsen@purdue.edu
Ear shoots are initiated at multiple stalk nodes very early in a corn plant's development.
Ear size determination of the uppermost (harvestable) ear begins by the time a corn plant has reached knee-high and finishes 10 to 14 days prior to silk emergence.
The number of harvestable kernels per ear is an important contributor to the grain yield potential of a corn plant. Severe plant stress during ear formation may limit the potential ear size, and thus grain yield potential, before pollination has even occurred. Optimum growing conditions set the stage for maximum ear size potential and exceptional grain yields at harvest time. The size of what will become the harvestable ear begins by the time a corn plant has reached knee-high and finishes 10 to 14 days prior to silk emergence.
Ear Shoot Development
An axillary meristem forms at each stalk node (behind the leaf sheath) beginning at the base of the stalk and continuing toward the top (acropetally for you wordsmith fans) except for the upper six to eight nodes of the plant. Each axillary meristem initiates husk leaves at the nodes of the ear shank and eventually an ear itself at the tip of the ear shank.
By about the V5 or V6 stages of development (five to six visible leaf collars), the growing point (apical meristem) of the corn plant finishes the task of initiating leaf primordia and completes its developmental responsibilities by initiating the tassel primordium of the plant. At about the same time that the tassel is initiated, the uppermost harvestable (and final) ear is also initiated (Lejeune and Bernier, 1996). This uppermost ear is normally located at the 12th to 14th stalk node, corresponding to the 12th to 14th leaf of the plant.
Careful removal of the leaves from a stalk, including leaf sheaths, at about growth stage V10 (ten visible leaf collars) will usually reveal 8 to 10 identifiable ear shoots. Each ear shoot originates at a stalk node, behind its respective leaf sheath. At growth stage V10, these tiny ear shoots primarily consist of husk leaf tissue. The developing ears themselves are only a fraction of an inch in length.
Initially, the ear shoots found at the lower stalk nodes are longer than the ones at the upper stalk nodes simply because the lower ones were created earlier. As time marches on, the upper one or two ear shoots assume priority over all the lower ones and ultimately become the harvestable ears. Development of the upper ears is favored over the lower ones because of hormonal “checks and balances”, plus the proximity of the upper ear to the actively photosynthesizing leaves of the upper canopy.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I thought you wanted to use ethanol as a gasoline substitute (even though it is a poor substitute with only 60% of the BTUs).
WTF DO you want to use it for?
Operative word: POOR substitute (60% of the BTUs).
Gasoline taxes are used to fund highways upon which gasoline-combusting vehicles travel.
Do ethanol-burning vehicles not require highways, or do they run on highways that don't require funding?
But it doesn't come from gas taxes, it comes from general revenue.
Hey, man, who cares who gets screwed as long as you farmers get money in your pockets, eh?
When farmers start flying airplanes into buildings I’ll start caring.
Which union are you a member of?
You have that union mentality.
I’m a member of no union and live in a right-to-work state that is fairly free of unions.
This is insane! Corn is food. The only legitimate reason for corn-based ethanol production is Bourbon.
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