Food for thought
An interesting statistic;
Today, roughly 7 percent of the planet’s arable land is either owned by the Russian state or by collective farms, but about a sixth of all that agricultural land — some 35 million hectares — lies fallow.
and an unsurprising consequence;
The average Russian grain yield is 1.85 tons a hectare — compared with 6.36 tons a hectare in the United States and 3.04 in Canada.
Care of this New York Times article.
A decade after capitalism transformed Russian industry, an agricultural revolution is stirring the countryside, shaking up village life and sweeping aside the collective farms that resisted earlier reform efforts and remain the dominant form of agriculture.
Better gun laws?
According to Cato at Catallaxy, NSW has just relaxed its gun laws. It sounds promising although I could not find any media references to back it up.
The NSW firearms laws have been changed, with parts taking effect from August through to October. The main thrust of the reforms has been smoothing administrative matters for licensed shooters, which I applaud.
Head over and check out the Catallaxy article for more details.
Sarah Palin
Sarah Palin, John McCains choice for Vice President, has many qualities. Tough, smart, Alaskan (or maybe Idahoan) and pretty.
As Skepticlawyer notes “the play to the gender gallery in McCain’s choice is clear”.
However in terms of identity politics Skeptic may have missed one angle. There are claims that Sarah Palin sees the world through Libertarian eyes. Will Sarah energise the Libertarian wing of the Republican party?
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