For all the economic problems there are in the world, as far as I’m concerned, there’s really only one economic problem. That problem is one of fairer redistribution, to get more people more accurate value for what they deserve, and also some value if they were not currently productive until they can be. Every economic problem is one variation or another of this fairer distribution problem. The problem with how we’re trying to solve it, though, is by tackling a niche of this problem here or there, rather than the entire system.
economic
Some Thoughts and Statistics on the New Seaport Farmers’ Market in Halifax
The new Seaport Farmers’ Market in Halifax is almost in full swing now. It is now open 3 days a week, Fri-Sun, and much longer each day than the half day before at the old market that was open just once per week Sat morning. The future intent is for the new market to be open 6 days a week, though the farmers will only be there for 3. The other 3 days will only have craft sellers. It’s a nice big space and I love it, although I hear the busking musicians are disgruntled due to the open space leaving all of them to be heard so they have to compete to get above each other (The Coast, Sep 9 2010). Hey, I like the music and appreciate its contribution to the ambiance of a farmers’ market, but it’s a new farmers’ market building, not a concert hall.
I love the additional selection and larger stands, though I have to curb myself on the cooked food. It smells and tastes great, but just see how much raw food you can get for the same amount of money on a cooked plate, and you’ll not only see the value of labour to your food costs, but also where many of those cents to your food dollar that’s not going to the farmers end up going. Going there with someone who might expect you to buy something, which includes yourself, is also going to be costly with all the potential little craft trinkets you can buy for significant others, kids, etc. It’s great to see all the stuff, but is hard to resist. So far, I have bought nothing other than raw food from the farmers.
I’ll leave with some statistics about the farmers’ market scene in Nova Scotia and the Seaport Farmers’ Market, from various sources like The Coast paper and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
- 40 Nova Scotia Farmers’ Markets Sep 2010, few opened all week
- New farmers’ market is in an R-2000 building (NRCan designation) that uses 85% less energy and 50% less water than old market
R2000-standard PDF
- New farmers’ market is twice the size of old market (which is still open) at 4,000 sq feet
- 10,000+ visitors per Saturday (August figures, but is still as crowded as far as I can tell)
- Total vendors increased by at least 50% between new and old markets opening, though not all are food vendors
- NS Community Supported Agriculture farms (CSAs) and farmers’ market bring in about $90M a year (and growing) to farmers (includes prepared foods, possibly crafts, so can’t just take it against farm gate)
President Barack Obama Picked Good March Madness Brackets and Winner in North Carolina Tar Heels
Please click here to see President Obama’s 2010 Barackets, and get analysis after Round 3
If President Obama’s economic stimulus plan turns out as well as his 2009 NCAA March Madness Brackets, aka the Barackets, then Americans and the rest of the world doesn’t have a lot to worry about.
President Barack Obama's March Madness 2009 Brackets (click to enlarge)
He did relatively well overall, as shown from the scoring system analysis below. Such a score would have placed him in about the top 10% from what I have seen in some large polls like the one on Facebook and CBS Sports. But more importantly, especially, he correctly picked the University of North Carolina to win it all after the Tar Heels dismantled the Michigan Spartans 89-72.
Here’s a recap and final analysis of the President’s performance and journey through the bracket developments this year.
On March 19, President Barack Obama shared his bracket picks, as well as reasoning, worldwide in an ESPN video. Now, for any of you not familiar with ill-advised actions for a politician, picking winners and losers is something politicians do not like to do! That’s because they lose votes any time they have to pick winners cause someone loses. For someone like a President of the United States to be playing favourites, especially with the risk of getting things very wrong as is very easy to do in March Madness, was a huge public relations risk. However, all that did was showed the President’s confidence and as the final result showed tonight, with UNC winning as picked by the Prez, that confidence was not false… even if he generally had a pretty safe set of picks. But that’s a risk on its own as they don’t call it March Madness for nothing, you know! That, America, you should take note as you look to him for more leadership in uncertain times upcoming.
The road the President took to get here started out great. He had 14 of 16 teams correctly picked for the Sweet Sixteen Round and was doing great on any of the popular scoring systems used to track NCAA brackets.
Unfortunately, the middle of the road was bumpy, leaving the President with only North Carolina among the Final Four teams. That might well be a sign Americans need to heed as they go through this economic downturn and recovery. Some things might go wrong, not turn out well, seem like a bad choice. However, the big and most important one will be on track and you should hang on hope for that.
President Barack Obama
That’s because North Carolina ended up winning it all, which, as typical of the American winner-take-all mentality, should be all that matters to you. And not only did they win it all, they won it convincingly. If the President’s performance was an indicator of how he will get through this economic downturn, or maybe for his term, he’s going to do quite all right!
So way to go, Mr President! You’ve got a great reason to smile!
And congratulations to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, especially Tyler Hansbrough on a fairy tale college career!
I picked you, too!
Finally, here, for you nerds keeping score, is the final tally from the scoring systems in which I have used to analyze the President’s performance throughout the past few weeks.
Scoring System 1
(32 points per round like CBS Bracket Challenge)
If you are in a betting pool with your NCAA brackets, chances are you are using this scoring system. This system rewards 1 point for a win in the first round, 2 in the second, 4 in the third, 8 in the fourth, 16 in the fifth and 32 to the ultimate winner. Upsets gives nothing extra.
The maximum points is 192.
In this system, President Barack Obama has 122 points after four rounds. But don’t forget, it’s not like very many scored 192 or that much higher. Anybody not picking North Carolina would have lost 32 points and sat at 160 automatically, never mind any other potential losses!
Scoring System 1 + 1
(scoring system 1 + 1 point for each upset)
Some pools reward upsets in a minimal sort of way with one point for each upset. It’s not much but it could make the difference between similar results of correct games picked.
In this system, President Barack Obama has 124 points. There weren’t that many upsets this year relative to other years so the overall total was not much higher than 192. But because the President had a relatively safe set of picks, he didn’t not have many upsets on which to capitalize, and he did pick a few of them correctly.
Scoring System 1 + D
(scoring system 1 +ranking difference for upsets)
This system is used by the Canadian channel The Score in its pool, which I am in, though I didn’t read the D rule because I would have picked very differently for some underdog teams.
In this system, President Barack Obama has 124 points . It wouldn’t be fair to put this one on the President because it has a very different strategy I described in the original scoring system post. Picking safe is not the way to go to do super well in this tournament. That said, 124 points is a pretty respectable score. I know. I did only a little better and placed quite respectably.
Scoring System 2
(1 point per game)
This European style scoring system values the overall judgment and minimize fluke results of someone selecting the correct ultimate winner despite performing not so great otherwise.
The maximum points for the first four rounds is 60, out of 63 eventually.
In this system, President Barack Obama has 40 points after four rounds. Forty points is quite respectable among all the brackets.
SO HOW DID YOU DO COMPARED TO DA PREZ?
Final 2009 March Madness Brackets (click to enlarge)
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