Well I’m sitting on a plane and going no where so why not post from my phone?
We’re in Denver and over an hour on the tarmac after over an hour delay to start with.
Hopefully I’ll have time to get some editing and posting done in the morning California time.
This is coming to you from my Treo.
Here’s Jeff Simmons (right) with CBOT Chairman Charlie Carey as they oversee the ringing of the bell to kick off trading this morning.
I guess the bell is an automated thing so it’s kind of a ceremonial deal to stand on the platform looking over the whole trading floor.
I’m on a Denver stopover with a flight delay so I at least got my photos from today’s event uploaded to Flickr for you to peruse. You can either use the Zimmages at the top right of this page or go to the CBOT Greening of Racing Photo Album.
This is a quick post before I board a plane for Burbank out of O’Hare here in Chicago. This fine looking group is the speakers at this morning’s press conference at the Chicago Board of Trade. It was “tribute to the greening of racing morning.” The cars (Indy Cars) and speakers were set up on the plaza outside the CBOT building.
In the middle of the picture is Jeff Simmons, driver of the Team Ethanol car. He was here to ceremoniously ring the bell to begin trading on the CBOT floor. I’ve got lots of pictures and audio that I’ll be posting as soon as I can which may be tomorrow.
In the meantime I just wanted to let you know.
We had quite a few media in attendance and I think it was a very well-staged event.
It’s been a while since I’ve given you a Mac update. This one got triggered because I’m writing an article on using a Mac for farm use for Country Guide.
It’s made me think through why I have a Mac and why I like it vs. my PC. I really think I can sum things up in these words, “The Mac is faster, simpler and easier to use.” It boots up faster. I was on my way to the airport last time and realized I didn’t know which airline I was flying on (symptom of frequent flyer disease). I reached over to my Mac which was off and within less than 60 seconds I had my answer. On my PC this would have taken about 3 minutes. I don’t know about you but every minute counts in my day.
Another thing I’ve got to say about the Mac has to do with antivirus software. I’m having lots of problems on my PC’s with Norton Internet Security 2007. It has cost me hours and I’ve even had to pay a tech to help get things resolved. On my Mac I’m not currently running any antivirus software. Here’s a big reason to have a Mac!
If you’ve been in an airport recently, look around. There’s more and more computers showing an Apple logo on them. I think I know why.
Some busy travel days are coming up for ZimmComm. After tomorrow’s ethanol press conference at the Chicago Board of Trade I’ll be off to Burbank, CA for a little project involving this man, Jay Leno. I will have more on that for you by Tuesday afternoon or Wed. morning.
Cindy will be taking pictures in a Missouri soybean field tomorrow for an interesting project we’ll be involved in all summer. Then she’s off to Des Moines for a lab experience at Iowa State University that’s being put on by Elanco Animal Health.
At the end of the week I’ll be heading to Louisville, KY for the Alltech International Symposium and IFAJ Board meeting. So as I said, we are going to have a lot to post about here this week!
Pictured here is the Texas A&M University winning team in the National Poultry Judging Contest. You can find a complete list of winners here.
The U.S. Poultry & Egg Association sponsored the 60th National Poultry Judging Contest held at Louisiana State University April 11-13. The contest works to increase student enrollment in poultry science. Collegiate teams from across the nation competed in three categories: production judging, breed selection, and market products judging. The competition allows students the opportunity to demonstrate how well they have mastered the U.S. Department of Agriculture rules and regulations governing the grading of eggs and poultry carcasses.
Team Market Products Finalists
Rank- University
1- Texas A&M University
2- Penn State University
3- Kansas State University
4- University of Arkansas
5- Louisiana State University
It looks like the World Trade Organization is podcasting. Here’s a notice I received that pointed to it with this episode being a 17 minute press conference on the following.
FARM TALKS CHAIR SEES REAL NEGOTIATION IN COMMENTS ON TEXT – Members’ comments on his “challenges paper” showed they were starting to negotiate the content rather than rejecting it, Ambassador Crawford Falconer, chairperson of the WTO agriculture negotiations, told journalists on 7 May 2007. The negotiations are likely to intensify towards the end of May after he has circulated his second instalment of the paper, he said. He was speaking in a press conference during a break in an informal meeting for members to make their first comments on the paper he circulated on 30 April.
You can download the mp3 file here or subscribe to the podcast with this link.
USDA is once again working to develop broadband internet services in rural areas of the country. Yesterday Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas C. Dorr announced the publication of “new proposed rules designed to facilitate the further deployment of broadband services to rural communities nationwide.” It’s only a matter of time before no farmer or rural resident can complain that they don’t have good broadband available.
“These proposed changes will improve broadband coverage in rural America,” said Dorr. “Refining eligibility and coverage areas, along with increased emphasis on reaching areas with limited service are priorities within these proposed rule changes.”
Dorr outlined several key elements of the proposed rules: Promoting deployment to rural areas with little or no service; Ensuring that residents in funded areas get broadband access more quickly; Limiting funding in urban areas and areas where a significant share of the market is served by incumbent providers; Clarifying and streamlining equity and marketing survey requirements; Increasing the transparency of the application process, including legal notice requirements, to make more informed lending/borrowing decisions; Promoting a better understanding of all application requirements, including market survey, competitive analysis, business plan, and system design requirements; and ensuring that projects funding are keeping pace with increasing demand for bandwidth. Read More
Everyone’s watching to see how much flooding we get here in Missouri along the river. The Missouri River is up enough to close the Katy Trail. I still went out for a bike ride today and shot a little video.
I didn’t have time to make it to the closed section but saw all I needed of the river up near the top of the banks along the trail.
Here at Jefferson City the National Weather Service has downgraded their prediction by a couple feet with the crest passing through on Sunday.
