10-11/12

10-12-09—HOOSIER WINS NOBEL PRIZE. A U.S. academic who proved that communities can trump state control and corporations became the first woman to win the Nobel prize in economics on Monday, sharing it with an expert on conflict resolution. Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University defied conventional wisdom with studies that showed that user-managed properties -- such as community fish stocks or woodland areas -- more often than not were better run than standard theories predicted. "Since we have found that bureaucrats sometimes do not have the correct information while citizens and users of resources do, we hope it helps encourage a sense of capacity and power," the professor told a news conference via telephone. The previously accepted view was common property was poorly managed and should be either regulated centrally or privatized. (Reuters)

–10-11-09--...While Leif Erikson Day passed largely unnoticed Wednesday amid the daily presidential smorgasbord of Afghanistan and health care, the White House took care to mark the event with a soaring tribute to the Scandinavian explorer... [Former White House press secretary Martin Fitzwater observed] “You can just come out and proclaim it “National Rabbit Day” or something and make a bunch of rabbit lovers very happy very easily. Or Polish Americans. Some were no doubt gratified by Mr. Obama’s proclamation of General Pulaski Memorial Day (Friday), just as German-Americans might have been buoyed by Germany-American Day (Tuesday), and Nordic Americans were likely cheered by Mr. Obama’s Leif Erikson Day gesture. “It’s one of my favorite days,” gushed Sig Rogich ....”Leif never gets any credit at all ... It’s all Columbus this, Columbus that.” NYT 21