My Page: Nick Gier

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Opinion

In my opinion, Jill Kuraitis’s NewWest.Net article on the Parma research station (7-9-09) contained an error and omissions. The subtitle of the article indicates that it was a UI College of Agriculture committee that reversed the decision.

I don't agree. The article omitted the fact that it was lobbying by growers and a threat of legal action by the UI faculty union that forced the UI administration to reconsider closing this essential research station. Read the full version: www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Parma.htm [more]

In 1963 Nobel laureate economist Kenneth Arrow wrote a classic article about health care costs and the free market. Arnold Relman summarizes Arrow's argument: "Medical care cannot conform to market laws because patients are not ordinary consumers and doctors are not ordinary vendors." Relman observes that "Arrow's argument was largely ignored in the rush to exploit health care for commercial purposes." Read full version at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/HealthReform.htm [more]

Over the past year the University of Idaho has hired a Minnesota consultant for $12,500 per month. The Provost calls her his "Chief Inspiration Officer." Faculty thinks she is a nice lady, but they believe she is wasting their time and the UI's money. Read the full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/consultants.htm [more]

Opinion

The U.S. leads the world in agricultural innovation primarily because of research done at the nation's land grant universities. One of the most successful experiment stations in Idaho is located in Parma, but the UI has just announced that it will be closed at the end of the year. The faculty union and growers are trying to get the UI administration to reverse this disastrous decision.

Esmaeil Fallahi, a world renowned fruit expert at Parma, is responsible for the fact that Idaho now grows Fuji apples, table grapes, and white peaches. In the recent years, hundreds of thousands of boxes of white peaches and table grapes have been shipped to Asia.

Saad Hafez, another researcher at the Parma station, brings in $500,000 a year in research and service funds for Idaho agriculture. Because of Hafez's work the nematodes that destroy Idaho crops, farmers saved $8.1 million annually over a 20 year period.

During a meeting with Parma faculty and staff on June 16, John Hammel, dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, was hammered about the closure decision and his mismanagement of the station.

Ron Mann, founder of the Idaho Table Grape Association and former advisor to President Reagan, asked Hammel why the growers were not consulted. Mann offered several viable alternatives to save money short of closing the station. In a phone conversation with Mann, he told me that the UI administration is "inept in the management of people and budgets." [more]

Every Wednesday this column is broadcast on Radio Free Moscow in Moscow, Idaho. Last week the station was doing its first ever on-air fundraising last week and the DJ I was working with played a tune by Malvina Reynolds, whose famous song "Little Boxes" is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Pete Seeger. I was inspired to learn more about this remarkable woman. The full version is at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/reynolds.htm [more]

Recently I heard an interview with Tori McClure, who rowed across the Atlantic only after being inspired by Muhammad Ali to do it. After her first failed attempt, she started working for the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Ali told her that she should not live with failure. She realized that Ali was right and went out and achieved her goal. I listened to this remarkable woman for an hour as she was being interviewed by Diane Rehm. There was no boasting as McClure laid out the harrowing details of her feat as if it were just a grueling hike. She succeeded in the face of incredible odds but didn’t crow about it. Read full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Pride.htm [more]

The faculty union at the University of Idaho won a $1 million dollar settlement for eight tenured faculty during the 1981-82 recession when a judged ruled that the UI failed to prove a financial emergency. Since that time no tenured Idaho professor has been fired for this reason, and this year no Idaho campus administrator has declared financial exigency, although one could argue that conditions do indeed exist to justify one. Read the full version at www.home.roadrunner.com/~nickgier/IFTresponse.htm [more]

Opinion

From 1904 to 1957 it was a tradition that every new member of Congress would receive a copy of the "Jeffersonian Bible." Judd Patton, a member of the conservative United Church of God has sought to revive this practice. Since 1997, Patton has spent $1,500 of his own money sending 753 copies of the book to members of Congress. Patton realizes that Jefferson was "not a believer in Christ," but he thinks that it is essential that America's representatives read about the moral essence of Christianity. Read the full version here. [more]

I was once a "big brain species chauvinist," generously allowing apes, dolphins, and whales into the sacred halls of Personhood. But now after the evidence accumulating over many years, I can no longer draw a neat line between Washoe and Alex the Parrot. See the full version with an image of Alex and his owner at . [more]

During the 7th Century AD Afghanistan's Bamiyan Valley was home to ten monasteries and over 1,000 monks. Many of the monks lived as hermits in caves in the cliffs where giant Buddha statues were chiseled out of solid rock. The elaborate cave art is the first ever painted with oils, six centuries before Europeans perfected this medium. Eight years ago this month the Taliban destroyed these statues. For images before and after and a sample of the painting see the full version at www.class.uidaho.edu/ngier/Bamyian.htm. [more]

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