Good evening,

It’s a clear night tonight in Whitewater, with a full moon, and a low of fifty-eight degrees.

I spend a fair amount of time online, and I visit websites from left, center, and right. There’s nothing I enjoy more than a new find. Happily, I came across one recently, that I’d like to share. I had never before seen GritTV, but finding it was a real treat.

The website is not connected with the magazine called Grit; GritTV is a left-of-center website with public affairs programming. It’s also so cheesy that it makes the Grit newspaper look like the New York Times. (GritTV would do better to claim it was connected to the Grit newspaper, in the hope that the style of the latter — such as it is — might rub off on the former.)

Here’s a description of GritTV, from its website:

Launched on May 12, 2008, GRITtv reaches millions of viewers weekly on Free Speech TV on Dish network (9415) and DirecTV (340) on cable and public television stations nationwide, and anytime, anywhere online. Distributed in multiple platforms, GRITtv is a daily, 30-minute discussion for people who want to make a difference.
Incorporating viewer-submitted content, grassroots activism, and a positive, progressive message that aims to go beyond the one-way format of traditional media, GRITtv talks to the people commercial media ignore. Independent filmmakers and journalists, activists, and the smartest thinkers and doers of our time are part of the conversation, and you can be too.

I’m sure some of that’s true, but watching one of their programs is like watching a parody from Second City Television, except not as clever, well-produced, or intentionally funny.

Here’s a segment with two activists, talking about environmental policy. Consider, first, how GritTV describes the episode:

Our biological clock is ticking, and it’s ticking fast. Global temperature averages have risen by ten degrees, eliminating many species and drying up necessary water resources. When natural ecology changes, human ecology changes; while we might not have an apocalyptic Day After Tomorrow scenario, it may be a slow and more painful series of wars, refugees, and failed states brought on by slowing food production.

Heather Rogers, author of Green Gone Wrong and Gwynne Dyer, author of Climate Wars joined us in the studio to discuss the risks and environmental policy needs to postpone the inevitable, bleak consequences of overconsumption. While plenty of people are making personal choices to ride their bikes or be vegetarians, these will barely help without structural policy changes to curb the behavior of the unconverted.

I’m not sure what’s funnier — misuse of the expression ‘biological clock,’ the description of those who disagree as ‘unconverted,’ or set that’s as cheesy as anything I can recall.

See for yourself, and enjoy seventeen minutes of utter nonsense. You’ve probably not seen anything like this since you last hurried past a mumbling vagrant sitting on a bench near a local flop house.

Link: http://www.grittv.org/2010/07/10/heather-rogers-gwynne-dyer-environment-climate-change/.

From Fox, here’s a video of a bison attacking a tourist at Yellowstone Park:

I first found a shorter version of the video at the Huffington Post, and that website described the attack as a ‘summer bummer.’

Oh no — it’s a gift of amazing bragging rights. The tourist apparently survived with only bruises after being hit by a 2,000 pound animal. She’s got a story to tell at every party she attends for the rest of her life.

Her Yellowstone trip may turn out to be the best vacation she ever takes.

Meanwhile, at the Wall Street Journal, all the editors must be on vacation, because somehow the chimp-supporting, English troublemaker Jane Goodall got to publish an essay entitled, A Journey Through the Jungle. It’s packed with lies about chimpanzees, ignoring the truth about their human-hating inclinations. The English, especially nutty Englishwomen, are particularly given to this sort of dishonesty.

Goodall’s characteristically upside-down perspective is on display; she’s not even shrewd enough to hide it:

Today we try to keep a certain distance from the chimpanzees while observing them—their immune system is uncannily like our own and we know they can catch many of our infectious diseases.

No, no, no — that’s not why people should stay away. People should stay away from chimps so they don’t get their faces ripped off by the nasty creatures.

There are few animals more vicious than chimps, and all the so-called nature expeditions ever undertaken can do nothing to refute the real science that confirms chimpanzee savagery — to other chimps, to humans, and to all creation, most likely.

I’m more than happy to set the record straight —

See, Chimpanzees: Cuddly Primates or Vicious Killers? Vicious Killers!

Good evening,

The forecast for my small town calls for an overnight low of sixty-seven degrees, and a slight chance of thunderstorms.

I’ve been following the Tour de France, but today was a rest day, so there was no new cycling to watch this morning. It’s Stage 17 tomorrow morning, and Andy Schelck Talks Tough Before [the] Tourmalet Showdown.

Schelck had better do more than talk tough, as Alberto Contador has a slender lead, but a wide capacity to do whatever it will take to keep that lead. I think that if someone told Contador he’d have to eat his own parents to win, we’d see him serving both of them on Ritz crackers before the next stage begins.

Here are the top 10 General Classification riders after Stage 16:

1 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 78:29:10
2 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:00:08
3 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) Euskaltel – Euskadi 0:02:00
4 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:02:13
5 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:03:39
6 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 0:05:01
7 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team Radioshack 0:05:25
8 Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha 0:05:45
9 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:07:12
10 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin – Transitions 0:07:51

Tomorrow’s stage is sure to be exciting.

Some readers will see this post tomorrow, but there are some — true night owls — who will see it tonight, before they go to bed. For those still up, I have a special treat, courtesy of CBS News, on the returning scourge of bed bugs.

That’s right — bed bugs are a returning menace in communities across America. I grew up thinking that they were a pestilence from another time, but they’ve come back.

Just watch this CBS report (a report I found at the Huffington Post):

Link: http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=ndnsubss&VID=89084.

For an earlier post, about a bed bug detecting beagle, see Bed bug problem? Call a dog named Max – Wisconsin State Journal.

FREE WHITEWATER’s now offered 2 — two — bed bug related posts. Readers won’t find this same solicitous attention to health and hygiene at just any website.

Oh, no.

Sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.

Good evening,

Tonight’s forecast calls for a night of patchy fog, with a low overnight temperature of sixty-eight.

Stage Sixteen of the Tour de France is over, and in that stage Contador and Schleck declared a temporary truce, and Armstrong couldn’t find the stage win for which he was hoping.

Meanwhile, there’s no relief from doping allegations, as

Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) has been issued with formal notification that he is under investigation as part of a widespread inquiry into doping practices being carried out in Italy by Padova-based prosecutor Benedetto Roberti. According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, the current wearer of the green jersey was issued with the notification that he has been placed under investigation for “the use of forbidden substances and practices” before the start of this year’s Tour de France.

Amazon reports that it sold more e-books than hardcovers in the second quarter:

…selling 143 e-books for every 100 hardcover books sold over the course of the second quarter. The rate is accelerating: For the past month, Amazon sold 180 e-books for every 100 hardcovers, and it sold three times as many e-books in the first six months of this year as it did in the first half of 2009.

Amazon’s Kindle bookstore now offers more than 630,000 books, Amazon says, plus 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright titles.

That’s merely hardcovers, rather than all print books, but it’s still impressive. A more skeptical assessment of Amazon’s announcement is available at CNET Reviews.

I don’t have a Kindle, but I have the Kindle app for my phone, and one for my desktop, and it’s an impressive service. (The two locations sync with each other, so what downloads to one location is available to be read at either location (with no additional charge for the synchronized copy).

I’ll end the day with Duke Ellington’s Take the A Train:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrisYOEpADY.

Good evening,

The day ends with patchy fog and an overnight low of sixty-seven degrees.

Hours earlier, and thousands of miles east, the day began with a surprise for Andy Schleck: Alberto Contador didn’t wait for yellow-jersey wearing Schleck, as many might have expected, when Schleck experienced mechanical problems on Stage 15 of the Tour de France. Now Contador’s the one in yellow.

Schleck expected Contador to hold back, since he, Schleck, had mechanical problems:

At the finish, Contador cruised in 39 seconds ahead of Schleck, enough to dispose the Luxembourg rider of the prized yellow shirt by a mere 8 seconds.

But as Contador pulled the yellow jersey over his shoulders on the victory podium, the debate simmered.

After the finish, Schleck was visibly unhappy. “I told Alberto, ‘how can you do that?’” he said. “Okay that’s racing. But I would not want to win like that. The thing is that he waited for me when I crashed in Spa and I really appreciated that. But then why attack me here?”

The answer, of course, is that Contador wants to win the Tour de France, and he’ll not let the custom of not exploiting a leader’s mechanical problem stand in the way. So what does Contador offer, after exploiting the then-leader’s mechanical failure?

He gives Schleck a YouTube apology; in exchange, Contador keeps his lead.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdOJLuePexs

How’s that for a trade?

Why Schleck might have expected the coldly ambitious Contador to behave differently at the TdF I’ll not know. Schelck’s problem wasn’t just a mechanical failure; it was expecting more from Contador.

Leopards don’t change their spots.

I posted last night about the sighting of a Chinese UFO. I need not have looked so far afield. Over at Walworth County Today, there’s an interesting blog post about a UFO sighting over Delavan Lake. I’d like to think that if the sighting were of a UFO, meaning an extraterrestrial spacecraft, that it shows that voyagers from faraway had the good sense to visit America instead of, or after, China.

All those many miles traveled to reach this planet would deserve something more than a one-party state as a destination.

Good evening,

Whitewater’s weekend of hot weather ends with a night of patchy fog and an overnight low temperature of sixty-six.

Stage fourteen of the Tour de France took place this morning, and despite twists and turns earlier in the Tour, it looks like the race may be a battle between Contador and Schleck. Schleck has 31 seconds on Contador.

The Wall Street Journal has excellent coverage of the controversies over doping in cycling:

Doping Allegations Roil Cycling.

Cyclists Questioned in Doping Probe.

Blood Brothers.

The Case of the Missing Bikes – WSJ.com.

Lance Armstrong Denies Charge by Floyd Landis of Doping; Landis Admits Use.

Armstrong Addresses Latest Landis Allegations.

Why emphasize the problems in cycling? Because Americans are an honest people, and we don’t cheat to win. We are, and always be, better than the Soviets or East Germans were. I believe in a world of clean cycling, and we’ll not have that world pretending that there’s not a problem in cycling

That world won’t come about if Armstrong relies only on allegations against others –

See, Armstrong Challenges LeMond in French Television Interview.

The race is exciting; the prospect of clean cycling even more so.

A few nights ago, I posted a video from the Huffington Post about a possible chupacabra sighting. The HuffPo offers an eclectic mix of politics, entertainment, and odd stories about chupacabras or… UFOs over China. In a post entitled, “China UFO Sightings, Back-To-Back, Alarm Residents” one reads that

A second China UFO sighting has residents on edge, just seven days after an unidentified flying object shut down a Chinese airport.

The new UFO sighting took place in Chongqing in eastern China on July 15. Witnesses told Shanghai Daily they saw the same thing: “four lantern-like objects forming a diamond shape that hovered over the city’s Shaping Park for over an hour.”

Like the one before it, there has been no official explanation to date for this latest incident.

This video may be of an unidentified object, but that hardly suggests that extraterrestrials are flying over Chinese skies. It’s fascinating nonetheless, for what people in China, and beyond, may believe to be true.

Good evening,

It’s a dry and clear evening, with an overnight low in Whitewater in the mid-sixties.

I visit the Huffington Post every so often, and there’s usually a treat waiting, because that website covers all manner of topics, and far more than politics. I wasn’t disappointed earlier tonight, when during a visit I found a post entitled, “Chupacabra, Mysterious Animal, Allegedly SPOTTED In Texas (VIDEO, PICTURES, POLL).” It takes a confident website, with a sense of humor, to publish a post like that. Here’s an excerpt:

Chupacabras, literally “goat suckers,” are legendary creatures said to roam Mexico, Puerto Rico and parts of the United States….

Apparent chupacabra sightings spread fear in South Florida in 1996 and Texas in 2008. The chupacabras are in the news again after two strange animals were killed in North Texas.

Animal Control Office Frank Hackett described the animal involved in the most recent sightings: “All I know is, it wasn’t normal. It was ugly, real ugly. I’m not going to tell no lie on that one.”

I first heard of chupacabras from an episode of the X FIles. I’d guess there are many Americans who first heard of a legend or two while watching Mulder and Scully investigate bizarre tales.

Here’s the Huffington Post‘s embedded video, from a supposed 2006 encounter:

Too funny.

(I took the accompanying poll, by the way, and voted that it looked liked a chupacabra to me.)

I’ve yet to see a video like this with a chupacabra of Whitewater, Wisconsin, but I’d love to find one.

Good evening,

A very hot day comes to an end, with rain and a low of seventy-four for an overnight temperature.

I was in Lake Geneva today, for a bit, and had a chance to see some of the cycling there. The route went directly through the downtown, and the racers sped through town despite very hot, very humid conditions. If you didn’t have a chance to see it, Walworth County Today offers links to results, a photo slide show, and a video of the racing. Here’s the embeddable video that they recorded:

The online versions of the Janesville and of the Walworth County Gazette are the only online papers that have a full online presence, with not only an electronic version, but ample photos, videos, and both reporters’ and community residents’ blogs. One has to look 50 miles away, to Madison or Milwaukee, to find something similar.

In other cycling today, Andy Schleck remains first in the general classification, with Alberto Contador 41 seconds back, and with Sergio Paulinho winning the stage.

I’ve promised additional comments on my small town’s latest planning commission meeting, and they’ll be up tomorrow.

Good evening,

It’s a party cloudy night, with a low temperature that will be in the low sixties.

The results of the ninth stage of the Tour de France, following a rest day, seemed to make clear that the battle was down to two riders:

And in a sign of what to expect over the course of the next 12 days, Andy Schleck (Saxo Bank) earned himself the overall race lead following his mano-a-mano exploits with Alberto Contador (Astana) that began on the slopes of the Col de la Madeleine. There’s no doubt that the touch paper which was ignited today will result in an explosion for the maillot jaune once the race hits the Pyrenees.

One fact became glaringly obvious, however: this year’s Tour de France has become a battle between Schleck, winner of Sunday’s stage to Morzine-Avoriaz, and reigning champion Alberto Contador. There’s already two minutes between second-placed Contador and third-placed Samuel Sanchez, and each has the team to help them remain at the head of proceedings….

There’s sound reasoning in all this, but it’s still early. After all, at least one publication saw a different possibility, before the race began:

There’s more information now, by far, than there was just nine stages ago, but there’s still much that’s unknown.

Do desperate times call for desperate measures? One of the wealthiest school districts in Wisconsin, in Williams Bay, is looking to ask voters to support a referendum to “to exceed state revenue caps by $498,000 for the next two school years and by $890,000 for the school years after that.” See, Williams Bay School District sets referendum for September.

One could say that our difficult times call for even wealthy districts to fund operations by raising additional revenue — taxes — to keep going. Alternatively, it’s possible that some school boards, no matter how well off their districts, simply cannot imagine not asking residents for still more revenue.

I’ll end the day on a fine, reassuring note, of possibility. Here’s Duke Ellington, from a clip as he plays Take the A Train. Enjoy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHRbEhLj540

Good evening,

It’s a slightly overcast evening, with a low of about sixty degrees for the overnight temperature.

I blogged on Whitewater’s Planning Commission meeting earlier this evening, and I will later update that post with a few additional remarks. See, Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 7-12-10 (Live Blogging). Much of that meeting concerned residential housing (and the difference, that eluded so many, between enforcement of an existing ordinance and adoption of another, more restrictive one on the number of unrelated persons who may live together in a home in a residential neighborhood).

There’s a story in the Journal Sentinel about tiny homes, not now particularly historic, not part of ‘historic neighborhoods,’ but interesting nonetheless. In Tiny House, Big Questions, Mary Louise Schumacher writes that

While architectural bravado tends to grab headlines, some of the most extraordinary architecture being made in the world today are small, adventurous structures, transitory buildings that take little from the Earth and give more than seems possible in return.

At their best, these pocked-sized projects, sometimes called “micro architecture,” do more than set standards for sustainable practices. They challenge the way we live.

One such project is the EDGE (Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment), designed by a small Stevens Point firm, Revelations Architects. The abode is so bitty, in fact, that it doesn’t qualify as an actual house in much of Wisconsin, where 750 or 800 square feet of floor space is required.

The JS also has a link to a video that shows the house in greater detail. A commenter to the story writes that it’s a “[n]ice little house. Just the right size for one person and a cat.”

Here’s a video of a different, micro house, to get an idea of how small they are:

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTF9PfDFv_c

I don’t think these micro homes are superior as a principle (although the architect thinks so, rather smugly) — I simply think they’re interesting.

Homes this small, though, at 500 square feet, for example, would settle many questions about the permissible number of unrelated occupants of a dwelling.

Good evening,

It’s a cloudy night, with a low temperature in the mid sixties for Whitewater. Most of the day here was beautiful, as the day was, also, in the French Alps on Stage 8 of the Tour de France.

If you’ve been watching the Tour, you saw today how unpredictable cycling is. A race over weeks, and thousands of miles, could hardly be otherwise. Contador saw his chances of a second Tour victory fade, and Armstrong saw his (less likely) chances of an eight Tour victory vanish altogether. Armstrong was well behind after seven stages, and Contador hardly a sure bet, but todays’a racing changed the likely outcome in paris still more.

I’ve not been a great fan of Armstrong, to put it mildly, yet I still feel sorry for the day he had today. He feel three times, and he leave Europe a couple of weeks from now to bigger disappointments ahead. I know that there’s a certain kind of American cycling fan who’s quick to champion a European favorite (anyone, really) over an American. It seems sophisticated to them, as though to support a European makes them seem more knowledgeable and genuine.

I am not such a fan; it’s natural and customary to support competitors from one’s country. I have no favorite this year, but I would always prefer to cheer on a fellow American. We’ve also no need to favor a European in a futile, transparent attempt to appear sophisticated. More important still, America doesn’t need to look to Armstrong to find a great champion. We had a great champion, whose legacy looks better by the day, in Greg LeMond.

We can always feel good about that.

There’s a cycling race coming to Wisconsin, this Wednesday, in nearby Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. See, Bicycle races come to Walworth County about the Point Premium Root Beer International Cycling Classic/Superweek Pro Tour. From that story, here are the details of the Lake Geneva component of the tour:

The Lake Geneva race officially is titled the Keefe Real Estate Lake Geneva Criterium presented by Simple Café and the Geneva Lakes YMCA.

Criteriums are held on short courses, usually less than a mile long, and riders race dozens of laps to cover the total race distance.

The Lake Geneva course is eight-tenths of a mile. It heads north on Center Street, east on Main Street, south on Lakeshore Drive and west on Baker Street. Riders will zip along Geneva Lake, past Flat Iron Park and down Main Street. Spectators can line the barriers along the entire course.

The story also has links on competitive cycling information, Wednesday’s race, and even where to go for a good spot to watch.

Few better ways to end a day than with something from Duke Ellington. “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” was composed in 1931; the embedded video is of a 1943 performance. Enjoy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg.

Good evening,

It’s a cool and clear evening ahead, with a low of fifty-nine.

If you’ve been following the Tour, it’s been a very good couple of days for Mark Cavendish. He had his second consecutive stage win on Stage 6, and Cancellara is still in yellow.

Here’s the list of General Classification leaders (that is, overall leaders) after six stages:

1 Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team Saxo Bank 28:37:30
2 Geraint Thomas (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:00:20
3 Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:39
4 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin – Transitions 0:00:46
5 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Quick Step 0:01:01
6 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank 0:01:09
7 Thor Hushovd (Nor) Cervelo Test Team 0:01:16
8 Alexander Vinokourov (Kaz) Astana 0:01:31
9 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Astana 0:01:40
10 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Omega Pharma-Lotto 0:01:42
11 Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R La Mondiale
12 Johan Van Summeren (Bel) Garmin – Transitions 0:01:47
13 Denis Menchov (Rus) Rabobank 0:01:49
14 Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky Professional Cycling Team
15 David Millar (GBr) Garmin – Transitions 0:02:06
16 Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas-Doimo 0:02:24
17 Luis León Sánchez Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:02:25
18 Lance Armstrong (USA) Team Radioshack 0:02:30
19 Jose Joaquin Rojas Gil (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne 0:02:32
20 Thomas Löfkvist (Swe) Sky Professional Cycling Team 0:02:34

One hears that there’s much left — and there is, for if there weren’t the many stages ahead would be dull and insignificant — but I think one will find the probable top finishers in Paris near the top of this. list.

Versus, on which American viewers can watch the Tour, has embeddable video highlights of each stage, and there’s a sample from Stage 6 at their website. See, http://www.versus.com/shows/tour-de-france/.

Perhaps that’s not enough for them, just the Tour, for the ratings they need. I suggest as much because in their cable coverage and on the web, they offer other programming segments interspersed during the day and evening.

There’s an example, as sponsored from RadioShack, on ‘Training.’ An illustration, one imagines, of the many benefits of exercise, yet — or perhaps because — of this, RadioShack’s still in 18th place.

In Madison, there’s a bike-friendly, bike-exclusive restaurant proposal: “Proposed bike path restaurant would be inaccessible by automobile.”

A Madison restaurateur wants to pioneer the antithesis of the drive-in restaurant.

Chris Berge, co-owner of Restaurant Magnus, the Weary Traveler and Natt Spil and cofounder of Barriques and the Blue Marlin, plans to build a bike-path-bound cafe on the city’s Near West Side that would be inaccessible by car, serve local food, produce zero garbage and cater to the city’s burgeoning bicycle population.

Described as “a hobbit hole meets the American Players Theatre meets a 1950s National Park recreational area,” the “Badger Den” would be a “bike-in” bar and grill open from April through October.

Food would be served on plastic or ceramic dishes at seating made from tree trunks. Coffee and juice would be dispensed in purchasable mugs that would fit in a bike holder. And to capture the zeitgeist of the Wisconsin north woods, beer and wine would also be on the menu.

If the restauranteur can make this work, good for him. If it comes to pass, I’d stop in, to see what it’s like.

Seating on tree trunks, with beer and wine? Sure, I’m in.

Good evening,

It’s a humid and cloudy evening, with a low temperature for tonight of about sixty-four in the offing.

I’ve written before about a police dog tiny in Edgerton, Wisconsin that twice bit people, and was returned to be resold rather than continue serving that Wisconsin community. The dog, named Ash, has been sold for $3,000 to a Albuquerque, New Mexico facility. See, Edgerton sells K-9 Dog.

There’s an unintentionally funny comment that an intermediary made about training the dog still needs:

In the next few months, K-9 Services plans to put Ash through a training program for criminal apprehension and drug detection, Wierenga said. He said Ash is ready for narcotics work, but needs more work in the area of bite training. “As far as the understanding to go in and do full mouth bites and grips during apprehension, I had recognized (Ash) didn’t have a lot of training in that area,” Wierenga said.”

He’s referring, of course, to deficiencies in how the dog can properly bite and grip; it’s obviously more than capable of improperly biting.

Police dogs require lots of specialized care and discipline. They’re not pets, but service animals to assist police officers in defending officers and protecting citizens. To see how foolish it was for tiny Edgerton to buy a police dog, one need only read about how much care they require. In a recent story in the Janesville Gazette, one learns that for the much larger Rock County Sheriff’s Office, a new dog required

When the decision as made to bring back K-9s, the sheriff’s office and union agreed on a compensation package, Spoden said. The contract addresses the handler’s responsibilities and pay outside of normal duty.

To create the K-9 program, Capt. Jude Maurer said the sheriff’s office spent:

– $10,000 to buy the dog using federal grant money.

– $22,600 to buy a dedicated squad car using fees paid by the state for sheriff’s office patrol of UW-Rock County.

– $11,000 to outfit the squad car using federal grant money.

– $484 for training equipment using federal grant money.

– $541 for dog supplies using donations.

– $1,610 for Nolan’s meals and lodging during four weeks of training in Campbellsport using a state training grant.

The addition of Dex boosts to five the number of police dogs on duty at law enforcement agencies in Rock County. Janesville has two German shepherds, and Beloit has two Belgian Malinois. Edgerton had a German shepherd for a few days until it bit a police department employee May 10 and was deactivated.

The sheriff’s office selected Nolan to be Dex’s handler after the sheriff’s office found a need for a K-9 and had difficulties borrowing dogs from other agencies, Maurer said.

See, New K-9 Officer Reporting for Duty.

That’s just not a lot of money; it’s a sign of how much work responsible officers have to do to keep a dog properly cared for and conditioned. These are not show dogs to be paraded around an office, or ornaments for a leader’s pride.

For a show about a famous German Shepherd, but not a real service dog, there’s always The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. The original canine star has been portrayed by successor dogs for almost a hundred years. See, The Rin TIn TIn Website. (“Since 1918, eleven generations of RIN TIN TIN.”)

Here’s a clip from a television show. Enjoy.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnxjsCXThKU

Good evening,

We had the rain, and thunderstorms, that were forecast previously for our area. There was a tornado report in the Village of Cambria, about fifty miles north of Whitewater. A tornado that touched down in June near Old World Wisconsin, of Eagle, Wisconsin caused considerable damage, as a story at the GazetteXtra.com describes. (See, Old World Wisconsin Looks for New Life After Tornado.)

I wrote a week ago about how odd it seemed that no one noticed more quickly that the Russian spies in their midst were, in fact, Russian (and not, for example, Belgians as one of them claimed). See, Does Anyone Remember The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming? One reads all sorts of stories about how incompetent these Russians were, but if that’s true, what does that say about how long it took to identify them?

Ars Technica‘s published a story entitled, “How even the dumbest Russian spies can outwit the NSA,” that shows not all of their methods were foolish:

But as incompetent as these spies were, they were bright enough to at least partially outwit the large-scale e-mail snooping efforts of the NSA’s backbone taps and multibillion-dollar datacenters. How? By using steganography to encode secret text messages in image files, which they then placed on websites.

After searching one spy’s apartment, law enforcement agents found a computer and made a copy of its hard drive for later analysis. On the hard drive they found an address book containing website links, which the agents visited and downloaded images from.

The complaint notes that “these images appear wholly unremarkable to the naked eye. But these images (and others) have been analyzed using the Steganography Program. As a result of this analysis, some of the images have been revealed as containing readable text files.”

The steganography program used to decode the images was also on one of the hard drives copied in the search; it was this hard drive which was password protected, and which the agents were able to unlock because the 27-character password was written down on a piece of paper and left lying out in the open on a desk. Clearly, the spies would have been better off with a much shorter password that could have been memorized versus a too-long one that they had to write down and keep nearby.

But “don’t write down your passwords” and “don’t pick passwords that you have to write down” are the two least interesting lessons to draw from the spies’ comical ineptitude. The deeper lesson is that, however dumb these spies were, the real joke here is on US taxpayers.

This technique of using steganography to hide messages in images published online isn’t particularly brilliant, and it’s simple enough to execute that these apparent nincompoops could manage it. Yet our government spends tens of billions of dollars on networking monitoring hardware and data-mining efforts that are aimed at vacuuming up our electronic communications and automatically parsing them for terrorist-speak. All of this technology would fail to detect the messages that these spies sent—either their contents or the simple fact of their existence. The Russian spies’ online messaging activity would look to any automated system like perfectly normal HTTP traffic.

Surprise at others’ sloppiness shouldn’t distract us from our own limitations.

Petacchi won another stage victory in the Tour, and Cancellara remains in yellow. I saw that at Bicycling‘s live coverage of stage four, there was some clucking about how the announcers at Versus won’t stop talking. (Bill Strickland: “And we’re living with Versus coverage of all the talking that goes on inside the broadcast booth. They will cut to the race action from time to time, which is a great disappointment to all of us who can’t get enough of the broadcaster’s competition to see who picks the winner.”)

Oh my. I am sure that the Versus coverage leaves much to be desired. If Versus talks to much, has it occurred to Strickland and his Bicycling colleagues that they write too much? Strickland is, after all, the author of a fan book called — wait for it — Tour de Lance, and his successor as editor-in-chief of Bicycling, Loren Mooney, had to apologize in the August issue of Bicycling for believing Floyd Landis’s lies, and for writing a book about how he was supposedly a victim of false accusations. (A defense that fell apart when Landis belatedly admitted what had been proven far earlier. See Mooney’s mea culpa, “The Lies I Wrote.”)

At least Mooney’s apology has a straightforward and honest title. It might prove profitable to her, in new ways, too. She might consider licensing that stark headline for use by municipal bureaucrats — she’d have another income, and a tidy one at that.

Good evening,

The forecast is for scattered showers tonight, as it has been for rain these past few nights. And yet, these last several forecasts have been like mirages, suggesting rain that never comes to pass as one draws near. With or without rain, there must be a temperature, and tonight it’s likely to be one in the low seventies.

There’s a story at the Janesville Gazette online about people who buy health insurance for their pets. See, More People are Buying Pet Health Insurance. Pets are precious to their owners, and veterinary bills can be expensive, so it may be a prudent decision. The story describes costs of insurance, the experiences of a pet-owner (of Popcorn and Kernel), and a veterinarian’s observation of some patients that “[t]hey don’t realize or think they’re ever going to need it,” he said. “Nobody ever thinks its worth it until they need it, and then it’s too late.’’

They’re not the only ones who might not think it’s useful: I recall a young business student who once learned how resistant people can be to new ideas. A many years ago, in school, I knew a fellow student who was part of our school’s tony business program who ran afoul of conventional wisdom over pet insurance. He had to present a proposal for a senior thesis on a possible business venture, and he suggested veterinary insurance for people’s pets.

He spent nearly forever drafting detailed proposal for the idea of pet insurance, only to find that when he presented his idea, he was nearly laughed out of the room. A faculty panel heaped scorn on the idea, as laughable and embarrassing. They knew very well, they said, how stupid the idea was. He was crushed, and had to scramble to find a more conventional idea, with little time left.

I don’t know what became of him, these years later, but I’d like to hope that he’s the successful CEO of a pet insurance firm. It’s unlikely, yet that outcome would be right, somehow. He was just ahead of his time.

Of pets, there’s a recent, odd story about how a cat’s litter box can be a weapon. I like cats, but the UPI story, “Cat Litter Box Allegedly Weapon of Choice,” is the first time I’ve heard of that possibility. In Florida, two women has a fight, and allegedly

A Florida woman was jailed after allegedly assaulting her girlfriend with a feces-filled cat litter box, authorities say.

New Port Richey police said Kristin Stiehler allegedly attacked Rachel Switzer Wednesday after Switzer refused to give her Roxicodone pills, the St. Petersburg Times reported Friday. Stiehler allegedly broke through their bedroom door, picked up the litter box and went after Switzer with it.

Police said Switzer wound up with cat feces on her face, hair and ears, and cat litter coating her hair, the newspaper said.

Of all the many unfortunate instances of domestic violence about which one hears, this is the first I’ve heard about a litter box as a weapon. Considering how many people live in America, how many have cats, how almost all cats have litter boxes, how some people fight, and how some fights lead tragically to violence, it’s a wonder that this hasn’t happened before (or more often).

Wrong and a strange mess, both.

Good evening,

There’s a good chance of overnight thunderstorms for Whitewater, and a low temperature no better than seventy-one degrees. Hardly good weather for sleeping, but then I’m not asleep.

I was in Lake Geneva and Elkhorn, Wisconsin today, and if there’s a more depressing town in Walworth County than Elkhorn, if I’ve yet to visit it. Their downtown, such as it is, is drab and gray, and they’ve the exacerbating problem of being the county seat. For other towns that might be an advantage; I think it’s only an advantage for those officials in Elkhorn whose careers have eluded greater public awareness. They have thrived in gray; they’d be unsuited to a brighter place.

I’ve been watching the Tour de France on Versus, and reading coverage of it here and there. It’s a shame about the Tour, in one way, though — it’s just not enjoyable to most people, the popularity (I think unfairly earned) of Lance Armstrong not withstanding. Cycling is like the violin to most people — something for the rich, the stuffy, the pretentious. That’s too bad, because it’s not true. Most riders are hardly wealthy, and they should not be conflated with pretentious fans who over-buy and under-ride.

I think LeMond is the better man, and worthier athlete, but Lance is the story of the last decade. He may find, in unwelcome ways, that he’s the story of the new decade, too. America produced a three-time champion in LeMond, in whom all Americans can be proud. LeMond has been controversial to many, but when the current fashion fades, we’ll find that we always had a great cyclist, just from Minnesota, rather than Texas.

Cobblestones for stage three, but there was enough excitement today without them.

I’m not sure if it’s a snowball effect, or slippery slope, etc., but there’s a story about a consequence of World Naked Bike Day in Madison — World Naked Yoga Day. See, First there was the World Naked Bike Ride, and now get ready for Naked Yoga. (For a post on the bike day, see “Wisconsin State Journal: Naked Cyclists Put on a Show.”)

Inspired by the World Naked Bike Ride and hoping to draw attention to healthy body images, yoga instructor Natalia Hacerola is holding a World Naked Yoga Day.

World Naked Yoga Day is different from World Naked Bike Ride in that while the ride focused on public nudity — along with calling attention to oil independence and body acceptance — the yoga day focuses on private nudity, Hacerola said.

That’s quite a difference. I have doubts about effectiveness of the prior bike-riding protest, but it was a protest. I understand that the purpose of the nude yoga day is self-awareness, but I thought that yoga’s practitioners professed that it already brings awareness. If regular, clothed yoga still leaves people needing something more by way of wearing less, then perhaps regular yoga’s been over-sold all these years.

Good evening,

Whitewater’s Independence Day parade was among the biggest of recent memory, with local groups and out-of-city participants from as far as fifty miles away. I published some scenes from the parade, in an earlier post.

Just a bit ago, I watched the fireworks from across Cravath Lake, looking toward downtown Whitewater. Thousands of residents and visitors lined the sidewalks, parks, and streets near the lake. Others parked farther away, and watched the display from their cars.

The thunderstorms earlier forecast for tonight held off, and people brought blankets and chairs to watch the celebration. It was a lovely night, the conclusion to a very fine holiday for Whitewater.

Here are a few photographs of the show:

The crowd was happy and appreciative, but I thought subdued, too. The weekend was wonderful; their concerns were surely elsewhere. I took no surveys, and so I can offer only my own assessment. I’d guess there’s an underlying worry among many about the near future, a concern about the next few years, despite a justifiable pride and hope and fundamental optimism about America’s greater future. In that way, this time feels to me like nothing so much as the Bicentennial. Then, like now, people were justifiably proud of America’s heritage, but uncertain about what what might wait just ahead.

We came through that time, and we will come this one, too — difficult, with travel over hard ground, but well within the ability of Americans. Although one might have doubts about the road ahead, and legitimate skepticism about local politicians’ solutions, it’s impossible to be other than optimistic walking through tonight’s crowd.

They, above all others, are the ones who sustain the city, and support the country, that will yet see better days on their account.

Good evening,

Whitewater’s weather tonight should be clear and comfortable. People sometimes say that summer nights in the 50s or 60s are comfortable. That’s true (and tonight is forecast for 60 degrees), but even occasional colder nights are agreeable. Hard not to find these days other than agreeable. It’s the beginning of America’s largest summer holiday, these few days commemorating our beginnings. Just wonderful.

I went out to visit Whitewater’s business park, on the east side of this small city. I always find my visits depressing — the layout is bleak, uninviting, and dull. Roads and curbsides snake among bland buildings and empty lots. Businesses are so far apart, with too much empty space in between, and the area lacks the hustle and bustle characteristic of production, growth, and prosperity.

I’ll post some photos of the park next week.

No visit would be complete without a quick stop at the site of Whitewater’s forthcoming Innovation Center. I took a few pictures there, too. Those pictures, also, deserve their own post, but I will include just one, for now. It’s of a crooked fence, near one of the gravel driveways into the site:

What a waste of federal and local money all this is. We’ll spend millions for something no better in design — and less useful in function — than an average, modern middle school. If the federal government must tax and spend, it would have done better to give the money to needy people as cash grants. Even a spendthrift idea like that would be more useful than the current project.

As for the driving vanity of the bureaucrats and politicians behind this effort, could we not have satisfied that overweening need and pride for less than several million? We might have built a marble statute for each of them, given each a gold watch, with a vacation cruise for the lot of them, and still saved most of the money now prodigally spent.

I took my photos from the street, and just beyond the curb, so that I’d not run afoul of the warning from No Trespassing signs. The day was over, and no one else was nearby, with only one car passing while I was there. The area was so ugly and in such contrast to the green field nearby, that there was no reason any onlooker should want to go closer.

In the foreground of the picture, however, one can see a few wildflowers, any one of which is better looking, and greener, than anything one will find looking through to the other side of the fence. I took a picture of them, to cleanse the palate, so to speak:

Much better. Even my poor photography cannot obscure something so lovely.

Why not end tonight with something equally impressive as these flowers, and something truly innovative? Here, from the sessions that led to The Birth of the Cool, is a recording of Boplicity.

Enjoy.

Link: Boplicity.

Good evening,

It’s a clear night, with the overnight temperature expected to be fifty-six degrees. Perfect, just perfect.

There’s a story over at Walworth County Today about a planned reunion of former Playboy bunnies and staff at the Grand Geneva, formerly a Playboy Club, years ago. I wasn’t at the hotel when it was part of the Playboy chain. For those who were, I’m sure the story brings back memories of another era. (One can say that however odd the bunnies look in rabbit ears and puff-ball tails, it’s still more reserved (almost demure!) when contrasted with what one might see today on the cover of Rolling Stone or Sports Illustrated.)

I do have a story about the Grand Geneva, from the 1990s. The hotel had a hunting lodge feel, more so than it does now. They had a gift shop off the main lobby, and others who visited then will recall that the shop sold small, taxidermy squirrels in odd poses and clothing. These were stuffed squirrels as fishermen, hunters, etc., in doll’s clothing. Not toys, but a taxidermist’s work. They looked something like the photo I’ve embedded to the left.

It’s impossible to imagine the hotel selling something like that now. Animals lovers, animal rights activists, and other patrons would find gifts like that vulgar and disturbing. It just wouldn’t happen in today’s polite establishments. Yet, for all the tenderness that recoils at the sight of a stuffed squirrel, there’s not the least concern with guests dressed more immodestly than any Playboy bunny ever was. The concern for small rodents exceeds guests’ concern for respectable attire.

This hardly makes me wish that we should return to more conservative times; it reminds me that contemporary, self-declared arbiters of fashion, taste, and propriety, of the appropriate, are just middling men and women whose taste is, generally, tasteless. It’s one more reason that their judgment should not express itself through law and regulation over others.

On propriety and the acceptable and appropriate, one finds all sorts of contradictions. One scold or another will try to ban a practice or activity, as against supposed community values. Many of these same people have not the slightest humility or reticence about self-promotion at every turn. I would have thought that pride was a fault, and humility a virtue, but those who profess an obligation to advance regulations in the name of the community are often the first to boast, look for a camera, or expect notice. When in the Declaration the the patriots sought to explain why ” governments are instituted among men” they contended that it was “to secure these [unalienable] rights.” They never said, and never believed, that government was simply a public relations tool.

For those who are interested in a single volume of classics of liberty, the Liberty Fund’s Online Library of Liberty is also available as a DVD, free of charge. I have the 4th Edition, but there’s now a 5th. Readers can request a copy at this link: http://oll.libertyfund.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1543&Itemid=352. The DVD “contains 1,002 full text titles in EBook PDF format, 36 hours of MP3 interviews with classical liberal political philosophers and economists (The Intellectual Portrait Series) and lectures on the thought of Friedrich Hayek (The Legacy of Friedrich Hayek), and a version of our collection of Quotations about Liberty and Power which is designed to run on a data DVD.”

I’m sure it’s a great collection, even better than the 4th Edition.

I’ll have an open forum topic tomorrow that’s suited to the Independence holiday weekend.