???? Sarang Sheth writes about a robot cat called Nybble: Designed to be a robot that you can build, play, and explore with, Nybble comes with a laser-cut plywood body that you must put together first. The entire process takes about 4 hours including the assembly, software and calibration configuration time, and once you’re done,…
Technology
Business, Daily Bread, Restaurant, Retail/Merchants, Technology
Daily Bread for 5.10.22: A Server Robot for a Short-Staffed Restaurant
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy, with a chance of an afternoon thundershower, and a high of 88. Sunrise is 5:36 AM and sunset 8:06 PM for 14h 29m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 64.3% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.…
Cats, Technology
Friday Catblogging: Cat Discovers a Cat Cam
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Foxconn, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Technology
Daily Bread for 3.23.22: For Foxconn, It’s Someday, Perhaps, Kinda, Sorta…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Wednesday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 49. Sunrise is 6:50 AM and sunset 7:11 PM for 12h 20m 27s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 69.5% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee meets at 5:30 PM. On this day in 1909,…
Business, Daily Bread, Economy, Technology
Daily Bread for 3.22.22: Go Geothermal
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Tuesday in Whitewater will see scattered showers with a high of 46. Sunrise is 6:52 AM and sunset 7:10 PM for 12h 17m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 78.5% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Advisory Committee meets at 5:30 PM. [Updated: Wednesday, not today.] On…
City, Daily Bread, Economy, Poverty, School District, Technology
Daily Bread for 8.16.21: Broadband Gaps, Right Here in Whippet City
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:03 AM and sunset 7:54 PM, for 13h 50m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 59.7% of its visible disk illuminated. Whitewater’s Equal Opportunities Commission meets at 5 PM, the Community Development Authority at 5:30 PM,…
Art, Cartoons & Comics, Education, Science/Nature, Technology
From Comic-Con@Home 2021: The Science of Art
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
How is STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) used to inspire and create our most beloved popular arts? What do portrayals of science and scientists in popular media get right and wrong? From world-building to special effects and cosplay, IF/THEN ambassadors (www.ifthenshecan.org) Sydney Hamilton (aerospace engineer), Myria Perez (paleontologist), Dr. Samantha Thi Porter (archaeologist), and Dr.…
Cats, Technology, Weird Tales
Friday Catblogging: An App to Translate Cats’ Meows
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, Taxes/Taxation, Technology, Trump, WEDC, Wisconsin, WISGOP
Highlight’s from The Verge’s Foxconn Assessment
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
No failure better reveals the bankruptcy of corporate welfare in the Walker and Trump years than the Foxconn project in Wisconsin: exaggeration upon exaggeration, but nothing productive. This was a failure of judgment so obvious and significant that everyone involved should retire from policymaking. Walker Administration, Trump Administration, the WISGOP, the WEDC, down to Whitewater’s Community…
Bad Ideas, Boosterism, Business, CDA, Corporate Welfare, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Speaker Vos, State Capitalism, State Government, Technology, WEDC, WISGOP
Accountability Comes Calling at Foxconn
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
After years of grandiose – ludicrous, truly – claims about Foxconn from Trump to Vos to boosters in Whitewater, Accountability has made her way to Foxconn. If not Accountability personified, then at least Missy Hughes (the new, Evers-appointed leader) of a slightly-reformed WEDC. Josh Dzieza of the national publication The Verge reports Wisconsin denies Foxconn tax…
Technology
Five Tips for Looking (and Sounding) Great on a Video Call
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Business, Economy, Poverty, Technology
Cashierless (and so Cashless)
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
One reads that Amazon has opened its first cashless, full-size grocery store in Seattle. See Amazon is opening its first full-size, cashierless grocery store. Here’s a first look inside. A few remarks: This is a technological achievement, and other companies are working along similar lines. No cashier means, definitionally, no cash transactions. That’s convenient for…
Culture, Mendacity, Technology, Video
‘Deep Fakes’ in a Deeper Context
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In the video Op-Ed above, Claire Wardle responds to growing alarm around “deepfakes” — seemingly realistic videos generated by artificial intelligence. First seen on Reddit with pornographic videos doctored to feature the faces of female celebrities, deepfakes were made popular in 2018 by a fake public service announcement featuring former President Barack Obama. Words and…
Bad Ideas, City, Economy, Employment, Foxconn, Gov. Walker, Government Spending, State Capitalism, State Government, Technology, Trump
Foxconn’s Shabby Workplace Conditions
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
One reads that God, hearing the grumblings of the ancient Israelite community, once fed that people: 11 The LORD said to Moses: 12 I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. Tell them: In the evening twilight you will eat meat, and in the morning you will have your fill of bread, and then you will know that I,…