A Florida otter charges a person with a video camera, and the otter is victorious, utterly humiliating the would-be filmmaker. The encounter is so one-sided, I’m tempted to think it’s a joke. See for yourself —
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Education, School District
Charter Schools Naturally Depend on Sound Charters
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve been asked about a charter school for my small town. Whitewater, Wisconsin may have a public charter school next year. The Whitewater Unified School District received a grant for planning, and may receive additional funding for a school. See, Whitewater charter school on track for 2011.
Charter schools typically have support across politics, and libertarians (for example) have long supported them.
It’s worth stating, though, the obvious: a merit of charter school depends on its charter. Until a community sees what the charter establishes, there’s not much to assess.
(Implicit from the school’s charter comes a necessary, second question: who will be eligible for attendance at the school, by what process? In a well-ordered community, a sound charter offers its own, reasonable answer — via a fair process — to this second question. In a politically disordered community, the second question receives an unjust answer, or an ambigious answer that invites bias. The greater the separation between these two questions, the greater the unfairness or ignorance of a proposal. The closer these two questions, the greater the fairness and soundness of a proposal.)
I have no doubt much thought has gone into all this. There will be answers forthcoming, and only then will one be able reasonably to say what a charter school would offer Whitewater.
Laws/Regulations, School District
Wisconsin’s Law on ‘Raced-Based’ School Mascots
by JOHN ADAMS •
Several public schools in Wisconsin have mascots named after Indian tribes, or famous tribal leaders. I’m am neither a supporter nor an opponent of those mascots’ nicknames. Communities in Wisconsin should be free to decide for themselves what they’d like to call their teams. They may choose wisely, they may chose foolishly, but it should be a matter for residents of those districts to decide. (My small town of Whitewater, Wisconsin has the whippet as a mascot, and that’s a fine choice.)
Unfortunately, Wisconsin law allows the state superintendent to decide whether local public districts may use a tribal name, or other ‘race-based’ name. See, Wis. Stat. 118.134, et seq.
Although the law allows residents of a district to challenge a school mascot name, residents could always challenge a district’s mascot name, through advocacy and politicking. What’s different is that our current law shifts the burden of proof to a district to show that a race-based name “does not promote discrimination, pupil harassment, or stereotyping, as defined by the state superintendent by rule.”
If our law should not shift decision-making to the state superintendent, then worse still is the shifting of the burden of proof to the district. The burden of proof should rest with those who seek change (here those who are aggrieved that a district uses a tribal name).
Shifting the burden is more than shifting the burden; it’s stacking the deck. These names may be offensive — the process for removing them is an unfair change in the burden of proof. Wisconsin’s mascot law is the wrong way to try to achieve change.
I wouldn’t want a tribal nickname for my district’s mascot; even less do I support state determination of other districts’ choices, through a fixed, stacked process.
Repeal of the law will preserve opportunities for advocacy while limiting state interference in local districts’ choices.
See, Kedzie joins effort to repeal race-based school nickname bill.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for November 30, 2010
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
Whitewater’s forecast calls for a wintry mix, of drizzle, sleet, and snow showers, with a temperature falling from the forties.
Over at ScienceNews.org, there’s a story of discovery, entitled, Amphibian debuts: Hunt for lost frog turns up new species in Colombian rain forests. Rachel Ehrenberg writes that
Finally some good news on the frog and toad front: Scientists on an amphibian expedition in Colombia’s cloud and rain forests discovered three new species, including a tiny beaked toad….
A new species of rocket frog, a kind of poison dart frog belonging to the genus Silverstoneia, also was described for the first time. As was a toad so unfamiliar that researchers can report only that it has bright red eyes and lives high in the Chocó montane rain forest.
There’s something endearing about that description: “so unfamiliar that researchers can report only that it has bright red eyes and lives high in the Chocó montane rain forest.”
For those in Wisconsin interested in seeing amphibians close up, there’s an exhibit at the Milwaukee Public Museum entitled, Frogs: A Chorus of Colors, with a score of species on display. The exhibit runs through January 2nd, 2011.
Cats
Epic Cat Fight Joined By Birds (Video)
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cats and birds are natural enemies.
Sometimes, so are cats and other cats.
And sometimes, a wild melee can involve two acrobatic brawling felines and a pair of feisty birds willing to pick a fight with somebody much bigger than themselves. That exact scene was caught on video and set to dramatic music….
Note: These cats really mix it up.
Government Spending
Cato: Five Ways to Cut Military Spending Today
by JOHN ADAMS •
The foundation of Americans’ security is a free, prosperous nation.
The U.S. military has an important purpose, protecting Americans, but that purpose has been distorted over the years. Here are five military spending cuts Congress and the President can make today while they undertake the harder task of rethinking the true purpose of the military and then restraining its use. These recommendations are derived from the report, Budgetary Savings from Military Restraint.
Link: http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/five-ways-to-cut-military-spending-today/ more >>
Liberty
How Capitalism Saved the Pilgrims | Cato @ Liberty
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daniel Griswold wasn’t the only one whose father told him the truth about how the Pilgrims survived. It’s a story worth repeating each year, generation to generation —
When I was growing up, my father would occasionally tell me the story around this time of year of how private property rights saved the Pilgrims from starvation.
When the Pilgrims first arrived in 1620, as my father told the story, they tried to live communally according to the spirit of the Mayflower Compact. What crops they grew were put in a common storehouse and then apportioned according to each family’s need. The small colony struggled to survive for two or three years until its leaders declared that every family henceforth would be responsible for growing its own food. The new system proved much superior at putting food on the table.
Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
The Volokh Conspiracy » Greenwald v. The Nation
by JOHN ADAMS •
Concern about the Transportation Security Administration’s policies is no fringe concern, and public rejection of these extreme measures is only likely to build —
Free Markets
Janesville woman cleaning up with goat milk soap business
by JOHN ADAMS •
Well done.
Janesville animal lover Nicole Opie wanted to run her own business, and she wanted to be a farmer. She’s combining both things by making organic goat milk soap from her small herd of French Alpine goats, which she keeps on a farm just outside of Janesville on Highway 14.
Via Janesville woman cleaning up with goat milk soap business.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for November 29, 2010
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
The forecast from Whitewater, Wisconsin calls for a rainy day with a high of forty-seven degrees.
The City of Whitewater will hold a meeting at 6 p.m. to present a draft of a Lakes Protection Plan for Trippe and Cravath Lakes. The meeting agenda is available online.
It’s a half day of school throughout our public schools today, making this a half, but not a full, pajama day.
Wired recalls that in 1972, the same year that Richard Nixon was re-elected, and balancing that mistake with something good,
Pong, the first popular videogame, is released in its original arcade-game form.
If it seems crude by today’s standards, well, it was crude then, too. And it was meant to be. Pong was the brainchild of Nolan Bushnell, a founder of Atari, who was inspired to develop it after playing an electronic table-tennis game at a trade show. But, having recently designed an arcade game he deemed too complicated because you had to read the instructions before you could play, Bushnell strove for utter simplicity.
November 1972 was a year of stark contrasts.
What was Pong like? Like this –
Holiday
Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving
by JOHN ADAMS •
Although a tradition, and proclaimed before, Lincoln asked for a national Thanksgiving even during hardship —
October 3, 1863
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
A. Lincoln
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for Whitewater, Wisconsin: 11-24-10
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning,
The forecast for Whitewater calls for a rainy day with a high temperature of thirty-seven degrees.
Wired recalls that on this day in 1903, Starting Your Car Gets a Bit Easier:
Clyde J. Coleman is issued a patent for an electric automobile starter.
Coleman originally applied for the patent in 1899, but his early designs proved impractical. The need for this kind of starter for an internal combustion engine was obvious. Automobiles were getting larger, and hand-cranking — the method used to get the pistons moving in order to make ignition possible — was not only cumbersome, but physically demanding and potentially injurious.
Science/Nature
Walworth Co. gets walloped by November storm packing strong winds, rain – WITI
by JOHN ADAMS •
Press
Newspapers and Online Comments
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s been much discussion about the comments policy at the online website, GazetteXtra.com, of a nearby newspaper, the Janesville Gazette. They’ve made a few changes, to limit comments on some types of stories, and to make comments visible only after a reader’s click.
It’s a private website, and they can have the comments policy (none, some, any & all) that they want.
The principal choices, in print, or online, before or since the web, all involve a newspaper’s original and re-published reporting. Although many bloggers dislike newspapers, I’m someone who hopes for a revival of newspapers with a plucky, independent streak, willing to counter-balance political authority. We’ve a government of checks and balances, and we also do better with a civil society in which the press operates as a check on officials’ often self-serving claims.
A press need not function as a counter-balance; I’d simply contend that a press that fails to do so, that caters to politicians as though press agents, ill-serves society.
That’s not just a libertarian bias, either. I’m quite sure that most people admire reporters who take an independent line from political authority. It’s part — a very old part — of our heritage on this continent. (Just as pamphleteering is a very American predecessor of contemporary blogging.)
Comments or their absence won’t change the question before a newspaper: what do you say about political authority? There will be a place for a paper, perhaps with an aging demographic, that favors All-The News-That’s-Fit-to-Bolster-and Re-Elect. We have papers like that nearby now.
It’s almost certainly a declining demographic, occupying an ever-smaller place; even the City of Whitewater’s last community survey relied on an unrepresentative, truly odd sample to arrive at lukewarm results. See, Community Surveys and Popularity Real and Imagined.
The biggest choices that the Gazette, or any newspaper, makes won’t involve comments, and they certainly won’t involve bloggers. They’ll involve the paper’s relationship to politicians and bureaucrats, and how the newspaper’s readers feel about that relationship.