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Monthly Archives: November 2013

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.16.13

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Good morning.

Saturday brings showers and possible afternoon thunderstorm to Whitewater, with a high of fifty-five. Whatever our weather, we’ll never see a nearby natural event like the one those near Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung recently saw:

On 11.16.2001, a film series begins:

On this day in 2001, the British author J.K. Rowling’s star creation–bespectacled boy wizard Harry Potter–makes his big-screen debut in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, which opens in movie theaters across the United States. Based on the mega-best-selling fantasy novel of the same name, the film, which starred Daniel Radcliffe in the title role, went on to become one of the highest-grossing movies in history.

The first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, debuted in Great Britain in 1997 and was released in the United States the following year under the name Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Children and adults alike were captivated by the story of Harry, his friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, their adventures at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and Harry’s struggles against his main enemy, the evil Lord Voldemort.

Here’s the trailer for that first film:

Poll

Friday Poll: Great Accomplishment or Bizarre Undertaking?

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One reads about a resident from Brooklyn’s unusual world record:

Scott Wiener of Brooklyn has amassed 595 pizza boxes from 45 countries. Just think of all the pizza he’s gotten to eat! Inspired by a beautiful box he found in Israel, Wiener started seriously collecting in 2008. He prizes his boxes from other countries, and one in particular is his favorite: a box from the Netherlands that “looks almost-but-not-really like Bart and Homer Simpson,” Wiener said in a press release. (Check out an image of it here.) “I remember shrieking when I saw it,” Wiener said. “It’s amazing.”

What do you think? Is Scott’s project a great accomplishment or bizarre undertaking? (I’ll say great accomplishment – there’s some impressive artwork he’s found among those boxes.)


Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.15.13

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Good morning.

Whitewater will have a mostly sunny Friday, with a high of fifty-one, and southwest winds of 5 to 10 mph.

On this day in 1864, Gen. Sherman begins his March to the Sea:

…Union General William T. Sherman begins his expedition across Georgia by torching the industrial section of Atlanta and pulling away from his supply lines. For the next six weeks, Sherman’s army destroyed most of the state before capturing the Confederate seaport of Savannah, Georgia….

After hearing that President Abraham Lincoln had won re-election on November 8, Sherman ordered 2,500 light wagons loaded with supplies. Doctors checked each soldier for illness or injuries, and those who were deemed unfit were sent to Nashville. Sherman wrote to his general in chief, Ulysses S. Grant, that if he could march through Georgia it would be “proof positive that the North can prevail.” He told Grant that he would not send couriers back, but to “trust the Richmond papers to keep you well advised.” Sherman loaded the surplus supplies on trains and shipped them back to Nashville. On November 15, the army began to move, burning the industrial section of Atlanta before leaving. One witness reported “immense and raging fires lighting up whole heavens… huge waves of fire roll up into the sky; presently the skeleton of great warehouses stand out in relief against sheets of roaring, blazing, furious flames.” Sherman’s famous destruction of Georgia had begun.

On this day in 1887, a great artist is born in Sun Prairie:

O'keeffe_-_'Pineapple_Bud',_1939,_

‘Pineapple Bud”, oil on canvas painting by ”Georgia O’Keeffe, 1939 Source: Saville, Jennifer, ”Georgia O’Keeffe, Paintings of Hawai’i”, Honolulu, Honolulu Academy of Arts via Wikipeda. Assertion of Fair Use.

1887 – Georgia O’Keeffe Born
On this date Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Sun Prairie. She studied at the Chicago Art Institute from 1904 to 1905. In 1907 she relocated to New York to study at the Arts Students League with William Chase. In 1926 she unveiled her now famous flower paintings. She received much of her artistic inspiration from her surroundings in New Mexico, where she settled permanently in 1946. O’Keeffe was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977. Georgia O’Keeffe died in 1986 in Santa Fe. [Source: Wisconsin Women: A Gifted Heritage]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a characteristic of some organisms. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

What is luciferase?

Animation, Nature, Science/Nature

What Might Mars Have Been Like?

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NASA scientists have tried to imagine how that planet might have looked when it once had flowing water (as they believe it did):

In a dramatic new video out of the NASA Goddard Conceptual Image Lab, animators conceive of what Mars may have looked like when its atmosphere and surface temperature allowed for water. The far-out animation is based on existing data collected by NASA — including information on sediment layering and surface erosion — that strongly suggest the Red Planet was once awash in waterways. The agency will soon have much more data on the history of Mars’ climate, as they prepare for the launch of the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) mission on November 18th. MAVEN will seek to explore climactic changes on the planet, and may also help unravel whether or not Mars ever supported life.

Striking —

City, Local Government, Police

Policies for the Police and Fire Commission

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Whitewater’s Police and Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM, to interview patrol officers and consider several policy documents. Those documents appear below, and at the bottom of this post readers will find the video recording of last week’s PFC meeting.

There are five processes or documents to be considered tonight:

(1)  PFC Oath 
(2)  Code of Ethics
(3)  Commissioner Responsibilities and Expectations
(4)  Complaint Process Overview
(5)  Hiring Process and Commission Involvement Policy

Here are a few things to consider, in no particular order.

To his credit, the Common Council member of the PFC – who occupies a different political status in the city by being elected to Council – was the only one from the 11.6.13 meeting who posed meaningful questions of conflicts of interest or of the draft complaint process.   

Code of Ethics.  I’m not sure who wrote the draft Code of Ethics.  Last week’s PFC discussion leaves the actual authorship vague.

(That is, I’m not sure who wrote it, not who typed it.  I’m referring the actual composition, not the word-processing of it.  Writing is a leadership responsibility, not a clerical matter.)

In any event, it’s written in a poor, occasionally substandard English.  Any document may have a few typos, but this draft is littered with errors of subject-verb agreement, misuse of simple words or misspellings, and beyond all that a flowery, rambling prose.  

No one is expecting Augustan English, so to speak, but one should at least have a PFC code up to the standards of our high-school graduates.  This isn’t.  

Beyond the composition, there’s a different point, that’s truly substantive, rather than stylistic: the use of the word stakeholder in the first paragraph (‘Personal Integrity’): “…in order to inspire trust among our stakeholders…”

It’s true that I don’t like the term, and have said as much before, but my objection here is more than rhetorical: the legal obligation is to residents, to citizens, to department employees, but not to some ill-defined group through a buzz-word term that sounds impressive until one realizes that it’s empty. 

‘Stakeholder’ is just an attempt to appear profound and comprehensive without comprehending that for a code, as for good law itself, only concrete and plain terms should be used.  The use here isn’t impressive, but deficient by ambiguity.

Hiring.  The drafts maintain the current and inadequate process of having a “Command Staff” official sit in on the interviews.  I’ve criticized this practice before.  See, along these lines, Police and Fire Commission Interviewing.

Funny, truly.  The department’s leadership in this small, rural town uses the sadly trendy term “Command Staff” to refer to itself, yet it’s so insecure that it dare not let citizens appointed for oversight sit with candidates in a room by themselves.  One would think that a true command staff (think Gen. MacArthur, not anyone in Whitewater) wouldn’t be so insecure over hiring in a town of about fifteen-thousand.       

Complaints Process.  Here one finds the truly absurd and ill-considered work of the author of the complaints process against a commissioner.  

Under the Wisconsin law, itself, the PFC has oversight over the chief of police and the department.  Yet, astonishingly, the complaints process against a commissioner-overseer of the department and chief is assigned to that very chief:

Complaint Against Commissioner.  The same process is used for any complaint.  The complaint [sic] forwarded to the Chief of Police.  If the Chief of Police believes the complaint has merit and violates the intent and meaning of the Commission, the complaint is forwarded to the City Manager and the Police Commission president for review.

This method assures that the police chief will act as interpreter and gatekeeper of the complaints process against a commissioner, even though it is the commission’s principal duty to oversee the police chief and department.  

The incentive for deals, arrangements, and protection of some (and claims against others) based on favoritism is inescapable in this circular arrangement.

Worse, even if there were no deals, it presents the appearance of a conflict of interest – and avoidance of conflicts is the avoidance of both substance and appearance.    

It’s ironic that the president of the PFC, Jan Bilgen, is also on Whitewater’s Ethics Committee, yet seemingly fails to grasp this simple principle.  Had the PFC president understood half of this, the provision would not have been – as it should not have been – even in the draft process.  

That others may have reviewed this provision before the 11.6.13 meeting and let it pass is simply embarrassing.  

For an example of a public body that faced a complaint against one of its members and took the right course of using an independent attorney to conduct the investigation, see School District Investigation Finds Board Member Violated Policies.  

Public integrity is more than a florid litany of what one declares about oneself – it’s the expectation that public officials will, in serious matters, submit to independent and impartial review.  

That’s not what’s present in this draft; Whitewater deserves better than something transparently inadequate.  

Police & Fire Commission 11/06/2013 from Whitewater Community TV on Vimeo.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.14.13

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Good morning.

Thursday in town will be sunny with a high of forty-six.

Whitewater’s Police & Fire Commission meets tonight at 5:30 PM.

382px-Moby_Dick_p510_illustration
‘Illustration from an early edition of Moby-Dick’ via Wikipedia

On this day in 1851, Harper & Brothers publishes Melville’s Moby-Dick:

….Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville about the voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, is published by Harper & Brothers in New York. Moby-Dick is now considered a great classic of American literature and contains one of the most famous opening lines in fiction: “Call me Ishmael.” Initially, though, the book about Captain Ahab and his quest for a giant white whale was a flop.

After Moby-Dick’s disappointing reception, Melville continued to produce novels, short stories (Bartleby) and poetry, but writing wasn’t paying the bills so in 1865 he returned to New York to work as a customs inspector, a job he held for 20 years….

Today is also the birthday of an American historian from Portage:

1861 – Frederick Jackson Turner Born
On this date Frederick Jackson Turner was born in Portage. Turner spent most of his academic career at the University of Wisconsin. He published his first article in 1883, received his B.A. in 1884, then his M.A. in History in 1888. After a year of study at Johns Hopkins (Ph.D., 1890), he returned to join the History faculty at Wisconsin, where he taught for the next 21 years. He later taught at Harvard from 1910 to 1924 before retiring. In 1893, Turner presented his famous address, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” at the Chicago World’s Fair. Turner died in 1932. [Source: Bowling Green State University]

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks not about a mysterious white whale, but about blue ones. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How large is a blue whale’s heart?

City, Economy, Elkhorn, Government Spending

The Martians Beset Elkhorn

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Alvim-correa12

In many ways, Whitewater’s present fiscal and economic success depends on getting as far past the last administration’s outlook as possible. Our former city manager from 2004-2012 mastered a reverse Midas touch: turning what he grasped not into gold, but lead. We can – and I am confident will – get beyond those ill effects, but much of Whitewater’s current condition depends on working that prior under-performance and over-promising out of our political system and economy.

In this way, we’re like a patient recovering, slowly but surely, from a years’ long fever (if so long a fever were even possible for ordinary people).   

One reads that Walworth County’s Board, predictably, has approved a multi-million-dollar parkland purchase for which our prior municipal executive, now a county employee, has been a champion.   I’m not a bit surprised – advocates of the proposal failed earlier in 2013 get a super-majority for the project, and waited until 2014’s budget vote where that wasn’t required.

(They needed a super-majority earlier this year because they hadn’t planned for the parkland properly in this year’s budget.  Theirs is almost a satire on sub-par performance.)  

I’ve opposed the parkland proposal, as one can see from prior posts I’ve written about the pricey idea.  It’s both wasteful and childishly presented.

But, honestly if selfishly, I am at least grateful that the principal champion of this idea now makes policy in Walworth County, and not Whitewater. Although we feel the effects of mediocrity in Elkhorn, at least the intensity of that mediocrity is attenuated through greater distance from our city.  

By necessity, one would contend tooth-and-nail over Whitewater, but one should prefer even more that necessity not present itself.  

In this way, I’m reminded about a final passage from War of the Worlds, about which I’ve written before.  After the Martians fail in their efforts against Earth, they commence a new campaign against Venus:

Lessing has advanced excellent reasons for supposing that the Martians have actually succeeded in effecting a landing on the planet Venus. Seven months ago now, Venus and Mars were in alignment with the sun; that is to say, Mars was in opposition from the point of view of an observer on Venus. Subsequently a peculiar luminous and sinuous marking appeared on the unillumined half of the inner planet, and almost simultaneously a faint dark mark of a similar sinuous character was detected upon a photograph of the Martian disk. One needs to see the drawings of these appearances in order to appreciate fully their remarkable resemblance in character.

One should have sympathy for the Venusians, of course, but still might be forgiven for a feeling of gratitude that some troubles were no longer so close at hand…

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.13.13

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Good morning.

Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny and breezy with a high of thirty-six. Winds will be from the southwest at 10 to 15 mph, with gusts up to 30 mph.

Many Wisconsin farmers have sheep or goats, and being familiar with those animals, they know how sure-footed they are. Scientists are now working to design robots with that same, useful nature, for walking amid rubble or on uneven terrain in rescues or other dangerous missions. There’s work yet to complete, but they’ve come far in these designs even now:

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a person. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

Who is the oldest person to travel in space?

Business, City, Free Markets, Good Ideas, Hip & Prosperous, Local Government, New Whitewater, Planning

The Planning Commission Meeting for 11.11.13

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Whitewater’s Planning Commission met last night, and among the topics was consideration of re-zoning and a conditional use permit for Casual Joe’s, a new restaurant, tavern, and distillery to operate at 319 W. James Street (at the site of a long-unused commercial building, the former Fort Auto Body).   

On 4-3 votes, a majority of the Commission approved both the re-zoning and the conditional use permit.

I’ve supported this project, hoped that an accommodation could be reached, and think this was the right outcome. See, along this line, Whitewater’s Planning Commission Meeting for 10.14.13. (Needless to say, I have neither a financial nor a personal connection to the proposal; I simply believe it’s a good idea for Whitewater.)

One well-understands that the idea is controversial to some; in two consecutive Planning Commission meetings, concerns were both heard at length and (I’d say) thoroughly and methodically addressed.  

One of Whitewater’s planning commissioners offered an observation about a prior project that was controversial at the outset, but has turned out very well (my transcription, however imperfect):

….Some of the conversation we’ve had reminds me of the drive-thru liquor store conversation over on the Westsider.  Some of you may not even know that we have a drive-thru liquor store, but if you’ve been here, calamity was ensured.  And, I don’t want to make light of this, because in that case there are residents nearby, but the slippery slope argument was used.

What happened in this case is that it was approved, and it was approved because the person, the applicant, did his homework, involved partners, amended the plan, and it was a known…it was somebody who was established in the neighborhood – long-established in the community, and he had a stake….

Well said.  I remember that discussion clearly; there are advantages to a long memory.

It’s also true that the project proposed for 319 W. James Street is exactly the sort of project that Whitewater’s Comprehensive Plan – whatever one thinks of it generally – does contemplate for a location like this one.  To read from those planning documents and believe otherwise, really, is a misunderstanding of what those documents both say and strive to foster.

To paraphrase from a recent presidential campaign slogan, this is the change for which we’ve been waiting.  

For us, in Whitewater, this is the emerging business and entrepreneurial culture, of restaurants, merchants, and independent professionals, for which we have been hoping.  

Big has failed us, stodgy has failed us, top-down has failed us. 

Not everyone sees this as opportunity, I know.  Much of this is comfort with the past, even if for the whole city the past has been embarrassingly less than a reasonable person would hope, excuses and exaggerations notwithstanding.    

What comes to us now, fortunately, will not be yesterday’s environment – it will be a new and better one, more prosperous, more vibrant, of greater opportunities for all the community.  

Best wishes to Chef Sailsbery and his staff for another successful venture.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.12.13

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny, clear, and crisp, with a high of thirty.

Whitewater’s Parks & Rec Department meets today at 5:30 PM.

The most recent FW poll asked whether there should be Another Star Wars Film? Just over sixty-percent of respondents wanted to see more films in this series.

Here’s a very young man who, in not-too-many years, is likely to be among those in line to see new additions to the series. After all, even the sound of the Star Wars theme soothes him:

Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about a number. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)

How many nations were involved in building the International Space Station?