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Monthly Archives: February 2014

Photography

2014 World Press Photo Contest Winners

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The 2014 World Press Contest photos are now available online. A link to the winning photographs appears below. Some depict tragedy, others hope, and all of them are notable and evocative.

An international jury of photographers and editors has announced the results of the 57th World Press Photo Contest. The shot chosen as Photo of the Year, by John Stanmeyer for National Geographic, depicts African migrants on the shore of Djibouti City at night, raising their phones in an attempt to capture an inexpensive signal from neighboring Somalia. Other winning photos cover events from the fighting in Syria to South Africans’ reactions to the death of Nelson Mandela.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.16.14

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Good morning.

Sunday presents a chance of flurries and a high of twenty-two for Whitewater.

We’ve only one moon, but Jupiter has many, including the largest in the solar system, Ganymede. NASA Voyager probes and Galileo mission collectively filmed the surface of Ganymede (a satellite bigger even than the planet Mercury) to produce a map the Jovian satellite:

On February 16, 1804, the ‘most daring act of the age’:

During the First Barbary War, U.S. Lieutenant Stephen Decatur leads a military mission that famed British Admiral Horatio Nelson calls the “most daring act of the age.”

In June 1801, President Thomas Jefferson ordered U.S. Navy vessels to the Mediterranean Sea in protest of continuing raids against U.S. ships by pirates from the Barbary states–Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripolitania. American sailors were often abducted along with the captured booty and ransomed back to the United States at an exorbitant price. After two years of minor confrontations, sustained action began in June 1803 when a small U.S. expeditionary force attacked Tripoli harbor in present-day Libya.

In October 1803, the U.S. frigate Philadelphia ran aground near Tripoli and was captured by Tripolitan gunboats. The Americans feared that the well-constructed warship would be both a formidable addition to the Tripolitan navy and an innovative model for building future Tripolitan frigates. Hoping to prevent the Barbary pirates from gaining this military advantage, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a daring expedition into Tripoli harbor to destroy the captured American vessel on February 16, 1804.

After disguising himself and his men as Maltese sailors, Decatur’s force of 74 men, which included nine U.S. Marines, sailed into Tripoli harbor on a small two-mast ship. The Americans approached the USS Philadelphia without drawing fire from the Tripoli shore guns, boarded the ship, and attacked its Tripolitan crew, capturing or killing all but two. After setting fire to the frigate, Decatur and his men escaped without the loss of a single American. The Philadelphia subsequently exploded when its gunpowder reserve was lit by the spreading fire.

Six months later, Decatur returned to Tripoli Harbor as part of a larger American offensive and emerged as a hero again during the so-called “Battle of the Gunboats,” a naval battle that saw hand-to-hand combat between the Americans and the Tripolitans.

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.15.14

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Good morning.

Saturday brings a high of twenty and late afternoon clouds to Whitewater. There’s a likelihood of snow this evening, with an accumulation of less than one inch.

On this day in 1898, the Maine explodes:

A massive explosion of unknown origin sinks the battleship USS Maine in Cuba’s Havana harbor, killing 260 of the fewer than 400 American crew members aboard. One of the first American battleships, the Maine weighed more than 6,000 tons and was built at a cost of more than $2 million. Ostensibly on a friendly visit, the Maine had been sent to Cuba to protect the interests of Americans there after a rebellion against Spanish rule broke out in Havana in January. An official U.S. Naval Court of Inquiry ruled in March that the ship was blown up by a mine, without directly placing the blame on Spain. Much of Congress and a majority of the American public expressed little doubt that Spain was responsible and called for a declaration of war.

Subsequent diplomatic failures to resolve the Maine matter, coupled with United States indignation over Spain’s brutal suppression of the Cuban rebellion and continued losses to American investment, led to the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in April 1898.

Within three months, the United States had decisively defeated Spanish forces on land and sea, and in August an armistice halted the fighting. On December 12, 1898, the Treaty of Paris was signed between the United States and Spain, officially ending the Spanish-American War and granting the United States its first overseas empire with the ceding of such former Spanish possessions as Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines. In 1976, a team of American naval investigators concluded that the Maine explosion was likely caused by a fire that ignited its ammunition stocks, not by a Spanish mine or act of sabotage.

On this day in 1964, comedian Chris Farley is born:

1964 – Chris Farley Born
On this date comedian Christopher Crosby Farley was born in Madison. He studied theatre and communications at Marquette University. After finishing school Farley joined the cast of the Second City Theatre, where he was discovered by Saturday Night Live producer, Lorne Michaels. He died of an accidental drug overdose on December 17, 1997, in Chicago, Illinois. [Source: Oddball Wisconsin by Jerome Pohlen, p.139]

Holiday, Poll

Friday Poll: Valentine’s Day Gifts

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This week’s Friday poll falls on Valentine’s Day, and so a Valentine’s Day question seems nearly obligatory.

Last year’s poll for the holiday asked if there might still be a place for flowers and candy on Valentine’s Day (86.21% of respondents said yes).

This year, I’ll ask about different gift items, with multiple answers to the poll being possible.

The poll will be open all day.


Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.14.14

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Good morning.

Valentine’s Day in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of nineteen. Sunrise today is 6:54 AM and sunset is 5:25 PM. There’s a full moon today at 5:54 PM.

Cold(er) temperatures can be beneficial for one’s health, as James Hamblin explains in How Being Cold Burns Calories:

If you are a human in winter today, take solace in the knowledge that being outside burns calories. In the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, scientists from Maastricht University in The Netherlands argue that when exercise isn’t an option, “regular exposure to mild cold may provide a healthy and sustainable alternative strategy for increasing energy expenditure.”

….This idea is like a Paleo Diet for your surroundings. Our bodies aren’t meant to always be in ideally temperate environments. Letting the temperature of your home or office vary significantly with the seasons is good for you and the environment.

“Cold exposure alone will not save the world,” they write, “but it is a serious factor to consider in creating a sustainable environment together with a healthy lifestyle.”

Sholes_typewriter
On this day in 1819, a longtime Wisconsin resident and inventor is born:

1819 – Typewriter Inventor Born
On this date the inventor of the modern typewriter, C. Latham Sholes, was born. Sholes moved to Wisconsin as a child and lived in Green Bay, Kenosha, and Milwaukee. In 1867, in Milwaukee, he presented his first model for the modern typewriter and patents for the device were taken out in 1868. Sholes took the advice of many mechanical experts, including Thomas Edison, and so claims that he was the sole inventor of the typewriter have often been disputed. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Homes, pg 316-328]

Puzzability’s Valentine’s holiday concludes today with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — February 10-14
Candy and Flowers
We’ve gotten you two gifts every day this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with the name of a chocolate brand plus the name of a flower. Each day’s clue shows the brand name and the flower name melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.
Example:
LDOILVEY
Answer:
Dove/lily
What to Submit:
Submit the brand and the flower, in that order (as “Dove/lily” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, February 14
WORHICTHMAIDNS

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.13.14

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Good morning.

Whitewater will have a forty-percent chance of snow today, with a high of thirty-two.

The Fire and Rescue Task Force will meet tonight at 6:00 PM.

On this day in 1633, Galileo arrives in Rome:

On this day in 1633, Italian philosopher, astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to face charges of heresy for advocating Copernican theory, which holds that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Galileo officially faced the Roman Inquisition in April of that same year and agreed to plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. Put under house arrest indefinitely by Pope Urban VIII, Galileo spent the rest of his days at his villa in Arcetri, near Florence, before dying on January 8, 1642.

In Wisconsin on 2.13.1948, private growers receive state recognition:

1948 – Potato Growers of Wisconsin Recognized
On this date the Articles of Incorporation for Potato Growers of Wisconsin were recognized by the Secretary of State. The first regular meeting of this organization was held in Stevens Point on March 20, 1948. [Source: The Badger Common’Tater, July, 1998.]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Thursday game:

This Week’s Game — February 10-14
Candy and Flowers
We’ve gotten you two gifts every day this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with the name of a chocolate brand plus the name of a flower. Each day’s clue shows the brand name and the flower name melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.
Example:
LDOILVEY
Answer:
Dove/lily
What to Submit:
Submit the brand and the flower, in that order (as “Dove/lily” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, February 13
HGYHIARCARIDENTLLHI

Local Government

You’ll Find the Local Dignitaries Next to the Orange Unicorns

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Fort Atkinson’s trying to decide what to do with its city manager, and needless to say, local officials are busy insisting that they didn’t make any mistakes in selecting Evelyn (Evie) Johnson:

She was among 45 candidates who expressed interest in the Fort Atkinson position in 2012. At the time, [Fort Atkinson Council President Davin] Lescohier noted that “Evie made a strong impression with the council, department heads and local dignitaries during her first stay in Fort Atkinson….”

Setting aside the self-exculpatory tone of these explanations, there’s the silly view that, in a small town like Fort Atkinson or Whitewater, there are local dignitaries.  

There are no such people – these are just simple towns with residents in conditions of equality with each other.  Thankfully, we’ve no class of no aristocrats in Whitewater, and there’s no like group in Fort Atkinson, either.  

Those who wish to be treated as though they were monarchs of England, Spain, or Saudi Arabia are free to visit those places, and marry into those families.  

They’re equally free to travel abroad, press toward the palace fence, and coo and crawl before those over-dressed, under-thinking clans.  

People speak freely – as they should – about (and to) the president and governor.  They are not dignitaries to us, but representatives from us.  

The same is true locally – residents all, some serving for limited times and capacities as officials, most in private life.  

There’s not a dignitary among them.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.12.14

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Good morning.

Wednesday will bring an even chance of snow to Whitewater this afternoon, with a high temperature of twenty degrees.

It’s Lincoln’s 205th birthday. On September 30, 1859, Lincoln spoke in Milwaukee to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, the last portion of which is especially moving:

….It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling in the depths of affliction! “And this, too, shall pass away.” And yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by the best cultivation of the physical world, beneath and around us, and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the earth endures, shall not pass away.

Here’s Puzzability’s Wednesday, Valentine’s week game:

This Week’s Game — February 10-14
Candy and Flowers
We’ve gotten you two gifts every day this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with the name of a chocolate brand plus the name of a flower. Each day’s clue shows the brand name and the flower name melded together in a string of letters, with each in order but intermingled with the other.
Example:
LDOILVEY
Answer:
Dove/lily
What to Submit:
Submit the brand and the flower, in that order (as “Dove/lily” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, February 12
CAVIDOBLUERTY

Local Government, Politics

For Diligence on Policy, There Is No ‘Above and Beyond’ 

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I read an interview yesterday, of a Whitewater political candidate, touting his years of experience.  He declared that, among those who were aware of his work, most “would likely say that I almost never miss a meeting and I come well prepared, often having gone above and beyond in researching a matter.”

It’s important to attend meetings, and it’s important to be prepared, but I’d suggest that in politics there is no above and beyond.  There is only the work an issue requires, the diligence that it deserves.  Whatever that amount may be, it is that amount that the task requires.

Beyond that, there is merely the distasteful alternative of too little effort.  

For people in their private lives, especially for young people, there are – of course – often moments of going above and beyond.

Policymaking, however, includes among one’s constituents the disadvantaged and vulnerable. Of representation to a full community, there is no merit to a self-congratulatory declaration that one has gone above and beyond.

There’s not even, truly, a moment to think plausibly otherwise: one simply commits, and recommits, each day.  

Odd, too, that in the interview the candidate touts an upcoming proposal on which he’s pinning his and others’ hopes.  Whatever the optimism he or his friends have for that project, all Whitewater may be certain that those hopes do not rest on anyone in the city having done even the barest of work in scrutiny or diligence, let alone an amount supposedly ‘above and beyond.’

There’s uncertainty in the year ahead, as with any year, but if there is anything on which one may rely, it’s that there’s even harder work yet to be done.