FREE WHITEWATER

Monthly Archives: July 2016

Culture, Games/Puzzles

Words of Advice from One of Britain’s Finest Philosophers

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Someone mentioned to me today that she would like to play Pokémon Go, but that she was worried that she’d seem silly to others. I replied that as long as she enjoyed the game, and walked about safely, others’ views of silliness shouldn’t matter.  

She needn’t have accepted my word for it, however.  Noted British philosopher Adam Ant has already dispositively addressed questions of fashion in Goody Two Shoes (from his magnum opus, Friend or Foe, Columbia Records, 1982):

We don’t follow fashion
That’d be a joke
You know we’re going to set them, set them
So everyone can take note, take note

There will always be those who say it should be this style, but never that style; it should be this way, but never that way.

One should set one’s own fashion, and follow one’s harmless enjoyments. 

It shouldn’t be hard, let alone discouraged, to exhibit a range, from lighter to darker, from the playful to the serious, depending on the occasion.

Gotta catch ’em all.

City, Development, Economy

Offer, Cooperation, Gentrification 

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Let’s assume that one believes, as Whitewater’s political class has professed for the last generation, that attracting newcomer families to the city is a worthy goal. (I share this goal; for those who don’t, the conversation’s over, so to speak. They need say no more, and may watch out their windows as the city stagnates, then slowly declines.)

Yet, if one believes that attracting newcomers, including families, is a positive end, how are we to do so? There are at least three possibilities: (1) with take-it-or-leave-it-offers, (2) with cooperative engagement, or (3) when offering will no longer matter, and newcomers will take what they want.

Undoubtedly, anyone involved professionally in attracting newcomers sees that a cooperative spirit is the best option; I’m writing in a time when a few who are influential – but outside that development circle – still don’t grasp as much.

It should be obvious that a take-it-or-leave-it-attitude, a view that the city is already flawless and unquestionably desirable – will attract few newcomers, and none who are realistic.  All towns need improvement of one kind or another.  Those who insist that there’s a certain way to talk around here will only be met with desirable prospects’ silence and rejection.

If people are to come here, and buy houses here, they’ll bring more than their money: they’ll come here with their views and cultural preferences. If they can’t bring the latter they’ll not spend the former.

I’ve had conversations with conservative newcomers, for example, from thriving conservative communities, who are surprised that longer-term residents are uninterested in ideas that have been successful elsewhere. ‘That’s the way we do things around here’ is a declaration that discourages the talented from visiting, staying, or participating in civic life. 

When residents respond that way, they undermine the efforts of development advocates. 

The second possibility is to receive newcomers cooperatively: what would they like, what do they think, and how can we meet their likes and incorporate their ideas?  This is the best response, in which we listen and evolve.

There’s a third possibility, however: if newcomers won’t take only what’s offered (they won’t), and if there aren’t effective efforts to meet new residents halfway, then they’ll take what they want on their own terms when our real estate market collapses for lack of prior demand. 

Gentrification may yet come to Whitewater, but it will not come on terms pleasant to the recalcitrant. 

That time is a while yet ahead, and still might be avoided. These years since the Great Recession have seen that possibility draw closer. (Do longterm residents not see the signs of distress? If they can’t see as much, there’s no chance they can manage an eye chart.) If we’re not accepting of newcomers now – politically and culturally – we will reach a time when our acceptance will matter almost not at all.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.12.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in town will be cloudy, with an even chance of morning thunderstorms, and a daytime high of eighty-five.  Sunrise is 5:28 AM and sunset is 8:32 PM, for 15h 03m 57s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 54.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1389, Chaucer receives an appointment:

King Richard II appoints Geoffrey Chaucer to the position of chief clerk of the king’s works in Westminster on this day in 1389.

Chaucer, the middle-class son of a wine merchant, served as a page in an aristocratic household during his teens and was associated with the aristocracy for the rest of his life. In 1359, he fought in France with Edward III, and was captured in a siege. Edward III ransomed him, and he later worked for Edward III and John of Gaunt. One of his earliest known works was an elegy for the deceased wife of John of Gaunt, Book of the Duchesse.

In 1372, Chaucer traveled to Italy on diplomatic missions, where he may have been exposed to Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio. He also visited Flanders and France, and was appointed comptroller of customs. He wrote several poems in the 1380s, including The Parlement of Foules and Troilus and Criseyde. In the late 1380s or early 1390s, he began work on the Canterbury Tales, in which a mixed group of nobles, peasants, and clergy make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The work, a compilation of tales told by each character, is remarkable for its presentation of the spectrum of social classes. Although Chaucer intended the book to include 120 stories, he died in 1399, with only 22 tales finished.

On this day in  1995, a heat wave begins to afflict the Midwest:

From July 12-15, 1995, the Midwest was subjected to a deadly outbreak of hot and humid weather responsible for 141 deaths in Wisconsin. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, this was the “greatest single event of weather-related deaths in Wisconsin history.” Most of the fatalities happened in the urban southeast counties of the state, and at one point several Milwaukee-area hospitals were unable to admit more patients.

Milwaukee Temperatures (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel): July 12: Hi=91, Lo=65 July 13: Hi=103*, Lo=78 July 14: Hi=102, Lo=84 July 15: Hi=92, Lo=69 July 16: Hi=88, Lo=68 *Some communities reported highs as high as 108. Heat Index values were 120-130 degrees.

NOAA’s Natural Disaster Survey Report on the outbreak is available at http://www.weather.gov/os/assessments/pdfs/heat95.pdf  [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

A Google a Day asks a geography question: “Who was the wife of the president whose legacy lives on through a famous landmark on the Colorado River?”

Games/Puzzles, Technology

So What’s Pokémon Go?

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It’s two things: a game one plays with one’s smartphone (as CNET explains in the video embedded above), and a reworking of an old set of characters in a new format.  The original characters were interesting to millions before, and remain interesting, making their revival in a new format a good bet. 

If the characters hadn’t been compelling to a previous generation, and were not still interesting to this generation, the prospects for Pokémon Go as a merely technical offering would be limited.

Not any message will do. However appealing to a few, there’s not, after all, a wildly popular Android and iOS version of sheepshead.

The trick is picking the right content (or message) from the past, still of interest to people now, and matching it with a medium of the present.

See, aditionally, How to Pick Pikachu as Your Starter in Pokémon Go:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.11.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of ninety. Sunrise is 5:27 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 05m 20s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 44.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets this evening at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1952, the Republican Party nominates Eisenhower:

The 1952 Republican National Convention was held at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Cook County, Illinois from July 7 to July 11, 1952, and nominated the popular general and war hero Dwight D. Eisenhower of New York, nicknamed “Ike,” for president and the anti-communist crusading Senator from California, Richard M. Nixon, for vice president.

The Republican platform pledged to end the unpopular war in Korea, to fire all “the loafers, incompetents and unnecessary employees” at the State Department, condemned the Roosevelt and Truman administrations’ economic policies, supported retention of the Taft-Hartley Act, opposed “discrimination against race, religion or national origin”, supported “Federal action toward the elimination of lynching“, and pledged to bring an end to communist subversion in the United States.[1]

On this day in 1839, a Wisconsinite first receives a patent:

On this day Ebenezar G. Whiting of Racine was issued patent #1232 for his improved plow, the first patent issued to someone from Wisconsin. Whiting’s improvements consisted of making the mold-board straight and flat which, when united in the center with the curvilinear part of the mold-board, would require less power to drag through the dirt. Whiting went on to serve as Vice President of the J.I. Case Plow Company and received another patent for a steel plow in 1876. [Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office]

A Google a Day asks a science question: “What star in the Milky Way passes all five tests scientists require for it to be a candidate for extraterrestrial life?”

Art, Business, Culture

The Art Market (in Four Parts): Patrons

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The Art Market (in Four Parts): Patrons from Artsy on Vimeo.

What motivates patrons to fund artists’ wildest dreams? How has the concept of art patronage changed over time? And what’s behind the dramatic rise of private art museums? In the third installment of “The Art Market (in Four Parts),” we explore how and why patrons support artists and their careers, from the Medici family’s backing of Michelangelo’s work during the Renaissance to today’s most influential collectors, museum donors, and behind-the-scenes benefactors. Patrons and art-world influencers like Eli Broad, Maja Hoffmann, Josh Baer, and Sarah Thornton provide their insights.

Patrons is the third installment of a four-part documentary series, preceded by Auctions and Galleries and followed by Art Fairs, released weekly through mid-June. Together, the four segments tell a comprehensive story about the art market’s history and cultural influence. Visit Artsy.net/art-market-series to watch all the films.

This series is directed by Oscar Boyson and produced in collaboration with UBS.

See also, previously, The Art Market (in Four Parts): Auctions and The Art Market (in Four Parts): Galleries.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.10.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be sunny with a high of eighty-four. Sunrise is 5:27 AM and sunset 8:33 PM, for 15h 06m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 35.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked what readers thought of a kale-eating contest, substituting kale for a more conventional contest food. Most respondents, 68.19%, voted yes to a contest with kale.

7.10.1940 sees the beginning of the Battle of Britain:

The Battle of Britain (German: die Luftschlacht um England, literally “Air battle for England”) was a combat of the Second World War, when the Royal Air Force (“RAF”) defended the United Kingdom (“UK”) against the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) attacks from the end of June 1940, and described as the first major campaign fought entirely by air forces.[14] The British officially recognise its duration as from 10 July until 31 October 1940 that overlaps with the period of large-scale night attacks known as the Blitz,[15] while German historians do not accept this subdivision and regard it as a campaign lasting from July 1940 to June 1941.[16]

….By preventing the Luftwaffe’s air superiority over UK, the British forced Adolf Hitler to postpone and eventually cancel Operation Sea Lion, a provisionally proposed amphibious and airborne invasion of Britain. However, Nazi Germany continued bombing operations on Britain, known as the Blitz. The failure to destroy Britain’s air defencesto force an armistice (or even surrender outright) is considered by Steven Bungay to be the Nazi’s first major defeat in World War II, and a crucial turning point in the conflict.[19]

On this day in 1832, Gen. Atkinson’s soldiers begin building a fort:

1832 – Fort Koshkonong Construction Begins

On this date General Henry Atkinson and his troops built Fort Koshkonong after being forced backwards from the bog area of the “trembling lands” in their pursuit of Black Hawk. The Fort, later known as Fort Atkinson, was described by Atkinson as “a stockade work flanked by four block houses for the security of our supplies and the accommodation of the sick.” It was also on this date that Atkinson discharged a large number of Volunteers from his army in order to decrease stress on a dwindling food supply and to make his force less cumbersome. One of the dismissed volunteers was future president, Abraham Lincoln, whose horse was stolen in Cold Spring, Wisconsin, and was forced to return to New Salem, Illinois by foot and canoe. [Sources: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers edited by Sarah Davis McBride and Along the Black Hawk Trail by Willilam F. Stark]

 

Libertarians, Politics, Presidential race 2016

Johnson-Weld 2016

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Occasionally, someone will ask me how I’ll be voting this fall. I’m a libertarian, from an old libertarian family, and it’s an easy choice for me: Johnson-Weld 2016.

Here’s a video in which Gov. Johnson and Gov. Weld introduce themselves. They offer America a principled alternative, and would assure us a government, among other things, without private email servers or (worse) a repulsive wall-builder. Govs. Johnson & Weld would be a good choice in any season; they’re an excellent choice this year.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 7.9.16

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of eighty. Sunrise is 5:26 AM and sunset is 8:34 PM, for 15h 07m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Live performance, March 1963.
On this day in 1962, Bob Dylan records Blowin’ in the Wind:

Dylan recorded “Blowin’ in the Wind” on July 9, 1962, for inclusion on his second album, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, released in May 1963.

In his sleeve notes for The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991, John Bauldie wrote that Pete Seeger first identified the melody of “Blowin’ in the Wind” as an adaptation of the old African-American spiritual “No More Auction Block“. According to Alan Lomax‘s The Folk Songs of North America, the song originated in Canada and was sung by former slaves who fled there after Britain abolished slavery in 1833. In 1978, Dylan acknowledged the source when he told journalist Marc Rowland: “‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ has always been a spiritual. I took it off a song called ‘No More Auction Block’ – that’s a spiritual and ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ follows the same feeling.”[7] Dylan’s performance of “No More Auction Block” was recorded at the Gaslight Cafe in October 1962, and appeared on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.

The critic Michael Gray suggested that the lyric is an example of Dylan’s incorporation of Biblical rhetoric into his own style. A particular rhetorical form deployed time and again in the New Testament and based on a text from the Old Testament book of Ezekiel (12:1–2) is: “The word of the Lord came to me: ‘Oh mortal, you dwell among the rebellious breed. They have eyes to see but see not; ears to hear, but hear not.” In “Blowin’ in the Wind”, Dylan transforms this into “Yes’n’ how many ears must one man have …?” and “Yes’ n’ how many times must a man turn his head / Pretending he just doesn’t see?”[8]

“Blowin’ in the Wind” has been described as an anthem of the 1960s civil rights movement.[9] In Martin Scorsese‘s documentary on Dylan, No Direction Home, Mavis Staples expressed her astonishment on first hearing the song and said she could not understand how a young white man could write something which captured the frustration and aspirations of black people so powerfully.

Sam Cooke was also deeply impressed by the song and began to perform it in his live act. A version was included on Cooke’s 1964 album Live At the Copacabana. He later wrote the response “A Change Is Gonna Come“, which he recorded on January 24, 1964.[10]

On this day in 1755, Gen. Braddock encounters an ambush:

1755 – Charles de Langlade Ambushes British

On this date Frenchman Charles de Langlade led a group of Wisconsin Native Americans (including Ottawas and Ojibways) against the British General Braddock during the French and Indian War. Langlade, acting as “commander” of the Northwestern Indians, ambushed the British troops. The battle is depicted in the oil painting by Edward W. Deming which hangs on the 4th floor of the Wisconsin Historical Society. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes, 1939; pg 25]

Elections, Politics, School District

About a Survey 

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I promised last week that I would write about a recent survey that seemed to rely on a skewed, unrepresentative sample. The survey and some printed accounts of it have been available, but the recording of the 6.6.16 meeting at which the results were initially presented does not seem to be available online for readers. 

I’ll say now that the conclusions of the survey seem to be right (that a school referendum would likely pass) but that the sample the survey uses to reach that conclusion is strangely unrepresentative of the community it purports to describe. That matters because the right conclusion with the wrong data is little more than guesswork.  Surveys are not meant to be paid guesswork.

It also matters because although the primary conclusion may be right despite a weak sampling of the community, other inferences drawn from the survey may not be similarly accurate. 

Looking at actual election data, actual demographic data, and past referendum results will produce a better assessment than relying on the recent community survey’s data sample.  

It seems fair to the survey authors (an outside vendor), however, to include for readers their full, 6.6.16 meeting remarks.  If they’re published online soon I’ll include them when publishing my assessment; if they’re not available I’ll go ahead with the post with the published information that is available.

(News accounts of the survey only reveal that those accounts’ authors either don’t understand or don’t care how unrepresentative the survey sample is of the electorate that would be considering a referendum, or even the community as it is now.)

It’s worth coming to the right conclusion with the right data; anything less is less than this community deserves. 

More to come.