Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
Daily Bread, Education, Government Spending, Legislation, Lobbyists, Low Standards, Public Relations, Reasoning, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.17.23: The Empty Case Against School-District Competitive Bidding
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 43. Sunrise is 7:20 and sunset 4:22 for 9h 02m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 26.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1903, the Wright brothers make the first controlled powered, heavier-than-air flight in the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
Corrinne Hess reports Wisconsin school districts would have to comply with competitive bidding requirements under new proposal (‘Wisconsin is only one of three states that doesn’t require schools to go out for bid on construction projects’):
School districts in Wisconsin would have to comply with competitive bidding requirements for construction projects costing more than $150,000 under a new legislative proposal.
Wisconsin is one of only three states that allows a project of any size to be awarded on a no-bid basis, according to data from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Municipalities, meanwhile, have to seek a competitive bid for any project over $25,000. The same proposed legislation would increase that threshold for municipalities to $50,000.
During a public hearing Thursday before the Assembly Committee on Local Government, Chris Kulow, government relations director for the Wisconsin Association of School Boards, testified against the bill. He argued that requiring a competitive bidding process would take away local control.
Kulow said most school boards are already using competitive bidding. He said having to choose the lowest bidder could mean having to sacrifice the best quality.
“Currently, districts that have long-standing relationships with local contractors have the opportunity to work with them to negotiate deals that include spending resources locally, keeping those dollars in the community,” Kulow said. “They result in the hiring of parents whose children attend the schools. They want to do a good job, and they’re less likely to ask for extra charges.”
All school boards, not merely most, should use competitive bidding for large projects. Kulow’s argument about districts with long-standing relationships with local contractors is unsupported by his testimony. He’s telling a story about local, but his story offers not measurement but instead only unsubstantiated-yet-beguiling claims: “spending resources locally,” “dollars in the community,” “hiring of parents whose children attend the schools,” etc.
Sounds great, right? How often, how much, how many?
Kulow — who asserted his points as a representative of educational boards — offered in his testimony no evidence whatever. Not a shred. See testimony of Chris Kulow, Wisconsin Assembly Committee on Local Government, 12.14.23, video @ 1:17:23. A former superintendent, now part of the school board association’s staff, followed Kulow’s presentation with his own singular experiences in one school district.
Honest to goodness. A knowledgeable or educated person should expect more than this. A student who turned in a term paper so vacuous would deserve a poor grade (or a chance at a re-write); an adult representative of school boards doing the equivalent deserves the intellectual scorn of his fellow Wisconsinites. Our millions of fellow Wisconsin adults did not, each of them, fall off of turnip trucks yesterday.
These men represent school boards; many more men and women are on school boards. There are thousands of superintendents and other administrators in over four hundred school districts in this state. Anyone — any single one — who was graduated from high school, college, or a graduate program with a presentation as light as Kulow’s either learned too little or has forgotten too much.
Those who wish to argue against required competitive bidding — a practice adopted in 47 of 50 states — need to do better than this.
See a massive galaxy cluster evolve in simulation:
Cats, Daily Bread, Science/Nature
Daily Bread for 12.16.23: Fetching
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 7:19 and sunset 4:22 for 9h 02m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 16.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1773, members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawk Indians hold a Boston Tea Party when they dump hundreds of crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
Leo Sands reports Cats can play fetch, too, study finds:
according to a new study, many cats share a trait more frequently associated with pet dogs: They play fetch.
The peer-reviewed study, published Thursday, dispels any lingering myth that cats do not know how to retrieve objects for their owners, said its authors, who based their findings on a survey of the owners of 1,154 cats that played fetch on every continent except Antarctica. Some cats can and do play fetch, they found, although it depended on the feline’s individual traits and the bond shared with its owner.
“It was more common than people were probably expecting, and even I was expecting,” Jemma Forman, an animal psychologist at the University of Sussex and an author of the study, said in an interview. The authors of the study, published in the Scientific Reports journal, said they believe it is the most extensive conducted to date on this specific behavior among cats.
….
The study, limited to cats whose owners already reported fetching, did not assess how prevalent the behavior was among the general cat population. While many cats do fetch, Forman suggested that more research was needed to determine how common it was more generally. A cat’s breed was not a barrier to its ability to fetch, the study found, although Siamese cats were particularly well represented in the sample.
See Forman, J., Renner, E. & Leavens, D.A. Fetching felines: a survey of cat owners on the diversity of cat (Felis catus) fetching behaviour. Sci Rep 13, 20456 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-47409-w
Fetching? Well, yes, of course they are.
How to Give Dead Batteries New Life:
Daily Bread, Social Media
Daily Bread for 12.15.23: Threads, Probably
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 49. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:21 for 9h 02m 50s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 9% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1791, the United States Bill of Rights becomes law when ratified by the Virginia General Assembly.
In his Platformer newsletter, Casey Newton makes predictions for 2024. He’s bolder than I am; I’ve no predictions for 2024 in Whitewater or anywhere else. Newton’s, however, seem sound, and here’s his view of Threads, Meta’s answer to Twitter, X, or whatever Musk decides to call his short-form platform next:
Threads overtakes X in daily users and becomes the leading text-based social network. It’s hard to imagine how Threads could have had a better launch than it did. After its initial record growth tapered off, the app settled at close to 100 million monthly users. But Meta continued to push at an impressive pace; as of today, the company is both beginning to make good on its promise of linking Threads to the Fediverse and opening its doors to the European Union.
Over the next year, expect Meta to continue pushing Threads heavily in Instagram, leveraging the massive audience of its parent app to drive more daily usage of both. The arrival of an API will entice more publishers, public officials, emergency services, sports fans, and other holdouts to begin using the app more heavily. Threads won’t be feature-compete by next December, but it will be the social network that feels like home to most of the US media.
Bonus prediction: With Threads ascendant, Bluesky begins to wither as its development team prioritizes building its underlying protocol over growth, community management, and making improvements to the user experience.
This seems right about Threads nationally and globally. Musk’s repeated mistakes with X have pushed that platform into a long-term decline. It’s a free market, and Musk’s loss will likely prove Zuckerberg’s gain.
And look, and look: Twitter in its prime was a useful site for following journalists and newsmakers, but it had almost no influence in small towns like Whitewater. Perhaps Threads, with Facebook’s parent company Meta behind it, will develop a bigger reach into small places (as Facebook has done). Perhaps.
In the meantime, Threads looks like a solid bet for those looking for a short-form platform with a promising future.
The Original Warrior Energy Bar:
Churchkhela has been a favored snack in many countries for thousands of years. However, despite this, it is still relatively unknown to the wider world. People not familiar with the food often mistake its appearance for a whole number of things ranging from sausages to sticks of dynamite!
Naili Basiladze shows us how to make a traditional Georgian churchkhela with grapes harvested from her own vineyard. Strings of nuts are repeatedly dipped in a mixture of grape juice and flour. Once dry, the finished result is a deliciously sweet stick of churchkhela.
Churchkhela’s extremely long shelf life is a testament to its historical use. Being naturally rich in the calories found within the grape juice, it provided sustenance to Georgian soldiers who would often need to travel long distances.
Cats, Science/Nature
Friday Catblogging: They Have Their Reasons
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In Scientific American, Jack Tamisiea writes that Cats Kill a Staggering Number of Species across the World (‘Domestic cats are cherished human companions, but a new study shows the enormous breadth of species the felines prey on when they are left to roam freely’):
Despite their small stature and memeable mugs, domestic cats (Felis catus) are perfectly adapted killing machines, armed with retractable claws, sharp fangs and night vision. And these potent predators are anything but picky. As humans have spread cats around the world over the past 9,000 years, these ferocious felines—which were likely domesticated thousands of years ago in the Near East—have terrorized native creatures on every continent except Antarctica.
A team of researchers recently added up all the species on these invaders’ menu. In a paper published on Tuesday in Nature Communications, the team compiled a database of more than 2,000 species that have fallen victim to free-ranging domestic cats. Nearly 350 of these species are of conservation concern, and several are already extinct. “We don’t really know of any other mammal that eats this many different species,” says the study’s lead author Christopher Lepczyk, an ecologist at Auburn University. “It’s almost like an indiscriminate eater; they’re eating whatever’s available.”
Because of their cherished connection with humans, cats have become some of the most widespread animals on Earth. As pure carnivores who lack the ability to process plant material, household and feral cats are always on the prowl for prey to hunt or carrion to scavenge.
Blogging, Daily Bread, New Media, Newspapers, Press
Daily Bread for 12.14.23: Standalone and Stand Alone
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 46. Sunrise is 7:18 and sunset 4:21 for 9h 03m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1964, in Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States the U.S. Supreme Court rules that Congress can use the Constitution’s Commerce Clause to fight discrimination.
Over at Neiman Lab, Andrew Kaczynski’s The Homepage is Back makes a prediction for 2024:
As some social media platforms diminish in significance as primary news sources for news junkies — because of their perceived unreliability and chaotic nature — there will be a notable rise in the importance of homepages and newsletters as those readers seek more authoritative and trustworthy sources for news.
The reality today is most voracious news consumers — members of the media included — have to embrace a choose-your-own-adventure approach to getting read-in each day, cobbling together an ever-changing combination of news sites, author pages, social channels, and email newsletters. It’s reminiscent of our pre-Twitter days. (RSS feeds, anyone?)
But is that necessarily a bad thing? I’d argue that it is well worth the extra effort. I’d even take it a step further and say there’s something cleansing about avoiding the algorithm and doing a little self-discovery when it comes to news sources. Personally, I’ve rediscovered the value and influence of morning political newsletters in reaching elected officials and decision-makers and the importance of homepages for getting a sense of the big national stories of the day. I’ve embraced the news sections of apps and, yes, I am still exploring the potential for new platforms like Threads.
Yes, for journalists, and for others like bloggers, the homepage is back. Then again, it never truly went away. Standalone and stand alone are both good practices.
The rubber that stops cracks in their tracks:
Daily Bread, Politics, Press
Daily Bread for 12.13.23: Politics & News Avoidance
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:17 and sunset 4:21 for 9h 03m 48s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Board Executive Committee meets at 8 AM and the Landmarks Commission at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1769, Dartmouth College is founded by the Reverend Eleazar Wheelock, with a royal charter from King George III, on land donated by Royal governor John Wentworth.
An except from a new book describes the authors’ study on the relationship between news avoidance and politics. Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen ask So who are the consistent news avoiders? (‘No single variable is more predictive of whether someone consistently avoids news than their level of interest in politics and civic affairs’):
In general, consistent news avoidance tends to be more common among young people, women, and lower socioeconomic classes. There are also some important political divides regarding who avoids news. In the United States especially, it is much more common among people on the right ideologically. In most other parts of the world, it is more common on the left. But a bigger and more persistent gap lies along what the political scientists Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan call “the other divide”: the divide between people who are deeply involved in politics and rarely, if ever, avoid news consistently and those who are largely indifferent toward politics and avoid news far more often. To be clear, we are not suggesting that all or even most young people, women, or people of lower socioeconomic classes avoid news consistently. That is verifiably not the case. But if you do meet someone who consumes practically no news at all, there is a good chance they will fall into one or more of these categories.
Excerpt from Avoiding the News: Reluctant Audiences for Journalism by Benjamin Toff, Ruth Palmer, and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen. Copyright (c) 2023 Columbia University Press.
Behold, a Leucistic American Badger:
[spacer height=”300px”]View this post on Instagram
Daily Bread, Nature
Daily Bread for 12.12.23: The Geminids Meteor Shower
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 33. Sunrise is 7:16 and sunset 4:21 for 9h 04m 24s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1941, Hitler declares the imminent extermination of the Jews at a meeting in the Reich Chancellery.
Amudalat Ajasa reports What to know about the Geminids, the best meteor show of the year:
The presentation started in late November and will wrap up on Christmas Eve, according to the American Meteor Society. Interestingly, the show will peak and end on the same dates as last year.
The moon won’t act as a spoiler during the peak of the shower because it will illuminate at 1 percent the evening of Dec. 13, according to the American Meteor Society. That means darker skies for viewing.
….
Since the Geminids originate from the constellation Gemini, which rises near sunset during this time of the year, skywatchers could start to see “shooting stars” clearly around 10 p.m., Rice said. But the best time to view is between midnight and 2 a.m.
“We’ll have a nice dark sky that will show meteors. The fact that it’s so close to the new moon means less light pollution,” Rice said.
If you can’t wish upon the shooting stars on Dec. 13, don’t fret! The show will go on for over a week after the peak — there will just be fewer meteors to see.
….
Look for darkness — this may be in a rural location, or if you can’t get to a rural location, look to the darkest part of the sky wherever you are.
Patience — just because there is an average count doesn’t mean that you’ll see that many meteors per hour.
Leave your phone inside — looking at a device before turning to the sky may ruin your innate night vision.
Get comfortable — bundle up and drink something warm if necessary while you wait for the show.
Acrobatic Woolly Opossum Puts Prehensile Tail Into Action At Panama Feeders:
Daily Bread, Education, Health, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.11.23: A Recovery School in Wisconsin
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 33. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset 4:20 for 9h 05m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 2.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Planning Board meets at 6 PM.
On this day in 1941, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States, following America’s declaration of war on the Empire of Japan in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor. The United States, in turn, declares war on them.
Margaret Faust reports Teens say Wisconsin’s only recovery school saved their lives. Funding for more schools is on the way (‘There’s a wait list for Horizon in Madison as mental health struggles and substance abuse persist’):
There are 14 students at Horizon, an alcohol- and drug-free high school designed specifically for students recovering from substance use disorders and mental health disorders. It’s Wisconsin’s only recovery high school. But after a push by advocates resulted in new state funding, that could change in coming years.
The private, nonprofit school contracts with schools in the surrounding area. It has small staff-to-student ratios, random weekly drug testing of all students, twice-weekly group therapy sessions and immediate attention to mental health crises.
School leaders say they aim to provide personalized academic and emotional support as students work toward establishing and maintaining sobriety.
….
Traci Goll, Horizon’s director, said there is clearly a need. Horizon serves the Madison area and has a waiting list. It can’t accommodate every student who would like to go there. Meanwhile, survey data shows that mental health struggles and substance use persist on high school campuses.
Goll said the pandemic made everything worse.
“We’ve always had kids who have been struggling with substance abuse and mental health, but I think it’s just gotten so blown out of proportion,” Goll said.
New state funding is meant to help. The 2023-25 state budget includes $500,000 in grants that may help to fund Horizon and potentially allow others to establish new recovery schools elsewhere in the state.
McDonald’s security guard soaks homeless man’s sleeping bag in London:
Music
Monday Music: David Gazarov Trio, Oh Tannenbaum
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Daily Bread, Nature, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.10.23: Ice Age Trail Becomes Part of National Park Service
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 33. Sunrise is 7:15 and sunset 4:20 for 9h 05m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 6.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1864 during his March to the Sea, Major General William Tecumseh Sherman’s Union Army troops reach the outer Confederate defenses of Savannah, Georgia.
Laura Schulte reports Ice Age Trail becomes part of the National Parks Service, opening the door to more resources:
Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail is now a part of the National Park System, a change that will allow for more resources as organizers push to complete it.
U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and National Park Service Director Chuck Sams announced the change, heralding the 1,200-mile-long trail that traverses some of Wisconsin’s best natural features, from St. Croix to Janesville and back up to Door County.
“The Ice Age trail also tells an important story about the history of Wisconsin and the abundant natural resources that have shaped our great state,” Baldwin said. “Literally running through the great north woods, over rolling hills and prairies, past inland lakes and waters, and finally winding up along Lake Michigan. This trail showcases some of the best that our state has to offer. “
The Ice Age, New England and North Country National Scenic Trails were all folded into the parks system, meaning each will remain part of the national scenic trail system but with more access to funding and other resources the system provides, such as official trail maps and brochures designed by the service.
….
The Ice Age Trail was started in the 1950s and is still under construction, with the Ice Age Alliance purchasing land along the trail’s winding path to fully connect it. It runs through both rural and urban areas, along the natural features created by glaciers during the last Ice Age.
Italian ‘boot,’ Sicily and Croatia captured from ISS using RED Dragon camera:
Animals, Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.9.23: GoPro: Top 10 Animal Encounters
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will see morning showers with a high of 49. Sunrise is 7:14 and sunset 4:20 for 9h 06m 37s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 12.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1775, British troops and Loyalists, misinformed about Patriot militia strength, lose the Battle of Great Bridge, ending British government rule in Virginia.
GoPro: Top 10 Animal Encounters:
Stranded goats rescued from ledge after nearly two weeks:
Daily Bread, Education, University, UW System, Wisconsin
Daily Bread for 12.8.23: A Direct-Admissions Proposal for the UW Schools
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 55. Sunrise is 7:13 and sunset 4:20 for 9h 07m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 19.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1941, President Roosevelt declares December 7 to be “a date which will live in infamy,” after which the U.S. declares war on Japan.
Corrinne Hess reports UW system will launch direct admissions initiative with 2024 senior class (‘Students will get college admission letters in July 2024 before applying to college’):
Starting next year, high school students could be accepted into University of Wisconsin schools without even applying.
The Universities of Wisconsin is rolling out its direct admissions initiative to boost enrollment across its campuses. UW system administrators hope to reach first-generation college students and other potential students who might not have considered attending a four-year school.
….
Participating high schools and participating UW campuses will enter student grade point average data and campus admission requirements into two large student information systems used by many public school districts in Wisconsin, Infinite Campus or Skyward Schools. From there, students will receive admission letters to the campuses where they are matched for fall 2025.
Rothman said most UW campuses have similar GPA requirements. He said GPA is being looked at because it is a good predictor of future college performance.
“We can start to have a conversation about what a university journey will look like, financial aid and what that process is, and really take some burden off of high school counselors,” Rothman said.
Hess reports that other states have had success with a direct-admissions approach:
Idaho adopted the nation’s first direct admissions system, proactively admitting all high school graduates to a set of public institutions in 2015. Idaho’s program raised first-time undergraduate enrollments by just over 8 percent and in-state student enrollment by almost 12 percent by the 2017-18 school year, according to an article by Research in Higher Education.
The state of New York created a direct admissions program this year for more than 125,000 graduating high school seniors. In fall 2024, Georgia will roll out a direct admissions program similar to Wisconsin’s.
It’s a good idea — schools will send out offers of acceptance based on academic performance in participating high schools but students need not accept an offer. The program removes a burdensome application process many might have experienced. Less in this case is more.
Super hot plasma made easy with stabilizing fibers:
America, Cats, Conservation, Nature
Friday Catblogging: The Return of Ocelots?
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Christine Dell’Amore writes Ocelots once roamed the U.S. Can we bring them back? (‘Ocelots are a quintessentially American cat—yet a single tropical storm could wipe them off the U.S. map. Will a pioneering new partnership make a difference?’):
Only a few centuries years ago, the northern ocelot was a quintessential American cat, prowling places as diverse as Louisiana, Arkansas, and Arizona.
But decades of widespread hunting and habitat loss have winnowed their numbers in the United States to fewer than a hundred individuals, which now roam the thorny scrublands of South Texas. They’re split into two populations, one that lives on private ranchlands, and the other in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, located farther south in the rapidly developing Rio Grande Valley along the Gulf Coast. Though ocelots are plentiful in parts of Central and South America, the northern subspecies is listed as federally endangered in the U.S.
….
To protect the species, in 2021, several non-governmental organizations, academic institutions, and private landowners launched a major effort to establish a new ocelot population in Texas, which aims to increase the total number to at least 200 animals for a period of 10 years—the benchmark needed to take it off the endangered species list.
“We’re optimistic,” says Grant Harris, a chief biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the southwestern U.S. “It’s a very pioneering partnership. This is how it should work—you have all these groups pulling together for a common goal.”