#California, your bright lights invite this morning. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station! #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/g3zN9TaYUf
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) September 23, 2015
Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS
Press
What’s a Dollar-A-Week Subscription to a Print Newspaper?
by JOHN ADAMS •
What’s a dollar-a-week subscription to a print newspaper?
If you’ve received a direct mail solicitation to subscribe to a local, daily newspaper for just one dollar per week, then you’ve received a request to get the inserts that advertisers place inside the paper.
For a dollar-per-week, the paper is simply a delivery mechanism for advertisers’ inserts.
That means two things for readers.
First, when the inserts go the paper will fold.
Second, in the meantime, the quality of content in the paper will decline as publishers shave costs by printing anything, by anyone, to fill the pages that they wrap around the inserts.
Beautiful Whitewater, Food, Restaurant
Whitewater’s Advantage Over Copenhagen, Home to One of the Finest Restaurants on Earth
by JOHN ADAMS •
In Copenhagen (population 583,000), a famous chef (René Redzepi) plans to close temporarily his famous restaurant (Noma) and turn part of it into an urban farm:
Foraging superstar and chef René Redzepi is closing his famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma, which has been named the best restaurant in the world multiple times. According to the New York Times, he plans to reopen Noma in 2017 “with a new menu and a new mission.” A major pillar of the new business will be an urban farm with the restaurant at its center, much like chef Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. Redzepi notes, “It makes sense to have your own farm at a restaurant of this caliber.” The new Noma will relocate to Copenhagen’s “freewheeling Christiania neighborhood,” to an abandoned lot where empty warehouses and plenty of graffiti decorate the landscape.
Copenhagen’s big, and Whitewater is small, but we have this advantage that Chef Redzepi can only match at great expense and effort: we are even now surrounded by fresh, local produce of fine quality and variety. He can – and surely will – find the delicious ingredients he needs for his new establishment.
We, too, have delicious produce, suitable for fine meals, and it’s within our reach even now. Table after table, basket after basket, all around us. Fields, gardens, pastures, greenhouses: we’re brimming with what so many wish they could enjoy.
There’s a political slogan that’s something like ‘we are the change we’ve been looking for.’ Well, for ingredients, we’re the place we’ve been looking for.
Here, so very close, marvelous foods, available so often as we should like.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 9.24.15
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater.
Whitewater’s Thursday will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise today is 6:45 and sunset 6:48, for 12h 03m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 81.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s CDA Seed Capital Committee meets at 4 PM and CDA Board meets at 5 PM today.
The program employed a magazine format, similar to that of the Canadian program W5, which premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most important investigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and “gotcha journalism” visits to the home or office of an investigative subject.[6] Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.[6]
Initially, 60 Minutes aired as a bi-weekly show hosted by Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace, debuting on September 24, 1968, and alternating weeks with other CBS News productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m.Eastern Time. The first edition, described by Reasoner in the opening as a “kind of a magazine for television,” featured the following segments:
- A look inside the headquarters suites of presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey during their respective parties’ national conventions that summer;
- Commentary by European writers Malcolm Muggeridge, Peter von Zahn, and Luigi Barzini, Jr. on the American electoral system;
- A commentary by political columnist Art Buchwald;
- An interview with then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark about police brutality;
- “A Digression,” a brief, scripted piece in which two silhouetted men (one of them Andy Rooney) discuss the presidential campaign;
- An abbreviated version of an Academy Award-winning short film by Saul Bass, Why Man Creates; and
- A meditation by Wallace and Reasoner on the relation between perception and reality. Wallace said that the show aimed to “reflect reality”.
On this day in 1857, N.C. Harmon wins big:
On this date N.C. Harmon of Lyman was awarded the first premium prize for cheese made in Sheboygan County. The award was given at the Sheboygan Agricultural Society fair held in Sheboygan Falls. The next year saw John J. Smith procure the first cheese vat in Sheboygan County. He manufactured cheese on a cooperative plan, collecting curd from his neighbors. Both are early events in the long and important history of cheesemaking in Sheboygan. [Source: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Genealogy and History]
A Google a Day asks a geography question:
What town, once a fishing mecca, is now a desert with a “cemetery of ships” due to the shrinking Aral Sea?
Nature, Space
Sunday, 9.27.15: Supermoon Lunar Eclipse
by JOHN ADAMS •
CDA, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending, Local Government, WEDC
WEDC Spends More, Produces Less
by JOHN ADAMS •
It should come as no surprise that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s millions in taxpayer handouts to well-fed executives and political cronies are producing less with each successive spending spree:
The state’s flagship job-creation agency handed out nearly $90 million more in economic development awards last year than the previous year, yet those awards are expected to create or retain almost 6,000 fewer jobs and result in $400 million less in capital investment.
Most of the additional award funding resulted from a historic rehabilitation tax credit that Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature expanded in 2013. The agency gave out $2.9 million in 2013-14, but that jumped to $78.1 million last year.
Even without the historic credits, total economic development awards increased $13.5 million, while promised job creation and capital investment dropped….
At the same time, Wisconsin lags America in job creation:
Wisconsin ranked 30th overall in the nation in private-sector job creation during the 12 months ending in March, according to data released Thursday.
Wisconsin reported a 1.72% increase in private-sector jobs for that period, compared with the previous 12 months, according to employment numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state added 39,624 jobs.
The state’s performance compares with a 2.4% increase for the nation — continuing Wisconsin’s historic lag in job creation.
We’re spending more, but producing less for it, and still underperforming the national average.
Three other key points:
1. As with tens of millions in state credits for Kohl’s, some of the jobs created needn’t last long to be counted. Supposed job-creation claims are often sketchy and temporary.
2. There’s now a flood of statewide reporting about WEDC’s failures. That wave of inquiries & reporting isn’t close to being done.
3. Even after results of those inquiries are published, there’s a significant issue of how local development agencies or city governments are spending public money, what they’re reporting as ‘job creation,’ and how loans are either unpaid or converted into grants so that they needn’t be repaid. Several cities or agencies in Wisconsin have embraced WEDC more firmly than others. Whitewater’s Community Development Authority and city government are among them.
Most of these communities have proceeded with little more than economic-justification-by-press-release. Actual evidence of job creation is either absent or flimsy. In Whitewater, the CDA truly looks more like a third-tier public-relations effort than an actual community development agency. In this regard, Whitewater is probably at the forefront of the WEDC wave: headlines, happy insiders, and exaggerated claims.
Months of statewide examinations into WEDC will inexorably lead to examinations of local agencies that have embraced the WEDC model most warmly.
Anderson, Cartoons & Comics
A Great Fall
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 9.23.15
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater.
Yesterday, I posted a video of a rat carrying a slice of pizza through the New York subway system. That animal has now been dubbed, predictably enough, the ‘Pizza Rat,’ and is the subject of a story in the New York Times: ‘Pizza Rat’ Prompts a Collective ‘Ew’ and Debate on Cleaning New York Subway. The newspaper story includes the observations of the commuter who recorded the rat’s efforts:
The video of the rat, posted by a comedian named Matt Little, showed just what the authority is up against: riders who have no qualms about casting aside food and other debris while aggressive rodents wait in the wings.
Mr. Little stumbled across the scene around 2 a.m. on Monday as he left a comedy show in the East Village with a friend. Rather than being put off by it, he said, he was “100 percent impressed” by the rat’s tenacity, and he pulled out his phone. After the rat carried it down a few steps and then ran away, Mr. Little said, he was not inclined to pick up the slice and throw it away before boarding his train to Brooklyn.
“I’ll be honest — I didn’t follow up with the slice,” Mr. Little said in an interview on Tuesday. “It was just in a rat’s mouth. We’ll let that stay where it is.”
On this day in 1779, John Paul Jones wins a victory over Britain:
During the American Revolution, the U.S. ship Bonhomme Richard, commanded by John Paul Jones, wins a hard-fought engagement against the British ships of war Serapis and Countess of Scarborough, off the eastern coast of England….
In August 1779, Jones took command of the Bonhomme Richard and sailed around the British Isles. On September 23, the Bonhomme Richard engaged the Serapis and the smaller Countess of Scarborough, which were escorting the Baltic merchant fleet. After inflicting considerable damage to the Bonhomme Richard, Richard Pearson, the captain of the Serapis, asked Jones if he had struck his colors, the naval signal indicating surrender. From his disabled ship, Jones replied, “I have not yet begun to fight,” and after three more hours of furious fighting it was the Serapis and Countess of Scarborough that surrendered. After the victory, the Americans transferred to the Serapis from the Bonhomme Richard, which sank the following day.
A Google a Day asks a question about pop culture:
A popular singer whose real name is Katheryn Hudson, grew up listening to what type of music?
Animals
Bringing Home Supper
by JOHN ADAMS •
Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending, Politics, WEDC
The Weakness of Sugar Cubes
by JOHN ADAMS •
When conditions are dry, sugar cubes are fairly sturdy. When placed in coffee, they don’t last long.
Cronyism is like this – it does well in the dry jar of municipal officials, insiders, press-toads, big-business lobbyists, and their lightheaded cheerleaders. In the bracing coffee of careful analysis, sound economics, and impartial observation it dissolves quickly enough.
What’s happened to the WEDC statewide – it’s a disgrace that no insiders’ flickering hopes can overcome – should be a warning for local cronyism in Whitewater. It’s true that some men have devoted their political careers to these kinds of projects. No matter: their work has been profligate and selfish, their hopes for a positive legacy are hopes in vain. Whitewater’s tiny versions of statewide failures have no political future except the ashcan.
It’s unlikely that men devoted to these projects will change their tune; they’re more likely to play the same off-key score with even greater intensity. Associating with their own kind, they can’t or won’t imagine alternatives to their way.
(Even as recently as three years ago, their ideas must have seemed, to them, winning ones. That was never true, of course. They should have read more of history, and less of their own grandiose press releases.)
Still, nothing of their efforts will be sufficient.
The future will write the history of the present; that history will be favorable to many, but dismissive or contemptuous of these projects.
There are years yet ahead, but the outcome for cronyism in Whitewater is no better than a sugar cube’s chances in a mug of Kona.
Documentary, Music
The Craft of Sound
by JOHN ADAMS •
The Craft of Sound from Contra on Vimeo.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 9.22.15
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning, Whitewater.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high 0f seventy-nine degrees. Sunrise is 6:42 and sunset 6:51. for 12h 08m 56s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 61.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM, and the Police & Fire Commission at 7:30 PM.
On this day in 1862, Pres. Lincoln released the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation, to take effect January 1, 1863.
Small drones are useful for photography, but in the video below, one sees that they can be programmed to build bridges or other structures:
In this work, a rope bridge that can support the crossing of a person is built by quadrocopters, showing for the ?rst time that small ?ying machines are capable of autonomously realizing load-bearing structures at full-scale and proceeding a step further towards real-world scenarios. Except for the required anchor points at both ends of the structure, the bridge consists exclusively of tensile elements and its connections and links are entirely realized by ?ying machines. Spanning 7.4 m between two scaffolding structures, the bridge consists of nine rope segments for a total rope length of about 120 m and is composed of different elements, such as knots, links, and braids. The rope used for these experiments is made out of Dyneema, a material with a low weight-to-strength ratio and thus suitable for aerial construction. Of little weight (7 g per meter), a 4 mm diameter rope can sustain 1300 kg.
The vehicles are equipped with a motorized spool that allows them to control the tension acting on the rope during deployment. A plastic tube guides the rope to the release point located between two propellers. The external forces and torques exerted on the quadrocopter by the rope during deployment are estimated and taken into account to achieve compliant ?ight behavior. The assembly of the bridge is performed by small custom quadrocopters and builds upon the Flying Machine Arena, a research and demonstration platform for aerial robotics. The arena is equipped with a motion capture system that provides vehicle position and attitude measurements. Algorithms are run on a computer and commands are then sent to the ?ying machines via a customized wireless infrastructure.
In order to be able to design tensile structures that are buildable with flying robots, a series of computational tools have been developed, specifically addressing the characteristics of the building method. The design tools allow to simulate, sequence, and evaluate the structure before building.
The location of the scaffolding structure is manually measured before starting the construction. The primary and bracing structure can then be realized without human intervention. Before realizing the stabilizers, the locations of the narrow openings of the bridge are measured and input to the system, which adapts the trajectories accordingly.
Via YouTube.
A Google a Day asks a science & technology question:
Of the five NASA space shuttles, which one flew the most missions?
Health, Music, Technology
The Cyborg Drummer
by JOHN ADAMS •
In 2012, the drummer Jason Barnes was cleaning an exhaust duct when he was electrocuted by 22,000 volts of electricity. He lost his right hand and believed his days as a musician were done. That’s when Gil Weinberg, professor of musical technology at Georgia Tech, stepped in with a robotic hand that gave Barnes his drumming abilities back. In this Atlantic documentary, we explore this particular juncture of music and technology—what it has meant for Barnes and what it could mean for the future of music in the age of artificial intelligence.
Via The Atlantic.
WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
A First Pass Over Technical Memo 4
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 32 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.
In the next several posts will consider a proposal for energy production though Whitewater’s digesters, including upgrades to those digesters, and waste-importation into the city. Here’s the order in which those posts will appear:
- Today, a first pass over Technical Memo 4 (“Technical Memorandum 4 Digestion Complex and Energy Production”), in which I’ll ask preliminary questions based on the document.
- A review of the several presentations that the Donohue firm (or city officials) have made about the project (6.17.14, 7.15.14, 12.16.14, 3.3.15, 3.16.15, 5.28.15, 6.23.15). Update, 9.29.15: I would also add public remarks from City Manager Clapper in a state of the city address on 9.17.15.)
- A return to Technical Memo 4 after that review, to look at the memo again after having considered presentations that implicate it.
After this portion of When Green Turns Brown, I’ll next look at the questions that I’ve posed, decide which key questions lack answers from public officials or the various vendors connected to the project, and will submit public records requests based on those questions. As with the entire series, I’ll publish those records requests here, at the time that they’re submitted to the city. It’s an orderly, deliberate process. See, Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal.
(Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All the questions from When Green Turns Brown can be found in the Question Bin. Today’s questions begin with No. 175.)
175. In Chapter III, Donohue describes the costs associated with the project as one of three kinds:
Each improvement alternative will be categorized as listed below.
Essential – Improvements that are essential to maintaining a safe and properly functioning anaerobic digestion system and biosolids land application program.
Recommended – Improvements that either address issues that will become critical in the 20-year planning horizon or they enhance performance, efficiency, and/or cost effectiveness.
Discretionary – Improvements that warrant consideration because they add value in some manner: tangible or intangible.
Looking at the list of possible expenditures (page 12), is there a single item necessary for expanded waste-importation that appears in the firm’s essential category?
176. If there’s not a single item related to expanded waste-importation that’s essential to this project, shouldn’t that increase the burden of justification for proceeding? That is, City Manager Clapper and Wastewater Superintendent Reel may want to import high-strength waste from other cities into Whitewater, but why do they need to do so?
177. If the answer should be revenue-generation, then why do Messrs. Clapper and Reel think that increasing the amount of high-strength industrial waste in Whitewater is their optimal means of revenue-generation? That is, of all the possible ideas to bolster the city budget, why this one?
178. Is the idea of waste-importation into Whitewater an idea that’s uniquely theirs, or has it been suggested to them? If it’s been suggested to them, who has suggested it to them? Are any of those suggesting the idea from Whitewater, either in city government, at the Community Development Authority, or among the big-business lobby in Whitewater?
179. If waste-importation isn’t essential by Donohue’s own estimation, to whose benefit (cui bono) is it?
180. Where’s the Trane study? After all, Donohue’s own assessment directly cites Trane’s work:
In 2014 Trane and Black & Veatch conducted a Feasibility Study that evaluated the possibility of utilizing the facility’s unused anaerobic digestion capacity to treat high strength hauled in waste to generate additional biogas to produce energy. The study examined adding high strength waste receiving facilities, improvements to the existing digesters, biogas treatment systems, biogas storage, and biogas utilization equipment. The study concluded that a large energy generation project was not cost effective.
Donohue writes that this study was conducted in 2014, yet it’s not been published despite being a public record, of a public project, authorized at public expense.
181. What’s the relationship, if any, between waste-importation and the City of Whitewater’s professed goal (as Donohue describes it) of the “option of producing a sellable water product [that] is of major interest to the city.”
182. How much waste by volume would Whitewater have to import from other cities to meet the minimum, supposed revenue-generation goals of this project?
183. How much waste by volume could Whitewater import from other cities after this upgrade?
184. Where would the waste go after processing in the digester – not generally, but specifically.
185. Donohue writes on page 6 about discretionary “[i]mprovements that warrant consideration because they add value in some manner: tangible or intangible.” On a construction and waste-importing project of this kind, what does Donohue – or anyone else advocating for the project – think the intangible values would be?