Friday in town will be cloudy with a high of seventy-five. Sunrise is 5:31 and sunset 8:11, for 14h 39m 51s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
The opah is the first fish species found to be fully warm-blooded, circulating heated blood throughout its body much like mammals and birds, research has revealed.
The fish, found in the waters off the US, Australia and several other countries, generates heat by constantly flapping its fins and has developed an internal “heat exchange” system within its gills to conserve the warmth.
This adaptation means warm blood that leaves the opah’s body core helps heat cold blood returning from the surface of the gills where it absorbs oxygen, maintaining an average body temperature of about 4C to 5C.
This system, likened by scientists to a car radiator, is similar to that used by mammals and birds, which are known as endotherms for their ability to maintain body temperature independent of the environment.
1911 – Janesville Prohibits Fortune Tellers
On this date the Janesville City Council proposed ordinances banning fortune tellers and prohibiting breweries from operating bars in the city. For more on Wisconsin brewing history, see the Brewing and Prohibition page at Turning Points in Wisconsin History. [Source: Janesville Gazette].
Here’s the final game in Puzzability‘s Prom Going series:
This Week’s Game — May 11-15
Prom Going
We’re having a senior moment this week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the four letters in PROM, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Julie Kavner’s cartoon alter ego; quality of the taste of venison
Answer:
Marge Simpson; gaminess
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Marge Simpson; gaminess” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, May 15
Entire body of ambassadors and the like in a nation; computer storage device read with a laser
Three weeks ago, a reader kindly sent me a detailed email about restaurants, with a list of questions about my thoughts on service, food, dining out, etc. I answered shortly after the email arrived, and below one will find a posted version of some of those questions and my replies. (The original correspondence has been edited into a post-style format, while preserving the gist of the original questions and replies.)
Q. Why dine out?
A. One should be looking for delicious food, kindly served, in a pleasant atmosphere. So, I’d say almost everyone thinks three very obvious things matter: food, service, ambiance.
Q. Is it ever acceptable to send food back?
A. Yes, if one thinks that the meal can be prepared properly and returned within a reasonable time.
If the meal cannot be returned as requested, there’s no point in asking. Asking for a dish to be prepared as requested requires confidence that it can be prepared as requested. If the meal comes out as a complete mess, and one thinks the chef is probably a lost cause, there’s no point in requesting another attempt.
It’s better to leave without fuss if the kitchen is a lost cause. It’s a patron’s evening, and there’s no reason to waste it on repeated error.
Sending something back shows confidence that it can be done well and returned properly. It’s best to give a restaurant another try, except in dire circumstances.
Q. Aren’t you worried that sending something back will lead to tampering with the food as revenge?
A. Oh, brother. No, not at all. First, because that’s highly unlikely, and second because if one actually thought the establishment might wrongly alter one’s meal, it wouldn’t be worth patronizing that sort of place in any event.
It’s simply not a concern of mine.
Q. What are a server’s responsibilities (or fault)?
A. Knowing the menu, presenting it kindly, and being attentive to a patron’s needs (even without his or her having to ask).
Q. Should you tip?
A. Yes. Restaurant work is hard, and servers depend on tips as an important part of their income. I cannot think of a time when I haven’t tipped a server.
If I didn’t want to leave a tip, I would stay at home, or eat at Burger King (and I would not eat at Burger King).
Q. What happens when it’s slow [when there are service delays]?
A. Most delays will be kitchen delays, not server delays. A server might be inattentive, or get an order wrong, but most likely slow delivery of a meal is a kitchen problem.
A kitchen delays occurs when the kitchen cannot keep up with ordinary volume, or when the host seats too many and exceeds the kitchen’s ability to prepare multiple meals at the same seating (that is, the kitchen faces extraordinary volume).
While some delays can be a server’s fault, the server does not prepare the meal, so pressure on a server to fix a kitchen problem is of limited value.
The host should know the capacity of the kitchen, and what the kitchen staff can handle.
Q. What’s a good way to addressing problems?
A. Sometimes problems occur (delays, mistaken orders, inattention, etc.). When they do, they should only be addressed at the restaurant if doing so will make the dining experience better, then and there, without much fuss.
If it takes a lot of fuss, then the experience is already a failure, and there’s no point persisting that evening. The whole point of dining out is to have a pleasant time, not to argue with servers, kitchen staff, etc.
To do so during one’s visit is a waste of one’s time, an unnecessary distraction from an evening, and a distraction to other patrons, too.
The next day, one can always write to the establishment and express concerns about an experience gone very wrong.
One should tell one’s friends about good experiences, and warn them about disappointing ones.
It is, however, a marketplace all around: there are many alternatives in a community, and it does no good to linger over disappointing ones when better offerings may be found elsewhere in town.
Going into a restaurant, one should be optimistic about a hoped-for happy experience, and enter in good spirits.
This gives, I’d guess, an idea of my thinking. Coming up Thursdays on FREE WHITEWATER: A summer of establishments to review.
Thursday will bring cloudy skies, a slight chance of rain, and a high of sixty-five to Whitewater. Sunrise is 5:32 and sunset 8:10, for 14h 37m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 17.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
Quick update: I’ll have a restaurant-themed post today (the Thursday calendar slot for FW food & restaurant posts), and will move a reply to the WEDC’s Reed Hall to Friday, so that one post does not step on the other, so to speak. I’ll address Hall’s arguments (delivered in two separate statements) on 5.15.15. Hall deserves his own ignominious day.
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA and was the United States‘ first space station. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a weight of 169,950 pounds (77 t).[1] Three manned missions to the station, conducted between 1973 and 1974 using the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) atop the smaller Saturn IB, each delivered a three-astronaut crew. On the last two manned missions, an additional Apollo / Saturn IB stood by ready to rescue the crew in orbit if it was needed.
The station was damaged during launch when the micrometeoroid shield separated from the workshop and tore away, taking one of two main solar panel arrays with it and jamming the other one so that it could not deploy. This deprived Skylab of most of its electrical power, and also removed protection from intense solar heating, threatening to make it unusable. The first crew was able to save it in the first in-space major repair, by deploying a replacement heat shade and freeing the jammed solar panels.
Skylab included the Apollo Telescope Mount, which was a multi-spectral solar observatory, Multiple Docking Adapter (with two docking ports), Airlock Module with EVA hatches, and the Orbital Workshop, the main habitable volume. Electrical power came from solar arrays, as well as fuel cells in the docked Apollo CSM. The rear of the station included a large waste tank, propellant tanks for maneuvering jets, and a heat radiator.
Numerous scientific experiments were conducted aboard Skylab during its operational life, and crews were able to confirm the existence of coronal holes in the Sun. The Earth Resources Experiment Package (EREP) was used to view the Earth with sensors that recorded data in the visible, infrared, and microwave spectral regions. Thousands of photographs of Earth were taken, and records for human time spent in orbit were extended. Plans were made to refurbish and reuse Skylab, using the Space Shuttle to boost its orbit and repair it. However, development of the Shuttle was delayed, and Skylab reentered Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrated in 1979, with debris striking portions of Western Australia. Post-Skylab NASA space laboratory projects included Spacelab, Shuttle-Mir, and Space Station Freedom (later merged into the International Space Station).
1953 – Milwaukee Brewery Workers Go On Strike
Milwaukee brewery workers begin a 10-week strike, demanding contracts comparable to those of East and West coast workers. The strike was won when Blatz Brewery accepted their demands, but Blatz was ousted from the Brewers Association for “unethical” business methods as a result. The following year Schlitz president Erwin C. Uihlein told guests at Schlitz’ annual Christmas party that “Irreparable harm was done to the Milwaukee brewery industry during the 76-day strike of 1953, and unemployed brewery workers must endure ‘continued suffering’ before the prestige of Milwaukee beer is re-established on the world market.”
Here’s Puzzability’s Thursday game in their Prom Going series:
This Week’s Game — May 11-15
Prom Going
We’re having a senior moment this week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the four letters in PROM, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Julie Kavner’s cartoon alter ego; quality of the taste of venison
Answer:
Marge Simpson; gaminess
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Marge Simpson; gaminess” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, May 14
Turn water into wine and raise someone from the dead, for example; decades of work for movie actors
Appearing below, you’ll see a full, 116-page audit of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. It shows the WEDC’s gross negligence; it’s the second to show the WEDC’s many failures (including deficiencies persisting from audit to audit). (For a link to the prior audit, see WEDC Claims Success by Writing Off Bad Loans.)
For each and every official in Whitewater who has praised the WEDC as though it offered manna from Heaven, what will you to say about this organization now?
For each and every local reporter who has carried water for the WEDC, ignoring ceaseless failures for the sake of lying headlines, how many more lies of omission will you commit? That’s a silly question, I know: you’ll keep lying until the publications for which you write go under (and go under they will).
For each and every WEDC ‘business citizen’ award recipient, with a shiny plaque or trophy, what will you do with your taxpayer-funded coaster or doorstop now?
I once heard that the WEDC’s work was all ‘chemistry,’ making it seem so natural (and so cleverly expressed, too). Then and now, it’s been only alchemy.
Below, the recent audit information.
TomorrowFriday, 5.15, I’ll answer the latest defense from the WEDC’s so-called CEO, Reed Hall.
Midweek in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of sixty-one. Sunrise is 5:33 and sunset 8:09, for 14h 35m 40s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 27.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
Google doodle honoring Lehmann’s work
Deep inside the Earth lies an inner and outer core. We know as much because of the work of seismologist Inge Lehmann, born this day one-hundred twenty-seven years ago:
Inge Lehmann … (May 13, 1888 – February 21, 1993) was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist who discovered the Earth’s inner core.[2][3] In 1936, she postulated from existing seismic data the existence of an inner core with physical properties distinct from the outer core’s and that Earth’s core is not a single molten sphere. Seismologists, who had not been able to propose a workable hypothesis for the observation that the P-wave created by earthquakes slowed down when it reached certain areas of the inner Earth, quickly accepted her conclusion.
1918 – Lusk Murder Trial Begins in Waukesha
On this day Grace Lusk, a Waukesha high school teacher, began her trial for the murder of Mary Roberts. Prosecutors alleged a tragic love triangle had resulted in the murder after Lusk’s pleas for Roberts to give up her husband were rebuffed. The trial, a national sensation in the early days of mass media, resulted in a guilty verdict on May 29, 1918. Lusk was sentenced to 19 years in prison but served only five before being pardoned by the Governor. After her release she jealously guarded her privacy; the identity of her husband, known only as “Mr. Brown,” was never determined. [Source: Capital Times 5/13/1918, p.1]
We’re having a senior moment this week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the four letters in PROM, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Julie Kavner’s cartoon alter ego; quality of the taste of venison
Answer:
Marge Simpson; gaminess
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Marge Simpson; gaminess” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, May 13
Group led by Teddy Roosevelt that split from the Republicans; without a doubt
Jump ahead almost fifteen months, from 12.3.13 to 3.16.15, and City Manager Clapper and Wastewater Superintendent Reel are at the Whitewater Unified School District. Months later, and millions in spending requests, but still lots of questions.
(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. 34.)
34. City Manager Clapper contends that “the water that actually goes [back] into the watershed is cleaner than the water in the [Whitewater] creek.” A few obvious questions: (a) how clean is the water that’s returned now, (b) how would an additional level of imported waste affect the water returned to the creek?
35. Do any by-products of waste processing now enter Whitewater’s ecosystem apart from discharge immediately from the treatment plant?
36. If they do, then what are those by-products, in what amounts?
37. If Whitewater’s municipal officials contend that no by-products enter Whitewater’s ecosystem except from immediate discharge from the treatment plant, then on what do they base that confidence?
38. Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel (Reel) wants to make sure he is “utilizing the digester capabilities that we had [have] at the facility.” Generally, how does Reel evaluate the value of any given capacity, that is, by what economic measure does he assess the merit of one course of action over another?
39. Reel contends that “and really, the digester complex really does mimic our own digestion system, only in much larger volumes.” Why does Reel think that human digestion, following his analogy, is a clean process?
40. Reel states that one of Whitewater’s digesters is unused, and another at limited capacity. Why are the digesters so much larger than Whitewater’s present needs? (One knows, and Reel must know, but it’s a logical question.)
41. Does Reel think that his planned importation of waste into Whitewater’s digesters would be equivalent to prior local uses? Can he show a composition of waste then-and-now comparison?
42. How much importation by volume does Reel contemplate? How does he know?
43. How much in tipping fees [from other cities depositing their waste into Whitewater] does Reel contemplate? How does he know?
44. Reel estimates $2,000,000 in cost for digester upgrades. How much of that amount is for importation?
45. About 15 months ago, Reel contended the digester was a standalone project. Does he still think so? Why or why not?
46. When City Manager Clapper (Clapper) says “green is in,” what does he mean by that? Does he mean clean, or renewable, or both?
47. Does City Manager Clapper believe that waste importation is clean? Does he think it’s as clean as solar power, for example? If he does, then why does he think so? If he thinks there’s a difference, then how much of a difference?
48. How much energy does Clapper think he’ll produce?
49. Clapper contends that the by-product sludge from the waste digester is really a “green product that could be used as fertilizer.” If he thinks so, then would he put that sludge on his lawn, or on a school lawn?
50. If Clapper would place the sludge on his lawn, then why has he not yet done so?
51. If Clapper wouldn’t place the sludge on his lawn, then why not?
52. What federal and state regulations, if any, limit the deposit of sludge near residences?
53. If there are federal and state regulations that limit the deposit of sludge near residences, then why does Clapper think they’ve been enacted?
54. What scientific and industry standards, if any, limit the deposit of sludge near residences?
55. If there are scientific and industry standards that limit the deposit of sludge near residences, then why does Clapper think they’ve been established?
56. Does Clapper believe that he can produce enough power to “give back to the grid”?
57. If he does, then why hasn’t he considered how existing utilities would react, as WE Energies has reacted (negatively) elsewhere?
58. If he doesn’t think Whitewater can produce enough electricity, then how is this a meaningful power-generating program at all?
59. If this isn’t a meaningful power-generating program, then isn’t it truly a waste disposal program, using Whitewater as a vast depository for other cities’ unwanted waste?
Original School Board Presentation, 3.16.15
Full Presentation Video https://vimeo.com/122470431
WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
Marvel Comics films are enormously popular, earning billions – truly billions – at the box worldwide office. Here’s a video that explains the (often complicated and sometimes obscure) storyline behind the Marvel characters’ universe.
Tuesday in town will be cloudy with a high of fifty-five. Sunrise is 5:34 and sunset 8:07, for 14h 33m 30s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 38.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Parks and Recreation Board meets this afternoon at 5:30 PM.
Instagram user Momentaryawe contends that his iPhone fell 400 feet to the ground while he was recording from a skyscraper, and that the phone kept recording all the way down. I don’t know if the recording is of a genuine fall, but it’s compelling to watch —
Florence Nightingale, OM, RRC (…12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was a celebrated English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing. She came to prominence while serving as a manager of nurses trained by her during the Crimean War, where she organised the tending to wounded soldiers.[1] She gave nursing a highly favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of “The Lady with the Lamp” making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.[2]
Some recent commentators have asserted Nightingale’s achievements in the Crimean War were exaggerated by the media at the time, to satisfy the public’s need for a hero. Nevertheless, critics agree on the decisive importance of her followup achievements in professionalizing nursing roles for women. In 1860, Nightingale laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas’ Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, now part of King’s College London. The Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses was named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated around the world on her birthday. Her social reforms include improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were over-harsh to women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.
Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She also helped popularise the graphical presentation of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.
Here’s the Tuesday game in Puzzability‘s Prom Going series:
This Week’s Game — May 11-15
Prom Going
We’re having a senior moment this week. For each day, we started with a word or phrase, removed the four letters in PROM, and rearranged the remaining letters to get a new word or phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the longer one first.
Example:
Julie Kavner’s cartoon alter ego; quality of the taste of venison
Answer:
Marge Simpson; gaminess
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the longer one first (as “Marge Simpson; gaminess” in the example), for your answer.
Tuesday, May 12
Shift, tab, or ctrl, for example; plastic surgery to remove crow’s feet
Seb Lester works in Lewes, East Sussex, as a type designer, illustrator and artist.
He has created typefaces and type illustrations for some of the world’s biggest companies, publications and events, including the likes of Apple, Nike, Intel, The New York Times, The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and JD Salinger’s final reissue of The Catcher in the Rye. He is passionate about letterforms
A list of questions, updated as new ones arise, from When Green Turns Brown. Find this post, and you’ll have found all the questions from the entire series as they’re added .
(Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned consecutively based on when it was asked. All the questions from When Green Turns Brown can be found here.)
From the 12.3.13 Digester Presentation (https://vimeo.com/126793651) and (https://www.freewhitewater.com/uploads/120313_Digester%20Importation%20Discussion.pdf):
1. Whitewater’s Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel (Reel) mentions surveys [of agricultural interest] for a 2004 proposal for a public-private partnership digester proposal that “never came to fruition.” Does the City of Whitewater have those surveys? Why didn’t that plan come to fruition?
2. Reel mentions a 2010-2011 project with “Green Energy Partners” (known in Whitewater as Green Energy Holdings). Why does Reel say the project was from 2010-2011, when Council actually voted in closed session in June 2012 (with – by municipal accounts – about nine months of behind the scenes work prior)? Does Reel have the dates wrong, or were private conversations going on for a longer period?
3. Reel describes a proposal from Green Energy Partners, rather than Green Energy Holdings, a distinction that, to my knowledge, no one in city government has made. Did Reel always know that these projects from Northern Concrete Construction (NCC) used different names? Did then city manager Brunner and then asst. city manager Clapper also know that NCC used multiple business names in various target cities?
4. If either Reel or others knew that NCC used different names in different cities, “as they were known financially,” then what do they think those financial reasons are?
6. What does the selection of the defaulting GEH say about the actual business acumen of Messrs. Brunner, Clapper, Reel, and the Whitewater Community Development Authority?
7. When Reel says that this [waste importation] is a project “after-the-fact,” “separate,” “and standalone” of other wastewater projects, what does that say about the importance of the project? If it’s not integral, but in fact superfluous, what burden of proof should a waste importation project meet?
8. Reel mentions an 11.5.13 meeting (four actually) with stakeholders for the project. Who attended that meeting? Who invited them? Were notes taken?
9. Specifically, who was the liquid waste hauler at the 11.5.13 meeting? Who invited that hauler? Was that hauler previously known to anyone in the city or CDA?
10. Reel mentions a discussion of liquid waste stream volumes took place at the 11.5.13 meeting. Who mentioned that volume? What was that volume?
11. Reel says that digesters are becoming “more commonplace” because one reads as much in the newspapers. What data reliably show what Reel alleges, apart from an unspecific claim about newspapers?
12. Reels says Whitewater is a convenient location for potential waste haulers to dump waste. Which waste haulers, from where, and what kind of waste? Where do they dump now?
13. Reel mentions an agreement with Trane about an energy-savings performance contract. How did that project go?
14. Reel says a waste importation program would not require a rate increase (would have no net cost). Does he still contend as much?
15. At this time (12.3.13), Reel contends Trane would guarantee savings. Does he still contend that Trane, or any other vendor, would guarantee a result or pay the city in compensation for under-performance for waste importation?
16. What’s Trane’s relationship to the digester, or even the city, now?
17. Reel mentions Black & Veatch (B&V) as a possible subcontractor to Trane. Are they still involved? Reel invited B&V to participate. What’s Reel’s relationship, if any, to B&V? How did he learn about them?
18. Why does it seem to impress Reel that B&V would have someone connected to performance contacts?
19. What is the availability and diversity of outside waste to be imported to Whitewater?
20. Reel mentions that despite possible corporate guarantees, the City of Whitewater would be responsible for finding and securing waste to be imported to Whitewater. If Whitewater has to secure waste from other cities, and would be responsible for any failure to secure, how comprehensive is a corporate guarantee for energy performance?
21. Reel mentions other places that use digesters. Why does he think they are like Whitewater’s situation? Are they like Whitewater? Why doesn’t he show how they are alike, if they truly are?
22. What’s high-strength waste?
23. Why does Reel think engineering firms want a deal with Whitewater? He says it’s because they see viability in a project, but these firms don’t guarantee availability of supply.
24. City Manager Clapper mentions that corporations guarantee savings, but Reel says these corporations don’t secure supply. So why does Clapper think there’s a meaningful corporate guarantee if the city has a burden for supply?
25. City Manager Clapper mentions industrial strength waste. What does he think that would entail?
26. Reel admits that the city still has a volume of supply risk. So who in the city would be responsible for supply? Would that person have the resources to indemnify the city? That is, could Reel or Clapper personally indemnify Whitewater for failure to deliver so-called adequate amounts of waste. Would anyone at the CDA be able to do so?
27. Could Reel or Clapper personally indemnify Whitewater and all her residents for any health or environmental damage from waste imported into the city?
28. Reel says he has had conversations with waste haulers, and those haulers could guarantee a volume, but not as much as the contractors would like. How much less?
29. Who were the waste haulers to whom Reel spoke? How did he learn of them? What is his relationship to them? Did anyone in the city or CDA assist Reel in these contacts?
30. City Manager Clapper mentions the he would, along with Reel and “Chris” [Asst. City Mgr. Chris O’Donell], personally make contact with waste haulers. How did those discussions go?
31. To whom did Messrs. Clapper, Reel, and O’Donell subsequently speak about waste importing into Whitewater? How many meetings have they had, with whom, and were any notes or records made?
32. Councilmember Ken Kidd mentions that Reel has talked to him (Kidd) personally and he (Reel) is more excited in those situations than when the “cameras are rolling.” How many side conversations by 12.3.13 had Reel had with Council members? How many has he had since? How did he contact members of the Council, in what settings, and were any notes taken?
33. What does it say about Reel that by Councilmember Kidd’s account he, Reel, takes a different approach when not at a public meeting?
From the 3.16.15 Wastewater Presentation to the Whitewater Schools(https://vimeo.com/122470431).
34. City Manager Clapper contends that “the water that actually goes [back] into the watershed is cleaner than the water in the [Whitewater] creek.” A few obvious questions: (a) how clean is the water that’s returned now, (b) how would an additional level of imported waste affect the water returned to the creek?
35. Do any by-products of waste processing now enter Whitewater’s ecosystem apart from discharge immediately from the treatment plant?
36. If they do, then what are those by-products, in what amounts?
37. If Whitewater’s municipal officials contend that no by-products enter Whitewater’s ecosystem except from immediate discharge from the treatment plant, then on what do they base that confidence?
38. Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel (Reel) wants to make sure he is “utilizing the digester capabilities that we had [have] at the facility.” Generally, how does Reel evaluate the value of any given capacity, that is, by what economic measure does he assess the merit of one course of action over another?
39. Reel contends that “and really, the digester complex really does mimic our own digestion system, only in much larger volumes.” Why does Reel think that human digestion, following his analogy, is a clean process?
40. Reel states that one of Whitewater’s digesters is unused, and another at limited capacity. Why are the digesters so much larger than Whitewater’s present needs? (One knows, and Reel must know, but it’s a logical question.)
41. Does Reel think that his planned importation of waste into Whitewater’s digesters would be equivalent to prior local uses? Can he show a composition of waste then-and-now comparison?
42. How much importation by volume does Reel contemplate? How does he know?
43. How much in tipping fees [from other cities depositing their waste into Whitewater] does Reel contemplate? How does he know?
44. Reel estimates $2,000,000 in cost for digester upgrades. How much of that amount is for importation?
45. About 15 months ago, Reel contended the digester was a standalone project. Does he still think so? Why or why not?
46. When City Manager Clapper (Clapper) says “green is in,” what does he mean by that? Does he mean clean, or renewable, or both?
47. Does City Manager Clapper believe that waste importation is clean? Does he think it’s as clean as solar power, for example? If he does, then why does he think so? If he thinks there’s a difference, then how much of a difference?
48. How much energy does Clapper think he’ll produce?
49. Clapper contends that the by-product sludge from the waste digester is really a “green product that could be used as fertilizer.” If he thinks so, then would he put that sludge on his lawn, or on a school lawn?
50. If Clapper would place the sludge on his lawn, then why has he not yet done so?
51. If Clapper wouldn’t place the sludge on his lawn, then why not?
52. What federal and state regulations, if any, limit the deposit of sludge near residences?
53. If there are federal and state regulations that limit the deposit of sludge near residences, then why does Clapper think they’ve been enacted?
54. What scientific and industry standards, if any, limit the deposit of sludge near residences?
55. If there are scientific and industry standards that limit the deposit of sludge near residences, then why does Clapper think they’ve been established?
56. Does Clapper believe that he can produce enough power to “give back to the grid”?
57. If he does, then why hasn’t he considered how existing utilities would react, as WE Energies has reacted (negatively) elsewhere?
58. If he doesn’t think Whitewater can produce enough electricity, then how is this a meaningful power-generating program at all?
59. If this isn’t a meaningful power-generating program, then isn’t it truly a waste disposal program, using Whitewater as a vast depository for other cities’ unwanted waste?
Original School Board Presentation, 3.16.15
Full Presentation Video https://vimeo.com/122470431
From the 1.21.14 First Vendor Presentation to Common Council.
60. City Manager Clapper (Clapper) mentions that one of the vendors presenting, Trane, is working with Whitewater to evaluate energy efficiency as part of a separate project. What happened with Trane’s energy efficiency contract with Whitewater?
61. Wouldn’t how Whitewater’s energy efficiency contract with Trane progressed show (1) what Trane is like as a vendor and (2) how skillful city officials (particularly Clapper) are in evaluating and managing city projects?
62. Clapper mentions that city officials (full-time staff, presumably) and the vendors did not have time to draft an agreement before the 1.21.14 meeting, so the 1.21.14 meeting will be a presentation only (that is, there will be no request to vote on a contract). Does Clapper think that a presentation and vote on the same night without time for later reflection would have been a good practice, had the vendors and city staff produced timely a draft agreement?
63. If Clapper thinks that a presentation and vote on the same night would have been a good practice, then what does that say about the level of diligence his administration (full-time staff) should be required to meet? more >>
