FREE WHITEWATER

Author Archive for JOHN ADAMS

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.17.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of thirteen degrees. Sunrise is 6:47 and sunset 5:29, for 10h 41m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.

On this day in 1972, Nixon leaves for China:

President Leaves on Trip to China; Stops in Hawaii

Throng at White House Sees Him and First Lady Off on Historic Journey
HE SAYS UNITY IS GOAL
Tells Crowd Way is Sought to Have Differences With Peking Without War
By Tad Szulc

Special to The New York Times

Washington, Feb. 17 — President Nixon left for China today.

He is to reach Peking on Monday morning, China time (Sunday night, New York time), for a week’s stay on the mainland that is to include two conferences, with Chairman Mao Tse-tung and meetings with Premier Chou En-lai.

Addressing ‘Vice’ President Agnew, the leaders of Congress, members of his Cabinet and a large crowd assembled on the White House lawn this morning to bid him farewell, the President said in a brief statement that the United States and China must “find a way to see that we can have differences without being enemies in war.”

If We Can Make Progress

“If we can make progress toward that goal on this trip,” he declared, “the world will be a much safer world and the chance particularly for all of those young children over there to grow up in a world of peace will be infinitely greater.”

Puzzability‘s Tuesday game is about the Oscars:

This Week’s Game — February 16-20
Oscar Losers
Sometimes when you lose, you lose big. For each day this week, we started with a nominee for the Best Actor Oscar who didn’t win it in at least one year (though he may have won it in another year). We then removed all instances of the letters in OSCAR, though not all five of the letters necessarily appear in the name.
Example:
HINFD
Answer:
Harrison Ford
What to Submit:
Submit the actor’s name (as “Harrison Ford” in the example) for your answer.
Tuesday, February 17
KHUDN

City, Local Government, State Government

The Tiny Benefit of Proposed Cuts to UW-Whitewater and the Whitewater Schools

by  • 

image

For years,  local conservative insiders (often big public spenders, always big talkers) have walked around this town like they owned all the city.  Along the way, they’ve told anyone who would listen that they’re men of influence, movers and shakers, and people of particular importance. 

Gov. Walker has now proposed his latest biennial budget, and both UW-Whitewater and the Whitewater public schools are likely to experience considerable cuts. 

So, to the town squires who’ve insinuated their own importance, these recent years, with the Walker Administration and GOP-led legislature: If you are truly what you’ve said you are, then why so little clout with state officials?

All those intimations of importance now look no more credible than those of a drunk at the end of a bar, insisting that he once piloted a lunar lander to the moon’s surface, or that he dated Heidi Klum until he got sick of her, etc. 

It’s possible that some of these proposed budget cuts won’t come to pass. 

It’s certain, though, that truly influential insiders would have been able to prevent those proposed reductions at the first instance. 

So there’s that tiny benefit, one of certainty: one may now be confident that the pretensions of those men to wider influence are unfounded, and laughably so.

Gov. Walker, Government Spending, Politics, Religion, Science/Nature, State Government, Wisconsin

Budget First

by  • 

Last week, Gov. Walker declined to answer Englishman’s question about whether he, Scott Waker, believed in evolution.

Today, in the Journal Sentinel, one learns that Assembly Speaker Robin Vos does believe in evolution. 

(I’ll bite: I was raised in a liturgical, high-church tradition that taught that the theory of evolution was consistent with faith.  I was well into my teens before I even met someone who contended otherwise.)  

Yet, let me ask this question, faith-and-evolution-reconciling man that I am: does it truly matter to the immediate politics of our state whether Walker or Vos believes similarly? 

If you’re a conservative, do you feel less inclined to either Walker’s or Vos’s policies knowing that Walker won’t answer affirmatively, but that Vos will, on a question about evolution?  

If you’re a liberal, do you feel more inclined to either Walker’s or Vos’s policies knowing that Walker won’t answer affirmatively, but Vos will, on a question about evolution?  

Let’s assume that Walker rejects evolution, and Vos accepts it.

What practical difference will an answer make – this year, in this budget, for the next biennium – to our state? 

The answer does have meaning; I see that. 

It’s simply that it doesn’t matter in a way that changes our politics (or should change our politics) between now and the next state fiscal year. 

There’s a budget proposal before us; it’s the allocation of those billions, for millions of Wisconsinites, that’s the key question in the months ahead.  

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.16.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a partly sunny day in the Whippet City, with a high of eighteen. Sunrise is 6:49 and sunset 5:28, for 10h 38m 53s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 8.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1923, treasures see light again, after millennia being hidden from sight:

Tut-ankh-Amen’s Inner Tomb is Opened Revealing Undreamed of Splendors, Still Untouched After 3,400 Years

KING IN NEST OF SHRINES
Series of Ornate Covers Enclose Pharaoh’s Sarcophagus
WHOLE FILLS LARGE ROOM
Mortuary Chamber Opens into Another Room, Crowded With Great Treasure
EXPLORERS ARE DAZZLED
Wealth of Objects of Historic and Artistic Interest Exceeds All Their Wildest Visions
The Times (London) World Copyright, by Arrangement with the Earl of Carnarvon. Copyright, 1923, by The New York Times Company.

Special Cable to The New York Times

Luxor, Egypt, Feb. 16 — This has been, perhaps, the most extraordinary day in the whole history of Egyptian excavation. Whatever any one may have guessed or imagined of the secret of Tut-ankh-Amen’s tomb, they surely cannot have dreamed the truth as now revealed.

The entrance today was made into the sealed chamber of the tomb of Tut-ankh-Amen, and yet another door opened beyond that. No eyes have seen the King, but to practical certainty we know that he lies there close at hand in all his original state, undisturbed.

Moreover, in addition to the great store of treasures which the tomb has already yielded, today has brought to light a new wealth of objects of artistic, historical, and even intrinsic value which is bewildering.

It is such a hoard as the most sanguine excavator can hardly have pictured, even in visions in his sleep, and puts Lord Carnarvon’s and Mr. Carter’s discovery in a class by itself and above all previous finds.

Official Opening Sunday

Though the official opening of the sealed mortuary chamber of the tomb has been fixed for Sunday, it was obviously impossible to postpone until then the actual work of breaking in the entrance. This was a job involving some hours of work, because it had to be done with the greatest care, so as to keep intact as many of the seals as possible, and also to avoid injury to any of the objects on the other side which might be caused by the falling of material dislodged.

Puzzability begins a new week’s game, about those who didn’t win an Academy Award (at least in the year the game has in mind):

This Week’s Game — February 16-20
Oscar Losers
Sometimes when you lose, you lose big. For each day this week, we started with a nominee for the Best Actor Oscar who didn’t win it in at least one year (though he may have won it in another year). We then removed all instances of the letters in OSCAR, though not all five of the letters necessarily appear in the name.
Example:
HINFD
Answer:
Harrison Ford
What to Submit:
Submit the actor’s name (as “Harrison Ford” in the example) for your answer.
Monday, February 16
MLNBND

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.15.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

We have a partly sunny and cold Sunday before us, with a high of ten degrees. Sunrise is 6:50 and sunset 5:26, for 10h 36m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 16.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

Friday’s FW poll asked if readers had a worry over Friday the 13th. Respondents said that they didn’t, with 81.82% saying that date caused no particular concern.

On this day in 1898, the U.S.S. Maine, visiting Havana harbor, exploded, killing two-hundred sixty sailors. The New York Times reported the loss:

Havana, Feb. 15 — At 9:45 o’clock this evening a terrible explosion took place on board the United States battleship Maine in Havana Harbor.

Many persons were killed or wounded. All the boats of the Spanish cruiser Alfonso XII. are assisting.

As yet the cause of the explosion is not apparent. The wounded sailors of the Maine are unable to explain it. It is believed that the battleship is totally destroyed.

The explosion shook the whole city. The windows were broken in nearly all the houses.

The correspondent of the Associated Press says he has conversed with several of the wounded sailors and understands from them that the explosion took place while they were asleep, so that they can give no particulars as to the cause….

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.14.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

How ’bout some hand-made chocolate:

It’s a cold day in Whitewater, with an expected high of ten degrees. Sunrise is 6:52 and sunset 5:25, for 10h 33m 26s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 25.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Not everyone has embraced the romantic themes of the modern-day Valentine’s traditions. Among those who took a decidedly different approach were the organized criminals of late 1920s Chicago:

Chicago, Feb. 14 — Chicago gangland leaders observed Valentine’s Day with machine guns and a stream of bullets and as a result seven members of the George (Bugs) Moran-Dean O’Banion, North Side Gang are dead in the most cold-blooded gang massacre in the history of this city’s underworld.

The seven gang warriors were trapped in a beer-distributors’ rendezvous at 2,122 North Clark Street, lined up against the wall by four men, two of whom were in police uniforms, and executed with the precision of a firing squad.

The killings have stunned the citizenry of Chicago as well as the Police Department, and while tonight there was no solution, the one outstanding cause was illicit liquor traffic.

Best to stick with chocolate-making, for all concerned.

Poll

Friday Poll: Paraskevidekatriaphobia?

by  • 

It’s Friday the 13th, one of three times in 2015 that a Friday will be the 13th day of the month (February, March, November). If fear merely of the number thirteen is triskaidekaphobia, then fear of Friday the 13th is the even less-easily pronounced paraskevidekatriaphobia. (Use of Greek makes all of this sound more scientific than it is.)

In any event, are you worried over Friday the 13th?


Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.13.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday brings a one-third chance of afternoon snow, with a daytime high of twenty-two. Sunrise is 6:53 and sunset is 5:24, for 10h 30m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 35.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Horses are valuable in polo, and so valuable that there’s an Argentinian polo club that clones horses, to get what some players believe are just the right ones. Are they, really?

On this day in 1935, the State of Wisconsin intervenes in the marketplace to set a minimum price for gasoline:

1935 – Gasoline Price Wars Quelled
On this date, in an effort to stop gasoline price wars, the state of Wisconsin established a minimum price of 16 cents per gallon for gasoline. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

Puzzability‘s Valentine’s series concludes today:

This Week’s Game — February 9-13
Hearts and Letters
Naturally, there’s romance in the mix this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with a word, added the eight letters in the words TRUE LOVE, and rearranged all the letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Pool length; track and field athlete with a long stick
Answer:
Lap; pole vaulter
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Lap; pole vaulter” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, February 13
“Semper Fi” group; gadget to control all your electronic gadgets

City, Local Government, School District, University

The Power of Evaluating Simply

by  • 


image

A woman walks into a retailer, to buy a new computer.  She’s an architect, and her needs are like any capable member of that uncommon profession.  Her computer should be able to manage large files and demanding software, with a few accessories she already has in mind.   

Those needs are specific to an architect’s work, yes, but does that mean those needs are complicated, intricate, or convoluted?

No, it doesn’t.  She knows her work, and can list briefly the specifications for a computer, either in hardware or its capacity to manage the software an architect uses. 

A competent professional (as she is) would know her mind and needs without many small requests.  It’s a few main requirements that matter.  She needn’t list twenty-one specifications, for example, with an additional four for good measure, to buy a computer. 

She’s using the computer, after all, not building one in Cupertino.  Operating & storage capacities, graphics resolution, wireless capabilities, and required accessory devices will comprise a list of far less than twenty-one or twenty-five items.

So it should be when evaluating an official: what do you think the official is supposed to do, do you think he or she has done it, and how well do you think the official has done it?

There’s power of reasoning in the ability to ask and explain concisely.  I know that those concise explanations seem, to some, to be inadequate or unsophisticated.  

They’re quite the opposite; they’re how many capable people (from diverse & demanding vocations) speak, write, and manage their work. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 2.12.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be sunny and cold, with a high of nine degrees. Sunrise is 6:54 and sunset 5:23, for 10h 28m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 46.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

It’s Lincoln’s birthday.

On this day in 2002, a Wisconsin athlete wins the gold:

Verona Athlete Wins Gold Medal in 2002 Olympics
On this date Verona’s Casey FitzRandolph won a gold medal at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games in the Men’s 500 Meters. He began his career on the ice playing ice hockey and was inspired by Madison native Eric Heiden, an Olympic speed skater. FitzRandolph tried speed skating in his hockey skates and soon caught the attention of coaches in Wisconsin. He became an Olympian in 1998, when he placed sixth in the 500 meters and seventh in the 1000 at the Nagano Olympic Games. At the Salt Lake City Games he broke the olympic record in the 500 meters with a time of 1:09:23.

Here’s the Thursday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — February 9-13
Hearts and Letters
Naturally, there’s romance in the mix this Valentine’s week. For each day, we started with a word, added the eight letters in the words TRUE LOVE, and rearranged all the letters to get a new phrase. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Pool length; track and field athlete with a long stick
Answer:
Lap; pole vaulter
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Lap; pole vaulter” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, February 12
Really small results of fender benders; eloquent and persuasive, as an orator