Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 63. Sunrise is 7:27 AM and sunset 5:49 PM for 10h 21m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 30.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
H. G. Wells and Orson Welles met for the first and only time in late October 1940, shortly before the second anniversary of the Mercury Theatre broadcast, when they were both lecturing in San Antonio, Texas. On October 28, 1940, the two men visited the KTSA studio for an interview by Charles C. Shaw, who introduced them by characterizing the panic generated by “The War of the Worlds”.
Wells was skeptic about the actual extent of the panic caused by “this sensational Halloween spree”, saying: “Are you sure there was such a panic in America or wasn’t it your Halloween fun?” Welles replied that “[i]t’s supposed to show the corrupt condition and decadent state of affairs in democracy, that ‘The War of the Worlds’ went over as well as it did.”
When Shaw mentioned that there was “some excitement” that he did not wish to belittle, Welles replied, “What kind of excitement? Mr. H. G. Wells wants to know if the excitement wasn’t the same kind of excitement that we extract from a practical joke in which somebody puts a sheet over his head and says ‘Boo!’ I don’t think anybody believes that that individual is a ghost, but we do scream and yell and rush down the hall. And that’s just about what happened.”
(Citations omitted.)
America may not have been terribly panicked, but she was suitably entertained:
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 64. Sunrise is 7:26 AM and sunset 5:50 PM for 10h 24m 12s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 20.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1969, the first-ever computer-to-computer link is established on ARPANET, the precursor to the Internet.
The Hard Fork podcast looks at Elon Musk’s purchase (with other investors) of Twitter. While it was once improbable that Musk would purchase the social media company, it’s at least as improbable that he will overcomeproblems that have plagued Twitter for years.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 59. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 5:51 PM for 10h 26m 49s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 12.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis ends and Premier Nikita Khrushchev orders the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.
Someone remarked yesterday of the perspective here at FREE WHITEWATER that, these fifteen years on, the rhetorical approach was less combative than it once was. The implication was that this libertarian blogger had somehow changed.
I’ve not, and in any event that scarcely matters. What matters is that Whitewater has changed, and all the rest is merely a reasoned response — through the same principles — to those changes. The multiple afflictions that have beset this community since the Great Recession left the community more fragile than it once was. Much of what was formerly troublesome in Whitewater has simply withered away, replaced with new problems emerging from different sources.
Not to see as much — a condition that grips a few trolling, agitated residents — is to be blind to Whitewater as she truly is. Striking: the now-faded boosters didn’t describe Whitewater correctly years ago, and a populist faction that has supplanted them doesn’t describe Whitewater correctly now.
Those present and former factions have shared between them a common myopia: it’s hard to see one’s surroundings clearly while staring in a mirror.
A changed response to some, and a new focus on others, is no more or less than a realistic acknowledgment of changed conditions in Whitewater.
Update: An explanation on meaning — a town that has experienced multiple injuries over more than a decade has a fragility that must be considered and respected. One responds differently to those who are robust (as the boosters once were) from those who are ill or recovering (as the town now is). One responds differently to those who are seeking improvement from those whose actions and proposals are a detriment to the city.
Thursday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 57. Sunrise is 7:23 AM and sunset 5:53 PM for 10h 29m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1904, the first underground New York City Subway line opens, later designated as the IRT Broadway–Seventh Avenue Line.
The U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.6 percent in the third quarter, marking its first increase in 2022 and a sharp turnaround after six months of contraction — despite lingering fears that the country is at risk of a recession.
The third-quarter gross domestic product figures, released Thursday by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, provide an upbeat snapshot less than two weeks before midterm elections, in a year that has seen the economy and high inflation become a persistent challenge for Democrats.“The irony is, we’re seeing the strongest growth of the year when things are actually slowing,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at KPMG. “There are some real cracks in the foundation. Housing is contracting. The consumer is slowing. GDP is growing, but not for all of the right reasons.”
Economic conditions nationally are mixed, and not all of the nation is experiencing (obviously) the nation’s average level of growth. Economic plans, if there are to be plans, and however hopeful they may be, begin only from the true present into the imagined but uncertain future.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:22 AM and sunset 5:54 PM for 10h 32m 07s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Common Council goes into executive session shortly after 6:30 PM, to return to open session later this same evening.
Sandhill cranes are fairly easy to spot today, but they nearly vanished less than a century ago.
It’s their remarkable story of recovery that has inspired conservationists to plan the first Great Midwest Crane Fest, set for Nov. 10-12 in Baraboo.
“This festival is to bring together our local community and celebrate, what we feel, is one of the great conservation stories of the Midwest,” said Richard Beilfuss, CEO and president of the International Crane Foundation, or ICF. It’s an event two years in the making — postponed due to pandemic restrictions — backed by decades-worth of efforts honoring conservation efforts by ICF and The Aldo Leopold Foundation.
In 1937, renowned Wisconsin conservationist Aldo Leopold wrote one of his most famous essays, “Marshland Elegy,” warning sandhill cranes could become extinct in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest. Around that time, the species had dwindled to just 25 breeding pairs in Wisconsin.
Now, the Midwest is home to more than 15,000 sandhill cranes. And the eastern population has grown to about 90,000, according to Buddy Huffaker, executive director of the Aldo Leopold Foundation.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 53. Sunrise is 7:21 AM and sunset 5:56 PM for 10h 34m 47s of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, Adlai Stevenson shows the United Nations Security Council reconnaissance photographs of Soviet ballistic missiles in Cuba.
In the first national assessment of students since the pandemic, Wisconsin again posted the widest score gaps between Black and white students of any state, now by even greater margins.
At the same time, Wisconsin scores statewide climbed in the rankings. Though the state’s 2022 scores declined since the last national assessment in 2019, most states saw steeper drops.
Known as the “Nation’s Report Card,” the U.S. Department of Education’s National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was administered to sample schools in every state between January and March 2022. It tested fourth- and eighth-graders in reading and math.
Wisconsin scores continued to exceed most other states, ranking in the top 10 in math for fourth and eighth grades, and in reading for eighth grade. Fourth-grade reading, as it was in 2019, continued to be the state’s worst area.
….
In a statement, state Superintendent Jill Underly also acknowledged the persisting opportunity gap between Black and white students.
“We’ve known Wisconsin’s racial disparities in assessment results are among the widest in the nation for too long, and these troubling results are yet one more indication that we must close the opportunity gap in our state,” Underly said.
While about a dozen states didn’t report test scores for Black students because of low numbers, all other states reported score gaps between Black and white students. Wisconsin had the widest gap out of every state in each category, although Washington, D.C., was worse.
….
But she [Dr. Carrie Streiff-Stuessy, executive director for Common Ground’s Forward Scholars program] said the data showing the disparity in reading and math scores has been a persistent problem. Streiff-Stuessy doesn’t refer to it as an achievement gap but an opportunity gap.
“The discrepancy in students’ test scores stems for the lack of opportunities they have,” she said. “Whether a student experienced poverty versus someone who is not or whether a family faces a job disruption from the pandemic or being shuffled being shuffled among families because a lack of daycare while parents work.
“The opportunities for students in the suburbs were completely different than the opportunities for students in the city, and more of the students in the city are Black, so that hits them harder; it hits them differently.
“My word is ‘action.’ I have had enough looking at the data, but we have to do something about that data,” she said. “Wisconsin has had a black-white discrepancy on testing for such a long time; it’s time we do something about it.”
(Emphasis added.)
The gaps between the same racial groups in different states are so varying from each other that these gaps can only be environmental and not natural. Wisconsin is simply failing some racial groups in a way that other states are not, and in a way that Wisconsin need not and should not fail anyone.
The racial gap in test scores between Wisconsin and other states is a consequence of our own policy failures. Its persistence is a consequence of our own indifference and indolence.
Monday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 78. Sunrise is 7:20 AM and sunset 5:57 PM for 10h 37m 29s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 0.9% of its visible disk illuminated.
Updated:Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM, Downtown Whitewater’s Board of Directors meets at 6 PM, and Whitewater’s School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM, and resumes open session at 7 PM.
On this day in 2003, Concorde makes its last commercial flight.
A dog walker in Massachusetts endured a close scrape with a pack of coyotes over the weekend, according to police.
A resident of Swampscott, a seaside town up the coast from Boston, was walking a dog on a suburban side street on the evening of Oct. 15 when confronted by the canines, according to a news release from the Swampscott Police Department.
The dog walker called police at 9:30 pm, saying a pack of coyotes had encircled them, adding that the animals were “not backing down,” the release says.
Upon arrival, police saw “at least nine coyotes.” The animals then withdrew from the area, potentially frightened by the police vehicles and their flashing lights, according to the release.
Afterward, the police escorted the dog walker back to their home.
There’s no reason that Whitewater has to wind up like Swampscott, Massachusetts, a town about the size of Whitewater that has now become a coyote-infested hellscape.
Sunday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 7:18 AM and sunset 5:59 PM for 10h 40m 11s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 4.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2001, Apple Computer releases the iPod.
DES MOINES, Iowa —The Iowa Department of Natural Resources now says the “possible mountain lion” in Des Moines was really someone’s house cat.
Des Moines Police posted on Facebook Thursday, saying the sighting was reported in the Gray’s Woods neighborhood on the city’s east side. The DNR confirmed the video showed a mountain lion, but since corrected their statement.
When DNR experts first saw the video, they believed there was enough possibility that it was a mountain lion, they wanted to warn the public. Upon further inspection, the DNR revised their previous statement, saying it is in fact a house cat.
“Initially, we did think it may be a mountain lion, at least enough so that it would be good to notify the public,” said Vince Evelsizer, Furbearer and Wetland Biologist of the Iowa DNR.
Evelsizer says the video was grainy and small, so it was hard to tell. On behalf of the DNR, Evelsizer apologized for any confusion it may have caused.
Saturday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 77. Sunrise is 7:17 AM and sunset 6:00 PM for 10h 42m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 9.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
Today at 8 AM, the Whitewater Common Council meets in closed session to conduct interviews of city manager candidates.
On this day in 1979, a bright flash, resembling the detonation of a nuclear weapon, is observed near the Prince Edward Islands. Its cause is never determined.
Overall enrollment across Wisconsin colleges and universities fell around 3 percent this fall, according to preliminary data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. Researchers say national enrollment declines have slowed to pre-pandemic, but they were surprised by the lack of a rebound.
The “Stay Informed” report from the Clearinghouse found fall enrollment across all public and private colleges in Wisconsin as of Sept. 29 was down 3.1 percent from the same time last year. While still a negative, this year’s decline was less than the 4.1 percent drop in fall 2021.
Since 2020, college enrollment in the state has fallen by nearly 7.8 percent.
National Student Clearinghouse Research Center Executive Research Director Doug Shapiro said colleges in the Midwestern and Northeastern saw larger drops than the rest of the nation.
“That kind of suggests a return to pre-pandemic patterns of essentially demographic trends where we had been seeing some declines based on fewer high school graduates in the Midwest and the Northeast,” said Shapiro.
The former Chinese president Hu Jintao was unexpectedly ushered out of the 20th Communist party congress during its closing ceremony. He appeared to be held tightly by his arm and urged to leave as he attempted to speak to his successor, Xi Jinping.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 7:16 AM and sunset 6:02 PM for 10h 45m 38s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 16.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
There will be a public reception for city manager candidates at 5 PM.
On this date the Yerkes Observatory was dedicated. Founded by astronomer George Hale and located in Williams Bay, the Yerkes Observatory houses the world’s largest refracting optical telescope, with a lens of diameter 102 cm/40 inches. It was built through the largess of the tycoon Charles Tyson Yerkes, who rebuilt important parts of the Chicago transportation system after the fire. Situated in a 77-acre park on the shore of Lake Geneva, this observatory was the center for world astronomy in the early 20th century and invited a number of astronomers from around the world, including Japan, for scientific exchange.
Whitewater has a council-manager form of government, her city manager resigned in August, and the city is looking for a full-time, permanent city manager. (Whitewater now has an interim city manager, John Weidl, who is one of three finalists for the permanent position)
Public organizations typically publish a press release with finalists’s names, and schedule a community meeting for residents to meet the contending applicants. Whitewater has done both: the city sent out a press release, and has scheduled a community forum for Friday, 10.21.22 beginning at 5 PM in our council chambers.
Since that press release, Fort Atkinson Online has published an informative story with pertinent information about the candidates. See Whitewater: Finalists respond to news stories, petition alleging employment concerns. One can easily see the difference between journalism and something less (where all that’s published is a press release).
What to make of all this?
Better to know than not to know. Whitewater, with many needs among its 14,889 residents, can scarcely afford to be surprised. What the community resolves to its satisfaction now avoids controversies later.
This information about candidates’ professional work, their responses to other communities’ concerns about that work, along with our residents’ impressions during a community forum, are useful to the selection process. Residents will form their own judgments, and the Whitewater Common Council will (beginning as soon as this weekend) have a decision to make.
Tuesday, October 25th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of A Ghost Story@ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama/Fantasy/Romance
Rated R (language); 1 hour, 32 minutes (2017)
It’s almost Halloween, and spirts are in the air! In this unusual tale of love, loss, and legacy, a recently-deceased husband/father (Casey Affleck) returns to his suburban home… as a ghost, to observe his widow’s (Rooney Mara) life after his death. A pensive, thoughtful, haunting film.
A trio of adorable and rare baby fossa pups made their first public appearance at the Chester Zoo.
Born on July 9, the triplets, now 12 weeks old, were spotted on Friday after spending weeks hiding away in their den with their mother, Shala.
The cat-like animals, distant relatives of the mongoose, can only be found in the forests of Madagascar in the wild. The creatures are also rare at the U.K. zoo. The triplets are the first fossas born at the Chester Zoo in the English facility’s 91-year history. The newborns include a male and two females who have yet to be named.
