Treatment courts, whether for drunk driving or drug abuse, have been successful in jurisdictions across the country. Counties from coast to coast – red or blue – have seen positive outcomes from judicially-overseen treatment programs. Despite this, there’s been opposition to a drug treatment court in rural Walworth County, sadly beset by addictions of various…
Health
Health, Trump, Unfit
Trump’s Apparent Cognitive Deficits
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
The fundamental – and dispositive – objections to Trump are political, legal, ethical, and moral. Collectively, those objections are overwhelming. There are, however, practical concerns, also: he’s apparently, evidently deficient, as psychologist John Gartner writes: In Alzheimer’s, as language skills deteriorate, we see two types of tell-tale speech disorders, or paraphasias: Semantic paraphasia involves choosing the…
Health, Social Media, Weird Tales
Dangers Imagined and Real
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Taylor Lorenz writes of unjustified worries about the ‘Momo Challenge’ in Momo Is Not Trying to Kill Children (‘Like eating Tide Pods and snorting condoms, the Momo challenge is a viral hoax’). Lorenz has made a career of observing and reporting on social media trends, and reassures that On Tuesday afternoon, a Twitter user going…
Health, Walworth County, Wisconsin
Walworth County Average or Below Average in Health of Residents, Influences Contributing to Health
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Most of Whitewater sits within Walworth County, a county that ranks in Wisconsin’s bottom half for the overall health of its residents (‘ length and quality of people’s lives’) and average for the influences on health (‘individual health behaviors, social and economic conditions, access to healthcare and the quality of the physical environment’). Malia Jones of WisContext asks Which Counties Rank Best For Health? Here’s how Walworth County ranks:
(Jefferson County, in which a smaller part of Whitewater is situated, ranks far better, at 12 of 72 for health outcomes and 14 of 72 for health factors.)
China, Economics, Economy, Foreign Affairs, Health, Lifestyle, Trade, Trump
A Metaphor for Trump’s Trade Policy
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Wisconsin businesses are bracing themselves for European Union retaliation against Trump’s trade tariffs (“Harley-Davidson motorcycles, dairy products, ginseng, cranberries and other Wisconsin goods are likely to feel the sting of retaliation from steep tariffs announced Thursday by the White House on foreign metals”). Meanwhile, there’s no better visual metaphor for the difference between Trump’s trade…
Culture, Health, School District
That’s Not What “Great Opportunity” Means
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Minor children shouldn’t be using any sort of drugs or medications without parental approval and medical guidance, legal or otherwise. And yet, in rural communities across America – and other places, too – use of drugs without sound medical guidance is a scourge for adults, and sometimes minors. The Whitewater Schools’ district administrator, Dr.…
Economics, Health
How an Economist Redesigned the Kidney Marketplace
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Environment, Health, Water, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Waukesha’s Water
by JOHN ADAMS •
Post 71 in a series. Waukesha is a large suburban city, of about seventy-thousand, in a prosperous suburban county, of about four-hundred thousand. By ordinary estimation, the residents of the city and county should have no difficulties with basic utilities and infrastructure. And yet, Waukesha has a water supply problem: Waukesha does not have an…
Food, Good Ideas, Health
Caffeinated Pastry’s Only a Matter of Time
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Embed from Getty Images Alternative title : Biophysicist-Inventor Possibly One of the Greatest Americans Ever. Thanks to a biophysicist, caffeinated muffins could be coming soon to a coffee shop near you — and they’ll also be loaded with antioxidants. Professor Daniel Perlman of Boston-area Brandeis University has invented a coffee flour milled from par-baked green…
Health
The Doctor Who Saved 100,000 Eyes
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Health, Music, Technology
The Cyborg Drummer
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
Business, City, Development, Economics, Economy, Health, Local Government, Planning, Politics, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Meetings & Motivations
by JOHN ADAMS • • 4 Comments
Post 11 in a series. This is series about a proposed digester energy project for Whitewater, one that would rely on importing other cities’ unwanted waste into Whitewater for processing. A series like this is only indirectly about general wastewater upgrades, at whatever price. It’s about waste importation, and officials’ claims that importation would be clean…
City, Government Spending, Health, Open Government, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
Whitewater’s Common Council Votes to Fund a Vendor Study
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Post 9 in a series. Whitewater’s Common Council Votes to Fund a Vendor Study from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the Council’s decision to pay Trane at least $70,000, and up to approximately $150,000, so that Trane could fund its own feasibility study of a digester energy project for Whitewater.…
Business, City, Government Spending, Health, Local Government, Marketing, Planning, WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN
First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater’s Common Council
by JOHN ADAMS • • 3 Comments
Post 8 in a series. First Vendor Presentation of 1.21.14 to Whitewater Common Council from John Adams on Vimeo. In this post, I’ll look at the first vendor presentation on the digester proposal to Whitewater’s Common Council. (Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All…