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Daily Bread for 7.31.24: July Is Not Ending As It Began

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 89. Sunrise is 5:45, and sunset is 8:15, for 14h 28m 46s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 15.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Lakes Advisory Committee meets at 4:30 PM.

On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette “be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States.”

Many Wisconsinites know the presidential candidate they support; from a candidate’s perspective, support only matters if it leads to a vote or a contribution. Will those supporters turn out? In deep-blue Dane County, it looks like blue support (never in doubt) will lead to blue voting. Thomas Beaumont reports Harris gives Democrats a jolt in a critical part of swing-state Wisconsin:

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — More than 40 people filed into a converted coffee shop on a recent Saturday morning in Madison, Wisconsin, to organize in a west-side neighborhood for Vice President Kamala Harris.

A month ago, fewer than 10 people showed up for a similar event for President Joe Biden. Some told organizers they were no longer willing to knock on doors in Wisconsin’s famously liberal state capital.

The excitement among loyal Democrats lit by Harris replacing Biden has enlivened the party’s base in Wisconsin, particularly in areas where the vice president must run up big margins to carry a swing state that Biden flipped from Republican Donald Trump.

“Kamala Harris is the defibrillator that the Democratic Party needed,” said John Anzalone, who was Biden’s chief campaign pollster in 2020.

Dane County, which includes Madison, is the fastest-growing county in the state, fueled by the combination of the University of Wisconsin and the state capital’s workforce.

A local version of this excitement will present itself among Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters in Whitewater.

July is not ending as it began.

Endangered zebra foal is born at Chicago-area zoo:

America, Daily Bread, Kamala Harris, Never Trump, Politics, Presidential Race 2024

Daily Bread for 7.22.24: America Is a Dynamic Place

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:37, and sunset is 8:25, for 14h 47m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 98.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Urban Forestry Commission meets at 4:30 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 5:45 PM, and returns to open session at 7 PM.

On this day in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act passes in the British House of Commons, initiating the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire.

America is a dynamic country, socially, economically, and politically. Yesterday was an excellent example of that evident truth.

Zach Beauchamp perceptively draws lessons from yesterday’s political developments:

It’s enough to make even the most jaded observer a little more optimistic about American democracy — for at least two big reasons.

First, it shows that there can still be standards in politics. 

American politics isn’t just made up of two parties, wholly owned by party elites, locked in a mortal and uncompromising struggle to the death. At least one of our parties is capable of policing its own: challenging an incumbent president and, ultimately, convincing him to step aside. The contrast with the GOP’s behavior after Trump’s many scandals — from the Access Hollywood tape to the January 6 Capitol riot — is unmistakable.

Second, Biden’s departure shows that unexpected things can still happen.


This is hard to prove, but I think so much of the polling showing public distrust in the American government is rooted in a sense that it’s stuck: that what’s happening right now isn’t working, and that no one is capable of doing anything surprising to right the ship. But a president abandoning a reelection campaign is nothing if not surprising. 
Politicians like Trump, in both the United States and elsewhere, thrive on the notion that the system is broken and nothing can be done to fix it. This is a problem not just because those specific politicians are dangerous, but because distrust rots democracy’s foundations.

Indeed.

This tiny solar-powered flyer weighs less than a paper plane:

Researchers have overcome efficiency and power issues to create what they believe to be the world’s lightest and smallest sunlight-powered rotorocraft.
Micro aerial vehicles or MAVs could have a host of applications from environmental monitoring to search and rescue. But currently, these tiny flying machines have a problem — endurance. MAVs that weigh less than 10 grams are normally limited to around 10 minutes of flying time.
To increase flying time, other types of propulsion have been tested, but these still require bulky power systems on the ground to take off, preventing any craft from freely flying.
One solution could be solar power. But until now no solar powered MAV has been capable of untethered sustained flight in natural sunlight.
So to solve this, researchers have developed CoulombFly, a solar-powered MAV propelled by a new extremely efficient electro-static motor and powered by incredibly light solar panels.