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City, Daily Bread, Government Spending, Legislature, Local Government, State Government, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.12.23: Shared Revenue Changes Advance

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with intermittent thunderstorms and a high of 73. Sunrise is 5:34 AM and sunset 8:08 PM for 14h 33m 39s of daytime. The moon is in its third quarter with 49.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1949, the Soviet Union lifts its blockade of Berlin.

Shawn Johnson reports Negotiations continue at Wisconsin Capitol over local government funding plan (‘Republicans say the full Assembly will pass a bill next week that would revamp the state’s shared revenue program’):

Under the GOP bill, every community would see at least a 10 percent increase in state funding, but larger cities like Green Bay and Racine receive millions less than they would under the governor’s plan. Some small towns would see increases of several hundred percent, though the total dollars they’d receive would be relatively modest.

“I’m not hearing anything about a big change in the formula,” Novak said of the ongoing negotiations. “But that may change.”

The Republican bill also attaches far more strings for local governments to receive the money. They include:

Whitewater’s concerns, however, exceed what this shared revenue plan, or any other, would meet. We’ll need a different approach to address those needs. See What Ails, What Heals, Waiting for Whitewater’s Dorothy Day, Something Transcendent, and in the Meantime, An Oasis Strategy, and The Community Space. 

This is how a conservationist restores a centuries-old painting:

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City, Film

Film: Wednesday, May 17th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, All Quiet on the Western Front

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Wednesday, May 17th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of All Quiet on the Western Front @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Action/Drama/War

Rated R (war violence); 2 hours, 28 minutes (2022)

A German retelling of the classic story of a young German soldier’s terrifying experiences and distress on the Western Front during World War 1. Academy Award winner: Best International Film, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Production Design. This film will be shown with the original German dialogue and English subtitles.

One can find more information about All Quiet on the Western Front at the Internet Movie Database.

Cats, Science/Nature

Friday Catblogging: The Best Way of Getting a Cat’s Attention

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Rachael Funnell writes This Is The Best Way to Get A Cat’s Attention According to Science:

With the help of 18 domestic cats (8 females, 10 males) with a job history of at least three years in a cat café, experimenters tried four different approaches to getting a cat’s attention: using visual cues, using vocal cues, using both, or using neither (as the control).

This was far from the team’s first rodeo in exploring cat behavior around humans, which meant they approached the experiment with some idea as to what might happen.

“Knowing that cats have developed specific vocalizations for interacting with humans, we hypothesized that they would be keener to approach a human engaging in vocal communication compared to visual communication,” they explained. However, cats aren’t famous for their cooperation.

The results of the different experimental conditions revealed that actually, cats interacted significantly faster in response to visual and bimodal (both visual and vocal) communication compared to vocal cues alone. Interestingly it also showed that failing to acknowledge a cat completely may stress them out, as the most tail wagging was observed in the control condition where the experimenter ignored the cat.

It seems that if you want to catch the attention of a cat on the street, you’ve really got to go for it.

“Taken together, our results suggest that cats display a marked preference for both visual and bimodal cues addressed by non-familiar humans compared to vocal cues only,” concluded the authors. “Our findings offer further evidence for the emergence of human-compatible socio-cognitive skills in cats that favour their adaptation to a human-driven niche.”

The study is published in the journal Animals.

Conservative Populism, Daily Bread, Never Trump, Populists, Presidential Race 2024, Trump, Trumpism

Daily Bread for 5.11.23: ‘You Can — and You Will’

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Good morning.

Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 79. Sunrise is 5:35 AM and sunset 8:06 PM for 14h 31m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 63% of its visible disk illuminated.

The Whitewater Aquatic and Fitness Center Subcommittee meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1997, Deep Blue, a chess-playing supercomputer, defeats Garry Kasparov in the last game of the rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player in a classic match format.

And so, and so, the CNN town hall with Trump went as we of Never Trump expected it would: the spectacle of a lying autocrat and his braying supporters. It’s worth watching in full, every word, every gesture, every audience response.  

Trump is predictable and so are his extreme supporters. Not a word Trump uttered, not a claim he made, was one he had not made many times before. 

As it turns out, this means that a reasonable person can accurately predict Trump’s fate:

Oh yes — so very many of us can — and we will.

Safer skies: Romania’s fourth Patriot missile air defense battery goes into service:

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Daily Bread, Sen. Baldwin, US Senate Race 2024, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.10.23: Closer to Unbeatable

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Good morning.

Wednesday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 75. Sunrise is 5:36 AM and sunset 8:05 PM for 14h 29m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 73.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater will hold a Role of Government training at 4:30 PM, the Public Works Committee meets at 6 PM, and the Police & Fire Commission meets at 7 PM. The Whitewater School Board goes into closed session shortly after 6 PM, to resume open session at 7 PM. 

On this day in 1869, the first transcontinental railroad, linking the eastern and western United States, is completed at Promontory Summit, Utah Territory with the golden spike.

Of Tammy Baldwin, Bruce Murphy asks Is Baldwin Vulnerable? Or Unbeatable? The question arises (only) because some national pundits have Baldwin on a list of vulnerable U.S. Senators: 

According to The Hill, the Capitol insider publication, Wisconsin’s U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin is “one of the eight most vulnerable Senate Democrats in 2024.”

Wisconsin, the publication warned, “remains a crucial battleground state with a propensity to swing wildly from one election to another.” I guess we’re a little wacky here in Wiscoland.

CNN rated the seat number six on its list of the 10 senate seats “most likely to flip,” cautioning the competitiveness of Wisconsin “shouldn’t be underestimated.”

Murphy correctly notes that, by contrast, those with a better grasp of Wisconsin politics (rather than list-makers looking to fill out a card) recognize that Baldwin is in a strong position:

Baldwin [is] currently looking a good deal less vulnerable than some of those rankings suggest. “It was telling that [Senate Minority Leader] Mitch McConnell recently mentioned four Senate races he is focused on,” [pollster Charles] Franklin noted, “and did not include Wisconsin on the list.”

Murphy’s own assessment is good — Mike Gallagher would be a stronger opponent for Baldwin but he likely won’t run; Tom Tiffany will be a much easier opponent for Baldwin and he likely will run.

(Tiffany, slathered in insurrection, would be a worse version of Leah Vukmir. It would be as though central casting sent over the nuttiest, dog-crap-quality opponent they could find to run statewide against Baldwin. Someone should check if Baldwin has a relative in the WISGOP who’s pushing Tiffany as a choice.) 

In a post from two weeks ago, this libertarian blogger assessed Baldwin as the prohibitive favorite. See Baldwin as the Prohibitive Favorite. 

She is now, and will be in 2024.  

Buddy Holly is Best in Show Winner at Westminster:

Conservative Populism, Culture, Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.9.23: What if Contention is Emotional Rather than Analytical?

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Good morning.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:37 AM and sunset 8:04 PM for 14h 27m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 82.3% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1662, the figure who later became Mr. Punch makes his first recorded appearance in England. (These centuries later, he’s still irritating.) 

Consider the following observation from Dr. Laura Robinson about what happens when someone’s contention — someone’s argumentation — goes bad:

If you can’t follow the logic of an argument without getting somewhere catastrophic, and need to head off the catastrophe at the pass by saying “please don’t follow the logic of this argument” – isn’t it a bad argument? 

Quite right: that would be a bad argument.

(Robinson’s observation, by the way, appears in her series critiquing the view of sexuality presented in Joshua Ryan Butler’s Beautiful Union. Robinson’s six-part, fifteen-thousand-word critique is formidable, with range from exegesis to anatomy.)

In Robinson’s field, academic theology, bad arguments are, understandably, to be avoided. 

There is, however, no avoiding bad arguments in the field of social media. Many arguments are offered not because they lead someplace reasonable but because they lead someplace satisfying for the offeror. That satisfaction need not be benign, but is often malevolent. Adam Serwer’s Cruelty is the Point captures the impulse of conservative populism toward inflicting injury as a primary goal (and, fundamentally, all populism demonizes this way). See Defining Populism, Populism Doesn’t Apologize, and Extreme Populism Presents as Trolling.

For so many of the local men who talk about ‘common sense,’ Hobbes was spot-on, that reason is a spy for the passions (“the Thoughts, are to the Desires, as Scouts, and Spies, to range abroad, and find the way to the things Desired”).

I’ll not say that Robinson’s environment is easier, of course. One could look at this and see that Hobbes would be nearly as correct about Robinson’s environment as any other. How much of the book that Robinson critiques is simply what the book’s author wants to believe? It is, however, a book, and an argument contained within. 

For arguments offered in our local scene, there’s an impatient conflation, a mad rush, from claim to desire.

Stunning Timelapse of Full ‘Flower Moon’ Captured in Australia: 

Courts, Daily Bread, Ethics, Federal Government

Daily Bread for 5.8.23: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Ethics Crisis

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Good morning.

Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 57. Sunrise is 5:38 AM and sunset 8:03 PM for 14h 24m 44s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 90.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission meets at 6 PM, and the city’s Alcohol Licensing Committee meets at 7:30 PM.

On this day in 1912, Paramount Pictures is founded. 

From The Daily, The Supreme Court’s Ethical Crisis:

Harbor Seal Enjoys Relaxing Manicure at Saint Louis Zoo:

Adventure, Cycling, Daily Bread, Wisconsin

Daily Bread for 5.7.23: Rail Trails

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Good morning.

Sunday in Whitewater will see intermittent clouds with a high of 81. Sunrise is 5:40 AM and sunset 8:02 PM for 14h 22m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 95.91% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1920, in the Treaty of Moscow, Soviet Russia recognizes the independence of the Democratic Republic of Georgia only to invade the country six months later.

  Emilie Burditt writes Wisconsin’s rail trails: Connecting communities with the outdoors (‘A brief history of Wisconsin’s railroads and trails built on old railroad paths’): 

“(Rail trails) make the perfect base for a walking and biking trail,” said Eric Oberg, the Midwest Regional Director of the national nonprofit Rails to Trail.

Wisconsin has more than 100 of these trails, and the very first rail trail in the United States was created in Wisconsin. The beginning of a collection of rail trails that now span almost 2,000 miles across Wisconsin began with the Elroy-Sparta State Trail, which is considered the first rail trail.

….

But it wasn’t the easiest railroad to convert. Oberg said the tunnels in the Elroy-Sparta trail were hard to work with during construction, even if they are half the fun. He said despite the challenges the trail’s bridges and tunnels created, they’re an unbelievable and beautiful part of what he says may be the best rail trail. 

After the Elroy-Sparta trail was created in 1965, the idea to get people outside using such a system really stuck.

In fact, that’s what [reader Phil] Kaznowski was doing when he reached out to WHYsconsin. A few months after moving to Wisconsin, he began to really enjoy his outside adventures biking on the rail trails, and he couldn’t help but want to know more.

On the trails, he sees people of all ages walking, biking and running, and he sees people using wheelchairs. The often wider paths make it, so families can walk together alongside bicyclists.

And that’s the whole point, Oberg said: Rail trails are meant to conserve history, nature and bring people closer to the outdoors and their community.

“Every facet of your community is out using that trail,” Oberg said. “And unlike in your car when you pass people, if you pass people on a trail, it is a personal experience. At the very least you smile at each other. More often than not you say, ‘Hello,’ maybe you stopped to have a conversation. It’s the place where community happens now.”

Biking the Elroy-Sparta Trail:

Daily Bread, Faraway Places, Film, Nature

Daily Bread for 5.6.23: Entre Ciel et Terre

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Good morning.

Saturday in Whitewater will see afternoon thunderstorms with a high of 70. Sunrise is 5:41 AM and sunset 8:01 PM for 14h 20m 04s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 99.1% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1915, actor and filmmaker Orson Welles is born:

On this date,  George Orson Welles was born in Kenosha. The name George was soon dropped. The family moved to Chicago in 1919, and two years later, Welles’ parents separated. After his mother’s death in 1924, he travelled the world with his father, only to lose him in 1928.

Welles turned down the chance at college in 1931, choosing instead to go on a sketching trip to Ireland. In 1934, Welles made his New York debut, playing Tybalt in Katherine Cornell’s staging of Romeo and Juliet. In the mid 1930s, he established himself as a radio actor on The March of Time and The Shadow, among other shows. He began working with John Houseman and together they formed the Mercury Theatre in 1937. Their program, The Mercury Theatre on Air, became famous for the notorious events surrounding their version of The War of the Worlds in 1938, in which they provoked mass panic among listeners.

A renowned actor, writer, producer, and director, Welles is known best for his roles in such films as Citizen Kane (1941), Jane Eyre (1944), MacBeth (1948), Moby Dick (1956), A Man for all Seasons (1966), and Catch 22 (1970). Welles was awarded an Honorary Oscar in 1971 and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Film Institute in 1975. 

Entre Ciel et Terre:

There are only a few regions in the world where the skies meet the Earth with almost no distinction between the two. La Palma in the Canary islands is one of them. ‘Entre Ciel et Terre’ literally means ‘Between the sky and Earth’ and was a perfect fit here. While most of the volcanic island is isolated under a thick layer of clouds, the tip of its crater often punches through it and allows you to be one step closer to the Heavens.

At an altitude of about 2300 meters above sea level you feel so far removed from any kind of civilization especially because of the cloud inversion. The air is thin and pristine and the living conditions are harsh but that’s the reason why the ORM (Observatory Roque de Los Muchachos) — operated by the IAC (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) and part of the European Northern Observatory, was built up there.

The summit of La Palma’s caldera benefits from dry and clear skies almost year round with almost no light pollution to disturb it, and only rare Calima (this dusty wind coming from the Sahara desert). 

How big are supermassive black holes? NASA size comparison:

Daily Bread, Economy, Employment

Daily Bread for 5.5.23: National Labor Market Adds 253,000 Jobs in April

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Good morning.

Friday in Whitewater will see intermittent clouds with a high of 74. Sunrise is 5:42 AM and sunset 8:00 PM for 14h 17m 42s of daytime. The moon is full with 99.92% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1862, troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halt a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla in Mexico.

Lauren Kaori Gurley reports U.S. economy added 253,000 jobs in April, powering economy through turmoil (‘The unemployment rate dropped to 3.4 percent last month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday’):

Employers created 253,000 jobs in April, keeping the U.S. economy afloat amid a banking crisis, rising interest rates, the prospect of devastating U.S. government default and a spike in layoffs.

The unemployment ratedropped to 3.4 percent last month, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report released Friday, matching a low from May 1969.

The April jobs report, which beat economists’ forecast yet again, showed the 28th straight month of solid job growth. The remarkable strength of the pandemic recovery labor market, despite some softening, is buoying the U.S. economy through enormous uncertainty. Jobless benefit claims have been slowly inching up but still show no signs of an economic downturn.

“You’re really not seeing any indicators in the labor market that a recession is on the horizon,” said Kathryn Edwards, a labor economist at the Rand Corporation. “All of the forecasts of a recession are coming from outside the labor market.”

Impressive, especially under ambient uncertainty. 

Britain’s Unknown Royals: The Pearly Kings and Queens: 

City, Film

Film: Tuesday, May 9th, 1:00 PM @ Seniors in the Park, 80 for Brady

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Tuesday, May 9th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of 80 for Brady @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:

Comedy/Drama/Sports

Rated PG-13; 1 hour, 38 minutes (2023)

A group of friends make it their life-long mission to go to the Super Bowl and meet NFL quarterback Tom Brady. Fun and adventures ensue! Starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field, Rita Moreno, Guy Fieri, and Tom Brady!

One can find more information about 80 for Brady at the Internet Movie Database.

Cats

Friday Catblogging: Can Cats Smile?

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Claire Milroy asks Can cats smile? Yes, but not in the way you’d expect. Here’s what they’re trying to tell you:

Cats do smile, but not in the way that humans do – while we bare a grin to show our happiness, cats smile with their teeth, says Marci Koski, a feline behavior and training consultant. Cats smile by narrowing their eyes, shutting them partly or completely. Their pupils may also be dilated while doing this.

Humans by nature are more expressive, using the muscles in our faces to express happiness, disgust, anger, excitement and other emotions.

“Cats don’t have that range of facial expressions,” Koski says. “They evolved in an area or areas that were relatively resource-limited, so their territories were very large and close-up interactions between cats were fairly limited.”

Instead, cats use exaggerated body movements or expressions to show similar emotions. This could be hissing, growling, putting their ears back or to the side, puffing up their bodies or twitching their tails.

Smiling with their eyes is a more subtle expression, but it’s one they do with their humans and other cats alike. Two of Koski’s cats, who are mother and son, show this behavior – the son, Oliver, will only approach his mom to snuggle when she appears relaxed, with her eyes nearly closed.

 

Cats, City, Daily Bread, School District

Daily Bread for 5.4.23: The Pool

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Good morning.

May the 4th be with you in Whitewater on a mostly sunny day with a high of 71. Sunrise is 5:43 AM and sunset 7:59 PM for 14h 15m 18s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 98.2% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets at 6 PM. 

On this day in 1626, Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island) aboard the See Meeuw.

Small-town Whitewater has an indoor lap pool, leisure pool, and fitness center. The Whitewater Aquatic Center, attached to Whitewater High School, is more spacious with more elaborate facilities than nearby towns’ pools. In the past, both the City of Whitewater and the Whitewater Unified School District contributed to the costs of maintaining the pools, but their last agreement lapsed in ’21.

Concerned over ongoing funding for the facility, a community group formed a Save the Pool Committee. The group concerned over the pool formed some months ago, and there have now been ongoing discussions between the city and the school district about the upkeep of the facility since then. See from the local press ‘Save the Pool’: community members assemble regarding Aquatic Center negotiations and Aquatic center subcommittee considers $5 million in improvements; non-binding referendum.

Well, what to make of all this?

First, it’s a good-looking facility, and a source of community pride for members.

Second, the pool is in no danger of closing today, tomorrow, or the next day. There’s time for the public bodies arguing over funding to come to terms.

Third, while long-term costs between the parties are in dispute, there’s no claim that the Whitewater Aquatic Center needs $5,000,000 now or perhaps ever for repairs & maintenance. 

Fourth, consider how odd this dispute is: Whitewater is a small town, and the City of Whitewater and the Whitewater Unified School District are the same communities. A dispute between these parties is not an arm’s length controversy between a buyer in Oregon and a seller in Arizona. On the contrary, the city is the heart and largest part of the district. A controversy like this is something like a dispute among siblings. Conflict here is internecine conflict. Different institutions may have different goals, but the officials of these institutions are, in fact, all neighbors in the same small area. (The idea of litigation between these parties over the pool is, needless to say, a bridge too far.)

Fifth, while the pool matters greatly to some, neither of these public institutions exists to be providing — or arguing over — a pool. The district and the city have more fundamental tasks before them (respectively, education and public safety). This suggests that ending this dispute with the least ongoing time, effort, and cost is the best course. (Closing the pool is what no one wants, and would only increase community time lost to an aggravated controversy.)   

The rational course is a settlement that assures ongoing operation at minimal cost while further discussions on medium and long-term solutions are crafted. A reduction in political temperature — down to, let’s say, negative 30 Fahrenheit —  would serve this community well.

Let’s assume, however regrettably, that Whitewater’s city and district officials do not lower the temperature of this dispute. Well, if they can’t solve this matter, there’s reason to doubt their ability to solve any matter. Honest to goodness. 

The best use of a pool is, of course, as a pool. If that cannot be worked out, however, then time and tide will wait for no public official. At that unfortunate moment, someone will have to come along with another use for the facility.  

While the best use of the pool is as a pool, it should be obvious that the best alternative use of the space would be — without any doubt — as a Kitten Aquatic Sanctuary.

So, someone should send a message to the Whitewater city manager, Whitewater Common Council, Whitewater superintendent, and the Whitewater School Board: if funding for the pool cannot be sorted out dispassionately, then someone (perhaps a libertarian blogger, let’s say) is gonna start a kitten-water-therapy campaign for the space now used as a pool for people.   

Any reasonable person — anyone sober and of sound mind — should grasp immediately that this alternative would be destined for success. 

The community, however, surely prefers the first use of a pool to an (admittedly) enticing alternative. And so, and so: public officials should come to an economical, short-term deal so that they may concentrate on their fundamental tasks. 

Getting to Zero Emissions in the Steel Industry: