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Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 28, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

It’s the last day of school before a two-day break, and there will be any number of Halloween parties, parades throughout the district.

On this day in 1914, Dr. Jonas Salk was born. Here’s more about his accomplishments, from the New York Times:

As an intense 40-year-old scientist, Dr. Salk became a revered medical figure upon the announcement in 1955 that his new polio vaccine was safe and effective. It was a turning point in the fight against a disease that condemned some victims to live the rest of their lives in tanklike breathing machines called iron lungs and placed sunny swimming holes off limits to children because of parents’ fears of contagion.

The Salk vaccine changed medical history, preventing many thousands of cases of crippling illness and saving thousands of lives. In the United States, the vaccine soon ended the yearly threat of epidemics and the toll of paralysis and death.

In the five years before 1955, when mass inoculations with the vaccine began, cases of paralytic polio averaged about 25,000 a year in the United States. A few years after polio vaccination became routine, the annual number of cases dropped to a dozen or so, sometimes fewer. In 1969 not a single death from polio was reported in the nation, the first such year on record, and now the disease is on the verge of being eradicated worldwide.

Success against polio was a critical event in the dawning of the modern era of vaccine development, which has been marked by effective preventatives against a broad range of other infectious diseases, including influenza, measles, mumps and rubella.

Paralytic polio was known as early as the time of ancient Egypt. In America it was never as widespread a disease as influenza or measles. In the 1920’s, 30’s and 40’s, however, outbreaks of the disease came, increasingly, in frightening epidemics. Many children and young adults died, were crippled or paralyzed.

Some expected the decade of the 1950’s to be even worse, and in the epidemic of 1952, the worst on record, nearly 58,000 cases of polio were reported in the United States; more than 3,000 died of the disease.

The turning point in the battle against polio was probably the day, April 12, 1955, when Dr. Thomas Francis Jr. of the University of Michigan announced at a news conference in Ann Arbor the successful results of a field trial in which 440,000 American children had been injected with Dr. Salk’s new vaccine. The $7.5 million project was the climactic effort of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, which later changed its focus to birth defects and became the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:23 AM 05: 53 PM
Civil Twilight 06:54 AM 06:22 PM
Tomorrow 07:25 AM 05:51 PM
Tomorrow will be: 4 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 30 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 28 m
Moon phase: Waxing gibbous

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 27, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, Common Council meets tonight. This session, like the one before, will focus on the municipal budget.

On this day in 1787, the first of the Federalist papers was published, in a New York newspaper, in support of the proposed U.S. Constitution. The papers were published pseudonymously.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:22 AM 05: 54 PM
Civil Twilight 06:53 AM 06:23 PM
Tomorrow 07:23 AM 05:53 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 32 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 30 m
Moon phase: Waxing gibbous

City

The City Budget: First Pass

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It’s the season, across Wisconsin, for municipalities to present and approve their 2010 budgets. The process varies by city – some finish quickly, some extend the discussion from October into November.

We are among that latter group – although we are a small town, our municipal budget is a big matter, with considerable discussion.

Last week, the Whitewater Common Council began its review of Whitewater’s proposed budget.

The lengthy meeting was televised, and is available on Blip.tv:

http://blip.tv/file/2750574

The proposed draft of the Whitewater city budget, as presented to the common council, is available online:

http://www.ci.whitewater.wi.us/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1277

A few observations:

1. Necessary, but not sufficient. Whitewater won’t do without at least minimal services, notably for public safety, so we’ll not get by without a budget. Beyond that, I think we deceive ourselves about how much we must spend and do as a city, and how much it matters.

There’s a big feeling among a small few that the success of Whitewater depends on what city government spends and borrows. In this view, success depends on a series of taxpayer-financed public works projects, either to (1) get the city moving, so to speak, or (2) as an end in themselves.

I don’t believe either has, or will prove, useful or effective. Initiative to initiative, project after project, and still no appreciable change in our socio-economic condition.

We still have high poverty, a struggling working class, and a middle class neither as large nor secure as a more prosperous town might have. The city has not, and through its large public programs probably cannot, change that condition.

2. Impediments are easier. if we cannot spend enough publicly for gain, we can spend and regulate enough for loss. It takes far less to discourage private achievement than it does establish a successful public project (if it can be done at all).

One need only burden a community with a few regulations and restrictions – how many feet for this, how many steps for that – to convince entrepreneurs to go elsewhere.

We have done so very well in this regard – all the talk about being a center of opportunity runs up against the barriers to actual, private achievement.

City government should be smaller in both cost and scope. We spend too much, on grand projects, than we should. Small savings of thousands mean little compared with millions each year, and millions more in bonds, to fund grand projects.

Reducing the cost of government is only part of a solution – reducing the burdensome regulations on construction and operation of a business means just as much. Every tedious regulation on private business activity operates as a penalty against private creativity and community prosperity.

Want to build a better community? Stand out of the way of those who actually know how to build something. In the meantime, while others are building, see that our laws, are regulations, are clear, simple, and fairly enforced.

A project will always seem more exciting, but there is more gain in avoiding regulatory harm than in all the Innovation Centers we might ever have.

3. Trends matter. A leaner budget is surely better than a fat one, with so many unemployed and the number of jobless only increasing. Yet, a year does not a more attractive and inviting city make. It will take several years, and a retreat from the empty dream that Whitewater can grow though big public initiatives, before this will be an inviting community for ambitious newcomers.

(We often attract second-tier investments when we give away vast, favored incentives in construction and preferences to bring someone here. Either they were too weak to get going without municipal breaks, or they were strong enough, and bargained us against their need. The better policy would be a low cost of entry for all.)

One year will not erase our sad reputation as an overly regulated place, or a place where enforcement is spotty, or a place where attention to the next big thing leaves everyone else in the cold.

We jump from project to project, view to view, too easily. Yesterday’s task force might as well have been last century’s task force, so rapidly are initiatives discarded.

We should stick with one policy, and make it a trend. Less government, at less cost, is our path to prosperity.

4. Deliberations and Notice.. Readers have probably seen coverage of the October 20th council meeting highlighting the lack of notice that council gave about a smaller increase – or no increase – in the levy than the proposed budget.

I’m not sure what to make of this concern, as part of the legislative, deliberative process involves uncovering and considering alternatives based on a public discussion. Some ideas are likely to develop only at the first – of a series – of public, council meetings on the budget.

It’s hardly odd that ideas might develop at a council session. In that environment – an open, public setting – one finds perhaps the best, fairest, most open forum for considering a budget.

The contention that all of this should have been decided earlier is unpersuasive. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 26, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, the Community Development Authority meets at 4:30 p.m.

This day in history, in 1881, is the anniversary of the gunfight at the OK Corral.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Monday, October 26, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:21 AM 05:55 PM
Civil Twilight 06:52 AM 06:24 PM
Tomorrow 07:22 AM 05:54 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 34 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 32 m
Moon phase: Waxing gibbous

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 22, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, there are no scheduled, municipal public meetings.

At Lakeview School, the pennies for patients drive continues today, and there is a fifth grade band concert at 2 PM and again at 7 PM. There is also a fifth grade band concert at Washington School today, also at 2 PM and again at 7 PM. It’s market day this afternoon at the high school.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Thursday, October 22, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:16 AM 06:01 PM
Civil Twilight 06:47 AM 06:30 PM
Tomorrow 07:17 AM 06:00 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 45 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 43 m
Moon phase: Waxing crescent

City, Innovation Center/Tech Park, Planning

The Next Big Thing

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You may be sure that these days are scarcely ordinary – we are on the cusp of the extraordinary, the exceptional, and innovative.

Nearly a month ago, Whitewater broke ground on a taxpayer-funded tech park, along a street renamed Innovation Drive, beside our existing business park.

There was a brief ceremony, filmed for those who could not attend. I have embedded the video below, along with the website link where the video may be found:

http://www.blip.tv/file/2688983

You may have already seen the video. Some of these speakers address the group in such grandiose terms that one would think they were describing the work of Edison, Goddard, or Salk.

I’ve been asked, over the last few months, what I think of our latest, next big thing. I’ve written about it before, but along cultural lines: a truly large and thriving tech park would change the town, and would transform much of the existing culture.

Yet, a park like that would employ thousands, on the scale of the university. There’s no dependable expectation that this tech park will ever be so large. A federal grant (taxpayer money, federal deficit spending) and local public debt will pay for much of this project. Someone will cobble the rest together, and a building or two will be built.

Now, I drove to the groundbreaking, but sadly didn’t make it in time. I arrived to find only a large tent, and some chairs, as one sees in the video of the groundbreaking. It was an overcast day, with no one nearby.

I got out of my car, looked around, and walked up and down the road. It’s an empty field to one side, toward Bluff Road, of which an artist’s illustrations depict the completed Innovation Center.

But it’s in the other direction that one sees the future most clearly. Look in the opposite direction, and one sees our existing business park, with dozens of businesses.

The existing business park is far larger than our tech park will likely ever be. If we are, as some grandly claim, just a few buildings away from utopia, then what was everything before? (Likewise, what of an entire university now?)

We’re like a struggling musical group, waiting on this project to deliver us, the way overly optimistic band members are sure, absolutely sure, that a major record label will call, and they’ll have their big break.

Three, four, or five buildings built on grants of taxes and bonds will not be enough. We’ll spend so much, and our fellow Americans will spend so much (in grants to us) that there’ll be scant net gain for this project.

There will be a short-term gain of one kind, though: so much crowing about how the project has transformed the town.

The claims are so outsized that they are hard to justify. There’s an underlying arrogance to it all, in the place of hard but quiet work. There’s a difference between being proud and indulgence in pride.

We’ll have change, but of the kind that will fade and be forgotten, in the search, a few years from now, for the next, next big thing. more >>

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 21, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, the Whitewater University Tech Park Board meets at 1 PM.

At Lakeview School, the pennies for patients drive continues today.

On this day in American history, in 1879, Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb:

Here the inventor gave a practical illustration of his invention. He was standing just under an ordinary gas chandelier in which two of his lamps were burning. He took one of the lamps out, and it appeared simply as a glass globe. He placed it back in the burner, and immediately a brilliant horse-shoe of golden light illuminated the globe. Mr. Edison then, by turning a screw in the lamp, brought the light down to a spark, turned it off completely, as gas can be turned off, and turned it on again to a brilliant incandescence by a twist of his fingers. He certainly demonstrated that in his own laboratory at Menlo Park, the electric light is as obedient to his will as the gas light is to the general public. The light from each lamp is of about the power of an ordinary gas-jet, but Mr. Edison claims that by increasing the electricity, he can raise the power to 15 gas-jets.

Eighty-four lights are burning night and day in the laboratory, and they are all supplied with electricity by an 80-horse-power engine, which is stationed in the basement of one of the buildings. This engine, in addition to feeding these lamps, furnishes the motive power for all the machines in the laboratory, and at night feeds the electric lights which have already been erected in Menlo Park, in anticipation of the proposed grand illumination. The wires which are to convey the electricity to the lamps for the grand display are to be above ground, so that all spectators can see and investigate them. They will lead directly from the lamps to the generator in the laboratory, and any person can trace them from point to point.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:15 AM 06:03 PM
Civil Twilight 06:46 AM 06:32 PM
Tomorrow 07:16 AM 06:01 PM
Tomorrow will be: 3 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 48 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 46 m
Moon phase: Waxing crescent

City

Attitude, Behavior, Programs

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There’s more than one way to change an organization. I’ve thought, over the years, that there were two principal ways: begin by shaping the attitude of employees, or by shaping their behavior. (I see that it’s possible to begin with both, but my point would be that one typically begins by emphasizing one over the other.)

Change the feelings and attitudes of associates and one hopes to change consequently their behavior, to the betterment of an organization and its patrons.

Change the behavior of associates, and one hopes that these new behaviors will lead to a new attitude toward the organization, from associates and clients.

Each of these methods are meant to lead to the same place – a better organization.

Looking at the current municipal administration, under city manager Kevin Brunner, there was an early effort to shape attitude, within the administration, but quickly set aside. Early use of slogans, like a saying from hamburger magnate Ray Kroc, constituted part of this effort.

(I think I have the origin of the saying right; I’m not certain, as I have never read the collected works of that hamburger king.)

It didn’t last, likely for inability to overcome entrenched resistance from long-standing employees and their friends in town. It’s natural to meet resistance, but it must be overcome in ways other than complaining, whining, or getting upset.

Those who won’t change after thorough discussion need to be disciplined or removed.

That hasn’t happened in this administration, for a few reasons. First, leadership knows less than it thinks it knows, so associates come to see contradictions and inconsistencies. Some of these emperors are under-dressed.

Second, leadership in the city is often thin-skinned, and associates quickly see the weakness in that hyper-sensitivity. The minute someone seems concerned about his public image, he’s easy prey for backbiting employees.

Third, when one people realize that there are no consequences for obstruction, or that enforcement against obstruction will be administered haphazardly, there will only be more obstruction.

Paper tigers catch no prey.

Yet, beyond all the internal fuss and drama, there’s a city to manage. It’s a troubled city with poverty, unemployment, and competitive challenges from other communities.

If changing the attitudes and behaviors of our municipal staff has proved far beyond our municipal leadership, then what is to be done?

There’s a third option, one that’s unsound, but that has been the path of our current city manager and his predecessor. The city commits to a never-ending series of public works projects, to gain support from a few hundred people, and to convince countless more, that all is well.

After all, the city’s on the move, and it must be doing well, or we wouldn’t have a new roundabout, park shelter, lake front area, etc.

The harder work of governance, based on sound principles, diligently defended, is set aside for an ever-growing Potemkin village.

I’m being unfair – it’s not that these projects have no value to the lives of thousands, it’s that they have negligible value.

They do, however, make great photographs.

All the while, as the city spends taxpayer money and issues bonds as debt, it over-regulates and holds back the productive, private initiative that needs no municipal guidance.

We find ourselves with a few new projects that are merely valentines from a taxpayer-funded administration to itself, without change in poverty, or permanent improvement in employment.

These projects are also a huge burden on city government, for negligible or no gain to the community. The administration finds itself acting as a magician, looking for the next, supposedly amazing feat, to captivate a small circle of town squires and cheerleaders.

There are only so many plates one can keep spinning, before the spectacle loses interest, and the china crashes in any event.

In this regard, our current municipal administration is no different from the one before – the hard work of day-to-day governance has been replaced with project-building, dumb show, and incredible pronouncements about each supposed accomplishment.

City, Poverty

Poverty in Whitewater

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Before the budget, before the municipal administration, politicians, bureaucrats, and back-patters, is a city of fourteen-thousand. Most of these fourteen-thousand have, sensibly, more important concerns than the latest, supposedly extraordinary and exceptional (excuse me, exceptional! bureaucratic achievement.

Little over a month ago, there was a rare mention, for Whitewater, of (child) poverty. Our poverty rate is high, but it’s traditionally been impolitic to discuss as much. We live in a city where about one in four children live in poverty and distress.

I am convinced, absolutely convinced, that the way out for Whitewater is an abandonment of over-bearing regulation, fussy management, manipulative and coercive partnerships with a mediocre municipal administration, and instead through the chance to make Whitewater a center of opportunity, in reality, and not merely in rhetoric.

Our comparative and attractive advantage should rest with how little we interfere with productive, and private, initiatives. No grant, no public borrowing, no taxes, will ever be as useful as the energies of productive, private citizens to build, grow, donate, and enrich.

Even those who’d advocate another alternative must see that incremental, marquee projects have made no difference to the fundamental condition of thousands in Whitewater. These projects, at taxpayer expense and though public borrowing, are mere ornaments to bureaucratic pride. They’re screens, curtains, and diversions from the real condition of thousands in the city.

We live in this small city, and go about political discussions within it, as though we were something we’re not, so eager are we to herald every supposed project as proof that we lead the state, nation, whatever.

We’ll not improve this way; those who trumpet these supposed bureaucratic triumphs are incredible to sensible people. That’s because ordinary people live and experience conditions unlike the
sugary and empty claims of our town’s politicians and career bureaucrats.

They’re talking only to themselves, and a small circle of others, in a city of thousands.

http://www.blip.tv/file/2632278

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 20, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, the Alcohol and Licensing Board meets at 6:15 PM, and the Common Council meets at 6:30 PM.

At Lakeview School, there’s a pennies for patients drive continuing today. At Lincoln School, there’s a 6:30 PM band concert tonight.

On this day in Wisconsin history, in 1856, the Wisconsin Historical Society notes that Frederick Douglass spoke in Beaver Dam:

On this date Frederick Douglass arrived in Beaver Dam and spoke about the brutality and immorality of slavery. His speech was also intended to generate support for the abolitionist movement in Dodge Co. and Wisconsin. A former runaway slave and leading orator and author of the abolitionist movement, Douglass is regarded as one of the most influential Americans of the 19th century. [Source: Wisconsin Local History Network]

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Tuesday, October 20, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:14 AM 06:04 PM
Civil Twilight 06:45 AM 06:33 PM
Tomorrow 07:15 AM 06:03 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 50 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 48 m
Moon phase: Waning crescent

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 19, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the City of Whitewater, the Park and Rec Board meets today at 4:30 PM.

At Lakeview School, there’s a pennies for patients drive today.

On this day in American history, in 1987, the New York Stock exchange lost about 22% of its value, in the second biggest drop in American history:

Bonn and the United States agreed that the dollar should be stabilized near current levels. Disagreement on currency levels and interest rates had contributed to unrest in the markets. Page D1.

Small investors searched for news much of the day. Many held on to their stocks, as they tried to determine what really was happening in the stock market. Page D1.

Washington officials hesitated to offer investors immediate advice. The shouts of panic on Wall Street echoed only faintly in the corridors of the Reagan Administration. The White House maintained that the underlying economy remained sound. News analysis, page D32.

Investors bought U.S. securities in a search for a safe place to put their money. Some interest rates hovered just below 10 percent. Page D1.

Tokyo’s stock market plummeted to record losses today and the Hong Kong market suspended trading for the week as Asian investors reacted in fright to the collapse on Wall Street. Page D1.

Business leaders were shaken by the collapse, which wiped out huge amounts of the market value of their companies. And they seemed to have been caught by surprise. But many leaders were confident the panic would pass. Page D32.

Trading tested computers’ ability to handle a volume of trading that had not been expected until the early 1990’s. Page D34….

Democratic leaders called for talks with President Reagan on a deficit-reduction package that would include tax increases. Page D32.

In politics, two questions loomed: How badly were the Republicans’ 1988 chances hurt? How were the Democrats’ prospects helped? Political Memo. Page A30.

Little more than one year later, Vice President George Bush was elected president with a majority of the popular vote, answering question the New York Times posed in the story.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Monday, October 19, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:12 AM 06:06 PM
Civil Twilight 06:44 AM 06:35 PM
Tomorrow 07:14 AM 06:04 PM
Tomorrow will be: 4 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 10 h 54 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 51 m
Moon phase: Waning crescent

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 16, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

This quiet week ends, with no scheduled municipal, public meetings.

On this day in Wisconsin history, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society,

1968 – Milwaukee Bucks Play First Game

On this date the Milwaukee Bucks opened their first season with an 89-84 loss to the Chicago Bulls. The loss was witnessed by 8,467 fans in the Milwaukee Arena. The starting lineup featured Wayne Embry at center, Fred Hetzel and Len Chappell at forward, and Jon McGlocklin and Guy Rodgers in the backcourt. Larry Costello was the head coach. The Bucks had its first win in their sixth game of the season with a 134-118 victory over the Detroit Pistons. [Source: Milwaukee Bucks]

It’s coffee with the principal, in schools throughout the district, from 8:30 to 9:30 a.m. today.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Friday, October 16, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:09 AM 06:11 PM
Civil Twilight 06:40 AM 06:39 PM
Tomorrow 07:10 AM 06:09 PM
Tomorrow will be: 3 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 11 h 2 m
Amount of daylight: 11 h 59 m
Moon phase: Waning crescent

Free Markets, Libertarians

Reason.tv: John Mackey’s Conscious Capitalism

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http://www.reason.tv/video/show/915

Here’s a description accompanying the video:

When he started his first organic food store in Austin, Texas in 1978, Whole Foods Market CEO and co-founder John Mackey had no idea that he would eventually usher in not just a revolution in how we shop but what we buy. If you dig being able to buy dozens of types of once-exotic apples, or cheese, or wine, or soaps, or countless other items, you can thank Mackey in part for helping to create cathedrals of commerce that have vastly enriched our day-to-day lives and vastly expanded our palates. (Full disclosure: Mackey has contributed to Reason Foundation, the nonprofit that publishes this website.)

In August, Mackey became one of the most controversial businessmen in America when he penned an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal outlining his company’s free-market-oriented health care system and offering eight concrete reforms that would reduce costs and improve access. Noting that health care is not “a right” as that term is properly understood, Mackey forcefully argued that increasing government intervention into health care is precisely the wrong thing to do: “The last thing our country needs is a massive new health-care entitlement that will create hundreds of billions of dollars of new unfunded deficits and move us much closer to a government takeover of our health-care system. Instead, we should be trying to achieve reforms by moving in the opposite direction—toward less government control and more individual empowerment.”

The response from the left to Mackey’s op-ed was swift: Advocates of single-payer health care, union activists, and others called for protests at and boycotts of Whole Foods, despite the fact that the company provides affordable and well-regarded coverage to its employees.

As a cutting-edge entrepreneur who is comfortable quoting astrological signs and Ludwig von Mises, who practices veganism and sells some of the best meat in America, and who chases profits and is an outspoken advocate of charitable giving, Mackey confounds conventional political categories. As an advocate of what he calls “conscious capitalism,” Mackey is that rarest of businessman: an articulate and passionate defender of free enterprise and free individuals.

In late September, Mackey sat down with Reason’s Matt Welch and Nick Gillespie to talk about health care reform, corporate social responsibility (on which Mackey has written for Reason), why government interventions rarely achieve their goals, and how Mackey came to his unstinting belief in free markets.

Approximately five minutes. Shot by Dan Hayes and Meredith Bragg. Edited by Meredith Bragg.

This is an abridged version of an hour-long conversation with Mackey.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread: October 15, 2009

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Good morning, Whitewater

In the city today, there are two scheduled, municipal public meetings. At 4:30 p.m., the Urban Forestry Task Force meets, and at 7 p.m., the League of Women Voters will meet in the municipal building.

It’s picture retake day, and take your family to school day, at Lakeview School. It’s market pickup day at Lincoln School.

There’s a fascinating story over at Wired, about the artificial creation of a desktop black hole:

Two Chinese scientists have successfully made an artificial black hole. Since you’re still reading this, it’s safe to say that Earth hasn’t been sucked into its vortex.

That’s because a black hole doesn’t technically require a massive, highly concentrated gravitational field that prevents light from escaping, as postulated by Albert Einstein. It just needs to capture light — or, to be more precise, electromagnetic radiation, of which visually perceived light is one form.

The desktop black hole, described in a paper submitted to arXiv on Monday, is made from 60 concentrically arranged layers of circuit board. Each layer is coated in copper and printed with patterns that alternately vibrate or don’t vibrate in response to electromagnetic waves.

Together, the patterns completely absorbed microwave radiation coming from any direction, and converted their energy to heat.

Here’s today’s almanac:

Almanac
Thursday, October 15, 2009 Sunrise Sunset
Official Time 07:08 AM 06:12 PM
Civil Twilight 06:39 AM 06:41 PM
Tomorrow 07:09 AM 06:11 PM
Tomorrow will be: 2 minutes shorter
Amount of sunlight: 11h 4 m
Amount of daylight: 12h 2 m
Moon phase: Waning crescent