Tuesday, January 10th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of Jerry and Marge Go Large @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama/Comedy
PG-13; 96 minutes (2022)
Based on the true story of a long-married Michigan couple (Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening) who win the lottery and use the money to revive their small hometown.
One can find more information about Jerry and Marge Go Large at the Internet Movie Database.
Rob Thomas reports Melissa Lesh goes from Madison to the Amazon with ‘Wildcat’ movie:
“Growing up in Madison was a huge part of my early love of nature,” Lesh said in a recent Zoom interview. “It definitely helped form my appreciation and love of wildlife and wild places.”
For the last decade, Lesh and her partner Trevor Frost have traveled the world capturing wildlife on film, from orangutans in Borneo to sturgeon in Virginia. They’ve spent the last four years on a feature documentary, “Wildcat,” for which they lived deep in the Amazon rainforest documenting a program to reintroduce baby ocelots into the wild.
It sounds like an adorable project — who doesn’t love kittens? But while “Wildcat” does have stunning (and, yes, adorable) animal footage, the documentary focuses just as much on the mental health struggles of the couple working with the cats. Harry Turner is a young British veteran suffering from PTSD from a tour in Afghanistan, while his partner Samantha Wicker carries her own trauma from an abusive childhood.
Praised by critics for its intimacy and authenticity, “Wildcat” opens in theaters Wednesday, including in Madison at Marcus Palace, and will premiere on Amazon Prime Video Dec. 30.
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 34. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:35 PM for 9h 10m 30s 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 1914, the Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and minimum daily wage of $5 in salary plus bonuses.
Evan Casey reports Slate of Foxconn opponents announce run for Mount Pleasant Village Board (‘The 4 opponents plan to gain a majority of the village board this spring’):
Local opponents of Mount Pleasant’s Foxconn project are looking to change the direction of the community’s village government.
The local watchdog group A Better Mount Pleasant has been lobbying against spending related to the development for years. Now the group is running a slate of candidates, hoping to create a majority on the village board, while unseating Village President Dave DeGroot, who has been a vocal supporter of Foxconn.
“This is our chance to have a majority and to really transform the village in ways we know residents to want to see,” said Kelly Gallaher, who is running against DeGroot.
Gallaher, spokesperson for A Better Mount Pleasant, has been one of the more vehement opponents against Foxconn.
“While all of us had big hopes for it when it was first announced, it has failed, and it’s really left Mount Pleasant holding the bag in terms of debt and bonding for this project,” she said.
Foxconn initially planned to invest $10 billion on a large flat-screen manufacturing plant in Mount Pleasant and employ 13,000 people. Those plans never came to fruition, and a far smaller manufacturing facility now operates on the site.
Kim Mahoney owned the last home on the Foxconn development area with her husband. She is now is running for a seat on the village board alongside Gallaher.
According to A Better Mount Pleasant, the village, Racine County and the state have spent $200 million on land purchases, $185 million for water and sewer, $140 million for electric and power storage and $225 million for roads for the Foxconn project.
“We do want to get control of the amount of money that continues to be spent on the project and see if we can pull back some of the spending or eliminate some of it,” Mahoney said.
And so, and so, a question: Will government officials responsible for this grandiose failure be held accountable? Alternatively, can a local government do anything with impunity?
One hopes for the best for the residents of Mount Pleasant.
See FREE WHITEWATER’s category on Foxconn.
How robotics is miniaturizing surgery:
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:34 PM for 9h 09m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 94.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 2004, Spirit, a NASA Mars rover, lands successfully on Mars.
Seldom has the expression ‘can’t see the forest for the trees‘ been more apt than in news of a dozen candidates running for the Whitewater Unified School Board. It’s not the number that reveals ridiculousness, but rather apparent excitement over it.
First, it should have been obvious that more candidates would run when two incumbents declared they were not running. Indeed, it was obvious to insightful residents. Worries over having too few candidates were unfounded. There was going to be a large slate. See It’s Okay, Whitewater — Somehow, Some Way, We’ll Manage.
Second, and this is what truly matters, these dozen are not the same in ability or outlook, and to think of this number, by itself, as an indivisible good is obtuse. These dozen represent, if elected as factions, different and opposing possibilities for the direction of the district. The Whitewater Unified School District will find itself in a world of hurt if a deficient faction from among these twelve prevails in April.
From an earlier post at FREE WHITEWATER:
How many people are in government matters less than what government does. Let’s suppose, despite all possibility, that no one ever runs for school board again in Whitewater. No one, ever. There will still be public education in Whitewater, however organized. Then — as now — it will matter what is taught and how it is taught. It’s what you do that matters, and the doing of education, so to speak, is teaching and learning. See “You are what you do. A man is defined by his actions, not his memory.”
And so, and so, something more useful for the city is in order. Of college — but useful for any level of education — Jonathan Malesic writes The Key to Success in College Is So Simple, It’s Almost Never Mentioned:
One of the most important factors in [college student] Ms. Zurek Small’s success seems almost too obvious to mention but, in fact, deserves far more attention and discussion: a simple willingness to learn. In more than 20 years of college teaching, I have seen that students who are open to new knowledge will learn. Students who aren’t won’t. But this attitude is not fixed. The paradoxical union of intellectual humility and ambition is something that every student can (with help from teachers, counselors and parents) and should cultivate. It’s what makes learning possible.
The willingness to learn is related to the growth mind-set — the belief that your abilities are not fixed but can improve. But there is a key difference: This willingness is a belief not primarily about the self but about the world. It’s a belief that every class offers something worthwhile, even if you don’t know in advance what that something is.
Excitement over the number of board candidates or even debates over expenses are lesser concerns that betray a lack of educational understanding. Educating effectively means teaching effectively. Either that’s happening our it’s not. All other matters are secondary or tertiary.
(Budget item discussions should be brief, honest to goodness: get three bids, discuss for no more than five minutes, then vote. That’s it. Anything more is a waste of a professional’s time.)
How are students learning? Why or why not? What’s being done if they’re not? How will the district help them?
Those who wish to be taken seriously need to focus on serious matters.
Big coronal mass ejection from Sun’s farside seen by SOHO spacecraft:
The ESA/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) captured a coronal mass ejection erupt from the farside of the Sun on Jan. 3, 2022. .
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy with scattered showers and a high of 40. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:33 PM for 9h 08m 25s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1957, the Hamilton Watch Company introduces the first electric watch.
Winter is a demanding season — as these months are desert-like in their sparsity — and yet deserts are abundant in sand as winter is abundant in snow. Rob Mentzer reports This Stevens Point sculptor’s medium is snow:
When Jef Schobert started making snow sculptures, he faced them toward his house. He’d shape a Mickey Mouse or some other cartoon character for his young daughter.
One day, his mail carrier stopped and told him he should make them face the street, for everyone to enjoy.
“It kind of blew my mind,” said Schobert, a 57-year-old with a white Santa Claus beard.
That was likely thousands of snow sculptures ago. In the decades since he started making them, Schobert’s annual sculptures have become a fixture outside his Stevens Point home, which he calls the Snow Art Zone. He makes around 100 different pieces per winter — carvings of a castle or a carriage or Aquaman on a throne — and posts photos and videos on his Facebook, Instagram and TikTok pages. Occasionally, one goes viral, as did his January 2021 sculpture of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wearing mittens.
“Snow is very temporary,” Schobert said. “I take pictures of it, and the pictures then become my art, even after the art’s gone.”
There’s a fellow who knows how to make the most of an austere season. We should all hope to do half so well.
Severe Wind Forces easyJet to Abort Landing in England:
Severe winter winds in Bristol, England, forced this easyJet to abort its landing on December 28. Luckily, the plane was able to reclimb, circle back, and safely land approx 15 min later.
Good morning.
Monday in Whitewater will be cloudy with rain & drizzle and a high of 39. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:32 PM for 9h 07m 28s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 83.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1942, the FBI obtains the conviction of 33 members of a German spy ring headed by Fritz Joubert Duquesne (the Duquesne Spy Ring) in the largest espionage case in United States history.
Consider, from the faraway Russian dictatorship, a New Year’s Eve special on state television:
During Russia’s New Year special on state TV, they openly addressed the West to say, “Like it or not, Russia is enlarging!” The rest of the clip should give you a general idea as to the mood in the studio. pic.twitter.com/EcBxhEabS0
— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) January 2, 2023
The clip is from Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews), whose reporting and translation of Russian state media is comprehensive and praiseworthy. Her work is painstaking and revealing.
The Russian program looks to outside eyes as though it could not possibly be real, as though it were a scene from an American parody like The Producers. The program has a Springtime for Hitler feel.
It’s real.
Such are conditions in Europe, that hundreds are killed each day while Russians dance in Moscow.
And yet, and yet, such are conditions in America, that fellow travelers of Russia’s dictator would prefer the dancing go on all night.
Russia rings in New Year attacking Ukraine with 45 drones:
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Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 44. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:32 PM for 9h 06m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 75.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1836, the Wisconsin Territory is formed by an act of the Michigan Legislature. Brown County lost a portion of its original possession north of the Menominee River but gained the remainder of the eastern peninsula. Territorial officials were sworn on July 4th of the same year.
A quiet day in this beautiful and precious city, before the year’s work begins. See What Ails, What Heals.
Opportunity is bountiful, if only one would see as much.
Each day begins, as always, from a position of humility. See The Better Approach of the Dark-Horse Underdog.
Happy New Year.
What’s in the Night Sky January 2023:
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 38. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:31 PM for 9h 05m 47s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 66% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1999, the first President of Russia, Boris Yeltsin, resigns from office, leaving Prime Minister Vladimir Putin as the acting President and successor.
Daniela Jaime reports Wisconsin residents can sell more than baked goods from home, judge rules:
Wisconsinites who want to sell homemade goodies to friends, neighbors and the public no longer have to stick to baked goods like cakes and cookies.
Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rhonda Lanford ruled this week that other nonhazardous food items, not just baked goods, can be made and sold from home without a commercial license or kitchen, which plaintiffs argued can be cost-prohibitive. That includes items like candy, cocoa bombs, fried donuts and roasted coffee beans.
Many of those who want to sell homemade goods are people like moms with young children who hope to make a bit of money by selling the items they make at home.
This week’s ruling is the second victory for a trio of women — B&B owner Lisa Kivirist, 56, and farmers Dela Ends, 69, and Kriss Marion, 54 — who have been fighting for years to be able to sell nonhazardous food items from home.
The women won their first lawsuit against the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection in 2017, successfully arguing that a state ban on the sale of home-baked goods to the public was unconstitutional.
In February 2021, they filed a follow-up lawsuit arguing that Wisconsin residents should be able to sell other shelf-stable goods out of their homes, too, like roasted coffee beans and hot cocoa bombs.
“The first case said that the government can’t ban the sales of perfectly safe homemade baked goods. And so, since we already had that victory regarding baked goods, it definitely made things easier the second time around,” said Justin Pearson of the Institute for Justice, the organization that represented the plaintiffs in both cases.
“If you’re allowing people to bake cookies and muffins and breads, why should they not be allowed to make cocoa bombs?” Marion asked.
See also Institute for Justice, Victory for Wisconsin Home Bakers.
The decision was handed down this week, and there’s no word yet on whether the government will appeal.
One of the Last Blacksmiths in Japan Forging Bonsai Scissors by Hand:
Good morning.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy with a high of 37. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:30 PM for 9h 05m 03s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 56% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.
On his Twitter account, as late as August 2021 — eight months after the January 6th attempted insurrection — Speaker Robin Vos was flying with Trump, praising Trump, and touting his selection of Michael Gableman to conduct a “top-to-bottom” election investigation.
How odd, then, to read from Molly Beck at the Journal Sentinel a credulous account that Speaker Robin Vos says he will ‘try as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump is not the nominee’ in 2024:
Robin Vos first started campaigning for Republicans 44 years ago, eight years before he could vote for them. His politics gave him a lifelong career. He is described by Wisconsin historians as the longest-serving Assembly Speaker since the state formed. But for the last two years, Vos has been the target of insults, taunts and calls for his removal from the leader of his party.
Now, as Vos prepares for a new presidential election season that will hinge on Wisconsin voters, and in the wake of a midterm election that delivered Republicans fewer wins than expected, he is signaling he won’t vote for Donald Trump if he is the nominee in 2024.
“During my entire life, I have always voted for the Republican. So I am going to try as hard as I can to make sure Donald Trump is not the nominee,” Vos said in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Vos was with Trump in 2016, in 2020, and even after January 6th, but now he’s reformed, and we should see that he, Vos, is the true victim of “insults” and “taunts” from the very Trumpists he once supported. Indeed, Speaker of the Assembly Vos has suffered so much from the Trumpists he once encouraged that he has received — steady oneself — “calls for his removal from the leader of his party.”
Vos’s supposed injury in this is that he might no longer be the speaker in a gerrymandered legislature. No list of serious injuries will ever include the upset of one man from Rochester, Wisconsin that he might not remain speaker as long as he wants. (Indeed, even the mere call for his removal is accounted as meaningful.)
Many suffered under Trumpism, but Beck’s reporting presents Vos as the true victim. (The first paragraph, cited above, is in Beck’s words, not Vos’s.)
It’s no surprise that Vos is beginning a statewide Not-as-Reprehensible-As-You-Thought Rehabilitation Tour. It’s disappointing, however, that the Journal Sentinel would become Vos’s press agent for the effort.
Texas bats released into the wild after they were found frozen in Arctic storm:
“A hand-colored portrait of the Trimpey family cat, Fluffy, sitting in a basket.” https://t.co/BRhMwkCVLx pic.twitter.com/D3OfneCyZa
— Cats of Yore (@CatsOfYore) December 26, 2022
Hillary Frey praises Cats of Yore as the The Best Cat Account on the Internet:
My Twitter feed is kind of a mess lately. Whatever changes Elon Musk has made to the algorithm have resulted in a bunch of posts from randos and brands that don’t seem to bear much relationship to anything I care about. Fortunately, though, a pre-Musk follow of mine that lightens up my timeline continues to break through: Cats of Yore.
The account is exactly what it says it is: pictures of cats of yore. These cats may be in historic paintings, or accompanying a child in early-20th-century New York City. They might play with a ball of string, or wear a top hat. They might be napping or hissing or licking their sibling. One thing they all have in common is extreme cuteness. If you are a cat person, this is enough. And even if you aren’t, this account may just change your mind.
It’s a fine account, well worth following if you’re on Twitter.
Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly cloudy with a high of 52. Sunrise is 7:25 AM and sunset 4:29 PM for 9h 04m 23s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 44.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1845, the United States annexes the Republic of Texas.
Foxconn was, and remains, a national embarrassment for Wisconsin. See a FREE WHITEWATER category dedicated to Foxconn. Through it all, after years of revealed mistakes and lies, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has been a Foxconn booster. See Speaker Vos shares excitement for Foxconn deal with Wisconsin (from 2021, long after the rest of America had grown hoarse from laughing about the deal).
Now — still— Vos has the temerity to offer advice about business development in Wisconsin. Corrinne Hess reports Robin Vos calls state’s economic development agency an ‘abject failure,’ says large companies not looking to Wisconsin:
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is calling the state’s economic development department an “abject failure,” and says Wisconsin can no longer compete with other states to attract large companies.
Vos, who appointed himself to the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.’s board in January 2021, said he took himself off the board this year because he “couldn’t take it anymore.”
“Their strategy is cookie cutter, literally saying to every business in the state ‘we’ll give you $5,000 or $10,000’ that drives little or no innovation,” Vos said. “What industry should we really try to make bigger in Wisconsin? What should we say ‘you’re a thing of the past that we shouldn’t invest in?’ We don’t have any of those discussions.”
Democrats fired back, calling Vos the lead advocate for WEDC’s creation under former Gov. Scott Walker.
“It is no surprise that he chooses to walk away from leadership at a time when there are opportunities for WEDC to shift to a more sustainable strategy that strengthens local economies and supports small businesses,” said state Rep. Francesca Hong, D-Madison, who was recently appointed to the WEDC board.
This libertarian blogger is no supporter of the WEDC, although fortunately there’s no chance that the agency will ever find again a project as fraudulent as Foxconn has been. A lightning bolt of such destructive intensity is not going to strike us twice.
Nevertheless, it says something about Vos’s shamelessness that he’d venture any opinion on development.
How many times does a person or clique get to make development mistakes before they’re no longer allowed to do so?
Llama on the Loose Sends Police on a Wild Chase:
A loose llama led police on a chase in Fairfax County, VA, earlier this month, and multiple officers were needed to wrangle it. Aerial video with thermal imaging released by police shows the llama in a backyard. Body-worn camera video shows officers trying to lasso the llama with a rope, but it keeps getting away.
‘Always ready to give chase when a suspect flees, our officers and animal protection police (APP) encountered a nimble, furry suspect Sunday night,’ the police department wrote alongside the video on Facebook.
Eventually, three officers surrounded the llama and secured the animal with a rope, then led it to a waiting trailer. Police said the llama was later transported to an animal shelter.
Good morning.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be partly sunny with a high of 40. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:28 PM for 9h 03m 48s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 34% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1836, Spain recognizes the independence of Mexico with the signing of the Santa María–Calatrava Treaty.
Tanya Sichynsky and Daniel Victor report Southwest’s Meltdown Draws Federal Scrutiny as Passengers Remain Stranded (‘The airline canceled another 2,500 flights on Wednesday and said it would be days before normal service resumes’):
ATLANTA — Federal scrutiny is growing. The chief executive is apologizing to customers.
And as the meltdown at Southwest Airlines, one of the worst that industry observers have seen in decades, entered yet another day on Wednesday, irate customers remained stranded, separated from their families and some still carrying Christmas gifts they planned to deliver days ago.
There was no relief early Wednesday: Southwest had canceled more than 2,500 flights, or 62 percent of its planned flights for the day, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking service. The company has said it could be days until the knots are untangled and normal service resumes.
….
The issues stem from the carrier’s unique “point to point” model, in which planes tend to fly from destination to destination without returning to one or two main hubs. Most airlines follow a “hub and spoke” model, in which planes typically return to a hub airport after flying out to other cities.
When bad weather hits, hub-and-spoke airlines can shut down specific routes and have plans in place to restart operations when the skies clear. But bad weather can scramble multiple flights and routes in a point-to-point model, leaving Southwest staff out of position to resume normal operations.
Southwest has a travel model that works well for them except in bad weather, as against other airlines’ models. Federal scrutiny isn’t needed here; consumer awareness is what’s needed. If travelers decide that flying Southwest is an itinerary risk not with taking, the airline will either change its model, decline in size, or go under. Poor safety isn’t sinking Southwest, it’s their logistical plan that doesn’t work well in bad weather that troubles them. Southwest’s planes aren’t falling out of the sky; they’re stuck on the ground.
Travelers, not the United States Department of Transportation, should be deciding Southwest’s prospects.
Drone footage shows New York town buried in snow:
Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 26. Sunrise is 7:24 AM and sunset 4:27 PM for 9h 03m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 23.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Finance Committee meets at 4:30 PM.
On this day in 1929, Soviet General Secretary Joseph Stalin orders the “liquidation of the kulaks [successful peasants] as a class.“
Fred Prehn, Walker appointee to the Natural Resources Board, has resigned effective 12.30.22. Prehn refused to leave his seat at the expiration of his term, leading to a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling (4-3) that he did not have to resign until the Wisconsin Senate would not confirm a replacement. The WISGOP Senate wouldn’t confirm Gov. Evers’s nominee, so Prehn stayed on. Laura Schultz reports Scott Walker appointee Frederick Prehn resigns from Natural Resources Board after over-staying term:
Prehn, a Wausau dentist, was appointed by Walker in 2015. He refused to step down after his term ended, denying Evers’ appointee Sandra Naas a seat and maintaining a 4-3 majority for Republican appointees.
Prehn, after his term ended, cast the deciding vote to increase the quota for the state’s wolf hunt and to scrap limits of so-called forever chemicals in groundwater. Earlier this month, Prehn was part of a unanimous vote to restart the process of setting PFAS limits, a process that will take years to complete.
In his resignation letter, Prehn self-pityingly writes that “Unfortunately, it took the Supreme Court to confirm my decision to stay on at great expense for the taxpayer and an immense personal price.”
That ‘immense price’ includes the self-inflicted wound of revealed text messages in which Prehn described his plan: “So I might stick around for a while. See what shakes out. I’ll be like a turd in water up there.” Can’t say Prehn doesn’t understand himself. See Fred Prehn, the Most Self-Aware Man in All History and Tiny Fred Prehn.
As it turns out, the Centers for Disease Control has a webpage describing why people should not relieve themselves in pools of water. See from the Centers for Disease Control, Poop in the Pool. (There doesn’t seem to be any guidance on what do do about people who describe themselves as poop in a pool.)
Prehn by character is a vulgarian, but by occupation’s a dentist and cranberry farmer. One would have expected a better grasp of self-image (and of hygiene) from someone in either line of work. Fortunately, Prehn’s not my dentist, so I’m all good there.
But I drink cranberry juice (it’s delicious!), and there’s a possibility that Prehn might be supplying to my favorite brand. A switch might be in order, right?
Our youngest would advise “pondering on that.” Indeed.
Robot paraglider drops from high-altitude balloon:
