Good morning, Whitewater
Here’s today’s almanac —
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Friday, June 19, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:16 AM | 08:36 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 04:40 AM | 09:11 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:16 AM | 08:36 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | roughly same as today | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 15h 20m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 16h 31m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescent | |
Good morning, Whitewater
In the City of Whitewater today, there are no public meetings scheduled.
On this day in history, in 1812, the War of 1812 began:
The day after the Senate followed the House of Representatives in voting to declare war against Great Britain, President James Madison signs the declaration into law–and the War of 1812 begins. The American war declaration, opposed by a sizable minority in Congress, had been called in response to the British economic blockade of France, the induction of American seaman into the British Royal Navy against their will, and the British support of hostile Indian tribes along the Great Lakes frontier.
A faction of Congress known as the “War Hawks” had been advocating war with Britain for several years and had not hidden their hopes that a U.S. invasion of Canada might result in significant territorial land gains for the United States.
In the months after President Madison proclaimed the state of war to be in effect, American forces launched a three-point invasion of Canada, all of which were decisively unsuccessful. In 1814, with Napoleon Bonaparte’s French Empire collapsing, the British were able to allocate more military resources to the American war, and Washington, D.C., fell to the British in August. In Washington, British troops burned the White House, the Capitol, and other buildings in retaliation for the earlier burning of government buildings in Canada by U.S. soldiers.
In September, the tide of the war turned when Thomas Macdonough’s American naval force won a decisive victory at the Battle of Plattsburg Bay on Lake Champlain. The invading British army was forced to retreat back into Canada. The American victory on Lake Champlain led to the conclusion of U.S.-British peace negotiations in Belgium, and on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed, formally ending the War of 1812. By the terms of the agreement, all conquered territory was to be returned, and a commission would be established to settle the boundary of the United States and Canada.
British forces assailing the Gulf Coast were not informed of the treaty in time, and on January 8, 1815, the U.S. forces under Andrew Jackson achieved the greatest American victory of the war at the Battle of New Orleans. The American public heard of Jackson’s victory and the Treaty of Ghent at approximately the same time, fostering a greater sentiment of self-confidence and shared identity throughout the young republic.
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Thursday, June 18, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:15 AM | 08:36 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 04:40 AM | 09:11 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:15 AM | 08:36 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 1 minute shorter | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 15h 21m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 16h 31m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescent | |
Note: This post will stay at the top of the site until Friday. Newer posts below.
Some super-brainy, but apparently harmless, German scientists have discovered a new, super-heavy element. It will occupy place 112 on the Periodic Table. See, Periodic table gets a new element, from the BBC’s website.
The element doesn’t yet have a name. The team that discovered the element hasn’t settled on a final choice; it’s provisionally called “ununbium.”
It deserves a better name than that, and Whitewater, Wisconsin should be at the forefront of helping our ferocious economic competitors friendly NATO allies find a suitable name.
One might think that top-notch German scientists would have no interest in Whitewater, Wisconsin, but I think that’s just pessimistic thinking. Lots of brainy Europeans fall for corny American ideas, towns, the whole depection of small-town America in film and television.
I’m sure they’d love to receive ideas for naming their newly-discovered element from residents of Whitewater. In point of fact, these scientists would probably prefer to name element 112 after something from, or about, Whitewater, Wisconsin. I couldn’t blame them.
So, what Whitewater reference should they use for the name of this new element? For what would that name stand?
I’ll collect your ideas, and post them here, on Friday morning. (I’ll keep this post at the top of the page until Friday.)
While you’re sending in ideas, I’ll find the email address of the German team, so that I can send along a list of suggestions, each suggested name being a reference to Whitewater. (I’ll send them your suggestions, but not your names, as I am very last person who would ever turn over anyone’s real identity to a team of German scientists.)
Send your ideas to adams@freewhitewater.com
Results on Friday…
Over at the Janesville Gazette, John McPoland has a blog entitled, Fighting Words: One Man’s Battle Against Cancer.
It’s a fine blog, and if you’ve not had a chance to read it, stopping by today, for McPoland’s entry, A New Companion, will show why it’s a blog well-worth frequenting.
Quick note: I have no connection to the Gazette, have never met John McPoland, and nothing about my recommendation has any political meaning. The world’s filled with worthy efforts wholly apart from politics. Fighting Words is one of them.
Enjoy.
I’ve received emails about a court ruling from England, in which an English judge ruled against the right of anonymity for a blogger. The ruling’s specific and technical, and of no precedent for America. Britain does not have a written constitution, unlike America, France, or Japan, for example. Her system of government is unlike our own in several principal respects — a constitutional monarchy, without a written constitution, dependent on custom and Parliament for her laws and constitutional order, with a government (administration) derived from and dependent on her legislature.
I’m quite sure that Britain hasn’t produced a single worthy man since Churchill, nor a single worthy woman since Thatcher.
I have absolutely no concern about this English ruling; on the contrary, it’s a great opportunity….for Whitewater’s very own, City Manager Brunner and Police Chief Coan.
I have noticed how very much Whitewater Police Chief Jim Coan likes to travel. (See, What Happens in Vegas…) Why should he limit himself to America, and ride alongs with American police forces? Why not fly across the Atlantic, and spend some time — as much as he’d like, really — in England?
He could visit Scotland Yard, try to find 221B Baker Street, or help Britain’s finest minds determine the true identity of Jack the Ripper, etc. (After all, Coan did such good work tried as best as he’s probably able as sleuth here in Whitewater, Wisconsin.)
And for our City Manager, Kevin Brunner, I’d guess England would be equally inviting. Our city manager loves quotations, and the English are always saying something pithy, or at least, it sounds like they are. (See, Quotations, Rights, and Hope). They’re very big on politeness, on being well-mannered, on the look and feel of civilization intself.
Messrs. Coan and Brunner could while away their afternoons in a posh salon, near Cambridge, thinking about Plato, a unified field theory, the power of PowerPoint, re-accreditation, Shakespeare, whatever.
Best of all, it’s now harder than ever to criticize a self-interested politician public servant in Britain. They could do whatever they wanted, without criticism from anonymous bloggers, and nothing but a compliant press and local incumbent politician’s website on their side.
Woo! How’s that not fun?
Every local American bureaucrat’s dream: Britain — The Way America Should Be™.
Let it not be said — because it would be so unfair — that I’ll not do my part, to make this trip of a lifetime possible.
Here’s a quick itinerary that I think would work so very well — American Flight 3972, leaving Milwaukee for Chicago at 8:35 a.m. on June 18th, connecting in Chicago O’Hare with American 0086, leaving Chicago for London’s Heathrow.
First Class, with tea and crumpets, too, probably, or fish and chips, or whatever English people eat.
I know that it’s quick notice, but there’d be a day to pack, and England’s dark, dank, and foggy, so there’d be no need to run out for suntan lotion, even. It’s always better to travel light, anyway.
They’d love it, and we’d be just as happy, I wouldn’t wonder.
Cheerio!
Good morning, Whitewater
In the City of Whitewater today, there are no public meetings scheduled.
It is a fine anniversary in American and French history — on this date in 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived in America:
The Statue of Liberty, a gift of friendship from the people of France to the people of the United States, arrives in New York City’s harbor.
Originally known as “Liberty Enlightening the World,” the statue was proposed by French historian Edouard Laboulaye to commemorate the Franco-American alliance during the American Revolution. Designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi, the 151-foot statue was the form of a woman with an uplifted arm holding a torch.
In February 1877, Congress approved the use of a site on New York Bedloe’s Island, which was suggested by Bartholdi. In May 1884, the statue was completed in France, and three months later the Americans laid the cornerstone for its pedestal in New York. On June 19, 1885, the dismantled Statue of Liberty arrived in the New World, enclosed in more than 200 packing cases. Its copper sheets were reassembled, and the last rivet of the monument was fitted on October 28, 1886, during a dedication presided over by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.
On the pedestal was inscribed “The New Colossus,” a famous sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus that welcomed immigrants to the United States with the declaration, “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, / The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. / Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. / I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Six years later, Ellis Island, adjacent to Bedloe’s Island, opened as the chief entry station for immigrants to the United States, and for the next 32 years more than 12 million immigrants were welcomed into New York harbor by the sight of “Lady Liberty.”
In 1924, the Statue of Liberty was made a national monument.
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Wednesday, June 17, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:15 AM | 08:35 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 04:40 AM | 09:11 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:15 AM | 08:36 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | 1 minute longer | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 15h 20m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 16h 31m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescent | |
Good morning, Whitewater
In the City of Whitewater today, there’s a Common Council meeting tonight at 6:30 p.m. The agenda is available online.
Over at the website of the Wisconsin Historical Society, there’s a surprising entry:
1845 – First Free Public School Opened in Wisconsin
On this date the first free public school in Wisconsin was opened in Southport (now Kenosha). Michael Frank, a member of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature, introduced bills authorizing the establishment of a Wisconsin public school system in 1843, 1844, and 1845. These attempts were failures so Frank sponsored a bill authorizing Southport to establish a public school supported by property tax dollars. [Source: Wisconsin Mosaic]
In all the world, this may have been the first, and was surely the last, time that a public school was free.
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Tuesday, June 16, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:15 AM | 08:35 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 04:40 AM | 09:10 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:15 AM | 08:35 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | roughly the same as today | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 15h 20m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 16h 30m | |
| Moon phase: | Waning crescent | |
I received the following press release that I am happy to post —
The Walworth County Genealogical Society will meet Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 7:00 PM, at the Community Centre, 826 E. Geneva Street, Delavan.
Chris Jordan, Walworth County Veteran Service Officer, will give a talk on Military Records Available to Veterans, Family and Interested Persons. She will discuss the types of records available and how to find them.
An informational booklet will be passed out to all persons that attend.
She will also give a quick overview of the functions of the Veterans Office, Government Building, Elkhorn.
Jordan, a veteran, served in the United States Army, and has been at the Elkhorn office since 1986. She not only helps veterans with their various needs but also assists family members.
The Walworth County Support the Troops Group receives updates by her from the Veteran’s Administration each Monday when they meet at the Government Building.
The monthly Society meetings are open to the public, especially veterans and their families. Jordan will be glad to answer any questions after her talk.
For additional information, please call the Vice President of the WCGS at 275-2426.
I received the following press release that I am happy to post —
Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® Saturday, September 19, 2009 at Library Park in Lake Geneva, WI – June 12, 2009
The 3rd annual Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk® for Walworth County will be held on Saturday, September 19, 2009 at Library Park in Lake Geneva. The 3-mile walk promises fun for all ages while raising money to help individuals and families affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Teams of friends, co-workers, neighbors, family members and corporations are forming now.
Join the fun and register your team today to receive an invitation to the team kick-off event. Register online at www.alz.org/sewi.
For information call 414-479-8800. The Alzheimer’s Association is a national non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health.
The Alzheimer’s Association provides information, education, and support to people with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, their families, and healthcare professionals throughout an 11-county region of Southeastern Wisconsin.
For more information about Alzheimer’s disease and local services visit www.alz.org/sewi or call the toll-free, 24-hour Helpline at 800-272-3900.
I received an email recently from a defender of free expression and longtime reader of FREE WHITEWATER, The Mysterious Miss X. Very much my pleasure to hear from her again, and so very pleased that she’s doing so well.
Here’s what Miss X had to say, with my reply thereafter:
Hi John Adams,
It’s been a while since I stopped by to say hello. I thought you might find this interesting:
http://consumerist.com/5007260/man-arrested-for-complaining-too-much
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/15982195/detail.html
You may be wise to not publish it and thus avoid giving Whitewater officials any ideas!
I see a growing number of these types of reports. Thought I’d send you this one.
Adams: My pleasure, entirely. The Consumerist reports that a
Pennsylvania man was arrested for making too many complaints on behalf of his neighborhood to get the local government to enforce noise and air quality laws against a concrete manufacturer across the street from him…Marshall Pappert was appointed the neighborhood pointman to try to prod the local government to action, sending scores of letters and leaving phone messages. It was three messages left with borough Manager Lori Collins that brought the backlash. In them he called for her to resign and accused her of breaking promises to collect and test dust samples from neighborhood homes. She found this harassing and called the cops. Pappert is appealing his conviction. It’s a sad day when someone gets arrested just for asking the government to do its job.
Only a few people in a town ever aspire to local politics, city management, or code enforcement. They’re not particularly glamorous tasks (unlike, say, being an astronaut, snowboarder, or professional fisherman).
No one is ever forced into one of those municipal roles; one decides on a career like that voluntarily. After being in the job a while, a mistaken municipal official decides, “I don’t deserve this criticism” and then decides “I have to put a stop to it.”
It’s the “I have to put a stop to it” that takes the official from representative of a local American community to thin-skinned, self-important bureaucrat suitable only for a banana republic. (But not the Banana Republic, a retailer of “men’s and women’s mid-scale casual and tailored apparel” that would expect better customer service than thin-skinned, self important bureuarcats can provide.)
In these cases, from the perspective of a reasonable person, it’s hard to figure why someone would decide to defy the rights and liberties of America for petty self-interest or convenience, but it happens all too often (as Miss X observes).
Continuing for the next few weeks, it’s Prisoner Monday here at Free Whitewater. Why? Because a longtime reader previously suggested to me that being in Whitewater sometimes felt like living the plot of The Prisoner.
It’s a great British series, that tells the story of a secret agent who resigns from his agency, only to find himself in a mysterious place called The Village.
AMC has the full episodes of the original series online, and also offers one-minute summaries of those original episodes. I’ve previously posted the first fifteen videos.
Here’s the sixteenth, one-minute summary, of an episode entitled, “Once Upon a Time.” (“No. 6 faces ruthless interrogation, taken to the extreme degree, in an effort to make him reveal why he resigned from his top secret job.”)
The full video is also available at AMC.
Enjoy.
Good morning, Whitewater
In the City of Whitewater today, there are three municipal public meetings scheduled.
At 3:30 p.m, the Whitewater-University Tech Park Board will meet. At 6 p.m., there will be a Planning Commission meeting. later, at 7 p.m., the Irvin Young Library Board will meet.
In our public school district this morning, there’s a Special Meeting (part of which being in closed session), with the following agenda –
Call to Order and Roll Call
Personnel Report (Action Item)
Employment
Resignation
Leave of Absence
Rescind Layoff Notice for 5th Grade Band Teacher
School Board Travel and Overnight Accommodations
Update with New District Administrator
Executive Session: Adjourn to Executive Session, not to reconvene, pursuant to $19.85(1)(c), Wisconsin Statutes, to consider the retirement request of a specific employee.
Adjourn
There’s also an announcement on the home page of the Whitewater Unified School District website, about the band program. It reads as follows:
5th Grade Band Reinstated for 2009-10
Dr. Steinhaus announced that 5th grade band, which the district had eliminated for 2009-10 due to the Governor’s proposed budget cuts, has been reinstated for the 2009-10 school year.
It’s good that the band program is back. One should keep in mind that it wasn’t Governor Doyle who decided which program to cut — it’s not as though proposed budget cuts in Madison included a mandate to eliminate part of a band program!
It’s our own district that made this choice, out of many possible ones.
Pretending otherwise is just blame-shifting to avoid responsibility for actions taken locally, in Whitewater, not Madison.
By the way — Lakeview School — Dr. Steinhaus is almost out the door, so your school’s probably safe. A few weeks and you’ll be able to breathe easy.
| Almanac | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monday, June 15, 2009 | Sunrise | Sunset |
| Official Time | 05:15 AM | 08:35 PM |
| Civil Twilight | 04:40 AM | 09:10 PM |
| Tomorrow | 05:15 AM | 08:35 PM |
| Tomorrow will be: | roughly the same as today | |
| Amount of sunlight: | 15h 20m | |
| Amount of daylight: | 16h 30m | |
| Moon phase: | Third Quarter | |
Tom Weber of Price County photographed his cat standing up to a bear. The cat held its ground, and the bear moved off.
Regardless of the bear’s intentions, there’s a lot of moxie in that cat.
Photo Slideshow: Bear and Cat Standoff
Sent via BlackBerry
