Saturday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 84. Sunrise is 6:06 AM and sunset 7:50 PM for 13h 44m 02s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 8.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1812, the American frigate USS Constitutiondefeats the British frigate HMS Guerriere off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada earning the nickname “Old Ironsides.”
Meet the chef with severe food allergies. Kathlena has made it her life mission to create delicious ‘free from’ alternatives for people suffering with restricted diets, but her own allergies are so severe that she can’t taste her delicious creations, and often has to wear a full face respirator to cook.
Despite this, she started an amazing resource called RAISE that provides safe recipes for people living with food allergies and dietary restrictions. Do you have a request for a peanut free Reece’s cake? No problem. Maybe even a dairy-free, gluten-free, vegan chocolate cream tart? Piece of cake.
Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:05 AM and sunset 7:51 PM for 13h 46m 39s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 4.4% of its visible disk illuminated.
The answer is clearly yes, given that the reward structure on social media platforms relies on popularity, as indicated by the number of responses — likes and comments — a post receives from other users. Black-box algorithms then further amplify the spread of posts that have attracted attention.
We are two socialpsychologists and a marketing scholar. Our research, presented at the 2023 Nobel Prize Summit, shows that social media actually has the ability to create user habits to share high-quality content. After a few tweaks to the reward structure of social media platforms, users begin to share information that is accurate and fact-based.
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To investigate the effect of a new reward structure, we gave financial rewards to some users for sharing accurate content and not sharing misinformation. These financial rewards simulated the positive social feedback, such as likes, that users typically receive when they share content on platforms. In essence, we created a new reward structure based on accuracy instead of attention.
As on popular social media platforms, participants in our research learned what got rewarded by sharing information and observing the outcome, without being explicitly informed of the rewards beforehand. This means that the intervention did not change the users’ goals, just their online experiences. After the change in reward structure, participants shared significantly more content that was accurate. More remarkably, users continued to share accurate content even after we removed rewards for accuracy in a subsequent round of testing. These results show that users can be given incentives to share accurate information as a matter of habit.
A different group of users received rewards for sharing misinformation and for not sharing accurate content. Surprisingly, their sharing most resembled that of users who shared news as they normally would, without any financial reward. The striking similarity between these groups reveals that social media platforms encourage users to share attention-getting content that engages others at the expense of accuracy and safety.
Tuesday, August 22nd at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Desperate Hours @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Crime/Drama/Thriller/Film Noir
Rated PG
1 hour 52 minutes (1955)
Rarely shown on TV: in one of his last films, Humphrey Bogart plays a mad dog escaped convict who takes over and terrorizes a suburban Indianapolis household. The film critic of The NY Times likened Bogart’s performance to one of his earliest, Duke Mantee, in “The Petrified Forest.” Stars Humphrey Bogart, Frederic March, Arthur Kennedy.
Thursday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 73. Sunrise is 6:04 AM and sunset 7:53 PM for 13h 49m 16s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 1.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5:30 PM.
On this day in 1978, Double Eagle II becomes the first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey, France near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine.
Fifteen Wisconsin health technology companies, nonprofits and higher education institutions are teaming up on a bid for federal aid to establish a technology hub under the CHIPS and Science Act passed last year.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC), which organized the application and marshaled the participating organizations, announced the application Wednesday. The consortium is asking the federal Economic Development Administration to declare Wisconsin a Regional Tech Hub, giving the state access to $50-$75 million in federal funds under the CHIPS Act.
The proposed tech hub will help the consortium’s 15 members “coordinate technology development in ways that will enhance opportunities to advance new clinical care pathways, such as new ways to treat specific cancers,” the WEDC announcement states, with a focus on personalized medicine — developing treatments that take into account a patient’s distinctive genetic characteristics.
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According to the agency, the tech hub could improve collaboration and innovation among educational institutions, biohealth companies, manufacturers and investors in Milwaukee and Madison’s metro areas — sharing data, strengthening supply chains, coordinating their workforce strategies and addressing needs such as housing and transportation.
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Participants in the application include WEDC; the University of Wisconsin System administration and UW-Madison; health technology companies GE HealthCare, Rockwell Automation, Exact Sciences, Accuray and Plexus; BioForward Wisconsin, representing the state’s biotechnology, medical device and related industries; the Madison Regional Economic Partnership and Milwaukee7, both of which are regional economic development organizations; Milwaukee Area Technical College and Madison Area Technical College; Employ Milwaukee, which is Milwaukee County’s workforce development board, and WRTP BigStep, a jobs training nonprofit.
One can see what a legitimate “innovation” project entails: lots of money from someone or some institution (preferably private capital or alternatively the less-efficient option of federal money), existing organizations and institutions that can use the money productively, and large communities that are the cradle in which the project grows.
Not every community needs an innovation center, not every university is (or should aspire to be) a research institution. Officials in communities like Whitewater that try to repurpose federal money meant for business losses from floods and auto industry layoffs into “innovation centers” don’t get innovation; they waste money on conventional buildings and failed startups.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 80. Sunrise is 6:03 AM and sunset 7:54 PM for 13h 51m 52s of daytime. The moon is new with none of its visible disk illuminated.
Foxconn Technology Group is looking to sell two properties that were once meant to become “innovation centers,” employing hundreds of people.
After Foxconn announced plans to build a manufacturing facility in the village of Mount Pleasant, the company pledged to expand across the state with innovation centers in Madison, Milwaukee, Green Bay, Eau Claire and Racine.
At the time, the company said each innovation center would employ between 100 and 200 people, with the Milwaukee center employing around 500 people. But those plans were essentially put on hold in 2019.
Now, Foxconn says it’s turning its focus to the “ongoing business activities” in its Science and Technology Park in Mount Pleasant, rather than innovation centers.
The company’s properties in Green Bay and Eau Claire have been listed for sale, almost five years after the company paid nearly $12 million to purchase both. In a statement, Foxconn said selling its Green Bay property, known as the Watermark building, will add to the vibrancy of the city’s downtown. It did not comment on the Eau Claire listing, nor did the company provide information on its plans for its other properties outside of Mount Pleasant.
“Innovation Center” was once much in favor as a marketing term directed toward hopeful, sometimes desperate, communities looking for growth while seldom looking past the sales pitch. (In Whitewater, our local version began with a relocated public anchor tenant from Milton, WI, has seen myriad third-tier tenants come and go, and now operates as though merely another university office building. That’s not innovation; it’s a publicly financed confidence scheme.)
Want real innovation (the novel use of color in a full-length cartoon) to improve your day? Here’s Fiddlesticks:
Tuesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of 76. Sunrise is 6:01 AM and sunset 7:56 PM for 13h 54m 27s of daytime. The moon is new with 0.6% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater Common Council meets at 6:30 PM. The agenda is a reminder that bad often goes to worse.
Though the Wisconsin Constitution requires legislative districts “to consist of contiguous territory,” many nonetheless contain sections of land that are not actually connected. The resulting map looks a bit like Swiss cheese, where some districts are dotted with small neighborhood holes assigned to different representatives.
Wisconsin’s nationally peculiar practice of detached districts is cited as one of several alleged violations in a recent lawsuit seeking to strike down current Assembly and Senate districts and replace them before the 2024 election.
Like similar cases in states ranging from North Carolina to Utah, the Wisconsin lawsuit also alleges partisan gerrymandering is illegal under the state constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and free speech.
Monday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 70. Sunrise is 6:00 AM and sunset 7:57 PM for 13h 57m 01s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 3.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
The Whitewater School Board’s Policy Review Committee meets at 9 AM. In the afternoon, the full Board goes into closed session shortly after 5:30 PM and returns to open session at 7 PM. Whitewater’s Planning Board also meets in the evening at 6 PM.
On this day in 1941, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt sign the Atlantic Charter stating postwar aims.
Parents, on welcoming a child into the world, often express aspirational hopes for that child’s career: “Dear God, let our daughter grow up to be an extraordinary baker, astronomer, carpenter, accountant, etc.”
It’s possible, but unlikely, that there are any parents who say “Dear God, let our son grow up to be a lobbyist.”
Two Wisconsin members of Congress are among 22 Republicans singled out in a new report for backing a lawsuit to defund a federal consumer watchdog agency while taking financial contributions from businesses the agency regulates.
U.S. Reps. Bryan Steil (R-Janesville) and Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) signed on to a friend of the court brief filed by 132 members of Congress in July in a lawsuit to kill the current funding mechanism for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). The brief sides with a trade group for the payday lending industry in the case, which the U.S. Supreme Court will hear this fall.
Steil and Fitzgerald have benefited from campaign donations from industries regulated by the bureau, according to Accountable.US, a nonprofit that focuses on corporate influence in politics and government that the organization contends blunts progressive law and policy.
Accountable.US issued a report August 9 that focuses on nearly two dozen signers of the letter in 10 states and their campaign contributions from industries under CFPB regulation.
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During his congressional career, Steil, first elected in 2018, has collected $1.2 million from financial industries regulated by the bureau, Accountable.US reports, citing data compiled by the nonpartisan campaign finance monitoring organization OpenSecrets.org. Those contributors include commercial banks, the securities and investment industry and finance and credit companies.
Fitzgerald, first elected in 2020, has collected $98,000 from CFBP-regulated industries, including commercial banks and the automotive industry. The bureau’s regulatory authority includes automobile financing.
I’ll not speak in support of yet another federal regulatory agency, but instead in opposition to two shameless men who were elected as representatives of their districts but instead spent public time boosting large donors’ interests.
These men walked up the steps of the Capitol, only to descend into something lower, and closer, to a lobbyist’s work.
Sunday in Whitewater will be partly cloudy with a high of 80. Sunrise is 5:59 AM and sunset 7:59 PM for 13h 59m 34s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 7.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
The accident, itself, and the risk that it brought, should be a reminder of a truth repeatedly recalled: that local government’s role should begin (and end) with the provision of competent, fundamental public services. (See from FREE WHITEWATER Fire & Rescue, Whitewater’s Most Important Public Policy Accomplishment of the Last Generation.) Elected officials in the City of Whitewater and on the Whitewater Unified School District’s board should be focused on basic services for residents. We are a small community in significant need. We are well past the point where various internal discussions, often confusingly or ludicrously addressed, should occupy more than the minimum of our attention.
For those who might have trouble grasping significant priorities, here’s Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, explaining all this rather bluntly:
A serious person, understanding our conditions sensibly, focuses on pressing external priorities — the delivery of services to residents — over internal topics. There is no reason to give license to those who are frivolously occupied otherwise.
Saturday in Whitewater will be sunny with a high of 83. Sunrise is 5:58 AM and sunset 8:00 PM for 14h 02m 05s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 13.1% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1851, Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine.
21-year-old Bridget McCutchen of Ashland is chasing the Guinness Book World Record for being the youngest person to circumnavigate the world on a motorcycle. Her journey started in August of 2022, and you can track her progress at @bike.will.travel.
Alex Rongstad set a goal to run every street in the city of Eau Claire within a 12-month period. The idea was that it would help bring him closer to the community in Wisconsin. He starts each run from his apartment in downtown Eau Claire. It took Alex six months to complete his goal, running a total of 3,378 miles.
Friday in Whitewater will be rainy with a high of 85. Sunrise is 5:57 AM and sunset 8:02 PM for 14h 04m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 20.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1942, actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones, two-way radio communications, and Wi-Fi.
About 250 more wildfires than normal have ignited across Wisconsin so far this year due to ongoing drought conditions, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The agency’s wildfire dashboard shows the state has seen 871 fires that have consumed nearly 4,400 acres to date. The 10-year average for this time of year is 614 fires and roughly 1,800 acres burned, according to data shared with the Natural Resources Board on Wednesday.
“Prior to this, I think we had a drought stretch in 2012, (which) was the last time we were in this position,” Catherine Koele, the DNR’s wildfire prevention specialist, told the board. “But, again, this year…it’s been up and down. We see a little bit of rain. The grasses green up a little bit, and then it dries out again. So we’ve been on this roller coaster.”
Wildfires have already consumed almost five times as many acres as last year when 923 fires blazed during the state’s fire season. Koele said the number of acres burned this year has largely been driven by large-scale fires in Monroe and Waushara counties, including the Arcadia Fire that spanned more than 3,000 acres at Fort McCoy.
Despite that, Koele said there’s been a steady decline in the number of wildfires on average over the last three decades.
“That is good news for us,” Koele said. “A lot of this is, I think, technology, rapid response time, keeping those fires small. We’re having wetter springs. That’s just the reality of it.”
Wednesday, August 16th at 1:00 PM, there will be a showing of The Quiet Girl @ Seniors in the Park, in the Starin Community Building:
Drama/Foreign Film
Rated PG-13
1 hour, 35 minutes. (2022)
Our monthly art film is the Winner of AARP Best Foreign Film; and Academy Award nominee Best International Film. Rural Ireland, 1981. A shy, neglected daughter is sent away to Dublin, where she blossoms with her foster parents. This is the first-ever film in the Irish language to be nominated for an Oscar.
Veterinary services in Cyprus have received a first batch of anti-Covid pills, from a stockpile originally meant for humans, as efforts intensify to stop the spread of a virulent strain of feline coronavirus that has killed thousands of cats.
The island’s health ministry began discharging the treatment on 8 August – long celebrated as International Cat Day – in what is hoped will be the beginning of the end of the disease that has struck the Mediterranean country’s feline population.
“We have taken stock of 500 boxes of medication,” Christodoulos Pipis, the government’s veterinary services director, told the Guardian. “This is the first batch of 2,000 packages that will be made available. Each one contains 40 capsules so we are talking about a total of 80,000 [anti-Covid] pills.”
Distribution of the drugs follows an “alarming increase” in Cyprus of cases of feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) caused by feline coronavirus which, if left untreated, is almost always fatal.
Defined as the “FCoV-23 outbreak”, the virus was first noticed in January in Nicosia, the Cypriot capital. Within three to four months it had spread across “the whole island”, according to the Pancyprian Veterinary Association (PVA).