FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.16.16

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be cloudy with a high of seventy. Sunrise is 7:11 AM and sunset 6:09 PM, for 10h 58m 12s of daytime. The moon is full, with 99.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1987, rescuers free eighteen-month-old Jessica McClure from a well in which she had been trapped for 58 hours:

Jessica McClure Morales (born March 26, 1986) became famous at the age of 18 months after falling into a well in her aunt’s backyard in Midland, Texas, on October 14, 1987. Between that day and October 16, rescuers worked nonstop for 58 hours to free her from the eight-inch (20 cm) well casing 22 feet (6.7 m) below the ground. The story gained worldwide attention (leading to some criticism as a media circus), and later became the subject of a 1989 television movie Everybody’s Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure on ABC. As presented in it, a vital part of the rescue was the use of the then relatively new technology of waterjet cutting….

Rescuing McClure proved to be a much more difficult ordeal than initially anticipated. Within hours of discovering the situation, the Midland Fire and Police Departments devised a plan that involved drilling an additional shaft parallel to the well and then drilling a perpendicular tunnel from the shaft toward where McClure was stuck in the well. Enlisting the help of a variety of local (often out-of-work) oil-drillers, the Midland officials had hoped to free McClure in a matter of minutes.

However, the first drillers to arrive on the scene found their tools barely adequate in penetrating the thick rock that surrounded the well. It would take approximately six hours to complete the parallel shaft and a substantially longer period of time to drill the tunnel, attributable to the fact that the jackhammers used were developed primarily for drilling downward, as opposed to sideways. A mining engineer was eventually brought in to help supervise and coordinate the rescue effort. 45 hours after McClure had fallen into the well, the shaft and tunnel were finally complete.

Ron Short, a muscular roofing contractor who was born without collar bones because of cleidocranial dysostosis and so could collapse his shoulders to work in cramped corners, arrived at the site and offered to go down the shaft. They accepted his offer, but did not use it.[1][2] One report[3] said that he helped to clear tunneling debris away.

Ultimately, Midland Fire Department paramedic Robert O’Donnell was able to inch his way down into the tunnel and wrestle McClure free from the confines of the well, handing her to fellow paramedic Steve Forbes, who carried her up to safety.

CNN, then a fledgling cable news outlet, was on the scene with around-the-clock coverage of the rescue effort. This massive media saturation of the ordeal prompted then-President Ronald Reagan to state that “everybody in America became godmothers and godfathers of Jessica while this was going on.”

On this day in 1968, the Bucks play their 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]

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.15.16

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Saturday in town will be cloudy with a high of sixty-seven, and a likelihood of thunderstorms tonight. Sunrise is 7:09 and sunset 6:10, for 11h 01m 00s of daytime.  The moon is full, with 99.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

Every so often, while people are swimming, a whale shows up.  This would be one of those every-so-oftens —

On this day in 1780, the British retreat, thankfully relenting too soon:

A combined force of 1,000 British regulars, Hessians, Loyalists and Indians, led by Loyalist Sir John Johnson and Mohawk Chief Joseph Brant, attempts an unsuccessful attack upon Middleburgh (or Middle Fort), New York, on this day in 1780.

Only 200 Continental soldiers under Major Melanchthon Woolsey were defending the fort, and unknown to the British, the Continentals were low on ammunition. In their ignorance of the Patriots’ weakness, the Loyalist forces retreated in the direction of the Schoharie Valley, contenting themselves with destroying everything in their path and continuing the civil war raging in upstate New York.

Johnson was the son of Sir William Johnson, Britain’s superintendent of Indian Affairs, who lived in the Mohawk Valley. The younger Johnson inherited his father’s sizable estate in 1774 only to relinquish it when he led a group of his tenants and native allies in flight to Montreal, Canada, after the outbreak of war between the colonies and Great Britain in 1775. Johnson’s cohort created the King’s Royal Regiment of New York, which fought throughout the war. For his efforts, Johnson became a British brigadier general in 1782.

Joseph Brant ranked among Britain’s best commanders during the American War for Independence. He was an educated Christian and Freemason who studied directly with Eleazer Wheelock at Moor’s Indian Charity School, the parent institution of Dartmouth College. His older sister Mary was Sir William Johnson’s common-law wife and also played a significant role in colonial and revolutionary Indian affairs. At the close of the war, the Brants and their Iroquois followers left the United States for Canada, where they found land and safety with their British allies.

Cats

Friday Catblogging: How Cats See the World

by  • 

Sometimes with less clarity, sometimes with more clarity, than we do…

See, How Cats See The World Compared To Humans @ Business Insider.

Assault Awareness & Prevention, University

UW-Whitewater’s Interim Athletic Director

by  • 

UW-Whitewater has hired an interim athletic director to replace Amy Edmonds, who was recently demoted:

Effective Oct. 17, Randy Marnocha will begin serving as Interim Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Chancellor Beverly Kopper announced today. Amy Edmonds will return to her previous position as associate athletic director, and will assist with the transition.

“Randy Marnocha is a familiar member of the Warhawk family. He served our campus for 27 years in various capacities, including 2006 until 2010 as Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs. He then took a position with the University of Wisconsin-Madison Athletic Department as associate director for business operations,” Chancellor Kopper said. “Randy has experience at one of the nation’s premier athletic departments, and I am pleased that he will bring his skill-base and knowledge to Warhawk Athletics.”

A national search for a new Director of Intercollegiate Athletics will begin in the spring.

See, Interim Athletic Director named @ https://announcements.uww.edu/Details/12892.

One may have read local stories about Edmonds’s demotion, in which UW-Whitewater’s Media Relations Director Sara Kuhl has denied that the athletic leadership change had anything to do with a recent lawsuit against Edmonds and former Chancellor Telfer.

It’s an unverfiable denial, of course, and in any event reporters who are asking Kuhl if the demotion is a result of former coach Timothy Fader’s lawsuit only show how little they understand about the history of UW-Whitewater’s administrative handling of sexual assault complaints.

Coach Fader’s effective dismissal and subsequent lawsuit wasn’t a cause, but instead an effect, of a pattern of mishandling, ignoring, and obstructing assault complaints. See, as a category at this website, Assault Awareness & Prevention.

Asking a question about a single lawsuit isn’t adequate follow-up to a wider problem: it’s evidence of ignorance, laziness, or servility.

 

Poll, Weird Tales

Friday Poll: What Was That?

by  • 


In September, a live video cam of an eagle’s nest seemed to capture something else walking below on the ground. There’s now excitement that this might be a recording of a Sasquatch. (In the embedded video, the action occurs in the upper right corner of the recording, and is enhanced and placed in a circle in the center of the screen.)

See, Some see Bigfoot photo-bombing Michigan eagle’s nest cam.

What was that?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.14.16

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in the Whippet City will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-four. Sunrise is 7:08 AM and sunset is 6:12 PM, for 11h 03m 47s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 95.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, Dr. King wins the Nobel Peace Prize. He delivered his acceptance speech on December 10, 1964 in Oslo:

On this day in 1912, Theodore Roosevelt is shot in Milwaukee while campaigning as third-party candidate for president:

On the night of October 14, 1912, Theodore Roosevelt was shot in Milwaukee. Roosevelt was in Wisconsin stumping as the presidential candidate of the new, independent Progressive Party, which had split from the Republican Party earlier that year. Roosevelt already had served two terms as chief executive (1901-1909), but was seeking the office again as the champion of progressive reform. Unbeknownst to Roosevelt, a New York bartender named John Schrank had been stalking him for three weeks through eight states. As Roosevelt left Milwaukee’s Hotel Gilpatrick for a speaking engagement at the Milwaukee Auditorium and stood waving to the gathered crowd, Schrank fired a .38-caliber revolver that he had hidden in his coat.

Roosevelt was hit in the right side of the chest and the bullet lodged in his chest wall. Seeing the blood on his shirt, vest, and coat, his aides pleaded with him to seek medical help, but Roosevelt trivialized the wound and insisted on keeping his commitment. His life was probably saved by the speech, since the contents of his coat pocket — his metal spectacle case and the thick, folded manuscript of his talk — had absorbed much of the force of the bullet. Throughout the evening he made light of the wound, declaring at one point, “It takes more than one bullet to kill a Bull Moose,” but the candidate spend the next week in the hospital and carried the bullet inside him the rest of his life.

Schrank, the would-be assassin, was examined by psychiatrists, who recommended that he be committed to an asylum. A judge concurred and Schrank spent the remainder of his life incarcerated, first at the Northern Hospital for the Insane in Oshkosh, then at Central State Hospital for the criminally insane at the state prison at Waupun. The glass Roosevelt drank from on stage that night was acquired by the Wisconsin Historical Museum. You can read more about the assassination attempt on their Museum Object of Week pages.

JigZone‘s daily puzzle for Friday is of a gramophone:

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.13.16

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a mostly sunny day in Whitewater with a high of fifty-four. Sunrise is 7:07 AM and sunset 6:14 PM, for 11h 06m 36s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.6% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1775, the Continental Congress establishes a navy, a date now recognized as the birth of the United States Navy:

On June 12, 1775, the Rhode Island General Assembly, meeting at East Greenwich, passed a resolution creating a navy for the colony of Rhode Island. The same day, Governor Nicholas Cooke signed orders addressed to Captain Abraham Whipple, commander of the sloop Katy and commodore of the armed vessels employed by the government.[2]

The first formal movement for the creation of a Continental navy came from Rhode Island, because its merchants’ widespread shipping activities had been severely harassed by British frigates. On August 26, 1775, Rhode Island General Assembly passed a resolution that there be a single Continental fleet funded by the Continental Congress.[3] The resolution was introduced in the Continental Congress on October 3, 1775 but was tabled. In the meantime, George Washington had begun to acquire ships, starting with the schooner Hannah which was paid for out of Washington’s own pocket.[2]Hannah was commissioned and launched on September 5, 1775 from the port of Beverly, Massachusetts, after being sold by the future General John Glover of Marblehead, Massachusetts.[4]

The United States Navy recognizes October 13, 1775 as the date of its official establishment,[1] the passage of the resolution of the Continental Congress at Philadelphia that created the Continental Navy.[5] On this day, Congress authorized the purchase of two vessels to be armed for a cruise against British merchant ships; these ships became Andrew Doria and Cabot.[1] The first ship in commission was the USS Alfred which was purchased on November 4 and commissioned on December 3 by Captain Dudley Saltonstall.[6] On November 10, 1775, the Continental Congress passed a resolution calling for two battalions of Marines to be raised for service with the fleet.[7]

JigZone‘s daily puzzle for Thursday is of a flower:

Politics, Poll, Presidential race 2016, US Senate Race 2016

Marquette Law Poll Results (Early October ’16 Edition)

by  • 

The early October Marquette Law School poll results are out, and here are two key findings from the 10.6.16 to 10.9.16 poll (the full results will be available online later this afternoon).


Clinton-Trump-Johnson-Stein, Among LV:

Feingold-Johnson-Anderson, Among LV:


City

James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 2)

by  • 

I wrote yesterday about James Fallows‘s ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed.’  Today’s post considers whether his list applies to Whitewater, and how Whitewater fares if items on the list – at least in part – apply to our small city.

One word of caution applies to Fallows’s list: it was compiled after he visited cities larger than Whitewater. In his essay, Fallows writes that “by the time we [Fallows and his wife, Deborah] had been to half a dozen cities, we had developed an informal checklist of the traits that distinguished a place where things seemed to work.”

Those first half-dozen cities from the City Makers: American Futures series were Holland MI (33,000), Rapid City SD (67,000), Sioux Falls SD (153,000), Burlington VT (42,000), Eastport ME (1,300), and Redlands CA (68,000) (using 2010 Census figures).  All except one are larger than Whitewater.  When one reviews list for signs of success, it’s clear that it derives from more populous communities, where greater size has begun to limit coordination of projects.  It’s a limitation on use of the checklist worth remembering.

Here below are the eleven signs, with comments on each.

1. Divisive national politics seem a distant concern.  I’d say that, for the most part, this is true for us: we’re not a place where national controversies matter much.  On the contrary, Whitewater is a place of hyper-locality, where policymakers sometimes act as though all the world ends at Townline Road.  If anything, we’re too locally focused, to the detriment of higher standards.   (See, on the need for a higher standard, What Standards for Whitewater?)

2. You can pick out the local patriots.  Here again, our situation is the opposite of Fallows’ concern: he’s worried about “Who makes this town go?” in cities that are large enough that many people might not know influential residents; Whitewater’s a smaller place where a few town notables are intoxicated with the idea of wrapping the city in a single, neat package to be held in their grasping hands.

Whitewater doesn’t have a problem with too few leaders, she has a problem with too many people in a small town advancing themselves under the guise of being a ‘Whitewater Advocate,’ conflicts of interest or lack of insight notwithstanding their efforts.  (What a sad condition not to see that advocacy requires more than simple-minded boosterism; one truly sees the object of one’s love with clear eyes.)

Whitewater has a same-ten-people-problem because the same ten people can’t see beyond empty boilerplate.

The answer to DYKWIA? should be YMBFKM.

It’s instinctual for libertarians to dislike concentrations of state power (and often other kinds of power more broadly).   Better to be a counterweight to others’ striving, assuring by doing so that there will be a fair equilibrium within one’s community.

3. “Public-private partnerships” are real.  One can guess that I’ve my doubts about this generally, but these doubts are borne out in Whitewater.  Here’s a test: list all the public money that’s been spent here, and then list how many jobs have been created (omitting public employees shifted from nearby, well-paid employees already on the university payroll, work-study students and interns, but including only actual, private, full-time jobs).

When Mr. Clapper produces that table – to supply good data to otherwise bad rhetoric – only then can one begin to evaluate the unctuous claims so often made in this city.

Now you know, and I know, too, that Messrs. Clapper, Reel, and Binnie would like to find a so-called public-private partnership for trash-importation into this tiny city of ours.  Tree City, Bird City, Trash City: one of these doesn’t fit with the others.

That’s not the success that Fallows has in mind, especially in a city of our small population and limited natural area.  It’s not the hoped-for success any reasonable person would have for this city.

4.  People know the civic story.  I think residents could use more of our history, but at least those who’ve grown up here seem to know it well enough.

5.  They have a downtown.  We do, and we’re better for it.  I’m not connected to anyone in Downtown Whitewater, Inc. (and as it’s a WEDC-supported entity I’ll remain distant and detached).  Still, I like our downtown very much, and hope better for it yet to come.

6.  They are near a research university.  We don’t have a research university, but we do have a good undergraduate school in the very center of town.

7.  They have, and care about, a community college.  Fallows means that a community college might substitute for lack of a university; we are not lacking, as we have a comprehensive, four-year university.

8.  They have unusual schools.  We briefly had a charter school, but there’s a deeper point here, about the range of teaching, and the limits of a narrow, traditional approach.  Briefly: fighting over an incremental difference in ACT scores as a marketing tool is futile; one has no comparative advantage when one is indistinct among background static.  (Here I am talking about collective marketing, not individual performance.)  Whatever his ability to keep a general harmony, our last district administrator stuck to the conventional, with the hope of a slightly better showing.

That’s futile as a marketing effort (no one notices among the clutter of other marketing efforts), and is uncompelling to the creative and ambitious families we’d like to attract.

Success comes in great part from an innovative curriculum and an energetic faculty.  One needn’t to go to university to teach the way everyone else has been teaching for the last few decades.  One goes to school – among many other important reasons – to advance learing, not duplicate stale methods.  

9.  They make themselves open.  We’ve made gains in this regard, but there’s much more to do.

10.  They have big plans.  We’re a small town, and sometimes our plans are too big, and often too expensive.  We’ve had our share of ‘come on guys, let’s put on a show’ spenders, including too many big-government conservatives who’ve shoved ineffectual, expensive project after ineffectual, expensive project on a city that cannot easily bear it.

11.  They have craft breweries.  Thankfully, we do.  Private efforts have led to a public gain.  The foundation of our society’s prosperity is private property and private enterprise.

We’ve strengths, but also much to do, in our small and beautiful city.  For it all, we’ve good reason to be optimistic.

Yesterday : James Fallows on ‘Eleven Signs a City Will Succeed’ (Part 1)

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.12.16

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek in town will see an even chance of morning showers and a high of sixty-two.  Sunrise is 7:06 AM and sunset is 6:15 PM, for 11h 09m 25s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing gibbous with 81.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority will hold a housing roundtable at 8 AM, the Police and Fire Commission meets at Noon, and the CDA Board will meet at 6:30 PM.

There are lots of small drones in the air, and it was predictable that someone would build a drone to hunt other drones.  Airspace Systems is that someone:

On this day in 1782, Henry Dodge is born:

On this date Territorial Governor Henry Dodge was born in Vincennes, Indiana. The son of Israel Dodge and Nancy Hunter, Henry Dodge was the first Territorial Governor of Wisconsin. Prior to this position, he served as Marshall and Brigadier General of the Missouri Territory, Chief Justice of the Iowa County (Wisconsin) Court. During the Black Hawk War of 1832 he led the Wisconsin militia who ultimately brought the conflict to its tragic end. He served as Territorial Governor from July 3, 1836 to October 5, 1841 and again from May 13, 1845 to June 7, 1848. He also served as U.S. Territorial Senator from 1841 to 1846.

When Wisconsin was admitted to the Union as a State, dodge was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate; he was reelected in 1851 and served from June 8, 1848, to March 3, 1857. He was also twice nominated for President and once for Vice President, all of which he declined. Henry Dodge died on June 19, 1867 in Burlington, Iowa.

JigZone‘s puzzle for Wednesday is of a candy jar: