FREE WHITEWATER

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.15.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday in town will be mostly sunny with a high of sixty-seven.  Sunrise is 7:08 and sunset 6:12, for 11h 03m 07s of daytime.  The moon is a waxing crescent with 5.4% of its visible disk illuminated.

One might think of Syria as a civil war, and now a proxy war, but who’s fighting whom?  It’s hard to sort it all out, but Vox makes the attempt:

 

On this day in 1964, the Soviet Union replaces one dictator with another.  The New York Times reported the news the next day:

Moscow, Friday, Oct. 16–Premier Khrushchev has been deprived of political power in the Soviet Union.

He was replaced by Leonid I. Brezhnev, 57 years old, as First Secretary of the Communist party and by Aleksei N. Kosygin, 60, as Premier.

Mr. Khrushchev, who is 70, even lost his seat in the Presidium of the Central Committee of the party, the third most important position he held in the leadership.

This indicated that he had fallen into disgrace.

[Dispatches did not mention if Mr. Khrushchev had been removed from the Central Committee itself. Under normal procedure such action would come at a meeting of the Soviet Communist party Congress.]

On this day in 1885, Wisconsin lumbermen say they’ve had enough:

On this date 2,500 Marinette-Menominee lumbermen walked off the job to support a reduction in workday hours. Mill owners locked out the workers in an attempt to force acceptance of an eleven-hour workday. The lockout failed as many lumbermen simply moved away from the area rather than agree to work eleven hour days. The employers were forced to negotiate with unions and conceded to a ten-hour work day and cash payment for wages. To learn more about lumber and Wisconsin History, visit Turning Points. [Source: A Labor History Anthology, p.24]

Here’s the Thursday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — October 12-16
Series Cancellations
Let’s see what you can put together for this week’s TV viewing. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get the full name of a current TV drama.
Example:
Macabre illustrator Edward / elf’s boss / rock opera by The Who
Answer:
Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)
What to Submit:
Submit the TV show’s name and the smaller words (as “Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)” in the example) for your answer.
Thursday, October 15
Hotel cleaner / get a smile out of / proofreader’s insertion mark / military force

 

Nature, Space

Virtual Spinning Globe of Jupiter

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View More: Technology News|Live News|More News Videos

When one thinks of Jupiter, the Great Red Spot immediately comes to mind. The new images show that the large swirling red vortex continues to shrink and assume a more circular shape over time. The long axis of the storm is now 150 miles shorter than it was in 2014, which while faster than normal, is still consistent with long-term observations Hubble has been making over the years.

Via Virtual spinning globe of Jupiter offers new look at Great Red Spot @ CBS News.

Blogging, City, Economics, Politics

Methods, Standards, Goals

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Whitewater doesn’t have, and hasn’t had, a legitimate press that would serve as a check on political or corporate power.  On the contrary, what’s passed for reporting in our area is merely written sycophancy.  In this way, Whitewater has been ahead of a national trend toward a weaker press, or no press at all.

Yet, before plentiful newspapers, before a vigorous press, America had vigorous inquiry and debate. We’re now returning to something like our early era of pamphleteering, made incomparably better for being both audio-visual and also more dynamic between readers and authors.  For the waning press, the new way represents a shock of inclusion, but that shock is all to the good.

What, then, shall we do, in this new (but in some ways old) world?

This world will not be won through grand pronouncements, but through daily work, repeated over months, seasons, and years. One begins every day with new work to do, knowing there is always more to do, tenaciously approached from the perspective of a dark horse underdog.

That sort of work requires methods, standards, and goals.

Methods.  One should have a method, in the case of a blogger, with Steps for Blogging on a Policy or Proposal.  There should be a discernible pattern to one’s work.

Critically, though, method should meet one’s standards and goals.  Just as the Romans had to build a fleet, mostly from scratch, to battle Carthage, so one sometimes has to build new things to achieve one’s goals.  In those cases when a new method or medium is required to carry the day, one learns, builds, and deploys those methods or media accordingly.

If one needs ships, and doesn’t have them, one learns shipbuilding, and then builds ships.

Standards.  We are an advanced people, as are many of our friends abroad.  We deserve more than dodgy data, deceptive claims, and lazy work.

The overwhelming number of people in any community are sharp and capable; society would not be possible otherwise.  Libertarians (as I am) do not hold this as true because we say it; we say it because it is true.

(Some number of people in any community are permanently disabled or disadvantaged.  We do not need obligations from them; they need comfort from us.)

For our city, then, we owe ourselves the best of Wisconsin, of America, and of civilized places beyond, for all Whitewater.

Goals.  A community’s future may take diverse ideological hues, of left, right, or center.  That will always matter less than that our  community – each person, individually – is assured the rights of all of America, and all of Wisconsin, for all of Whitewater.

One can see that a community’s fixation on a few key people, stakeholders, or influencers is both childish and destructive.  It’s to the good that this way of thinking slowly wanes in Whitewater: it’s been bad for our politics, and not a single mature & reasonable person will ever miss it.

Those who glory in personality are proud; those who submit to such people are pitiful.

The goal, then, should be rights universally upheld, but the obstacle is bias, partiality, and the overweening entitlement of a few against the many.  It’s to the best, all things being otherwise fair, to balance against power, as Churchill observed of Britain in the nineteenth century: “We have in all occasions been the friend of the second strongest power in Europe and have never yielded ourselves to the strongest power.”

So it should be with commentary: balancing against the conflict-riddled, influence-seeking of a few, who would manipulate politics or economics to their illegitimate ends.

In method, standards, and goals this is decisive: a dogged commitment each day, assuring a better future.

 

 

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.14.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Midweek will be sunny with a high of sixty-four. Sunrise is 7:07 and sunset 8:13, for 11h 05m 55s of daytime. The moon is a waxing crescent with 2% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. wins the Nobel Peace Prize:

Oslo, Norway, Oct. 14–The Nobel Peace prize for 1964 was awarded today to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The 35-year-old civil rights leader is the youngest winner of the prize that Dr. Alfred Nobel instituted since the first was awarded in 1901.

The prize honors acts “for the furtherance of brotherhood among men and to the abolishment or reduction of standing armies and for the extension of these purposes.”

The Norwegian state radio changed its program schedule tonight to broadcast a 30-minute program in honor of Dr. King. In a broadcast from Atlanta, Ga., Dr. King said that he was deeply moved by the honor.

Dr. King said that “every penny” of the prize money, which amounts to about $54,000, would be given to the civil rights movement.

“I am glad people of other nations are concerned with our problems here,” he said. He added that he regarded the prize as a sign that world public opinion was on the side of those struggling for freedom and dignity.

He also said he saw no political implications in the award. “I am a minister of the gospel, not a political leader,” he said.

The Nobel Committee has a English-language page for each laureate, including Dr. King.

On this day in 1912, while campaigning as an independent candidate for president, Theodore Roosevelt is shot in Milwaukee:

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.

Here’s Puzzability‘s midweek game, from a series entitled, Series Cancellations:

This Week’s Game — October 12-16
Series Cancellations
Let’s see what you can put together for this week’s TV viewing. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get the full name of a current TV drama.
Example:
Macabre illustrator Edward / elf’s boss / rock opera by The Who
Answer:
Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)
What to Submit:
Submit the TV show’s name and the smaller words (as “Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)” in the example) for your answer.
Wednesday, October 14
Anjous and Bartletts / common album type before stereo / less and less easy to see or hear / sunrise direction

 

Animals, Science/Nature

Farmer Finds a Woolly Mammoth

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A Michigan soy farmer made the astonishing discovery while he and a friend were digging in his soy field. James Bristle, from Lima township just south-west of Anne Arbor, told media that what he initally thought was a fence post turned out to be a rib bone and the first part of a woolly mammoth skeleton, including its skull and tusks.

Via Michigan farmer unearths prehistoric woolly mammoth skeleton – video @ The Guardian.

Culture, Newspapers, Politics, Press

Sadly, Milwaukee Will Catch Up to Whitewater

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In our small and beautiful city, what passes for professionally-produced news is poorly written, poorly reasoned, and fawning of authority. That’s been true for years in Whitewater, much to the delight of local officials, who’d prefer a good headline at the Gazette, Daily Union, Register (or even the Banner) to actually doing a good job.

More accurately: for the lazy, middling, or superficial a good headline is proof of a good job.

Over at Urban Milwaukee, Bruce Murphy writes about how Gannett is likely to gut the Journal Sentinel:

Not many editors — in the traditional sense — are used. Writers for a particular beat may make story decisions (within Gannett guidelines) and a “writing coach” or “content coach” may edit stories by various reporters. In an attempt to appeal to younger readers, newspapers may have a “beverage reporter” (covering beer and the bar scene) and fashion reporter, while the state capitol desk might get just one reporter.

To get a sense of how much the Journal Sentinel’s staff might be cut, I compared its current editorial staff (editors, writers, photo, design and online people) of 117 people with Gannett papers in two mid-sized cities. The Louisville Courier Journal, in a metro area of 1.3 million, has just 63 total staff covering these same functions. The Indianapolis Star, in a metro area of 1.76 million people, has 89 staff covering these functions. Given Milwaukee’s metro population of 1.55 million, you’d expect the staffing to fall somewhere between the other two cities, meaning the Journal Sentinel loses in the neighborhood of 35-40 staff….

Odds are the people let go will be the most veteran, highest-paid staff, the ones most knowledgable about the community they are covering….

Enterprise reporting? The Journal Sentinel has 13 staff on its watchdog team. “That’s going to be a luxury,” Hopkins says. “In 33 years, USA Today has never won a Pulitzer.” The Indy Star lists just one investigative reporter (and a list of “watchdog” reporters who are clearly just beat reporters). The Louisville paper lists two, but one sounds like a beat reporter.

See, in full, Bruce Murphy: How Gannett Will Shrink the Journal Sentinel @ Urban Milwaukee.

That’s a bad situation for Milwaukee’s residents, but it’s one with which we’ve had to live in Whitewater for years. The supposed news sites that I listed in the first paragraph don’t speak truth to power – they cower before power, writing obligingly, servilely, fawningly.

And yet – and yet – those officials who dream of a world without inquiry, scrutiny, and analysis dream a dark dream in vain. They neither deserve nor will have the world for which they so selfishly yearn.

We are a better and more creative people than that; we are a principled and inquisitive society.

Tomorrow: Methods, Standards, and Goals.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.13.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Tuesday in Whitewater will be cloudy in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, with a high of sixty for the day.  Sunrise is 7:06 and sunset 8:15, for 11h 08m 45s of daytime.  It’s a new moon.

On this day in 1943, Italy abandons the Axis, and declares war against Germany:

Algiers, Oct. 13–Italy declared war on Nazi Germany, her former Axis partner, at 3 P.M. today, Greenwich time [11 A.M. in New York].

Acting on orders of King Victor Emmanuel as transmitted by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the Italian Ambassador in Madrid notified the German Ambassador there that:

“In the face of repeated and intensified acts of war committed against Italians by the armed forces of Germany, from 1500 hours Greenwich time on the thirteenth day of October Italy considers herself in a state of war with Germany.”

Thus the defeated nation led into war by Benito Mussolini re-entered it against its former ally through a curt diplomatic exchange in the capital of the country in which they had first collaborated on a military basis seven years ago.

On this day in 1924, Milwaukee’s first black police office is sworn to service:

On this date the first African American police officer in the Milwaukee department, Judson Walter Minor, was appointed. [Source: Negro Business Directory of the State of Wisconsin 1950-1951, p.112]

Here’s the Tuesday game from Puzzability:

This Week’s Game — October 12-16
Series Cancellations
Let’s see what you can put together for this week’s TV viewing. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get the full name of a current TV drama.
Example:
Macabre illustrator Edward / elf’s boss / rock opera by The Who
Answer:
Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)
What to Submit:
Submit the TV show’s name and the smaller words (as “Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)” in the example) for your answer.
Tuesday, October 13
Baby’s bed / big water pipe / common tree in L.A.  / river mostly in Pakistan that gives a neighboring country its name

 

 

WGTB, WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN

What Stops a Trane?

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WGTB logo PNG 112x89 Post 40 in a series. When Green Turns Brown is an examination of a small town’s digester-energy project, in which Whitewater, Wisconsin would import other cities’ waste, claiming that the result would be both profitable and green.

For months, Whitewater’s municipal government discussed projects that Trane, an outside vendor, would perform.  These projects included processing biosolids (discarded waste and feces) as part of a digester-energy project and a separate energy-efficiency upgrade of Whitewater’s municipal facilities.  Whitewater committed up to $150,000 for the digester-energy study, and over one-million for the energy-efficiency program.  Some of the same representatives of Trane presented the sales presentations for both programs.

Trane’s digester-energy study received enthusiastic support from city officials, including Wastewater Superintendent Tim Reel and Councilmember Ken Kidd (“clearly it is better to be early in the game than late in the game”).

As late as July 2014, the Donohue firm deferred questions about waste processing for energy to Trane, as the leader for that digester-energy project.

Then, by December 2014,  Trane’s status had evidently changed, and that vendor became the subject of two closed-session meetings about possible litigation between the City of Whitewater and Trane.  The agenda items and minutes from those two meetings appear below:

Agenda, December 2, 2014, http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/2014-1202_complete_packet_with_links.pdf

C-4 CLOSED SESSION. Adjournment to Closed Session, to reconvene
approximately 25 minutes after adjournment to closed session, per Wisconsin
Statutes 19.85(1)(e):
“Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing
of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever
competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session”,
and per 19.85(1)(g):
“Conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering
oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with
respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved.”
Item to be Discussed:
Strategy and settlement discussions related to the Biosolids and Efficiency
Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other aspects of the
project.
Reconvene into Open Session:
Directions to City staff concerning actions related to the Bio solids and
Efficiency Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other
aspects of the project.
ADJOURNMENT

Minutes, December 2, 2014, http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/2014-1202.pdf

RECONVENE INTO OPEN SESSION. It was moved by Abbott and seconded by Winship to
reconvene into open session. The Council reconvened at 9:40 p.m.
Directions to City staff concerning actions related to the Biosolids and Efficiency
Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other aspects of the project.
Based on discussion in the Executive Session, no action was taken with regard to the Trane
contact.

Agenda, December 16, 2014, http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/2014-1216_complete_packet_reduced_with_links.pdf

C-6 EXECUTIVE SESSION. Adjournment to Closed Session, to reconvene
approximately 25 minutes after adjournment to closed session, per Wisconsin
Statutes 19.85(1)(e):
“Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing
of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever
competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session”,
and per 19.85(1)(g):
“Conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering
oral or written advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with
respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved.”
and per 19.85(1)(c):
“Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance
evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body
has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.”
Items to be Discussed:
Strategy and settlement discussions related to the Bio solids and Efficiency
Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other aspects of the
project.
Union Negotiations with WPPA (Wisconsin Professional Police
Association).
Reconvene into Open Session:
Possible directions to City staff concerning actions related to the Bio solids
and Efficiency Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other
aspects of the project.
AND
Possible Action on WPPA Union Contract.

Minutes, December 16, 2014, http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/2014-1216.pdf

Reconvene into Open Session: At 9:30 p.m., the Council reconvened into open session.
Possible direction to City staff concerning actions related to the Biosolids and Efficiency
Improvement Project Contract with Trane U.S. Inc. and other aspects of the project. It
was noted that no formal action was to be taken with regard to the Trane U.S., Inc. contract.

(Every question in this series has a unique number, assigned chronologically based on when it was asked. All the questions from When Green Turns Brown can be found in the Question Bin. Today’s questions begin with No. 261.)

261.  Did Trane complete a full study as contractually promised?

262.  If Trane did not complete a full study as contractually promised, why did she not?

263.  Where is the information, of any type, from that full or partial Trane study?

264.  Is it not clear that Trane’s waste study was or is (a) important to city officials who authorized it, (b) important to the Donohue firm that relied on it as a discarded, unfeasible  alternative, and (c) as public documents that reveal this history of this project and soundness of officials’ confidence in Trane?

265.  Why did the City of Whitewater reach a point where city officials discussed “litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved” and “[s]trategy and settlement discussions related” to Trane’s digester-energy study (among other issues)?

266.  How was the matter with Trane resolved?

WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 10.12.15

by  • 

Good morning, Whitewater.

Monday in town will be warm, with afternoon sunshine and a high of seventy-one. Sunrise is 7:05 and sunset is 6:16, for 11h 11m 34s of daytime. We’ve a new moon today.

Whitewater’s Planning Commission will meet at 6:30 PM this evening.

On this day in 1492, Columbus reaches the New World:

After twenty-nine days out of sight of land, on October 7, 1492, the crew spotted “[i]mmense flocks of birds”, some of which his sailors trapped and determined to be “field” birds (probably Eskimo curlews andAmerican golden plovers). Columbus changed course to follow their flight.[25]

Land was first sighted at two a.m. on October 12, 1492, by a sailor named Rodrigo de Triana (also known as Juan Rodriguez Bermejo) aboard La Pinta.[26] Columbus would later assert that he had first seen the land and, thus, earned the reward of 10,000 maravedís.[27][28] Columbus called the island San Salvador, in the present-day Bahamas or Turks and Caicos, although the indigenous residents had already named it Guanahani. Exactly which island in the Bahamas or Turks and Caicos this corresponds to is an unresolved topic; prime candidates are Samana Cay, Plana Cays, Grand Turk, or San Salvador Island(named San Salvador in 1925 in the belief that it was Columbus’ San Salvador)

The indigenous people he encountered in their homelands were peaceful and friendly. At the time of the European discovery of most of the islands of the Caribbean, three major indigenous peoples lived on the islands: the Taíno in the Greater Antilles, the Bahamas, and the Leeward Islands; the Island Caribs (Kalina) and Galibi in theWindward Islands and Guadeloupe; and the Ciboney (a Taíno people) and Guanahatabey of central and western Cuba, respectively. The Taínos are subdivided into Classic Taínos, who occupied Hispaniola and Puerto Rico; Western Taínos, who occupied Cuba, Jamaica, and the Bahamian archipelago; and the Eastern Taínos, who occupied the Leeward Islands.[29]Trinidad was inhabited by both Carib-speaking and Arawak-speaking groups. Most of modern Central America was part of theMesoamerican civilization. The Native American societies of Mesoamerica occupied the land ranging from central Mexico in the north to Costa Rica in the south. The cultures of Panama traded with both Mesoamerica and South America and can be considered transitional between those two cultural areas.

Columbus proceeded to observe the people and their cultural lifestyle. He also explored the northeast coast of Cuba, landing on October 28, 1492, and the northern coast of Hispaniola, present day Haiti and Dominican Republic, by December 5, 1492. Here, the Santa Maria ran aground on Christmas Day, December 25, 1492, and had to be abandoned. Columbus was received by the native cacique Guacanagari, who gave him permission to leave some of his men behind. Columbus founded the settlement, La Navidad, leaving behind 39 men.

On January 15, 1493, he set sail for home by way of the Azores.

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.

Puzzability begins a new series this week, entitled, Series Cancellations.  Here’s Monday’s game:

This Week’s Game — October 12-16
Series Cancellations
Let’s see what you can put together for this week’s TV viewing. For each day, we’ll give you a series of clues, each of which leads to a word. You must drop one letter out of each of these answer words and put them together (in order), adding spaces as needed, to get the full name of a current TV drama.
Example:
Macabre illustrator Edward / elf’s boss / rock opera by The Who
Answer:
Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)
What to Submit:
Submit the TV show’s name and the smaller words (as “Grey’s Anatomy (Gorey / Santa / Tommy)” in the example) for your answer.
Monday, October 12
Green light meaning / tiny role for a big star / obese / protagonist / what an anchorman delivers