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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.27.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-six. Sunrise is 6:48 and sunset 6:42, for 11h 54m 30s of daytime. We’ve a full moon this Sunday, with a supermoon lunar escape tonight. (There are stories that, unfoundedly, a small number of people are worried that this natural phenomenon of the created order somehow represents a sign of impending apocalypse. On the contrary, it’s evidence of the beauty of creation; claims to the contrary are wildly misplaced. If we’ve not too many clouds tonight, we’ll have something rare and beautiful to see.)

Rabbits are taking over a town in Washington, and most respondents (53.85%) to the Friday FW poll think that the result of their invasion will be a long, cold war between rabbits and humans.

On this day in 1964, the Warren Commission issued a report concluding, as reporter Anthony Lewis wrote, that

[t]he assassination of President Kennedy was the work of one man, Lee Harvey Oswald. There was no conspiracy, foreign or domestic.

That was the central finding in the Warren Commission report, made public this evening. Chief Justice Earl Warren and the six other members of the President’s Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy were unanimous on this and all questions.

The commission found that Jack Ruby was on his own in killing Oswald. It rejected all theories that the two men were in some way connected. It said that neither rightists nor Communists bore responsibility for the murder of the President in Dallas last Nov. 22.

Why did Oswald to it? To this most important and most mysterious question the commission had no certain answer. It suggested that Oswald had no rational purpose, no motive adequate if “judged by the standards of reasonable men.”

On this day in 1862, the 29th readies to defend the Union:

1862 – (Civil War) 29th Wisconsin Infantry Musters In
The 29th Wisconsin Infantry mustered in. It would go on to participate in the battles of Port Gibson, Champion Hill, the Sieges of Vicksburg and Jackson, the Red River Campaign, the siege of Spanish Fort and the capture of Fort Blakely, Alabama.

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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.26.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ve a mild, autumn Saturday ahead, with partly sunny skies and a high of seventy-eight. Sunset is 6:47 and sunset 6:44, for 11h 57m 24s of daytime. Daytime is now less than half our full day.

On this day in 1960, Sen. Kennedy and Vice President Nixon participated in the first of four televised presidential debates:

 

On this day in 1833, several tribes cede land to the United States government:

1833 – Indian Treaty Cedes to Government

On this date Indian tribes including the Ojibwe, Menominee, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Ottawa and Sauk ceded land to the government, including areas around Milwaukee, especially to the south and east of the city. The ceded land included much of what is today John Michael Kohler and Terry Andrae State Parks. The Potawatomi continued to live along the Black River until the 1870s, despite the treaty. [Source:Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources]

Government Spending, Science/Nature, Waste Digesters

Cold Fusion Research Wasn’t Bad Because It Was a Budget Buster

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There’s a brief discussion at the end of Whitewater City Manager Clapper’s state of the city address from 9.17.15 that comes to mind this morning. (I’ll get to the substance of his specific remarks about a digester-energy project another time.)

For today, I’ve a different perspective to offer. Consider this question: was cold fusion a mistake because that kind of research was budgetarily expensive?

I don’t think so; expense wasn’t the key problem with thinking that one might be able to produce bountiful amounts of fusion-reaction energy at room temperatures. It’s a mistake to waste money, but there was a bigger problem than budget allocations – much bigger – with cold-fusion research.

The much bigger problem was that the supposed positive results were irreproducible – what Fleishmann and Pons did wasn’t sound science, as it could not be confirmed, and grand claims were the result of obvious errors and wishful thinking. (See, along these lines, The Cold Fusion Problem.)

That sort of error is far greater than wasting hundreds of thousands or even millions – it’s the error of inferior standards that cost more than any line-item allocation ever could. Continuing support for that research is support for magic, fairy tales, etc. There is an immediate budgetary waste, but there is a much bigger loss to rational policy and planning (and so, an expense that ripples beyond budgets to the whole society).

It’s also false – and oddly anachronistic – to contend that a community needs to ‘experiment’ with digester-energy projects, as though that has not been done for generations and found wanting. It’s not a new idea, just as leeches, tea leaves, bleeding patients, or cold fusion are not new ideas.

I’m sure we’ll hear again someday that cold fusion might solve all our energy needs, or leeches might be good for curing myriad maladies, but those are neither new ideas nor ideas whose principal deficiency is only one of dollars and cents.

Animals, Poll, Weird Tales

Friday Poll: Rabbits v. Humans of Langley, Washington

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In Langley, Washington, people are complaining that rabbits are overrunning the town:

Hundreds of bunnies are running wild around Langley, on Whidbey Island. They’re burrowing holes in school football fields, destroying the foundations of buildings and posing health risks to people and their pets, according to local officials.

“There is feces everywhere and there are some illnesses that can be carried and transmitted,” Brian Miller, facilities director for the South Whidbey School District, told NBC affiliate KING 5.

Countless wild rabbits are digging up a middle school football field in Langley, Wash. KING5
The bunnies are even digging up a middle school football field that the district just spent $80,000 to restore.

“Every day there are new holes, and the ones we’ve filled in are dug out, again,” Miller said.

In a battle between rabbits and the people of Langley, who wins?

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.25.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 6:46 and sunset 6:46, for 12h 00m 17s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 89.7% of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1957, soldiers from the members of the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division escort nine black school children who had earlier been forced to withdraw from Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas because of angry white mobs:

Washington, Sept. 24–President Eisenhower sent Federal troops to Little Rock, Ark., today to open the way for the admission of nine Negro pupils to Central High School.

Earlier, the President federalized the Arkansas National Guard and authorized calling the Guard and regular Federal forces to remove obstructions to justice in Little Rock school integration.

His history-making action was based on a formal finding that his “cease and desist” proclamation, issued last night, had not been obeyed. Mobs of pro-segregationists still gathered in the vicinity of Central High School this morning.

Tonight, from the White House, President Eisenhower told the nation in a speech for radio and television that he had acted to prevent “mob rule” and “anarchy.”

On this day in 1961, Wisconsin first requires seatbelts:

1961 – Law Requires Seatbelts in Wisconsin Cars
On this date Wisconsin Governor Gaylord Nelson signed into law a bill that required all 1962 cars sold in Wisconsin to be equipped with seat belts. [Source: Janesville Gazette]

A Google a Day asks a sports question:

What NFL quarterback threw for over 3000 yards and got 21 touchdowns in the 2010 season, but still did not make it into the “Hall of Fame”?

Press

What’s a Dollar-A-Week Subscription to a Print Newspaper?

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What’s a dollar-a-week subscription to a print newspaper?

If you’ve received a direct mail solicitation to subscribe to a local, daily newspaper for just one dollar per week, then you’ve received a request to get the inserts that advertisers place inside the paper.

For a dollar-per-week, the paper is simply a delivery mechanism for advertisers’ inserts.

That means two things for readers.

First, when the inserts go the paper will fold.

Second, in the meantime, the quality of content in the paper will decline as publishers shave costs by printing anything, by anyone, to fill the pages that they wrap around the inserts.

Beautiful Whitewater, Food, Restaurant

Whitewater’s Advantage Over Copenhagen, Home to One of the Finest Restaurants on Earth

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In Copenhagen (population 583,000), a famous chef (René Redzepi) plans to close temporarily his famous restaurant (Noma) and turn part of it into an urban farm:

Foraging superstar and chef René Redzepi is closing his famed Copenhagen restaurant Noma, which has been named the best restaurant in the world multiple times. According to the New York Times, he plans to reopen Noma in 2017 “with a new menu and a new mission.” A major pillar of the new business will be an urban farm with the restaurant at its center, much like chef Dan Barber’s Blue Hill at Stone Barns in New York. Redzepi notes, “It makes sense to have your own farm at a restaurant of this caliber.” The new Noma will relocate to Copenhagen’s “freewheeling Christiania neighborhood,” to an abandoned lot where empty warehouses and plenty of graffiti decorate the landscape.

Copenhagen’s big, and Whitewater is small, but we have this advantage that Chef Redzepi can only match at great expense and effort: we are even now surrounded by fresh, local produce of fine quality and variety. He can – and surely will – find the delicious ingredients he needs for his new establishment.

We, too, have delicious produce, suitable for fine meals, and it’s within our reach even now. Table after table, basket after basket, all around us. Fields, gardens, pastures, greenhouses: we’re brimming with what so many wish they could enjoy.

There’s a political slogan that’s something like ‘we are the change we’ve been looking for.’ Well, for ingredients, we’re the place we’ve been looking for.

Here, so very close, marvelous foods, available so often as we should like.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.24.15

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Whitewater’s Thursday will be mostly cloudy with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise today is 6:45 and sunset 6:48, for 12h 03m 09s of daytime. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 81.9% of its visible disk illuminated.

Whitewater’s CDA Seed Capital Committee meets at 4 PM and CDA Board meets at 5 PM today.

On this day in 1968, the CBS News program 60 minutes first aired:

The program employed a magazine format, similar to that of the Canadian program W5, which premiered two years earlier. It pioneered many of the most important investigative journalism procedures and techniques, including re-editing interviews, hidden cameras, and “gotcha journalism” visits to the home or office of an investigative subject.[6] Similar programs sprang up in Australia and Canada during the 1970s, as well as on local television news.[6]

Initially, 60 Minutes aired as a bi-weekly show hosted by Harry Reasoner and Mike Wallace, debuting on September 24, 1968, and alternating weeks with other CBS News productions on Tuesday evenings at 10:00 p.m.Eastern Time. The first edition, described by Reasoner in the opening as a “kind of a magazine for television,” featured the following segments:

  1. A look inside the headquarters suites of presidential candidates Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey during their respective parties’ national conventions that summer;
  2. Commentary by European writers Malcolm Muggeridge, Peter von Zahn, and Luigi Barzini, Jr. on the American electoral system;
  3. A commentary by political columnist Art Buchwald;
  4. An interview with then-Attorney General Ramsey Clark about police brutality;
  5. “A Digression,” a brief, scripted piece in which two silhouetted men (one of them Andy Rooney) discuss the presidential campaign;
  6. An abbreviated version of an Academy Award-winning short film by Saul Bass, Why Man Creates; and
  7. A meditation by Wallace and Reasoner on the relation between perception and reality. Wallace said that the show aimed to “reflect reality”.

On this day in 1857, N.C. Harmon wins big:

On this date N.C. Harmon of Lyman was awarded the first premium prize for cheese made in Sheboygan County. The award was given at the Sheboygan Agricultural Society fair held in Sheboygan Falls. The next year saw John J. Smith procure the first cheese vat in Sheboygan County. He manufactured cheese on a cooperative plan, collecting curd from his neighbors. Both are early events in the long and important history of cheesemaking in Sheboygan. [Source: Sheboygan County, Wisconsin Genealogy and History]

A Google a Day asks a geography question:

What town, once a fishing mecca, is now a desert with a “cemetery of ships” due to the shrinking Aral Sea?

CDA, Corporate Welfare, Gluttony, Government Spending, Local Government, WEDC

WEDC Spends More, Produces Less

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It should come as no surprise that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s millions in taxpayer handouts to well-fed executives and political cronies are producing less with each successive spending spree:

The state’s flagship job-creation agency handed out nearly $90 million more in economic development awards last year than the previous year, yet those awards are expected to create or retain almost 6,000 fewer jobs and result in $400 million less in capital investment.

Most of the additional award funding resulted from a historic rehabilitation tax credit that Gov. Scott Walker and the Legislature expanded in 2013. The agency gave out $2.9 million in 2013-14, but that jumped to $78.1 million last year.

Even without the historic credits, total economic development awards increased $13.5 million, while promised job creation and capital investment dropped….

See, AGENCY HANDED OUT $90 MILLION MORE LAST YEAR: WEDC awards increase as job creation numbers fall @ State Journal.

At the same time, Wisconsin lags America in job creation:

Wisconsin ranked 30th overall in the nation in private-sector job creation during the 12 months ending in March, according to data released Thursday.

Wisconsin reported a 1.72% increase in private-sector jobs for that period, compared with the previous 12 months, according to employment numbers released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The state added 39,624 jobs.

The state’s performance compares with a 2.4% increase for the nation — continuing Wisconsin’s historic lag in job creation.

We’re spending more, but producing less for it, and still underperforming the national average.

Three other key points:

1. As with tens of millions in state credits for Kohl’s, some of the jobs created needn’t last long to be counted. Supposed job-creation claims are often sketchy and temporary.

2. There’s now a flood of statewide reporting about WEDC’s failures. That wave of inquiries & reporting isn’t close to being done.

3. Even after results of those inquiries are published, there’s a significant issue of how local development agencies or city governments are spending public money, what they’re reporting as ‘job creation,’ and how loans are either unpaid or converted into grants so that they needn’t be repaid. Several cities or agencies in Wisconsin have embraced WEDC more firmly than others. Whitewater’s Community Development Authority and city government are among them.

Most of these communities have proceeded with little more than economic-justification-by-press-release. Actual evidence of job creation is either absent or flimsy. In Whitewater, the CDA truly looks more like a third-tier public-relations effort than an actual community development agency. In this regard, Whitewater is probably at the forefront of the WEDC wave: headlines, happy insiders, and exaggerated claims.

Months of statewide examinations into WEDC will inexorably lead to examinations of local agencies that have embraced the WEDC model most warmly.