Some cats, as though they were hamsters, use exercise wheels. (See, from 7.25.14, a video at FW on a particular wheel brand.)
What happens, though, if the wheel breaks or wears down?
Adam Savage of Tested shows how to improve a cat wheel’s performance:
Jeff and Jody Brooks contend that the home they bought in Maryland is infested with snakes, and so they’re suing a real estate agent for four times the sale price:
Jeff, with his machete, leads two lawyers to the basement.
“Let him go first,” says his wife, Jody Brooks, from the doorway.
Because their Annapolis-area home, the couple says, is infested with snakes.
Black rat snakes wintered in the walls and tunneled through the insulation. Snake paths ran from the basement to the roof.
Jeff and Jody Brooks bought the house on the Broadneck Peninsula in December. They filed a lawsuit two weeks ago seeking $2 million and claiming the real estate agent hid her knowledge of the snakes.
Here’s today’s question: assuming the home is infested with snakes, and that the Brooks family was unaware of that fact, have they suffered a loss? Is this a lost investment, or, by getting a house full of snakes, have they instead gained a bonus herpetarium, a small snake-filled zoo for the delight of the community?
(Quick note: I’m not contending that this house, as a bonus herpetarium, would be a reasonable legal defense for the realtor; it certainly wouldn’t be. This poll is simply a general measure of what the Brooks family received if they’ve a house full of black rat snakes.)
Would that snake house, in your estimation, be a good or bad thing?
Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday in town will be sunny with a high of seventy-three. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:29 for 15h 12m 43s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous, with 90.7% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1723, Adam Smith is born:
Adam Smith (16 June 1723 NS (5 June 1723 OS) – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish moral philosopher, pioneer of political economy, and key Scottish Enlightenment figure.[1]
Smith is best known for two classic works: The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759), and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, usually abbreviated as The Wealth of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work of economics. Smith is cited as the “father of modern economics” and is still among the most influential thinkers in the field of economics today.[2]
Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was one of the first students to benefit from scholarships set up by fellow Scot, John Snell. After graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures atEdinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at Glasgow teaching moral philosophy, and during this time he wrote and published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where he met other intellectual leaders of his day.
Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he expounded upon how rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and writing style were often satirised by Tory writers in the moralising tradition of William Hogarth and Jonathan Swift. In 2005, The Wealth of Nations was named among the 100 Best Scottish Books of all time.[3]
It’s worth noting that those who criticize Smith without having read his Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) simply do not understand the thinking of the man they’re criticizing.
On this day in 1883, William Horlick receives a patent for powdered milk:
On this date William Horlick patented the first powdered milk in the world. He named his new product, intended to be used as a health food for infants, “Malted Milk.” Horlick’s product went on to be used as a staple in fountain drinks as well as survival provisions. Malted milk was even included in explorations undertaken by Robert Peary, Roald Amundsen and Richard Byrd. [Source: Racine History]
Here’s the final game in Puzzability‘s Six-Packs series:
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This Week’s Game — June 1-5
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Six-Packs
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We’ve got a splinter group of trivia every day this week. For each day, we’ll give you a category and a list of all the members of that category with six letters in their names—except one.
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Example:
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Current Supreme Court justices: Breyer, Thomas
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Answer:
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Scalia
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What to Submit:
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Submit the missing category member (as “Scalia” in the example) for your answer.
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Friday, June 5
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"Thousand Years" by Tomas Libertiny from Studio Libertiny on Vimeo.
Artist Tomas Libertiny partners with over 60.000 bees to create this splendid teapot wax sculpture. Libertiny made a teapot-shaped hive that the bees then colonized, building a hexagon comb around it and the Bees make their almost mathematically precise honeycomb structure around it. Just an awesome way of natural engineering…
I reviewed Taco Fresco previously, years ago, when the establishment was under different ownership.
This is an easy recommendation. The food’s delicious, the atmosphere pleasant.
After a long day, I thought that I’d revisit to see how Taco Fresco was was faring. (This was a visit for a review, not a causal visit otherwise. In any event, all my visits are those of an ordinary patron without special consideration, etc. It’s an understatement to say that I’ve no respect for glad-handing one’s way into an establishment.)
A preliminary question: what’s Mexican fare? Justice Potter Stewart famously declared, about a far less savory subject, that “I know it when I see it.” That’s true here – I don’t know what it means to other establishments to say that they serve ‘authentic’ Mexican food, but Taco Fresco’s servings of quesadillas, tacos, beer-ritas, etc., with an ambiance that’s Mexican, but also modern American, are well worth the visit.
Put aside others’ claims, and enjoy Taco Fresco’s mix of Mexican and American influences. I’d say this is the best Mexican that I have had in town.
Taco Fresco has seating inside (seven tables by my count), and outside (a long, high table and perhaps three other tables). They also deliver.
My visit —
I decide to eat inside, to see what it would be like at any time of year (our warm weather is short-lived).
A young and friendly waitress, about the age of one of my nieces, greets me and asks if I’ll be dining inside. I tell her that I will be, and she offers me the table of my choice. I choose a spot farther back, to see more of the dining room. Without my asking, she adjusts the lighting for my meal.
I order a soda and beer, of a less popular brew. (Beer and soda – with something bottled, I’ll often drift back and forth between one and the other; it’s not something that I’d do with anything on tap.)
The waitress offers a bottle, opened, no glass. I’m momentarily surprised, having expected a glass. But as I look around, at the hip and eclectic decor, and hear the mix of rock and indie playing in the background, I realize she’s absolutely right. A glass would be superfluous, almost wrong. She knows her establishment, and as I settle in, I see how comfortable it is.
The beer is surprisingly fresh, as though it were only recently bottled. Just right.
My server takes my order, and soon arrives a plate of quesadillas, with two small stainless containers, for sour cream and guacamole. The kitchen’s nearby; I could hear the order being prepared.
The serving is ample, but simply presented: just three items on the oval plate. I’m not sure what to make of the plain presentation at first, but the quesadillas look inviting, and the aroma is enticing.
From my first taste, I’m happy – honest to goodness, it’s delicious. Steak’s tender, and the quesadilla is lightly browned, as it should be.
A test – what will I think of the guacamole and sour cream? Bad guac is all-too-common. I sample some, and like the quesadilla, it’s tasty. So much so, that I’d have it from the small container, alone, if I didn’t have a dish to adorn.
As I’m eating, I notice the waitress opens the door for another party, then leaving. She thanks them for coming, and they depart – after meal and scene – visibly happy. She’s equally attentive to all the patrons during my visit, moving gracefully from inside to outside.
When I’m nearly finished, she brings me my check – a paper check, handwritten, with her entries for my meal. I seldom see a slip that’s not computer-generated. As much as I’m online, on this website and its sister sites, still I find the paper guest check welcome, almost quaint.
I stand to leave; she asks me if I’d like change, but I tell her it’s not necessary. She thanks me, for the tip and my visiting. I tell her that she’s welcome. There’s a part of me, though, just for a moment, that wants to thank her, and her cook, more fully for a pleasant visit. But they’ve work ahead, and so do I, so I smile and walk outside.
I can say that I enjoyed Taco Fresco, and will be back again.
Easily recommended.
ONLINE:
https://www.facebook.com/tacofresco2013
LOCATION: 175 West Main Street, Whitewater, WI 53190. (262) 473-1287.
OPEN: Dining hours are daily from 11 AM to 9:00 PM.
PRICES: Dish & beer for about $10-12.
RESERVATIONS: Accepted.
DELIVERY: Yes.
DRINKS: Beers, beer-ritas, sodas, water.
SOUND: Moderate to high, with an eclectic, mix of rock, indie.
SERVICE: Friendly, attentive, considerate.
VISITS: One (supper).
RATING: 3.5 of 4.
RATING SCALE: From one to four stars, representing the full experience of food, atmosphere, service, and pricing.
INDEPENDENCE: This review is delivered without financial or other connection to the establishment or its owner. The dining experience was that of an ordinary patron, without notice to the staff or requests for special consideration.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Thursday in town will be partly cloudy with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:29, for 15h 11m 41s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 96.3 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1989, the Chinese government orders troops to storm Tiananmen Square. The New York Times reported about massacre the next day:
BEIJING, Monday, June 5 — Army units tightened their hold on the center of the Chinese capital on Sunday, moving in large convoys on some of the main thoroughfares and firing indiscriminately at crowds as outraged citizens continued to attack and burn army vehicles.
It was clear that at least 300 people had been killed since the troops first opened fire shortly after midnight on Sunday morning but the toll may be much higher. Word-of-mouth estimates continued to soar, some reaching far into the thousands. Outbreaks of firing continued today, as more convoys of troops moved through the city.
The bloodshed stunned Beijing and seemed to traumatize its citizens. Normal life halted as armored personnel carriers and troop trucks rumbled along debris-filled roads, with soldiers firing their automatic weapons in every direction. Smoke filled the sky as workers and students vented frustration and outrage by burning army vehicles wherever they found them separated from major convoys,in side streets or at intersections.
Then and now, China’s principal political condition has been dictatorship.
On this day in 1837, a territorial cornerstone ceremony takes place:
On this date Ebenezer and Roseline Peck hosted the Capitol cornerstone-laying celebration at their log public house in Madison. Peck Cabin, Madison’s first residence, business and post office, was demolished in 1857. [Source: History Just Ahead: A Guide to Wisconsin’s Historical Markers. Edited by Sarah Davis McBride, p. 89.]
Here’s the Thursday game from Puzzability:
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This Week’s Game — June 1-5
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Six-Packs
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We’ve got a splinter group of trivia every day this week. For each day, we’ll give you a category and a list of all the members of that category with six letters in their names—except one.
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|||||
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Example:
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|||||
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Current Supreme Court justices: Breyer, Thomas
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|||||
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Answer:
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|||||
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Scalia
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What to Submit:
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Submit the missing category member (as “Scalia” in the example) for your answer.
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Thursday, June 4
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At ICRA 2015 in Seattle yesterday [that is, 5.27.15], researchers from MIT demonstrated an untethered miniature origami robot that self-folds, walks, swims, and degrades. That’s the title of their paper, in fact, and they delivered on all of those promises: from a flat sheet with a magnet on it, their robot folds itself up in just a few seconds, is immediately ready to zip around on land or water driven by magnetic fields, and then when you’ve run out of things to do with it, drive it into a tank of acetone and it’ll dissolve. This is the first time that a robot has been able to demonstrate a complete life cycle like this….
See, Origami Robot Folds Itself Up, Does Cool Stuff, Dissolves Into Nothing @ IEEE Spectrum.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Wednesday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-seven. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset 8:28, for 15h 10m 35s of daytime. It’s a full moon today.
Whitewater’s Common Council and Community Development Authority will hold a joint meeting tonight at 6 PM.
On this day in 1965, the first American spacewalk takes place as Edward White leaves his Gemini capsule. The New York Times reported the event the next day:
Cape Kennedy, Friday, June 4–For 20 minutes yesterday afternoon Maj. Edward H. White 2d of the Air Force was a human satellite of the earth as he floated across North America from the Pacific to the Atlantic.
Tethered to the Gemini 4 spacecraft, he chatted good-humoredly and snapped pictures as he darted about in raw space with a the aid of a gas-firing jet gun. Asked how he was doing by Maj. James A. McDivitt of the Air Force, the spaceship commander, Major White replied to his partner in the capsule:
“I’m doing great. This is fun.”
When he was told to re-enter the capsule, Major White laughed and said: “I’m not coming in.” But later, after more banter, he followed through on orders to return.
Here’s the midweek puzzle from Puzzability:
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This Week’s Game — June 1-5
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|||||
|
Six-Packs
|
|||||
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We’ve got a splinter group of trivia every day this week. For each day, we’ll give you a category and a list of all the members of that category with six letters in their names—except one.
|
|||||
|
Example:
|
|||||
|
Current Supreme Court justices: Breyer, Thomas
|
|||||
|
Answer:
|
|||||
|
Scalia
|
|||||
|
What to Submit:
|
|||||
|
Submit the missing category member (as “Scalia” in the example) for your answer.
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Wednesday, June 3
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Perhaps –
Tokyo Roar from Brandon Li on Vimeo.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Tuesday in town will bring sunny skies and a high of seventy-two. Sunrise is 5:18 and sunset 8:27, for 15h 09m 27s of daytime. We’ve a full moon today.
Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
It’s been years in the construction of One World Trade Center.
Here’s a time-lapse of that construction:
|
This Week’s Game — June 1-5
|
|||||
|
Six-Packs
|
|||||
|
We’ve got a splinter group of trivia every day this week. For each day, we’ll give you a category and a list of all the members of that category with six letters in their names—except one.
|
|||||
|
Example:
|
|||||
|
Current Supreme Court justices: Breyer, Thomas
|
|||||
|
Answer:
|
|||||
|
Scalia
|
|||||
|
What to Submit:
|
|||||
|
Submit the missing category member (as “Scalia” in the example) for your answer.
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
Tuesday, June 2
|
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|
Every so often, someone will ask why cats seem to toy with their food. Why not, after all, simply pounce for a quick kill? Applied animal behaviorist Dr. Karen London supplies an answer:
….A study done decades ago investigated the playful behavior that cats often exhibit with their prey. The scientist Maxeen Biben presented cats with different sizes of prey. The small prey were mice and the large prey were rats. Some cats were hungry, others were very hungry, and some cats had recently eaten. Biben found that when cats were given a rat, they were more likely to play with it if they were very hungry than if they had just eaten or were only a little hungry. She suggested that cats have to be very hungry to attempt to kill large prey such as a rat, and that they must perform these playful behaviors in order to be able to make the kill safely….
The cat kills the way it does, in an ostensibly slow and hesitant way, simply because it’s the method most advantageous for the cat.
From the rat’s point of view, if there were one, the cat’s method would seem awkward, and in moments in which the rodent managed a bit of distance, almost ineffectual. And yet, those moments of apparent escape are temporary only, and part of a larger and useful feline strategy.
Cats don’t toy with their prey from malice; they behave the way they do because it’s an effective method. They take a while because it’s worthwhile to do so.
That’s why cats seemingly play with their prey.
Post 10 in a series.
Recap: On 11.5.13, city officials in Whitewater met privately with three construction or engineering vendors (Trane, Black & Veatch, Donohue) and at least one major waste-hauler to discuss importing waste from other cities into Whitewater for a digester energy project. On 12.3.13, Whitewater’s Wastewater Superintendent Reel and City Manager Clapper presented a brief slideshow about the project, and revealed the prior meeting. On 1.21.14, Trane and Black & Veatch presented to Whitewater’s Common Council on the project. On 2.4.14, the City of Whitewater, at the enthusiastic recommendation of Reel and Clapper, agreed to fund Trane’s ‘study’ on the feasibility of the project, in an amount up to $150,000.
(We’ve also skipped ahead in the story, to a presentation from Clapper and Reel from 3.16.15 at the Whitewater School Board, to see how they’ve crafted a sales presentation – one of several – to major institutions and groups in the city. Later, we’ll be able to examine how their more recent presentation claims match their prior statements, prior engineering statements, and independent analyses of digester projects like this.)
(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. 108.)
For today, this post looks at Trane’s presentation – from some of the same representatives who spoke to Council about the digester project – on a separate, supposed energy-savings project for Whitewater. It’s useful as a look at Trane’s work, but just as much into the thinking and diligence of Whitewater’s municipal administration.
108. Whitewater selected Trane for this energy-efficiency project (here, making several Whitewater municipal buildings supposedly more energy-efficient, for example). Who else applied? Why Trane? (Ten years earlier Whitewater used Honeywell.)
109. Like Trane’s work on the digester, this energy-efficiency project would be under a single-vendor performance-contract (rather than a separate designer and contractor approach sent to bid that would be common for most construction projects). Why choose this method over a traditional one?
110. Trane claims there would be $2,219,055 in savings to the city over fifteen years. How much have we, now in 2015, saved based on this estimate?
111. Obvious question: if we’ve not saved a fractional amount equal consistent with Trane’s calculations, then why is that? (It’s an obvious question, but the answer’s not been published anywhere, to my knowledge.)
112. The total project cost is about $1,900,000. Even after a ninety-day review from Trane, Trane’s final numbers are not available at this meeting. Why, then, present tonight? That is, why the urgency?
113. These are projects for the municipal building, library, armory, Cravath, Starin Park, and city garage. How critical are any of them?
114. Both Trane and city officials contend that these projects are urgent because of the weather. Are they really?
115. A city leader contends that inadequate air conditioning for the city administration in the municipal building is an urgent matter. Is it? How many workers in Whitewater have no air conditioning at any time? How many residents in Whitewater have no air conditioning at any time?
116. At about 34:00 into the clip of the meeting, several city officials or Council members laugh at the idea of not have improved air conditioning at the municipal building. Does it seem equally absurd to them that many ordinary residents live and work without air conditioning?
117. Trane contends that the entire project could be executed in 2014. Was it?
118. City Manager Clapper does not state the amount in the city capital budget that could be used for the scope of project cost, but Rachel of Trane knows it from memory. Why does the vendor know the municipal budget figure but the city’s own manager does not?
Original Common Council Discussion, 2.20.14
Agenda: http://www.whitewater-wi.gov/images/stories/agendas/common_council/2014/2-20-2014_Full_Packet_C.pdf
Minutes: Unpublished.
Video: https://vimeo.com/87518039
WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
