In the Fox GOP Debate from last night, who looked best to you? Apart from your own views, but simply as a matter of comparing the candidates on stage, which one seemed the best (most capable, impressive, etc.) of the group?
See, from Fox News, clips from the 8.6.15 debate.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Friday in Whitewater will be cloudy, with an even chance of afternoon thundershowers, and a high of seventy-five. Sunrise is 5:53 and sunset 8:07, for 14h 14m 31s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 45.2% of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1947, an expedition in a wooden raft ends successfully:
On this day in 1947, Kon-Tiki, a balsa wood raft captained by Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl, completes a 4,300-mile, 101-day journey from Peru to Raroia in the Tuamotu Archipelago, near Tahiti.Heyerdahl wanted to prove his theory that prehistoric South Americans could have colonized the Polynesian islands by drifting on ocean currents.
Heyerdahl and his five-person crew set sail from Callao, Peru, on the 40-square-foot Kon-Tiki on April 28, 1947. The Kon-Tiki, named for a mythical white chieftain, was made of indigenous materials and designed to resemble rafts of early South American Indians. While crossing the Pacific, the sailors encountered storms, sharks and whales, before finally washing ashore at Raroia. Heyerdahl, born in Larvik, Norway, on October 6, 1914, believed that Polynesia’s earliest inhabitants had come from South America, a theory that conflicted with popular scholarly opinion that the original settlers arrived from Asia. Even after his successful voyage, anthropologists and historians continued to discredit Heyerdahl’s belief. However, his journey captivated the public and he wrote a book about the experience that became an international bestseller and was translated into 65 languages. Heyerdahl also produced a documentary about the trip that won an Academy Award in 1951.
A Google a Day asks a history question:
What was the charge of the 1807 indictment by the man who was chosen as Vice President on February 17, 1801, by the House of Representatives after thirty-six ballots?
Twenty minutes into one minute —
I last wrote in February about local policy topics that I thought were interesting. See, Policy Topics for the Spring and before that Four Public Topics for the Fall (2014).
In February, these were my selections: Whitewater School Budget Cuts, the Whitewater’s School Board Election, the UW-Whitewater’s Budget, UW-Whitewater’s Social Relations, and the City of Whitewater’s Waste Digester Proposal.
Looking out now, toward autumn, I’d keep most of these, adding one other. Here’s the latest list, in no particular order.
Whitewater School Budget Cuts, School Curriculum. I’m sure it’s a minority viewpoint, but I think the latest report to our school board on enrollment (from Sarah Kemp of the Applied Population Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison) offers a huge opportunity for the district.
I see that the district would prefer waxing enrollment, and that’s not what these data show. Still, a clear report like this sets aside a decade of wishful thinking, and in doing so allows this district to make a break with the past, and with junk public-relations schemes.
I’ll outline what can be done, usefully, in conditions like our district’s, if only this will prove to be a shrewd district administration.
UW-Whitewater’s Social Relations. The safety of students on campus, and in this city, will always be incomparably more important than administrators’ concerns about institutional and official reputations. The descent of selfish officials into ; act utilitarianism is risible, but it’s also far worse than that: individual are mistreated so that organizational misconduct may be concealed.
Sadly, this topic lingers: there’s likely more disturbing news yet ahead.
Economy, Population. I took merely a first stab during a recent When Green in Brown post at a few population issues, and later with a post on the town’s student and non-student populations. There’s far, far more to work out here (including, as one quickly sees, how some data are more robust than others, county-by-county.) This leaves comparisons, location by location, sometimes ill-fitting.
One would like – and should have – good and similar local information for each area county and community, but not every report has the same quality of information, leaving one to rely more on some measurements over others. Solid data would be useful for many topics. It’s worth spending the time to find good and similar estimates like that for all the area.
Along the way, it’s worth describing why some methods and measurements fall short, and how others can be improved.
Much to do here.
When Green Turns Brown. This is an ongoing series here at FREE WHITEWATER, and in time it will move to its own website, and will lead to a book and a video documentary about this digester-energy project. I’ve good help and guidance for the undertaking. (Even then, WGBT will continue to be featured at FREE WHITEWATER.)
I did not choose the project; I chose to write about what others have proposed and will build. A commenter wrote here that this is a topic of interest in many places – it most certainly is.
This topic didn’t begin in Whitewater, it’s not confined to Whitewater, and a discussion of it is part of a state and national discussion.
Whitewater is a small and beautiful town, but she’s not separate from our vast and beautiful continental republic. On the contrary, it’s American rights and American standards that uplift Whitewater.
But this is a long project, with two-dozen posts so far being mere notes along a journey.
These few, broad topics lie ahead, with other, unexpected topics possible, too.
One often hears that almost all restaurants fail within their first year, but that’s not true. Turnover is high, but it’s nowhere near 90% in the first year:
[H.G.] Parsa [then an associate professor at Ohio State, now at the University of Denver] says he spent three months trying to track down someone at American Express who could give him a source for the 90% figure quoted in the ad. As it turns out, they didn’t have one. “American Express has not been able to track down a specific data source for the statistic,” reads a written statement a spokesperson sent Parsa in response to his request.Parsa wasn’t surprised. He had run several spreadsheet simulations to verify the statistic himself and found that not only is the 90% figure off base, it’s practically impossible, given industry growth rates. He decided to do his own research on failure rates, using Health Dept. records to track turnover among 2,500 restaurants in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-year period.
His research—consistent with similar studies—found that about one in four restaurants close or change ownership within their first year of business. Over three years, that number rises to three in five.
See, The Restaurant-Failure Myth @ Bloomberg Business, and Restaurant Failure Rate Much Lower Than Commonly Assumed, Study Finds @ OSU.edu.
Still, it’s a hard business, with many restaurants changing hands. more >>
Good morning, Whitewater.
We’ll have a partly cloudy day today, with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 5:52 and sunset 8:09, for 14h 16m 54s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 56.5% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Landmarks Commission meets this evening at 6 PM.
On this date in 1945, after enduring one-thousand, three-hundred, thirty-nine days of war since Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The New York Times reported the event to that paper’s readers:
Washington, Aug. 6 — The White House and War Department announced today that an atomic bomb, possessing more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, a destructive force equal to the load of 2,000 B-29’s and more than 2,000 times the blast power of what previously was the world’s most devastating bomb, had been dropped on Japan.
The announcement, first given to the world in utmost solemnity by President Truman, made it plain that one of the scientific landmarks of the century had been passed, and that the “age of atomic energy,” which can be a tremendous force for the advancement of civilization as well as for destruction, was at hand.
At 10:45 o’clock this morning, a statement by the President was issued at the White House that sixteen hours earlier – about the time that citizens on the Eastern seaboard were sitting down to their Sunday suppers – an American plane had dropped the single atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima, an important army center.
Some government websites work well, others poorly. In the latest episode of Reply All, Clay Johnson describes some of the worst (but often wildly-expensive-to-design) sites:
What new malware hacked 45,000 Facebook accounts early in January 2012?
Explore the Atlantis Chaos region of Mars, in the Red Planet’s southern hemisphere. The video showcases a myriad of features that reflect a rich geological history. The tour takes in rugged cliffs and impact craters, alongside parts of ancient shallow, eroded basins. See smooth plains scarred with wrinkled ridges, scarps and fracture lines that point to influence from tectonic activity. Marvel at ‘chaotic’ terrain – hundreds of small peaks and flat-topped hills that are thought to result from the slow erosion of a once-continuous solid plateau. This entire region may once have played host to vast volumes of water – look out for the evidence in the form of channels carved into steep-sided walls.
See, also, http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2015/07/Ancient_Atlantis.
Welcome signs in Whitewater list the city’s population as 14,622. That’s right, give or take a small number since the signs were last updated.
When thinking about Whitewater, however, one can’t reasonably think of a homogeneous population of 14,622.
We’re a more diverse city than that, with demographics revealing a multi-ethnic and vocationally-split community.
Of this population of 14,622, approximately 7,000 are resident students enrolled at UW-Whitewater (resident undergraduates or graduate students).
This number is approximate, but the point is clear enough: Whitewater would be far smaller without the resident student population.
In fact, she’d be far smaller than some nearby towns, places that have a tiny number of college-student residents by comparison.
We’re one city, but not one group, and one of the groups we have is huge. (As a vocation, being a college student is overwhelmingly the largest vocation in the city. Nothing else is close.)
Some vital planning necessarily involves considering our entire population; some other efforts or analyses (such as the percentage of single-family housing) truly involve only a portion of the city.
The relevant population, in these cases, isn’t 14,622, but only 7,622.
The smaller number is significant, apart from comprehensive services, for the actual size – and presumptions – of the non-student population within the city: the non-student group is neither so numerous nor so influential as it might wish to present itself.
Consequently and critically, self-defined elites from among the non-student population are neither so numerous nor so influential as they might wish to present themselves.
Good morning, Whitewater.
We’ll have a mostly sunny Wednesday in Whitewater, with a high of eighty-two. Sunrise is 5:51 and sunset 8:10, for 14h 19m 15s of daytime. The moon is a waning gibbous with 67.8% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Community Development Authority meets at 5 PM today.
Lester Wire, a former detective in Salt Lake City, came up with the revolutionary idea in 1912, and traffic lights began springing up across the United States shortly after….The doodle depicts the world’s first electric traffic light to be installed and put into major use in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 5 1914…..
Placed on the corner of Euclid Avenue and East 105th Street, it would have been a chaotic affair, with bicycles and cars as well as horses competing for domination of the road.
Doodle illustrator Nate Swinehart said that he did not include the yellow light outlining that the were not introduced until later to regulate the traffic more effectively.
On this day in 1825, a meeting for peace in Wisconsin:
1825 – Council Held at Fort Crawford
On this date a great council of Native Americans and white settlers began at Prairie du Chien. For days prior to the event, canoe-loads of attendees converged from all directions and included members of the Sioux, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Chippewa, Ottawa, Potawatomi, Iowa, Sauk, and Fox tribes. The purpose of this gathering was to promote peace among the tribes and to establish boundaries for their territorial claims. [Source: The History of Wisconsin, Vol.I: From Exploration to Statehood, by Alice Smith, p. 122]
A Google a Day asks a question of literature:
Who, while working as an apprentice compositor, wrote articles under the pseudonym “Aristides”?
Post 24 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.
Here’s a post that’s mostly an aside, a quick consideration of the notion of misinformation.
One should be clear: the history of a project isn’t ‘misinformation.’
At the 7.21.15 City of Whitewater Strategic Planning Session, a member of Council expressed concern about misinformation concerning the wastewater plant project. He remarked that sometimes
people fill in the gap with stuff that isn’t true or isn’t current information. The wastewater treatment plant is a good example. You know, talking about Trane. Okay, it’s no longer part of that project, but we haven’t done a good job of letting that be known.
See, 7.21.15 Council Session, https://vimeo.com/134219394.
I don’t know what other people are writing or saying about Trane’s role in the treatment plant project, but it has been a part of my When Green Turns Brown Series.
It’s part of that series because the series is about the full measure of a digester-energy project, its history, development, and implications.
The role of Trane is both relevant and material to the project. (If it were otherwise, then Trane never should have been involved, and Whitewater’s city government is remiss for voting at any stage to compensate that vendor.)
The epidemiology of influenza, for example, would reasonably include a history of prior outbreaks. One wouldn’t say that, because those outbreaks were in the past, they were beyond consideration or, so to speak, “no longer part of that project.” (In fact, the connections are even stronger in this case: Trane’s participation was part of the same course of events, the same outbreak, so to speak.)
This series is not written for a specifically local audience, let alone Whitewater’s Common Council. No one owes Whitewater’s politicians their narrative, their efforts to direct the discussion from what they consider done to what they consider ongoing.
The series is a mere prelude to both a written and video assessment of a digester-energy project; it’s only begun, and will take well over another year to complete (perhaps more, I’m not certain). These are notes – as I have made plain – along the way toward a work for a wider audience.
I’ll be writing about this project without a timetable constrained by political votes or expectations, local or otherwise.
In any event, writing about the actual advancement of this project is not ‘misinformation.’
I’d happily discuss this series with anyone, but I’ll not limit a careful, methodical consideration of this digester-energy project, by omitting significant events in its development.
Next Time: “Estimates of Future Flows and Loadings,” showing again how this project is, fundamentally and not incidentally, about the importation of other cities’ unwanted waste into Whitewater.
WHEN GREEN TURNS BROWN: Mondays @ 10 AM, here on FREE WHITEWATER.
King Of The Mountain from Grain Media on Vimeo.
As a boy growing up, Samuel Mugisha dreamed of being a part of the Rwandan national cycling team, Team Rwanda, as he believed it would be a way to help make money for his family. What he discovered was something else entirely. In a country trying to get over the trauma of a genocide, Team Rwanda represents a lot more than sport.
Made for AJ+ / ajplus.net
To find out more about the fantastic Team Rwanda visit teamrwandacycling.orgCredits:
Director / Producer: Orlando von Einsiedel
Producer: Harri Grace
Cinematography: Franklin Dow
Fixer: Jean_Pierre Sagahutu
Film Editor: Katie Bryer
Composer: Patrick Jonsson
Sound Design: Rob Hardcastle
Colourist: Franklin Dow
Executive Producer for AJ+: Aloke Devichand
Executive Producer for Grain Media: Jon Drever
Production Co-ordinator: Nick Rowley
Production Manager: Amelia Franklin.
Good morning, Whitewater.
Tuesday in town will be sunny, with a high of eighty-one. Sunrise is 5:50 and sunset 8:11, for 14h 21m 35s of daytime. The moon is a waning crescent with 78.3% of its visible disk illuminated.
Whitewater’s Alcohol and Licensing Committee meets this evening at 6:20 PM, and thereafter Common Council at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1901, Louis Armstrong is born:
Louis Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971),[1] nicknamed Satchmo[2] or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and one of the pivotal and most influential figures in jazz music.
Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an “inventive” trumpet and cornet player, Armstrong was a foundational influence in jazz, shifting the focus of the music from collective improvisation to solo performance. With his instantly recognizable gravelly voice, Armstrong was also an influential singer, demonstrating great dexterity as an improviser, bending the lyrics and melody of a song for expressive purposes. He was also skilled at scat singing (vocalizing using sounds and syllables instead of actual lyrics).
Renowned for his charismatic stage presence and voice almost as much as for his trumpet-playing, Armstrong’s influence extends well beyond jazz music, and by the end of his career in the 1960s, he was widely regarded as a profound influence on popular music in general. Armstrong was one of the first truly popular African-American entertainers to “cross over”, whose skin color was secondary to his music in an America that was severely racially divided. He rarely publicly politicized his race, often to the dismay of fellow African-Americans, but took a well-publicized stand for desegregation during the Little Rock Crisis. His artistry and personality allowed him socially acceptable access to the upper echelons of American society that were highly restricted for black men.
On this day in 1862, there’s rioting in Wisconsin:
1862 – War Department Order Prompts Riot
On this date the War Department issued General Order No.99, requesting by draft 300,000 troops to reinforce the Union armies in the Civil War. This action reinforced public sentiment against the draft and prompted the citizens in Port Washington, Ozaukee County to riot in protest.
A Google a Day asks a basketball question:
The youngest recipient of the NBA MVP award joined which one of his “Bulls” teammates in receiving this honor?
