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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.12.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday brings a probability of light rain with a high of fifty-one to the Whippet City.

On this day in 1940, French teenagers discover paleolithic drawings:

Lascaux2
Cave painting of a dun horse at Lascaux. Via Wikipedia.

Lascaux (Lascaux Caves)…is the setting of a complex of caves in southwestern France famous for its Paleolithic cave paintings. The original caves are located near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne. They contain some of the best-known Upper Paleolithic art. These paintings are estimated to be 17,300 years old.[3][4] They primarily consist of images of large animals, most of which are known from fossil evidence to have lived in the area at the time. In 1979, Lascaux was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Sites list along with other prehistoric sites in the Vézère valley.[5]

==History since rediscovery==. On 12 September 1940, the entrance to Lascaux Cave was discovered by 18-year-old Marcel Ravidat. Ravidat returned to the scene with three friends, Jacques Marsal, Georges Agnel, and Simon Coencas, and entered the cave via a long shaft. The teenagers discovered that the cave walls were covered with depictions of animals.[6][7] The cave complex was opened to the public in 1948.[8] By 1955, the carbon dioxide, heat, humidity, and other contaminants produced by 1,200 visitors per day had visibly damaged the paintings and introduced lichen on the walls. The cave was closed to the public in 1963 to preserve the art. After the cave was closed, the paintings were restored to their original state and were monitored daily. Rooms in the cave include the Hall of the Bulls, the Passageway, the Shaft, the Nave, the Apse, and the Chamber of Felines.

Lascaux II, a replica of the Great Hall of the Bulls and the Painted Gallery located 200 meters away from the original, was opened in 1983 so that visitors may view the painted scenes without harming the originals.[7] Reproductions of other Lascaux artwork can be seen at the Centre of Prehistoric Art at Le Thot, France.

Since 1998 the cave has been beset with a fungus, variously blamed on a new air conditioning system that was installed in the caves, the use of high-powered lights, and the presence of too many visitors.[9] As of 2008, the cave contained black mold which scientists were and still are trying to keep away from the paintings. In January 2008, authorities closed the cave for three months even to scientists and preservationists. A single individual was allowed to enter the cave for 20 minutes once a week to monitor climatic conditions. Now only a few scientific experts are allowed to work inside the cave and just for a few days a month but the efforts to remove the mold have taken a toll, leaving dark patches and damaging the pigments on the walls.[10]

On 9.12.1892, UW-Madison adds some new schools:

1892 – UW-Madison Schools Open
On this date the School of Economics, Political Science and History at UW-Madison opened under the leadership of Professor Richard T. Ely. [Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison]

Google-a-Day asks about an author’s sustenance:

Who, along with his wife, gave Harper Lee the gift of a year’s wages so that she could quit her job “to write whatever you please”?

Animals, Art, Nature

An Animated Chart of 42 North American Butterflies

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08-27-14

From Eleanor Lutz @ Tabletop Whale, a beautiful, animated chart. Here’s how Ms. Lutz describes her creation:

I checked out six butterfly field guides from the library and picked out some of the species I thought were the most unique and beautiful.

It’s meant as a chart of decorative species illustrations rather than an educational infographic. So it doesn’t have as much information as my other posts, but I did draw everything as true to life as I could.

Sources
Brock JP and Kaufman K. 2003 Butterflies of North America Singapore: Houghton Mifflin Company

Readers who enjoy the animation can also get printed, poster versions of the butterfly chart, and other illustrations and infographics @ Artsider.

(Hat-tip to i09 for the link to Eleanor Lutz’s art.)

Corporate Welfare, Development, Government Spending, Marketing, Press

In a City of Sixty-Thousand, Fifteen People Aren’t a Sign of Community Enthusiasm

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Nearby Janesville is considering a downtown revitalization, and at the most-recent meeting for the large & expensive proposal, only fifteen-people attended. 

The Gazette wrote about the plan with this headline: Last meeting for Janesville’s downtown plan doesn’t reflect ‘widespread championship’ (subscription req’d). 

Well, no, it doesn’t. 

(The online version of the Gazette had a more terse, mainpage description: ‘Last downtown meeting draws 15’.)

When a city government and local newspaper flack for any number of manipulative special interests styling themselves as development agencies (Forward Janesville, Rock County 5.0), ordinary residents lose confidence in both their government and their press.  

When the next big project comes along, having seen that previous projects were cash-grabs for contractors and connected big businesses, ordinary residents sensibly stay away.

Culture, Development, Marketing, Politics

The Bad Bet Placed on an Eternal 2004

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Some local proposals, in Whitewater or nearby places, look like they were designed by someone from 2004. 

Some in that year assumed that local residents would support public funding for any designated purpose, that claims of job-creation would be swallowed whole, that the press would support those claims relentlessly, that press support would make a difference, and that a community would have one project, one view, and one supportive chorus. 

But it’s not 2004, and it will never be 2004 again.

Ten years ago, at least to a few, there must have been a confidence that 2004 would last forever, so to speak.  This ilk mistook their own imagined 2004 heydays with their communities’ needs. It’s why their statements are shopworn and stale: they’re stuck in their own past.  

Look now, just ten years later: widespread rejection of public-funding for white-collar projects, legitimate scrutiny of jargon about job-creation and economic claims, a press that still flacks but without the ability to persuade more than a declining few, and communities that no longer tolerate shut-up-and-sing orthodoxies. 

Those self-professed movers-and-shakers of that time didn’t think there would be an expiration date on their use of shoddy work, dodgy data, and grandiose pronouncements. 

As it turns out, there is.

It’s this time. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.11.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

We’ll have a partly cloudy day with a high of just sixty-one today. Sunrise today is 6:30 AM and sunset 7:12 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with ninety-percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On the International Space Station, astronauts have been studying fire in a weightless environment:

It’s the thirteenth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In 1903, auto racing begins at a Wisconsin location:

1903 – Auto racing debuts at The Milwaukee Mile
On this date William Jones of Chicago won a five-lap speed contest, setting the first track record with a 72 second, 50 mph lap in the process. The Milwaukee Mile was originally a private horse track, in existence since at least 1876, and is the oldest, continuously operating auto racing facility in the world. [Source: The Milwaukee Mile]

Google-a-Day asks about a word from a film:

In 2005 Ryan Gosling starred in a thriller in which an anagram of what word is referred to several times?

Animals

Mongoose v. Lions

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In the video immediately below, a mongoose battles four lions.

Mongooses are famous, of course, for fighting cobras and other snakes, even if they do so rarely.

These mammals are unremarkable in appearance, and ordinarily unassuming in manner. They’d rather avoid battling with venomous reptiles, for example, despite their renown in doing so. 

In deadly encounters, however, their abilities (agility, tenacity, heavy coats, resistance to snake venom) make them formidable, even in combat against poisonous creatures. In those times, they forge on, relying on their abilities and instincts, undaunted. 

Many Americans, I think, are like that, too: they’d rather not fight, but will do so tenaciously if compelled to action.   

Business, Corporate Welfare, Economy, Free Markets, Local Government, Wisconsin

The New (But Old) Zero-Sum Game

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Over at Rock Netroots, Lou Kaye makes this accurate observation about how most local communities’ officials understand development:

For the most part, city leaders here [he’s referring to Janesville] and across Wisconsin not only believe that communities are in competition with one another, they vigorously support and fuel those concepts by carving out special slush accounts from modest local tax treasuries just for business “incentives.”

That’s very true, but I’d add this modification: that officials think that the competition they face is part of a zero-sum game, a fight over finite and fixed resources.  (That’s implicit, I think, in Kaye’s remarks, but it’s worth stating.)

For the most part, Wisconsin’s local officials, development gurus, marketing & PR men, and lobbyists have a narrow, pre-capitalist, finite view of economic possibilities. One man’s gain is another man’s loss; one town’s gain is another town’s loss. 

They’d fit right in with the mercantilists of three to five-hundred years ago.  It’s as though the profoundly transformative power of capitalism, market theory, and free markets had never happened – these men are the modern-day practitioners of a (profoundly) lesser way of economic life. 

These re-worked ideas of the past are inferior, and offer neither real nor lasting prosperity for the communities that fall under their sway.  It’s just battening on the worry and uncertainty of others. 

The men who tout these development schemes present themselves as community champions, as though they were demi-gods come among mere (and struggling) mortals. 

In this, I am reminded of Captain America’s reply to Natasha Romonoff, when facing men who displayed seemingly mythical powers —

Natasha Romanoff: I’d sit this one out, Cap.

Steve Rogers: I don’t see how I can.

Natasha Romanoff: These guys come from legend. They’re basically gods.

Steve Rogers: There’s only one God, ma’am, and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t dress like that.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 9.10.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday presents a rainy morning and a cloudy afternoon with a high of seventy-four.

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority’s Seed Capital Committee meets at 3:30 PM today, and her Board of Directors at 5 PM.

On this day in 1941, the late Stephen J Gould is born:

Stephen Jay Gould, author of The Panda’s Thumb and other popular essay collections, is born on this day.

Gould grew up in Queens, New York, the son of a court stenographer without a college degree. Although Gould grew up to be a prominent paleontologist and biologist, he kept the common touch, writing dozens of accessible essays about evolution that became popular with lay readers. He has taught paleontology and zoology at Harvard for more than three decades. His books include The Panda’s Thumb (1981), The Mismeasure of Man (1981), Eight Little Piggies (1993), Leonardo’s Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998), and several others. He wrote monthly essays for Natural History magazine for more than 20 years, and his essays have also appeared in The New York Review of Books, Discover and Nature. His work has won many awards, including the National Book Award.

On this day in 1878, Pres. Hayes makes a visit to the Badger State:

1878 – President Hayes Visits Madison
On this date President Rutherford B. Hayes visited Madison. Hayes was in Madison at the invitation of the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. He and his wife were accompanied by a parade and the president spoke to the crowd at present day Camp Randall. [Source: Wisconsin Mosaic]

Google-a-Day poses a questions about a star:

What star in the Milky Way passes all five tests scientists require for it to be a candidate for extraterrestrial life?

Business, Corporate Welfare, Development, Economy, Free Markets, WEDC

WEDC Afflicted with Internal Strife

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Not long ago, Messrs. Telfer, Knight, and Clapper met in Whitewater with Reed Hall, so-called CEO of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, to ‘celebrate’ another round of public money in the service of crony capitalism. These gentlemen must have thought – somehow – that all this would look grand and spectacular, that it would be met with local acclaim. They could not have been more wrong. Their supposed success is nothing of the kind; they’ve foolishly tried to promote a failed – yet still failing – agency.

Consider how things are going at the WEDC:

A high-ranking executive at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. tendered, then rescinded, his resignation late last month, but not before leveling a withering criticism of the agency’s second-in-command, a former top aide to Gov. Scott Walker.

Lee Swindall, vice president of business and industry development, in a resignation letter submitted Aug. 25, criticized his boss, WEDC chief operations officer Ryan Murray, as “lacking either the talent or experience” to function in his position and “causing deep and lasting harm” to the organization.

“Murray confuses rigid control with stability and sound management,” Swindall wrote to WEDC CEO Reed Hall.

“What he is producing instead is instability, opposition and resentment in WEDC,” Swindall wrote.

“This state of growing unrest,” he continued, “will corrode the ability of the agency to perform and reach goals, not secure it. Ryan Murray is too committed to his own consolidated power to either notice or care about the swelling discontent in WEDC. It will likely be his undoing, and I fear, WEDC will share this fate, as well.”

Via Top WEDC exec threatened resignation, says boss was ‘causing deep and lasting harm’ to agency @ Wisconsin State Journal.

Everything about the WEDC, actually, is a ‘deep and lasting harm.’

If Whitewater’s local notables thought – as a matter of policy – that the WEDC’s business and market manipulation was a good idea, then they’re ignorant of good policy, ignorant of sound economics, and in the sway of a low ideology.

If, instead, they thought that, regardless of policy, they’d hit upon a public-relations triumph, then they’re ignorant of how normal and reasonable people actually perceive the WEDC. It’s a deceptive and manipulative clown-show.

As with a carrier of tuberculosis, it’s best not to get too close to the WEDC. That these local gentlemen thought it might be a good idea to offer Reed Hall a passionate embrace, so to speak, isn’t merely their private risk; support of these schemes shows a lack of public judgment as policy or public-relations.

Previously at FW on the WEDC:

New Media, Press

So, “How is Social Media Changing Journalism?”

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At this year’s Aspen Ideas Festival, we asked a group of media professionals to discuss how new platforms are transforming radio, TV, print, and digital. “I have always been a champion for old media flinging open its doors and allowing citizens to participate,” says radio journalist Jay Allison. Other panelists include Paula Kerger, Jon Steinberg and Alexis Madrigal.The Big Question is a series inspired by The Atlantic’s back-page feature.

Via The Atlantic.

The best essay answering this question, by the way, remains Clay Shirky’s Shock of Inclusion and New Roles for News in the Fabric of Society. Shirky wrote his essay four years ago, and yet for our local press in particular, much of what he wrote must seem like science fiction. They’ve no discernible feel for new media, for genuine participation, or respect for the superior work those forces produce.

On the contrary, for the local press it’s mostly a slow descent into weak analysis and mediocre composition. (There’s not a single newspaper nearby that’s not of markedly lower quality than when Shirky first published his essay. Simply producing Web-based versions of tired publications with a status-quo outlook buys merely a bit of time.) There’s encouragement, though, from established publications elsewhere that take the forces Shirky describes seriously.

In this there’s no alternative: it’s adapt or die.