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Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.25.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Sunday in town will be sunny, with a high of eighty and light southeast winds of five to ten mph. Sunrise today is 5:23 am and sunset is 8:21 pm. The moon is a waning crescent with ten percent of its visible disk illuminated.

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Google often adds clever, dynamic features to its maps, and one of them is its depiction of the Washington monument: On Google Maps, the Washington Monument Is a Sundial:

Look up the Washington Monument in Google Maps, and the software will show you the obelisk’s shadow. The shadow even moves to reflect the position of the sun….

It’s a fun accent, possible only with the kind of live, dynamic map that Google deploys. (The digital-ness of Google’s maps allows the company to edit its own maps at will, to add previously unknown features or to erase previously known ones.)

Google didn’t need to add the monument’s shadow, but it did, as a kind of homage to the world’s hidden-in-plain-sight details. Of course, Google’s unknown mapmaker wasn’t the first to notice the monument’s shadow.

Link to Google Maps:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Washington+Monument/
@38.889463,-77.035237,19z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xe97346828ed0bfb8

On this day in 1926, Miles Davis is born.

“So What” – Miles Davis from Sabzian on Vimeo.

On this day in 1889, a future Wisconsin governor is born:

1889 – Governor Oscar Rennebohm born
On this day Oscar Rennebohm was born in Leeds, Columbia County, Wisconsin. Rennebohm was elected lieutenant governor under Walter S. Goodland and took over as governor when Goodland died in 1947. Oscar Rennebohm served as Wisconsin’s governor from 1947 to 1951. He died on October 15, 1968. [Source: First Ladies of Wisconsin, The Governors’ Wives by Nancy G. Williams]

Science/Nature

Studying Fire to Prevent Wildfires

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Massive wildfires cost billions of dollars and burn millions of acres in the U.S. every year, but we know surprisingly little about the basic science of how they spread. At the Fire Lab in Missoula, Montana, researchers reverse-engineer spreading fires using wind tunnels, fire-whirl generators, and giant combustion chambers. They’re finding that fire is a mysterious phenomenon, and the physics behind it is often counterintuitive.

Via Fire, in Slow Motion @ The Atlantic.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.24.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

It’s a pretty Saturday ahead: sunny, with a high of around seventy-four, and calm winds becoming southeast at five 5 mph.

On this day in 1883, an engineering marvel opens to the public:

After 14 years and 27 deaths while being constructed, the Brooklyn Bridge over the East River is opened, connecting the great cities of New York and Brooklyn for the first time in history. Thousands of residents of Brooklyn and Manhattan Island turned out to witness the dedication ceremony, which was presided over by President Chester A. Arthur and New York Governor Grover Cleveland. Designed by the late John A. Roebling, the Brooklyn Bridge was the largest suspension bridge ever built to that date.

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Yusuke Shinyama, Brooklyn Bridge in New York City

In our own state’s history on this day in 1864, Union soldiers from our state see action in Northern Virginia:

1864 – (Civil War) Second Day of the Battle of North Anna, Virginia
On the second day of fighting at Hanover Junction, Virginia, Union troops crossed the North Anna River but were turned back. The 2nd, 6th, 7th, and 36th Wisconsin Infantry regiments participated in this battle.

Animals

Bulldogs on Treadmills

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Canine exercise.

These treadmills, by the way, are not motorized – it’s the dogs’ own efforts that move the treadmills. If a bulldog wants to stop (like one on the left, momentarily) it can do so.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.23.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Friday in Whitewater will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-two. Sunrise today is 5:22 AM and sunset 8:19 PM. The moon is a waning crescent with just twenty-seven percent of its visible disk illuminated.

On this day in 1934, notorious bank robbers and murderers Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow meet their end in Louisiana:

Shreveport, La., May 23 — Clyde Barrow, notorious Texas “bad man” and murderer, and his cigar-smoking, quick-shooting woman accomplice, Bonnie Parker, were ambushed and shot to death today in an encounter with Texas Rangers and Sheriff’s deputies.

The 24-year-old desperado, who was accused of twelve murders in the last two years, and his companion whizzed along a little-traveled, paved road near Gibsland, about fifty miles east of here, at eighty-five miles an hour in a high-speed gray automobile, rushing into a carefully-laid death trap.

Before they could use any of the weapons in the small arsenal they had with them, the Rangers and others in the posse riddled them and their car with a deadly hail of bullets.

The onrushing machine, with the dead man at the wheel, careened crazily for an instant and then catapulted into an embankment. While the wheels of the wrecked machine still whirled, the officers, taking no chances with the gunman who had tricked them so often, poured another volley of bullets into the machine.

On this day in 1854, a transportation first for Madison:

1854 – First Railroad Reaches Madison

On this date the Milwaukee and Mississippi railroad reached Madison, connecting the city with Milwaukee. When the cars pulled into the depot, thousands of people gathered to witness the ceremonial arrival of the first train, and an enormous picnic was held on the Capitol grounds for all the passengers who’d made theseven-hour trip from Milwaukee to inaugurate the line. [Source: Waukesha Chronicle, May 24, 1854;Wisconsin State Journal, June 1, 1924]

Puzzability‘s Paying Tribute series concludes with Friday’s game:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Friday, May 23
Partner of faith and hope; D.A. portrayer in the original cast of Law & Order

Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Local Government

Because, you know, it’s government’s job to manipulate results among private businesses

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The presumptions of a local government pol:

This ordinance has been an attempt to require the food trucks to put some skin in the game,” [Fort Atkinson city councilmember] Lescohier said. “That skin is through a fee structure, through an appropriate place for them to operate and to control the noise. Right now if you have a food truck, the deck is stacked in your favor to operate in Fort Atkinson. It is inexpensive and you have your pick of the location.”

‘Skin in the game,’ as though it were his place to decide what this commitment means. (This has become a common – but already tired – demand of some conservatives, among others. They want to collect additional fees from the poor, new businesses, etc., on the theory that this shows those businesses’ commitments.  All it really does is enrich the state, at the expense of some businesses and of consumer choice.)  

Now I’m a resident of Whitewater, not Fort Atkinson, so my concern is a secondary one: that ideas like these don’t damage our marketplace as it will theirs.  That a politician is a voice for incumbents to the detriment of others in Fort Atkinson is not my concern; that Whitewater needn’t make this same mistake is my concern. 

I’d suggest that there are arguments against these restrictions from economics, consumer choice, and economic liberty (as a legal argument). 

Resting on a foundation of those arguments would be the opportunity for a press-focused campaign against these restrictions.  (This is proof that a politician can have a background in politics and the press, but still an approach on this issue that’s pinched and small.) 

It’s easy for a councilmember to pick on a few working people, and rely on a sycophantic local press, but he’d look different if one expanded the focus farther afield. Campaigns against food truck restrictions are often successful, and cause regulators to look foolish in the eyes of a more sophisticated, cosmopolitan audience. 

But Fort Atkinson is not Whitewater, and my interest here is merely as an observer (with an eye to my own city’s policies, not another town’s bad choices).  Their mistakes will only make Whitewater more competitive by contrast.

If this were happening in Whitewater, I would have different feelings. 

Beyond all that, truly, there are other concerns in Whitewater that are both near at hand and of greater scope. 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.22.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Thursday will be mostly sunny with a high of seventy-two. We’ll have northwest winds at five to ten miles per hour.

Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets today at 8 AM. [Update: this is next week’s meeting, for 5.29.14 @ 8 AM.]

On this day in 1859, Arthur Conan Doyle is born.

His most famous literary creation, Sherlock Holmes, is still going strong:

On this day in 1968, Milwaukee’s pro basketball team gets its name:

1968 – Milwaukee Bucks Named

On this date “Milwaukee Bucks” was selected as the franchise name after 14,000 fans participated in a team-naming contest. 45 people suggested the name, one of whom, R.D. Trebilcox, won a car for his efforts. [Source: Bucks.com]

Here’s the Thursday game in Puzzability’s Paying Tribute series:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Thursday, May 22
Dangerous African virus; women’s rights pioneer for whom a style of less-restrictive clothing was named

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 5.21.14

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Good morning, Whitewater.

Wednesday will be sunny with a high of seventy-eight, and with west winds of five to ten mph.

On this day in 1927, Charles Lindbergh lands the Spirit of St. Louis in Paris.

A silent newsreel reported the accomplishment:

On this day in 1985, a Wisconsinite set another kind of aviation record:

1985 – Distance Record Set for Paper Airplane

On this date Tony Feltch of Wisconsin set the world record for longest distance flown by a paper airplane. Feltch’s airplane, launched at the La Crosse Center, flew 193 feet. [Source: Paper Aircraft Association]

Here’s Puzzability‘s Wednesday game in its Paying Tribute series:

This Week’s Game — May 19-23
Paying Tribute
For each day of our parade this Memorial Day week, we started with a word, added the eight letters in MEMORIAL, and rearranged all the letters to get the name of a famous person. Both pieces are described in each day’s clue, with the shorter one first.
Example:
Computer failure; Miami Heat point guard
Answer:
Crash; Mario Chalmers
What to Submit:
Submit both pieces, with the shorter one first (as “Crash; Mario Chalmers” in the example), for your answer.
Wednesday, May 21
Make sopping wet; director of Independence Day

City, Crime

An Evening Not Worth Having

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There’s video online from a security camera of two people stepping into the Birge Fountain, climbing on the statue, tugging on it until a piece comes off, and (presumably) stealing that piece. 

(For prior FW posts against vandalism, see The Crude Illegitimacy of Vandalism and Update: Vandalism, of Property and Opportunity.)

Watching the video, it seems to be a young couple, although I’ve no idea whether this was a date gone wildly awry.  

The worst crimes are ones of violence against other people.  Still, there’s a maliciousness to destroying others’ possessions that’s wrong on its own scale. 

Odd, too, that this was a couple’s idea of a night out. 

Let’s assume that it was a date.  A couple can have all sorts of fun on the town, but there never was – and never will be – a fun evening that comes from pulling on a statue until a piece of it comes loose.

Whitewater’s a beautiful town, with more than one romantic vista.  One could walk happily through the city with one’s girl for a pleasant evening.

It wasn’t that sort of evening shown on the video. 

Doing the wrong thing shows how far that couple was from enjoying the many good things in the city.  

This was an evening not worth having.