Two classic monster movies will be shown on Tuesday at the Starin Park Community Building, beginning at 12:30 p.m. —
Film, Holiday
Tuesday, October 29th: Creature Double Feature @ Starin Seniors in the Park
by JOHN ADAMS •
Cartoons & Comics
Sunday Morning Cartoon: A Modern Version of Mickey Mouse’s 1929 Haunted House
by JOHN ADAMS •
Here’s a modern version of a 1929 Mickey Mouse video. The original’s entitled Halloween House, and this version adds a contemporary soundtrack.
Enjoy.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.27.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
We’ll have a sunny day with a high of fifty-six, and southwest winds of 5 to 15 mph.
Sometimes a hard call is still a correct and right one. Last night, in Game 3 of the World Series, third-base umpire Jim Joyce called Obstruction (Official Rules of Major League Baseball, Section 2.00 Definition of Terms) of on Boston’s Will Middlebrooks, and since Allen Craig was close at home anyway, the obstruction call gave the win to St. Louis, 5-4. So, for the first time in World Series history, a game was decided on an obstruction call.
There’s general agreement – although perhaps not as much in Boston – that the call was the right one. It was:
It ended on an obstruction call, and what appears, pretty much indisputably, to be a correct obstruction call, made by third-base umpire Jim Joyce on Red Sox third baseman Will Middlebrooks.
And here’s the most important thing you need to know about that call: It doesn’t matter if Middlebrooks intended to interfere with the Cardinals’ Allen Craig or not. Got that?
It. Doesn’t. Matter.
It doesn’t matter that Middlebrooks was just doing everything he could to catch an uncatchable throw to third by catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
It doesn’t matter that that throw led Middlebrooks right into the runner, and that it was basically unavoidable that he found himself lying in the dirt, flat on his belly, as Craig was trying to scramble to his feet and race home.
Here, the umpires explain the call:
Baseball is an old and established sport, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t new things to see. There are – every night, and especially on a night like last night.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.26.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Saturday in Whitewater will be a day of partly sunny skies, a high of fifty, and winds of 15 to 20 mph.
Perhaps, for Halloween, you’d like to design some unusual graphics, of strange and imaginary creatures. Mashable has tips on how to Photoshop ordinary animal photos into ones of imaginary animals: How to Photoshop Hybrid Animals. (One doesn’t need Photoshop; other photo-editing programs have similar features. They’ve an accompanying link to the 9 Best Free Image Editors.)
When you’re done, you could have hybrid like this Corgi-Sloth from Mashable:
It’s the anniversary of a famous gunfight:
On this day in 1881, the Earp brothers face off against the Clanton-McLaury gang in a legendary shootout at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona…
Around 3 p.m., the Earps and Holliday spotted the five members of the Clanton-McLaury gang in a vacant lot behind the OK Corral, at the end of Fremont Street. The famous gunfight that ensued lasted all of 30 seconds, and around 30 shots were fired. Though it’s still debated who fired the first shot, most reports say that the shootout began when Virgil Earp pulled out his revolver and shot Billy Clanton point-blank in the chest, while Doc Holliday fired a shotgun blast at Tom McLaury’s chest. Though Wyatt Earp wounded Frank McLaury with a shot in the stomach, Frank managed to get off a few shots before collapsing, as did Billy Clanton. When the dust cleared, Billy Clanton and the McLaury brothers were dead, and Virgil and Morgan Earp and Doc Holliday were wounded. Ike Clanton and Claiborne had run for the hills.
Sheriff John Behan of Cochise County, who witnessed the shootout, charged the Earps and Holliday with murder. A month later, however, a Tombstone judge found the men not guilty, ruling that they were “fully justified in committing these homicides.” The famous shootout has been immortalized in many movies, including Frontier Marshal (1939), Gunfight at the OK Corral (1957), Tombstone (1993) and Wyatt Earp (1994).
City, Poverty
Poverty in Our Area
by JOHN ADAMS •
Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates, for children aged 5 to 17 in families in poverty, rate as a percentage of all children that age:
| Delavan-Darien | Edgerton | Elkhorn Area | Fort Atkinson | Jefferson | Milton | Whitewater Area | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 | 10.98 | 7.10 | 11.60 | 7.01 | 8.05 | 5.4 | 9.89 |
| 2008 | 11.90 | 8.22 | 15.28 | 8.78 | 8.62 | 5.71 | 10.54 |
| 2009 | 15.43 | 9.29 | 15.21 | 11.39 | 10.1 | 6.65 | 14.22 |
| 2010 | 22.17 | 9.62 | 9.71 | 13.79 | 12.28 | 8.94 | 16.29 |
| 2011 | 19.46 | 9.33 | 10.80 | 13.52 | 12.13 | 7.83 | 17.9 |
| Change | +77.2% | +31.4% | -9.31% | +92.8% | +50.7% | +45% | +81% |
Quick Notes:
- Communities measured are school districts.
- Same standard is applied to each community, for each year.
- 2011 is latest year available.
- Date range immediately precedes and follows the Great Recession.
- All communities but two see a rate decline from 2010 to 2011 (even if slight) in child poverty after the recession ends. Only Elkhorn and Whitewater do not see a lessening in the rate; of those two cities, Whitewater is higher in 2011 over 2007 while Elkhorn’s 2011 rate is lower than her 2007 rate. Only Whitewater increases each year.
- The data above are poverty data (that is, a dire category of deprivation). The same Whitewater area also suffers, among children aged 5 to 17, economic disadvantage amounting to 44% of all such school-age children.
Monday: Assessing the Poverty Data for Our Area.
Cats, Weird Tales
Friday Catbloging: Drug-Smuggling Cat
by JOHN ADAMS •
Holiday, Poll
Friday Poll: Favorite Halloween Monster
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s the last Friday before Halloween, so a poll about Halloween monsters – which do you think is the greatest Halloween scare (or, if not scariest, then most interesting)? What’s your favorite?
I’d say zombies, I suppose, with werewolves a close second. What do you think? (Multiple answers are possible.)
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.25.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
The works week ends with a sunny Friday and a high of forty-six.
On October 25, 1774, America tries to be reasonable:
On this day in 1774, the First Continental Congress sends a respectful petition to King George III to inform his majesty that if it had not been for the acts of oppression forced upon the colonies by the British Parliament, the American people would be standing behind British rule.
Despite the anger that the American public felt towards the United Kingdom after the British Parliament established the Coercive Acts—called the Intolerable Acts by the colonists—Congress was still willing to assert its loyalty to the king. In return for this loyalty, Congress asked the king to address and resolve the specific grievances of the colonies. The petition, written by Continental Congressman John Dickinson, laid out what Congress felt was undo oppression of the colonies by the British Parliament. Their grievances mainly had to do with the Coercive Acts, a series of four acts that were established to punish colonists and to restore order in Massachusetts following the Boston Tea Party.
On October 25, 1836, a first for the Wisconsin territory:
1836 – Belmont-Wisconsin Territory 1836 Established
On this date the first legislative session of the Wisconsin territory convened in Belmont, Wisconsin. During this first session, forty-two laws were put in the statute books. At this time, the Territory of Wisconsin included all of present-day Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and part of the two Dakotas.
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about tornadoes. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
How many categories of tornado exist, according to the Fujita Scale?
Technology
The Secret Features of OS X Mavericks
by JOHN ADAMS •
Most Mac users have available to them a free update to OS X, named Mavericks. (Inexplicably, they’ve stopped naming new versions of OS X after cats.)
Lifehacker offers a video with information on features of Mavericks about which OS X users might not otherwise be aware.
City, Economy, Poverty
A City’s Most Important Economic Measure
by JOHN ADAMS •
Yesteday, I asked, “What’s Whitewater’s Economy?” If it should be true – and it is – that a genuine economic discussion is more than a budgetary one, then what economic measures should matter most?
There’s no single measurement that explains it all, but what would one say about an economy if one were compelled to pick just one measurement of performance?
I’ll suggest that one begins by asking a simple question: what’s the poverty rate? It begins with asking how many poor people there are in a community.
One confirms a community’s fundamental economic success when one discovers that there are few who are poor; one finds a community’s fundamental economic failure when one discovers a high poverty rate.
I’ll contend that there is no escape from seeing things this way, except the immoral utilitarianism of choosing a society of few with vast wealth over many, many more with nothing. A well-functioning market economy brings opportunity and success to many, not merely a few.
An evaluation would proceed this way: is poverty uncommon (as one hopes it would be)? If so, then one goes on to look at other economic criteria by which to assess the community’s performance. These would include conventional measurements of employment, inflation, per capita income, trends among these, etc.
But if poverty should be high, absolutely or relatively to other places, one already has one’s initial and disappointing answer – a community with a high poverty rate is, by this definition, struggling and failing.
There may be a tendency to blame people for their own condition, but I find this claim unpersuasive: in a society like America with free flows of capital, goods, and labor, communities have ample access to talent and resources. American communities’ economic failures are more likely to be leadership failures, of establishing a well-ordered and competitive marketplace.
That a tiny number of people might possibly be poor by choice or by unchosen disability hardly explains widespread poverty. It’s more excuse than explanation for a high poverty rate.
Quick notes:
1. I’m well aware that poverty in America means something quite different from poverty in the Third World. The measures about which I am discussing are city-to-city within America.
2. The definition of poverty in America has changed, over time, and is subject to debate. No matter: for this discussion, the comparisons that matter to me are those that apply the same criteria, for the same time periods, between American places. (An example would be comparisons for a common year, using the same criteria, between cities and towns.)
Tomorrow: Poverty in Our Area.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.24.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Thursday offers a high of forty and northwest winds at 15 to 15 mph. Sunrise will be 7:20 AM and sunset 5:58 PM. The moon is in a waning gibbous phase with 71% of its visible disk illuminated. Moon rise was 9:27 PM last night, and moonset will be 12:23 PM today.
On this day in 1945, the United Nations charter took effect:
Washington, Oct. 24–The United Nations World Security Organization came into being when the Soviet Government in mid-afternoon deposited its instrument of ratification, the twenty-ninth necessary to bring this about, and James F. Byrnes, Secretary of State, then signed the protocol at 4:50 o’clock, Eastern standard time, formally attesting that the Charter of the United Nations has come into force.
In signing the protocol Mr. Byrnes said the Charter was now a “part of the law of nations” and that it was “a memorable day for the peace-loving peoples of all nations.” But he warned that peace depended upon the will of the peoples for peace rather than upon documents.
October 24th is also the birthday of Bob Kane, creator of Batman.
Art by Bob Kane.
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about close genetic relationships. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
City, Development, Economy, Government Spending, Local Government, Taxes/Taxation
What’s Whitewater’s Economy?
by JOHN ADAMS •
Like many others, I read the news each day, about our city, online and in print. When one reads about Whitewater, of its local government, one likely reads about one of two topics: (1) the city or public schools budgets, or (2) municipal development projects.
They’re both important, sometimes very much so, but they’re only a part of Whitewater’s actual, economic life. In fact, the tens of millions spent on our city and schools budget, and the millions more spent on development, are only meaningful in context.
That context is not — never was, and never will be — the headlines that a few boosters and cheerleaders push forward as proof of their ability, command, and insight.
The condition of common residents, thousands of them, is a fuller economic picture.
The city’s economy comprises thousands of people and their daily production, consumption, and savings – that is, their material condition and prospects. That a few are comfortable, or that a few projects are large, barely describes Whitewater’s genuine economic condition.
When the Gazette or Daily Union talk about the city budget, the schools budget, or big projects, they do two things, simultaneously. First, they push the ideas and topics that insiders think are politically valuable. Second, these newspapers omit consideration of the full economy and the condition of thousands in Whitewater.
(About Janesville, the stark gap between the Gazette‘s hesitant description of the city they serve and the actual economic and political performance of Janesville is striking. When nationally-recognized writers or filmmakers look at Janesville, they describe the city honestly in a way that that city’s own newspaper is too cautious to do, lest they seem ‘too critical’ and lest they unsettle advertisers or incumbent politicians. The paper is hesitant, in the end, about the economic truth of its own town.)
In some ways, a discussion about a budget is an easier discussion – and less unsettling – than the truth about a municipality’s poorly performing economy.
Whitewater’s town squires, self-designated notables, etc., would very much prefer a conventional discussion of the budget, or even of their big-ticket proposals (however hollow), than a discussion of the city’s actual economic conditions.
Candidate Bill Clinton’s team famously insisted that it was, after all, “the economy, stupid.” The Clinton team was only partly right: it was and is the economy that matters greatly, but people aren’t stupid.
On contrary, it’s simply true that most people are clever and knowledgeable. Groups of leaders may be sharp or dull, but the overwhelming majority of residents in our community are smart and capable. We couldn’t have a functioning society otherwise.
I posted the full city budget proposal on Monday – over a hundred pages, and millions of dollars in taxes and spending – but that’s not the starting place for a discussion.
It’s the economy, not our city’s fiscal account, that underlies any meaningful discussion.
Tomorrow: A City’s Most Important Economic Measure.
Anderson, Cartoons & Comics
Preferences
by JOHN ADAMS •
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 10.23.13
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday will bring a high of forty-three, and a one-third chance of light rain or snow showers in the afternoon. The low tonight will be around twenty-six.
In the city today, there will be three public meetings: Downtown Whitewater’s board at 8 AM, the CDA at 5 PM, and the Cable Commission at 6 PM.
Throughout the day, as in every day in the city’s history, there will be innumerable private encounters, transactions, and experiences that will be the true substance of Whitewater’s civic life. They’ll not be listed as bold, red-letter events, but for it all they’ll have the distinction of being the true ingredients and foundation of life here.
On this day in 1777, America scores a victory over the British navy:
…a British Royal Navy fleet of ships, trying to open up supply lines along the Delaware River and the occupying British army in Philadelphia, is bombarded by American cannon fire and artillery from Fort Mifflin, Pennsylvania.
Six British ships were severely damaged, including the 64-gun battleship HMS Augusta and the 20-gun sloop Merlin, which both suffered direct hits before they were run aground and subsequently destroyed. More than 60 British troops aboard the Augusta were killed, while the crewmembers aboard the Merlin abandoned ship, narrowly avoiding a similar fate.
Although the American forces defending Fort Mifflin were undoubtedly victorious on October 23, 1777, the battle continued throughout the month of October and into November. With much of the fort destroyed and under continuous artillery and cannon fire, the American forces abandoned Fort Mifflin on November 16, 1777.
Today is an anniversary day for the Packers:
1921 – Green Bay Packers First NFL Game
On this date the Green Bay Packers played their first NFL game. The Packers defeated the Minneapolis Marines 7-6, for a crowd of 6,000 fans and completed their inaugural season with 3 wins, 2 losses, and 2 ties.[Source: Packers.com]
Scientific American‘s daily trivia question asks about water. (Clicking on the question leads to its answer.)
What fraction of the freshwater that falls on our planet is used by people?