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Friday Poll: Asteroids

On 2.15.13, an asteroid the size of an office building will pass very close to the Earth. It’s a close encounter of a kind that happens only rarely:

It will be the nearest recorded brush with a space rock so large, NASA scientists said Thursday.

(The Washington Post/NASA) – A chunk of rock about half the length of a football field — travelling at almost 5 miles per second — will pass about 17,200 miles from Earth on Friday.

The good news: There’s no chance of an impact. At its closest, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass about 17,000 miles above Earth.

The bad news: A million other potentially dangerous — and unknown — city-killing space rocks are out there, and one of them could be on a collision course with Earth. Critics say NASA and other space agencies are not doing enough to scan for these threats.

“It’s like Mother Nature sending a warning shot across our bow,” said Don Yeomans, who tracks asteroids for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

So, Asteroids: Big Problem or Not Worth Worrying Over?


I’m in the Not Worth Worrying Over category, as I think we’ve the time and will develop the technology to manage these risks.

What do you think?

Daily Bread for 2.8.13

Good morning.

Whitewater’s work week ends with decreasing clouds turning into a mostly sunny day, with a high of twenty-six. We’ll have 10h 16m of sunlight and 11h 14m of daylight. Tomorrow will bring two minutes more light.

Next week, an asteroid the size of an office building will pass very close the Earth. It’s a close encounter of a kind that happens only rarely:

It will be the nearest recorded brush with a space rock so large, NASA scientists said Thursday.

(The Washington Post/NASA) – A chunk of rock about half the length of a football field — travelling at almost 5 miles per second — will pass about 17,200 miles from Earth on Friday.

The good news: There’s no chance of an impact. At its closest, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass about 17,000 miles above Earth.

The bad news: A million other potentially dangerous — and unknown — city-killing space rocks are out there, and one of them could be on a collision course with Earth. Critics say NASA and other space agencies are not doing enough to scan for these threats.

“It’s like Mother Nature sending a warning shot across our bow,” said Don Yeomans, who tracks asteroids for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

On this day in 1918, a military newspaper resumes publication:

…the United States Army resumes publication of the military newsletter Stars and Stripes.

Begun as a newsletter for Union soldiers during the American Civil WarStars and Stripes was published weekly during World War I from February 8, 1918, until June 13, 1919. The newspaper was distributed to American soldiers dispersed across the Western Front to keep them unified and informed about the overall war effort and America’s part in it, as well as supply them with news from the home front.

The front page of the newspaper’s first World War I issue featured A Message from Our Chief, a short valedictory from General John J. Pershing, commander in chief of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF):

“The paper, written by the men in the service, should speak the thoughts of the new American army and the American people from whom the army has been drawn. It is your paper. Good luck to it.”

The World War I-era Stars and Stripes was largely the creation of Second Lieutenant Guy T. Viskniskki, an AEF press officer and former censor at the American Field Test Headquarters in Neufchateau, France. Featuring news articles, sports news, poetry, letters to the editor and cartoons, among other content, the eight-page weekly publication was printed on presses that had been borrowed from Paris newspapers. Viskniskki’s staff was made up mostly of enlisted men and featured prominent journalists like Harold Ross, future co-founder of The New Yorker magazine, Alexander Woollcott, a former drama critic for The New York Times, and Grantland Rice, who went onto become known as the dean of American sports writers. At its peak during the war, Stars and Stripes reached a circulation of 526,000.

On this day in 1858, a Wisconsin Congressman picks a fight:

1858 – Wisconsin Congressman Starts Fight in Legislature
Just before the Civil War, the issue of slavery tore apart the U.S. Congress. On February 8, 1858, Wisconsin Rep. John Potter (considered a backwoods hooligan by Southern aristocrats) leaped into a fight on the House floor. When Potter embarrassed a pro-slavery brawler by pulling off his wig, the gallery shouted that he’d taken a Southern scalp. Potter emerged from the melee covered in blood and marked by slave owners as an enemy.

Two years later, on April 5, 1860, he accused Virginia Rep. Roger Pryor of falsifying the Congressional record. Pryor, feeling his character impugned, challenged Potter to a duel. According to Southern custom, a person challenged had the right to choose weapons.

Potter replied that he would only fight with “Bowie knives in a closed room,” and his Southern challenger beat a hasty retreat. Republican supporters around the nation sent Potter Bowie knives as a tribute, including this six-foot-long one. [Source: Badger Saints and Sinners by Fred L. Holmes]

Google-a-Day poses a question of pop culture: “The main character in the Broadway production of “Jersey Boys” was the lead singer for a band that celebrated their first commercial release in what year?”

 

Press Release Tips for the WEDC

Let’s assume you’re a troubled, controversial public-private hybrid agency in Wisconsin, like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation. While spending vast sums of public money, you decide to issue a press release announcing taxpayers’ your largesse.

You must know – and hope residents of a small city don’t know — that you’re politically toxic, across the whole political spectrum. For goodness’ sake, a conservative online newspaper from the nationwide Franklin Center is mocking your so-called ‘corporation,’ with lyrics from rap songs:

“Come get money with me, if you curious to see
how it feels to be with a P-I-M-P
Roll in the Benz with me, you could watch TV
From the backseat of my V, I’m a P-I-M-P …
If ever you needed someone, I’m the one you should call
I’ll be there to pick you up, if ever you should fall
If you got problems, I can solve’em, they big or they small”

That’s a damned big PR problem.

So if you’re the WEDC, what should you – in your news release – do or say?

1. Don’t publish the release on the Web, while using the past tense, before the actual ceremony even takes place.

During the Governor’s visit to the Whitewater Innovation Center, the CDA presented Date Check Pro and Got Apps, two area entrepreneurs, the first grants from the fund. The CDA provide both with a $10,000 grant to assist the companies in their business development. Click here to read their stories.

Why shouldn’t you do that? Because a blogger might notice on 2.6.13 that you’d released these words ahead of schedule, might prepare a post in reply that same day, and then follow up on 2.7.13 to ridicule your cheesy, canned press release.

2. When the local university chancellor thanks your organization in that cheesy, canned press release, make sure he gets your name right.

So when he thanks “the Wisconsin Economic Development Council,” you might want to remind him that you’re the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.

Remember? You’re suposed to have this sounding like a private deal, and use words like corporation and CEO whenever possible. Yeah, it’s really public money, but can’t you at least try to fool people with a consistent use of deceptive terms?

Someone who holds you so close should at least know your name.

3. Ask those you’re quoting to speak matter-of-factly about their own neighbors.

So, if the city manager you’re quoting says that “[w]e are fortunate in Whitewater to have such a proactive, visionary CDA,’ you might want to remind him that ‘visionary,’ sounds absurd from one local person to another.

Visionary? That’s Jonas Salk, or Dr. King, or maybe even a famous science-fiction writer, like Jules Verne. It’s over-the-top and overdone when used to describe one agency to another in the same small city, in the same state.

It sounds silly, and you just never know if someone might point that out, perhaps even on the Web. One way or another, regardless, you can be sure that any normal people reading that flowery description will be thinking it’s silly.

Whitewater, or Wisconsin, or any American city will always deserve better than these clumsy and awkward attempts to hawk crony capitalism.

Next time, you might want to do better.

Daily Bread for 2.7.13

Good morning.

It’s a day of a wintry mix, and about two to four inches of snow, ahead for Whitewater. Not a bad term ‘wintry mix’ – it’s a quick way of saying sleet, snow, cold rain, all together. Better as a term, of course, than an experience.

The Landmarks Commission is now listed for a meeting tonight at 6 PM, but the weather may yet change their schedule.

On this day in 1984, U.S. astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk:


Houston, Feb. 7 — In a spectacle of bravery and beauty, two American astronauts flew out, up and away from the space shuttle Challenger today. Free of any lifeline and propelled into the dark void by tiny jets, they became, in effect, the first human satellites.

The successful test of the propulsion backpacks – a wireless high-wire act 170 miles above the earth – was an important step toward future operations to repair and service orbiting satellites and to assemble and maintain large space stations.

A second test by the same two space fliers, Capt. Bruce McCandless 2d of the Navy and Lieut. Col. Robert L. Stewart of the Army, is scheduled for Thursday morning. They are to practice grappling a large object rotating at the end of the shuttle’s mechanical arm, a dress rehearsal for a mission in April to repair a crippled scientific satellite.

On 2.7.1867, a famous Wisconsin author is born:

1867 – Laura Ingalls Wilder born
Wisconsin’s most famous children’s author, Laura Ingalls Wilder, was born this day near Pepin. Although her family moved away a year later, it subsequently returned in 1870 and remained until 1874. It is this period that is immortalized in her first book, Little House in the Big Woods. [Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin History]

Google-a-Day aska about a famous author: “Though he created one of the most popular, classic works in the English language, who died in 1400 and was buried in Poet’s Corner, but never made a living as a writer?”

The Truth about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation

A person should be able to make simple distinctions, as between the sensible and foolish, or practical and impractical. Sometimes those distinctions should be clear, and as stark as the difference between the contents of a sample cup and a glass of Chardonnay.

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You’ll hear a lot locally over the next few days about a ‘partnership’ between Whitewater and Gov. Walker’s Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), the public-private hybrid replacement for the Wisconsin Dept. of Commerce.

You’ve probably read in these last few days that there’s more to the WEDC than grant funding. This agency has been a train wreck since its formation. It’s an inefficient, mistake-prone exercise in crony capitalism on a grand scale.

Here’s what publicity-mad insiders don’t want you to recall about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation:

The WEDC wanted hundreds of millions in people’s pension funds. See, WEDC request rejected | $200 million was sought from state pension fund.

This supposedly private venture relies on public money, from ordinary taxpayers, to pick and choose businesses it prefers. Greedy for more, the current head of the WEDC

….Reed Hall asked the State of Wisconsin Investment Board in November for the venture capital seed money. The board rejected the request late last year, saying that the use of pension funds to pay for economic development initiatives “does not meet our fiduciary duty.”

These aren’t private men investing their own money – they’re public men avariciously looking for every last dollar of public money they can control, even from the pensions of ordinary workers.

That’s their vision, their proactive approach, their supposedly new idea: to take from weaker people while ignoring people’s basic needs.

The WEDC has neglected millions in taxpayer funded loans. See, Neglected WEDC taxpayer-financed loans grow to $12.2 million.

Borrowers have fallen behind in making payments on taxpayer-funded loans worth $12.2 million in total that were neglected by officials at the state’s top jobs agency – $3 million more than was previously believed to be at risk.

As of Nov. 2, borrowers were late in making payments totaling $2.5 million, but the state could easily end up losing more than that, records show. One late borrower, Flambeau River Biofuels, is unlikely to repay $2 million of its outstanding loans from the state, though the amount currently past due is only a fraction of that total, according to state figures and past interviews with its owner.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. Friday afternoon turned over the information on the 67 past-due loans and a stack of other documents in response to an open records request by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

There’s Whitewater’s new ‘partner’: a negligent organization that doesn’t properly account for the people’s money.

The WEDC has tried to conceal its problems. See, WEDC won’t say whether past-due loans top $9 million.

…the state’s top jobs agency isn’t saying whether the total amount owed to taxpayers by scores of unnamed businesses could go higher than the $9 million figure that officials first estimated.

A spokesman for the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. told the Journal Sentinel that the agency wouldn’t provide information on the total owed until it finishes an internal review that will take an unspecified amount of time. “WEDC is developing a corrective action plan. It is reviewing each loan and the status of each loan. We will provide additional information when we have completed the review,” WEDC spokesman Tom Thieding said.

Last week, the newspaper [MJS] reported that the agency had discovered it had failed to systematically track nearly $9 million in loans that are not current. As a result, WEDC’s chief financial officer resigned and GOP Gov. Scott Walker, a champion of the quasi-public agency created last year, brought in a new interim leader.

If one had a drunk, coma victim, or skid-row bum for a partner, he’d still be more responsible than this agency.

The WEDC has been the subject of federal complaints. See, Walker aide apologizes over handling of WEDC federal complaints.

Most people shy away from misconduct in public affairs, and one good reason would be when a state agency is under federal investigation:

Gov. Scott Walker’s top cabinet secretary apologized to the state’s flagship jobs board Thursday for not telling them about sharp criticism from the federal government about legal violations by the state and promised to keep them better informed in the future.

The apology by Department of Administration secretary Mike Huebsch came after a member of the Wisconsin Economic Development Board told Walker that he is frustrated about the lack of communication and will resign if it doesn’t improve. Huebsch, a nonvoting member of the WEDC board, had said he had first wanted to resolve the outstanding issues with HUD – initially raised more than a year ago.

“I should have brought this to the board earlier and it was my mistake not to do that. . . . I thought it was premature but it clearly wasn’t,” Huebsch told the board in a telephone conference Thursday. “I will certainly err on the side of providing greater information in the future.”

The WEDC has a mediocre jobs record. See, Second review gives low marks to state jobs agency.

Even a second review’s not the charm:

Another independent report has found that the tracking of millions of dollars of taxpayer-funded loans at the state’s flagship jobs agency hasn’t measured up, and Gov. Scott Walker could soon be interviewing finalists to turn the agency around.

The latest report by a subsidiary of the state bankers group showed that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. didn’t have the right bookkeeping policies, computer systems and collection procedures to track the loans that the agency made to businesses. Walker, who also serves as the chairman of the WEDC board, last year signed legislation creating the organization as a replacement for the former Department of Commerce.

In a four-hour meeting of the WEDC board Tuesday at the Marshfield Clinic in Eau Claire, Walker acknowledged and pledged to correct the failures in basic accounting practices at the quasi-public agency that in recent months have drawn attention away from its mission of creating jobs.

There we are. Just a quick survey of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation shows it to be one of the worst-performing organizations in the state.

A sensible man or woman would do well to stay as far away from the WEDC as possible. It’s only the foolish or the gluttonous who’d hold out their hands, asking from this agency for as much public money as they could carry away.

In any event, it’s worth watching and tracking what happens to these grants, as it is for all the money the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has taken from the public.

Daily Bread for 2.6.13

Good morning.

It’s a Wednesday of morning fog, increasing clouds, and a high of twenty-nine for Whitewater.

Whitewater’s Tourism Council meets at 9 AM this morning, and her Zoning Rewrite Steering Committee later today at 6 PM.

How did dogs become domesticated dogs?  There’s a compelling theory that Learning to love grains, potatoes was key to the evolution of dogs:

Dog-biscuit

You know that dog biscuit shaped like a bone but made mostly of wheat? Your dog’s willingness to eat that treat, instead of going for a bone in your thigh, helps explain how its ancestors evolved from wolves into house pets.

A team of Swedish researchers compared the genomes of wolves and dogs and found that a big difference is dogs’ ability to easily digest starch. On their way from pack-hunting carnivore to fireside companion, dogs learned to desire — or at least live on — wheat, rice, barley, corn and potatoes….

The theory’s new, and will need more evaluation, but it’s intriguing.

On this day in 1778, America and France sign a Treaty of Amity and Commerce and a Treaty of Alliance in Paris:

The Treaty of Amity and Commerce recognized the United States as an independent nation and encouraged trade between France and the America, while the Treaty of Alliance provided for a military alliance against Great Britain, stipulating that the absolute independence of the United States be recognized as a condition for peace and that France would be permitted to conquer the British West Indies.

With the treaties, the first entered into by the U.S. government, the Bourbon monarchy of France formalized its commitment to assist the American colonies in their struggle against France’s old rival, Great Britain. The eagerness of the French to help the United States was motivated both by an appreciation of the American revolutionaries’ democratic ideals and by bitterness at having lost most of their American empire to the British at the conclusion of the French and Indian Wars in 1763.

In 1776, the Continental Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee to a diplomatic commission to secure a formal alliance with France. Covert French aid began filtering into the colonies soon after the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, but it was not until the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga in October 1777 that the French became convinced that the Americans were worth backing in a formal treaty.

On February 6, 1778, the treaties of Amity and Commerce and Alliance were signed, and in May 1778 the Continental Congress ratified them. One month later, war between Britain and France formally began when a British squadron fired on two French ships. During the American Revolution, French naval fleets proved critical in the defeat of the British, which culminated in the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781.

Google-a-Day asks a question about art: “Many of the cave paintings at Lascaux show the animals with heads in profile, but with horns facing forward. This is an example of what convention of representation?”

Millard Fillmore

I’ve no idea if Pres. Fillmore ever visited Whitewater. That’s Millard Fillmore, the political disaster: supporter of the Compromise of 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act, the Know Nothing Movement, and a thorn in Lincoln’s side during the Civil War.

Simply put, Fillmore would be a hard sell to anyone looking at his record honestly. That’s why historians rank him as a failure.

How could one turn that perception around?

The right way would have been to persuade Fillmore, during his career, not to have made so many disastrous mistakes. That is, the best outcome would be for Fillmore not to have had a career as bad as Fillmore’s.

There’s another – decidedly worse way – to flack Fillmore to future generations: simple declare him a success, and publish a really big portrait of him.

Like this:

20130205-111916.jpg

Are you now persuaded and over-awed?

Where once was a political wreck do you now see only COMPELLING AUTHORITY to which, by God, you must DEFER and YIELD?

Did Fillmore’s mediocre career and proposals become, upon your seeing his large portrait, now INFALLIABLE and BEYOND QUESTION?

No, of course not: that sort of groveling before authority is unsuited to a free people. Fillmore was just a man (and a middling one at that).

Just a person, as we all are: the same was true of Governor Doyle, is true of Governor Walker, and will be true of our next governor.

Just one more person, visiting the town.

The New Whitewater Start Up Grants (in Proper Perspective)

Whitewater’s Community Development Authority has been working on a seed capital fund (working on this fund for some time), and today the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation has announced a $150,000 matching contribution to the CDA, and two grants – each in the amount of $10,000 – for entrepreneurs from that fund.

The matching grant from WEDC “is providing a $150,000 “Capital Catalyst” matching grant to the CDA which will be used for grants to new-start companies and to take a debt or equity position in the emerging businesses selected. The CDA is providing a dollar for dollar match of the award.”

Here’s more about the program:

WEDC’s Capital Catalyst program provides grants to regional organizations or communities to leverage matching funds to provide seed funding for start-up and emerging companies. This is the second investment made by WEDC in a regional fund. The first was made in October 2012 to the Innovation Fund of Western Wisconsin in Eau Claire.

The CDA will create an investment committee which will establish criteria for awarding grants and an application process, and oversee the administration of the seed funds. Funds are to be invested into Wisconsin innovation-based businesses. Some of the industry sectors of focus include advanced manufacturing, agriculture/food processing, information systems/software, medical device, renewable/green energy.

The award made by WEDC requires at least one-third of funds allocated by WEDC ($50,000) as direct grants not to exceed $10,000 per business. The CDA must award the remaining two-thirds of the funds awarded by WEDC and the match (total of at least $250,000) to Wisconsin start-up businesses.

The two start ups are Date Check Pro and Got Apps, Inc. There’s a relationship between the two: Date Check Pro is a customer of Got Apps, Inc. The City of Whitewater is now providing rent assistance to the companies, and the two share office space in the city.

A few remarks:

1. Best wishes. I hope the two start up businesses take off and do well.

2. Public funding. Better to have no public funding, but in the scheme of all possible projects, this is a fairly modest investment. Consider that the federal and city governments spent almost eleven-million on the Innovation Center, a quarter-of-a-million on a Janesville bus, and hundreds of thousands for the North Street Bridge in Whitewater.

This matching grant is far less than those efforts, each of which – by the way – brought almost no jobs to the city.

3. Jobs. Each of these two start up companies has a few employees, and success may bring more. One hopes so.

And yet, and yet, it’s worth noting again that the Tech Park’s Innovation Center alone was supposed to lead to a thousand jobs and sixty-million dollars in private investment. See, Whitewater’s Innovation Center: Grants and Bonds.

When Gov. Walker looks around today, he’ll see an ‘Innovation’ Center building that took millions in public money and millions more in public debt (bonds). He won’t see anything like the promised benefits of that vast expense – just the shuffling of some existing public workers from Milton to Whitewater.

4. The Press. If you’re writing this up as a regurgitated press release and gubernatorial campaign ad, why bother? The WEDC and Gov. Walker already have a release, ready to go as is.

No reason to manufacture a knock-off, when they’re offering the original, free to anyone.

5. Exaggeration. Whitewater’s leading officials have the bad habit of trumpeting sparrows as eagles, not to make others gain confidence, but to promote themselves and their supposed triumphs.

It’s a bad habit – a mental tic – of a few people in this town. Everything has to be monumental, amazing, unparalleled, or stupendous (often all of these, at the same time).

That kind of exaggeration is bad for our politics, distorting actual accomplishments for insiders’ supposed benefits, and makes the town look small, not big.

Whitewater’s a good and beautiful place, but genuine, enduring prosperity calls for a more level-headed perspective on the town’s economy and accomplishments.

This city should be more than a stage prop for an incumbent governor’s public spending and political messaging.

In time, it will be.

Daily Bread for 2.5.13

Good morning.

Tuesday brings a high of twenty-nine, and light show (with limited accumulation) to Whitewater.

It also brings Gov. Walker to town, at 10:15 AM, for a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Announcement:

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
The Whitewater University Technology Park Board members have been invited to attend an announcement ceremony on Tuesday, February 5, 2013, beginning at 10:15 a.m. at the Whitewater Innovation Center, 1221 Innovation Drive, Whitewater, Wisconsin. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker will be in attendance. It is highly likely that a quorum of Technology Park Board members will be in attendance at this presentation. Notice is being provided to inform the public of this gathering, and to confirm that there is no plan to conduct any Whitewater University Technology Park Board business during this meeting.

Richard J. Telfer, WUTP President

“To whom it may concern’ – that’s too funny, really, but I’d guess the humor’s wholly lost on Chancellor Telfer. There just aren’t a lot of people who publish a public notice about a possible quorum, required to be announced under law for all one’s fellow residents, addressed as ‘to whom it may concern.’

But there’s an advantage in that notice, too: this endless of grabbing of public money, and the Potemkin Village that is the Tech Park and Innovation Center, would not have been possible without Telfer. The city would have made far fewer mistakes, wasted far less grant money, taken on far less public debt, and inspired far fewer ridiculously exaggerated press stories, had Telfer not pushed crony capitalist ‘partnerships,’ ‘innovations,’ etc.

There’s much more to write about the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, yet to come.

Later today, at 6:30 PM, Common Council meets.

On this day in 1937, Pres. Roosevelt announced his (later failed) court-packing scheme:

The President suddenly, at noon today, cut through the tangle of proposals made by his Congressional leaders to “bring legislative and judicial action into closer harmony” with a broadaxe message to Congress recommending the passage of statutes to effect drastic Federal court reforms.

The message- prepared in a small group and with deepest secrecy — was accompanied by a letter from the Attorney General and by a bill drawn at the Department of Justice, which would permit an increase in the membership of the Supreme Court from nine to a maximum of fifteen if judges reaching the age of 70 declined to retire; add a total of not more than fifty judges to all classes of the Federal courts; send appeals from lower court decisions on constitutional questions, direct to the Supreme Court, and require that government attorneys be heard before any lower-court injunction issue against the enforcement of any act of Congress.

Avoiding both the devices of constitutional amendment and statutory limitation of Supreme Court powers, which were favored by his usual spokesmen in Congress, the President endorsed an ingenious plan which will on passage give him the power to name six new justices of the Supreme Court.

On February 5, 1849, the University of Wisconsin opens:

1849 – University of Wisconsin opens
On this day in 1849 the University of Wisconsin began with 20 students led by Professor John W. Sterling. The first class was organized as a preparatory school in the first department of the University: a department of science, literature, and the arts. The university was initially housed at the Madison Female Academy building, which had been provided free of charge by the city. The course of study was English grammar; arithmetic; ancient and modern geography; elements of history; algebra; Caesar’s Commentaries; the Aeneid of Virgil (six books); Sallust; select orations of Cicero; Greek; the Anabasis of Xenophon; antiquities of Greece and Rome; penmanship, reading, composition and declamation. Also offered were book-keeping, geometry, and surveying. Tuition was “twenty dollars per scholar, per annum.” For a detailed recollection of early UW-Madison life, see the memoirs of Mrs. W.F. Allen [Source: History of the University of Wisconsin, Reuben Gold Thwaites, 1900]

Google-a-Day offers a science question: “What element on the periodic table is named after the European capital where it was discovered in 1923?”

Super Bowl Commercials

America saw an exciting Super Bowl last night, uncertain in outcome until the end. While the game wasn’t on, or the lights weren’t on at the Superdome, there were commercials to talk about.

The full list of ads is posted at Super Bowl Commercials, and my favorite was the one for Sketchers (they’re really not good running shoes, but at least they’ve a good ad agency):