Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater looks to be a rainy day, with a high of sixty-two.
On this day in 1814, Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner:
From Google’s daily puzzle, a question about literature: “What famous Russian writer wrote a novel while gambling in the town that the ancient Romans called ‘Aurelia Aquensis’?” more >>
Yes, Sweden. And yes, they have been, as Stefan Karlsson observes:
…Sweden during its most free market oriented era, from 1870 to 1950, had the highest rate of per capita economic growth in the world. After massive tax and spending increases during the 1950s and 1960s, Sweden stopped outperforming other countries….However, free market reforms implemented in the 1990s, and in recent years, have enabled Sweden to once again outperform other Western countries in growth.
There’s a double hope in these findings. First that markets boost growth over non-market alternatives, but second that even after years of stagnation and stifling policies, a return to markets will yet spark renewed growth. [NB: that’s the significance for Whitewater, WI. A place with years of stagnation may still turn its prospects around.]
Supporters of markets know this, of course, but the second point is often deprecated, as though a nation goes beyond markets. There are many ways to fall behind and below market performance, but there’s no way beyond.
Via Christian Science Monitor.
Posted on 9.12.12 @ Daily Adams.
Good morning.
Whitewater’s mid-week will be sunny and warm, with a high of eighty-eight.
Whitewater’s Tech Park Board is scheduled to meet this morning at 8 AM. (The test of a meeting is to match an agenda against the final product. We’ll see.)
On this day in 1940, the discovery of beautiful but ancient cave paintings in France:
First studied by the French archaeologist Henri-Édouard-Prosper Breuil, the Lascaux grotto consists of a main cavern 66 feet wide and 16 feet high. The walls of the cavern are decorated with some 600 painted and drawn animals and symbols and nearly 1,500 engravings. The pictures depict in excellent detail numerous types of animals, including horses, red deer, stags, bovines, felines, and what appear to be mythical creatures.
In Wisconsin history, on this day in 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’s daily puzzle asks about mythology: “I’m a god that’s known by the same name in both Greek and Roman mythology. What musical instrument did I once receive as a gift?”
Whitewater’s Common Council will, tonight, narrow the list of candidates to be her next city manager. In the days ahead, there’ll be an announcement about those finalists, and time to consider their accomplishments before a reception and community forum on 9.21, and council’s closed-session interviews on 9.22.
A good choice matters, of course, but it matters in context: the city’s evolving inexorably, and part of the choice council will have to make is whether to swim with or against the next decade’s currents. (The city can make the most conventional choice possible, as she did with a new police chief, or look forward to what Whitewater of a decade from now will be like, and need.)
Either way, those currents will be just as strong.
A few sundry thoughts appear below.
A Selection for the Whole City. Insiders will be tempted to ask themselves what they want, what would be good for them. It’s the wrong question, twice over. First, the city’s a place of over a dozen thousands, not a place of a few dozen. Second, no matter how one chooses, the only successful administration will be one that looks beyond a tiny few. (If it were not so, the previous administration would still be the present administration.)
A Common Touch. Without this, there’s no lasting selection for the whole city.
An Embrace of all the City’s Groups. It’s a multi-ethnic city. Seeing it otherwise is seeing it falsely.
One also notices — however startling this may be to some — that about half the adults in the city are women. Not one of twenty or one of ten, but half. Our committees and public boards should be more than places for “hanging out with all us old guys.” (Even if it’s said when there’s a lone woman on the board.)
There should be a better representation on all the city’s public boards, not just a few.
Someone who believes as much would be a good choice.
A Limited Role for City Government. The municipal building’s not the White House or Congress. City government doesn’t have to be involved in every aspect of civil society. (Actually, the White House and Congress shouldn’t be so involved in daily life, but one sees my point.)
Honesty about the City’s Problems. A few weeks ago, at common council, the interim city manager described some of the fiscal challenges facing city government. That wasn’t a bad thing to say – it was a good and honest thing to say.
Look around: in the time since he spoke plainly and acknowledged those truths, the city hasn’t collapsed under the weight of those words. On the contrary, more than one person in city government surely has had a burden lifted: one doesn’t have to spin every story out of the municipal building. On the contrary, more than one person outside city government has heard news of the city’s condition without feeling it as a test his or her credulity.
Respect for Good Reasoning and Reliable Data. Distorting data and relying on dodgy surveys doesn’t boost the city; it makes her officials look foolish. The same goes for the habit of applying for one’s own awards, a bad and laughable municipal habit that probably reached its statewide zenith here in Whitewater over the last year or so. A yawning need for praise and adulation isn’t a sound public policy; it’s a personal embarrassment.
Flexibility over Rigidity. We’ve challenges that require flexibility and adaptability. Brittle breaks – it’s as simple as that.
A long view, from a go-slow-and-don’t-crow administration, would do this city good.
Good morning.
Tuesday’s forecast calls for a breezy day with a high of eighty-five.
Common Council in Whitewater meets tonight at 6:30 PM, to discuss recruitment plans for a new city manager, and then in closed session to select city manager finalists.
The Common Council agenda for this (partly) closed session is set up as it should be: (1) it lists the legal basis for going into closed session (“Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(c) “Considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility” and 19.85(1)(e) “Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session”) and (2) the item to be discussed (“Review of City Manager applications and selection of finalists and selection of questions to be used for interviews.”)
That’s how every agenda for a closed session should look, by law: it should have those two elements. Why? It’s a legal requirement because closed sessions are the exception, not the rule, and so a public body should be clear about why they’re undertaking an exception. (For an example of an agenda that’s deficient under Wisconsin law, as of this post, see the agenda for tomorrow’s Tech Park Board meeting. It lists a legal basis, but no items to be discussed.)
Here’s a simple checklist that a meeting’s chairperson should use to make sure an agenda describes a closed session adequately:
1. Need. Is there really a practical need for this closed session?
2. Law. Is there a provision of Wisconsin law that permits a closed session?
3. Business. What business, specifically, will be discussed in closed session?
4. Agenda. Does the agenda plainly state both the legal justification and the particular business to be discussed at a closed session? (The meeting’s chairperson should be the one to review a board or committee agenda before it’s posted.)
The Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council has more links to open government resources helpful in organizing a meeting properly.
The New York Times archive has a link to their coverage of 9.11, including their front page at the time with news of the attacks.
On this day in 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 horsetrack, in existence since at least 1876, and is the oldest, continuously operating auto racing facility in the world. [Source:The Milwaukee Mile]
Google’s daily puzzle asks “Which man’s “bulldog” coined the term agnostic?”
With all America talking about, and debating, the economy, here’s Scott Joplin’s Wall Street Rag:
Good morning.
Whitewater’s Monday will bring sunny skies and a high of seventy-eight.
The city’s Parks & Rec Board meets at 5 PM today. Thereafter, the Planning Board meets at 6 PM, and the Library Board at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1897, in England, the world saw the first drunk driving arrest. In 1936, in America,
Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953, Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer, the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected the level of alcohol in the blood.
If you’ve never seen a cyborg cockroach, that’s about to change. Scientists at North Carolina State have created cyborg cockroaches that they can guide by remote control:
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a character from one of Plato’s works: “In Plato’s “Apology,” what’s the job of the man with ‘not much of a beard, and a rather aquiline nose?'” more >>
http://storify.com/DailyAdams/recent-tweets-9-2-to-9-8-9
Good morning.
A mostly sunny day, with a high of seventy-one, awaits Whitewater.
Today’s the day in history on which Congress gave the country, formally, a new name:
On this day in 1776, the Continental Congress formally declares the name of the new nation to be the “United States” of America. This replaced the term “United Colonies,” which had been in general use.
In the Congressional declaration dated September 9, 1776, the delegates wrote, “That in all continental commissions, and other instruments, where, heretofore, the words ‘United Colonies’ have been used, the stile be altered for the future to the “United States.”
A resolution by Richard Henry Lee, which had been presented to Congress on June 7 and approved on July 2, 1776, issued the resolve, “That these United Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent States….” As a result,John Adams thought July 2 would be celebrated as “the most memorable epoch in the history of America.” Instead, the day has been largely forgotten in favor of July 4, when Jefferson’s edited Declaration of Independence was adopted. That document also states, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be FREE AND INDEPENDENT STATES.” However, Lee began with the line, while Jefferson saved it for the middle of his closing paragraph.
I’ve an update to my Friday catblogging post about Oscar the Bionic Cat: a link to a full program (available online) from the Smithsonian Channel about Oscar, entitled, “The Bionic Vet: Oscar & Mayo.”
Google’s daily puzzle is asking about one of the uses for a Greek letter: “What Greek letter represents a number of complete waves produced per unit of time?”
Update, 9.9.12: Video highlights from the U.S. Paralympics Division of the U.S. Olympic Committee:
Today in London, at the Paralympic Games, the United States defeated Great Britain to win a bronze medal in wheelchair basketball in international competition. It’s an extraordinary accomplishment, to reach the highest level of competition, against athletes from around the world.
(The American women’s team came close to a medal, too, falling short in a difficult match for the bronze against the Netherlands.)
UW-Whitewater’s wheelchair basketball program, winner of almost a dozen national championships, played a vital role in America’s medal-winning effort:
When he’s not helping first-time offenders avoid prison at the Dane County District Attorney’s Office, Melvin Juette helps coach the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team, which Saturday won a bronze medal in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London.
Juette is not the only Wisconsin tie to the team. The state is a hub for wheelchair basketball, thanks in part to the strong program at UW-Whitewater.
Six of the 12 members of the U.S. men’s wheelchair basketball team in this year’s games played for UW-Whitewater, which has won 11 national titles. The school also boasts the current national championship women’s team, and several Warhawks women competed on the U.S. and other national teams in the Paralympics. Juette and fellow assistant coach Tom Colwell also played for UW-Whitewater.
So very well and admirably done.
