Good morning.
Tuesday in Whitewater will be sunny, with a high of eighty, and calm winds.
Common Council meets tonight at 6:30 PM.
On this day in 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state:
Google’s daily puzzle asks about the length of a stay in France: “How many years did the author who wrote “The truth is rarely pure and never simple” live under an assumed name in France?”
Embedded below is the 8.16.12 Whitewater Police Commission meeting.
Recording and publishing these meeting videos online is a positive development for the city. It’s a requirement imposed on our local government as part of Whitewater’s Transparency Enhancement Ordinance, at Municipal Code Section 2.62.030.
Good morning.
Monday’s forecast calls for a mostly sunny day, with a slight chance of occasional, isolated showers, and a high of seventy-seven.
On this day in 1968, the Soviets and their Warsaw Pact satellites invaded Czechoslovakia to suppress political liberalization in that country.
In Wisconsin history, the Wisconsin Historical Society records that on this day in 1794, American forces fought in the Battle of Fallen Timbers:
On this date American troops under General “Mad” Anthony Wayne defeated a confederation of Indian forces led by Little Turtle of the Miamis and Blue Jacket of the Shawnees. Wayne’s soldiers, who included future Western explorer William Clark and future President William Henry Harrison, won the battle in less than an hour with the loss of some 30 men killed. (The number of Indian casualties is uncertain.)
The battle had several far-reaching consequences for the United States and what would later become the state of Wisconsin. The crushing defeat of the British-allied Indians convinced the British to finally evacuate their posts in the American west (an accession explicitly given in the Jay Treaty signed some three months later), eliminating forever the English presence in the early American northwest and clearing the way for American expansion.
The battle also resulted in the 1795 Treaty of Greenville, in which the defeated Indians ceded to Wayne the right of Americans to settle in the Ohio Valley (although the northwestern area of that country was given to the Indians). Wayne’s victory opened the gates of widespread settlement of the Old Northwest, Wisconsin included. [Source: American History Illustrated, Feb. 1969]
Google’s daily puzzle asks about the search for a wallet: “You’ve lost your dinner jacket in a palace with 1,514 doors, and it could be anywhere. How many rooms must you potentially look through to find it?”
http://storify.com/DailyAdams/recent-tweets-8-13-to-8-18-20
Yes, really.
Good morning.
Sunday in Whitewater brings a likelihood of afternoon showers, with a high of seventy-seven.
From LiveScience.com, a simple question: What makes Paris look like Paris? Using Google Street view, it’s possible to look for distinctive and frequent design elements with the city:
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a different puzzle: “What clue did the artist of a cryptographic sculpture at CIA headquarters offer in hopes that code breakers would crack the last unsolved passage?” more >>
Good morning.
Whitewater’s Saturday forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of seventy-four.
On this day in 1991, diehard Soviet leaders launched a coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. But it was Boris Yeltsin, not Gorbachev, who defeated the plotters:
Yeltsin and his backers from the Russian parliament then stepped in, calling on the Russian people to strike and protest the coup. When soldiers tried to arrest Yeltsin, they found the way to the parliamentary building blocked by armed and unarmed civilians. Yeltsin himself climbed aboard a tank and spoke through a megaphone, urging the troops not to turn against the people and condemning the coup as a “new reign of terror.” The soldiers backed off, some of them choosing to join the resistance. After thousands took the streets to demonstrate, the coup collapsed after only three days.
Here’s a Euronews video from 2011 with scenes from the coup:
Google’s daily puzzle asks about the other unopposed presidential candidate: “Other than George Washington, I was the only candidate ever to run for U.S. president unopposed. What was the era of my presidency called?”
Watching Whitewater’s recent Planning Commission, one saw an attention to detail about a factory building’s wall color, general style, and lighting that lasted for 13:28 minutes, from approximately 11:30 to 24:58 during the session.
It’s not the particular focus on an applicant’s building, but what it says about ordinary due diligence in reviewing bigger projects, that matters.
Common Council’s representative to the Planning Commission spent more public time considering a building’s color, etc., than anyone did in open-session deliberation at Common Council over of a preliminary agreement for a vast waste-digester project for Whitewater.
For open-session Planning consideration of a building’s colors, etc., on 8.13.12: thirteen and a half minutes.
For open-session Council voting on the waste-digester proposal on 6.19.12: less than ten minutes.
The return to [Common Council] open session was as brief as possible, merely to vote on the deal: no proper public hearing, community input, or public presentation (8:45 PM to 8:55 PM). That’s how to make sure secretive, ill-considered projects have the best chance of being adopted.
See, How to Keep a Public Deal from Common-Sense Evaluation.
I’ve asked over forty pertinent questions about that waste-digester project. When this city rushed that preliminary deal, how many of those questions could anyone voting have answered?
Even now, how many of those questions could anyone who moved for approval of the preliminary digester deal answer?
How many could its Interim City Manager, who a month ago offered in print only the tepid claim that it was his “understanding” that there were no problems with the deal, really answer?
For how many could the two local reporters, who have written about this deal, provide answers? (By the way, has there been a newspaper correction for the wholly erroneous story that described this deal as one with a Florida company?)
A recent World Health Organization study details the dangers of smoking, and to assess possible global risks from smoking, it lists the proportion of smokers in different countries:
The study, conducted between 2008 and 2010, found that across 14 developing nations, 49% of men and 11% of women used tobacco. Most of them smoked — 41% of men and 5% of women.
Numbers were highest in Russia, where 60% of men and 22% of women used tobacco; China, where 53% of men and 2% of women were tobacco users; Ukraine, where 50% of men and 11% of women used tobacco, and Turkey, where 48% of men and 15% of women used tobacco.
In some countries, smoking rates may now be even higher than they were in 2010, WHO officials say.
That brings us to today’s poll: do you smoke? I’ll note that I’m asking about tobacco, as that’s the subject of the WHO study, but you may answer more generally if you’d like.
For me, the answer’s ‘no.’ How about you?
Good morning.
Whitewater’s work week ends pleasantly, with sunny skies and a high of seventy-three.
It’s sunny today, but when it rains, animals have distinctive and effective ways to shake off wet fur. LiveScience.com has a video showing different creatures in action:
The Wisconsin Historical Society records that on this day in 1936,
Wisconsin Issue[d] First Unemployment Check
On this date the state of Wisconsin issued the first Unemployment Compensation Check in the United States for the amount of $15. The recipient was Neils N, Ruud who then sold it to Paul Raushenbush for $25 for its historical value. The check is now at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Wisconsin was the first state to establish an Unemployment Compensation program. [Source: Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development]
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a poem: “How many “bright stars” did I see when I wrote the poem that’s sung to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven?””
Good morning.
Thursday brings Thunderstorms, with a high of seventy-seven, to Whitewater.
The Whitewater Police Commission meets tonight at 6 PM.
On this day in 1896, gold was discovered in them yar hills of the Yukon, prompting the last great gold rush on this continent:
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a person: “I was known as “Mother Lucy” by my husband’s infantrymen. What nickname did I earn as First Lady, thanks to my staunch support of temperance?” more >>
