My favorite: The Cats of Ulthar.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.2.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Whitewater’s Christmas parade is tonight at 6 PM, and the day beforehand will be sunny with a high temperature of thirty-six.
The Wisconsin Historical Society remembers one of Wisconsin’s lowest moments:
1954 – McCarthy Censured by Senate
On December 2, 1954, the United States Senate voted to censure Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. Declaring his behavior “contrary to senatorial traditions,” the 1954 Senate resolution officially condemned McCarthy’s reign of anti-communist terror.
I wouldn’t call his conduct a reign of terror, but an abuse of political power worthy of censure, surely.
Presidential race 2012
Gingrich: Poor Children Have “No Habits of Working”
by JOHN ADAMS •
Somewhere tonight, Gov. Romney’s smiling:
“Really poor children, in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works so they have no habit of showing up on Monday,” Gingrich claimed.
“They have no habit of staying all day, they have no habit of I do this and you give me cash unless it is illegal,” he added.
Via Fox News
Business, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations
F.L.O.S.S: Protecting You from Low-Cost Teeth-Whitening Services
by JOHN ADAMS •
It’s not health, but favoring some businesses over others (and over consumers) that’s the concern of Connecticut’s regulators:
Here’s the description of the Institute for Justice’s video:
Teeth-whitening services are popular and increasingly available at spas, salons and shopping malls. This has been a boon for consumers because these businesses offer whitening services at a much lower cost than dentists do, often charging less than 25 percent of what a dentist would charge for similar results.
There is one group that is not smiling about these new, low-cost teeth-whitening services: the Connecticut Dental Commission. In June, the Commission ruled it is a crime punishable by up to five years in jail or $25,000 in civil penalties for anyone but a licensed dentist to offer teeth-whitening services, even if the customers apply the product to their own teeth.
Teeth-whitening products are regulated by the FDA as cosmetics, which mean anyone—even a child—can purchase them and apply them to his or her own teeth without a prescription and without supervision or instruction.
The Dental Commission’s ruling has nothing to do with public health or safety and everything to do with protecting licensed dentists from honest competition. more >>
Music, Review
Ben Sommer’s Latest Album: Super Brain
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’ve featured songs from Ben Sommer’s latest album, Super Brain, but a proper review of the entire album is in order. I liked and favorably reviewed Ben’s first album, america’d, and so was disposed to expect another solid effort. And yet, earlier-album familiarity nothwithstanding, Super Brain surprises and impresses, exceeding Sommer’s earlier work.
First, for those who liked america’d, the key difference in Super Brain’s dozen songs: the former album was more political than Sommer’s new one. Where america’d offered commentary on the state of the nation, Super Brain casts a wider glance, including one backward, in topics less uniquely American, but more universal.
There’s still political commentary here (Militarism could not be otherwise), but there’s a broader collection of themes.
There’s no right or wrong in the political or apolitical approach: each has its place.
Still, that’s neither here nor there compared with Super Brain’s deepest strength: this is an impressively and astutely eclectic mix of songs and topics. Ben may be, by his own account, an edgy, prog rock musician, but (it is to be hoped) no one is just one thing, spontaneously generated and waiting at the microphone. Sommer’s clearly isn’t one thing, but is instead a sharp and profoundly knowledgeable musician.
That’s the strength and fun of Super Brain: it’s a tour, making its mark rather than making a particular statement.
How could anyone — anyone not pinched and narrow — not enjoy, for example, I Married a Prostitute? It’s just wonderful, and I’ll not call it a guilty pleasure as it’s simply a pleasure. Melodically and lyrically, it’s a treat.
On this same album, just a few tracks later, one finds Deo Gracias Anglia, previously premiered here at FREE WHITEWATER. That’s an astonishing range for a musician, and evidence that Super Brain’s not just a title, but a description. A quick note about this Sommer’s version of Deo Gracias Anglia – it says much and says much favorably that when Sommers offered a track to premiere at FW, he chose so wisely and fittingly. Behind this eclectic album lies real intuition.
Then, back to the lead track Young Turks, for something unlike either of these two:
Happily and easily recommended —
Adams’s rating, out of four stars:
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 12.1.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
A new months ends an old year. There’s a chance of snow in Whitewater today with a high temperature of forty, but a greater chance overnight tonight. There’s no chance of snow for San Francisco today, but instead a likelihood of breezy skies with a high of sixty-six.
For a while — where a while is defined as about two weeks — the national heavyweight wrestling champ hailed from Marshfied, Wisconsin:
1906 – Fred Beell Crowned Heavyweight Champ
On this date Fred Beell, of Marshfield, Wisconsin, won the American heavyweight wrestling championship in New Orleans, taking two of three falls from Frank Gotch. Beell’s reign was brief. Sixteen days later, he lost a rematch to Gotch. Beell’s victory was the only match that Gotch lost from 1904 until his death in 1918. [Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
And yet, and yet – however brief his reign, he was the national champion. Well done.
Libertarians, Politics
Libertarian-leaning Ron Paul Clocks Newt Gingrich
by JOHN ADAMS •
Too, too funny — libertarian Ron Paul hits Newt Gingrich from the right, using conservatives (many of whom Paul himself rejects!), to disparage Gingrich as a money-grubbing, shifty, business-as-usual politician.
Gingrich’s problem is that Paul’s right: Gingrich really is a money-grubbing, shifty, business-as-usual politician.
Animals, Business, Economy, Food, Laws/Regulations, Liberty
Idaho legitimizes small-scale raw-milk producers
by JOHN ADAMS •
The potato state bests America’s Dairyland in common sense and consumer choice:
“There were a lot of illegal raw-milk sales throughout the state,” Patten said. “Across-the-fence sales, let’s say.”
So, in early 2010, instead of drawing guns and raiding those operations, the state of Idaho–with the help of raw-milk advocates and a less-enthusiastic dairy industry–modified the regulations to make it easier for small raw-milk producers to go legit.
“After a lot of consternation and battling back and forth, we kind of created what we call the Small Farm Exemption,” Patten said. “And the compromise was that you could milk up to three cows or seven goats or seven sheep, and you could sell milk for human consumption.”
The Small Farm Exemption–also called the Small Herd Exemption–greatly streamlined Idaho’s raw-milk regulatory process. If a dairyman met the requirements, emphasis was moved from an expensive Grade A barn, with all its shiny stainless steel, to little more than a monthly testing of the milk itself.
Via Boise Weekly.
Technology
Wired: Researcher’s Video Shows Secret Software on Millions of Phones Logging Everything
by JOHN ADAMS •
Update, 12.3.11: Although there’s ample logging, it may not amount to everything. See, Carrier IQ hit with privacy lawsuits as more security researchers weigh in and Reasons Not to Panic About the Carrier IQ Controversy.
Fascinating, yet — of course — deeply troubling:
The Android developer who raised the ire of a mobile-phone monitoring company last week is on the attack again, producing a video of how the Carrier IQ software secretly installed on millions of mobile phones reports most everything a user does on a phone.
Though the software is installed on most modern Android, BlackBerry and Nokia phones, Carrier IQ was virtually unknown until 25-year-old Trevor Eckhart of Connecticut analyzed its workings, revealing that the software secretly chronicles a user’s phone experience — ostensibly so carriers and phone manufacturers can do quality control.
But now he’s released a video actually showing the logging of text messages, encrypted web searches and, well, you name it.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 11.30.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
Wednesday: It’s a cloudy day with a high temperature of thirty-nine ahead for Whitewater, a sunny day with a high of seventy-five for Los Angeles, and a mostly sunny day with a high of fifty-four in New York.
If you’ve ever wanted to help identify whale sounds, then Whale.fm is just the website for you:
The folks at Zooniverse have a new citizen science project for you to play with — matching up whalesong to try and analyze the watery leviathans’ language.
Sounds have been collected from both pilot whales and killer whales (both of which are actually species of dolphin). Each family of killer whales appears to have a distinct “dialect” that it uses to communicate, and closely related families appear to share calls. Biologists have begun to categorize those noises, but the species’ communication is still poorly understood….
If you head over to Whale.fm, you’ll be presented with a large whale call, placed on a Google map, and 36 smaller possible matches. Your task is to pick the one that’s closest to the original call, with the help of visualizations of what the audio sounds like.
Crime
Governor Christie: The War on Drugs Isn’t Working
by JOHN ADAMS •
More and more officials, including committed conservatives, are willing to concede what National Review declared in 1996: the War on Drugs is a failure, having achived too little while ignoring the real problem of addiction.
Governor Christie: The War on Drugs Isn’t Working – YouTube.
Press
The trends in newspaper comments
by JOHN ADAMS •
There’s a notice over at Gannett’s Sheboygan Press that they will be moving their stories’ comments to Facebook.
Two quick observations.
First, comments on Facebook are not anonymous, and the publisher surely (and correctly) hopes that this will moderate the comments posted. Since a private paper is free to publish some comments, no comments, or all comments, this is a private (rather than a First Amendment) issue.
It’s legitimate to criticize a newspaper for its coverage; it’s an infringement on that paper’s liberty to compel it to publish specific content. (It’s both ignorance of the law and a disregard of liberty to contend that the First Amendment somehow compels publication of certain speech.)
I’m a strong advocate of the existing rights of anonymous and pseudonymous speech. These rights are available to anyone, but are especially useful to minority viewpoints. In general, a citizen in a free society owes no one his or her identity before speaking. A community arrogantly and wrongly infringes on individual liberty when it thinks otherwise.
Still, the answer to private restrictions in one place is a private alternative elsewhere. People are free to publish their own, alternative websites.
Second, and tellingly, there’s little practical chance that comments will go away. Running comments (remarks that are less restricted than letters to the editor have ever been) through Facebook is a sign that there’s no going back to a pre-comment era. Few websites are more conventional than Facebook. By the time papers turn to Facebook to manage their comments, they’ve conceded the permanency of commenting.
The announcement is at the Sheboygan Press.
Books
A farewell to the card catalog
by JOHN ADAMS •
I’m surprised there’s one still around. There was a chance for serendipity when searching through a card catalog, despite the undeniable inefficiency of it, too:
It will be the end of an era when the public card catalog is removed from its home in room 224 of Memorial Library on the UW–Madison campus.
Via UW Madison.
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 11.29.11
by JOHN ADAMS •
Good morning.
It’s a windy day with a high-temperature of thirty-eight ahead for Whitewater, with similar conditions for both Madison and Milwaukee. Listing the weather that way leads with a tail wagging a dog: most would expect the bigger cities to appear first in the order. That’s something along the lines of the joke about a British weather forecast: “Fog in Channel; Continent Cut Off.” No matter — it’s too late (and unnecessary) to fall into conventionality now, four-and-a half years on.
For those who’ve just come off a day of Thanksgiving cooking, with Christmas and New Year’s Day yet ahead, there’s good news: Cooking can be surprisingly forgiving. Rachel Ehrenberg writes that
If your pumpkin pie recipe calls for cinnamon but you’ve used the last of it, nutmeg, ginger or cardamom will do. Out of olive oil? Try applesauce. A new in-depth analysis of recipes, reviews and suggestions from an online foodie site reveals that many recipes are more flexible than standard cookbooks suggest.
Researchers mined more than 40,000 recipes and nearly two million reviews from the website Allrecipes.com, investigating various aspects of cooking and ingredient preferences. “We wondered if the analysis would let us see how flexible recipes are,” says coauthor Lada Adamic of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
Her team discovered that there’s a lot of wiggle room. The analysis, reported online November 16 at arXiv.org, identified several clusters of ingredients that can be swapped for one another.
That’s clusters of ingredients, as some substitutions won’t work, no matter how inspired they might seem to the cook. Still, it’s a reassurance (and confirmation) for those who do cook that substitutions are certainly possible (and sometimes inspired).
Today’s Google puzzle comes from Fozzie Bear of the Muppets: “I knew I was a bear of many talents, but in one episode with the help of Rowlf and a big instrument, I found a talent I never knew I had. In what episode did I discover my new talent?”
Today’s the anniversary, from 1972, of the release of the arcade version of Pong, one of the first commercial, arcade video games. Nolan Bushnell’s description of his inspiration (created by engineer Allan Alcorn): “I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play, something so simple that any drunk in any bar could play.”
He found what he was looking for —