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Poll & Comment Forum: When will Whitewater see its first accumulated snowfall this season?

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Here’s a meteorological poll: When will Whitewater see its first accumulated snowfall this year? Let’s say accumulated means at least one inch – less would just be a dusting. When will that much snow first stick on the ground?

The National Weather Service has an online archive of past Wisconsin snowfall data at the ready.

I’ve a poll and comment forum below. I’ll say earlier this year than last year, and pick November 28th as the first day with one inch minimum accumulation.


Comments are moderated as always against trolls and profanity; otherwise, have at it.

 

 

 

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.11.11

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Good morning.

A sunny day, with a high temperature of forty-six awaits Whitewater today.

It’s Veterans’ Day, and on this day in 1918, formerly known as Armistice Day, the First World war came to an end. The New York Times described the end of that terrible conflict succinctly at the time:

Washington, Monday, Nov. 11, 2:48 A.M.–The armistice between Germany, on the one hand, and the allied Governments and the United States, on the other, has been signed.

The State Department announced at 2:45 o’clock this morning that Germany had signed.

The department’s announcement simply said: “The armistice has been signed.”

The world war will end this morning at 6 o’clock, Washington time, 11 o’clock Paris time.

Over at the Capital TImes, editor emeritus Dave Zweifel nicely describes how to commemorate this day, in a column entitled, “Plain Talk: Remember to thank a veteran today”:

Regardless of your views of America’s ongoing wars, make it a point today to thank a veteran for his or her service to the country we all call home.

For it is veterans who have shouldered the burden that U.S. policies — good and bad — have wrought. Those who serve in today’s military don’t have to be there, but they’ve made a decision to put themselves at risk if for no other reason than to serve their country and all it stands for. That alone deserves a thank you and a pat on the back.

Today, Veterans Day, is also a time to remember the families of these servicemen and women. For they, too, have endured the pains and the worry while their loved ones were placed in harm’s way.

Sincere and worthy sentiments, I’m quite sure.

Google’s puzzle for today asks “This mineral functions as a compass inside the brains of birds. What is its chemical name?”

City

Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters November 2011 Newsletter

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The Whitewater-Area League of Women Voters’ November 2011 Newsletter is out, featuring both articles and a calendar of upcoming LWV events.

This latest edition is available as a link on my blogroll, and is embedded below, with coding through Google.

Upcoming events:

Whitewater League Website to Launch January 2012

Thanks to a commitment made by board member Stacey Lunsford, the League will have a web presence starting in January of 2012. With Stacey’s pledge to serve as the League’s Webmaster, the board recently voted to purchase a software package called League Easy Web. This is a system developed by the League of Women Voters of California for use by all Leagues to develop their own web sites using simple forms. Hundreds of leagues across the country use this template and many in Wisconsin too. We were prepared to purchase the program several years ago but without a League member dedicated to its upkeep we could not go forward. The program’s cost includes a one-time $100 start-up fee and $200 annual user fee. Added to this is a yearly cost of $6.99 for our domain name, which will be lwvwhitewater.org. Our first year total expenditure is $306.99. We will maintain the website for one year and then evaluate its effectiveness with the help of a Google analytics program that tracks user interface. Thank you Stacey!

Date: November 17th (Thursday)
Event: Whitewater-Area LWV Public Program “Budget Repair Bill Update: Impact on Local Schools”
Where: 7 PM Municipal Building, Council Chambers

Eric Runez, Superintendent of the Whitewater Unified School District, will bring us an update on the effects of the State Budget on our school district. He will also bring Jo Bernhardt, Principal of the Lincoln Inquiry Charter School to give us information on how the Charter School is progressing.

Date: December 11th (Sunday)
Event: League Holiday Dinner
Where: Whitewater Country Club

The League board is proud to announce that Marilyn Kienbaum will receive the 2nd Annual Making Democracy Work award. Marilyn has served many terms on the Whitewater Common Council, works faithfully in support of the Whitewater Food Pantry and regularly contributes articles in the Whitewater Register celebrating new and old Whitewater businesses. Her quiet leadership and dedication to those less fortunate have made a significant difference in the lives of countless Whitewater citizens. We will honor Marilyn and present her with the award at the December 11th League Holiday Dinner. Please join us as we pay tribute to one of Whitewater’s unsung heroes.

The newsletter embedded above includes a dinner reservation form with choice of entrée.

Date: January 7th (Saturday)
Event: LWV Board Meeting
Where: 10 AM Whitewater Public Library

Date: January 19th (Thursday)
Event: Budget Repair Bill Update: Impact on City Operations” Speaker: Kevin Brunner, Whitewater City Manager
Where: 7 PM City Hall Council Chambers

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.10.11

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Good morning.

There’s a chance of snow today, and a high of thirty-seven, for Whitewater’s forecast.

One often hears that Wisconsin’s current politics is too incendiary, too extreme, etc. The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a day far worse, on this day in 1862:

1862 – Draft Riot of 1862

On this date angry citizens protesting a War Department order for 300,000 additional troops, rioted in Port Washington, Ozaukee County. As county draft commissioner William A. Pors drew the first name, cannon fire resounded and a mob of over 1,000 angry citizens wielding clubs and bricks and carrying banners scrawled with the words “No Draft!” marched through the streets. The mob stormed the city destroying buildings, setting fires, and gutting the interior of homes and shops. Troops were brought in the next day to quell the violence. The Ozaukee rioters were captured and remained prisoners at Camp Randall for about a year before they were finally released. In all, more than a half-dozen homes were damaged and dozens of citizens were injured. [Source: Ozaukee Country Wisconsin]

We’ve had tens of thousands of protesters at the Capitol building, week after week, with nowhere near these sort of problems from a single day in 1862. (Of that day in 1862: opposition to the draft doesn’t and couldn’t justify protesters’ destruction of other people’s homes, or injuries to others.)

Here’s Google’s puzzle for the day: “Who sent the first known letter from the New World to the Old World?” It’s simpler than some of the other puzzles, with fewer discrete steps to get the answer. But as it lacks those steps, it’s less inviting, lacking a point-of-entry that a three-step problem, for example, would have. This is seemingly closer to all-or-nothing, leaving the elements of a solution less pronounced.

What’s happened to marketing, and really to ordinary sensibility, in America? I saw a web advertisement last night for pants, from bonobos.com. (I’m not a customer, and was unfamiliar with the company until last night.) Here’s the ad –

The ad begins by telling me that I “need these pants.” No, I don’t. I might want them — although that’s not really true, either — but I don’t need them. I have pants now, and for ordinary occasions L.L. Bean will supply me with more as replacements.

As for needs, rather than hopes or desires, one should have as few as possible. Among them, a particular brand of trousers should appear nowhere.

But they’re sure that I should need them, because they quote a merchant as proudly declaring these are the “holy grail of pants.”  Are you kidding? I could understand someone referring to the holy grail of cancer research, for example, but hardly the holy grail of pants.

Perhaps these are the greatest pants ever made, but one of the silliest ad campaigns persuades me that they’re neither something I need nor want.

Of bonobos, the genuine articles themselves neither want nor need pants at all:

Free Markets, Law, Laws/Regulations, Liberty

Good Riddance, Arizona Sen. Russell Pearce

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I see that Russell Pearce, the Arizona Senate president who authored that state’s harsh immigration law, met defeat in Tuesday’s recall from another Republican.

Although the other candidate, school-executive Jerry Lewis, shares some of the same views, Pearce’s defeat is still a good day for Arizona and America. See, Arizona recall: Why Russell Pearce lost.

The Washington Post reports that

Most coverage of Tuesday’s night’s recall of state Senate President Russell Pearce (R) in Mesa, Arizona has focused on the fact that Russell authored the state’s controversial immigration legislation….

“We are seen as a very unfriendly business state” because of Pearce’s approach, Lewis said during the campaign. “We are seen as something akin to maybe 1964 Alabama.”

When something seems like the Alabama of 1964, it’s time to rethink that thing.

To their credit, the Mormon church had a role in Pearce’s defeat –

The Mormon church has been trying to reach out to Hispanic voters, and Pearce’s virulent anti-immigrant rhetoric, along with his divisive law, was seen as hurting that effort. Pearce has condemned the church for its anti-SB1070 stance and angered leaders by falsely claiming that he had their support.

“The Mormon church clearly percolated below the surface to make sure that its members knew that Russell Pearce was making their missionary efforts in Central and South America more difficult,” said Nathan Sproul, Republican strategist.

Good for them – a return to Know-Nothingism is a dead end for America. So much so, that it’s deeply unAmerican.

It’s a long effort to preserve a fair and tolerant society founded on free markets in labor as well as capital. That effort won’t end today.

On the contrary, it will extend into the new year and beyond.

Film, Politics

Television and Film: Inspiring, Instructive, and Misleading

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Americans have all the drama, comedy, horror, and adventure programs and films anyone might want (and more each day, as desire and creativity are both dynamic).

There are so many ways in which so much art is enjoyable and useful. That’s true of what appears on the screen, and true of what one thinks of and about the productions themselves. (Scene awareness isn’t always a bad thing. There are real actors in all those fictional works, and their craft is admirable, if somewhat inscrutable.)

Oh what risk, though, in using fiction as a line-by-line instruction manual for everyday life. Imagine someone who watched board meetings from a soap opera, with all the melodrama they depict, and conducted his or her own meeting that way. General Hospital is many things, but a plan for management(or medicine!) would not be among them.

One learns from art, of all kinds, but not truly in a literal, single-minded way. The feelings, the insights, are what matter. Turns of phrase, mannerisms, etc. aren’t as important as broader thinking about the acting (and the actors, actresses as artists).

It’s hard to watch politics and not think that politicians have learned too literally, to narrowly, as though every meeting were a dinner theater revue. There really are people who probably learn how speak to others, in public meetings, from television.

There’s an irony in this: a national and international art — television, film — of the highest cosmopolitan standards winds up serving pinched, narrow standards that reject a cosmopolitan perspective for a provincial one.

There’s sadness in this, too, as America’s national accomplishments in art, film, television should inspire and motivate in ways consistent with her broad and open culture.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.9.11

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Good morning,

It’s another rainy day in Whitewater, with a chance of snow (of little accumulation) later this afternoon.

Whitewater’s Tech Park Board meets today at 8 AM. The agenda is available online. A portion of the meeting is in closed session, but most of the meeting is scheduled for open session. (The agenda is written poorly, and does not make clear that items 12-14, including future agenda items, should be open session after reconvening from item 11, “Whitewater University Technology Park Executive Director Search & Screen Update.”)

Asteroid 2005 YU55 – with an appearance and name only a mother could love — passed close to Earth yesterday, within the distance of the moon’s orbit. Here’s a video from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of Cal Tech of that large object, as posted at YouTube:

Here’s Google’s puzzle for the day, about another large object, found even closer to us: “You’ll find the world’s largest living superorganism off the coast of what state?”

 

Foreign Affairs

Walter Russell Mead on ‘The Most Important Story of the Day’

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That important story is the topic of Mead’s post on a Conference Board report about China’s slowing growth rate:

….China’s growth is likely to slow to 8.7 percent next year, 6.6 percent in each of the four years after that, and then average 3.5 percent per year between 2017 and 2025. It has long been an article of faith inside China and among most China watchers that the country needs 9 percent growth per year to avoid widespread instability.

If China’s growth decelerates that fast, that far, the biggest question in world politics won’t be how the rest of us will accommodate China’s rise. The question will shift to whether China can last….

Hard to see clearly that far ahead, but if the Conference Board proves right, then Mead will surely be right.

I’ve no dislike for the Chinese people, yet every reason to dislike their oppressive government. Economic competition with China hasn’t been bad, but rather good, for America. She offers much, and spurs us to be more productive (her goods also being the fuel of our greater productivity).

And yet, and yet, there is not the slightest chance – none at all – that China’s meddlesome government can sustain genuine growth of the kind she’s claimed through year upon year of planning. Nor is there the slightest possibility that a one-party state is a moral option for her people, or any other.

I wouldn’t welcome China’s collapse, but I doubt anyone will have occasion to observe China’s supposed, perpetual advance.

Via Walter Russell Mead’s ‘Via Meadia.’

Business, Economy, Free Markets, Laws/Regulations, Planning

How Anti-Dumping Laws are Bad for American Jobs

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Here’s a brief video (perfect for classroom use!) on how anti-dumping laws – designed to protect American jobs from foreign competition — actually inhibit American production, raise Americans’ prices for goods, and stymie domestic job creation.

Restrictions on importation may not be sensible as economic policy, but they’re a great gain for a few protected businesses enriched at everyone else’s expense.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.8.11

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Good morning,

Rain falls on the Whippet City today with a high temperature of forty-three.

The Wisconsin Historical Society recalls a day of political foolishness in Milwaukee:

1910 – First Socialist Mayor Elected in Milwaukee
On this date Emil Seidel was elected Mayor of Milwaukee. He was the firstsocialist mayor in the City. [Source: Milwaukee County History]

For all the talk about who’s a supposed socialist, there was a time (and for Vermont still is a time) when actual socialists were the socialists of whom people spoke.

How foolish to think that skateboarders are just skateboarders, as Skateboarders rock physics: Experienced riders show gut knowledge of slope speeds.  Bruce Bower reports that

A ball travels faster down a relatively long incline that angles steeply downward in two sections separated by a flat stretch compared with a shorter incline that angles downward modestly but without changing slope. People generally don’t realize this, but experienced skateboarders often do, said psychologist Michael McBeath of Arizona State University in Tempe. Skateboarders call on motor memory to determine intuitively that a sharp early descent creates a speed advantage, he reported November 5 at the annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society.

“This is a hard problem, even for physics professors that we quizzed, but skateboarding experience improves estimates of slope speeds,” McBeath said.

There’s a different problem even slower-moving, non-skaeboarders can try. Google’s puzzle of the day is about a creature of the sea: “A fish that is 1,200 times more poisonous than cyanide can be made into a delicacy requiring many steps of preparation before it’s safe to eat. What is the name of the poison in this fish?”

 

Presidential race 2012

What a prediction market thinks of the Herman Cain scandal

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Over at the prediction market Intrade.com, as of this afternoon, there’s not much reason for concern about Cain’s scandals, because there’s little expectation that Cain will be the GOP nominee.

(He’s fallen over the course of the day, but the distance has been short, as he was never that high anyway.)

Just over 70% expect Romney to be the GOP nominee, and exactly half think Obama will be re-elected.

Scandal or no scandal, a major prediction market still sees 2012 at it did days ago: an Obama-Romney contest.

Crime, Laws/Regulations, Liberty

Regulating Over Prohibiting Marijuana

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From last Monday’s national Libertarian Party message, there’s a proposal to regulate marijuana like wine. Whether it’s regulated like wine or more strictly, the trend against outright prohibition is unmistakable. See, Gallup Reports Record Number in Favor of Legalizing Marijuana Use.

Of those who favor a complete prohibition, two things may be said: they often cannot imagine a change from current policies, yet they’re simultaneously dense to the shifting social views all around them.

Changing views toward medical marijuana are the foundation of a broader change in views toward marijuana:

The United States government has just declared war on medical cannabis, throwing patients and dispensaries into a panic and with good reason. Even those with years of unblemished operations, including some of our finest and most respected MCDs, are being targeted….

Many Libertarians saw this coming when President Bush holdover, Michele Leonhart, boasted she would ignore the administration’s formal medical marijuana guidelines, yet was still appointed to head the DEA….

As a result, our campaign team carefully crafted a revolutionary new voter initiative that will legally allow California to Opt Out of the Controlled Substances Act.

I doubt California will be able to opt out, but I see the political merit in a battle over medical marijuana in America’s largest state. It’s not a battle to win over prohibitionists – that won’t happen. They’ll pass away before they’ll change their views.

There’s a reply to those favoring liberalization that holds that prohibition isn’t just a matter of law and order, but of health and safety. In cases of chronic illness and pain, the health and safety calculus is different and unfavorable to prohibitionists, as sympathy for suffering patients’ actual desires will trump a third party’s insistence on a comprehensive ban.

The California effort is to one to win over those many people who lack strong views on the topic, but have grown tired of wild sums spent on restrictions that seem ineffective, intrusive, and vindictive to medical patients.

Regulations like that for wine, by the way, would assure a safer and better-controlled experience than the actual, futile prohibition now imposed.

I don’t smoke, and I’m not about to start. Yet, in a debate on this subject, there’s neither need nor possibility of winning everyone over. It’s a leg up to see that the dynamic favors liberalization, and that prohibitionists look ever-more strident and unpersuasive to the broader community.