Good morning.

Here in Whitewater, it’s rainy – typical of our fall – and today brings showers and a high temperature of sixty-six.

In the city today, there’s a meeting of Common Council at 6:30 PM. There’s a budget to consider, and copies of the budget proposal and tonight’s council agenda are available online. Consideration of the budget will stretch over some or all of the sessions into mid-November.

The World Series goes back to St. Louis, for games six (and perhaps seven), with Texas leading 3-2. One might think that pitching and hitting have brought these teams to this point, but then there’s a psychology as well as mechanics behind those skills.

At Ars Technica,  John Timmer writes about Placebo-ball: the science of baseball’s magical necklaces.:

….as the World Series begins between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Texas Rangers, the field will probably be full of men who are wearing what can best be perhaps described as magical necklaces. Or, if you’re the geeky type, call them +5 Amulets of Baseball Enhancement.

Over the last several years, many major league players have been spotted wearing these bulky metal necklaces during games. Their symbolism isn’t religious. They feature no cross, no star of David. Instead, these necklaces supposedly help players perform better by easing fatigue and shortening recovery time. The secret to these supposed benefits: titanium nanoparticles that help the body’s own energy flow more readily.

As we’ll see, there’s zero biological basis for any of these claims (as we’ll discuss at length). That does not mean, however, that there’s no benefit to wearing these things. The placebo effect is incredibly powerful, and the psychology of sports performance is a very complex beast. And let’s face it: if you were being paid anywhere from $80,000 to $18,000,000 per year to swing the ash (or maple) stick, you might not think twice about plopping down anywhere from $35 to several hundred dollars on something that, in short, can’t hurt. And if it gives you an edge? So much the better.

Timmer details the medical case against these necklaces, but concedes that a psychological case for them exists, and that if they change attitude, they may change performance. All the reason in the world for these two teams to leave well enough alone, and let their players do what they’ve been doing to bring them so far, after a long 162-game season.

Good morning.

It’s a sunny day in small-town Whitewater, with a high temperature of sixty-three in store. It’s dark more than it’s light these days, with fewer than eleven hours of sunlight, and about eleven and a half hours of daylight. If the evenings are clear, it’s particularly lovely.

There’s a meeting of the Community Development Authority today at 4:30 PM. The meeting’s agenda is available online.

Later in the evening, there will be a Whitewater School Board meeting, beginning in closed session and thereafter open session at 7 PM.  That agenda is available online.

On this date in 1933, Amelia Earhart visited nearby Janesville:

On this date Amelia Earhart spoke to the Janesville Woman’s History Club as part of the group’s 57th anniversary celebration. Four years later, Earhart disappeared as she attempted to fly across the Pacific Ocean. [Source: Janesville Gazette 10/24/1933, p.2 via Wisconsin Historical Society]