More photos later.

From Mali.

South China Morning Post

uwbadgers.com:

As part of a campuswide commitment to reducing our environmental footprint, the Badgers’ Homecoming game against the University of Illinois on Saturday, Oct. 25, has been designated a “carbon-neutral” game.

The game, the first of its kind in the Big Ten and one of the first in the nation, will offer a chance to raise awareness of environmental issues, such as the damaging effects of carbon dioxide and the benefits of conservation and recycling. The event will also provide information on ways fans can take action in their daily lives to become more environmentally friendly.

The game is also a way to highlight the Athletic Department’s plans to implement a recycling and sustainability plan during the next five years.

“We’re hoping this game will stimulate more awareness of environmental issues on the part of Badger fans everywhere and demonstrate the many ways in which athletics and the rest of our campus are making meaningful commitments to sustainability,” says Chancellor Carolyn “Biddy” Martin.

The project has two aims: to offset carbon dioxide emissions generated directly by activities surrounding the game, and to make a continuing investment in a healthy environment by planting trees.

Milwaukee

I recently phoned the Streets Department to ask that they move a mountain of snow blocking a highly travelled sidewalk crossing, one that is frequently used by students (and local walkers along with pets). 24 hours later, said snow had been somewhat moved to make a useful walkspace through the mountain. While we still have glaciers on some roads, I’d say the Street Department has done a decent job with the present endless winter.

“Sudden Debt”:

Have you noticed how even Presidential races have now been reduced to dollar figures? I don’t mean the effect that money has on shaping political agendas and voter perceptions – this has been going on since at least the time of Pericles. I am referring instead to the assessment of candidates’ appeal to voters based on how much money they have raised in their election “war chests”. Hillary is deemed to be the frontrunner because she has raised X million dollars more than Barack, who is ahead of John Edwards and so on and so forth. This is so much like the order book of an IPO (initial public offering), for chrissakes. The more orders that flow in during the book-building period the better the chances that the issue will be “hot” and open for trading at an immediate premium. Hillarydotcom and Barrackdotcom.

Tom Ashbrook:

ight across the planet, good fresh water supplies are under pressure. In America’s West and Southwest, the combination of drought and booming population growth have made that pressure intense.
As the Colorado River and its giant reservoirs have shrunk, Arizona’s population has grown by 40 percent since 1990, and Las Vegas-area water use has doubled. California’s thirst for water is huge.
The trend lines show real trouble for desert cities. Global warming doesn’t help. And the West may be a lesson for us all.

audio

Preston Gralla:

Whenever you surf the Web, you leave yourself open to being snooped upon by Web sites. They can track your online travels, know what operating system and browser you’re running, find out your machine name, uncover the last sites you’ve visited, examine your history list, delve into your cache, examine your IP address and use that to learn basic information about you such as your geographic location and more. To a great extent, your Internet life is an open book when you visit.

Sites use a variety of techniques to gather and collate this information, but the two most basic are examining your IP address and placing cookies on your PC. Matching your IP address with your cookies makes it easier for them to create personal profiles.

If you’d like to see what kind of information sites can gather about you, head to these two sites, which peer into your browser and report what they find.