Madison Schools Budget Updates

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Quite a few interesting articles on the Madison School Districts 308M+ budget are available at www.schoolinfosystem.org

  • Board Member Ruth Robarts offers many useful suggestions, including the rather obvious improvement: drive budget decisions based on academic achievement and curriculum.
  • The current process includes the discussion of “cuts” without prior to the presentation & review of an actual budget!
  • Rob Hernandez writes about the potential loss of 60 coaching jobs.
  • Get involved: Learn about the issues and communicate your ideas. MMSD budget hearing 5.13.2004 @ 5:00P.M. Email the Board of Education: comments@madison.k12.wi.us

Narche jangi – or – War Rugs

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Ang?lica Pence writes about Afghan War Rugs:

Narche jangi, or so-called “war rugs,” emerged in Afghanistan more than two decades ago during the Soviet occupation, when the Baluchi tribe began weaving the iconography of warfare — Kalashnikov rifles, jets, helicopters and hand grenades — into their textiles.
The rugs have since taken on the very modern imagery of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the ensuing war in Afghanistan. Much of the imagery is copied from television news reports and aerial propaganda leaflets dropped by the thousands across Afghanistan by U.S. armed forces. The most controversial depict jetliners crashing into the World Trade Center, or tiny black silhouettes plummeting from the smoking twin towers. And to the surprise of some, the divisive folk art has gained a considerable, almost cult-like following in North America.

Lessig Congressional Testimony on Copyright Extremism

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Professor Lessig goes to Washington to testify about Congressman Rick Boucher’s Digital Media Consumer Rights Act [pdf].
This is one issue you should support. Contact Tammy Baldwin and tell her you support Boucher’s bill.
This is what happens when the public sleeps…. Support the EFF.
Yet another reason to get involved: Security expert Bruce Schneier writes: Curb electronic surveillance abuses, as technological monitoring grows more prevalent, court supervision is crucial

Madison is #1?

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Forbes Mark Tatge writes about our “Miracle in the Midwest”:

David C. Schwartz is right at home in the dark. That’s where his fluorescent microscopes can do their work, scanning thousands of samples of DNA that make a slow crawl across computer screens and methodically map the human genome. All this activity is packed into a cramped room inside a lab at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. “Most people think I came here because I hated New York,” he says with a boyish smile and a twitch of the mustache that curls over his lip. “I came here to start a company

Interesting sidebar:

Out-of-state venture capitalists complain that most of these hatchlings need better management. G. Steven Burrill, who runs the San Francisco merchant bank Burrill & Co. and has invested $15 million to $20 million in young Wisconsin companies, bemoans the failure to capitalize on opportunities. “We see 100 deals a month in life sciences,” he explains. “But I don’t see even one a month from Madison

Burrill is correct – while there are many opportunities here, it is not generally a risk taking culture…. unfortunately.

Madison Air Service

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There’s been some media discussion recently about the state of Madison’s Air Service, specifically, United Express (regional carrier for United Airlines). Many of United Express’s flights are served by Appleton based Air Wisconsin.
I experienced these service issues firsthand this past winter. The random number generator that is United Express service between Chicago and Madison became so bad that I phoned J. Kevin LaWare, Air Wisconsin’s Vice President of Operations. Service examples include

  • Incorrect Gate Information
  • Incorrect departure time information
  • Last minute cancellations (“weather”)
  • Gate agents who were left in the dark as operations personnel moved planes and schedules around (leaving the flying public further in the dark and irritated)

I asked LaWare if their random number scheduler would continue to plague Madison passengers (and therefore I should not bother to purchase any tickets on United).
Surprisingly, he called me back several weeks later (February, I recall) and mentioned that

  • O’hare had become over utilized (again!). This makes sense. The number of large aircraft flights has likely gone down while regional jet service to and from O’Hare has exploded.
  • The FAA has allowed AA and UA to coordinate schedules to and from O’Hare, which should improve things.

I appreciated his call and can report that in fact service has become more reliable (I would say that schedule reliability is better. However, there is still room for improvement). You can periodically see how they are doing by viewing daily inbound and outbound (Chicago) flights.

Microsoft pays for Kind’s Trip to Seattle

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Interesting example of money, technology & politics. Wisconsin voters have many other priorities, such as education, jobs, taxes and healthcare. How exactly, the Windows 2003 Server and Office 2003 product launches fit into those priorities is a mystery:
“If people really believe that something like this makes members of Congress bribable, obviously they have a very poor opinion of members of Congress.” Ron Kind, Wisconsin congressman. Katherine M. Skiba and Jeff Nelson follow the money….. The airfare prices look like first class… Why exactly would Microsoft spend money on a Congressman from La Crosse, WI?
Additional trips were timed to include product launches such as Windows Server 2003 and Office 2003….
Microsoft’s priorities include copyright, patent, purchasing and other issues…..

MGE Raising Rates?

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Madison Gas & Electric, which already charges us the highest rates in the state, is seeking another in their series of annual rate hikes, according to Marv Balousek.
This chart is generated by the Public Service Commission’s online rate comparison tool (December, 2003 data):


Name & ID Billing Charges Total Bill
Customer Energy PCAC FAC
3270
MADISON GAS AND ELECTRIC COMPANY		$6.80$55.38($0.59)$61.59
6260
WAUNAKEE WATER AND LIGHT COMMISSION		$6.50$34.62($0.78)$40.34
6630
WISCONSIN ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY		$5.95$44.70$4.05$54.70
6680
WISCONSIN POWER AND LIGHT		$7.00$49.55$0.00$56.55
6690
WISCONSIN PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION		$6.75$46.75$0.00$53.50

MGE should not get a dime more, until they agree to clean up their lobbying act (MGE was implicated in the caucus investigations for, in one case, routing money through the Kansas Democratic Party…. Wispolitics has the complaint.) I would also like to understand why their rates are so high?

Science is Not War

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Alex Tabarrok comments about a recent NY Times article by William J Broad that states we are losing our lead in sciences. Tabarrok makes some excellent points, including this quote from Thomas Jefferson:

He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation.