The son of a Milwaukee plumber, Rev. Reginald Foster has devoted his lift to saving Latin from extinction, says Clifford Levy from Vatican City.
Travel – Virtual Parks Update
A quite extraordinary site: Virtual Parks, has just published a list of full screen Quicktime VR Panoramas.
Milwaukee Sewage Dump: A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
A sailboat makes its way along Lake Michigan on Friday in this aerial photo from Chopper Four with power zoom. The discolored water extended past the breakwater; the contents are unknown.
Mary Rohde & Steve Schultze write about the Milwaukee Metro Sewage District’s massive sewage dumping this past week:
The sewerage district dumped an unprecedented 4.6 billion gallons of raw sewage this month – exceeding any annual dumping tally since the deep tunnel system opened in late 1993.
To visualize how much sewage was dumped by the district, consider these calculations: The 4.6 billion gallons would fill Miller Park 15 times over, from its base to its retractable roof. The sewage spill would also fill the U.S. Bank office tower on the lakefront 41 times.
“That’s more than any sewage treatment system in the country could handle,” said Kevin Shafer, the district’s executive director. The dumping “is something we have to do if we want to minimize and prevent basement backups,” he said.
Background: Google | Teoma | Yahoo | Alltheweb
The Lake Michigan Federation has a useful web site on the impact of raw sewage dumping.
Allen-Edmonds Stays in America
Aaron Nathans writes about Port Washington’s Allen Edmonds Shoe Company, and their ongoing efforts to continue making shoes, competitively, in Wisconsin (rather than China):
The rumble, hum and clack of the Allen-Edmonds shoe factory went quiet in late December. Many of the machines that helped workers pack insoles, trim the leather and buff the finished men’s dress shoes were gone by New Year’s Day.
But John Stollenwerk, the president of the company, was not preparing to send his operations overseas. Instead, Mr. Stollenwerk gambled on staying put and reconfiguring his factory floor, which reopened on Jan. 5, with a new manufacturing method that could increase production and cut down on mistakes. The moves required an investment of $1 million, or 1.1 percent of the company’s 2003 sales.
Mr. Stollenwerk is resisting a tide that has decimated the American shoe manufacturing industry: About 98.5 percent of shoes sold in the United States are now made abroad, according to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, which is based in Arlington, Va.
David Crosby on the Music Business
David Crosby, from Frontline’s The Way the Music Died:
It changed from being about the music to being about what you look like. And that was a terrible blow to music, because now you’ve got all these people who look great and can’t write, sing or play.
Leahy Shills for the Copyright Cartel
Dan Gillmor writes about Vermont Democrat Pat Leahy’s shilling for the copyright cartel: Copyright Cartel Buying Another Federal Anti-Infringement Law (“Piracy Act”). Evidently, Democrat Leahy needs more cash from Hollywood. The worse part of this insanity: the law would require us (via the Department of Justice) to pay for tracking file sharers and filing lawsuits….
Government Data Mining
Barry Steinhardt referenced today’s GAO Report on Government Data Mining (full report – PDF) – (Highlights PDF). Steinhardt mentions four programs of special concern:
- Verity K2 Enterprise – Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). Mines data “to identify foreign terrorists or U.S. citizens connected to foreign terrorism activities.” (Page 30 of GAO report)
- Analyst Notebook I2 – Department of Homeland Security. “Correlates events and people to specific information.” (p. 44)
- PATHFINDER – DIA. “Can compare and search multiple large databases quickly” and “analyze government and private sector databases.” (p. 30)
- Case Management Data Mart – DHS. “Assists in managing law enforcement cases” Using private-sector data. (p. 44)
Rock the Garden – Looks Great!
Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center features Rock the Garden 2004 (June 18). Looks like fun! Featuring David Byrne | Tosca Strings | Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra among others.
Wired 40
From Wired: They are masters of innovation, technology, and strategic vision: 40 companies driving the global economy.
Old-school business types found some solace in the bust – at least the upstarts got their comeuppance. Hardly! With the economy finally perking up, newcomers are running the show: Three of the top five companies in this year’s Wired 40, our annual list of enterprises leading the charge toward a connected global economy, were founded in the past decade. One-third are less than 20 years old.
This year’s list reflects the churn we’ve come to expect in the tech economy. Only nine selections appeared on the original list back in 1998. Still, the criteria for inclusion remain unchanged. These 40 leaders have demonstrated an uncommon mastery of technology, innovation, globalism, networked communication, and strategic vision – skills essential to thriving in the information age.
Futurist Doug Randall on Abrupt Climate Change
Randall, co-auther (along with Peter Schwartz) of Abrupt Climate Change [PDF] is interviewed by World Changing Blog:
Their scenaric findings — that the gradual global warming we’re experiencing could plausibly trigger an abrupt climate snap, and that its effects would be massive, perhaps catastrophic, and of direct relevance to the national security of the United States — we’re picked up by media around the world, gathering a snowball of controversy and hype along the way. Their scenarios, freely available on the Web, were termed a “secret Pentagon report,” and their descriptions of possible climate catastrophe taken as bald prediction.
But underneath the hype was a reasoned attempt to judge the seriousness of the threat posed by climate instability. That’s something all of us hoping to change the world have to take into account. So we asked Doug about the implications of that report (now that the dust has settled), the movie The Day After Tomorrow, and how to think about the future of climate change.