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The UW-Stout community was saddened last week by a tragic house fire that resulted in the deaths of three students. The opportunistic nut-jobs at Westboro Baptist Church, known for showing up at military funerals to tout their belief that God is punishing the U.S. for its acceptance of gays, decided this was another golden opportunity to show the world the depths of their hatred. Their four protesters showed up on the Menomonie campus last Thursday bearing placards with statements such as “God Hates Fags” and other well-known bible verses. They were greeted by a crowd of students, faculty and townspeople estimated to number 1,000. While the counter protest wasn’t entirely peaceful (one student was arrested for stealing signs from the Westboro protesters), the locals did manage to make the fine point that the Westboro message wasn’t welcome in Menomonie. After less than 1/2 hour doing God’s work, the Westboro folks tucked tail between their legs and scooted out of town, presumably to crawl back down their little hole in the ground. A representative from the church commented to the newspaper:

“I have to tell you the brutish children of Wisconsin are a cut above the rest in their rebellion and disobedience and filthy behavior.”

Ahhh, makes a person proud to be child of Wisconsin!

Badger Herald - Four Westboro Baptists meet 1,000 protesters at UW-Stout

The Wisconsin State Journal has a nice article today about the small brewery that’s been established at my alma mater University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Sadly, the brew pub wasn’t around in my time at school, being established in 2002 when a new student center was built. College kids today have it so good!

WRLP is holding an online auction to raise funds to support their programs. If you’ve been reading this blog a while, you know WRLP is a program I think very highly of - it truly changes lives. Check out their auction, bid early, bid often!

A couple of weeks ago Senator Hillary Clinton addressed the National Rural Assembly via a video link-up. This gathering of 400-people, part of the Kellogg Foundation’s Rural People, Rural Policy initiative, was an effort to highlight the issues facing rural areas, and to broaden the discussion beyond agriculture policy, which has generally been the focus of rural policy efforts. To that end, during the Q&A session following her talk, Senator Clinton was asked by one participant if she, as President, would consider changing the name and mission of the Department of Agriculture to the Department of Rural Affairs. To her credit, she said yes, she believed that would be a terrific idea.

Now, I’m a little amazed at her reaction, and I hope it wasn’t just a throwaway line to feed the crowd. And I have to say I’m a little amazed that, from what I’ve seen, there’s been little or no reaction to this in the U.S. rural press (let me know if I’m missing it). Historically agriculture interests, and specifically commodity producers, have ruled the debate on rural policy issues. Looking at the current farm bill debate, I think we can say that hasn’t changed much, yet. Most people would tell you that it’s not going to change anytime soon. I wonder if the fact that Ms. Clinton’s remarks haven’t drawn much fire indicates that the status of ag in rural policy is beginning to change? The reality is that rural doesn’t mean ag in the way it used to in the United States. Rural issues cover a much broader swipe now than they used to, and our policy structures need to change to reflect that. I think a change as basic as renaming the Department of Agriculture would be a great place to start - the names we put on things define how we think about those things.

Growing up in southwest Wisconsin, tornado watches and warnings were a constant feature of summer life. As a little kid, I can remember trips to the basement to wait out the storm, and when I got a little older I got to join Dad on tornado watch for the local volunteer fire department. I can still vividly remember the night the tornado hit Barneveld, Wisconsin, and the phone rang in the middle of the night calling for ambulance volunteers. A few weeks later Dad and I went to Barneveld for a day to help with cleanup, and it remains one of the most amazing displays of nature’s power that I’ve ever seen.

The University of Michigan Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences has created a Google map mashup that allows you to view tornado paths overlaid on an interactive map. Using Google Earth, you can even fly a bird’s-eye view of the tornado path. Their database includes tornadoes from 1950 to 2005. You can search for tornadoes by date, strength and zip code. Looking at this map of my hometown, it certainly looks like a dangerous place to live!

This site is also a great example of the Google Map interface that allows programmers to overlay data on interactive Google maps. This is a great tool for presenting geographic data without a lot of work or cost. Google has launched an initiative to help nonprofit organizations present data to support their causes - check out the gallery.

Finally, a couple of examples of Google maps that I’ve done for client sites:

Menomonie Recreation Department

Greater Menomonie Chamber of Commerce

One of the things we had to adjust to when we moved to Ireland was taking our own cloth shopping bags to the grocery store. Why? Well, Ireland levies a €0.15 tax on plastic grocery bags, so every time we forgot to take our own (a lot, at first), we had to spend 30 or 45 cents to buy plastic bags. We’ve since gotten in the habit, and so no longer have to buy plastic bags, and thus no longer consume more scarce natural resources for both making the bags and then disposing of them. We take our cloth bags, purchased for €1 each. It’s a simple thing, but something we gave little thought to while living in the States.

The plastic bag levy is in the news these days because as of July 1 the tax increases to €0.22. Per capita usage of bags has been on the increase lately, and the levy increase is an attempt to bring consumption levels back down. But what impact did the initial levy have on consumer behavior? Prior to the levy, it’s estimated that per-capita usage of bags was 328. The level was reduced to 21 shortly after the levy, a drop in consumption of 90%! The level has risen back to 30 bags per capita last year, thus the levy increase.

This is such a simple little thing. Why don’t we all use cloth, reusable bags? We should - it would save the environment, cut down on store expenses. A small decision with literally no downside. Most of us don’t do it. And yet, a 15-cent charge was all it took to create a massive behavior change, nationwide. Brilliant.

Plastic Bag Levy Increase at An Irish Town Planner’s Blog

The Wisconsin Historical Society has long held sales of photos from their archives, generally in a once- or twice-a-year sale in Madison. I’ve gotten several gems from these sales in the past. But now they’ve moved their sales online, and in the process greatly expanded the items available. The pic to the right is the first Wisconsin State Capitol in my hometown, Belmont. Click on the pic to get your very own copy! These photos make great gifts, and help support the Historical Society, which is now turning a small profit on image sales. There are currently 30,000 images available from the Society’s collection of 3-million images, and 6,000 images are being added each year.

Wisconsin State Journal - History on the Market

Wisconsin Historical Society Images

The Society doesn’t have any big sellers, finding instead that they’re selling a small number of copies of many different images. This is a perfect example of the idea of the “Long Tail”, that the internet economy allows many producers of niche items to prosper by selling small quantities of many different products. Read Chris Anderson’s original magazine article describing the Long Tail to learn more.

The Wisconsin Arts Board has come out with a new study showing the impact the arts have on local economies. According to the report, “in 2005, Wisconsin’s non-profit arts industry generated over 15,000 full-time jobs and $61,840,000 in state and local government revenue. Cumulatively, the arts contributed $418,055,786 in total economic activity.” The Wisconsin Arts Board hopes to use the report’s findings to improve public funding for the arts in Wisconsin.

We have certainly entered an era when communities will have to show a vibrant cultural environment to survive and thrive. Many small towns in Wisconsin, and elsewhere, struggle with this. I will say that’s one big difference I’ve noticed between Ireland and the United States - arts, whether it be music, storytelling or visual arts, play a prime role in society here in Ireland. I’ve told many friends, and written here, about the prevalence of traditional music sessions even in the town of 8,000 we live in. It’s not unusual to have live music events here in town every night of the week. I’m a firm believer that this kind of thing helps to build communities, because arts events are shared events, rather than the individual event of staying home and watching television.

In a Wisconsin State Journal article announcing the release of the report, our good friend Anne Katz of Arts Wisconsin is quoted doing what she does best, plugging the arts. Nice job Anne!

Wisconsin State Journal - State’s arts spending ranks near the bottom

Wisconsin Arts Board Study

Our good friend Laura has been busy helping to organize a meal in a wheat field on Washington Island. The meal was held to launch a summer of culinary events at the Washington Hotel. The Hotel was involved in the return of wheat-growing to Washington Island, which has been a fantastic rural development initiative. I had the honor of handing the Washington Island folks their honorable mention award during Wisconsin Rural Partners’ Top Rural Development Initiatives award ceremony in 2006. I’m glad to see this group of people still doing innovative things, and am happy that Laura has been involved as well. The whole gang got a nice write-up with pictures on the Chicago Reader’s blog.

Last night we were treated to a tour of one of three working oats mills in Ireland, Flahavan’s in Kilmacthomas, about 20 miles from Tramore. The mill has been in the same location, owned by the same family, for over 200 years, though none of the original buildings survive.

Flahavan’s own about 56% of the market for porridge oats in Ireland. Their staff of around 45 people produces rolled oats, cereals, flour and snack products, turning out 2-3 tons of product per hour. The mill is housed in an old building, but most of the equipment is very modern, including a fair bit of robotic equipment in the packaging area. They strive to be energy efficient, burning the waste materials from the oats to produce heat and steam to power areas of the plant for cooking the oats and running machinery. In a turn back to older times, they’ve also recently begun using the Mahon River next to the plant as a power source to turn an electricity-generating turbine, though due to low water levels this is producing a small amount of power for the time being. Flahavan’s produces organic oats products, and has won awards for environmentally-friendly packaging.

Thanks much to the Flahavan family for hosting us, and to Donal Lehane and the Slow Food Ireland - Four Rivers Convivium for setting up the tour.

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