cgrotke

Brattleboro Recounts and Revotes – The Results Will Stand

by cgrotke | Politics

I asked Town Clerk Annette Cappy about some of the lingering questions regarding recount and revotes.

– Are we satisfied with the most recent recount numbers?

Annette Cappy, Brattleboro Town Clerk: I am. The second recount mirrored the election results exactly for both David Gartenstein and Avery Schwenk. Dick DeGray picked up 2 votes. Those results seem very reasonable. Using the tabulators doesn’t necessarily ensure 100% accuracy. There is always a slim margin of error whether using tabulators or counting by hand, which is why the process of recounts is included in the statutes.

Weekend Creativity Series – Parliamentary Procedure

by cgrotke | Creative

In honor of Representative Town Meeting, this weekend we’ll take a short look at Parliamentary Procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order.

This video shows how your 4-H club or other organization can be an effective governing body by using well-recognized procedures for meetings. They cover everything from committee reports to making and amending budgets, tabling items, and delaying actions on items.

The Occasional Robot Round-Up, Spring 2016 Edition

by cgrotke | Sci-Tech

Time once again to check in with our eventual robot overlords and how they are evolving.

This is prompted by news that Google is hoping to sell off Boston Dynamics, the folks that are building some of the most advanced and scary robots on the planet. Seems that the latest generation have the potential for generating bad press, there are no sellable products in sight, and Google wants to walk away.

Here’s Atlas, one of the more recent human-sized Boston Dynamics creations, walking about, trying to do things, and being abused by technicians. As a commenter pointed out, there will come a time when AI-aware robots will find this video and think about it.

Selectboard Meeting Notes – Brattleboro Creates New Health Plan With Employees

by cgrotke | Town News

Brattleboro is restructuring the way town employees are compensated for health care. A new program to fill the gaps of higher deductibles might end up saving taxpayers $30,000 a year while continuing to provide a solid level of coverage for employees.

The decision of the recent special Representative Town Meeting to move the police station to Black Mountain Road has been incorporated into the budget to be presented at the regular Representative Town Meeting, Bradley House might be renovated and expanded if a new package of grants is approved, the town will buy new police cars, and Donna Macomber had a final regular meeting with the board. 

And The Heat Goes On – New Global Temperature Records

by cgrotke | Nature

Enjoy the warm temperatures while you can. That is, enjoy the warm days with a grain of proverbial salt. These warm days are actually bad things.

Scientists are reporting that February broke global temperature margins at record levels. used words such as: jaw-dropping, stunning, shocker, climate emergency, bombshell, extraordinary, frightening, and unprecedented.

Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Votes To Move Police Station

by cgrotke | Town News

By a vote of 111 Yes to 27 No, Brattleboro Town Meeting Representatives have decided to move the police station to Black Mountain Road.

This approves the concept. At their regular Representative Town Meeting later this month, representatives will vote on the budget that contains this option. That budget, and other business, remains to be approved.

Weekend Creativity Series: Sun Ra Lecture

by cgrotke | Creative

In order to be fully creative, it is sometimes good to hear unfamiliar things, or listen to people we don’t quite understand. Different points of view can lead to insights and breakthroughs, which can then have creative results.

Sun Ra is one of those people that I don’t completely understand, but I do enjoy listening to from time to time. This week we have a rare recording of him expounding on a number of issues in an Afrofuturism lecture at UC Berkeley called Afro-American Studies 198: The Black Man in the Universe/Cosmos.

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – March 15, 2016

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard will incorporate the decision of Town Meeting Representatives into their annual budget suggestion at their next meeting on Tuesday at the Municipal Center, adjusting levels of anticipated debt service payments for facility projects depending on the outcome of the vote.

The police will get police cars, the substation at Cotton Mill Hill may be upgraded, and Bradley House might be expanded and improved. They’ll also revise the town’s health insurance program for employees. You can participate in person or watch on TV, and you are free to bring up other items that aren’t on the agenda during Public Participation.

Devastating Victories and Optimistic Losses

by cgrotke | Politics

Sanders can’t win in the south! Clinton can’t win in the north! Cruz is considered a sane alternative to Trump! Kasich just needs Ohio! Rubio will win if he comes in 5th better next time! They’re all nuts!

Our strange election year continues, with polls being terribly inaccurate at times, traditional efforts to stop opponents backfiring, and major media following rather shaping results.

Up is the new down. And quite a few states have yet to weigh in.

A new thread to talk politics through the next big round of primaries.

Selectboard Meeting Notes: Malfunction Junction Is Here To Stay

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard received a detailed report on why our downtown traffic system is just about the best it can possibly be, as is. In discussing the lack of major opportunities for improvements, the name Malfunction Junction returned as shorthand for the intersection causing problems up and down Main Street.

The board also learned about the best path forward toward addressing issues related to being a hub town in Vermont, which is to form a coalition with other hub towns, such as Bennington, St. Johnsbury, and Springfield, to put pressure on the state to create new sources of revenue.

A trailer was bought, committees have new members, and the town now offers larger loans to help businesses.

Thumb Drives Need Labels

by cgrotke | Sci-Tech

Thumb drives and USB sticks are very common. Almost none of them have a space available to write on. 

Thought for the morning: Want to invent something and make some money? Develop a USB drive that has a space for a label, so we can write a note about what’s on it. Make it so we can change labels, too, if the contents of the drive change.

A Political Hypothetical

by cgrotke | Philosophy

Imagine a voter that generally wants to vote for their party. In an election cycle, this voter likes one of the party candidates and supports them actively throughout the primary and caucus season, but their candidate falls short and another candidate becomes the nominee.

The voter wants to vote for their party candidate, because the other party is, of course, y’know… the other party. However, the voter finds their official party candidate to be repulsive, dangerous, icky, and generally bad for the future of the country.

How should the voter vote?

Weekend Creativity Series – Finger Painting

by cgrotke | Creative

Remember dipping your fingers into cool, wet paint and smearing it all across a piece of paper? Pushing it all around, getting it under your nails, and creating an abstract piece of school art? And the smell of that paint… mmm.

Here, Iris Scott uses that technique with great skill to finger paint with oils. It’s not as strange as it sounds, even though it isn’t done much. Most painters like brushes, but why not work directly, fingers to canvas?

Brattleboro Selectboard Agenda and Notes – March 8, 2016

by cgrotke | Town News

The Brattleboro Selectboard will receive a report regarding downtown traffic lights and traffic flow at their next Tuesday meeting. They will also receive a final report from the Regional Economic Hub Committee and act on that committee’s recommendation to dissolve.

The board will assist local businesses via new policies and procedures for the Small Business Assistance program, and will places fines and fees on local businesses for failing to get a business license in a timely manner.

You can participate by attending in person, or watch on BCTV. Read about the meeting the next day.

Super Tuesday and More Politics

by cgrotke | Politics

Trump and Clinton have won decisive victories in conservative South Carolina. It’s all over! And both sides are making the wrong decision!

Or maybe it is not over. Most of the country hasn’t weighed in yet.

Some, like Vermont, will get their say on Tuesday. Others will be told on Wednesday that again, it’s all over! And everyone’s making a mistake!

Weekend Creativity Series – Polticial Cartoons

by cgrotke | Creative

This weekend we learn how to draw some political cartoons. There’s really no right or wrong way to go, so these are just a few options and styles to get us going. The main rules are caricature and being tough on your subject.

First, a few drawing lessons. There aren’t a lot of videos about drawing the current slate of candidates, but there are some. (If you find others, add them in the comments.)

The Face Book

by cgrotke | History

Oh, sure, it’s the name of a corporation, but do you know the origins of the name?

A face book is/was a booklet given out to freshmen at colleges at the beginning of the school year. It was an alphabetical listing of all fellow freshpeople and their pictures. The stated reason for producing it was so that new students could get to know one another more quickly if they could look one another up in a guide.

It was a mini-yearbook, to give social interaction on campus a boost.

Compelling Speech From Apple

by cgrotke | Sci-Tech

The FBI wants to get inside an iPhone. The owner of the phone was killed in a hail of bullets. Having killed the person with the passcode to the phone, they then instructed the dead person’s employer to try to change the passcode. In doing so, the employer made it more difficult for the FBI to accomplish its goal.

The FBI gets a friendly judge to write an order to the Apple corporation, telling them they must write code to help the FBI break into iPhones. To do so, Apple would need to compromise its security for all customers using the product for legitimate, useful purposes, such as secure banking and communications.

There is certainly a discussion to be had about privacy and security underway, but we might also do well to consider the First Amendment.

BCTV Schedules For The Week Of 2/22/2016

by cgrotke | Media

BCTV channel 8 schedule for the week of 2/22/16 

Monday, February 22, 2016

12:00 am Kicked Out: Forum on Unfair & Unequal Discipline in VT Public Schools

1:30 am WWAC: Thomas White – Encountering Auschwitz 1/22/16

3:30 am WSESU Leaders: Aug 2015, Pt 2

5:30 am SCORE Roundtable: I need Money for My Business

6:45 am 2016 Lunar New Year in Brattleboro