Happy birthday, everyone. We’re all teenagers today!
Today is the day that iBrattleboro.com turns 13 years old. We can now watch PG-13 movies without adult supervision!
13 is a baker’s dozen, the number of cards in each suit of the deck, and the number of original colonies.
Math lovers will note that 13 is the 6th prime number, the smallest emirp, a Fibonacci number, and a happy number.
This week, let’s learn to code! Nothing difficult, of course, but it is good to know about the basic tags and how a page gets formatted.
This was something many of us learned in the early 1990’s (we used Netscape Navigator to do just what you see in this video), and is very similar to the old word processing programs of the 1980’s.
More recently, people using the internet use pre-made sites and are “protected” from needing to know any code, except for perhaps the skill of cutting and pasting links or embed codes for videos.
But that’s silly. Being able to create, name, and fill a web page with information is useful. Ever site we visit on the internet is built upon the HTML foundation. It is the language underlying the world wide web.
Our local skatepark project got a boost with approval of a $230,000 grant application by the Brattleboro Selectboard at Tuesday’s meeting. If granted, the money will be used for design and construction of the skatepark at Living Memorial Park.
Emergency plans for Vermont Yankee are set to change as the storage situation in Vernon evolves. Maybe. The board also delat with annual approvals of liquor licenses, a Grand List certification, parade permits, and the adoption of a new ordinance for pets.
Let’s see. We’re approaching Super Tuesday. Vermont can weigh in on the primaries in March.
A Supreme Court Justice has died, leaving a puzzle of sorts. Republicans appear willing to gamble that they’d get a better appointement under President Sanders, it seems.
Trump continues to do a Don Rickles impersonation, trying to become more popular with each insult. Rubio is sweaty! The amazing thing isn’t so much his insults, as the inability for those insulted to respond.
BCTV channel 8 schedule for the week of 2/15/16
Monday, February 15, 2016
12:00 am Generator Big Maker: Paolo Pedercini – The Art of Games
1:30 am Bill McKibben: People of Faith and Climate Change
2:25 am Green Mtn. Academy Lectures: The Race for the Presidency
3:30 am A Tour of the Brattleboro Police Station – Jan 2016
4:15 am 1st Wed: Vincent Van Gogh
Pop songs of all genres have formulas for success. Most radio hits are 3 minutes, have an intro, a verse, a chorus, a verse, a breakdown, and go out with the chorus. Most keep the lyrics simple, and geared toward basic emotions, or thought one might have on a dance floor.
This extends beyond pop rock to pop soul and pop country. This week, we take a look at the creative work of Sir Mashalot, who shows us just how similar the county pop hits of today really are.
He chops and re-arranges six songs — “Sure Be Cool If You Did” by Blake Shelton, “Drunk on You” by Luke Bryan, “Chillin’ It” by Cole Swindell, “Close Your Eyes” by Parmalee, “This is How We Roll” by Florida Georgia Line, and “Ready, Set, Roll” by Chase Rice — showing just how formulaic and similar they are.
Brattleboro’s proposed skatepark may take a major step forward if the Selectboard approves a $230,000 grant application request from BASIC and the Recreation & Parks department. The grant application would be to the National Creative Placemaking Fund.
The board will approve special event permits, learn about the VY Decomissioning timeline for emergency management, and will hold a second reading and public hearing on proposed changes to ordinances regarding pets.
Attend in person to participate, watch on BCTV, and read about it here the day after.
Primary Day is on in New Hampshire, and we have some winners. In Dixville Notch shortly after midnight, John Kasich got three votes, Donald Trump two votes, and Bernie Sanders got four.
Two other NH towns have midnight voting. Millsfield, gave it to Cruz (9 votes) and Clinton (2 votes, upsetting Sanders), and Hart’s Location chose Kasich and Sanders.
Which is to say, it is Tuesday now, it is snowy, and New Hampshire is going to the polls.
There is a tremendous amount of creativity when it comes to creating miniature worlds, and model train layouts are often some of the most amazing miniatures around. This video shows a engineer’s view of a model train set in the midwest. The video description says:
“The Hennepin Overland Railway Historical Society is located in Minneapolis, MN, and is one of the largest HO layouts in the Twin Cities, MN area. It also has the largest Helix of any model railroad in the United States that we know of. The Helix comprises 1/4 of the entire layout located in a 4,000 sq. ft. warehouse in South Minneapolis, and the entire Main Line equals 11 scale miles of track. If you are interested in visiting this railroad museum check out their web site for directions and hours of operation: http://hennepinoverland.org/ “
The Brattleboro Selectboard reviewed a variety of bond options in anticipation of a special Representative Town Meeting deciding the future of Brattleboro’s police facility. No decision was made, but the total cost of 20, 25, and 30 year bonds (including interest payments and funds already borrowed) was provided for comparison.
The board also held a first reading on changes to ordinances that will impact pets and their owners in town. One which may be of particular interest to readers here (hi Zippy) is that police will be able to rescue dogs from hot cars. Other changes include new rules for “dangerous” animals and more clarity in the rules and appeals process.
iBrattleboro.com remains one of the longest-running citizen-powered news and information sites out there, and we continue to be contacted from people around the country and around the world who are interested in doing similar projects where they live. As I noted a week or so ago, we’ve recently answered questions for someone in a small town in Queensland, Australia, and have been interviewed by hyperlocal activists in the Ukraine.
You might be interested in the Ukrainian project. Yurii Antoshchuk, head of a community media foundation there, got in touch to ask us some questions for publication in Russian and English. We answered their questions, but also asked them about what they were doing there.
So, Iowa speaks. Clinton by a hair, and Trump loses to Cruz with Rubio nipping at his heels.
Vermont’s own Bernie Sanders had a good night, coming within less than half a percentage point with Clinton. Basically, a tie. As one commenter somewhere on the Internet pointed out – Sanders was foiled again by the 1%.
Huckabee, O’Malley, and probably a few others soon, will be bowing out of consideration.
On to our neighbors in New Hampshire.
This has been a weird winter. We saw a few snow flakes in October, a bit of snow around the end of December and early January, then almost nothing. Relatives down south are still digging out, though, from their big snow storm.
The temperatures have been relatively mild. As I type it is about 40 degrees out. What little snow was there is turning to water and evaporating.
This week we take a look at special effects for motion pictures, using the recent Star Wars release as our example.
One of the big lessons of media literacy is that things are not always what they appear. That is, anything can be convincingly faked, and what you think you are looking at may not exist. National Geographic famously moved pyramids to new locations to make a better cover photo, and some news outlets have erased people from images or coverage of events.
So, it is important to know that we are being fooled, and fooled often. Knowing this doesn’t take the fun away when the tricks are used to entertain, but it should help sharpen critical viewing skills.
Police and Fire facilities debt, scheduling of special meetings and informational sessions, an ordinance change for animals and fowl, and committee adjustments will be before the Brattleboro Selectboard at their next regular Tuesday meeting. You can attend in person and participate!
Watch on BCTV and discuss it here after it’s over.
The Challenger disaster. What memories.
I have a long and odd relationship with the Space Shuttle. Living in Florida in the late 70’s and early 80’s, we were often able to see the shuttle go up even though it was hundreds of miles away on the opposite coast. You could see a trail of smoke trailing a tiny sliver of shininess, and watch the plume arc as the shuttle took off over the Atlantic Ocean.
This was pretty neat for me, having been a space-age kid raised on moon launches and Tang.
People we talk with are sometimes unaware of the numbers behind this site. In honor of our , let me share some recent statistics. As you know, we’re extremely local, and focus on Brattleboro and surrounding areas in southern Vermont. Our audience drifts into NH and Massachusetts as well. We also have people reading and writing who are interested in Brattleboro but live elsewhere. A few of these folks are reporters looking for stories and people to interview.
Let’s look at some numbers.
Here’s the complete list of people registered with the Town Clerk in Brattleboro that will be on the ballot this March.
Dick DeGray, Avery Schwenk and David Gartenstein each hope to be elected to the two available one-year seats for Selectboard, indicating that we have an actual competitive race this year.
Kate O’Connor will run unopposed for a 3 year seat.
This weekend we look at creativity with words. Have you ever thought about inventing your own language? Sometimes children do it, but what about adults?
Here’s a look at three grown-ups who have jobs constructing languages for movies, and how they approach their work. From thinking about who the characters are and where they are from, through grammatical systems and sounds, these folks help elves and Klingons communicate.
The volume of presidential campaigns is currently set at maximum, as campaigns scramble to shore up support prior to the nation’s first primaries and the slow descent into summer conventions. Things remain lively for those who like this show:
– Trump says Sarah Palin can have a position in his administration, if elected.
– Sanders is now besting Clinton in NH by 27 points according to a CNN/WMUR poll.
– NBC is reporting that some of Clinton emails on her private server were designated Top Secret/Special Access.
