Dakota Today

***Mr. Smith needed more campaign money..PBS Independent Lens

I would guess the PBS Independent Lens story on the Jeff Smith campaign in Missouri caught the attention of a lot of political junkies. SD Pub TV was on and I watched it right through the local news. I found it interesting for many reasons. More info is available at PBS I'm sure...look for "Independent Lens" there. I did find a story at Harpers that is worth looking at no matter what is your political perspective. And if you are wondering why the name Jeff Smith sounds so blasted familiar, think of the Frugal Gourmet from Oregon or Washington State. A whole different kind of cat.

Six Questions for Jeff Smith on Why It's So Hard to Get to Washington Posted on Wednesday, October 18, 2006. Jeff Smith is the star of Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, an illuminating and entertaining new documentary that's particularly important in light of the upcoming midterm elections. Two years ago, Smith, a twenty-nine-year-old college instructor of African-American political thought and the immigrant experience, ran in the Democratic primary for the Missouri congressional seat then held by retiring House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt. The favorite in the race was Russ Carnahan, the son of former Missouri Governor Mel Carnahan and former Senator Jean Carnahan, a vacuous, dull, and uninspiring candidate who enjoyed the support of the Democratic establishment. Smith had no political experience, faced opposition from his own family, and, according to one of his top aides, "looks like he's twelve and sounds like he's been castrated." But despite these limitations, Smith ran a genuine grassroots campaign that emphasized progressive positions—he was anti-war, pro-choice, and in favor of universal health care—and nearly scored an astonishing upset. In the end, Mr. Carnahan, not Mr. Smith, went to Washington, but it looks like Smith will make it to Jefferson City—he won the August Democratic primary for a state senate seat and faces no opposition in the November general election. By Ken Silverstein.

http://www.harpers.org/sb-six-questions-jeff-smith-1161121375.html

Above is the introduction. Check the rest of the story at LINK-- Mr. Smith Goes... at Harpers Magazine

**Stay tuned even if all you were interested in tonight was the decline and fall of the stock market and the ambiguous message you found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie--- Doug Wiken

**Ordinary and Not So Ordinary..Snow in Winner, SD

Second try for this post. TypePad ate it last night when they went into a hardware update without any warning. I dragged the digital cameral along with the scoop shovel yesterday. I got part of the sidewalks around house lot in town, but decided it was time to warm up a bit. Then thought a cup of cocoa would taste good. Then fell asleep until my cellphone rattled my ribs. Anyway, below is a picture of the sidewalk and drive partially shoveled. Wetter snow like this makes me think a snowblower might not be such a terrible extravagance after all. But, I imagine a few thousand blogs have some whining and complaining about shoveling snow. Click on the image for a larger view.

And then the photo that appears so very ordinary, but really isn't. It looks like your typical street with snow at the sides and a pickup truck or two parked alongside it. But wait, there is more. Click on the image for a larger version.

Notice that this is a street with snow on the sides and there is actually bare pavement visible. I have taken my wife to work after snow storms many times in the past years and I think this may be the first time I have seen the street that goes past the hospital where my wife works actually cleared down to the pavement. The street runs past the hospital to the Winner School.

I hope the City of Winner finds that getting the snow off the streets before it is converted to several inches of ice or near ice packed snow is less expensive than waiting until it is all a like a sheet of glass.
If the City can keep up the good work, my wife won't have people coming up to her desk asking if Winner has a street department and perhaps people considering moving here won't decide not to because of the poor snow removal.

Now, if they can get some small blades working on the sidewalks like the City of Rochester, NY did over 30 years ago, people won't be worrying about broken hips and avoiding the place like a plague.

And, I am finding that plinking on a keyboard goes slower with fingers stiff from shoveling snow.

*** Stay tuned even if you have a V-8 powered super snow blower that rattles windows for 300 feet---Doug Wiken

**Forecasts of weather sure can change from day to day

Relatives were thinking about driving to Sioux Falls and others from Sioux Falls to Minnesota over Saturday and Sunday. I said, " I have watched the forecasts and traveling there doesn't look like a good idea, but we are predicted to be on the edge of the white stuff. You might think about visiting here."
So much for good thoughts.

Well, by sometime between morning and evening yesterday, the forecasts apparently changed. By ten lastnight, the weather did not sound like it would be truly very pleasant in South Central South Dakota and all those affluent sinners in Sioux Falls might miss the wrath of the frozen gods.
As you can probably tell, we had several inches of partly cloudy and windy that in places piled up three or four feet deep. It is heavy wet snow too. Nothing like the light fluffy or nearly "sandy" stuff dumped on us in previous snows this season.

Well, the dogs enjoyed it and it might even mean we will have some grass growing in the spring. Hope springs eternal in the feeble brain of a cow and in the brain of a farmer in "next year country".

**Stay tuned even if you didn't hear one good joke today either...so read the Sunday comics..speaking of dogs, Hagar the Horrible is on the edge of funny and ZITS might be named TITS for the day, but you won't know why until you see the paper...darn that was a long "stay tuned"---Doug Wiken

**Wind to electricity to hydrogen to..........future of SD Wind energy

Beware of sentences that start with "I think.." . It usually means instead "I assume for no rational reason whatsover." But, here it comes. I think almost all the wind energy news in SD I heard or read today is in the wrong direction. Not that the wind blows from the wrong direction, but that wind generation producing electricity to be dumped directly into the electric grid is just not what we need and is an incredibly expensive way to use and/or handle the energy. We are getting propaganda from our SD politicians harping on the need for huge electric lines. Grids of electric lines costing millions and that taxpayers should be funding it in some way with tax breaks or grants.

There is a better way. Use the electricity produced by wind generators to produce hydrogen on site of groups or individual wind generators. The hydrogen can then be used directly as a fuel to make the electric production relatively level or it can be used to produce methanol and other chemicals. The combination of hydrogen and wind production may not be the most instantaneously efficient, but the leveling of output could make the whole process and infrastructure and its utilization more efficient.

Today, we got our local REA newsletter. It has a story indicating the problems with wind-generated electricity moving into the grid. Mostly it indicated that in times of peak demand, there may be no wind. And in times with little demand, there may be a lot of wind energy, but it is useless because the minimum generation levels are sufficient. Also today, is news of a wind farm coming on the horizon somwhere near Wessington, SD or Wessington Springs, SD.

But, the most interesting story is in the issue of Wired Magazine I received today. It is titled "BackYard Fuel Cell". Not much detail really, but it is on an island in Pacific Northwest area of Puget Sound. It contrasts Stephan Friend's wind and fuel cell system with those of his neighbors which are wind and backup diesel generators. I checked LINK-- Wired Magazine Online which has a number of links related to fuel cells and hydrogen, but not to this particular story..at least not right now.

A Book by Dr. George Olah, et al suggests that we should be aiming for a methanol economy to separate us from foreign oil dependence. It relates to ways to use fuel cells in a "forward" and "reverse" mode to produce methanol which can then be used as a fuel much like gasoline or as the basis for conversion to plastics and other products.

I think (there it is again) that our SD legislators and our Public Utilities Commission members and our Scientific and Technology education and college Engineering and Chemistry departments need to be looking at this kind of an approach to using SD wind energy rather than dumping electricity into the conventional electric grid at all the wrong times and in all the wrong places.

Right now there are bits and pieces to solve the puzzle. Coordinated research in South Dakota should be aimed at using the wind energy for greatest possible benefit to South Dakota residents rather than to out of state or nation monopolies exploiting our resources for pseudo "green credits' to keep dirty energy systems going elsewhere or just to turn South Dakota into a Wind Energy Colony for the coasts.

Let us get the development, manufacture and deployment of these systems here in South Dakota under control of South Dakota and South Dakotans as soon as possible or wind energy will be just another kind of "surplus" grain we subsidize the rest of the country with or do nothing further to end the drain on our youth as a resource for the future.

***Stay tuned, but don't be asleep at the switch..and don't let politicians flip it the wrong way --- Doug Wiken

**Slobs, Slob Hunters, or just litterbugs?

Our rural mailbox is about 1/4 mile away where the township "road" crosses the county asphalt highway. Yesterday I noticed that something was dumped across the highway from my mail box. Looked like a dog, but it wasn't. Below are two photos I took today.

The dead fish and fox or coyote were on the asphalt apron. Below photos was next to it in the grass.

Another dead fish and the head of some carnivore or dog.

I have no clue why this stuff was dumped where it was. There are no game wardens in this area. So, don't know if it was a slob hunter or just slobs responsible. Or some jerk kids who might have thought it was smart to get rid of the evidence before the got home with their old man's smashed up pickup.

***Stay tuned even if you don't know any jokes about a dead fish in the middle of the road--Doug Wiken

**An unseemly concern..ARGUS Pot calls Radio Kettle black..

Late this evening, I finally got around to looking at the Tuesday Feb 20, 2007 ARGUS LEADER. It has gotten easier to ignore until late at night after its most recent dumbing down that filled pages with information-devoid graphics coupled with strange locations of many things and too prominent positioning for vacuous near dribble blather hype humbug celebrity local or national stuffing. Below is an image from Section B, The "Voices" section. (Voices might ironically be a good name for a radio program, it is nearly a nonsense name for a newspaper section perhaps except for those rare people who see text and hear voices). Anyway take a look at the photo below. Maybe the image doesn't convey quite my initial reaction.." Holy crap..is that ever the pot calling the kettle black".

My calculations may be off, but if that headline, graphic and few words of text had been on the obituary page, it would have cost somebody something like $1350. Almost all devoted to dumbing down the newspaper page.

A friend who gets the paper early in the morning calls me nearly every morning and tells me there is nothing worth buying the ARGUS for again this morning. I usually buy it anyway..but this has to be a classic example of wasted newspaper space. Apart from my reaction of how dumb the layout and how ironic the content, the graphic serves no purpose other than filling space.

The point of Patrick Lalley's comments may have been entirely correct and appropriate, but in the context of media it reeks of hypocrisy or a kind of peculiar blindness or sensory deprivation that indicates an excuse for the "my crap doesn't stink" syndrome displayed by the column.

There is nothing in the top half of that page that could not have been stuffed into a third of that space with nothing being lost and possibly the whole story in one place instead of continued on an inside page.

This must be one of the best stories and pages so far to indicate so very graphically (forgive the expression) how the new ARGUS layout and diluted content really, really sucks.

***Stay tuned even if you just hate the little blue graphics I add to Dakota Today---Doug Wiken

**SD Pub Radio Forum ..Not even softball questions, cremepuff questions

Today at Noon on Feb 20, 2007, SD Public Radio Forum had on a couple of architects. One was Jeff Hazzard? but I missed the name of the other(s).

30 minutes of pretty general questions. I was curious about energy efficiency and the building of monuments versus taxpayer and user-friendly buildings. So, thought a question along the lines of "How do the architects handle situations where school boards want to build a monument to themselves versus a building easy on the taxpayers?"

Whoever answers the 1-800-456-0766 number asked if I could make the question "less pointed". I asked what was wrong with "pointed questions" and got a nervous giggle response from the woman. Needless to say, that question nor the more general one I wrote while waiting online never got asked. Instead the forum moderator lofted a couple softball questions about architect certification and skills updates. They managed to kill 15 minutes on that which could have been handled with "yes" and "yes".

I think it is an insult to both the viewers and participants such as the architects to fail to ask "pointed questions". Architects are not stupid. If they are dealing with public officials nearly on a daily basis, they can answer tough questions and certainly should be able to handle medium tough questions.

So, here is the reformulated question which still interests me. "Do architects see they have an obligation to represent taxpayers and facility users, or do they practically assume they have only an obligation to their clients which may be a public government board?"

This comes back a bit indirectly at the question of whether or not architects pander to the wishes of board members intent on building an impressive monument edifice with a good place for a plaque remembering the board membership when the building was designed and built rather than an efficient, functional facility.

Related to this is how much weight should be given to energy efficiency in the building of public facilities.

***Stay tuned if marshmallows and creme puffs stick in your craw--Doug Wiken

**New Federal and State Celebrity Licenses Needed

Recent TV news seems to be filled by trash with trash about trash; ie, celebrity broadcasters discussing celebrity humbug insanity, drug addiction, breast implant insertion and removal, etc. etc..

In the interests of keeping our knee-jerk reflexes working, we need some licenses for celebrity status. None of this 5 minutes of fame without a license for 5 minutes of fame. Then if some vacuous celebrity does something incredibly stupid,vulgar, ditzy, their celebrity license can be suspended or pulled and discussion of the "non-celebrity" would be banned like vulgar words such as "bush" during normal viewing hours.

Then maybe there might be enough time in the "news" broadcasts to note that the Bush administration has sneaked a provision into defense appropriations to federalize local police and emergency officials. After the Bush administration's supurb performance following hurricane Katrina, it is easy to see why they might want to make sure local officials are under their control and can't talk about the fed's performance.

Which reminds me, Bush and Cheney should have their "celebrity" licenses yanked for persistent lying and smirking about other's tragedy and deceptive comments on policy. Then the White House press would not be allowed to cover their dog and pony shows complete with much hand waving, smoke, and mirrors deception and deceit.

**Stay tuned even if you think Bloggers should have easily revoked licenses---Doug Wiken

**GOP adds "Let's destroy the books." to "Import Garbage and export graduates"

Denise Ross at her HogHouse Blog writes about the tangled mess of "transitional policies" at the SD Library. LINK-- Hog House Blog on SD Library and HB1215 Check her reporting and then read my comment below.

This is peculiarly stupid. In a matter of years collections will be sent hither and yon by rotation policies and incompetent local librarians and staff or just plain disappear in transition. Then when the local librarian wants more room for romance novels, the historical stuff will be sold for 25 cents a copy to raise money to heat the library or cool it in the summer or buy cookies for the library board.

Rather than moving books all over the state like a huge book seeder, there should be a new state library in the area of the historical center that is fire proof and designed for long term storage with controlled temperature and humidity and with superb lighting for reading and research while ultraviolet light is reduced. Maybe Rounds can convince a certain benevolent banker that we need a "Sanford South Dakota State Library and Research Center."

Ross indicates the state will use the space formerly used by books and readers for state office space. For what does state government need more offices? The state population has not changed signficantly and with years of Republican government most of the problems of 20 years ago are the same problems of today and it does not appear that anything more will be done by Republican governors and Republican-controlled legislatures to ameliorate any problems in the near future. How many more Rounds family members need a state desk that has a computer connection and a foot rest?

A few years ago, the SD GOP policies could be summed up in "Import garbage and export graduates". Now we can add to that "and disperse and destroy the books and historical documents and references"

**Stay tuned even if you think all SD Republican policies are variations of Archie Bunker saying "Stifle yourself."---- Doug Wiken

**A wind generator for electricity course and a keyboard hyped

I really don't know much about the quality of the course offered or the information on the site. But, it looks like it might be interesting to South Dakotans who now and then can literally lean into the wind without falling flat on our faces.

Wind Generation Course

Comments welcome on this information...as usual, you need a valid e-mail and most likely will not get published if you are just using your post as comment spam for some product.

I stumbled onto something which might be useful for some of the less computer astute if they can find somebody to do the setup which is not all the difficult. Local Pamida store had a HP "Multimedia Keyboard P2359AA on "clearance" sale for $28. It allows programing six extra keys and the 12 F keys with alternate functions. These can work with Outlook Express, Internet Explorer, MS Word, Mozilla Thunderbird and Firefox if you check the keyboard combination info in the Mozilla products.

So somebody who has difficulty remembering how to cut and paste, etc. can have a key on the keyboard that does it once text is highlighted with a mouse. Keyboard feel is not too bad. The spacebar might be a bit hard to press, but otherwise seems to have relatively good feel. Your mileage may vary of course.

** Stay tuned even if the only wind around you is all hot air---Doug Wiken