October 7, 2009 by bgierke

Ever I hear folks arguing vociferously about the ascent of man I think about fathers coming out of the bleachers at little league games. Ridiculous irrationality. Give me a break.

On the one hand, you have folks who believe that an old dude of their own race awaits them in the hereafter. A scary throwback to Old Testament literalism. On the other, well, scientist Stephen Jay Gould once wrote: “Most important scientific revolutions involve the dethronement of human arrogance." How many times have thinkers of one stripe or another claimed to have reached the end?

Myself? I think that the middle ground, if you want to call it that, will be found in relation to consciousness. Significantly, its origin and nature have not yet been discovered. Sure, correlates of mental phenomena have been observed through brain imaging, but there is no consensus about how thoughts actually arise or what constitutes mind (as opposed to a brain).

September 28, 2009 by bgierke

Knee hurts, so instead of running early AM I’ve been riding my bike lately. Trouble is it’s now fall and dark. Oh well – the better… Upon the razor’s edge once again. More juice. Might coast from time to time, but better not drift mentally till sun-up.

Right turn and 50 yards out of my drive I drop down a steep hill. Feel like Batman falling off a lofty ledge Gotham dead of night. Shirt flutters, cool air streams by my face, I use my night vision to search for potholes.

Zoom through intersections and by homes asleep to another steep hill the climbing of which has me off the seat, pounds my heart, and puts me into oxygen debt. Just near the top, a light goes on in house on left. Kitchen. Lady. Uh, sweet!

September 24, 2009 by ggackle

In a stinging rebuke to MidAmerican Energy's opposition to federal "cap and trade" legislation, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has labeled the utility's cost estimates of the proposed carbon reduction bill "inappropriate and greatly inflated."

The Iowa DNR testimony before the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) August 27 points out MidAmerican's cost estimates of the legislation attributes both its wholesale and retail emissions to only its retail customers, thus inflating the cost to Iowa electric customers by more than $125 million.

In coming up with its impact on utility customers, MidAmerican also used a carbon price double what is estimated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Protection (EPA). The numbers cited by MidAmerican also do not reflect allowances provided by the bill for the benefit of low-income customers, the Iowa DNR pointed out.

September 21, 2009 by bgierke

Here is Thomas Eakins’ "The Agnew Clinic." Similar to his picture below, this honors a retiring surgeon also emphasizing his service as an educator. The roiling factor here though is more subversive.

Eakins thought that there was nothing more beautiful than the human body and went to great lengths to provide his students with the benefits of his talents, including once disrobing for a young coed to show a real male body in motion.

On several occasions he allowed mixed gender life drawing classes. Such disregard for the mores of the time brought trouble upon him and he was released from his position. His choice of subject matter in the Agnew Clinic – a partially nude woman undergoing a mastectomy – was his retort.

September 18, 2009 by ggackle

A recent article on wired.com about craigslist, the hugely popular online classified advertising site, prompted a revisit to craigslist quadcities to see how it's faring versus the two local online newspaper sites.

Craigslist quadcities has attracted a significant number of classified ad listings, but both qctimes.com and qconline.com have rolled out competing "free" online ad listings to try to stem the flow of listings to craigslist.

September 11, 2009 by bgierke

From the early days of the republic through the antebellum years, the American zeitgeist had been ebullient, dynamic, and filled with ambition and wanderlust. Lewis and Clark, The Oregon Trail, Santa Fe, etc. The War Between the States, however, catalyzed a wrenching change in its trajectory.

Six hundred thousand lives were lost during the horrible conflict that followed our nation’s youthful exuberance – over 1 percent of the population. That’d translate into an incomprehensible 3 million today. Impossible for that not to be transformational, but the nature of the impact was not reserved to society’s human fabric. As Lewis Menand wrote in his 'The Metaphysical Club': “… the United States became a different country. The war alone did not make America modern, but the war marks the birth of modern America.”

A year ago, Bi-State Metropolitan Planning Commission officials and a group of local politicians - including Moline Mayor Don Welvaert - flew to Washington to urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to designate the two-state area as "non-attainment" for fine particulate pollution.

Today, as the issue of leaf-burning - a major generator of such pollution - rages in Moline, Bi-State and its air quality task force have yet to find their way to the Moline City Council chambers to urge an end to the practice.

Bi-State chief Denise Bulat says the commission provided the city with information on the issue last year and is "hopeful" Moline aldermen will vote to end open burning of leaves this year.

September 4, 2009 by ggackle

The Google-mobile must have cruised through the Quad Cities last fall judging from the street-view images of Bettendorf/Davenport now appearing on Google Maps.

The Google camera-car imaged most of the main streets in town including Devils Glen, 53rd Ave., Middle, Crow Creek, State/Grant, Valley Drive, Kimberly Road and parts of 18th Street. CLICK HERE for the image of I-74 and downtown Bettendorf.

September 3, 2009 by ggackle

The Iowa Finance Authority (IFA) is re-evaluating its tax credit allocation for the Hometown Harbor housing project after learning the developer had not included a 10-year, $650,000 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) incentive from the city of Bettendorf in its financial projections.

The IFA first learned of the project receiving the city TIF from an inquiry by bettendorf.com.

Carla Pope, director of Affordable Rental Production for the IFA, said the authority "expressed our displeasure that we hadn't been made aware of the TIF" during a recent conference call with Hometown developer Jim Bergman and his consultant, Tom Monico, of Thomas & Thomas Associates, Inc., Glenview, Illinois.

The city approved the 10-year TIF incentive for the project June 2.

The Channel Cat Water Taxi navigates under the Interstate 74 Bridge as it carries passengers from Bettendorf to Davenport.