MetaFilter posts tagged with madison

City Flags Ranked

escabeche — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 14:55:52 -0800

150 U.S. city flags, ranked from best to worst. Top-rated flags are typically tasteful and abstract, like that of Washington D.C. (#1) or subtly representational, like Madison, Wisconsin's flag(#11), which is more or less a glyph of Madison seen from above. The bottom of the list has some that seem stuck in a briefly popular graphic style, like Provo (#143), but most are timelessly ongepotch like the flag of Milwaukee (#147), which features a boat, a skyline, some smokestacks, some grain, County Stadium, a Native American,and a church. And then there is Pocatello (#150), whose flag was memorably profiled on badflags. (Vexillology previously on MetaFilter.)

Gayest Cities in America, 2013

Sailormom — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 04:21:05 -0800

Advocate.com has compiled a list of the gayest cities in America. Their eclectic criteria and point system is explained in the article. 15. St. Louis 14. Salem, Ore 13. Colorado Springs, Colo 12. Providence, R.I. 11. Oakland, Calif. 10. Twin Cities, Minn. 9. Atlanta 8. Madison, Wis. 7. Eugene, Ore. 6. Salt Lake City 4. Washington, D.C. 3. Spokane, Wash. 2. Springfield, Mass. 1. Tacoma, Wash. Honorable mention

"...whatever job you take, you're going to spend a lot of time there. You should try to make it fun."

zarq — Tue, 28 Feb 2012 20:57:49 -0800

In 2007, the Madison (WI) Police Department hired their first civilian Public Information Officer: former reporter Joel DeSpain. Over the last five years, Mr. DeSpain has reportedly combined "humor, a flair for the dramatic and sense of the absurd", and turned the mundane Madison Police Blotter into an "art form and a thing of joy." So Why Has Madison Wisconsin Has Become the Weird News Capitol of the Midwest? Meet the United States’ most whimsical police reporter. (Last one's a gawker link. If you dislike their site / interface, have no fear: all reports in that article (plus four extras) can be found after the jump.) Onion A/V Club Interview: Madison Police's Joel DeSpain on the art of writing police reports. Reports * Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop * The Rapture (News Report) * "Efforts to reach people who might be able to come over and give immediate help were unsuccessful. So, the officer and sergeant decided it would be best to make the woman a hot meal." * Thieves Pocket Dial 911. * Guy walks into a Dennys, claims to be the general manager and then makes his own cheeseburger and fries.... * Fowl Play? * Scrappin' * Lovely HEBA Shoplifter * “I saw a real donnybrook" * "However, he did hand the officer his "Letter of Commitment to Jesus" which he thought was important for her to see." * "During the flinging of the feces some ended up on Bell's clothes, and before the battle was over both women had squared off with the shovels" * Vikings, Pillaged * Patron of the Arts * Annie the ball python meets the Madison book club Also, if you're in Madison, don't do this.

Diary of a Summer League Ballplayer

escabeche — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 21:48:47 -0800

70 games in 75 days in the Northwoods League. Andrew Barna, a varsity baseball player at Davidson College during the school year, is spending the summer playing first base for the Madison Mallards. The Mallards are currently a half game back of the Eau Claire Express in the Northwoods League, a summer developmental league where NCAA athletes play for room, board, the adulation of devoted Upper Midwest fans, and the slim hope of making it to the bigs. (Northwoods alums in the majors include Ian Kinsler (Mallards), Ben Zobrist (Wisconsin Woodchucks), and Juan Pierre (Manitowoc Skunks.) Barna's blog offers a look inside the real life of very-minor-league baseball: The best way to sleep on the team bus. Getting caught picking your nose on the field. Welcome back Jumpy Garcia. Signing your first breast.

Public Workers Protest in Madison

GameDesignerBen — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 09:30:58 -0800

Protests have erupted in Madison, Wisconsin where the Republican-controlled state legislature seems poised to pass a bill championed by the newly elected Governor Scott Walker that would strip collective bargaining rights (that is, unions) from public employees in order to combat the state's 137 million dollar budget deficit. The exact size of the protests is still up for debate. The Wall Street Journal says around 10,000, numbers from people in the crowd on twitter have pegged it at closer to three times that. Wednesday night, hundreds of people, mostly university students, slept in the rotunda of the capitol building after refusing to leave. Some Madison schools are closed for the second day in a row due to large-scale sickouts organized by teachers. Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader, Scott Fitzgerald, believes that the bill will pass in its current form sometime Thursday, but if it does not, up to 6000 state employees could lose their jobs. The large scale protests, currently in their third day, finally started to appear on the national radar sometime Wednesday night.

Sterling Hall, 40 years on

escabeche — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:02:20 -0800

“No, no. Academia is now part of the real world. Everything goes.” Just before dawn, on August 24, 1970, Dwight and Karl Armstrong, Leo Burt, and David Fine parked a van outside Sterling Hall at the University of Wisconsin. The van was filled with ammonium nitrate and fuel oil, and when it blew, it killed Robert Fassnacht, a young physicist working through the night. The Army Mathematics Research Center, the bombing's target, was untouched. The bombers, known as the "New Year's Gang," went underground, and enthusiasm for the radical movement in Madison was permanently dampened. The University of Wisconsin collection of transcribed interviews about the Sterling Hall Bombing. More interviews: "I think what it’s important to, to realize is that there were dozens, probably hundreds, maybe thousands of Karl Armstrongs out there. There were firebombings constantly. There were probably hundreds of fire bombings a year at that time. There was, you trashing going on constantly. It was inevitable that Army Math was going to be blown up. And I think everybody knew it." (Sarah O'Brien, student) "They were going around saying, “Ho, ho, Ho Chi Minh.” And I worked in sociology. And actually I quit that job, because the grad students in one area were flying a big red flag. And they said they were supporting the North Vietnamese against the American soldiers. I tried to talk them into taking the flag down. It didn’t do any good. [laughs] I took an American flag in and hung it in the room that I was working in. And I’m not an American. Canadian." (Emily Chapman, student) "Although, during that time, uh, the kids had started to clean up, and we built up quite a retail business in shampoos and started selling an awful lot of shampoos and conditioners. And they started taking care of their hair and their personal appearance again." (Herbert Eberhardt, barber) Tom Bates's RADS is a book-length account of the bombing, and the strange world of radical UW, with undergrads storing explosives in the basements of their fraternity houses, and studying for exams while simultaneously planning firebombings on campus. RADS reviewed in the New York Times in 1992.

What's a Coastie?

escabeche — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:41:17 -0800

What's a Coastie? Two University of Wisconsin undergrads record and post to YouTube an ode to "Coasties," out-of-state students who live in expensive off-campus apartments, wear Spandex tights with Uggs, spend their parents' money on designer handbags and Starbucks, and -- oh yeah, like 15% of their classmates but only 1 in 200 Wisconsin natives, are Jews. Controversy ensues.

m(n,m)

escabeche — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 13:47:51 -0800

Eminem's "Lose Yourself" re-envisioned as a high school math course. The math and film departments of Madison East High School collaborate on a video, starring math teacher Philip Galarowicz. Not to be confused with The Rappin' Mathematician (hear "The Number Line Dance" here), or these high school math rappers, or the rap battle of TI-83 and Fitty Slope. The quadratic formula, rapped. The quadratic formula, rapped again. The quadratic formula, rapped, strangely compellingly, by a teacher in a tie.

Horns and Drums

ferdydurke — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:22:39 -0800

Death and Life: Madison New Life Band bid farewell to Bishop Daddy Madison in Washington, D.C. Stooges Brass Band plays in New Orleans [second line].

Shalom, Christmas Shoppers

escabeche — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 18:51:44 -0800

"We're not selling here -- we're hunting!" The young man or woman at the mall kiosk who grabs your shoulder and says "Can I have twenty seconds of your time to show you something amazing?" might be a young Israeli saving up for a pre-army jaunt to Asia or South America. The U.S. kiosk trade has become popular enough in Israel to inspire a folk-rock song by musician and kiosk veteran Rami Feinstein. The Wall Street Journal offers a generally admiring profile of the Israeli "natural-born closers." The Capital Times, in Madison, WI, wishes they'd buzz off.

It takes a village

caddis — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 07:27:12 -0800

A State Street Family Album - State Street in Madison, Wisconsin is a half mile link between the Capitol dome and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. Tree lined, traffic restricted, shops of all manner, State Street represents an almost picture postcard ideal. It is also home to the Family. In the 30's they might have ridden the rails, now they are hanging out in the Peace Park. Glenn Austin has documented their community.

Visit us! We're safer than New York City (NEW YORK CITY!)

m@ — Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:58:11 -0800

Visit Madison, Indiana. Why? We're not New York City! Sure you can be opportunistic about selling gas masks if you're an internet entrepreneur, but what if you're a small town in Indiana and you want to cash in on fear of terrorism. Why, tout what you don't have, of course. "A safe place to visit...When you visit Madison you will discover that we have no tall buildings to fear, no nuclear power plants, airports or anything anyone would want to blow up."

Sex: sacred anywhere?

Recockulous — Tue, 26 Nov 2002 08:43:17 -0800

Caley Meals, is a sex columnist. What seperates her from the crowd of them, is that she is published in a college school newspaper. Jokingly, in her first column she states that, "I will try to keep the students of Madison with their heads in the right place: the gutter." She then goes on to cover imortant topics such as, how to work the college sex life around a roomie, the drunken bootie call, fornication with food, female domination and many others. Is it real journalism or only riding on pure shock value? "Writing about sex is about as interesting as talking about sex, which is to say it's not interesting at all compared to the real thing. But at least it can be a little naughty."

What's 95 inches tall, purple, and stinks like rotten meat?

briank — Tue, 05 Jun 2001 06:49:02 -0800

What's 95 inches tall, purple, and stinks like rotten meat? Why, it's Amorphophallus titanum, the world's largest flower. One of them is about to bloom at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Department of Botany, and the link will take you to a webcam waiting for it to bloom. One bloomed at Kew Gardens in the UK a couple of years ago to much fanfare, and there are only a dozen or so "in captivity".