Woodstock CT Café

This is what Cafe visitation looks like for the month of January 2010 (graphs below). The most deceiving statistic is the number of “unique visitors”. This is every unique IP (Internet path/protocol) that visits the Cafe. I am able to look at the visitors to the Cafe who have turned the most pages (by clicking the title, “more” or the comments). The thousandth visitor turned 6 pages in January. Thus, this could be a legitimate visitor from Senegal who actually reads something, or it could be someone down the road who only has a causal interest in reading at the Cafe. The point here is that this class of visitors is not ‘in and out’. The more telling stats are the total number of visitors and total page turns in January which are for-the-most-part due to repeat visitors.

The table that shows where most of the visitors came from shows a large Russian contingent. While we can dismiss these visitors as being Woodstock relevant, they are turning pages and their page turns are not due to spam (which is tallied separately as “non-viewing”). Almost 40,000 of the 72,000 page turns in January came from the USA (mostly CT); but we have visitors from most of the countries of the world accounting for the other 32,000 page turns.

We are getting referrals from non-search engine URLs like Rich Green’s page at the Hartford Courant and other CT websites such as CT Local Politics. Most of our visitors are from the US and Connecticut, but visitors come from other parts of the country to see what’s happening in Woodstock, including my son Drew in Dallas and Mariah in Virginia Beach. Then, of course, there’s the Aussie who went back to Australia and the Horse eater in southern France.

Internet traffic has declined to blogs over that last year. This is a general phenomenon not exclusive to the Cafe. As you can see in the lower set of graphs, total page turns have been steady for the last ten months with the exception of a busy June 2009 because of the referendums. Five pages is the average per visit but >1000 are turning 6 pages per visit.

I am continually amazed by the stability of Cafe visitation. If the Russians, Germans, Canadians, and others are turning pages, then I’m okay with that; but it’s the Woodstockians and surrounding communities that matter the most and we will never forget this!

by Newcomer

Your first statement (in your post #38) summarizing how I feel about this is a bit off (this is to Taxpayer). On a National level, I do feel that the political parties have separated themselves from the people they are supposed to represent. However, your second thought is not my conclusion about this; namely that “therefore the people can somehow be vanquished from taking any responsibility for their government.” This is an incorrect characterization about my position on this. In fact, I feel completely that the opposite is true. Because there is such a disconnect between the political parties and society at large, the people who are not part of this machine must come together collectively to exert their influence upon their elected officials and the political parties whom those officials represent.

Politicians like to tell us all about how they represent us when they are campaigning. But then they get into office and owe their party and so many special interests favors for getting them elected that the people end up at the bottom of the totem pole. The people need to stop tolerating this. We need to stop allowing our elected officials to put our interests last instead of first. And, no, I do not have much confidence that this can be done from the inside out (from within a political party). It’s too late for that. Both parties have grown too wealthy and too powerful and they are now locked in a power struggle with one another. This can only be done at the grass roots level, in my opinion.

You mentioned the tea party movement in a different post elsewhere in this thread. I think that movement needs to exercise caution at this point. Read the rest of this entry »

From teachref09: “Sounds like Mr. Walker could use a quick dose of “Boardsmanship 101.”  Where are all the CABE (Connecticut Association of Boards of Education)representatives who advise BOE’s? Aren’t they providing any training for new board members these days? Oh, right, you have to “request” training. And if you already know it all, what good would any expert advice serve? … Just an observation.”

from John 

I read with some amusement Anthony Walker’s Letter to the Editor of the Villager (January 29th) entitled “Walker:Education board introduces new initiatives.” But according to Walker, he’s pretty much acting on his own by writing the story in this egocentric way.

The first paragraph

…I wanted to write the town… (what about the rest of the Board)
…I was elected to the Board… (uncontested)
…I was elected chairman… (there’s another story here that I won’t go into because it would embarrass another board member)

paragraph 2:

“…I first wanted to tell everyone…” (goes without saying)
“…I have taken several steps…” (are these revolutionary?)

paragraph 3:

“…comments I heard repeatedly…” (probably from the same nay sayer minority group that repeatedly attacked and sued the BOE over the last few years).

paragragh 4:

“…I have taken…to re-engineer…” (engineering citizen participation? this will be interesting to see and hear)

“…I will also add…one additional citizen’s participation…” (this will be interesting - hopefully Powers will be taping)

paragraph 5:

“…I have taken in my role as Chairman…” (one man show?)

“…I have modified two of them (subcomittees) and created a new one…” (weren’t you in favor of less members and shorter term lengths - that referendum you lost)

paragraph 6: no “I”s

paragragh 7:

“…I felt it was important…” (what about other board members?)

paragraph 8:

“…I felt that this was…much needed…” (maybe the board should expand its size)

paragraph 9 and10:

How gracious. There were some things that the board did together (or is he just acknowledging that these other members exist).

paragraph 11:

“…I wanted to briefly mention…” (re: the $19,000 windfall from the State)

“…I encourage you to attend…” (to hear about progress in securing this 0.1% of the budget)

last paragraph:

“…excited…as I am…and that I see you…” (I think the rest of the board could also claim this)

provided by Dave Brown

See the History of Bowen’s Garage at http://www.bowensgarageinc.com/history.html 

Their dealership was sold to Oliver Bowen by Henry Ford himself!

by John 

Today there’s an article in the Norwich Bull by reporter Tom Chiari about an initiative in Eastford to develop zoning regulations. It will be interesting to listen to the dialog between those for and against adopting regulations in Eastford which is one of only two towns in CT that has NONE.

From the Bull article: ‘ “It’s something that the citizens found important,” said Lee, who also helped draft the Plan of Conservation and Development.  “As one of only two towns in the state (without zoning), we’re pretty vulnerable without it.” ‘

It’s also interesting to hear the opinion of Arline Bowen (84 year old daughter in-law of matriarch Gertrude Bowen) because she is a delightful woman and a distant relative of mine. 

She is quoted in the article as saying ‘ “I’m comfortable with the way things are,” she said. Bowen said people in town are protective of their right to do what they want with their property. “I just hope the people on the zoning board think hard before they make their decision” ‘. Arline’s opinion reflects the views of many of the longtime landowners and farmers in Woodstock.

My great aunt Gertrude was half sister (by a different mother) to my father’s father and they grew up in Spencer MA, not too far into MA from Woodstock. Gertrude Leavitt married Oliver Bowen and moved to Eastford in the early 1930’s (I believe) to establish Bowen’s Garage - not the oldest, but one of the oldest still-in-business Ford dealerships in the country. Her son, Spencer Bowen, took over the Garage some time later and now his son Steve runs the Garage. I have always enjoyed stopping off at Bowen’s Garage to have a chat while getting gas and service. You will feel like you are getting ripped off when you take your car to be serviced at other dealerships in Putnam (because of the higher cost), but you will always get honest and effective service at Bowen’s Garage. If you buy a car for your spouse as a Christmas present, Steve or Spencer will deliver it on Christmas morning.

The proponents of establishing zoning regulations in Eastford will walk a fine line “to strike a balance allowing flexibility for property owners while still protecting natural resources.”

I’m wondering if Eastford has an “Open Space” program like Woodstock. Shouldn’t our “Open Space” program be used to protect our forests in addition to farm lands? 

from John

This figure shows (1) the number of unique IP paths (IP stands for Internet Protocol) that indicate unique visitors, (2) the total number of Visits, and (3) the number of clicks on a specific page (article) which we call “page turns” from January 1 through January 21. Becki and I are one unique visitor (because we come to the Cafe from a common path) with 1912 page turns from January 1 through January 21. We turn the most pages at the Cafe because of the posting and editing process for comments and articles.

The Figure below is complicated. Let me try to explain it.

Each vertical bar represents one individual unique visitor that entered the Cafe between January 17th at 9:25 PM (furthest to the right) and January 21st and 4:40PM (furthest to the left). The horizontal location of the bar represents the last time that individual came to the Cafe. These unique visitors range from one time visitors who never return to unique visitors who come into the Cafe every day multiple times. This would include Becki and me. The left most verticle bars are the individuals that have entered the Cafe most recently and most of them have the highest bars. The height of the bar represents the number of page turns by these individuals that have accumulated from January 1 through January 21. So it makes sense that the more recent visitors, for the most part, are the most addicted visitors (like me and Becki) . Since the vast majority of the Cafe visitors have shorter bars, I have made this an exponential plot so that we can resolve less addicted visitors.

There’s a visitor who came into the Cafe shortly after midnight early on 1/18 who had turned 104 pages up to that point on 1/18 from January 1st; however, this individual did not return by 4:40PM on 1/21 so his/her bar did not move forward to the left. This is the pattern throughout the month going back to the beginning of the month. Some individuals come in every day, some come in every few days, some come in every week, and some come in every few weeks … and very few comment. Furthermore,  some come to the Cafe and turn just a few pages while some turn many pages to review all comments. Also we are getting visitors from all over the world, although the vast majority are from the USA and northestern CT (spam doesn’t count because it is non-viewing visitation).

This may seem complicated and it is. One of the interesting phenomenas stems from our posting of many images captured from Google Images. Because of this, when one searches for images from the movie “Friday Night Lights” they end up with images found at the Cafe including a picture of my daughter, Christina… or a picture of corn from the article that I published on how to cook corn.

I don’t completely understand this but we are all over Google. In the last year we have started two other websites and we are seeing nothing like this.  

by Newcomer

As an aside (to Chicklet), did you hear about yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling? It struck down a significant portion of McCain-Feingold that had made it illegal for private corporations to pay for ads either in support of or against a political candidate. In a way, this related to what I was discussing here about what a powerful lobbying block the Telecomm Industry is. This ruling, while a victory for freedom of speech, also clears the way for more special interest money to flow into the political process. The companies cannot give money to a candidate’s campaign directly, but they CAN put up an ad either supporting ‘their’ candidate or denouncing, even attacking ‘their’ candidate’s opponent. This has the potential to make candidates (once elected) beholden to the special interests of the corporations that supported them.

To me, this is a dangerous thing. There’s already too much special interest money in politics. And the result can be sweeping legislation like the Telecommunications Act of 1996 where an industry has far more rights than do the American citizens do as consumers of that industry. Read the rest of this entry »

by Becki

The CT Siting Council is considering a proposal from Verizon to place a cell tower at 445 Prospect St. There will be a public hearing tomorrow (1/21) March 11th (we think & will verify tomorrow) at the Woodstock Town Hall from 1PM to 10PM to allow townspeople to express their opinions on the proposed site. This is a courtesy extended to us because the council can actually allow tower placements pretty much wherever they choose. The CT Siting Council was formed this way specifically because towers are needed and, if individuals/groups within communities could obstruct/prevent towers just by sheer volume of objection alone, we wouldn’t have many towers at all  … So, we will be getting a tower at some point.

This goes beyond NIMBY, really… I understand people’s objections but, just the fact that some of us have objections doesn’t mean that we should have the expectations that those objections should have overwhelming weight in the discussion. This comes a lot closer to an expectation that our individual opinions, about any/everything, are so important that they should displace common sense.

None of us should ever have an expectation that our definition of life, in this immediate moment, should not change. It is a wonderful goal to attempt to minimize our human impact on this planet. However, it is absurd to try to imagine that humanity can exist without leaving a footprint. Change comes to us, regardless of whether or not we are screaming at the top of our lungs in protest. Read the rest of this entry »

by Julie Anderson

I do want to mention an issue that was the subject of a recent article in the Norwich Bulletin. The article discusses local concerns about a potential cell tower being sited on land owned by Mr. Fred Rich. Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/homepage/x1672016251/Woodstock-cell-tower-causing-dispute

I read some of the comments left under this article at the Norwich Bulletin website and it sounds as though some neighbors of Mr. Rich may have concerns about the use of his land as a potential cell tower site. Also, the news article mentions that the Woodstock Conservation Commission also has some concerns about the same potential site.

First, a little background.

Originally, Verizon had selected a potential cell tower site in East Woodstock on a parcel of land in the Prospect/Child Dome Road area. The residents of that neighborhood became concerned about the original site for the same reasons that Mr. Rich’s neighbors are concerned now, namely the risk of ruining a scenic viewshed and the safety concerns of living close to a cell tower. My advice to some of the neighbors of the original site choice was the same then as it is now to Mr. Rich’s neighbors and that is: try to find an alternate site that would work better for both Verizon and the townspeople. Read the rest of this entry »

click to enlarge

I don’t get it. Based on these numbers (from the Hartford Courant), Woodstock students will benefit by a little under $14 each per year and about 7.8 cents each per school day. You wonder if it is worth the cost of the application filing and administrative paper work. Apparently, 67 out of 187 school districts did not sign up with the State Department of Education for this cash cow. This program may only benefit large inner city school systems.

ConnCan’s Statement Regarding the Education Stimulus Money

“The federal government’s $4 billion dollar Race to the Top competition is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Connecticut to reform its public schools. With the largest achievement gap in the country and an enormous budget deficit, no state needs to win this competition more than we do.

On Jan. 19, the commissioner of education submitted our state’s Round 1 application for the Race to the Top. This is a good first step, but its not enough. Connecticut is like a C student applying early admission to Yale–we can’t just count on the application essay to get us over the top.

Read the rest of this entry »

By John (thinking out of the box)

Ever since the community of Woodstock rejected my idea to build a nuclear power plant (see “Woodstock Should Go Nuclear”), I’ve been racking my brain to come up with an alternative, more appealing solution to solve Woodstock’s economic problems. The answer was presented to me when I heard that NASA is going to put their left over Shuttles up for sale for a very reasonable price of $28.8 million each.

A wise economist once said, “You gotta spend money to make money!” Thus, Woodstock should not delay in raising a bond to buy one of these relics.

Just think about it. Having an authentic Shuttle in Woodstock would draw visitors from around the world. These visitors would get their coffee at Java Jive, lunch at Sweet Evelinas, and they would visit other businesses around town. B&Bs and guest houses would thrive.

The Shuttle could be parked at the Woodstock Airport and a fee could be charged for tours inside and around the Shuttle. DBrownie could be in the cockpit and explain all of the switches and flashing lights. After the loan is paid off, income from the Shuttle could be put aside for acquisition of development rights for our open space (our own space program).

On holidays when there is a parade we could load the Shuttle onto a flat bed truck and drive it up Route 169 to bring up the rear of the parade as the grand finale. And town leaders could give political speeches with Woodstock’s Shuttle in the background. Below I have put together some postcards that could be used to advertise and spread the word about Woodstock’s Shuttle (click on the images to enlarge). We could also create our own line of space paraphernalia to sell to visitors like the space helmet shown below that I wore in the 1950’s.

dbrownie sent in the picture of the control panel he’s familiar with.

Hello, all –

Just a reminder that there is a meeting Wednesday evening at 7 pm at the Hyde School to discuss the town’s Plan of Development in the light of sustainability issues.

Every 10 years the town rewrites it’s Plan of Development and the next one is due in 2012.  Currently there is a series of meetings to explore citizens’ concerns and get their input as to what key issues will need to be addressed in the next plan.

This meeting will specifically address sustainability issues.  Jean Pillo will begin with a review of water usage and regulation — particularly in light of the fact that Woodstock is the source of water that is used downstream by other towns.  Then Delia Fey will take over to make some comments on several other issues and lead a discussion.

Other matters that may be discussed include changing land use, declining energy availability, financial maelstroms, and climate change.

Come and make your concerns known, listen to others’ comments, and begin a discussion that will support creative planning!

Thank you -

Rebecca Hyde

PS  Please forward to any one else whom you think might be interested.

from John

The Academy’s decision to start a foundation to raise private funds for expansion projects is a step in the right direction if the Academy decides to head into the future as a independent private school. The challenging part, however, is to find someone to head the foundation that understands the importance of public relations and has the ability to recruit influential people to work for the Academy cause.

There are two aspects to successful non-profit fund raising that I am aware of – good public relations and aggressive solicitation of donations and bequests. In my experience the cause was not about promoting an individual, but instead promoting an ideal such as the quest for betterment of humanity.

After I left the National Institutes of Health (some said I was crazy) to take a position at the Pauling Institute in Palo Alto CA in late 1981, I had to raise my own funding through grants and help the Institute to raise money to stay afloat. This was a continuous effort at the Pauling Institute and with later employers until I left research at the end of 1995.

While Linus Pauling was a notable figure with a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1954 and a Peace Prize in 1962, rarely did raising donations come easy and I was not going to depend on that. Between January 1, 1984 and September 1995 I raised around $2.5 million from funding agencies to support my research program (American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute primarily; these grants are listed in the left sidebar under Novel Science and can also be found in the CRISP database on the Internet). But this funding paid for less than half of the costs of my research and by 1985 the Pauling Institute had no other federal grants. Today, the Pauling Institute which is focused on nutrition and its role in human disease is thriving and well funded at Oregon State University Paulings alma mater. Read the rest of this entry »

Things have been slow at the Cafe for the last 4 weeks, but we are starting to pick up momentum again. On average for the entire month of December about 40% of the page turns were from outside the US; so if there are 3000 page turns on an average day, 1800 are from within the USA. However, on peak days like December 2nd and referendum day (December 8th), a much higher percentage of visitors are local.