Bruce MacDonald
mastodon 4.7.3Retired public radio producer, newsroom and audio systems developer. UW-Madison Journalism '78. Opera fanatic. Train buff. Prairie enthusiast. Slowest cyclist in Minneapolis. KFØNOK.
Avatar: a drawing from the patent for "The Game of Cootie," a dice game invented in Minnesota.
Header: mural "The Deathtrap of the Ages," by Charles R. Knight, depicting La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History. Its use here inspired by Frederick P. Brooks Jr., "The Mythical Man-Month."
"Cougar kittens have been spotted in Minnesota, something the Department of Natural Resources says hasn’t happened in more than a century."
https://www.startribune.com/cougar-kittens-caught-on-camera-in-northern-minnesota/601827627?utm_source=gift
E-bikes used for local reporting trips in Toronto. In a series of briefs about e-bike adoption in Canada, Emily Chung writes,
"Here's a picture of me on one of two new Tern e-bikes that just became available to CBC employees at the Toronto Broadcast Centre. I'm hoping to use them in some of my field reporting in the future.
"CBC's first e-bike launched in Halifax in 2022. My colleague Andrew Leitao came up with the idea, arguing that it could be an environmentally sustainable way to get to stories in traffic congested city centres, while saving on parking and reducing the number of vehicles needed in the CBC fleet. He thought it would also show CBC's commitment to lowering its carbon footprint in a very visible way.
"Montreal was the next location to get e-bikes – many journalists there had been using their own regular bikes in their reporting (as I do), but felt e-bikes would help them cover longer distances and hills while carrying a load of recording gear.
"CBC now has e-bikes in Moncton, Quebec City, Rimouski, Vancouver and Whitehorse too."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/climate/what-on-earth-e-bikes-9.7182465
"It’s a testing method as old as Socrates and making a comeback in the AI age. A growing number of college professors say they are turning to oral exams, and combining a variety of old-fashioned and cutting-edge techniques, to help address a crisis in higher education."
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2026-04-28/colleges-are-turning-to-oral-exams-to-combat-ai
Like many I've been avoiding the news today but I always read the Will Bunch newsletter for the vivid writing.
"Saturday night’s gunfire right outside the swank ballroom hosting Trump and the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) dinner — with elite journalists in awkward black ties or uncomfortable high heels diving under white linen tables with half-eaten spring-pea-and-burrata salad — went beyond metaphor for a depraved and decadent America."
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/trump-dinner-shooting-violent-america-20260426.html?int_promo=newsletter
Couple of song suggestions to soundtrack this Fourth of July—
Saturday in the Park by Chicago Transit Authority (if you're not into that whole brevity thing)
and the vivid Night Ride Home by Joni Mitchell
Once in a while
In a big blue moon
There comes a night like this
Like some surrealist
Invented this 4th of July
Night ride home
"The cost of potato salad was down 14 percent in the annual survey. Potato producers in Wisconsin and other top states are struggling with an oversupply of potatoes due to strong crops and reduced export demand."
https://www.wpr.org/news/cost-of-july-4-cookout-hits-record-high-in-wisconsin-us
Outstanding universal value.
"The Forth Bridge, which spans the estuary (Firth) of the River Forth in eastern Scotland to link Fife to Edinburgh by railway, was the world’s earliest great multispan cantilever bridge, and at 2,529 m remains one of the longest. It opened in 1890 and continues to operate as an important passenger and freight rail bridge. This enormous structure, with its distinctive industrial aesthetic and striking red colour, was conceived and built using advanced civil engineering design principles and construction methods. Innovative in design, materials, and scale, the Forth Bridge is an extraordinary and impressive milestone in bridge design and construction during the period when railways came to dominate long-distance land travel."
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1485
#ForthBridge #BridgeDesign #railways #Scotland #CivilEngineering
“I miss the freedom of going to the United States to paint. But there's plenty to paint here,” he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/travel-u-s-canadians-domestic-overseas-9.7176323
These slice-of-life holiday stories are hard to do and my three-corner hat's off to the reporters sent out to do them.
Minnesotans on the American Experiment, 250 years on
Matthew Alvarez, Leah Lemm, Harshawn Ratanpal, Ahmed Hassan and Alex V. Cipolle
Minnesota Public Radio
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/07/04/minnesotans-on-the-american-experiment-250-years-on
Geese Management: the stalkin' and the intense stare
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUZIPioyKH8
“I think we can all hope that WKRP will return to the airwaves with more music and Les Nessman,” Sanders said, echoing a running joke on the comedy series.
A real WKRP radio comes to Cincinnati, decades after the sitcom about a fictional station
The Associated Press
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/04/wkrp-radio-cincinnati/
“I realized over time, especially over the last four months, that the flag was used as a unifying force here in the Twin Cities,” Beane said. “I love it now.”
Unveiled in 2024, the Minnesota flag means more today after becoming a unifying symbol during the ICE occupation — at least for some Minnesotans
By Bill Lindeke
https://www.minnpost.com/cityscape/2026/04/minnesota-flag-is-flying-more-proudly-today/
A lift bridge malfunction? That's news!
A Lift Bridge Malfunction Sends Duluth’s First Cement Saltie in 2 Years Going in Circles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfVx1l5IVKM
Let Facts be be submitted to a candid world.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world."
Declaration of Independence: A Transcription
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript
"HPV vaccines reduce the risk of cervical cancer by 80% in women vaccinated by age 16 years and 66% in those vaccinated after 16, and aren’t associated with serious side effects, according to an evidence review published today by the Vaccine Integrity Project (VIP), an initiative of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP), which publishes CIDRAP News."
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/human-papillomavirus-hpv/evidence-review-finds-hpv-vaccines-be-safe-extremely-effective
Dispatch from the Ninth Federal Reserve District, Minneapolis—
"While industrial hemp for fiber and seed is relatively low maintenance and grows well in the district’s climate, hemp flower requires a lot more hand-holding. For one, only female plants produce significant cannabinoids, and those degrade after pollination, so care needs to be taken to sort out male plants. Flowers blooming late into the season are also ripe territory for mold and pathogens, so the plants do better if they’re grown under protection. …
"It remains to be seen whether the change currently encoded in federal law will take effect."
Burned out on hemp
By Joe Mahon
Director, Regional Outreach
https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2026/burned-out-on-hemp
