🪫 What impact will data centers have on you?

⚽ New Turf at Breese Stevens Field Will Cost $850K

• All the soccer games, ultimate frisbee games, concerts, food festivals, and other events over the last decade have taken their toll on the artificial turf at Breese Stevens Field. Madison Parks plans to install new artificial turf on the east side stadium field early next year.
• The current turf was installed in 2014 and was expected to last eight to 10 years. The project will cost an estimated $850,000 out of the city’s capital budget and construction will take three to four weeks. [Cap Times]

✈️ Want To Get Away? MSN Adding Seasonal Flights

• As the temperature cools and Madison residents start planning their winter getaways, Dane County Regional Airport is gearing up for takeoff. The airport announced this week that they’re adding seasonal nonstop flights to Florida and Arizona.
• American Airlines is offering direct flights to Miami, and Sun Country Airlines is offering direct flights to Fort Myers, Florida and to Phoenix (as American already does). Overall, Dane County Airport offers nonstop flights to 17 U.S. cities. [WKOW]

💻 Big Data Center Projects Come With Big Questions

• Menomonie residents are expressing concerns about a proposed $1.6 billion data center project in their area, in part because they don’t know what tech company is behind the project.
• The city council agreed to annex 320 acres of land for the project, but said they don’t know what tech company is behind the proposal, only that it’s a U.S. company. Council members said the project would create up to 1,000 construction jobs and bring 50-75 full time jobs.
• 🎧 Dig deeper: Such data center projects are proliferating throughout the state, and one of the big questions surrounding them is how much energy they would use, and who would pay for it. On the City Cast Madison podcast today, host Bianca Martin talks to Tom Content, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board, about the impact of such projects. [WPR, City of Menomonie, 🎧 City Cast Madison]

When I heard that the Maximum Fun podcast “E Pluribus Motto,” in which hosts John Hodgman and Janet Varney dig into the facts and trivia of all 50 U.S. states, was doing an episode on Wisconsin, I started listening a little smugly. How could two out-of-staters possibly tell me something about my home state that I didn’t already know?

And then they started talking about Francis Hole, UW-Madison professor emeritus, and the earth almost literally shifted under my feet. Who was this man they called “the poet laureate of soil sciences”?

Hole is remembered for his passionate and somewhat unorthodox methods of sharing his enthusiasm for soil with his students, and for the entire state of Wisconsin. He retired in 1983 and died in 2002, but is still remembered as one of the greatest teachers the university ever had. And certainly one of the very few to use puppets in the classroom.

Planting a Seed

Hole was born in Muncie, Indiana in 1913 to Quaker parents. His father was a geology professor and his mother was an English literature professor, and in his studies he seemed torn between the arts and the sciences.

While he eventually followed his father’s path and got his degrees in biology and geology, he brought his poetic flair into the classroom to get his students excited about the soil beneath their feet. “Soil is the hidden, secret friend, which is the root domain of lively darkness and silence,” he once wrote.

In 1946, Hole was offered a split teaching position at the UW-Madison, an assistant professor in both geology and geography. He wrote a textbook, “Soil Genesis and Classifications” that became a standard in the field, and was awarded the school’s distinguished teacher award in 1974.

Puppets and Violins

In addition to waxing poetic about soil, Hole was known for bringing a battered violin and a suitcase full of puppets when he would visit classrooms, lecturing preschools, retirees, and everyone in between.

On the violin, he would sing original and parody songs about Wisconsin soil, using sounds to mimic the textures of soil (harsh and gritty for sand, smooth for clay).

⬆️ Last Week’s Photo

The statue is located inside Parthenon Gyros on State Street!

🎉 Congratulations to Wait N., Tricia M., and Olivia A. for being the first three people to guess right!

⬇️ This Week’s Photo

Do you know where this wallpaper is located? A few clues:

• It's in downtown Madison
• It’s a great place to see rising bands, or take the stage yourself with their namesake karaoke night
• The Beatles (and their friend Eleanor) might love this place!