103˚F when I took this in Wingra Park. Or was it 98˚F? Come on, get it together, people!

It turns out that the real-time precision made possible by modern technology can also lead to real-time imprecision and confusion as well.

It used to be that I got my temperature information pretty much at random during the day when I happened to hear a weather report in the car or caught the evening news weather segment on TV. Other than that, my weather sense was more qualitative than quantitative, measured by such terms as "hot," "cold," "muggy," "rainy," etc -- but not since I started checking my iPhone whenever the impulse struck me. I used the Weather Channel's app because I liked the interface, and figured it kept me on top of things, right down to the exact degree. Not any longer.

During this extended hot spell I wanted to increase my sources of information, so I added one of the local TV stations to my mix. Now I don't know what to believe.

When I took this photo to illustrate how unseasonably parched the grass in Wingra Park is (much of it is starting to look like the worn patches at Wimbledon, I also checked the temperature. Weather.com said it was 103˚F. Channel3000.com said it was 98˚F. What the F? (Occasionally they report the same temp. More often, the Weather Channel is a degree or two higher. Occasionally, like this afternoon, the degree spread is as much as 5 degrees.)

Is the Weather Channel trying to hype viewership by going to the drama of more extreme reports? It's interesting that before they were acquired by the Weather Channel, the Weather Underground tended to have the more dramatic reports. Now it's as if the Weather Channel has acquired not only the company but their meteorological philosophy as well. And what about Channel 3 -- are they under-reporting the heat in an effort to preserve their viewers' peace of mind and relieve their heat anxiety? Who knows.

It all seems part of a larger process. The more information we have access to, and the more finely tuned and fine-grained it becomes, it seems that the more we gain confusion rather instead of knowledge (or at least the illusion of knowledge, which can be empowering all by itself).

Maybe the next big smart phone app will be a "What the Hell Is Really Going On, Anyhow" app. We sure could use it.

Others may be bigger, flashier and louder, but you can't beat the Shorewood fireworks for a good, traditional show

Last night, despite the heat, we ventured out to get our accustomed Fourth of July fireworks fix. There were no traffic hassles, and we found easy parking along Lake Mendota drive just west of the Black Hawk Country Club golf course, where Shorewood Hills put on their show. It gets crowded up on the hill by the clubhouse, but there's plenty of uncrowded seating out on the western end of the course. It's a great vantage point. 

Shorewood's display is a traditional one that hasn't changed much in more than 50 years. It lacks many of the features the larger and better known Rhythm & Booms is known for -- F-16 fly-over, huge crowds, traffic and parking hassles, along with a heavily promoted, dramatically orchestrated and overproduced extravaganza set to music.  But we weren't looking for that, and we didn't miss it. On a warm summer night in July, we were just looking for some simple magic to delight the inner child in all of us, no matter what age.

103 in the shade down by Lake Wingra

When I took the photos in this Autostitch photo mosaic this afternoon at Wingra Boats, the Weather Channel said it was 105 degrees, while Channel 3 said it was 101, so I split the difference. (The iPhone is like a camera with a bunch of different thermometers built in that don't always agree.)

No matter how you measure it, today's high is a record for the 4th of July in Madison -- and the earliest in the year we've ever experienced triple-digit temperatures.

Watching the full moon rise over Monona Terrace

We went to Monona Terrace last night to watch the full moon rising over Lake Monona.

Twilight was settling in when we arrived. This is the rooftop cafe. I love the poignance of an outdoor cafe at dusk when the umbrellas have been folded up and have gone to sleep. Lonely and cozy at the same time.









There were many moons on the roof of Monona Terrace -- the signature Monona Terrace beehive hemispheres glowing warmly in the dying light. It made the real moon almost seem to be another satellite of these artificial moons. Should be even more beautiful tonight, when Monona's Fourth of July fireworks display takes place across th elake beneath the full moon.

Schrödinger's News? Fox experiments with quantum news. Guilty? Not Guilty? Both.

You know how light can behave like both a wave or a particle at the same time? And how Schrödinger's Cat can be both dead and alive until the collapse of the wave function? Fox News seems to be bringing the exotic magic of quantum mechanics to their news coverage, with their headline and lede about the pilot who is both guilty and not guilty.

Maybe it's just their idea of being "fair and balanced." Or maybe they're trying to demonstrate that their intelligence is first-rate, according to F. Scott Fitzgerald's famous dictum: "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function." Guilty and not guilty are certainly opposed. Not sure about the rest.

More likely, they just didn't bother to proofread. Maybe it's too hot. In any event, I made this screen capture to preserve this gem after they change it, if they do.

The pilot, btw, was found to be suffering from a "severe mental disease or defect" and sent back to a mental health center for further evaluation.

Biking over to the Union Terrace on a hot summer night

We wanted to go out for a bite to eat and wanted to get a bit of exercise at the same time in the (somewhat) cooler evening air -- i.e., low nineties -- but not too much. And we didn't want to ride our bikes on the road, fighting heatstruck and dazed drivers for the right-of-way. So we threw our bikes on the carrier and drove over to Picnic Point and biked over to the Union Terrace along Lake Mendota. Perfect. It was pretty along the lake, and with a bit of optimism, you could almost feel -- or imagine -- a cool evening breeze.

The future is here but not yet quite ready for prime time

There are a number of these charging stations for electric cars around town (this is on Monroe Street, next to the library), but so far, few takers. I have yet to see anyone filling up an electric anywhere in the city, though there must be a few people who do.

One reason might be that here in the Midwest, all-electrics don't have nearly as good a carbon footprint as hybrids. That's because so much of our electric power is generated by coal.

One way to beat the heat

Want to bike or walk in the Madison area but the direct, baking sun and temps in the mid-nineties are just too much to take? This bike path runs along the Pheasant Branch Creek in Middleton as it meanders toward the Pheasant Branch Conservancy and then Lake Mendota. The path is cooler than the surroundings. It's shaded by the trees, and the same sunlight that is so hot elsewhere flilers beautifully through the trees, casting highlights on and near the creek.