Delight your customers: Madison Sourdough Edition

Creating what in my view are the best croissants in Madison daily for decades is no small feat. Complementing said croissants with a wide variety of interesting breads, baked goods and entrees makes Madison Sourdough a compelling and frequent destination.

Obviously with a name like Madison Sourdough you know that bread is the focus. This attention to detail starts with the grain. It is milled on site. Madison Sourdough continues to innovate and hone the variables to create their namesake sourdough. The pastry and restaurant offerings are a feast for the eyes and palate.



We have an opportunity to hear from owner Drew Hutchison on Monday evening, 12 February 2024. The Madison Literary Club is hosting Drew's talk at 7:30p.m.

email jim@amuz.com if you'd like to attend this meeting as a Madison Literary Club guest.

A few appetizers for Drew's talk:

1. Wisconsin Foodie visits:



2. Celebrating 30 years of Madison Sourdough (!)

3. Milling in house.

Lindsay Christians:

Milling in-house allows Hutchison to control for issues in the grain and respond very quickly to problems. The flour is also fresher.

“The freshness — I noticed it right away,” Hutchison said. “It’s like a really good tomato next to a just-okay one.”

When a grain of wheat cracks, it begins to oxidize right away. Fresh flour is considered “unstable,” Hutchison explained, and oxidation equalizes it and makes it more stable and consistent.

Barry Adams:

“There’s more connection between the farmer, miller and baker and that really resonates with people,” said Hutchinson, whose products are sold at the cafe and at 12 grocery stores. “It’s demanding. You have to have the staff for it and you have to have the systems in place to do it. You either need to find a distributor or do the distributing on your own. It’s just demanding. Its 365 days a year for us.”

Anna Thomas Bates:

A traditional long fermentation is one of the ways Madison Sourdough sets itself apart from other bakers. This is the original way of leavening bread and it helps unlock nutrients. Hutchison lists a number of other ways Madison Sourdough is unique: “We pay our staff good wages, everything is made by hand, we use local grains that we mill ourselves, and the bread is pretty delicious.” Hutchison grew up working summer and part-time jobs in the food industry, so he was always comfortable in a kitchen, including working the wee morning hours of an opening baker. “There’s something romantic about it that I enjoy—the solitude, the focus, the discipline of getting up early.”

4. Student bakers:

Then the class got interactive. Apron-clad students each took a plug of Madison Sourdough’s 30-plus year old starter, added water and flour and began to work with it. Hutchison teaches a method called “slap and fold.” “Your bread is only ever going to be as good as your sourdough starter is healthy and vigorous,” he said.

## We're excited to announce that Ronnie Hess will serve as a Respondent for Andrew's talk.

.mp3 audio

Madison Sourdough.

The Inn Above The Clouds

Location, location, location. Since 1912 the views of primeval forests and cool blue Pacific at the Mountain Home Inn have welcomed visitors.

As one winds their way up the road to the Mountain Home Inn the aroma of eucalyptus and the proximity to the primeval forest invites relaxation. It is so beautiful it almost seems like a simulation. The sweet staff and comfy relaxed California decor at the inn are welcoming. In addition to incredible views there is proximity to legendary hiking trails. The Inn is literally 1.5 miles from the Muir Woods trail and is atop the Mt.Tamalpais ridge line.

Even better nature puts on show for free as the stars come out at night. When the fog rolls in across the Bay and city below it almost seems surreal. Meals may be enjoyed on the deck with views of the Bay and Mt.Tampalpais.

The wood burning fireplaces in the dining room and lounge encourage one to kick back and adjust or recoup from “ mountain time”. Help yourself to board games or pick up a book while you lounge. An impressive binder includes overview of local hikes and includes complimentary trail maps.

The Inn offers dining options several nights a week. A bar is open nightly. Breakfast is included in the room rate, tipping is highly encouraged.

Book in advance as the inn is small and particularly popular on weekends and in the summer. Parking is free for inn guests. Live music and local entertainment occur throughout the year.The Inn also hosts weddings.

Explore the the Mountain Home Inn in amuz [App Store] [Play Store]

A Delightful Place

"delight your customers" - Deming

"the complacency of fools will destroy them" - Proverbs

Has delight become the exception on our daily journey? Memories of strolling through Berlin Mitte's elegant Hackesher Markt pop into my mind as I see soulless high rise apartments blotting many landscapes.



The Hackesher Markt visitor enjoys:

• Visual fun: cool architecture
• Vibe: an interesting crowd exploring cafes and shops
• Advanced shopping
• S-Bahn to anywhere

Explore Hackesher Markt in the amuz app: app store // play store

Fall

Exploring rural roads north of Madison, I came upon a large pumpkin patch.

Explore Wisconsin and more in amuz [App Store] [Play Store]

Flamingos in Ebro Delta Nature Park

Tarragona, Catalunya, Spain

Recently Wisconsin residents were delighted to enjoy the arrival of five flamingos on the shores of Lake Michigan. It is quite a distance from their likely home in Cuba or on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. The misdirection is attributed to Hurricane Idalia, which swept the flamingos up and deposited them in the southeast US. From their they flew north.

Thousands of bird lovers arrived to gape and photograph the misdirected travelers. After all, they had traveled through 13 states and are stunningly beautiful. The Wisconsin visitors were American Flamingos, instantly recognizable due to their pink color, distinctive bill and long pink legs.

Following this, we marveled to see thousands of Greater Flamingos stirring and rearranging themselves in the Ebro Delta wetlands. These birds' bodies are slender and covered with a pinkish-white plumage that’s more intensely colored on the wing. Black feathers can be found on the primary and secondary flight feathers.



Delta de l’Ebre is one of the most important Mediterranean wetlands. This is a well known huge delta located where the Ebre River meets the Mediterranean Sea. The area is a bird watcher paradise.

Centuries of sediment have created an ample feeding ground. In addition to the approximately 95 species native to the delta, there are another 300 birds which pass through the Delta de l’Ebre each year as part of their migratory route.



Here among the rice fields is an abundance of flamingos. There are so many flamingos that tourist maps signify there presence in half a dozen places simply with a flamingo silhouette.

Twice daily they put on their show. They form amorphous groups of dark silhouettes. Suddenly they descend like unwieldy dancers intent on sticking the landing but without benefit of an air traffic controller. One can’t imagine how they all fit in a quickly constricted area.



The unison maneuvering, the raucous din and the flocks natural rhythms stirred by morning light and evening sunset are simply spectacular. Some do peel off like cool kids or loners in high school ready to experience a bit more space.

The natural cadence of their show is awesome.

No wonder a group of flamingos is called a “flamboyance”.

Explore the Delta and more in amuz [App Store] [Play Store]

Bletchley Park hosts an "AI" Summit

Explore Bletchley Park in the amuz app on iOS [App Store] and Android [Play Store].

Bletchley Park, site of World War 2 codebreaking work, is host of Rishi Sunak's "AI safety summit":

A guest list of around 100 people is expected to include Microsoft president Brad Smith, OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis, and from Meta AI chief Yann LeCun and president of global affairs Nick Clegg. Elon Musk, the tech billionaire who earlier this year formed a new AI start-up called x.ai, has been invited but has not committed to attend, according to people familiar with the matter. Chinese tech groups Alibaba and Tencent are due to attend, as is the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the country’s top state-funded science think-tank, according to the list obtained by the FT. A Chinese government delegation is attending from the Ministry of Science and Technology, according to people familiar with its plans. However, the summit’s select roster of attendees has led to criticism from some organisations and executives outside the tech industry, who feel excluded from the meeting.

The attendee list, via Cristina Criddle, Madhumita Murgia, Anna Gross and Yuan Yang:

Ada Lovelace Institute, Adept, Advanced Research and Invention Agency, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights, Al Now Institute, Alan Turing Institute, Aleph Alpha, Algorithmic Justice League, Alibaba, Alignment Research Center, Amazon Web Services, Anthropic, Apollo Research, ARM, Australia (government), Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University, Blavatnik School of Government, British Academy, Brookings Institution, Canada (government), Carnegie Endowment, Centre for Al Safety, Centre for Democracy and Technology, Centre for Long-Term Resilience, Centre for the Governance of Al, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Cohere, Cohere for Al, Columbia University, Concordia Al, Conjecture, Council of Europe, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Darktrace, Databricks, Eleuther Al, ETH Al Center, European Commission, Faculty Al, France (government), Frontier Model Forum, Future of Life Institute, Germany (government), Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), Google, Google DeepMind, Graphcore, Helsing, Hugging Face, IBM, Imbue, Inflection Al, India (government), Indonesia (government), Institute for Advanced Study, International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Ireland (government), Italy (government), Japan (government), Kenya (government), Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (government), Liverpool John Moores University, Luminate Group, Meta, Microsoft, Mistral, Montreal Institute for Learning Algorithms, Mozilla Foundation, National University of Córdoba, National University of Singapore, Naver, Netherlands (government), Nigeria (government), Nvidia, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Open Philanthropy, OpenAI, Oxford Internet Institute, Palantir, Partnership on Al, RAND Corporation, Real ML, Republic of Korea (government), Republic of the Philippines (government), Responsible AI UK, Rise Networks, Royal Society, Rwanda (government), Salesforce, Samsung, Scale Al, Singapore (government), Sony, Spain (government), Stability Al, Stanford Cyber Policy Institute, Stanford University, Switzerland (government), Technology Innovation Institute, TechUK, Tencent, Trail of Bits, United Nations, United States of America (government), Université de Montréal, University College Cork, University of Birmingham, University of California, Berkeley, University of Oxford, University of Southern California, University of Virginia, x.ai,

Consumption vs Creativity: A look at US Teen Smartphone Usage

"Notifications are plentiful, with half of our participants receiving 237 or more per day" - Common Sense Media

Yet, smartphones offer unprecedented creative opportunities. With amuz (intro video), students have an opportunity to learn:

1. Story telling.
2. Information hierarchy: deep dive to short videos
3. Research
4. Disinformation
5. Visuals: video, 3D/usdz, VR, AR, photography
6. Tech platform and usability (why).
7. Maps
8. Curation.
9. Integrate this with classroom experiences.
10. Proof of work for their resume and social sharing.

Two examples:

Modern Approach to Wisconsin History Celebrates Native Civil War Hero

and, Sticky Brands: Milwaukee Tool

Work with us: jim@amuz.com