Common Ground

Check out Darryl's Article about Waukesha testing out a new method of removing radium from the water.  I noticed that the process removes calcium which in turn contains the radium. We've long been told that a conventional water softener will remove the radium.

When I bought my house it had an old manual water softener. No timer. I had to turn a lever to different positions every so many minutes. Soon I replaced it with a Sears softener. After a while it failed and to make a long story short, I've contended with hard water, not missing the frequent purchase of eighty pound bags of salt pellets and hauling them down the stairs to the softener. It also reduces the sodium in the water. We all know sodium is to be avoided, especially if you are a conservative stuck with a liberal congress! So this process has health benefits to many of us middle aged people who have been ordered to toss the salt shaker.

If this new process takes care of the radium in the water and softens the water, I'm for it. It would cut business for those selling salt pellets and water softeners, but that's progress. Few people remember the Ice Man delivering blocks of ice for the predecessor to the refrigerator, the ice box. So eliminating the water softener business is just another casualty of progress.

Will it increase our taxes if it is successful? Does the sun rise in the east everyday? If it is cost effective, that is, cost competive with replacing the water softener and dozens of bags of salt and perhaps a little bit thrown in for visits to the chiropractor for a sore back, then let's do it!

It'll help to increase the supply of salt for the roads.

It's another chicken and the egg situation. T.Boone Pickens is promoting CNG (compressed natural gas) powered transportation. Honda is currently the only company making a car running on natural gas. Natural gas is cheap, but a car can't carry much because it is not currently possible to store it in a liquid state. It can only be compressed. So to store enough gas to get around yet have some space for people and luggage, the range of the car isn't much over 200 miles before refueling is needed. The nice part is you can buy your own refueling station for your garage and connect it to your gas meter. The bad part is that it takes sixteen hours to refill and empty tank! Oh, it costs about $8,000 too. There are, however, commercial refueling stations that can refill your tank, actually it's recompressing it, and it doesn't take too much longer than putting $75 worth of gasoline into the the old Ford Explorer. The problem is, where are they?

They can be found at www.cngprices.com . You will see that WE Energies has a station over on West Avenue! It's mainly for thier use but they sell to the occasional consumer that wanders in. The biggest surprise is that the last price for it was $1.46 GGE. What's GGE? It's comparing apples and oranges. It stands for GAS GALLON EQUIVELANCY. So yes, you guessed right. Running your car on natural gas would be like paying $1.46 a gallon for gasoline.

Unfortunately, most CNG refueling stations have limited hours and are not in enough locations that a trip to the cabin in Up North Wisconsin can be done. So it is a chicken and the egg situation. Oil companies won't put in CNG pumps until cars line up for it. Nobody wants a CNG car if they can't get gas for it. What's the solution? I propose that the city, all cities for that matter, should step up and provide a refueling station open at reasonable hours and begin using CNG for government vehicles. If there is a market for the CNG fueled Honda, they will make more and I'm sure Wilde Honda will be happy to sell them. Other car makers will get into the act too. Soon Mega Oil will think about putting in a CNG facility at their local station and the ball will be rolling on it's own.

Lets provide the egg and the chickens will soon hatch!

Ten to the One-hundredth equals a Google. Besides being an actual number, anybody who has an acquaintance with a computer knows it to be the search engine of choice. I’m proud to say that before it was well known and people were using such things as WebCrawler or Dogpile, I heard of these two students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, scrounging up computers and connecting them to create a new, faster internet search engine called Back Rub.

Knowledge is power and I know of nothing that makes so much information so easily available to anyone with a computer and an Internet connection. Even “smart phones” have Google access. All of this technology has reaped great rewards for the creators of Google. That is the American way.

Google is celebrating its tenth anniversary. As part of it, they created the 10 to the One-Hundredth Project. While celebrating their success and fame, they are keenly aware of the people around the planet who face each waking moment as a challenge to contend with. So they have created the project to gather ideas that will improve the world. They show an example called the Hippo Roller. Many of the poor carry five-gallon containers to sources of water and then having to carry them home, usually on the top of their heads causing an accumulation of painful damage. A simple, inexpensive device, the Hippo Roller allows a person to push along five times the water with not too much more effort than one of us mowing the lawn. It is but an example of a step to make some lives better.

Google is looking for ideas to make life better for the poor of the planet. It may be big or it may be small. It may be a product or it may be an idea. Google will narrow the entries down to 100 and then the users of Google will vote on their choices. Google will make substantial venture capital to get those winning ideas moving along.

I’ve submitted an idea of my own. How about you?

Ever since my dad took our 1964 Dodge 880, a huge car with a big V8 engine, to a diagnostic center, I’ve wondered why the need for big engines.

You see, they put it on a dynamometer to do some tests. One of them was a measure of the horsepower at the wheels while maintaining 60 miles per hour. Forty-three horses were all it took to keep the car rolling along. All the extra power was for wind resistance, extra loads, towing a boat and getting up to speed in a hurry.

Soon to be introduced electric hybrids by GM (Volt) and just announce by Chrysler, work along this concept. An electric motor is much more efficient than a combustion motor to propel a car. But when the batteries die down, it doesn’t take too big of a gasoline-powered generator to keep the power coming back to the batteries and then to the motor.

Refueling your electric car by plugging it in at your garage will get you from here to there cheaper than the same amount of gasoline. If it is done in the evening only, this is when the big electric company generators are loafing along. Most businesses are closed and the load of cars recharging overnight will be welcomed and won’t require much, if any, addition of power generators.

So it goes without saying that I’m anxiously anticipating the introduction of the Chevrolet Volt. However, my spirits were largely deflated when I read that the possible price for one will be between $30,000 to $40,000 dollars. I had expected that it would be in line with the Toyota Prius.

From what I read of the Volt, it is probably similar in size to a Cobalt or Malibu, each not getting too bad of fuel economy with a gasoline engine and selling for $20,000 and less. No doubt GM has spent a bundle on developing the Volt technology and wants to recover that investment. How often do we hear that the price of something new will come down as more are sold?

It has been said that the Toyota Prius isn’t cost effective for many people. However it is priced such that most people can afford the novelty of one and fuel savings are just a bonus. In the case of the Volt, that extra $15,000 or so will buy a whole lot of gasoline even at $4.00 a gallon! Spend a lot of money to save a little?

GM had an all-electric car, the EV1, but it failed to catch on due to various reasons. Some say GM discontinued it for no good reason. Perhaps it was before its time. But vehicles such as the Volt are needed this very day. That they sell will depend on cost effectiveness. I can only see that happening if the government gives huge tax credits for purchasing such a vehicle. With the Wall Street mess we have these past few days, the timing for more government subsidies could not have come at a worse time. However, if it helps me and the Joneses next-door move into the next stage of transportation and keeps the American carmakers in business, it will be money better spent.

PSA stands for Public Service Announcement. All levels of government could do a whole lot better in continuing education for the masses. Case in point are the roundabouts that are being mandated by the DOT and meeting heavy resistance from many of the people. I'm finding more of them in the Chicago suburban area and theirs differ from most in that they have a stop sign at the entrance to give people a moment to observe traffic and plan their route. While one of the reasons for a roundabout is to eliminate stop signs, it is a worthwhile consideration and the stop sign can be removed and replaced with a Yield sign in due time.

Colorado has heavy use of them especially along Interstate 70 through the mountains and into ski resorts. Once I encountered three roundabouts connecting each other  while exiting the interstate and looking to take a break. See them here. They do work. However, they are not intuitive and there is a learning curve. Stop signs at the entrance is part of that but a public education program is needed across the state to teach people both the history of roundabouts, why they are being incorporated within the state and how to maneuver through them. I got my first encounter with them in Colorado. It was a bit unnerving but I quickly got the idea.

The DOT needs to get the message out about how to handle yourself in a roundabout. Newspapers, radio and especially television must cooperate with the DOT for the benefit of everyone.

News article about cost of prison and drunk drivers. If you didn't read the news article in the preceding link, please do. It affects every taxpayer in the city and the county.

I cannot express the grief that my son, our family and Jenn and Sophia and Courtney's friends and students have suffered since their death at the hand of a drunk that should never have been driving a vehicle that horrible day. Would it surprise you to know that upon reading that news article that I felt a twinge of shame? It is a double edged legacy that the Bukosky family name will be remembered for. The good edge is that lives of people will likely be saved. One of those lives could be you or someone you know. The bad edge is the cost of dealing with those refusing to drink responsibly.

I've written several blogs about being proactive. In one I expressed my frustration about people not picking up the cause of pro-activeness. So be it. However, I do not feel that you or I or any taxpayer should have to pay for more jail space or people to deal with the irresponsible drinkers. We've already created a precedent of dealing with smokers and the source of their addiction. Heavy taxes on cigarettes. Is the answer to further tax beer and alcohol? Perhaps, but it needs to be looked at further.

We read articles and news reports about drunk drivers. How often do we learn "the rest of the story"? Where did these criminal do their drinking? At home? At a tavern? At a restaurant? I challenge news reporters to ferret out that information. It will help formulate a tax relief policy of who should pay for dealing with drunk drivers. Where does the source of the problem begin? Taverns? Gas stations? Liquor stores? Restaurants? Should the offending type of establishments pay a much higher license fee? A special tax? Should they be shut down entirely if they sold product to a drunk?

I will begin the ante by suggesting a $1 per ounce tax increase on distilled liquors, 25 cents per ounce of wine and 5 cents per ounce of beer and ale products. The proceeds go for paying for increased jail space, enforcement officers and courts.

Never forget.

News item, Drugs found in drinking water. So it has been found that when drinking water is retrieved from the same source that sewage is discharge into, prescription drug traces are being detected. I don't find that fact too surprising. I also don't find it surprising that Milwaukee water only tests for traces of nicotine. Probably from bubba's cigarette that fell into the treatment containers while he was overseeing the processes.

I'm not going to do an analysis of large bodies of water versus smaller reservoirs and rivers, but I do believe that this report has special meaning to us in Waukesha. It is said that our water has been traveling underground for many years. That's one of the reasons that it picks up radium. I have to question now, if this is actually a good thing? It has been argued that the trace amounts of radium have not translated into any increased cancer cases, though so called experts say otherwise, even though there's no evidence showing that to be the case. This might have to be reexamined based on this new information.

I suspect that our water, due to it source and age, would test free of these traces of drugs. That would be a good thing. It would also be cause to reconsider any influx of water from sources that may have contamination in it. This would be any ground water source, shallow wells or Lake Michigan water.

We citizens need to know this as soon as possible before more money is spent that could result in worsening the quality of our water supply!

I am a motorcyclist. So I enjoyed the weekend. The question is, how did the people in the downtown area who are not motorcycle enthusiasts feel about it?

I rode my Gold Wing downtown several times to get a feel for things. I eyed up the bikes parked along the road, looking for non-Harley brands. I'd say it was around 1%. Some of the custom motorcycles are hard to tell. There are so many replica engines available to the custom market that to the untrained eye, what appears to be a Harley may not have so much as a single item from them.

What has changed through the years and I appreciate it, is there was not a single snide comment about my Honda among the crowd. Granted it is made in the USA in Ohio by red blooded Americans, it can stand out like someone walking the halls of the Miller Brewery while drinking a bottle of Budweiser. The only comment I did receive was from a woman sitting on the back of a non-touring model Harley. She blerted out, "That looks comfortable!", refering to the large passenger seat, backrest and armrests on my Gold Wing.

Saturday night my wife, Pat, jumped on back and we rode around downtown. Finding a parking spot, we walked around checking out the people and motorcycles. Certain businesses appeared to be doing very well. I did notice that the trash cans were overflowing, but at least garbage was deposited there rather than scattered about. Cutler Park was loaded with people. It was also very dark away from the food booths. I stumbled a few times on uneven surfaces and I didn't have a beer in me. At home on the northwest side of town, I probably heard less motorcycles than most weekends even though many flooded the parking lots around the Best Western on Grandview by I94. Our weekend activity was not impacted by it. We still got our breakfasts at Christina's. 

So what do you think about it? Do it again in five years for the 110th birthday?