BCS Declares Germany Winner of World War II

Public Enemies Photo blog

More photos of Oshkosh and Columbus - good photo blog

So we are freakishly cold once again. This month Wisconsin is 7 degrees below normal. I heard one person in a store last night say that "it's winter". No, no - it's not winter actually. Remember, we only have a white Christmas 50% of the time so this is pretty abnormal.

NOAA still says we have a good chance to have a warmer then normal winter so . . . . . I'm counting on January to me warmer and toasty.

If we are this cold it has to be warm SOMEWHERE right? Yup. Alaska is way above average. Most of Europe is above average. It'll all even out sooner or later. Think of how warm a nice average 30 will feel.
===============================

OK - Everybody that saw the new movie Delgo last weekend raise their hands.
tick . . . . .tick . . . . .tick . . .
OK - everybody that saw the trailer for Delgo raise their hands
tick . . . . .tick . . . . .tick . . . FINE . . .
Everybody that has even HEARD of Delgo raise their hands.

Nadda?

WELL now - you missed the biggest major movie opening DUD in history. A $40M disaster. With over 2000 theaters showing the movie, ON AVERAGE, TWO people watched it per showing. That is 2 people. It grossed a tiny bit over $500,000 for three days in 2,160 theaters.

Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt, Val Kilmer, Malcolm McDowell, Kelly Ripa, and Anne Bancroft in her last movie could not save it this animated loser. I actually saw a trailer by accident and commented "That looks horrible".

It is 1.5 million BELOW the next biggest DUD! Which was? . . . . . . . P2 (that's the name of the movie).
==========================
Here is a little history of the Columbus Library

On January 20, 1877 a meeting of prominent citizens was held at the Opera House on the second floor of City Hall to organize a Library Association. People paid for a subscription to use the library located in two rooms over the current Sharrow Drug Store. The library started with 54 books donated by Ex-Governor James Lewis a resident of Columbus.

24 years later in 1901 a free library was formed with 1,965 books. The library was located in City Hall. It soon became apparent that this would not provide adequate space.

The current Prairie style library was build at its present location 11 years later in 1912 with $10,000 from Andrew J. Carnegie who was approached by the Woman's Club for funding. The Women's Club loaned the city $3.00 to get the deed to two lots. They than did fundraiser to pay for the site and furnish the building. There was now a collection of 4,643 books.

The library was renovated 78 years later in 1990 to increase space and provide a handicapped accessible elevator but even with the expansion it was not up to the standard square footage required due to a land lock situation.

In 1991 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the State Register of Historic Places.
========================
Water Water Everywhere.

We had a field trip to the Columbus Water Works last week and it was pretty interesting. John Andler was our tour guide and he was a wealth of information AND made it entertaining.

The Columbus Water Utility started in 1896 and added the Electric Utility in 1898 (forming CW&L). The the water well is 677 deep and serves 2,110 customers. One of the nice things people do not realize is that while they complain about the cost of water, all that money goes back into Columbus. CW&L makes the largest payments in tax's to the city. Over 6% of all taxes collected in Columbus comes from CW&L. Other communities pay slightly less but all of THAT money goes to the State.

CW&L contributed 1,512,923 in the past 5 years to taxes and because CW&L is community owned it does not make a profit, you are paying only what it costs. It seems when a town has to buy the water from other sources the revenue does not go back into the community like it does in Columbus.

The Columbus Water Plant has a capacity of 2,500,000 gallons a day of softened, iron filtered water. Fluoride, chlorine and sodium silicates are added to the water just before leaving the plants and there are 32.4 miles of water mains.

The a new water tower was erected in 1971 an can hold 250,000 gallons of water and replaced the the 70,000 water that was build in 1896 (now an historic landmark near the Antique Mall I believe).

The following are some photos of where you water comes from.

This is where it all begins. The big pump that reaches down 677 feet into mother earth.

Above the pump there need to be an opening just in case there is a pipe problem. So far it's never been opened.

Here is John explaining the inner workings of water.

Once the big Green pump gets the water it is put into vast holding tanks and then these pumps take the water from the tanks and . . . . . . . does something with it (hey - I was taking photos).

We enter the next room which is filled with large tanks that soften and and iron filter the water (thank goodness we didn't have a test at the end).

Brainiac - where it all happens - this replaced the old computer which is shown below this photo.

But I COULD be wrong about that! I believe that is John in the upper left corner. Nancy Olson is located on the right side and is now the office manager. That's Tim Geiger leaning against the post in the middle. I think he was looking at the point spreads on "The Board". And that is Mr. Wizard front and center (no longer with CW&L).

And here Blaze is testing a pump fart.

OH - The Public Fire Protection scam. It seems that (and correct me when if wrong) if you look at your bill you are being charged $9.30 for Fire Protection per month. The odd thing is that if you have a $70K house you are being charged $9.30. If you have a $500,000 house, you are being charged $9.30. If you have a multimillion industry you are being charged $9.30.

Would it not be better to be charged what your residence is assessed at?

Anyway - that is my only gripe! $1 a day for clean water is not so bad when you think about it.
============================

I'm in need of a video cam. VHS or DVD (No mini-DV's, 8mm or VHS C) for taping my Survivor App. anyone? anyone? I only need it for 3 minutes! :-)
=======================

BCS Declares Germany Winner of World War II - US Ranked 4th.

After determining the Big-12 championship game participants the BCS computers were put to work on other major contests and today the BCS declared Germany to be the winner of World War II.

"Germany put together an incredible number of victories beginning with the annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland and continuing on into conference play with defeats of Poland, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and the Netherlands. Their only losses came against the US and Russia; however considering their entire body of work--including an incredibly tough Strength of Schedule--our computers deemed them worthy of the #1 ranking."

Questioned about the #4 ranking of the United States the BCS commissioner stated "The US only had two major victories--Japan and Germany. The computer models, unlike humans, aren't influenced by head-to-head contests--they consider each contest to be only a single, equally-weighted event."

German Chancellor Adolph Hitler said "Yes, we lost to the US; but we defeated #2 ranked France in only 6 weeks." Herr Hitler has been criticized for seeking dramatic victories to earn 'style points' to enhance Germany's rankings. Hitler protested "Our contest with Poland was in doubt until the final day and the conditions in Norway were incredibly challenging and demanded the application of additional forces."

The French ranking has also come under scrutiny. The BCS commented " France had a single loss against Germany and following a preseason #1 ranking they only fell to #2."

Japan was ranked #3 with victories including Manchuria, Borneo and the Philippines.

Have a warm Tuesday!

Rod