Storm increases in intensity!

I think the approaching storm is not going to surprise anybody.  In my travels yesterday I kept hearing people talking about 10 inch's and so forth and I was wondering where all these rumors were coming from. I had heard of nothing but MAYBE 8 inches.

This morning I looked at the scientific conversations online and I see they are getting rather excited and expectations have been raised from 5-8 inches last night at 11:00 to 8-12 inches now as the two main models are getting more inline with each other.  This will be a wet heavy snow with a good amount of wind.  The start time has been locked in at 7:00 in the morning Tuesday and this would be a 24 hour snow event.

That is the storm just off Vancouver. Should move south and reform in Missouri before moving north clipping southeast Wisconsin.

The reason for the increase amount of snow is that they believe there will be no "mix precipitation" and will be all snow.

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In other news the GOP had a debate last night that was like an actual adult debate.  I did not see it as I had home brew club (Sun Prairie Worthogs)  but reading political science articles Rand Paul was the winner with Marco Rubio a close second.  Ted Cruz had his worst performance as he sounded rather rough without Trump making him seem "normal".

The only chance the GOP has of winning the election is if Rubio wins the nomination (which I believe he will).  I still say this is a Clinton/Rubio race.

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Only 17 states require high school students to take personal finance classes.  Does Columbus require this? I would think this would be a no brainer requirement. Knowing how to handle money, to me, seems like an important thing.

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I see Paul Allen's yacht destroyed 80% of a protected reef off the Caymen Islands. 14,000 square feet of reef GONE.

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The Bank of Japan now has lowered interest to  -0.1%.  YUP - NEGATIVE interest.  They are trying to force banks to give out loans.

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There was a survey of teens in America and what they are thinking and talking about and so forth.

Most get their first smart phone at 11.  Most do most of their shopping online (the death of big box stores in the future).

The most popular app on their phone (which is one of the most important things they have) is Snapchat by a landslide.  Facebook was not on any list of favorites,  Twitter was low in the rankings also. Instagram and Spotify was way up there.

The most UNCOOL was anything Google+.

80% said they had no idea what "finsta" was (fake Instagram account) and 92% said they did not have one . . . . hmmmmmm  curious numbers  LOL

Teens say the best smart phones are the iPhone 5S, iPhone 6 and the Samsung Galaxy 5S.  80% have one of those 3 phones.

Netflix was the clear winner of what they watch on TV and 53% watch stream TV shows compared to cable.

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My favorite thing to eat at Subway is their Sweet onion chicken teriyaki sandwich,  Now I find out their footlong has 32 grams of sugar in it . . . no wonder I like it.

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That's it - watch the weather to see how the storm plays out!  

Here it comes!

Need I say more!


https://youtu.be/CmoeecrpHSo

Winter Storm possibility

Winter Storm possibility.  I saw some talk about this yesterday and I wanted to wait a day t osee how things transpired.  This morning there is further evidence as both the GFS and the ecmwf (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) that there is a large storm heading towards Wisconsin and hitting us next Tuesday. The ecmwf is calling for more of a mix precipitation at the beginning while the GFS calls for just plain heavy snow.  We're talking 5-8 inches.

So just wait and see how this plays out in the next few days.  

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Going to hear more and more about the Zika virus in the next few years as there is no cure.  The scientific community is pouring a lot of money into this and is fast tracking a cure but this could still be 5 years off.  Brazil is having a large problem and guess what, the world will be in Brazil this summer.

It's a mosquito laden virus and if a person contracts the virus, goes back to where they come from and another mosquito sucks their blood and then can spread it.   Fever, rash, pink eye and birth defects.  It's in 20 countries now and someone in Arkansas contracted it after visiting an infected country.

I say it's time to invest in companies that make mosquito repellant.

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The hostile takeover of the GOP by Donald trump continues and illustrates how the GOP is failing. If the GOP can not reign in one of their own how much real power do they have?

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The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality is managed my an appointment by the Tea Party Governor of Michigan. In fact all power to towns are not run by  elected officials but by the City Administrator that is appointments by the Tea Party governors . . .anyway . . . Seems early in 2015 they tossed out 2 bottles of test water from Flint and because of that there was not enough evidence that the water was poisoned, so why raise any red flags. 

I Was reading a large piece about what went wrong in Flint and it was a total lack of caring by Michigan.

One sentence that struck me was "this has been one of the most amazing experiences of his life, to watch the residents of Flint become citizen scientists. “Half the water industry does not understand what these people learned on their own to protect their children,”  

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Iowa - in a typical 17 hour day of TV you will see over 90 political ads.  I can't wait!!!!  sigh :-(

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There is a bill going through the House of Reps in Washington literally called the “Flamethrowers? Really? Act”.  Right now it is way way easier to purchase a flamethrower then a gun. Well . . .if you can find a flamethrower store I suppose.

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I'm in a GREAT mood.  I got word last night that my mom has a good chance of moving into a Assisted Living Facility and she is pumped and exited.  She lives with my brother in Springfield ILL and he goes on business trips a lot so she is alone.

This place is awesome and she has talked to many residents who love it there AND . . . .it's only $950 a month (it's church run), AND my brother is now on the board of directors, AND he is in charge of writing the pet rules as they believe pets are necessary.  

She will have a bedroom, living room and a kitchenette.  They have one really good free meal a day. 
She can bring any furniture she wants including her evil mean obese devil cat and she is so excited!  There are a couple library's and activities and it is perfect. 

THAT takes a load of worry off my chest!

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Carry on  
 

  

SQUIRREL!!!

Gotta admit it - NOAA was right on with Winter Storm Jonas.  The GFS (American) was first to predict but had low totals, the NAM saw it a day later and was almost perfect on the snow totals.

Snow totals are one of the hardest things to predict because of density and so forth. 

Today for Columbus is a mixed bag.  The sun should warm things up fast today and we are currently pretty dry but things should change pretty fast with a good chance of 2-4 inches but I would go with a lower amount!  Get those cars off the roads if you park them there anyway.  

Nice little warming trend is developing after this burp of junk coming at us but not a lot of sun for this next week (Wednesday) and long range there is something in the distance with a storm for next week but it's a ways off. 

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Rubio seems to be getting lost in the GOP battle because he is one of the most conservative candidates so if you like Rubio you probably like Cruz. The more moderate Republicans like Bush.

Just gotta let things shake out. Cruz and Trump will rule the first set of States which are the meaningless ones as far as delegates. So don't get excited.  And ANY prediction for who beats who in the National is totally meaningless.    

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In Texas a guy was sentenced to LIVE IN PRISON after his 10th DUI.  Heck, in Wisconsin you get a plaque or something.  After 10 you are told you have to stop or else we will arrest you again on #11.    

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Remember flight MH370?  The one that disappeared?  Yesterday the deep-sea exploration vehicle accidentally dropped into an under water volcano . . . .oops!  That will slow things down a little.

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Gov Rick Scott of Florida slashed funding for public health and last year there were 6,300 new cases of HIV, most since 2002.  Who knew cutting funding for public health would have an adverse effect.

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We're looking into a new car - anyone want a Subaru with 240,000 miles on it that runs like a dream?  But no AC?  Seriously - in all my life I have never had a car that needed less fixing.  240,000 miles and only 1 oil change.  I'll throw in another one at when we sell it.  OH - looking at 2016 Subaru Outbacks.

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How THIS is a round a bout!!!

    OK - want to know  WHY???

The goal was to slow down cars.  I think we should incorporate this coming down the hill on James Street which will be a HUGE problem once that road is all stripped of trees old trees (small new ones will be planted), overhead wires, wider and smooth.

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A guy was watching "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" in a theater a few days ago when he accidentally shot a woman - OOPS - SORRY!  She is in serious but stable condition.  

In a statement released by police, Gallion said he had the gun because he was “concerned about recent mass shootings in public places,” so he kept the gun unholstered.

I am so glad people with guns are keeping us safe.

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Many years ago today my went to take the dog out.  There was an ice storm and the dog saw a squirrel and did what does do.  SQUIRREL!!!   My mom slipped an went flying and a few hours later I decided I had had enough and decided to exit her womb a month or so early.

Have a great day!

Not Your Run of the Mill Blizzard

The North Atlantic Oscillation meats El Nino.

In November and December there was positive North Atlantic Oscillation  (NAO) which means a LOW was centered over Greenland/Iceland area and all the cold arctic air was way north of the U.S.  The extra warm weather which in turn failed to cool the Atlantic Coast off of the US so that water is much warmer then normal. 

Then as many noticed we got pretty cold in January as the NAO turned positive and pushed all that cold air over the arctic and down to us!  The latest pushed missed Wisconsin as it scooted north of us and now down to the East Coast.

Enter El Nino which has pushed the sub tropic jet stream lower and right now it is sucking up all the warm moist water from the Gulf of Mexico and steering it north.  The two air masses will collide over Washington DC and all of that extra warm water off the coast will conveyor belt back onto land combining with the already extremely wet air.  The Mayor of Washington DC told residents to not stock up supplies for a few days - stock up for a WEEK.   

Washington DC averages 15 inches of snow a year.  They will get almost 24 inches Saturday and Sunday.  Oh - did I mention 50 mph winds?

Some GOOD news - The NAO is expected to turn negative again in February!!  Meaning WARM!!  Looking at long range forecasts after the next 7 days we should be in the upper 30s again as we near the end of the month. 

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The Stock Market - here is something interesting. If you ONLY look at companies that have things that pretty much only Americans purchase . . . their stocks are actually having a good year.  The global companies are the ones bitch slapping us. 

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The GOP is not concerned with Trump.  Seems all of the establishments efforts are to make sure Cruz does not win.  Cruz is the Republican Republicans REALLY hate.  It seems they feel Trump will take care of himself.

But the good news for Cruz is the Duck Dynasty people are all for Cruz for President.  

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I found this in a file while looking for some other things 

   

  

And this will be auctioned at the annual Club House thingy.

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For all of you NBA fans (LOL) according to the math junkies with their magical numbers the San Antonio Spurs bench is so good they could make the playoffs if all 5 starters were injured.

Well . . . . . in the NBA, it's not how good the back-ups are when you look at an injury.  It's how good the back-ups to the backs-up are. 

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Looking for a good hard science fiction space show.  The Expanse on Sci Fi is getting some pretty good buzz and I love the show.  Some are calling it Game of Thrones in Outer Space.  ummmm  just because it's good with many layers of  living in Space 300 years from now. 

And I FINALLY got Season 1 Volume 2 of Outlander from the library which is crazy good.  If you like time travel (I love it) and History (ditto) this is a MUST show. 

https://youtu.be/KAS01FFj1fQ

 
Of and last night we watched the pilot of Angel from Hell and was actually pretty funny and quirky.

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OH - My numbers about Netflix were off a few days ago. Netflix has 70 million subscribers, the numbers I mentioned were NEW members in the last few months.  My bad.

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According to Football Outsiders (math junkies) The Packers had the 30th best Tight End in the League last year!  When it comes to scoring TE's are pretty important.

Have a great weekend and enjoy blah weather - it COULD be a LOT worse.

Cheers
  

Blizzard

More and more math junkies are going out against the Packers decision to NOT go to 2 points to win the game.  The Sabermetric community are all anti McCarthy and his ultra conservative-ness.  Oddly in the same conversations is the TV shows Survivor and Big Brother, both ultra strategy games that involve math and how contestants make the wrong moves by playing conservative and not understanding middle school math.

Kansas City did the same thing against New England last week scoring a TD with a minute left and not going for two points. They did not get the onside kick so no one cared but NFL coaches really are clueless in 2 point conversions near the end of games.

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Phantom Vibration Syndrome - ever feel your phone vibrate in your pocket but then see it was nothing? You are not alone.  It's actually not a syndrome but a tactile hallucination.   For more information go to your public library to find out more.

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There has been ZERO dollars spent on anti-Trump ads by super PACs.  Marco Rubio has received the most anti ad money by the super Pacs.  What is that telling you.

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Bernie - sigh - the guy is doing great in white States.  His HUGE problem is that Hillary is loved by non-white by a HUGE HUGE margin.

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10,000+ years ago there was a huge massacre.  Archaeologists have found a site that has 27 humans with blunt force trauma and arrows and broken bones in some large fight.  Sounds like Black Friday goes back further then we thought.

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Biggest snow storm of the season and probably the year is about to hit the east coast.  NY City is suppose to get at least a foot of snow with 50mph winds. Washington DC up to 18 to 24 inches.    On the 13th I said on Facebook that Wisconsin MIGHT have a HUGE storm hit us but it was still 10 days away.  WHEW - glad I was wrong on that one.  I only said it once so it was just a stay tuned thing.

This blizzard is "historic" in size.  The perfect storm.

We are in a basic boring normal winter pattern - nothing much to talk about. We should go up and down in temp between 25 and 33 with a dusting of snow ever now and again but no accumulation for at least 9 days.  zzzzzzzz

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"They" found a new prime number but I won't type it as it's 22 million digits!  5 million digits longer then the last one.

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Stock market keeps plunging THANK YOU CHEAP GAS!  Hope everyone's 401Ks are holding up and you are diversified. Bonds are doing awesome along with safety stocks like MG&E.

carry on.
 

Drowning in oil.

Seems the world is changing.

The world is drowning in oil.  Once Iran gets going by next month the world will be producing OVER 500 million barrels of oil a day over what is being consumed.  A DAY!!   The talking oil heads this morning said oil will be nearing $10 a barrel later this year.  With the average price for a gallon of gas at $1.87 (1.67 in Columbus) they are expecting gas to be near $1.25 a gallon by years end.

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Packers - (hind site is always best) Most talking sports heads are blaming McCarthy for the Packers lose for being ultra conservative by not going to 2.  I know I was screaming GO FOR 2.  If the Packers go into overtime they are underdogs, period.

The league average for converting a 2 point conversion is 48%, going into overtime the implied odds in Las Vegas had Packers had a 39% chance to win.  If you think about it. Was Rodgers plan, when throwing a Hail Mary, really to LET'S GET A COIN FLIP?

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The GOP thing - the race for the GOP king is front loaded for Trump and Cruz. The problem for those guys is that the first group of States will look good with wins but because of a really weird way the GOP does things those States do not have a proportionally equal amount of delegate votes.

SO, while it might look like Trump and Cruz are off and running like rabbits their momentum will slow down drastically when they start to hit the Mid West, New England and Middle Atlantic where Rubio will be strong. Florida, Ohio and Arizona are important to all the candidates.  If there is a Ohio/Florida split. We should have a brokered convention.

This will go down to the wire and we really could have a brokered convention which would be fascinating.

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Univision is buying a 40% stake in The Onion.  Weird.

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The most common password is 123456.   I can't find any pattern in this but you might!  Let me know - looks pretty random to me.

Netflix has 5.59 million subscribers - 4.04 million are NOT in the United States.

ISIS used to make $40 million a month in oil.  But with oil now being cheap they had to cut pay checks in half.  And let's not forget we are targeting ISIS banks.  A few weeks ago two 2000 pound bombs found a stash of a few million in cash that went up in flames.

2015 was the hottest year on record worldwide AND the record was also a record for being the biggest difference from a previous record (did that make sense?).

OH OH - don't go the the east coast this weekend. Some of you on Facebook might remember LAST Wednesday I said watch out for a BIG storm for us this Wednesday.

That one is south of us but 8 days ago the GFS (the main US weather model) said BIG BIG storm to hit the east coast. The weather dudes poo poo'd this as the GFS has not had a great year and the Euro was not confirming it . . . . . until the NEXT day.  

Now the storm hitting Seattle will move south and then up and CLOBBER the east coast this weekend with a blizzard.  We're talking multiple feet of snow somewhere from Washington DC south.  GFS says more north, Euro says more south.  But both say COPIOUS amounts of snow.  They can have it.

We're good - slowly warming to average and low 30s. Typical. January.  I don't see any more bad arctic blasts anywhere at the moment. All the REALLY cold air will fly by north of Wisconsin.

See ya 

          

  

Columbus downtown.

https://youtu.be/C25p4OvHpf0



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There has been a conversation on facebook that sort of ties in to what I have been thinking about for 3 or 4 days now.

As you may or may not know I'm running for City Council again.  Two years ago when I was asked I decided I would run because I felt that Columbus was on the cusp of growing in the correct direction. Columbus was becoming a younger town.   I did not want to Obama-it and jump onto a sinking ship hoping to save it.

Now two years later the question came up again and I honestly believe Columbus is better now then two years ago.  Our debt is being handled finally even with a HUGE reconstruction project slated for next year.  We have $2 million in street projects happening THIS year. A new city website will go live next month, and we actually have money to actively promote Columbus.  

We have had almost record breaking residential growth with more then a dozen houses being built and more on tap for this coming year.  We will have hopefully 2 or 3 new restaurants downtown and a number of things no one will notice but will save residents a considerable amount of money.

For instance - in MOST city's if your sewer lateral busts you pay to fix it AND you pay to fix the road in front of your house if it needs to be dug up (sewer mains are in the middle of roads).  BAM $10,000.  In Columbus you will not pay for that. The city is in good enough shape to pay for it.   And there are much bigger things on the horizon.

So if/when you complain about property taxes remember what you get for those taxes which is something we have been working on.  Trying to get your taxes to buy more.

Fixing downtown - what a headache THAT one is as it's a long term solution. What we need is to have youth involved in city government.  I contacted our High School Principle (unanswered email) but no response. What the current City Council does will only work if future Councils don't drop the ball so we need. Everything has a 10 year lag it seems.  

If we can get youth involved in city politics and have them tell us what they need to make their experience better  that would clear a path for some of those students to see city government really is for the people and MAYBE they will run for aldermen to keep this train moving in the right direction.

If not all we have are default rubber stampers like the past that are happy with no change.

SO - downtown is a work in progress. We will have a new downtown streetscape in 2017.  We need more bike paths to get downtown and we need to tell people what businesses are actually in our downtown district (perhaps a flyer to all citizens on what businesses are down there).

Bringing business to Columbus is a tough sell with Sun Prairie to the south with 30,000 people and Beaver Dam to the north with 16,000 and then Columbus with 5,000.  If you are a small business which one do you take.  So we need to make Columbus family friendly (bike paths) we need to offer AND promote something the others do not have.

But Columbus as a whole is doing well I feel.   We're next up after Sun Prairie and it's beginning to show with more people moving here.

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We all know who John Wilkes Booth is right?   Nobody ever talks about his brother Edwin Booth.

Many theatrical historians consider Edwin one of the the greatest American actors of the 19th century.  The Booth Theater in New York was considered one of the grandest most spectacular theaters of it's time.

But here is something some may not know. Edwin Booth saved Abraham Lincolns son's life a year before his brother took Lincolns life. Robert Todd fell on some tracks as a train was pulling in and Edwin reached down and grabbed him by the collar saving his life.

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The Donald.  Seems Donald is REALLY REALLY unpopular with independent voters and Democrat's and his average favorability among the GOP keeps sinking.

On the other side Bernie's popularity keeps moving up.

Head to Head polls have absolutely zero predictive power at this point.
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Watching the stock market sink - I'm glad my father in law has his $$ in MG&E which has been making money the last few weeks!

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Oil - we are in site of sub $20 a barrel.  There  are already 5 oil producers under $20 a barrel.

Nuff said for today.

          

Minus 32? Seriously?

Now that my 1:01 minutes of fame are over my life can get back to normal and I feel better. WHEW! What a whirl wind.

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The big event in my life came in the mail yesterday when I received THE BLACK CARTRIDGE from HP.  I put it in and I can print again.  Sadly my old black cartridge still has ink in it but since I changed my colored ones I guess it's useless.  I love HP for doing this.  

Yes - I have now almost spent as much on ink as I spent on the printer. 

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Don't let the talking weather heads fool you into thinking it will be warm Sunday. They say high of zero.  YEA - that is because the high will be 00:01AM, just after midnight!   I'm thinking it will be about -6 at noon Sunday with a rather brisk wind making the wind chill about -32.

MINUS THIRTY TWO!   

Perfect for disk golf! 

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Happy birthday Wikipedia!  Well, tomorrow.  15 years old.  I actually donated $3 last week. It was almost the least I could do for being able to access information in the information age. 

In 2005 there were 500,000 wiki English articles. Now there are a estimated 5 million.  

As we all know you can edit each article (I have a couple times about Columbus . . I think). The most edited page in history is the George W Bush.   The most edited page this year is the page that explains "Geospatial Summery of the High Peaks/Summits of the Juneau ice field". Well yea -who doesn't have something to say about that!  Hello!  Knock knock anyone home? 

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Remember this photograph?  yea - sort of staged. Those guys could jump down and not really hurt themselves.  There is a floor right beneath them. 

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It was my brothers (69) birthday yesterday. He's lived in Springfield Illinois for most of his life after getting a job out of college so I have this ILL link.  Anyway I saw on the news that Illinois, a state that has legalized medical cannabis, is considering expanding qualifying conditions to include chronic pain, autism, osteoarthritis, irritable bowel syndrome and post-traumatic stress disorder.

It's been slow going as the original estimates had the number of patients around 30,000 but only 4000 have been approved.  Still the State has taken in over $100,000 in taxes in the few months that have been up and running. That $100,000 is going towards education, something Wisconsin has forgotten about.

The latest ACT scores have Wisconsin from 2nd best a few years ago to 9th worst in the Nation and dead last in the Midwest.  Overcrowding in classrooms, teacher shortages are the reasons sited. 

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities a a nonpartisan research and policy institute, Wisconsin saw the 4th largest cut in school aid funding and was one of only 12 States to actually cut funding for education.

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Saturday - could be pretty interesting KC/NE football game as N'or Easter flies by.  Not a lot of sow but pretty windy.  Should be about 58 at game time for the Packers with very little wind.

have a great weekend.

RM 

1:01 minutes of fame

I was feeling down yesterday. Maybe it was because we are in the armpit of winter even though it seems we just started winter.

HOWEVER - I was informed that the photo I posted yesterday was going to be talked about on The Weather Channel.

Here is the You Tube video. 

https://youtu.be/QQenMXaxYqQ



BAM - Columbus is mentioned - I'm not ALL bad for Columbus! :-)

Paper today reported there were frost quakes near Columbus and Beaver Dam last night - if you heard a VERY loud bang it was that or your water heaters. 

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Powerball - the REAL interesting thing is that we are in uncharted territory for sales. One estimate is that 1.1 BILLION tickets will be sold . . . .or 500 Million. Nobody really knows.  They do believe there is a 85 to 97% chance there will be a winner.

At 1.3 BILLION the pay back for a $2.00 ticket is $1.37.   There is a cool Powerball simulator that the LA Times has

Here’s $100.Can you win $1.5 billion at Powerball? 

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Crude oil dropped below $30 a barrel briefly yesterday. 

++++

Here is a question. If the Packers moved to St. Louis and changed their uniforms - who would become your NFL team to root for, the St. Louis Packers? Bears?  Vikings? Lions?

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Interesting State of the Union last night with Obama (also called the secret Muslim Hitler by some).  What was interesting was the GOP rebuttal.  Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina a rising star for the GOP).

"While Democrats in Washington bear much responsibility for the problems facing America today, they do not bear it alone," Haley said. "There is more than enough blame to go around. We as Republicans need to own that truth. We need to recognize our contributions to the erosion of the public trust in America's leadership. We need to accept that we've played a role in how and why our government is broken."

In all the techno years where techno heads can measure responses this was the most favorable response ever for a rebuttal by the opposite party.

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A dog named Killer has now caught 115 poachers hunting rhinos and elephants in South Africa.  I saw one thing where they are looking into dyeing tucks pink on all rhinos and elephants rendering their ivory useless.  This would cause zero harm to the animals and save their lives.

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OK - I better get to work on logging my time on the new time thing we have at work.  It's SO convoluted that there is even a category for how long it takes you to enter time - SERIOUSLY.  They took a good working tool and made it crazy complicated to a point of totally insane.

One co-worker literally takes over one half hour to enter his time EVERY day.  I kid you not. If you work on 3 or 4 projects per day and each project has 4 or 5 separate tasks you have to enter a time for each ask. Not TOTAL time but when they occurred during each day and for each task you have to create a new screen to enter start and stop times.  Ludicrous.

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OK - I better get started entering time so I can go home.   

And I was doing so well

Seems I ruffled a few feathers yesterday when I got down on an email that was calling out developers and I apologize.  I was actually defending developers.  People take me so seriously. I'll try to not be a loose cannon.  What's up with that.  Are humans really that bored?

Anyway I apologize and will go back to my boring bland self.  The GOOD thing is no one really reads this blog when there is nothing happening.

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Sun Halo over Columbus yestarday

We received 1.5 inches of snow last night from the Alberta Clipper that zoomed through.  Alberta Clipper's are pretty cool things.  A warm gush of air over the Pacific pushes in over the Canadian Rockies and compresses as the Rockies push it up. Then as the air falls on the other side, like a person pulling a string on a Top it starts to spin.  That spinning Top of air then attaches itself to the jet stream and travels toward Wisconsin dumping it's snow. 

We would get a LOT of snow if it was not moving so fast.  The east coast will get the full brunt in what could be a nor'easter from this little squall that hit us.   

40% of blizzards are created from  Alberta Clipper's. 

After today we should warm up to tee-shirt weather and hit 35 and 33 Thursday and Friday and then blast #3 hits us.  By Sunday our high will be 4.  Enjoy the sun today, won't see it much until Monday. 

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Viewership of the Wild Card Playoffs was up 11%.  The Packers, who had the 10th best rushing offense in terms of effectiveness (yes, you read that right) went up against the 11th worst rushing defense in effectiveness and won. The Pack have now rushed for over 100 yards in 3 of it's last 4 games. 

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Perhaps this will also be controversial but I really dislike circuses because they are cruel to their animals. The good news is Ringling Bros will move it's 42 elephants to a conservation center this year. YEA FOR THE ELEPHANTS! 

The circus that comes to Columbus has a few elephants that have chains around their legs so they can only move 20 feet when outside and pacing back and forth.  They say the elephants don't mind and are used to it.  It's to protect the elephants.  Yea . . . right.   Have you ever looked directly into an elephant's eyes?  It's sad. 

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Space X is going to try and land a rocket on a MOVING platform next!  And rumors say when they succeed the next attempt will be through Yogi's Bears mouth.

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28 people were one number off in Powerball. There were 18,000,000 winners and a total $159,000,000 given out from last weeks Powerball, The 28 people one $1,000,000.  All of those 28 were missing one number - the Powerball number!   But after taxes you only get a little less then $670,000.  

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Oil was close to dropping below $30 a barrel yesterday.  There are some reports that gas in the coming year, IN SOME PLACES, might drop to $1 gallon. I'm not holding my breath on that one.   

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GUNS

Did you know that 31% of households own a gun?  This is the lowest percentage in in 40 years. 

22.4% of Americans own a gun, a little over the record low set in 2010.    

Gun related homicides have dropped 39% between 1993 and 2011

Kennesaw, Ga has an ordinance on the books that require ALL citizens to carry a firearm. But there are loopholes.

60% of gun deaths are by suicide according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The NRA spend $17,000,000 on elections in the 2012 Presidential race.

Smith & Wesson stock jumped 72% last year and has LOVED the Obama administration.

If you see people walking around your street lock your doors because they are looking to take your guns. I saw some a few days ago and mine are locked, please send snacks and toilet paper as I am running out.

Cheerio!   

HP Printers SUCK

RIP David Bowie. Bowie is one of the first musicians that I actually feel sad he passed away. Not that I was not sad on others but Bowie, for me was something special.

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Packers - YUP - So many talking sports heads wrote them off.  ON TO THE SUPER BOWL!    

BTW - have I mentioned I love my wife?  Today we got up and she turned on Dan Patrick to see what he had to say about the games this weekend.  And she just told me Patrick is not his real last name, it's his middle name, last name is Pugh.

I won't even get into the Pitt/Cinci game. Probably the most bizarre/entertaining games I have ever seen.   

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There is some sort of National Championship tonight . . . . .who cares.  Collage football? Still? Really?

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We had 4 power ball tickets and got 3 numbers.  Feeling good as that us above the average we normally get.  On to $1.3 BILLION!  I think if we take the annuity it's only 43 MILLION a year for 30 years.   With 440 million tickets sold there was a 77% chance someone would win - NOPE.

I know so many people that say if they win Columbus will reap some rewards.  A solar farm, new schools, auditorium, library/youth center, the Chief getting his new car . . all sorts of things.  :-)

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FAIL - The University of Sioux Falls women’s basketball team with lass then a second left won the game with a three-pointer - HOWEVER - the fans stormed the court with time still on the clock which is a technical foul  . . . . . and the University of Sioux Falls women’s basketball team lost the game because of it.

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The Golden Globes - The Martian won as a comedy?  I saw The Martian and it was very good . . but a comedy because there were to many good dramas?  The Spy got screwed because of it.

Fashion? Jamie Alexander (Blind Spot) had the drop your jaw and catch your breath moment. However she is known for her jaw dropping dresses.  I have not found last nights dress online yet because my internet is acting up in images but here is last years dress.  I made Jamie small as to not embarrass people.  BTW - I love that show.

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Stopped in to Cardinal Comics Saturday as they were having a "Magic: The Gathering" teaching and playing sessions.

Remember the card game from the 90's? Still going strong.

If you strip away the "magic" part is actually a very mathematical game.

The cards are really beautiful. The game was actually invented my mathematicians so it's not just a bunch of geeks geeking out to magic.

There were a good amount of people in the shop. There have been people from all over the country visiting the shop as they pass through Columbus.

IF any of you liked Jessica Jones (I loved it) the graphic novel with its is peppy banter is exactly like the show - one of the best graphic novels I've ever read.

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Did I mention HP Printers SUCK?  We purchased a printer about 8 months ago and in less then 2 months the printer heads broke.

So they sent us a new printer.  Now the Magenta was used up and we took the cartridge to Costco to refill but we still got an error.  So I purchased a 3 pack  and put a brand new Magenta in. ERROR.  I put all 3 new cartridges in - ERROR.

Called HP and they said I need to put a new black in also - WHAT?  There is still ink in the black.

They are sending me a new black to see if that works.  Maybe when a cartridge goes empty I'm suppose to buy a new printer? Did I not read the fine print?

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Assessments

Clark commented yesterday and I'm repeating it here because I'm not sure how many people go BACK and read comments

You should check out the PBS special on Prohibition. It's amazing, and a lot of the arguments that were used against the prohibition on alcohol will seem eerily familiar to you.

http://wptschedule.org/series/1033/Prohibition

There are obvious medicinal benefits to THC. Seems like the pharmaceutical companies might be the force behind keeping marijuana illegal. I'm not sure if there are ANY medicinal benefits to alcohol -- yet it is taxed, regulated, and completely legal.

Check that PBS special out. I think you'll find it very interesting.

DJ and I have watched that show twice and it is UNCANNY the similarities between prohibition and  . . now with cannabis. It sort of mirrors what was in Natl Geo.  I call myself semi-sane and I question everything which gets me in trouble sometimes as people think I disagree with them when I'm only looking for potential problems but this whole cannabis thing TO ME,  is a no brainer.

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The Council is looking rather seriously into changing how Columbus assesses property owners for streets.  This has actually been on my mind from before I ran for office and my personal view was to KEEP IT SIMPLE.  Well, that's not going to happen with assessments.      

Here is what happens now.  A BASIC example

A street is in terrible shape. So the city takes out a $2 million dollar loan to fix the street. The citizens of Columbus, through property taxes, pay for that loan AND the people of those properties on that street are assessed somewhere between $2000 and $9000 to pay for a part of THEIR section of roads.  

Double taxed basically.

The city then takes that assessed money and helps pay for that loan.  People complain but say, well, it's always done that way so I guess as long as EVERYBODY sooner or later gets a stick in the eye it's OK. 

What if we changed that. 

Anybody can drive on any road in Columbus. Why do the people that live on that street have to pay a penalty.  What if you were looking to buy a house but the street is bad and you know that in a month or two you will get a $9000 bill because you have lived on that road for a month.   Fair?

So we are exploring how we can change this so EVERYBODY in Columbus pays for ALL streets. Not just the people that live on that street.  Of course some people will complain because they never drive on Mill Street or whatever but lets see what they say when they get a $9000 bill for THEIR street.

We fixed sewer laterals this way. Many people did not know that if their sewer pipe breaks under the street, the property owner pays not only to fix the sewer, BUT ALSO, they pay to repair the street! BAM $10,000.  Seem fair?  I bet 90% of cities make the property owner pay to repair the street.  

Now in Columbus the city pays for the street repair when your sewer breaks under the road (to put it simply).  (thank you Alderman Thom for that one).

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Badger Motor Car Company got a new set of eyes reading about Columbus - this time in a Vietnamese newspaper - yup - I saw it.

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Donald Trump.

I hope there are no Trump supporters reading this as what I'm about to say will just make you dig in your heels harder. 

Seems they are not uninformed but misinformed.  They are whiter, older and less educated then your average Republican (that sounds like an insult to all Republicans but it was not meant that way).

There was a focus group and it seemed that every time you pointed out a blatant lie Trump has told it actually made his supporters support him MORE.

" political scientists Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler found that when misinformed citizens are told that their facts are wrong, they often cling to their opinions even more strongly with what is known as defensive processing, or the “backfire effect.”

       

And Trump knows this and it is why his support is so strong (not unlike the "stick in the eye" thing).

Not only did negative information about Trump that was presented by Luntz to the group strengthen support for the candidate, participants held on more confidently to their misinformation as the session progressed.

OMG!!!   Sort of explains things doesn't it.

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This Sunday when you watch Minnesota it will be one of the coldest games ever played with wind chills nearing -20.  Not the frozen tundra but freaking cold for soft Minnesota fans who have been indoors for ever.

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Canadian physical crude oil is now selling at $20 per barrel.

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A bar was forced to give £20,000 to a patron who they mistakenly gave a shot of some cleaning fluid to.  That customer had to have his esophagus removed.  Seems like the bar got off cheap.

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 DEADWOOD - the best television show ever produced is in development for a movie! FINALLY!  In the mean time if you like gritty westerns check out "Hell on Wheels" on Netflix.  I love love that show.

For those who forgot

https://youtu.be/RfMSxf6P_AM

And Hell on Wheels

https://youtu.be/zN2y6l51Sqo


Have a great weekend. 

Congrats balderdash AND Ken Griffey Jr

Good points Clark and I agree.  I've been following Colorado pretty closely, looking for cracks in the ointment and problems.  I'm really amazed at how smoothly it's they are doing this. When there is an unforeseen problem such as the edibles being too potent their government fixes it in unbelievable time.  

Perhaps THAT is the problem. In Wisconsin there would be 3 sub committees and a year would go by.  Colorado is a get'r done government.  Illinois has medical cannabis but their government has pretty much made it impossible for residents to access.  

Wasn't it Iowa that ALMOST had it but the voters saw through big business take over. Only one company would be allowed to grow cannabis. 

What gets me is something you touched on.  Cannabis has been used for thousand of years to treat ailments all around the world yet our government made it impossible for modern science to even LOOK at this plant until recently and now that they have the scientific community is going WOW!   

National Geographic had an entire issue on cannabis and the medical community is astounded with this plant.  The PROBLEM (if this is a real problem) is that they have found they cannot separate the "medical" and the "effects" as they seem to all work together. One needs the other.

There IS one problem in Colorado though.  It seems bars are losing customers about 9:30.  One person says the bars in Aspen empty out about 9:30.  Cannabis has really changed the bar "drunk" scene in Colorado.  

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OK - in other news - my buddy balderdash won a pretty big football fantasy contest where you have to pick the the WORST players that actually play. Big money - Bravo balderdash.

Ken Griffey Jr. made the Hall of Fame.  This is a big deal for me and my barber.  Back in 1989 we purchased a LOT of his rookie cards.  I have his Japaneses rookie card and I traded a lot of Mark McGwire rookie cards for MORE Griffey rookie cards. 

We purchased 50 of his his rookie SCORE cards for $0.50 each and just a quick look they are about $50 (or $475 at one place) each at the moment . . . . not that I have a clue how to sell them. Who buys baseball cards anymore LOL 

I'm not talking about the losers in my sets.  Like my Billy Ripken "Fuck Face" card.  Yea - he had his rookie card photo taken but someone put "Fuck Face" on the bottom of his bat.  I have 5 of those.  I think I could get $10 for them. 

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Nobody won Powerball.   Powerball raised the odds of winning last year from 1 in 175 million to 1 in 292 million but - there is always a chance.  This next one COULD be close to ONE BILLION DOLLARS.   I'll say it right now.  IF I win with my 1 ticket Columbus will reap some benefits! 

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Finally the talking weather heads on TV are saying COLD next week but now I'm thinking not AS cold as they are saying. They want you to tune in now and are forecasting much more cold then I think will come.  I think our coldest day will have a high of 12 now. 

Carry on! 

         

Record City council - 58 minutes!!

I'm so excited today at work.  I got a new phone and no longer have a rotary phone. OK OK, I got rid of that one 10 years ago but now I have one made in the last 10 years.

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just a few city news items.

City Council last night was a record.  Less then one hour and Trina and I were pumped until someone mentioned Thursday meeting . . wait . . .what?  Thursday? sigh.  Oh yea - the who do we charge for new roads meeting.

Ottery Trucking broke ground near the Travel Center.

Someone stole Badger Motor Company's signs (some people in Columbus have very small brains - is sad).

The School Board want to use the Chamber for broadcasting their meetings.

And I offer my sincerest condolence to all that knew Larry Skaltzky who passed away yesterday in the tanker truck/tractor accident on The 151.  I'm very sorry.

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Prepare to be cold next week as there will be days we do not get above 10. Should not be too cold at night as I see only one day in the negative LOW but still we won't see 15 until the following weekend.  Maybe a few passing snow squalls but that is it.

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New Years marked the 2nd anniversary of the legalization of cannabis in Colorado and so far results have been outstanding.  In 2015 the state will bring in $125 million in taxes collected and this does not count 10s of thousand of jobs created and their economic impact. 

That $125 million will be divided into basically 4 groups, public education, law enforcement, behavioral and mental health and youth development programs.  

In Colorado since the law went into effect property crimes have dropped 14% and violet crime is down 2.4%.  The only reason I say this is that sooner or later this will come to Wisconsin because you can not just poo poo the medical wonders of this drug for anxiety, pain, insomnia, fatigue, migraines, depression, cramps with basically zero side effects.

For instance, I'm looking at a medical cannabis site and a strain called Blue Dream treats Stress, Depression, Pain, Insomnia and Headaches, but,  the side effects are Happy, Relaxed, Euphoric, Uplifted and Creative.  Well, THAT sucks if you have cancer or constant migraines doesn't it. Who wants to deal with THOSE side effects!  I would much rather have bleeding from the ears nose and throat and if death occurs contact you physician.

So now some people are saying ROD - what the hell are you talking about this for, aren't you are running for office . . again?  Well, I want people to know where I stand.  I'm not hiding who I am and what I stand for.  It's better to know who you are voting for then be surprised isn't it?

I'm not running to feed my ego, if people don't like my position that is fine.  I KNOW cannabis works for medical reasons.  My first wife had osteogenesis imperfecta and NOTHING eased her pain except cannabis and we tried everything.

Nuff said.

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A study in Scotland of 11 year old's was concluded and it showed that a 15% increase in IQ gave you a 21% greater chance to live to 76!

Twitter is considering of upping its 140 character limit to 10,000.  Twitter is desperate for new users as their stock has dropped to all time lows.

Packer fans were excited to play Washington as they think it's an easier win.  Yet guess what QB has the best QB rating in the last 8 games of the year!  Kurt Cousins of Washington.

 

Time to Pay the Piper

I come baring (bearing?) bad news - remember December? How nice and warm it was?

Well . . . . . . . .it's all going to come crashing down on his - THANK YOU ICELAND!! **

** more on Iceland later.

We have a BIG blast of arctic air coming our way and we should start to feel it's effects Sunday and it looks like we should have a number of blasts heading our way for January.  All that cold that has been bottled up north, as we bask in heat, is being pushed at us from the other side of the earth. 

"The rapid and unexpected destruction of the tropospheric polar vortex, via the historically strong North Atlantic storm this week, has thrown a significant monkey wrench into the January forecast,"  

That means that a blast of warm air going into the arctic circle is displacing the cold cold arctic air and where does it go?  Directly over US!  Not U.S. but us.    

There is good news and bad news.  We still have El Nino which starts to really take hold January through March and the idea is that once January is over we should get back into the warmer the average weather again. . . . . . . . or not.   I say this because I personally feel that when a pattern like this sets up it is really hard to change it's course.

The mindset was that February would be the  "pay the piper" month but with the"destruction of the tropospheric polar vortex" I think it is coming early.

Wisconsin is going to be caught in the middle of a yo-yo weather pattern. West coast hot, east coast cold, then the 2nd half of January West Coast cold East Coast hot but we will be in the middle, always sort of cold. 

SO - in a nut shell I'm expecting January will be just waiting to get bitch slapped with artic cold, let it blow off, warm up a little and BAM here comes another one.   sigh! 

A few other charts of interest.

You have heard a lot about the record flooding on the Mississippi.  This all drains into the Missipp 

Not good news for snowmobiles.

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The armed terrorists ranchers in Oregon - WTF - they are already getting a GREAT deal from the government for grazing fees.  The Bureau of Land Management is giving them a 93% discount for grazing fees compared to the going market price.  Those fees only covering 15% of what it costs Americans to maintain those grazing lands. The other 85% is covered by you and me.

Where were the gun owners wearing guns to protect us from those terrorists - oh wait - those gun owners WERE the terrorists!  hmmmmmm!

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Then there is Pre-K which studies are showing is not cracking up as wonderful as they thought it would. The benefits of pre-K just are not happening and in fact a newest study has shown that kids that went to pre-K are actually worse off once they hit 3rd grade.

1st grade pre-K students were doing well but by 3rd grade it was more like they were already getting burned out with school.

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A new CBS News/New York Times poll has 92% of all Americans and 87% of Republicans are in favor of ALL gun sales needing background checks. Obama's executive order is pretty tame really, it's just closing loop holes.

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Cannabis - I'm a big proponent for legalizing cannabis for medical use as it is literally a wonder drug for many illnesses and it will over take the US at some point.  24 States have made it legal for medical use and 4 for recreation. Of those 4 States, drunk driving deaths and accidents have gone down along with violent crime.

ANYWAY - like the gold rush, the people who made the BIG money were the ones that sold the shovels and pick axes.  So I've been watching to see how can I get rich selling shovels and pick axes to the cannabis crowd.

So far I've only found one company that is public, Endexx.  Basically they help keep track of EVERYTHING. Every seed, every plant, EVERYTHING in the cannabis operation is tracked and taxed.  Not what I was looking for at all but . . . . still looking.  I'll have to go to Brew and Grow in Madison (where I get my brewing ingredients) and talk to them about where they get all of their growing stuff.  Yea - they sell for "tomatoes" and so forth but I think they have their foot in the door for the future.  Just thinking out loud.      

If I REALLY wanted to make money I would invest in gun makers.  Smith and Wesson is up 850% in the last 4 years.  And when Obama took office their stock was selling at $2 a share, now it's neat $24 a share.   I'm sure there will be a surge in gun buying this week.  BUT NOW!!

Nuff said - later gator.

Badger Motor Car Company goes National

National

WOW - Darvin Frye asked a friend of his to contact a reporter and maybe do a story about The Badger Motor Car Company. His friend contacted  Berry Adams who came and wrote a very very good piece and the next thing you know it's one and a half pages in the Wisconsin State Journal.

Magnificent!

Then it's front page in The Beaver Dam newspaper and a few days later it's front page in The Columbus Journal.  FANTASTIC . . . . 

Badger Motor Car Company

But wait . . . . . . It was in the LaCrosse newspaper and the Minneapolis paper . . . Sacramento . . Washington Times, Cincinnati,  Columbus OH, The USA News, Belgian Beer News .org, Chippewa Herald and the San Antonio Post.

Outstanding. 

Badger Motor Car Company

I was there last week to take some photos of the Popcorn Cart and Darvin opens at 3:00 and just a little after 3:00 people started coming in.  The Badger Motor Car Company is the biggest news maker since Public Enemies.  Thank you friend of Berry Adams for contacting  Berry and thank you Berry Adams for writing such a great piece.

It's great for Columbus as it shows how we are a forgiving community and understand the silliness of youth.  I mean stealing a truck owned my the Dodge County Sheriff . . . . probably not the BEST life choice - why not go for the actual Sheriff squad car, don't be shy.  I mean who doesn't want to steal a squad and go for a ride (make sure those doors are locked Chief). 

anyway - well done - local dude goes National.

Badger Motor Car Co. features history -- and beer

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We're all done with Americas 4th favorite holiday - New Years which is behind Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Independence Day.
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Enrollment to Affordable Health Care is up 29% this past year.  Seems to be working.
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Star Wars - First time I saw it I was in the Bistro at The Palace.  GREAT food, awesome recliners but normal viewing and average sound.

Took my buddy to the Ultra Screen and HOLY CRAP!  I forgot how amazing the sound system is, and the movie is literally BETTER the 2nd time as I understood what is going on more.   I had stopped going to movies because my 7.1 home theater sound system was better then any theater but the Ultra Screen at The Palace is amazing.  Fantastic LARGE recliners so you are in your own space OR you can make it all cuddly by moving the middle arm rest up.

They have figured out how to get people into the theater.

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I was a little disappointed at the 4 downtown businesses that failed to shovel their sidewalks FOUR DAYS after the storm. I don't know if they have shoveled yet but this was a very disappointing situation and the city did nothing to fix it with 4 days off in a row (another problem I was disappointed in).

I mean Avalon, which has NO sidewalks was a skating rink with cars and walkers with dogs sharing the same slippery road.  Avalon is a death just waiting to happen. The city NEEDS to salt and sand roads where there are no sidewalks.  Do you really think an 80 year old can jump out of the way of a car skidding towards them?  The storm WAS A WEEK AGO and it's still freaking dangerous with no place to walk that is not ice.

yea - I'm pissed off.  I would call someone but WHO.  No one is working for 4 days.

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Something weird is happening in American births -the amount of twins are rising at a steady pace.  In 1980 18.9 twins were born per 1000 births.  IN 2014 that is up to 33.9 twins birth per 1000.

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OK - nuff said!

Cheers