I'd call that a bargain

I am looking at an ad for A Lakeland TImes type Anti-DNR screed. The ad's main "shocking" selling point is that "Every Man, Woman, and Child" pays 109 dollars to support the DNR.

Wouldn't that be a great headliner for someone writing a pro-DNR book? I had no idea that was all it cost to safeguard the incredible Natural Resources we have in Wisconsin.

Hurray for Boulder Junction!

Boulder Junction keeps the bike trail growing! This extension will tie resorts, residential areas, and businesses north and west of the town to the "Heart of the North" trail. And eventually, they will be the connecting links to Manitowish Waters, Land O Lakes, and Presque Isle.

"Is it near that Bike Trail?" is going to be heard by every resort and motel owner in Vilas and Oneida County.

Ford MyKey helps control speed, noise

So a key can help parents slow their kids down and keep the volume lower.

Why don't insurance companies offer a discount for ANYONE agreeing to use a key like this?

Better yet: If we want to immediately cut down on the use of foreign oil, save lives, and reduce green house gases, why not a federal mandate for a key that keeps speeds down to 65?

No Need for Speed

Kent Sepkowitz advocates making cars that can't speed. As I've argued in the past, a very simple way to cut traffic deaths, carbon emissions, energy use, and road noise. My only complaint: Sepkowitz advocates installing cruise controls that keep cars at 75. Why not 65?

Loons and Bilge Bumps

I was practicing kayak "self rescues" yesterday, which consist of getting my lard butt out of the water and up on a kayak with the help of an outrigger you make out of a paddle and an inflatable bladder,  while trying to rescue various items that have floated out around you.  Then, getting said lard butt back into the cockpit without flipping back over the other way.  (A very entertaining site from shore, I imagine)   Finally, after getting  in the boat, I was pumping out the water with my bilge pump when a distressed loon screamed right behind me, loud enough and close enough to make me nearly flip again.  I looked around to see a pair of loons.  As I sat still, they floated off in another direction, till I started pumping again, then they returned, and one of them started raising up out of the water, wings flapping.  I imagine the splashing of the pump sounded like a rival bird.   This might explain why sometimes loons are very curious about the kids who swim at a nearby raft.   

A hierarchy of noise: the short course

I have been working in Northern Wisconsin this week, where it is relatively quiet.  Of course, there are exceptions to the quiet.    That reminded me of a project I wanted to undertake: Making a study of the ethics of  human-made sound.     I would start with an Aristotelian gathering and classifying different kinds of sounds.   (What types of human-made sound are there? When is a sound a noise? )  Then I would try to examine human-made sound through the lenses of  ethical ideas.  

   But I get ahead of myself.  For now, just the short version: Let's say you are on a small, quiet,  northern Wisconsin lake and you are wondering whether your radio is a sound or a noise to other people enjoying the lake:  Its a noise.  

And if you are wondering if you have an equal ethical warrant to make that noise as another person has to be free of it: No,  you don't.

A Cloak of silence!

What if we  could place "cloaks of silence" around roadways?  Wouldn't we create an incredible amount of wealth in property around those roadways?

Green cars and noise pollution

Eric Leech lays out something that doesn't get written about enough-how electric, hybrid, and fuel cell vehicles might impact noise pollution....

It may be that electric cars are too quiet, in fact, and we will need to find a way to make them noisy enough to be safe.   I would be in favor of that, as part of an overall strategy to reduce unnecessary vehicle noise, especially after-market exhausts (which also must be a hazard to the visually impaired-if a motorcycle with a blaring exhaust is nearby, how do they hear car traffic?) 

Driving (mostly) 55: results...

I blogged several weeks ago about my decision to drive 60 miles an hour.     In northern Wisconsin, where the actual speed limit is usually 55, I stick to 55.    On my last fill up, I was surprised to see the gas milage on my little blue 94 Prizm go up to 40 MPG.   That seems too good to be true, for a car that got around 30 mpg before I started paying attention.   Is this typical?   I will test the results again this week.  

I can't be preachy about what people should do to reduce their energy use-I put a lot of miles on my cars.    But I think everyone should do something, and I am just offering my experience with an energy saver that every driver could employ with little difficulty.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell cars?

Honda sells a nominal few in California.  Certainly not a short term solution-the location of hydrogen filling stations being the problem.  But the bigger question is whether we can make hydrogen in an energy efficient way. 

In the meantime, driving 60 miles an hour and easing off on the gas pedal is something that everyone can do right now to help fight global warming and use less energy.

Wow! Great news for Wausau and biking trails in Wisconsin