Spring Fix-ups... things NOT to do in the shower!
Mar. 8, 2010 8:09 am

It's almost spring... time for spring cleaning and fix-ups. But what I'm showing here are definitely things to avoid if you're improving your shower!
Actually, it's really hard to believe people did these things!!
Adding a light.... adding a sink... adding a recessed shower head... why???

Survivor Update... 3/4
Mar. 4, 2010 8:03 pm

Heroes VS Villains is definitely getting interesting. Immediate questions arise... Why do the villains seem to be able to win all the immunities? How the heck are Russell, Tyson and Coach still in the game (do their teammates actually trust them??)?? And how is it that the heroes... AKA the good Guys... can't get along?
Tonight I was starting to worry about two favorites... Tom and Colby. But then a couple things happened. Cirie started calling people stupid (a tried and true way to get to the exit quickly), and JT started to think about what he really wanted rather than what his alliance wanted. And sure enough, out the door goes Cirie. So there you are... and bye bye Cirie, we won't miss you.

Summer's almost here!!
Mar. 4, 2010 2:07 pm

Yup, we can finally see the furry little animals moving around in the woods as the snow melts...

My Survivor Prediction...
Feb. 26, 2010 7:28 am

Okay, we've seen three episodes of Survivor - Heroes VS Villains. And the show that revolutionized TV hasn't let us down with lots of very interesting happenings. This show has three people I disliked intensely that I can root against; Russell, Tyson and Coach. Plus there's two of the "babes" I liked the best; Amanda and Parvati. And the "heroes"; Rupert, Colby, Tom and J.T.
So what are my predictions? Well, after last night I think two things are going on so I'm going to make two predictions...
1. CBS is going out of their way to make the show sexier
2. J.T. is gonna win it all

There ya go.

More Garage Door Covers!
Feb. 22, 2010 8:22 am

Isn't this fun? I'm seriously considering doing this at home...

STOP THE RADIO TAX!!
Feb. 12, 2010 2:21 pm

We need to act now to defeat a proposed tax that could kill your local radio stations!!

THE ISSUE:

For more than 80 years, radio and the recording industry have enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship: free play for free promotion. And it works. The recording industry now wants to impose a fee ? a performance tax ? on local radio stations.

There's no question that a performance tax would financially hurt local radio stations, stifle new artists and harm the listening public who rely on free local radio. Many members of Congress
already support local radio and resolutions against the performance tax. Others still need to hear your voice.

Act NOW! Go to www.noperformancetax.org and get involved!! Thank you!

Very good info...
Feb. 11, 2010 8:08 am

The recent devastating quake in Haiti and now the small Illinois quake, prompted me to do a little research on what to do in an earthquake to survive. I was surprised to find that everything I remember being told was WRONG!

Check this out:

EXTRACT FROM DOUG COPP'S ARTICLE ON THE 'TRIANGLE OF LIFE'

My name is Doug Copp. I am the Rescue Chief and Disaster Manager of the American Rescue Team International (ARTI), the world's most experienced rescue team. The information in this article will save lives in an earthquake.

I have crawled inside 875 collapsed buildings, worked with rescue teams from 60 countries, founded rescue teams in several countries, and I am a member of many rescue teams from many countries.

I was the United Nations expert in Disaster Mitigation for two years. I have worked at every major disaster in the world sinc e 1985, except for simultaneous disasters.

The first building I ever crawled inside of was a school in Mexico City during the 1985 earthquake. Every child was under its desk. Every child was crushed to the thickness of their bones. They could have survived by lying down next to their desks in the aisles. It was obscene, unnecessary and I wondered why the children were not in the aisles. I didn't at the time know that the children were told to hide under something. I am amazed that even today schools are still using the "Duck and Cover" instructions- telling the children to squat under their desks with their heads bowed and covered with their hands. This was the technique used in the Mexico City school.

Simply stated, when buildings collapse, the weight of the ceilings falling upon the objects or furniture inside crushes these objects, leaving a space or void next to them. This space is what I call the 'triangle of life'. The larger the object, the stronger, the less i t will compact. The less the object compacts, the larger the void, the greater the probability that the person who is using this void for safety will not be injured. The next time you watch collapsed buildings, on television, count the 'triangles' you see formed. They are everywhere. It is the most common shape, you will see, in a collapsed building.

TIPS FOR EARTHQUAKE SAFETY

1) Almost everyone who simply 'ducks and covers' when buildings collapse ARE CRUSHED TO DEATH. People who get under objects, like desks or cars, are crushed.

2) Cats, dogs and babies often naturally curl up in the fetal position. You should too in an earthquake. It is a natural safety/survival instinct. That position helps you survive in a smaller void. Get next to an object, next to a sofa, next to a large bulky object that will compress slightly but leave a void next to it.

3) Wooden buildings are the safest type of construction to be in during an earthquake. Wood is flexib le and moves with the force of the earthquake. If the wooden building does collapse, large survival voids are created. Also, the wooden building has less concentrated, crushing weight. Brick buildings will break into individual bricks. Bricks will cause many injuries but less squashed bodies than concrete slabs. Concrete slab buildings are the most dangerous during an earthquake.

4) If you are in bed during the night and an earthquake occurs, simply roll off the bed. A safe void will exist around the bed. Hotels can achieve a much greater survival rate in earthquakes, simply by posting a sign on the back of the door of every room telling occupants to lie down on the floor, next to the bottom of the bed during an earthquake.

5) If an earthquake happens and you cannot easily escape by getting out the door or window, then lie down and curl up in the fetal position next to a sofa, or large chair.

6) Almost everyone who gets under a doorway when buildings collapse i s kill ed. How? If you stand under a doorway and the doorjamb falls forward or backward you will be crushed by the ceiling above. If the door jam falls sideways you will be cut in half by the doorway. In either case, you will be killed!

7) Never go to the stairs. The stairs have a different 'moment of frequency (they swing separately from the main part of the building). The stairs and remainder of the building continuously bump into each other until structural failure of the stairs takes place. The people who get on stairs before they fail are chopped up by the stair treads ? horribly mutilated. Even if the building doesn't collapse, stay away from the stairs. The stairs are a likely part of the building to be damaged. Even if the stairs are not collapsed by the earthquake, they may collapse later when overloaded by fleeing people. They should always be checked for safety, even when the rest of the building is not damaged.


8) Get Near the Outer Walls Of Buildings Or Outside Of Them If Possible - It is much better to be near the outside of the building rather than the interior. The farther inside you are from the outside perimeter of the building the greater the probability that your escape route will be blocked.

9) People inside of their vehicles are crushed when the road above falls in an earthquake and crushes their vehicles; which is exactly what happened with the slabs between the decks of the Nimitz Freeway. The victims of the San Francisco earthquake all stayed inside of their vehicles. They were all killed. They could have easily survived by getting out and lying in the fetal position next to their vehicles. Everyone killed would have survived if they had been able to get out of their cars and sit or lie next to them. All the crushed cars had voids 3 feet high next to them, except for the cars that had columns fall directly across them.

10) I discovered, while crawling inside of collapsed newspaper offices and other offices wi th a lot of paper, that paper does not compact. Large voids are found surrounding stacks of paper.

In 1996 we made a film, which proved my survival methodology to be correct. The Turkish Federal Government, City of Istanbul , University of Istanbul Case Productions and ARTI cooperated to film this practical, scientific test. We collapsed a school and a home with 20 mannequins inside. Ten mannequins did 'duck and cover,' and ten mannequins I used in my 'triangle of life' survival method. After the simulated earthquake collapse we crawled through the rubble and entered the building to film and document the results.

The film, in which I practiced my survival techniques under directly observable, scientific conditions, relevant to building collapse, showed there would have been zero percent survival for those doing duck and cover.

There would likely have been 100 percent survivability for people using my method of the 'triangle of life.' This film has been seen by millions of viewers on television in Turkey and the rest of Europe, and it was seen in the USA , Canada and Latin America on the TV program Real TV.

Remodel your garage... well, not really.
Feb. 9, 2010 9:30 am

Are you like me? Messy garage full of junk so you can't get a car in there anymore? Tired of the neighbors laughing when you leave your garage door open? Well, here's a new idea for you... don't clean it, just put a poster on the garage door. Warning - you may have people standing in your driveway if you do this. Or maybe a visit from the local police department.

Finally got my Christmas decorations down...
Feb. 4, 2010 8:08 pm

The neighbors cheered. I guess they don't like my decorations much. You see I got sick of all the time it used to take hanging lights around the house, so I figured out how to just hand a dummy on a rain gutter... run one strand of lights to the ground... and kick over a ladder. A lot less work. But, for some reason it does seem to cause a few fender benders in front of the house.

(You guys know I'm kidding... right?)

How will "LOST" really end?
Feb. 3, 2010 11:24 am

Nobody really knows for sure... but here's my guess!!

If I owned a bar...
Feb. 2, 2010 2:50 pm

Well, now what do we do?
Jan. 28, 2010 9:11 am

I got a phone call from a listener this morning. The first thing he said was "you were right, it works!!" He then described how he turns left from West Avenue to Market Street every day and never gets the left-turn-arrow. But yesterday he stopped fifteen feet back (in the second car position) and lo and behold, he got the turn-signal. And, he now totally agrees with me... "Magnetometers are ridiculous!!"
But then he ended our conversation with a question, "well, now what do we do?" My answer was "tell the mayor. If enough of us talk about it, maybe we can finally get it fixed!"
Come to think of it, didn't one of our city engineer's promise us about five years ago that timers were going to be installed over the next few years?

I think they know about it and aren't doing anything...

Magnetometers - Part 3
Jan. 27, 2010 8:03 am

Okay, let's re-cap. The problem with magnetometers used for traffic lights is that they give a green light to the traffic that stops on them. Which means that in order to get a green light you and all the cars traveling with you will have to stop and wait at each light for the magnetometer to give you the light.
And it gets worse... because the majority of the lights with left turn lanes will give the green light to the left turn lanes first, compounding your wait time. But have you ever noticed that sometimes you don't get the left-turn arrow at a lot of lights? That's because somewhere along the line a traffic engineer decided it was a good idea to put the magnetometer under the second car position in many of the left turn lanes. Brilliant. So if you're a single car, no light for you. Two cars... you get the arrow. Or (and here's the best part) just stop where the second car would be and you'll get the turn arrow. No kidding! Now not all the lights do this... but try it sometime at the light at Green Bay and West Avenue. Works like a charm.
Not all the lights around the area work as I've described... but the majority do. And of course there are variables... like if the light works the way it's supposed to work. The light at George Street and Clinton Street is awful, for example, and often keeps traffic waiting un-necessarily for two or three minutes before it changes. Definitely needs repair!!
Okay, now drive around and check it out for yourself. Knowing how the magnetometers work I bet you'll come to the same conclusions I did... that they're really dumb, they waste gas and time, and they should all be replaced with timers set to the traffic flow.
Incidentally, I've explained this to three of our mayors over the years... so far, they haven't seen a need to act. But I sincerely believe if the timers were installed and set correctly, we'd never hear any further talk about the North-South corridor that none of us want!!

Cheers, and happy driving!

Magnetometers - Part 2
Jan. 22, 2010 8:57 am

So we know that a large percentage of the stoplights in the LaCrosse area have magnetometers to determine when the lights change, but how can magnetometers cause traffic jams?
Okay, imagine you're traveling North on West Avenue at 5:10 pm with normal rush hour traffic. You get to the Cass Street intersection and the light is red. So you and all the cars in your group stop. The magnetometer reads the first car in each lane and begins a countdown, and in a few seconds the light turns green. In the meantime, nobody in front of you is North/South at the Main Street intersection and the magnetometers have responded to the traffic going East/West on Main. So when your group gets moving, you arrive at the Main Street intersection and guess what... red light.
Soooo... you again wait until the magnetometer reads the first car in each lane. And a few seconds later you get another green light. Yippee, we make it through the State Street light, but by the time we arrive at LaCrosse Street... red light.
If you understand what I'm saying, you see my point - that the magnetometers are designed to stop traffic at each intersection. And of course by the time you arrive at LaCrosse Street there are 25 or 30 cars in your "bunch" and it just gets worse at every light.
And this is going on all over the city...

Monday I'll talk about the detail that makes it all even worse... the magnetometers in the left-turn lanes.

BTW, if anyone from City Hall is reading this and thinks it's wrong - send me an e-mail and I'll post your comments. What I know about magnetometers I learned from a retired LaCrosse police officer... and he hated them too!

What is a magnetometer?
Jan. 21, 2010 8:27 am

Do you know? You should... because if you drive in the LaCrosse area you come in contact with them constantly. By definition it's a magnetic sensor used to detect magnetic fields... or, a magnetic sensor used to detect ferrous objects. Okay, how does that affect you? Because magnetometers are the little device used to control a large majority of the stoplights in God's Country!
And guess what? In my opinion, those little magnetometers are the worst invention ever for controlling traffic... and actually CAUSE traffic jams!!

Interested in knowing more? I'll explain myself tomorrow... stay tuned!

Words of Wisdom!
Jan. 15, 2010 12:52 pm

Someone sent me these today. Boy do I agree with all of them! I bet there's more good ones out there... e-mail me yours.

Words of wisdom....

1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger..

4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

5. How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

6. Was learning cursive really necessary?

7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

10. Bad decisions make good stories.

11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection... again.

13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this -- ever.

15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damn it!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

18. My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

19. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

20. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

Unusual New Year's Resolution #1
Jan. 14, 2010 8:05 am

This is a real easy one to remember. Guys, never ever make a girl mad if her father is in construction. Especially if he owns a backhoe!!!

Happy Birthday!
Jan. 13, 2010 8:20 am

Here's a great idea when you want to do something special and out of the ordinary for a co-worker... get two 200' rolls of aluminum foil and wrap everything in their office! Just like the girls at LaCrosse Radio Group did for John Stevenson of CC106.3 on his birthday! Nice! Like John said... "curses, foiled again!"

Merry Christmas!
Dec. 22, 2009 9:17 am

Traffic obstacle...
Dec. 18, 2009 2:41 pm

Suddenly you slam on the brakes! The street in front of you is blocked. The police have the intersection sealed off while they try to figure out what to do. Then you realize... it's after bar time, on University Avenue, in Madison Wisconsin... and the students have been restless lately!