Ethanol is a sham

A recent story on Autosavant.net has blown the lid off all of those lies about the greatness of ethanol.
Wanna cut down on greenhouse gasses? Take public transport or ride a bike! (That will leave less of you on the road to get in the way of my Volvo.)

BRR Cold...so cold...

It dropped from 30 degrees yesterday to -8 this morning. I can't bear to go outside, so I've spent much of the day on the internet. I'm looking for the perfect songs to play at the wedding (everything has to be perfect for the wedding, including the songs) but I've also been looking at this and that, much of the eRandomness that abound on the internet.

I came across Sacramento's Velocab. The drivers are independent contractors. They rent the cab and the company cell phone for $5.00 and then hits the street. Fares are $2.00 for the first block and then $0.50 for each block afterwards. All fares go to the driver. (I think the cab owners make their money thru advertising). So the question is, how much money do you think a cabbie earns in an average day? They're only in operation from 10am-6pm, so they can't really cash in on the happy hour or late night crowd.

I wonder how it would go in the snow.

Speaking of snow, more is on the way!!!

New Cycling links added

So Kevin L. sent me a link to a VeloNews story about a cyclist in Milwakuee who almost got hit by a plow while riding. The guy had some video cameras on his bike and took them to various agencies in town to at least get some sort of apology. The video is pretty scary, but not any more so than almost being hit by any vehicle while cycling, which happens far too often. People just don't leave enough room. I'm lucky that my bike commute (when I bike) is only about two miles, and is mostly on paths instead of roads, but on the longer rides we take when Wisconsin finally warms up, people just don't leave enough room.

I've included a link (on the right of the page) to a couple of bike-specific links, and a few more may becoming. Jeff's bike page also has some good links to other Wisconsin riders. They all appear far more motivated to ride in the winter, as it seems they have been taking longer rides all winter! And Jeff is even riding on a Cannondale not much newer/older than Ol'Red.

Analytical Site Statistics

So a while back I signed up for Google Analytics, a program designed to track usage on the site. I thought it would be interesting to see how many visitors see my ramblings about bikes, Swedish cars, and the weather in Wisconsin. The results are presented with big colorful graphs and maps.Over the last month I've had 286 visits from 39 countries! I've had 191, 15, 11 and 8 visitors from the USA, Canada, the UK and Germany respectively. Mostly domestic, but the rest of the world is starting to catch on. So how do they get to my site?
About 90-95% are referred from Google. Images.google.com referred 25%, google (organic) referred another 16%, and google.ca referred all 11 of my Canadian visitors (3.85%). sixteen percent of people type in the address directly, and another nine percent are directed to the page from another blogger.com site. Minimal referrals come from saablog.blog.com, auto-snob.blogspot.com, autosnob.blogspot.com and forums.sweedspeed.com. The rest come from worldwide google sites.

So what keywords are people searching for that land them on the site? Various combinations of "Madison," "earthquake," and "icequake" make up 12 of the first 30. Fields Auto Group comes in at number three though, so don't think that my ranting and raving has not been heard! Most of the rest are various combinations of "Volvo," Tailgate struts," "running costs" or "madison snow." Only a couple about bikes.

So what does this all tell me? Well, not too much, but it does tell me that although not too many people see these pages, a few people from all around the world do see the site. It also tells me that since most google hits came from images.google.country, having pictures in the blog is the way to draw more traffic. Pretty soon, I'll be an internet superstar!

BRRRRRR!!!

Now that we've had the snow, it is time to get cold again!!
Statement as of 8:41 PM CST on February 07, 2008
... More Arctic air on the way for Saturday afternoon into Sunday... A strong Arctic cold front currently over western Canada isexpected to blast into the Dakotas Friday night and acrossWisconsin Saturday. Temperatures will plunge below zero Saturday night and Sunday morning as a result. ...Winds gusting 35-45 mph will generate blowing snow and wind chill readings will be 20-30 below zero.

Record snows in Madison

We've received approx. 13" of snow today (It has actually been snowing since yesterday), and that makes it the biggest snow event for this part of Wisconsin for 18+ years! In addition, we're about 3.5 inches away from the all time record 0f 76" for a season. The university closed down this afternoon, and the city pulled all of the busses off of the road. I was glad I rode my bike as I saw cars skidding all over the place and creeping slowly down the poorly plowed main streets. It took me a few minutes longer to get home tonight, but it was no longer than if I had driven. Snow is in the forecast for most of the next 10 days! When will it end!??
From the forecast for tonight: Snow , Definite Snow , Definite Blowing Snow

Update: Up to a foot of snow coming

That's right! Up to another foot of snow. And we still have 6 weeks of winter left!

Snow depths are now at 60.3", only 16" away from the all-time seasonal record of 76.1" set in the winter of 1978-79.

At least I'll be able to say I was in Madison for the snowiest winter on record!