Campus: Winter Style

The last Thursday of our discussion section was very nice. I got to sing my song for the class. I was running late that day, so I ended up parking in the 20 minute stalls with my hazards blinking. I returned to my car at the conclusion of class to find my battery dead.









I called my mother-in-law to see if she was around to deliver me a jump. I decided it would be a good time for an observation! This time around the UWSP campus was covered with snow. I swear for the first four years of my schooling this place was nothing but snow. It certainly doesn't seem that way now.
It was a very clear day. The weather was hovering around 32 degrees. It felt warmer. The day was just great! I would go disc golfing this day as well. I like the little snowman built on top of this hill.

The dog sitting in snow. I guess this statue isn't so bad after all.

After listening to the UWSP Sustainability Coordinator, I think our University pays a lot of lip service to sustainability, but the reality is we really just don't do enough. The University needs to think about really expanding their use of technologies that are going to save energy and produce it as well. Our University could offset much of it's coal and natural gas use by simply putting solar panels on a lot of the buildings. The NFAC uses so much electricity! Theaters use a ridiculous amount. I think PV panels would help immensely!

Disc Golf Series: Memorial Park of Wausau

During an early November weekday, I took a trip to Wausau for an interview at the Bull Falls Brewery. On my way there I stopped at Memorial Park on Business 51 south of the downtown area. It was very beautiful driving down a small little hill to get to an open grassland just next to the Wisconsin River. This park was clean, multipurpose (there was a pool!) and beautiful. The weather was mostly cloudy with a little bit of drizzle. It started to rain as I was leaving. The temperature was very mild. It had to be around 50 degrees.




1. The course was just wonderful. There was a little inlet from the river that you had to throw over. There was a great view of Rib Mountain. It was also very clean!

2. The course was only 9 holes, but there were some harsh water hazards. There was not a lot of elevation, but there were many great views. The course was slightly confusing as it was split in two different parts.

3. The course is part of a larger park, so there is a lot of upkeep from the Park District. In general, the impact on the area is sizable, but the recreation level is high. The placement of the course might be for the best. There isn't a lot of buildings you want to put so close to the water. The course can actually act as a decent floodplain (and I'm sure it does.)

Rib Mountain!

Disc Golf Series: Yulga DGC

DISC GOLF SERIES: YULGA DGC

Commissioned by the city of Stevens Point in 1999, Yulga is a masterpiece of a disc golf course.

I first played Yulga in 2006 when I was a freshman. I just remember all the trees I hit... oh the trees!


1. I never thought I would be playing Yulga in 2012. This last time I went was two weeks ago right after my wedding on the 6th. I just remember the smell of autumn in the cool morning air. I started the game poorly, but ended pretty well. If you could marry a Disc Golf Course, you would marry Yulga. It's always a little difficult, but it's close by, fun, and pretty clean.

2. This is a professionally made course. The turns are hard but the distances aren't too bad. There are three different "courses" within the 18 hole course. The Red measures about 4,300 feet while the Blue is somewhere around 5,200. White rests somewhere in the middle. The course has a distinct flatness to it. The holes, which are mostly carved out of pine stands, require a really good range of throws. Be prepared to rumble with some trees on this course. 7/10

3.Yulga is a great example of a city helping both tourists and the environment. The course rests right across the street from the Hull Town Hall. The area is building up a sizable subdivided population east of Stevens Point. One reason people started moving out there was because of the higher taxes in Stevens Point and cheaper property values. Now the area is being taken over by roads and houses. Yulga, however, stands apart.The park also rests  on the Green Circle trail. I would love to use the Green Circle for an outdoor education class. Riding bikes, disc golfing and discovering nature would be awesome. I guess everyone has a little gym teacher in them.

I know that Disc Golf courses have upkeep costs and an impact on the environment. There is also vandalism on the course. People leave beer bottles and garbage on the ground as well. It's because of people like that we (society) can't have nice things... no matter what responsible people do, sone douchebag is just going to do whatever he wants. People just disregard other people and object just for their own self-interest.

How do you turn that into a teachable moment? How can you approach the jerks and educate them? Can you educate them? I just wish people wouldn't be so ignorant. Is that too much to ask of my other members of society?

Like, serious, I need to rant about this. What is still up with these climate deniers and these ignorant individuals who drive around in ridiculous vehicles just being polluting turd muffins? Yes, I understand you think you're from the South even though you have Wisconsin licsense plates. I get the fact you feel loyalty to something that doesn't exist anymore and  that thing was one of the last bastions of racism no matter how much you complain about states' rights!! I get it, really. We all like STUPID THINGS.

But could you PLEASE just care? For a little bit? You aren't gay because you care. You aren't a communist because you want to care. You aren't supporting a "nanny state" if you care about what happens to the planet and all the things on it. If you really think preserving the environment is the work of the "nanny state", then you obviously need a nanny.


 Seriously, STOP DRIVING YOUR TRUCKS IN THE PARK!!!!

Wait...

Oh that's for the...

Park District Trucks? Really??

*Insert foot in mouth*

Spinning Across America: Wind Turbines.

This summer, my Wife and I took a trip with her parents across the United States. As musicians for a wedding in Utah, we decided that a family driving trip across the country would be a somewhat cost and fun way to travel. I actually have never been west of Minneapolis/Davenport. As we were driving west on I-80, the rolling hills of Iowa greeted us with an enjoyable site.

This picture was taken on a long stretch of road outside Davenport. I thought the contrast was so very interesting.

Wind energy has taken hold as a growing resource for cities and towns that have ample air flow for much of the year. This form of technology is a great example of progress towards a more sustainable future.

This piece was found at Energy.gov as part of the Department of Energy's annual report on energy consumption and statistics:

The report finds that in 2011, roughly 6,800 megawatts (MW) of new wind power capacity was added to the U.S. grid, a 31 percent increase from 2010 installations.  The United States’ wind power capacity reached 47,000 MW by the end of 2011 and has since grown to 50,000 MW, enough electricity to power 13 million homes annually or as many as in Nevada, Colorado, Wisconsin, Virginia, Alabama, and Connecticut combined. The country’s cumulative installed wind energy capacity grew 16 percent from 2010, and has increased more than18-fold since 2000.  The report also finds that six states now meet more than 10 percent of their total electricity needs with wind power.

This is really good news! However, an article from Minnesota Public Radio written by Rob Reimer has this to say:

Rural dwellers are "asked" to host wind turbines and to pay for transmission lines to furnish city dwellers with green power from wind. Investors make huge profits while taxpayers and ratepayers get to pay 20 percent more for their power. So who is this technology benefiting? For exactly whom is it "free?"
Financially, wind energy is a losing proposition for most everyone who does not directly profit from the manufacture, siting, servicing, removal, financing or taxing of turbines, or from the disbursal of the electricity produced by them.

The wind boon benefits the turbine industry, not the general public. The industry is a terrible waste of resources: Human, physical, financial, temporal and aesthetic. These finite resources could be better spent transforming the physical infrastructure of our society toward sustainable energy production and use, and toward creating jobs that benefit the entire society.

This brings up a tremendously good point. Though Wind turbines might be seen as a sustainable method of energy, the amount of work and capital that goes into making a turbine part of the electrical grid can sometimes do more harm than good. Also, storage for all that energy is at a premium. Something has to be done to help make the sustainable energy market perform on the economic scale.

Luckily,
So now we start to understand all the moving pieces in the puzzle. Energy is an important aspect of our society, but how can we create the infrastructure that is needed to produce enough of that energy while sustaining the planet? I think wind energy will prove very useful for communities who live in rural and suburban areas that have access to open fields and windy days. However, each region is slightly different. What might work in Illinois is not going to work for Colorado. Arizona has a much greater potential for Photovoltaics while areas on the West Coast might benefit from a Geothermal plant or ten. As a nation, we need to start developing these technologies to help all of us save our planet while preserving our energy.