Count the number of vehicles with just one occupant on an arterial road during rush hour sometime. (Century Avenue, Allen Boulevard, and University Avenue work well for this exercise in Middleton.)
Carmakers race to exploit Internet. (San Jose Mercury News, 6/25/2011)
Excerpt: Carmakers are racing to exploit one of the Internet's final frontiers -- the driver's seat.
From luxury manufacturer BMW to high-tech electric carmaker Tesla to affordable Fords, automobiles increasingly are coming with Internet-connected features to inform, entertain and protect the driver.
"Our lifestyles have become so increasingly connected, both real-time and online," says Sven Beiker, executive director of the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford University. "Why not in the car, where we are spending a lot of time?"
At BMW's Silicon Valley technology office in Mountain View, senior engineer Robert Passaro turns the key on a 2011 Mini Cooper and a vivid blue display springs to life within the speedometer. Controlled by a small joystick to the driver's right, the screen offers a series of choices, including Google (GOOG) search, Facebook, Twitter or a personalized news feed.
At Tesla, designers are hard at work deciding which Internet services to offer on its forthcoming Model S electric sedan, which will have an iPad-like touchscreen embedded in the center of the dashboard.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Viroqua Keeps Fingers Crossed for Grant for New Library
City of Viroqua likes its odds at getting grant for library. (Vernon County Broadcaster, 6/22/2011)
Excerpt: The city council heard the promising news during a public hearing, Tuesday, June 14, on the proposed application for a Community Development Block Grant for the development of a new public library. Viroqua has outgrown the McIntosh Memorial Library, which led a library task force to look at options for more space.
City administrator Matt Giese said Cindy Jaggi of Economic Development Partners, a consultant on the fundraising portion of the library building project, plans to work on three grants for the city. The public facilities CDBG is the first to be presented to the council.
Jaggi said the timeline for the CDBG application process is short because the availability of the money is unknown.
"At the end of June the Department of Commerce as we know it is going away and it is becoming the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation," Jaggi said. "So there is a little bit of a sense of urgency to be able to submit this grant because all other grant submissions have been put on hold."
Jaggi said the exception is that there is still some money available specifically for library construction projects. The grant, a maximum of $750,000, could be used for capital costs, which includes the construction of the library.
Related articles:
Library project gets aid from city. (6/7/2010)
New library moves into conceptual design phase. (5/28/2001)
New library cost estimate: $5.7 million. (5/20/2010)
Library building project update. (3/15/2010)
Viroqua's McIntosh Memorial Library Space Needs Study Update. (1/16/2010)
Viroqua's McIntosh Memorial Library Space Needs Task Force. (12/28/2009)
Viroqua's long look at a new library facility. (11/6/2009)
Ron McCabe: Libraries Play Key Role in Public Education
Wisconsin Rapids Journal, 6/24/2011.
Excerpt: As president-elect of the Wisconsin Library Association, I am learning more everyday about the amazing contributions of libraries of all types to the education of the citizens of our state. Here are a few examples that relate to public libraries. I was surprised to learn that more people visit Wisconsin's public libraries every week than the Packers home game attendance in an entire season. There were 35.5 million public library visits in 2009. These visitors borrowed 65.6 million books and other materials that year.
Institute of Museum and Library Services
The Top Ten States
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Wisconsin is the No. 1 state in public library resource sharing. If all of the library materials borrowed from other libraries were purchased by home libraries, the Department of Public Instruction calculates the cost of these materials at more than $100 million per year. NorthStar Economics estimated the direct economic impact and the impact of Wisconsin public library services to be $753 million in 2008. In the same study, NorthStar estimated that the annual return per dollar of public tax support for Wisconsin's public libraries was $4.06.
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