March 2008 Archives

Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record/Sunday News

Members of St. Paul Lutheran, Mount Zion United Church of Christ and Sacred Heart churches process up Main Street in Spring Grove for Palm Sunday. Jenny the donkey makes a snack out of a palm.

The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that marine and locomotive engines must meet tougher pollution controls, hoping for dramatic cuts in the amount of smog-causing chemicals and soot coming from trains, cargo ships, tugboats and passenger ferries.

A study by Environmental Defense two years ago found that ships at three of the nation's largest ports — Los Angeles, Houston and New York-New Jersey — together produced as much smog causing chemicals as 1 million cars. The group also found the nation's locomotives produced fine soot, or particulate, equal to 70 coal burning power plants and as much smog causing nitrogen oxide as 120 coal plants. (AP)

Husqvarna is producing a robotic, solar powered, mulching lawn mower that is guided by a buried cable so it doesn't eat your flower beds.

Alarmed if it leaves it parimeter and It won't shave your cat because it senses obstacles.

Flash demo of how it works.

(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)

York Countians gather in Harrisburg to meet Sen. Hillary Clinton during a rally at The Forum during her first midstate appearance of the campaign.

( Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)

Claudine Ryce, executive director of Jimmy Ryce Center for Victims of Predatory Abduction and mother of a nine-year-old victim tells her story and presents the York County Missing Child Task Force with a bloodhound puppy.

Megan Boyer, age 17, recieves the Gold Award, the highest honor awarded to a Girl Scout, during mass at St. Rose of Lima Church in York. Other scouts, including Julia Yanick, age 6, participate in the mass.

The Associated press is running a multipart series that reveals that a vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans; in the drinking water supplies of 24 major metropolitan areas — from Southern California to Northern New Jersey, from Detroit to Louisville, Ky. (AP)

The reason is that medications that treat humans and animals pass through our bodies and eventually get passed into drinking water through sewage. These minute traces aren't a medical dose, but more of an unknown cocktail of hormones and compounds over a long period of time.

The report doesn't mention York at this point, but it goes without saying that since we all share the same planet, use pharmaceuticals, and the cycles of supply water and sewage cross paths in similar ways here as in other parts of the country, there are bound to be some traces of pharmaceuticals in drinking water here either in well and/or municipal supplies.

Ministering to the environment and farmers by purchasing power.

This year, more than 2,130 congregations across the USA will use "eco-palms". From a pilot program of 5,000 in 2005 to the 600,000 eco-palms ordered (usatoday/news/religion) this year, the March 16 celebration brings new meaning of sustainability to the century old Christian tradition of Jesus walking the walk.

Like fair trade teas, which tie together ecosystem sustainability and a fair cost to farmers , "eco-palms" are purchased with the idea that the harvesters are wasting less, and farmers providing palms are given better compensation for their labor.

While eco-palms can cost a church twice of a typical palm, it may offer a congregation some encouragement that they have elevated the quality of life in some part of the world for people who don't have the power to grab it for themselves, while encouraging and educating low waste harvesting techniques that help sustainability.

The price of oil has surpassed the historic inflation adjusted high and keeps climbing. People keep investing because it's the "one sure thing that will increase in value". I seem to remember this logic with the housing market as lenders fueled the boom with bad fundamentals.

It's interesting to note that gasoline hasn't been climbing with the price of oil, as supplies are good and demand is actually down, signs of a faltering economy and/or more efficiency. Today more bad news as "U.S. employers slashed jobs by 63,000 in February, the most in five years, the starkest sign yet the country was heading dangerously toward recession or was in one already" (AP).

The difference between diesel price and gasoline has been getting wider with diesel getting closer to $4 a gallon. Diesel means transportation cost and is a hidden cost in everything we buy.

Today's decline ia a healthy sign for an oil market that is out of step with the rest of the economy. It's been like watching an obese person who needs a quadruple bypass devour gallons of heavy cream. Hopefully, our 401K fund managers have to foresight to back off on oil before the realization hits that there isn't a good reason to pump this much money into oil.

We need investment visionaries who can look beyond the profit of today's computer generated program trade and create a future for future markets. The market can correct itself if those with the capital aren't on a blind suicide mission of winner take all.

Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News

Sandra Dackow, an internationally known conductor and director of the Hershey Symphony shows her passion for music working with 125 students from Central York and Warwick School districts at Central York Middle School.

GM announced plans Tuesday to roll out a second-generation version of the GM Hybrid system with a more powerful lithium-ion battery. The announcement comes just weeks after GM vice chairman Robert Luft called global warming a "total crock of s***."

The new system, powered by a Hitachi-supplied advanced lithium-ion battery, is expected to be nearly three times more powerful than the system it replaces. Overall fuel economy improvements for cars and trucks using the system are expected to rise up to 20%, depending on engine and vehicle application. informationweek.com

Hot water for your house typically is heated in a hot water tank or a coil that transfers the heat from your boiler. However, in many parts of the world tank-less water heaters have been the choice for decades because natural gas is expensive.

The design of the typical tank home water heater isn't very efficient. A tall tank filled with water is kept hot by a burner below. The flue gas and heat rise up through the center of the tank and exit the chimney. Since you have to keep about 40 gallons hot all the time, the burner fires even when yur not home. That flue that carries gas out also carries your heat out when the burner is shut off, while you are at work. You may take a shower in the morning and not use hot water for 12 hours, but that tank is kept at the ready keeping your chimney nice and cozy.

Tank-less water heaters fire only when needed. Water enters the heat exchanger and is heated instantaneously. A modern, computer controlled unit meters the flame to match the water flow, some units approach 95% efficiency. Units can be ganged together, their computers networked, for large houses so that they fire in sequence to exactly meet demand and use only the gas that is needed instantaneously.

Tank-less water heaters are most efficient over tanks in houses where hot water isn't used much, because of the "standing loss" of traditional hot water tank systems.

Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News

Chocolate is fleeting but it's mold captures history. A visit to an antique dealer that collects chocolate molds during The York Folk Art & Craft Show at the York Expo Center.

The York County Chamber of Commerce has studied I-83 and is presenting it's findings in a three part series in their Watchdog e-newsletter.
Some points:

--Highway construction costs are up 43%
--Would you be willing to support an increase in the gas tax, if it meant improved capacity on our highways?
--IRS hikes 2008 commuter benefit tax incentive
As more workers factor the price of their commute into their job choices, more employers are looking for ways to help employees cut their commuting costs. The IRS is helping by increasing to $115 per month the amount that can be set aside in a worker's qualified, tax-free transportation fringe benefit plan.

It seems odd that federal taxpayer dollars are used to enhance urban sprawl and congestion while we search for new revenue to build them bigger... fight air pollution and try to find ways to reduce dependency on foreign oil as the price of oil steadily rises.

Some cities, like Baltimore, are promoting work in your neighborhood programs to keep people from commuting.

So there could be a larger gas tax to help pay for larger highways that taxpayers fund demand by helping commuters make employment "choices" to drive further from their workplace. Sounds like an increasingly expensive cycle with no end in sight.

Fuel cell cars seem so future, however, Tucked away in the Smithsonian is a 50 year old

AC fuel cell tractor that used an AC D-12 tractor chassis loaded with 1008 individual fuel cells, fueled by a mixture of gasses, but predominantly propane, which in turn created a current flow.

This was channeled through to an Allis Chalmers 20 hp DC electric motor to propel the tractor. Each fuel cell was about one quarter of an inch thick, 12 inches square, and produced approximately one volt of output. In unison, the 1008 fuel cells made an output of about 15KW. Using the controller at the operator's left, the four banks of fuel cells could be connected in series or in parallel, thus varying the voltage reaching the DC motor, much like a throttle. Reverse was simply a matter of reversing the polarity of the current through the controller with the crank-like handle. AC was excited by their research, noting that their tractor was twice as efficient as others of the period, the power was derived from no moving parts, it produced no emissions, and ran without a whisper. antiquetractorstore.com

Consumer Reports April 2008 compiled a list of used cars best in real-world fuel economy ratings.
Under $10,000
2000 Honda Insight 51
2001-02 Toyota Prius 41
2000-05 Toyota Echo 38
1998-2002 Chevrolet Prizm 32
1998 Mazda Protegê LX 32/31
1998-2001 Acura Intregra LS (manual) 32
2004-05 Scion xA (manual/automatic) 31/30