Nature inspires music and on May 7 at Penn State York's Pullo Performing Arts Center that inspiration is returned to help benefit the Susquehanna River.
The artists of Whisperingsare a community of piano artists who promote themselves as a group as an internet radio station.
This event will feature pianists Greg Maroney, Louis Landon, David Nevue, and Emmy Award winner Jace Vek and will benefit the work of Stewards of the Lower Susquehanna.
For tickets 717.505.8900 or buy online
Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News
York College students display their artistic talents with a fashion show created with recycled materials.
The fashion show was a culmination of the 11th Annual Student Scholars Week and an exercise of deconstruction/reconstruction at York College of Pennsylvania. Students from various art disciplines worked together to design the fashion projects.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)
Christ Lutheran Church in Shrewsbury holds a Rogation service. The Rev. Dione Klepetka urges church members to remember God's creation and their obligation as stewards to exercise care for it.
With gasoline prices hitting a new high every day, the presidential candidates have been seasoning their speeches with blame and Band-Aids.
Barack Obama said that Democratic rival Hillary Clinton and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain are part of a Washington establishment that has failed to stand up to oil companies. McCain and the Republican National Committee are accusing Obama of flip-flopping on the idea of suspending the federal gas tax to help consumers. And Clinton is bashing Obama for voting for an energy bill that included tax breaks for oil companies. (Boston Globe)
It's tempting in an election year to appear to be cutting taxes, but in reality the 18 cents of tax that would be withheld cuts money from highway projects and mass transit. If anything, we should funnel all that money into mass transit and away from highways during the "gas tax holiday" so we can actually dig ourselves out of this hole. The US consumer has been enjoying a holiday from the real cost of oil dependence for some time.
A summertime reprieve from the gas tax will only promote consumption and delay the inevitable adoption of fuel efficiency by consumers. Adding to our own consumption is the growth by developing nations which continue to gobble oil even during the proposed US holiday.
The price of gas will probably increase more than 18 cents over the Summer, adding to the pointlessness when we get hit in the fall with the tax again at the start of the heating season.
Borrowing time from debt will not slow down the crisis, only reduce the tools needed to save ourselves. The only thing i can think of that would be more silly would be to give every person in the United States $600 to help stimulate an economy built on bad fundamentals, paid for by their own tax dollars that have disappeared into a $9,3336.468,539,220 national debt.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)
A play written by students and teachers at Central York High School touches on the social issues teens face and hopes to start a conversation.
It takes alot of oil to fight a modern war... most of which we pay market rate and all of it we pay with our taxes.
Overall, the military consumes about 1.2 million barrels, or more than 50 million gallons of fuel, each month in Iraq at an average $127.68 a barrel. That works out to about $153 million a month.Historically, these figures are astounding. In World War II, the average fuel consumption per soldier or Marine was about 1.67 gallons a day; in Iraq, it's 27.3 gallons, according to briefing slides prepared by a Pentagon task force established to review consumption. (AP)
Loganville-based Komax Systems York was one of the businesses at the York County Cooperative Job Fair (YDR, 04/23)
Komax Systems, a division of the Komax Group based in Sweden, is front-runner in the world of building machines that produce solar panels, said Elizabeth Gillespie, a human resources representative with the company.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record Sunday News)
Supporters for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama take up their signs in front of Crispus Attucks, a polling place in York. A first-time voter and the newly inspired strive to make history.
Supporters of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hit York neighborhoods on the day of the state primary to make sure those who have shown interest get out to vote.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)
U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts stops by the Barack Obama headquarters on West Market Street in York and then heads over to Democratic Headquarters.
It's hard to imagine all the energy, fossil and human, that are spent on campaigning. You have the vehicles (and planes) that drive them around, their support vehicles and the local support vehicles that support the support vehicles, the vehicles that drive the support people and all the people who drive to see the candidates. And of course the media (me), who follow along for the ride driving our own vehicles.
One could argue that all these humans would be burning up fuel doing something else during a campaign stop and that campaign funds generated by voters actually pour back into communities for support services.
(AP Photo)
The Obama campaign used a vintage 1930's Georgia lounge train car today for a sweep up the Amtrak line from Philadelphia to Harrisburg. Not that it saved a whole lot of energy today, but it was an interesting highlight of public transportation that once was a standard for moving candidates.
Consider all the support people, security people, reporters and photographers that were swiftly moved to multiple locations, using an electric vehicle not fueled by oil along a route not challenged by cars. And as an added bonus, one large group arrives at the same time and needs no parking.
President Harry S. Truman speaking from a train on the campaign trail in 1948 (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum)
Study: Motorists in Washington, Oregon and Idaho residents used on average nearly a gallon less each week in 2007 (7.8 gallons) than they did in 1999 (8.7 gallons), the lowest per-capita level since 1966. seattlepi.com
Less consumption = less demand = lower price
However, even if the US reduces consumption, the rest of the word particularly China and India and growing rapidly and as we teach them to consume our energy hungry goods the demand increases.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record/Sunday News)
Michelle Obama gives a talk supporting her husband's presidential campaign at the Strand-Capitol Performing Arts Center in York. Candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have have been campaigning hard one week before the Pennsylvania primary.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record/Sunday News
Dina Conzone, a York City School District middle school teacher, encourages her students to sing and dance to math theme songs.
The Toto company of Japan that brought us the nearly impossible to plug toilet, has gone a flush further with the Hybrid Ecology System and Washlet. The high-tech toilet reduces the standard flush to 5.5 liters per flush vs 13 liters for the traditional tank-type.
The $4000 toilet that comes with an electronic control panel also has a cleaning cycle. inventorspot.com
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News)
Nancy Grow, of Manchester, tells a story about her experience as a teacher in a Chicago ghetto in 1968 following the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
Healing York Playback is a spin-off of Healing York Initiative, which was started to address the upheaval that surrounded the 1969 riots in York. The organizers of Playback believe that by having the audience tell true stories of what they've experienced in the community, they will be able to address the issues of race, discrimination and violence in an non-threatening environment.
Chris Fitz. facilitator, said the idea behind Playback theater is that after the audience shares its stories, the ensemble will act the scenes on the spot.
It's no surprise that with high fuel prices and a recession looming that sales of small. fuel efficient cars are up in the first quarter.
.
Within that group, the so-called lower small cars, the smallest and lowest-priced, boomed. Sales were up nearly 27% from last year. "And last year was a strong year," notes Tom Libby at Power Information Network, a unit of consultant J.D. Power and Associates.Standouts: Toyota Yaris (up 70%), Honda Fit (up 61%), Kia Spectra (up 41%). Their starting prices are $12,000 to $14,000. Their mileage ratings are low to mid-30s on the highway. "Yaris — I've never seen a model in that segment with sales that high, ever," Libby says
An analysis of PIN data for USA TODAY showed more owners of small, cheap cars are trading for something similar — 20.8% in the first quarter vs. 17.5% a year ago — instead of moving up in size or price, as they usually do.
More telling: 6% of compact owners traded down in size and price in the first quarter vs. 4.6% a year ago. And 3% of midsize car owners took two steps down, skipping mainstream compacts. usatoday.com/autos
Oil & The Railroad Commission of Texas
The Railroad Commission of Texas provides some insight to the current oil crisis. Back in about 1919 when railroads had all the power in the U.S. by controlling commerce and long-haul transportation routes, the Railroad Commission of Texas took control of their oil crisis.
In 1919, the trains all used coal for the long-haul transportation needs in the U.S., planes weren't seriously flying yet and short-haul trucking more was often a horse attached to a wagon. Cars were for rich people and roads were so bad that you really didn't want to go many places in a Model T Ford. If you lived in York or the surrounding towns, you probably rode an electric trolley to get out of town. The market for oil was growing, but slowly.
Liquid gold was just waiting and plentiful in Texas and those seeking to tap into that reward began drilling. The more they would drill the more the price would crash and the less was the demand. The folks at the Railroad Commission of Texas didn't like the free market system because it hurt their oil investments so the used their power as handlers of the transportation industry of the time to regulate the price of oil.
In 2005, the dwindling regulatory power of the Railroad Commission of Texas over railroads wqs transferred to the Texas Department of Transportation, but they still have a hand in oil and keep statistics. www.rrc.state.tx.us/divisions/og/statistics/
The statistics tell an interesting story. Oil extraction peaked in Texas in about 1970. The current production is less than when they started keeping statistics in 1935. The number of producing wells has dropped every year since 1987.
We can blame the current oil barons all we want, but they just happen to be at the receiving end of the equation; demand has outstripped supply and the price of oil will continue to climb.
The consumer's key tool here is conservation. Kill demand, price falls.
Motor trend test drives a 2008 Subaru diesel. The car will probably not be available in the US until 2009/10 and will get about 50 mpg which is really great considering gasoline powered Subarus aren't known for terribly great mileage.
The question for 2009 remains... what will be the price of diesel? Currently diesel fuel costs more than a dollar more than for unleaded regular. If a gasoline and diesel powered car can both get 45-50mpg, 2009 won't look good for marketing clean diesel cars if there is a $2 difference in the price of fuel.
The price of diesel is expected to continue (wsj.com) European consumers are switching over to more diesels-demand. Developing countries prefer diesel for it's flexibility-demand. The U.S. is the top consumer of diesel in the world and with a somewhat fixed refining capacity, refiners cannot switch from gasoline easily. And switching that capacity would increase the price of gasoline.
Video: Subaru has used it's traditional boxer engine design and applied it to a diesel.
(Paul Kuehnel -York Daily Record / Sunday News)
York College students offer their perspective on voting, the election and the candidates during a visit by Chelsea Clinton to the college's Student Union. Clinton, daughter of President Bill Clinton and presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, arrived to applause in the Spart's Den at the college's Student Union.
(Paul Kuehnel - York Daily Record / Sunday News
Hillary Clinton speaks at a scheduled round table discussion with middle-class families in Harrisburg, while Barack Obama speaks to a crowd 30 miles away in Lancaster. (Paul Kuehnel / York Daily Record / Sunday News)
