The Holiday Art Tree is back in town at the intersection of Philadelphia and Beaver Streets in York. This year's theme is winter sports. Donated articles will be cleaned and given to charity when the tree comes down.
The tree brings awareness to recycling and tends to evolve over the holiday season as people take and leave items.
In previous years, the tree hosted junk dredged from the Codorus Creek and recycled Christmas gifts.
As local artist Pat Sells says it's mostly to "make people smile".
I was driving through Virginia today and filled up at $1.65 a gallon
Columbia gas announced a 20% rate reduction starting next month in response to a lower wholesale price for natural gas. ydr.com
A cooler summer, a warmer start to fall and an overall erosion of the commodities market due to the expectation of a weak economy have helped lower the price.
The last time gasoline sold for around $1.65 in York was around December 2003.
A thrift store that helps all veterans who left the military with anything other than an honorable discharge, by selling furniture and other household items and providing a place of employment for homeless veterans.
Carlos Cartagena walked on the broken glass and burnt ceiling tiles strewn on the hardwood floor of what was once his family's home in York.
Periodically, he stopped to sift through the rubble to see what he could salvage.
As he walked through the three-story row house, he would often praise God for saving his wife and five children Monday afternoon from a fast-moving fire in York
Ford has added the tweaked power train from the Escape Hybrid to the Fusion/Milan sedans.
How about 39 mpg city and a light foot bringing in 47 mpg. Ford happily notes that is at least 6 m.p.g. better than the arch rival Toyota Camry Hybrid. nyt.com
Workers from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation waded through the North Branch Bermudian Creek near the Adams County line Monday morning to learn exactly how a steel one-lane bridge collapsed into the creek Sunday evening.
State police said a drunken driver crashed his work truck into the Washington Township bridge on Ridge Road about 7 p.m.
Or at least one house is 55 degrees on the second floor.
Green Car Journal named Volkswagen's 2009 Jetta TDI as the "Green Car of the Year" at the Los Angeles Auto Show on Thursday, making it the first clean-diesel vehicle to win the prize. (AP)
VW has managed to build a diesel that it is able to pass emissions in all 50 states with slick technology that doesn't need urea injection.
Awards are somewhat subjective and a blanket designation of "green" to a vehicle doesn't always apply to everyone's interpretation of green. Last year, Green Car Journal presented the award to General Motors Corp.'s hybrid Chevrolet Tahoe, which is huge and barely tops 20 mpg.
The application of the vehicle can alter it's ability to perform as a green tool. If you are sitting in mind numbing commuter traffic, a hybrid will probably return superior mileage to the TDI. However, on the open road for it's size and ability to provide torque and power, a modern diesel wins.
A volatile fuel market continues to make for a difficult projection of costs. Diesel continues to run about $1 more a gallon than gasoline in most places, making the pay-off for diesel propulsion longer than with a gas burner that gets the same mileage.
How about a Mini Cooper diesel that gets 50 city / 67 highway and drives like a slot car. Once you are pushing 70 mpg, who cares if the fuel is a dollar more.
MINI Cooper D - 65 MPG Diesel Dream
"Recession" has been the unspeakable word for months, though most of us have known it as reality for quite some time. It was whispered between the words of stories and secretly referred to in the code words embedded in business charts.
This week the big three auto execs jetted in on their private planes with golden cup in hand pleading for a bail out from you and me via our money managers in Washington.
To date, our money managers can't agree on how to give them our tax dollars to do what hasn't been accomplished with the free market. All the solutions seem treacherous.
Congress is somewhat agreeable to sending them home on the jets with the loot and the Bush administration wants the money to come out of a fund that was designated to help domestic manufacturers retool to make more efficient cars.
It doesn't make sense to trade in our future lean burning technology to plug a few more holes in a business model that isn't working. Then again, it didn't make sense to throw billions taxpayer dollars into a credit market that doesn't seem to be working only to watch the folks at AIG run with it to the spa.
I'm at peace with the idea that I am supposed to live more like a worker in China or India as the global money flows away from me. Do more with less if that's the hand you are dealt.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner, whose flight reportedly cost $20,000 round-trip -- about 70 times more than a commercial airline ticket -- told Congress he expected about $10-$12 billion from the requested bailout. foxnews.com
Savings tip for the auto execs:
When you come asking me for money, fly in on a commercial flight. A nice seat in coach costs $540 round trip according to usairways.com
The kiosk that served York when trolleys ran the streets has been reconstructed by the Kinsley Education Center. Kinsley and the city are hoping to get some community support to get copper roof replaced.
York once had a county wide electric rail mass transit system.
York's street railway is a dream of tomorrow
(greenmesh 7/2006)
General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner's salary and other compensation rose 64 percent in 2007 to about $15.7 million. reuters.com
GM reported a record $39 billion net loss in 2007. reuters.com
Wagoner will be receiving a $4.6M retirement package, courtesy of a Supplemental Executive Retirement Plan that has been set up for him. This plan comes from funding that is separate from GM's vastly underfunded pension plan, and is said to be payable even if GM files for bankruptcy autoblog.com
Toyota's CEO Hiroshi Okuda made $903K in 2006. Toyota's top 37 executives earned a combined $21.6 million in salary and bonuses.
At Honda, the top 21 earned $11.1 million, combined, in salary and bonuses, SEC filings show. abc.com
GM is seeking taxpayer loans or else threatens the economy with bankruptcy while holding it's massive network of dealers, suppliers and millions of employees that run everything hostage while Toyota and Honda CEO's have been methodically taking over a free market with competitive products at a fraction of GM's CEO management cost.
It's a showdown between a lame-duck US Congress, President Bush and the incoming Obama administration.
Can you kill the cancer without killing the patient and will a few who hold the cards continue to kill the inspiration to succeed with their greed.
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission recently approve a 6% rate increase for Columbia Gas.
I reduced my natural gas bill over 45%. A net profit for me and a reduction in the use of a precious resource.
My estimated gas bill for this month was to be $85.83 based on November 2007 usage. My actual bill for November 2008 is $55.90 and that includes four extra days added to that amount so the usage so the bill is actually lower.
Dave Rudolph, the city's electrical bureau superintendent, said 3,000 LED lights will be placed on the tree. That's 500 more than what was used last year.
The city switched to the more efficient lights to save money on its electric bill, Rudolph said. Last year, the city saved about $700.
It also used to cost the city $300 a season for replacement bulbs. The LED bulbs have a ten year lifespan
As petroleum gas prices soared out of control the concept of using corn based ethanol almost started to make sense.
It was cheaper than gas and although highly subsidized with our tax dollars and getting fewer miles per gallon than gasoline, it might have been considered a substitute.
A few miles down the road from this gas station in Spring Grove, Pa., petroleum diesel was selling for seven cents cheaper than biodiesel.
In mid-October, a thief got away with $2,700 in cash, $3,000 in checks, a Wii video-game system, and other small items during a robbery, according to Northeastern Regional Police.
The seniors are starting to relax a bit," Davis, the center's executive director, said Monday.
"It's just like robbing your grandparents, basically," Davis said
Gorden Sheriff, of Hellam Township, is awarded the Meritorious Service Award during the Veterans Day Program at the York Expo Center
Home from Iraq, Cale Adams, of York Township, is reunited with his cherished Jeep after his family, friends and Adams Jeep brought it back to a life better than it has ever known.
Giant Bicycle, Inc., of Newbury Park, CA, has called it's battery/motor assisted bicycle "hybrid" because unlike a vehicle solely propelled by an electric motor, the Giant Hybrid is designed to sense when you need some help and provide stored electrical energy.
The concept enhances the nature of riding a bike without taking over and making you totally lazy.
The unit uses two Lithium Ion batteries that can get you up to 70 miles.
Think gas free commuter when you might consider a scooter.
Nice review in wired.com 11/08
The federal tax credit to spur demand and development of hybrids is dwindling. The credit was tied to the number of units sold by a given manufacturer. The credit on Toyota's Prius (46 mpg) ran out last year. Now the federal government is phasing out the same incentives on Honda's Civic Hybrid (42 mpg).
Hybrid tax incentives start to go away when a car maker sells its 60,000th alternative-fuel vehicle.
Manufacturers currently offering full tax credits for their hybrids include:
The article notes that these hybrids get between 27-34 mpg.
It would still take about nine and a half years to recoup the Altima hybrid's premium at the pump. But that time frame would balloon to16 years without the tax credit. With gas at $4 a gallon, it would take about seven years.
So with gas currently at $2 a gallon, buying a hybrid (with the surcharge) without the tax credit, the pay back may exceed the life of the car. We all know gas won't be $2 for the next decade.
When I bought my Civic Hybrid in 2004, there was a four digit federal tax incentive. Since I have owned the car and driven it 71,000 miles there have been no repairs other than oil changes and filters. Over the past four years gasoline has gone from $2 to $4 and back again. I consistently get 45 mpg, with spikes above 50 on long trips.
With my factors considered to date, the hybrid has saved me money, reduced the trade deficit a couple dollars and deprived a few oil producing entities a few dollars of profit.
Greenmesh commenter JO passed along a Wall Street Journal blog posting,
Not So Green: Voters Nix Most Environmental State Ballot Measures
Measures flopped in a sea of complication and fear of the unrealistic, other than one in Missouri that sets out to gradually increase the use of renewable energy to 15% by 2021
Forced government mandates served up in politically manipulated environment of an election are the doom of renewable energy.
People have to want to innovate starting with their own life.
The Volkswagen's tiny Up! Concept appeared at the Frankfurt Auto show last year.
This car is even smaller with a a 1.0L three-cylinder diesel making 50 hp.
That is scooter territory, only you get a roof and a heater.
photos
autoblog.com
Voters stream into an Manchester Township polling place at 7 a.m., reflect on the election and share a moment in history.
Keeping true to his Eagle Scout designation, Brandon Putman, head groundskeeper for the Revolution, set an example for Tyler Dreisbach, working to attain the rank, by renovating Central York High School's baseball field.
A man who recently lost his job killed his family before killing himself. John David Goodman, 39, shot his wife, Julia, 39, and the couple's 2-year-old son, Langon, before killing himself at their home.
My house and almost every house has a heat pump system built in, in fact, the heat pump design built into my house is centuries old.
"Heat pumps" use freon, a compressor and electronics to transfer heat between the inside and outside of your house. In the case of a geothermal system, between the ground and the inside of your home.
I keep my house at about 60 degrees and the upstairs drops into the high 50's (shut off a zone and closed doors). On Fall days like today (67 degrees at the moment), I open all the windows and the basement door during the day and the heat pumps into the house using the natural forces of nature. The stone in the basement absorbs in the heat during the day. The basement, built into a hillside, has a ground floor door.
Likewise in the summer, I use a small attic fan to pull cool air up and through my house at night evacuating the hottest attic air first and then close the windows during the day. The well insulated windows and walls hold temperatures. I like fresh air and hate air conditioning.
Older home designs are usually quite green in their structural design although modern insulating materials weren't available. The least efficient home design is the sprawling single story ranch with massive wall and roof areas (increases water run-off too) that radiate heat. The non-centralized living design doesn't take advantage of concentrating the heat we generate in cooking, appliances and lighting.
My small, 2 1/2 story row house has a shared common brick firewall that allows heat from my neighbor's house and common chimney to radiate three stories into my house. Stacked floors reduce outside wall surface area and concentrate the heat generated by normal living.
In the Summer, corner rooms with tall windows allow air flow and the ability to vent from the top and bottom of the window. Corner rooms with multiple windows allow airflow. The tall narrow nature of the structure allows a natural chimney effect though attic windows channeling heat up and out in summer. Lower floors are far away from the hot attic.
