January 2009 Archives

When I first started my career in journalism 24 years ago, companies didn't provide diversity training.

During the mid-1990's diversity training became a mandatory element of office life, but it always centered on a black/white, male/female balance.

Dr. Bill Hunter, president of Global Competence Consulting out of Nazareth, Pa. takes a global approach with a goal of making participants "the others". Hunter ran a program this week at Northeastern Senior High School in Manchester, Pa.

The goal today is to make you feel as though you are "the other". "The other" for every one of you is different. You each fit into your own cultural box in some way.

Your kids, my kids need to be ready for the global workforce. And in doing that they're not going to be living in that bubble I grew up in. They're are going to be working in a multi-national, multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-linguistic workforce and if they can't thrive and in fact succeed in that environment they're going to be lost.

--- Dr. Bill Hunter

Save $2 on $8 tickets online. Want to be even more cheap? They stop charging for parking a couple hours before the show closes. The show continues at the PA Farm Show Complex in Harrisburg through Sunday until 9pm each day.

The word "Hybrid" is plastered on many vehicles at the annual show.

There are green hybrid logos, leaves sprouting out of logos and green signs on the carpet. The same technologies as in previous years, but in more models.General Motors has their mild hybrid (a couple mpg more for a small price) on display in the new Malibu.

The GM 2-mode hybrid, that shares engineering with Chrysler, Mercedes-Benz and BMW, is on display. The electric/gasoline hybrid will be available in the Tahoe SUV and Silverado Pickup.

Ford has an interesting cut-a-way of their EcoBoost engine that is a direct injection gasoline engine boosted with turbo that promises a 20% increase in economy.

The Ford Fusion Hybrid is on display. It shares mechanical concepts with the Escape Hybrid and takes on the Toyota Camry Hybrid.

A small SUV/crossover from KIA with a small, 4-cyl common rail diesel engine (CRDi) that is European/Asian? spec that we won't get here, but you can see under the hood.

BMW features a full-size SUV with a new clean diesel that gets 26 mpg.

The weird award goes to the Nissan Cube. A boxy little, yet marshmallow looking car.

I was just pondering huge government stimulus packages while hanging up laundry to help cut my gas bill.

I don't think a stimulus package will work. Once that new bridge is built, the road paved and the workers head home. What happens next?

There will be great pressure on government types; taxpayer supported civil and teacher unions as this thing progresses to take the cuts that that have occurred in the rest of the labor force that supports them. All which leads to less spending and less potential for economic recovery.

Things started going wrong in about 1914 when we went off the gold standard and started printing money. Now $1 is worth about 3 cents.

We traded, outsourced, "stayed the course", and deceived ourselves into a standard of living that wasn't sustainable. And then the world caught up with the plan offering continuously merging companies a huge labor pool working for pennies an hour.

The "free market" is a loosing proposition unless you are the person (the country) where the capital is flowing. China has the upper hand at the moment rolling in a 9% growth, while we wring our hands, throwing taxpayer money at the problem in the last hour and perpetuate ideas already not working.

Wind industry jobs jumped to 85,000 in 2008, a 70% increase year over (American Wind Energy Association).

In contrast, the coal industry employs about 81,000 workers. (2007 U.S. Department of Energy report)

Coal employment has remained steady in recent years though it's down by nearly 50% since 1986.) Wind industry employment includes 13,000 manufacturing jobs concentrated in regions of the country hard hit by the de-industrialization of the past two decades.
cnnmoney.com/greenwombat

Thanks for this review -- I have been pouring over several to see if this is the computer for me. I want an extremely portable device that will allow me to surf the net, watch streaming video, listen/watch music and video files and work with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. Would be nice to add images and photoshop -- but not necessary as I have my desktop as my photography studio.

All of my previous laptops and even my desktop have less than 1GB RAM (256MB and 520MB respectively) so I am thinking despite the reduced hard disk space, this will be an improvement. I can always add memory cards.

Any thoughts you have regarding the compatibility of this computer for my needs would be appreciated.

Review of Dell Inspiron Mini 9 (October 2008)

Over the past four months, I have been using the Dell Inspiron Mini 9 for web based documents/blog/email, still photo manipulation/transmitting and I have attempted to harness it for editing video.

I bought it as a low cost (motorcycle laptop) that would be less likely to be damaged by vibration (no mechanical hard drive) and would have a better risk/loss ratio than my expensive laptop.

The nice part about running Windows XP is that it's compatible with everything. I can browse swiftly with Firefox and Google Chrome or anything else I desire to download. It takes my Verizon broadband modem and has built in WIFI.

It will stream video content like any Windows XP computer. The speakers are smaller and less robust than with most laptops but adequate for personal listening. There are jacks for headphones and mic. With the headphones the volume is comparable to any laptop.

I used it as a backup laptop to edit/transmit photos last week from the Inauguration where I needed 17 hours of reserve power and had no ability to charge. I have not used Photoshop on the Dell Mini 9, but use the free image editing program GIMP

The Obama administration is reconsidering California's plan to increase the fuel economy of cars sold in the Golden State and 13 others to 35 miles per gallon by 2016.

The Toyota Prius, Honda Civic Hybrid and Smart Fortwo are currently the only cars with an EPA combined rating of better than 35 mpg. Later this year, the Ford Fusion Hybrid and Honda Insight will join the list. foxnews.com

US history of vehicle efficiency (epa.gov)
1. a rapid increase from 1975 through the early 1980s, (Arab Oil embargo)
2. a slower increase until reaching its peak in 1987,
3. a gradual decline until 2004 (17 years of decline)
4. an increase beginning in 2005. (Spike in fuel prices)

Market share for large pickups started at 12.3 percent at the start of 2008, fell to 9.3 percent in May as gasoline became expensive, and rose to 13.8 percent in November, as fuel slipped back to 2001 prices. In January, large pickup trucks led all other categories in consumer consideration, as gauged by searches on Edmunds.com.

"The pickup truck is a uniquely American invention, so for those with an impulse toward nationalism it's kind of a natural way ... to endorse American consumerism in a tough environment," says Allen Jones, a Bozeman, Mont., novelist (csmonitor.com)

U.S. sales of gasoline-electric hybrids fell 9.9 percent in 2008, after rising with gasoline prices early in the year and falling along with fuel costs and a collapsing auto market at the end. (autonews.com)

It a marriage of heavy incentives, the love for pickups and cheap gas that consumers find irresistible.

It's a strange short-term memory, consumer condition.

I followed a retired York police officer (1968-91) and his daughter on a 17 hour odyssey through the millions who gathered to welcome President Barack Obama.

Although they had tickets, their efforts fell short of the grand theater.

As we walked away, a group gathered around a car with open doors. White people, black people, a soldier, a lady sat on the cold granite curb with her dog - some seated, some leaning into the car to get closer.

The muted reverberation of amplified reality bouncing from ancient granite buildings mixed with the soft tinniness of the Ford's dashboard radio.

A melting pot with the flavor of an FDR radio moment listening to President Obama say,

"...of our prosperity, on the ability extent opportunity to every willing heart, not out of charity but because it is the surest route to our common good..."

2009 Baltimore Boat Show's Green Boating Zone
Wednesday, January 21 through Sunday, January 25, 2009.

Green Boating tips from the National Marine Manufacturers Association

1. Choose Green Products: Use the cleanest maintenance products that do the job. Look for the EPA-certified "Design for the Environment" DfE label, which assures you that the product has minimal environmental impact and is safer for the person using it.

Benefit: Safer products. Reduce water pollution.

2. Use The Right Prop: Use a prop with the right pitch so your engine reaches its designed wide-open-throttle RPM. An adjustable-pitch ProPulse propeller allows you to dial in the optimum pitch angle in single degrees. Modular props, like the Quicksilver Flo-Torq II series, let you swap props while keeping the same hub. Product: ProPulse propeller (A West Marine Exclusive).

Benefit: Reduce fuel consumption, improve performance.

3. Don't Push Water: Install and use trim tabs or hydrofoils such as those offered by Bennett, Nauticus and StingRay. Most planing powerboats can improve hole-shot acceleration or reduce fuel consumption with properly adjusted trim tabs and hydrofoils. Keeping on a plane at lower engine RPMs can extend your range and reduce your time on passages.

Benefit: Improve boat performance & save gas.

High above the top hats and formal attire, recycled denim is hard at work as a sound cushion in this vast enclosed courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. The ceiling is packed with recycled denim to help pad the bouncing sound from all the stone surfaces.

The four-member Susquehanna Travellers from York County perform Sunday night at the Lincoln 2.0 Inaugural Ball at the Smithsonian American Art Museum -- the same building where Abraham Lincoln's second inauguration was held.

Neighborhoods everywhere have experienced transformations similar to Chrystal Sexton-McEachin's Chestnut Street neighborhood in York, Pa., and recently, the Golden Globe-nominated movie "Gran Torino" dramatized some of the challenges that result.

Since moving more than 25 years ago to her home on the 100 block of North Pine, Sexton has observed a neighborhood in flux. Her community organizing work has focused on bridging differences.

The Volkswagen Polo is in it's fourth generation in Europe. A small car is a reincarnated idea for the German manufacturer that has continually upscaled and up-priced here in the U.S positioning itself as an upscale niche' brand.

VW made the announcement at the Detroit Auto Show

VW development chief Ulrich Hackenberg said the automaker plans to sell the car in the U.S. to take advantage of American buyers' increasing enthusiasm for smaller, fuel-efficient cars.

"The small-car segment is the fastest growing segment in the U.S.," autonews.com

Let me see if i have this straight.

I bailout Bank of America because I am told they are so large my future is threatened if they fail. They take my money and pay some people $20mil for bad advice and buy more bad investments and then I have to give them more money so they don't fail.

It sounds like the time I pulled my account from Merrill and they charged me $75 to fire them.

Chemotherapy for banks: Taking my chances with a depression is starting to sound like a more fruitful investment decision to stop these people from bleeding taxpayers.

Bank of America's reported plea for more federal help has dealt another black eye to both the banking sector and the badly bruised financial advisory business.

Shares of Charlotte-based Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) plunged 15% Thursday after earlier hitting a 14-year low. According to several news reports, the government is likely to be forced to provide BofA with a new round of taxpayer funding - including billions of dollars in loan guarantees - to stem losses tied to the bank's acquisition of Merrill Lynch.

BofA already has received $25 billion, including $10 billion as part of the Merrill Deal, from the Treasury Department via the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.

What's more, the bank's shareholders paid the advisers $20 million for the opinions - which the firms formulated after investigating Merrill Lynch's condition over a single, hectic weekend. (Fortune.com - 1/15)

I keep looking at the turnpike leasing deal in retrospect and try to envision where the deal would be if it had fallen into the Citi money machine.
(The process - greenmesh 6/2008-10/2008)

Our choice was a blind, one-track business model designed to make money or government inefficiency.

Even with tolls recently rising on the turnpike, the consumer got the better deal with keeping things status quo for now.

Tolls would have gone up anyway. Citi recently sent out interest rate increases to consumer card holders after receiving federal money designed to help ease credit. (greenmesh 12/14)

News on Citigroup, one of the investors courting the turnpike last fall...

Vikram Pandit may soon be forced to carve up Citi to plug the hole in its balance sheet from what could be as much as $150 billion in toxic assets.

The changes now afoot contradict what CEO Vikram Pandit has been telling the market for months--that he wouldn't split up Citi. But as the economic and credit climate has deteriorated, the government--Citi's largest shareholder, with a 7% stake--is likely nudging Pandit to shift his strategy and raise more capital. And the 52-year-old executive has little choice but to follow orders. businessweek.com (1/14)

Turning over the turnpike to private investment was supposed to turn profit potential into quick cash for government. How quickly did that turn around into government giving Citi taxpayer money after Citi failed to make sound long-term business decisions. We were then told that these banks owned so much that it sentenced the taxpayer to doom if they failed.

Citi has been told by government to raise cash by selling pieces of it's vast holdings.

You have to wonder what kind of decisions Citi would have made concerning the turnpike's long-term lease... bridge repairs, safety concerns; retaining the value of the investment in the final years of the lease deal.

The irony of all this is that doing business like this has poisoned the trust of the same consumers (investors) who brought these businesses great wealth and is the fuel that will burn them away along with my 401-K.

Baltimore Boat Show at the Baltimore Convention Center
Wednesday, January 21 through Sunday, January 25, 2009.

The Green Boating Zone will feature eco-friendly boats and accessories, including hybrid boats and products that reduce water and air pollutants.

Featured manufactuer Torqeedo, was awarded start-up company of the year, producing ultra-lightweight, foldable, strong electric outboard motors.

Torqeedo produces lithium-manganese battery systems which allow increased energy density over heavy lead batteries and improved cold operating performance. The batteries also aren't subject to memory effect and according to the manufacturer are more resistant to a reduction of charge capacity over time.

Read on for Baltimore Boat Show schedule.

Nolt's Excavating, of Lancaster County, has begun slowly dismantling the 146-year-old Felton Mill on Main Street in Felton, Pennsylvania. The project should take one month.

Josh Nolt said that "there is alot of value in the wood that's here, and material, and we are going to save as much as possible rather than sending to the salvage yard or put it to waste"

The borough, which has owned the building since 2001, was forced to vacate the former grist mill three years ago when officials learned the historic landmark was structurally unsound.

Toyota displayed the FT-EV concept vehicle at the Detroit Auto Show. The electric vehicle shares the same platform of Toyota's new four-seater iQ, a small, fuel-efficient car designed for city driving launched in Japan last year. The car is scheduled for launch here in 2012.

Ford said it will have a small electric car ready for launch in 2011 that would get 100 miles to a charge, as well as a plug-in hybrid by 2012. It also will offer an electric commercial van in 2010.
reuters.com

West York's 2008 football team might be the best team in the school's history -- if not the best team ever to come out of York County.

That's how Ron Miller, the Bulldogs' head coach, described his squad Sunday during a pep rally at the school after a parade through West York.

Honda Motor Co will begin selling the Insight, the first of its next generation low-cost hybrid cars, in Japan in February, followed by launches in Europe and the United States in March and April.

The model on display at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit this week has listed mileage of 40 miles per gallon in city driving and 43 mpg on the highway.

But Yasunari Seki, the Insight's chief engineer, said it has proven potential of as much as 72 mpg, or about 30 km/litre, aided by an "eco-lamp" color meter that goes from shades of blue to green to prompt fuel-efficient driving.

"We had a contest for journalists test-driving it on a course last month and the winner got 72 mpg," Seki told Reuters ahead of the auto show, which opened to the press on Sunday. reuters

The car will arrive here this Spring.

A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae.

The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said.

One of its engines was powered by a 50-50 blend of biofuel and normal aircraft fuel.

Group of us in my home town started the Emigsville Heritage Project as a way to touch base with the roots that made a small town work.

The same fibers that are gradually tearing away with the blur of regionalization, consolidation and globalization. The responsibilities that linked people together as they would strive to build better lives and that made them accountable to each other and themselves.

An excerpt from a recent Emigsville Story night with Sterling Krout. emigsville.org

It was very, very nice coming to Emigsville because in 1942 dad went to an auction to buy a house on Main Street (North George Street) and I was with him that day. It was a two story house, it had four bedrooms, it had a bath, and running water. Dad had $2,500 in his pocket.

Well the bidding didn't last longer than 10 minutes and dad was off the bidding already, but there was a man standing right next to dad and he whispered to him and to this day I have no idea who that man was, but he said, "Albert if you want the house, I will give you the money for the rest of the house above the $2500. Well, the house went for $4000 and dad bought the house.

We were out of bed at 5 o'clock in the morning to bring the newspapers to everyone in Emigsville..no fear of walking the streets at 5 Gary will tell you a few that he had. I didn't even think of fear at that time, but nevertheless it was dark it was 5 o'clock in the morning, no street lights, no sidewalks, no cars. Actually the road was 22 feet across, from North York to Emigsville not much for cars to pass.

Every morning six days a week we would wait for the truck to bring the papers from York that were delivered to Emigsville, Manchester, Mount Wolf and I guess York Haven. It was a precious cargo it could not get wet. There were 90 newspapers brother Gary and I had to deliver every morning and we were happy to do that.

I wasn't aware that we were bringing the news of the world to Emigsville because everyone relied on the newspaper and the guys that were going to work in York they wanted their newspaper early and they wanted to read it before they went to work.

The newspaper to brother Gary and I were special because the newspaper went between the screen door and the regular door. The first thing you learned was that you did not slam the screen door at 5 O'clock in the morning. (laughing from audience) If you did you can bet someone would tell dad and dad would be right back to you.

The newspapers were used for everything...sometimes you shared them with the person next door. Can anybody help me with the price of the newspaper? (Voice from audience) Five cents.

I started to think about it. The newspaper was used for everything. Geraldine will tell me for sure. Mom lined the cupboards with newspaper. Newspapers were put in your peach basket, to put the things up in the attic. Mom used the newspapers in the pantry because when she had the canned items and the peaches and vegetables, you would put them on the newspaper with that date on it and then those were the ones that you would use first, the oldest date.

Mom would wash up the linoleum floor and then she would put newspaper on the floor after it was washed. It was just a ritual that everybody did. It kept the floor clean a day or two longer and then you would pick it up and so on.

As Randon Feinsod, a veterinarian with Ani-Care Animal Hospital in York Township, and Johanna Hanlon, a veterinary technician, washed and examined a 9-foot reticulated python on Monday, the prognosis appeared good.

"This one looks pretty good," Feinsod said.

The same couldn't be said for the other snake that made the trip from New York City to the local area over the weekend.

Officials found a Burmese python in field in Brooklyn, N.Y. that they first took for dead.

During the Great Depression, the Miles Bank in Delta, Pennsylvania collapsed and closed. People lost their jobs. Times were lean. The bank had been in existence since 1890.

The building again saw jobs and prosperity as an early "tech center".

Operators working for The Delta Telephone Exchange and later under the York Telephone and Telegraph Company were busy switching calls for the thriving quarry industry in the area.

Delta was famous for it's decorative green marble and hard slate that lasted on roofs for a century.

Manually placed calls and people pushing jacks into a control board gave way to the rotary dial and eventually the push button phone with computerized central switching. Jobs were lost and an industry changed.

The inventive minds that created technology that gave new life to the building also took it away.

Today, ReConnect, a cafe', gallery & spa, calls the building home. It's a place where locals and curious visitors can experience an independent Main Street eatery with healthy food and good conversation for the same price as a burger combo at a chain store.

The old bank building tells an ongoing story of transition between success, devastation and rebirth.

Businesses like ReConnect hold a key to rebuilding the U.S. economy.

Small Main Street businesses, with faces that you can see in your community that you can make a judgment to trust or not to trust; giving you a service you can see, invest in, nurture, care about and watch your money work in your community.

The consumer is given the opportunity to endorse a Main Street business based on first hand knowledge of their practices and not be held hostage by a huge monopoly that fixes prices and then needs taxpayer bailout money because it has become so large it's failure will doom our existence.

Globalism, monopolies and people without morals grabbing money will always be part of a free market landscape and so will consumers with the potential to change that landscape with the choices they make.

ReConnect is on my short list for a motorcycle ride through the rolling farmland of southern York County.

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