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I once heard an electrical utility use the marketing phrase, "Electric heat is 100% efficient"

The logic is that 100% of the energy available at a heating element becomes heat. The amount of energy lost to get that heat out of the heating element from the energy source is hard to quantify.

Electrical energy begins as a fuel source or renewable, transformed into heat, then motion or converted (solar cells) and is pushed though wires. The efficiency rapidly deteriorates.

I was looking at the specs of a 1997 all electric Chevy S-10. The system efficiency is 73%.

Electrical energy is converted to chemical storage in batteries and then converted back to the motor. Some electric vehicle motors are liquid cooled. This is because the heat generated in the motor must be carried away and that is energy not going to the wheels.

I came across a conventional thermal electricity production efficiency table for European power plants from 1990-2004 (ims.eionet.europa.eu) The average efficiency was 38%.

Think of your home heating system that is converting heat from fuel (running at 60%-95% efficiency), only you have to heat that water to high temperature steam and push a turbine with it loosing efficiency along the way.

Transmission and distribution losses of electricity in the USA were estimated at 7.2% in 1995 (climatetechnology.gov)

My fat cat is more efficient at gathering sunlight than a thin cat. She is 100% efficient at annoying me to get out on the deck for energy capture.

None of this is really scientific, but if you started with 38% efficiency from the power plant then subtract 7.2% from transmission and distribution, then plug it into a vehicle that is 73% efficient, there isn't much of the original energy of the raw fuel to move the vehicle.

To be fair, the efficiency of a gasoline powered vehicle is about 12%, Much of the energy of gasoline is lost in heat and friction, plus we can't forget the energy exerted to refine the fuel.

The value of an electric vehicle is more determined by the energy source.

If you live in Quebec, where over 90% of your energy is produced by hydro or if you are fueled by a solar grid, inefficiency is irrelevant.

Sunshine and flowing water will release their energy regardless of whether we capture it, waste is irrelevant unless you are trying to catch more.

The efficiency (and value) of electric cars should be graded by how well we use renewable resources before electrical energy ever reaches the vehicle, otherwise we are just wasting fossil fuel by converting, transmitting and storing it's energy.

I have touched on algae biofuel over the past few years, but the recent cross-country trip of the Algaeus brings attention to a biofuel that makes more sense in the long run than ethanol, biodiesel, or purely electric vehicles that burden the power grid.

The biggest problem with producing ethanol from corn and biodiesel from soy is that from the start you have a crop that takes all season to grow and then places a demand on the food stream. It generally takes more energy to produce these fuels than is extracted. Switchgrass, when used to make ethanol, still takes a season to grow.

A promising future:

• Algae grows very quickly (doubling overnight) and can be cultivated in places where crops won't grow.


• It is not a food crop that is currently a traded commodity.


• It has an appetite for carbon dioxide


• Processing and distribution uses existing infrastructure.


• The end product is gasoline that can be burned by older vehicles

About a trillion of our yearly national debt is due to a trade imbalance created by importing fossil fuels.

The U.S. has spent
...
importing fossil fuel.(zfacts.com)

ExxonMobil expects to spend more than $600,000,000 on an algea fuel project.

While some people retire into a motor home built on a bus chassis pulling a Chevy Suburban, George Bombardier has spent the past 11 years touring the country in a golf cart.

The 68-year-old retired roofer even sleeps in the Club Car golf cart powered by a used 300 cc Kawasaki generator engine.

Taking my vacations on a motorcycle over the past nine years, I understand Bombardier's storytelling zest.

"You really get to see the country," he said, "including things you don't want to see, like tornadoes and things like that. You don't want to see one of those, I'll tell you. Not up close."

He has also been through the the Holland Tunnel into New York City, because they wouldn't let him take the cart on the Staten Island Ferry, and to Washington D.C. because he wanted to see where the president lives.

It takes him about 10-20 days to cross the United States mostly on small roads, but that seems to be the point of traveling for Bombardier.

He's had open heart surgery, and he died three times on the table, or at the hospital. And now he has a machine in his chest that powers his heart.

Bombardier will delight in his stories about facing death with the same sense of adventure that he brings to his life.

So if you see a golf cart buzzing around York that looks like a tiny red 57' Chevy that's been through a few too many adventures, its just on the way to the next adventure.

I watched a solar panel installation on a Springfield Township home by ASCOM Electric of Dover, Pa. today.

It's an interesting relationship between industry and home businesses.

To live off the grid using solar power is impractical in Pennsylvania. We don't get enough sun and battery storage is expensive and has a shelf life of about five years.

However, using the existing power grid as your "battery" is a very efficient way to buffer your personal power source and feed back into the grid during times of peak demand.

For the electrical utility, as well as other taxpayers who pay for tax credits, these solar home businesses help add watt by watt to the renewable content of the larger power grid.

After an eight year payoff for this system, the rest of the 25+ year lifespan of the system means a profit for the home solar business.

The system will produce 9.8 kilowatts during peak sunshine.

It started with a man restoring an antique biplane.

With his young son, the man flew that plane across the United States and they shared our national treasures sleeping in fields beneath her wings.

The restoration turned into a niche business and a departure from corporate jobs for the father and son. The dream became sustenance.

The sustenance became a career.

Operating out of a nondescript building in Emigsville, Pa., the pair built perfection and preserved their moment in history for others.

Recently, the pair received a call from a customer that one of their restorations had won international recognition as a grand champion in the antique category at a prestigious show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

It's the ecology of souls - an American dream.

See full story in the York Daily Record "Flying High"

Walter Reed waits for a heart transplant, but he didn't wait any longer to marry his long-time girlfriend Candy Seitz at Sovereign Bank Stadium in York.

There is a strange reflection looking out my mirror, the one I usually reflect on others at an angle so that only I can see and interpret.

York Daily Record correspondent Teresa McMinn recently observed me tweeting.

I looked back to make sure my photographer, Paul Kuehnel, hadn't been gobbled up by a snapping turtle or some other wild beast along the wetlands path while on assignment at a butterfly survey earlier this month.

LED lights for home lighting are appearing everywhere, but mostly packaged in arrays of smaller bulbs that look like an old Tandy science experiment kit.

Coming across a built from scratch, high output (single source) General Electric GU10 track light bulb in Walmart is a sign that the technology is evolving and going mainstream.

My halogen track light bulbs consume 50 watts each. A single GE LED bulb uses 4 watts. Of course, the LED bulb doesn't quite have the light output (it's close). The color temperature is great, almost matching a halogen track light.

An LED bulb is a highly efficient semiconductor as opposed to the simple heated wire in a halogen bulb, so the interaction with dimmers can be unpredictable. I'm surprised it even works at all with the Lutron dimmer.

Using a Lutron Maestro electronic dimmer, I was able to get the GE LED light to dim like a halogen bulb when combined with halogen bulbs. Alone, the LED bulb didn't function properly. It just stayed on during the whole dimming cycle. I would have to guess that the power demand of the bulb is so low that it is below the minimum load of the dimmer to make it function.

@paulkuehnel http://greenmesh.com/ LED bulb dimming experiment cycles interact w/ vid camera fon http://myvid.me/bzII

@paulkuehnel http://greenmesh.com/ LED light falling on a moving fan will reveal the cycling of light http://myvid.me/bzVw

I sent email to GE asking about the ability of a dimmer circuit to handle the bulb and am still waiting for a reply. There isn't any information on the GE lighting website about this bulb, though they appear to refer to components used in the bulb.

The GE LED bulb also cost me $24, so large scale experimenting with LED bulbs and my Lutron dimmer is costly.

It's interesting to note that 12, 4 watt LED bulbs equal the load of one 50 watt halogen track light bulb.

It is also interesting to note that if I were to turn on all 20, 50 watt halogen bulbs in my downstairs track lights, I would be consuming 1000 watts, while 20 LED bulbs would consume only 80 watts.

It's easy to see how multiplying the energy savings power, plus a lifespan eight times the halogen bulb can add up.

It also made me conscious that of a good power spike could possible damage $480 worth of light bulbs. Maybe it's time for a whole house surge protector.

Sharp is introducing a variable color temperature and dimming LED bulb ( via a remote)

It's been ten months since I put my nuclear powered clothes drier into action. Since then, I have used my monopoly powered clothes drier twice during an extended rainy period when going naked would have been the only alternative.

My natural gas bill for June 2009 was $34.5 and my electric bill $31.5.

Aside from saving a lot of money and taking a moment to enjoy the outdoors each week in ritualistic meditation, I have come to the conclusion that the sun is a great stain remover.

After washing these kaki shorts one day, I realized that some tomato sauce that I forgot to spot was lingering. Three hours in the direct sun and the stain was gone.

Lemon juice can accelerate the sun's stain fighting potential.

The Hanover made Fitz Waterwheel at the Wallace-Cross Mill historic site in East Hopewell Township brought new efficiency to 19th century water power.

According to tour guide Wayne Spyker, the buckets of the wheel allowed the weight of the trapped water to carry the wheel a full 180 degrees.

The Fitz wheel could more efficiently trap energy from falling water and turn it into usable energy. In this way, a 19th century mill could do more work with less water.

The Fitz wheel also had the advantage of less splash than a traditional wooden wheel that resulted in less ice buildup locking the wheel in winter.

There is some irony that the wheel, installed in 1922, is now demonstrated with with an electric pump powered by a regional electrical monopoly that pushes electric power many miles through wires probably generated by a combination of coal, nuclear, and perhaps a little bit of water

It would be very difficult with the current population load and the resulting need for government control of waterways to just harness the power of a stream in your backyard.

Some men have life-changing experiences in their youth. Others spend their lives dreaming. A few have the opportunity to work through these moments later in life.

In Fawn Township, a group of retirees is turning discarded aviation memories into working studies of history.

Some men have life-changing experiences in their youth. Others spend their lives dreaming. A few have the opportunity to work through these moments later in life.

In Fawn Township, a group of retirees is turning discarded aviation memories into working studies of history.

Jack Kosko flew 18 missions in a Grumman TBM Avenger as a radioman during World War II.

"It took me out there and brought me back," Kosko said of the Avenger.

One of the planes made a bad landing on the aircraft carrier USS Langley. Kosko salvaged an altimeter and voltmeter before the bomber was pushed into the sea.

Today, the first Avenger Kosko ever restored still flies at the Mid-Atlantic Air Museum in Reading, carrying those gauges with it.

Kosko owns the Fawn Township property where the group gathers about twice a week to restore the old planes.

One of the men, Bill Butler, remembers how his father, a naval aviator during WWII, would take him to air shows.

"I can't fly, and I like to watch," said the Sykesville, Md., resident of the hobby, "so this is my big chair."

Frank Darney, of Jefferson, was an Air Force mechanic during WWII and with the Maryland National Guard for almost 40 years.

"We never had to do much with these planes back then other than daily inspections," he said.

While working to reconstruct the bomber doors of the group's second Avenger, Darney said, "This gives me something to look forward to."

Progress here isn't measured by time. It can take more than five years to reconstruct a vintage aircraft. But as Kosko will tell you when you meet him, "There are no problems, only challenges."

I met four people this weekend that define peace.

William Jenkins, a WWII draftee, found himself in a German POW camp for his 19th birthday. He came home to Hanover and married a German woman.

Dalea Lynn's house was gutted by a fire and her husband was killed by police while in their custody in Springettsbury Township. She likes her Wrightsville neighborhood and has a poster on her front lawn supporting the local police.

James Abram, of South Carolina, and Bill Hoff, a resident of Jefferson, became lifelong friends in 1966 while fighting the Vietnam War. Sunday, the two men were followed by a combined family of 28 people.

Small, efficient, and the ability to condense data packages and hardware saving consumers time, energy, and money.

Worldwide mobile phone sales totaled 269.1 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a 9.4 per cent decrease from the first quarter of 2008. Smartphone sales surpassed 36.4 million units, a 12.7 per cent increase from the same period last year. cellular-news.com

Hewlett-Packard is off and Dell is expected to be off. cnn.com/money

I look down my block and I know the five houses surrounding me no longer use land line phones. The number of mobile-phone users in the U.S. surpassed the number of conventional land-based phone lines in the second half of 2004 latimes.com

When my last roommate moved out and into a rural area and away from my cable internet wi-fi cloud, his desktop computer became a dinosaur. His primary mode of email and communication became his phone.

Although data packages and hardware for smartphones cost more than a regular cell phone, the overall cost can be less when combining the cost of a high speed connection to the home, multiple hardware purchases and an existing cell phone account.

Add to this the mobility of a smartphone and the trend for smart phones gradually to be able to take on most computing tasks of a desktop you have a trend that is unstoppable.

A free online dating & social networking community site specifically for Green Singles, with a focus on the environment. If you are a 'tree hugger' looking to meet other eco-friendly singles, then Green-Passions is the site for you. Find others who share your interest in animal rights, alternative energy, recycling, organic farming or endangered species. Sign up now to enjoy free Green chat, Eco-friendly forums & email. And on top of all that, enjoy something extra.

Upcycling takes a waste product or a combination of waste products and innovates them into something new and useful.

The Sugarloaf Crafts Festival, will feature more than 300 artists from across the country at its upcoming show in Timonium, April 24-26.

Among the "green" artists at Sugarloaf are Ed Kidera - who uses parts from cars and farm equipment, and steel cylinders (re: SCUBA tanks) to create large-scale metal sculptures. You'll also find clothes and fashion by Mo O'Grady, who takes a holistic approach to her art by using natural fabrics to create her pieces, creating fringe and decorative elements on her pieces with excess fabric to minimize waste. In addition, artist Bud Scheffel uses recycled scrap metal to create his mobile and wind sculptures designs.

Cigar box guitars were born out of necessity according to Shane Speal of West York.

During the early part of the last century when the wooden boxes were as popular as the cigars people smoked, the free container became the basis for many artistic kids looking to strum their way into music on a budget.

Today, the no rules instrument, tells a story of innovation, self-reliance and personal expression.

US carmaker General Motors is joining with scooter maker Segway to make a new type of two-seat electric vehicle.

The prototype, which will be debuted in New York, is aimed at urban driving. GM aims to start making them by 2012.

The vehicle, named Puma, can go as far as 35 miles on a single charge. It will use lithium-ion batteries.

Jay McGinnis' inconspicuous house near New Park, Pa. is an experiment of alternative energy.

The windmills produce compressed air and electricity. The innovative air compressing wind mill stores the air throughout the farm using underground lines that act as a reservoir taking on air when the wind blows.

The solar panels on the garage heat water. The solar panels on the workshop generate electricity that is sold back to Adams Electric Cooperative Inc. Instead of using expensive batteries, McGinnis sells the solar electricity back to Adams Electric during times of peak sun (and demand in Summer) and supplements the farms' electricity when the sun isn't shining.

The hopper at right holds corn burned in the outdoor furnace that pipes hot water back to the living spaces. The wood that also feeds his boiler is grown on his property.

The 3-cylinder 2005 Honda Insight has consumed an average of 55 mpg over it's service life. The vehicles hybrid system recovers energy from braking and supplements it's tiny gasoline engine with an electric motor and batteries. The shape of the car, fender skirts and other design features of the quirky 1999-2005 Insight was capable of squeezing out 124 mpg by one hypermiling competition.

McGinnis believes that our fossil fueled world is in big trouble and we all need to do anything to use less.

McGinnis' business, The Woolen Mill Fan Company, creates reproductions of water motor fans. The parts cast in Central Pennsylvania by an Amish foundry bears the unusual mark of something produced in the United States.

York Country Day students build a container that will protect an egg after it falls ten feet during the All-School Engineering Project. Each group was given 25 wrapped plastic drinking straws and six-feet of masking tape.

The exercise teaches that a given project often has limited resources.

First Presbyterian Church of York has rebuilt it's Moeller organ. The new version of the organ is part virtual instrument and part traditional pipe organ. The cost of rebuilding the instrument was about 25% less than rebuilding the instrument entirely of pipes.

"It's a seamless blend," said Spark, director of music ministries at the church.

The old version had an electro-pneumatic console, crumbling, leather-lined wind reservoirs and aging mechanisms that often failed. Water from a leaky roof had damaged the swell organ, and the tin and lead pipes needed cleaning or replacing.

The new version transforms keystrokes into digital signals that may actuate a valve, create a digital sound or combine mechanical and virtual. Speakers strategically placed with the pipes gives the listener the geography of sound that comes with a traditional organ.

Mike Martin plans to stack used tires on his garden plot in York to grow potatoes. The stacked tires are filled with soil and the potatoes planted.

The potatoes grow down through the tires and when the it's time to harvest, the stacked tires are torn down and potatoes extracted.

Mike Martin planted a community garden last year and gave out 1400 pounds of food to those who need it in his neighborhood. He's planting it again this year, aiming for 2,000 pounds of food, and he's adding a second garden for the food bank.

Students from the River Rock Academy, an alternative school in Spring Grove, were helping Martin prepare the garden for Spring this week,

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.

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

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.

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.

For the past few years during electrical emergencies, innovative people have been using their hybrid Toyota Prius to power their homes.

During an ice storm last week Sweeney, of Harvard, Mass., powered his house by hooking it up to his Toyota Prius. The Prius, a hybrid vehicle, starts the gasoline-burning mode of its engine every 30 minutes to recharge the battery with an internal generator. In turn, Sweeney ran his refrigerator and freezer, wood stove fan, lights and television off the car's battery.

Sweeney, an electrical engineer, explained the simple procedure he used.

"I pulled out this thing I have, an inverter, that converts the current from the car to 120 volts, which is what the appliances in your house run on," Sweeney said in an interview. "The car ran for three days, turning itself on for a few minutes every half an hour, and it burned about five gallons of gas."

Sweeney estimated he used 17 Kilowatt/hours of energy, drawn from the Prius, while the power was cut off from his house. boston.bizjournals.com

According to news reports, about 1,200 homes in eastern Massachusetts are still without power 11 days after the ice storm hit on Dec. 12.

The organizers of "Be a Santa to a Senior" were worried this year after not receiving a healthy response to their giving trees. The trees were hung with names and placed in a few public locations. Sarah Hevner, office manager at Home Instead, though that the response was due to a sluggish economy.

After an article in the York Daily Record in November, the gifts started pouring in. Today the gifts were presented to the seniors.

Having grown up in a time when people had to do more with less, these historic faces beamed with very simple tokens of Christmas.

A pin, a bottle of body wash, even just a box of tissues wrapped in holiday paper brought shouts of joy and tears of appreciation.

It reminded me of how far our economy has deteriorated. Making more out of less has evolved into making more out of credit and trying to make more out of speculation, fraud and a ballooning federal deficit. Making more out of capitalizing on cheaper labor markets while making less to buy those products at home.

Making more out of less has morphed into less and less out of investing more and more.

Hope came today from the anonymous people who capitalized on those small dreams from the wish trees placed in Boscovs.

I was listening to U.S. Rep Ed Markey of Massachusetts, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, address the automakers the other day on C-SPAN as the hearings kept grinding away.

He brought up the idea that Detroit has worked on the premise that you can litigate and advertise your way to profit. If you don't want to meet mileage standards then sue the government agency trying to force you to meet them and then once you have something profitable keep selling it even if it goes against a global trend of sustainability.

Meanwhile, other companies innovate and fill the void that is reality ultimately taking the market.

U.S. Rep. Todd Platts, from York County, commented on the auto bailout earlier this week in this video.

Intel is working on tiny sensors that draw power from the environment and transmit information when enough power has been stored.

Think of everyone's cell phone as a pollution monitor, or chips embedded in the human body to relay information about condition.

And if you tend to think paranoid, a whole host of new ways to invade your life.

informationweek.com