Recently in VIDEO Category

I just revived a 2006 video i produced for Jim Mclure's blog York Town Square, Milkman's relic humming around York County today.

Jay Crist, of Manchester Township, let me drive the 73 year old Rutter's electric stand & drive he restored. The "Gasoline - Electric" brass logo catches your attention.

It has a fluidly like I would assume the large locomotives feel that use the same technology.

The truck was recently featured at the York Fair.

Crist said they were popular in areas where there were steep hills. The torque of an electric motor and not grinding away a clutch were a benefit.

It doesn't have batteries or computerized electrical controllers, just a simple gasoline motor with a generator attached that drives a motor on the differential.

Very few moving parts.

It wasn't designed to be green, but rather just innovative and used the resources of a company that built generators.

Bold stuff for a company surviving at the end of the depression.

Three generations of a York family have gone to the polls as soon as they can vote.

Eula Ritter, age 69, Daniel Glover, age 48, and Keyon Davis, age 6, were volunteering at Shiloh Baptist Church on Election Day in York.

Davis, who can't vote yet, goes into the booth with his grandmother.

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.

Mark Bluett got really frustrated making his first stringed instrument when he was 12.

"The instrument ended up in the fireplace," he said. "Actually, I got so mad, I ended up burning it."

In a blind test at Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University many years later, one of Bluett's handmade violins competed against instruments that were 200 years old and worth $150,000.

"They all picked mine as the best instrument, and it was a week old," Bluett said.

His humble beginning came 25 years ago this month in his brother's dining room. In that time, Bluett has crafted 220 handmade violins, and a total of about 1,400 stringed instruments.

He's the artist behind Bluett Brothers Violins in Spring Garden Township, where custom violins sell for about $6,000.

His creations sing their songs in symphonies, teach students at the Peabody Institute, play country music in Nashville, and fiddle for the Irish.

For this luthier, as he refers to himself, it all boils down to one thing.

"When you string it up, and the joy of hearing it . . . that's what I live for."

Gov. Ed Rendell visited Voith Hydro today to say that hydropower has the potential for generating clean energy and creating jobs for Pennsylvania and the nation.

According to the study released today by the National Hydropower Association, the U.S. hydropower industry could install between 23,000 megawatts and 60,000 megawatts of additional capacity by 2025, or enough to generate electricity for 31 million additional homes. The study also estimates that the installation of this amount of capacity could create between 230,000 and 700,000 new jobs.

There are 80,000 dams in the United States and only 3% are used to produce hydropower.

Canada is one of the top producers of hydro power in world with some provinces extracting over 90% of their electrical needs from falling water. A market perfect for electric cars!

Not all these dams are suited to produce power, but if the dam is already built the environmental impact is already in existence. York companies like Voith and American Hydro use technology to produce highly efficient runners that can extract efficiencies into the high 90% and are more fish friendly than equipment made in the past.

You have to wonder, if there were an increase in the mandate for renewable energy or if new technologies were invented to harness even 25% of the of the 97% of the non- generating dams, how much renewable energy we could produce from falling water.

Andrea Smeltzer's son was killed Thanksgiving in a one-car accident as a passenger.

The driver was charged with vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, careless driving, reckless driving, speeding and disregarding traffic lanes, and has since been cited for violating his plea agreement with prosecutors.

Smeltzer saw an opportunity to help a niche in the community but also a welcome distraction from her grief.

Last spring when contemplating what to do with daughter Lauren's barely worn prom dresses, the Cinderella Project of PA was born. Her basement collection has now grown to more than 800 dresses.

Flash video is a universally compatible format for desktop browsers and a universally lame format for mobile phones.

YouTube fixes this by processing dual streams - Flash for the desktop and 3gp for mobile applications.

Solution: Publish a high resolution video (480x382) from the BlackBerry Storm directly to Twitter (via YouTube) using only the handset.

1. Create a YouTube account.
This provides you with an email address specific to you (xxxxxx@m.youtube.com) that you can send your video to YouTube for processing.

2. Upload the video from your phone via your email account. The BlackBerry email system that synchs all your email accounts allows for a maximum attachment of 3 mb with Verizon. A stand alone app for an email service might have larger download capability. I find that 45 seconds of 480x382 video is under 3 mb.

3. Go to your YouTube account in the BlackBerry browser after the download and copy the page address of your video to the clipboard in the phone.

4. Using Übertwitter, I paste the YouTube URL of my downloaded video into the Tweet. Übertwitter supports embedded link shrinking using bit.ly. It's a one operation click off the BlackBerry key after pasting in the long link.

5. Send video tweet

Now you have a shortened link to a mobile browser page that will open and play your mobile video from any mobile browser and most desktops.

On Mac destops the 3pg video file opens in QuickTime. On PC's you will be asked to open the file in whatever video player on your PC that plays 3gp files, like QuickTime or RealPlayer. You may already have this file type associated with a player on your computer. Windows Media Player traditionally doesn't play 3pg files out of the box.

As an added bonus, you can track statistics and promote your video. It is universally search-able, can be sent and embedded by viewers.

paulkuehnel Youtube direct download tweet test via BlackBerry http://bit.ly/2hOxQ3 http://myloc.me/NMkt

The official dedication for the York County Vietnam Memorial will be Oct. 3, 11 a.m. at the York Expo Center

It will stand 16 1/2 feet tall. The black granite column will include the names of more than 100 soldiers from York County who were killed during the Vietnam War.

"Welcome Home" is carved into the base of the memorial -- something too few soldiers heard when they came home, said Tony Stabile, a member of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Committee.

Vietnam veteran Bill Fissel talks about his experience returning home and what the monument means to veterans.

After Carl Williams and Peggy Gross get married Saturday, he'll go home, she'll go home, and together they'll live separately ever after.

Williams, 55, and Gross, 53, dated for several years before they each moved into opposite sides of a Warrington Township duplex -- him in his self-described man cave, and her in her more elegant, antique-filled home.

The couple cut a door between the two houses but maintain separate electric service.

He likes to air condition his home and she prefers to keep her doors and windows open.

In winter, they keep the door open to spread heat from a wood stove in his house using wood they both cut.

"It works very well for us," Williams said. "I think it will make our marriage stronger."

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.

A curved bridge in a small town frames a timeless stone church. A spark in my imagination turns a smile. I am looking at a castle on the Rhine River or am I in Venice.

Forget that I am beneath a poorly drained, decaying concrete railroad bridge in Red Lion, Pennsylvania... for a moment I am dreaming.

This is the beauty of rail trails.

It's a moment of peace beyond the bustle of life. It's a new view on the world.

It's potential.

It's a preservation of history, a preservation of green space; a preservation of a corridor of land for common use now and for the future.

The Red Lion Mile rail trail will run from the railroad station and museum on Main Street in Red Lion through the borough west, through some current and former industrial sites into fields and woods near Springwood Road.

Your donation during a free, benefit concert this Saturday will help continue this dream.

The video is a tour of the trail with music by two of the artists who will be performing for the benefit concert. A map to the concert and the trail is included.

Mindy Metz saw people donating to the victims of the Chestnut Street fire and was moved to help sort items. Her home is near a donation drop-off center at the First Church of Christ, Scientist on North Broad Street in York.

Metz said that she hadn't volunteered much in the past, but that she was moved by the heart of the people she saw giving.

This is a magic moment for the human heart.

The same heart that moves a company to look out for their employees (and their consumers) and the employees to look out for their company even when it doesn't always make sense from a point of personal gain.

The same heart that seeks to conserve resources so future generations can simply live, to look out for other creatures that share the earth - to love and respect life.

Sometimes the challenge begins after you come back from shooting a fire. I should have taken it as a hint when my car was "hosed in" for the first time in my career that this night would not die easy.

It just has to make you smile though to see a man, who has just saved his dog after being told to evacuate, find a moment to praise firefighters even after his house was destroyed.

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.

Midge Morse, age 85, has competed in basketball, softball, tennis, golf and bowling. Today she takes home the silver for shuffleboard during the 8th Annual York County Senior Games.

Morse said that she started exercising regularly in 1970.

Midge, your my inspiration to get to the gym. Good health will get you further than any investment and will get you by when every financial investment fails.

3,827: Number of property maintenance complaints received by the city in 2008
2,717: Number of complaints that were resolved

Broken community: A York yard in shambles. Owner occupied transitioning to rentals, destructive renters, abandoning owners, foreclosure and people gaming the system.

Self-interest, corporate and banking systems gone amok sucking the life out of the people who gave them their power.

Survival

People who loose the vision to love their community.

A U.S. symbol ties a family and school together across 6000 miles.

The American flag raised at Orendorf Elementary School in Manchester was sent home by Dominick Versace as a thank you for support he has received over the past year.

Sometimes the path of commerce getting smaller is a good way to evolve.

East Market Street in York started out as a path for early inhabitants to pass though the woods, evolved into a congested main artery for local, rail and cross-country traffic and now serves as a route from a historical urban core.

Bill Schintz, a property owner and resident of East Market Street for the past 35 years would like to see the three lane, one-way street revert back to a two-way to cut down speed and racing by weekend loop traffic.

Human energy seeing basic nutrients from the clay that gives and takes life.

Sixty years ago Americans banded together to raise Victory Gardens for the war effort.

With more people losing jobs, produce from Grace United Methodist Church's garden will help demand at food pantries and other ministries in southern York County.

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.

Friends since the Vietnam War, Bill Hoff and James Abram walk in the Jefferson Community Memorial Day parade.

Back in 1965, when Abram got to An Khe in South Vietnam, he was scared. They had little in common, the black man from South Carolina and the white man from Jefferson, but that didn't matter. "I just gravitated toward Bill," Abram said. "I needed a friend. He was withdrawn and didn't want to talk. I made it my business to talk to him"

It's not that Hoff had anything against Abram. Before they went to Vietnam, their boot camp instructors warned them not to get too close to anyone.

If you made a close friend and he got killed, they were told, that could mess you up. You wouldn't be able to concentrate, and you'd be a danger to yourself and the men serving with you.

Caught during a ydr live stream, Dorothy appears before a district attorney candidate debate. I normally edit really tight... but hell, dreaming takes some time when performing in front of two hardened justice workers. And I was dreaming of a week of vacation.

Corine Bensel, a student at West York Area High School, promotes the York County High School Theater Awards during a Rotary lunch at the Yorktowne Hotel. Bensel sang a song from the Wizard of Oz.

Croquet is part pool, part chess and part golf.

The TV show "The Office" has a cult-like following.

So does croquet, a local expert said.

Imagine the two combined.

That's the concept Steve Fluder, owner of Manchester Township-based Croquet Your Way, said can help employees work better together to be more productive.

Fluder said a croquet course can be set up at a business or park to teach staff how to break barriers and build working relationships.

For voters who have been closely following the contested Republican primary race for York County district attorney, Wednesday's debate between the candidates offered little new.

The Republican opponents, longtime incumbent Stan Rebert and challenger Tom Kearney, took the opportunity to reiterate their platforms at the Rotary Club of York meeting.

For voters who haven't followed the race, the debate, which was streamed live on the Daily Record/Sunday News Web site, was the first and possibly the only opportunity to see the longtime foes go head to head.

The PA Nonbelivers and Heritage Baptist Church stand between the crowds at the Olde York Street Fair. The Rev, Jim Grove, of the Heritage Baptist Church and Steven Neubauer, president of the PA Nonbelievers give their views.

He might not wear the traditional charro suit or have live guitar and trumpet players providing backup music, but when Augustin Mariche opens his mouth, the pint-sized singer can belt out mariachi tunes with the best of them.

Emmanuel United Methodist Church holds their first service in their new building after the 108-year-old congregation moved from Windsor to Windsor Township.

Dan Kidd regained his speech during worship after a stroke left him speechless for five years.

York College of Pennsylvania students explore their own minds during Scholarship Day Mosiacs with the help of their professor Rebecca Quattrone.

When Cindy Arnold picked up the mail one day in early March, there was a large manila envelope in the It was a handwritten note from President Barack Obama. In it, he told her he would watch out for her son, who is in the Army.

"It was very overwhelming," Arnold said.

The Stewartstown, Pa woman wrote a letter to the president Jan. 20. It was the day she talked to her son, Pvt. Matthew J. Arnold, as he filled out paperwork detailing with should happen to him if he were hurt or killed.