CLOSE UP by Brian Rudnick

Mountain unicycles in hilly, rocky Wissahickon Valley

While taking a leisurely, easy bike ride along the relatively flat Forbidden Drive, my daughter and I were amazed to see a young man atop a unicycle on the opposite shore of the Wissahickon Creek, tooling up and down a hilly, narrow trail. High-schooler Peter Hildebrandt took up mountain unicycling after a knee injury ended his running career. With his high end, fat-tired, disc-brake equipped mountain unicycle, he meets regularly in the Wissahickon with other unicyle friends and enthusiasts and is preparing to compete in the 2013 North American Unicycling Convention and Championship to be held in Butler, Pennsylvania this coming July. Watch video here.

Testdriving new C-Max Hybrid Car

At a Devon Horse Show grounds event, we test drive the new Ford C-Max hybrid car which had just come out. Watch video drive and interview here.

"Computer Lady" refurbishes computers for students

I’ve been retired now for about twelve years.  And ever since I’ve been retired I’ve wanted to do something. I’m not a lay home watch soap opera kind of girl.  I ran into a place called non-profit technology resources down near Spring Garden and Stan introduced me to recycling. And what I do is the donations that have come into the YWCA where I started and Malt Computer Volunteer Group, with the donations that come in, they were just sitting around. So I decided to tinker with and fix them.

As of the past four years we’re a Microsoft authorized refurbisher. We’re licensed by Microsoft to refurbish computers and install licensed products. Because we’re an authorized refurbisher, that means I’m obligated to wipe any and all hard drives. So I can assure people if they want to donate it or someone comes in and says I want to donate and I want my data, I’ll open the computer up and pull the hard drive out and hand it to them. Because when I re-image it, it has to be wiped. I have other hard drives.

You used to be able to put computers out on the sidewalk. Now you can’t do that. Also industries can’t dispose of their computer equipment the way they used to. So they donate it. They say you come get it. No you drop it off because I know they’re saving money (plus they’re getting a tax deduction} because they don’t have to pay for disposal.

My concern is since I’m a grandmom my concern is with schoolchildren, middle school through high school and college students. When I get donations of laptops, the college students are first on the list AT REDUCED PRICE? At minimal price. Especially a high school student who comes in and they’re honor roll. They get a whole PC for twenty bucks. AND HOW DO THEY FIND OUT ABOUT YOU? Usually word of mouth. Everybody knows “Miss Wynnie, the computer lady.” Wynne Hill, Summit Presbyterian Church, Mount Airy.

Watch video here.

Can do wheelies on his wheelchair

Jim Leonard combats the debilitating effects of multiple sclerosis with the assist of an advanced mobility vehicle. No glorified “seat with wheels” Leonard’s device can zip through a mall at 6 miles per hour, recline him horizontally to relieve pressure or elevate him so he can reach the microwave in his kitchen or stir a pot. While waiting to be seated for breakfast at Mainely Meat in Bar Harbor, Maine, Leonard stopped short of demonstrating the 360 degree wheelies he can do with his sophisticated chair. Watch video here.

Nuclear faith, nuclear fears- workmates differ on energy alternatives

Workmates Stephen McShane and Jarek Heljak (seated on other side of table) of Northeast Philadelphia talk about the nuclear plant crisis in Japan and energy generation alternatives. McShane has a Japanese friend whose parents in Sendai were far west enough to have only lost power. He expressed grave concerns about water and food contamination and favors solar or wind energy. Heljak, who says his native Poland relies on coal and has no nuclear plants due to the expense, favors nuclear. Starbucks Coffee, Chestnut Hill. Watch video interview here.

Gasland comes to Philly - fracking for natural gas in the Delaware River watershed?

Punctuated by first hand accounts  of health problems caused by fouled air and water and scary stunts  by homeowners across the country setting their polluted tapwater on fire, the film “Gasland”, an Academy Award nominee,  documents the dirty production side of  what’s marketed as clean natural gas.

On Tuesday evening,  about seventy five people attended a showing  of the banjo-playing filmmaker Josh Fox’s movie at the Germantown Jewish Center, organized by the synagogue, Weavers Way, the Neighborhood Interfaith Movement and the Unitarian Society of Germantown.

Afterwards. a panel of scientists and directly affected individuals and activists from the Marcellus Shale region of upstate Pennsylvania described the adverse health and environmental  impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (“fracking” in common parlance, “frac jobs” in industry terms). SEE PANELIST INFORMATION BELOW

It’s a process that injects water combined with several of some hundreds of available chemicals, many known toxins such as benzene,  at high pressure, to release the gas.  Developed by former Vice President Dick Cheney’s Haliburton company, fracking was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water act by the 2005 Energy Policy Act.

Under newly elected  Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, it appears to be open season for the drilling of new wells in Pennsylvania which may extend into the watershed area which is the source of drinking water in Philadelphia. This is cause for serious local concern as expressed by Linda Cherkas, a Mount Airyite attending the filming  and the subject of a  Philadelphia city council forum the very same evening.

After the showing, attendees flocked to tables to sign letters urging President Obama, who voted for the 2005 Energy Act, to direct his representative on the Delaware River Basin Commission to vote against finalizing draft rules on gas drilling and urging the President to call a nationwide moratorium until an Environmental Protection Agency study is complete.

Watch video here.

This account makes use of critical analysis of the film and counter-allegations of its critics in the New York Times by Michael Soraghan of Greenwire athttp://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/02/24/24greenwire-groundtruthing-academy-award-nominee-gasland-33228.html

Personalizing grave monuments

Gallagher Memorials has been at the corner of Ivy Hill Road and Cheltenham Avenue, across from Holy Sepulcher Cemetery for more than 100 years. In that time, the use of marble has given way to using granite, imported from as far away as India or China or quarried as close as French Creek, Pennsylvania. Granite lasts much longer, “forever,” according to Manager Larry Conroy. Computer assisted technology now allows personalized engraving of scenes or depiction of hobbies dear to the deceased or even a carving of the departed’s own visage.

Watch video interview here.

 

From township manager to candle king

Bill Binder’s father loved the milk box, candle-making project his son was doing some 40 years ago with his cub scout pack so much so that what began as a family hobby grew into a substantial family owned business, Candlewic in Doylestown.  After college and many years as a professional township manager in New Jersey, Bill joined the business which caters to the wholesale candle trade but turns no small, individual customer away either. More recently, the company has branched out into soap products.

Jim Reed restores 1943 telephone

HOW OLD WOULD YOU SAY THIS PHONE IS? “It’s stamped inside. I think it’s like 1943.” HOW IS IT THAT YOU CAN FIX THIS PHONE THAT I TRASHPICKED SO IT STILL WORKS WITH MODERN TECHNOLOGY? “It’s definitely a statement about how our technology creeps along slowly. Luckily our technology is backwards compatible which means they’ve added new technology but haven’t phased out the old stuff yet although I think they always threatened that your old phones wouldn’t work. But it never happened.” Jim Reed, Chestnut Hill. Watch video interview here. 

Why my world looks colder after cataract surgery

I NOTICE THAT OUT OF THE EYE WITH THE NEW LENS IN IT, THE WORLD SEEMS A LITTLE LESS WARM “More cool or bright?” COOL OR BRIGHT. NOW IS THAT BECAUSE MY PUPIL IS STILL OPEN? “Actually, because you’re comparing it to the right eye which is developing a mild cataract. A cataract is kind of an amber-colored filter. It’s more brownish as you get older. So your brain has been adjusting to that slightly yellowy color over the years and interpreting that as white. Now we suddenly take that amber filter away and your brain says, ‘Man, this is very bright and blue.” This is actually the correct color you’re seeing out of your left eye and your brain will adjust.” Amy E. Weber, Ophthalmologist, Wyndmoor, PA. Watch video interview here.