Starting in July 2010, residents of Massachusetts and 14 other states won’t have to puzzle over which dish detergents are phosphate-free, because they all will be. The new law exempts detergents intended for commercial dishwashers (a bummer), but detergents for residential use will all contain less than 0.5% phosphates.

Our car passed 150,000 miles this year—and suddenly became very expensive. First the brakes needed to be replaced, then the catalytic converter, then the tires. But after doing all this work, we’ve noticed a marked increase in fuel efficiency. In January, our car was only getting 40 mpg (or below!), which is the worst it’s ever performed. Now it’s back up to 45 mpg, and I think that’ll rise even more when it finally stops raining…

Massachusetts and Rhode Island National Grid, Until, WMECo, Cape Light Compact, and NSTAR Electric customers can get SmartStrips for only $16.95. These things are great. We have one for our entertainment system, and when the TV is turned off, power is cut to the Wii, Playstation, etc. No more vampire energy.

Wow. There’s a wiiiide variety of stuff this week….

Dräger sent me to Germany the week before last. It was my first time traveling there by myself, and my first time traveling by train in Europe. It was amazing. Most of the cities have what’s called U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines, the equivalent of our subway and commuter rail. These are handled by the RMV system. It’s when you go farther out that it’s really different from the U.S…