Clipmarks | BobbyDelray's clips

Free Ice Cream---World's Largest Ice Cream Social

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:11:46 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Use the link in the clip to find participating Cold Stone Creamery location near you.

Clip Source: www.coldstonecreamery.com

To cap off this special month, don't miss the 7th Annual World’s Largest Ice Cream Social at participating Cold Stone Creamery locations nationwide, a special night to join together and share the simple pleasures of life with a FREE ice cream and family fun. On September 25th from 5:00 - 8:00PM, guests will be treated to a 3 oz. serving of Jack or Emily's Creation. All donations will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

Small (Car, House) Is Beautiful

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:47:17 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: I think everyone should have at least one tiny house. Might be a good idea for all of us living on the Atlantic and Gulf coast. When you run you need somewhere to go.

Clip Source: dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

Fact or fantasy: Zero Pollution Motors plans to start building its air-powered car by 2011 at the latest. (Zero Pollution Motors)

One is a report on the Wheels blog by my friend Jim Motavalli about the possible rebirth of the “air car,” a vehicle that runs on compressed air

There’s lots more at the link above and in a story on the pneumatic-car technology written by Jim in 2000.

Another is a story about tiny houses, which resonated particularly because on Tuesday night I went to an art show in Beacon, N.Y., organized by friends, including the sculptor Simon Draper, who are building tiny free-standing artists’ “habitats.”

The Times story, by Steven Kurutz, descrbes a growing “small house movement

Have a look and write a (small) comment. Below is a video showing Simon Draper building a tiny artist’s shed (set to music by the songwriter Dar Williams, for whom he’s also building a similar creative nook).

[Video]

For sexual predators, it's a camp of isolation

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 17:32:01 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: This is a lengthy story that you can read by following the link.

Clip Source: www.miamiherald.com

Juan Martin, left, and Patrick Wiese, right, smoke cigarettes while standing beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway as the city of Miami begins to turn it's lights on at dusk.

The bridge overhead is so close there isn't room for a man to stand.

All the neighbors are felons and everyone lives in Wal-Mart tents

There's no running water, no sewer system and one gasoline-powered generator.

This camp of sex offenders beneath the Julia Tuttle Causeway made news in February, when the Department of Corrections probation officers arrived and began passing out notices that said the men -- largely barred by local ordinances from living almost anywhere else in Miami-Dade County -- might be charged with trespassing if they stayed under the bridge.

There are 2,050 registered sex offenders and predators in Miami-Dade and another 1,252 in Broward,

New “Green” Designation Available for Realtors

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:17:58 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Take the three day course and become an green specialist.

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

A new tool is now available for investors looking to buy a so-called “green” building, a property that has environmentally-friendly features like energy and water efficiency and that produces minimal pollution and waste. A new program instituted by the National Association of Realtors(R) has begun certifying brokers as green specialists. Brokers can earn the designation from NAR’s Green Resource Council by taking three days of courses or completing the program online at their own pace.

Experts Confirm Open Water Circling Arctic

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:33:02 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: There have been some breathless headlines in the last few days about the North Pole’s being an “island” for the first time in 125,000 years.

Clip Source: dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

[UPDATE 9/6: The National Ice Center on Friday said that a navigable passage has opened through sea ice along the entire Russian Arctic coast, although the center added that patches of dangerous thick ice still pepper the area. In a statement, the center said: "This is the first recorded occurrence of the Northwest Passage and Northern Sea Route both being open at the same time." The full statement is below in the comment string. Here's an animation loop of the retreating sea ice.]

Cops search for helpless human, find chatty cockatoo

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 20:09:15 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: To bad we don't have a YouTube video on this one. I wonder what the cockatoo said to the cops? Care to guess?

Clip Source: blogs.usatoday.com

Police officers kicked in the front door of a Trenton home Wednesday morning because they thought they heard a woman yelling "Help me! Help me!" But instead of finding a helpless human, The Times says officers found a chatty cockatoo.

The Trentonian has more on the incident.

Earlier:
• Unbelievable: Snowball the cockatoo dances to Backstreet Boys
• Neighbors aren't cuckoo about Fletcher the cockatoo

Can Jerry Seinfeld Save Vista?

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:31:34 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Microsoft is turning to a new spokesman to drum up interest in its Windows Vista operating system: Jerry Seinfeld.

The comedian will star alongside Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in a series of ads meant to counter the popular notion that Vista is a failure, the Journal reports.

What’s the deal with Vista?

Rule Will Make It Harder for Women-Owned Businesses to Win Federal Contracts

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:37:24 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

A Small Business Administration proposed rule, which was first published in the Federal Register last December, would limit the number of federal contracts set aside for women-owned businesses to four industries that are shown to be underrepresented by women. The four are: national security and international affairs; coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities; household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing; and motor vehicle dealers.

Federal agencies are supposed to give 5% of all federal contracts to women-owned businesses, but have not yet come close to meeting that goal, according to a news release from the National Association of Women Business Owners.

Readers, do you think all women-owned businesses should be eligible for federal contract set-asides? Why or why not?

4 Ways to Save on Your Medical Bills

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 17:44:30 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: www.usnews.com

The report, "Losing Ground: How the Loss of Adequate Health Insurance Is Burdening Working Families," paints a pretty bleak picture of how high healthcare costs are not only causing people to avoid getting the medical care they need but also straining their ability to pay for basic necessities like housing and food.

Make your health plan pay its share. This sounds obvious, but too often people don't demand their due. When they get a notice saying their claim has been rejected, or that the insurer will cover only a portion of the cost, they simply pay up instead of questioning the charge. Don't do that.

Check out government programs

Negotiate with your providers.

Consider prompt payment discounts carefully

Need some help? The Access Project offers free assistance to help consumers deal with medical debt.

Obama Says Single-Payer Health Care Makes Sense

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 02:38:54 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Barack Obama said he would consider embracing a single-payer health-care system sometime in the future as his plan for broader health coverage evolves, the WSJ’s Amy Chozick reports from the campaign trail.

“If I were designing a system from scratch, I would probably go ahead with a single-payer system,” Obama told some 1,800 people at a town-hall meeting on the economy in
Albuquerque, New Mexico.

But critics, including every Republican we can think of, cringe at the elimination of competition and deep government involvement in the private sector.

“People don’t have time to wait,” Obama said. “They need relief now. So my attitude is let’s build up the system we got, let’s make it more efficient, we may be over time—as we make the system more efficient and everybody’s covered—decide that there are other ways for us to provide care more effectively.”

Number of Insured Continues to Grow in Massachusetts

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:32:51 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

The number of people with health insurance continues to grow in Massachusetts, home of a closely watched universal health insurance plan.

Some 439,000 people have signed up for insurance since the plan went into effect in 2006, state officials said in a report released yesterday. (The figures exclude Medicare.) That’s more than two-thirds of the estimated 600,000 who were uninsured in the state two years ago, the Boston Globe reports.

Indeed, so many people have signed up for insurance that the program is costing far more than expected, and there’s currently a fight in the state over how to pay for it.

Still, there’s a financial upside. The number of people showing up at emergency rooms for routine care — an inefficient, high-cost way to get such care — has fallen 37% since the plan went into effect, the Globe says. That decline has saved the state an estimated $68 million.

The report is online here; a Washington Post story on the report is here.

Better to Be Fat and Fit Than Skinny and Unfit

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:01:22 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: Since this article describes my current of state of affairs with my weight I decided to clip it.

Lots of good information by following the links in the clip and the original article.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Increasingly, medical research is showing that it isn’t. Despite concerns about an obesity epidemic, there is growing evidence that our obsession about weight as a primary measure of health may be misguided.

Last week a report in The Archives of Internal Medicine compared weight and cardiovascular risk factors among a representative sample of more than 5,400 adults. The data suggest that half of overweight people and one-third of obese people are “metabolically healthy.” That means that despite their excess pounds, many overweight and obese adults have healthy levels of “good” cholesterol, blood pressure, blood glucose and other risks for heart disease.

The data follow a report last fall from researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Cancer Institute showing that overweight people appear to have longer life expectancies than so-called normal weight adults.

Wanted: ‘Young Eco-Geniuses’

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 01:46:25 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray

Clip Source: dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com

A few months ago, I encouraged Dot Earth contributors who wanted to eschew anonymity and the grayness of text comments to post video greetings. As a result, you’ve had a chance to “meet” Wang Suya, Jeff Huggins and others face to face. Some here think this may help sustain a civil, productive environment on the blog by reminding people that there are human beings out there amid the streams of electrons. Now you get to meet Paul Horan. Sitting amid lemon trees near Malibu, Calif., he offers up a reward to “deserving young eco-geniuses” who are willing to tell today’s ruling class how they define “what’s sustainable and what’s not.”

[Video]

An Olympic Stadium Worth Remembering

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 02:51:50 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: More than 90,000 spectators will stream through its gates on Friday for the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games; billions are expected to watch the fireworks on television. At the center of it all is this dazzling stadium, which is said to embody everything from China’s muscle-flexing nationalism to a newfound cultural sophistication.

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

Income vs. Gas Prices, an Update

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 01:36:02 GMT

clipped by: BobbyDelray
clipper's remarks: It seems that some Americans are now spending twice as much of their household income for gasoline as they were in 1999. That is a serious number.

I believe that median household income is around $48,000 right now. So those Americans are spending about $5500 a year on gasoline. To me that is a scary number.

This also explains why you can no longer get a parking spot at the Tri-Rail parking lot in Delray Beach. Well if you get there before 6:30 AM I suppose you can.

This does not bode well for the economy. Let's see: drive, ride the bike or give up beer?

Clip Source: blogs.wsj.com

Edmunds.com, which released an analysis saying that about 60 vehicles in the new-vehicle market now cost over $100 to fill up, also gave an update on how gas prices are grabbing more of consumers’ incomes. Edmunds says the median household is spending 11.5% of its income on gasoline, up from 4.6% of its income five years ago. Here’s a look at how that progressed:

Date*	Price Per Gallon (1)	Median Income (2)	Income spend on fuel (3)
1991	$1.09	$30,126	4.9%
1995	$1.14	$34,076	4.6%
1999	$1.19	$40,696	4.0%
2003	$1.51	$43,318	4.8%
2007	$2.96	$48,201	8.4%
2008	$4.06	$48,201	11.5%

Source: Edmunds.com