MileMeter – First in the Nation to Offer Auto Insurance "Buy-the-Mile"
Business Wire, Nov 14, 2008
Texans Who Drive Less, Can Pay 25 – 75% Less for Auto Insurance
AUSTIN, Texas — MileMeter, a licensed auto insurance carrier based in Dallas, joined with Texas National Organization for Women (NOW), The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and other environmental and urban interest groups to announce that Texas is now one of the first places in the world where drivers can buy auto insurance by-the-mile.
In announcing the statewide launch of this revolutionary “drive less; pay less” auto insurance, MileMeter invited consumers to go to www.milemeter.com to learn more and buy policies.
Designed for consumers who drive up to 12,000 miles per year, this fair and affordable car insurance option can save 25 percent to 75 percent on most policies. Drivers who will greatly benefit from MileMeter insurance include urban professionals who live near their work, those who use mass transit, car pool or work-from-home, or households that have more than one vehicle that aren’t driven frequently.
“MileMeter is fair, affordable and sensible. With our pay-by-mile program, customers who drive the least, have the most to gain,” explains Chris Gay, founder of MileMeter. “Our goal is to make buying car insurance simple, accessible and rewarding.”
Texas National Organization for Women (NOW) spokesperson Hannah Riddering said, “Texas NOW is gratified that MileMeter is offering an insurance alternative based on odometer miles, not on stereotype averages.” Riddering explained that NOW’s report showing that car insurance based on group averages breaks down in low-income zip codes persuaded Texas legislators to pass H.B. 45 in 2001. The law made changes to the transportation code and encouraged by-the-mile insurance for Texas.
EDF Senior Scientist Ramon Alvarez praised MileMeter’s by-the-mile insurance option and said, “Texas drivers now have a choice to do the right thing by their pocketbooks as well as by the environment.” Alvarez noted that MileMeter’s insurance gives drivers the opportunity to save money while also protecting the environment.
“MileMeter’s insurance by-the-mile leads to social and environmental benefits such as fewer tailpipe emissions, less toxic road runoff and less demand for road and parking lot construction,” added Gay. “Think of our insurance as another way to help reduce urban sprawl, improve our air quality and fight climate change.”
A Dependable Company and Simple Concept
To obtain MileMeter’s “by-the-mile” auto insurance, consumers can follow a simple, five-minute process on www.milemeter.com and receive an immediate quote. To purchase a policy, they can simply use a credit card, then print their “proof of coverage” insurance card and policy directly off the Web site.
Consumers can buy coverage in advance, in increments of 1,000 miles up to 6,000 miles. When their odometer reaches the end of that increment, they may renew as needed. Any unused miles expire after six months.
MileMeter handles customer service and claims very similarly to conventional insurers, through a U.S.-based call center and a national network of auto damage appraisers. MileMeter is the only insurance company in the United States to be licensed specifically to sell per-mile auto insurance.
MileMeter Trusts, Rather than Tracks Customers
MileMeter protects the privacy of its customers and uses no intrusive GPS or other vehicle-installed tracking technology. The cost per mile is dependent only on geography and the driver’s age as well as vehicle and coverage level. There is no credit scoring and no difference in rates for women versus men or for renters versus homeowners.
“Paying for auto insurance when a car is sitting in the garage just didn’t make sense to me,” Gay noted. “Obviously, cars need insurance for how many miles they are driven, not how many weeks or months they are owned.”
While Gay’s logic for creating a new model for auto insurance seems obvious, it took more than five years to develop its business model, for state regulations to permit the new approach and for investors and backers to sign on
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KBR to Present at the Capital One Southcoast 4th Annual Energy Conference
Business Wire, Dec 02, 2009
HOUSTON — KBR Inc. (NYSE:KBR) announced today that it will present at Capital One
Southcoasts 4th Annual Energy Conference on Wednesday, December 9,
2009, at 10:20 AM Central Time (11:20 AM Eastern Time).
Interested parties may listen to the presentation live over the Internet
by accessing the link to the webcast at www.kbr.com.
Please go to the website at least 15 minutes early to register and to
download and install any necessary audio software. For your convenience,
a copy of the presentation will be available at that time on KBRs
website to download
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Buchang Global Health Forum 2009: An Innovative Approach for
0 Comments | U.S. Newswire, Dec 3, 2009
To: NATIONAL EDITORS
Contact: Dr. David Jin, 1-917-930-8118, buchangusa@gmail.com
NEW YORK, Dec. 3 /PRNewswire/ — According to the World Health Organization, the human H1N1/09 Type A influenza (“Swine Flu”) has reached a pandemic level. Over 500,000 cases have been confirmed worldwide with at least 6,500 fatalities. Since there is no longer a requirement to test and report individual cases, these numbers undoubtedly understate the real situation.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091203/NY20654)
There are currently only two approved drugs (“Oseltamivir” and “Zanamivir”) based on evidence that both worked for the seasonal influenza A. The vaccine for H1N1/09 Type A has just been clinically tested and is now available to the public, however drug-resistant strains of the virus have emerged recently in Norway, Hong Kong and the USA.
Buchang USA Inc. together with the Chinese Cultural Foundation and Greater China Corporation co-organized the first Buchang Health Forum – 2009 in New York City to focus on this global health emergency. The primary goal of the Buchang Health Forum was to provide an integrative “East-meets-West” platform for healthcare experts and patient advocacy groups to exchange their views and knowledge on the management of this and other global pandemics.
During a panel discussion at the Buchang Forum, David Jin, M.D., Ph.D. of Cornell University introduced the concept of integrative medicine and how to optimize prevention and treatment strategies for the H1N1 infection. Dr
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How To Create Your Magic Garden
Everyone knows the story of the Secret Garden that had magic growing in the very leaves of the trees and plants. How can one create that same sense of magic in their own garden when we are living in a concrete jungle?
A garden is a place where most people will try and create an area that is surrounded by lush plant life, small water features and generally the type of things that will encourage relaxation and reflection.
Gardens can take on many different forms and styles which are heavily influenced by personal preferences, the latest fad or even religion. In the Far East, gardens will often be covered partially, if not entirely, by small stones that have been uniformly raked. This is said to be influenced by the Buddhist monks who see the area as their inner peace.
If you have not raked your stones properly and there are footprints on the sand, then you are not at peace within yourself. These gardens have become known as Zen gardens and can even be found in a little tray on the most powerful CEO’s desk. It has become synonymous with calming oneself.
Gardening has become a profession and decorating one’s garden means that you have to call in the interior designers of gardens, also know as landscapers. These are people who are able to create a piece of art out of almost anything.
Landscapers will often dig up all the existing plant life in the garden and replace it with plants, trees and flowers that are already grown so you don’t have to hassle of trying to get the little seeds to grow. Once all these established plants have been planted and settled, all the owner of the garden has to do is maintain the area.
Often landscapers will create a certain atmosphere in a designated area of the garden. An example may be a small water feature filled with fish and surrounded by small palms and ferns may be the perfect place for the owner to unwind and reflect at the end of a long day. A more family oriented area would be the swimming pool surrounded by a large lawn area to allow the children to run around and a place for the parents to sit and barbecue
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Genital Psoriasis Treatment
Genital psoriasis is a very common genital illness amongst Caucasians living in the US. It may also be very common in other countries but for now I am only conversant with my area, that is; where I live so I will speak for it. It is no longer new to the sight whereby you see people moving around, walking funny due to a genital skin disorder or the other.
Some people even move around scratching there “thing” because one major symptom of psoriasis on the genital is itchiness but it is not to say that everyone who itches down there has psoriasis. There are other skin diseases that could cause a person to itch on there groin area or genital but psoriasis is for sure is one of such diseases.
Genital psoriasis is a skin disease from the many types of psoriasis. Although psoriasis is a skin disease that affects the skin in a terrible and messy way, genital psoriasis is a branch of guttate psoriasis which is one of the many types of psoriasis that people suffer.
Genital psoriasis can be a huge cause of embarrassment to the sufferer because it does not stop itching. It is a medical skin disorder that makes a person scratch there genitals continually. The signs of genital psoriasis are that the skin surface is shiny, smooth, and dry.
Genital psoriasis is caused by stress, being fat, drinking excessive alcohol, smoking tobacco, irritations and reactions, clamping of the thighs during friction, emotional hazards etc. some medical experts even relates it to heredity stating that psoriasis in could be found in the genes although theses same experts claim that psoriasis in the genes does not apply to everyone in that family
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Herbalists fight to save business
0 Comments | Scotsman (Edinburgh, Scotland), The, Dec 8, 2009
Byline: Tanya Thompson
CAMPAIGNERS are calling on the Westminster government to prevent herbal medicines disappearing from the high street when an EU ban comes into place in 2011.
Save Herbal Medicine fears much of its trade will be lost if EU legislation which states that only “statutorily regulated” professionals, such as doctors, would be able to prescribe the alternative remedies is applied. The EU directive will restrict over-the-counter herbal remedies to licensed “traditional” medicines for “mild and self-limiting” conditions.
Save Herbal Medicine wants the Department of Health to produce a statutory register for herbalists who meet certain standards.
Adversarial relationships: R.I.P.: how and why the partnership model is mutually beneficial to the risk manager and the carrier
Risk & Insurance, Dec, 2009 by Tom Jolliff
summary
* A culture of safety is achieved when the owner of the company and top management have 100 percent buy-in.
* To help companies build and manage their own safety programs, carriers like ICW Group provide risk management tools and resources.
* One such tool offered by ICW Group is RMRx Safety Advisor, a safety library with more than 1,300 safety-related training topics.
**********
Out with the menacing clipboard, in with collaboration and practical solutions.
The days of stone-faced insurance inspectors checking off safety hazards and violations in their clients’ workplaces are becoming a relic of the past. In its place are risk management consultants who genuinely partner with their workers’ compensation policyholders to reduce risk and claims costs, lower experience modification factors, and save money. For some companies, the savings can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
This approach–collaborative rather than adversarial–benefits the carrier, the client, and the agents and brokers who represent workers’ comp carriers. The carrier sees fewer claims, the policyholder can save money over the long term on insurance premiums while increasing productivity, and the independent agents and brokers have a better market to offer their clients.
CREATING A CULTURE OF SAFETY
A culture of safety in an organization is achieved when the owner of the company and top management have 100 percent buy-in to safety. This sets the cultural tone for the management staff, and, ultimately, the entire workforce. It may seem simplistic, but when line employees know that the owner of the company is serious about workplace safety, and that nothing less than a zero-accident attitude is acceptable, then the culture of safety becomes deeply seated in that organization. It becomes a way of living for every employee, supervisor and manager
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Subaru has the answer with Justy
0 Comments | Western Morning News, The, Oct 30, 2009
SUBARU has the perfect answer for belt-tightening motorists wishing to downsize but not down-spec – and with the scrappage scheme the deal is even better.
The answer is the diminutive Justy – a car that is full of fun and boasts one of the most efficient 1.0-litre engines in the world – with 56mpg combined.
And with Pounds 2,000 off thanks to the scrappage scheme it is available from Pounds 7,305.
A full five-door model, it has CO2 emissions of 118 g/km which means a Pounds 35 a year road tax bill.
It also has a low insurance group, a five-year warranty and five years roadside assistance.
And for drivers looking for something just a little bit different there is the Justy 1.0 Twin Cam Special Edition.
Extra equipment on board this special comprises rear roof spoiler; twin exhaust system; over roof “viper stripes” and side decals; leather and alloy gear knob and rear privacy glass – creating the perfect blend of inexpensive, economical motoring in a desirable, sporty package. The Special Edition Twin Cam offers fantastic value for money at only Pounds 690 more than the standard model, even with a combined total of over Pounds 1,100 worth of extra kit. It returns 64mpg on the extra urban cycle.
The standard Justy 1.0 R is already extremely well equipped with air conditioning; ABS with EBD; driver, passenger, front side and curtain airbags; radio/CD player with AUX input; four electric windows and remote central-locking.
A further enhancement available on both the Justy 1.0 R and Justy 1.0 Twin Cam is an alloy wheel package comprising 15-inch Monza R wheels with Toyo 185/55R15 tyres at Pounds 600 for a set of four (plus fitting).
Historical & Political Ballads and Songs of the Stuart Era
Folk Music Journal, Annual, 2010 by Roy Palmer
Historical & Political Ballads and Songs of the Stuart Era
Chris Bennett. N.p.: Trafford Publishing, 2008. 520 pp. Music. Bibliog. Index. ISBN 978-1-4251-3704-5. [pounds sterling]19.95. US$38.64. [euro] 26.40.
This substantial collection includes 186 songs, though, bizarrely, the last of these is a melody only, and no. 171 is a mock catechism in prose. The great majority, over 150, are provided with tunes. They cover a period of some two hundred years, starting with: ’1567. Song 1: Queen Mary’s Escape from Lochleven Castle. Written by Rob Allan [...] Source: Scottish Minstrel, Vol. 6′. Alarm bells immediately ring. In fact, Mary’s escape, as Bennett’s own note reveals, took place in 1568. Who was Rob Allan? Conceivably the Robert Allan who wrote “The Covenanter’s Lament’ (no. 28 here) which appeared in Songs and Ballads of Clydeside, with illustrative notes by A. Nimmo (Edinburgh: Menzies, 1882). So we are not dealing with contemporary material. To be fair, Bennett warns in a prefatory note that ‘songs … have been assigned to specific dates, even though they may have been written later’–a dubious policy, to say the least–but surely he could have indicated in his gloss the rough date of Allan’s song.
The source shown (The Scottish Minstrel) is ambiguous, the title’s having been used at least half a dozen times for different anthologies. Bennett’s bibliography, which, infuriatingly, is given in alphabetical order of title, contains few places of publication and not a single date. In addition, many books are cited inaccurately: for example, ‘Scot’s [sic] Minstrelsy’, and ‘Pedlars [sic] Book of Ballads and Songs’. Two editors are listed just as a surname (Kinsey, Ritson), and two more incorrectly (R. H. Kromek, George Farguhar).
I’m afraid that this kind of confusion permeates the whole book. Bennett gives The Oxford Book of Ballads (sc. ed. Kinsley, 1969) as his source for ‘The Bonny Earl of Murray’, but silently alters the text, repeats one stanza as a chorus, and introduces a different tune. He then moves on to ‘Bonnie Earl o’ Muray’, citing ‘”Ballads” by Francis James Child’. By this he means Child’s other anthology, English and Scottish Ballads (Boston, MA, 1857-59); yet the text appears as no. 181 B in Child’s magnum opus, and it is also Kinsley’s B version. One might have thought that Bennett’s comments could have included a mention of Edward D. Ives’s book, The Bonny Earl of Murray (East Linton: Tuckwell Press, 1997).
Chris Bennett has clearly devoted a great deal of time and effort to this volume, a labour of love. It would have benefited enormously from a more rigorous approach. Not a single original broadside is quoted, and secondary sources are needlessly used (Karl Dallas’s Cruel Wars for ‘We Be Soldiers Three’, for example). The policy adopted on chronology is seriously misguided, with ludicrous results, such as allowing Lord Macaulay’s ballad ‘The Battle of Naseby’ to take its place with material of the period. Many Jacobite songs, including those by Burns, such as ‘Charlie, He’s my Darling’, are post-Jacobite, and their success is undoubtedly worthy of note; but they require separate consideration, as shown by William Donaldson in The Jacobite Song: Political Myth and National Identity (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988).
There are far too many trivial–perhaps willful–errors in Bennett’s book, such as in the titles, “The Lawyers Lament for Charing Cross’ (recte ‘The Lawyers’ Lamentation for the Loss of Charing Cross’) and ‘Lament for the Apprehension of Sir Thomas Armstrong’ (recte ‘The Bully Whig; or, The Poor Whore’s Lamentation for the Apprehending of Sit Thomas Armstrong’). In the latter case, Bennett has a second attempt at the full title in his gloss, but it is still not entirely correct
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University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute Receives IBM Shared University Research Award
PR Newswire, Dec 2, 2009
PITTSBURGH and ARMONK, N.Y., Dec. 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The University of Pittsburgh’s McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which connects scientists who work on tissue engineering, cell therapies, artificial organs and biodevices, has been awarded a Shared University Research (SUR) Award from IBM . The IBM SUR Award will provide IBM computer hardware, software and services to Pitt for its cutting-edge “in silico” biological research, which uses computer simulations to explore biological pathways and test therapeutic interventions.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO ) (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20091202/NY19700 )
Researchers at Pitt’s McGowan Institute intend to use the IBM technology to open up new dimensions in biological modeling. The results of such research could significantly reduce the cost of new drug development and shorten the treatment evaluation process – getting treatments to the market faster and cheaper.
For example, the Pitt research team has simulated liver tissue to study how a chronic hepatitis infection can lead to liver cancer, lung tissues to study viral infection and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and skin to study how patients with spinal cord injuries develop pressure ulcers.
This type of advanced modeling can help researchers better understand basic biological processes and allows them to screen drugs and determine their impact on the body to uncover the best interventions for a broad range of diseases.
Like Movie Fantasy Creatures
The principles of in silico modeling are similar to those used to generate the fantasy creatures of other worlds in movies, such as “Lord of the Rings” and the “Star Trek” series. At the University of Pittsburgh, researchers are building astonishingly realistic models of organs and diseases, and seeing molecular-level effects of drugs on them.
So instead of creating an imaginary character to fill out a battle scene, Pitt scientists are applying computational techniques to simulate, for example, inflamed liver cells morphing into cancer. That allows them to see not only how tumors develop, but how drugs or other interventions could affect disease progression.
Dr. Yoram Vodovotz, professor of surgery at Pitt’s School of Medicine, director of the Center for Inflammation and Regenerative Modeling (CIRM) at the McGowan Institute, and principal investigator for the IBM SUR grant, is studying the role of immune system-regulated inflammatory pathways in a variety of conditions. Inflammation is involved in many, and perhaps most, diseases affecting both industrialized and developing societies.
“Dr. Vodovotz and the McGowan Institute are using IBM technology and computer simulations in support of groundbreaking regenerative medicine,” said Bernie Meyerson, vice president of innovation and global university programs, IBM. “This award is yet another example of IBM and the University working to help build a smarter planet. The McGowan Institute’s efforts are truly transformational, world-changing research.”
Work carried out by the CIRM has had basic, translational, and commercial success, said Dr. Vodovotz
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