NPR gave their listeners 250 words to tell us about their gripes with the road. They picked the eight best essays, and we will unveil them one by one this week.

I have to be at work and sitting at my desk with my glasses on and mouse warm in hand by 8 a.m.

I understand the pressure of a late ringing alarm clock and I also push the pedal a little harder around 7:45 a.m. The most important part of my day is that I get to my desk on time and in one piece. I expect that this is also a mission very close to your heart, because you are so clearly willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

I am, however, not at all impressed with your Fast and Furious antics. Please stop angrily swerving around me, leaving 5 inches of safe cushion between us and a collision. Because no matter how far ahead you think you are getting, there is always a stoplight up ahead and I will most likely meet you there.

Are we really in a race to get to the red light? Is it really worth risking the cost of a potential accident to be the first person waiting for the light to turn green? No one is thinking, “Wow, look at that daredevil stud,” as you whiz by me and suddenly swerve into my lane. Nope, instead I am thinking how self-centered you must be.

The next time you are the first to arrive at the red light and you sit there revving your engine so that you can get to the next stop before anyone else, remember the look I’m giving is not of admiration but of disdain.

Love,

The Woman Who Knows How To Drive

Erica Molitor is a 28-year-old Milwaukee resident who excels in both complaining and coloring contests.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120582677

Last week, more than 33 million Americans drove at least 50 miles to visit family and friends for Thanksgiving. The great majority returned home safely.

But for too many families, this holiday will bring tragedy. Last year, during the four-day Thanksgiving driving period, nearly 400 people were killed in traffic accidents in the U.S., according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For all of 2008, more than 37,000 people were killed in car crashes.

Last week, National Public Radio aired stories and hosted conversations about highway safety. Visit http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120593843 and we’ll explore the many ways that safety has been improved through better vehicle technology, smarter road designs, and reformed behaviors, such as reduced drunken driving.

The changes have yielded dramatic results: In 1969, the driving-related fatality rate in this country was 5 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. The current rate is about 1.27 deaths.

But fatalities are still high because of the many dangers that remain, especially on rural roads where trucks, RVs and passenger cars frequently collide. And new risks are emerging as more and more drivers look away from the road to send text messages. At the same time, tens of millions of aging baby boomers are entering the years when driving skills will be declining significantly.

In coming decades, will we see more advances in safety because of new technologies and laws? Or will we see fatality rates start to rise again?

Protection Connection knows a thing or two about on the road safety.
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We will help you build a policy that fits your lifestyle, and protects your family at the worst of times.

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OutOfPocket.com is a social-networking portal to help consumers find the best value for routine health care services in their neighborhood. The site includes a directory of true prices for common services based on actual visits by individual consumers. The website is free and everyone is invited to participate, including the insured and under-insured, by anonymously posting prices they paid for routine health care services (such as MRIs, mammograms, x-rays, CT scans, vaccinations, office visits, dental and vision), along with their personal recommendations on the provider.

OutOfPocket.com is a social-networking portal to help consumers find the best value for routine health care services in their neighborhood. The site includes a directory of true prices for common services based on actual visits by individual consumers. The website is free and everyone is invited to participate, including the insured and under-insured, by anonymously posting prices they paid for routine health care services (such as MRIs, mammograms, x-rays, CT scans, vaccinations, office visits, dental and vision), along with their personal recommendations on the provider.

È meno costoso Quando all'Assicurato secondo un'associazione

Nel corso degli anni, è stato ribadito che è più conveniente per ottenere l'assicurazione sanitaria se si sono assicurati nell'ambito di un gruppo. Un esempio di questo è un gruppo di sindacato o dei lavoratori o lavoratori all'interno di una determinata società. Anche se questo è meno costoso, ci sono ancora altri che sarà difficile che ne beneficiano. Questo perché la società in cui lavorano difficilmente fornire assicurazione sanitaria a lorodipendenti o che queste persone non può individuare un regime come quello che prevede la copertura di un gruppo o in base al quale che possono trarre beneficio da appartenenti a quel gruppo.

A volte in passato, i datori di lavoro ha reso abituale per contribuire alla assicurazione sanitaria dei propri dipendenti. Questo è stato considerato come una parte dei loro pagamenti. Quando l'economia a partire entrare in recessione, questo beneficio è stata gradualmente ridotta, o addirittura eliminati. Per questo motivo, la maggior parte dei lavoratori sono costretti aprendersi cura personalmente del costo per l'assicurazione della propria salute.

C'è un'opzione per coloro che vivono in California. Ciò che è fatto è che le persone possono prendersi cura della loro salute attraverso un'assicurazione sanitaria da o attraverso un indennizzo o un piano organizzato di assistenza. Un accordo indennità è quello in cui l'assicurato ha la facoltà di decidere su chi sta facendo disposizione per il servizio e il fornitore di assicurazione a loro volta farsi carico di una notevole quantità di questocost. L'assicurato dovrà inoltre contribuire la sua quota del costo e questo è comunemente noto come coassicurazione. Questo sarà applicabile in una situazione in cui le spese mediche non vanno oltre un certo limite. Una volta che questo limite viene superato, l'assicuratore dovrà pagare l'intero costo.

D'altra parte, ha organizzato un piano di cura è un sistema che si concentra sulla pre-sanitaria preventiva. Questo schema è gestito da un'associazione di ospedali e assistenza sanitaria certificatafornitori e spesso forniscono un'assicurazione sanitaria estesa ai loro clienti attraverso un accordo. Secondo questo sistema, sarà impossibile per gli assicurati di scegliere per chi fornirà assicurazione sanitaria per lui o lei. A volte, questo è anche considerato inutile, perché i benefici e la soddisfazione derivata da sempre la qualità e la misura delle cure sanitarie prestate è maggiore la possibilità di fare una scelta che il cliente perde.

Garantire la saluteA cura della Comunità

Ci sono due sistemi di assistenza sanitaria di cui l'amministrazione centrale ha messo a disposizione di tutti. Questi sono i Medicare e Medicaid.

L'amministrazione fa questo, dichiarando una fase di reddito minimo che a sua volta fornisce le finanze di ogni Stato in modo da poter meglio gestire il proprio accordo di assistenza sanitaria individuale. Quale dovrebbe essere preso nota è che le finanze di questo regime non sono sempre disponibili. Per questo motivo, per la qualificazioneregime sarà sempre una questione che va decisa dalla somministrazione di ogni stato e sarà anche variare. Va osservato che l'obiettivo principale di questi due regimi sono destinati a fornire assistenza sanitaria ai deboli come gli anziani, coloro che sono portatori di handicap, quelli che non possono economicamente subordinare la concessione delle loro assistenza sanitaria e in particolare i bambini. Tali sistemi sono stati denominati Medical and Healthy Famiglie regimi in California.

Ci sono diversi salutesistemi di assicurazione e tutti questi programmi hanno una serie di norme e regolamenti che prendersi cura di loro. Se avete intenzione di far parte di una di tali sistemi, è necessario guardare criticamente in ciò che essi forniscono. Si dovrebbe anche sapere che si deve pagare la "franchigia". Questa è una somma fissa che deve essere versata annualmente prima di beneficiare di assicurazione sanitaria che rientrano nella politica. Tenere a mente che la più grande è la deduzione, la più conveniente il tasso di premio. Tuttavia, la maggior parte personecredo che ciò che si paga per l'assicurazione sanitaria non è davvero chiaro quando ogni altra considerazione, come quelli previsti dal regime di responsabilità civile e del regime di assistenza organizzata è presa in considerazione.

Di recente, l'amministrazione in California messo a disposizione una carta per le droghe di prescrizione e di questa carta è ottenuta senza alcun addebito. Ogni californiano è qualificato per avere questa carta. Il vantaggio di avere questa carta è che beneficerà di una riduzione di prezzo del 75% se si paga per ogni prescrizionefarmaci. Questo è parte di un programma volto a fornire assistenza sanitaria a tutta la comunità.

Related : light glasses Sunglasses Brand healthy i diet Borishalolas’s Weblog

Time to get back into the swing of things…I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and had a great time. Mine was cool, just ate with family and watched everyone play Wii Fit and shit like that. Always good to hang out with family, especially when you get older and don’t have as much time to be around one another. Can’t say I really do much other than that. I would have updated but the computer at my parents house is awful. When you type the computer is so slow that there’s actually a delay when you type…imagine how annoying that would be…

Anyway, these are pics from the JTuned/Formula D event last weekend. As you saw from the post with Billy’s IS and JDMEGO Jay’s Evo, I showed up a little too late and the majority of the cars were gone already. There were probably about 20 cars or so left over so I basically went just to talk to the homies and snapped some pics and took off. There were some interesting cars out that day though. I even got to meet John Peterson, the guy who runs the Mayday Garage blog all the way from Texas. Really cool guy. I guess he was in town to support his friends who were competing in the Formula D Pro Am. When he found out I was the one who writes up The Chronicles, he seemed a little surprised…Shit, I didn’t even know people knew about this spot out in Texas so if anything I was the one that was surprised. Pretty cool that people from all the way out there recognize this site. Alright, time for pics…

Of course everybody knows Billy’s IS by now…He even ran at Battle of the Imports the next day. Everyone thinks this car is a dyno queen but it’s not, it’s actually fully functional…

This old school Cressida was cool as shit…I love builds like this. Totally unique with it’s own sense of style…

I’ve been seeing alot of this Civic this whole year now and it sure has come a long way. I’m not a big fan of the wheels (for obvious reasons) and he’s got a lot of random things going on, but all in all, it’s coming together slowly but surely. I hope he cleans it up more because the car has a lot of potential…

…he started out with a supercharged d-series to now having a N/A b-series. Even has a Bisimoto header on it…

The catch can as a coolant resevoir is a nice touch as well…

Karen’s Evo with all the Voltex gear, Advans, Endless Brakes, and T1R lugs….$$$…Love it…

This RX-7 is one of the quietest rotories I’ve ever heard…damn thing purred like a kitten…

I didn’t get a shot of the whole car cuz it wasn’t much to look at but the valve cover and intake pipe are kinda interesting…I don’t know, just kinda screams for attention, and not necessarily the good kind. Looks like dry-wall primer or spackle paint or some shit…either way, looks like a brick of Spam after you’ve left it out too long and it dries up…ehhh…

Your eyes don’t deceive you, that tire really is thin as fuck. Like pubic hair thin. Like if you hit a pothole the fuckin tire wouldn’t blow out cuz it’s so thin that it’s basically a rubber wrap…I can go on if you want…haha…

15 series!! So thin that if you drove over a reflector on the road your ass might fly outta the fuckin car…

Another nice Cressida at the event….Don’t quote me but that might be a Mark II front end…I’ve been away from Toyotas for a minute now so I’m not too up to date on my info. Speedhunters actually has a feature on this car right now so make sure you check it out here….

This is the car that actually ended up winning the whole comp that day. I gotta say, it might be the first time I’ve seen a 4-door R32 in person. Always loved R32s…another car I’ll never own…haha. If it were up to me though I’d drive a 4-door R33 all day. When I say “all day” I mean I’d buy it and put it in my garage and never drive it, because when I bought my Q45 I told myself I’d drive that shit “all day” too and now look at it….

I leave you with some more pics of one of the coolest cars there…Thanks for looking, I’ll try to update accordingly, I actually have to move to a new place this weekend so it might get kinda hectic…

Peace.

First of all, two notes about comments.

1) Some of you are wondering where my comments can be found: they’re under each picture when you click on the thumbnail in the post.
2) To those who commented, I may reply to your comment. If I do, it can be found under the same picture.

On to the rest of Truro, and then home. This also marks the end of the 11th Nov 2009 Collection.

And yes, I did consider posting this first and leaving the post about Truro Cathedral to the last (my planned “Highlights” post). But I realized just before posting this. that it would have messed up the chronology and stuff. That explains the near simultaneity of the timings of these two posts.

Wide angle lens + Amazingly beautiful cathedral + crazy guy = booms. Be prepared. Some of these shots are easily some of my best architectural (not much of such opportunities in Singapore) shots.

Do consider the amount of effort spent behind the lens itself and amount of time spent touching them up. I even had to pay 1 pound to get a photography permit! The dichotomy is to be considered here; no signature: you are looking at the real cathedral, the real colours, the real everything. Got signature: you are looking at the cathedral inside my mind. If I had my way, everything would be fodder for my weird effects, because the real cathedral is already inside my memories, but obviously, then, no one else would know how it actually looks. I am too kind!!

Take the time and enjoy!! I’ve got some comments inside, so peek inside for a look, too.

wanted to start this after Thanksgiving with a boom. So i’ll start the coverage off with the wreckage from the Formula D ProAm then go off into the meet section.

To end the coverage with DOMO!! here’s a close up the Domo man going along for the drift ride!!! LOL .

Stay tuned for the next coverage of Battle of the Imports. coming soon!

This gallery feature some shots of Adam’s house, which is located in Blackrock.

Also, our first visit to Truro, including the Royal Cornwall Museum, the cathedral (which will have its own post, too beautiful) and traditional Scottish cream tea.

Right, some quite random shots just to get a rough feel of the whole school. And seagulls everywhere! It seems the paleontological diversity in Cornwall is disappointingly lacking.

Anyway, they’re in a mini “collection” of their own, marked rather obviously by the B&W style (they looked almost like that to being with anyway, so why not go the whole way) This, too, concludes the first one and a half days in Camborne. The tags are a nifty tool, in this case I’ve used it to indicate which dates the gallery belongs to, rather than adding it to the title, which looks obnoxious.

They have a funny thing with naming stuff after famous, dead, scientists, too.

Shots taken when we were aboard the DHC-8-400, and our bus trip from Newquay Airport to Camborne!

For my own sake, I’m not going to lump all the photos together and expect you guys to be able to digest everything, so I have devised a dichotomy in which every photo will fall into either of two categories, coverage photos and artistic photos. Also, I will insert comments along the way as to give you an idea just where the hell the pictures were taken.

There are some differences between the two, mainly the work involved during the retouching process and intended purpose of image.

Coverage photos undergo only automated retouching using Lightroom’s (yet again) amazing Develop module. I take these pictures with the intention of letting the viewers visualize, if not primitively, the coverage and emotions involved in this trip. They have distinguished by the absence of my signature, to facilitate the distribution of these photos among those who went for the trip. These pictures have little artistic value to me, but then again, I’m not you.

The only other kind, the “artistic” ones, undergo retouching on a more excruciating level, meaning twiddling of sliders and usage of different plugins and Photoshop etc in order to bring out the potential of the raw image. These have signatures on them, as they have far more of my personal input than coverage photos do, and I don’t like people niggling them without my prior permission (ironically, I’ll scream in delight if anyone were to ask me for a full sized, non-signatured or otherwise version as a picture for their desktop). These pictures have much artistic value to me, and then again, I’m not you.

Edit: I just realized that it’ll be harder for both you and me if I do separate the two types of pictures, whether by post or otherwise. I shall just lump them together, in chronological order. Perhaps, when I am finally done, I’ll have a separate gallery of all the artistic images aptly entitled “Highlights” Til then, enjoy both as they are.

Here we go:

Changi , Heathrow, Gatwick. And everything else in between.

This is rather cumbersome, but WordPress doesn’t allow multiple galleries in a single post, natively. The only way to work around this without additional plugins that I know of  is to publish the other galleries seperately and hotlink it (elegantly, so that it looks like it belongs) but I rather have numerous posts actually saying something, rather than all of them except one just “empty” posts.

In light of this, do not expect the trend of the kind “8th November 09 Collection”, especially so in this Camborne thing. Rather, it might go like “Visit to Pendennis” and “Trip to Truro”, to make it more narrative and engaging for you guys. I don’t know about you guys, but I like ‘em bite-sized. This limitation of WP might work in my favor after all!

Anyhow, enjoy and do leave comments if you can. Thanks!

Ah finally, we are at the end of the SEMA coverage. What a trip it was….got to see alot of homies, ate like there was no tomorrow, won some money, spent some money, and of course, saw some car shit…This last batch is pretty much just random pics and stuff you might have seen before but at better angles. The amount of people died down at the show towards the last couple days and it made picture taking a lot easier…

Still one of my favorites at the show, I recently saw pics of this at Super Lap Battle and it did very well…

I was showing this Scion to some other friends that had come later who hadn’t been inside SEMA yet that week. Just in terms of pure ingenuity, the Scion booth is definitely a landmark at the SEMA show…

Also had to take another look at the VIP Legacy. I don’t know what happened but they took the two Fusas they had hanging on the mirror down and kept the hood closed that day…Hopefully nobody stole that shit…

Damn…

The infamous Ken Block Gymkhana Subaru…

This is an interesting look…I mean, it doesn’t look bad, but it almost looks like it’s a rear bumper installed on the front…

This Focus was really nice. All caged up on Work XD9s and everything…Finally was able to get a clean shot of it since the Ford area was so packed all week…

Here is the Flex that Autofashion built with the custom Falken bandana print interior…

Ryan from Eibach aka Vtecvoodoo was busy being a businessman all week…

One more shot of the Bomex Camaro…I like how they jacked the idea of the exhaust outlet from the new Lexus LF-A…

Lisa Kubo’s new Integra…

Greddy Peter North nutshot Genesis…

Best of show…

Enkei did Rota one better and decided to do custom colors before they ran off with their designs…

Speaking of wheels, these are probably the ugliest wheels I’ve ever seen…Good job Forgiato…

This of course is the LF-A that everyone was talking about all week. I didn’t even know it was there until I accidently walked outside and saw the Lexus area. They got a pretty shitty spot I might add. There were no signs or anything and you would only see it if you were trying to go outside to smoke or something…

A trio of IS convertibles…

David Huang’s IS300…

That’s about it…We spent the rest of our trip eating at The Earl of Sandwich inside Planet Hollywood…best sandwiches ever…Other than that, we had a couple drinks here and there and just chilled…

Rudy Falcon and Rywire came by our room to shoot the shit for a little bit as well. Not really sure what was going on here, haha…

Somebody called out Ryan and emailed Super Street claiming that Rywire was “Lywire” and rocking Rotas and claiming them to be real Mugen wheels. Rywire just wants to clarify that he put on the Rota centercaps as a joke and even though he really does have Mugen wheels, he’s a big supporter of Rotas. That’s also not a thumb in the picture, I photoshopped it to look that way, use your imagination guy who emailed Super Street…

Here’s Rudy walking into the room where his intervention was taking place…stop doing drugs you ass!…

That’s all folks, back to normal daily duties tomorrow…

]]> http://pursuitcommunications.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/onya-talkn-tours/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:17:32 +0000 pursuitcommunications http://pursuitcommunications.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/onya-talkn-tours/

Pursuit Communications client Talk’N Tours received brilliant coverage this week, through the ever popular Onya Magazine.

Talk’N Tours Melbourne audio tour is featured in the “Girl without a Platinum Card” section.

Congratulations Talk’N Tours!

There is nothing worse for a football fan than being frozen from watching his team in action. For most it will be better to see their team lose than being unable to catch the live game.

But this is precisely what a non-Premier League fan experiences if he wishes to see his favourite club tough it out. There is no way that you go to a pub and ask them to switch over from the British teams.

The UEFA Champions League encounter between Barcelona and Inter Milan was the biggest clash of the day. However, Sky Sports decided it only merited a screening on Sky Sports Extra.

This meant that anyone who wished to view the game had to have the whole Sky subscription. Furthermore, it also meant that many of the pubs would be unable to screen the game.

To be honest their decision is understandable as we are in England and not in the EU; not yet atleast. The pub owners can claim that their patrons are English and Scottish and not Italian fans like me.

But what surprised me was the complete lack of coverage that the game received even in the rest of the media. There was no kind of build-up or preview for the game in most of the papers despite the stature of the teams involved.

Monday Blues

This may not strike as particularly odd to the British but it did seem terribly ignorant to me. After all this was a clash between the heavyweights of European football and featured the current European champions.

Instead almost all the pubications, sites focussed on the implications for Liverpool if they were to exit the competition. To a viewer or a reader it might have almost appeared as if there was just one game on Tuesday.

Hailing from a country that does not have a strong footballing culture I am proud to say that at least my papers try their best to educate me about the world of football. The same cannot be said about papers here.

Every Monday I open the papers hoping to read something about the proceedings in the Spanish League or the Italian League and every week I am let down. The British to me are far too concerned about their own football.

I appreciate that you give priority to local football but to not even talk about the rest of the world seems highly patronizing. I was shocked when after a Champions League Matchday the following day’s papers carried no mention about the groups other than the ones featuring the British teams.

This culture of paying absolutely no attention to sporting events from around the world seems queer for a place which boasts of its remarkably talented press. Fleet Street may be a street in London but it is supposed to offer a world view too, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here.

The Need For Change

The sub-heading may sound like a terrible cliche but there is really a need to change the way the British media seem to cover their international sporting events. They need to recognize that other games around the world may be equally important as their own.

London is known for its cultural diaspora but the complete absence of the same in its media coverage is probably reflective of the views of the British people.  They may be an insular bunch but the media should be held accountable for making them an ignorant bunch as well.

The Guardian can boast of a ton of international coverage and note when they say international they mean only USA. But it cannot boast of comprehensive sports coverage. I am quite sure the name Semenya won’t mean a lot to most of the so-called sports aficionados.

I think it is important for papers to do a bit more of introspection and diversify their content even further. They have failed to realise that immigration affects not only the economy but also their readership.

Some unexpected coverage in Scottish Newspaper ‘The Sunday Post’ at the beginning of this month.

Nil’s shot of the Organic Moose hat and mittens was amazingly good quality on the page, I’ve never seen such a sharp image in newsprint! Shame about some of the other brands, not really the same idea we’re going for……but seriously Gilly, don’t look a gifthorse in the mouth! haha