P.I.S.S.D. -- Personal Injury, Social Security Disability. Dallas Texas Lawyers

Link of the Day - Friday Fun

Many people find the "songs" of humpback whales to be soothing. Here are a few examples from the Ocean Mammal Institute.

Link of the Day - Traffic Information Around The United States

If you're about to head out on the road, whether it's on a vacation or business trip, or just to get home from the office, you need to take a look at this Web site. The Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has a national traffic and road closure information site that will give you up-to-date traffic information all around the country.

Here are a few of the included conditions:

Construction Related:

• Rand McNally Construction Information for North America

Weather/Road Conditions Related:

• AccuWeather Weather Headlines
• Intellicast Travel Planners
• National Weather Service
• National Weather Service Interactive Weather Information Network
• Safe Travel USA - Weather and Road Conditions for the Upper Midwest
• Travel Cities Weather
• Weather Channel Travel Weather

Traffic Conditions Information:

• AccuTraffic - Traffic Information for States
• Beat the Traffic Information for Various US Cities
• Iteris Real-Time Traffic Information - Maps and Times - for Various US Cities
• Metrocommute Traffic Information
• MSN Traffic Reports
• Road Summit Travel Information for Various US Locations
• Road Watch America
• SmarTraveler - Traffic Information for Various Major US Cities
• Smart-Traveler Information for Various US Cities
• Traffic.com - Traffic Information for US Cities
• TrafficLand.com - Traffic Cameras for US and other Cities 
• TrafficOnline - Personalized, Route-Specific, Real Time Traffic Information
• Travel Advisory News Network (TANN) - Traffic conditions for various cities
• TravelForecast.com - United States Road and Traffic Conditions
• Yahoo! Traffic Views - Traffic conditions for various cities

Link of the Day - Laser Monks

Did you ever think you could contribute to a worthwhile cause by buying printer cartridges? Just buy your office supplies from LaserMonks.com. Here's their story:

Our monastery is part of the 900-year-old Cistercian Order; our particular Abbey was founded over 75 years ago in the United States. Every monastery has a monk in charge of all the temporal needs and activities of the community. Among my duties as Steward of Temporal Affairs are developing and managing ways to support our life and charities.Contrary to popular understanding, monasteries are self-supporting. A part of our day is given to some sort of remunerative work, from which we support our modest living needs in the monastery, and then use the rest for charitable work. Our Abbey was at this time looking into various new income projects, which had ranged from growing Shitake mushrooms, raising Christmas trees, to building a golf course and conference center.An income project that was based on a necessary consumable item, like toner and ink cartridges, was exactly what the monastery needed - a solid, consistent, income that would not be affected by difficult economic times. Everyone has to have toner and ink to print, businesses especially. And everyone wants to save money. Add to this the fact that we use the money for good works and to support monks who dedicate their lives to serving God and neighbor, and you have the ultimate win-win situation.The manufacturers were elated with the possibilities. They immediately said we should market not only to schools, churches, and other non-profits, but especially to businesses. "Look, you're monks. You have an image and long tradition of being trustworthy and providing top quality products. You're offering a great product at a great price. Once people hear about you, it's an easy decision. Why would anyone pay more money, when they can have quality products for less, from monks who use the income to help others?"

Link of the Day - Zoho Alternative To Microsoft Office Suite

As the price of Microsoft Office continues to rise, more people are turning to alternative programs to handle their word process, spreadsheets, and other software applications. One of the more interesting alternatives is Zoho.

According to their Web site, Zoho contains:

Online word processor with collaboration features.

Online spreadsheet application to create and share spreadsheets on the web.

Online presentation tool to create, edit, publish, and show presentations.

Online organizer to maintain your todo’s, reminders, notes, attachments etc.

Project management software to create, manage & collaborate online.

Elegant & Affordable On-Demand CRM Solution

Create Online Database Applications in minutes. Build Forms, Collect Data and Manage.

Wiki with WYSIWYG editor, group concept, versions, sub-pages, draggable sitemap etc.

A web-based collaboration groupware that includes Email Client, Documents, Calendar and more.

And even more tools.

If you're tired of paying Microsoft prices, check out Zoho.

How Low Will Insurance Companies Go To Deny Claims?

My friend Jonathan Stein has come across a story about Progressive Insurance that shows there's just no limit to the tricks insurance companies will pull to keep from paying claims. Be sure to read Jon's post at his California Personal Injury and Insurance Blog.

Link of the Day - Postage Calculator

Are you as confused as I am with the Postal Service's new rates? You can't just put the envelope on the scale anymore -- you have to figure out which shape category it fits, and then calculate the postage from there.

Fortunately, the U.S. Postal Service is providing us with a nifty postage calculator that makes these computations much easier. Check it out. It could save you money.

Link of the Day - Telephone Medical Consultations: A Form Of Telemedicine

The "next big thing" in medicine just might be telephone consultations with doctors you've never met before. At least that's the hope of a group called TelaDoc. They do have a catchy name, with a sort of double meaning, but I'm not sure the concept will catch on with too many people. Here's how they explain things:

Telephone medical consults is the art and science of providing standard medical assessments, treatments, care and services to patients located remotely from the treating physician. The TelaDoc membership service focuses on non-emergent (non-emergency), non-interventional primary care, in an effort to reduce unnecessary and inefficient trips to a doctor or emergency room.

Telephone consults have been broadly utilized since 1997. Over 36 million Americans have been treated using this technology, and the data shows that 60-70% of non-urgent primary care requests can be treated by a doctor with a telephone medical consult.

Internists, family practitioners and urgent care doctors with years of experience

TelaDoc is recruiting 100% board certified physicians

Must undergo a thorough credentialing process that verifies medical licensure, training and education, work history, and malpractice history

Live and work in the United States

English speaking doctors. Spanish speaking doctors in some states. Interpreter available

Non-urgent Medical Care Whenever and Wherever You Need It

TelaDoc is a network of licensed, primary care physicians who diagnose individual medical problems via the telephone, recommend treatment and prescribe medication (when appropriate) over the telephone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. You can access this service wherever you happen to be: your home, office, hotel room, or vacation campsite. Simply make a phone call and, in most cases, speak to a doctor within 30-40 minutes.

Link of the Day - Association Of Cancer Online Resources

ACOR, the Association Of Cancer Online Resources has a Web site with excellent resources for cancer patients and their families. Here is ACOR's Mission Statement:

Mission ACOR is an Internet-based public charity dedicated to improve the quality of care provided to cancer patients and the quality of life of patients, survivors and their caregivers. ACOR leverages its wide technological and biomedical resource expertise to be a reliable source of knowledge, support and community in a relentless worldwide campaign to empower those suffering from the disease. ACOR achieves its mission by constantly investing in advanced technologies and improving them to: Provide uninterrupted open access to a large nexus of online peer support groups (Health eCommunities) it creates and manages, Host a number of exceptional patient-centered websites. Conduct breakthrough research. These efforts are supported by a large team of dedicated volunteers and support staff. Thanks to them, ACOR is consistently recognized as a leader in helping cancer patients and in promoting health care quality through its Health eCommunities.

Link of the Day - Friday Fun

For more years than I can remember, Federal Judge Jerry Buchmeyer has written a humor column for the State Bar of Texas. His wonderful gems are now online and called Say What?!.

Even if you're not a lawyer, you'll enjoy and appreciate the humor here. Check it out.

Link of the Day - Draze.com

To go along with yesterday's post about a Google alternative, another interesting one is Draze. Craze searches across Google, Yahoo, and MSN, and combines the results for you. One of the interesting features is what they call Peek-a-Boo, which lets you view the entire Web page of your search result without leaving the Draze list. So you can go through all your search results and see the pages found without ever leaving the results page. It's a nice feature -- take a look at it.