Tuesday, August 24, 2010

THE DONUT HOLE

The size of the doughnut hole — also known as the coverage gap — changes from year to year. Individual plans can determine when the coverage gap starts. But in most plans, it begins when your total drug costs — what you and your plan have paid for covered drugs — reach $2,830, as of 2010. You will still pay your drug plan’s monthly premium during the gap.
In 2010, in all plans, the coverage gap ends when your total out-of-pocket costs for covered drugs (just what you have paid) reach $4,550. After that, you will have “catastrophic coverage,” and you will pay 5 percent of the cost of each covered drug, or a copay of $2.50 for generics and $6.30 for brand-name drugs, whichever is greater.
If you have Extra Help, the federal program that helps people with low income pay the cost of Medicare drug coverage, you will not have a gap in coverage.
The health reform law will phase out the coverage gap by 2020. In 2010, Medicare will automatically send eligible people who enter the coverage gap a one-time $250 rebate. People with Medicare who receive Extra Help will not be eligible for this rebate. For more information on the rebate, see Health Reform and Medicare: The $250 Doughnut Hole Rebate.
In 2011, consumers will receive a 50 percent discount on brand-name prescription drugs and a 7 percent discount on generic drugs when they are in the doughnut hole. The share that consumers pay for both brand-name and generic drugs will decrease until the gap is eliminated in 2020. From 2020 on, consumers will pay on average 25 percent of the cost of their drugs after they have paid their deductible, until they reach catastrophic coverage. For more information on the phase-out, see Health Reform and Medicare: Closing the Doughnut Hole.

Posted by Steven & Carole Rosen on 08/24/10 at 08:06 AM
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Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Broken Today, In Central Park,  A New Guinness Record: Most Ballerinas On Pointe At One Time

One for the many dancers in our community

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[Photographs by: Timothy A Clary for AFP/Getty Images]

Update: A report in the New York Daily News.reflects the enthusiasm, says 241actually participated, and includes a new shot. 

News sites are reporting that 230 dancers set a record of 1 minute and 7 seconds on pointes, and this will be entered in the Guinness Book Of Records. Well done.

Gene Schiavone’s Facebook pages for the world record attempt with Gene’s official photographs when ready can be found here and here.

The videos below are for two of the earlier Guinness records, 191 and 220 ballerinas on pointe, and if there is a video put online for the previous record (226) and today’s new new record, we will post those as well.

1) Here combined with the largest-ever class, in Pretoria, South Africa, 18 November 2007 (191)

2) The Youth America Grand Prix competitors here in Manhattan on 18 May 2009 (220)

Posted by Peter Quennell on 08/03/10 at 09:45 AM
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Saturday, July 31, 2010

Latest Thinking On Fire Safety: More Elevators Might Serve Galaxy Better Than Two Stairwells


Click above for the report.

We could certainly use two more elevators in each tower. They would seriously enhance our values.

And now it seems according to this article, with the new kinds of fireproof elevators available, they could enhance our safety in a fire or explosion as well.

In a mass, building-wide evacuation, it seems that such elevators might get us all out of the towers and to safe ground very much faster.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/31/10 at 04:52 AM
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Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #8: Great Videos Of Los Angeles

Click below for six well-produced videos of Los Angeles

Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/14/10 at 08:30 AM
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Saturday, July 10, 2010

Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #7: Vancouver BC

Posted by Peter Quennell on 07/10/10 at 11:32 PM
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Thursday, July 01, 2010

Cashing in on Social Security



[click for larger image]

May 17, 2010

by Alan Haft

Which would you rather go through?

• Electrocution
• Spontaneous human combustion, or
• Reading the government’s guidelines to Social Security benefits?

If you answered choices one or two above, we most likely share a similar experience.

While I can’t say I’ve ever been electrocuted or have combusted spontaneously, I can say with great certainty that I’ve read some of the documentation the Social Security Administration provides and let me tell you, next time around I think I just might give either of the first two items a try.

Bad jokes aside, a few years ago I’d asked someone about their Social Security benefits and they gave me a “Let’s move on and talk about investments” reaction.

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Posted by Steven & Carole Rosen on 07/01/10 at 10:03 PM
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Monday, June 21, 2010

North Bergen Hearings On Spoleti’s Giant Scheme

Here are DOZENS of posts on the entire saga with this very klutzy builder - who has built NOTHING like this before. See the post just below this for key past posts in key areas.

It includes serious treachery by Williams Continental Pipeline. We alerted them (this website did) to grave dangers to their huge gas pipe - and then they did a dangerous deal with Spoleti, without telling any of us.

This below arrived today from the Galaxy Organizing Group, which is asking for help from all the Galaxy residents and the near neighbors at a key hearing in North Bergen on Thursday.

We are writing to let you know that the developer for the Appleview condo development has resubmitted his application to the North Bergen Planning Board. A public hearing has been scheduled for this Thursday, June 24th, at 7 pm. It is a special public hearing dedicated to this application only, so your participation will be extremely important.

The current proposal is slightly scaled back from its original plans, but it is still an oversized development that poses many safety issues. The project requires 2 key variances- lot size and building coverage. Due to its oversized footprint, it is abutting the Transco Gas pipeline, a major 36-inch, high pressured gas pipeline that supplies over 50% of Manhattan’s gas. Construction within such close proximity of a major gas pipeline is a serious threat to the pipeline safety and the safety of our community.

According to statistics, the number one cause of gas pipeline explosions is damage by outside forces, such as excavation accidents. A case in point was June 8th’s explosion in Texas, and June 7th’s in West Virginia. Please see attached Texas article for more details. One of our goals therefore is to reduce the project size and have the developer build further away from the pipeline, and maintain a reasonable setback. (Edison, since their explosion in 1996, had put in place their zoning ordinance a min. 75 feet between pipeline and building)

There are also several other serious concerns, including air-borne toxicity from ground breaking so close to other residential properties. Another concern is the destabilization of the Palisades Cliffs. For more information, please refer to the attached summary of the project and its issues. As this is a community issue, we have invited and probably will be joined by representatives of the neighboring developments, and Mayor Gerry Dreshoff. Your attendance at this hearing is critical, as it will convey to the Planning Board that the community is concerned and motivated.

Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/21/10 at 06:41 PM
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Sunday, June 20, 2010

NJ Development Watch: The Case Against The Spoleti Project - A Quick And Handy Guide


[Above: Spoleti’s design at the rear, and Hovnanian’s Views II at the front; the sites zoned for construction are similar in size.]

First posted here in February 2007 and essentially still up to date.

****************

North Bergen’s zoning masterplan and the pattern of all the other North Bergen riverfront developments point to a maximum on the site north of the Galaxy of around 30 apartments.

The Mirabelle and Hovnanian’s Views II just across River Road are both 24 units, on similar-sized sites.

Spoleti is seeking approval for a design vastly larger than this. In fact, he wants to squeeze NEARLY SIX TIMES that mass into his small space: 140 units, with around 300 car spaces.

That is almost as big a mass as Hovnanian’s entire Views I, which sits on a site across River Road eligible for a footprint maybe five times the size.

The value hit to the Galaxy, in our estimation, could be in the $20 million to $50 million range. All the Galaxy apartments you can see above would be impacted directly.

  • Many of those at right would lose their views, and the others would look down onto a jumbo structure instead of the present green space.
  • All our other apartments would face new dangers, new environmental problems, new traffic problems, and probably higher insurance costs.

And if THIS happens Tower III could be toast. Quite literally.

[Below: Most apartments at right would lose their views, and the others seen here would look down onto the jumbo structure.]

Working in our favor and against the developer is this: the Spoleti site may be THE WORST site for heavy residential use on the entire Gold Coast.

It is one of only three developments on the west side of River Road, and the other two have distinct advantages.

The Mirabelle has unobstructed views from all its 24 units, and One Hudson Park has the feng-shui design and the shopping, restaurants and theaters right across the street.

So what does the Spoleti site have?

  • It has a large, noisy and sometimes stinky sewage plant for a very near neighbor, which by Federal requirement must soon become nearly twice as large. It has almost no good, unobstructed views. It is almost permanently in the dark shadow of the Galaxy. It is hard up against a terrible traffic situation along a highly congested part of River Road, which also frequently floods.
  • And it comes with a whole huge raft-full of dangers. Manhattan’s main 36-inch gas pipeline traverses the site. Toxic waste is down there in the soil, and could readily explode into the air and so into the Galaxy. A major sewage line traverses the site. Excavation into the palisades slope could damage or destroy the Summit House parking building, undermine Ferry Road, and affect even the Galaxy parking building. Noise and dust and darkness and the risk of a crane collapsing into the Galaxy would prevail throughout the 24-month construction phase.

What successful developers call a true nightmare. One remarked to us that this looks like a case of tin-ear and some REALLY bad instincts.

In the past 10 months, we’ve posted over 30 substantive probes of what we think is a dangerous, damaging, and very ugly design; and another dozen or so heads-up on the approval process and the developer.

Here is a quick and handy guide to all of our design posts. We hope you find it inspirational, in the fight that starts tonight.

1. The proposed size, especially the height, depth and bulk, vastly exceeds the masterplan
2. The design appears dangerous or overly obtrusive in a large number of respects
3. The design will hurt not only the Galaxy; it will hurt many other parties too
4. The proposal in fact seems to hurt the interests of North Bergen’s own residents
5. The design is likely to be a real dog on a slow and saturated market

These negatives are in addition to the negative sales-points of living (1) in almost permanent shadow, (2) next to repeated traffic snarl-ups, (3) over toxic waste, (4) next to a gas pipeline, and (5) hard up against a large (and getting-larger) sewage plant

 

Posted by Peter Quennell on 06/20/10 at 10:43 AM
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Saturday, March 13, 2010

Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #6: Around The World

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/13/10 at 10:24 PM
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Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #5: New York Again

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/13/10 at 10:15 PM
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Friday, March 12, 2010

Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #4: Paris France

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/12/10 at 02:38 PM
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Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #3: Tokyo And Yokohama

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/12/10 at 02:37 PM
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Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #2: Various

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/12/10 at 02:24 PM
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Best Of The High Definition Time Lapses #1: New York

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/12/10 at 12:46 AM
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Thursday, March 11, 2010

See New York Videod Here In High Definition Timelapse

 

Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/11/10 at 12:53 AM
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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Wow! Electric! Never Have We Seen A Broadway Audience So Blown Away….

Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Elvis.

The Million Dollar Quartet.

Seen last night, amid a crowd that increasingly seemed like it was on steroids! A big-ticket show but it was worth it.  This Vegas-type set below appears (astonishingly) for only the final 15 minutes. Those lights do many things.

All the action previously is in Sam Phillip’s Memphis Sun Records studio. It is truly amazing seeing just how “real” those guys manage to be.






Posted by Peter Quennell on 03/10/10 at 02:12 PM
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Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Modernizing Medicare: Remove a Home Health Benefit, Now?


Modernizing Medicare: Remove a Home Health Benefit, Now?

Certain Medigap plans will be losing a valuable private home health benefit on June 1, 2010. Why advisors should scrutinize how this elimination affects their clients.

by Reina Schlager, CPA, PFS

2010 Medicare changes are coming because of HR 6331, also known as the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA, passed July 9, 2008). This has been dubbed the “Modernization of Medicare” initiative. Among other provisions, it authorized the implementation of proposed Medigap (Medicare Supplement) modernization changes approved by the NAIC (National Association of Insurance Commissioners).

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Posted by Steven & Carole Rosen on 03/09/10 at 04:23 PM
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Tuesday, February 09, 2010

The World As Of 2010: How Its Mix Is Looking Right About Now


Gotta love that weather!

Just so long as it stays over there. Preferably way over there. 

Anyway. If we could shrink the earth’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, what would it look like?

Something like this.

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male

70 would be non-white
30 would be white

70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian

89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world’s wealth and all 6 would be from the United States.

80 would live in substandard housing

70 would be unable to read

50 would suffer from malnutrition

1 would be near death; 1 would be near birth

1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education

And only 1 would own a computer

When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for acceptance, understanding, education, and REAL VALUE GROWTH becomes glaringly apparent. 

Posted by Peter Quennell on 02/09/10 at 11:54 AM
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Thursday, January 28, 2010

Before you File your 2009 Tax Return – Take Note of Major Tax Changes that Apply this Year!


By CaronBeesley

As you prepare to file your small business tax return, you’ll need to be aware of several new tax laws that went into effect in 2009.

Summarized below are the major changes as they pertain to small business interests, if you need information about new tax law and the 2010 filing season, check out Small Business Tax Center on Business.gov.

This one-stop shop online portal helps business owners stay abreast of tax requirements, tax changes and a whole range of tax tips to help you prepare for the year ahead.

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Posted by Steven & Carole Rosen on 01/28/10 at 07:26 PM
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Sunday, January 10, 2010

Choose the Tax Form that Best Fits Your Needs


To file your 2009 individual tax return, you’ll have to decide which form to use…unless you e-file.

If you file electronically, the software automatically selects the simplest and best form for you. Whether you use e-file or prepare on paper, using the simplest form will help avoid costly errors or processing delays. And remember, if you file electronically, it speeds up the processing of your tax return and the delivery of your refund.

Here are things to consider when deciding which IRS form to file.

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Posted by Steven & Carole Rosen on 01/10/10 at 03:12 PM
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Browsing Online

Total now reading 15
Most ever online 81
Galaxy Rising Part Deux

We are going to re-build G-R in the next month or so with up to 20 "front pages" based on this highly successful model. See those various left buttons? Each one opens a "narrowcast" page.

We intend several pages at least to really show off the Galaxy (one for example on nice apartment interiors), also maybe apartments for sale, also certainly the good things about the neighborhood and waterfront. Local development would remain one main focus.

Our Subject Areas

Your Comments

On the post 'Protecting The Palisades: Our Past Posts, And Our New Ones Planned'.

Glad you’re back posting, but not glad to see N. Bergen butchering the Palisades down the road for a Wallgreens plaza!  How unnecessary, and isn’t that a perfectly good recently cleared lot right next door cross from the diner?

On the post 'Protecting The Palisades: Our Past Posts, And Our New Ones Planned'.

Daily posting is due to resume here on 1 June, now that work-related issues (aka that pesky stockmarket) are thankfully receding into history.

But anything that we have outstanding and in the can on the palisades will be posted here in the next few days. Thanks for reading.

On the post 'River Road Problems: This Entire Hillside Is Now Threatened'.

For heaven’s sake, can’t we have SOME areas of trees, vegetation, nature, around us? Must not only those precious things, but another section of our Palisades, which have existed since the dawn of time, be destroyed, in the name of more and more development? Enough already!

On the post 'As Always, We're Curious About The Stock Market: Where Next?'.

The guys say they are not sure why the Democrats have this effect on the market. But Democrats tend to be more fair and balanced and spread the purchasing power around more and they are pro regulation and balancing the budget and pro all sors of research and education. So it seems obvious that the…

On the post 'Pier 88 Again: Ship Burns And Sinks - Right In Front Of Us (Sort Of)'.

Ha ha! Good question! I went looking for an answer but so far no luck. But these two pieces by Earl Rickard make interesting reading:

Tragic Tale of the Normandie…

Part I: Smoke Across the Skyline

Part II: Salvaged in Vain?

On the post 'Pier 88 Again: Ship Burns And Sinks - Right In Front Of Us (Sort Of)'.

Interesting story. Did the French ever get their check?

On the post 'You Could Be Walking This By The Year's End'.

Heads-up on our newsreader feeds - they’re fixed! Working now. Someone finally told us.

On the post 'Around Noon Today: The Attack Carrier Intrepid Returns To Pier 86'.

Thank you Peter for the alert and we’ll be watching. Perhaps you could re-post these shots, but in reverse! Just kidding, we always appreciate the nice shots here.

On the post 'Now Off The Galaxy: Care To Guess What Is It?'.

Thanks for the welcome back below! Just in time for this financial crunch, which is slowing things down again. Thanks a lot, crunch.

On the post 'You Probably Wont See THIS Again In Your Lifetime'.

Welcome back !!!

On the post 'Tonight: Key Hearing On Huge Traffic-Making Jumbo To Our North'.

Good point! Thank you Brian. Will post a report by someone who was there this weekend. Plus there’s the park campaign to be described.

(I’m still in France, cruising one jump ahead of the Tour de France - size of the advance party for this race is amazing. Last night I saw maybe 40-80 cop…

On the post 'Tonight: Key Hearing On Huge Traffic-Making Jumbo To Our North'.

How did the meeting go?

On the post 'And This Very Colorful Maritime Destination Is?'.

No I’m not in Mass, in response to a couple of emails! I really am in south-west France, right now on the Mediterranean coast. After a fast and wonderful drive through the Pyrenees, in the world’s best saloon world for such cruising: a 5-Series BMW. Wheee.

A turbo-diesel, but you’d never know it from the…

On the post 'Can You Identify This Tourism Destination?'.

Half of them are ours if that was the question! We have actually been there.

But they’re older shots with an older camera. I’m now using an 18X zoom and prefer to shoot very early or late in the day.

Almost all of our shots have to be lightened and made more contrasty…

On the post 'Can You Identify This Tourism Destination?'.

Awesome shots !!!

On the post 'Preserving The Palisades #3: Now Take A Look At The Palisades Themselves'.

Great series of posts Peter.  Agreed, the cliffs really are spectacular, and Palisades Park just to our north is a very welcome bit of land preservation.

On the post 'Development Watch: Former Unilever Research Complex Edgewater'.

No ferry stop approved yet for Edgewater Square. We’ve posted various times on the need, for example here.

Our own take on the southern Edgewater ferry-stop possibilities (though see remark at bottom here) is this:

1) The developer’s project is approved as we have described it, but there’s a lawsuit related to some…

On the post 'Development Watch: Former Unilever Research Complex Edgewater'.

Could you tell me if the Unilever site has a ferry site approved? Thanks, Lisa

On the post 'Breaking News: Yes This Really MIGHT All Become A Park!'.

Extremely well put, Brian, and I must say that the net negative of the PILOT schemes you describe had really eluded me.

We all of us seem to be going through a whole moodshift now all along the north Gold Coast down to Hoboken, and interested in coming together more and throwing some weight.

…

On the post 'Breaking News: Yes This Really MIGHT All Become A Park!'.

Peter, I would absolutely welcome GR’s help in raising awareness of lack of open space, and in general community-building amenities of “Port Imperial”.  After living here for 2 years (from Hoboken), a lot of things became clear to me about Port Imperial that wasn’t self evident before the move.

First, unlike many value-creating initiatives for…

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