Murrells Inlet: Plan to protect watershed needs funding

By Jason Lesley

Coastal Observer

Saving the oyster beds in Murrells Inlet from a rising tide of pollutants is the top priority of a watershed study that will be submitted to the state Department of Health and Environmental Services early next year.
Dan Newquist, a planner for Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments, told members of the Winyah Chapter of the Sierra Club this week that the plan is in the rough draft stage after about a year’s work. It is due by Feb. 21 with hopes it will lead to funds to implement recommendations to maintain water quality standards that allow human consumption of shellfish.
Newquist said keeping the inlet’s two public shellfish grounds open is a very important goal for the plan. “That is a public resource and has been part of the Murrells Inlet culture for a long time,” he said. Additionally, he said, there are six other commercially leased shellfish areas in the inlet. 

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 http://www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2013/120513/4.html

 

Amazon testing delivery by drone, CEO Bezos says

 Alistair Barr

 USA TODAY December 1, 2013
 

It would speed up delivery of online orders, but the technology is at least three or four years away.

Amazon.com is testing delivering packages using drones, CEO Jeff Bezos said on the CBS TV news show 60 Minutes Sunday.

The idea would be to deliver packages as quickly as possible using the small, unmanned aircraft, through a service the company is calling Prime Air, the CEO said.

Bezos played a demo video on 60 Minutes that showed how the aircraft, also known as octocopters, will pick up packages in small yellow buckets at Amazon's fulfillment centers and fly through the air to deliver items to customers after they hit the buy button online at Amazon.com.

The goal of the new delivery system is to get packages into customers' hands in 30 minutes or less, the world's largest Internet retailer said. Putting Prime Air into commercial use will take "some number of years" as Amazon develops the technology further and waits for the Federal Aviation Administration to come up with rules and regulations, the company added.

Bezos told 60 Minutes that the service could be up and running in as few as four years — although he noted that he is an optimist when it comes to such things.

"One day, Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road today," the company said.

This is the latest futuristic effort by Bezos, who was an e-commerce pioneer in the 1990s and more recently popularized the e-reader — while pursuing personal projects such as private spaceflight and a 10,000-year clock built inside a mountain.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2013/12/01/amazon-bezos-drone-delivery/3799021/

How to Start a Year-Round Family Gratitude Ritual

By RON LIEBER
November 28, 2013


Sometime this Thanksgiving or in the coming weeks, you and yours will probably share notes on the things for which you’re thankful.

Perhaps you’ll take the basic approach, where everyone at the table mentions one thing. Or you’ll ask everyone to write an affirming note of some sort on every guest’s place card. Or distribute a pre-meal questionnaire.

But after a few tears and belly laughs, you may also wonder why you and your children don’t do this kind of thing more often. There is a fast-growing collection of studies around gratitude and its links to everything from stronger immune systems to better divorces. And while the study of gratitude in children is still in its early stages, evidence is also emerging that it can help them too.

Here are a few things to try.

Continued at:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/28/how-to-start-a-year-round-family-gratitude-ritual/

Myrtle Beach Shopping Days aim to lure customers this weekend

By Maya T. Prabhu


MYRTLE BEACH — Grand Strand residents are encouraged to head to Myrtle Beach businesses this weekend for 72 hours of sales during “Myrtle Beach Shopping Days.”

Businesses in Myrtle Beach can participate in the city-wide shopping days event, where certain regulations are relaxed to allow businesses to promote three days of sales.

According to a resolution approved by the Myrtle Beach City Council in July, the “Myrtle Beach Shopping Days” will be held the weekend after Thanksgiving and Easter weekend.

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http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/2013/11/25/3861433/myrtle-beach-shopping-days-aim.html

Why Does Health Care Cost so Much in America?

By David Cutler


The American health care system is structured differently from systems in other countries, making it more expensive. 

Paul Solman: Harvard's David Cutler is among the country's foremost health economists, famous for -- among other research -- a controversial paper arguing that even our exorbitant health care industry, in terms of increased productivity and life span outcomes, delivers more than what we pay for it.

Cutler, who was profiled by Roger Lowenstein in the New York Times Magazine in 2005, subsequently worked for President Barack Obama on health care issues, and talked to us recently for a story about cost savings. But far more of what he had to say seemed worthwhile than what we have time to air. Here is some of it.

Paul Solman: Why does health care cost so much in America?

David Cutler: Let me give you three reasons why. The first one is because the administrative costs of running our health care system are astronomical. About one quarter of health care cost is associated with administration, which is far higher than in any other country.

Paul Solman: What's the next highest?

David Cutler: About 10, 15 percent. Just to give you one example, Duke University Hospital has 900 hospital beds and 1,300 billing clerks. The typical Canadian hospital has a handful of billing clerks. Single-payer systems have fewer administrative needs. That's not to say they're better, but that's just on one dimension that they clearly cost less. What a lot of those people are doing in America is they are figuring out how to bill different insurers for different systems, figuring out how to collect money from people, all of that sort of stuff.

The second reason health care costs so much in America is that the U.S. spends more than other countries do on many of the same things. Drugs are the most commonly noted item, where a branded drug will cost much more in the U.S. than in other countries. But, for example, doctors also earn more for doing the same thing in the U.S. than they do in other countries, and a lot of suppliers charge more for things like durable medical equipment in the U.S. than in other countries.

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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/businessdesk/2013/11/why-does-health-care-cost-so-m.html

Murrells Inlet: Changing board signals group’s changing priorities

By Jason Lesley

Coastal Observer

Last week’s changing of the guard on the Murrells Inlet 2020 board of directors was set in motion 16 years ago when the group was formed with the dual mission of promoting economic growth and protecting the inlet’s water quality.

Eventually, directors would have to choose one over the other.

When owners of the six restaurants along the Marsh Walk decided to stage a series of weekly fireworks displays to promote tourism last summer, a majority of Murrells Inlet 2020 directors objected on the grounds that the fireworks residue polluted the water. That vote exposed a rift between the economic growth and water quality factions. Al Hitchcock, an owner of Drunken Jack’s Restaurant and Inlet Affairs, and Charlie Campbell, owner of Dead Dog Salloon, were asked to leave a board meeting during fireworks discussions after new conflict of interest guidelines were established. Without the restaurateurs’ input the board voted to condemn the weekly fireworks exhibits.

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http://www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2013/111413/4.html