Video of Dog, Cat, and Rat Getting Along

Rodney King would be proud of what this homeless man taught these animals.

• Names: "Cougar, Kitty and Mousy"
  
• Message: "Why can't people get along?"
  
• Breeds:
• Dog: Rottweuler/Labrador mix
• Cat: American Tabby
• Rat: White Rat
  
• Where filmed: " State Street in Santa Barbara"

Bay Area Recycling - Free Pickup of Many Items

When I bought the new washer, the delivery people wanted $35 to haul it away and my local garbage collection service wants a similar fee to haul old appliances away. I found a place that did it for FREE! Hard to beat FREE!


Clean Planet Recycling of Redwood City, CA

• Free Scrap Metal Pickup
  .
• Small and Large appliance removal
  (A small fee to cover gas and drive time may be charged for special trips. Email for quote. )
  .
• We take water heaters, washers, dryers, laptops, TVs, computer monitors, anything electrical working or not.
  .
• Old farm equipment to buckets of nails
  .
• Can pick-up and remove one item or hundreds.

Contact for an appointment or directions to drop-off for free at their facility.

Consumer Reports Best New Mattresses for 2008

As reported in the article "The Top New mattresses for 2008 According to Consumer Reports", one third of people who bought a new mattress in the last two years were unable to recall the brand they purchased.The article speculates:

It may not be a coincidence that Sealy, Serta, Simmons are top names that all begin with the letter "S." Consumer Reports postulated weak brand identity was a result of the mattress industry practice of giving different model names and numbers for different stores for the same mattresses.

The bottom line is the top selling models like Simmons Beautyrest World Class, Sealy Posturepedic, Tempur-Pedic Classic, Bergad Isoform Classic Mattress, Select Comfort Sleep Number 5000 Pillowtop, Simmons DeepSleep have different numbers to give the stores who sell them an advantage over the consumer who may wish to do price comparison shopping.

Consumer reports found that "even for mattresses that retailers claim are similar, significant differences exist in quilting, padding, and springs, according to our experts." Thus, they don't rate mattresses!

Consumer Reports said one company told them they were going to change this but the stores who sell the mattresses didn't want these models. What did they expect? Of course the stores want to make it difficult for customers to compare price and service.

More 2008 Best Product Ratings from Consumer Reports including:

• Best New Cars
• Best Cell Phone Service Providers
• Best Laptop Computers

To subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine, click the image.

Now 63%! off the cover price!

Consumer Reports Best New Car Models for 2008

The Best New Car Models for 2008 According to the Consumer Reports April 2008 Magazine in ten categories are:

• Green car - Toyota Prius
  Small sedan - Hyundai Elantra SE
  Family sedan - Honda Accord
  Upscale sedan - Infiniti G35
  Luxury sedan - Lexus LS 460L
  Fun to drive - Mazda MX-5 Miata
  Small SUV - Toyota RAV4
  Midsized SUV - Hyundai Santa Fe
  Minivan - Toyota Sienna
  Pickup truck - Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Crew Cab

Subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine to read the full survey "2008 Best and Worst Cars" on page 6 of the April, 2008 issue.

More 2008 Best Product Ratings from Consumer Reports

To subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine, click the image.

Now 63%! off the cover price!

Consumer Reports Best Cell Phone Service Provider for 2008

The best cell phone service provider for 2008 According to the Consumer Reports January 2008 Magazine is Verizon in most markets.

Consumer reports ranked cell phone service in 20 cities. In most cases, Verizon came out on top while Sprint ranked last.

For a full list of cities surveyed and more information, see "The Top Wireless Phone Service Providers for 2008 According to Consumer Reports."

Selected comments:

• Verizon Wireless Top rated in 16 of 20 cities: "among the better carriers this year and in our earlier surveys."
• T-Mobile, usually #2 or #3: "another solid performer that often offers more for your money."
• Alltel Wireless, scored #1 in Cleveland, Phoenix and Tampa: "One of the better providers in the three metro areas for which we had adequate survey data."
• AT&T, usually ranked next to last, "Home of iPhone, but trails the better carriers in almost all respects."
• Sprint, nearly last in all citiess: "bottom ranks of carriers we rate."

Consumer reports said poor cell-phone service has not improved:

• "Our largest-ever survey of cell-phone users found the reader score for cell carriers essentially unchanged from last year’s survey, at 67. That ranks cell carriers below services such as hotels, supermarkets, digital cable TV, and even HMOs in terms of how well they please the consumer. Only 47 percent of our respondents told us that they were either completely or very satisfied with their cell-phone service, a low showing for any type of service in the U.S."

Subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine to read the full survey"2008 Ratings Cell-phone service" on page 34 of the January, 2008 issue.

More 2008 Best Product Ratings from Consumer Reports

To subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine, click the image.

Now 63%! off the cover price!

Consumer Reports Best Laptop Computers for 2008

The Best Laptop Computer Models for 2008 According to Consumer Reports June 2008 Magazine in four categories are:

• 15.4" Budget
  Lenovo ThinkPad T61
  Core 2 Duo T7100, 120GB HD, Intel X3100
  .
• 15.4" Workhorse
  Apple MacBookPro
  2.4GHzCore 2 Duo, 250GB, 256MB Nvidia 8600GT
  .
• 17-Inch Workhorse
  Apple MacBook Pro
  2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, 250GB, 512MB Nvidia 8600GT
  .
• 13.3-Inch Slim-and-Light
  Sony VAIO VGN-SZ2780
  Core 2 Duo T8100, 160GB, Intel X3100

Their "Best Buy" was the 17-Inch Workhorse #5 Dell Inspiron 1721. That seems to be a discontinued model (I can't find it on the Dell website, perhaps because it used an AMD processor). The very similar Dell Inspiron 1720 Laptop Computer was listed #3 in the 17-Inch Workhorse category so that deserves a look.

Subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine to read the full survey "Best and Worst Computers" on page 22 of the June, 2008 issue.

More 2008 Best Product Ratings from Consumer Reports

To subscribe to Consumer Reports Magazine, click the image.

Now 63%! off the cover price!