Choosing a career pathway that leaves your options open

Career choices and options

There are many ways of being in the circle of life. There's a fitting career for anyone, no matter what your inclinations are. However, finding the right career for you may be a daunting task. If you're like me, you might try many different trades, finding something interesting in each, but never quite finding everything you're looking for in something.worth doing with your time. Also, in these days of economic difficulty, that career you once had may no longer exist. Or as you grow and mature, it may no longer fit you. Either way, it helps to be informed. That's just what the DVD set will give you: information on career clusters and pathways.

My friends and I often play a sort of game, where we say things like:'when I grow up I want to be...' or 'When I come back (reincarnate) I want to come as ...' And then we go on to name the career paths we once said no to. The path's not taken have a certain allure to them and frankly, sometimes starting over is the right thing to do. 'If I had to do it all over again...' what would become possible for you?

The thing is, with the economy the way it is, perhaps this is the time to do it all over again. Your career options may have been cut short, or, like some people in my generation, you may just have given this one path all you want. When you reach the succes you dreamt of, when you come to the top of your class, when you have just gotten tired of doing the same old thing over and over... it's time to figure out whether you're a one trick pony or are going to start over on a path to a new and exciting career.

My personal path

I've been around the career block a few times and I know a thing or two about many professions. I was in manufacturing, making power shades: motorized roman windowshades at a small factory in Aspen Colorado. The boss was a kind man with a hankering for Classical music and we were creating these little motor gear trains in a factory about the size of a classroom. As the only female there I tried my hand at seamstressing but for me, this had too much 'stress' in it so I kept working on the greasy side. I also was a doughnut baker and worked as an artist on pop-art scultures.

I was in the packaging industry as well. For quite a while I worked in a factory packaging rice cakes. When I got home at the end of a night shift, I would take a shower and the scent of puffed rice would be so strong on me...

I worked in health care, youth care, the psychiatric ward... I worked with homeless, jobless, clueless (youngsters). I worked as a waitress for a very brief while, it really didn't serve me. I worked as a babysitter with the very young. In a number of jobs I worked myself up from a lackey to manager.

Finally, at age 41, I decided on a new career path. I started my own bussiness as an online coach for problems that have shame and guilt related to it, most notably, childhood sexual abuse. This is where I found my personal niche.

Recently I wrote a book on healing childhood sexual abuse and it came out last februari in The Netherlands. Currently I'm working on the translation of it to the American market.

I've found my career by trial and error. Many errors, in fact, though I wouldn't have missed any of the experiences I've had. It's made my life a rich tapestry of experiences that have really helped me in the writing of my book, making it alive with examples that people can relate to.

The cover of my book

This is the cover of the Dutch version of the book. Currently looking for a publisher in the US.

Source: personal property

One trick pony?

The beauty of the career clusters as they are portrayed in this DVD series by careerpathwaysonline is that you can instantly find out what other careers are in your cluster. The job switch you might make can be within your cluster leaving you with a minimum of extra education to consider. This will make your previous experience still count for something in the workplace because people will be able to see that you've worked in a similar field.

The other thing it does is, it gives you a broader look at what is out there. If your next step is guided by what you allready know, most likely it's going to guide you to something you allready know and are tired of by now. Learning something new, learning something about the possibilities out there sets you up to really do something new and different for a change.

The advantage of sticking with a category or career cluster you know is of course also it's pitfall. If you're looking to make a switch you might indeed be better off looking at the things you don't know. If you're in a technical profession, take a look at the healthcare cluster. If you're managerial and looking for a real change, try manufacturing. There's a whole world to discover out there!

Cleaning up oil spills

Getting to the bottom of the barrel

Ever wonder about oil tankers and how the get out all that crude oil at delivery? I did. I did a little research and found out about a thing called a Belt Skimmer. You know that old thread mop that you have? Or perhaps that you've seen people use at your favorite fast food restaurant, airport terminal or other such place that has a lot of floor to cover? Would you believe that the same principle is applied to the mopping up of crude oils from barrels, containers and oil tankers? With a few improvements of course.

The basic idea is that of the string mop. The fluid is absorbed into the threads and then it gets wrung out some place else. The difference between a conventional string mop and this big brother is both the size and the wringing mechanism. The mop can be up to 50 feet long and is a loop. At the bottom of the loop, the mop picks up the liquid, in this case oil. It is transported to the wringing mechanisme by just pulling it up and then it's wrung out over a container using electric powered 'squeegy' rollers. Then it returns to the place of the oil and starts over again. Would you believe that up to 50 gallons of oil can be salvaged per hour this way?

What about floating oil spills?

Allright, we've seen how the belt skimmer can be used to mop up oil from the bottom of a barrel. However, if the mop becomes waterlogged it can't contain any oil, so how can we make sure when we're mopping up oil from a body of water, that we're not mopping up the body of water?

Again the solution is simple and elegant. We affix the end of the mop to a place above the water allowing the mop to drag on, rather than in the water. Of course, this can't be done on very choppy water, but if you 'stake out' a bit of ocean for instance, by putting a sort of bottomless boat over the top of it, the water inside the stakeout will be calm enough to mop up the oil. This is a rather laborious task but it can be done and every bit of oil salvaged from a spill means at least two things: A bit less beach spoiled, and less danger of marine wildlife and birds getting hurt.

Oil companies are starting to understand that unless they want to lose the support of the public, they better clean up their act. Just as they are starting to understand that their industry is going to disappear in the next 50 years or so, and if they wish to survive as a company, they'd better diversify. The other option is to plan for the dissolution of the company, personally I'd prefer that option. In my opinion any company that has outlived it's use should be declared obsolete and cease to exist. This is certainly true for the oil industry.

After all: if you can build a multibillion dollar multinational company once, you can do it again. This time, take what you've learned about customer satisfaction, the environment and social responsibility and start over. Make a company that is committed to doing good, rather than just 'don't be evil'. The world is wating for strong entrepreneurs that want to make the world work again.

A challenge to the industry

When the big oilspill in the gulf of Mexico happenen people donated human hair to help with the mop up. Somehow word had gotten out that human hair could absorb more oil than any other type of material and, well, people cared so they donated their hair for the mop up.

I'm not sure if the hair thing was effective or not, but it does show that the public does care. So here's my challenge to the oil-spill cleaning industry, listen up ambarenvironmental: find a material that is even more effective at mopping up oil. It truly is a win win win win situation.

• People won't be feeling the need to turn in their hair
• The public will approve
• The oil spill will be cleaned quicker
• You'll gain more oil from the mopping

With nanotechnology, biomimicry and combining all kinds of knowledge with the simple yet elegant mop design, we can make sure we are ready for when then next spill hits and we can prevent a lot of the disastrous consequences of our carelessness. And make a profit to boot.

A vacuum elevator in your own home

Why would you need an elevator in your home?

There are many reasons people might have for having an elevator installed in their residence.

1. You might have a handicap that requires you to be in a wheelchair
2. You might need assistance going up the stairs due to knee or foot problems
3. You might be so overweight that the stairs just aren't an option anymore
4. Your house might be too small to accommodate a staircase whereas an elevator would take up less space
5. You might want the extra comfort of being able to take the elevator when you're tired
6. You may just want to show off as it's cool to have your own elevator.
7. You might need to shuttle stuff up and down in your house, like if the kitchen is downstairs

Surely this list isn't exhaustive and whatever your reason for installing an elevator in your house is valid as well. The reality is that more and more people are choosing to install a residential elevator.

How does a vacuum elevator work

The vacuum elevator is very different from the classic, counterweighted pull up mechanism that we all know as elevators. Instead it uses vacuum suction to transport you up and down the shaft. It's limited in that it can only lift you a maximum of 35 feet, but this is not a problem for most homes. You get into a type of cylinder that encloses you. The cylinder is inside a tube and in order to hoist you up, the air is sucked out of the tube above you creating a vacuum and you're pulled upward by the vacuum. Getting down is the same process but in reverse, air is gradually let back in the upper part of the tube and you're lowered down to ground level.

The system is extremely safe, with mechanical handbrakes installed just in case anything should go wrong and I think it's just simply beautiful too.

My experience with the vacuum elevator

A friend of mine is in a wheelchair. Has been pretty much all her life and she's not one to take such a thing lying down. She was born completely spastic and the doctors told her parents that she'd never amount to anything. Well, that doctor couldn't have been more wrong. Her father took it as a challenge and she picked up that baton after she became adult. When she was 15 she was in a special care hospital where they would help her with anything and everything and she had to fight to keep doing things for herself so she wouldn't lose the muscle control she had spent half her life gaining.

At 16 she was organizing mixed parties at the institute (mixed in the sense that there were handicapped and non handicapped people attending, and boys and girls of course). She fell in love with a handsome, non-handicapped man and they got a home together. Then she got pregnant and needed a bigger home. She didn't have a lot of money but she had a big dream. To have her house be a model for handicapped housing everywhere and with her smartphone she contacted architects and contractors galore and with shrewd bussiness sense and a lot of determination she now owns a beautiful two story home which is fully wheelchair accessible.

When installing her vacuum elevator she had a bit of a discussion with the builder. He wanted to install it so that she could go from the ground floor to the second floor only. "No need to go into the basement" he said. She nearly threw a fit! She was livid as it was her intent that she have a fully accessible home. Of course she got what she wanted, she's that kind of woman.

Anyway, the elevator moves smoothly and her rather large electric wheelchair fits it without any problem. Her daughter uses the elevator as well and proudly shows it off to her friends.
"There are advantages to having a handicapped mom" she tells them.

Wheelchair safe and luxurious to behold

Aside from residential installations the vacuum elevator is also being installed in buildings like a cinema. It's limited capacity is more than offset by the limited space it occupies and it's beauty. The installation is quite simple and the folks at vacuum elevators are working closely together with architects to make sure that your installation is working properly and installed beautifully into your home.

There's a type of turbine at the top that provides the suction that lifts the cabin but other than that no unsightly machinery, no basement full of bulky equipment to make room for
.

Innovation, thinking beyond the obvious

100+ uses of a paperclip

One of the ways to make the world a better, more sustainable place is finding new uses for things. By looking for new and innovative ways of doing things with what we already have, we can avoid buying or building new things. Versatility is key in the new economy. Something that portable storage San Diego has understood well and true.

There was a recent study done how where they challenged 4 year olds to come up with as many different ideas as they could for using an everyday object, like a paperclip. Within an hour time frame a group of preschoolers could come up with over 160 ways of using a paperclip, ranging from picking your nose or ears with it to, if you made a really big one you could slide down it. The childs mind is not yet throwing away any ideas as “unmanagable” or “unrealistic”. Instead it centers upon finding as many different uses for the paperclip as they can and let their imagination run free. Now this was a longitudinal study and they retested the kids at age 15. By the time these preschoolers had gotten an education they have trouble coming up with more than 20 uses for the paperclip. We lose a lot due to our education.

Smart thinking

I don't know if portable storage San Diego invited a bunch of preschoolers to work alongside them for the project but they did come up with some very usefull and innovative ways to use containers. First of all containers are for transporting stuff, right? Storage is a new use for containers and an innovation in its own right. Now you can put a bunch of those containers together and build a fence around them and you have transformed a vacant lot into a regular storage rental space at a fraction of the cost of putting up a building. This is exactly the way Coronado Mobile Storage started out!

Now there is more things you can do with a container and one of the things that I thought was really clever is that instead of asking people to bring over their stuff to storage, you can also deliver the container to their door to be filled with their stuff. A lot easier for both the customer, who can put their stuff in at leasure and for the service provider as well. All you have to do is drive the container out there and pick it up after the customer calls to say it's filled! How smart is that?

Many uses for containers

The next step is even more innovative. What else can you use these containers for? Well, it's a huge enclosed space that with a few adjustments can be modified into a mobile office, or you can provide an enclosed space to safely put equipment in at an on location jobsite, roadwork or the like. A few more adjustments and you can make a container into a complete home, where you can live part- or fulltime. A mobile home without the wheels, so to speak. And let's be honest: how many mobile homes are really meant to be mobile, meant to be moved around a lot. Generally it's more like a parked home to begin with. So lose the wheels and use a container to form the basis, put in a few adjustments such as electricity and running water and you have cheap housing, if not on a permanent basis then certainly in times of a crisis or disaster. Heck, let's go even further and equip the containers with their own solarpanels and you'd really be able to park them anywhere!

Solar energy: solar film, the solar panel of the future?

The future might be thin film

The developement of technologies is accelerating at a high rate. Where only a short 30 years ago solar panels were largely unheard of and considered highly advanced technology, the first generation is already outdated and the second generation will soon follow suit. Many people have started their own solar farm, helped along by government stimulation programs and the enormous rise in the cost of fossil fuels. They have formed co-operative efforts and use smartgrids to share the energy thus collected off their rooftops and in sharing they have found that they can be selfsufficient much easier than when everyone has their own closed circuit. So sharing is the name of the game, with smart computer programmes measuring the relative use of everyone connected to the smartgrid. Still for a lot of people solar panels are prohibitively expensive. The market for renewable energy resources is ready for the next breakthrough in technology making gathering solar energy available to even low income homes and families. And it might just be thin film.

Red light, blue light, all can be used

Thin film is a layer thin as can be, we're talking nanometers here. I don't pretend to know everything about the technologie that produces these thing films, but it's the same type of process that I wrote about in the blog I did on Magnetron sputtering. A thin film has to have certain properties that allow it to convert speed of the sun's fotons into energy. Now the classic first and second generation solar cells use only the red light out of the whole spectrum that the sun sends down. Red light is less energetic than blue light, but less blue light reaches the earths serface, so that sorta balances out. The idea now, with these thin film technologies is to create layers of thin film in which both the red light energy and the blue light energy can be converted into useable energy. This would effectively increase the output of solar panels manifold. A single layer thin film could already mimic the results of the (relatively expensive) solar panels, but a multilayer thin film is expected to increase efficiency enormously.

Imagining the future now...

Thin film can be mass produced, simply, effectively and for all kinds of purposes including solar energy. You can go to the hardware store and buy solar film for your windows (they're so thin that they are see through anyway, so why not put them on all your windows or at least the ones that get the most sunlight). Then you plug your household appliances into your windows and of course, because we've already learned the advantages of sharing, we build a smartgrid for every office building, every block of housing. Every empty building is turned into a powerplant by covering it with thin solar film from Vergason for instance and because it's so cheap, we cut our cost of living radically (incidentally ending the world wide financial crisis we're now in the middle of)

I don't know the particulars, but wireless electricity seems to be the next necessary step to connect people without needing a world of infrastructure and wires going everywhere. Because of all this interdependent technology we're also getting to know our neighbors better and because of this we're investing in each other more, becoming less dependent on the money grabbers at the utility companies and at the same time let's also get smart and share our wifi instead of letting the telecom companies bleed us dry. The future then finds us interconnected on a global scale while being interdependent on a local scale. Now there's a twist on globalization!

Magnetron sputtering explained.

Technological advances are wondrous

I'm an admirer of all things technological, and especially super innovations that make the world a cleaner and safer place. Sometimes I scout around the web just to see what's new and I came across this odd video that to me looked like it was a very slow game of pong, which it wasn't. It turned out to be a video explaining in laymans terms what magnetron sputtering is.

Honestly, if you had asked me before what Magnetron sputtering was, I would have guessed that it's the sound your microwave makes if you forget to take the little twistie off your reheating food, you know, the kind that has just a little bit of metal in it so it makes you microwave all sparky and, if it goes unchecked quite broken as well? Well, it turns out that I would have been very wrong.

Playing Pong!

How magnetron sputtering differs from galvanization

Magnetron spluttering is a technique by which a tiny coating is created on a substrate. The process is used to make all kinds of usefull stuff, for instance in micro-technology, parts of batteries, electronics (coatings put over printplates to protect them) and a myriad of other applications ranging from childrens toys to motorcycle components.

There's a big difference between the technology I remember from physics class growing up and this sputtering. Back then you would use a big vat of fluids and loads of electricity and I believe some chemicals as well and you could galvanize things. That meant a “thin”layer of zinc would be deposited on your metal object. In Holland our traditional garbage cans were galvanized, which meant the were more durable than just plain iron ones because they wouldn't rust (or at least not while the zinc was in place. You could also galvanize with chromium (making things nice and shiny) and you could copper, silver or goldplate stuff in much the same way. Commercial galvanisation used large quantities of Chromium 6, and even cyanide which of course have a rather desastrous effect on the environment. So, thank goodness they've come up with an alternative!

Pong, the simple explanation

So how does it work? The pong video shows the process in a very simplified way. Something that is the base for the coating (the bottom piece in the pong game) is put inside a chamber. The chamber is then filled with Argon, which as I understand it is like a catalyst, it doesn't get used up in the process but it does help it along. The electrons play their little pong game and a thin layer of the agent (at the bottom) is deposited onto the target (at the top in the ponggame). It sticks there and a tiny film of the material from the bottom is now stuck to the material at the top. The smart part is that there is a magnet at the top that catches any stray electrons so that all those that are knocked free from the bottom actually make it to the top.

So that's the basic process, a really simple explanation of it anyway. But this Magnetron sputtering is at the heart of many of our modern instruments. It's in our batteries, our cars are coated with it, it's used in sporting goods and childrens toys, in cutting tools and TV screens. And of course it's still used to protect metal from corrosion and to decorate all things that look better when the shine!

Vacuum coatings as a way to improve durability

Coating for all your vehicle parts

Whether you're a hobbyist or a professional builder of bikes, trikes and other sporty vehicles, the best part about the designing process is getting yourself a custom paint job. For the ultimate in durable and beautiful but above all thin coating there is nothing that can beat vacuum coating. Instead of relying on paints and airbrush systems that can be tricky and have the risk of chipping the paint unless you're having it done by a (high paid) professional who layers on 5 ultra thin coats of paint, you can have the machines set to the finest details and layer on just one ultra thin layer that is more durable than anything your professional airbrush artist can. There's just no comparison.

What thin coatings make possible

Imagin being able to create a coat as thin as a few molecules and using it in aerospace technology. You could significantly reduce the amount of paint needed on an airplane which reduces the weight dramatically. On a jumbo-jet this would save on fuel expenditure, but in sleek fighter jets it could mean the difference between life and death as the lighter the plane, the more possibilities, the easier turns will be.

Refurbishing guns can really create a super fine coat that is resistant to the heat and other specifications that go with guns and gunpowder. A very specialized job that requires the utmost of care.

In aeronautics it could eventually mean space becomes more accessible to us. In lifting a spaceship out of our gravitational field every ounce counts.

In automotives it could help save energy in the same way, but the application can be used to lay a coating on the windows helping prevent being blinded by a low hanging sun, or even, in the future, garnering solar energy to feed the cars electrical systems.

Less use of materials, in particular the solvents that are so damaging to our environment that are generally used in the classic paintjob means we are doing less harm to our planet. As such it's a great way of caring for our environment as well. As you can tell, I'm a big fan of vacuum coating.

The process of vacuum coating

You can choose all dimensions of the coating, ranging from thickness, complexity to color and shinyness. You can have a metalized coating or just layer of several molecules thickness of your favorite coloring agent. The possibilities are endless.

It's not just vehicles that you can customize in this manner. You can apply the coating on virtually any object. A great gift item is a metalized babyshoe. Art objects can be coated top to bottom to create a really shiny finish that can add to beauty of the object you've given shape. Another area where these coatings can be instrumental is the finish of medical equipment which needs to be strong, easy to clean and durable.

Buying coating equipment

Another option, if you're in manufacturing is to buy the coating equipment itself and have it set to create your particular coating for your specialized manufacturing item. Vergason sells the equipment for such operations as well als delivering the finest custom coating finishes on demand. Wether you're in sporting goods (weightlifting components) or the novelty industry (like the babyshoes or winners prizes, cups, etc.) or you're in the automotive industry (think about the shiny parts of the car, like the lights, the chrome). The finest, thinnest coat can be ordered at Vergason or made by your own sputtering systems.

Social responsibility in business: Ice cream and more!

It's not all about the $$$$ anymore

In todays world owning a business is not just about the bottom line anymore. Or at least, at the bottom line, it's not just dollars being counted. Environmental impact, social treatment of your stakeholders and providing opportunities for personal growth to your staff are counted equally as much when you're company is rated for social responsibility.

Creative names for icecream: Chocolate Therapy

Two Scoops

It all started I guess with Ben & Jerry's icecream. Two idealist hippies who didn't set out to change the world really, it just happened that they were doing what needed to be done. What they were about is not just making a buck, but actually helping their community. Getting their brownies from local ladies and making sure their chocolate wasn't harvested by child-slaves was a matter of course to them as well as making the best tasting icecream in the world. Somehow, against all odds, these two idealist created a multimillion dollar brand.

It's not just about the flavor

Sure, the icecream is good, some of the best ever, but only some off. That oddly named Haagen Dazs is at least equal in taste and well 31 flavors have some really good icecream as well. The thing that makes people buy B&J's icecream is the fact that they get to feel like they are making a contribution to something good in the world. For a couple of dollars they get to feel like they're saving the rainforest, promoting peace and helping a third world child go to college. What they're selling is not icecream, it's a whole new way of looking at the world.

Now, business has forever changed under the influence of these and others such hippies (think Google and don't be evil) and if you're going to promote your brand name you must do so in a way that reflects your brands responsible and environmentally concious way of doing things. A gift bag from Holden Bags might be just the way to communicate that. These bags are durable and when imprinted with your logo they say: This business cares about the environment enough to give durable stuff instead of less than useful plastic items that fill our wastebaskets.

Wine tote

Making the world a little better

For tradeshows or festive occasions, buying these tote bags bulk is made easy by the quick service at Holden Bags. Your design can be uploaded at their website and you can get a quote from them in under 15 minutes. One of my favorite bags is the cooler-bag, a supermarket necessity if you don't live real close to the store. It keeps your frozen items frozen untill you get home. Giving that away with some Chunky Monkey or Cherry Garcia icecream in it would be a great parting gift after a long day at a tradeshow. Or perhaps the wine-tote is the better choice, of course stocked with some fine California organic wine, red and white please.

Now, I'm not comparing the impact of reusable tote bags to the impact of Ben & Jerries icecream, but not all of us are meant to change the world so profoundly as those two did. Instead, we get to do our little bit for the environment and for social responsibility. We get to eat the icecream instead of making it and we get to choose environmentally friendly, reusable totebags for our next event. We do our part in making this world just a little better, one scoop or one bag at a time.

The new, socially responsible, sustainable iPad 4

What's new in the iPad 4?

Read all the information that is available on the iPad 4, which admittedly is not a lot. Apple, with it's typical closed mouth approach to marketing a new product, making curiosity do it's magic on the market and has not leaked a lot of information on this new iPad4 about to hit the stores.

However I figured I would make a list of the things we want to see on the new iPad. Let's speculate and make assumptions based on past behavior by Apple and go from there. In that we can see a lot of possible directions that Apple might be taking this. Let's also look at what is keeping people from buying an iPad and what Apple could do to make their customer base broader and happier. Perhaps if they take advise from a lowly blogger we might actually get the iPad we want!

Better customer support on the iPad4

The iPad4 targets the market where the most money is: The Elderly.

In an effort to better serve this market the iPad4 comes with an optional package of having a computer-specialist install it's basic software as well as some extension packages for the most used applications (meaning: Angry birds, photosharing tools and a basic version of pages, numbers, etc.) One of the best moves in the bussiness as a lot of elderly people (70 and up) are starting to be aware of the iPad and they do not always have a computer, nor the necessary computer skills to install the most used products themselves.

The customers service package includes several visits from the computer expert to re-install stuff that might have been displaced or lost. The package is also sold seperately. A very popular item for busy family members that don't want to drive up to grandma incessively to help her with her Pad.

The most environmentally friendly iPad to date

In an effort to please the most environmentally conscious customers as well, Apple now offers the iPad with minimal packaging, uses a lot of natural materials and comes with it's own built in solarpanel to recharge the batteries.

The front of the iPad4 consequently looks much different then before. Instead of the colored cover that the iPad2 and iPad3 sport it has the same foldable flap, but this time enbedded in it are 4 tiny state of the art solar panels that provide a high yield charge to your iPad4's batteries. Apple went all out in this and has merged their superior knowledge of minimization with the knowhow that's allready out there in terms of solar energy and has come up with a solar panel technology that could well revolutionize the world of solar panels as well. We'll be looking for the iPanel as it is called to branch out into other industries as well.

Apple sais no to slave labor!

Finally, in an effort to win all new age thinkers over, Apple has rallied to end slave labor in China (and all other countries that they buy their materials from. Apple has released footage from Chinese factories that they do bussiness with and in addition has laid out plans for the entire community surrounding the factories in China that produce their products. Plans include schooling for the young, a healthy, ergonomic work environment for their workforce and 40 hours a week contracts for all their laborers. There's also three weeks paid vacation included in the packages and pregnancy leave on a par with the Swedish are a part of the plan.

Since the package was introduced long lines of Chinese have formed outside their factories wanting to work there. Other Chinese factories have since introduced similar measures because they couldn't find enough personnel as everyone wanted to try out for the jobs in the Apple sponsored factories. World economic watchdogs are starting to call it the quiet revolution. People simply resist working at slave wages in factories.

Apple iPad4 is irresistable!

Long lines of senior citizens are expected to form when the iPad4 is introduced. A whole industry appears to be forming around the event. Small entrepreneurs with great idea's are peddling their wares to the customers waiting in line for their Apple product. There's people selling cut and cored apples to the health conscious elderly waiting in line. There's hot cocoa sold by the cup, of course this is slave-free cocoa from Tony Chocolonely that uses the introduction of the slave-free iPad4 to promote their latest product: hot cocoa mix. The atmosphere in line is festive, like a new world has begun.

The courage to stand up for what you believe in

Bharara takes on Bank of America

With the American system of Law as his primary backup Bharara has taken on some of the most ruthless and powerful people in the world. It takes real courage to stand up for what you believe in when you're dealing with people whom have knowingly and willingly broken many laws and to take them on in court, like Bharara did before, bringing Russian crimelords, armsdealers, Jamaican drugkings and Muslim terrorists to justice and before the Manhattan court of Law. Now however he's taken on perhaps the most powerful of all. The ones who even Obama claimed were "too big to fail". Instead of being daunted Bharara contends that noone is too big to be sued.

Bharara's intention is to make it clear that justice is for all and that there are no exceptions in the eyes of the law. "We don't care who you are, how much money you have or who your friends are" He sais.

One billion dollar lawsuit

Top U.S Attorney Bharara has brought a billion dollar civil suit against Bank of America for mortgage fraud during the years around the financial crisis. Countrywide Financial, later bought by Bank of America gave out mortgage loans without making sure that the people could afford them. Said Bharara in a statement to the press: "The fraudulent conduct alleged in today's complaint was spectacularly brazen in scope." Meaning of course that it was huge! Countrywide then sold the loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were effectively nationalized in 2008. That meant that when people defaulted on the loans they couldn't afford in the first place, Uncle Sam was stuck with the bills.

According to the lawsuit Countrywide made use of a method that they called "The Hustle", which was short for "High-Speed Swim Lane". The mortgageloans when being processed could only move forward, never back. Instead of checking wether people could afford the loans and if they had income to match. The loan processors simply entered data into a system that automatically underwrot the loans and the system gave the go-ahead. No checks and balances, widespread falsification of data and the loan processors were given almost no guidance whatsoever. Checklists for making sure the income level that a borrower listed was reasonable in relation to the loan were eliminated. Bonuses for employees were based only on how many loans they could process without any attention to quality.

They knew what they were doing too, the lawsuit contends. A quality review in januari of 2008 showed that a whopping 57% of the Hustle loans went into default. That's a lot of people forced to sell their house folks...

And then they hushed it up

Instead of being alarmed and notifying Fannie and Freddie Countrywide kept on selling thousands of Hustle loans tot Fannie and Freddy. They set about to conceal the shoddy quality of the loans they sold to them. It sais in the lawsuit that Countrywide even offered a bonus to quality-control workers who could "rebut" the default rates in the review.

Bank of America bought Countrywide in July 2008. The lawsuit accuses Countrywide, and later Bank of America, of selling "thousands" of Hustle loans to Fannie and Freddie. According to the lawsuit, Fannie and Freddie don’t review the loans before they purchase them. Instead, they rely on banks’ statements that the loans meet certain qualifications. In other words, they trusted that the banks were telling them the truth about the mortgages and they were defrauded out of a lot of money. One billion dollars worth? We'll see how the case goes.

What being an attorney means to Bharara

Preet Bharara is from Indian descent. His family left India in the seventies to settle on the American east coast. Father Bharara stimulated his children to work hard and do well in school, so that they could reach the American Dream. Both his sons succeeded in doing just that. Starting out with a paper route, Preet's brother Vinit has a very profitable bussiness selling diapers over the internet and Preet himself studied at Harvard and Columbia to reach for his dream: Chasing the bad guys.

What makes the man tick? In his own words: "My job is the greatest privilege I'll ever have. It means I never have to plea something that I don't believe in."

Recycling, reusing and refurbishing your ECM: economic and ecological

Why go for new?

A new ECM can cost you a lot of money. This is an investment of course that you have no choice but to make, seeing as having one is the law. But nowhere in the law it specifies that the ECM you're using has to be brand new. So you can save yourself a bundle if you can find a second hand one. Going to a specialist in ECM rebuilding is worth your while.

The trouble with second hand is, you never know whether the person selling it to you is levelling with you about the condition of the ECM or if he's just trying to palm off an ill functioning thing to you in hopes you won't notice till he's out of town. This is a bit of a risky deal then, because the law does require you to have a working ECM, even if it doesn't need to be a new one. This is where remanufacturing comes in.

What DSO Industrial does is buy up all kinds of old, second hand ECM's and refurbish them. This is a thorough process in which all the elements of the ECM are checked and if necessary replaced or repaired. The result: an ECM that may look a bit worn but internally, everything is sparkly and copacetic!

Knowledge and skill

The folks at DSO Industrial know what they are doing as this is their trade and craft. This means that aside from getting an ECM that is cheaper than a new one, you're also getting great advise on things that are very important to you.

Not every ECM works well with every truck, for instance. This is something that new manufacturers don't advise you one, they only sell their one type of product and they either don't know about troubles using their device in certain trucks or they don't care. The trouble usually starts to happen after a while, sometimes leading to breakdown of the unit right after the warrantee has come to an end, leaving you with an expensive piece of equipment that no longer works.

This too is where refurbishing can come in handy. The folks at DSO Industrial do repair work as well, but also they can advise you on which ECM's are known for causing trouble with your vehicle and which last longer, work better etc. That way, instead of just repairing the trouble when it occurs, they help prevent trouble in the future. That's the kind of service that you usually have to pay extra for. Here you'll find you're paying less because it's used and remanufactured goods that you're going for.

Helps the environment

Anything that re-uses old parts, like in this case ECM's, is good for the environment. Any piece of electronic equipment is riddled with hard to recycle plastics and difficult to break down into component parts and re-use when taken out of context. By taking old ECM's and refurbishing them to become new ECM's, or remanufactured ECM's if you want to be picky about it, DSO Industrial is preventing them from landing in the garbage pile and with that they are helping the environment by preventing waste.

On the other side of the production process, new materials are saved that won't need to be used because of the re-use of the original products in the new refurbished units. This is up-cycling at it's best. Prevention of waste and re-use of old materials, definately an environmentally sound choice to make.

A nose job without surgery

Rhinoplastic surgery

Up untill recently the only way to get your nose fixed was by rhinoplastic surgery. The procedure sounds like something out of a horror movie and the only reason it was so popular in it´s time is the fact that people will do almost anything to look good and feel confident about themselves. Having a nose that is different from other peoples noses is seen as a liability by a lot of folks. For most people, fitting in is a very important thing, much more important in fact than the pain and suffering from plastic surgery.

Just so you know what we´re talking about... During the procedure an incision is made in the nose bone. In some cases (for instance if the nose has been broken before and is set crooked) the nose will be re-broken. This is how important fitting in and looking 'normal' is to some people: they've allready had their nose broken once, by accident. They know how excruciatingly painful a broken nose can be. And yet they have their nose broken again in order to make it look straight! Even without breaking the bone, the procedure involves chipping away at the bone to make it the shape that the patient wants it to be.

People who've had their nose done in such a way can be recognized for weeks by the two shiners they will have: bruising around the eyes from the procedure. If all goes well however, the bruising will disappear and the swelling of the new nose will go down in two or three weeks and all will be well.

All in all, I'm glad to be able to report that in many cases, this is not necessary anymore. Now you can have non surgical rhinoplasty Beverly Hills!

No more cutting into healthy bodies

I'm not against plastic surgery alltogether but I do think it's important to note that I'm not in favor of cutting into healthy body's for the sake of esthetics alone. Sure, if you're disfigured, horribly burned and people stare at you a lot... well I can imagine the individual choosing to have surgery done.

*rant warning*

I do believe however that we as a society need to take a close look at ourselves and examine why we find ourselves staring at people who aren't 'average' or even 'model-like' and judging people by their looks alone. I believe that it's time to re-examine what we've done in our advertising imagery, our entertainment industry, actually our whole culture. Where is the newsreader with a discoloration of the skin? How about: let's have our anchormen and women be a reflection of the range of ages that our society in general has? How can we ever hope to combat the excesses of things like anorexia if we're shunning people who are different from the standard Hollywood sizes.

*rant over*

Going it without surgery

With the new techniques and procedures rhinoplasty Beverly Hills is no longer a painful, horror story and we can do away with that, refer it to the history books, back into a time when, haha, people thought surgery was the only way to improve your noses look. Instead a filler is injected into the nose, smoothing over any bumps. Sure, it's still a little painful, but not anywhere near the former procedure.

The results are also more natural looking. Let's face it, nobody wants to see a nose like the one Michael Jackson had in the end, no matter whether it was done by surgery or perhaps some sort of weird illness, whichever the cause might be. Let it be said, I don't do the Michael Jackson bashing thing. I think he was a talented artist and perhaps a troubled soul. His history, the abuse at the hands of his father, all reasons for me to pay my respect to the man who, at the very least, gave us a lot of great songs. (even if there were bad/criminal things he was accused of and perhaps guilty of, there's no reason to throw out the good with the bad)

More natural looking noses, where bumps from earlier injury are smoothed over. Not making the nose smaller per se, but making it look more natural, more fitting to the face. This is the kind of thing where with a minimum of effort and pain, you can gain a lot.

In addition to the procedure being less invasive, less painful and less labor intensive, it's also cheaper, bring that perfect nose within reach of many more people than just the happy Hollywood rich and famous crowd.

The best places to stay in Branson Missouri

Visiting Branson for family fun

There's no better place on earth to take your family for less than Branson Missouri. You think your kids might love Disneyland? Well maybe they would, for a one time visit, but all the entertainment there is of the same kind: passively enjoying what someone else thinks is fun. Sure, Mickey Mouse is cute and it's great to see them in person so to speak, but once you've done that, what's next? The parade. And then you're done in Disneyland.

Branson is different. Instead of having one major attraction it has dozens. You can got to the Silver Dollar theme park one day, go scubadiving the next day and when you're done with looking at the fish you can try your hand at catching them. Good clean fun for the whole family is guaranteed, also in many of the towns clubs, restaurants and theaters. Classics like Andy Williams but some innovative theatre as well. Magician bartenders, local heroes that will wow you with their prowess. Something new and different to do every day of your weeks vacation in Branson Missouri.

Branson condo's

Beautifully appointed condo's galore

Source: Abbes condo rental

Beautiful condo's

The condo's in Branson cabin rentals that are for rent through Abbescondorental are very esthetically pleasing. The first thing you notice about them is their location. Singularly beautiful vista's over one or more of the three lakes make you feel like you're in some sort of magical area. Watch the morning sun rise over the lake, seeing the night mists rising untill they evaporate. Or sleep in on the ultimately comfortable king or queen size beds that will have you yearning for more yawning.

Early morning risers might allready be out on the lake by the time you get your breakfast done, enjoying the wonders of some of the worlds finest fishing area's. Meanwhile you're in your fabulous condo that has all the amenities of home and housekeeping to boot. Truly a vacation worth remembering because everything is taken care of in such a splendid fashion, you won't have tales to tell back home about cockroaches or other such horrors that you hear about from other places.

Boat slips are included in some of the rental units and some of the nations best troutfishing is going on right on the lake. Preparing the fish is something these condo's are well equipped for. so there is no need to go out to dinner every night. Allthough going out to dinner really isn't a punishment in Branson. So many great dining out places, it's hard to even make a list of the 'must see's'.

Spectacular shows in 2013

One exciting new show this year (2013) is 'Children of the Titanic'. It's a little known fact that there were over a hundred children on board the Titanic at the time of it's shipwreck. A great exhibit to visit especially when you're travelling with children. After all a little history never hurt anyone.

Also, in terms of shows, don't miss the 70's music celebration show. The seventies never looked this good, not even when they were happening. Enjoy an evening with nostalgic song and dance, produced with all the state of the art technology that make the 70's come to live even better, more lively than ever before.

Then a personal favorite: a tribute to ABBA. Remember ABBA? Chiquitita, Thank you for the music and Waterloo? Many of my personal favorites are ABBA songs. The tribute let's the good times revive and brings tears to your eyes if you, like me, were an ABBA fan. But unsurprisingly, kids love ABBA as well. A great thing to do when visiting Branson Missouri. So rent a place with abbescondorental today!

Shouldn't happiness be on the curriculum?

What if we were taught to be happy?

I've never in my life had a lesson on being happy, at least, not in a traditional school setting. It just wasn't on the menu. So I've had to figure out a lot on my own, without any help from the schoolsystem. Instead they did everything in their power to educate me out of my own happiness. Instead of reckognizing my body as a mobile learning unit they taught me to sit still, sit up straight with my arms folded.

Instead of allowing me to call out answers, solutions and idea's out loud whenever a topic was discussed in class they taught me to raise my hand before I could speak. Raise my hand and wait till I got a turn to be heard.

Instead of allowing me to discover a myriad of different answers to questions they taught me that there was only one right answer and it was right there in the back of the book and shut up about other possibilities and modes of thinking...

It wasn't untill I was way into adulthood that I found out that the answers in the back of the book were really our best guesses about what was going on in reality and for most topics they were not only our best guesses, by the time I finished school these answers were no longer valid as new insights had been gained. Science isn't what it used to be when I was in school. Nor is history if it comes to that.

Classes in happiness could definately have improved my education and I'm glad to see that the tides are changing. We now offer our preschoolers a more rounded package in the curriculum. With one shining example of how it could be: The Rockwell International School: preschool in Hyderabad

Preparing for an unknown future

When our generation was in school, we were prepared for what everyone assumed to be a predictable future. We'd receive an education, become good at our chosen field and we'd make a career out of that and become wealthy. Becoming wealthy was what it was all about, instead of becoming happy. If you wanted with all your heart to become a busdriver but you were a good learner you were stimulated to become a doctor or lawyer instead in such a way that busdriving would be considered a hobby, an anomaly. I know someone who went through lawschool and upon passing his bar-exam told his parents that up untill that point he'd been doing what they wanted him to do. Now he took control of his own life and became a busdriver like he always wanted. The point is: He is happy now.

Another lawyer I know really wants to be a self sustaining farmer type, where he grows his own food, generates his own electricity and takes care of his own water supply, all in a sustainable manner. He's only happy when he's out in his garden doing stuff. The sad bit is that he's in a law office 32 hours a week doing what he is good at but what is not his hearts desire by a long shot.

Kids in school today prepare for an unknown future. We don't know what the jobs of the future are going to be. We are noticing the crumbling of traditional ways of making money all around us. In holland about 20 percent of the working class doesn't have a job, not because they're unemployed but because they are selfemployed, often in ways that they made up themselves. There's a shift in the making that we don't know the half of yet and yet we are educating our young ones as though they will end up in a grey office spending their life being miserable in the 'intensive peoplefarming' being managed right out of their joy in life.

So much for educating our young ones to be happy. A nice refreshing look at education is what is happening at Rockwell international School. A healthy departure from traditional systems.

The beauty of a high performance car

It amazes me

On the rare occasions when I take a look underneath the hood of a car I am totally amazed at how complicated the thing looks. All those wires and connections, all those parts that are interconnected and work together as a whole with just one purpose: propelling the car forward. There is such a lot that can go wrong when you think about it that it is amazing that most often, things just work!

The classic combustion engine is a machine that runs on controlled explosions. Think about that: tons of controlled explosions are taking place every time you start an engine. They take place in little chambers and they push a valve outward. Timing is of the essense: the valves are interconnected and go back and forth like a seesaw, so you don't want simultaneous explosions in interconnected chambers, right? So something directs the traffic of the impulses to explode, the sparks.

The spark plugs are given the explosion command by the internal computer of the car I suppose. I'm not quite sure on the mechanics of that and because I don't know this is where the magic begins for me.

The magic is also in the performance enhancing that you can do by installing high performance parts for cars in your vehicle. To me it's sheer magic that you could install a beautifull gadget and it will make your car go faster or burn less fuel, whatever it's set out to do.

Polishing and pimping

Polishing all the chromium parts and making all the visible parts shiny is a bit of a hobby for the serious car-buff. When it all looks shiny it even goes faster, or at least, it feels that way. When you've polished everything on the outside you're a bit of a show off, but if you polish everything under the hood, you're my kind of person. I don't like grease stains on my hands and clothes and on anybody I associate with so going for that clean look is really a must for me.

Pimping your car with spoilers and suchlike can also improve the performance of the car, creating less air resistance and as such they are, aside from nice looking extra's, performance parts that can make a real difference in your car's behavior on the road.

Another thing often overlooked in terms of performance are the tires on your car. Esspecially if you live in an area where there's a big difference between summer and winter it's important for the performance of your car to install wintertires in wintertime. The rubber on wintertyres is softer and that way it has more grip on the snow. It's a sin to keep the wintertires on in the summer though, for two reasons. One is that they tyres will deteriorate quickly when you're driving them on hot roads. The other is that there's a minute amount of drag from the tires that will slow you down considerably. It will also keep you from having the optimal miles to the gallon ratio and in these expensive times every little bit you can gain there counts.

Blasting away

Not really a Velocity factor but important for the enjoyment of the vehicle by men and women alike is the car stereo. With state of the art surround sound and big bass boosters the car is one of the few places where you can truly enjoy great music and feel like you're encased, enveloped by the music. The sound inside a car can be just as overwhelming as during a live concert and it really takes you away. It is palpable in your gut, you can sense it with more than just your ears.

Naturally, when you're enjoying great music in your car, it's important to keep your attention on the road as well. You wouldn't want to wind up driving 20 on the highway because you're so engrossed in your mantra's or classical music, nor would you want to get a speeding ticket because you're rocking to the Boss himself. Still, a car stereo is a beautiful addition to an electric high performance vehicle.