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.