Somebody's Watching You - an eternal fight to protect yourself on the web

Just found this useful piece of advise on a Facebook friend's wall:

"Read the snopes article. It just makes the email available for purchase and the places where they got all that info still have it all. If you're going to go and try to remove yourself from this site (near impossible as far as I can tell) there are MANY other sites that have the same info. This is just the only one you've heard about. Check out whitepages.com sometime. I searched for my name and found old listings all over the country. Even to places I'd never lived because my ex husband kept the phone number we'd gotten when I was still with him.



Information on the net doesn't die. Don't give these people another piece of yourself. Just ignore it. Personally I stopped trying to stop or block spam to my email. Stopped trying to "unsubscribe" (in reality it just proves you're really there and it's a good email). I went from getting 500+ spam emails a week to about 2-5 a week. Food for thought...."

and

"from wikipedia - Email address harvesting
While Spokeo has a privacy link that provides a process for removal of a name from Public Listing, what it also does is harvest a legitimate e-mail address. The legitimate e-mail address is then available for purchase, potentially opening up the email address to spam"

http://www.snopes.com/computer/internet/spokeo.asp
http://www.spokeo.com/
http://www.whitepages.com/ cooperaters with
http://www.peoplefinder.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spokeo

Technical equality

Maybe it's just me, but I get irritated every time I'm fighting off the cable of the iron when I'm ironing. I constantly have to throw it back to the far end of the iron board in order to avoid it from making new, unintended folds in the shirts I'm trying to REMOVE folds from.

And that's when it hit me:
How come the cordless electric drill was already invented in 1961 and the cordless electric hedge trimmer was invented in as early as in 1962 (according to Black & Decker), and that the cordless electric screw driver was invented more more than two decades ago when I still have to battle that blasted iron cord?















I can't help thinking that it is a question of gender inequality - or maybe just a lack of female inventors in the realm of electronic devices. Sadly, it might also be a sign that few men iron their own shirts, STILL in 2010! If they did, I'm sure the cordless iron would have been invented ages ago!

What I don't understand is why the producers of irons haven't seen the huge potential for profit in inventing it, male inventor and owners or not. It was after all a man that invented the washing machine, the dryer, the dish washer, and the vacuum cleaner, all tools which existence I'm grateful for every time I press that start button - ok, except for the vacuum cleaner. I'm still waiting for the day someone invents a light AND effective vacuum cleaner that doesn't cost a fortune, although I have high hopes for the further development of the Roomba!

So all you technical inventors, take a break from your current drafts of technical devices primarily targeted for men's entertainment and take a good look at how you can take the remaining cord enslaved technical devices for tedious house work a step into the 21st century!

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Volunteer auction donations needed for Prosthetics Outreach Foundation Gala Dinner

2010 PROSTHETICS OUTREACH FOUNDATION
DINNER GALA & AUCTION
March 27th, 2010
Meydenbauer Center Bellevue, WA

VOLUNTEER HELP NEEDED!!!!

We are low on Silent Auction Donations this year and we need YOUR help!

Tell your friends, family, co-workers, all of your Facebook friends, your barista,
pizza delivery man/woman, your hair stylist or nail salon,
your accountant & gardener about the amazing work POF does
& ask them to make a donation to our auction today!

Some of the items on our wish list include:

*2010 Sounders, Seahawks, Mariners Tickets
*Salon Gift Certificates
*Restaurant Certificates ($50+)
*Cooking Classes
*Unique Hand-Made Jewelry
*Hotel Overnight Stays
*Gaming Systems (Xbox, WII, PS3)
*Coffee & Specialty Item Baskets
*Services (landscaping, home decoration, design work)
*Wine

Donations are 100% tax-deductible, and all donors will be recognized in our event catalog, on our website, and on display materials at the event!

You can donate by filling out the attached form or by going directly to- http://pofsea.org/auction10 and click on "Donation an Item Online"


Prosthetics Outreach Foundation is a catalyst for change in developing countries.

Our goal is ensuring that children and adults suffering from limb loss & deformity have lifetime access to high-quality orthopedic and rehabilitation services.

Over 20 years, POF has helped more than 15,000 children and adults to walk again.

A few dollars worth of metal and plastic can restore mobility, independence, and hope to amputees and others with severe orthopedic disabilities.



For more information of the 2010 Dinner Gala & Auction, contact Auction Coordinator Charla Ojala at Auction@pofsea.org

Links:
Prosthetics Outreach Foundation (POF)
Facebook Causes: POF
POF on Facebook

Female Bodies and Gender Equality

Just read this article that a friend of mine posted on Facebook, and it made me jump to the keyboard. Yes, you don't need to be a Britney Spears fan to think it was sad to see her fall apart. And I'm not a fan of The Gossip or her message of "be fat, be happy", which is unhealthy and self-restricting, since having a healthy, reasonably slim body gives you the joys of physical freedom!

But nonetheless, I understand her message of women's need to disobey the cultural suppressions/expectations on women and their appearance. One way to disobey was burning our bras as the women of the late 1960's and 1970's did. Another is the punk movement, shaving your head or, I guess, refusing to be slim (healthy).

What I don't get is, why would you want to do harm to yourself as a protest to society's expectations? Not wearing a bra might be pleasant (or not, depending on your taste), and shaving your head or spending hours every day in front of the mirror striving to make that perfect mohawk might make you feel powerful (or whatever drives you to do it). But at least neither is putting your health at risk. The funny thing is, at as much as the whole punk style is a protest against the established fashion and society, getting the perfect punk look takes at LEAST as much time in front of the mirror (and the sowing machine) as any main stream look. Even though I do admire beauty and beautiful things, and that I do care whether I'm wearing matching stockings or not, I don't spend a lot of time in front of the mirror or the closet, even less sowing the perfect outfit. So in my opinion, the punkers are at least as enslaved by their quest for the perfect appearance as anyone else, as puzzling as it may seem.

That leads me to the the conclusion that the naturalists, the bra free, non shaved women are the ones that enjoy the most freedom from society's current beauty expectations on women.

But choosing to be overweight is just sad. It doesn't take any effort. Anyone can eat unhealthy "food" and drink sweetened drinks while doing other things, and choose to not exercise. Just as it takes no effort to not put on a bra, not shave your legs and not put on make-up. The non actions of the naturalists are not unhealthy - if anything they are actually healthier than us that wear make-up because most make-up, at least in the US, is still filled with led, hormones and other things that are really bad for us.

All is does to choosing to be overweight is making you unhealthy, with all the negative side-effects and increased risk of illness that comes along: higher cholesterol, higher blood pressure, joint pain, higher risk of heart attack and less mobility. And for especially this last reason I dare to claim that being overweight is giving you less happiness and less freedom of movement. How can anyone honestly claim that being so overweight that you can't dance all night or skip and jump and make summersaults or play catch or football with your kids is a positive choice?



Sadly, it actually takes quite an effort to starve yourself as some women strive to match the skinny idols from the fashion magazines: an unhealthy fear of food, of calories, and usually paired with excessive exercise. They might have their freedom of movement intact, but they still put their health at risk. According to Korea Times undernourished women have higher risk of osteoporosis and breast cancer.

Of all the protests against the beauty myth I think choosing to be overweight or unhealthily underweight are the saddest. Free yourselves, don't enslave yourselves to unhealthy living. It IS possible to both be a hedonist and healthy, beauty myth or not!

Rufus Wainwright still sings you dizzy

Just back from my third concert with Rufus Wainwright (the first in Seattle, however, since the two former concerts with him since I moved here sold out). Was a bit nervous if he could still control the many octaves. But not only did he do that (except from one single tone in one song), he also increased his piano talent several degrees!!! Goose bumps as always listening to Hallelujah, this time as a duet with Joan As Police Woman. Beautiful! But nothing beats the Cohen original!

Rufus Wainwright on last.fm

The Americans deserve a better and cheaper health care system

Not knowing any members of Congress personally, I don't have any proof as to whether the members of Congress in general have sufficient knowledge on health care issues. But i certainly hope they do!!!

Health care reform is by far the most important issue the Congress will have voted on since FDR tried to rebuild the US after the 1929 financial crash and ensuing depression.



An example: in Denmark, where I am from, we have "free" health care:
- That means that we pay nothing for seeing a general practitioner or a hospital of our choice, whether we're having surgery or are giving birth.
- The state negotiates with the drug companies to press down the price (for buying in bulk) and pays a part of the citizens' medicine bill when they go to the pharmacy. This means that as soon as you have spent the limit of a few hundred dollars on medicine out of your own wallet each year, the state pays all later medicine bills for the rest of the year in order to protect people with health care problems that require expensive medicine (often elderly people with pension as their only steady income). For a woman in the fertile age, that means that your birth control pills are kept at a very affordable price (in fact, the price has actually FALLEN the last 15 years!!!). And that means that I pay 3 times - THREE TIMES! - as much for a little birth control pill over here than I did in Denmark!

So yes, the state pays. The citizens don't spend any time worrying about paper work or health care bills. The GP, specialist or hospital has had electronic patient journals since 1994 (nationally co-ordinated since 1996) and passes on the bill for their work directly to the state that covers the expenses with one of the highest tax rates in the world. But the Danes do also get a lot for their tax money. They never worry about their or their family's health, they get free education from first day of elementary school through university AND money to pay for books and rent while they study. State supported nursery care and kindergarten, high minimum wages, lots of vacation and parental rights.

And yes, there are waiting lists: 1 month for non lethal conditions which don't prevent people from working and don't get worse if they wait. You can chose any doctor (General Practitioner as well as specialists) and any hospital, public or private, even hospitals in Germany and Sweden. The state pays no matter what. People with rare illnesses are better off being treated in hospitals in Sweden and Germany because the Danish population is too small to give the doctors enough experience with rare operation and cancer cases. That is why the Danish state still pays when you get surgery abroad.


To me that proves that the Americans get too little for their health care money.



It's not all free though.
A visit to the dentist is free until you're 18. After that it gets expensive because the state illogically does not cover your dentist bill. This is why many Danes above 18 years of age get their complex dentist work done in Sweden and Poland, where they pay about half of what the Danish dentists want for the same procedure. But at least the free child dental care is the reason why almost no Danes in their 30's and younger have any fillings, and no one in the same age range need braces.
Same goes for psychology: it's free until you're 18. And as illogical as the dental care that you have to pay for it afterwards.

Nonetheless, some Danes do get private health insurance. About 10% of people in the work force, typically the top ten percent (CEOs and other people that have special value to a company) get private health insurance via their job, so that they can be treated immediately at a hospital if they need surgery. Some companies offer this to employees whose job can't easily be taken over by someone else if they get ill. E.g. all professional sports people have it.

The problem in Denmark is that it is slowly developing into the American system:
The number of private hospitals is increasing in an evil spiral because doctors and nurses flee to the private sector to avoid the busy work conditions and working overtime at the public hospitals. And there's the wage difference. So the more private hospitals Denmark allows to open, the worse the situation at the public hospitals get, and the contrast between private and public gets starker. Which again forces the government to pay for letting ever more people being treated at the private hospitals to fulfill the promise of getting surgery within a month.



My mother cried with despair when she was treated at a private hospital some years ago. Not because she was treated horribly at the private hospital. But because it was SO different than the way her old, dying mother was treated at the public hospital a few years earlier. The treatment she got at the private hospital was how she remembered the public hospitals used to be back when there were no private hospitals in Denmark (the first private hospital opened in 1990, but according to Ugeskrift for Læger (Weekly Publication for Doctors) they lost money until 2002, the right wing government took office in November 2001.


That leads me to the point:
The US needs to invest in the health of its citizens in order to have productive people that can generate income for decades while at the same time being as little a burden to the public health care system as possible. America can save a ton of money if it invests in the health of its people. Prevention is always way cheaper than repair. Imagine what all the money the state will save in the mid to long run can do to further develop this country: increase the average education level, improve the environment and free money to research and investment in green technology so that US can be on top of the list instead of somewhere behind Denmark, Germany and Spain, at least when it comes to wind technology.

The Danish government apparently can't see that it is destroying something very valuable while trying to copy a failed American health care system! Learn from Denmark's successes and mistakes!

Links
Health Action Now
HHS's healthcare reform site
CNN on Obama's health care reform
OECD Health Data 2009, Denmark compared
Boston Globe: Plenty of countries get health care right

Crossing Fingers for Obama's Health Care Reform

If carried out, Obama's health care reform might not make a big difference for me right here and now, but what matters is that it would make a huge positive difference for the majority of the people living in this country! I got irritated when hearing one of the CNN anchors mentioning that it's only relevant for the 47 million Americans who don't have health care insurance today--it certainly is very important for the huge amount of Americans who are UNDERinsured--which sadly turns out to be a huge group too.

And it certainly is relevant for all the companies that are bearing an ever increasing burden of paying their employees' health care insurance bills. By making health care a federal/state matter like it is in all other Western countries, the companies can concentrate on doing their business, which would free up money to R&D (and education of their staff) so the companies can improve their competitiveness.

It also makes me angry to see the Conservative ads on tv about how "some bureaucrat from DC will come between you and your doctor"--it's the exact OPPOSITE!!!! = Right NOW, an insurance company IS between you and your doctor. This fact costs some people their health and in worst cases their lives. Remember the guy in "Sicko" who had to choose which of his 2 fingers he would save when his middle finger and ring finger were cut off in a work accident? He had to choose the ring finger because he couldn't afford the more important and therefore more expensive index finger, even less to get both fingers back--THAT is not an acceptable way for a rich country like the US to treats it's tax-paying citizens!!!! No other Western country treat its citizens like that!!! I know, being Danish and having lived in three other European countries, among them Belgium (Brussels, the EU capital). From a doctor's perspective, I can only imagine that it will be equally easy/difficult to save the index finger as saving the ring finger, so this sad ending of the story can only be happening because a greedy insurance company wants to sqeeze as much money out of sick people as they possibly can--their profits mist be outrageous!!!...and ever-increasing it seems, seeing that the burden of health care bills grows on both companies and the states/federal authorities.

I know the economy in this country is under immense strains right now (again due to excessive greed in the financial sector), but as Obama says, the country will go bankrupt if nothing is done to change the current system. And the best investment this country can make is in its citizens: keep them healthy and educated so that they won't be a burden on society, but a steadily increasing income generator.

(Source: The Economist)

I know Denmark is a tiny country compared to the US, Canada, Japan or Germany. But nonetheless, Denmark topped the Economist's hitlist in both 2007 and 2008 for being the best country to do business in. And during this current economic crisis, Denmark has been the least affected of all the EU countries, probably because its economy already is one of the strongest in the EU and has been so for years. In the 1990's, Chirac and Schröder looked to Denmark's flexicurity society that makes it easy to hire and fire while at the same time making sure no one would be left behind homeless if they lose their job. Thanks to some of the highest taxes in the world (together with Sweden) the Danes are protected by a huge welfare state that not only gives them free health care, but also free universities and money to live for while they study. I'd say the Danish model has proven its strength!

Links
Obama's health care plan
Wonkroom on Conservative Patient Rights Group
Conservatives for Patients Rights themselves
Politico on the Conservative add
Michael Moore on his scary documentary Sicko
HealthReform.gov
whitehouse.gov on health care
World Bank: Denmark no 5 in the world to do business in
The Economist: Denmark the best place to do business in