American bank-customer rules like the Wild West

I just stumbled upon a status from a Facebook friend complaining over the service from Bank of America to a degree that he left the bank and encourage others to follow suit. Some of his friends commented and all comments agreed with him.

That made me add this comment, which has been brewing inside me for as long as I've lived in the US:

I just can't believe how weak the competition is in the US bank sector & how weak the consumers are!?!? How can the banks demand as high interest rates over here?!?? It's a mystery to me. The interests rates over here would be illegal in Denmark, and somehow our banks (in DK) are still doing quite well (and so are their stock holders) with decent profits even though Danish banks usually demand 8-12% interest rate on your credit card and 7-8% on home loans (the expensive 2nd mortgage). The institution that loans you the max 80% value of your home typically takes 5% interest rate for a fixed loan or lower if you're willing to renew your loan and accept a floating interest rate - for good or bad - 1 a year or every 3 years. Student loans cost the student 1% a year while they are studying and until 1 year after they graduate. Then it's time to pay back, and that at a rate of 3-5% I wish the Americans would have the same rules!

Checking Bank of America's website, I can't even find the rates they take for credit cards and student loans, not even under Frequently Asked Questions! But they make it very easy to open an account, of course. Not pretty.

Speaking of usury, just saw an ad for a company called peachtree, which looks like something equivalent to lendingtree/moneytree or whatever they're all called. All these pay day loan companies shocked a Danish friend and journalist of mine so much when she visited me here in the US that she took a picture of one of these companies. These kinds of companies are not legal in Denmark and haven't been for decades because they're considered to be taking advantage of desperate people in need.

Hilarious! Bank of America Chairman, Charles Holiday, just said on C SPAN that US banks shouldn't be restricted in size because then they would be weaker compared to their European competitors! As if any European bank is allowed to be as big as, say Bank of America. Has he 'forgotten' that it is EU that keep suing Microsoft for quenching free competition?!

Make Strides Walkathon 2010 - help children & adults walk again

Join my team at the very first Prosthetics Outreach Foundation 2 mile Walkathon Saturday July 10, 9-11:30AM @ Seward Park, 5895 Lake Washington Blvd. S Seattle, WA 98118

Or skip the walk and join the other volunteers, eat, drink enjoy the music and other entertainment, all in order to help children and adults in the developed world walk again. Have fun and do good at the same time!

If you happen to be out of town that day, you'd still make my day if you donate to my cause!

POF Make Strides Walkathon 2010 - Prosthetics Outreach Foundation

My Wishing List for Earth Day 40th Anniversary

On this 40th anniversary of Earth Day, I hope the American representatives in the House and Senate will make America greener by:

* Giving the Americans effective public transport,
* Re-teach them to hand dry their their clothes instead of tumble dry it,
* Teach the Americans to eat un-produced food (=> less trash & pollution),
* Give the Americans incentives to walk & take the bike instead of the car whenever at all possible,
* Make building laws that have green requirements (recycle water, 3 layer isolation windows that manage heat/cold, lasting or biodegradable building materials, half & full flush water closets, water saver on shower head and water taps, warm water pipe heating either in the floor or via radiators, solar cells on roofs etc),
* Improve recycling possibilities, e.g. make bins for used batteries next to the garbage cans by apartment buildings and on street corners or outside drug stores and supermarkets,
* Make Round-up and other unnecessary chemicals ILLEGAL- at least for private consumers (as they have been in Europe for years!),
* Make the leaf and snow blowers illegal!! Give people a good old rake/broom and snow plow = free exercise :-)


Links
Earth Day on Wiki
White House Honors Earth Day 40th Anniversary
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Earth Day History by Envirolink

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!

No comments:

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!