On Monday, Whirlpool introduced a new premium exterior finish
that they call "White Ice." With clean lines, silver accents and
streamlined controls, the new collection's refrigerator, range,
dishwasher, and microwave are a departure from the flash and glitz of
stainless steel and its many lookalikes. In fact, the combination of a
white finish, stainless handles and mirrored glass appear to have a lot
in common with Apple's popular design language. White Ice gives your kitchen a clean slate.The
streamlined new look combines with simplified features that Whirlpool
says will make the appliances easier to use. "In addition to the
intuitive technology, the line takes a fresh look at appliance design
and features flawless exteriors that add beauty to any home," said Pat
Schiavone, Whirlpool's VP of Global Consumer Design.
Because the
whole suite of appliances have such a unique style that's exclusive to
one manufacturer, it's a safe bet that Whirlpool is hoping customers
will upgrade their entire kitchen instead of taking a piecemeal
approach.
Whirlpool seems to be aiming their new finish at
customers who have grown weary of stainless and its numerous imitators.
Indeed, the manufacturer says the new finish is "signifying a shift in
the culture of home appliances." Because it's essentially an update of
the classic white exterior, White Ice may appeal to consumers who are
bored by stainless but also don't want their kitchens to look dated. For
Whirlpool, it's an attempt to appeal to homeowners in a bottomed-out
housing market, where renovating is less about increasing resale value
and more about appealing to an individual's own tastes.
Before the recession, investors looking to flip a house for profit
wanted to install upscale finishes that could cheaply and easily update
the look of a home. So from the HGTV-era onward, the most popular
kitchens have combined granite countertops along with stainless steel
appliances. Go to any home improvement store and you'll be sure to see
rows upon rows of fridges and dishwashers with stainless steel and
stainless-style exteriors.
It wasn't always that way, and all it takes is a look at classic sitcoms to see how far kitchens have come. If I Love Lucy were in color, the Ricardo's kitchen likely would've had pastel finishes alongside white and stainless. Along with shows like Maude and Soap,
the '70s and early '80s brought in earth tones, like avocado, harvest
gold and almond. Later on, white and bisque became popular -- even on
the upscale appliances that Geoffrey tended to in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
In addition to the modern White Ice, there are several other
alternative finishes available on premium appliances. Smeg, an Italian
company, builds retro-looking fridges that could easily be mistaken for
your grandmother's Norge. They're available in a whole rainbow of
shades, from bright yellow to deep purple. AGA, a British manufacturer,
puts hard vitreous enamel surfaces in a variety of different colors on
their ovens and dishwashers. Whirlpool's own Amana division also
introduced a series of colorful refrigerators in 2009, including an
exterior called Green Tea which features a floral motif.
The new White Ice refrigerator, range, dishwasher and microwave will
be on display at New York City's Rockefeller Plaza this week for House Beautiful magazine's Kitchen of the Year event.
You're critically wounded and dying in the jungle somewhere in the Central Highlands of Viet Nam.
It's November 11, 1967.
LZ (landing zone) X-ray.
Your unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100
yards away, that your CO (commanding officer) has ordered the MedEvac
helicopters to stop coming in.
You're lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know you're not getting out.
Your family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you'll never see them again.
As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.
Then - over the machine gun noise - you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter.
You look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn't seem real because no MedEvac markings are on it.
Captain Ed Freeman is coming in for you.
He's not MedEvac so it's not his job, but he heard the radio call and
decided he's flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire anyway.
Even after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come. He's coming anyway.
And he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as they load 3 of you at a time on board.
Then he flies you up and out through the gunfire to the doctors and nurses and safety.
And, he kept coming back!! 13 more times!
Until all the wounded were out. No one knew until the mission was over
that the Captain had been hit 4 times in the legs and left arm.
He took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not have made it without the Captain and his Huey.
Medal of Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman, United States Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise , Idaho
May God Bless and Rest His Soul.
I bet you didn't hear about this hero's passing, but we've sure seen a
whole bunch about Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods and the bickering of
congress over Health Reform.
There’s a certain amount of distrust for the government that’s
healthy. And they sure do make it easy… especially when it comes to new
ideas and proposed laws that essentially promise to violate our privacy.
The worst part is that we have to be worried about more than just our federal government…
State and local governments are no exception when it comes to violating our privacy rights, too.
You see, Americans are already concerned about their privacy being
violated when it comes to their cellphones and emails, among other
things.
The last thing they want to worry about is someone hacking their personal information through their license plate…
California’s Senate Bill 806 has made its way to Governor Jerry Brown’s
desk and legislators are simply waiting on him to sign off. The bill
would kick-start a pilot program for electronic license plate system.
The 12-by-6-inch digital screen would be found on as many as 160,000
cars during the three year pilot.
The digital plates are designed to show the state name along with the
license plate number, similar to the traditional plates. However, the
technology would allow the plates to display Amber Alerts or
notifications that indicate that the tag is expired or even that the car
is uninsured or stolen. The screen could also facilitate toll payments.
All potentially beneficial things, sure, but is it really worth it?
Privacy Getting the Ultimate Boot
While California may have the best of intentions when it comes to
electronic license plates, there are reasons for privacy concerns.
According to Lee Tien, an attorney at Electronic Frontier Foundation,
the bill has “gotten some amendments that address some of the location
privacy issues – within the pilot, the DMV would not be receiving any
location information. But the company that operates the plates would
[have access, and] they are going to be controlling what’s on the
plates.” However, Tien doesn’t believe the legislature is taking privacy
concerns seriously: “We’re surprised and disappointed that this bill
seems to be proceeding without any serious exploration of the privacy
risks. Just because it’s a pilot doesn’t excuse the Legislature of
responsibility.”
If it Ain’t Broke, Don’t Fix It?
If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking, “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” However, we all know that California is
broke, and they’re going to do almost anything they can to cut the
budget and increase revenue, and the state thinks the electronic plates
will help them do just that. The state hopes that the plates, patented
by San Francisco-based Smart Plate Mobile, will make the vehicle
registration process more efficient and save the DMV nearly $20 million
on the cost of yearly tag renewals.
A similar bill was proposed in California in 2010, but that bill
allowed advertisements to scroll on the screens if a car was stopped for
more than three seconds. The state saw the plates as a way to increase
revenue because the DMW would’ve profited from selling ad space. While
the current bill doesn’t include provisions for advertisements, they
haven’t ruled ads out altogether. Jim Lites, a lobbyist for Smart Plate
Mobile, said the bill’s focus isn’t advertisement revenue, but is
instead focused on creating more efficiency. But the truth is, Lites
doesn’t really rule anything out: “Let’s focus on that and let the
Legislature decide what they would like this technology to do, assuming
this pilot is successful.”
Residents of California aren’t the only people who should be
concerned. While California may be the first to test-drive the plates,
New Jersey and South Carolina are considering electronic license plates
as well.
If the technology is already on our cars, what stops the government
from using it (as history is proving… virtually nothing can stop the
government.) And if more scrutiny isn’t placed upon this device
regarding the privacy concerns, we may be setting ourselves up for the
ultimate tracking and monitoring system. We’ve got bigger problems now
than those Orwellian traffic cameras; these things would be able to monitor us the entire time we’re on the go.
Remember the statement, “If a government is big enough to give you
everything you want, it’s big enough to take away everything you have”?
We live in an American society where our individual rights are at stake,
and the people’s dependence on their own government is largely to
blame.
It’s boldly obvious that we live in a society where people are
dependent on the government. Take a look around – look at the number of
people on government assistance programs and those begging for more
programs like universal healthcare or universal preschool.
It’s as though Americans are enslaved by the idea that the government
can and should supply all our needs. And the government only
perpetuates this misconception when they refuse to reform the food stamp program or force Obamacare on us when the majority of Americans don’t even want it…
Seeping Into Our Education System
The last place these faulty ideas (especially those with hidden
political agendas) ought to be found is in the classroom. However, an
elementary school in Skokie, Illinois decided to teach fourth graders
that the “government is like a nation’s family.”
The “What Is Government?” worksheet describes government as “all of
the agencies, departments, organizations, groups, individuals in a
nation who make, carry out, enforce, and manage conflicts about rules
and laws.” So, we might agree that this isn’t such a terrible
description for our children. But then the description becomes
increasingly problematic…
It goes on to say, “Government is like a nation’s family. Families
take care of children and make sure they are safe, healthy and educated,
and free to enjoy life. Families encourage children to be independent
hardworking and responsible. Families make and enforce rules and give
appropriate punishments when rules are broken. Government does these
things for its citizens, too.”
Frankly, I find this assignment alarming. Now, I understand that it
could be construed as a reasonable way to explain a very complex system
in a way that makes it understandable by a young audience (elementary
aged kids) – and that is part of the problem with it. The fact that
they’re likening the government to a family to this very vulnerable,
malleable and trusting demographic is something we must closely
scrutinize. At this age, these children are totally dependent on their
families, their parents, or other authority figures. And this move only
perpetuates the mentality that your government is who you rely on to
make all your life decisions, consequently stripping independence as the
go-to mentality. It’s bad enough to have a large number of citizens
expecting the government to take care of them as if they’re children and
it’s their parent. But now our children – the very future of this country – are being issued an okay for this mindset.
Politicians Fueling the Fire
President Ronald Reagan, like the Founding Fathers, told us that the
government’s purpose is to protect the people and their rights but
“where the government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to
protect us from ourselves.” The thought that the government is
responsible for our welfare is ludicrous, to speak candidly.
Many politicians currently in office were elected because of the
notion that the government exists to take care of us. During the last
presidential election, a friend told me that she didn’t agree with
President Obama on most things, but that she planned to vote for him
because of “what he can do for my family.” It wasn’t because of good
policy, political experience, or even for sharing personal convictions.
But what might not have been as blatantly obvious was the reality
that the government isn’t going to give you something without taking
something in return. It’s a give-and-take relationship, through and
through. Welcome to big government, folks.
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full. So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I'd been drinking. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over.
The Coke is getting warm, and I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye--they need water. I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill. Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day: the car isn't washed, the bills aren't paid, there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter, the flowers don't have enough water, there is still only 1 check in my check book, ! I can't find the remote, I can't find my glasses, and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today. I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all stinking day, and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.... Do me a favor. (if you can remember)
Send this to your friends and warn them about his disease!
