Mental Health Break

These are pretty funny. :)

Is the iPad a Restatement?

Many of you have heard by now of apple's newest product called the iPad. It seems like an amazing, shiny, new toy except here's the catch: there already is an iPad. Fujitsu is the name of the game this time. It created an iPad that was sold primarily in the United States to "help shop clerks verify prices, check real-time inventory data and close sales on the go." The New York Times goes deeper into this report and the drama between the two companies. However, it is still known that the Fujitsu iPad was created in 2002 using Microsoft’s CE.NET operating system with a smaller, 3.5 inch touchscreen with the ability to use Wi-fi and Bluetooth and support the new Skype program. Just like Apple's new iPad, the Fujitsu iPad is extremely portable, and perhaps even more so than Apple's. The main attraction for Fujitsu's older product is that business owners would no longer have to tote a computer around with all this technology right at their fingertips.

In addition to the little accident that the iPad had already been invented, Apple faces a problem with it's products name. Many women have been associated the new iPad with feminine hygiene products and the New York Times reports:

people from Boston to Ireland are complaining that “iPad,” in their regional brogue, sounds almost indistinguishable from “iPod,” Apple’s music player.

So will Apple's iPad be as successful as it's other products? We will have to wait and see.

Rebuilding in Haiti: Taking a Wrong Turn?

Recently, CNN new reported that surviving citizens of Haiti are not waiting for international assistance, but instead attempting to reconstruct buildings. However, engineers are growing worrisome, and with good reason. The building itself is very informal and people are using torn pieces from the once-collapsed houses, which could easily fall apart.

CNN interviewed Jean-Fritznel St. Claire and three friends, reporting:

the group insists that they and others who stayed in the earthquake zone are eager to start clearing rubble and building what they can.

Yet this hastiness to rebuild concerns engineers that are working to help the Haitian people with the clean-up and reconstruction after the 7.0 earthquake. They claim that Haitians are only turning to the materials that are available to them instead of making safe buildings with nonhazardous materials.

The earthquake alone should have triggered a hasty response by the rest of the developed world, but this clearly shows that Haiti is not getting the help it needs ergo we need to step up our game.

Serving the Community

For my community service project, I was planning to volunteer with a SPCA center in the bay area. However, this plan is not set in stone yet, so my back up would be making lunches for the needy at Glide Memorial Church in San Fransisco as I have done before. Either way, I am happy to be able to make a difference in the my community to help the growing population of needy people and/or needy animals. When no one else will help, individuals are what makes the difference.

Laws Tighten Around Smog.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed on Thursday to make laws concerning smog and pollution in cities much stricter in order to lead to better health for many US citizens. The Obama administration has done much to help the environment by changing the laws made during the Bush administration, but as a NY Times editorial puts it:

"[A] few bad rules linger on the books, among them an inadequate health standard governing harmful ozone, which most people call smog."

The environmental laws made during the Bush administration were considered by state officials as too weak to protect human health. Now, Obama wants there to be no more than 0.065 parts per million of ground-level ozone phasing in during the next 20 years. In addition to this, a seasonal law will be put into place to prevent the environment from continuous exposure to these malicious molecules.

Finding a way to cut out all the pollutants in the air will lead way to large, green businesses (provided they take the opportunity). Now all we have to do is find a large enough incentive...

Tanker and Special needs School Van Collide

Four dead and six injured was the result. I realize this isn't about the political scene, but a reminder to drive safely during the holidays.

Thought of the Past

I don't know if any of you remember the days when political figures in the Middle East were upset that our newspapers had cartoons containing them. I stumbled across this and it made me think of those days.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire (Literally)

How would you react if someone told you that a close family member was killed in a terrorist attack? Now how would you feel if you found out that it was completely preventable. Fortunately, no one was killed in the recent attempt of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines plane and 278 passengers only ended in his own injury. CNN reports the problems with security in this situation:

"First, the intelligence community knew that an al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen intended to strike the United States and was recruiting operatives for the task, the president said. But intelligence operatives "did not aggressively follow up on and prioritize particular streams of intelligence related to a possible attack against the homeland," he noted.

Second, there was a "larger failure of analysis, a failure to connect the dots of intelligence that existed across our intelligence community."

Third, the intelligence failure contributed to flaws in the country's watch-listing system that resulted in the alleged bomber not being added to the no-fly list."

I recently heard on the news that Umar's father had contacted the airline and warned them of his son, as he had doubts about his loyalty to America. Obama later said: "Rather than a failure to collect or share intelligence, this was a failure to connect and understand the intelligence that we already had." Here is a video of him speaking to the public: