This close to Christmas, I hear the same thing from alot of people. “Things are tight right now”, I shutter everytime I hear those words. I think about their families, spouses, & children. I wonder what will their Christmas be like?
I’ve been there. Like it was yesterday, I remember a X-mas a few years ago where my wife & I were struggling. With 3 little ones anticipating the holiday, we had a total of $200 to spend.
Now you and I both know that Christmas is not supposed to be about the presents, but try selling that story to a 2,4,&7 year old. It doesn’t go over so well.
My wife, bless her heart did as good as she possibly could with the money she had available. However when X-mas rolled around and the kids starting opening gifts, it was over in a few minutes. Although the kids never said anything, you could see a little disappointment in their faces.
I believe any good parent wants their children to have as much as possible. Maybe not spoil them rotten, but let them have that one memory once a year where they were spoiled on that one day.
That day was breaking point. I had enough, we were working our backsides off and for what? $200 for x-mas? That wasn’t going to cut it.
Maybe Im all alone here, has anyone else gone through this?
Read more…
The flood of counterfeit goods into the United States from the Far East, and especially China and India, has reached all time highs and is creating significant economic damage at home. This incredibly damaging, criminal activity is spurring the development of IP protective measures, such as security holograms.
Hologram Image
No-one wins when counterfeit products reach the market – the consumer buys goods which are not what they thought they were, while there may be serious consumer safety issues involved. Meanwhile, the manufacturer reaps the adverse reward of negative press and consumer comments because the counterfeit clings like a parasite to their brand image and reputation. The retail distributor finds they have goods they cannot sell and quite possibly, legal consequences of holding counterfeit products they ought not to have in the first instance.
The issue is how to protect your own brand and intellectual property in a cost effective manner, and at the same time, ensure security measures are in place which will deter counterfeiters from using your product as the basis for a counterfeit operation. The analogy of a homeowner ensuring all the doors and windows are locked, whilst fitting a highly visible alarm system to deter opportunistic thieves, is very appropriate in this context.
Read more…
When we contemplate air pollution, most of us think that the air is okay. That is, if we don’t see a colored haze hanging above our heads or black particles raining on our towns. But poor air quality, like a virus, can’t always appear to the naked eye. The Air Quality Index (AQI) is a sort of measuring stick used by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and it has proven this fact.
There are many types of pollution hogging our air space; these thieves silently enter our bodies and cause disease over time, illnesses such as bronchitis, lung cancer and heart defects. Additionally, pollution threatens plants and trees, destroy animals and takes over water streams where fish get contaminated.
Sulfur dioxide (SO2) is a compound that comes from volcanoes, which we may have very little control over. It is also created by varying industrial processes, such as coal and petroleum. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) comes out when a mixture of air and fuel becomes hot as is found in the emissions from internal combustion engines of our cars and SUVs and industrial equipment. In low doses, these two compounds have a small effect but in cities with many factories and loads of cars, the results can become overwhelming to our air.
28 eastern US states have been found to hold high amounts of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in their air because of the heavy industry in this area. So, in 2005, the EPA came up with a new rule, the Clean Air Interstate Rule (CAIR), which is to reduce sulfur dioxide by 70% and all nitrogen oxides by 60% by 2015. Apparently this would reduce health costs by a couple billion dollars and maybe help prevent premature death.
Read more…