Iowa – Holding a nation hostage

For nearly the last 12 months we have been hearing day after day how the candidates have been campaigning in Iowa and how important winning or finishing high in the results will make or break a presidential candidate.

Iowa only has 7 of the 538 total electoral votes “Each State is allocated a number of electors equal to the number of its U.S. Senators (always 2) plus the number of its U.S. Representatives”. That means that Iowa has only 5 of the 435 members of the House of Representatives. Iowa has a population of about 3 million people, the U.S. population by comparison has total of 300 million people. That means that after the Iowa caucus is done about 297 million people will most likely be cheated out of a chance to cast a vote for their favorite candidate.

How can one state be so important that except for a very few others states, most will never get a chance to be heard from as their state’s primary election day will be held too late to make a difference.

Should Vista be compared with Windows ME

It’s been nine months and there are still vistas of problems reported with the new OS.
See what PC World has to say about this:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,138693/article.html

From China with Mal Intent

ABC News 09/27/07
“The White House is preparing a new initiative to protect against what it fears could be a crippling attack against the U.S. by computer, from overseas, and in particular, from China.”

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/09/from-china-with.html

Mattel Apologizes to China Over Recalls

Associated Press Report:

“U.S.-based toy giant Mattel Inc. issued an extraordinary apology to China on Friday over the recall of Chinese-made toys, taking the blame for design flaws and saying it had recalled more lead-tainted toys than justified.”

Read the full article:
http://money.excite.com/jsp/nw/nwdt_rt_top.jsp?news_id=ap-d8rpulig0&

Barbie to testify that China put lead in her pants

The Associated Press:
House, Senate Call CEOs of Mattel, Toys "R" Us to Testify About Unsafe Toys
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=3571313

Another week and another recall.
Should companies with U.S. names and once made products in the United States but now have their product made anywhere but in the U.S. (cheap labor, cheaper products) be classified as foreign companies doing business in the U.S.

Quality
Quality control has gone out the door, after all if it’s not made in my back yard why should I worry. Wonder if anyone even knows what a ‘C of C’ or ‘AQL’ means.

Color me Red China

The Associated Press has reported that: “Toys "R" Us has recalled 27,000 crayon and paint sets made in China because the packaging of the wooden box contains lead, as does some of the watercolor paint within, company and government officials said Thursday.”

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/Consumer/wireStory?id=3541291

China must be getting pretty red in the face from all problems, wonder what’s going to be next!

China+ SpongeBob + Address Books = Return to sender

Even SpongeBob is not safe!
http://www.sbpost.ie/breakingnews/index.aspx?c=business&jp=mhcweygbidid

China + Toys "R" Us + Bibs = More Problems

Toys 'R' Us Pulls Bibs As a Precaution
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070817/D8R321N80.html

China + Mattel + Toys + Lead = Problems

Mattel’s Quality Control department was obviously Out To Lunch on this one.
Mattel chief executive Bob Eckert kept dodging the lead when asked a series of questions by ABC’s Chris Cuomo.

ABC Interview details:
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Consumer/Story?id=3478878&page=1&GMA=true

Toys and Seafood

Didn’t need to wait very long for the next round of problems from China, both of which have been around for awhile.

AP: Seafood From China Wasn't Screened
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070808/D8QSJJS00.html

More children's jewelry recalled for lead; China questioned risks
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2007/07/more-childrens-.html

Milk up, OJ unchanged, Gas down, Michael Vic ???

Milk has gone way up in price and is now $4.50 a gallon, Orange Juice is $3.00 a gallon, and Gas is down to $2.67 a gallon. Michael Vick (Biteball QB) was bitten by a dog rap and is most likely out for the season.

Chinese Recalls China

Chinese Recalls China

Things are so bad these days that about every other week there is another high profile recall involving Chinese goods.

Pet food, Tires, Toothpaste, Toys and more toys and this time it’s Fisher Price in a one million toy recall,
source: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070801/D8QOHPNG1.html.

In 2006, the U.S. imported about $288 billion in goods from China and you know what that means, even more potential recalls. Do yourself a favor the next time you go shopping, pick up an item, any item and see where it’s made, chances are it won’t be from the United States.

Probably the best thing China can do at this time is to recall the country of China, before the next big product recall is announced in the coming weeks.

Windows Vista Launch

When a new ship is launched they usually break a bottle of Champagne, the crowd cheers and the ship enters the water with a big splash. Today at midnight Vista was launched, the local TV news had a camera crew at one of the stores that was open and waiting as if some crowd of people would magically appear. This was not the case, a few people walking around with a boring look on their face and the rest of the store was empty.

What happened between the great Windows 95 launch and all the associated hoopla and today is a tribute to Microsoft’s marketing staff. In a word they blew it and you need to go back a few years to see why.

Windows 95 and 98 used calendar years as part of the version and that changed for consumers with the release of Windows ME, you remember that OS don’t you, ME who, while at about the same time they were courting the corporate community with Windows 2000 as if these were the people who would run out to the local PC store or vendor and buy like there was no tomorrow. Take note that a lot of consumer goods are marketed with the year as a selling point …. “Here is the new 2007 version” as if last year’s model is horribly obsolete, but the ploy works like a charm and that why sales people like it.

This time around Microsoft released Vista to the corporate folks late last year and to us consumers today. Why to business users first I have no idea, the local hospital is still advertising jobs openings for technicians who know Windows 95 and 98, no mention of ME or XP.

Not surprisingly most corporate types take years to adopt a new version of Windows and for good reasons as all there applications must continue to run flawlessly and the change over must not cause major headaches. So around 2009 or 2010 Vista should be in use in the corporate community.

On the other hand there are millions upon millions of home users who could upgrade to Vista immediately if Microsoft had changed its marketing strategy in such a way as to put some hype and incentive to do so. Guess they will have to wait another five years and call it Windows 2012.