A beautiful mind

It is often said by the masters of meditation that we create our own reality.  My reality, since as far back as my memory goes has been one of hidden abuse and oppression disguised as love for a greater good.  Why would the mind create something like this?

Growing up as a kid, before the age of 7, I was exposed to a fair amount of physical abuse from my parents and also witnessed my older sister go through the same.  I was often bullied by my sister and was told not to mention it to my parents or I'd get in even bigger trouble.  In this way, I grew up thinking abuse was normal and that, if one complained one was simply being a sissy.  I watched my sister get beaten up fairly regularly by my father.  I was beaten by my father on 2 occasions; on both occasions I lost control of my bladder probably due to the shock, but also due to the fear that it might increase in intensity and become a regular happening.   (Given that we get what we focus on, was I setting myself up for abuse in boarding school by fearing this type of abuse?)  I remember vividly the circumstances that led to both.  The first one was dropping and breaking my mother's musical powder bowl.  The second instance was when I requested to ride in the car of family friend as we were all leaving from the club.  My dad misheard that as me wanting to go to their place and started yelling at me about how I don't appreciate what I have.  I didn't have the guts to speak up and say he heard me wrong.  By the time we got home, I got my first slap before we even made it into the house.  And then a second one by the time we made it up to the house.  In both of these instances, my mother made me apologize to my dad.  What I learnt: It's not just OK that I got abused, but when I do get abused, then it's my fault and I need to apologize to the abuser.

These learnings were the training ground for me learning to suppress my feelings for the following 8 years as I attended a boarding school.  Boarding school was a very abusive environment.  There was no hiding from abuse; it was present all 7 days of the week.  In fact, there were some years when being away from classes was a bad thing.  The only way you could escape the abuse while still being on premises was being sick and admitted in the school infirmary.

My 8th grade in school was the absolute worst year.  We'd get beaten on our butts with hockey sticks or cricket bats regularly by the dormitory prefects, almost daily, in the night before going to bed.  And on weekends, we'd be asked to kneel in the sun and hop back and forth about 50 m almost continuously, till our legs felt like trees.  Any slowing down was met with further beating up.  I was one of the tougher kids with respect to putting up with abuse and I did everything in my power to behave so that I would not be punished.  I basically learned very well to numb out the feelings in my body. But yet, there would be dormitory-wide punishing, and lots of it, so there was no escape.  There were thefts too.  The same prefects would steal food that students had brought from home (it was the norm to bring processed junk food like packaged and canned foods).  It was quite unbearable.  This would probably have continued throughout the year, but one of the students did not return from a mid-term vacation.  Instead his father wrote a letter to the principal about these abuses.  The prefects were disgraced publicly and life went back to being somewhat normal.  Through all of this I never complained to my parents.  How would I?  To me this was normal and there was some way I was falling short.  I was also supposed to be "brave" and not have them worry about me.  Surprisingly, though, once I started going to boarding school, there was no more abuse at home (but I was only home for very brief periods of time amounting to a little over 2 months a year during the school's summer and Christmas holidays).

Fast forward to adult life and I see how I give my power away to people that choose to abuse me.  I am only now starting to learn how to stand up for myself, but it creates a tremendous amount of discomfort every time I do so.  The discomfort stems from going against the incorrect lesson that I have learned where I ought to not only accept abuse, but feel guilt and apologize to the abuser.

The mind has indeed created a very interesting puzzle.  I don't think it really mattered where I was physically or who I was with, it was able to create the conditions for abuse.

When negative things happen in my life, and there's a lot of it happening now, I keep wondering why it is that my mind that is creating this type of reality and how I can change that.  Meditation is supposed to change that, but for the last 8 or so years, I have seen a lot of deterioration in my physical and emotional health despite maintaining a regular practice.  This makes me question the efficacy of meditation.  Or perhaps I'm not practicing it correctly, but where do I go to learn how to practice correctly?  (I have had many lessons in meditation from many different teachers.)

While I was aware of the pattern of abuse in my life despite changing the places and people around me as early as 2002 (triggered by anxiety attacks which I was having then), it has taken me over a decade since then to be able to see how I react to situations because of the past conditioning and be able to even attempt to break that reactivity.

Because of the abuse I have seen from various authority figures in my life, it is very unlikely I will have a guru in this life.  The moment I give someone that authority, it will immediately create fear in my mind and re-create the cycle of abuse.  And I have reached a stage in my life where I won't allow that to happen.

Diets for health

Here are some diets I've been made aware of to help improve one's health.

• Blood type diet: This is a diet based on blood type--O, A, B, AB--and is documented in the book Eat Right For Your Type.  This database provides details for each type of food on whether the food is beneficial/neutral/harmful for each of the blood types.  There is also a smartphone app to provide quick access to the information.
• Low FODMAP diet: This diet is mostly targeted at addressing the symptoms of IBS.

As of now, I'm still mostly following an Ayurvedic diet, but it's interesting to see how these other diets compare.  There are indeed a number of similarities, but there are also differences.

Of course, there are tons of diets out there and one should use those that appeal to them.  Everyone's constitution is different so what works for me might not be right for everyone.  When I was younger I used to evangelize everything I thought was cool and that helped me, but I feel I don't know enough to provide such recommendations.  Instead, I just try and listen to my body, and encourage others to do the same.

Update 05/01/2017

At a recent event by Dr. Carly Polland, we went over the following diets and who they are for:

• Mediterranean -- Good place to start to get away from processed food.
• Anti-inflammatory -- Auto-immune, pain.
• Low FODMAP -- SIBO (small intestine), IBS.
• Specific carbohydrate -- Crohn's disease.
• Gut and psychology syndrome (GAPS) -- Neurological disorders.
• Gluten-free -- Celiac.
• Nightshade-free -- Arthritis.
• Anti-estrogenic -- Hormone imbalances.
• Paleo -- High BP, high sugar, insulin resistance.
• Vegan/Vegetarian -- Cardiovascular, diabetes, fibromyalgia.
• Raw foods -- General health.
• Pegan -- Cardiovascular, diabetes, weight.
• Elimination -- Diagnostic. 

After we went over these, she stressed the need for personalized nutrition.

• Assess digestive function.
• Evaluate gut bacteria and rebalance if necessary (pre- and probiotics).
• Evaluate immune function and balance.
• Heal enterocytes (intestinal lining) if necessary.
• Test genetics for ancestry and polymorphisms.
• Evaluate nervous system, endocrine system, and oxidation.

Additional reading

• The dangers of our protein diet obsession

Relationship school

Most of us learn about relationships by unconsciously observing the behavior of those around us at the time of growing up.  Usually, this is a passing down of the baton of karma from the prior generation.  Our interactions with our family of origin and caretakers largely defines how we think about and how we handle relationships.  By the time we are into adulthood, this becomes so ingrained in our persona that we often are not even capable of seeing destructive behaviors in ourselves and thus are incapable of changing it.  For example, if we witness a lot of abuse, either physical or emotional, we think that is it normal and we don't even recognize it as something that can be, or needs to be, addressed.   And we keep repeating those same patterns over and over again in our lives, attracting similar abuse.  Deep down, we know something is not right, but at a conscious level, there is no awareness of it.

If there were a relationship school, it would probably need to address the issue of emotional intelligence and would cover topics such as:

• Identifying and processing emotions (which includes how to tune into, and listen to one's intuition).
• Paying attention to non-verbal cues in communication such as tone of voice, facial and bodily expressions.
• Building a healthy self-esteem, and maintaining healthy boundaries (which covers aspects of building relationships such as trust and intimacy, and also identifying manipulative behavior).
• How to effectively deal with bullies.
• Making eye contact and connecting with people at a soul and empathic level, not just merely exchanging words in a conversation.
• Actually processing feelings in relaxed way when interacting with other people instead of freezing up and trying to play a role that one might be expected to play.
• Learning the art of diplomacy which is communicating one's needs in an effective way looking for win-win situations.
• Being aware of differences in the personalities and views of others and learning to work with them, and even appreciate them, rather than labeling them as good or bad.
• Healthy ways to handle conflict.

Learning about emotional intelligence has been a long journey for me that begun around 12 years ago triggered by my failing physical health.  I mentioned a couple of books in this post that were my starting point.  Since then I have read numerous articles and blog posts on the 'net looking for information about the above topics.   I have learned a lot, but I still have much to learn.  Perhaps the biggest lesson of all for me has been that most aspects of relationships are not black-and-white but rather shades of gray.   Some of the things that I'm now aware of, that I previously wasn't are:

• I became aware of the concept of narcissistic parenting, how it is passed on inter-generationally, the emotional damage to the children, and the near impossibility of resolving the situation in an amicable fashion.
• I tend to place the feelings of others over my own.  This essentially leaves me trapped in guilt as I'm never sure if I was right standing up for myself (which something I rarely do to begin with).
• There was tremendous abuse all through my childhood, both at home and in boarding school, both physical and verbal.  Because of the abuse at home, I thought the abuse in boarding school, though a notch higher, was normal.  As a result, I tend to live out of fear, and have continued to attract abusive situations even in adulthood.  It complicates decision making because instead of trying to decide what makes me happy, I'm focused on finding ways to look good in the eyes of other people.
• I am unable to create and maintain healthy boundaries.  This leaves me very vulnerable to manipulation, and unable to create healthy relationships.
• It is very hard to recognize and change these negative behaviors.  As I recognize and point them out, people that are used to manipulating me become increasingly violent.  This awareness results in a very disruptive change to most of ones defining relationships.
• I tend to have a "victim" mentality.  This is because I find it hard to assert my power and prevent people from walking all over me.
• I have a somewhat warped concept of what "love" is.  Because of the way things were with my family, I associate love with pain.  
• I have a general lack of trust of people and I'm always trying to control my experience which comes from a place of fear.  I miss a number of opportunities as a result.

All of these findings are relatively new for me and addressing them is a work in progress.  Prior to that I felt sad all the time, but I couldn't point to the cause.  Now it's clear that a large contributor are my under-developed relationship skills and the consequent low emotional intelligence.

Why is it that the subject of relationships was not taught in school?  To me, that is definitely more interesting than a lot of other subjects that I spent so much time learning but that are completely useless to me in my day-to-day living.

Healthcare in the USA

This is a collection of links around the 'net about problems with healthcare in the US.

The problems are best articulated by some of the posts by Karl Denninger.  He points out several examples where services in the US cost between 5 and 10 times what they cost in other developed countries.  Given that the patient typically has a copay for that amount, it means that if the services were being billed appropriately, one would not need insurance.  Sadly, this same model is being exported to all countries where healthcare is not socialized.

In addition to a complete lack of transparency; i.e. not knowing how much a service will cost until after the fact, there are often billing errors resulting in overcharging due to mistakes by both providers and insurance companies.  This speaks to the complexities of the whole system.  Most doctors' offices need dedicated staff to handle billing.

Sadly, despite the costs, misdiagnosis and incorrect treatments are very common.  See this article and this one.

An interesting documentary about healthcare is Sicko by Michael Moore.  Things have only gotten worse since this documentary from 2007.  In fact, medical bills are the biggest cause of bankruptcies in the US.   Health, literally, is wealth--it is one's biggest asset, and lack of it could potentially be one's biggest liability.

Increasingly, because of the complexity of dealing with insurance companies, primary care doctors are converting to concierge services where they charge an upfront fee for all services during the year and provide a higher and easier level of access to healthcare.

Personal anecdote about cost of services

This is an excerpt of a bill I received for recent blood tests.  The total charge by the company providing services is $983.78.  This is what someone without insurance would have paid.  With insurance, the negotiated rate is discounted by $892.00.  That is a 90% discount off the list price!  Why are medical providers allowed to gouge people without insurance?  This is pretty typical of almost all services I receive whether it is doctors office visits or surgery.  It pretty much means that these prices are never actually paid because those without insurance most likely will not be able to afford to pay for these services anyway.  These are oppressive business practices and I am surprised and disillusioned to see that they are allowed to affect something as necessary as healthcare services in a country as progressive as the USA.

This also points to the shape of things to come in developing countries as insurance companies take a stronger foothold.

Billing errors

Over the last few years, I have personally witnessed a significant increase in billing errors both by doctors offices and insurance companies.  First off, the bills are extremely cryptic and it takes tremendous effort and focus to cross check between the explanation of benefits, the bills from the service provider, and reimbursements from the flexible savings account.  I have spent hours on the phone sorting out billing issues.  This is like rubbing salt on a wound -- the services are already too expensive for what is received, the insurance deductibles and co-pays are way high, and to top it off we now have to deal with billing issues going back and forth between the insurance company and the provider and undoing incorrect, automatic reimbursements from the flexible savings account.

The phone systems are typically quite bad and disconnections are very common.  Each time you dial in, you have to go through the sequence of prompts and re-verify yourself with the agent (name, SSN, address, etc.) and re-explain the whole problem from the start.

If we make any mistakes (like forgetting to pay), these corporations will come after us by sending the payments to collection and creating all kinds of legal hassles for us.  But we must simply put up with their poor service because we only have a very limited choice of providers through our employer.

If you are not already sick, you will be sick by the time you're done dealing with this!

Over marketed

Another problem with healthcare in the US is that it is over marketed.  Everything from the quality of care to the outcomes of treatment are over-exaggerated by commercials.  Many doctors choose less treatment over more when it comes time to make a choice for their own treatment because they understand the nature of over marketing.

Cost of snake bite treatment

Here's a classic case.

When dad got the bill he almost needed to go to the hospital because it was over $1 million. The exact amount $1.188 Million Dollars! 

Additional reading

• How big pharma keeps drug prices high
• True cost of healthcare
• The Senate bill does nothing to fix America's biggest health care problem
• Mirror, Mirror 2017: International Comparison Reflects Flaws and Opportunities for Better U.S. Health Care
• Pain killer that once cost $138 is now $2979
• Why a patient paid a $285 copay for a $40 drug

What I learned appliance shopping - Washers & Dryers

Washers

There are basically 3 types of washers.

• Top loader: These are traditional washers with an agitator.  These are slowly being phased out in favor of high efficiency models.  They tend to use more water and they are harsh on clothes; e.g. you won't find one of these with a gentle "hand wash" setting.  (Edit: This is not true per one of the commenters below.)  On the flip side, these tend to be workhorses and some brands like SpeedQueen are known to last very long.  These usually range about 3-4 cu ft in size.
• High efficiency top loader: These ones usually don't have an agitator.  They typically have a load sensor to determine the amount of water to be used.  The drum bobs up and down and this is how it tends to wash.  Because there's very limited movement and no agitator, many users report that they do not clean as well as traditional top loaders.  They are also very susceptible to loads making the drum go unbalanced.  When unbalanced it gets noisy.  Some machines try to "auto balance" the load which involves adding water and trying to move things around.  In this case, part of the efficiency is given up as more water is utilized in trying to rebalance, sometimes without success and requiring manual intervention.  These can go as high as 5+ cu ft in size, but users report it's hard to balance the load when the machine is filled and so it can't really be filled to capacity.
• Front loaders:  As the name suggests, these washers have the opening on the front.  Once closed, the unit is sealed shut.  One typically cannot add clothes mid cycle.  They offer the best cleaning performance as the drum rotates using gravity to move clothes around.  While it is possible to get an unbalanced drum with this, they are relatively rare compared to HE top loaders.  Many of these come with a gentle "hand wash" setting.  The main downside with front loaders is that water can become trapped in the seals and can eventually cause mold.  Suggestions to prevent mold include leaving the door open after a wash so that it has time to dry out and using a cleaning cycle with bleach.  Additionally, some newer machines have a drum that is tilted forward (and thus water is less susceptible to stagnating) and some have a fan to blow air to speed the drying process.  Still, despite all of this some users report problems with mold.  (Mold is never an issue with top loaders.)  Additionally, since the opening for loading the machine is in the front, these machines are amenable to stacking.  Even when not stacked, their tops can be used as counter space.  These can range in size from compact (~ 2 cu ft) to full sized 5+ cu ft.  The general rule with front loaders is that you can load them up as much as possible as long as one is able to shut the door.

One of the key specifications to look for is size of the drum.  I have seen sizes from < 2 cu ft to > 5 cu ft for most home machines.  Even for size, there are 2 ratings -- there's the IEC rating and the DoE rating.  The DoE rating is typically smaller and corresponds to the actual usable size.

Sizing works different for top load machines vs front load machines.  Front load machines typically hold more laundry than a top load machine of the same size.  For example, on a recent visit to a laundromat, I found that while the top load machines were rated for a single load, their smallest front load machine was rated at 3 loads.

Sometimes washers are rated in lb.  For example, a 20 lb washer is capable of holding a load equivalent to that of two standard top loading machines with an agitator.  The 2.83 cu ft (DoE) Asko washer is advertised as handling up to 24 lb, while the smaller 2.12 cu ft (DoE) Asko washer is advertised as handling up to 18 lb.

The size of the drum does not tell the entire story.  Depending on how the machine is designed, it may or may not perform well when heavily loaded.

Features to look for when buying a washer:

• The size of the drum.
• The location of door hinge and if it's reversible.
• Water and energy consumption.
• Internal water heater.
• When equipped with an internal water heater, washing machines can wash with significantly higher temperatures than what is possible from the home's heater, which is usually set to a lower temperature to reduce the risk of scalding.
• Wash programs and especially programs such as hand wash.
• Warranty.
• For front loaders, the design of the door seal and whether it is prone to mold.
• Whether the washer can be interrupted to add clothes after a cycle has been started.
• Material used for construction of the drums (inner and outer) and the guides/impeller in the drum.
• Delayed start.
• Useful when you want a program to start running just before you get home.
• How the unit is powered.
• 110v, 240v, must plug into matching dryer, etc.

Dryers

Dryers are a lot simpler than washers.  There are 3 basic types of dryers.

• Vented dryer: This is the most common type and is what one would expect to find in the average US home.  As the name suggests, the dryer has to be hooked up to a vent.  Hot air is sent to the vent.
• Condensation dryer: These units are made specifically for homes and apartments that do not have a vent.  With machines of this type, hot air is released into the room after the moisture has been removed from it.  Condensation dryers typically take a lot longer to dry the clothes, and some folks find the release of hot air into the room annoying.
• Heat pump dryer: This is the latest technology for condensation dryers.  With dryers of this type, instead of the hot air being released into the room, the hot air recirculated back helping lower the energy consumption.

Many dryers offer the option of running on gas or electricity.  The ones that run on gas typically cost about $100 more.  But because they run on gas, and gas is typically cheaper, they can help lower the utility bills.  However, some utility companies have cheaper electricity and some homes are equipped with solar panels, so the economics starts to dull.

Perhaps the most interesting feature in a dryer is a moisture sensor.  This allows the dryer to sense the remaining moisture in the clothes and either extend or shorten the drying time.  Without a sensor, one would have to manually check if the clothes are dry, or risk "cooking" the clothes.

The matching dryer for any given washer is typically a little larger because dried clothes take up more space than wet ones.

Features to look for when buying a dryer:

• Size of the drum.
• Whether it has a moisture sensor.
• The type of dryer.
• How the dryer is powered -- gas or electric, if electric whether it is 110v or 240v.

Brands

As with refrigerators, there are the usual brands.  Most of the European brands only make compacts.

• Asko: A Swedish brand now owned by a Slovene company called Gorenje and manufactured in Slovenia.  A cool innovation with their washers is they have figured how to build a front loader with no rubber seal in the door opening (instead there is just a small rubber seal on the door itself), making it less susceptible mold.  These are less pricey than the Miele, but more expensive than the other brands.
• Blomberg: A German brand that is owned by Arcelik, a Turkish company, and the units are now manufactured in Turkey.  Also only make compacts.  Their prices are much lower than Miele and even Asko.
• Bosch: A German brand, but they only make compacts.
• Electrolux.
• GE.
• LG.
• Miele: A German brand, and they only make compacts.  You buy these from a dealer, but they are delivered and installed by Miele.  The build quality is great, but they are expensive (about twice the price for half the washer).  This was Steve Jobs' preferred brand for a washer (see the discussion at the very bottom of the page).  Most people that have these like them, but at 2 cu ft, they fall in the compact category.
• Samsung.
• Speed Queen: These are made in US, and seem to have good reliability based on reviews.
• Whirlpool family: These include Whirlpool, Amana, Maytag.  These are "assembled" in the US, meaning that final assembly is done in the US, but many parts are imported.

Self help courses

In addition to things like meditation and life coaches (there seem to be an enormous number of these nowadays), I have come across several organizations that claim to be able to help one get over all sorts of problems in their life and lead more fulfilling lives.  I haven't tried any of them yet, but I'll use this post to list some of them and discuss my opinion on them.

I have only tried meditation and after a little over a decade of regular practice, I still struggle with the same issues that brought me to it--anxiety attacks and various, most likely stress-related, health issues.  Has it helped at all?  At the time I started, I was quite hopeless.  It gave me a lot of hope for a while, but the last few years have been particularly challenging and have made me question its efficacy.  I also know a number of meditators who face similar challenges and who give up meditating altogether.  But given that I was in that situation even before I started meditating, I know for sure that meditation by itself hasn't caused it or made it worse.

Back to the topic of this post, here's the list of several courses I have become aware of over the years.  My main concern with these, based on limited research on the 'net and from talking to a few folks that have participated in them, is that they tend to be cultish and often involve a lot of money and/or ongoing commitment to the program.  For these reasons, I have chosen not to participate in them.

• The Landmark Forum (description)
• Hoffman process (description)
• Mankind Project & Woman Within
• Scientology and dianetics

Then there's also techniques such as the Law of Attraction popularized by the book and movie The Secret, and Abraham Hicks, and also teachers like Teal Swan.  A lot of information about these is available for free.

What I learned while appliance shopping -- Refrigerators

I recently had to go shopping for a refrigerator and have learned quite a lot over the last couple of weeks.  I thought I'd put some of these learnings in a post.  In general I was disappointed with what I found because most fridges are loaded with features that I will never use but have questionable durability.  About 5 years seems to be the average life nowadays before one is faced with a cost-prohibitive repair.

Style

• Free standing or built in:  The average house can only accommodate a free standing unit.  Most of the premium brands (e.g. Miele, Sub Zero) only offer built-in units.
• Door style: Can be 2 door top freezer (the old style), 2 door bottom freezer, side-by-side (fridge on one side, freezer on the other), french door with one or more freezer drawers, and 4-door french door (both fridge and freezer have french doors).
• Finish: Can be white, black, stainless, or other color.  Some of them offer finger-print resistant finishes.  Only high end refrigerators have the sides finished in stainless steel.  Most run-of-the-mill fridges have plastic sides even though the front may be stainless steel.  High end refrigerator will often offer the option of wood paneling on the doors.
• Depth: Can be counter depth or standard.  Counter depth models won't jut out but are pricier even though they are smaller.  Go figure.

Features

• Air filter: Keeps the air fresh getting rid of any odors (including that of the plastic that the fridge is made of).  No need for baking soda or "airing out" the fridge.
• Water filter: Needed especially with those that are equipped with a water dispenser, however some models use a water filter when creating ice.
• Lighting: Most used energy efficient LED lighting.  Lighting may or may not be offered in the freezer.
• Easy open handles on freezer drawers: Like the name suggests, these make it easier to open the freezer drawer.  I have only seen these on Samsung and LG units.
• Automatic pulling out of top freezer drawer: This partially pulls out the second-to-bottom freezer tray.
• Folding shelves: This allows the creation of space to store tall objects.

Quality of construction

• Hinges: Really only different on very high-end built-ins.
• Drawer operation: Smoothness of opening and closing drawers.
• Bins: Quality of the plastic used for the bins
• Shelves: Glass or plastic and ease of adjusting.
• Odor: The odor of the plastics used in the interior.
• Noise: The ambient noise of the unit.

Reliability

• Consumer Reports magazine.
• JD Power & Associates.
• User reviews on the manufacturer website and/or dealer sites.

Brands

Most of the mainstream stores sell several brands.  Most of the brands are made by a small handful of manufacturers.  Think of the cereal box model--there is an illusion of many choices, in reality there are only a few.

Here are the various manufacturers, the brands they make, and my thoughts on them as I shopped for a french door with single drawer bottom freezer.

• Whirlpool.
• Makes Amana, Whirlpool, Maytag, KitchenAid, Kenmore, Bosch.
• Overall decent quality.  Assembled in America.  This means final assembly was done in the US using imported parts.  
• The quality is good but most models lack an air filter.
• Electrolux.
• Makes Electrolux, Frigidaire.
• A European brand that makes most of its units in Mexico.  
• Makes some of the best looking fridges.
• Lots of options with air and water filters.
• The quality of the interior was lacking--cheap plastic and the drawer mechanisms.
• For some reason, most sales folks tried to steer me away from this brand.  It also seemed to have higher than average negative reviews.
• Luxury end is Electrolux Icon.
• LG.
• Makes LG, Kenmore Elite.
• The units are made in either Korea or China.
• Overall a great product, but very limited options with an air filter.
• Samsung.
• The units are mostly made in Korea.
• Similar to LG in terms of quality and features, but I felt the LG was slightly better designed.
• GE.
• Recently acquired by Haier.
• Felt like quality inside and out, but could not find a model that had an air filter.
• Luxury end is GE Monogram.

At the high end, there are brands like Miele (German), Liebherr (German), Sub-Zero (US), Thermador (German), Viking (US).  I didn't spend much time researching these because they were not suitable for installation in my house.

Getting questions answered

Misinformation abounds with most floor sales folks.  They either don't have the information or haven't bothered to look it up, but emphatically provide their best guess.  For models they do not have on the floor, you typically get incorrect answers for country of manufacture and various other features.  Sometimes the information can be gleaned from the manufacturer website.  But if not, it's unlikely that contacting the manufacturer will yield anything useful.  Emails to their customer service often go unanswered.  Calls to them usually receive a response of the type "the only information we have is what is on our website" or "please contact an authorized sales center for that information."  And authorized sales center doesn't have that information.  So trying to get information can be an exercise in frustration.  The best way I found of getting accurate information is through discussions in various online forums.

This, by the way, is not something limited to refrigerators.  The same is true of most appliances and even other products.  Why is this so?  My conjecture is that the people fielding these questions have no interest in the product.  They are in jobs that are likely short term roles and they are trained to look up whatever information may already be on the company website and no more.  Unfortunately many of the company websites have flaws--links to download documents are stale, information about authorized sellers is outdated, etc.

This is perhaps the most frustrating part of appliance purchases.