Posts Tagged ‘sleepless and tired’
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010
Bedbug
The headlines across the U.S. today are screaming the resurgence of bedbugs:
In January of this year I posted an article entitled “Mattress Outlet Poker: ‘Buy In’ is Cheap, but Stakes are High!” In it I discussed the risks involved with buying used mattresses which are often labeled by unscrupulous dealers as “manufacturer’s seconds.” The hitchhikers and stowaways hiding in used mattresses and in used furniture have launched a monumental troop surge attacking primarily the Midwestern and the Eastern fronts of the U.S.. Their victims are being left sleepless, tired, and scratching. Their victims are being displaced to living rooms, family rooms, and porches as their bedrooms are being besieged by the pesticide resistant strains of the attackers. Not only are the victims of these tiny pests being forced from their bedrooms, they are left sleep deprived and scratching 24 hours a day as they attempt to find a strategy to counterattack the bedroom terrorists. Victims are being subjected to the life endangering side effects of sleep deprivation.
Bedbug Bites
Bedbugs are a ruthless and resilient species. Their life cycle inspires fear in anyone who has ever experienced their bite. A good video on how to identify bedbug bites can be found HERE. A UC Davis article describes the bed bug lifecycle as follows:
“Female bed bugs lay 200 to 500 tiny, white eggs in batches of 10 to 50 on rough surfaces such as wood or paper. Glue-like material covers the eggs, which hatch in about 10 days. After hatching occurs, the eggshells frequently remain stuck in place. There are five progressively larger nymphal stages, each requiring a single blood meal before molting to the next stage. The entire life cycle from egg to adult requires anywhere from 5 weeks to 4 months, depending on temperature and availability of food (blood). When temperatures are in the range of 70° to 82°F, development occurs most rapidly.
Nymphs and adults generally feed at night and hide in crevices during the day. Common hiding places include seams in mattresses and box springs, cracks in bed frames, under loose wallpaper, behind picture frames, and inside furniture and upholstery. Occasionally people pick up bed bugs in theaters or on buses and trains. They also can bring them into their home on clothing, bedding, luggage, or firewood.
Bed bugs can go without feeding for 80 to 140 days. Older stages of nymphs can survive longer without feeding than younger ones, and adults have survived without food for as long as 550 days. A bed bug can take six times its weight in blood, and feeding can take 3 to 10 minutes. Adults live about 10 months, and there can be up to 3 to 4 generations of bed bugs per year.”
Further reading reveals that the most effective technique for eliminating bed bugs is to hire a professional heating service that can heat the room to very high temperatures. Heating the room for two hours at 140°F, or three hours at 130°F “will kill most bed bugs and eggs.” Other techniques involve insecticides, boric acid, diatomaceous earth, fumed silica, etc. Most of them need to be combined with frequent monitoring, as they are not totally effective. Meticulous laundering of bedding, high temperature drying, and thorough vacuuming are all necessary.
In early February I posted “Update on Bed Bugs” in which I described a dry ice trap designed by a Rutgers University duo: Changlu Wang and Vincenzo Avarello. Their inexpensive alternative to professional pest control services is described here:
The dry ice trap is constructed with a 64 ounce double bowl cat feeder, a 1/3 gallon insulated container, and bottle of talc powder. The jug is used to hold the dry ice. As the dry ice warms to room temperature it, it releases carbon dioxide gas which attracts the bed bugs. The 1/3 gallon container is capable of releasing the gas for 10 to 12 hours. The cat feeder dish needs to be wrapped very tightly with a white cloth to allow a surface for the bed bugs to easily crawl up. The inside bottom surfaces of the inverted cat feeder are then coated with a thin layer of talc. The powder will prevent the bed bugs from escaping the trap. The filled dry ice container is then placed on top of the dressed and treated inverted cat feeder with the lid of the container left slightly open. Some warm water should be barely cover the bottom of the trap to kill the bed bugs that become trapped.
The trap should now be placed in or around the suspected bed or sofa. Late afternoon is best for set-up as bed bug activity begins at night. Use one trap per room, and check the traps in the morning. One trap can catch as many as a thousand bugs per night, “depending on infestation levels.”
I have yet to receive any comments as to the effectiveness of this inexpensive alternative to the high costs of professional services. If anyone has tried this trap and found it to be effective, your comments would be welcomed by all who are plagued by these unwelcome attackers. A complete construction plan can be found in an article by Barb Ogg at the University of Nebraska, Lancaster.
The bedbug attacks have prompted at least five states to call in the Department of Defense to request money to combat the bloodsucking terrorists. Ohio petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to allow the use of the pesticide Propoxur to defeat the enemy, but the EPA denied the request based upon concern for its effect on children. The EPA set up a meeting with representatives of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense to discuss the attack which is “not yet a national security issue.”
Bedbugs, nearly eradicated from the U.S. in the 40s and 50s through the use of DDT, have developed a resistance to the weaker pesticides that replaced it. Pest control companies are limited by EPA regulations and their approved substitutes. While the EPA searches for newer, more potent chemicals to kill the bloodsucking terrorists, the victims continue to scratch their arms, their faces, their backs, their breasts, their buttocks, and their legs.
Hopes for a quick solution to this war on the bedroom terrorists appear dim in light of the other wars our government is currently battling. The costs to fight this battle will, no doubt, be borne by the victims of this war. As they “scratch” around for the money to pay the exterminators, the doctors, and the retailers to salve the itching, we hope they don’t fall victim to the often fatal ravages of sleep deprivation.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Click HERE for an Emmy Award winning documentary on bedbugs.
For an interesting National Geographic video on bedbugs click HERE.
Comments are welcomed below.
Tags: attack, bedbugs, bedroom terrorists, bites, bloodsucking terrorists, Department of Defense, dry ice trap, EPA, hitchhikers, mattress, mattress outlet, Proxopur, side effects, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, stowaways, troop surge, victims
Posted in Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Thursday, July 29th, 2010
Smoking Hole in Pakistan. Courtesy of AP.
Yet another deadly “smoking hole in the ground” adds to the continuing trail of death left by sleepless and tired pilots being stretched beyond their limits by schedules designed to maximize profits for their employers.
The worst air crash in Pakistan’s history of Airblue’s flight ED-202 from Karachi to Islamabad killing all 152 aboard may be attributed to pilot fatigue according to the President of Pakistan Air Lines Pilots Association (PALPA). Captain Sohail Baloch told a private news channel “The pilot may be suffering from accumulated fatigue because they are not given adequate leaves.” He added that the pilot was not in a no-fly zone and speculated that the plane was off course due to bad weather. The pilot had to ”resort to visual queues for landing” because communication with the control tower had been lost due to the weather.
The Hindu.com reports that the pilot , Pervez Iqbal Chaudhry, “had 35 years of experience and had logged over 25,000 flying hours.” Airblue official Raheel Ahmed was quoted in the same article explaining that the Airbus A321 was ten years old, had been used by them for the past four years, and was fully serviceable with no technical faults. Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the aircraft at 2600 feet was cleared to land when it rose up to 3000 feet for no apparent reason and then disappeared from the radar. “The (control) tower did not receive any SOS message or report of a technical problem before the crash,” Malik said.
Only nine weeks ago the world was mourning the loss of 158 people in an Air India crash in the Mangalore hills. That “smoking hole” left eight survivors. The experienced British pilot of that flight misjudged his landing so badly (2000 feet) that “senior pilots, including the Indian Commercial Pilots Association (IPCA) are already blaming pilot fatigue for being responsible for the major accident,” as reported in a China Post article. Two years before that “an Air India Express flight from Mumbai to Dubai overshot its destination by 350 miles after its pilots apparently fell asleep due to fatigue.” The ICPA in response to the Mangalore crash sent a letter to the Prime Minister complaining that “up to 78 percent of crashes were caused by fatigue-related human error.” Flight and Duty Time Limitations (FDTL) in India have not been changed since 1992 when they had no scientific basis for the regulations. Attempts were made in 2005 to change the FDTL but the rule changes were withdrawn under pressure from the “private operators.”
The flight and duty time restrictions worldwide reflect the lack of response from the FAA to the plethora of data now available regarding the effects of sleep deprivation upon mental and physical performance. Our rule changes were dropped in 1995 in response the airline industry’s complaints. Even the unions, strongly supported by then President Bill Clinton, wanted to drop the duty time hours from 16 to 14 hours. Andy Pasztor, in a Wall Street Journal article titled “Dispute Over Cost Delays Pilot Rules,” blames the delay in the rule changes on a dispute between the FAA and the White House Office of Management and Budget. Budget officials have told the FAA informally that “the proposal’s projected cost to airlines wasn’t justified by the anticipated safety benefits.” Since the FAA is controlled by former air line executives and Washington is still held in the firm grip of powerful airline lobbyists like Linda Daschle we cannot expect the “change” promised by our President in the flowered oratory of his campaign.
The European Cockpit Association, a group of pilots unions with over 38,000 members, accuses the European Union (EU) of “ “endangering air safety by failing to act on the recommendations of experts who say cuts in flying hours are needed to curb pilot fatigue.” The Air Canada Pilots Association, with over 7,000 members, has been asking for changes to Transport Canada’s regulations for years. Dave Ross, of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, representing pilot unions at six regional airlines, says, “It’s money. If you can’t fly as long as you do today, then that increases your cost.”
The world continues to scream the alarms to the FAA. The FAA’s mission statement is “to provide the safest, most efficient aerospace system in the world.” The FAA’s vision statement is “ to reach the next level of safety, efficiency, environmental responsibility and global leadership. We are accountable to the American public and our stakeholders.” The world waits, awake to the ever increasing danger of sleepless and tired pilots threatening our lives. The FAA, Congress, and the Administration continue to hit the snooze button while confined to the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists.
The “smoking holes” of death and the smells of burning flesh are permeating the atmosphere of Obama’s flowery campaign rhetoric about cleaning up the halls of Washington. In 2007 newsmax.com reported on Mr. Obama’s lamenting the fact that “the disproportionate influence of lobbyists and special interest is a problem in Washington (and) in state capitals.” He admitted then that he was “swimming in the same muddy water” and that he knows the waters are muddy. He said “I want to clean it up.” The world is waiting for Mr. Obama, Mr. Babbitt (FAA Administrator), and Mr. LaHood (Transportation Secretary) to exit the bedroom of the airline industry’s sleep inducing lobbyists and go to work on new pilot fatigue regulations. The safety of millions flying the skies continue to see the smoke and to smell the burning flesh. The time has come for you to douse the flames.
Here’s a link to a very sad slide show of crash site photos, courtesy of AP and thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/article538554.ece
Another link to a related article from thehindu.com: http://www.thehindu.com/news/article540335.ece
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: air crash, Air India, Airblue, Babbitt, FAA, fatigue, LaHood, lobbyists, Obama, paralysis, pilot fatigue, regulations, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, smoking hole
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Dazed and Confused, Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010
Insomnia
Circadin® “not only improves the onset of sleep, but also improves the quality of sleep” says Nava Zisapel, company founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Neurim Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Zisapel, a Professor of Neurobiology at Tel Aviv University, reports that people who take the drug “have better daytime functioning and an improved quality of life.” The drug stimulates the body’s natural melatonin production. Her prolonged release formula of a mere 2mg dosage mimics the pineal gland’s production of the sleep inducing hormone. Melatonin production normally begins at dark, peaks at around 2am, and then gradually disappears at daylight. Dr. Zisapel began her work in 1992 and she received approval to market it in 2007. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) at that time approved it for the short term (3 week) treatment of primary insomnia in patients over 55 years of age. The drug, unlike traditional sedatives, does not impair cognitive functions the following day, nor does it impair psychomotor skills. There are no abuse or dependency risks. Insomniacs, numbering nearly a third of the world’s population, will be cheered by the European Commission’s July, 2010 approval to expand the treatment duration from 3 weeks to 13 weeks. Circadin® is the first insomnia treatment approved for the extended length of time. It is currently marketed in Australia, Thailand, and Israel. US, Asian, and Latin American markets are in the registration process.
Insomnia, defined as the “difficulty to initiate or to maintain sleep,” affects almost all adults at one time or another. Transient (symptoms less than a week) insomnia and short term insomnia (one to three weeks) can occur as a result of jet lag, indigestion, shift work schedule changes, noisy sleep environments, stress, and recent medical situations. Long term (more than 3 weeks) or chronic insomnia is usually caused by psychological or medical conditions such as depression, pain, heart disease, acid reflux, asthma, sleep apnea, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, brain tumors and strokes. Delayed or untreated insomnia costs America $42 billion dollars a year in healthcare costs. The seriously sleep deprived insomniacs have been limited to prescription sleep aids with their risks of dependency and abuse, or to over the counter antihistamines with their residual drowsiness hazards. The FDA has consistently discouraged natural supplements since they have no jurisdiction over them. They have issued warnings against the use of the natural alternatives of valerian, melatonin, and kava.
Circadin® is now in use in over 33 countries. It is naturally preferable to prescription sleep aids and their over the counter competitors. It’s time for the FDA to approve it for the sleepless and tired insomniacs of the USA. Everyone deserves a good night’s rest!
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: Circadin, FDA, good night's rest, insomnia, Israel, melatonin, Mother Nature, Nava Zisapel, Nerium Pharmaceuticals, prescription, sleep, sleep apnea, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, stress
Posted in Our Amazing Brain, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
The bedtime cell phone calls
A recent survey found that 82% of Americans don’t leave home without their cell phones and 50% of Americans sleep with their phones nearby. 56% of Americans regularly use the alarm clock feature. Globally 67% use the alarm clock feature requiring them to have their cell phones in close proximity to their beds. Texting has become the focus of communication for teens today. 87% of the texting teens admitted to sleeping with, or next to, their phones. With a third of US teen cell phone owners texting more than a 100 texts a day, many of these are occurring at night while in bed. Cell phone use has been found to reduce sleep. Its use at bedtime, according to research detailed by Geoffrey Lean in The Independent, increases the time it takes to reach the deeper stages of sleep and decreases the time spent in those valuable stages of sleep. Deep sleep deprivation “can lead to mood and personality changes, ADHD-like symptoms, depression, lack of concentration and poor academic performance.”
The study, funded by the Mobile Manufacturer’s Forum, embarrassed themselves with the scientists’ findings that “components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are adversely affected by exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals.” The researchers believed that the radiation was activating the brain’s stress system making the subjects “more alert and more focused, and decreasing their ability to wind down and fall asleep.” Almost half of the people in the study also reported to be “electrosensitive” experiencing headaches and impaired cognitive functions.
A much larger study followed 1656 Belgian teenagers for a year. The research found that most of them used their phones after going to bed. Those that did so once a week were three times more likely to report feeling “very tired” than those who did not use them in bed. Those who used them in bed more than once were five times more likely to report feeling “very tired.” Dr. William Kohler of the Florida Sleep Institute said “Anything that disrupts the integrity of your sleep will potentially have adverse consequences in functioning during the day, such as grouchiness, difficulty concentrating, and in children hyperactivity and behavior problems.”
James Horne and his colleagues at the Loughborough University Sleep Research Center in England found that cell phone signals disrupted brain wave patterns “long after” the cell phones were turned off. The subjects in his study, as described by Douglas Field in Scientific American, also had difficulties falling asleep. They found that delta wave patterns characteristic of stage two sleep (50% of total sleep) were negatively affected for nearly an hour after the phone was shut off. His findings and those of others are stimulating additional research into electromagnetic radiation and its affect on mental behaviors. Sensitivity to such low level radiation raises concerns of mind control.
The cell phone, while exhibiting negative influences on deep sleep, is soon to become a critical tool to the sleep deprived. Dr. Phillip Low has found the way to link a single channel EEG to a SPEARS algorithm which is capable of mapping an entire night’s worth of brain activity. His company, NeuroVigil, uses an adhesive, wireless sensor or a head strap to monitor the brainwave activity. “NeuroVigil’s sleep monitoring solution streams and records the patient’s EEG data through their cell phone or smartphone.” Dr. Low, a 30-year-old neuroscientist is about to market his iBrain device (the size of two pennies) which, according to Daniel Heimpel of the Huffington Post, will “revolutionize the study of sleep, speed the diagnosis of disease, and tap into the multibillion dollar sleep and neurodiagnostics markets.” Until now, sleep tests have averaged more than $3,000. The cost has been prohibitive for the more than seventy million Americans suffering from sleep disorders. The sleep tests have previously required hook-ups to multiple electrode systems and overnight stays in uncomfortable strange laboratory environments not at all conducive to regular sleep patterns.
The data from the iBrain may unlock keys to cures and/or medications for sleep apnea, insomnia, and other sleep disorders. It will assist in the pre-market testing of pharmaceuticals of the future. The pharmaceutical companies, the Defense Departments, and the transportation industries are all knocking on Dr. Low’s door. They would all like a piece of Dr. Low’s brain as well as his company but he has decided to run his company on his own terms.
Dr. Low’s brain, the iBrain, and your cell phone may provide the keys to the gateway of your brain…and the solution to your sleep problems. A dream comes true?
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: brain, cell phones, deep sleep, depression, electromagnetic radiation, iBrain, medications, mind control, sleep, sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleep disorders, sleep problems, sleepless and tired
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Our Amazing Brain, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired | No Comments »
Saturday, April 10th, 2010
- Polish air crash scene photo from the BBC
Today’s air disaster killing the Polish President, Lech Kaczynski, and all 96 people on board adds another crash to the list of recent air disasters attributed to pilot error or fatigue. More details can be found in the media reports, but it calls attention to the recent articles I have published, one in an earlier post and this one, reprinted from Articlesbase.com:
Monday marked the first day of the newly revised FAA policy allowing pilots who use antidepressant medications to legally fly the skies. Our sleepless and tired pilots are constantly stressed by their long hours and the constant interruptions of their sleep cycles due to time zone changes. Some of those pilots will now add the effects of antidepressant medications to the list of factors that can affect their abilities to react to unexpected challenges in flight. Will the new policy spell an increase in the number of human error caused disasters?
Greg Griffin in an article in the Denver Post asserts, “Human error factors were cited as the primary problem in 74 commercial aviation safety incidents reported at Denver International Airport since 2005, according to a NASA database of voluntary, anonymous reports from pilots and others.” A joint report from the FAA and the aviation industry concluded that, “loss of control accidents – in which the crew was unable to recover from an unexpected event such as engine failure or a stall – accounted for 42 percent of commercial aviation fatalities worldwide from 1999 through 2008, more than any other cause.” Human factors such as sleep deprivation, mental distractions, scheduling, and training are all contributing factors. The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority reported last year that “flight crews were the primary cause of two-thirds of fatal commercial and business plane crashes worldwide from 1997 through 2006.” Our own FAA found in a 2006 study that “from 1990 to 2002, 45 percent of major airline accidents in the United States and 75 percent of commuter-carrier crashes were associated with human error.”
Addendum to published article –
A report in February 2000 by the Department of Transportation/FAA studied the multiple facets of the literature’s assertions that “between 70-80% of airline accidents can be attributed, at least in part, to human error.”
The February 2009 crash of Colgan Air’s Flight 3407 in Buffalo NY, killing 50 people, was attributed to fatigue, training, and pay. The NTSB attributed most of the blame to the lack of proper simulator training. The lack of proper simulator training also was a factor in the 2001 crash of an American Airlines A300-600 that killed 265 people.
An October 2009 Delta Airlines plane with 182 passengers landed safely on a taxiway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. The FAA is still investigating this case where fatigue from a ten hour flight and the distraction of a medical emergency on board could have caused the serious error.
The Northwest Airlines A320 overshot runway incident in October 2009 at the Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport has been attributed to distraction, but sleeping on board was also suggested. The pilot and copilot claimed they were busy on their laptops, but air traffic controllers were not able to contact the plane for an hour and eighteen minutes. The plane had been at risk of being shot down by fighter planes dispatched in a concern over a possible high jacking.
With all of these stats supporting the conclusion that most airline disasters are caused by human error, it seems incomprehensible that the FAA would add the side effects of antidepressants to the already growing problems of fatigue, stress, and sleep deprivation. The dangerous side effects of antidepressant prescriptions are well documented. The dangers disclosed on the labels of Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, and Lexapro are enough to stoke fears in the most confident air travelers. Randy Babbitt, FAA Administrator, responsible for the change reversing policy in effect for more than 70 years, chooses “culture change” and a new, more tolerant view of those affected by depression over and above the public safety he is charged to protect. How many lost lives in future disasters will be required before we return to time tested policy?
Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/politics-articles/tired-sleepless-and-antidepressant-medicated-pilots-spell-human-error-disasters-2114011.html
“How many lost lives in future disasters will be required before we return to time tested policy?”
Here’s a shocking YouTube video compilation on the side effects of antidepressants: CLICK HERE . And the FAA says these drugs are safe for our pilots to use on the job???
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: accidents, airline disasters, antidepressants, challenge, depression, FAA, fatigue, human error, medications, pilots, prescription, safety, simulator training, sleep, sleep deprivation, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, stress
Posted in Frozen in Fear, Sleep Deprived, Sleepless and Tired, Uncategorized, Worried and Stressed | No Comments »
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
Child on a leash learning "proper" behavior in public
A reading of last night’s news prompted a powerful stream of emotions last night. Embarrassment and shame, irritation and anger, confusion and fear were the aggressors. We are the victims, sharing our sleepless and tired nights with the thoughts of our lost freedom. There are some who hope that our fears will result in paralysis and submission. My hope is that we confront these fears with the confident knowledge that our past experience, our determination, and our strength will deflect these attacks on our freedom. These attacks are very subtle. They are like the frog placed in a kettle of water heating on the stove. The victim will die before he realizes that the water is getting warmer and warmer until it boils. The attacks are designed to harness and tether our souls, to wrap our adrenalin pumped bodies into straitjackets, and to send us running to our private bomb shelters, afraid to confront our aggressors.
The stimulus that ignited the kindling to this fire was an article written by John Rosemond, a family psychologist. He is a well known author of many parenting books and is thought to be “traditional” in his child rearing methods. His recent article, printed in the Everett Herald today,“Leashes can help kids learn to behave,” has been syndicated through the McClatchy Newspapers, and published in newspapers across America. The article makes the following incredible statements which are direct quotes:
- The leash allows the child a limited amount of freedom (the length of the tether can be adjusted).
- The idea is for the parent to patiently teach the young child how to properly behave in public places.
- …the leash can be lengthened, giving the child more and more freedom.
- I’ve seen a good number of child leashes in use in Europe and the occasional use in the USA.
- And never have I seen a child on a leash who was misbehaving.
- …it is often unnecessary by the fourth birthday.
- The child on a leash is safe, can’t get lost, has lots more freedom than a child in a stroller, is getting more exercise than a child in a stroller, and is learning how to behave himself in public places.
Having fathered and helped to raise three sons, I was shocked that a psychologist would recommend animal training techniques for human applications. The visions of sidewalks, stores, malls, and restaurants populated by adults being led by children on leashes embarrassed me at first. But the more I thought about the nightmarish image, the angrier I became. How a loving parent can harness, leash, and train a child like an animal is beyond my threshold of patience and tolerance. The forced submission of a leash is far more demeaning than a scolding or even a spanking. Speaking, as Rosemond does, of a leash and freedom in the same sentence is a dichotomy I cannot accept. The idea of a parent “patiently” teaching with a leash is disturbing. Patient teaching is done by spending time with the child, allowing the child the freedom to make mistakes, and reprimanding the bad behavior when it occurs. Harnessing and leashing is demeaning and excessive, long term punishment. The fact that the practice is more common in Europe does not make it more permissible here. Mr. Rosemond says that he has “never seen a child on a leash who was misbehaving.” He has never seen a child trying desperately to run ahead? Has he ever seen the parent jerking the child back? Would he consider that demeaning? Mr. Rosemond says that the leash is “often unnecessary by the fourth birthday.” Can you imagine a child being harnessed and leashed in public from his first prideful days of walking at 12-18 months until the age of four? We have leash-free parks for dogs. Will we need them for our children as well? Will crate training be necessary at home? The parent subjecting his child to this “patient” teaching is much more interested in domination and submission to his power and command. I cannot argue the benefits of safety and exercise in a leash, but the negatives of the leash far outweigh those two benefits. The leash is an easy cop-out for the parent who doesn’t want to spend the time to patiently teach.
Mr. Rosemond goes on to ridicule parents who use “sippy cups” instead of teaching their children to drink water from a small cup. He calls “sippy cups” demeaning? Leashes are not? He suggests gradually increasing the quantity of water in the cup from an inch upward until the child is able to handle the cup without incident. This method requires patience, time, and communication. A parent resorting to a harness and leash would never take the time to teach drinking from a regular cup.
Straightjacket
The conditioning of the harness and the leash can easily lead to more common straitjackets used by parents, schools, and society today. Parents liking the leash idea will be more likely to confine their infants to playpens when they are too curious and ambitious in their explorations. Our school playgrounds are missing the swings and the monkey bars of days past because our children may be injured. Our pools have no diving boards. Competitive events no longer have “losers” because a loss might mean some loss of self esteem, instead of providing a stimulus for harder work in order to earn the winner’s title.
Our Future Home?
Our government is now strapping us with the leashes of total control. Our defenses and our safety have been weakened with today’s nuclear weapons announcement. Our President has announced that we will no longer use nuclear weapons to defend ourselves against chemical and biological attacks. We will not use them to defend our allies against the same attacks, despite our promises in treaties to defend them. We will not develop new nuclear technologies to stay ahead of countries who are continuing to do so. We are naïve enough to discard the centuries old policy of peace through strength, trusting in the promises of reciprocation. Our enemies are waiting eagerly for their dominance, and our submission. Nukes in their hands may soon send us running to the confines of the bomb shelters – forgotten in the eighties, and so common in the sixties. The reins of our government are reaching far beyond her Constitutional constraints.
The freedom to walk free of harnesses and leashes, to be free from the straitjackets of government regulation, the freedom to be curious, to explore, to invent, and to defend ourselves against our enemies are the freedoms which have made this country great. Unleash the strength and potential of our children. Save the leashes for the pets and our enemies. Challenge our children to unlock the treasures of the future!
Mr. Rosemond, I really doubt that you have used leashes on any of your children or your grandchildren. Please revise your nightmarish advice. Encourage parents to “patiently teach” and, please… make it without the leash.
Please comment below and/or rate this article.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: adrenalin, attack, behavior, biological, bomb shelters, challenge, chemical, confusion, Constitution, domination, fear, freedom, government, leashes, nuclear weapons, paralysis, psychologist, sleepless, sleepless and tired, stimulus, straitjackets, submission
Posted in Appearances are Deceiving, Frozen in Fear, Sleepless and Tired | No Comments »
Friday, April 2nd, 2010
Northwest Crash
In an unbelievable reversal of policies, the FAA is now allowing the already sleepless and tired pilots to take antidepressants on the job. The new policy takes effect on Monday, April 5th. The announcement in CBS News from the Associated Press today, April 2nd, had to have been delayed a day to avoid the April Fools tradition that would have had no one believing it! Our stress filled world has been plagued by many catastrophic tragedies that have been linked to sleep deprivation. Now, we can look forward to pilots, suffering from “mild to moderate depression,” under the influence of prescription medications like Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Lexapro, and their generic equivalents.
The FAA officials said that “the old rule was based on outdated versions of antidepressants that could cause drowsiness and other side effects.” The FAA Administrator, Randy Babbitt, now considers the side effects much less of a risk than they once were. The new policy is meant to encourage the pilots to report their use instead of keeping their use a secret. The threat of losing their licenses, until now, has kept the pilots from the disclosure. Babbitt says, “We need to be able to change the culture and remove the stigma associated with depression. Pilots should be able to get the medical treatment they need so they can safely perform their duties.” The stipulation of the new policy is that they have to have been treated successfully “for a year without side effects that could pose a safety hazard in the cockpit.”
The critical question here is how these pilots can be judged to be free of those side effects. All four of these drugs, and their generic equivalents, have the same dangerous side effects listed in all of their disclosures as well as on drugs.com:
- Drowsiness, dizziness, tired feeling
- Mild nausea, stomach pain
- Fast or uneven heartbeats
- Overactive reflexes, hostile, aggressive impulses
- Mood changes
- Concentration problems, confusion, hallucinations
- Insomnia
- Suicidal thoughts
All of these are also extremely dangerous when combined with alcohol, blood thinners, and secondary antidepressants.
Who is going to determine whether these side effects have ever been experienced by the pilots? Who is to say that if they have not been experienced before they will not happen in the future? Our psychiatrists and our psychologists have done a great job of keeping the criminals off our streets and the pedophiles away from our children, haven’t they? Many reports are written to affect the viewpoint desired by the responsible party, similar to our legal system today. Every major criminal trial today is muddled by opposing proof from differing psychiatrists and psychologists. Who determines the accuracy? Here there will be no judge and no jury. Mr. Babbitt and his competent staff at the FAA will be their judges. And we will become the victims?
How many of our lives will now be endangered because the FAA and Mr. Babbitt feel that our need to “change the culture” is more important than the safety of millions of Americans flying the skies. Sleep deprived pilots have been a problem in the past and they will continue to be a problem due to their grueling schedules. Now we can look forward to our pilots being sleep deprived and “under the influence.” How many new disasters and lost lives will be required before this “culture changing” and naive policy is replaced by the “common sense” approach of the past?
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki
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Tags: antidepressants, depression, drugs, FAA, insomnia, medications, pilots, prescription, psychiatrists, psychologists, side effects, sleep deprived, sleepless and tired, stress
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Saturday, March 27th, 2010
Dancing Monkey
The news of another ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan) being offered to the employees of a mattress retailer recalls for me Aesop’s “Dancing Monkeys” and the valuable lesson that the fable teaches. In case you don’t recall the fable, it bears remembering:
A PRINCE had some Monkeys trained to dance. Being naturally great mimics of men’s actions, they showed themselves most apt pupils, and when arrayed in their rich clothes and masks, they danced as well as any of the courtiers. The spectacle was often repeated with great applause, till on one occassion a courtier, bent on mischief, took from his pocket a handful of nuts and threw them upon the stage. The Monkeys at the sight of the nuts forgot their dancing and became (as indeed they were) Monkeys instead of actors. Pulling off their masks and tearing their robes, they fought with one another for the nuts. The dancing spectacle thus came to an end amidst the laughter and the ridicule of the audience.
-”Not everything you see is what it appears to be.”- from www.aesopfables.com
The vivid pictures of employee ownership painted by an owner of an S-corporation or a privately held company offering an ESOP to its employees brings to mind the tired and sleepless nights and nightmares suffered by the current and former employees of the Simmons Bedding Company. It also brings to mind the major failures of the ESOP’s offered to the employees of Enron and United Air Lines and others.
The New York Times in October of 2009 traced the sad history of the Simmons Bedding Company from its tremendous success to its recent downfall into bankruptcy. The company has been sold seven times in the last two years and each sale reaped huge rewards for the private equity firms that participated. Julie Creswell, in her New York Times article, details the fact that “the private equity owners have made around $750 million in profits from Simmons over the years.”
In 1986 a private equity firm, Wesray Capital, partnered with some of the top managers of Simmons and acquired the company for $120 million and most of that money was borrowed. They decided to cash out just three years later in an ESOP transaction offered to Simmons employees for $241 million, a tidy profit to the owners, and that says nothing about the huge tax advantages they reaped from the transaction. Wesray helped the employee ESOP to obtain the financing to make the purchase. Within four months Simmons was in trouble with too much debt. Most of its valuable assets had been previously sold off by Wesray to repay most of the debt they incurred to buy the company in 1986. The employees’ retirement accounts were now tied to almost worthless Simmons stock. Merrill Lynch Capital Partners came to the rescue in 1991 and bought the company for a measly $32 million. Lawsuits were filed by the employees against Wesray and the Simmons managers, but the lawsuit netted the ESOP with only $15 million. After Merrill Lynch sold the company in 1996 to a Bahrain investment company for $265 million, the employee ESOP was left owning just 15% of the company. Two years later Investcorp sold the company to Fenway Partners for $500 million. In 2003 Thomas H. Lee paid $1.1 billion for the company, but $745 million of that was in bonds and loans from investors. In 2004 Simmons issued debt at a 10% annual interest to help pay THL a “dividend of $137 million.” 2007 saw THL setting up a holding company that issued $300 million more in debt which paid another $238 million dividend to THL recovering their initial $327 million cash investment. The debt load to Simmons was too heavy to bear.
As the economy soured in 2007, the cutbacks started. The company cut costs wherever it could. 2008 saw huge job losses. In September 2008 the company closed the entire Mableton plant in Atlanta. Noble Rogers, as reported in the New York Times, a 22 year veteran of the plant, recalled, “So many people were hurt because they thought this was a great company to work for and they planned on spending the rest of their lives here. Their families were here. They bought houses and cars here. After this happened, people were really struggling.”
Ares Management LLC and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan purchased Simmons as part of Simmons’ bankruptcy filing in 2009. The transaction was valued at $760 million by the New York Times. They hope to see similar returns to those of the previous equity firms.
Those employees who had their retirement packages tied to the Simmons ESOP are still suffering. They have almost nothing to show for their diligent savings in the company they trusted. The benefits for the employees touted by the company in its sales pitch were not worth the paper they were written on. The benefits to the owners of an ESOP are a much different story, however. There are no fables in this one.
Normally when a corporation sells to a buyer, the corporation pays a capital gains tax on the proceeds. The remaining proceeds would then be distributed to the shareholders who are also taxed on their share of the proceeds. Shareholders who sell to an ESOP and then reinvest in U.S. corporation stocks and bonds can avoid those taxes until they are sold at a much later date. If the owner dies and they are passed on to his beneficiaries, the capital gains taxes are not paid. The tax advantages to the owners of the company and to the investment firms bankrolling the trust account for the ESOP are huge. The other advantage to the owner is that it grants the owner additional liquidity in a market with limited buyers. Yes, the benefits to the owners and investors are far more advantageous than the “honor and pride” of owning a part of the company you work for.
The risks of an employee investing a majority of his retirement savings in his employers stock have been documented everywhere. The Enron story, the United Air Lines story, and the Simmons stories are sad proof of the huge risks involved.
Aesop’s “Dancing Monkeys” should be read again and again before taking the risk. “Not everything you see is what it appears to be,” and certainly not everything you hear is the truth it is professed to be. Don’t let the dancing monkey steal your dreams and leave you with nothing but tired and sleepless nights.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
Tags: dancing monkeys, ESOP, fable, lesson, mattress, nights, retirement, savings, sleepless and tired
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Wednesday, March 24th, 2010
Snowstorm 2009
The sleepless and tired victims of the 2009 and 2010 winter are now suffering the psychological effects of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). President Barrack Obama has declared the region affected by the “perfect storm” a disaster area and has promised the release of billions of dollars in federal assistance programs. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton did the customary fly-over of the damaged area a few days prior to President Obama’s declaration. She was reported to have said, “I never could have imagined Washington D.C. looking so pure and clean. The snow has done a miraculous job of covering the dirt normally seen in the day to day machinations of our Capitol.” Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, called this a “health crisis” and she added per Rahm Emmanuel, “we should never let a serious crisis go to waste.”
Seasonal Affective Disorder, a resident of the Pacific Northwest for centuries, saw the improving weather in the northwest as a threat to her livelihood. She packed up all of her possessions in the fall of 2009 and moved to “greener pastures” of the Midwest, the South, and, eventually, the East Coast. Her arrival in the Midwest was greeted by the giant storm of global cooling plaguing the area. The two storms collided head-on in what was described as a “perfect storm.” Record cold and snow blanketed the entire eastern half of the U.S. Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Sioux City, Oklahoma City, and even Dallas, Texas recorded record snowfalls. Residents are now reporting all of the symptoms of SAD, normally confined to the Pacific Northwest: depression, social withdrawal, lack of energy, decreased concentration, increased appetite and weight gain, increased stress, sleep disorders, fear, problem solving issues, and a general lack of interest in life’s adventures.
Reporters across the region related heart wrenching stories of men and women ravaged by the horrendous storm. An unnamed source in Tennessee recounts the sad story of a 62 year old retired son of a tobacco plantation owner. This man’s rise to fame after two failed runs for the Presidency of the U.S. culminated in his sharing of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2007. Albert Arnold Gore, Jr. had devoted years of his life to stoking the fears of global warming. Once the media darling of MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and CSPAN for his attention grabbing headlines, he has been abandoned by the same media as a result of the fraud uncovered in the reports used to support his data. Some have said that Mr. Gore has been hibernating in the comforts of his recently renovated 10,000 square foot mansion in Nashville. His recent remodel in which he spent millions to save hundreds of dollars in huge energy bills has quieted some of his critics, but he still hides from the media. He was last seen in Copenhagen for the Climate Change Summit 2009. Al Gore was showing the symptoms of SAD. He exited his carbon billowing private jet wearing an authentic Australian oil-coated raincoat over a Pacific Northwest flannel shirt, jeans, and Gore-Tex lined boots. He had obviously added several pounds since his last public appearance. His steps were slow and lethargic. He lacked energy and wanted nothing to do with the requests for interviews from the press. His short presentation to the Summit lacked his usual concentration and enthusiasm for the subject that gained him his notoriety. It was obvious to all that he had been wallowing in the grips of Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Al Gore
People are now resorting to talk therapies, home-made light remedies, and un-regulated melatonin supplements and other over-the-counter medications to try to allay the symptoms while they wait for their numbers to be called by their doctors and psychiatrists. The new health care process has been taxed and overloaded by the hundreds of thousands suffering the SAD syndrome. Some estimates for appointments are as far out as 2013. In the meantime these patients run the risk of substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, sleep deprivation and other psychological problems.
Doctors from the Mayo Clinic and psychiatrists world-wide recommend that people affected with SAD take the following immediate measures:
- See a doctor as soon as possible.
- Stick to the treatment plan. Medications and therapy are essential.
- Take care of yourself. Eat well, rest well, exercise, and sleep well. No alcohol.
- Take stress management measures. Yoga, breathing exercises, reading, and warm baths before bed help you relax.
- Socialize. Get together with friends and relatives. Conversation and humor help.
- Take a trip to a warm, sunny climate. The Caribbean would be great.
If you are unable to get immediate medical attention, and your symptoms continue to get worse, the U.S. Government prescription suggests that you pull your shades, keep your room dark, hibernate (a la Al Gore), have a “good night’s rest,” and hope that Spring and Summer come quickly.
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki.
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Tags: Al Gore, climate, depression, fear, global cooling, good night's rest, perfect storm, prescription, problem solving, S.A.D., SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, sleep deprivation, sleepless and tired, stress
Posted in Frozen in Fear, Sleepless and Tired, Worried and Stressed | 2 Comments »
Monday, January 25th, 2010
The most amazing story caught my eye over the weekend. The story tells of the incredible migration of the Arctic Tern. They can live for up to thirty years and their round trip migratory journeys each year log as many as 25,000 miles! Their travels from Antarctica to Greenland take twice as long as the return trip though the distance is ¾ as far. We’re talking 25,700 kilometers compared to 34,600 kilometers. The southbound trip is delayed by a month long stop-over in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean to refuel on the heavy marine life it relishes. It still takes them only 40 days to complete the one-way trip. Dr. Carsten Egevang, of the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, says, “This is a mind-boggling achievement for a bird that weighs just over 100 grams.” Iain Stenhouse of the National Audubon Society and Egevang’s co-author in the study of the Arctic Tern, says, “Over the course of its life, it is flying to the moon three times and back.” The battle of this journey is waged against cold, wind, storms, starvation, and predators.
The determination required to execute a trip like that should be an inspiration to all of us! My favorite quote has always been this one from Calvin Coolidge:
Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated failures. Persistence and determination are omnipotent.
The incredible journey of the Arctic Tern has been written up in Live Science, Planet Earth, the LA Times, the NY Times, the Seattle Times, The UK’s Independent, and other papers across the globe.
From livescience.com I discovered some other Incredible Animal Journeys:
- The Humpback Whale travels 5,000 miles to its breeding grounds.
- The Freshwater Eel swims from the Mid Atlantic to the UK and the USA.
- The Monarch Butterfly migration tops the insect world @ 2500-3000 miles.
- The Green Sea Turtle swims over 1000 miles from Brazil to the South Atlantic Ocean.
- The Wildebeest, on a constant move, travels 1800 miles per year.
- The Lemming, only 3-6 inches long, travels up to 10 miles per day across Arctic tundra.
The wood thrush (Hylocicla mustelina) songbird is a hero of mine. Bridget Stutchbury, a professor of biology at York University in Toronto, quoted in article in LiveScience, tracked them at 300 miles per day. Their journey in the fall from North America to Brazil takes 43 days. The return trip in the spring takes only 13 days. “The songbirds have more incentive in the spring to chug back to North America where they compete for the best real estate for snagging the highest quality mates.” In the case of the wood thrush, “the early bird gets the mate.”
We should take these incredible examples from the animal world and have them “at the ready” when we feel discouraged by the trials of retail and the stress of everyday life. They are role models of inspiration. Pick your favorite. You will never have to worry about future disappointments due to scandal!
Copyright 2010. All rights reserved to Ronald Czarnecki
Tags: achievement, Arctic tern, battle, Calvin Coolidge, compete, determination, everyday lives, flying to the moon, Freshwater Eel, Green Sea Turtle, Humpback Whale, Inspiration, Lemming, mind-boggling, Monarch Butterfly, persistence, predators, retail, role models, scandal, sleepless and tired, songbirds, stress, trials, Wildebeest, wood thrush
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