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May 25, 2005

Women with more education...

Tue, 24 May 2005 16:08:55 EDT
CBC News

TAIPEI, TAIWAN - Women with more education get better sleep, but the reasons remain elusive, a new study conducted in Taiwan shows.

* FROM June 24, 2004: Facts about insomnia

The study also found the opposite in men: the higher a man's education, the less good sleep he gets.

The findings, based on a 2001 study of 40,000 Taiwanese aged 15 and older, were published on Tuesday in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Overall, the study found that women are up to twice as likely to be insomniacs as men. Sleeplessness was also found more common among people who were oder, divorced or separated, had less education, poor health and earned less.

The study suggested long working hours were to blame for insomnia in men: Those with higher positions, usually men in Taiwan, had correspondingly greater education, and were required to work more hours.

* FROM NOV. 7, 1998: The mystery of sleep

Divorced or separated women appeared to have the highest levels of insomnia. Researchers suggested the stress associated with single parenthood, loss of income, or the stigma of a marriage breakdown could be possible factors.

Other factors that could cause greater insomnia in women were menstrual cycles including menopause, night-day body temperature fluctuations, depression and anxiety, the researchers wrote.

More studies needed

But even after accounting for these factors, the researchers still found that they could not fully explain why women get less sleep.

"The sex discrepancy in insomnia narrowed slightly after taking social role factors into consideration but was not explained by socioeconomic status," the authors wrote. "The persistent sex gap in insomnia warrants further investigation."

The researchers cited other studies that have shown that women get less good sleep than men in most cultures around the world. But they said this could not be totally explained by child rearing and other domestic responsibilities.

Children impact sleep

Students, non-smokers and regular exercisers tended to have better sleep quality, while the jobless who were actively seeking work had the highest level of sleep disturbances, the authors wrote.

The more children in a household caused higher levels of insomnia; but this factor affected women's and men's sleep equally, the study found.

The insomnia was assessed using criteria developed by the World Health Organization, and scored on a scale of 1 to 5.

Posted by lck at 01:58 AM | Comments (0)

May 23, 2005

Cultures Clash at Merging Airlines

One airline has painted some of its planes purple and turquoise, the colors of the Major League Baseball team it sponsors, or cardinal red, in honor of the pro football team it backs.

By Bill Brubaker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 23, 2005; E01

One airline has painted some of its planes purple and turquoise, the colors of the Major League Baseball team it sponsors, or cardinal red, in honor of the pro football team it backs.

The other shuns any hint of glitz, with a fleet in subdued blue, white and gray.

One airline has its headquarters in an Arizona suburb known for its perpetual-sunshine-and-flip-flops lifestyle.

The other is based in a Washington suburb that is a center for government contractors and the home of a military cemetery.

But last week, younger, edgier America West of Tempe, Ariz., announced that it would merge with older, more conservative US Airways of Arlington in a $1.5 billion deal that would create one of the nation's largest low-cost airlines.

Employees and Wall Street analysts asked: Would this marriage of two cultures -- East and West, button-down and entrepreneurial -- really work?

Airline veterans say it will have to because neither US Airways Group Inc., which posted a $611 million loss last year, nor America West Holdings Corp., which was $89 million in the hole, has much of a choice.

"We may have some cultural differences," said John A. Taylor, a veteran US Airways pilot. "But we both want to survive. So we are looking forward to taking the best of both airlines and learning from each other."

One thing the two airlines share is a history of financial trouble deep enough to send them to bankruptcy court.

US Airways, the nation's seventh-largest airline, is fighting to emerge from its second Chapter 11 reorganization in three years. America West, the eighth-largest, operated under Chapter 11 protection from 1991 to 1994. Both carriers have tried to withstand the withering effects of soaring fuel prices, profit-draining airfare wars and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Under the merger deal, the combined airline would be called US Airways, but the company would have its headquarters in Tempe, a city of 160,000 that is a 10-minute drive from Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. The new US Airways would be headed by W. Douglas Parker, 43, America West's chief executive. US Airways chief executive Bruce R. Lakefield, 61, would be No. 2.

US Airways has more to gain from the merger, experts said, starting with some lessons it could learn from America West on customer service.

"When I think of America West I think of a low-cost airline that has a relatively good reputation. I would fly on them," said Betsy R. Snyder, a credit analyst for bond-rating agency Standard & Poor's who follows the airline industry.

And when she thinks of US Airways?

"Not my first choice to fly, just because of what you hear about their service," she said. "Their inferior service."

In the federal government's most recent airline performance statistics, for flights in March, America West ranked third among 19 U.S. carriers in on-time arrivals. US Airways was 17th.

America West apparently also could teach its new partner how to keep track of luggage. In terms of complaints about mishandled baggage, it posted the fifth-best record in March. US Airways, which has had labor problems and staffing shortages, was 18th.

America West has used employee incentives to improve customer service. For example, many employees received $50 bonuses this month because the airline exceeded its on-time goal in April.

US Airways traces its roots to a company called All American Aviation, which in 1939 began offering the first airmail service to small towns in western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley. The company changed its name to All American Airways in 1949 and to Allegheny Airlines in 1953, which in 1979 changed its name to US Air, which in 1997 became US Airways, acquiring several regional airlines along the way.

America West's history is a lot shorter. It was launched in 1983 with 280 employees, three Boeing 737s and a can-do spirit.

Originally modeled after no-frills Southwest Airlines, America West adopted a more-frills strategy, offering amenities such as newspapers, assigned seating and, later, first-class sections for passengers willing to pay more.

"From the start, we were a very employee-friendly place," said Michael Roach, the airline's co-founder and first president. America West maintained a 24-hour day-care center for its flight attendants' children. Its employees shunned labor unions.

By 1990 the airline had reported annual revenue of more than $1 billion and its fleet had more than 100 planes, serving 62 cities.

But the employees' optimism faded as their company grew too big too fast, spending money on unprofitable long-haul routes, including one to Nagoya, Japan, and plunging into bankruptcy court in the early 1990s.

"That touchy-feely culture only goes so far," said Roach, who left the company in 1984 but has followed it closely as a San Francisco-based airline industry consultant.

Roach said many employees turned against the man chosen to lead America West out of Chapter 11, William A. Franke.

"Bill Franke was -- is -- very much a numbers-MBA kind of guy," Roach said. "And the employees grew to loathe him. This is not a dump on Bill Franke. He had a very difficult situation, and he saved them."

America West emerged from Chapter 11 in August 1994 after a partnership, which included Continental Airlines, invested $214.9 million in the company.

A month later, America West announced that its flight attendants had voted to be represented by the Association of Flight Attendants. The pilots, mechanics and others employee groups also turned to unions.

By the late 1990s, the employees often were at odds with management. And passengers noticed a deterioration in service.

"They had a lot of operational problems," S&P's Synder said. "I remember flying them in the summer of 2000. You'd get to the airport and you'd look at the monitor and you'd see the flight was delayed by two hours. It was frustrating, especially late at night."

Franke retired, and Parker replaced him on Aug. 22, 2001.

A month later, after the terrorist attacks, America West trimmed its flight schedule by 20 percent and cut 2,000 employees from its payroll.

The airline may not have survived the post-9/11 slowdown in air travel, Parker has said, without a $429 million loan guarantee from the federal government.

Parker set out to restore the airline's image of being friendly to customers -- and employees.

"Doug Parker and his team are extremely competent managers," said Aaron J. Gellman, a professor and transportation expert at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

In today's fiercely competitive airline industry, both America West and US Airways are struggling to convince passengers that their fares rival those of discount competitors like Southwest with full-service amenities.

America West declared itself a low-cost carrier in 2002. US Airways has been acting like one for several years.

A chart on America West's Web site lists perks it offers that no-frill rivals don't -- first-class sections, airport clubs and frequent flyer awards to more than 300 destinations.

Among its marketing innovations, America West offers a "bill me later" ticketing option that gives travelers up to 90 days, interest-free, to pay for a ticket. It also sells gift cards at supermarkets that can be used to pay for tickets.

The biggest challenge of a America West-US Airways merger may be combining the staffs of the two airlines. For example, they must decide which pilots get the choicest routes on the largest planes. US Airways has nearly 30,000 employees, America West has 14,000.

"The problem is that US Airways employees who have survived are by and large senior employees, and they probably have significantly higher seniority than America West's," Roach said. "So their position will probably be: 'We want to merge the seniority lists based on date of hire.' The US Airways pilots will be wanting to fly the A330s and all that good stuff.

"And the America West pilots will say: ... 'You wouldn't have any job at all without us, so we'll fly the A330s.' "

Taylor, a US Airways pilot for 22 years, said he's optimistic that pilots from the two airlines will agree because they are represented by the same union and because they have all been through pay cuts and furloughs.

"Through all that pain what we have seen happen is sort of an attitude adjustment," he said. "Our expectations have been changed."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company

Posted by lck at 10:06 AM | Comments (1)

60 seconds and 8 seconds

Was I joking about it? Check it out on 60seconds again, Scott just uploaded it.

Transcript:

BEGIN

What would we do without our toys?
Mummy has hers, I have mine.
I pick up frequencies on the body somewhere, if the boss doesn't press the ear piece hard, I keep the bugs from spoiling the picnic.
Pigs for breakfast, slaughtering Enron, scattered branes.

She sleeps a lot, she not sleeping, something, another buy-out, another tax cut.
The turn for the worse is negotiable, at the blackjack table, deep into condominium wars.

And what would we do without our toys?
Without the hotels,
our Cat-Bs,
the little black meters,
our cold oil crack cans?

Buy off Saddam for a credit card bill, tennis lessons and shopping auctioning.

The kids are calm and happy in the dying sun in the backyard.

We can protect you from terror, we can protect you from pains, we can not protect you from secondary relatives.

Onion rings, popcorns, selenium arsenate humming quiet on a scrap of paper, never too far but out of sight.

It has been done before.
I squinted,
I smiled.

What would we do without our toys?
Our midnight toll boot run,
our firemen,
our television,
our pasta salad,
our little woes,
our skyscrapers,
our neighbors.

END

In the meantime, Wendy, our Narrator for the occasion, reports a twist in Jehova's Witnesses Strategy To Close & Casual Encounters. Apparently they started hiding, creeping around the corner. Next I'll hear is they are now able to "morph".

Posted by lck at 10:02 AM | Comments (0)

60secondstory

Hey

our 60 SecondsStory (but not quite 60 seconds and Narrator "invisible" :-), as it edges the rules) post.

QT Streaming, click-the-pic

That's enough for "friendly competition?" Now, if we had only read the rules in the first place!
Who's sleeping here???

Posted by lck at 12:45 AM | Comments (0)

May 22, 2005

Bamboo Part 5 is an Online Quiz

Bamboo, part 5 (Dead Engine) is an online quiz, written along (4 hands) with Valeria Brancaforte.
This chapter is now running the contagiousmedia competition, which opened in NYC on May 19th.
Feel free to browse it at bamboo.contagiousmedia.org

This is "a very mild low-tone" for such a global scream, and it shows but, indeed, it can be fun.

We made it, we recommend it, get MORE fun.

Posted by lck at 08:30 PM | Comments (0)

May 21, 2005

gworld today

NEW YORK -- No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists now think that "safe sun" -- 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen -- is healthy and can protect against some cancers.

In so doing, researchers are challenging one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun.

In the past three months, four studies have found that vitamin D, known as the sunshine vitamin, helps prevent lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

But many people aren't getting enough vitamin D. It's hard to do from food and fortified milk alone. Supplements are problematic, and sunscreen blocks the production of vitamin D, which the skin makes from ultraviolet rays.

Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine and nutrition, laid out his case for more vitamin D in a keynote lecture at a recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer.

"I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D," Giovannucci told the cancer scientists. "The data are really quite remarkable."

The talk so impressed the American Cancer Society's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Michael Thun, that the society is reviewing its sun-protection guidelines. "There is now intriguing evidence that vitamin D may have a role in the prevention as well as treatment of certain cancers," Thun said.

Even some dermatologists may be coming around. "I find the evidence to be mounting and increasingly compelling," said Dr. Allan Halpern, dermatology chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who advises several cancer groups.

The dilemma, he said, is a lack of consensus on how much vitamin D is needed or the best way to get it.

No source is ideal. Even if sunshine were to be recommended, the amount needed would depend on the season, time of day, where a person lives, skin color and other factors. Thun and others worry that folks might overdo it.

"People tend to go overboard with even a hint of encouragement to get more sun exposure," Thun said, adding that he would prefer people get more of the nutrient from food or pills.

But this is difficult. Vitamin D occurs naturally in salmon, tuna and other oily fish and is routinely added to milk. However, diet accounts for very little of the vitamin D circulating in blood, Giovannucci said.

Supplements contain the nutrient, but most use an old form -- D-2 -- that is far less potent than the more desirable D-3. Multivitamins typically contain only small amounts of D-2 and include vitamin A, which offsets many of D's benefits.

As a result, pills might not raise vitamin D levels much at all.

Government advisers can't even agree on an RDA, or recommended daily allowance, for vitamin D. Instead, they say "adequate intake" is 200 international units a day up to age 50, 400 IUs for ages 50 to 70 and 600 IUs for people older than 70.

Many scientists think adults need 1,000 IUs a day. Giovannucci's research suggests 1,500 IUs might be needed to significantly curb cancer.

During short winter days, the sun's rays come in at too oblique an angle to spur the skin to make vitamin D. That is why nutrition experts think vitamin D-3 supplements may be especially helpful during winter and for dark-skinned people all the time.

But too much of the pill variety can cause a dangerous buildup of calcium in the body. The government says 2,000 IUs is the upper daily limit for anyone older than a year.

On the other hand, D from sunshine has no such limit. It's almost impossible to overdose when getting it this way. However, it is possible to get skin cancer.

Posted by lck at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

May 18, 2005

Boyz & Girlz - dead engine

This online quiz was fun to make and take. Posted on ContagiousMedia, it ran thru their first annual Showdown in NYC on May 19th, 2005 and placed 14th out of 84 contestants.

The quiz was authored by Valeria Brancaforte and me.

To the 29,503 nuts (a.k.a. Unique IPs) who took the quiz credit is due for the inevitable degree of anger :-) and confusion they were left with.

Take the risk to make 14 decisions out of your present or ficticious relationship with a boy or girl and proceed!

Posted by lck at 01:46 PM