Sleep Apnea and Insomnia: If you are reading this in the middle of the night I am talking about you!

As a sleep apnea patient and the mother of a child who has suffered so long with insomnia that she did not sleep through the night until age four, I have become my own expert on sleep...or rather the lack of it. You simply can't deal with the elephants in life when you are exhausted.

Since you are probably reading this because it is two AM and sleep has once again escaped your grasp here is a link to a useful list of Things You SHOULDN'T Do Before You Go To Bed (if you want to sleep that is!)

Finding ways to keep your feet warm and dry is not just for comfort but for safety. The winter storm of 2011 being labeled "the storm of the century" and bitter, winter weather continues to hit the US in states that normally do not see winter. Staying indoors is not practical or healthy. Finding ways to keep your feet warm and dry is not just for comfort but for safety. The article below will help keep your family safe this winter.

Keeping your feet dry and warm in winter

Hypothermia, frostbite and trenchfoot are just some of the complications one thinks of when talking about wet and cold feet. Hypothermia and trenchfoot can occur at temperatures as high as 60 degrees F if the feet are constantly wet, like in kayaking. Cold and wet are two things you must adamantly protect against even if the temperature is not what is typically considered cold. Wet feet lose heat 25x faster than dry. Your feet and head are the two areas that your core heat escape from the quickest. Serious problems can occur by allowing your feet to become wet and/or cold, most particularly in winter. Education is key to prevent complications from just minimal discomfort to life loss.
http://www.helium.com/items/656921-keeping-your-feet-dry-and-warm-in-winter

Earning a living can be the biggest and most disgusting pieces of the elephant we are given to eat. Earning a living in today's world can take thinking outside the box. Have you ever wished you could make a living as an online writer, with all that artistic freedom and gypsy-like schedule? Here is an article that gives some truthful facts about the profession of blogging.

Top Five Truths You Need To Know About Making Money Blogging

"As a paid blogger everyone with a computer asks me if they too can really make money blogging. What writer wouldn’t want to sit in their jammies, write what they want whenever they want, have a devout audience and get paid for it? So, the question remains -Can anyone with a keyboard actually make a living as a blogger?"

http://csm3dia.wordpress.com/2011/02/04/top-five-truths-you-need-to-know-about-making-money-blogging-by-kimberly-munsey-carlton/

Families, Funerals, Elvis, Superman and James Harold Blick

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Funerals would be awesome get-togethers, if not for death and families.

At a funeral we gather to sing praises, tell stories, raise up in honor a loved one or friend. We focus at least a few hours on remembering them, hugging each other, reuniting, and if we are really blessed, we eat. You could not plan a better event...except that someone had to die to get us there. We promise we will get together more often; not let a death be the reason to unite. We commit to celebrate life with the living, not wait to celebrate life over their grave. Too little, too late, too many promises we’ll never keep…and of course, just like with any gathering, there is the issue of having too much family together in too close a proximity for too long a time.

Why is death and families a subject to discuss today? Well death is one of the Elephants we all fear. After all if that Elephant arrives for us we won’t be here to eat it. This is true, but God willing our death will be someone else’s Elephant. I mean by that, if we have lived in a way that a single person loved us, our passing will be an Elephant to swallow in even some small meal.

This week I encountered an Elephant in my own family. This was a big rogue bull Elephant that is not mine but someone I love. It is my sister’s Elephant and it looks overwhelmingly inedible. What is her Elephant? This week, one of the saddest things to ever happen to anyone I know happened to my sister "Bambi". She buried her young husband.

At least to the world it appeared Jim, dad and husband extraordinaire, died last week in a far away land called Afghanistan. It even appeared that they helped her bury him. To the world they put this big, gregarious man in a box and placed him and his big dimpled smile securely in a plot of dirt sanctified for veterans in a military cemetery. There was even witnesses and men in uniforms from the Navy there to insure that Jim was safely tucked away for all eternity. Yep, that’s what the world saw. I saw something different.

You see, I know my sister Bambi. I know my sister will never keep her man in a box. Not her “Elvis”, her “Superman”, her hero. I know that Jim is not in any box and never will be. Just as Jim was too big in personality and heart to contain in a box while alive, he cannot be contained in a box in the ground. Bambi is not the kind of woman to let his spirit die. Bambi will keep him alive every day. There will not be a day when their girls do not know about their dad and his big life.

When he was a young man, sneaking out of the house as young men do, he convinced his younger brother that he could not tell anyone that the reason he snuck out was because, in fact, he was the one, the only “Superman”. Awestruck, many years went by before there was a fact finding that Jim may not be the legendary comic book hero. In fact, he was bigger than a one dimensional cartoon.

So, I know what the world does not. I know that James Harold Blick is not in a box in the ground but in his daughter’s eyes and his wife’s devoted heart. After all, Superman cannot be contained in a phone booth so how can a casket contain him? Welcome back home, Jim.

Elvis and Superman Photos>The work is in the public domain because it was published in the United States between 1923 and 1963 with a copyright notice, and its copyright was not renewed.

Video Killed The Radio Star

Assessing MTV's Effect On Music In The Early '80s

by Kimberly Munsey-Carlton

August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m., saw the launch of the original MTV Music Television. With the simple line, "Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll," spoken by original COO John Lack, an icon was born. The first music video shown on MTV was "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles, perhaps in hopes that it would be a fulfilled prophesy. Soon after its launch it seemed everyone wanted their MTV.

Although 500,000 people tuned in in the early 80's, my sister "Bambi" and I have always taken shared soul credit for the success of MTV's early years. My parents actually use the word blame, as in, "Those two girls are to blame for that MTV." We were both perfect examples of our generation. We loved the romance of rock-n-roll, whether heavy or pop. Every hour we, like the other half million original viewers, were not in school, at work, or at a club imitating the fashion, attitude and dance that we absorbed from MTV we were watching, listening to, or talking about MTV. We loved the visual aesthetics and being introduced to bands we had never heard of on local Tampa Bay radio. Before MTV the only way to view bands was in magazines, album covers or an occasional glimpse on American Band Stand. Now, we could dress up and represent the very music we loved. Before MTV most of us knew only what we were fed from the play lists via our local radio. Now we had a second venue and an on screen look at our favorites. We were hooked both audibly and visibly. Music companies very soon realized that MTV could control the success or failure of a client because they controlled viewer's purchases, from their Aqua Net hair-dos to their ZZ Top anklets.

MTV helped turn an already image-centric industry into arguably a total image-before-quality industry. While many substantial rock bands and performers of the 1980s were made into household names there were also many one hit wonders who simply looked good on film. One must wonder if there would have been a Milli Vanilli (and their impending tragedy) or a Samantha Fox without the help of MTV. Although known for some blatantly sexual or commercially produced video choices they indeed brought us some classic 1980s acts including Van Halen, Blondie, Journey, The Police, The Cars, Eurythmics, Cinderella, Poison, RATT, Twisted Sister, Culture Club, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Motley Crue and the immortal Bon Jovi. Even metal giants like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Ozzie and Dio all had to succumb to the power of the 1980s MTV cable network.

More than affecting the music or even radio, MTV's greatest effect was on video. It's original videos were concert clips or promos done by record companies with cheap graphics and backdrops. MTV helped launch many producer/director careers via the music video. As the culture clamored for more the quality of these videos began to rival full length films. Of course, thanks to these videos, we have captured an archive in sight and sound of an era.

While MTV was responsible for launching new bands and may well have given excess airtime to the most popular acts only, it also spawned a counter-culture of anti-MTV watchers who protested the over-exposure that MTV gave bands they felt did not deserve it. Once accused of selling out MTV quite literally did that when Viacom bought Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment. By the second half of the 1990s MTV had all but forsaken its' hold over the music industry. While original formatting modeled top 40 radio, even using VJs in place of DJs, Music Television's original purpose was to show music videos. Today their main source of music video programming is Total Request Live, and it only airs four times per week.

Today's version couldn't be farther from its' roots, with it's reality television shows and scarcity of video material. It is definitely no threat to radio today, especially with the advent of satellite specialty stations, much less have much power over the music industry. To imagine the 80s without MTV would be to imagine a world without fun. Yes, "back in my day", we would walk 10 miles in the snow...well, you get it. MTV most certainly influenced the music production and style of the 80s. In fact, MTV broadcasts more than influenced. It literally designed our rock-n-roll, quasi-groupie, Madonna-wanna-be, garage band, lifestyles. Yes, boys and girls Grandma's MTV once rocked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV

Copyright © 2002-2008 All rights reserved.

What Are The Justifications For Doing Business With Countries That Have Human Rights Issues?

by Kimberly Munsey-Carlton

In the book, " Business Ethics: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management", edited by Alan R. Malachowski, the thought is stated. "The only justification for a multinational doing business with a regime that violates human rights is the claim that in doing so, the country's human rights record will improve. " Even then the business's continued justified sustaining relationship with that country would have to be based on judging its results. (1)

When a country has closed its doors and borders to all other influences but its own, history has proven that like a fungus, human rights are vanquished in a nation void of worldwide light shining in on it. The benefit of corporations, more easily invasive than governments, being encouraged to continue to do business with even the world's most rights vacant countries, may be the fact that they have the door open to view and influence. They may be the globe's eyes and ears and they may, in fact, have some positive influence over the regime or country's leadership in a way that even the UN, or international opinion or law does not.

But, can the promise or hope that business entities can actually influence the politics of a nation known for human rights negligence justify their actually profiting from these countries and helping them with products and money? Rev. Leon Sullivan, an African-American preacher, was a member of the board of General Motors in the late 70's. G.M. was one of the largest corporations in the United States and also the largest employer of blacks in South Africa. The state-sanctioned racial segregation and discrimination targeting the country's indigenous black population provoked the Reverend to begin a campaign to influence the governing body of South Africa. He actually threatened the government that in two years Mandela would have to be freed, apartheid must end, and blacks must vote or else every American company he could influence would come out of South Africa.[2]

The pastor wrote up 10 principles for businesses who traded internationally that have now been revised over the last 30 years. The Sullivan Principles were formally adopted by more than 125 U.S. corporations that had operations in South Africa and of those companies at least 100 completely withdrew their existing operations from South Africa.[2]

The Global Sullivan Principles
The Principles:

As a company which endorses the Global Sullivan Principles we will respect the law, and as a responsible member of society we will apply these Principles with integrity consistent with the legitimate role of business. We will develop and implement company policies, procedures, training and internal reporting structures to ensure commitment to these principles throughout our organization. We believe the application of these Principles will achieve greater tolerance and better understanding among peoples, and advance the culture of peace.
Accordingly, we will:
Express our support for universal human rights and, particularly, those of our employees, the communities within which we operate, and parties with whom we do business.
Promote equal opportunity for our employees at all levels of the company with respect to issues such as color, race, gender, age, ethnicity or religious beliefs, and operate without unacceptable worker treatment such as the exploitation of children, physical punishment, female abuse, involuntary servitude, or other forms of abuse.
Respect our employees' voluntary freedom of association.
Compensate our employees to enable them to meet at least their basic needs and provide the opportunity to improve their skill and capability in order to raise their social and economic opportunities.
Provide a safe and healthy workplace; protect human health and the environment; and promote sustainable development.
Promote fair competition including respect for intellectual and other property rights, and not offer, pay or accept bribes.
Work with governments and communities in which we do business to improve the quality of life in those communities their educational, cultural, economic and social well-being and seek to provide training and opportunities for workers from disadvantaged backgrounds. Promote the application of these principles by those with whom we do business.
We will be transparent in our implementation of these principles and provide information which demonstrates publicly our commitment to them. (2)

(1) Business Ethics: Critical Perspectives on Business and Management", edited by Alan R. Malachowski, Published 2001 Routledge, ISBN:0415184614
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sullivan_Principles