YOUR MONEY

The new Warren Buffett

 I have long be an admirer of Warren Buffett.  

 He is not only one of the wealthiest people on the planet but has kept to his Midwest roots still living in his decades old  Omaha, Nebraska home, and has pledged 99% of his estate to charity. 

 

He has been the model investor looking to the long term and modest growth, in diverse companies that are key to the well being of the US.  economy and future.

 

There was a saying “What's good for General Motors is good for the U.S.A.” That was true for the 1950s and 1960s when GM dominated the car and truck business and directly and indirectly produced thousands of well paying jobs and supported local businesses around the country.

I have felt the same about Warren Buffett and his company Berkshire Hathaway:  "What's good for Warren Buffett is good to the U S.A.”

But in the last few years a new and different Buffett has emerged. Buffett has gone on a buying spree gobbling up one American icon after another such as Wrigley, Mars candy, Heinz and Kraft with the backing of money from Brazilian private-equity firm 3G Capital; and G3 now owns Burger King and Tim Hortons as well.

In the name of right-sizing and rationalization, Buffett has closed the Heinz plant by Leamington, Ontario, the tomato capital of Canada, enduing a 105 year operation that employed 740 workers; with the stroke of a pen putting this one-industry  community  on the dole and replacing Canadian tomatoes and jobs with Mexican tomatoes and cheaper labour.

More recently, some 700 administrative jobs have been eliminated due to the merging of Heinz-Kraft.

And this month Buffett has paid an astounding US $32.3 billion for aerospace Precision Castparts, the largest single acquisition in the history of  Berkshire Hathaway.

Put simply, the new Buffett works fast and with daring boldness and between rightsizing, synergy efficiencies and the like, he looks more like Albert John Dunlap, nicknamed Chainsaw Al. 

 

What the ledger of profit and loss will show in years to come or how history will judge Warren Buffet I do not know, but for the moment it is a sad day in Mudville.

 

 YOUR HEALTH

Snoring and Sleep Apnea – the Holy Grail

Snoring and its extreme form, sleep apnea, are again hot button items as Time magazine  has another article on the dangers of sleep apnea (June 15, 2015, p.20). Time’s illustration shows the head of a man lying on his back with his mouth wide open and his neck curved upward.  The drawing also shows the man’s windpipe contracted or narrowed due to the position of his head - resulting in snoring and sleep apnea.

Time's information is nothing new and has been well known for at least the 15 years I have been studying the subject. The illustration shows the worst-case position possible for head and neck, and one for which simple repositioning and various devices on the market address -- more or less.

The basics are well known:

• snoring is the rhythmic and repetitive production of a single sound -- like a  musical note -- or pairing sounds when breathing during sleep

• air in the  lungs/breathing system gets distorted  and emerges like a note from a wind instrument such as a flute, trumpet, saxophone or tuba

• 60% of men and 40% of women eventually become snorers as they age

• most snoring  occurs while sleeping  on one's back though snoring on one's side also occurs.

• snorers are NOT aware they are snoring and making repeated, loud noise. In fact they will vigorously deny snoring and accuse the person making the claim of lying, and only video footage or multiple witnesses will be believed (as per my own case).

• As snorers are not deaf, I conclude that the brain has somehow learned to ignore the  person's own ‘signature’  snore and treats it like regular background noise.

• nudging a snorer or telling him/her to turn over works temporarily as it breaks the subconscious snoring cycle.

• people can snore when asleep sitting up but are far more likely  to snore when lying down.

• people do NOT snore when walking, running or are otherwise involved in conscious activity.  It is limited to the semi-conscious state of sleep -- when mental control of body functions is reduced.

Using the wind instrument analogy, medical scientists have long identified three factors: 

1. sagging upper mouth palate.  This is rarer, but over time, the muscles of the upper mouth can   weaken and sag and allow for reed-like sound vibration. Biteplates and even surgery -- like a facelift -- are available.

2. Poor Head position.

    This is the major cause of snoring and is the result of the Law of Gravity.

     a. tongue windpipe constriction. The air passage behind the tongue gets narrowed when lying down -- especially on one's back – due to the Law of Gravity.  Our tongues fall forward when we sit or stand -- due to gravity --  or are  kept forward by throat muscles when we are conscious and working under a car or sink. But our tongues fall back when sleeping on our backs or droop downward if we are on our side: causing the windpipe to narrow and/or twist.  

Simple Solutions: 1. when on one’s back, keep the entire head elevated above the                                          shoulders.                         

                                2. when sleeping on one’s side, keep the head horizontal.  (Yes,  side-                                             sleeping with the face turned down would work but it leads to a                                                             stiff neck in the morning from being twisted.)

     b. sleeping with mouth open.  Dropping the jaw alters the air flow pattern and helps constrict the windpipe behind the tongue. It creates a distinctive snore just as a tuba produces a much different note than a flute or trumpet. Mouth pieces and chin straps have been invented to address this factor. But keeping the head elevated when on one’s back or having the cheek and jaw properly cushioned when on one’s side also work – just as they do for tongue issues!

****  For sleep apnea -- which usually involves both open mouth and tongue related constriction -- proper elevated head position is essential, and there are a variety of breathing devices and extra oxygen pump-machines on the market.  

So,  if poor head position is the real and common cause, then using the ‘wrong pillow’ is the central problem.

Put simply, the pillow one uses determines and locks in place the position of the head, tongue and jaw.

Normal pillows, whether firm (foam), soft (foam) or super soft (i.e. feathered) do not usually work for snorers and sleep apnea.

And neither do many of the specialty pillows on the market which promise a ‘better’, ‘more restful’  night’s sleep and ‘reduced neck and back pain’ in the morning, but rarely claim to help with snoring.

 Moreover, to date, no single pillow design fits both proper side and proper back sleeping as they require radically different head support positions (see more below), and people's body frames and weight/bulk also affect how the head angles against a pillow.

The Holy Grail: better and best pillow designs:

• P shaped pillows currently being sold are often fine for side-only sleeping: so long as the pillow is raised or lowered as-a-whole so that the head is not forced to angle up or drop down below the horizontal.   Some have two raised ends to accommodate different heights – which is fine.
•  

                                                     

Unfortunately, most people have faces that narrow from the ear forward so the pillow needs e3xtra support for the cheek.  P and Double-P pillows have no such special raised sides.   Thin and small frames people can get away with this but not larger headed individuals.

• Back sleepers only need two ordinary pillows angled to form a hill slope and adjusted to the individual’s shoulder frame and spine comfort. 

 

BUT, for those of us who roll at night and sleep both ways, no pillow on the market does both jobs.

Over 15 years ago, I started on the mission of creating a dual-function pillow – the Holy Grail of snorere pillows - and have a prototype I use today. I call it the Silent Sleeper.

The dynamics of the ideal -- yet to be marketed – dual-function pillow is actually quite simple:

1. the neck must be gently cushioned if contacted at all. Only the jaw and cranium – i.e., solid bone,  when on the side, and cranium alone when sleeping on one's back are to make solid contact and bear the pressure.

 2. the head and neck and spine -- which form one continuous, interlinked chain --  must be allowed  to stay in a relaxed and natural line without any sideways stress on the vertebrae.

When sleeping on one’s side, all three parts must line up horizontally, i.e., the spine and neck bones are to line up with an imaginary line running dead centre through the skull   (as correctly displayed in tempura mattress ads.)   Legs strait or fetal position makes no difference though fetal does help relax vertebrae lengthwise as well.  

For back sleeping, the head must be fully elevated and neck and full spine -- including the small of the back - aligned into one continuous gentle C curve.   (This is where all specialty pillows falter as they recreate the undesirable head position of the Time magazine warning.)

A raised slope of 4 OVER 10 (or 40 degrees) works well for me with my bulky, curved, football lineman's shoulders.

The secrets of building such a dual-function pillow --  which I share with you gratis --  are as follows:

1. top surface (at least 3 cm)  must be soft and allow the head to cradle cozily. Quilted fabric works well as does polyester batting.  I use both.

2. under this top use a standard pillow-size piece of sofa chair foam 4 inches thick (which comes  in different levels from  firm to soft if you get the material  from an upholsterer). It needs to be cut out to have a  (sideways) oblong, sunken mid-section so when sleeping on one’s side the head rests in the dead middle -- like a baseball in an old fashioned catcher’s mitt.

 

The side curves (right and left) should be relatively low and designed to support a cheek (right or left) while keeping the head horizontal.  

            Note: these raised sides are needed because most people’s faces get narrower                         and narrower in front of the ear to the nose and are far wider behind the ear.      So this sloping side curve is needed to support  the cheek and jaw and keeps the             head in a horizontal plane. 

The top and bottom should be rounded edges with one side bulkier and the other less so like the Double P pillows. The two different heights allow a larger framed person -- such as me -- to sleep on the higher curve supporting my jaw or - when sleeping on my back - my upper cranium.  The lower side does the same for people with less bulky shoulders. 

             

3. The bottom of the foam is also curved so the pillow can rock somewhat back and forth - but not side to side: to allow for automatic fine-tuning adjustments.

Silent Sleeper head location

When sleeping on one’s side, the oblong, dead centre of the pillow is used. 

When switching to one’s back, there is a need to slightly slide down: so the bottom curved edge fully elevates the cranium (as illustrated above with the RED slope.)

Bottom Line

• Never, ever sleep on your back without your cranium raised high. 
• When lying on your side, whether you use a regular or specialty pillow, check that your spine-neck-head axis is horizontal by using a mirror, camera or a friend. 
• As your pillow only comes in contact with some 15% of your body, the mattress also needs to be considered.  All mattresses are designed to adjust to your body’s curves and weight distribution; but any given mattress may be ‘overly soft’ or ‘overly firm’ for your individual body. Also, wear over time may mean the mattress does not ‘fit’ you properly.
• Finally, try your own hand, as I did with my Silent Sleeper.

My snoring has been greatly reduced if not fully eliminated – as I do fidget and twist around at times when sleeping.  I also feel more rested in the morning and no longer wake up to a stiff neck and/or painful back.

So think about the facts and options mentioned above.

Remember, people spend close to 1/3 of their lifetime sleeping, so do it right:  for your own sake and for that of your bedmate or roommate.

GAIA

 

how NOT to save Africa's elephants

 

Again, as happens every few years, another African country has initiated a burn off of its massive stockpile of elephant tusks seized from ivory poachers.

    

In this case, the country is Kenya and the mass burn off began March 3, World Wildlife Day. It will continue to the end of the year and will destroy a stockpile of seized elephant tusks amounting to 100 metric tons. (Time,  March 16, 2015, p15.)  

The giant pyres make for a good photo ops as world media cover the spectacular bonfires and government officials get positive publicity and world accolades for their determination and efforts to stop the slaughter of Africa's wild elephants by poachers.

 

I blog about this every few years as this government destruction of hundreds of thousands of tusks is misguided and in fact helps preserve and perpetuate the poaching industry!

Put simply, the fires and tusk destruction  violate the basic principle of Economics 101: supply and demand.

Yes, Western nations are outlawing the use and import of objects made with elephant ivory: from beautifully carved figurines and jewelry created by highly skilled craftsmen and artists in the Middle and Far East to piano keys and violin bow ends.

 

But demand in over half the world continues to be strong and will continue to grow as more and more people in China and India and adjoining countries become more prosperous and can afford ivory items long held as highly desirable works of art.¹

 

So demand will not -- in the near or even mid-range future -- decline.

 

As for the market 'supply' part of the equation, put simply, governments destroying vast quantities of seized tusks simply ensures 'supply' will be reduced to what poachers can steal -- thereby ensuring the price for ivory will continue to be high and poaching lucrative for the gang leaders and middlemen.

 

Since 2010, it is estimates some 30,000 to 35,000 elephants are killed each year for their tusks², i.e. for 60,000 to 70,000 tusks (at two per elephant). 

 As just under 40 tons represent 4000 dead elephants³, the 100 metric tons to be destroyed in Kenya by the government represents some 10,000 dead elephants – or some 1/3 of all elephants killed annually!!!.

 

As well, with the current going rate in China of $2,100.00 per kilogram of ivory (triple what it was 4 years ago)⁴, the 100 metric tons to be destroyed would be worth $210,000,000.00.

 

If African governments and/or some international organization such as the UN would sell the confiscated tusks in a controlled manner -- and funnel the profits into animal welfare programs and educational campaigns in the East and Middle East -- an increase of legitimate ivory on the open market would substantially reduce poaching and may even squeeze out poacher networks.

Confiscated tusks -- instead of being pointlessly destroyed in a show of bravado -- could be sold and turned into a positive.

 

________________________

1. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/14/china-boom-fuels-africa-poaching

2. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-28842965

3. http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/09/what-is-it-about-an-elephants-tusks-that-make-them-so-valuable/262021/

4. http://iworry.org/smuggled-elephant-ivory-price-triples-2100-per-kg-china/

 

 

GAIA and MEDIA

 

Canada must return to the Fahrenheit scale

This morning, January 20, 2015, 680New radio announced by 8:00 a.m. that Toronto Public Health had declared an Extreme Cold Weather Alert warning.

 

The high today was forecast as -5 C and the low a -12 C with winds at night creating a wind chill factor of up to -19 C.

 

The on-line Toronto Star today has a critical article attacking Toronto Public Health and the system in general for not declaring a Cold Weather Alert for Monday when a man died overnight at a bus shelter dressed in a T-shirt and shorts. [http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/01/06/how_many_torontonians_does_it_take_to_declare_an_extreme_cold_weather_alert_keenan.html]

 

Last week, as well, 680News radio reported that a Toronto councilor has recommended the city treat temperatures below -10 Celsius as hazardous and activate emergency weather centres and warnings.  

 

680News also ran some ads warning that hypothermia can occur even if the temperature is above 0 Celsius. 

It also reported a study which found that people's body temperature drops when shown a video of cold weather conditions.  An example of the power of mind over body.

And 680News, in its 4 times per hour weather reports, continues to treat temperatures below -5 Celsius as 'dangerously cold’ if wind chill is taken into account.

 

Now I am not a fan of winter cold.  I do not ski or skate and wish every homeless person had access to heated daytime areas and permanent homes, but as someone living in the second warmest part of Canada outside of the Vancouver area, I find the attack on normal Canadian weather disconcerting.

According to the American National Weather Service chart at

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/winter/windchill.shtml,  on a calm, windless day, only below  -50 F (-46 C) can one get frostbite in less than 5 minutes on exposure body parts.  Yes, frostbite can occur in 5 minutes at higher temperatures such as -10 F  (-23.33 C)  but only if you are uncovered in 60 mile per hour winds—but how often do you go out in gale force weather!

Environment Canada’s website ( http://www.ec.gc.ca/meteo-weather/default.asp?lang=En&n=d9553ab5-1#extremeCold)  states that for South-central and Southwestern Ontario it does not declare a cold weather alert unless “the temperature or wind chill is expected to reach minus 30°C for at least two hours”.

 

But over the last two years the Extreme Cold Weather Alert threshold used by 680News is no longer the long time standard of a temperature of -15 C (still Toronto’s official criteria) but initially was a wind chill factor of -25 C and since last winter a wind chill of -17 Celsius. 

 

Adding wind chill as a factor, however, has always been questionable because buildings and even street homes minimize or block and eliminate the wind factor.

And if a Toronto councilor has his way, the extreme cold weather trigger would rise to a -10 Celsius -- and be in effect most nights in the GTA from mid-December through January and February!

 

The reality is that Toronto at least is having an unusually mild winter so far: warmer temperatures and only one modest snow storm. 

 

Yes, the homeless and anyone who goes out in summer dress in sub-zero Celsius temperatures for any length of time is at risk, but that is not the norm for the 2.79 million people of Toronto today and the 5.5 million in the GTA  (Greater Toronto Area).

But the mindset – whether a perverse side effect of the belief Global Warming should increase our winter temperatures, self-interest to make weather 'newsworthy' and to get an  audience by exaggeration and hype, or well-meaning advocates for the poor --  feeds into the psychology of cold found in the aforementioned study.

If we are constantly bombarded with weather reports that treat normal or mild winter weather as 'dangerously cold' , our minds will take over and make us actually feel colder – fulfilling the false media message.

 

To defend and protect us from this psychological paranoia, I suggest that Canada officially revert to Fahrenheit from Celsius,  or at least have forecasts give both numbers and ensure we teach Fahrenheit to all school age children.

We switched to Celsius as part of metrication some 40 years ago but the U.S.A. did not and kept the more useful – and psychologically better – Fahrenheit scale.

On the Celsius scale, water freezes at 0 C and boils at 100 C, but on the Fahrenheit scale, that freezing point is 32 F and the boiling point is 212 F.

Consequently our American cousins do not get psychologically upset if the outdoors in winter are even close to 0 F = -17.8 C.   After all, NFL Superbowl playoffs and even the ‘big game’ have been e played outdoors in frigid January weather.

The aptly nicknamed Freezer Bowl (January 1982) was played in the coldest temperature in NFL history in terms of wind chill.  Air temperature was −9 °F (−23 °C), but with a sustained wind of 27 miles per hour (43 km/h), the wind chill was −37 °F or −38 °C.  For The Ice Bowl, the 1967 final, the game-time temperature at Lambeau Field was about −15 °F (−26 °C), with an average wind chill around −36 °F (−38 °C)                  [All figures using the current, revised National Weather Service wind chill index]. (See Wikipedia.)    

Certainly  we often see U.S. and Canadian football games with snow falling and gusty winds and heaters on the side to keep players from hypothermia.

So, maybe the best gift you can give and get at Christmas or Chanukah or Kwanza or Chinese New Year is a Fahrenheit thermometer – and the chance to stay ‘mentally’ warm.