Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?

One important reason is the big delay — and advantage — women have over men in terms of cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke. Women develop these problems usually in their 70s and 80s, about 10 years later than men, who develop them in their 50s and 60s. For a long time, doctors thought the difference was due to estrogen. But studies have shown that this may not be the case, and now we know that giving estrogen to women post-menopause can actually be bad for them.

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Sleepless Nights Linked to Marital Strife

Wives who have difficulty falling asleep at night are more likely to have marital woes, according to a new study.

For the study, presented today at Sleep 2011, the 25th anniversary meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Minneapolis, 35 healthy, married couples wore actigraphs -- bracelets that measured the time it took each partner to fall asleep after going to bed and the total time each slept over 10 days. The couples also kept a diary in which they recorded positive and negative interactions with their spouse.

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A Different Kind of STD for Couples to Worry About

"A new national survey a different kind of STD that couples must worry about. Turns out if you marry someone who has debt and doesn't tell you about it, you may pay the price for years to come. Plus, if your spouse is financial promiscuous while you're married, you may be on the hook to pay off your spouse's secret spending. The even scarier part – many folks have 'sexually transmitted debt' and don't even know it."

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My 2 year old nephew

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Meeting my Father after more than a Decade

I can't remember when was the last time I saw my father. He left us when I was in my senior year in high school. We basically lived with our mom. Without a doubt, I love my mom. They said I was a favorite of my father because I looked like him. But I do not feel any love for him anymore because over the years I hated him for what he did.

When we learned that my aunt, the older sister of my father, died of diabetes last Thursday, we decided to go to my father's place to visit the wake of my aunt last Sunday. We thought it would also be the best time to visit my father too.

Meeting my father after more than 10 years is quite strange. The hatred that I felt before was gone when I saw him. I can feel that my father was so happy to see us and his grand children. He prepared dinner for us. As they say, all that's well, ended well.

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Old Photo of the Day

I have nothing in mind to blog about today. So I just took a picture of my parents' wedding picture mounted on the wall for the last 48 years. I wonder how photos are made before. My parents faces looked very different from the way they really look like. It seems very odd because they look like chinese in the picture, LOL!

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dear MOM and DAD, I Love You But Please Don't...

Don't spoil me. I know quite well that I ought not to have all I ask for. I'm only testing you.

Don't be afraid to be firm with me. I prefer it. It makes me feel more secure.

Don't let me form bad habits. I have to rely on you to detect them stupidly "big".

Don't correct me in front of people if you can help it. I'll take much more notice if you talk quietly with me in private.

Don't make me feel that my mistakes are sins. It upsets my sense of values.

Don't be too upset when I say "I hate you," It isn't you I hate, but your power to thwart me.

Don't protect me from consequences. I need to learn the painful way sometimes.

Don't take too much notice of my small ailments. Sometimes they get me the attention I need.

Don't nag. If you do, I shall have to protect myself by appearing deaf.

Don't make rash promises. Remember that I feel badly let donw when promises are broken.

Don't forget that I cannot explain myself as wel as I should like. That is why I am not always very accurate.

Don't be inconsistent. That completely confuses me and makes me lose faith in you.

Don't tax my honesty too much. I am easily frightened into telling lies.

Don't put me off when I ask questions. If you do, you will find that I stop asking and seek my information elsewhere.

Don't tell me my fears are silly. They are terribly real and you can do much to reassure me if you try to understand.

Don't ever suggest that you are perfect or infalliable. It gives me too great a shocl when I discover that you are neither.

Don't ever think that it is beneath your dignity to apologize to me. An honest apology makes me feel surprisingly warm toward you.

Don't forget I love experimenting. I couldn't get on without it, so please put up with it.

Don't forget how quickly I am growing up. It must be very difficult for yo to keep pace with me, but please do try.

Don't forget that I can't thrive without lots of understanding and love, but I don't need to tell you that, do I?

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The World's Children: Liability or Legacy?

One third of all people living on earth today are children under the age of 15. Eighty percent of these children live in the poor and underveloped parts of the world.

In some countries they make up over half the population. Millions of them live in poverty and squalor, without proper health care, and without hope. They are growing up sick and illiterate.

Many major nations have embarked on ambitious programs to stem the tide of extra mouths. One of the best known examples is the one-child-per-couple policy effect in the Peoples Republic of China.

The chinese were headed for a catastrophe. Their population doubled just since the Revolution of 1949. To counteract this, the Chinese government decided to attempt to restrict all couples to only one child. Parents who agree to restrict their families receive certain economic benefits. Parents who have larger families are penalized by fines and lack of certain privileges. Although this may seem heartless, the Chinses point out that those who cooperate wth the one child program should not have to bear the cost of other families' extra mouths.

Reports indicate that the policy will stabilize China's population by the year 2000. But even now with the comparatively modest birthrate of 1.2 percent, China adds the equivalent of Australia's population each year.

Millions of Chinese mothers, many in the later stages of pregnancy, have had abortions. These are also disturbing reports of infantiside of girls. Chinese tradition values sons, and may have taken drastic steps to ensure that their one permitted child is male. It is hard to prove, but the Chinese do admit that in some rural aread there seems to be a disproportionate amount of male births reported.


In Asia today hundreds of thousands of children go blind every year because of eye diseases that would take only a few cents worth of vitamin A to correct. A few more pennies would provide the vitamin D and calcium that would stop the deformed and twisted limbs caused by rickets.

Millions die of easily cures and even more easily prevented disease - because they have no access to even minimal health care. In the slum areas just outsude the modern city of Nairobi, capital of Kenyam hundreds of children played amidst piles of rubbish.
Kenya. has the world's highest birthrate, and must urgently find a solution to its growing population of children. These cheerful children had no idea that they were surplus or that they had been born into a world that may have no place for them.

They face a desperate future. There are not enough places for them to go to school - and insufficient jobs for those that do somehow get an education. They are, as humans view it, a liability for their already hard pressed nation.

In the slums of Calcutta, one can sometimes hear a piteos sound coming from the mounds of garbage and trash that line the streets of that desperately overcrowded city. sometimes it is an abandoned kitten. Sometimes it is a newborn baby abandoned in its first hours of life by parents who knew they could not care for it.

Some of these babies are discovered and are blessed to be taken to the orphanage. The tiny, fragile scraps of humanity are lovingly cared for by those who struggle in the orphanage to preserve each infant's spark of life. Sometimes they succeed and they continue to care for the children during their first years of life. And then? "We must let them go back to the streets where they came from. There are always other children we must save. We wish it were not that way."


Significant sums of money are given every year by wealthier countries to help the poorer nations care for their children. But it is only scratching the surface. We are trapped in a system where more children are born that can be cared for. Is there nos way out of it?

Many children today are, tragically, a liability and a drain on their country's scant resources. That is no excuse for bringing more children now into situations where they can only know wretchedness and misery. In many parts of this sad world, a form of national population control is the only sensible alternative humans know. We should not want more children now if we cannt take care of those that we already have. But that does not mean that every method of population control is good. Some are certainly wrong. Wise family planning excludes abortion and infaticide!

Countless millions of children are already a liability. But that isn't their fault.

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Young People and Money

How do parents develop a healthy respect for money in a preteen youngsters, and on what basis should an allowance be established?

We call it "legal tender," and teaching young people to give this "tender" loving cate is an important responsibility of parents.

The lessons start early whether we want them to or not. Whatever your child's age, therefore, it's wise to plan some strategies for teaching the lessons about money you want them to learn. Pre-schoolers can be taken on shopping trips and given small sums to buy something of their own choosing. Slightly older children can be let in on discussions of major family purchases, deciding how the money is provided to pay for these (assuming you get it honestly). Early on, children should learn the distinction between using money and merely spending it.

All lessons pertaining to money should be positive, constructive. Too often we let our children see us fretting over problems o f inflation and economic shortage. The message we give them is that money is one of the most important than whether they learn to balance a budget. We need to teach them not to overvalue money.

Ideally, we want our children to see money as an extension of themselves, a resource that can go in their place to help others. We want them to realize that they are stewards of their financial resources, charged with the responsibility of using them well. And just as you can't teach your son or daughter to hit a baseball by verbal instruction - you have to put a bat in their young hands and let them swing - you can't just talk about using money wisely and expect youngsters to learn.

The usual vehicle for teaching these values is the allowance. A definition of "allowance" that clarifies all important aspects is: specific sums of moeny given at regular intervals and designed, by mutual agreement, to cover designated costs as well as discretionary spending money.

The sum and the interval should be an agreement based on experience. Have the child keep track of expenses for a few weeks, including regular weekly needs such as bus fare and lunches, as well as reasonable number of "extras". How the child uses the discretionary part of the allowance (morally) must always be a matter of his or her own choice.

Review the amount of the allowance with the child every few months in the beginning, and at least annually with an older youngster. Keep an eye on inflation as well as needs that increase with age. Make sure your child doesn't get too far out on a limb before he or she learns that money doesn't grow on trees.

One of the most damaging mistakes we can make is giving too much. Over giving deprives children of the desire to achieve on their own. We must realize that we are really helping our young people when we don't give them everything they ask for what they have.

Money, after all, is like manure. Spreading it around does a lot of good. If you pile it up it really stinks!

(by Joseph L. Felix, Source: PST Digest)

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Tips for Your Next Family Reunion

Post a daily schedule. That way, family members know when to show up for vairous activities, like choir rehearsal.

Help folks identify each other. Prepare name tags, and have some handly latecomers, too. Don't be sa slave to the clock. It helps if you stick fairly closely to the itinerary. But, if everyone's enjoying the family olympics, don't feel compelled to end the friendly competition just to begin your next event promptly at 5.

Help defray costs. Have a fund-raising committee hold a dinner-dance and a raffle, conduct garage sales, and bake and sell green corn tamles to keep expenses down. The collection will pay for T-shirts and go toward airfare and lodging costs.

Gather lodging information. Give your relatives options, in several price ranges, of good places to stay. Along with the reunion registration, assign someone to send a form so relatives can request a hotel room or camping spot.

Check local ordinances for noise or park hours. Notify nearby neighbors or the impending reunion, which means extra vehicles and noise. Not everyone has the room to hold a reunion at home. If you have gatherings at a park, find out about closing time.

Embrace local traditions. Different parts of the country have their own customs. Incorporating some of those features into your normal activities can lend new excitement to your reunion.

Plan sight-seeing excursions. Many family members had not visited the area before, so car-pooled trips are especially fun. Find out in advance about who might want to go on tour, and to what sights. Get information from local visitors and convention bureaus.

Give inexpensive gifts. Hand out earrings made from replica chile peppers, visors, bags of saltwater taffy, bookmarks, a magnetic note holder, and other low cost items.

Gather lasting mementos. A family group portrait is essential. Also try to get youngsters to write down their feelings about the reunion.

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