Friday 27 October 2017

Fighting To Save The Planet

We live in really troubled times despite our guise that life is smooth sailing. We may enjoy plenty of modern conveniences but many aspects of our life are failing. Mother Earth is hurting and we only have ourselves to blame. The planet is overcrowded. Hence, there are more mouths to feed and more people who will require the use of the various resources naturally found on this planet. To say that the world is on the verge of collapse is an understatement yet most of us will just easily shrug this statement off, all the while making yourself believe that this is but a lie.

How mistaken we all are, though. We only have one earth to live and if we don’t act now and save whatever is left of the planet, we might lose our only home in the entire universe. Global warming and climate change are realities of our time and we feel their power whenever there are natural calamities that hit random places throughout the web throughout the year. Are we really willing to endure more just so we can stay comfortable at home when we might lose everything we have now in the next few years or so?

Singapore's conservation efforts received the stamp of approval from top primate expert Jane Goodall, who said these are steps in the right direction.

But despite the rising awareness of environmental issues in the country, more can be done to reduce the conflict between humans and animals, she added.

For instance, she said people must stop feeding the long-tailed macaques that are found in many parts of the island. Doing so introduces them to human food, and drives them to harass humans and enter their homes in search of food.

Dr Goodall said if people left them alone for two or three years, and no one was feeding them, young monkeys would stop associating humans with food.

(Via: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/singapores-conservation-efforts-get-thumbs-up-from-top-primate-expert-jane-goodall)

Let us applaud nations like Singapore that take environmental conservation seriously. Conserving the environment is not an easy task considering you need to enforce discipline to discourage everyone from doing anything bad against the environment and the animals living in the wild and you also need money to enforce the law and provide all the support such an initiative will ever need. This is especially more challenging to do in struggling third-world countries where the government is not even capable of providing even the most basic of needs of the people what more to protect the environment that is being exploited by its desperate and hungry citizens that only think about themselves.

Over the past two decades, architects and engineers have developed approaches to building design that greatly reduce the impact of buildings on the natural environment (“green” buildings) and their human occupants (“healthy” buildings). But these movements focus primarily on new buildings, which benefit only a relatively small number of people compared with the many who could be helped by making existing structures more habitable. Moreover, most people — including many of those responsible for ordering the construction and remodeling of buildings — are not aware of these advances. Many key features of green buildings — such as energy and water conservation, for example — are not immediately noticeable, and as a result, these simple but important practices are significantly underused.

(Via: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/how-to-stay-calmer-more-alert-and-save-the-environment-bring-the-weather-indoors/2017/08/11/4da49836-6b09-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.acec5e94d800)

Not only are environmental conservation efforts solely focused on the wild but making lifestyle modifications that are more eco-friendly makes as much impact on the planet. Sustainability is a hot topic right now among land builders and developers because we can’t stop progress from happening but we can reduce the damage humans do at the expense of Mother Nature. We can still pursue our modern interests without compromising the environment. That’s what sustainable living is all about. We still have a shot in protecting the earth before everything is too late. With our concerted green efforts, we may be able to slow down climate change and pass on a healthy and livable planet to the next generation.

Fighting To Save The Planet was initially seen on The HD Business Blog



source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/fighting-to-save-the-planet/

Friday 20 October 2017

Is A Medical Job For You?

Most people think over and over about what career path they will be pursuing some day and it all starts with the course/major you take up in college. Education is the best preparation for your bright future in whatever profession you decide to practice. Most of the time, the youth are influenced by their family and friends by their career choice and they end up taking up something they aren’t really passionate about. There are various career choices out there and you can choose whether to work in conventional jobs in offices, institutions, or in the health care field or in newer and more in-demand specialties in the field of Information Technology and Computer Science.

If there is a career many admire but are at the same quite afraid of, it is a job in the medical field. The idea that you are dealing with human lives and one mistake can cost another person’s life is a frightening thought for anyone just starting out their profession but still, many students take up a health-related course for various reasons. Aside from being well-compensated, the satisfaction one can get from saving a person’s life is more than what they can ask for in life. It has become their mission and vocation to be an instrument for everyone to become healthy and well again.

If Damore is to be believed, women seek out jobs in “social or artistic areas” and are proven to be more prone to “neuroticism” and thus to “higher anxiety” and “lower stress tolerance.” It’s worth remembering that the rise of women in medicine over the last generation has taken place in a profession renowned for its exacting and rigorous training in basic sciences, bench science and gruelling clinical work. Although physicians may often get too much credit from the general public for the work they do (especially compared to other equally stressful, lower-status and, yes, female-dominated jobs in health care), the hours, stress and high stakes of medical training and practice are undeniable. If women as a group lack the qualities required to do the job, how are they thriving in medicine?

(Via: http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2017/08/16/commentary-most-of-my-medical-colleagues-are-women-the-google-memo-writer-has-them-wrong/)

These days, more and more women are working in the health field – a field that used to be dominated by men. It clearly shows that a medical job is no longer gender-discriminating and that anyone who has a passion for helping the sick and serving the public can thrive in this work setting. Actually, men are more inclined to pursue a tech-related career today because there is a big demand for it in today’s modern world. Yet a health care-related work can’t just be ignored because people need someone to attend to their needs from conception to death and everything else in between.

Healthcare and Medical professionals are in demand, with job ads on Seek growing 9 per cent from April to June when compared to the same period last year. In Wellington, this advertising has increased by 23 per cent.

Janet Faulding, General Manager for SEEK NZ, said the Healthcare & Medical industry is one of New Zealand’s largest employing and fastest growing industries, underpinned by strong population growth and our aging population.

“The national average advertised annual salary across the Healthcare & Medical industry on SEEK is $72,339,” said Faulding.

“The largest advertising Healthcare & Medical sub-sector on SEEK is Nursing, with its many specialised areas, it comprises of around one-third of all jobs being nationally advertised across the industry,” she added.

One Nursing sub-sector showing consistent strength is Aged Care, with annual growth of 8 per cent year on year [Apr-June 17 v Apr-June 17].

(Via: http://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=101463)

It’s interesting that despite the advances in our technology, the demand for healthcare remains or even increases as more diseases and health conditions now plague mankind. Cancer that used to be a rare condition is now afflicting people of all walks of life and our lifestyle has a lot to do with it. With the morbidity and mortality rates constantly rising, we need more manpower in the health industry than ever. Germs are becoming more resistant to antibiotics leaving behind a long trail of sick patients that not only need medical attention but your tender, loving care.

Like any other job, it is a dirty job but somebody’s got to do it. You handle lots of modern equipment in caring for patients and not to mention you get puked at, yelled at, and overworked while multitasking a myriad of tasks where some are even no longer a part of your job description but making a difference in your patient’s life is priceless and a simple thank you can often ease all your stress and exhaustion away. Sign up for a medical-related course now because we need more angels in the sick room.

Is A Medical Job For You? was initially published on https://hdbizblog.com/blog



source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/is-a-medical-job-for-you/

Friday 13 October 2017

Does Your Child Need Some Spanking?

Parenting is a world of mixed emotions. From the moment the baby is born, a parent’s life isn’t just theirs anymore as another human being solely depends on them for survival and on just about everything else. And parenting does not end even when your children become parents themselves. It’s a continuous process that has no end, quite literally. While parenting can be described as an experience full of sugar, spice, and everything nice, raising a child is not just a simple walk in the park. You are rearing an individual who will soon make his/her mark in the world and how he/she was raised as a child will have a big impact on the person he/she becomes in the future.

Discipline is a controversial issue when it comes to child rearing as different parents have different interpretations of it. As parents, you can’t help but shower your child with love and kisses every time you see him/her but your child needs more than just your love to become a good and responsible adult in the future. There are different ways of disciplining a child but some are more controversial than the others. Spanking, for instance, is a method that raises the eyebrow of many and has been widely practiced in the past but not as much today especially in America where a parent can get locked up in jail when proven to physically hit his/her child in violation of a child’s inherent human rights.

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott once said, "I think all parents know that occasionally the best thing that we can give a kid is a smack", but according to science, he couldn’t have been more wrong.

A new study from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Michigan found that physical discipline during infancy can be detrimental to both behaviour and mental health in later years.

To find their answers, researchers studied the data of over 160,000 children over a 50 year period. They discovered that smacking, defined as an open-handed hit on the behind or extremities, led to anti-social behaviours, aggression and mental health issues in adulthood.

“We found that spanking was associated with unintended detrimental outcomes and was not associated with more immediate or long-term compliance, which are parents’ intended outcomes when they discipline their children.”

(Via: http://www.nowtolove.com.au/parenting/parenting-news/spanking-leads-to-mental-health-problems-39628)

There have been lots of studies suggesting that spanking does not serve a child any good. It only brings out the worst in a child and teaches him/her to harbor ill feelings toward their parents or elders, learn to keep secrets and grow up to be a mean and irresponsible individual someday. There are other ways to teach a child what is right from wrong and it does not really require a parent to raise his/her hand against the child. An open communication is important to let your child feel he/she can trust you all the time without compromising your parent-child relationship.

A new study finds that “spare the rod and spoil the child,” may not hold up in the lab as well as it does in the Bible. The University of Missouri study concluded that physical discipline, including spanking, of infants can have negative consequences on their outcomes even ten years down the line. However, these effects differed between European American and African American children.
The current research builds upon past studies regarding physical discipline on children, according to Gustavo Carlo, a lead researcher on the study and professor of diversity at
University of Missouri.
“I think we know in general that the use of physical punishment and harsh parenting seems to be detrimental to children’s development,” Carlo says. “But we don't know enough about what the long-term consequences of that are.”

(Via: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2017/08/10/spanking-children-can-lead-to-problems-even-10-years-later-mizzou-study-says)

Harsh discipline methods like spanking do a child more harm than good. Children develop aggressive behaviors later in life because of frequent spanking as a child when they could have been disciplined differently. They often turn out as bullies who feel better when they make the life of another child miserable. Imagine a future led by violent children who frequently got a spanking when they were little.

While parents don’t get a handbook on how to raise a child once they become a first-time mom or dad, it is not an excuse for them to take the easy way out and respond to their child’s actions without thinking about its consequences. The next time you feel tempted to spank your child, think about how you’d feel if you were in his/her shoes – how would you want your parent to respond to you?

Does Your Child Need Some Spanking? was initially published on HDBizBlog.com



source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/does-your-child-need-some-spanking/

Thursday 5 October 2017

UK Customs Check After Brexit: Reality Or Fantasy?

The whole world is already aware that the United Kingdom is already making the necessary preparations for the looming Brexit or the UK’s official separation from the European Union. This move in itself is unexpected when it was first brought to lights considering it has not been done before by any nation and it now raises a lot of questions as to life after Brexit. One of the issues tackled concerns UK customs check with Northern Ireland.

Customs issues aren’t that big of a deal before as most of these countries all belong to the European Union and therefore enforce laws that are beneficial for each other especially when it involves the trading of goods. But today, it has become an issue as there are now borders that must be maintained and new laws and regulations to be drafted and enforced once the UK officially leaves the European Union for good.

The UK government has dismissed claims that its plans for a new customs relationship with the EU are a “fantasy” as it restated its opposition to the reintroduction of checks at the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic.

The Northern Ireland secretary, James Brokenshire, said the government’s plans to minimise customs checks with the EU after Brexit were realistic and that Guy Verhofstadt, the European parliament’s lead Brexit negotiator, was wrong to describe them as unworkable.

Theresa May used an article in the Belfast-based Irish News, a nationalist newspaper, to reassure nationalists living in Northern Ireland that Brexit would not see the UK turn its back on its “unique and special relationship” with Ireland.

(Via: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/16/uk-government-defends-brexit-customs-plan-eu-fantasy-northern-ireland)

The thought of having invisible borders is considered more of a fantasy, especially with Brexit looming on the horizon. Trading with other nations belonging to the European Union will no longer be the same and the United Kingdom must identify as early as now the issues that may arise regarding border and customs check to make appropriate preparations for it while there is still time to prepare. It is an issue of national importance considering how trading is vital to both nations – Britain and Ireland.

The British government has vowed repeatedly to end the free movement of people from the European Union when the UK leaves the bloc in 2019. But on Wednesday it acknowledged that, in one area of the country, it won't. 

Britain said there must be no border posts or electronic checks between Northern Ireland and the Irish republic after Brexit, and it committed itself to maintaining the longstanding, border-free Common Travel Area covering the UK and Ireland.

"There should be no physical border infrastructure of any kind on either side of the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland," Conservative British Prime Minister Theresa May said. 

That means free movement across the border for British, Irish – and EU – citizens. After Britain leaves the bloc, EU nationals will be able to move without checks from Ireland to Northern Ireland, and onto other parts of the UK.

(Via: https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2017/0816/UK-government-voices-opposition-to-Irish-border-posts)

Europeans and British people alike have been used to free movement and trade all over Europe for the longest time but this will soon come to an end once Brexit is successfully implemented. While it has its cons, some Britons consider this limitation in the movement to their favor and will give the United Kingdom more control in restricting immigrants and those who desire to study, work, or live in Britain. It has been evident with the votes from Britons who chose Brexit over staying with the EU.

For the benefit of everyone, many are suggesting a “customs partnership” between the UK and the EU in the wake of the Brexit to at least get rid of the problem of having goods checked every time their citizens cross the border. Everything is still a work in progress and both still have time in wrapping up all loose ends for a peaceful and less problematic transition post-Brexit. Fantasy or not, it’s hard to tell by now how things will change for everyone concerned.

The article UK Customs Check After Brexit: Reality Or Fantasy? See more on: The HD Business Blog



source https://hdbizblog.com/blog/uk-customs-check-after-brexit-reality-or-fantasy/