Valdar's Blog

Information and Technology in Daily Life, Investing opportunities, Jobs, Mobile Phones

Archive for the ‘Friends’ Category

Save your skin this Holi

February 28th, 2010 No Comments

The Holi countdown has begun. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the long weekend ahead and of course, the parties. Going wild is very much the essence of Holi, and most of us enjoy this festival just because it offers the opportunity to throw restraint out of the window for a few hours.

So why not prepare yourself for the inevitable onslaught of water and colour? While colour is the essence of Holi, the skinfriendly natural dyes used a decade ago have now been replaced by synthetic dyes that have toxic effects.

To minimise the potential effects of these on the skin and hair, it’s best to take precautions.

The precautions have to be taken for some days before and after Holi.

“Avoid all facial treatments during this period. If you are prone to allergies and rashes, visit your dermatologist to check whether you need precautionary medication,” advises Dr Ajay Rana, a dermatologist and aesthetic physician, who is the director of Berkowits Hair and Skin Clinics.

Harsh chemicals in the colours can cause itching and rashes, which lead to eczema upon scratching. Contact dermatitis, abrasion, irritation, itching, dryness, pruritus and burning sensation are the other problems. The best way to protect your skin is to apply a thick layer of oil or petroleum jelly on the exposed parts of the body an hour before you step out.

Also, use sunscreen since the dyes present in the colours make the skin vulnerable to sun burns, darkening and rashes. There’s also the risk of getting dry skin and pigmentation since some colours are photosensitive and cause the skin to burn when it is exposed to sunlight. Washing and scrubbing to remove colours aggravate the problem.

“People tend to use soaps to remove colours but these contain esters that erode the skin layers and often cause rashes,” says Dr Anil Malik, consultant dermatologist at Sitaram Bhartia Hospital. He advises washing with a soap- free cleanser.

Dr Rana cautions against using kerosene, spirit or petrol to remove the colour and says a cream- based cleanser or baby oil is the best option. “Make sure you use cold water for washing as hot water sticks the colour on the skin,” he adds.

A liberal application of moisturiser or baby oil after cleansing is also a good idea. Also, it’s best to stay away from sunlight till your skin settles down.

Coming to hair, the chemicals in the colours cause the roots to become brittle and the scalp to dry up. To prevent this, use baby oil or coconut oil daily before you shampoo your hair in the days leading up to Holi. But Just like soap, don’t overdo the shampoo since it may lead to hair fall.

Nails are also to be taken care of as the dye lodged in nails is hard to remove. The best way to avoid this is to use petroleum jelly. And avoid a pedicure or manicure for a day or so as these treatments can either damage the nail or the cuticle.

Don’t use nailpolish remover to get the colour off as it dissolves the protective skin layer .

Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2010. MTNPL. All rights reserved.

Posted in Friends

A home costs lesser in Burj Khalifa than in Central Delhi

January 7th, 2010 No Comments

An apartment on the 100th floor of ‘Burj Khalifa’, the world’s tallest building and one of the most-sought after addresses in the world today, comes at a price of Rs. 38,000 per sq ft. But if you think that’s a soaring price, consider this – the real estate price in Delhi will beat that by a mile, reports Economic Times.

The apartments on Prithviraj Road and Aurangzeb Road in Central Delhi are much more expensive. While, the per sq ft rate of apartments in Marble Arch and Tata Apartments on Prithviraj Road is around Rs. 65,000 per sq ft, Ansal apartments on Aurangzeb Road have a price of Rs. 55,000 per sq ft, according to Senior Broker Hemendra Sharma.

In Vasant Vihar and Chanakya Puri in South Delhi, apartments built on smaller plots of 400-800 sq metres are commanding prices of around Rs. 45,000 per sq ft. In fact, there are not many luxury condominiums available in central and south Delhi. However, there are several bungalows on independent plots of around three acres with a permitted area of construction of 3500 sq ft to 10,000 sq ft. These plots are commanding a price of Rs. 200 crore to Rs. 500 crore. So the per sq ft cost of these bunglow comes to a whopping Rs. 5 lakh per sq ft.

Condominiums in Mumbai are even costlier. The per sq ft rate in Mumbai’s NCPA Apartments at Nariman Point is between Rs. 90,000 and Rs. 1 lakh.

Gulam Zia, National Director, research and advisory services of global property consultants Knight Frank says, “In the posh upmarket localities of Delhi and Mumbai, where there is a scarcity of land, property prices have shot through the roof.” Adds Zia, “Property prices in Mumbai’s western and central suburbs of Worli, Lower Parel and Prabhadevi are upwards of Rs. 40,000 per sq ft.”

Real estate prices in India are inverse to the country’s image of a developing nation. “Mumbai and Delhi command one of the highest per sq ft rates in the world,” says Anshuman Magazine, CMD, CB Richard Ellis, South Asia, a leading global property consultancy firm.

In India while the land cost itself is high, the cost of quality is even higher. If one is paying Rs. 38,000 per sq ft for an apartment in the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, for the same price or more in Mumbai or Delhi one will only be paying for the location and not for the construction or amenities. In terms of amenities and quality there is just no comparison. Magazine adds that, in the U.S. when a buyer looks to buy a home, he or she first looks for the amenities on offer that would suit his or her lifestyle, whereas in India it’s all about land and location for the buyer.

While Mumbai and New Delhi are in a zone by themselves as far as realty pricing is considered, other big cities like Chennai and Bangalore are yet to see such pricing, though the rates have dramatically shot up in the recent past.

Posted in Friends, Latest News

Development bug bites hard – Mangalore to lose green cover

December 10th, 2009 No Comments

It is sad but true in five years time, Mangalore will have no greenery left within the core city. The thought is horrible; can you imagine the city is just grey with concrete and steel? It is time to start imagining, it is happening and with a quite a pace at it. The city has lost 3 per cent of its green cover in just 2 years. Thanks to the development bug, if things are not controlled the city will be out of the safe bracket for green cover in less than 5 years according to an estimation.

The fears of Mangalore going bald stems from the recent developments, the real estate, road concretization and reclamation of land from the estuarine areas and expansion of city. The city area has grown from 90 square kilometers into 170 square kilometers in the last 20 years and about 70 percent of it happening in the last 10 years.

According to the World Environment standards a city of Mangalore’s size (in terms of economic growth it is called tier II city) should have nothing less than 30 per cent of its urban area under the green cover according to the recent standards, In the pre liberalization period it used to be 17 per cent as per the urban development ceiling, but during the recent times the international environmental standards have been reset and it is mandatory that all tier II cities should maintain 30 per cent green cover.

Just like Mangalore the tier two cities like Coimbatore, Hubli, Gulburga Ernakulum, Kochi, Panaji are also facing less green cover. According to a high ranking forest official at Aranya Bhavana (Forest Department headquarters) in Malleshwaram in Bangalore, Mangalore has seen rapid deforestation in the recent years and the satellite imagery confirms that Mangalore has lost its green cover faster than the other cities.

On the ground, things are more visible to the discerning eyes. Trees are being felled in hundreds for constructing buildings, and laying concrete roads. According to the Mangalore City Corporation figures since 2001 the city has lost more than 800 trees that were more than 25 years of age. In the core city areas like Balmatta, Car Street, Hampankatta, Urva, Ashoknagar, Dambel, Bejai, the social forestry system is a non starter. They have cut down all the endemic species of trees with large canopies like Deodhar, Goli, Ashwattha and many other varieties have been cut and in their places trees with very small canopies have been planted by the Forest department, these trees have no ecological significance.

The Environmental Engineering department which is a specialized department in Mangalore City Corporation has already warned of rapid loss of green cover, which has been meekly admitted by the city fathers and have earmarked Rs. 5 lakhs towards social forestry programme of the Forest department and the Zilla Panchayat.

It is not that people of Mangalore are insensitive to the environmental needs of their city, but the concrete and real estate lobbies are so powerful that they can make or mar the city’s prospects and common people have no way of stopping them as the bureaucracy, and the political leaders were all for protecting the interests of those lobbies. Some builder who has now got into the business of building concrete roads and acquires machinery the administration goes head over heels to give him business. There is no denying that the city needs good roads but at what cost ask the environmental groups. They point out that when the concrete roads are built they do not earmark place for planting trees they do not leave enough space for the growth of large trees. In a classic case the local people have brought a stay order from the court for the widening of the road in Valencia on the argument that the MCC had plans to cut 19 large trees and has made no provision to plant new trees of the same girth.

Balmatta is another classic case between the Collectors gate to the Dr. Ambedkar circle (earlier Jyothi circle) after widening and concretization of this road there is not even one tree is standing. From Ambedkar circle to Milagres centre again there are no trees.

Posted in Friends, Mangalore

India embarks on e-tracking of crime project

November 25th, 2009 No Comments

The government is interconnecting about 14,000 police stations and 6,000 police offices across the country for an IT-enabled sophisticated tracking system in crime investigation and detection of criminals, parliament was told Tuesday.

The total estimated cost of the nation-wide project, called Crime and Criminal Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS), is estimated to be Rs.2,000 crore, Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken said in the Lok Sabha.

“The major role in the implementation of the project will be with state governments and the union territory administrations,” Maken said.

He said the role of the central government would be “largely confined to development and management of the Core Application Software and issuing guidelines, review and monitoring of the project implementation”.

He said three states — Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat — have developed “somewhat similar platforms” to automate the processes related to case registration, investigation, arrest and status of court trials.

Posted in Computers, Friends, Information and Technology

SWINE FLU FACT FILE

August 26th, 2009 No Comments

What are the symptoms?

Swine flu symptoms are similar to the symptoms of regular flu and include fever of over 100.4°F, fatigue, lack of appetite, and cold. Some people with swine flu have also reported runny nose, sore throat, nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea. Nearly everyone with flu has at least two of these symptoms.

So, how do you know if you have flu or just cold?
There is one clue: when you have the flu, you feel flu symptoms sooner than you would cold symptoms, and they come on with much greater intensity. With the flu, you may feel very weak and fatigued for up to 2 or 3 weeks. You’ll have muscle aches and periods of chills and sweats as fever comes and goes. You may also have a stuffy or runny nose, headache, and sore throat.

Can I compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms?
Yes. The following chart can help you compare flu symptoms with cold symptoms. Use it to lean the differences and similarities between flu and cold symptoms. Then, if you get flu symptoms, call your doctor and ask about an antiviral drug.

Symptoms	Cold	Flu
Fever	Rare	Characteristic, high 100-102 degrees F); lasts 3-4 days
Headache	Rare	Prominent
General aches, pains	Slight	Usual; often severe
Fatigue, Weakness	Quite mild	Can last up to 2-3 weeks
Extreme Exhaustion	Never	Early and prominent
Stuffy Nose	Common	Sometimes
Chest Discomfort,Cough	Mild to moderate; hacking cough	Common; can become severe

You cannot confirm if you have swine flu just based on your symptoms. Like seasonal flu, pandemic swine flu can cause neurologic symptoms in children. These events are rare, but, as cases associated with seasonal flu have shown, they can be very severe and often fatal.

Doctors may offer a rapid flu test, but what you need to understand is a negative result doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t have the flu. Only lab tests can definitively show whether you’ve got swine flu. State health departments can do these tests.

Who is at risk?

Those who are more at risk from becoming seriously ill with swine flu are people with:

chronic (long-term) lung disease, including people who have had drug treatment for their asthma within the past three years,
chronic heart disease,
chronic kidney disease,
chronic liver disease,
chronic neurological disease (neurological disorders include motor neurone disease, Parkinson’s disease and multiple sclerosis),
suppressed immune systems (whether caused by disease or treatment),
diabetes,
pregnant women,
people aged 65 or older, and
young children under five.
Source: National Health Service, UK website

How does it spread?

The new swine flu virus is highly contagious, that is it spreads from person to person. The virus is spread through the droplets that come out of the nose or mouth when someone coughs or sneezes. If someone coughs or sneezes and they do not cover it, those droplets can spread about one metre (3ft). If you are very nearby you might breathe them in.

Or, if someone coughs or sneezes into their hand, those droplets and the virus within them are easily transferred to surfaces that the person touches, such as door handles, hand rails, telephones and keyboards. If you touch these surfaces and touch your face, the virus can enter your system, and you can become infected.

Source: National Health Service, UK website

Can it be prevented?

Influenza antiviral drugs also can be used to prevent influenza when they are given to a person who is not ill, but who has been or may be near a person with swine influenza. When used to prevent the flu, antiviral drugs are about 70% to 90% effective. When used for prevention, the number of days that they should be used will vary depending on a person’s particular situation.

Follow this general procedure to reduce the risk of catching or spreading the virus, you should:

Cover your mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, using a tissue
Throw the tissue away quickly and carefully
Wash your hands regularly with soap and water
Clean hard surfaces (like door handles and remote controls) frequently with a normal cleaning product
Keep away from others as much as possible. This is to keep from making others sick. Do not go to work or school while ill
Stay home for at least 24 hours after fever is gone, except to seek medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.)
Drink clear fluids (such as water, broth, sports drinks, electrolyte beverages for infants) to keep from being dehydrated
Wear a facemask – if available and tolerable – when sharing common spaces with other household members to help prevent spreading the virus to others.
Source: CDC, National Health Service, UK website

Will it help to wear a mask?

Information on the effectiveness of facemasks and respirators for decreasing the risk of influenza infection in community settings is extremely limited. So, it is difficult to assess their potential effectiveness in decreasing the risk of Swine Flu virus transmission in these settings. However, a well-fitted, FDA-approved mask together with other preventive measures MAY reduce the risk of contracting the flu. Those who are sick or caring for someone who is ill should consider using a mask or respirator if leaving the house becomes necessary.

Source: CDC

What precautions should one take at home?

Two things – soap and water can reduce the chance of infection by 30 per cent. All you need to do is keep washing your hand with soap and water frequently. Wash hands frequently with soap and water or use alcohol-based hand cleaner when soap and water are not available. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth

Eat healthy: Proteins are essential to help your body maintain and build strength. Lean meat, poultry, fish, legumes, dairy, eggs, and nuts and seeds are good sources of protein.

The Food and Drug Administration recommends that adults eat 50 grams of protein per day. Pregnant and nursing women need more. By eating foods high in protein, we also get the benefit of other healing nutrients such as vitamins B6 and B12, both of which contribute to a healthy immune system.

Vitamin B6 is widely available in foods, including protein foods such as turkey and beans as well as potatoes, spinach, and enriched cereal grains. Proteins such as meats, milk, and fish also contain vitamin B12, a powerful immune booster.

Minerals such as selenium and zinc work to keep the immune system strong. These minerals are found in protein rich foods such as beans, nuts, meat, and poultry.

Exercise: Regular exercise may help prevent the flu. According to recent findings, when moderate exercise is repeated on a near daily basis, there is a cumulative immune-enhancing effect. That is, your strong immune system can fight flu better. When you exercise, your white blood cells — the blood cells that fight infections in the body — travel through your body more quickly, fighting bacteria and viruses (such as flu) more efficiently. To maintain good health, experts recommend at least 30 minutes of aerobic activity such as walking, swimming, biking, or running each day.

Source: Flu India website, CDC, WebMD

What precautions should one take at schools?

Avoid close contact with people who are sick
People who are sick with an influenza-like illness should stay home and keep away from others as much as possible, including avoiding travel, for at least 24 hours after fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Fever should be gone without the use of fever-reducing medicine). Cover your mouth and nose with a tissue when coughing or sneezing
Wash your hands often
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth
Source: CDC

Is it safe to travel?

Avoid traveling unnecessarily. However, if you must travel, check how the country you’re going to handles swine flu. Although, the WHO doesn’t recommend travel restrictions, many countries have set up their own H1N1 policies, and some travelers have been screened or quarantined in other countries because of swine flu concerns.

Source: WebMD.com

Posted in For Parents, Friends, Information and Technology, Mangalore

Water Drops-no Doubt More Precious Than Diamonds!!!

October 21st, 2008 No Comments

‘Water’ having molecular formula of H2O comprises of 2 atoms of hydrogen with an atom of oxygen covering almost one-third of our Earth’s surface. The basic need of all living beings! not only a need actually a basic building block of our Planet. Our planet Earth is composed of four main elements Fire, Soil, Air and Water.Water is the main constituent element of our World.

The question is could anyone of us imagine of surviving without this blessing of nature? The answer is certainly not! none of the living beings can survive without it as it’s the most essential need of our body and not only our body requirements almost all the work we carry out through out our routein lives are mostly carried out by water. Water is undoubtedly being used at a huge amount every single day.

The idea is actually we can survive without a precious and extremely expensive stone Diamond but not water. As diamonds are considered precious and all of us would try to keep them ass safe as possible but have we ever bothered ourselves on the importance and need of SAVING WATER!!! .Actually neglected reality and a truly serious problem to be considered by each of the individual.

Predicted by a number of scientists that future wars may take place on water deficiency issues still we don’t bother and if yet we don’t bother may it would be too late to work the serious matter out.

No-Doubt each drop of water is much more precious than a diamond stone!!!

Posted in For Parents, Friends, Information and Technology, Latest News, Mangalore

Learning Time Management Skills: Helpful Advice to People Learning Time Management Skills

October 21st, 2008 No Comments

Learning time management skills should be one of our most important priorities. The amount of distraction and clutter we get on a daily basis calls for effective planning and focused action; hence, learning time management skills is vital.

We get so many distractions from advertisements online that at times, it can be difficult to remain focused on what we are doing. Just reading through emails and seeing an irresistible offer can mean several minutes of wasted time. The self-discipline we need to keep gets even more difficult by the day. But does it have to be this way? Of course not!

Learning time management skills can be compared to a diet. Your willingness to cut carbs and exercise will be extremely hard at the beginning; but if you work one step at a time, the momentum will build up.

Managing your time can be very difficult at first; however, once you start to continue studying and applying proven time management principles, the easier it is for you to manage your schedules and finish your tasks rapidly and efficiently.

One of the most effective steps in learning time management skills is to start by asking: “What gives you the most amounts of distractions when it is time for you to work?” Once you ask yourself such question, you should be able to come up with a lot of answers which you can evaluate and work on improving.

Another question you could ask yourself is: “At what times will I be distracted the most?” By asking yourself such question, you raise your own conclusions on what needs to be done when you are planning to work, and avoid any potential up-ahead distraction that arrives later on.

Learning time management skills is crucial because it improves your daily life by knowing how to cope with, and eliminate, distractions.

In conclusion, before you start any venture or activity, evaluate your skills in time management. This will help you calculate how much time it will take you to achieve your goals and even to avoid possible frustrations. Learning time management skills is something you should learn if you want to be on top of the success chain, so it’s time to act now.

Posted in Computers, For Parents, Friends, Information and Technology, Jobs, Latest News