Crisis and Management

A recent study by Oral-B has found out that 44 per cent of residents in Dubai — the city of skyscrapers — suffer from acrophobia (fear of heights), while 34 per cent are plagued by claustrophobia.

While that’s rather odd, the survey also found that more people would rather visit a dentist for treatment than speak in public or encounter a spider.

Glossophobia (fear of public speaking) and arachnophobia (fear of spiders) ranked in third (31 per cent) and in fourth (30 per cent) place respectively, compared to only 19 per cent of people afraid of visiting the dentist.

“We are pleased to see that dental phobia scored lower down the list than we expected,” said sAli Faruqi, Oral-B and Crest brand manager (Arabian Peninsula).

“Despite appearing lower down the phobia rankings, one in five people still stated they had a dental phobia, so we have launched a campaign to help overcome these fears,” he added.

How often we imagine that disasters, or even accidents happen only to ‘other’ people. Well, I thought so, too, until when something went very wrong.

See, I used to work the rigs in Killeen, Texas, and welding was part of the daily work routine. And since I’m a trained hand, I never anticipated any physical injury at work… but things have a way of pouncing upon you when least expected. The inevitable did happen… one not-so-fine day, I burned my right forearm and wrist, and I was not really protected financially to face this kind of mishap.

That was when I contacted one of the extremely knowledgeable Texas Maritime lawyers. Thanks to him, I was able to collect damages from my employer for physical suffering as well as medical expenses. It was only from then that I never took the future for granted.

I remember reading a piece about what makes a dress better – the fabric or the design? My take on this was – if by ‘better’ one meant feeling good, then it would be the fabric, or if they meant looking good, then it could be the design.

Then again, styles will come and fade away, but quality fabrics remain true for a long time. Matter of fact, it’s just not the time – it’s the quality of time you get using fine fabrics.

Of the last perhaps 50 years, or ever since polyester entered the fabrics market, cottons and fine linens have taken a back seat, but some brands, such as Matouk, never go out of style. Besides, you also find the brand in curtains, blankets, bedding and bath products.

There’s a heavy likelihood that millions in low and middle income countries would be pushed below the poverty line by buying common but vital medicines which are already unaffordable to hundreds of millions more, says a study.

Laurens Niens’ team at Erasmus University Rotterdam analyzed the number of people who would be pushed below an income level of $1.25 or $2 a day — poverty indicators used by the World Bank — by paying for four important, widely used medicines.

The Dutch researchers whose work was published in the Public Library of Science (PLoS) Medicine journal said their findings showed that greater effort is needed to encourage the use of cheaper generic drugs in poor countries and to ensure more medicines are made available through the public sector.

Using data from the World Bank and WHO, the researchers generated “impoverishment rates” for these medicines in 16 low- and middle-income countries.

The results of their study show the much greater impoverishing effect of branded drugs which are sometimes the only option available in countries where public sector provision is often patchy.

In Yemen, for example, where seven percent of people live on less than $1.25 a day, buying branded glibenclamide — sold as Daonil by Sanofi-Aventis — would impoverish another 22 percent, but buying the cheapest generic equivalent would only push another 3 percent below the poverty line.

In Nigeria, amoxicillin is already unaffordable to the 56 percent of the population who live on less than $1.25 per day.

A further 23 percent of Nigerians would be pushed into poverty by by having to buy branded version Amoxil, made by GlaxoSmithKline, while only another 12 percent would be impoverished by buying the cheapest generic version, the study said.

Source TA

Well, ‘that special lady’ in your life might be a different person each year as one grows older. While one’s a kid, it would most certainly be one’s mother, then it could be the girl next door, and still later a girlfriend in college.

With time, ‘that special lady’ could be one’s wife, and later on, his daughter. However, despite all these new forms ‘that special lady’ could take, what doesn’t change is man’s desire to please her in any way he can.

And now that it’s closing in on Christmas, men would be exploring the gifts area, searching through women’s apparel stores, perfumes, footwear, what not… until they find the perfect gift to make ‘that special lady’ happy!

Even if it’s snowing, it’s still Christmas, and that’s reason enough for many of us to go out there and light up the town… or at least our lawns. And fortunately for the imaginative, there’s no dearth of Christmas yard decorations to play around with.

One could opt for the perennially popular snowman or the Christmas wreath, but the only difference would be that these days they could be holographic! You can put up all kinds of custom made holographic signs to add a new dimension of cheer to your Christmas.

Thanks to online shopping, you can find a number of creative stuff, showing up anew each Christmas. And with the facilities on the Web, you can have them customized for you and delivered well before the Christmas.

The season actually begins the moment you start planning the decorations, doesn’t it?

Let’s face it – we take it for granted that living in world full of occupational hazards of all kinds is just part of the game. But that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to turn a blind eyes (pardon the pun) towards them.

Especially if you’re into an insurance program and are shelling out hefty sums every month against occupational injuries, it’s all the more you take good protection against any kind of damage – reversible or irreversible. And statistics tells us that one part of the human body that is most susceptible to get injured is the hands.

If you’re working in an auto shop, you’ll know what I mean. There are all kinds of dangers lurking every step of the way – such as greasy floors, auto parts transfer mechanisms, mental and physical exhaustion, tripping over air hoses, what not. Are you protected any such out-of-the blue calamities?

One surefire way to get maximum protection against injuries to the hand is wear some metal-reinforced hand gloves, since they’re designed to take most of the impact. Then again, not all work gloves have been used in the US military or in the Nascar racing circuit.

It would make sound sense to go with the professionals in the safety hand gloves. From what I’ve heard countless times, Mechanix gloves, from Tasco, the Texas-based American safety company have proved time and again they’re the name to rely on when it comes to safety gloves as well as aprons and knee pads.

When they said “the more the merrier”, they certainly had computer memory in mind. The logic behind it is as simple as it sounds – higher memory capacities in a computer allow for faster speeds, whether you’re downloading a movie or just gaming.

There are different types of computer memory, which doesn’t necessarily mean the hard disk capacity. The random access memory (RAM) is the among the top features that one should look for.

Not too long ago, a 1 GB RAM was considered ‘awesome’. Even then, people were longing for 2 GB RAMs. And sure, they got it, and lately it’s never less than 4 GB, which I think is pretty good for most applications. But you never know – 4 GB might might just look ‘retarded’ a year from now.

Then again, it’s such a relief that you can always keep adding memory and stay on top!

Any business, however small or large, stands to face the issue of some shortage in capital sooner or later. When the business is short on cash, and yet desperate for capital to finance supplies or shipping, what comes to the rescue is purchase order finance.

Once the business owner gets paid for his goods or services, he or she will be in a better position to pay off the organization that provided the funding during the crisis.

Purchase order financing is a perfect solution for start-up companies who have exhausted their funds in building up infrastructure, wages and buying big ticket items, and have started receiving orders., and find cash supplies low.

Even medium sized companies may benefit from purchase order financing if they get major orders which call for a considerable investment to produce.

Any face that can launch a thousand ships, surely is backed by a set of spectacular eyes… How you care for those eyes is one way to make sure the ships will continue to sail smoothly.

One way to keep those eyes vibrant looking is, of course, to eat the right kind of foods with the right vitamins and nutrients. Next, you need to get adequate sleep to avoid baggy eyes. If your lifestyle doesn’t allow you to get the right amount of sleep, you will experience blackish rings around the eyes, sooner or later. One way out is get the best possible eye cream for dark circles. Then again, not all creams work the same.

To avoid frustration with eye creams, it’s suggested that you get yourself educated about their effectiveness, possible side effects, whether the ingredients are proven, etc. The shortest way to do this would be to study reviews of some of the most popular eye creams and decide what’s best for you.