Happy Halloween

Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. Halloween is the time when the young and the young at heart unleash their inner heroes or monsters in fancy costumes.

How many numerous love stories have begun from Halloween party where a hoax busty soccer player and a hoax potbellied soccer coach fall incurably in love to be chained forever in holy matrimony till death does them apart.

While this may be the pretty face of Halloween, there is an ugly side to it too. This holiday second only to Christmas in the minds of many kids is more than a celebration of the most deranged characters pop culture has to offer. It is a gore fest that has kids as young as six unleash their inner monsters which emerge from their nightly dreams to possess them for a day and get them those mouth-watering candies. Those eye popping costumes, blood-smeared chain saws and spiked killing gloves – “bloody, sadistic, nightmare-inducing Halloween costumes are indeed being made and marketed for kids and no one seems to care. Surely Halloween costumes have evolved from being “sickly sweet to just plain sick.”

Question that must bug one and all is what is the point of all the realistic gore – for the oh-so young anyway? I think wearing these costumes and being exposed to human depravity even in a ‘fun’ context, doesn’t scare kids so much as desensitize them to brutal violence. Numerous number of gunning incidents in schools in the past have brought to light that kids are less able to distinguish between real world and fictional brutality than grown ups. So to conclude I am throwing a question to readers out there that for these underage and undead young adults : Are some costumes to gory for kids?

Money – A New Marital Relationship Divider

Jawaharlal Nehru once said, “The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of Divine accident.”

Yet this divine creation, destined by God and discovered on Earth by humans can be crashed in an instant by reasons such as infidelity or extreme cruelty but in the recent times for no reason at all.

The ‘quickie divorce’ i.e. splitting for no reason at all is common and so is financial discord increasingly becoming a reason for break-ups. If you take a peek at the results released of a couples and money survey by Credit Canada and Capital On, here are some points that merge:

• More than one third of couples get married without having any open conversation regarding money which becomes of primal importance after marriage.
• 86% of couples fight about money

The fights take on a consistent, regular nature.Women and men aren’t just battling over spending but they have radical differences in their approach to most financial things. For example:
Most couples don’t share the same philosophy about finances as their partners.
Men’s worst fear is not to be able to retire and women’s worst fear is not to be able to pay for their kid’s finances. Is there any wonder that Men are from Mars and women from Venus.
The main pain points in the financial compatibly of a couple are:

• One third of men and women lie to their partners about how they spend money.
• The partner not in control of money is most likely to hide the facts about their debt.
• The couples once they fall into the trap of monetary discord don’t trust that their partner will be truthful to them.
• To learn more about how much of a match made in heaven are you, try out Credit Canada’s compatibility test at www.crediteducationweekcanada.com.

This may be your first step at eliminating your relationship financial divide. Ever wondered if you are a match made in heaven and discovered on Earth, don’t look to stars for an answer, instead check your financial compatinbility.

Fighting the Flu – Will we wait till the neighbor is sick approach.

Fighting the Flu – Will we wait till the neighbor is sick approach.

Swine flu pandemic is spreading so fast and worldwide, it is creating a scare because people dont know how serious the problem is? Flu being a infectious disease and calls for immediate measures by one and all. Some literacy on how serious it is and how to deal with the situation if we happen to be close to a person with this illness would go a long way to subdue the panic.

Swine flu is a national emergency, declares Obama. Calling the emergency declaration “an important tool in our kit going forward,” one administration official called Obama’s action a “proactive measure that’s not in response to any new development.”

Obama: “Potential exists for the pandemic to overburden health care resources”  46 states are now reporting wide spread flu activity. However, the onslaught of information about H1N1 — be it playground rumors, employer signs telling you to cover your cough, memos from your kids’ school, or scary-sounding news reports – is making it pretty hard to figure out what you should be doing right now.

Some guidelines to what we can do right now to fight the flu:

Look up local flu outbreaks- Keep abreast of flue situation in your area
Don’t panic. For most people, an H1N1 infection is generally mild and can be cured with time, bed rest, and fluids. The virus is serious, though — particularly for those in high-risk groups. So far this year, 28 pregnant women have died of H1N1, and 76 children died in the spring. High-risk people, whether adults or children, tend to have chronic heart or lung conditions (including asthma), weakened immune systems due to disease or chemotherapy treatment, or diabetes.

That said, H1N1 will feel like seasonal flu for most people. “I’d say at the present time the swine flu looks no more serious than the routine seasonal influenza,” says Litman.

Wash hands

Stay at home - better chance to recover and not spread the infection. Are you sick right now? Say, with flu-like symptoms such as fever, aches, stuffy nose, and chills? Sorry, but it’s quite possible you already have swine flu. Experts say that flu activity is higher-than-normal for this time of year and almost all of it is due to H1N1. If you (or your child) are not in a high-risk group, it’s best to stay put.

If a child is 2 or older “and has no risk factors for complications and has fever, runny nose, or cough, the best thing to do is to stay home,” says Litman. “Plenty of fluids, Tylenol, Motrin, or Advil for fever, and it should run its course on its own.”

Understand the risks.

While the symptoms of H1N1 may be no different from seasonal flu, there are some key differences. H1N1 may be easier to catch than regular flu, and younger people may be more likely to come down with it than older people.

Get a pneumonia vaccine.

Get a flu shot
Don’t stock up on face masks or Tamiflu.

Swine flu is bringing about boom for one industry i.e. hand sanitizers. Demand for hand sanitizer has gone through the roof since the first cases of swine flu broke out earlier this year, and some makers of the germ-fighting gels are scrambling to keep up.

Market research firm Panjiva recently estimated that 3 million kilograms of hand sanitizer were shipped in the third quarter, compared with 1 million kilograms in the same quarter last year.

Josh Green, chief executive of Panjiva, said concern about the H1N1 virus, also known as the swine flu, is the “most likely explanation” for the surge in volume.

And demand is only expected to rise given the outlook for an exceptionally bad flu season.

In response, the companies that make and distribute Purell, the most popular name-brand hand sanitizer, are ramping up production and urging customers to not hoard the product.

Heavy demand

Johnson & Johnson (JNJ, Fortune 500), which makes Purell and distributes it to retailers, does not provide figures on sales or shipments of items such as hand sanitizer. But the company said demand for Purell has been “heavy” since the first cases of swine flu broke.

“Due to the influenza A (H1N1) virus outbreak this past spring and resurgence this fall, Johnson & Johnson Consumer Companies Inc. has experienced heavy demand on supplies of Purell,” said J&J spokesman Marc Boston in a statement.

The company is working to increase production for the remainder of the year and the beginning of 2010, but Boston acknowledged that supplies may be limited in some areas.

“Because of this increase in demand, consumers may currently find limited supplies of Purell Instant Hand Sanitizer at certain retailers,” he said.

Ballon Boy – Reality Shows or Exploitation

Balloon Boy story shows to what extent people would go to get some air time, exposure on media and maybe even money – even exploit their own children in this pursuit. Such stories were heard commonly in the third world countries but advanced nations like Unites States of America and Canada are not away from this hunger to exploit even innocent kids for selfish ends.

Reality shows have grown from extreme make overs where a ugly ducking is turned into a swan in no time at all and now this balloon boy  has hit media by a storm. It was apparently a publicity stunt by making a 6-year old fly in a hot air balloon. Now the parents face charges for putting at risk their child (named falcon) for the sake  of some air time. Kudos to the little 6-year old falcon who didn’t hesitate to unveil his parents hoax stunt. We hold our breadth and thank God for his mercy that the balloon didn’t hit an electric wire or  high rise building.

Other reality shows like ‘So you think you can dance’, ‘Bachelor or Bachelorette’ where these beautiful and talented people parade in front of the world and put up a brave face even when they fail before millions of people.

We’ve been duped, America!
Entire world watched with abated breadth as a homemade balloon took flight in Colorado last week, thinking 6-year-old Falcon Heene was in the basket below. The whole balloon incident was called “a hoax” and a “publicity stunt” on the part of the Heene family.

The family, who was featured on an episode of ABC’s Wife Swap, was looking for a little more airtime and “put on a very good show for us, and we bought it,”. “We believe that we have evidence at this point to indicate that it was a publicity stunt done with the hopes of marketing themselves or better marketing themselves for a reality television show at some point in the future,” Alderden said.

Falcon was found hiding in the attic of parents Richard and Mayumi Heene’s home after the balloon landed and it was discovered that he wasn’t inside. And now charges are most likely going to be filed against the couple. “We were looking at Class 3 misdemeanor, which hardly seems serious enough given the circumstances,” he said. “We are talking to the district attorney, federal officials to see if perhaps there aren’t additional federal charges that are appropriate in this circumstance.”

Women vs women at work

It is true, working for insecure women bosses is no less than hell. They can demean you in front of coworkers, make you feel worth less and use you as a step stool to promote their interests. However a secure confident women can be a pleasure, they can help you all the way and be a formidable force for your career growth. I have worked with both kinds and have a taste of both the experiences.

Insecure women are horrific to work with but secure women help other women.
You are competing with other women for a few jobs.  As women become more secure and stable things will change.People  blame the victims. Women bullies in the position of power get away while their victims get blamed.
They feel guilty, women are making less money than they deserve. When you are truly powerful you feel happy. Women are in workplace but they are not relived from their duties in the household. There is a sense of exhaustion. The sleep deprived friends are more women than men.
These and many more reasons make women less competitive in the work place, they receive less money, less bonuses than they deserve or contribute because they are considered secondary bread winners.  So corportions prefer to hire women than men as they get more value for a cheaper price. This was also proved by a poll conducted by CNN recently. Hence women are out-numbering men at workplace.
For many years, some of the smartest, hardest-working women have whispered a quiet complaint on the job: They find other women, in general, harder to work with than men.

A new study about women in the workplace,  started this notion that this is a common belief; women are more likely to bully other women on the job, and interfere with the prospects of other women being rewarded with higher pay, better positions, or even praise.

The problems that men have caused for women on the job are well-documented, everything from sexual harassment to sexism in promotions but women back stab, gossip and ridicule their women coworkers shamelessly. It is a battle of sexes where all is fair is this war.

Ten most beautiful eyes

As is popularly well known “Eyes are the soul of a human being”. So being born with beautiful eyes immediately beautifies your soul in the eyes of the world so is a any wonder that ambassadors to the world, the most influential people in the world are the ones gifted with beautiful eyes.

So the top ten women with most beautiful eyes are as follows:

Number 10 - Charlize Theron

She won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in Monster.

Number 9. Sophia Loren
She won an Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role
in Ciociara, La.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize … its worth a debate

Stars, oh lucky stars how good luck can impact you life, not oh-so-priced fruits of labour. What has he done to get this prize – may be reach out to people and connect with them. He reunited people, for an African American President to accomplish this feat is truly inspirational.

It was obviously enough to get the coveted prize vis a vis Oprah or Clinton or SriLankan President who seemed to be more deserving candidates. Obama is a world’s president. A much liked president amongst Canadians and Americans and Europeans who have a even different kind of admiration than Americans.

What ever the controversy, a mixed reaction, majority of the people (a data from a recent poll states, 70% people) feel convinced that he deserves this award while only 30% feel that it is not that well deserved.

He at the same time very humbly accepts the 2009 Norwegian Peace Price as a call to action award for confronting the challenges of 21st century.

Whatever mixed reaction he might have got, his extraordinary efforts to strengthen diplomacy and cooperation among people cannot be undermined. Whether his few months of efforts cloud others over 30 years of consistent efforts towards world peace endeavor is worth a debate…..