- Latest Popular Stories, Instablogs Community by Riyaray

Effect of childhood brain infections

Riya — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:39:13 +0000

Recent studies have shown that childhood brain infections may considerable affects on a person in adulthood. The results were presented at the World Congress of Neuroscience in Melbourne, Australia, by Krister Kristensson .The studies were carried on by Kristensson and her colleagues of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. Statistics were taken for around 1.2million individuals born in Sweden between 1973 and 1985.
It was concluded that those children who have had mumps with complications regarding inflammation of brain before the age of 12 have an increased risk of schizophrenia in adulthood. The risk factor can be as high as 3 times the normal. Studies have also shown that children affected by cytomegalovirus infection in their childhood, may have the factor of increased risk of schizophrenia around 17 times more.

On the other hand, other diseases like bacterial or fungal infections etc, which do not invade the brain, have not been found to have any affect on the brain afterwards.

Courtesy: New Scientist

Fashion giant Marc Jacobs to be honoured

Riya — Sat, 19 May 2007 05:03:44 +0000

Marc Jacobs, the American fashion giant, is getting honored by Savannah College of Art and Design at their annual fashion show on May 19, at the Trustees theatre.Marc has made himself a big name in the fashion industry in the last few years.

Born on April 9, 1963, in New York, this man made his mark in the fashion industry with his innovative designs with contemporary and fresh looks. He attended the High School of Art and Design and graduated in 1981. After that, Jacobs entered the Parsons School of Design in New York City. At Parsons, Jacobs won the Perry Ellis Gold Thimble Award in 1984, and in the same year was also awarded the Chester Weinberg Gold Thimble Award and the Design Student of the Year Award.The year 1984 saw , Jacobs and Robert Duffy coming together and forming the partnership company , Jacobs Duffy Designs Inc., which continues to this day. In 1987, Jacobs received the distinct honor of being the youngest designer to be awarded the fashion industries highest tribute: The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent. He is honoured six times by the council of Fashion Designers of America.

Jacobs has designed a variety of fashion items such as fragrances, eyewear, accessories, and home furnishing collection under the brand name Marc Jacobs Collection.

In 2006, brought out a watch collection under the brand of Marc Jacobs. These watches feature classic and timeless aesthetics with a slightly vintage feel. His clothes are available in a few boutiques around the world including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, San Francisco, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Taipei.

Details about his collection can be found at www.marcjacobs.com.

At the SCAD show Mark will be awarded with the Andre Leon Talley Lifetime Achievement Award by Vogue editor-at-large Andre Leon Talley and SCAD President Paula S. Wallace. The award has been presented successively to fashion legends Oscar de la Renta, Karl Lagerfeld, Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford and Vera Wang. Talley said,

Marc Jacobs is one of America’s originals. He defines fashion with his work under his own label and for the past decade has created at Louis Vuitton a new world of fashion.

The 2007 SCAD fashion show matinee at 4 p.m. is $20 per person, $10 per person with a SCAD ID and for the 8 p.m. show are $50 per person and $25 per person with a SCAD ID, and are limited to four per person for both shows. Tickets can be purchased beginning May 1 at the SCAD box office, 216 E. Broughton St., or charged by phone at 912.525.5050.

The Steam Is Running Out.

Riya — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:54:31 +0000

North Bengal’s economy, which is almost entirely dependent on the fate of the tea industry, is on a downward slide. Since the last few years, tea manufacturer’s of Terai and Dooars are finding it difficult to make both ends meet. The value of wages paid to laborers has shot up following the rise of the trade unions the past few decades.

Unfortunately, however, productivity has declined. In the past three years the daily wage has increased by more than Rs. 11. Also, the estate managers have to provide housing, electricity, ration, etc. for the laborers. This has led to an unprecedented increase in the cost of production.

However, the root problem of the crisis lies not so much in the rising cost of production as in an alarmingly sharp fall in the demand from the market. As retired estate manager Malay Sarkar points out, ‘

the young generation has shifted focus from the tea to soft drinks.

‘

But that is only one of the reasons. With globalization, low-priced tea from the neighboring countries of Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal have flooded the market. At the international maket, tea exporters of this region are facing stiff competition from countries like Indonesia, Kenya, and Uganda among others.

A lack of infrastructure and corporate governance is proving to be the bane of the tea estates of North Bengal-the reason why they cannot compete with the major payers at the national and international levels. Tea cultivation in this area dates as far back as the 19th Century. Most tea gardens are very old and need immediate re-plantation and soil-correction. This necessitates a sustained flow of finance. But most of tea growers in the area, who run estates more as a family business, have limited funds. Several corporate houses like the Tata Tea, who own estates in this region have opted for direct retail marketing rather than depending on the auction markets. The small tea growers have lost out on this count due to a lack of proper infrastructure and marketing proficiency.

Remarkably, over the past few years, several ‘bought-leaf-factories’ have cropped up all over the region. These, as the name suggests, are small ventures that buy tea leaf from other gardens and evidently, manufacture a very poor quality of finished tea. They sell mostly in private markets. Over the years, these factories have gained in importance, consequently the auction market demand for tea has declined steadily.

These factory establishments have been receiving sales-tax exemptions from the government, much to the chagrin of the estate owners. Many of them think there should be more restrictions on these ‘bought leaf factories,’ and that there should be more comprehensive quality control system in place. Sunil Krishna Paul, one of the estate owner, even suggests that like in Sri Lanka, private marketing of tea should be completely banned.

Obviously, the tea industry in North Bengal is in immediate need of a major capital injection. The union government allotted Rs 5oo crore for the tea, coffee, and rubber industries in the last budget. The import duty on tea has also been increased. Most tea growers in the area still feel that the provisions in the budget are not sufficient to counter their problems. In fact, the tea industry is in urgent need of strict supervision. Else, in a few years time a large number of estate owners could be looking down the barrel of the gun.

Micromanaging the world

Riya — Fri, 11 May 2007 12:55:58 +0000

You are a manager with that high end MBA degree from one of those coveted institutes, and you are trying to make that big difference in the corporate world using all the management terms you have learnt in your B school. You micro manage everything, give all the attention that details require and take the granular approach. You are doing everything you can to help your employees become more efficient and smart...and still you might feel that people are unhappy - that whatever you’re doing isn’t working. There is another way.
Despite a wide variety of management styles, most managers are categorized in two ways. Either they haven’t micromanaged, and most have micromanaged somebody sometime. Some signs of micromanagement may be:

While delegating a task, you actually feel the need to specify on how it should be done.

You feel insecure about your authority but believe you are hiding it from people really well.

You want status reports far more frequently than required for constructive purposes.

You’re so busy that you procrastinate frequently, while people wait for your feedback or approval.

If these points fit you then you’re coping in the best way you can with the shortcomings of the people you supervise, but if their incompetence is the issue then micromanaging is not the right way to deal with it. The answer is proper training, transfer of work, Training, transfer, reassignment or replacement of bottleneck are the solutions. You need to think out of the box. Here are a few things you can do to better the situation.

Have quiet conversations with yourself and explain yourself to be easy on people and understand the bigger picture.

Promise yourself that you’ll do things differently soon, and set a realistic start date.

Start managing something small in a different better way. When you assign people work, give them just the direction, not the entire way. Be available for advice whenever they require it.

Do a follow-up check .Keep improving yourself with regular sincere feedback from you close friends at work.

While adapting to these changes make sure you don’t micromanage yourself. Focus not on how you change, but on what you change. Make yourself an example of a manager who can micromanage but is not a micromanager.