The Biochar Blog

Most people would agree that the concept of a job today is vastly different from that of 20 years ago. Organisations are changing at speed, technology has changed the face and pace of work, and globalisation is pushing every business to examine it’s operations in a totally different context.

How do we, the people that work within this changing environment, manage our own needs and wants.

Over the last 10 years I have had contact with many individuals searching for their place in the working world. For many, a growing sense of dissatisfaction with their work, or a general feeling that things aren’t as they should be, has left them with two questions to answer – “Why am I here?”, and “What would I really love to do for a job?”.

The concept of the ideal job is, I believe, fraught with danger. As long as we believe that there is a single job that will make us truly happy, then we are immediately limiting our actions and beliefs in searching for it. We set ourselves up for failure with expectations that the answer will “come” to us, or that a job needs to be perfect.

The truth is that there is rarely a single outcome in the search for the ideal job. A career is only a part of a lifestyle – a lifestyle encompasses all aspects of our life. Those who consider their career in isolation of their desired lifestyle may end up making less than ideal job-related choices. 

So is it really about planning a career, or is it more about planning a lifestyle, of which work/career is one component?

A clearly structured process will help you to define the parameters of work that are important for you, rather than specific jobs. For example, preferred industries, work type (full or part time etc), working hours, travel, level of autonomy or team work, desired income, responsibility, skills you want to use, location and so on. Once you are clear on your parameters, perhaps have even prioitised them for their importance to you, you can evaluate your career options against them. With this approach, the weight of expectation is lifted, the burden of finding the “one and only right answer” is gone. You have the freedom to consider a large number of roles knowing that you will make a choice based on your personal criteria.

At the end of the day, career decisions are about making choices not finding right and wrong answers. Give yourself parameters, and put the power of choice firmly in your hands – where it belongs.

The new era of Emissions Awareness
The world’s leading scientists continue to stress the evidence supporting climate change grows stronger with new research.

Everyday, more people and businesses are becoming aware of the impact of the carbon emissions caused by their everyday activities on the environment. Some people are aware and doing something about it. But a lot of people think doing a little bit is enough. The truth is if you do a little you achieve a little. We need to make deep cuts in carbon emissions and help drive investment in low-carbon solutions.

But what can you do? An increasingly popular option is to offset carbon and become carbon neutral.

Offset Carbon and be Carbon Neutral
To carbon offset is to reduce or stop carbon emissions somewhere else in the world for some of the carbon emissions you are responsible in your daily life. If you offset carbon emissions equivalent to the carbon emissions of all your activities in one year, then you are carbon neutral.

You use a carbon credit to offset carbon emissions. A carbon credit generally represents one tonne of carbon emissions reduced in a carbon project somewhere else in the world.

However, there has been some concerns about the calibre of carbon credits available to offset carbon emissions.

Most carbon offset projects use carbon credits created from trees or renewable projects. While these sound attractive there are concerns about using them as carbon offsets. A third type of carbon credit, a carbon emissions credit from a compliance regulated scheme, overcomes these concerns and empowers you to proactively reduce global carbon emission credits. These alternatives are investigated in the article “What are the alternatives to carbon offset / become carbon neutral”.

A More Meaningful Solution – Carbon Emission Credits
Carbon emission credits work like this. Through a simple and powerful initiative, you access a compliance regulated market to buy and cancel carbon emission credits. Cancelling carbon emissions credits from the limited pool of credits in the European Emissions Trading Scheme means there are fewer credits available to be used by industry to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. You are taking away the rights of industry to emit carbon dioxide.

Fewer carbon emission credits helps drive investment in low-carbon solutions such as energy efficiencies and renewable energy, as emitters can use the money from the carbon credits they sell to fund their investments in low-carbon solutions. They are rewarded for emitting less carbon dioxide.

Carbon emission credits have been referred to as the ‘most pure’ form of carbon emission reduction. We call it the Climakind alternative to offset carbon emissions because it helps ensure your carbon emissions reduction efforts are proactive, high quality and secure.

You help speed up the transition to a low-carbon future.

Making it Simple
To make it simple, Climakind provides affordable and easily recognisable levels of participation. You can choose to cancel carbon emission credits equal to one year of your annual carbon emissions and instantly become a Gold member, or start with one month’s carbon emissions as a Bronze member. You can add to your membership anytime through the member lounge at www.climakind.com. You can even compare your purchases to the global average over different time periods.

All this makes being Climakind (ClimateKind – to be climate kind is to be kind to the climate) more than just a simple carbon offset or carbon neutral solution.

You can make a difference
Whether you are a business or an individual Climakind can help you reduce carbon emissions.

Visit www.climakind.com and register to cancel carbon emission credits today.

Help make a difference. Act now to reduce global carbon emissions and encourage investment in low carbon-solutions.

You can have a meaningful impact in the transition to a sustainable future. You can make a difference.

What the oil companies don’t want you to know. Were you aware that bio diesel, electric and HHO  technology is not as difficult or expensive as we have been led to believe? If you are reading this article, it is because you are searching for a way to help the environment and lower your auto fuel cost. There is a myth that people aren’t going to rush out and buy eco-friendly fuel efficient cars because of the price. I know there are other reasons  consumers aren’t buying the so-called cars of the future. I think a major drawback is the power we have to give up to save the planet. We love to accelerate. Of course the oil companies know all these things, and that is why most of the car companies, the American one’s in particular, still doesn’t offer a reliable, powerful, and fuel efficient line of automobiles. There is a reason why even imports, with all the talk of being so advanced in hybrid technology, don’t offer anything that gets more than forty MPG. They should be selling cars that get twice that MPG. The technology exits, and it is no where near as expensive as everyone leads us to believe. I have the proof, and I can show you how easy it is to convert your current auto or truck to be environmentally safe and unbelievably fuel efficient. I will give you the facts on three of the most well known conversions, and a source to find out more if you’re interested.
We will begin with biofuels.  

There is a major difference between biofuels and biodiesel .The main difference is that biodiesel with little or no modification needed, can only be used in diesel engines. It is made from soybeans and can be used in its pure form, but it is usually mixed with standard diesel fuel. They do have a few very important aspects that are alike however. Biofuels, such as ethanol are made from corn and other crops. Like biodiesel, biofuels are not only stemming the tide of global warming but helping  support American agriculture. You can’t just dump a few gallons of vegetable oil in your tank however. You will ruin your engine. The conversion is grassroots technology, and for the most part a do it yourself process. Although the government seems to be behind it in theory, I wouldn’t go changing over until you investigate it thoroughly. If you are interested in learning more about homemade biodiesel however, there is a source.

Electric cars. Wow, how about that Tesla Motors. If you haven’t yet seen what their coming out with next year, it is amazing. The Model S is Beautiful, 250-300 mile range, and 0-60mph in less than six seconds. I think that most of us don’t have the $50k asking price however. Most of the manufacturers of electric cars just don’t get it. They expect that to save the planet we will put up with 50 mile range before having to recharge, and a  speed of 60mph. Well, there are some do it yourselfers’  that claim their conversion will give you 100 mile range, and it only cost a few hundred dollars. I think that if you are someone that does not drive on the highways often, an electric car might be perfect. In addition the government will give you a tax credit for driving a clean fuel vehicle.

Although hydrogen cells are what most experts claim to be the fuel of the future, I have found a grassroots movement that uses
water as fuel today. You will still  have to take the occasional trip to the gas pump, because water is supplemental to your gas or diesel fuel, and 100% water cars are still on the drawing board. Moreover,  extracting energy from water to double or triple your fuel economy is VERY EASY. This is not new technology. People have been using water to gas converters in vehicles for  years.  This is proven technology. Using a simple device, you can use the electricity from your battery to separate water (H2O) into a gas known as HHO.  HHO is two parts’ Hydrogen and one part Oxygen. HHO is a supercharged gas that burns effectively and produces significant energy, greatly improving your fuel economy.  Incredibly, the waste product is water! The green car of the future just might be sitting in your driveway. Because the hydrogen is produced On-Demand, this technology is perfectly safe for you and your passengers. Imagine going from 20-25 mpg,  to 50-60 mpg or more,  and at the same time reducing your carbon foot print.

Well these are the options you have if you’re not thinking of buying an electric or hybrid in the near  future. Obviously, I couldn’t go into great detail in this article, but if I have piqued your interest, you can get all the facts at:  
My RecomMANNdations

You can also find sources to cheap new and used auction bargains, and companies that will give you a new car free or pay you to drive your own vehicle.

 Where are we heading in “Modern” Health Services?

Although I am aware that there are significant differences between health services in different countries -and in fact within the same country-; as health worker, we all share an underlying commonality to a certain degree. I am writing this article under the assumption that, in this current era of “globalisation” and “standardisation”, there is a universal demand for the “modernisation” of health services. The health system has been forced to incorporate, within its constitution, terms such as health delivery management, strategic planning, strategic improvement, governance and quality, amongst many other fashionable words brandished around these days (the likes of which, yours truly finds confusing sometimes). However, we must accept that all of the above are part of the continuous evolution of the health service.

Before I proceed further, I would like to clarify to the readers the use of the word “modernising” in the context of this article. Here, I am referring to the involvement of numerous and diverse areas of expertise (e.g. business, aviation) within the field of health. This new approach has placed additional expectations on the clinicians, requiring them to possess reasonable knowledge in various fields. These skills include management, budgeting, cost, strategic development and other tasks which were previously left to the administration ‘to deal with’, whereas we clinicians were expected to focus on improving our clinical skills and, even more importantly, satisfying /managing our patients. I imagine that many of you will agree with me that this is a very nostalgic view, which is rarely found in this modern day and age.

I am not going to bore you with details about the health service where I work, as I do not believe it to be of significant importance; it would in fact defeat the purpose of provoking a debate relating to the key question of this article (i.e. the title). It would suffice to say that there is a pressure, as a health provider, to embrace a great deal of management, business and budgeting concepts. I am like most clinicians; work in a rapidly “modernising” health system.  Hopefully, once the reader continues scanning through the article, they will understand why I elected to use this generalization.

My guess is when we look at “modernizing” health services in different countries there appear to be a significant difference between them at first glance but once we “dig deep” and examine in depth the fundamental structure of most of the health services (wither it is private, governmental, insured, free or hybrid) I assume that the reader will find common points, at least partially.

 I, as a health provider find myself in a strange position of being instructed to be knowledgeable about “quality ” , “management”, “strategic planning” ,”updating my evidence based knowledge” , “understanding the fundamentals of accounting and budgeting”  amongst many other words, which my memory could barely remember ,let alone grasp.

The main problem is all of the above are dictated to me by different parties whose priorities (rightly or wrongly) lie within their own “primary target”.  

One could argue that all of the above could be part of one thing and by doing one; this will lead to the achievement of the others (i.e. domino effect). This is a point which I hope my article would encourage debating.

From my humble point of view, I still cannot cope with all “the priorities” I am bombarded with and I do find contradiction in many of them; especially when it comes to (if we break it down in to a simple, old fashioned targets) patients’ care versus cost which- rightly or wrongly- in my opinion, what the main issue boils up to (this is again a controversial statement and subjected to debate).

I am here not to find a solution or to offer an “ideal” way to balance a juggling act, as I am still picking up the pieces and trying again and again to be able to pull up the act efficiently in front of many anticipating audiences, each looking at me from a different angle with different expectation.

I wish that I could say that I managed but the reality is that I could not. My department and my hospital could not and more importantly my health service leaders cannot which is the most worrying concern because it is these “experts” who are suppose to guide us,  yet sometimes you feel that the blind leading the blind.

So what happened in a decade or so to lead us; and I apologies for the generalization; to be entangled in this “modernizing” health service?

I myself are nostalgic for the day when we say patient comes first and we DO mean patient comes first. Yet, I find myself focusing less on patients and looking more at statistics, strategies, missions, visions, audits, surveys etc and although (please do not get me wrong) I am all for the above, but it is becoming harder and harder to balance my already flawed juggling act.

Allow me to give an example to demonstrate what I mean. As a consultant psychiatrist, I obviously posses skills that my colleagues may lack or are not be “privileged/ technically speaking” to carry. An example for a surgeon is a type of surgical procedure, for a radiologist a special radiological technique. In my case a therapy for certain disorders that required years of supervision and learning. Again, one may argue that I should take responsibility and that this is my own fault as I should transferred my knowledge to my colleges, but here where the dilemma lie, as time, ethics are against me. Clinically I am expected to priorities my time but this raises another dilemma as my time is not entirely in my hand and the vicious cycle goes on.   

Let me give a real life example which I hope will demonstrate the above argument. When I joined my current department I started (naively) to accept undertaking therapy for patients with personality disorder (i.e. a condition which requires specific skills learned through years of supervision and practice) as the waiting list was long, and I was the only person with the expertise to manage this population. I went to my secretary and with an authoritative instruction, told her to arrange booking one hour a day every Tuesday at 11am for at least 20 weeks minimum, with the possibility of increasing the number of session. The poor secretary looked at me and did the necessary.  After two sessions of relatively positive rapport building with my client, the time for the third session approached.  As the time for the session came my secretary called and informed me that there is a “mandatory” emergency meeting for all heads of department with the human resources to discuss an extremely important issue. Dilemma again, what should I do?  I thought that our motto of “do no harm” and ethically as my patient has a real risk of feeling abandoned (which could have a catastrophic effect on therapy) and more important could lead to risk of serious self harm, I made the decision not to attend the meeting and see the patient instead.

Next day, a warning letter was delivered to me through my work email and due to my absence (even though I have sent the reason, and asked one of my colleges to attend the meeting) our department has lost in term of some administrative decision making.

That was my baptism of fire and my welcome to the modern health care. As a head of department I find myself more and more involved in writing the ideal setting to serve our clients but the time consumed in this preventing me from doing exactly what I am writing!.

I wish that the issue is related to me only, but even down the “chain of command” each member of my staff is finding it more and more difficult to focus on patient, and more of their work involving replaying to emails, cutting cost, achieving targets, filling endless forms, auditing, teaching, gathering educational hours, coming with initiatives, fulfilling their objectives in the appraisal and much much more.

I hope that my experience and my words echoes with similar experiences with the readers and as I have mentioned in the beginning, I am not looking for solution but I am hoping to provoke a serious debate about where are we heading in this era of so called “modernisation” and is the involvement of many parties and philosophies in the process beneficial to the end result (patients)?.

I am looking forward for a thought provoking debate and would be grateful for any of the readers from different evolving health services to share their thoughts and opinions.

 

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As reserves of crude oil constantly decrease and new oil sources are increasingly difficult to exploit the development of alternatives becomes more and more interesting. In the long term, the only option is the use of energy from renewable resources. The most important of these are electricity from sun, water or wind and biofuel from regrowable plants. Biofuel is used as a substitute for conventional gasoline in combustion engines. There are two types of biofuel: bioethanol and biodiesel. Bioethanol is identical to the alcohol that is used in alcoholic beverages. It is mostly produced from sugar cane, but also other plants such as potato or maize can be used. In Brazil, ethanol is used as a major fuel for cars. Conventional gasoline is substituted with ethanol to 25% and many flexible-fuel vehicles even allow the use of pure ethanol as fuel. Recently, bioethanol has been implicated in being the causative agent of drastically increasing prices for food in developing countries. This has raised debate over whether one should make fuel rather than enable the poor to feed themselves. In contrast to bioethanol, which is derived from carbohydrates, biodiesel is produced from various vegetable oils. Therefore, other plants are employed for the production of biodiesel. In Europe, mostly rapeseed oil is used, although rape is not a very efficient source for oil. Some more efficient sources are e.g. oil palms and jatropha. Oil palms are cultivated in tropical countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia. They give a much higher oil yield per acreage than e.g. rape. Unfortunately the growing demand for palm oil is leading to massive and irrevocable destruction of tropical rain forest. It is important to note that during the production of one liter of palm oil biofuel releases more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere than by burning the equivalent amount of conventional fuel. The jatropha plant seems to be an interesting alternative, since it grows in semi-deserts, but still produces nuts with very high oil content.

 

There are several factors you need to look into when it comes to how to stay positive in any working environment.

In order to work on your positive attitude in your work environment, you need to look into

the work environment, then you have to look into
self change perspective of things and finally
how you can influence your environment.

Below you will find some thoughts for these three areas, and some points to remember as you go along to create a positive work environment and be a positive element within it yourself.

 

 

1. Work Environment

You should beware of the 4 challenge areas in your working environment

 

A. Negative Work Environment

B. Other People’s Behavior

C. Changing Environment

D. Determinism Theory

 

A. Negative Work Environment

You probably have heard these comments in your everyday working environment.

Everyone fighting to get ahead

No one appreciates your contributions

Too much work . . . not enough help

Deadlines are unrealistic

Longer hours . . . additional work

Budget Constraints

Competition is eating us alive

You need to see through these comments and seek solutions to them in stead of seeking the problem itself and dwell with it.

 

B. Other People’s Behavior

There are several human types in your environment, and you will find every one of them in your environment. Just beware of them, listen to them, but try to solve the problem by being proactive and defuse these behaviors.

Complainers

Gossips

Whiners

Negatives

Backstabbers

Controllers

If you can manage these human types in your work environment, you are a long way to experience and get a more positive work environment.

 

 

 

C. Changing Environment

 

CHANGES does lots of things with you as and individual and you should be aware of these, such as;

 

Challenges our paradigms

Alters the way we think

Makes life more difficult for a while

Causes Stress

Is an ongoing fact of life

 

D. Determinism Theory

There are several statements that gives reason to the behavior amongst humans within your organization, as well as your own thinking. Just reflect over these  three types;

 

GENETIC:  My Grandparents did it to me. (Inherited traits)

PSYCHIC:  My Parents did it to me. (Upbringing)

ENVIRONMENTAL:  My Spouse, my Boss, the Company, the Economy, etc.. is doing this to me.  (Surroundings)

 

 

2. Self Change

 

First I would like you to dwell on Life’s Little Question

“Are some people just born positive thinkers  . . . or is it their CHOICE?”

 

 

You should take on the protective Armor against challenges which actually Comes from SELF CHANGE

 

Change 3 Things!

 

A. Attitude

B. Thinking

C. Behavior

 

A.Attitude

 

You have to ask yourself, How to Change Your Attitude?

Is it possible to change, or is the answer as you may hear lots, I can not change who I am, you have to accept me as I am. My answer to this is, it is possible to change, but Changes happen personally from the INSIDE OUT!

So . . . Accept Responsibility

I am responsible . . .

   . . . for who I am

   . . . for what I have

   . . . for what I do

 

Step #2  Take Control

Ownership

Values

Mission

Discipline

 

ALL THESE THINGS – FROM THE INSIDE . . . OUT!

 

How to Change Your Thinking

Changes come from observing logically in every situation

Observe Your Thinking

- Identify Your Negative Thoughts And Triggers

- Observe Your Negative Thoughts Objectively

 

Do not think like this;

I’m not going to be able to do this?

This will not help me!!

I’m unworthy

 

Manage Your Self-Talk

If you think you Can, or you think you Can’t…YOU’RE RIGHT! Henry Ford

 

- Focus on managing your Negative thoughts, not eliminating them

- Learn to argue with yourself

- Stop It!!

 

Think like this;

With some help this can be done

I will benefit from this experience

 

B. Behavior

 

How to Change Your Behavior

Changes take true assessment, determination & discipline

 

Choose Your Behavior

REACTIVE; Stimulus gives response

RESPONSIBLE; Stimulus gives my choice which again gives my response

 

Steps Toward Changing Behavior

1.  Unconscious Incompetence

2.  Conscience Incompetence

3.  Conscience Competence

4.  Unconscious Competence

Gives SUCCESSFUL BEHAVIOR

 

 

3. Influence Your Environment

 

Add POSITIVE Behavior

 

Replace the BAD HABITS!

•         Spread a SMILE around

•         Focus on the good of each day

•         Say “please” and “thank you”

•         Evaluate YOUR behavior

•         Never miss an opportunity to complement

 

More POSITIVE Contributions

 

Before you say anything to anyone, ask yourself three things

 

1.  Is it true?

2.  Is it harmful?

3.  Is it necessary?

 

Keep promises

Have a forgiving view of people

Keep an open mind with changes

See criticism as opportunity to improve

 

Remember to . . .

Watch your definitions – they become thoughts

Watch your thoughts – they become words

Watch your words – they become actions

Watch your actions – they become your destiny

 

The Choice is YOURS

 

With a Bad attitude you can never have a positive day

With a Positive attitude you can never have a bad day

 

Choose POSITIVE Living through your Thinking, Behavior  and Attitude

 

Medical tourism is gradually becoming an integral part of the travel and tourism industry and thus a highly viable revenue generator. In fact airlines now days also come forward and cooperate in terms of their deals and services when a patient takes a trip to some distant place for a treatment. It is this cooperation between the travel and medical industry which made it possible for medical tourism to reach its present level of popularity and glory. And many countries across the globe have also developed a cordial relationship among each other through the medical tourists or in other words the cross-border patients.

Medical tourism has also enforced the concept of travel for a purpose and purpose does not necessarily mean a business purpose only. Rather something more important than that, because as they say “health is wealth”. Medical tourism has provided the opportunity to choose the best possible medical care without the restraints of any geographical boundaries. This seems to be one of the greatest blessings of the concept of globalisation. It has encouraged the friends and families of the patient to nurture a hope in their mind.

It cannot be denied that all this has become possible because world has become a very small place. And more than that almost every corner of the world has become accessible from any other corner. And this is made possible due to the massive advancement of transportation and communication system.  Indeed even a few years back people could not even dream of going to some other place for a medical treatment or for getting an important surgery done.

It goes without saying that every single sphere of life is interlinked and thus each and every industry is related to each other in some way or other. Thus with the development of the concept of global medical tourism all industries related to the concept have grown and expanded like that of the travel industry, the aviation industry, the telecommunication industry and so on and so forth. More and more travel packages have come up to cater to the requirements of the travelling patient and their companions. Travel agents started specializing on or focusing on this particular brand of tourism. Then again the software industry is coming up with new applications which help in keeping patient records in a more user-friendly manner. More and more websites are coming up focusing on offering patients with all services related to medical tourism at one place within just a few clicks.

Indeed medical tourism is gradually developing into a full grown industry in itself.