A lot of people we all know suffer from motion sickness. The symptoms of this sickness are not diseases per se, but just mild illnesses that can cause a person to be extremely uncomfortable and make a whole trip unpleasant. There are a lot of ways to combat motion sickness, and below I have highlighted to you the natural and allopathic remedies for the sickness.

Motion Sickness:

A common issue when travelling with a bunch of people on a long drive, bus ride, flight, or even on the sea, is that they start feeling nauseas, and dizzy, and extremely restless and uncomfortable. These symptoms are what define motion sickness perfectly. There a few natural remedies that you can easily manage to do yourself, and then there are also remedies which require prescription drug.

1. Eating lightly before you embark on a trip is always a good idea to curb motion sickness. Try eating only crackers or a light, small salad. The crackers help to absorb any excess saliva in your mouth. Don’t travel on a completely empty stomach. Eat, but lightly, so that it digests sooner. Don’t drink alcohol before or during the travel period. And if possible, keep sucking on a lemon or olives through out the journey.

2. Try eating little raw strips of ginger every once in a while. If you can’t have it raw, then have a ginger ale or powdered ginger. Garlic supplements are also available in drugstores in a capsule form. Have one every three to four hours, and you would not feel the sickness.

3. Peppermint is also known to effectively combat motion sickness. Try to find peppermint essential oil, and keep this and some cloth or handkerchief with you. Whenever you are, or someone with you is feeling the effects of motion sickness, then just sprinkle a little of the oil onto the cloth and hold it against your nose and mouth. Take deep breaths. Lavender essential oil has a similar effect.

4. Take some Dramamine, it has similar effects to that of peppermint and lavender, and causes drowsiness to the point of not realizing you are suffering from motion sickness. Ask your doctor for any other non-drowsy medicine you can take with you.

5. Try to sit in the front of whatever mode of transport you are taking, whether by car, bus, train, even near the cockpit of the plane.

6. Keep yourself within the reach of fresh air constantly, roll down the windows, proper ventilation helps subdue motion sickness. (Please don’t try it in an airplane!)

7. Try to stay focused on the horizon in front, this way your mind and body will be in sync and will lessen the risk of motion sickness. Wear dark glasses, which will reduce visual stimulation.

8. Keep your eyes closed, listen to soothing music, and don’t try to read a book in a moving car, bus, etc. This adds to the nausea, making you further sick.

9. Practice breathing exercises. Take long, deep breaths, and exhale slowly through your mouth.

10. Try to keep your head steady and lean it back against the seat. If possible, try to recline your seat as flat as possible. If nausea, and dizziness start coming up, then try to lie down as flat as possible, and do your breathing exercises, whilst allowing your body to flow with the motion.

Internet has become an integral part of our lives. Some surf the cyber space for just checking their mails while others can’t think of living without Facebook, Twitter and iPhone. It is not only the younger generation that needs a constant and reliable internet connection but also the businessmen and a sizable segment of older generation.

Wireless companies do offer a number of data plans suiting to different segments of society but many are unable to find the best and most economical plans.

Before shopping for a data plan, you have to look into the overall reputation of the company. More importantly, you have to look for the affordability and availability factors. No one would want buying a plan that is limited to only certain areas and states. Similarly, expensive plans are a big no-no for most of us. We have already covered these factors in our previous posts which you can read here and here.

AT&T data plans

• AT&T DataConnect

DataConnect plans is for those people whose lives revolve around internet but who don’t move beside the major metropolitan areas. The service range is limited to major population centers and is not available 24/7. At $60 per month you can avail 5GB of unlimited usage. Beyond 5GB additional data will be available at $0.00048/KB.

Coverage

AT&T offers coverage in select Europe and Asian countries while U.S coverage is limited to major metropolitan areas. Canadian roaming is at $15/MB while international roaming is priced at $20/MB.

• Sprint Mobile Broadband
  

Sprint offers a similar package at one cent less; $59.99. You get 5GB of monthly data limit and a 300MB/month off network usage. You have to sign a two-year contract and one time activation fee is $36.

Coverage

Coverage is fully available in California, Florida and Texas while limited coverage — only to major cities and airports — is available in all states including Hawaii. International roaming is limited to a few European and Asian countries.

• T-Mobile webConnect™ Data Plan

T-Mobile is offering the same monthly quota of 5GB at $59.99. The company will charge you 20 cents for per extra MB of internet. You can use unlimited hot spot Wi-Fi without worrying about any charges as it is completely free. The company operates over 7,000 Wi-Fi hot spots in all major restaurant chains, airports and hotels.

Coverage

T-Mobile internet is available across all regions of the U.S. International roaming is offered in 22 countries including United Kingdom, France, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore.

• Verizon Wireless BroadbandAccess

The 5GB monthly plan is available for $59.99 and you have to sign a two-year contract like the other service providers. One-time activation fee is $35.

Text messaging is $o.20 for both incoming and outgoing SMS. You can send or receive video/picture messages for $0.25.

Coverage

Verizon has one of the best coverages in the U.S. You can connect to the internet at all major and not-s0-major cities. The international roaming is available in many parts of Europe and Asia.

Diet plans are one of the most actively researched and followed developments. Millions are on a lookout for a plan which can not only curb their weight gain but also help in shedding all those extra pounds. Given this enthusiasm, we see dozens of new diet plans surface up every month and then dies down.

The reason for the resultant failure of most plans is that they are just superficial; they are made for making money not reducing weight. Only those diet plans can taste success that have some ‘weight’ to reduce weight.

Calorie restriction diet is a new addition to the list of weight reduction diet plans. This plan, unlike most others, has proven its worth and is highly successful in reducing weight. Under this plan, you don’t curtail your eating regimen but eat only highly nutritious and low calorie foods.

Basics of calorie restriction diet plan

The working of a calorie restriction diet plan is pretty simple. Simply put, you have to control the daily calorie intake and that’s it. How you can do it? We have elaborated some methods and also additional information.

Calorie restriction diets take on the weight issue with a two-pronged strategy. First, they focus on cutting down the daily food intake and second they emphasize on the use of fruits and vegetables. Let’s say that you eat 3,000 calories per day (a rather huge amount especially for medium height people) then you have to cut it to 2,500 or 2,600 calories per day. If you continue this routine for a week then you would be able to lose one pound of fats.

You can reduce more weight if you are able to sustain this ratio and even further reduce it while also doing exercises and sports. The body metabolism rate determines the speed and extent of weight accumulation or reduction. Calorie restriction expedites body metabolism rates and thus helps in losing weight quickly. By the way, there are no strict restrictions on food except those full of fats. You can eat to your heart’s content and still can get rid of those nasty extra pounds.

The greatest benefit of calorie restriction diet is the life longevity factor. There is an ongoing research on the benefits of this diet and some experiments have shown that altering your eating habits can help the body grow stronger and stay younger.

Model daily menu

Before embarking on a journey of consuming calorie restriction foods, you need to know your Body Mass Index (BMI). Click here to calculate your BMI.

Once this step is done, you have to calculate your body fat (here) and your Caloric restriction (here) as devised by the calorie restriction society. You can also calculate all three here.

Now coming to the diet plans and menus. If you have a sedentary lifestyle (no exercise and maximum sitting) then first you have to change your habits. No diet plan can work well if you hate exercise. We are not saying for a complete revolution where you spend hours in gym but a light walk in the morning or evening and some push ups and sit ups.

• Breakfast

Don’t make cuts on your breakfast. A healthy breakfast is key to a healthy living. Cereals, seasonal fruits, skimmed milk and cream are some good options for breakfast. You can also eat poached or boiled eggs, a couple of bread slices (yeah the normal bread) and honey.

• Lunch

For the lunch, eat whatever you like. Of course you have to abstain from junk and deep-fried foods. Just calculate the calorie intake before taking a bite and the rest will be taken care of.  If you have a daily calorie quota of 2,500 then you should spend 1,200 to 1,500 on your lunch.

• Dinner

Dinner has to be the lightest meal. Lightly fry some vegetables in olive oil or make salads. You can also eat steamed chicken or fish sandwiches. The calorie intake should not be more than 500. We are advising light dinners because many people cross their daily limits during the day and dinner is the final balancing act. If you can’t control yourself from overeating at dinner then you can never lose weight.

• Those extra bites

No one can live without eating in between the meals. We have the brunches, the evening snacks and those ‘hangout’ thingies which we are bound to eat like chocolates. Make some rules for this. Cut down on your chocolate intake, don’t eat anything between breakfast and lunch. You can eat some light snacks in the evening though we would prefer a fruit salad for that.

There are however ways in which consumers unknowingly harm their credit scores and end up receiving high interest rates, thanks to the counter-intuitive credit scoring system in the US. This article puts together a list of five things to be careful of if you want to maintain a good credit score. We do this by working our way backwards, by disintegrating FICO (Fair Isaac Corporation) credit score components and looking at what affects them.

Source: FICO (Factors that affect the Credit Score)

1.      Payment History – Late payments kill your credit score

This 35% chunk of your credit score pertains to timely payments and punishes delinquency. Being late on credit payments, failing to pay at all or consistent payment delays damage your credit score in a significant way. Not paying your credit off is the worst thing you can do to your credit score – because the more you delay payment, the closer you are to having your account charged off (which is when creditors believe you’re not going to pay off your accounts). So steer clear of being charged off and be on time.

 2.      Amounts owed – Even if you pay on time, high credit balance is penalized

You may be surprised by a low credit score even though you made all payments on time. Well, unfortunately most creditors penalize people based on high credit balances even if they responsibly pay it off. The reason? It is believed that maintaining high credit balance accounts for irresponsible behavior. So now that you know that, it would be a smart move to stop charging everything on that little piece of plastic.

3.      Length of credit history – Old is gold

Scrapping your old credit card for a new one can actually harm your credit score, and this is bad news for the responsible card owner. Because by canceling the card that you’ve had for the longest period of time and on which you’ve been making regular payments, you’re erasing good credit history. So if you must, cancel cards that are newer, the one’s you haven’t really used and that are just having you pay fees on them.

 4.      New Credit – Multiple credit sources in a short time are looked down upon

FICO uses 40 Reason Scores to tell if you should be given credit or not and almost four of them determine if having multiple credit sources has harmed your score. Although there’s no secret formula to having the perfect number of cards, FICO looks for a healthy credit mix that doesn’t signal any discrepancies. An example would be a mortgage loan, a car loan, maybe a store card or two, three or four MasterCard or Visa cards and a home equity line of credit, or HELOC, for example (Source: CNN Money)

5.      Types of Credit used – Never go high on balance transfers

 Though credit consolidation options like HELOC and credit balance transfers may seem like the best things to do, you need to exercise extreme caution when doing so. Because though diverse credit sources may reflect positively on your credit score, responsible credit payments are also important, so if you consolidate your credit sources down to a handful, your credit-utilization ratio can be driven down in turn making it detrimental to your credit score. So only consolidate when you have large balances in which case FICO may treat your HELOC as an installment loan rather than a revolving loan. 

Recently Apple iPhone brought about its web 2.0 but against it Google launched its Android-which one is better? well Google launched its Android last year as its open-source mobile phone platform. At that time when iphone 2.0 was not there, we might have assumed the Android is gaining a good edge at pinning down the iPhone mainly because:

• Android is open-source, so developers could freely create applications for the phones.
• Android phones were set to be priced around $200, while the iPhone at the time was priced at a minimum of $400.
• AT&T and Apple signed a contract with each other pertaining that iPhone is bound in USA to the wireless company for five years, where as Google’s Android phones were being built by various manufacturers and were being supported by many carriers.

But Apple is not watching it by. They have stepped up their game to take on Google with iPhone’s 2.0, a second generation of iPhone. iPhone 2.0 will let third party developers distribute their own applications and added on it are the 3G and GPS features. Although some obstacles in this regard still remain such as:

• iPhone is not open source yet
• it is still bound to AT&T for another 4 years
• it is having only one look and a time may come when the iPhone will become so common that people won’t want to buy one with the same look.

Few suggestions that Hai of Mobile Madness pointed out for Android developers to dominate the iPhone are as follows:

• Make software distribution decentralized, but organized so that application distribution can become viral.
• Improve and encourage consistency of design among Android applications
• Target third world countries.

Such strategies are good and any company can follow them given the vastness of opportunities still lay in this field, and keeping in mind Google’s history of successful products we can bet that it’s not an easy game now to sustain leadership.

• Cingular
• Verizon
• T-Mobile
• Nextel

The research is based on their existing service network as well as future growth they planned as per their press releases, and reviews from end users.

Cingular:

 Cingular wireless is by far one of the largest wireless carrier in the US, serving more than 78 million customers. The joint venture between AT&T and Bellsouth helped it to become the largest digital voice and network provider in US. They have hedged strongly upon their long distance infrastructure and pricing strategies, which in turn makes it a preferable option for frequent travellers and aggressive users.

Sprint-Nextel: 

Sprint-Nextel corporation is the third largest wireless telecom network provider in US. Its huge customer base of over 50.5 million makes it an aggressive player in the market when it comes to coverage area and network facilities. Although the primary user of Nextel is the rural markets in US but still the coverage area is not as wide as AT&T Cingular and Verizon in such areas. On the other hand they do have roaming charges so frequent travellers must plan it out their feasibility.

Verizon:

With its subscriber base of over 83.7 million in US. Verizon is by far the largest wireless service provider in USA. Its major target market being urban users and techno-go-get it types make it an aggressive player which tends to provide new and unique offers to its customers on regular basis. The wide area coverage although makes it a good option for frequent travellers particularly those of the mid-western areas.

T-Mobile:

T-Mobile is German based company and is the sixth largest mobile operator in world as per subscribers of more than 101 million. In US it is the fourth largest with 32.1 million customers. Although the service plans are of good coverage yet gaps do exist in the southeast and east coast.

As per our research the coverage area in terms of percentage of all these major players is as under. It shows that Cingular is leading the market followed by Verizon and T-mobile with Nextel being the fourth in over all cellular coverage area network.                        

Similarly in terms of area coverage percent of the overall subscriber market, these players stand as under:

This in turn shows again that Cingular leads the over all market share followed closely again by Nextel and Verizon. Hence it can be clearly deduced that Cingular tends to offer the largest coverage area with more lucrative plans for frequent traveller.

We often ask ourselves, Isn’t a perfect one-star cheeseburger at least as delicious as a perfect four star souffle?. Among restaurateurs and diners, the notion of the stars and rankings is adored, detested, and also profoundly entrenched, like some age-old caste system. We rate and compare things we wear and brand ourselves according to the value for money we might get against such ratings.

Now how exactly do we rate, measure or standardize such a system that is acceptable and benchmarked world over? What is this star system that restaurants and their diners so often tend to look even before they have actually been to the place? well as per experts in culinary arts and food aristocrats, what the stars mean is:

• Five stars — Delicate; almost perfect
• Four stars — Excellent; consistently elite
• Three stars — Normally excellent
• Two stars — very good
• One star — Good

Five stars is a delicate, rarely used designation, the comparable of culinary heaven. Four stars on the other hand means that we consider the restaurant and its chef to be among the city’s very best. Three stars means the restaurant is excellent, though not elite but it usually comes up to the expectations. A two-star rating is very good — though not necessarily so good for many establishments in town that desire to be a culinary heaven. Characteristically, one star restaurants tend to be simple, more neighborly, and often more satisfying than their multi-star brethren, and that will often be the case here, although one star for a restaurant with elite aspiration is really not much better then No star at all.

We favor a five star, instead of three or four, because it tends to discriminate it with regards to the levels it has achieved and thus the expectations not only from the food itself but the environment, setting and decor, as well as the chef at hand who prepares the meal. Historically, star wielding restaurant critics tend to focus on food, ambiance and service to make their decisions.

A top restaurant rating can mean success or failure for a restaurant, particularly when bestowed by influential sources like Michelin or the New York Times. Three stars in the Times four star system denotes excellent, and is a class unto itself, considerably harder to get than a dozen of New York’s 20,000 restaurants. The influence goes beyond business success; writing about former Times chief dining critic Ruth Reichl, a US food columnist noted that Reichl’s reviews and star-rating “made and broke reputations and fortunes and generally influenced the direction of the city’s–indeed, to a lesser degree, the country’s– restaurant scene” (Barnes, Steve. “Restaurant critics walk an ethical tightrope, 29th April, 2005; Albany times union).

Top raters like Michelin and Mobil lists only a couple of dozen restaurants each year in USA and Canada as five stars. This means that it’s not just a culinary war between the restaurants to seek the crown jewel. Rather ambiance, chef, cuisines at hand as well as consistency in all, makes or breaks restaurant’s rating as well as its standing in the intensely competitive market, where even food lovers like us are empowered to generate opinions and make them known through social networking communities.

Debts are ruling the roost these days. I heard some people saying that if the conditions remain the same, U.S will be remembered as the debt man of the world. Almost half of the U.S population is severely affected by the current economic quagmire while the rest half is waiting for its turn to go bankrupt or foreclosed.

These are indeed very tough times and there is no doubt that we badly need some magical solution to our financial ills. But we also know that there is no genie which can save us from this mayhem.

I will not talk about the big ways of getting the act together nor will discuss any financial jargon here. Following are 8 baby steps to debt reduction and living a happy life,  it can be a big help for couples.

1.  Setting up a crisis management fund

The ideal way to kick off the rescue plan is to start funding a reserve which can be used in case of extreme emergency like a foreclosure which can’t be stopped. If you have sizeable amount in the fund, you can protect your property.

2.   Collaborative thinking

An ideal couple is one that sticks together through thick and thin. Talk to each other and develop a workable strategy which you both think will be the best for you.

3.    Save big bucks - at least equal to 8 months salary

Try to save as much as you can and pool in that extra cash; ideally equivalent of your eight months salary or at least five to six months income. This reserve can be used in case of untoward situation.

4.    Small things are better

Debt management can be optimized in a more perfect manner if you try settling up smaller loans. This strategy will enable you to clear all the smaller and medium-sized debts in a go.

5.   College education fund should never be compromised

American parents are facing one of the biggest fear of their lives - to give away college education funding of their children to banks and savings institutions. You can avoid that by having a steady and unbreakable stream of dollars going for this fund on a monthly basis. You have to manage this at any cost.

6.    Avoid retirement woes

Retirement is another difficult time of our lives but if both of you have enough savings, there is no need to worry about. Start with saving 5%-10% of your monthly salary into this fund and you can increase the amount when suitable.

7.   Clear home loans as first priority

Clearing any debts on your home should be your first priority as foreclosures are so difficult to avoid otherwise. If you are over with this, you can manage other debts pretty easily.

8.    Invest with your mind, not heart

Don’t follow the crowd in making investments. Try investing in safe avenues or you can also try your luck in new sectors like renewable energy which has a bright future.

Banks are getting it rough this time. The economic mayhem coupled with the bank failures is tearing apart the very fabric of our banking system. Banks are revising procedures but not for the benefit of the customers.

Banks have long tapped on consumer finance to size up their treasures while at the same time, increasing interest rates every so often and leaving no stone unturned in extracting money in the form of personal charges, credit card fees and loan markups, among other things.

Critics have been saying this for years that customers should rise against these ‘unholy’ tactics of the banking industry but few have given heed. They used to say that it’s the right time to take your bank to task but that time never came, until today.

The financial crisis, foreclosures, extremely high credit card charges, hidden fees on personal banking and other factors have forced customers to rethink their dealing with banks.

Bank Charges:

Banks and credit card companies deny any malpractices and say that all these charges were written in the agreement which you missed reading (That fine print that we actually don’t read). They are absolutely right here that most of these charges like ATM or debit card fees, extra charges if you draw amount from ATM of another bank or the monthly service charges or charges deducted when your check bounces, just to name a few, are present in the agreement.

The catch lies in the financial statements as these charges are often not mentioned in your accounts and balance sheets. If you call your bank for an explanation, they’ll say the account is fine and only valid charges have been deducted.

Unfortunately, they are lying. The interest rates, LIBOR and service charges change every so often.

Credit card chaos:

Nickle and dime charges, as called by Kiplinger’s personal finance team, are a major headache for credit card users. These are the fees/charges/revenues charged by your company whenever you use your credit card to draw cash in advance from an ATM. We are robbed of a significant 3% of our total credit volume.

The most costly of these secret charges goes by various names such as “interchange fees,” “discount fees,” “checkout fees” or “convenience fees.” In 2004 alone, Visa, MasterCard and the banks that own them collected $27.6 billion, American Express $7.2 billion and others such as Dines Club and Discover $5.2 billion — totaling $39.2 billion, according to a research analysis.

Here is a nice video on how banks are playing with American’s emotions and hard-earned money.

Loans extravaganza

Charging undue amounts on loans are another thing banks love to do. Compound interest rates are the culprits in this case. Although banks do have the right to make money and compound interest rate keeps on changing; they have to at least make public their rates on a regular basis.

The offer to overdraft is another trap banks use to keep customers entangled in their web. Let’s say your bank is offering overdraft at 18% but it is also ready to disburse loan at 8.9%. If you have reached the overdraft limit, there is a great possibility that the bank will succeed in selling you a new loan. By the way, the overdraft will remain the same.

Situation is almost the same in U.K.

It is customers money that keeps the bank going.  We have to act now to ask this basic question from the banking industry. The economy is surely in a mess but why are the banks ripping customers off?

Fires are often the cause of children playing with lighters, or other combustible things. Teaching children the consequences of  unfortunate accidents with fire is always a good deterrent for kids to stop playing with matches, lighters or candles. Children should also be aware of proper evacuation techniques if a fire breaks out. Practicing family fire drills every once in a while will keep them prepared for any such happening. Always make a meet-up point outside the house, and never go back inside the house for anything. Let the authorities come and handle the situation.

Below are few tips that will ensure your family safety from fires breaking out in your home.

• Cooking. While cooking, always wear clothes that are not loose, as these are can easily catch fire. Always stay in the kitchen while cooking. When cooking, keep a lid close by, so if a fire erupts in the pan, you can cover it up with the lid and let the fire down itself. If you leave the kitchen, then turn off the burners, even if it is for a minute; you can turn it back on once you are back.
• Smoke Alarms. Install smoke alarms all over your house. If possible, try to install home sprinkler systems, which will douse fire as soon as it starts. Test them every month to check if they are functioning properly, and change the batteries every year.
• Fire extinguisher. Have a fire extinguisher in your home, placed in a spot where it is easily accessible. Teach your family how and when to use it.
• Extension cords. Do not plug in too many appliances at the same time. Never plug in a window AC into an extension cord. If you are going to plug in a few appliances into the same extension cord, then make sure it is of good quality, and durable. An extension cord is extremely dangerous and can cause a short-circuit and a fire, if it is over-heated.
• Heating. Store matches and lighters away from children and in a cool dry place. Space heaters should be turned off when not in the room, and kept at least three feet away from flammable items. It is advised to install a glass or metal plate in front of your fireplace, that way the sparks of some coals will not “pop out” of the fireplace.
• Gasoline & Fuel. Keep gasoline and fuel stored in your garage in a container that is recommended for storing gasoline. Do not use it for any other purpose besides motor fuel, and do not bring it indoors.
• Candles. Always blow out candles when not in the room. Do not keep candles in children’s bedrooms.
• Smoking. If you are feeling tired, then stand up and smoke. Do not risk lying down and smoking, as fires easily break out by cigarettes if a person falls asleep without putting them out properly.
• Lights. Check if any of your lights in the house flicker, this could mean some electrical wiring problem. Keep notice of how often fuses blow out and the power trips, this could also mean that there is some wiring issue. Get your electrical wiring checked out immediately.
• Natural gas/LP gas systems.Have the gas pipes, valves, and pilots checked regularly for leakages or loose fittings. If you suspect a leak, get it inspected immediately.

These few tips would certainly help you and your family, as these are the main causes of fires in households. Regular check-ups of electrical wiring, gas pipes, smoke alarms, and heating would ensure the safety of your family as well as your neighborhood’s.

For further information on how to prevent fires in homes, here is a video that will help.