Wild careers with crazy pays

Bartending and hairstyling are no longer careers that fall in the 'out of the box' careers list. From tattoo artist, potter, to deep sea diver, Priti Salian has put together a list of five out-of-the ordinary careers that can actually help you earn a living

1. Pottery
Do you like the idea of playing with clay and creating unique stuff? Try your hand at wheel pottery and convert traditional art into your signature creation. New-age pottery is all about breaking boundaries and creating wares and artefacts that go beyond just cooking and serving ware. Bonsai pots, table lamps, bathroom accessories, coasters, and funky artefacts, you can use the wheel to mould just about anything you fancy. The good part is that it can actually help you earn a good load. You can hold exhibitions or operate through the online space and word of mouth to bag commissioned work, in turn getting your objet d'art to become a style statement for hotels, malls and homes. "To earn a good buck, you could also run classes at schools or hold private sessions," says Mr. Vinod Dubey, a well-known potter who runs a pottery studio called Mitty in Mumbai. Think innovative and you'll go places.

2. Deep sea diving
Explore ship wrecks, inspect a ship or give first aid to a patient under water. You could do all this and more as a deep sea diver. Undeniably one of the most paying professions, deep sea diving can help you earn a crore per annum once you are experienced. Depending on the nature of your job you could also earn anywhere between Rs. 5,000 to Rs. 40,000 in a day. But the profession is not risk-free. Staying deep inside water can cause problems in your ear and vocal chords and a single mistake can cost you your life. Go for it only if you are lionhearted!

3. Tea/Coffee appreciation
Assist those who feel strongly about their morning cuppa, by being a tea/coffee connoisseur, and you could easily earn at least 40,000-50,000 per month for consultancy. "A tea/coffee connoisseur educates people about the various types and brands available and helps them make changes in the way they drink their beverage," says Nikhil Agarwal, Director, All Things Nice. You talk to groups of people and teach them different styles of preparation, showing them how to derive maximum pleasure from their drink. You could either work with coffee and tea producers, food and beverage professionals or quality oriented hotels and restaurants for training their staff.

4. Tattoo designing
If you are passionate about sketching and love dabbling in crazy designs, you could be a tattoo artist. From teenagers to grandfathers, people of all ages are falling for the tattoo fad today. For professional training, you will either have to go to the UK, US or Thailand or work with an established artist in India or abroad for a couple of years. Once you have adequate practice, couple it with communication skills and loads of patience for a better understanding of what your client desires. You are now good enough to open your own tattoo parlour or work in partnership with someone. Established tattoo artists are known to make Rs. 5000 to Rs. 10,000 per hour. Just remember, hard and innovative work pays here!

5. Ethical hacking
With cyber-crime on an all-time high, organizations like airlines, hotels, banks, telecom companies, police departments and many others are looking for ethical hackers to check breach of cyber security, find its origin and prevent it. So, if you have an analytical mind and a responsible attitude get trained as a professional ethical hacker. "As an independent freelance consultant, an ethical hacker can earn up to 6-7 lakhs per month," says Ankit Fadia, Ethical Hacker and Cyber Security Expert. "When working with an organization, somebody with 3-4 years' experience can earn around 1.5 - 2 lakhs per month," he adds.

The food-teeth connection unveiled!

Got some serious issues with your teeth? Stains, erosion, plaques, bad breath? Definitely your diet is one of the key culprits. Consultant Registered Dietitian, Preethi Rahul talks about the food- teeth connection

Know the factors affecting your teeth
Our mouth harbours bacteria that can convert carbohydrates to acids. Teeth are easily vulnerable to acid attacks and can get damaged or eroded easily. Having foods with staining abilities cause permanent stain on teeth. Constant contact with food, without proper cleansing can lead to plaque build-up. Dental cavities and caries are other common teeth related problems. Foods high in sugar, carbohydrate and acid content are particularly harmful for the teeth.

Getting the teeth basics right
- Brush your teeth regularly, at least twice a day using a fluoride containing toothpaste.
- Wash and rinse your mouth well after every meal.
- Floss your teeth every day.
- Go for routine dental examination (once in 6 months) and teeth cleaning.
- Have teeth-friendly snacks like cheese, whole fresh fruit, unsweetened yogurt, vegetable salads etc.
- Space your meals and snacks well, so that you aren't constantly eating. Constant contact with food can lead to plaque formation.

Main culprits

Sugar/ Carbohydrate rich foods
Starch mixed with salivary amylase produces an acid bath and when this acid bath stays in the mouth for long, potential for danger is greater. The acid damages the tooth's enamel which is the top most layer of the teeth and slowly dissolves the calcium in it causing tooth decay. Direct sugars and carbohydrates ultimately get converted to starch in the body which is why these foods have to be taken in moderation. Even dry fruits like raisins and fruit juices are highly concentrated sources of sugar. So, reduce your sugar intake.

Acidic drinks
Sipping acidic drinks like carbonated beverages, sweetened sodas for prolonged periods, can erode teeth. Certain studies even show that teeth when put in a carbonated beverage, totally disappear in a certain period of time. That displays the effect of acid on teeth. Most of the acidic drinks are also high in simple sugars, which make the teeth more prone to decay.

Staining foods
Drinking excess alcohol erodes the teeth enamel, destroying the surface leading to teeth discolouration. Smoking also leads to stain formation on teeth and makes teeth more prone to decay. Smoking, chewing beetle nut and tobacco adversely affects oral hygiene. These habits can cause bad breath, gum disease, damage to tooth enamel, eventual tooth loss and may even lead to oral cancer. Coffee, soft drinks, and juices with artificial flavours and colouring agents can cause tooth discoloration. The artificial ingredients weaken the enamel surface and make teeth more susceptible to dental caries.

Junk foods
Foods like chips, buttery popcorn; refined products etc. can stick to the teeth surface or can get trapped in between the teeth. If left un-noticed they get converted to acid which causes a lot of havoc.

Best friends

Green tea
Catechins present in green tea can ward away the bacteria that cover sugar or carbs into acids and also the organisms that can produce bad breath.
Try this: Keep green tea bags always handy and have at least 3- 4 cups a day and start noticing the visible difference.

Cheese
Cheese is low in carbohydrates and rich in minerals like calcium and phosphorus which help in remineralisation of the enamel. It helps to produce saliva that can kill the infection causing bacteria and help to balance the pH in the mouth.
Try this: Have a ½ inch cube of cheese instead of the sweet- sugary desserts.

Parsley/mint
Having 3-4 mint leaves or parsley will lend you a sweet breath, owing to the presence of monoterpenes in them.
Try this: Garnish your dessert with mint leaves or add it to your main course.

Sesame seeds
It helps to slough off the plaque and in re-building the tooth enamel. They are also rich in calcium which helps to preserve the teeth and gum health.
Try this: Add sesame seeds to a salad to keep the gentle teeth cleaning action ticking.

Water
Drinking water through the day will help to keep the gums hydrated and also to stimulate saliva. Saliva is one of the body's greatest defence system which helps to keep a check on the bacteria that cause plaque and cavities. Water also helps to wash away food particles trapped in between the teeth and the gums.

Try this: In case you don't have the time to brush after every meal, make sure to rinse your mouth with a lot of water.

Would you kill the man you love?

Priyanka Chopra in Saat Khoon Maaf says that every married woman at least once in her lifetime does ponder over how to get rid of her husband. Curious, if there is really any weight in that and if women would think of it in an extreme moment- we asked the ladies for confessions and heard some 'killer' opinions! By Clinical Psychologist Prachi S Vaish

"The idea is certainly intriguing"

Monisha, 25, seems titillated by the whole idea. "I think there's no limit to human nature and who knows what I'll do if pushed too far? But I do know that if I'm willing to lay my life down for him, I would definitely be passionate enough to go to that extreme if need arises."

The thought of killing one's partner can only rear its head in dire situations and even then, to go through with it would actually require a huge emotional upheaval as all history of crime reveals that killing a partner has always been a crime of passion like the case of Yvonne Rousseau and Pierre Chevallier where their fiery romance of decades gave way to her jealousy and his murder, and took France by the storm in 1951.

Riya, 27, exclaims, "I'm certainly going to do it one night while he sleeps; every time I hear the drone of his snores I want to smother him with a pillow till he stops breathing!" Now there's sure a 'humour'-killing idea!

"It only looks good in movies"
Divya, 34, takes her time to think about it and opines, "sometimes situations like this should be just humoured...it was easy for Priyanka to kill husbands because she probably knew she would have six more husbands, but in real life however irritating or wretched the husband gets, murder wouldn't be our cup of tea. The best I would do is leave him with his disgust to bear; nothing would be a better revenge that that. Once he loses his woman who stood by him he will realise what he lost. Murder and blood on my hands will look convincing only in movies and for a hottie like Priyanka? She can kill with her looks, I couldn't even kill an ant if I stared at it!"

Shakti, a mother of two and married for almost a decade, says, "the only scenario I can imagine where I would be driven to murder would be if I saw him with another woman. I gave him the best years of my life, two beautiful children and a home, and now when I need him the most, I wouldn't stand for him to run off with a bimbo!"

"Too much of an Indian to do it"
Hansika, 28, admits to having serious trouble in marital paradise but says that, "I guess it must be the intrinsic values I have as an Indian that restrain me from even thinking about causing him physical harm; I could curse and scream, maybe even shake him up once in a while, but murder? I don't think so." Deepika, 29, agrees and adds in the same vein, "There is an urge to call the relationship off but never to the extreme of killing him. There are moments when you want to end it all, either by a divorce or killing one self but the thought of killing him never came; maybe it's how our Indian system is - In-laws and husbands killing their wives is common but hardly heard of the other way around."

Murder or not, we now know for sure that one common denominator of female fury is the 'other woman' and if push comes to shove, the female might just prove to be the deadlier of the species!

Language Laboratory

A specially equipped school or library room for teaching foreign languages. Often designed with a teacher’s console at one end, the laboratories are made up of rows of contiguous study CARRELS, each equipped with any of a wide variety of audiovisual equipment to facilitate teaching and learning. Students at each carrel use headsets and keyboards or a computer “mouse” to listen and/or watch recorded lessons, to which they are expected to respond and then hear and compare their responses with correct versions. From the console, teachers can monitor and, when necessary, intervene in each student’s lesson.

Top 5 mistakes that can ruin new love

You've known him three weeks and yet you ask him to pick up tomatoes on his way over to your place...not a good idea! Why? Simply because your comfort level may not be the same as his! Clinical Psychologist Prachi S Vaish lists a few moves you should avoid just yet

Home chores
Sure he offered to help you move to your new apartment but having him stack your pots and pans and medicine cabinet is not his idea of housewarming! Same goes for asking him to do your grocery shopping because he's 'coming over anyway'. Domestic tasks make all men feel married and unless you're just a step short of walking down the aisle, don't assign household chores to a new flame.

Two too-much
An occasional double date to show off the new hottie to all your naysayer couple friends is alright but if you schedule one very weekend and sit sighing over how adorable they look together, you're actually ringing his warning bells. Too much couple interaction in a new hook-up says to him 'husband-hunter' instead of 'fun date' and we don't want that impression, do we?

The Cinderella transformation
You take hours to dazzle him with your look but a guy you've been dating for a few weeks doesn't need to see the steps leading up to the diva look; so no opening doors with green goo on your face, no shaving equipment lying around in the bathroom where he can see it, no requests to drop you at the salon and wait for you and no taking hours to get ready while he flips magazines in your living room...get it done before he arrives!

That never-ending crib session
There's a reason why they call it 'girl talk'. Venting after a particularly stressful day is okay, but if you indulge him in nasty gossip about your friends and co-workers everyday you're just telling him what a crummy person you are at heart.

Honesty that sucks!
Don't get us wrong, we are all for basing a relationship on completely honest terms but there's a time and place for everything. When he has only known you a short time and is still totally enamoured by every little breath you take, you can save the details of the time you got your first period. Sure go ahead and tell him about how you got to where you are in life but save the not-so-pleasant details for later...or never!

Doing things together and for each other is fascinating, but joined-at-the-hip act can wait for an older relationship; let him treat you like the princess he wants for now and enjoy it while it lasts!

Common Cold

Common Cold

Cold, Common, acute infectious disease of the upper respiratory tract, caused by more than 100 kinds of viruses. The infection affects the mucous membranes of the nose and throat, causing such symptoms as nasal congestion and discharge, sore throat, and coughing. These symptoms are typical also of respiratory infections caused by bacteria, and of allergic conditions such as hay fever and asthma; therefore, the common cold is difficult to diagnose with certainty.

Normally it runs a mild course, without fever, and subsides spontaneously in about seven days. Its medical significance lies in the possible complications that may ensue. Various diseases, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, and sinus or middle-ear infections, may arise from the cold. Research indicates that there are several strains of each type of virus with varying degrees of virulence. Infection with one strain confers only a brief immunity to reinfection by the same strain, and gives no immunity against the other strains. In 1985, United States researchers using advanced X-ray crystallography techniques produced a three-dimensional, atomic scale model of one of the most common cold viruses. Study of the antibody binding sites on the viral coat revealed a very high degree of antigenic variability, suggesting that production of a vaccine to protect people from the common cold may never be practical.
The common cold was formerly thought to result from exposure to cold weather, a belief probably traceable to the fact that people tend to crowd together indoors at this time, causing a more efficient transmission of virus from person to person. Chilling, also believed to cause a cold, may contribute to infection but some studies suggest that it is not of major importance.

No cure is known for the common cold and no preventive drug has yet been found. In the early 1950s, various antihistamine drugs were claimed to be effective in the prevention of colds if taken at the onset. Most physicians believe, however, that such drugs cannot affect the progress of the true, virus-caused cold. The American chemist and Nobel laureate Linus Pauling proposed that large doses of vitamin C can shorten the duration of a cold and alleviate its symptoms, but several studies have failed to substantiate his claim. Present-day methods of treating a cold are directed toward the relief of symptoms and the prevention of complications. Bed rest is commonly recommended to avoid complications, even when the cold itself is not incapacitating. Antibiotics are often administered as a preventive measure, but there is no evidence that they are helpful.

According to recent statistics, the common cold is the primary cause of absenteeism in schools and industry. In the United States, where individuals have an estimated average of two and a half colds each year, the labor force loses more than 150 million workdays annually. See also Influenza; Virus.

Aversive Stimuli

Aversive stimuli can be defined as any cues or events that produce negative emotional feelings or a negative outcome. Any stimulus can potentially be considered aversive, because it is the production of the undesirable feeling associated with the stimulus that determines whether it is aversive or not. In general terms, the aversive stimulus most often attenuates or eliminates behavior that is paired with that aversive stimulus. As such, aversive stimuli are importantly related to various principles of learning and have major implications for a number of basic and applied research and therapeutic settings.

Aversive stimuli are a key element to escape learning (i.e., the type of learning that is based on negative reinforcement). For instance, animals can learn to escape electric footshock by pressing a bar or moving to a different part of their environment. Aversive experiences are also very important for human learning. The human nervous system has evolved so that even newborns are prepared to find certain types of sensory experiences aversive, so that those aversive stimuli will be avoided thereafter. A wealth of research data indicate that any number of additional stimuli that precede the aversive stimulus can, themselves, become conditioned aversive stimuli. The presentation of the conditioned aversive stimulus can cause a number of behavioral responses that reflect avoidance of, or escape from, the conditioned stimulus. A response that prevents the occurrence of an aversive stimulus, because of the presence of a conditioned aversive stimulus, is called avoidance conditioning. Avoidance learning generally occurs after escape learning has occurred, such that the response is eventually made before the aversive stimulus is encountered, so that the aversive stimulus will be entirely avoided. The relationship between escape and avoidance learning is highlighted in the two-stage theory of learning: The first stage involves classical conditioning of fear, and the second stage involves operant conditioning and the reduction of fear by avoidance responding. The negative emotional reaction to aversive stimuli is caused by the activation of parts of the limbic system of the brain, including the amygdala, hypothalamus, and anterior cingulate cortex. In many instances, an aversive stimulus is the same as a punishing stimulus. Indeed, the use of an aversive stimulus is, in many instances, synonymous with punishment. Unlike positive and negative reinforcement, which act to increase the likelihood of a response, punishment acts to reduce the likelihood of a response, or behavior, occurring again. In other words, punishment produces the opposite outcome to reinforcement. In both experiments and applied settings, punishment may well suppress unwanted behavior—but usually only temporarily and only in situations or circumstances in which the punishment seems unavoidable. Punishment can also lead to additional behavioral issues, such as increased aggressiveness or other exaggerated emotional behavior.

Aversive stimuli potentiate certain types of learning in virtually all animals, as demonstrated by the unique ability of noxious (aversive) sensations to cause longlasting and often permanent avoidance of the related stimuli. The Garcia Effect is the avoidance of a novel food item that has been associated with illness after only a single exposure. This type of one-trial learning enables the organism to learn the consequences of consuming that food and thus avoid poisonous food sources in the future. In recent years researchers have probed the central nervous system mechanisms that produce the aversiveness of noxious stimuli. Use of the escape/ avoidance methodology uniquely facilitates an assessment of the aversive nature of noxious sensory events. Damage to limbic system structures, such as the anterior cingulate cortex, has thus been shown behaviorally to decrease the noxiousness of aversive stimuli. Aversive stimuli are used clinically in a type of behavioral therapy called aversion therapy. This approach is based on classical (or Pavlovian) conditioning, so that the undesirable behaviors are paired with stimuli that produce undesirable feelings or outcomes. The goal is to attenuate or eliminate undesirable behavior. For instance, in the treatment of alcoholism, the undesirable behavior of alcohol consumption can be paired with a drug called Antabuse, also known by the generic name disulfiram. Disulfiram in the presence of alcohol produces a number of aversive physical sensations, including flushing, sweating, soreness in the head and neck, nausea, and vomiting. Theoretically, the repeated pairing of alcohol consumption with these aversive sensations will decrease alcohol consumption. However, the use of this and other types of pharmacological aversive stimuli that cause uncomfortable consequences are typically associated with poor compliance. It should be noted that behavioral modification techniques utilizing aversive stimuli are often misunderstood. For instance, many times the same aversive stimulus is associated with either negative reinforcement or punishment. In negative reinforcement, the aversive stimulus precedes the undesirable behavior, whereas in punishment, the aversive stimulus follows the undesirable behavior. In combination with adequate cognitive-behavioral therapy, the use of aversive stimuli to treat substance abuse and other disorders may have utility, but there remains controversy as to the ultimate effectiveness of such an approach.