12 Natural Gargles For Sore Throat

As an official comeback from a very long hiatus on this blog, posts will now be every 12th of the month.

For this official return, here are the 12 natural gargles for soothing your sore throat which is relevant during this COVID-10 worldwide pandemic.

1. Salt and water - mix 1⁄4 teaspoon salt in 1 cup warm water.  Note: mix a fresh batch of gargle for every use. Better to waste a bit pouring it out than to leave it in your glass, where it might become contaminated with bacteria. Also, do not swallow the gargle; spit it out!
2. Hot sauce and water - add five shakes of ground cayenne pepper (or a few shakes of hot sauce) to a cup of hot water for sore throat relief. The capsaicin in chillies helps soothes pain and fights inflammation. Note: Don’t try this if you have open sores in your mouth. 
3. Ginger, honey and lemon - mix 1 teaspoon each of powdered ginger and honey, 1⁄2 cup of hot water, and the juice of 1⁄2 squeezed lemon. Pour the water over the ginger, then add the lemon juice and honey, and gargle. Honey coats the throat and also has mild antibacterial properties. 
4. Sage and apple cider vinegar - Sage has been used as a throat-soother for centuries. One recipe to try during cold and flu season: grind 2 tablespoons each dried sage and thyme into a mason jar with 2 cups apple cider vinegar. Leave covered at room temperature for two weeks, then strain out the herbs. When you’re ready to gargle, mix a couple of tablespoons of the sage mixture into a small glass of warm water. Another herb with cold-busting properties is thyme.
5. Turmeric and water - This yellow spice is a powerful antioxidant, and the traditional system of medicine called Ayurveda, rooted in Hinduism, has used turmeric to fight pain and inflammation for centuries. To try it yourself, add 1/2 teaspoon of the ground spice to a cup of warm water and use up to three times a day.
6. Clove tea - Add 1 to 3 teaspoons of powdered or ground cloves to warm water, then mix and gargle. Cloves have soothing properties, explains acupuncturist, Elizabeth Trattner. Plus, they also have antimicrobial properties that can help stop the growth of bacteria, according to research in Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal. The spicy mixture can also be used as a mouthwash to help tooth pain, she says.
7. Spicy tomato juice - For temporary relief of sore throat symptoms, try this tasty gargle: 1/2 cup each of tomato juice and hot water, plus about 10 drops of chilli sauce. Bonus: capsaicin from chillies boosts circulation.
8. Goldenseal, echinacea, or myrrh and water - Gargling with these herbal anti-inflammatories can soothe swollen and sore throat tissue, says Trattner. Try several drops of herbal tinctures in a small amount of warm water.
9. Apple cider vinegar and salt - Anecdotal evidence suggests that apple cider vinegar can help a sore throat, and research does show that it has antibacterial properties. Gargle with 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt dissolved in a glass of warm water; use several times a day if needed. For a gentler treatment, combine 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon every four hours.
10. Licorice root powder and water - Licorice root may soothe a sore throat and help eliminate cough-inducing phlegm; a 2013 study of more than 200 people found that surgical patients who had gargled with a licorice solution prior to anaesthesia were less likely to develop a sore throat post-surgery.
11. Green tea - This one is actually a sore-throat prevention measure, since one health benefit of tea is the ability to fight infections. Next time you brew a cup of green tea, make a little extra and gargle with it. A 2016 review of research found that gargling with tea may have a preventative effect against the flu virus.
12. Raspberry tea - This is an old home remedy for a sore throat because of the anti-inflammatory properties. One recipe calls for pouring one cup of boiling water over two teaspoons of dried raspberry leaves or packaged raspberry tea. Steep for ten minutes, then strain and let cool a bit. Gargle while warm.

References:
Sore throat remedies: 12 natural gargles that may ease the pain
ETH Podcast #COVID–19: Try gargling!

How To Care For Introverts

1. Respect their need for privacy.
2. Never embarrass them in public.
3. Let them observe first in new situations.
4. Give them time to think. Don't demand instant answers.
5. Don't interrupt them.
6. Give them advance notice of expected changes in their lives.
7. Give them 15 minute warnings to finish whatever they are doing.
8. Reprimand them privately.
9. Teach them new skills privately.
10. Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests & abilities.
11. Don't push them to make lots of friends.
12. Respect their Introversion. Don't try to remake them into Extroverts.

12 Plagiarism Tools Aside From Copyscape

1. Plagium - http://www.plagium.com/
2. DupliChecker - http://www.duplichecker.com/
3. Plagiarisma - http://plagiarisma.net/
4. PlagiarismChecker - http://www.plagiarismchecker.com/
5. CopyGator - http://www.copygator.com/
6. Grammarly - https://www.grammarly.com/
7. Dustball - http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/
8. WhiteSmoke - http://www.whitesmoke.com/
9. Paper Rater - http://www.paperrater.com/
10. Article checker - http://www.articlechecker.com/
11. Dupli checker - http://www.duplichecker.com/
12. Search engine report - http://searchenginereports.net/articlecheck.aspx

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDnN9TeN65E
http://www.techentice.com/best-free-copyscape-alternatives/
https://www.onlinedimes.com/best-plagiarism-checker/

12 Tips For Improving OSCommerce Security

This is a post that caught my attention when I was browsing for security-related information for the OSCommerce platform. This is from the website Codemehappy

1. Rename your Admin folder 
   – Edit the admin/includes/configure.php file. Find and replace all instances of /admin/ with /’your new admin name’/
   – Rename the Admin folder with ‘your new admin name’
2. Delete the files ‘admin’/file_manager.php and ‘admin’/define_language.php
3. Don’t reveal the new name of your ‘Admin’ folder
   – Remove any reference to the ‘Admin’ folder name from catalog/robots.txt.
   This file is readable by anyone at anytime. So anything entered here can be used to map your Store.
4. Limit access to ‘Admin’ and remove old or unused ‘Admin’ accounts
   – htaccess rules can be used here. If your Apache server allows local htaccess files to ‘override’ its default settings (check with your host) then you can create an .htaccess file in the ‘admin’ folder and add the following: 

   01	# deny *everything*

   02	<FilesMatch ".*\..*">

   03	Order Allow,Deny

   04	Deny from all

   05	</FilesMatch>

   06

   07	# but now allow just *certain* necessary files:

   08	<FilesMatch "(^$|^favicon.ico$|.*.(php|js|css|jpg|gif|png)$)">

   09	Order Allow,Deny

   10	Allow from all

   11	</FilesMatch>

   
   This snippet above will only allow certain file types to be run (as specified in the list php|js|css|jpg|gif|png.) Simply add more extensions with a pipe | to broaden. If you want to lock access to the ‘admin’ area to a range of Ip addresses you use, try:

   1	# allow only your IP addresses

   2	<FilesMatch ".*\..*">

   3	Order Deny,Allow

   4	Deny from all

   5	Allow from 123.123

   6	Allow from 456.456

   7	</FilesMatch>

   
   Note the above rule uses only the first two groups of numbers from two Ip addresses. This is because many people are on dynamically assigned IPs which although they do change (infrequently), they often don’t vary that much. If you have a static or dedicated IP address when you connect to the Net, you won’t have this problem.
   – set permissions on all folders to 755, all files to 644 (or 444 read only if configure.php). There are some exceptions here: ‘admin’/backups and ‘admin’/images will require write permissions of 757. These may be able to be protected using htaccess rules however.
   – delete old ‘admin’ accounts, especially ‘demo’ or ‘guest’ accounts or those created for temporary users.
5. Change ‘Admin’ passwords regularly and password protect your ‘admin’ folder
   – to make a tough password, use a password generator like the PCTools Security Password Generator and store them in a password vault like KeePass
   – many control panels (like cPanel and Plesk) offer a simple ‘Password Protect Folder’ utility. This is a good idea, although it does mean you will have to log in twice to the ‘admin’ the first time (once in the popup, then again in the actual login.) However if you have cookies enabled for the session, you only have to do this once while the browser is open. If you don’t have access to such a utility, here are the steps to create your own password protected folder:
   Add your version of this to your ‘admin/.htaccess file (making sure you change the values in lines 2 & 3 after AuthName and AuthUserFile):
   

   1	AuthType Basic

   2	AuthName "whatever you would like it to ask you"

   3	AuthUserFile /absolute/path/to/your/new/.htpasswd

   4	Require valid-user

   
   (I’d recommend putting the .htpasswd file in a folder inaccessible from the web, with its own .htaccess file containing:)
   

   1	<Files *.*>

   2	order allow,deny

   3	deny from all

   4

   </Files>

   
   Use an htpasswd generator to create and encrypt your password – like this one at dynamicdrive.com
   Copy and upload/save the .htpasswd file in its ‘hidden from the web’ location. Done!
6. Don’t reveal the name of your ‘Admin’ folder on printed invoices, packing slips
   – If you print invoices or packing slips, switch off printing the url path on the page.
   For Internet Explorer: File >> Page Setup >> remove this two character combination: “&u” from the header or footer text box.
   For Firefox: File >> Page Setup >> Margins & Header/Footer >> set all of the drop downs to –blank–.
7. Set up ‘Admin’ under another domain or subdomain
8. Use secure Usernames and Passwords
   – If you have work done by a developer or coder who needs access to your admin, use a temporary username and password that you delete afterwards. Use a password generator (like the PCTools Generator mentioned above) and store them in a password vault (like KeePass)
9. Check access dates in the database
   – If you do have developers etc access your ‘Admin’, use phpMyAdmin and browse the admin table for the admin id row of the account, looking at date_modified. This will show the last access date of that account. Ideally though issue temporary admin access to developers. Many versions of oscommerce-based carts (including zen-cart and oscommerce 2.3.x) now have admin logs so you can see a record of logins (and login attempts.)
10. Be security conscious when accessing your ‘Admin’ account
    Not best practice to :
    – access the Admin from a public use computer or public wireless hotspot
    – write login details on a piece of paper stuck to the computer or wall in front of you
    – use ‘password’ as your password (lol)
11. Don’t advertise the version of the Store software you’re running via the ‘admin’
    – Even if you’ve renamed your ‘admin’ folder (as mentioned back at the top of this post eh), there’s not a lot to be gained from advertising which version of the software you’re patched to:
    
    If a security fault was discovered in this version, why advertise you may not have patched? In this example using Cre Loaded, remove around line 135 -137 from ‘admin’/login.php:
    

    1

    <tr>

    2

    <td></td>

    3	<td align="left" style="font-size: 11px; color: #444;"><a href="http://www.creloaded.com"target="_blank"><?php echo PROJECT_VERSION;?></a></td>

    4

    <td></td>

    5

    </tr>

     
12. When using the ‘admin’ panel …
    – use only one browser tab to access your admin area
    – avoid visiting other sites when your browser has an active admin login session enabled, even in another tab
    – always log out of your admin when not using it

References:

https://www.codemehappy.com/2010/10/12-things-improve-oscommerce-based-admin-security/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rb2sWFWMQZk