Happy Onam

മലരും, മന്തോപ്പും
വയലും, വാനംപടികളും.
കുലച്ചു നില്‍കുന്ന കരിക്കും, കുളിര്‍കാറ്റും
താമരകളും,തരുണീമണികളും.........
ഹോ !! എന്‍റെ കേരളം എത്ര സുന്ദരം.
എല്ലാവര്‍ക്കും നന്മയും സമൃദ്ധിയും നിറഞ്ഞ ഓണം ആശംസിക്കുന്നു.

Today is 13th Friday.Enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th

Day dreaming Good or bad?? It boosts brain.

The young Albert Einstein was more likely to have been the child staring out of the window in class than the one bent over his books. Einstein, like many great scientists, thinkers and intellectuals, was also a documented daydreamer in the classroom.
Today, children's days tend to be highly structured and daydreaming in school is seen as time wasting and indicative of poor self-control. It is a problem which needs to be labelled and ''fixed'', sometimes medically.
Although this approach is enabling many students to focus, there are fears we may also be dulling creativity - even greatness - in the process. There is mounting research that shows the idle, ''resting'' mind is doing everything but resting, perhaps even making us smarter.
Scientific American earlier this year says,"For the first time, functional measures of the resting brain are providing new insights into network properties of the brain that are associated with IQ scores. In essence, they suggest that in smart people, distant areas of the brain communicate with each other more robustly than in less smart people."
Dr Tim Hawkes, the headmaster of The Kings School, Parramatta, recognises what he describes as "good daydreaming" and "bad daydreaming" in students. "Good daydreaming is when the mind is working on information, and for that information to lead students on journeys of imagination, unlocking creativity. Bad daydreaming is when students are thinking about an insult directed at them on Facebook. If a student was consistently daydreaming I would want to find out which type of daydreaming it is."
To nurture such critical thinking, Dr Hawkes says open-ended questions such as "If orange was a sound, what sound would it be?" or "If there was a fourth type of rock, what would it be?" will help form minds. He also garners inspiration from the Greeks, "you can choreograph wonder - you have to create a sense of wonder''.

''The Greeks only had one faculty - but it was a beauty - the faculty of wonder. The problem with teaching today is that we have an overcrowded national curriculum and narrow testing that leads to pre-prepared answers. Times of reflection are of utmost importance to foster life-long thinkers, life-long dreamers, life-long wonderers."
Dr Andrew Martin, an educational psychologist and professor at the University of Sydney, says letting your mind wander in optimistic ways, but a little more grounded in your future, can lead to good outcomes. ''It directs a child's thoughts and behaviours to relevant activities needed to realise that daydream; … it energises and inspires children; and it can enhance persistence towards a goal, especially when the chips are down …,'' Dr Martin says.
Abridged article from MIT journel.

Want to buy a new laptop in India??

Just wait a bit, new touchscreen laptops are coming at the price of ordinary laptops.8 hr Back up laptops are now cheap too.

Why North Indians are Healthier than South Indians?

Please compare the figures.The first figure is our Rice(cooked) and second is Wheat (flour) which is used to make Chappathi.
Look at the difference, almost double.There is also no Protien in our Rice(cooked).

Is it the air you breath in now Neo...?? Explaining the 10 dimensions.

Can i be a Billionaire if I pledge half of my wealth..??

40 billionaires pledge to give away half of wealth: Gates, Buffett!! ....Click on the image to view the names.

http://givingpledge.org/

Why we must think before eating Octupus meat? Octopus is a very intelligent creature of two year old.

Octopuses are highly intelligent, likely more so than any other order of invertebrates. The exact extent of their intelligence and learning capability is much debated among biologists, but maze and problem-solving experiments have shown that they do have both short- and long-term memory. Their short lifespans about two year limit the amount they can ultimately learn. There has been much speculation to the effect that almost all octopus behaviors are independently learned rather than instinct-based, although this remains largely unproven. They learn almost no behaviors from their parents, with whom young octopuses have very little contact.

An octopus has a highly complex nervous system, only part of which is localized in its brain. Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are found in the nerve cords of its arms, which have a remarkable amount of autonomy. Octopus arms show a wide variety of complex reflex actions arising on at least three different levels of the nervous system. Unlike vertebrates, the complex motor skills of octopuses in their higher brain are not organized using an internal somatotopic map of its body. Some octopuses, such as the mimic octopus, will move their arms in ways that emulate the movements of other sea creatures.
In laboratory experiments, octopuses can be readily trained to distinguish between different shapes and patterns. Octopuses have also been observed in what some have described as play: repeatedly releasing bottles or toys into a circular current in their aquariums and then catching them.Octopuses often break out of their aquariums and sometimes into others in search of food. They have even boarded fishing boats and opened holds to eat crabs.[7]

In some countries, octopuses are on the list of experimental animals on which surgery may not be performed without anesthesia. In the UK, cephalopods such as octopuses are regarded as honorary vertebrates under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and other cruelty to animals legislation, extending to them protections not normally afforded to invertebrates.

The octopus is the only invertebrate which has been conclusively shown to use tools. At least four specimens of the Veined Octopus (Amphioctopus marginatus) have been witnessed retrieving discarded coconut shells, manipulating them, and then reassembling them to use as shelter.They also change color (from pinkish to brown) according to mood and environment.They also understand the concept of mirrored images and soon realize there's no use attempting to attack its own image. Octopuses also share some emotions normally associated with humans, such as embarassment, trust, and a great curiosity.

Immortality;Is the word out there?,Nature had developed the first Immortal species.

Turritopsis nutricula
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Hydrozoa

Turritopsis nutricula or immortal jellyfish is a hydrozoan whose medusa, orjellyfish, form can revert to the polyp stage after becoming sexually mature. It is the only known case of a metazoan capable of reverting completely to a sexually immature, colonial stage after having reached sexual maturity as a solitary stage.It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation. Cell transdifferentiation is when the jellyfish "alters the differentiated state of the cell and transforms it into a new cell. In this process the medusa of the immortal jellyfish is transformed into the polyps of a new polyp colony.

This ability to reverse the life cycle (in response to adverse conditions) is probably unique in the animal kingdom, and allows the jellyfish to bypass death, rendering Turritopsis nutricula potentially biologically immortal. Studies in the laboratory showed that 100% of specimens could revert to the polyp stage, but so far the process has not been observed in nature, in part because the process is quite rapid and field observations at the right moment in time are unlikely.In spite of this remarkable ability, most Turritopsismedusae are likely to fall victim to the general hazards of life as plankton, including being eaten by other animals, or succumbing to disease.