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Wishing you all Gyandotcom Readers Happy Valentines Day.

gyandotcom by Rohit Sharma — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 16:06:48 +0000

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6, and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.

the name “Valentine” (Priest Valentio) does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as:

A priest in Rome,

A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), or

A martyr in the Roman province of Africa.

The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner — until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor — whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn’t finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.

The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.

English eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine’s identity, suggested that Valentine’s Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.

While a website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church’s official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18).

Earliest church dedications

Saint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by David Teniers III

Hagiographical sources speak of a Roman priest and a bishop of Terni each buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city, with each venerated on February 14.In the Middle Ages, two Roman churches were dedicated to Saint Valentine. One was the tenth-century church Sancti Valentini de Balneo Miccine or de Piscina, which was rededicated by Pope Urban III in 1186. The other, on the Via Flaminia, was the ancient basilica S. Valentini extra Portam founded by Pope Julius I (337‑352), though not under this dedication. The basilica appellatur Valentini, “is called Valentine’s”; but early basilicas were as often called by the name of their former owner as by the saint to whom they were dedicated: titulus.

This, the earlier and by far more important of the churches, is dedicated to the less prominent of the two saints, Valentine, presbyter of Rome; this was the Basilica S. Valentini extra Portam, the “Basilica of Saint Valentine beyond the Gate” which was situated beyond the Porta Flaminia (the Porta del Popolo, which was the Porta S. Valentini when William of Malmesbury visited Rome). It stood on the right hand side at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia. It had its origins in a funerary chapel on the site of catacombs, which the Liber Pontificalis attributes to a foundation by Pope Julius I (337-352). However, the dedications of two basilicas dedicated by Julius are not specified in the Liber Pontificalis. It was restored or largely rebuilt by Pope Theodore (642‑649) and Pope Leo III (795‑816), enriched with an altar cloth by Pope Benedict II (683‑685) and by gifts of Pope Hadrian I (772‑795), Pope Leo III and Pope Gregory IV (827‑844), so that it had become ecclesia mirifice ornata, “a church marvellously adorned”. The monastery of San Silvestro in Capite was annexed to it, and in the surviving epitome of a lost catalogue of the churches of Rome, compiled by Giraldus Cambrensis about 1200, it was hospitale S. Valentini extra urbem, the “hospital of Saint Valentine outside the city”. But in the thirteenth century the martyr’s relics were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica decayed: in Signorili’s catalogue, made in about 1425, it was Ecclesia sancti Valentini extra portam sine muris non habet sacerdotem, “the church of Saint Valentine beyond the gate without [enclosing] walls, has no priest”.

In the Golden Legend

The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to deny Christ before the “Emperor Claudius”[16] in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of “Valentine”, “as containing valour”.

St. Valentine’s Day

Historian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with “Valentine’s Day”, documented in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer. He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler’s Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here yet that the bishop was a patron of lovers.

Relics and liturgical celebration

The flower crowned skull of St Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.

In 1836, some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a casket, and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, to which they were donated by Pope Gregory XVI. Many tourists visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine’s Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the Stephansdom in Vienna and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland. There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words ‘Corpus St. Valentin, M’ (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK in one of the side altars in the main church.

Of greatest interest at this altar is the rich coffin which lies beneath it, containing the body of St. Valentine, a martyr whose relics from the Roman catacombs were given to John Henry Cardinal Newman by Blessed Pius IX in 1847.

The Saint Valentine who is celebrated on February 14 remains in the Catholic Church’s official list of saints (the Roman Martyrology), but, in view of the scarcity of information about him, his commemoration was removed from the General Calendar for universal liturgical veneration, when this was revised in 1969. It is included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found. Some[who?] still observe the calendars of the Roman Rite from the Tridentine Calendar until 1969, in which Saint Valentine was at first celebrated as a simple feast, until 1955, when Pope Pius XII reduced the mention of Saint Valentine to a commemoration in the Mass of the day. It is kept as a commemoration by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who, in accordance with the authorization given by Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007, use the General Roman Calendar of 1962 and the liturgy of Pope John XXIII’s 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, and, as a Simple Feast, by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who use the General Roman Calendar as in 1954.

The feast day of Saint Valentine, priest and martyr, was included in the Tridentine Calendar, with the rank of Simple, on February 14. In 1955, Pope Pius XII reduced the celebration to a commemoration within the celebration of the occurring weekday. In 1969, this commemoration was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but Saint Valentine continues to be recognized as a saint, since he is included in the Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church’s official list of saints. The feast day of Saint Valentine also continues to be included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found.

The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all — at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday — St. Valentine.

“He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time,” Father O’Gara explains. ” He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died.”

“I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived,” says Father O’Gara. “Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this.”

“The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict.”

Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are legends surrounding Valentine’s actions while in prison.

“One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, who’s daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result.”

In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius’ daughter. He inspired today’s romantic missives by signing it, “from your Valentine.”

“What Valentine means to me as a priest,” explains Father O’Gara, “is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that — even to the point of death.”

Valentine’s martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.

“Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life — some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ.”

“If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you’re going to have to suffer. It’s not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don’t be surprised if the ‘gushing’ love that you have for someone changes to something less “gushing” but maybe much more mature.

And the question is, is that young person ready for that?”

“So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context,” Father O’Gara says. “Love — human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God — but also the shadow of the cross. That’s what Valentine means to me.”

Saint Valentine (in Latin, Valentinus) is the name of several martyred saints of ancient Rome. The name “Valentine”, derived from valens (worthy), was popular in Late Antiquity Of the Saint Valentine whose feast is on February 14, nothing is known except his name and that he was buried at the Via Flaminia north of Rome on February 14. It is even uncertain whether the feast of that day celebrates only one saint or more saints of the same name. For this reason this liturgical commemoration was not kept in the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical veneration as revised in 1969.[3] But “Martyr Valentinus the Presbyter and those with him at Rome” remains in the list of saints proposed for veneration by all Catholics.In the Eastern Orthodox Church, Saint Valentine the Presbyter is celebrated on July 6, and Hieromartyr Saint Valentine (Bishop of Interamna, Terni in Italy) is celebrated on July 30.
the name “Valentine” (Priest Valentio) does not occur in the earliest list of Roman martyrs, compiled by the Chronographer of 354. The feast of St. Valentine was first established in 496 by Pope Gelasius I, who included Valentine among those “… whose names are justly reverenced among men, but whose acts are known only to God.” As Gelasius implied, nothing was known, even then, about the lives of any of these martyrs. The Saint Valentine that appears in various martyrologies in connection with February 14 is described either as:A priest in Rome,A bishop of Interamna (modern Terni), orA martyr in the Roman province of Africa.The first representation of Saint Valentine appeared in the Nuremberg Chronicle, (1493); alongside the woodcut portrait of Valentine the text states that he was a Roman priest martyred during the reign of Claudius II, known as Claudius Gothicus. He was arrested and imprisoned upon being caught marrying Christian couples and otherwise aiding Christians who were at the time being persecuted by Claudius in Rome. Helping Christians at this time was considered a crime. Claudius took a liking to this prisoner — until Valentinus tried to convert the Emperor — whereupon this priest was condemned to death. He was beaten with clubs and stoned; when that didn’t finish him, he was beheaded outside the Flaminian Gate. Various dates are given for the martyrdom or martyrdoms: 269, 270, or 273.The official Roman Martyrology for February 14 mentions only one Saint Valentine.
nglish eighteenth-century antiquarians Alban Butler and Francis Douce, noting the obscurity of Saint Valentine’s identity, suggested that Valentine’s Day was created as an attempt to supersede the pagan holiday of Lupercalia. This idea has lately been contested by Professor Jack Oruch of the University of Kansas. Many of the current legends that characterise Saint Valentine were invented in the fourteenth century in England, notably by Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle, when the feast day of February 14 first became associated with romantic love.While a website of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and other sources give different lists of Saint Valentines, the Catholic Church’s official list of recognized saints, the Roman Martyrology lists seven: a martyr (Roman priest or Terni bishop?) buried on the Via Flaminia (February 14); a priest from Viterbo (November 3); a bishop from Raetia who died in about 450 (January 7); a fifth-century priest and hermit (July 4); a Spanish hermit who died in about 715 (October 25); Valentine Berrio Ochoa, martyred in 1861 (November 24); and Valentine Jaunzarás Gómez, martyred in 1936 (September 18).Earliest church dedicationsSaint Valentine receives a rosary from the Virgin, by David Teniers IIIHagiographical sources speak of a Roman priest and a bishop of Terni each buried along the Via Flaminia outside Rome, at different distances from the city, with each venerated on February 14.In the Middle Ages, two Roman churches were dedicated to Saint Valentine. One was the tenth-century church Sancti Valentini de Balneo Miccine or de Piscina, which was rededicated by Pope Urban III in 1186. The other, on the Via Flaminia, was the ancient basilica S. Valentini extra Portam founded by Pope Julius I (337‑352), though not under this dedication. The basilica appellatur Valentini, “is called Valentine’s”; but early basilicas were as often called by the name of their former owner as by the saint to whom they were dedicated: see titulus.This, the earlier and by far more important of the churches, is dedicated to the less prominent of the two saints, Valentine, presbyter of Rome; this was the Basilica S. Valentini extra Portam, the “Basilica of Saint Valentine beyond the Gate” which was situated beyond the Porta Flaminia (the Porta del Popolo, which was the Porta S. Valentini when William of Malmesbury visited Rome). It stood on the right hand side at the second milestone on the Via Flaminia. It had its origins in a funerary chapel on the site of catacombs, which the Liber Pontificalis attributes to a foundation by Pope Julius I (337-352). However, the dedications of two basilicas dedicated by Julius are not specified in the Liber Pontificalis. It was restored or largely rebuilt by Pope Theodore (642‑649) and Pope Leo III (795‑816), enriched with an altar cloth by Pope Benedict II (683‑685) and by gifts of Pope Hadrian I (772‑795), Pope Leo III and Pope Gregory IV (827‑844), so that it had become ecclesia mirifice ornata, “a church marvellously adorned”. The monastery of San Silvestro in Capite was annexed to it, and in the surviving epitome of a lost catalogue of the churches of Rome, compiled by Giraldus Cambrensis about 1200, it was hospitale S. Valentini extra urbem, the “hospital of Saint Valentine outside the city”. But in the thirteenth century the martyr’s relics were transferred to Santa Prassede, and the ancient basilica decayed: in Signorili’s catalogue, made in about 1425, it was Ecclesia sancti Valentini extra portam sine muris non habet sacerdotem, “the church of Saint Valentine beyond the gate without [enclosing] walls, has no priest”.In the Golden Legend
The Legenda Aurea of Jacobus de Voragine, compiled about 1260 and one of the most-read books of the High Middle Ages, gives sufficient details of the saints for each day of the liturgical year to inspire a homily on each occasion. The very brief vita of St Valentine has him refusing to deny Christ before the “Emperor Claudius”[16] in the year 280. Before his head was cut off, this Valentine restored sight and hearing to the daughter of his jailer. Jacobus makes a play with the etymology of “Valentine”, “as containing valour”.St. Valentine’s DayHistorian Jack Oruch has made the case that the traditions associated with “Valentine’s Day”, documented in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Parliament of Foules and set in the fictional context of an old tradition, had no such tradition before Chaucer. He argues that the speculative explanation of sentimental customs, posing as historical fact, had their origins among 18th-century antiquaries, notably Alban Butler, the author of Butler’s Lives of Saints, and have been perpetuated even by respectable modern scholars. In the French 14th-century manuscript illumination from a Vies des Saints (illustration above), Saint Valentine, bishop of Terni, oversees the construction of his basilica at Terni; there is no suggestion here yet that the bishop was a patron of lovers.Relics and liturgical celebrationThe flower crowned skull of St Valentine is exhibited in the Basilica of Santa Maria in Cosmedin, Rome.In 1836, some relics that were exhumed from the catacombs of Saint Hippolytus on the Via Tiburtina, then near (rather than inside) Rome, were identified with St Valentine; placed in a casket, and transported to the Whitefriar Street Carmelite Church in Dublin, Ireland, to which they were donated by Pope Gregory XVI. Many tourists visit the saintly remains on St. Valentine’s Day, when the casket is carried in solemn procession to the high altar for a special Mass dedicated to young people and all those in love. Alleged relics of St. Valentine also lie at the reliquary of Roquemaure in France, in the Stephansdom in Vienna and also in Blessed John Duns Scotus’ church in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, Scotland. There is also a gold reliquary bearing the words ‘Corpus St. Valentin, M’ (Body of St. Valentine, Martyr) at The Birmingham Oratory, UK in one of the side altars in the main church.Of greatest interest at this altar is the rich coffin which lies beneath it, containing the body of St. Valentine, a martyr whose relics from the Roman catacombs were given to John Henry Cardinal Newman by Blessed Pius IX in 1847.The Saint Valentine who is celebrated on February 14 remains in the Catholic Church’s official list of saints (the Roman Martyrology), but, in view of the scarcity of information about him, his commemoration was removed from the General Calendar for universal liturgical veneration, when this was revised in 1969. It is included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found. Some[who?] still observe the calendars of the Roman Rite from the Tridentine Calendar until 1969, in which Saint Valentine was at first celebrated as a simple feast, until 1955, when Pope Pius XII reduced the mention of Saint Valentine to a commemoration in the Mass of the day. It is kept as a commemoration by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who, in accordance with the authorization given by Pope Benedict XVI’s motu proprio Summorum Pontificum of July 7, 2007, use the General Roman Calendar of 1962 and the liturgy of Pope John XXIII’s 1962 edition of the Roman Missal, and, as a Simple Feast, by Traditionalist Roman Catholics who use the General Roman Calendar as in 1954.The feast day of Saint Valentine, priest and martyr, was included in the Tridentine Calendar, with the rank of Simple, on February 14. In 1955, Pope Pius XII reduced the celebration to a commemoration within the celebration of the occurring weekday. In 1969, this commemoration was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but Saint Valentine continues to be recognized as a saint, since he is included in the Roman Martyrology, the Catholic Church’s official list of saints. The feast day of Saint Valentine also continues to be included in local calendars of places such as Balzan and Malta, where relics of the saint are claimed to be found.The origin of this holiday for the expression of love really isn’t romantic at all — at least not in the traditional sense. Father Frank O’Gara of Whitefriars Street Church in Dublin, Ireland, tells the real story of the man behind the holiday — St. Valentine.”He was a Roman Priest at a time when there was an emperor called Claudias who persecuted the church at that particular time,” Father O’Gara explains. ” He also had an edict that prohibited the marriage of young people. This was based on the hypothesis that unmarried soldiers fought better than married soldiers because married soldiers might be afraid of what might happen to them or their wives or families if they died.”
“I think we must bear in mind that it was a very permissive society in which Valentine lived,” says Father O’Gara. “Polygamy would have been much more popular than just one woman and one man living together. And yet some of them seemed to be attracted to Christian faith. But obviously the church thought that marriage was very sacred between one man and one woman for their life and that it was to be encouraged. And so it immediately presented the problem to the Christian church of what to do about this.”
“The idea of encouraging them to marry within the Christian church was what Valentine was about. And he secretly married them because of the edict.”
Valentine was eventually caught, imprisoned and tortured for performing marriage ceremonies against command of Emperor Claudius the second. There are legends surrounding Valentine’s actions while in prison.
“One of the men who was to judge him in line with the Roman law at the time was a man called Asterius, who’s daughter was blind. He was supposed to have prayed with and healed the young girl with such astonishing effect that Asterius himself became Christian as a result.”
In the year 269 AD, Valentine was sentenced to a three part execution of a beating, stoning, and finally decapitation all because of his stand for Christian marriage. The story goes that the last words he wrote were in a note to Asterius’ daughter. He inspired today’s romantic missives by signing it, “from your Valentine.”
“What Valentine means to me as a priest,” explains Father O’Gara, “is that there comes a time where you have to lay your life upon the line for what you believe. And with the power of the Holy Spirit we can do that — even to the point of death.”
Valentine’s martyrdom has not gone unnoticed by the general public. In fact, Whitefriars Street Church is one of three churches that claim to house the remains of Valentine. Today, many people make the pilgrimage to the church to honor the courage and memory of this Christian saint.
“Valentine has come to be known as the patron saint of lovers. Before you enter into a Christian marriage you want some sense of God in your life — some great need of God in your life. And we know, particularly in the modern world, many people are meeting God through his Son, Jesus Christ.”
“If Valentine were here today, he would say to married couples that there comes a time where you’re going to have to suffer. It’s not going to be easy to maintain your commitment and your vows in marriage. Don’t be surprised if the ‘gushing’ love that you have for someone changes to something less “gushing” but maybe much more mature. And the question is, is that young person ready for that?”
“So on the day of the marriage they have to take that into context,” Father O’Gara says. “Love — human love and sexuality is wonderful, and blessed by God — but also the shadow of the cross. That’s what Valentine means to me.”

Happy Valentines Day

Gyandotcom

PEOPLE WHO HATE TO DRINK TEA. SOME REAL SCIENTIFIC PROVEN FACTS BY GYANDOTCOM

gyandotcom by Rohit Sharma — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 17:22:57 +0000

The health effects of tea have been examined ever since the first infusions of Camellia sinensis about 4700 years ago in China. The legendary emperor Shennong claimed in The Divine Farmer’s Herb-Root Classic that Camellia sinensis infusions were useful for treating conditions including tumors, abscesses, bladder ailments, and lethargy.The possible beneficial health effects of tea consumption have been suggested and supported by some studies, but others have found no harmful effects. The studies contrast other claims no harmfull effects of tea, including antinutritional effects such as preventing absorption of iron and protein, usually attributed to tannin. The vast majority of studies have been of green tea; however, some studies have been made of the other types of tea derived from Camellia sinensis, such as white, oolong, and black tea. Green tea has been claimed to be helpful for atherosclerosis, LDL cholesterol, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, diabetes, liver disease, weight loss, neurodegenerative diseases, and even halitosis.numerous studies suggest that green tea protects against a range of cancers, including lung, prostate and breast cancer. The reason cited is the antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), according to Hirofumi Tachibana’s team at Kyushu University.

Boosts mental alertness

The amino acid L-theanine, found almost exclusively in the tea plant, actively alters the attention networks of the brain, according to results of human trials announced in September 2007. It has been proposed that theanine is absorbed by the small intestine and crosses the blood-brain barrier, where it affects the brain’s neurotransmitters and increases alpha brain-wave activity. The result is a calmer, yet more alert, state of mind

Boosts immune system

On 21 April 2003 the Brigham and Women’s Hospital released details of a research project which indicated that theanine may help the body’s immune system response when fighting infection, by boosting the disease-fighting capacity of gamma delta T cells. The study included a four-week trial with 11 coffee drinkers and 10 tea drinkers, who consumed 600ml of coffee or black tea daily. Blood sample analysis found that the production of anti-bacterial proteins was up to five times higher in the tea-drinkers, an indicator of a stronger immune response.

Lowers chances of cognitive impairment

A 2006 study showed that elderly Japanese people who consumed more than 2 cups of green tea a day had a 50 percent lower chance of having cognitive impairment, in comparison to those who drank fewer than 2 cups a day, or who consumed other tested beverages. This is probably due to the effect of EGCG, which passes through the blood-brain barrier.

[edit]Lowers stress hormone levels

According to a study by researchers at University College London, drinking black tea can lead to lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol after a stressful event.[29][30] Fifty minutes after being subjected to challenging tasks, subjects who had been drinking 4 cups of black tea daily for 6 weeks, had a 20% greater drop in cortisol than the placebo group. Blood platelet activation, which is linked to blood clotting and the risk of heart attacks was also lower for tea drinkers.

Effects on inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

The polyphenols in green tea have been shown to reduce intestinal inflammation in mouse models of IBD. This effect seems to be related to tea’s ability to interrupt the cascade of inflammatory reactions that are the cause of IBD.

Effects on bad breath

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago stated that polyphenols help inhibit the growth of bacteria that cause bad breath.

Iron overload disorders

Researchers in Germany have found that a daily cup of black tea can help stop excess iron damaging the bodies of people who suffer from hemochromatosis due to its high content of flavonoids (commonly mistaken for tannins), which limit iron absorption.

Effects associated with caffeine

Caffeine

A cup of green tea contains between 15 and 50 mg of caffeine. Certain cognitive benefits are associated with caffeine consumption, such as a reduction in the likelihood of Parkinson’s disease and a temporary increase in short term memory. Further, caffeine consumption has been linked with greater athletic performance, healthy weight loss, reduction in duration and severity of headaches and is effective in treating the symptoms of asthma.

Effects on obstructive sleep apnea-related brain deficits

University of Louisville researchers report that green tea polyphenols may stave off the cognitive deficits that occur with obstructive sleep apnea, in the second issue for May, 2008 of the American Thoracic Society’s American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Researchers examined the effects of green tea polyphenols administered through drinking water, on rats that were intermittently deprived of oxygen during 12-hour “night” cycles, mimicking the intermittent hypoxia that humans with OSA experience.

Effects on bacterial and fungal infections

A study at Pace University reported in American Society For Microbiology (May 2008) found white tea extracts effective at treating bacterial infections, such as Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, pneumonia and dental caries.[38] White tea was also found to be effective in treating fungal infections from Penicillium chrysogenum and Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Researchers also reported that white tea extracts showed a greater effect than green tea extracts.

Anti-venom effects

Antivenin activity of melanin extracted from black tea (MEBT) was reported for the first time in 2004.Low toxicity of MEBT in combination with its antagonistic activity against different venoms may allow effective life-saving treatment against snakebites. Such application of MEBT is important when identification of the snake is impossible or if specific treatment is unavailable.

Stroke

Research presented at the International Stroke Conference in February 2009 found that drinking three or more cups of tea per day can reduce the risk of suffering a stroke by as much as 21%. The research, conducted at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), found that drinking green and black varieties of teas has a significant impact on the risk of stroke.

Cardiovascular health

Research published in April 2009 by the University of L’Aquila and funded by the Unilever-owned Lipton Institute of Tea suggests that drinking just one cup of regular, black tea per day may help to protect against cardiovascular disease.The research showed that black tea consumption does – depending on dose – improve blood vessel reactivity, reduce both blood pressure and arterial stiffness, indicating a notably better cardiovascular health profile.

Anogenital warts

Sinecatechin, an extract from green tea, was shown to be effective in treating anogenital warts in a double-blinded, randomized controlled trial of greater than 500 subjects. The subjects applied a topical ointment containing either sinecatechin or placebo to the affected area for up to 4 months, and were followed for 3 months after treatment. More than half of the subjects in the treatment group (57%) experienced a complete resolution of their warts, compared with a third (34%) in the control group. 78% of the patients in the treatment group experienced at least 50% improvement in their warts. The number needed to treat was 4-5 patients. The green tea extract treatment was well-tolerated, with relatively few side-effects.

Antidepressant properties

In a Japanese study Green tea consumption was inversely associated with psychological distress even after adjustment for possible confounding factors.

A more frequent consumption of green tea was associated with a lower prevalence of depressive symptoms in another Japanese study. Researchers conducted a cross-sectional study in 1,058 community-dwelling elderly Japanese individuals 70 years of age. The prevalence of mild and severe depressive symptoms was 34.1 percent and 20.2 percent, respectively. After adjustment for confounding factors, the odds ratios for mild and severe depressive symptoms when higher green tea consumption was compared with green tea consumption of 1 cup/d were: 2 to 3 cups green tea/d and 4 cups green tea/d. Similar relations were also observed in the case of severe depressive symptoms.

we will have a look at some basic facts about tea as well as go over some common tea knowledge. I promise that when you’re done reading this page, you’ll know more tea facts than your neighbor!

Tea is the second most consumed beverage in the world, playing second fiddle only to water. It is in almost every culture, and there are literally thousands of varieties.

Some historical notes suggest that tea has been a warm beverage companion to man for over five thousands years! Other recordings state only three thousand…but either way, that is a long time.

There are four main types of tea which are, white, green, oolong, and black, all which are born from the same species of plant.

Common health facts about tea show us that it is rich in antioxidants, can shield our immune systems, stop infection, and even help us shed some pounds!

Tea is a beverage that is enjoyed in the morning, afternoon, or evening, whether feeling ill or good, and can be consumed hot or cold.

But what exactly is tea? Where does it come from? And what is the best way to enjoy it?

Let’s find out…

Below are some great tea facts (or tea trivia if you will) to read through while enjoying a cup of tea. There is a ton more throughout the entire site in greater detail,

A cup of black tea has half the amount of caffeine than a cup of coffee.

Drinking milk may mean stronger bones, but the same goes for a cup of tea!

In one day, an experienced tea picker can collect around 70 pounds of tea! That’s enough tea to make 14000 cups! Talk about filling a quota.

A large amount of caffeine is released from tea after the first 30 seconds of brewing. Dumping this content out and pouring new hot water is a neat trick for caffeine conscience tea drinkers.

There are four main types of tea: white, green, oolong, and black. But depending on the influence of culture, these four types can turn into thousands of varieties.

The most interesting of tea facts is that all tea comes from the same plant, Camellia Sinensis.

This tea plant is an evergreen which can reach a height of over 30 feet if left to grow in the wild.

Did you know that tea can help abate your appetite? Good news for people who are dieting.

Tea can also help regulate cholesterol.

Drinking tea is also good for the heart.

The Irish consume more tea per capita than any other group in the world (that was some new tea trivia for me too!).

To get the most flavor and benefits out of tea, try brewing it by loose leaf instead of by tea bag. You will find a whole new world of tea awaits!

One pound of loose tea can make about 200 cups.

Loose leaf tea can stay for about a year if properly stored and sealed.

The tea bag was invented in the early 20th century by a tea merchant named Thomas Sullivan. This was done by accident too.

More tea facts about health suggest that tea may help prevent certain cancers, and tea has been known to fight tumors.

A cup of tea may keep the dentist away, yes I said ‘dentist’. This is because tea helps fight cavities.

Don’t through that old tea out! Instead try putting it in the refrigerator to help absorb odors, or use in your garden as fertilizer.

The English word for tea is, well, “tea”. However the Chinese word for tea is “cha”.

Drinking tea helps boost the immune system do to its natural antibacterial properties.

It is recommended to drink at least 3 or more cups of tea a day to maintain the most benefits.

it takes only 3 minutes of brewing time for the antioxidants in tea to be released in your cup.

The Camellia sinensis tea plant can produce tea for 50 years.

Iced tea was invented in America, and is the most consumed “prepared tea type” in America.

‘Orange Pekoe’ some people think is a type of tea, but is really a grading of tea.

Speaking of grades there are 7 types which are graded by leaf size. “Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe” Try saying that 5 times fast! (FTGFOP) is the highest and “fannings”(tea dust) is the lowest.

Fannings are used in most tea bags, those same ones you find on supermarket shelves.

One cup of white tea contains the same amount of antioxidants as 10 cups of apple juice!

Although many tea facts point to white and green teas as being the healthiest, a cup of black or oolong tea proves just as good.

Sadly, most Americans turn to a hot cup of tea when struck with the common cold or flu, and do not consume on a daily or social basis. Why wait to you are sick? Enjoy tea all the time and you may help prevent getting sick; this American does!

TEA Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 (427g)

Amount per Serving

Calories 48

Calories from Fat 0

% Daily Value *

Total Fat 0g0%

Saturated Fat 0g 0%

Monounsaturated Fat 0g

Polyunsaturated Fat 0g

Trans Fat 0g

Cholesterol 0mg 0%

Sodium 8mg 0%

Potassium 0mg 0%

Total Carbohydrate 12.6g 4%

Dietary Fiber 0g 0%

Sugars 12.6g

Protein 0.0g 0%

Est. Percent of Calories from:

Fat 0.0% Carbs 105.0%

Protein 0.0%

Why Does Tea Have Two Names Throughout the World?

The English word tea and its many cousins (e.g. tay, thé, tey) trace their roots back to the name for tea in the Chinese Amoy dialect: Te (pronounced “tay”). On the other hand, cha —the Mandarin Chinese word for tea — gave birth to cha, chai, char and related names in use today. Apparently, whichever variation merchants used when bringing tea to different countries stuck. Some countries use both. It’s not unusual to hear someone in England ask for a “hot cup of cha.”

How Old is Tea Drinking? Really?

You’ll often read that Shen Nung, a Chinese emperor who lived some 4,700 years ago, discovered that tea leaves falling into boiling water make a refreshing drink. Alas, the emperor — credited with numerous discoveries in medicine, pharmacy, agriculture — is likely a myth himself. The earliest authenticated record of commercial cultivation of tea in found in 4th century Chinese documents. However, it’s generally accepted that people in East Asia were brewing and drinking tea hundreds of years before. In those early days, tea was drunk mostly for medicinal purposes. Green tea leaves were formed into small cakes, roasted, then pounded into small chunks. Brewed tea must not have tasted very good because the drink was typically flavored with ginger, onion, mint, and orange. Infusing tea leaves in a teapot became a widespread practice in China early during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Thus “modern tea drinking” is probably less than seven hundred years old.

Who Invented Iced Tea?

Conventional wisdom holds that iced tea was invented in 1904, at the St. Louis World’s Fair, by a British tea merchant named Richard Blechynden. While he may have helped popularize iced tea, “tea punches” — alcoholic ancestors of the drink — were served decades earlier in the United States, and at least one late 19th century cookbook includes a recipe for iced tea. Interestingly, about 80 percent of the tea served in the United States today is iced tea.

Who Invented the Teabag?

Legend has it that a New York City tea importer named Thomas Sullivan became annoyed at the high cost of the tin boxes he used to send tea samples to customers. So in 1904 (or by some accounts, 1908) he switched to small cloth bags. One of the recipients brewed a pot of tea by simply pouring hot water over the bag — and the rest is history. It’s a nice story, except some tea experts point out that a U.S. patent for a “tea leaf holder made out of fabric” was granted in 1903. Regardless of who was really responsible, many tea lovers consider the teabag one of the worst inventions of the 20th century. Tea brewed with loose tea is generally much tastier than tea make from dunked teabags.

Tea — a Low-Cost Drink

You can brew more than 200 cups of tea from one pound of loose tea leaves. That works out to less than ten cents a cup for quality tea brewed at home, even adding in the cost of heating the hot water. Tea’s low cost is a big reason why it’s the second most popular beverage throughout the world — second only to plain water.

Tea and Caffeine

A cup of brewed tea typically contains less than half the caffeine of a cup of coffee. If that remains a problem for you, it’s easy to decaffeinate loose tea at home. Because caffeine is highly soluble in hot water, “rinsing” tea leaves gets rid of most of the caffeine. Begin brewing tea as usual, but then remove the leaves after twenty seconds. Discard the initial brew and start again with fresh boiling water and the now-decaffeinated tea leaves.

Tea Songs

The two most hummed tea songs are “Tea for Two,” written by Vincent Youmans and Irving Caesar in 1924 for the Broadway musical, “No, No, Nanette,” and “When I Take My Sugar to Tea,” penned in 1931 by Sammy Fain , Irving Kahal, and Pierre Norman.

Green Tea + Black Tea = 2 Teas?

Does green tea come from a different kind of plant then black tea? Surprisingly, even some botanists thought so during the 17th and 18th centuries. Back then, tea traders were not allowed to travel inside China and see how tea was produced. Tea plants and seeds were first obtained from China in the early 19th century, along with the know-how for manufacturing tea. Soon after, the British discovered tea plants growing wild in India. It wasn’t until 1905 that the tea plant received its official Latin name, Camellia sinensis. This single plant can be processed to produce green tea, black tea, or something in between.

Who Invented the English Afternoon Tea?

The credit goes to the Duchess of Bedford — one of Queen Victoria’s Ladies in Waiting — who came up with the idea of a late afternoon meal of tea, thin sandwiches, and small cakes to overcome the “sinking feeling” she felt. The notion caught on, with Queen Victoria’s enthusiastic support. The British actually invented two kinds of afternoon teas:

“Low tea” (simply called “afternoon tea”)

“High tea.”

These labels can be a source of confusion to Americans. The “high” in high tea does not imply that fancy, high class, or expensive foods are served (or that high tea is enjoyed by well-to-do Britons). It actually refers to afternoon tea served on a dining room table (a high table) as opposed to afternoon tea served on a “tea table” (a low table). High tea is a fairly substantial meal — equivalent to supper — served in working class homes. It is generally served at 5:00 or 6:00 p.m., and features a hot dish, hefty sandwiches, scones, heavy cakes, biscuits — and, of course, plenty of tea. By contrast, afternoon tea is traditionally served around 4:00 p.m. This is a lighter meal — a satisfying “snack” between lunch and dinner — that will include scones, thin sandwiches (often with bread crusts trimmed away), biscuits, and assorted cakes.

he Varieties of Tea

One plant yields many kinds of tea

At first glance, the selection of different teas on sale in a gourmet teashop or at one of the large internet tea dealers looks overwhelming. There seem to be hundreds of different teas on the market. In fact, as Flick Adams explains in Dead as a Scone, “All true teas come from a single plant. Its Latin name is Camellia sinensis. The tea plant is a tropical evergreen, with glossy dark-green leaves. There are three major botanical varieties — and lots of minor variations — of Camellia sinensis found in different parts of the world. Teas, of course, will also taste different depending on soil, climate, the amount of sunlight-all the usual growing factors.”

Simply put, the taste of a cup of tea, its “brightness,” aroma, strength, and color will vary depending on its variety, the location it’s grown, the time of year it is picked and processed, the specific farming techniques used to grow the crop, how the leaves are harvested, and how the leaves are turned into finished tea. That’s why Camellia sinensis grown in Darjeeling tastes noticeably different than Camellia sinensis grown in Sri Lanka.

Camellia sinensis in Sri Lanka

Processing plays a critical role in producing different kinds of tea. “tea is manufactured in a simple five-step process:

First, the topmost leaves and buds on the tea plant are picked by hand.

Second, the leaves are left to wither for up to 24 hours.

Third, the withered leaves are squeezed between metal rollers to blend the naturally occurring chemicals inside.

Fourth, the rolled leaves are allowed to oxidize in the open air for several hours.

Finally, the oxidized leaves are heated to stop further oxidation and remove any remaining moisture.

Voila! Tea the way it’s been made for thousands of years.”

This approach to manufacturing tea-called the orthodox process-is often modified with the help of a “C-T-C” (crush-tear-curl) machine that replaces the rolling step. The tea leaves are literally crushed, torn, and curled into small leaf granules that brew into stronger flavored and colored tea. C-T-C processing reduces cost and has traditionally been used to manufacture lower quality teas, leaving the orthodox process for higher quality loose teas. However, many tea drinkers prefer faster-brewing, stronger-tasting C-T-C teas. Consequently, many fine teas are now C-T-C processed.

How the fourth step-oxidation-is performed determines whether black tea, green tea, or something in-between is produced:

Black (Red) tea is made by fully oxidizing tea leaves. The action of enzymes inside the leaves darkens the color and gives the eventual brewed tea its familiar “tea taste.”

Green tea is made by steaming the tea leaves before they are rolled. The heat destroys the enzymes, so that the leaves remain green throughout the rest of the process. Consequently, green tea has a leafier, more vegetal and herblike taste, than black tea.

Oolong and Pouchong teas are partially oxidized-say for a third to half the time of a black tea-which results in a flavor that is often described as a combination of peaches and chestnuts.

About three-quarters of tea leaves harvested around the world are made into black tea. Most of the remaining leaves become green tea. Only two or three percent are processed to make Oolong and Pouchong tea.

Lapsang Souchong is smoke-flavored tea. The leaves are withered over pine fires, oxidized until they are almost completely black, then over burning pine. The pine smoke creates adds a distinctive smoky aroma and flavor that remains when the leaves are brewed.

The most unusual tea-manufacturing process produces Pu’erh tea. Green tea leaves are left slightly moist and stacked in a pile so that they can undergo the same kind of bacterial reaction that occurs in a compost heap. Finally the “fermented” tea leaves are aged-sometimes more than fifty years. The result is an “earthy” mold-like flavor that is definitely an acquired taste.

After the processed tea is dry, it’s sorted into different “grades” by passing the dried tea over a series of vibrating screens of different mesh sizes. Note that the grade is a measure of size, not quality. The four major grades of processed tea — in descending order of “particle” size — are leaf, broken leaf (often shortened to brokens), fannings, and dust. The smaller particle sizes brew more quickly than leaf teas and tend to produce stronger brews-because they have more exposed surface area than leaf and brokens grades. Most high-quality loose tea is graded leaf or broken leaf. Teabags typically contain fannings and dust.

Some black and green teas are further processed after drying to add flavoring derived from fruit, spice, or flowers. For example, adding oil of bergamot (an inedible citrus fruit) to black tea with creates Earl Gray tea. Flower flavored teas — e.g Jasmine and Rose teas — are typically flavored during the oxidation step to create a deeper flavor.

Potential drawbacks

Carcinogens in tea bags

Some tea bags are made using a wet paper strength reinforcing coating using epichlorohydrin, which is known to be carcinogenic. Uses are not limited to tea bags, as coffee filters and sausage/salami casings can have the same issues.[citation needed] The problem can be avoided by using loose-leaf tea or tea bags which do not use the coating.

Effects of fluoride

All tea leaves contain fluoride; however, mature leaves contain as much as 10 to 20 times the fluoride levels of young leaves from the same plant.White tea contains less fluoride than green tea and black tea, because it is made of buds and young leaves only.

The fluoride content of tea depends directly on the fluoride content of the soil in which it is grown; tea plants absorbs this element at a greater rate than other plants. Care in the choice of the location where the plant is grown may reduce the risk.

Effects associated with caffeine

Caffeine is an addictive drug and overuse of tea can result in harmful side effects, such as an increased likelihood of certain sleep disorders. Decaffeination reduces total catechins in both black and green dry teas by about 15 times and 3 times respectively.

One consideration to take into account when investigating the relationship between caffeine and diuresis is the dose size of caffeine ingested. Where the dose relationship has been systematically investigated it is only at a high dose of 360 mg that a diuretic action is found. A recent systematic review of the accumulated evidence has shown that acute diuretic effects are observed generally in cases where at least 300 mg of caffeine is ingested. This finding suggests that tea does not have a diuretic effect unless the amount of tea consumed at one sitting contains more than 250–300 mg of caffeine, equivalent to between 5 and 6 cups of tea.

Oxalates

Tea contains oxalate, overconsumption of which can cause kidney damage, as well as soak up free calcium in the body; other minerals could be soaked up as well. The bioavailability of oxalate from tea is low and because of this a negative effect requires large amounts of tea.

Tannin

It has been suggested that chemicals known as tannins may increase one’s risk of esophageal cancer,with some studies having found that tea drinking may in fact be negatively associated with risk of esophageal cancer.

Hot drinking temperature

Hot tea consumption has been linked to a higher risk for esophageal cancer: “In the case-control study, risk for esophageal cancer was increased for drinking hot tea…or very hot tea…vs lukewarm or warm tea. Risk was also significantly increased for drinking tea 2 to 3 minutes after pouring…or less than 2 minutes after pouring…vs drinking tea at least 4 minutes after being poured.”

Effect of milk on tea

A studyat the Charité Hospital of the Berlin Universities showed that adding milk to tea will block the normal, healthful effects that tea has in protecting against cardiovascular disease. This occurs because casein from the milk binds to the molecules in tea that cause the arteries to relax, especially EGCG. Milk may also block tea’s effect on other things, such as cancer. Other studies have found little to no effect from milk on the observed increase in total plasma antioxidant activity. Teas with high EGCG content, such as green tea, are not typically consumed with milk. Previous studies have observed a beneficial effect from black tea which was not attributable to the catechin content.Plant-based “milks”, such as soy milk, do not contain casein and are not known to have similar effects on tea.

Milk binds catechins, most notably EGCG. Milk also binds tannin, rendering it harmless, which helps to exemplify the effect on tea’s constituent parts (i.e. EGCG binding).

Effect of citrus on tea

Drinking tea, particularly green tea, with citrus such as lemon juice is common. Studies, including a study from Purdue University in 2007, found that most of the antioxidant catechins are not absorbed into the bloodstream when tea is drunk by itself. The study, however, found that adding citrus to the tea lowers the pH in the small intestine and causes more of the catechins to be absorbed.

By Rohit Sharma for gyandotcom

THE NEXT AGE MIRACLE LJ001 ANTIVIRAL COMPOUND.

gyandotcom by Rohit Sharma — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:30:59 +0000

Although a variety of broad-spectrum antibiotics have been developed, broad-spectrum antiviral agents have proved more difficult to identify. Effective treatments have been developed for individual viruses such as HIV, herpes viruses and influenza viruses – and vaccines have also been developed against papilloma viruses and herpes viruses – but there is a need for small molecules that are able to treat a range of viral infections and could also be used against newly emerging viruses.Researchers led by a team at UCLA have now identified a compound, LJ-001, that can treat a range of enveloped viruses. The team screened a library of around 30,000 compounds against Nipah virus, a pathogen that was first identified in 1998 and causes severe disease in both animals and humans. Further tests showed that LJ-001 was also effective against other enveloped viruses including Ebola virus, HIV, hepatitis C virus, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever virus, yellow fever virus and influenza A virus, but had no effect against non-enveloped viruses. The compound interacts with the viral lipid envelope and inhibits viral entry at a step after virus binding but before virus–cell fusion.

Although LJ-001 also binds to cellular membranes, the team believe that its low toxicity can be attributed to the fact that metabolically active cells are able to repair their membranes whilst static viruses are not. LJ-001showed no overt toxicity at effective anti-viral concentrations in either in vitro or in vivo studies, and pretreatment of mice with LJ-001 prevented virus-induced mortality from Ebola and Rift Valley fever viruses.

Although a variety of broad-spectrum antibiotics have been developed, broad-spectrum antiviral agents have proved more difficult to identify. Effective treatments have been developed for individual viruses such as HIV, herpes viruses and influenza viruses – and vaccines have also been developed against papilloma viruses and herpes viruses – but there is a need for small molecules that are able to treat a range of viral infections and could also be used against newly emerging viruses.Researchers led by a team at UCLA have now identified a compound, LJ-001, that can treat a range of enveloped viruses. The team screened a library of around 30,000 compounds against Nipah virus, a pathogen that was first identified in 1998 and causes severe disease in both animals and humans. Further tests showed that LJ-001 was also effective against other enveloped viruses including Ebola virus, HIV, hepatitis C virus, West Nile virus, Rift Valley fever virus, yellow fever virus and influenza A virus, but had no effect against non-enveloped viruses. The compound interacts with the viral lipid envelope and inhibits viral entry at a step after virus binding but before virus–cell fusion.Although LJ-001 also binds to cellular membranes, the team believe that its low toxicity can be attributed to the fact that metabolically active cells are able to repair their membranes whilst static viruses are not. LJ-001showed no overt toxicity at effective anti-viral concentrations in either in vitro or in vivo studies, and pretreatment of mice with LJ-001 prevented virus-induced mortality from Ebola and Rift Valley fever viruses.

We describe an antiviral small molecule, LJ001, effective against numerous enveloped viruses including Influenza A, filoviruses, poxviruses, arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, paramyxoviruses, flaviviruses, and HIV-1. In sharp contrast, the compound had no effect on the infection of nonenveloped viruses. In vitro and in vivo assays showed no overt toxicity. LJ001 specifically intercalated into viral membranes, irreversibly inactivated virions while leaving functionally intact envelope proteins, and inhibited viral entry at a step after virus binding but before virus–cell fusion. LJ001 pretreatment also prevented virus-induced mortality from Ebola and Rift Valley fever viruses. Structure–activity relationship analyses of LJ001, a rhodanine derivative, implicated both the polar and nonpolar ends of LJ001 in its antiviral activity. LJ001 specifically inhibited virus–cell but not cell–cell fusion, and further studies with lipid biosynthesis inhibitors indicated that LJ001 exploits the therapeutic window that exists between static viral membranes and biogenic cellular membranes with reparative capacity. In sum, our data reveal a class of broad-spectrum antivirals effective against enveloped viruses that target the viral lipid membrane and compromises its ability to mediate virus–cell fusion.Viruses are insidious creatures. They differ from each other in many ways, and they can mutate — at times seemingly at will, as with HIV — to resist a host of weapons fired at them. Complicating matters further is that new viruses are constantly emerging.

One potential weapon is a small-molecule “broad spectrum” antiviral that will fight a host of viruses by attacking them through some feature common to an entire class of viruses. For example, there are two categories of viruses: lipid-enveloped and non-enveloped. Enveloped viruses are surrounded by a membrane that in effect serves as a mechanism through which a virus inserts its genome into a host cell, infecting it. Is there something out there that might disrupt that action in as many viruses as possible — and not produce unwanted side effects?

A group of researchers led by a team from UCLA and including others from the University of Texas at Galveston, Harvard University, Cornell University and the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases may have found just such a compound.

In a proof-of-principle study the researchers have identified an antiviral small molecule that is effective against numerous viruses, including HIV-1, influenza A, filoviruses, poxviruses, arenaviruses, bunyaviruses, paramyxoviruses and flaviviruses. These viruses cause some of the world’s deadliest diseases, such as AIDS, Nipah virus encephalitis, Ebola, hemorrhagic fever and Rift Valley fever.

Even better, the compound — a rhodanine derivative that the researchers have dubbed LJ001 — could be effective against new, yet-to-be discovered enveloped viruses.

“Since the government has changed its priorities to support development of broad spectrum therapeutics, more and more groups have been screening compound libraries for antivirals that are active against multiple viruses in a specific class,” said Dr. Benhur Lee, associate professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the primary investigator of the four-year study.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration–approved broad spectrum antivirals do exist but are rare, for various reasons. Ribavirin, for instance, affects both the virus proteins and the host cell and is effective on only a limited number of viruses, such as respiratory syncytial virus and Lassa fever virus. And α–interferon, which is used against the hepatitis C virus, produces unwanted side effects and is too expensive for widespread use.

But the putative mechanism for LJ001 is surprising, according to Lee, who is also a member of the UCLA AIDS Institute.

“We provide evidence that the small molecule binds to both cellular and viral membranes, but its preferential ability to inactivate viral membranes comes from its ability to exploit the biogenic reparative ability of metabolically active cells versus static viral membranes,” he said. “That is, at antiviral concentrations, any damage it does to the cell’s membrane can be repaired, while damage done to static viral membranes, which have no inherent regenerative capacity, is permanent and irreversible.”

Lee and his collaborators developed their concept of LJ001 as interfering only with enveloped viruses after testing 23 pathogens in cell culture. Studies of nine of those agents — including Ebola virus, Nipah virus and Rift Valley fever virus — required high- or maximum-containment facilities and were carried out in the biosafety level 3 and 4 laboratories of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and USAMRIID.

“Once we started testing more and more, we figured out that it was only targeting the enveloped viruses,” said Alexander N. Freiberg, director of UTMB’s Robert E. Shope, M.D., Laboratory.

The Shope BSL4 lab was also used for mouse experiments with Ebola and Rift Valley fever virus that further confirmed the protective value of LJ001.

While the exact mechanism of viral membrane inactivation is unknown, the researchers are pursuing some promising leads that could answer that question.

Additionally, the drug does not appear to be toxic in vitro or in animals when used at effective antiviral concentrations.

UCLA has filed for a patent on the use of the compound.

Source UCLA, Dr Banhur Lee for Gyandotcom

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dailyhotdeals — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:10:41 +0000

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คุณยังสามารถตรวจสอบเว็บไซต์ประมูลออนไลน์เช่น eBay และดูว่ามีตั๋วออนไลน์. ในเว็บไซต์ประมูลคุณเสนอราคากับผู้อื่นที่สนใจสามารถในตั๋ว. แต่มีโอกาสที่คุณจะสามารถซื้อตั๋วถูกกว่าถ้าคุณเพียงซื้อตั๋วทันที.

Online
มีแหล่งข้อมูลออนไลน์อื่นๆคุณสามารถใช้เพื่อหาตั๋วกีฬา ส่วนลด เป็น. เว็บไซต์ที่นิยมตรวจสอบเป็น Craigslist. ในเว็บไซต์นี้ให้คนในชุมชนของคุณสามารถรายการกีฬาที่พวกเขามีราคาและสิ่งที่พวกเขายินดีจะขายพวกตั๋ว. คุณสามารถติดต่อคนที่ขายตั๋วและดูว่าพวกเขาจะยอมรับราคาที่ต่ำกว่าสิ่งที่พวกเขามีอยู่เพื่อลองและได้รับการจัดการที่ดีกว่า.

เพื่อนและครอบครัว
ถ้าคุณมีเพื่อนหรือครอบครัวที่มีผู้ถือบัตรฤดูพวกเขาอาจจะยินดีทั้งมอบตั๋วหรือขายให้คุณในราคาลด.

Scalpers
ของหลักสูตรมีความเป็นไปได้เสมอที่คุณสามารถซื้อบัตรเข้าชมเกมจาก scalpers. แม้ว่า scalpers มักจะพยายามขายตั๋วของพวกเขามากกว่าราคาตั๋วแต่ในเกมบางท่านอาจจะสามารถซื้อตั๋วมากถูกกว่าราคาที่ปรากฏ. ถ้าเกมไม่เกมรูปแบบสูงแล้วอาจไม่จะเป็นความต้องการอย่างมากสำหรับเกมและตั๋วที่จะขายในราคาต่ำ.

เก็บ Eye Out
หาตั๋วกีฬา ส่วนลด คุณต้องจับตามองว่าสำหรับข้อ. คุณไม่มีทางรู้ว่าคุณอาจพบโอกาสที่ดีในการซื้อตั๋ว ลดราคา.

Are wikis an effective (be sure to define this term) means of communication? Why or why not? Why does it matter?

thomas77lin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:34:59 +0000

What is effective communication? I think effective communication can be defined as allowing people to be able to post their ideas and thoughts on the web and others can view it as references to their own entries. So are wikis an effective means of communication? I think they are an effective means of communication because wiki is a collaborative multilingual encyclopedia which anyone with access to a computer and internet can go on it and create a post or edit one. With the wide range of information uploaded on wiki, everyone can get access to the information they desire for efficiently.

Wikipedia is a convenient search engine that consist of mostly all the basic and well-known topics. For example, when I want to look up information for a certain topic, the first thing that comes up my mind is to use Wikipedia. However, since the information are provided by random users, which they can possibly be a five year old kid, the information are not always as accurate.

Therefore, I think wiki is an effective means of communication but it is not perfectly reliable. It can be useful as a source for quick reference and basic understanding of all topics but overall, I personally would not take wiki as a primary source when I am doing a research.

Modify [The Movie]

ltmafija — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 13:31:13 +0000

Indian Education System or system for more Unemployment.

gyandotcom by Rohit Sharma — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:27:25 +0000

The process of education is considered so important in our society that no parents, who can afford it, can imagine having their children go uneducated. It has become such an integral part of our lives that for most people, completing the process of education appears to be a matter of habit. Others, who have so far remained outside this process, are now being covered by the literacy programmes of the government and various non-governmental organizations. Extending the privilege to everybody in the country seems to be a top priority for various governments representing political thought of different shades. Those outside the education system see it as a desirable thing and are quite eager to take advantage of the opportunity offered to them. But, why exactly is education so indispensable?

The need for such an examination arises because everything does not seem to be going alright with the education system. The ground reality is that in most of the schools and colleges of India, students, teachers and administrators are apathetic towards the process of education, fraudulent ways are beings adopted to complete the process and a large number of educated youth find themselves without jobs. It is quite anomalous that when the people, government and those involved in implementing it, consider the education to be a desirable thing, they choose to ignore the real state of affairs on ground. Policy makers, politicians, social activists and education experts are seen taking idealist positions when talking about education, most of the time. Do they really want to continue and expand the existing education system in its present form? Besides the degeneration of the process, education as an activity seems to be going on without any direction.

The purpose of education

More precisely, the perceived goal of education to make the individual and the society ‘better’ in some qualitative sense, seems to missing in its current form. In our rush to get everybody educated, we do not consider it important to ask ourselves why do we need education?

An idealist notion about the necessity of education has been taken for granted. If fact this notion has been so strongly developed that we are taught to overlook the shortcomings in the implementation of this activity. Both independent groups, who have chosen to work in the field of education, and expert committees have only suggested ways of improving the effectiveness of present education system without addressing themselves to the more basic issues of the purpose of the entire activity. Such people often choose to ignore the disturbing trends, mentioned above, associated with the education system.

Most of the people will refuse to link the malaise in the system to the basic nature of the system itself, considering it to be a disorder which could be taken care of by implementing a proper machinery. Such assumptions need to be questioned. In this article we will present an analysis of the present education system, which will raise questions at such basic levels. When so much resources and the prime time of our children and youth are being given over to the education system, we as a society need to find out the achievement of this system in real terms. However, in this evaluation one must be prepared to dispense with the assumption that the modern education system, or some close variant of it, is absolutely indispensable, for on close examination this kind of education system itself appears to be at fault. The present article will restrict itself to being a critique of the modern education system and will highlight its inadequacies. The solution in the form of a new concept of education derived from a newly established philosophy, Sah Astitwawad Darshan, of Nagaraj Sharma of Amarkantak, will be the subject of a future article. The concept of education based on this philosophy offers the possibility of establishment of a just human order.

Let us first take a look at why people perceive education to be a desirable thing. When several groups of people in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh were asked as to why they felt the need of education, the answers fell in broadly three categories. The most common answer was that education makes people progressive in some sense and is necessary for the advancement of a civilized society. Next, people thought that it imparts knowledge. Lastly, very few people admitted, and that too quite hesitatingly, that it provides employment opportunities. It is interesting that educated people in formal conversation find it improper to voice the most popularly held view among the people that education opens up more job opportunities. It is probably a sign of their being ‘civilized’, which is quoted as the most important reason for getting educated. We will take up the issues of what people mean when they say that education makes one civilized or imparts knowledge, later.

Education and Job Opportunities

First we will look at the notion of education opening up job opportunities. It turns out that when parents send their children to school they are essentially seeking a ’secure future’ for them, which basically means that their children upon getting educated would become eligible for salaried jobs. Even if they do not realize it, the societal norm which compels them to have their children go to school is guided by the same motivation. In fact, this pressure is so great that no parent can even think of doing otherwise. Considering that modern education system incurs some expenditure on the part of parents, it can easily be identified as a middle and upward class activity. The roots of our education system are in the Imperial days, where it was essentially meant to produce a class of people who would assist the British in running the administration of this country.

Even today the education system continues to serve the same function.

It produces a salaried middle class which acts as an appendage to the ruling class and helps keep a primarily coercive administrative system in place. Since the nature of such jobs is essentially of clerical type and there is almost no scope to exercise an individual’s creativity. Most people, even those possessing highest of academic qualifications, cannot derive satisfaction out of their jobs. To compensate for their unproductive nature of jobs they have to be paid higher wages than can be earned otherwise. This creates an economic gap between the salaried class and the class of people who depend on their hard labour and often engaged in production activities which sustain the economy. It is primarily this high salary level accompanied by the associated proximity to ruling classes which becomes the motivating factor for any parents taking a decision to get their children educated.

Since the education system is also designed to produce merely a ‘clerical’ class, upon the completion of their education programmes the youth seek fixed salary and low risk secure jobs. The top priority is often government jobs because there is remote possibility of getting thrown out of them, in addition to other financial and material benefits offered by them. However, the number of such salaried jobs is limited. In fact the number of salaried jobs which are primarily of clerical nature cannot exceed a certain limit because a large segment of the population would be needed outside it, in the primary and secondary sectors of economy, which incidentally also happen to be the source of income for governments from where salaries are generated. Hence, there is a practical restraint on the number of people who can be ‘benefitted’ by the present education system.

To present the idea of education in its current form as a desirable thing and involving large masses of people in it through literacy programmes, thereby making them aspirants in a limited (salaried) job market, is an irresponsible behaviour. Even though it could be argued that economic liberalization programmes are creating more job opportunities, the number of people receiving education and going without a job is growing at a faster rate. Experience of working in the Ballia district shows that a large number of youth actually fail to make it to the job system. The education system with its urban and elitist bias puts the students from rural and semi-rural background in a disadvantaged position to begin with. Since it is basically a job-oriented education system where people are prepared for subordinate roles, the process of training need not maintain very high standards of excellence. In fact, the general quality of education in this country is very mediocre and at a number of places the whole exercise has been reduced to a farce.

Since what is needed to demonstrate when applying for a job is the certificate and not actual competence, people have devised ways of completing the process of obtaining the certificates without actually putting in the hard work to go through the entire exercise involved in the process of education. The students, parents, teachers, other staff and education department administrators, for example, have evolved a system in Ballia district where almost all the students clear their high school and intermediate examinations, conducted by the U.P. Board, by mass- scale malpractices. This method suits everybody as the administrators and teachers get financially benefitted, students pass their examinations and parents do not mind spending an extra sum to see their children obtain the certificates without wasting too much of their time. This system enjoys full political patronage and has over aperiod of roughly two decades obtained social acceptability. So much so that anybody not resorting to cheating in the examinations would be considered an anomaly.

Since examinations can now be passed without a rigorous program of studies, the entire process of classroom teaching has been short circuited. The teachers are content drawing their salaries. As the number of people possessing certificates, diplomas and degrees has gone up, so has the competition for jobs and the number of unemployed. Since the education system prepares a job mentality in people, a person is called unemployed if he/she is not in a salaried job.

The concept of employment after education leaves out a host of other activities which are absolutely necessary for the running of our economy. A lot of people who fall in the category of unemployed, if they had not gone through the education system, they would probably be engaged in some fruitful production activity. It is a well known fact that our education system creates a mind-set which makes people move away from the basic production processes in the economy. In this sense the problem of ‘unemployment’ has been merely a creation of our education system. In fact, the education system can be blamed for ruining the best years of our youth, whether unsuccessful or successful in getting a job.

In this light, demands of groups such as AISA, of education and employment for everybody, where by education they mean only the present form of education and by employment they mean the commonly held view of salaried jobs, are meaningless. They are again guided by the same idealist notion that education is a desirable thing for everybody, completely ignoring the ground realities. Considering that majority of our people live in villages, townships and small cities, they are deprived of the fruits of modern education system and a majority of educated youth in this country actually go without a job.

Contrary to the popular opinion that education opens up more job opportunities, it rewards only a minuscule percentage of the population, mostly coming from socio-economically privileged groups. It is only the dream of getting these small number of high salaried coveted jobs that has sustained the view that education opens up more job opportunities. If we consider the hard reality, education system today makes many more people jobless than it is able to provide jobs to. In fact, the process of education is so lop-sided and strangulating that it saps the person of all his/her imagination and enthusiasm making him/her unfit for any other work. The state of unemployment in Ballia is such that people holding even Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees are forced to take up teaching jobs in privately run primary and middle level schools for a meagre Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 per month. Even a daily wage worker, involved in manual work can earn two or three times more. This crippling effect can only lead to frustration among the people who are unfortunate enough not to secure a job. The government and political parties only make the situation worse by creating an illusion that they can create more jobs. They only fuel the rat race of people going through the education system and then contending for jobs.

If we are to channelize the energy of our youth for constructive activity in society then we work to dispel the notion that education opens up more job opportunities. The sooner we agree to examine the myth that the present education system is a desirable thing, the better it would be for our society. A completely new form of education system with a different purpose altogether, has to be worked out for creating a healthy society. However, this will not be the subject of present article. Here, it is merely sufficient to mention that various efforts which have been carried out to make the modern education system more effective have failed to create an impact. These efforts either in the form of individual experts, independent self-motivated innovative groups or expert committees have not questioned the basis of the process of education. Most of them have concerned themselves with techniques and strategies rather than taking up the issue at a philosophical level.

For example, the vocational training programmes, including the ITIs, failed to motivate the youth to give up their salaried job mind set, because they were designed to merely supplement the modern education system. Such has been the fate of all innovative efforts. When they were incorporated in the education system, their role was limited to only a marginal one. Another example is the S.U.P.W., which was introduced in the C.B.S.E. syllabus. Kishore Bharati in Hoshangabad, working with the objective of inculcating scientific temper through education, was successful in getting books designed by it introduced in the state curriculum but was unsuccessful in qualitatively influencing either the process of education or lives of people in general.

So long as the primary function of our education system continues to be serving the interests of the ruling class, no change can be expected to be brought about by it. Fortunately we are forced to re- examine our education system because, firstly, it is failing to provide jobs to everybody, and, secondly, to the people it has provided jobs, it is failing to provide satisfaction. In any case, the myth that education opens up more job opportunities needs to be dispensed with.

Does education make individuals progressive?

let us come to the aspect of education which makes an individual progressive in some sense. The state always projects education as necessary for the progress of society when pushing its literacy programmes. People are made to believe through the state run media that education has the potential for providing solutions to a number of society’s problems. There is so much brainwashing done that lot of educated people grow up with the illusion that they are more civilized in some sense that the illiterate people. It is not very difficult to detect the condescending attitude that the educated people develop towards the less educated or uneducated people.

However, when several groups of people, including school teachers and college students from Delhi, Kanpur and Ballia were questioned on exactly how they were advanced compared to people who did not get a chance to go to school, people were at a loss to come up with convincing answers. Because of education they had acquired the skills of reading and writing, but other people in the society possessed some other skills which were in no way less valuable. In fact, skills like farming, cloth making and house building, more basic to our living, the educated people were completely unfamiliar with. What is a part of living for most of the people in the country and where they spend a major part of their time is reduced in the form of mere commodities which the educated people learn to buy in the market in exchange for money earned as part of their salaries. This is probably a basic difference between the educated and uneducated people. However, whether this is a sign of progress has become a debatable issue now.

The educated people would readily agree that inspite of enjoying more material comforts they do not think that they have become any more happy than the uneducated people. Also, education does not make any person a better human being. The educated people are not any more sensitive or sympathetic towards other human beings. Neither are they any more honest or responsible. Education does not free a person of superstition or blind belief in hypothetical concepts of super natural powers. An educated person is seen to be as much of a fatalist as an uneducated one. People possessing highest degrees in sciences are seen to behave in highly irrational and inexplicable ways. A document published when the Kishore Bharati experiment was wound up, points out that scientific rational way of thinking evaporates when economic and political interests of the people come in their way. Hence upon an honest evaluation it turns out that qualitatively there is not much of a difference between the educated and the uneducated people.

Most of the people with whom it was discussed agreed with this conclusion. Then, in what way they thought they were more civilized left them thinking.

People agree that material advancement is not the only aspect of progress. In fact, it is the less important part of it. Most of the people were of the opinion that practice of human values, improvement on human relationships and a just order in society constituted real progress and those are the things they actually meant when using the notion of ‘civilized’ society. Unfortunately we have not moved ahead in that direction, and although the idea of education was conceived precisely for this purpose, we have so far not been able to develop the form of education, necessary to fulfil this objective. The modern education system is simply not designed to serve this purpose. All it does is only legitimizes material growth in the name of development. Modern science as an ideology, which has chosen to confine itself to only the study of matter, having gotten the support of the ruling classes, has exercised its hegemony through the modern education system to promote a material-centered thinking. This is reflected in the personal aspirations of a modern educated man as well as the development programmes of any modern state. However, that this is only a lop-sided view is reflected in the concerns of the people. Thus, the popular belief that education represents some kind of progress does not stand a deeper inquiry.

Misinterpreted Notion

Finally, we will take up the most profound and also the most misinterpreted notion of education as a means to seek ‘knowledge’. The tradition of learning has always been associated with seeking of knowledge. However, what constitutes knowledge is highly debatable because before the advent of modern education system in this country knowledge was viewed only in mystical terms. Only a selected few with some special qualifications were eligible to acquire it. However, as the State patronage shifted from religion to science and a new education system was in place, more people were allowed access to the new ‘knowledge’. Science was more successful than religion in penetrating different societies around the world and making itself more universally acceptable in the curricula of the education systems of the schools of the world. But it was soon discovered that it still remained pretty much in the hands of few experts. The ’spirit of enquiry’, necessary for seeking ‘knowledge’, was in the domain of only those privileged few. Moreover, the direction of research was determined often by the state, which was funding the activity. The state had readily adopted the activity of science because it offered the possibility of vastly improved defence capabilities. Because of liberal state sponsorships, defence continues to occupy the interests of a majority of the scientists on earth today. In this light even the spirit of enquiry enjoyed by a few is restrained and the knowledge sought is with a very limited purpose. This explains why our programme of development is proceeding with an associated component of destruction.

Coming back to the education system in the era of science, what was designed for the majority of the people were skills and capsules of information necessary to sustain the efforts of the state. The science education in schools and colleges is no less dogmatic than the teachings of religion. What you can do in the name of science is clearly spelled out by the authorities, allowing no freedom for change even in enquiry. It obviously does not conform to the notion of science offering openness of thought and is certainly far removed from the concept of knowledge. It must be recognized very well that modern education system is not a programme of knowledge seeking even though it does maintain an illusion of that in the name of science. It basically consists of development of certain skills, like reading, writing, articulation, mathematics or giving out certain information through sciences and social sciences. It is a programme limited in terms of the content of curriculum and number of years required to complete it and can be completed by being successful in a definite type of examination.

The examinations, for which the skill of writing is necessary, can be passed by reproducing certain information or at the most by manipulation of this information. A person who is the product of modern education system and has completed most advanced of its programmes does not feel contended or knowledgeable enough to be able to provide answers to all queries relating to his/her specialization and certainly not comfortable answering the basic questions about life and existence in the realm of philosophy even though the education system may have honoured them with Doctor of Philosophy degrees. This is yet another proof of modern education system not being a knowledge seeking exercise. In fact, there appears to be a lot of confusion among people on what exactly is the nature of knowledge and the ways of going about acquiring it.

Most people are seen to use the term knowledge as a synonym for skills or information. Some people make it appear as something mystical, beyond the reach of ordinary people, and consider that knowledge or Truth can be obtained only through very specialized processes. However, such people are themselves not clear about the nature of knowledge or the way of obtaining it, as they have not experienced it themselves. Neither do they seem to have met anybody who has obtained knowledge. Hence, there is a lot of mystery about the mystical way. Like the first two popular beliefs about education, even the belief that education imparts some kind of knowledge appears to be a myth. While both the traditional and modern schools of thought use the term quite frequently, there appears to be no consensus or even clarity on its meaning. The Sah-Astitwawad Darshan has developed the concept of knowledge as a complete understanding of oneself and one’s environment in relation to it, and furthermore, evolving a programme of living at the four stages of the self, the family, the society and nature, so that there is complete harmony among all the stages. The task of education is described as making people familiar with this entire concept. Under such a system the objective of education is determined as the realization of a just human order. This human centered thought identifies the two types of needs of human beings – material and human values – and offers a programme for the satisfaction of both. Education helps the human beings understanding these processes better and hence is more meaningful for life. This concept will be presented in detail in a separate article.
Unemployment means that while the people are willing to work, they have no work to do. The most important reasons of India’s poverty and backwardness are her problem of unemployment.

It is pity to see a long queue of young persons, who have devoted ten to sixteen precious years of their lives to their studies standing before the employment exchange office. They are unemployed and longing to get a petty job to earn their bread. Is it not shocking and surprising that the years they spent in getting education proved just a sheer waste of time and made them idle gossiper, hater of physical labor and slave of comforts.

We will not find carpenters, shoemakers, tailors or even barbers in this queue of employment searchers. This clearly shows the failure of modern educational system and insolvency of our policy makers. So if we really want to solve the unemployment problem, the educational system must be made job oriented. Now our country does not need only clerks, she is in need of persons who can serve her by their physical and mental skill. There is urgent need of revolutionizing the whole educational system so that it can cope with the new demands of our free country.

Unemployment means that while the people are willing to work, they have no work to do. The most important reasons of India’s poverty and backwardness are her problem of unemployment. The advancement in modern technology has invented such machines, robots and computers which can perform the work of thousands of persons alone. These machines need only one o two operators and thus they snatch bread from the hands of thousands of persons. So this type of technical advancement has also increased the problem of unemployment. Our government should adopt the automation in such a wise way that can solve this problem.

Government should give due importance to small scale industries, cottage industries, ad labor intensive industries. These industries must be given financial aid, raw material and sales facilities by the government. Unemployed persons should be encouraged to get training concerning these industries.

The increasing population growth is also one of the factories which are contributing to unemployment problem.

The development of the country can no create so many job opportunities as are required we must try to decrease population growth by propagating family planning program. The peasants, workers and other classes of the masses that are uneducated should be motivated to adopt family planning methods. The villages should be made self sufficient in their economy o that growing population can get employment. This can be done by setting up agro-industries in rural areas.

Conclusion

The purpose of the present article was only to point out the frailties of the modern education system and to show how some of the popularly held views about this system are merely myths, which are exposed on a closer examination. The education system is not serving any fruitful purpose in the society, except for keeping a handful of people in jobs and making education as business. A larger objective of creating a healthy society, where all the needs of all human beings can be satisfied easily, is simply not on its agenda. The education system fails to provide intellectual satisfaction and hence a viable programme of living where mutually beneficial relationships can be established with other human beings, groups of people and with nature, which is necessary for the growth of society. As a result of the all round failure of our education system a need has been established for new thinking in this direction. at the end of the day our education must be holistic approach system not just for the sake of education for everyone.
Gyandotcom

Last month January 11,2010 HRD Minister Says:-
There is going to be a paradigm shift in the field of higher education in the country in 2010 with the government creating an enabling environment for bringing industry, academia and government on one platform to give a decisive push to educational reforms for creating a knowledge society to make India globally competitive, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said at a book release function at ORF campus on Monday, January 11, 2010.

Releasing the book Engineering Education in India written by Prof. Rangan Banerjee and Vinayak P Mule of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, Mr. Sibal said that India needs to think differently about its education system and universities should be allowed far greater freedom than they have now. The Minister said that there was an urgent need to create stakes for the faculty and researchers in the system so that the research community feels motivated to create knowledge.

It was high time to recognize that Indian universities are extremely dependent on colleges and institutes for revenues as state governments are in no position to adequately fund the universities, Mr. Sibal said. He added that there is a need for innovative reforms to restructure India’s engineering education.

Asking the Indian industry and business community to come forward to invest in the field of education, the Minister said that majority of the US universities such as Yale, Harvard and Stanford were set up by businesses and philanthropists.

The Minister acknowledged that there is a significant lack of information in the education sector, particularly on enrollment and graduation figures. He lamented that India only produced 8000 PhDs a year as compared to China’s 50,000.

At the same time, to increase the number of engineering masters and doctoral graduates, more quality universities will have to be set-up. Such wide-spread reforms can only be achieved through public-private partnership (PPP), he said.

Speaking about the publication, ORF Trustee Ambassador Abid Hussain commended the authors for conducting field research to generate data much needed in informing India’s education policy.

Earlier, ORF Trustee Lalit Bhasin welcomed the Minister saying that wide ranging initiatives are being launched in the Ministry of Human Resource Development under the leadership of Mr. Sibal.

As India competes globally in a variety of industries such as software, chemicals, and engineering equipments, it has the potential to emerge as a global technology leader. Indeed, engineering is a coveted and highly prestigious degree in India. Yet, industry leaders constantly complain about the lack of quality engineers for their industry, and there is significant unemployment amongst graduating engineers.

Sponsored by the Observer Research Foundation, Engineering Education in India combines primary research and analysis to understand the key dynamics of India’s engineering education system and provides timely policy recommendations.

The book reveals that in 2006, India awarded about 230,000 engineering degrees, 20,000 engineering masters degrees and only about 1000 engineering PhDs. India’s doctoral degrees are less than 1% of graduate engineering degrees, compared to 10% in the UK, 9% in the USA and 8% in Germany. Mr. Sibal said that this gap must be bridged if India is to move forward. He reiterated that to sustain economic growth, India must invest in the manufacturing sector to make it internationally competitive as well as create more jobs. However, the key to achieving these goals lies in investing in a more research-oriented education that stresses innovation.

The Minister, earlier, thanked the authors for their momentous and thought-provoking book, and said that the perspective provided by their work will be put to use by the government and to partner with foundations and businesses to take the nation forward.

Moving the vote of thanks, ORF Distinguished Fellow Sunjoy Joshi said the Foundation would continue to undertake research in the field of education and make policy recommendations.

Are wikis an effective (be sure to define this term) means of communication? Why or why not? Why does it matter?

thomas77lin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:21:40 +0000

Tonight’s State of The Union is Huge For Obama

D Fragoso — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 18:27:19 +0000

Tonight is Obama’s first shot at the State of the Nation Address. Many in the Banking industry are watching closely to see what direction Obama is going to go. Clearly the standoff between Obama vs Wall Street & The Banks is a very serious issue. This is the current root of the problem in regards to the economy recovering. Again the issue here is the lost equity and how to address it. Loan modification is an unrealistic option for the banks as it only weakens the Banks on their balance sheets. So what is the answer?

Loan modifications hurt banks. If you lent money to someone with an 85% guaranty why would you reduce that? So if you lent someone $100 and purchased FDIC insurance then your loan would be protected up to 85% of the loan amount or in this case $85 of the $100 is guaranteed. So only a 15% loss is not bad when you consider that most real estate lost more than 50% on average. So why modify a loan and lose the FDIC protection? Would you do it?

It is important that everyone understand this issue as main stream media is not reporting on why the Banks are not modifying loans. Keep in mind that I am a broker that does not like how the Banks tried to blame all brokers for the mortgage meltdown. Fair is fair and this modify issue is not the Banks issue. Why it is a one sided political issue today is unbelievable. The Feds need to own thier side of the problem too! The problem is that would point the finger at some longtime Congressmen such as Barney Frank. This is why I continue to call out the media, where are you guys? Why the double standard?

The answer was presented back in early 2008 but no one was listening. The answer was then and still is the HOPE loan. The HOPE loan would have worked then and will still work today. The problem is that the Bush Administration came up with the HOPE loan program. It would be terrible to give Bush any credit since he is the reason we are all here, or is he? I voted for Obama but I made much more money under Bush. The Bush plan worked great until the wars broke out and the Washington in fighting began. Go figure. After a year of hearing everything is bush’s fault I have heard enough Bush talk. My TV went out a few days ago, is this Bush’s doing? Hardly! If Obama can not begin to take some of the blame then someone in Washington please show him how to mop. Teach Pelosi too! I am a California native and I would love to see her ride out of Washington on her mop.

We have all watched Obama since he has taken office and clearly he is showing signs of stress. I am disappointed that he tells us he understands the common man yet takes a very expensive vacation in Hawaii, trips to New York for plays and fly’s all over the world. Much more than any other president before him, why? Most average people will never make it to Hawaii or a New York for a play so this is odd statement for me. With all of the video conferencing available to us today there is no need for all of the travel or the unnecessary carbon foot print of air force one.

I am interested in the economic direction Obama wants to take us. All of the other issues that Obama has on his agenda are unobtainable for the simple reason that they are flawed. If Heath Care reform does not address Tort Reform then it has no chance. Until this is addressed then Washington is not serious and it is all an act. In any case this is a mortgage blog and Banking, Wall Street, Washington, Obama and anyone in the Mortgage Industry are all spinning our wheels. I hope that Obama does have a solid idea, tonight will tell.

Also Obama does have great charisma but he remains unproven without a teleprompter. Speaking to a sixth grade class with a teleprompter is sad. It is time to speak from the heart. Tell us what you think. Please make it interesting so we do not change the channel. This is not an infomercial for Heather Care but rather your presidency, make it count. Your future and ours is riding on it!

Anti-Aging Skin Care Tips - 3 Simple ways to prevent wrinkles and signs of aging occur

orange84cbf — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 22:27:06 +0000

If you choose to anti-aging skin care tips, I believe you have been looking in many different places, did not find any work. The problem is two-fold, from a lot of information, but not very good.

The second reason is that most people not have the patience to see in the application of anti-aging skin care tips really see the results. You see, most of the secret of what to eat how much exerciseAs well as the need to use natural skin care cream you use a consistent life.

That is, if you want to look very good to prevent wrinkles. You can even younger longer your natural skin care tips, the young respondents, because all will be like your friends and family seems to have grown up. Since all of these has been said, there are three simple tips that will help my wrinkles and aging.

1. Berry is full of antioxidants andVitamins, which will not only help the body, but also your skin. Every day we bombed things, the release of free radicals in your body) (unhealthy food, air pollution and chemicals in tap water, so that we can eat, anti-oxidants, in order to eliminate and prevent premature aging.

2. Mask helps to keep the skin clean and dry, depending on your use of masks. They should have two masks, one of cleaning dirt and mud, but also forMoisture. I personally use one part of the anti-aging skin care series. They do not like, but if you choose, make sure your skin care line is 100% pure natural.

3. Natural skin care cream is more important than ever because we have so much pollution everywhere. Such as Cynergy TK and Phytessence wakame natural ingredients will protect your skin and looks. Most people do not knowComponent, which is unfortunate.

cleo toy camera

honeypeanuts — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:35:13 +0000

free! cleo toy camera from mama’atom : ) thank you ka
clear & simple : modify by me

1999 BMW 328i - Kayden

allirae — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 05:14:44 +0000

A bit dirty after some dirt road driving to the parent's house

This is Kayden. She is my newest addition. I was looking for something practical, clean/nice looking, and not incredibly slow. I settled for a BMW. I was originally looking for an e36, but found this e46 in New Jersey for a good price. I set everything up and went on a road trip.

Year : 1999

Make: BMW

Model: 328 i

Name: Kayden

Mods: K&N intake system, AC Schnitzer steering wheel, shift knob, e-brake handle, and floor mats, and painted wheels.

Issues and History:

Brake vibrations: fixed December 27, 2009. Replaced with Metalmaster pads and Brembo blanks.
Braking brake was not holding – Adjusted on December 27, 2009, when replacing the brakes.
Oil pressure light comes on at startup.
Check engine light on – has to do with fuel control.
Air filter was missing – Ordered on Jan. 12, 2010.
Tires are cupping and wearing unevenly – Ordered Jan. 12, 2010.
Irregular idle at cold start.
Rear end is making some noise.
Looks like there is a lack of thermostat or it’s stuck open.

Overall impression and Future Plans:

She did very well on the drive home. Very luxurious with plenty of room, and handles well too. The controls are well laid out, but not good to try and learn them if driving. Seat heaters would be nice for the leather. After the small issues are fixed, I would like to add an exhaust – it’s a extremely quiet car. So far the car has been a very good car (5000 miles).

Modify and Save

thomasmarcellino — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:25:35 +0000

OBAMA ADMINISTRATION RELEASES NEW DATA

Homeowners in modifications are saving an average of over $550 per month.

As of December 10th, 728,000 modifications are under way across the country, the program is on track to meet its goals over the next several years. Modifications are providing real benefits to homeowners.

“As this report illustrates, struggling homeowners across the country continue to receive immediate relief in the form of reduced monthly payments and a second chance to stay in their homes,” said Chief of Treasury’s Homeownership Preservation Office (HPO) Phyllis Caldwell. “Our focus now is on working with servicers, borrowers and organizations to get as many of those eligible homeowners as possible into permanent modifications.”

Article experts were taken from http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/pr_12102009.html

To speak with an expert consultant for FREE call 866 910 7065.

คูปองส่วนลดเป็น Ultimate ตลาดเครื่องมือ

dailyhotdeals — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 05:10:33 +0000

คูปอง ส่วนลด ได้นานใช้กับร้านค้า
และบริษัทการตลาดผลิตภัณฑ์. คูปองได้
ประวัติยาว.

แนวคิดทั้งหมดคูปองครั้งแรกเริ่มต้นใน 1,894 เมื่อ
คนขายยา Asa Candler ให้ออก 'ตั๋วลายมือ'
สำหรับการเรียนฟรีของ Coca-Cola! นี้พิสูจน์ให้ประสบความสำเร็จ
บริษัทร่วมและเรายังคงดื่มผสมดำลับ
วันนี้แม้.

เพียงอย่างปีหน้า CW Post สร้างแรก
คูปองจากร้านขายของชำให้ผู้ซื้อหนึ่งเซ็นต์ต่อ
ซื้อซีเรียลสุขภาพใหม่ถั่วองุ่น. และ
ตามที่พวกเขากล่าวส่วนที่เหลือเป็นประวัติศาสตร์. คูปอง ส่วนลด
เกิด.

โดยสกปรก 30 ของคูปองเป็นบ้านมั่นคงเป็น
วิธีที่มีประสิทธิภาพของการออมเงินในช่วง Great อาการซึมเศร้า.
จะช่วยครอบครัวส่วนใหญ่อยู่รอดผ่านเวลาที่ยากมากด้วย
วางอาหารเพิ่มเติมเกี่ยวกับตาราง. วันนี้แม้แต่สำหรับรายได้ต่ำ
และครอบครัวรายกลางคูปองสามารถยืดสัปดาห์
งบประมาณช้อปปิ้งและใส่อาหารมากขึ้นในรถเข็นของชำ.

คุณสามารถอ่านเพิ่มเติมเกี่ยวกับประวัติของคูปองที่นี่:
http://www.couponmonth.com

และตามเว็บไซต์คูปองนี้เดียวกันคูปองจะกลายเป็น
นิยมมากขึ้น 76% ของประชากรอเมริกันที่ใช้คูปอง. คูปองมูลค่าเฉลี่ยเพียง $ 1 แต่ทั้งหมดจะบันทึกผู้ซื้อทั่ว $ 3 พันล้านบาทในปี 2004. บริษัทและ
ผู้ผลิตเสนอขึ้นกว่า $ 300 ล้านใน
คูปองในปีเดียวกัน. จำนวนนี้ไปความสำคัญ
ออมทรัพย์เพื่อผู้บริโภคระมัดระวัง.

คูปอง National เดือนแรกคือในปี 1998 และโด่งดัง
ได้อย่างต่อเนื่องในแต่ละปีตั้งแต่เลี้ยงโปรไฟล์และไฮไลต์สำคัญของคูปองในชีวิตประจำวันของเรา.

ใกล้กับ 80% ของผู้ซื้อโดยใช้คูปองครอบคลุมทั้งหมด
กลุ่มอายุที่สำคัญก็สามารถเพิ่มไปยังตลาดที่มีประสิทธิภาพ
เครื่องมือ. คูปองสามารถเป็นเครื่องมือที่มีประสิทธิภาพมากในการติดต่อของคุณ
ส่วนตลาดเป้าหมายและการขายผลิตภัณฑ์ของคุณ. หนึ่งทุก
ธุรกิจควรมีลักษณะที่รุนแรงและดูว่ามัน
ที่เหมาะสมสำหรับผลิตภัณฑ์.

คูปองสามารถใช้เป็นที่ต่ำทางต้นทุนการแนะนำของคุณ
ผลิตภัณฑ์ในตลาด. ให้ออกจากตัวอย่างฟรีหรือ
คูปอง ส่วนลด สามารถรวบรวมลูกค้าภักดีผู้แรก
ลองใช้ผลิตภัณฑ์ของคุณได้ฟรีหรือในอัตราที่ลด.

สร้างความภักดีแบรนด์เป็นหนึ่งใน hallmarks ของ
การพัฒนาผลิตภัณฑ์ที่ประสบความสำเร็จหรือบริการ. การใช้คูปอง
เป็นวิธีนำลูกค้ากลับมามากของคุณ
อีกครั้งและอีกครั้ง. เมื่อเวลาผ่านสินค้าของคุณจะได้รับ
ความไว้วางใจจากผู้บริโภค.

หนึ่งในบริษัทที่มีประวัติยาวนานในการใช้คูปองนั้น
คอมพิวเตอร์ Dell. การส่งเสริมการขายและนำผู้ซื้อ
เข้าร้านค้าหาล่าสุดและดีที่สุด
ต่อรองราคา Dell. สามารถพิสูจน์ให้มีประสิทธิภาพมาก
ทางของตลาดผลิตภัณฑ์.

ด้วยแอดเวนต์ของอินเทอร์เน็ตที่ผู้ซื้อสามารถรับ
ออนไลน์คูปองจำนวนมากรวมทั้งคูปอง Dell. มันสามารถ
บันทึกคุณ $ 100 ของราคาปิดของผลิตภัณฑ์ Dell. คล้าย
เพื่อ Dell บริษัทจำนวนมากและเว็บไซต์นี้ใช้คูปองออนไลน์
และส่วนลดในตลาดผลิตภัณฑ์.

เป็นอินเทอร์เน็ตขยายจึงไม่เกินไปฐานผู้บริโภค
สำหรับคูปองบริษัทของการนำทั้งใหม่
กลุ่มผลิตภัณฑ์ของคุณ. นักการตลาดเข้าใจประโยชน์นี้
ประโยชน์เพื่อให้ผลิตภัณฑ์ของตนสามารถแข่งขันใน
โลกการแข่งขันมาก.

ออฟไลน์หรือออนไลน์คูปองสามารถที่มีประสิทธิภาพมาก
ด้านการตลาดเครื่องมือ. มันสามารถสร้างความภักดีของลูกค้าย้าย
สินค้าคงคลังอย่างรวดเร็ว, เพิ่มยอดขายและช่วยให้คุณเข้าถึง
กลุ่มเป้าหมายของคุณ. สามารถทางการตลาดสูงสุด
เครื่องมือทุกบริษัทหรือธุรกิจควรพิจารณาใช้.

Peaches with Formal Greetings

nyoro2kun — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 21:30:39 +0000

Image provider "Destructoid Community Blog" and "Agonofinis Blog"

Ok, let’s get back in business (after searching the net for new cool items and entertainment for later on use) here is the promised peaches.

First-off is a mechanism created a brilliant mind out there in the world, simply modding a Nintendo 64 controller and system to the accustom of a portable handheld device. Yes, people a N64 made into portable mechanism; just think of it as a big Gameboy Color that is able to play N64 games directly; the only exception to this device is that it doesn’t include a “Z-Trigger Button” on the back. sacrifices to enjoy simple gaming.

Second stop is the Geekologic Blog (again), but with some stunning Zelda cosplay pictures (literally); if you try to cosplay Princess Zelda, you will put yourself to shame after seeing this pictures. Some people comment that those pictures were alternated using photoshop, if true, that is some sophisticated photoshop skills.

Third is still in the same stop, but a person is bringing a sophisticated and delicate decorated Nintendo 64 console simulated to look like Princess Peach’s Castle; very unique for its kind and well worked around the system. This is why some of us are proud to be gamers (when people don’t make foolish mistakes).

Forth is in the same spot, but bringing the Samus love back to the streets of… here! Some new cosplayer brings their talent and arts craftmanship to the ring center stage, but it shall be hard to decide with previous entry player Pixelninja, but anything is possible in a contest, I guess?!

Fifth is as random as it comes, the new Assassins Creed II has some reference with the so profound name of good’ol Mario; some suggest that this is like a fan tribute to the plumber who saves the princess and other sort of arrayments from Bowser and so on; but still cool.

Sixth makes the mind boggle so much and entertains audiences to its picturize imagination of creativity; simply call this ”Super Mario Meets Star Wars” concept. Paint illustrations that are interesting and fan-tacular for the ages; and I think that they were for sale at San Francisco.

Seventh still burns in my arter like heartburn, we know that Fatal Frame 4 didn’t get release at the States (outside of Japan), but all of this other Horror-Survival games are being release for the Wii console (such an insult to gamers and fan base). Luckily a group of personals are working on an unofficial translation of the game, but will have to be homebrew for the channel to work. Sometime I wonder why they develop so many channel for the Wii if it has limited memory space.

Eighth takes on the manga industry in the States, as Viz Media acquires new titles for release including Kirby; never knew that they develop a Kirby Comic Book (I think is because most of this comic books don’t get popularize until later on).

Ninth takes on the bull by the horns as Plugged-In give out some suggestions on what games we may want to play during the holidays; do note that the majority of these titles are MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online). Depending on your taste: Dragon Age: Origins, The Quest, Grand Thief Auto: Chinatown Wars, Fallout 3, The Sims 3, and Free Realms.

Tenth shall make differences in the U.S. as the AOL job resources gives out some suggestion on what industries may not last long enough in the face of the Earth, it goes from Department Stores to Newspapers Stands; some we may expect to see changes but others I have doubts on. Expect to see people on horses outside the Post Office.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10410284-17.html?tag=mncol;title

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/11/because_i_love_you_but_mostly.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/07/n64_mod_looks_like_super_mario.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2009/03/im_in_love_new_samus_cosplay_g.php

http://www.gossipgamers.com/mario-is-in-assassins-creed-2/

http://www.gossipgamers.com/super-mario-bros-meets-star-wars/

http://www.gossipgamers.com/want-fatal-frame-4-no-problem-english-translation-on-the-way/

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-12-15/viz-confirms-kirby-manga-and-novels-by-hayashi-otsuichi

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/six-huge-games-to-keep-you-busy-over-the-holiday/1383530

http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2009/12/17/10-industries-heading-for-extinction/?ncid=AOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001&icid=main|search2|dl4|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fjobs.aol.com%2Farticles%2F2009%2F12%2F17%2F10-industries-heading-for-extinction%2F%3Fncid%3DAOLCOMMjobsDYNLprim0001

Finally, I fixed another error occuring, sorry for the delay but shall make it up with Christmas Special.

~NYORO~

CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial: VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)

cybersam79 — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 06:47:58 +0000

Passing the BCMSN exam and getting one step closer to the CCNP certification means learning and noticing details that you were not presented with in your CCNA studies. (Yes, I know – you had more than enough details then, right?) One protocol you’ve got to learn more details about is VTP, which seemed simple enough in your CCNA studies! Part of learning the details is mastering the fundamentals, so in this tutorial we’ll review the basics of VTP.

In show vtp status readouts, the “VTP Operating Mode” is set to “Server” by default. The more familiar term for VTP Operating Mode is simply VTP Mode, and Server is the default. It’s through the usage of VTP modes that we can place limits on which switches can delete and create VLANs.

In Server mode, a VTP switch can be used to create, modify, and delete VLANs. This means that a VTP deployment has to have at least one switch in Server mode, or VLAN creation will not be possible. Again, this is the default setting for Cisco switches.

Switches running in Client mode cannot be used to create, modify, or delete VLANs. Clients do listen for VTP advertisements and act accordingly when VTP advertisements notify the Client of VLAN changes.

VTP Transparent mode actually means that the switch isn’t participating in the VTP domain as Servers and Clients do. (Bear with me here.) Transparent VTP switches don’t synchronize their VTP databases with other VTP speakers. They don’t even advertise their own VLAN information! Therefore, any VLANs created on a Transparent VTP switch will not be advertised to other VTP speakers in the domain, making them locally significant only. (I know you remember that phrase from your CCNA studies!)

Devices running VTP Transparent mode do have a little something to do with the other switches in the VTP domain, though. When a switch running in Transparent mode receives a VTP advertisement, that switch will forward that advertisement to other switches in that VTP domain.

Configuring switches as VTP Clients is a great way to “tie down” VLAN creation capabilities to switches that are under your physical control. However, this occasionally leads to a situation where only the VTP clients will have ports that belong to a given VLAN, but the VLAN still has to be created on the VTP server. (VLANs can be created and deleted in transparent mode, but those changes aren’t advertised to other switches in the VTP domain.)

In the next BCMSN tutorial, we’ll take a look at the details of VTP.

Vintage Gibson Fix

serviceguitarrepair — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:41:11 +0000

Here’s a cool product I recently found very helpful for vintage Gibson acoustic guitars with the adjustable bridge. These guitars originally came with either a wooden saddle (one of Gibson’s brilliant ideas, from the 60’s) or ceramic. I much prefer the sound of the ceramic version, because it gives a brighter sound, much like a traditional bone saddle, and it doesn’t wear as easily as the wood version. Unfortunately, finding and purchasing a vintage ceramic replacement can be very difficult and quite pricey. I’ve seen people ask way too much for these. Some owners choose to completely remove the adjustable bridge system, fill in the entire original slot with rosewood and install a stable saddle in its place. I’ve never been a fan of doing this to otherwise perfectly original instruments. I’m very opinionated about being good stewards of vintage instruments.

GIBSON WOOD SADDLE circa 1960's

GIBSON CERAMIC SADDLE circa 1960's

Recently, my good friend Bruce brought in a 1968 Gibson B-45 12 String (see 1st photo) for a fret re-crown. He was excited to have newly acquired this cool old Gibson, but because this guitar also has a trapeze tailpiece, instead of bridge pins, to secure the strings, the sound was quite dull, combined with the wood saddle. Imagine the disappointment. Enter new product…

Graph Tech "TUSQ" replacement for Gibson adjustable bridge

The folks at Graph Tech; mostly famous for graphite replacement saddles for electric guitars and “TUSQ” material for acoustic guitars, have created a great alternative to the pricey, and elusive, ceramic saddle. It is made with their “TUSQ” material and costs only $12.95. We went with it and the results are quite impressive. I am now keeping them in stock, so let me know if you need one installed!

1968 Gibson B-45 12 String with "TUSQ" replacement saddle

Out Of The Box

serviceguitarrepair — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 22:23:54 +0000

Here’s a cool solution to a common problem. My good buddy Doug needed a 5 string bass with an active circuit. Problem: December is a tough month to be investing in an expensive bass, but his need was immediate. The solution: we found an inexpensive bass with lacking electronics and performed an upgrade. Doug has always been fond of Lakland basses with the pickup configuration of a Music Man Stingray style pickup in the bridge position and Fender Jazz Bass pickup in the neck position. So we started with this OLP brand passive version of a Stingray 5 String and gutted everything but the bridge pickup. Then the fun began. I carefully located and traced where I wanted the new neck pickup to go.

Then I routed the body and installed a compatible neck pickup. In this case the best match was a Fender Standard Jazz Bass 4-string pickup. The pole pieces easily covered the width of the 5 string’s span. I followed up with a 3-band active EQ circuit and a coil tap switch for the bridge pickup, allowing for the standard Jazz Bass configuration of 2 single coil pickups.

Lastly, I removed the soft plastic nut and replaced it with a hand-carved bone nut. After a full set-up package and a new set of strings it was time to plug in!

I must say that both Doug and I were more than surprised by the results. This configuration proved to be very versatile and useful. He called me the next day to say that it was the best sounding bass he’s ever owned. Doug has owned some pretty high-end basses in the past, so this is really saying something. This whole project cost less than $600, including the bass! It was a huge success!

Stretching Your Lip

Roger Adams — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:40:27 +0000

If you’ve watched my videos at all, you will know I have a stretched Labret. Mine sits at around 00g, which is about 10mm.

Stretching a labret, is a little bit more involved than stretching an ear. It is alot more taboo, it is alot more in your face (if you excuse the pun). So certainly making sure it is what you want before setting off will leave you in a good frame.

So, how do you do it? Well, its not like you can walk around with a taper hanging out of your mouth is it? So, its almost the same in certain traditions, but you have to edit the rules slightly.

I started by getting mine pierced straight to an 8g. Hurt like hell, made my toes curl, but it eliminated the original and first stage shitty stretches. You can also get it scalpelled, pierced and stretched, or dermal punched. Scalpelling is good, if you want to get a big size instantly, but obviously you’ve got the pain threshold thing again. Pierced and stretched is what I got, and as I said it was pretty painful, dermal punching is normally for cartilidge piercings, and the best way to think of it is, its a surgical hole punch. Does exactly what it needs to, and it’ll put a hole instantly through your lip, or any part it touches.

Right, so you have your lovely freshly pierced hole, how long do you wait? Lips are a little bit different, they’re used ALL the time, every day, even when you’re asleep. I waited nearly 8mths before stretching mine, but I have to say, when I did do the initial stretch, it was incredibly easy. I’d say if you went with the more permanent options of punching and scalpel, then i’d wait nearly a year as the healing times is so much more due to the ferocity of the method used.

So, HOW do you stretch a lip piercing? I assume this works on Medusa (philtrums), Snakebites, cheeks etc..

Say you’re starting at your baby sizes of 14,16,12g then the best method I can recommend, is pull on them. Sounds crazy huh? But honestly, wear horseshoe style rings, or Ball Closure Rings, and pull at them. This will eventually start making the lip loosen up. Don’t buy externally threaded jewellery when stretching lips, as it can tear the hole, and having a swollen lip with piercings in it is uncomfortable as hell. Internally threaded jewellery is more expensive but much much better for the release of your piercing.

When I stretched my snakebites (R.I.P) I went from 1.6mm to 2mm fairly easily. Same from 2mm > 2.4mm was easy enough. But that initial stretch to 3.0mm was hard. As it went from being a .4mm stretch, to a .6mm stretch. Doesn’t sound like alot, but when you think of the increase of the hole in % its huge. Its nearly a 35% increase in the diameter of the hole. The method I used was dead stretching, which again if you go back to the first post, is the use of jewellery to increase the size of the diameter, basically pushing through bigger jewellery. You can get labret studs upto about 8g I believe. And then you may have to goto glass, or septum bullets. I’ll post images below of appropriate lip related jewellery.

I hope this information helped a bit!

And finally

How to help your A.D.H.D. child

familychiropracticcentre — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:12:37 +0000

by Dr. Brent Lipke DC

Between 3 and 5 % of children are considered to have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Psychiatric drugs are given to children, to treat or at least modify their symptoms, but may cause drug-induced behavioral disorders and other unwanted side effects.

Parents concerned with the effects of long term drug use on their children want better answers and better choices.

Clinical studies have reported the effectiveness of Chiropractic care for children with neurological conditions including learning disorders, hyperactivity and dyslexia.

Chiropractic improves brain function by increasing blood flow to the brain, and releasing stress on the spinal cord. This decreases anxiety and improves brain function, allowing the child to reach their full potential.

To learn more about how a safe, gentle and scientific, Chiropractic adjustment could TRANSFORM your health contact your chiropractor.

If you are interested in a complimentary consultation, CALL The Family Chiropractic Centre, 519-837-1234.

I’m Dr. Brent Lipke, educating you to help you educate others !

Reasons to Modify Curriculum

delanas — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:58:06 +0000

(Notes taken from Robert Windham and Machele Kilgore)

I. Know Your Child’s Learning Patterns or Learning Style

A. Find out what your Child’s Modality is: Modality determines the easiest way to receive information

1. Visual: Understands and processes information best when they can visually see it. They learn by observing.

2. Auditory: Understands and processes information best when they can hear it. They learn by listening.

3. Kinesthetic: Understands and processes information best when they can be actively involved as they process the information. They learn by doing.

B. Discover your child’s Temperament Style: Determines Attitudes toward Instructional Materials and Methods.

1. Where Attention is Focused:

a. Extroversion: Focus is on the outer world of people, events, and objects

b. Introversion: Focus is on the inner world of ideas

2. How information is Acquired:

a. Sensing: Information is acquired directly through the senses.

Focus is on the concrete and the present.

b. Intuition: Information is acquired through insight, inspiration,

and hunches. Focus is on the possible and the future.

3. How Decisions are Made:

a. Thinking: Decisions are based on logical analysis and consideration of cause and effect.

b. Feeling: Decisions are based on personal values and a consideration of how the decisions will affect self and others.

4. Work Habits:

a. Judging: Prefer life to be orderly and planned.

b. Perceiving: Prefers life to be spontaneous and flexible.

C. Understand Multiple Intelligences which determine Interests and Talents

1. Verbal-Linguistic: Speaking, reading, and writing

2. Logical –Mathematical: Forming concepts and finding abstract patterns

3. Visual-Spatial: Thinking in images, pictures, shapes, and colors

4. Musical-Rhythmic: Rhyme, rhythm, and melody

5. Bodily-Kinesthetic: Touching, manipulating, moving, making, doing, balance, and coordination

6. Interpersonal (social): Relating to and cooperating with people

7. Intrapersonal (self): Independence and self-motivation

8. Naturalist: Awareness of sensitivity to the natural environment

D. List the areas that your child prefers the most in his/her learning and temperament styles and intelligences.

E. Understand that you will possibly see a level of each area in your child, but they will definitely have certain styles that they prefer or rely more strongly upon.

II. Know the Curriculum’s Teaching Patterns

A. Does the curriculum vary its approach in communicating and interacting with new information? Or, is it the same over and over again?

**Think of the different approaches you’ve seen the curriculum use for different subject areas and write them down.

B. If you were to analyze the curriculum writers, which learning or temperament styles and intelligences have they used the most? What do they use the least?

C. How does the curriculum’s emphasis on a certain learning or temperament style compare with your child’s and his intelligence strengths?

D. What areas can you think of that cause this to be beneficial or problematic?

Can you recall specific instances that your child may have had a difficult time doing an assignment simply because of the contrast in how the information was being presented?

E. You never want to solely teach to your child’s learning or temperament style. They need to develop the weaker areas of these as well, but sometimes when you are in a crunch it’s okay to cater to their strength.

For example: (Brainstorm together)

III. Know the Objective

A. What is the goal? What is the curriculum trying to teach?

B. It is important that you not blindly rely on a curriculum to have an objective and assume it is being taught as you go through the curriculum. You need to know, what you are trying to accomplish in teaching your child. Your child may need to understand and know the objective as well.

C. Here are some ideas to help you pick out the objectives, if they are not clearly listed.

1. Are they presenting new information? If so this can be an objective by itself.

2. Is the information necessary for further education? If the information they are presenting is not necessary for this moment, and can be taught at a later time if you think it better, than evaluate whether you’d like to focus on something else. You have the choice to modify – you are the teacher!

3. Are they asking the child to demonstrate understanding? Is it an assessment of some kind?

a. Assessments come in all forms; they are not just tests. Story books, writing assignments, presentations, reports, etc. are all assessments. Anything that is a measurement of what the child has learned or understood is an assessment.

b. If the assessment is not going to show their true understanding, or it can be shown in a way that better suites the child, then modify the assessment. Your objective to understand what the child has learned remains the same; it is just your method that has changed.

4. Are they asking the child to demonstrate understanding and teach a new skill at the same time?

a. If they are trying to teach a new skill along with assessing the child’s understanding, you most likely should make sure that this skill is still taught. You do not want to always change your child’s assessments if it means he or she is not learning new skills along the way.

b. For example, an oral presentation on a book report serves as the measurement of understanding of what took place in the book. However, the process and presentation is a learned skill that must be taught with specific modeling and guided instruction. This is a valuable skill that they will need to build on throughout their educational career and after.

IV. Know your Time Frame

1. Is the time frame in which the curriculum wants your child to complete the assignment reasonable?

2. Does it give enough time for you to model and teach the concept to your child in light of his or her preferred learning style? This does not mean you are catering to your child’s learning style, but if the assignment is pushing him to work in a weaker learning style, you must keep in mind that it will be more of a struggle.

3. Is it too much time? Will your child be overtaken by his or her detail orientations and spend too much time, when he or she could do it quicker? Is it too long of a time frame, and risks the chance of the child becoming bored and unmotivated before the end of the project? If so…MODIFY!

4. Will your child be able to do a good job and feel as though he or she was able to do his or her best? If the child is given little time to accomplish a new skill or understand new information, it only breeds frustration, stress and a lack of motivation for the next time. Keep in mind how you feel when you are rushed and know the job you are doing is not going to be given the chance to be up to the standard that you would like. Your child can feel the same way with his or her work in the classroom. Time limits are necessary for those children that tend to take a long time with everything, but consider whether it is giving your child a fair chance to engage in a positive learning experience with the amount of time the curriculum has allotted. If not…MODIFY!

V. Know what you and your child are capable of: This brings FREEDOM TO MODIFY.

A. You know your child better than anyone else – if the curriculum is not pushing them enough – and you know they are capable of more – it’s time to modify!

B. If you know the curriculum is demanding too much of your child because they spend all day in home school, work on things 2-4 hours after school, and still cannot accomplish what the curriculum is expecting. It’s time to modify!

C. Professional teachers do not always finish the curriculum all the time – they modify and sometimes that means they just don’t finish everything. They are constantly changing and working with curriculum to make it more appealing to the students and a stronger learning experience based upon the learning styles they have in the classroom. You are the teacher and you have freedom to change the book!

Current on my mortgage payment

thomasmarcellino — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:50:34 +0000

I am current on my mortgage payment.

One of the first things you should do when looking to modify your loan is to see if you can refinance. Refinancing is one of the more straightforward options and can help you lower your monthly payments.

Do you have at least 10% equity built up in your home?
Are you current on your payments?

If you answered, “yes” to both questions you may qualify for a refinance. If you answered “no” you still may be able to refinance through the Making Home Affordable Program.

Please call 1 866 910 7065 and speak with a Home Mortgage Specialist dedicated to this program, or email Ioannou & Ioannou, LLP today.

Paa's title song sung by Master Amitabh!

fenilseta — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:43:28 +0000

Amitabh Bachchan effortlessly sang the title song of Paa in a child’s voice By Subhash K Jha (MUMBAI