Rock-and-Roll

Rock-and-Roll (räk'n roll') n. first so used (1951) by Alan Freed, Cleveland disc jockey, taken from the song "My Baby Rocks Me with a Steady Roll". The use of rock, roll, rock and roll, etc., with reference to sexual intercourse, is traditional in blues, a form of popular music that evolved in the 1950's from rhythm and blues, characterized by the use of electric guitars, a strong rhythm with an accent on the offbeat, and youth-oriented lyrics. A form of popular music arising from and incorporating a variety of musical styles, especially rhythm and blues, country music, and gospel. Originating in the United States in the 1950s, it is characterized by electronically amplified instrumentation, a heavily accented beat, and relatively simple phrase structure

Indian Institutes Of Technology(IIT)

Studying in an IIT or Indian Institute of Technology is the first thing that every ambitious engineering aspirant can think of in India. IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati, IIT Roorkee are the seven IITs in India that are also termed as National Institutes of Importance. Set up under the Institutes of Technology Act, 1963, IITs are statutory bodies. The central administration of the IITs is looked after by the IIT Council. IITc Council is the apex body which is headed by the Human Resource Department of Indian Government.

Beside the existing seven IITs, nine more IITs have been proposed to be set up in different parts of the country. These states are - Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Orissa, Bihar and Punjab. IT-BHU will also be converted into an IIT. For a nation which is huge in every dimension needs some more institutes of high standard technology education.

Development of IITs :
The foundation for the IITs in India was laid in 1946 by the Executive Council of Viceroy, Sir Jogendra Singh.
The main aim was to develop a technical structure to aid the industrial development in the country.
On May 1950, the first Indian Institute of Technology was set up in Kharagpur.
By 1961 four more such institutes were established in Mumbai, Kanpur, Chennai and Delhi.
IIT Guwahati was established in 1994.
In 2001, University of Roorkee was granted IIT status. This formed the seventh campus of the IITs in India.
IIT AdmissionsGetting into an IIT is a dream that thousands of Indians nourishes. However, as IITs offer different types of courses, the admission procedure also varies. Admission to most of the courses depends on the performance of the candidates in the concerned entrance examination.

IIT Entrance Test
(A) Undergraduate Courses:
While IIT JEE is the entrance examination for getting admitted to any of the bachelor degree courses, for B.Des and B Arch separate aptitude tests have to be given along with IIT-JEE.

(B)Postgraduate Courses: For studying Postgraduate courses in IITs, one needs to appear in the appropriate entrance exam.

These entrance exams are -
GATE (M. Tech)
CEED (M.Des)
JAM (Msc)
(C) PhD: Usually an interview is held, though a written examination may be organized according to the discretion of the authorities. The following colleges are being reviewed for granting IIT status:
University College of Technology
Engineering and Technology departments of Jadavpur University, Kolkata
IT-BHU
AMU Aligarh
Andhra University College of Engineering
Bengal Engineering College
Cochin University of Science and Technology
Zakir Hussain College of Engineering and Technology
University College of Engineering
Recognized as Institutes of National Importance, by the Government of India, the IITs are viewed as one of the best places to study technology and science.Find Below links for other IITs in India:

IIT Delhi
IIT Kanpur
IIT Kharagpur
IIT Bombay
IIT Madras
IIT Roorkee
IIT Guwahati

Tracking the Next Killer Flu

Thai farmer Noi Tritanasombat waits for a health worker to test his ducks for the H5N1 virus. Such measures have checked the spread of bird flu in Thailand, but outbreaks elsewhere in Asia pose a continuing threat. The virus could evolve into a form that passes easily from person to person—and could spread around the world by jet.


Written by Tim Appenzeller

Republished from the pages of National Geographic magazine

Little Ngoan was buried behind her parents' hut three weeks ago. Her grave, a bulky concrete tomb like others dotting the Vietnamese countryside, rests on high ground between a fishpond and yellow-green rice fields. At one end her family laid out her cherished possessions: a doll's chair, a collection of shells, plastic sandals. They painted her tomb powder blue.

While Ngoan's parents are off helping with the rice harvest, other relatives share their memories. "She was so small, just ten years old," says her grandmother, sitting on a hammock. "She was very gentle and a good student. If you look at her older sister"—the 17-year-old hangs back shyly—"you can imagine what she was like." Ngoan's grandfather, silent with grief, lights a stick of incense at her grave.

The loss of a beloved child has hit this family hard. But ordinarily, the wider world would pay little attention to a child's death from infectious disease in this remote corner of Vietnam's Mekong Delta. Old scourges like dengue fever and typhoid still take a toll here, and HIV/AIDS is on the rise.

Yet Ngoan's death and more than 50 others in Southeast Asia over the past two years have raised alarms worldwide. Affected countries are struggling to take action; other nations are sending aid and advisers while stockpiling drugs and developing vaccines at home. And scientists have stepped up their research into the fateful traffic of disease between animals and people.

Why? Because Ngoan died of the flu.

To most of us, flu is a nuisance disease, an annual hassle endured along with taxes and dentists. Some people think a flu shot isn't worth the bother. But flu is easy to underestimate. The virus spreads so easily via tiny droplets that 30 million to 60 million Americans catch it each year. Some 36,000 die, mostly the elderly. It mutates so fast that no one ever becomes fully immune, and a new vaccine has to be made each year.

That's ordinary flu. But the disease that is taking lives in Southeast Asia is no ordinary flu. Its primary victims have been chickens, more than a hundred million of them, killed either by the virus or in often futile control efforts. It's not unusual for chickens to get flu; in fact, avian-flu viruses far outnumber human ones. But Robert Webster of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis has studied flu viruses for 40 years and has never seen the likes of the one that killed Ngoan.

"This virus right from scratch is probably the worst influenza virus, in terms of being highly pathogenic, that I've ever seen or worked with," Webster says. Not only is it frighteningly lethal to chickens, which can die within hours of exposure, swollen and hemorrhaging, but it kills mammals from lab mice to tigers with similar efficiency. Here and there people have come down with it too, catching it from infected poultry like the chickens that died on Ngoan's farm a few days before she fell ill. Half the known cases have died.

In those deaths many public health experts hear the distant rumblings of a catastrophe. So far this virus—classified as H5N1 for two proteins that stud its surface like spikes on a mace—isn't good at passing from birds to people, let alone from one person to the next. "It can make that first step across, but then it doesn't spread easily from human to human," says Webster. "Thank God. Or else we'd be in big trouble."

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Great Wall History

The history of the Great Wall is said to start from the Spring and Autumn Periods when seven powerful states appeared at the same time. In order to defend themselves, they all built walls and stationed troops on the borders. At that time, the total length of the wall had already reached 3,107 miles, belonging to different states.

In 221 BC, the Emperor Qin absorbed the other six states and set up the first unified kingdom in Chinese history. In order to strengthen his newly born authority and defend the Huns in the north, he ordered connecting the walls once built by the other states as well as adding some sections of his own. Thus was formed the long Qin's Great Wall which started from the east of today's Liaoning Province and ended at Lintao, Gansu Province.

In the Western Han Dynasty, the Huns became more powerful. The Han court started to build more walls on a larger scale in order to consolidate the frontier. In the west, the wall along the Hexi corridor, Yumenguan Pass, and Yangguan Pass was built. In the north, Yanmenguan Pass and Niangziguan Pass in Shanxi were set up. Many more sections of the wall extended to Yinshan Mountain and half of the ancient Silk Road was along the Han's wall.

The Northern Wei, Northern Qi and Northern Zhou Dynasties all built their own sections but on a smaller scale than the walls in the Han Dynasty. The powerful Tang Dynasty saw peace between the northern tribes and central China most of the time, so few Great Wall sections were built in this period.

The Ming Dynasty is the peak of wall building in Chinese history. The Ming suffered a lot by disturbances from minority tribes such as the Dadan, Tufan and Nuzhen. The Ming court from its first emperor to the last ceaselessly built walls in the north. The main line started from Jiuliancheng near the Yalu River in the east to the Jiayuguan Pass in the west and measured over 4,600 miles. Besides adding many more miles of its own, the Ming emperors ordered enlargement of the walls of previous dynasties into double-line or multi-line walls. For example, out of Yanmenguan Pass were added three big stone walls and 23 small stone walls. Eleven Garrisons were distributed along the main line of the wall. The countless walls, fortresses, and watch towers made the country strongly fortified. In the early Qing Dynasty, some sections of the walls were repaired and several sections were extended. This great engineering work stopped in the middle of the Qing Dynasty.

Owing to its long history, natural disasters and human activities, many sections of the Great Wall are severely damaged and disappearing. Being a world-famous engineering project and witness to the rise and fall of Chinese history, the Great Wall, needs us to take immediate action to protect it!

AIDS

AIDS wasn't discovered until the early 1980s, when doctors in the United States noticed clusters of patients suffering from highly unusual diseases. First seen in gay men in New York and California, these illnesses included Kaposi's sarcoma, a rare skin cancer, and a type of lung infection carried by birds.

Soon cases were also detected in intravenous drug users and recipients of blood transfusions. By 1982 the illness had a name—acquired immune deficiency syndrome. AIDS has since killed around 25 million people worldwide, orphaning 12 million children in Africa alone.

AIDS is triggered by a virus acquired through direct contact with infected body fluids. The virus causes an immune deficiency by attacking a type of white blood cell that helps to fight infections. Because this leads to various diseases, not a single illness, AIDS is referred to as a syndrome. The virus is called HIV (human immunodeficiency virus).

Unprotected sex is HIV's main route into humans, where it targets the white blood cell known as CD4. The virus replicates inside, eventually bursting out and flooding the body in the billions. The immune system then kicks in, and the body and the virus wage all-out war. During the height of battle billions of CD4 cells can be destroyed in a single day. As the cell count drops, the immune system begins to fail and opportunistic infections such as tuberculosis take hold.

Ape Origins

AIDS is thought to have originated in Africa, where monkeys and apes harbor a virus similar to HIV called SIV (simian immunodeficiency virus). Scientists believe the illness first jumped to humans from wild chimpanzees in central Africa.

How the disease crossed the species barrier remains a puzzle. The leading theory is that it was picked up by people who hunted or ate infected chimpanzees. Researchers have dated the virus in humans to about 1930 using scientific estimates of the time it's taken for different strains of HIV to evolve.

AIDS today is a global pandemic affecting every country. In 2006, an estimated 39.5 million people had HIV/AIDS. Almost three million of them died.

The region most devastated by the disease is sub-Saharan Africa. It accounts for two-thirds of the world's HIV cases and nearly 75 percent of deaths due to AIDS. Infection rates vary, with southern African countries worst affected. In South Africa, an estimated 29 percent of pregnant women have HIV. Infection rates in Zimbabwe's adult population exceed 20 percent, while in Swaziland a third of adults are HIV-positive. Poverty, inadequate health care and education, and promiscuity have all been highlighted to explain Africa's AIDS nightmare.

Treatments But No Cure

Efforts to prevent the spread of AIDS focus on sex education and the use of condoms. Other measures, such as male circumcision, may also help to cut the risk of sexually transmitted infection.

There is no cure for AIDS, but treatments are available that combat its onset. Antiviral drugs work by slowing the replication of HIV in the body. These drugs need to be used in combination because the virus readily mutates, creating new and often drug-resistant strains. Such treatments are expensive, however, and are still denied to millions of people in the developing world.

In the future, the hope is for an AIDS vaccine that would prevent HIV infection. Researchers are currently working on more than 30 potential candidates.

Brain Training Games For Adults and Seniors

Memory is one of the most difficult issues of aging with which people have to deal as changes will generate feelings of both fear and worry; thanks to brain training games, you can avoid it completely. But there is no reason to be overly concerned about your brain’s aging as keeping it active and aware will solve the problem of this bothersome issue. As they age, people are more prone to degenerative issues such as Alzheimer’s disease, but exercising your mind with activities such as word puzzles, board games and strategy games will be very helpful in staying in control. Numerous brain training games may be found on the Internet and the benefits will be equally advantageous to adults and seniors.

Free Brain Training Games
Regularly being involved in board games and working on computer puzzles which require concentrated effort and analytical skills have been shown to result in great benefit for adults and seniors. In addition, such brain training is known to have positive ramifications for mental health overall. Working out crossword puzzles or Sudoku or playing Scrabble all have positive impact in maintaining the cognitive ability of people as they get older. It has been estimated that playing games which are mind-stimulating may decrease the risk of Alzheimer’s disease in adults and seniors by as much as forty percent. That is a statistic which should ease your mind a bit.

Online Brain Training Games
Brain training games for adults and seniors have been structured in such a way as to compel the mind to think and to provoke it to resolve the matter at hand, thereby enhancing cognitive capacity and enhancing memory prowess. In essence, this brain training by such games stimulate to activity sections of the mind which may not have had much recent use. Action computer games assist adults and seniors in enhancing their attentiveness and in stimulating their thinking about strategies they can use in the course of the game.

Studies have indicated that approximately two seniors out of three are seriously worried about memory issues and that the most effective manner of coping is to be involved in memory games on a regular basis. The traditional crossword puzzles are a perfect method of both increasing your vocabulary and of remaining mentally sharp. Another method of stimulating your mind is to play games with your grandchildren and such activity will also benefit you by reducing stress.

Nintendo Brain Training Games
There can even be fun ways to train your brain, such as by playing Nintendo DS brain training games like Brain Age and Brain Age 2. While a brain training game may be advantageous for adults and seniors by aiding in maintaining a vivacious mind, they also are helpful in keeping them occupied in a positive endeavor which wards off loneliness. So, brain training is an effective manner by which diseases such as dementia and Alzheimer’s may be addressed and countered. An active brain can decrease the deterioration of mental acuity.

New Brain Training Studies
Research studies have concluded that seniors and adults who took part in mental games a minimum of one time per week over the course of twenty years decreased the risk of dementia by almost ten percent and those who regularly became involved in such games cut the susceptibility to the disease by an amazing sixty percent. So, why are you procrastinating? Stimulate your mind’s activity and make it function. Luckily, many people indeed do take the improvement of their mental acumen to heart.

Cell Phones and Brain Cancer

Cell Phones and Brain Cancer
There are a lot of people who are concerned with how our health will be affected by cell phones. Since the cell phone is so convenient and easy to use, a lot of people have them. Sometimes, we use it to a fault, causing us to get into car accidents more and more often. This is an obvious health detriment that’s directly caused by cell phones. Most of us have seen people driving with cell phones in hand, and even been victim to it ourselves, and realize that once your attention is focused away from the road for whatever reason, it can be hard to avoid accidents.

There are frequent cases of people experiencing near-misses because one person wasn’t paying attention while on their cell phone. As a result, you should beware of cell phone-holding drivers. Whatever vehicle you drive, make sure that you have a functioning horn - you might need it when you least expect it. While there is a large threat from people not paying attention to the road as they talk on their cell phones, but that’s the only way in which cell phones can hurt you, right? On the contrary! The NCI, or National Cancer Institute, has a study that says otherwise.

Link Between Cell Phones and Brain Tumors
According to several scientists, cell phones can dramatically affect your health due to the RF radiation that it emits, which can cause cancer in a lot of people, making them quite dangerous. The amount of radiation that the human body can safely handle is a subject that’s still debatable. Wireless technology hasn’t been around for awhile, so there’s not a lot of research about the effect of cell phones on the body. In short, we haven’t had cell phones long enough to observe the long term effects on humans.

Studies Reporting Cell Phones and Brain Tumors Non-Conclusive
With that in mind, how is brain cancer connected to cell phones? You can find an explanation here. The NCI states that radio frequency radiation from Radio Frequency waves, are transmitted by cell phones, and that’s how they operate. When your RF exposure gets high enough, your body tissues can heat up - this is evidenced by the increase in heat that you experience when you talk on your phone for a long time. The NCI study claims, however, that a cell phone can’t produce enough RF radiation to damage your brain tissues sufficiently to cause cancer.

Brain Function Vitamins

To aid us in cleansing our neural networks, antioxidants have characteristics that protect us at a cellular level. They stimulate healthy development of brain cells, and have an active role in disease prevention, too. A diet rich in antioxidants (such that includes things like spinach, blueberries and eggs - read more about good brain foods and more brain food) can significantly improve memory function and increase balance and motor skills. One particular berry with tons of antioxidants that has great flavor is the Acai berry. Not only are they highest in antioxidants, but they have plenty of protein and are rich in essential fatty acids.

These omega-3’s also help reverse memory loss and generate a greater overall functioning of the brain. It has also been said that they may link neuron centers which make for a better mood and general brain function. Mackerel, walnuts, flax oils, salmon, sardines, and herring all are examples of foods that contain Omega-3 fatty acids. For healthy growth and development, it is necessary to get enough fatty acids. Also, they have anti-inflammatory traits to help make circulation of the blood easier, prevent depression, and even build up your mood.

Some of the Best Brain Vitamins
A mind also needs vitamin B to remain healthy. You must have vitamin B6 for the brain’s chemistry to be balanced. B6 is in foods such as beef, organ meats, bananas, broccoli, spinach, pork, and veal. It aids in the production of all amino acid neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, et al.). Adding to the management of nerve cells and red blood cells, along with DNA synthesis, is vitamin B12. Without it, impaired mental function and depression can result as time passes. Cereals you eat for breakfast contain B12. Poultry, shell fish, legumes and legume products also have it.

Other Brain Nutrition Vitamins Information
Also, for the body to sustain healthy life, it must have complex carbs. These carbohydrates can be found abundantly in various foods such as bran oats, most yogurts, breads, and types of nuts. A drastic and sudden increase in your blood sugar can be avoided by using more lemon juice or vinegar with the carbs you’re eating. Another essential mineral is selenium - in such foods as garlic, meats, grains, Brazil nuts, tuna, oysters, and swordfish. Lab tests reveal that people who have used selenium have experienced more fortitude, happiness, energy, and greater presence of mind.

Vitamin E has been show to be beneficial in promoting healthy blood circulation. When the mind gets enough blood circulation it simply performs better. Vegetable oils, leafy green veggies, and nuts are high in vitamin E. Many people have found that taking Ginkgo Biloba can slow the process of memory loss associated with aging. Ginkgo is also said to eliminate free radicals, and improve blood circulation, thereby adding to the brain more oxygen. You should know that there is no “magic bullet” of a brain vitamin out there, so be sure to read research and don’t be afraid to try something new to see if it helps improve your overall mental functioning.

What Causes Brain Freeze?

What Causes Brain Freeze?
But do we even know how the brain freeze happens? Studies have shown that it can happen as a result of the body is stimulated by intense cold, nerve-ending in the roof of the mouth freeze up, and warm blood rapidly circulates to the brain. Too much coffee colatta or Popsicle consumption in a hurry can make things much worse. Your palate meeting the tasty frozen snack is actually the culprit that put your brain freeze into action.

Is Your Brain Really Frozen?
The hard palate (which is just to say the roof of your mouth) took on the massive amount of super cold slushy when you gulped it in. There’s a cluster of nerves just behind that plate that helps protect your brain from certain temperature changes. The primary nerve in this bundle is known as the sphenopalatine nerve, and it is able to detect and adapt to heat and cold. So, that means if you eat ice cream or any other cold food, then your sphenopalatine nerve will send out shockwaves to warn other nerves in its cluster. Your nerves have basically just told the rest of your brain to get ready for a major freeze.

When you get a brain freeze, your brain doesn’t actually freeze, but your sphenopalatine nerve can’t recognize the difference between extreme cold temperatures, and eating a spoonful of ice cream. It’s actually the shrinking of the blood vessels around the brain in reaction to the cold stimuli that cause you problems. This nerve shrinkage is behind your eyes (e.g. your nasal area) is what gives you the pounding headache that brain freezes are known for. Although, the pain isn’t necessarily caused by your blood vessels shrinking, more than the flow of blood that forces them to open up again.

Why You Feel “Brain Freeze”
In all the hullabaloo of shrinking and reopening blood vessels, your nerves are also causing you some pain. Pain receptors that are positioned closely to your sphenopalatine nerve will sense that the palate has encountered something frozen, but the pain it causes will be sent into an area deeper inside your skull. That’s why you think your brain is freezing instead of the top of your mouth and jaw area.

The fastest way to stop a brain freeze, or shorten it, is to stick your warm tongue to the roof of your mouth - it’ll warm your palate back up again. And once your palate’s all warmed up, your nerve clusters will call off the hounds, and your brain freeze will come to an end. You may also want to consider taking sips of warm water while you eat your frozen treats, and don’t allow them to come in contact with the top of your mouth; this should help you minimize the “brain frozen” feeling that you may have otherwise had to deal with.

What To Know About An Infants Brain Development

DHA consumption is now recognized, by scientists, to be what separates modern humans from our early ancestors. Many years ago our primitive ancestors began adding DHA into their diets, and the developing of our human brains was the product. This can begin to give you an impression of how closely brain growth is linked to omega 3 oils with DHA.

A diet that contained an inadequate amount of DHA, has been shown in our early cro-magnon ancestors to lead to a remarkable decline in brain capacity. A prompt growth in brain capacity took place when they relocated from desert areas to coastal areas, where they had access to an abundance of fish.

Infant Brain Development Research
The addition of DHA from fish oil is believed, by scientists, to be the basis of human brain evolution. Our astonishing ability to reason, communicate, learn, and create the wonderful things around us are all because of our large brains. The brain of the embryo is where this all starts. A baby begins to use its brain and nervous system to control many bodily functions before week 30 of pregnancy when many quick changes take place. In order for a pregnancy to be full term and the baby to be fully grown it needs to last another 10 weeks.

Understanding Infant Toddler Brain Development
Vital to ensuring a pregnancy goes full term, and for the brain and nervous system to grow are omega 3 fatty acids. We really have come a long way all thanks to ocean fish. Having them included in our diets has literally transformed out brains and helped keep us healthy. There is are a lot of studies that are currently being conducted in the area of brain development in infant and toddler children. In order to stay up to date, you can check out various psychological journals; they will talk more in depth about the subject. Mothers who are insufficiently nourished during pregnancy tend to have babies with low birth weights, according to researchers at the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition in London. An inadequate amount of DHA has been observed in these infants.

A good pregnancy nutrition plan should include a vast amount of omega 3 oils with DHA because brain development disorders can be ever-lasting. To do this it is important to eat enough fatty fish or take high quality, pure fish oil capsules, or both. A mother needs to consume omega 3 fish oil every day for the highest levels of brain development. We all wish for our future children to be healthy and intelligent. If you want more information on brain supplements and brain vitamins that you can be taking, be sure to do some research to make sure that they are healthy.