A Hollow Earth Beneath Our Feet

Whispers and myths of a hollow earth have been with us for a very long time, the earliest references come from ancient people's legends about how and where the human race was born, the Inuit people of Greenland and Northern Canada tell stories of a great land far to the north, where it never gets dark, this place has a mild climate and large lakes that never freeze, where strange animals move in herds, and where birds of many colors fly overhead. A Welsh story writer from the 12th century named Walter Mapes wrote about a prehistoric king of Albion (Britain) named Herla. When King Herla became lost from his soldiers in a great forest he was approached by a dwarf king who took Herla through a tunnel which opened in a sandstone cliff, down into the earth where time ran differently to the world above. Of course both of these accounts can easily be written of as fanciful tales but what has been written about the hollow earth subject in more recent times?

Athanasius Kircher was a German scientific researcher and expert linguist, he lived from 1601 to 1680 and was adept in twelve european and oriental languages, he tried to decipher ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics before the Rosetta stone was discovered in 1799, but unfortunately failed to translate them. He also deeply studied and wrote about China, the tower of Babel, mathematics, cosmology, magnetism and medicine, but the reason he's making an appearance in this article is for his book titled the subterranean world in which he writes about the Earths tides being influenced by a subterranean ocean and vast underground caverns. Athanasius was so interested in the idea of a hollow earth that he once paid a guide to take him up mount Vesuvius and lower him into the volcano's crater, which was dangerously close to erupting, so that he could study it from inside.

Next we have the astronomer and physicist Edmond Halley, who was born on the 8th of november 1656 and is famous for working out the orbit of (his) Halley's comet. He was also deeply intrigued with the hollow earth legends and first suggested his hollow earth theory in 1692, he theorised that the outer shell was roughly 500 miles thick and that there were two inner shells, each shell including our surface has an ozone layer and the spectacular lights of the aurora borealis were the inner ozone seeping through the north and south poles. For Halley his theory also explained why magnetic compass readings went haywire in certain areas, his thinking being that the inner shells gravity was throwing them off.

Now we get to the more interesting and weirder first hand account of admiral Richard E. Byrd. Byrd was a naval officer and his primary duties involved exploring the north and south poles by air. The official accounts of his polar adventures are relatively mundane but from his own personal diary comes an amazing account in which he claims to have flew into a great opening at the north pole where his aeroplane was intercepted by "advanced flying machines" which escorted him to a great city. After being allowed to rest Byrd was interviewed by the senior residents of this city, and during the interview he was told that they were greatly concerned about the work our scientists were carrying out with harnessing the power of the atom, specifically bomb development. Of course admiral Byrd's story has been condemned as false by official sources but of course any government trying to keep such a thing quiet for the psychological benefit of their populace or work force would seek to discredit a witness's testimony such as admiral Richard E. Byrd's who referred to the Arctic as "the land of everlasting mystery".

Are You Really Hearing Voices Or Is Your Mind Trying to Find Patterns in the White Noise?

It is fairly well known by neurologists and neuroscientists that the human eye uses the brain and memory to fill in the blanks as the eye focuses. This allows you to turn your head very quickly and not see a blur, or to look at an object and quickly recognize and discern what it is. You may see a small truck in the distance, and your mind goes through its memory of what a pickup truck looks like, and as your eye starts to focus it does what they call "frame bursting" and it starts to fill in all the blanks, and as you focus more and more your brain is refining what it is seeing.

This works quite well, but I'd like to discuss with you a potential similar theory with regard to the sense of hearing. Have you ever heard the sound of a fan motor in a room and the moving blades and perhaps other noises in other rooms, and your mind is trying to figure out the patterns of how these noises are interacting. Sometimes it seems as if there is a similar background noise to a group of people chattering away in a coffee shop or at a party. All the while, you realize that there are no people talking, but your mind is trying to make sense of the patterns in the white noise.

Have you ever looked at a ceiling, tiles, or the grain in wood - you look at these things long enough your mind thinks it sees a picture of a face, the shape of a dog, or some other similar shape. What your mind is doing is what I discussed above - it is trying to makes sense of the patterns, even though they may be random. Your mind is frame bursting its visual memory. I would submit to you that your mind does the same thing with noise, and that your mind is working very diligently to try to make sense of the sounds. Why does it do this?

Well, your mind doesn't turn off, even when you are sleeping it seems to be defragging so to speak. Your sense of hearing never turns off, and this is probably an evolutionary throwback because humans to stay safe had to be able to hear sounds, perhaps footsteps, or animals which might be a threat, therefore alerting the brain to wake up the human to defend itself or to run. Perhaps when you dream and you may have experience with this, something is going on in the background while you are sleeping it will affect the way in which your dream evolves at a subconscious level.

Whether you are lucid dreaming, in REM, or just sitting silently listening to the noise, no matter how slight - It could be cicadas outside, wind in the trees, it might be a buzzing sound of electricity in the air, or it might be nearly undetectable ultrasound interacting with the other noise - but your mind is trying to make sense of it all, it's trying to discern patterns, and is matching that to your memory of sounds, spoken language, and everything else that you've ever heard. In that case it can't match what isn't there, but it tries to discern a possible pattern. You aren't hearing things, it's your mind trying to bring it into focus, just as it does with visual images in frame bursting.

Now then in this theory of mine there are some brains that are quite active, and memories which are quite adapted. It's hard to say if this is another form of intelligence, or a process that all humans are capable of, if they would only listen to the vibrational noise and sounds around them. I'd like to leave you with all these thoughts, and I hope you will please consider all this and think on it. If you have any additional comments or questions I hope you will shoot me an e-mail.

Life Explained: The Definition of Life

Life means different things to different people. But nobody truly knows life until they know what it really is and which structure on earth is more suitable to carry it on. This article defines Life in practical terms and identifies the biological cell as the host of the living principle.

First of all, what is LIFE? What is the definition of Life?

According to dictionary.reference.com, Life is: 'the condition that distinguishes organisms from inorganic objects and dead organisms, being manifested by growth through metabolism, reproduction, and the power of adaptation to environment through changes originating internally", among other definitions.

Another definition online is from merriam-webster.com/ and it says that life is " the quality that distinguishes a vital and functional plant or animal from a dead body b : a state of living characterized by capacity for metabolism, growth, reaction to stimuli, and reproduction", still among other definitions.

Does these definitions tell you the reader what life really is? Maybe so, maybe not.

To define life the way most people can understand what it really is we have to look at living organisms and see what they do differently from non living things.

Life deals with movement, activity, creativity, adaptation to environmental changes, growth, reproduction, limited size, specific form, etc. but those factors are not specific to living organisms. If you look carefully you will find most of them if not all, related to non living things as well. What living things do differently from non living things is:

try to experiment most of them instead of just one or a few contrary to what we see in non living things that individually pick up some factors and leave out others

combine all these factors in a process or a plan towards the achievement of personal gaols and hopefully a final goal

Living organisms are part of the Nature. They do not do things that no non living thing can not do. THey most of the time do things that are done in Nature. But they are able to do many things over and over following a plan.

Living organisms work but they are not the only workers on Earth. Work being the ability to move and/or transform things, we know that Water and the Wind for example work well just like the Sun light does. What living organisms do differently is use work to meet personal goals and be able to hopefully transmit this work to new living organisms self-made or available. So what is Life? How can we now define Life?

Life is simply a useful work!

Life is a work done by an element of Earth in order to attain personal goals that are mainly self-protection, growth, communication, interactions, creativity, adaptation to environment and reproduction/birth.

In practical terms Life is a process of useful assimilation of energy/matter by a so-called living organism. In order to continue living such an organism absorbs external energy/matter, digests it, retains useful elements that most of the time are used to make new specific energy/matter that is integrated into its body and throws the waste products away. The fact of taking external energy/matter and be able to put most part of it in its body so that external energy/matter is now intrinsic part of the body is what is termed the assimilation ability of the living organism. But since that assimilation has a purpose, I call it useful assimilation. So what is Life then now?

Life is a useful assimilation of energy/matter.

How useful is this assimilation? It allows the living organism to self sustain itself, adapt to the environment, be more creative, grow if needed and reproduce if possible.

What are living organisms, those earth elements able to do a work termed useful assimilation?

If you look carefully and analyze them with scientific tools you will find that all so-called living organisms are biological cells or society of cells, that is those we call microorganisms (single cells and small societies of cells) and animals and plants commonly called pluricellular organisms. We can now simply call livings things cell organisms.

Platonic Fullerene Science and World Peace

The national or tribal political will that puts modern science and technology to work, seeks to control economic employment for the masses and maintain a defence structure to ensure the continuation of political power. This can be done in the name of democracy, plutocracy, dictatorship, religion, monarchies, etc. All vie to develop emotional mind control spin-aesthetics to convince their subjects that they are better off than their competitor nations or tribes. It follows that the idea of a one world government must constitute a threat to such various mind control systems. However, it is possible to override this concern by using riorous science to develop a sustainable medical code of ethics, designed specifically to guide civilisation into a state of perpetual world peace rather than perpetual conflict. The only thing preventing this to occur is science itself.

As the full potential of nanotechnology emerges, nations with nuclear weapons at their disposal will begin to realise that they will soon be no longer protected by them. It is obvious that futuristic nano-machines will be able to mass produce undetectable nano-weapons of mass destruction and there are plenty of willing zealots who would be greatly honoured to use them against civilian populations. Some might declare this to be a natural culling of people on an overpopulated planet. There will be plenty of high-ranking military personnel determined to use nanotechnology to stop the religious zealots. On the other hand, nanotechnology has the potential to create anything from very little, including the construction of food and water. Without a responsible science those controlling nanotechnology will bring hell on earth. However, with a responsible science to guide them to it, utopia is possible. In order to obtain that utopia, the scientific will to create it must first exist.

The fanatic will to bring about violent destruction is not limited to religious zealots who inflict instant entropic destruction upon innocent civilians. This fanatical will is fundamentally basic to almost all highly trained scientists as well. The prevailing scientific world-view's desire to move civilians toward entropic destruction is just as fanatical, but it operates in a slower and more organised manner. Scientists need to realise why this is an accurate depiction of the mainstream scientific mindset and to dissociate themselves from a inner compulsion to worship destructive chaos.

The Nobel Laureate Lord Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein used mathematics to convince themselves that people must worship chaos destruction. Russell's most popular essay was entitled 'A Freeman's Worship' in which he wrote that scientists must be governed by the physics law that Einstein called the premier law of all of the sciences, the law of universal chaos. At the very end, Russell wrote, all human creative genius will be utterly destroyed within a universe in thermodynamic ruin.This fanatical mindset cannot be emotionally negated by people continually telling each other to have a happy day. The time period for entropic human extinction, in nano-terms, is not at all linked to the lengthy one that Russell and Einstein predicted.

Arguing totally the opposite to the worshipping of Diabolic chaos, was the Platonic tradition of scientific philosophy that, during the 3rd Century BC, created the 'Science for Ethical Ends'. One may well ask, what makes Platonic logic so important in this matter of human survival? The answer to that question is that Platonic logic defined 'evil' as a destructive property of unformed matter within the physical atom, which can emerge to destroy civilisation.

The same mathematical logic that predicted this threat of nuclear destruction also applies to the misuse of nanotechnology. One may then ask, who can you trust to guide ennobling ethical government for the benefit of all? Platonic 'good' was defined as being for the health of an infinite universe. Therefore, the answer is that you can trust a medical science based upon a sustainable infinite evolutionary ethic. The next question arises, how can you locate an infinite evolutionary ethic that functions for the health of the universe when modern mainstream physics prohibits it to exist?

The answer to that question is obvious. Nanotechnology has shown that the molecule of emotion discovered in 1972 by Dr Candace Pert is part of a complex dynamical fractal energy system extending its logic to a universal infinity in contradiction to Russell and Einstein's world-view. The molecule of emotion continuously upgrades the structure of the endocrine fluids maintaining human health within an evolving infinite universe. That process is the basis of the emerging science of quantum biology, which entangles with the energies of chaos to evolve human consciousness. Quantum biology tells us that it is time to stop worshipping the god of chaos that the ancient Greeks called Diabolos.

Buckminster Fuller used the Platonic ethical mathematics to develop his synergistic model of the universe and the three 1996 Nobel laureates in chemistry named the basis of their new medical science as Fullerene Chemistry. Fuller wrote a book entitled 'Utopia or Oblivion' in which he postulated that we now have a choice to be governed by the law of chaos or by the Platonic engineering principles of creation. To the non-scientist this means living in a universe governed by Platonic love.

From Fuller's balanced energy perspective, derived directly from Platonic mathematics, the necessary medical science can be envisaged in which nano-technology can be guided by an ethical Platonic Oath, upgrading the ancient Hippocratic one, used in medicine today. During the 18th and 19th Centuries, a PhD in science meant a doctorate in philosophy and the great philosophers of that time, who made the great electromagnetic discoveries, used the mathematics belonging to the Platonic ethical science to develop ethical electromagnetic physics. Any leading encyclopaedia will explain that the discoverer of the electromagnetic field, Hans Christian Oersted, wrote his doctoral dissertation, based upon the electromagnetic ethics postulated by the philosopher of science Emmanuel Kant.

Friedrich Schelling and Alexander Humboldt upgraded the electromagnetic ethic in terms compatible with recent discoveries made by nanotechnology. The Platonic tradition of philosophy classifies modern scientists as ignorant barbaric engineers, only fit to help engineer continual Diabolic chaos. Although Kant's work is held to greatly influence 21st Century scientific culture, it is a good bet that extremely few scientists reading this article would have the faintest clue that anybody ever reasoned about any sort of electromagnetic ethic, or that scientists in the past wrote formulae to demonstrate how electromagnetic ethics balanced E=Mc2.

They might therefore ask themselves, is it true that I cannot even begin to reason about such things, even though my PhD confirms me to be a philosopher? Have I been taught that I cannot challenge Einstein's entropic world-view? Am I aware that some scientists simply assume that the universe is infinite in order to derive practical solutions to complex engineering problems? Is it possible that I might be only be fit to accelerate entropic chaos in all of my reasoning unless I consider linking my hard earned knowledge to the holographic reality of quantum biology?

These question are rather serious ones. In emotional universal energy terms, there is little difference between a suicide bomber accelerating instant entropic chaos upon innocent people and the development of modern science doing the same thing in slow motion. By ignoring the existence of electromagnetic ethics within nanotechnology, huge machines are digging are up raw materials for entropic industrial development and huge fishing trawlers are netting dolphins as the nets rape the oceans. The perpetrators remain oblivious to the potential of nanotechnology to produce both the raw materials and food supplies from almost nothing.

It appears to be futile to try telling these things to a society hell bent on accelerating destructive chaos and fearful for job opportunities via an economy that converted Kantian ethics for world-peace on earth into an unattainable entropic cancerous economic growth concept. Could it become possible for scientists to allow their brilliant but unbalanced training to become entangled with the newly emerging quantum biology? People need to become aware of what they are doing when they feel obliged to remain in complete servitude to any of the dictates of 20th Century entropic mathematics, physics, politics, economics and religious certitude. Then they may be on the lookout for ethical opportunities in order to become a responsible part of the future nano-quantum biology supra-science.

Georg Cantor's mathematics is now a fundamental part of modern science. It is time to stop adding to him being the most vilified mathematician in history because of his objective to use his infinity mathematics to bring about world peace. The reader is urged to download 'Physics of life: The dawn of quantum biology' on Google to read about NASA findings relevant to this article, as published in the journal Nature and containing two subheadings 'Nature knows a few tricks that scientists don't' and 'This might just give us a few clues in the quest to develop quantum biology'.

When Your House Plants Become Pets - Human Plant Communication Next Up on Innovation List

In the future, your houseplants may actually become more like pets. This is because you may be able to communicate with them, or at least understand their needs. Perhaps we can develop sensors which understand their vibrational energy, or their sense of well-being. Some say plants are mindless and they don't understand, but that hardly makes sense as they are able to adapt to their environment often better than people. If you turn a houseplant away from the Sun, it will go ahead and turn its leaves back towards the sun within a few days. Okay so let's talk shall we?

There was an interesting article recently in the Wall Street Journal on September 11, 2012 titled; "Alert: Your Plant Needs Water - New Wireless Sensors Are Connecting Everyday Objects with People" by Jessica E. Vascellaro which showed off some of the latest personal tech with apps to match. One was a device that can hook up with a moisture sensor to tell when the soil in the pot of a house plant needs water, then the WiFi signal would alert you or your iPhone for instance.

What if our houseplants began to evolve realizing that when they sent out a certain vibrational pulse, it would cause you to come and water them? What if that biological mechanism figured that out? No, it wouldn't be like a baby crying for milk, it would be the bacteria within the plant sending out a signal that it was ready to receive water. Those plants which were able to evolve and send out the strongest signals as soon as they needed water would have the ability to grow faster and stronger, pollinate faster, and therefore they would be chosen by humans as preferable houseplants.

Just as we have domesticated our pets and thus, they have evolved for certain types of behavior, and just as we have modified our crop species by replanting and choosing the seeds from the most bountiful, in this way we would also be evolving our houseplants - plants which could work with our sensors, and communicate their needs to us in this way.

Those plants which did not respond or let us know that they needed water would not get the water in time therefore they wouldn't grow as fast, thus, they would not be desired as much, or carried in the nurseries which sell houseplants to big box home improvement stores. Okay so, indeed I'd like you to think about this for a little bit, and consider all the benefits and applications to such future technologies.

Do Mushrooms Fall Under Vegetarian Category or Non-Vegetarian?

I started doing a bit of research about this in Gita, The Holy Book of Hindus. According to Krishna or Krishna consciousness, if you will, don't indulge in over/under eating.

The gist of my research is, food is divided in to 3 types. Now it is up to us to decide where each food falls.

1. Goodness: Milk, honey, vegetables, rice, lentils etc. If you ask me, eggs are also vegetarian. They are not fertilized by sperm. By definition, you are not causing pain to the egg when you make an omelet (just like you don't cause pain to carrots when you dig them out of soil). In my definition, egg falls into Goodness category.

Counter argument is that we need to classify food based on cell-structure not where it comes from.

2. Passion: Anything which is hot (chili-hot) and spicy falls into this category. From what I understand, there is no clear definition of which foods fall under this category.

3. Ignorance: Meat and meat products fall under this category. 

(According to Gita). It always surprised me that we give so much importance to religion, peace etc, yet Gita itself is a justification of why war is essential at times. Of course I fully believe that it is the Holiest of texts till date, yet the irony is not lost.

Argument one: Recently mushroom farmers have started using fish emulsion spray derived from fishes for faster growth. 

So a fertilizer, which is not pure vegetarian is being used on a vegetarian item. That is the reason why some vegetarians are not clear whether to eat mushrooms.

Argument 2: Every single second we kill millions of bacteria and other microscopic creatures by inhaling air. So its all about what definitions people give to justify their eating habits.

Another thing is, how many of us realize that it's not about meat or non-meat products but its about not killing animals for our wants/needs? For the same reason even leather cloths should also be a strict No for a practicing vegetarian. Can we live without eating meat? Yes. But do I propagate that eating vegetarian food is the way to go? No. I am not against eating meat and I don't try to persuade those who do to consider my perspective.

education

education

How to Take Your First Steps in Home Schooling

There is an ever growing number of American families shifting over to home schooling. From a very small number a few years ago, it has now increased dramatically. There are a lot of factors to which this increase can be attributed.

One factor for the increase in the popularity of this is the spread of awareness of the benefits that it can provide. Another factor is the fact that with the help of the Internet, it has become a lot easier.

If you happen to be interested in exploring this option for your child's education then here are some simple steps that you can follow:

1. First of all, you should consider your personal situation. Home schooling is ideal for some families, but not for all. You should find out if it is going to be beneficial to your children or if you can handle the additional responsibility.

2. States have different laws regarding this. It then follows that you should familiarize yourself with the this laws that are in force in your area. You should also try to figure out how they can affect you and your children's education.

3. After you have made the decision that you would really go through home schooling for your kids, your next move would be to get in touch with the groups in your area. Don't worry, there's sure to be such a group there, especially if you live in a populous area. You should ask for information and help from them on how you can get started.

4. Now comes one of the most vital decisions that you will be making concerning home schooling for your kids. That's the choice of curriculum or publisher that you will be using for your child's education. You should spend a lot of time in finding the right curriculum for your child.

A lot of things should be considered in making this decision. Your personal beliefs or religious views, for example, which could be a major factor in the decision to opt in the first place, would play a major role here. Other things to be considered are educational focus and difficulty.

5. Before you go ahead with the this kind of schooling, you should study the lessons on your own. Remember that you will be acting as a teacher to your child and while you might have authority over them, you will be taking on an added responsibility on your part, because you need to make sure that what you are teaching your child is correct. If possible you should get some training or you could read up on teaching methods and how to handle children's education.

6. Start a record of your children's home schooling. You will need that in order to map out their progress, as well as a reference should it be needed in the future.

These are just some of the things that you can follow when it comes to starting out for your kids.

Flash Card Fun - Going Beyond Drills

As parents we all want to help our children learn and succeed. Teachers encourage extra at-home practice because it reinforces important academic skills such as number or letter recognition, letter sound identification, or even math facts. So, how can we accomplish this without meeting our child's resistance of a typical flash card drill? It's simple! Turn the drill into a game.

Before you begin playing games, it's important to know where your child is. You need to do an assessment to determine which numbers, letters, sight words, math facts, or letter sounds your child knows and which he doesn't. Go through the flash card stack and have your child verbally identify. Place the known cards in one pile and the unknown cards in another. For example, your child can tell you the letter names for a-m (known), but not n-z (unknown).

Next, use the known cards as your base set for the game. Each week, add a few more cards (between 2-4) from the unknown pile as a goal for your child to master. If your child struggles, do not add more cards until your child has mastered the current set.

Last, you may need two sets of cards to play some of these games. You may choose to buy two identical sets, print these from your computer, or write them on index cards. If you choose to make yours, laminating them or sealing them in clear Contact paper will make them more durable.

Ready to play?

1. Concentration: From your known card pile, mix two sets of flash cards together. Place the cards upside down in a square or rectangular pattern. Each player takes turn flipping over cards to find a matching pair. The player with the most matches wins! For math facts, it is best to have one set of problem and one set of answer cards (ex. 4-2=? and 2). For number cards, have one set of numerals and one set of picture cards (ex. 7 and a card with 7 fish). For letter identification, an alternative is to have one set of upper case to match to one set of lower case letters.

2. Go-Fish: From your known card pile, mix two sets of flash cards together. Each player receives 5 cards and the remaining cards are placed upside down in the "Go-Fish" pile. Each player takes a turn asking an opposing player if he has a card which matches that in the asking players hand. If the opposing player has the card, he hands it to the asking player. If the opposing player does not have the card, the asking player takes a card from the "Go-Fish" pile. The winning player runs out of cards in his hand due to matches.

3. Flash Card Match: The child is given a set of flash cards from the known pile. The goal is to match one of set of flash cards to the next. To make it fun, use a timer and set a goal to beat the last time record!

4. War: Using two sets of flash cards, mix them together and divide evenly between two players. The cards are facing downward so that neither player knows which card is next. Each players slaps a card down quickly. The player that recognizes a match (or cards with equal value in math), quickly takes the whole pile of cards before the opponent. Play continues until both players are out of cards. The player with the most cards wins.

5. Bang: For this game, use one set of flash cards and add two cards that say "Bang!". Place these cards in a paper bag, shoe box, or coffee can. Each player takes a turn pulling out a card. If the player can correctly identify the number, letter, letter sound, sight word, or math fact, the player keeps the card in his pile. If the player cannot correctly identify the card, the card is put back in the container. When a player pulls out a "Bang!" card, he must put all the cards in his pile back into the container. The player with the most cards wins!

6. Flash Card Line-Up: Using one set of flash cards, have your child line them up in ABC, or numerical order. This game works for number recognition, letter recognition, or even math facts that are arranged by the answer to the equation.

7. Child as the Teacher: Children love to be in charge! It's your child's turn to give you a flash card drill. It's best to use flash cards that don't show the answer anywhere, or you can cover up the key with a piece of masking tape. Be sure to include mistakes so that you can test your child's knowledge and he or she can have fun correcting you!

8. Sight Word Sentences: Using a set of known sight word, picture, and punctuation cards, your child can practice building sentences. Begin by asking your child to build simple sentences such as "I like my dog." (The underlined word is for a picture card.) Your child will build the sentence and read it back to you, using an index finger to point to the words while reading aloud. If your child makes a mistake, mention that you see a mistake. Ask your child if he can figure out what it is. If he can, ask him to rearrange the cards to make the sentence correct. If your child cannot, point out what the mistake was and help him correct it. Re-read the corrected sentence and move on.

9. True or False Quiz: Use one set of flash cards for this game. As the quizzer, flash one card at a time using known cards. As you present the card (such as the letter Z), you say "This letter says /b/". Your child will answer either "true" or "false". Present some as "true" answers and some as "false" to make the game interesting. Keep score of how many your child got right!

10. Active Letters: Assign a movement for each letter card (whether upper or lower case). For example A is airplane movements, B is pretending to bounce a ball, C is clap your hands, D is dance in place, etc. As you flash the cards, your child will respond with the corresponding movement. This is a great way to get the wiggles out! Make S stand for sit. It's a great way to end the game.

The key to using games as a learning tool is to keep sessions short and fun. You don't want to wait until your child asks, "Are we done, yet?". Try a variety of games to stimulate your child's interest and promote willing participation. In no time at all, you will have helped your child accomplish more than possible with a flash card drill or worksheet. You may find your child begging you to play again soon!

Pascal's Triangle and Probability

To discover this hidden link between Pascal's triangle and probability, we can begin by looking at the different combinations that can be made from tossing 1,2 and 3 coins.

When just one coin is tossed, there are clearly just two outcomes, each with an equal chance of occurring. These can be represented as H and T. However, when two coins are tossed, there are four outcomes: TT, TH, HT and HH. It is important to distinguish between HT and TH - we must class a head from Coin 1 and a tail from coin 2 as a different combination to a tail from coin 2 and a head from coin 1. (Incidentally, this is where a lot of the mathematicians in Pascal's time went wrong - they treated HT the same as TH, and so ended up with incorrect probabilities).

With three coins, there are 8 different outcomes. They are HHH, HHT, HTH, THH, TTH, THT, HTT and TTT. This is summarised below:

3 Head: HHH - 1 way

2 Heads: HHT, HTH or THH - 3 ways

1 Head: HTT, THT or TTH - 3 ways

0 Heads: TTT - 1 way

As each time a fair coin is tossed, there is an equal chance of both heads and tails, each combination listed above is equally likely. This gives us a total of 8 equal outcomes. Therefore, to calculate the probability, all we need to do it divide the number of combinations by 8, giving the probabilities 1/8 = 12.5% for 0 and 3 heads, and 3/8 = 37.5% for 1 and 2 heads.

If you look at the information above, you can also see that there is only 1 way of getting 0 or 3 heads, but 3 ways of getting 1 or 2 heads. It should not be too surprising that there are more ways of getting 1 or 2 heads, resulting in a higher probability of these totals, as you would expect to get heads roughly half of the time. Obviously with 3 coin tosses, you can't get half of them heads, but it makes sense that the closer you get to this halfway mark, the higher the probability of that outcome occurring.

That's enough chatter now. Let's get on with the interesting stuff. How does all this link in with Pascal's triangle?! Well, the numbers in the table above (in the "number of ways" column) are 1,3,3,1. This is the third row of Pascal's triangle! If you create similar tables for one and two coin tosses, you should get 1,1 and 1,2,1, which are the first and second rows of Pascal's triangle.

This is very exciting! What it means is that we can use Pascal's triangle to calculate probabilities in seconds that would have otherwise taken hours. For example, consider this question: If I toss 10 coins, what is the chance that exactly 6 of them will be heads?

We need to look at the 6th number in on the 10th row of Pascal's triangle. It is 210. And a quick calculation tells us that the total of all the numbers in row 10 is 1024. Before you can blink, we have calculated that the probability is 210/1024, or about 21%. Now, you've got to admit that was much quicker than writing out all 1024 combinations wasn't it?

How Individual Translators Score Over Translation Agencies

Since the diverse areas of your life and the world have started to co-exist and cooperate and established good working and personal relationships, the need of translators has become unquestionable. You cannot rely on yourself to translate a document accurately and effectively without losing its meaning. You need professionals who are native to that language and understand it deeply. But many have started preferring translation agencies over the individual translators. These agencies are of great use in case of huge amount of work. Also, they should be used if projects with specialized subject matters have to be translated within a short time in a standardized way. But that is no reason to forget the importance of individual translators. A few advantages of hiring the latter are -

* If your document is sensitive in nature or you have an emotional attachment to it, then you would only prefer an individual translator. You would like to establish a comfort level with him, trust him and then open up about your work. This process of getting to know your own translator is never done in agencies.

* In a company or an agency, the translators are anonymous for a client. The clients do not know in whose hands lies the future of their project. Thus, they cannot talk to the translator or discuss what they need. The client requirements reach the translator through someone else or a chain. The meaning could easily get lost in the way.

* Any queries that you may have or any doubts at any time of the project being created, you can clarify directly from the individual translator. The vice-versa is true for the translators as well.

* The charges that they ask for are much lesser than an agency. In fact, translators of an agency may not be as well-paid; hence the lowered motivation to work leads to bad quality of work.

* The agencies may not hire an excellent translator. You just have their word for it. You do not know the language yourself and can easily be fooled. This is possible with individual translators as well. But, the personal contact with him makes the truth come out more easily. The translator is working out in the open without hiding behind a bureaucracy.

* You can choose an individual translator out of many, based on the technical or specialized knowledge they have. In an agency, you do not know who has been handed over your project or whether he has any expertise in the field or not.

You have more control over the whole translation process with an individual translator and can oversee your project directly without a manager cutting in. Also, you can trust the same translator again for future projects, based on the results of the work.

Tree, a Wonderful Creation of Nature

A tree is a perennial plant that could grow up to a height of 379 feet. When there is sunlight they tower over the other plants. Normally, they have broad leaves and sturdy trunks that are often used for timber. They have been there on earth for the past 370 million years. They are so versatile that they grow in areas spanning from the arctic to the equator.

Trees are important creations of nature. They provide shelter and food. Also, they store vast amounts of carbon dioxide in their tissues. Rain-forests help various trees and creatures to live and grow together. On their leaves, trunks, under the barks and branches various other living beings live. Therefore, trees are of very high value when it comes to bio diversity.

Most often, trees are also of economic value. Their fruits are valuable as food for humans and animals. The timber is used for making furniture and structures for houses etc. However, clearing of forests for cultivation purposes and for obtaining timber is not favorable for environment. Absorbing carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen is one of the most important functions of trees. In the process they make food. Due to all these reasons trees are sacred to some societies.

The root system of a tree is the one that holds the tree steadily anchored to the soil. At the same time it absorbs water and the nutrients from soil. The taproot is the one that goes into the soil vertically. The lateral roots that branch off from it go in a horizontal direction in search of water and nutrients. The roots have root hairs with which they absorb nutrients.

The trunk of a tree is the one that allows it to stand above the others in order to get sunlight to fall on its leaves. It also does the secondary purpose of transporting water and nutrients to the upper parts. The outermost layer of the trunk is the bark that is made of dead cells. Its purpose is to provide protection to the inner layers of the trunk.

The middle portion of the trunk is called the xylem that transports water and nutrients to the leaves of a tree. The chlorophyll found in the leaves use these nutrients and the energy supplied by sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates which are the food for other areas. This food is transported through the phloem. Phloem is the layer in the trunk that is there between the bark and the xylem.