We live in a world where everything can be measured. Our scales give us our weight down to the tenth of a pound. The weather forecasters know the exact temperature. It's no wonder that we want some sort of a chart to use that says for sure "This is not love" and "this is love". Unfortunately for lovers, emotions are not an exact science.
Every single one of us is a unique human being, with unique backgrounds, unique parents, unique views of the world. This very much applies to the word "love". There is no set meaning for this word. It in fact means many different things naturally. You can love pizza. You can love Orlando Bloom. You can love your mom and dad, and love your dog. And you can love your boyfriend or girlfriend. All of these mean quite different things to you.
So one of the most important things you can learn as you grow up is where YOU draw that line. You, personally. It is fully, completely, and totally up to YOU what you choose to call "love". Others may and will probably try to influence you. But this is one of those "core personality traits" that you need to develop for yourself.
Some people fall in and out of love daily. They love every new person they meet - at least for a few hours. Some people only fall in love after dating for several months, after getting to know what a person is really like. And some people *like* everybody that is kind to them, but a real *love* is reserved for that one special person, and is only said when the next words are then going to be "and I want to marry you." So there are many different levels of how people choose to define love.
The most common way people define love for themselves is in the middle of the extremes. It involves REALLY knowing a person, inside and out. You have known them for several months. You have seen them at all times of emotion - you've seen them happy, you've seen them sad, you've seen them bored, you've seen them excited. You have been through good times together - but you've also been through bad times. You are out of the 'new love rush' that comes when relationships begin, and even in the "bright light of day" you still care for them. You SEE and ACCEPT their faults, you don't try to claim this person is perfect. But even with those faults, you accept the faults as a part of them.
Love is not a crush - love involves someone you really know fully, not someone you admire from afar. Love is not lust - love involves really wanting to care for and help someone, not just admiring their body and wanting to touch them.
If you love someone, you are content just sitting with them for the afternoon, not being "seen", not touching each other, but just spending time together. If you love someone, then you trust them fully. You readily share all your hopes, dreams and fears, and you are not "afraid" of talking about any topic with them.
From: http://www.romanceclass.com/miscr/whatis/love.asp
What Is Love?
What is AIDS?
AIDS stands for acquired immunity deficiency syndrome. To have AIDS, one must have tested positive on an HIV test and have another disease that is known as an "AIDS defining disease." These diseases include: yeast infections (candida), cervical cancer, Kaposis Sarcoma, tuberculosis, cytomegalovirus, and pneumonia. While some of the "AIDS defining" illnesses and conditions can be fatal, many of them are not. Some of these conditions can actually cause a person to receive a "positive test result."
Some of the drugs currently available for people diagnosed with HIV cause side effects that are now known as AIDS symptoms - facial wasting, brittle bones, fat redistribution, etc.
The symptoms of AIDS seem to have changed over the years. That's because illnesses and conditions have been gradually added to the group of maladies that are now called AIDS. In the beginning, only 12 conditions were called "AIDS."
Now there are 28 illnesses and conditions in this group. That's why there were sudden increases in the number of "people with AIDS."
When the Centers for Disease Control give statistics for AIDS deaths, we are often given cumulative figures for deaths over several years, rather than numbers of how many people died each year. When the figures are scrutinized it is found that the actual numbers of deaths attributed to AIDS has been declining since 1993.
AIDS appears to be declining in the United States, yet AIDS service organizations scramble for funding as if there were an exploding number of AIDS cases. Money raised to aid these groups seems to go to everyone except those who need it most, the very poor.
The number of AIDS cases are estimates, not real figures. It is not possible to get an accurate count because there are problems simply to get the population correct due to war, flooding and drought. Many people are being forced to temporarily relocate or permanently seek refuge somewhere new.
It's important to know that AIDS in many countries is still defined by four clinical symptoms only. These are: diarrhea, fever, persistent cough, and a weight loss greater than 10% over two months. If a person in a very isolated rural setting dies and has one or more of these symptoms, they may be labeled by a health-worker as having died of AIDS, when the actual cause of death is often not investigated or known.
Far more people are ill (and often die) from tuberculosis and malaria than AIDS, but it is hard to get relief for these diseases. Many people are faced with a crisis of finding nutritious fresh food and clean drinking water, but there seems to be plenty of US dollars to send questionable AIDS drugs to poor countries as a "good will" gesture.
Sending AIDS drugs to poor countries would be indicated except that many of the AIDS drugs seem to be killing more people than they are saving, with side effects like heart attacks, strokes, fatal rashes and liver disease.
AIDS is known as immune suppression, but what does that mean? That seems terribly vague, somehow. There many factors that help break down someone's natural defenses, but malnutrition, toxic environment, and emotional distress seem to be the most obvious reasons.
AIDS makes it possible for some people to feel justified in hating those who have been placed in "high-risk groups". Violence against the homeless, prostitutes, people who use drugs and gay men has somehow become acceptable - because they are portrayed as "spreaders of disease" by the media, clergy and politicians. Africa, long blamed for AIDS, now too is a target of scorn, pity and horrendous experiments..
It is my wish that this website will help sort through the mystery that has shrouded the AIDS phenomenon. If you want to know the truth, open your mind and get busy reading - knowledge is power. However, news from the mainstream press about AIDS is often confusing. For instance, why is AIDS more common in gay men in the US, but more common in straight people in Africa and other places?
Why is funding for AIDS research our top priority when more people die from heart and lung disease, and car-related accidents? Read from every source you can, including the so-called "dissident" AIDS information. Read HIV test kit inserts - ask your doctor for one.
What's the controversy? Well, for one thing, where's the virus? Although there are plenty of images supposely representing HIV on the internet and in books, there are no actual photos of HIV because the virus hasn't been properly isolated. It cannot be duplicated in a lab, like other viruses traditionally have. HIV tests look for antibodies rather than a virus. Also, if these tests are so accurate why are risk-factor surveys given before the test? Often if a test comes back indeterminate - not positive or negative - the technician will refer to the background of the patient - how many sex partners, what drugs taken, what race you are, etc. If the patient is poor, an injection-drug user, a prostitute, in prison or gay, the technician or doctor may conclude that it means a positive result. A truly accurate test shouldn't have to rely on what a person writes in a questionnaire.
From: http://www.whatisaids.com/
Real estate
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Real estate is a legal term (in some jurisdictions, notably in the USA, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia) that encompasses land along with anything permanently affixed to the land, such as buildings, specifically property that is fixed in location. Real estate law is the body of regulations and legal codes which pertain to such matters under a particular jurisdiction. Real estate is often considered synonymous with real property (also sometimes called realty), in contrast with personal property (also sometimes called chattel or personalty under chattel law or personal property law).
However, in some situations the term "real estate" refers to the land and fixtures together, as distinguished from "real property," referring to ownership rights of the land itself.[clarification needed]
The terms real estate and real property are used primarily in common law, while civil law jurisdictions refer instead to immovable property.
Etymology
In law, the word real means relating to a thing (res/rei, thing, from O.Fr. reel, from L.L. realis "actual," from Latin. res, "matter, thing"), as distinguished from a person. Thus the law broadly distinguishes between "real" property (land and anything affixed to it) and "personal" property (everything else, e.g., clothing, furniture, money). The conceptual difference was between immovable property, which would transfer title along with the land, and movable property, which a person would retain title to. The oldest use of the term "Real Estate" that has been preserved in historical records was in 1666.
The use of "real" to refer to land also reflects the ancient preference for land, and the ownership thereof (and the owners thereof). This, in turn reflects the values of the medieval feudal system, which is the ultimate root of the common law.
Some have claimed that the word Real is derived from "royal" (The word royal—and its Spanish cognate real—come from the related Latin word rex-regis, meaning king. For hundreds of years the Royal family/King owned the land, and the peasants paid rent or property taxes to be on the Royal's land. Today, just like hundreds of years in the past, we pay property taxes, or rent to be on the government's land or the Royal Estate). However, the "real" in "real property" is derived from the Latin for "thing".
Business sector
With the development of private property ownership, real estate has become a major area of business. Purchasing real estate requires a significant investment, and each parcel of land has unique characteristics, so the real estate industry has evolved into several distinct fields. Specialists are often called on to valuate real estate and facilitate transactions. Some kinds of real estate businesses include:
* Appraisal: Professional valuation services
* Brokerages: A fee charged by the mediator who facilitates a real estate transaction between the two parties.
* Development: Improving land for use by adding or replacing buildings
* Property management: Managing a property for its owner(s)
* Real estate marketing: Managing the sales side of the property business
* Real estate investing: Managing the investment of real estate
* Relocation services: Relocating people or business to a different country
* Corporate Real Estate: Managing the real estate held by a corporation to support its core business—unlike managing the real estate held by an investor to generate income
Within each field, a business may specialize in a particular type of real estate, such as residential, commercial, or industrial property. In addition, almost all construction business effectively has a connection to real estate.
"Internet Real Estate" is a term coined by the internet investment community relating to ownership of domain names and the similarities between high quality internet domain names and real-world, prime real estate.
Residential real estate
The legal arrangement for the right to occupy a dwelling is known as the housing tenure. Types of housing tenure include owner occupancy, Tenancy, housing cooperative, condominiums (individually parceled properties in a single building), public housing, squatting, and cohousing.
Residences can be classified by if and how they are connected to neighboring residences and land. Different types of housing tenure can be used for the same physical type. For example, connected residents might be owned by a single entity and leased out, or owned separately with an agreement covering the relationship between units and common areas and concerns.
Major physical categories in North America and Europe include:
* Attached / multi-unit dwellings
o Apartment ("flat" outside North America) - An individual unit in a multi-unit building. The boundaries of the apartment are generally defined by a perimeter of locked or lockable doors. Often seen in multi-story apartment buildings.
o Multi-family house - Often seen in multi-story detached buildings, where each floor is a separate apartment or unit.
o Terraced house (a.k.a. townhouse or rowhouse) - A number of single or multi-unit buildings in a continuous row with shared walls and no intervening space.
o Condominium - Building or complex, similar to apartments, owned by individuals. Common grounds are owned and shared jointly. There are townhouse or rowhouse style condominiums as well.
* Semi-detached dwellings
o Duplex - Two units with one shared wall.
* Single-family detached home
* Portable dwellings
o Mobile homes - Potentially a full-time residence which can be (might not in practice be) movable on wheels.
o Houseboats - A floating home
o Tents - Usually very temporary, with roof and walls consisting only of fabric-like material.
The size of an apartment or house can be described in square feet or meters. In the United States this includes the area of "living space", excluding the garage and other non-living spaces. The "square meters" figure of a house in Europe reports the area of the walls enclosing the home, and thus includes any attached garage and non-living spaces.
It can also be described more roughly by the number of rooms. A studio apartment has a single bedroom with no living room (possibly a separate kitchen). A one-bedroom apartment has a living or dining room, separate from the bedroom. Two bedroom, three bedroom, and larger units are also common. (A bedroom is defined as a room with a closet for clothes storage.)
See List of house types for a complete listing of housing types and layouts, real estate trends for shifts in the market and house or home for more general information.
Market sector value
According to The Economist, "developed economies" assets at the end of 2002 were the following:
* Residential property: $48 trillion;
* Commercial property: $14 trillion;
* Equities: $20 trillion;
* Government bonds: $20 trillion;
* Corporate bonds: $13 trillion;
* Total: $115 trillion.
That makes real estate assets 54% and financial assets 46% of total stocks, bonds, and real estate assets. Assets not counted here are bank deposits, insurance "reserve" assets, and human assets; also it is not clear if all debt and equity investments are counted in the categories equities and bonds. For U.S. asset levels see FRB: Z.1 Release- Flow of Funds Accounts of the United States.
Mortgages in real estate
In recent years, many economists have recognized that the lack of effective real estate laws can be a significant barrier to investment in many developing countries. In most societies, rich or poor, a significant fraction of the total wealth is in the form of land and buildings.
In most advanced economies, the main source of capital used by individuals and small companies to purchase and improve land and buildings is mortgage loans (or other instruments). These are loans for which the real property itself constitutes collateral. Banks are willing to make such loans at favorable rates in large part because, if the borrower does not make payments, the lender can foreclose by filing a court action which allows them take back the property and sell it to get their money back. For investors, profitability can be enhanced by using an off plan or pre-construction strategy to purchase at a lower price which is often the case in the pre-construction phase of development.
But in many developing countries there is no effective means by which a lender could foreclose, so the mortgage loan industry, as such, either does not exist at all or is only available to members of privileged social classes.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_estate
What is aurora?
Aurora is the collective name given to the photons (light) emitted by atoms, molecules and ions that have been excited by energetic charged particles (principally electrons) travelling along magnetic field lines into the Earth's upper atmosphere.
Aurora results from the interaction of the solar wind with the Earth's magnetic field.
Colours in aurora
The colours in the aurora result from photons from specific energy level transitions in excited atoms, molecules and ions of the upper atmosphere returning to their lowest energy state.
There are thousands of individual colours in an auroral display, but three are dominant in the visible spectrum.
The brightest auroral line is generally a green line emitted by excited oxygen atoms.
A red diffuse glow results from another oxygen atom transition.
A purple colour results from a transition in a Nitrogen molecular ion.
The mixture of the major green, red and purple emissions may combine to give aurora a general 'whiteish' appearance.
Shape of auroral forms
Most commonly, auroral glows form a band aligned in a magnetic east-west direction.
If sufficient numbers of energetic electrons are impacting the upper atmosphere, bands may have shimmering rays extending upwards from them. These rays define magnetic field lines along which the auroral electrons travel into the atmosphere. The twisting of auroral rays and bands results from the dynamic interaction of electric currents and magnetic fields in the upper atmosphere.
In active displays, multiple bands may be visible. These may break into small arcs.
If rapid horizontal motion of the auroral form is apparent, the form may appear more violet on its leading edge and greenish on its trailing edge. This results from a small delay (less than a second) between the peak intensity of the nitrogen molecular ion emission and the green oxygen atom emission.
The active phase of an auroral display will last of the order of 15 to 40 minutes and may recur in 2 to 3 hours.
Auroral band features may persist all night.
A red dominated auroral glow will be very diffuse. It will vary in location and intensity very slowly (time scales of half a minute or so). This results from a significant time delay in the emission of light by the atomic oxygen state which smooths out any rapid variation in where the auroral electrons are impacting on the atmosphere.
Height of aurora
Generally, if an auroral band has an easily discernible lower border, this will be at around 100 to 110 km altitude. Auroral rays may extend above the lower border for hundreds of kilometers.
If the lower border has a pinkish edge to it (resulting from an emission of molecular Nitrogen), the altitude may be around 90 to 100 km.
A diffuse red aurora occurs above 240 km.
Intensity Variations
During an active auroral display, the intensity variations will be rapid and spectacular.
A most dramatic intensity variation is an increase in intensity moving up or along an auroral form. If the intensity variation is moving upward from the lower border, this has resulted from velocity dispersion of the electrons from an equatorial acceleration region. The faster electrons reach the atmosphere first and deposit their energy lower in the atmosphere. This is followed by lower energy electrons which are stopped at progressively higher altitudes, giving an intensity variation moving upward from the lower border. These variations may recur in rapid succession.
Movement along the auroral form may result from a rapid variation in the longitude of the acceleration region at the auroral equator.
Strong moonlight and city lights reduce the ability to discern auroral features.
The aurora and Tasmania
The global distribution of auroral activity is an oval around the magnetic poles in both hemispheres.
As the level of magnetic disturbance of the Earth's magnetic field increases, the oval of auroral activity expands equatorward. At times it expands over Tasmania.
Because Tasmania is located equatorward of the general location of the auroral oval, auroral displays in Tasmania are generally seen in the southern sky. The most dramatic displays will most likely be observed when the aurora is overhead at around midnight.
The earlier in the evening an auroral display is seen in the southern sky the more likely it is that the display will be more spectacular and more overhead (or even to the north) at around midnight.
The chance of observing an aurora in Tasmania, on a clear night, averages out at around 1 to 2 %.
The chance of observing aurora in Tasmania is strongly correlated with the sunspot cycle. Auroral activity over Tasmania peaks near the peak of the sunspot cycle and for the following couple of years. Aurora in the skies over Tasmania will peak during 2000-2001.
Tasmania, due to its proximity to the general location of the auroral oval, is the Australian state with the greatest probability of observing auroral displays.
Auroral displays are more common near the equinoxes, but this does not preclude the occurrence of aurora at other times.
See more information on the Australian Antarctic Research Space and Atmospheric Sciences program
From: http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=2138
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing has many descriptions, yet all have the same meaning. Affiliate marketing is a huge business piece on the Internet. It is a cooperative effort between merchants and an affiliate’s website. For many years now, affiliate marketing has proved to be a cost-efficient, measurable method of delivering long-tern results. It has become famous for Internet sites who are trying to make some extra or additional income for their site. Every day, people get interested to affiliate marketing and want to make money out of it. But in many cases, these new affiliates do not fully understand the affiliate world and make costly mistakes. In other words, affiliate marketing has often been misunderstood.
One of the common misconceptions that are being associated about affiliate marketing is “selling”, though selling is an important activity of affiliate marketing and the central function of a business operation. Another is that affiliate marketing is commonly linked with “advertising”. While the importance of advertising in marketing a certain product is not to be underestimated, the fact of the matter is, advertising like selling, is merely a part of the many functions of marketing.
In affiliate marketing, an affiliate is compensated for every visitor, subscriber and/or customer provided through his efforts. The said compensation may be made based on a certain value for each visit. The most attractive aspect of affiliate marketing from the merchant’s viewpoint is that no payment is due to an affiliate until results are appreciated.
Affiliate marketing is typically being run by affiliate networks and this affiliate networks are composed of two functional bodies, the group affiliates and the group merchants. Each has their special function and role when it comes to affiliate marketing. The affiliate network acts as a third party between the merchant and the associated affiliates. The network provides the technology to deliver the merchant’s campaigns and offers. The affiliate network also collects commission fees from the merchant and then pays the affiliates which are part of the program.
The merchant is any web site owner that wants or desires to take advantage of performance based marketing. The benefits to the merchant are many. First, the merchant maintains and operates the affiliate program. If it would be extracted, the merchant needs to do their part by researching interested affiliate websites to ensure that they are a good fit for that particular website. Finding a fit for their merchandise would be the key to more generated income. The merchant has access to markets and customers without him spending valuable time searching out. Banner ads on affiliate sites are not distracting to the site user. It might produce interest for that product and drive the consumer to the merchants’ website. It is also the merchant who decides how much he is willing to pay for each sale that results from a visitor sent from an affiliate.
The affiliate or the affiliate marketer also sees a lot of benefits. The affiliate is a web site owner that promotes one or more merchants and their affiliate programs. Affiliate marketing can generate a full-time income for the affiliate. But this is not an easy task to accomplish. The affiliate needs to have a better understanding with the merchant what the commission will be, expected payment method and time involved in the contract. The affiliate has also the responsibility to stand for the merchandise their user based would be most interested in. For example, if the site has a user base of mainly stay-at-home mothers, then on-line job openings such as surveys would be a good match for them. This group would also appreciate direct links to children’s products and informational sites. Merchandisers often provide targeted, best-seller items and personal support to their affiliate. They often offer sales promotions that will benefit the merchandiser as well as the affiliate.
Affiliate marketing is a great situation for both the marketer and the affiliate. If they would work together, they can be an advantage to both. Plus the fact that it seems to make sense, it is easy and inexpensive way to start, and you can be up and running within a few days. But there is one thing to consider, it is how to get traffic and make your offer different than all others.
Mutation
Mutations (or mutagenesis, both words originating in the Latin word mutare, to change) are permanent, transmissible changes to the genetic material (usually DNA or RNA) of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division and by exposure to radiation, chemicals, or viruses. Mutations often lead to the malfunction or death of a cell and can cause cancer in higher organisms. Mutations are considered the driving force of evolution, where less favorable mutations are removed by natural selection, but favorable ones tend to accumulate. Neutral mutations do not affect the organism and can accumulate over time, which might result in what is known as Punctuated Equilibrium; a modern variation on classic evolutionary theory.
Two classes of mutations are spontaneous mutations (often called background level) and induced mutations caused by mutagens.
Basic types of mutations are:
* Point mutations are usually caused by chemicals or malfunction of DNA replication and exchange a single nucleotide for another. Most common is the transition that exchanges a purine for a purine or a pyrimidine for a pyrimidine (C ↔ T, A ↔ G). A transition can be caused by nitrous acid, base mispairing, or mutagenic base analogs such as bromouracil. Less common is a transversion, which exchanges a purine for a pyrimidine or a pyrimidine for a purine. A point mutation can be reversed by another point mutation, in which the nucleotide is changed back to its original state (true reversion) or by second-site reversion (a complementary mutation elsewhere that results in regained gene functionality). Point mutations are called missense or nonsense mutations, depending on whether the erroneous codon codes for an amino acid or a stop.
* Insertions add one or more extra nucleotides into the DNA. They are usually caused by transposable elements. Insertions can be reverted by deletions.
* Deletions remove one or more nucleotides from the DNA. They are irreversible.
* Insertions and deletions within a gene's coding region can cause frameshifts if the number of inserted or deleted nucleotides is not an even multiple of three (though introns and other complicating factors can play a mitigating role even in those cases). This is because codons in a gene are read using a fixed reading frame. Frameshift mutations generally disrupt the function of whatever protein sequence is affected, since the new sequence is essentially random, but can sometimes be reversed by a second frameshift mutation that puts the sequence back in the proper reading frame.
Spontaneous mutations on the molecular level include:
* Tautomerism
o Keto ↔ Enol
o Amino ↔ Imino
* Deamination ap-site (loss of A or G); occurs 1000 times each day in each mammal
* Deamination base analogs (C→Uracil or A→HX); occurs 100 times each day in each mammal
* Transition
* Transversion
* Frameshift (insertion or deletion on one strand), usually through a polymerase error when copying repeated sequences
* Oxidative damage caused by oxygen radicals
Induced mutations on the molecular level can be caused by:
* Chemicals
o Base analogs
o Simple chemicals, for example, acids
o Alkylating agents
o Polycyclic hydrocarbons, for example, the benzpyrenes found in internal combustion engine exhaust
o DNA crosslinker, for example, platinum
o Oxygen radicals
* Radiation
o Ultraviolet radiation
o Ionizing radiation
DNA has so-called hotspots, where mutations occur up to 100 times more frequently than the normal mutation rate. A hotspot can be at an unusual base, e.g., 5'-methylcytosine.
It should be noted that, science fiction to the contrary, the overwhelming majority of mutations have no real effect, and the majority of the rest are harmful, if not fatal.
From: http://knowledgerush.com/kr/encyclopedia/Mutation/
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms and some viruses. The main role of DNA molecules is the long-term storage of information. DNA is often compared to a set of blueprints or a recipe, or a code, since it contains the instructions needed to construct other components of cells, such as proteins and RNA molecules. The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in regulating the use of this genetic information.
Chemically, DNA consists of two long polymers of simple units called nucleotides, with backbones made of sugars and phosphate groups joined by ester bonds. These two strands run in opposite directions to each other and are therefore anti-parallel. Attached to each sugar is one of four types of molecules called bases. It is the sequence of these four bases along the backbone that encodes information. This information is read using the genetic code, which specifies the sequence of the amino acids within proteins. The code is read by copying stretches of DNA into the related nucleic acid RNA, in a process called transcription.
Within cells, DNA is organized into structures called chromosomes. These chromosomes are duplicated before cells divide, in a process called DNA replication. Eukaryotic organisms (animals, plants, fungi, and protists) store their DNA inside the cell nucleus, while in prokaryotes (bacteria and archaea) it is found in the cell's cytoplasm. Within the chromosomes, chromatin proteins such as histones compact and organize DNA. These compact structures guide the interactions between DNA and other proteins, helping control which parts of the DNA are transcribed.
Properties
DNA is a long polymer made from repeating units called nucleotides. The DNA chain is 22 to 26 Ångströms wide (2.2 to 2.6 nanometres), and one nucleotide unit is 3.3 Å (0.33 nm) long. Although each individual repeating unit is very small, DNA polymers can be very large molecules containing millions of nucleotides. For instance, the largest human chromosome, chromosome number 1, is approximately 220 million base pairs long.
In living organisms, DNA does not usually exist as a single molecule, but instead as a tightly-associated pair of molecules. These two long strands entwine like vines, in the shape of a double helix. The nucleotide repeats contain both the segment of the backbone of the molecule, which holds the chain together, and a base, which interacts with the other DNA strand in the helix. In general, a base linked to a sugar is called a nucleoside and a base linked to a sugar and one or more phosphate groups is called a nucleotide. If multiple nucleotides are linked together, as in DNA, this polymer is called a polynucleotide.
The backbone of the DNA strand is made from alternating phosphate and sugar residues. The sugar in DNA is 2-deoxyribose, which is a pentose (five-carbon) sugar. The sugars are joined together by phosphate groups that form phosphodiester bonds between the third and fifth carbon atoms of adjacent sugar rings. These asymmetric bonds mean a strand of DNA has a direction. In a double helix the direction of the nucleotides in one strand is opposite to their direction in the other strand. This arrangement of DNA strands is called antiparallel. The asymmetric ends of DNA strands are referred to as the 5′ (five prime) and 3′ (three prime) ends, with the 5' end being that with a terminal phosphate group and the 3' end that with a terminal hydroxyl group. One of the major differences between DNA and RNA is the sugar, with 2-deoxyribose being replaced by the alternative pentose sugar ribose in RNA.
The DNA double helix is stabilized by hydrogen bonds between the bases attached to the two strands. The four bases found in DNA are adenine (abbreviated A), cytosine (C), guanine (G) and thymine (T). These four bases are attached to the sugar/phosphate to form the complete nucleotide, as shown for adenosine monophosphate.
These bases are classified into two types; adenine and guanine are fused five- and six-membered heterocyclic compounds called purines, while cytosine and thymine are six-membered rings called pyrimidines. A fifth pyrimidine base, called uracil (U), usually takes the place of thymine in RNA and differs from thymine by lacking a methyl group on its ring. Uracil is not usually found in DNA, occurring only as a breakdown product of cytosine.
Grooves
Normally, the double helix is a right-handed spiral. As the DNA strands wind around each other, they leave gaps between each set of phosphate backbones, revealing the sides of the bases inside (see animation). There are two of these grooves twisting around the surface of the double helix: one groove, the major groove, is 22 Å wide and the other, the minor groove, is 12 Å wide. The narrowness of the minor groove means that the edges of the bases are more accessible in the major groove. As a result, proteins like transcription factors that can bind to specific sequences in double-stranded DNA usually make contacts to the sides of the bases exposed in the major groove. This situation varies in unusual conformations of DNA within the cell (see below), but the major and minor grooves are always named to reflect the differences in size that would be seen if the DNA is twisted back into the ordinary B form.
Chemical modifications
The expression of genes is influenced by how the DNA is packaged in chromosomes, in a structure called chromatin. Base modifications can be involved in packaging, with regions that have low or no gene expression usually containing high levels of methylation of cytosine bases. For example, cytosine methylation, produces 5-methylcytosine, which is important for X-chromosome inactivation. The average level of methylation varies between organisms - the worm Caenorhabditis elegans lacks cytosine methylation, while vertebrates have higher levels, with up to 1% of their DNA containing 5-methylcytosine. Despite the importance of 5-methylcytosine, it can deaminate to leave a thymine base, methylated cytosines are therefore particularly prone to mutations. Other base modifications include adenine methylation in bacteria and the glycosylation of uracil to produce the "J-base" in kinetoplastids.
Damage
DNA can be damaged by many different sorts of mutagens, which change the DNA sequence. Mutagens include oxidizing agents, alkylating agents and also high-energy electromagnetic radiation such as ultraviolet light and X-rays. The type of DNA damage produced depends on the type of mutagen. For example, UV light can damage DNA by producing thymine dimers, which are cross-links between pyrimidine bases. On the other hand, oxidants such as free radicals or hydrogen peroxide produce multiple forms of damage, including base modifications, particularly of guanosine, and double-strand breaks. In each human cell, about 500 bases suffer oxidative damage per day. Of these oxidative lesions, the most dangerous are double-strand breaks, as these are difficult to repair and can produce point mutations, insertions and deletions from the DNA sequence, as well as chromosomal translocations.
Many mutagens fit into the space between two adjacent base pairs, this is called intercalating. Most intercalators are aromatic and planar molecules, and include Ethidium bromide, daunomycin, and doxorubicin. In order for an intercalator to fit between base pairs, the bases must separate, distorting the DNA strands by unwinding of the double helix. This inhibits both transcription and DNA replication, causing toxicity and mutations. As a result, DNA intercalators are often carcinogens, and benzopyrene diol epoxide, acridines, aflatoxin and ethidium bromide are well-known examples. Nevertheless, due to their ability to inhibit DNA transcription and replication, these toxins are also used in chemotherapy to inhibit rapidly-growing cancer cells.
Biological functions
DNA usually occurs as linear chromosomes in eukaryotes, and circular chromosomes in prokaryotes. The set of chromosomes in a cell makes up its genome; the human genome has approximately 3 billion base pairs of DNA arranged into 46 chromosomes. The information carried by DNA is held in the sequence of pieces of DNA called genes. Transmission of genetic information in genes is achieved via complementary base pairing. For example, in transcription, when a cell uses the information in a gene, the DNA sequence is copied into a complementary RNA sequence through the attraction between the DNA and the correct RNA nucleotides. Usually, this RNA copy is then used to make a matching protein sequence in a process called translation which depends on the same interaction between RNA nucleotides. Alternatively, a cell may simply copy its genetic information in a process called DNA replication. The details of these functions are covered in other articles; here we focus on the interactions between DNA and other molecules that mediate the function of the genome.
Genes and genomes
Genomic DNA is located in the cell nucleus of eukaryotes, as well as small amounts in mitochondria and chloroplasts. In prokaryotes, the DNA is held within an irregularly shaped body in the cytoplasm called the nucleoid. The genetic information in a genome is held within genes, and the complete set of this information in an organism is called its genotype. A gene is a unit of heredity and is a region of DNA that influences a particular characteristic in an organism. Genes contain an open reading frame that can be transcribed, as well as regulatory sequences such as promoters and enhancers, which control the transcription of the open reading frame.
In many species, only a small fraction of the total sequence of the genome encodes protein. For example, only about 1.5% of the human genome consists of protein-coding exons, with over 50% of human DNA consisting of non-coding repetitive sequences. The reasons for the presence of so much non-coding DNA in eukaryotic genomes and the extraordinary differences in genome size, or C-value, among species represent a long-standing puzzle known as the "C-value enigma." However, DNA sequences that do not code protein may still encode functional non-coding RNA molecules, which are involved in the regulation of gene expression.
Some non-coding DNA sequences play structural roles in chromosomes. Telomeres and centromeres typically contain few genes, but are important for the function and stability of chromosomes. An abundant form of non-coding DNA in humans are pseudogenes, which are copies of genes that have been disabled by mutation. These sequences are usually just molecular fossils, although they can occasionally serve as raw genetic material for the creation of new genes through the process of gene duplication and divergence.
From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DNA
Psychology
One of the most common questions asked by students new to the study of psychology is "What is psychology?" Misperceptions created by popular media as well as the diverse careers paths of those holding psychology degrees have contributed this confusion.
Psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind and behavior. Research in psychology seeks to understand and explain thought, emotion, and behavior. Applications of psychology include mental health treatment, performance enhancement, self-help, ergonomics, and many other areas affecting health and daily life.
Early Psychology
Psychology evolved out of both philosophy and biology. Such discussions of the two subjects date as far back as the early Greek thinkers such as Aristotle and Socrates. The word psychology is derived from the Greek word psyche, meaning 'soul' or 'mind.'
A Separate Science
The field and study of psychology was truly born when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt's research utilized a school of thought known as structuralism, which involved describing the structures that compose the mind. This perspective relied heavily on the analysis of sensations and feelings through the use of introspection, a highly subjective process. Wundt believed that properly trained individuals would be able to accurately identify the mental processes that accompanied feelings, sensations, and thoughts.
Schools of Thought
Throughout psychology's history, a number of different schools of thought have thought have formed to explain human thought and behavior. These schools of thought often rise to dominance for a period of time. While these schools of thought are sometimes perceived as competing forces, each perspective has contributed to our understanding of psychology. The following are some of the major schools of thought in psychology.
* Structuralism
* Functionalism
* Psychoanalysis
* Behaviorism
* Humanism
* Cognitivism
Psychology Today
Today, psychologists prefer to use more objective scientific methods to understand, explain, and predict human behavior. Psychological studies are highly structured, beginning with a hypothesis that is then empirically tested. Psychology has two major areas of focus: academic psychology and applied psychology. Academic psychology focuses on the study of different sub-topics within psychology including personality psychology, social psychology, and developmental psychology.
These psychologists conduct basic research that seeks to expand our theoretical knowledge, while other researchers conduct applied research that seeks to solve everyday problems. Applied psychology focuses on the use of different psychological principles to solve real world problems. Examples of applied areas of psychology include forensic psychology, ergonomics, and industrial-organizational psychology. Many other psychologists work as therapists, helping people overcome mental, behavioral, and emotional disorders.
Psychology Research Methods
As psychology moved away from its philosophical roots, psychologists began to employ more and more scientific methods to study human behavior. Today, researchers employ a variety of scientific methods, including experiments, correlational studies, longitudinal studies, and others to test, explain, and predict behavior.
Areas of Psychology
Psychology is a broad and diverse field. A number of different subfields and specialty areas have emerged. The following are some of the major areas of research and application within psychology:
* Abnormal Psychology is the study of abnormal behavior and psychopathology. This specialty area is focused on research and treatment of a variety of mental disorders and is linked to psychotherapy and clinical psychology. Mental health professional typically utilize the Diagnosistic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to diagnose mental disorders.
* Biological Psychology, also known as biopsychology, studies how biological processes influence the mind and behavior. This area is closely linked to neuroscience and utilizes tools such as MRI and PET scans to look at brain injury or brain abnormalities.
* Clinical Psychology is focused on the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of mental disorders.
* Cognitive Psychology is the study of human thought processes and cognitions. Cognitive psychologists study topics such as attention, memory, perception, decision-making, problem solving, and language acquisition.
* Comparative Psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior. The study of animal behavior can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology.
* Developmental Psychology is the branch of psychology that looks at human growth and development over the lifespan. Theories often focus on the development of cognitive abilities, morality, social functioning, identity, and other life areas.
* Forensic Psychology is an applied field focused on using psychological research and principles in the legal and criminal justice system.
* Industrial-Organizational Psychology is the area of psychology that uses psychological research to enhance work performance, select employee, improve product design, and enhance usability.
* Personality Psychology looks at the various elements that make up individual personalities. Well-known personality theories include Freud’s structural model of personality and the "Big Five" theory of personality.
* School Psychology is the branch of psychology that works within the educational system to help children with emotional, social, and academic issues.
* Social Psychology is a discipline that uses scientific methods to study social influence, social perception, and social interaction. Social psychology studies diverse subjects including group behavior, social perception, leadership, nonverbal behavior, conformity, aggression, and prejudice.
From: http://psychology.about.com/od/psychology101/f/psychfaq.htm
What Are Google AdWords
What Are Google AdWords
by Sarah Milstein, Rael Dornfest
AdWords
Google's text-based system for advertising on its site and its partner sites is called Adwords. The service allows you to create your own ads, choose keywords to help match your ads to your audience, and control the cost of your advertising—you pay only when people click on your ad (a cost per click plan). Anyone wishing to promote a product on Google can enroll in this program.
The AdWords concept is simple: you create ads that Google shows alongside regular search results. Your ads appear when somebody searches for keywords you’ve told Google you want to be associated with. For example, if you have a site that sells SpongeBob SquarePants scissors, you might want your ad to appear alongside Google results when people search for SpongeBob or children’s office supplies.
As with any advertising, you can create ads for your whole site (kiddie office supplies), for particular products you sell (Barney tape dispensers), or even for ideas (a comparison of political candidates’ education policies). But unlike traditional advertising, you don’t pay Google when it displays your ad (which is called an impression); instead you pay only when somebody clicks your ad (more on that later).
The true beauty of AdWords is that the sponsored links are every bit as relevant as the regular results. If somebody searches Google for Volvo safety, Google displays—alongside the Volvo safety reports and crash tests—Car Safety ads from Carfax.com and Volvo Auctions from CheapCarFinder.com. If somebody searches Google for your keywords, you know they’re looking for whatever you’re advertising. AdWords can thus be a great choice when you want to direct your ads to a narrow audience. (In fact, advertising gurus think of AdWords as a form of direct marketing, which means your message is delivered individually to each potential customer.)
AdWords may also be a good choice when you have just a few dollars for reaching your audience. You can advertise on Google for as little as $1.50 a month1. Google charges just $5 to sign up for AdWords, and after that, you can set a budget as low as five cents per day. It costs more to send five snail-mail letters a month.
The confusing part about AdWords is that Google doesn’t charge a set price for ads. Instead, the company lets you bid on the keywords that you want to trigger your ads. If you bid higher than everyone else who’s bid on the same keyword, your ad is likely to appear near the top of the sponsored links.
For example, if you set a maximum bid of 35 cents for the word stapler, and the next highest bid is 23 cents, Google gives your ad priority among the sponsored links it serves up when somebody searches for stapler. Even better, Google charges you only a penny more than the second-highest bidder, so you may never even have to pay the full 35 cents you bid. If you bid less than the highest bid, Google still lets you play, it just doesn’t show your ad as often as other people’s.
Note: When deciding who gets top billing among the sponsored links, Google factors in bids and how many people click through each ad, giving preference to the more effective ads. You can’t, therefore, buy the top spot outright. But you might be able to sneak up on a competitor with deeper pockets.
If that all sounds appealing, it should: Google has designed a seductively smart system, and joining takes just a few minutes. But make no mistake: AdWords is a demanding way to advertise on the Web. This chapter explains the challenges, but first you need to get your head around Google’s advertising terminology.
Direct Marketing: The Bigger Picture
Direct marketing—which includes junk mail like catalogs and charity appeals, plus telemarketing calls and spam—is a distinct type of advertising. It’s a cousin to mass marketing, which includes billboards, TV commercials, and magazine ads—all of which advertisers hope will influence consumers in a general way. Direct marketing, on the other hand, allows an advertiser to carefully choose who sees am ad and to gauge whether the ad led to a sale or other desired activity— like signing up for future mailings. Not surprisingly, direct marketers tend to be obsessed with measures like return on investment, which help them decide whether the sales generated by an ad justify the amount they spent on it.
AdWords is very much a direct marketing tool. And your competition may include not just a savvy Webmaster or two, but teams of marketing experts who know direct campaign angles inside out and work full-time to massage AdWords. That’s important to remember, because when you run a campaign, you have to pay close attention to your competition to make sure your ads are getting the positioning and clicks that make it worth doing in the first place.
Think of joining AdWords as a way of running a direct marketing campaign rather than a way of appearing on Google, and you’ll be in the right mindset.
From: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/07/22/WhatAreAdWords.html
What Is Google AdSense
What Is Google AdSense
by Sarah Milstein, Rael Dornfest
AdSense
Google's AdSense program lets you sell advertising space for other people's ads on your website--and not just any ads that Google chooses, but ads that are relevant to your site's content pages. The service is free, and you earn money every time someone clicks on an ad.
AdSense is a great program, though Google has given it a confusing name. If they'd called it AdSpace, you'd know right away what it's about: selling advertising space on your website. Despite the nomenclature issue, AdSense (www.google.com/adsense) has become popular with bloggers and other people who run noncommercial sites. You sign up, carve out some space on your pages for the ads (Figure 1), paste a few lines of code from Google into the HTML for your site, and let Google fill in your pages with color-coordinated ads. When somebody clicks one of the ads, Google pays you a fee (the amount varies, and the company doesn't disclose its payments).
Note: AdSense can be tricky for e-commerce sites because you can't fully control which ads appear on your site, and you wouldn't want to run ads for your competitors' merchandise right next to your own displays. You can, however, filter out some ads.
Though you can't decide which ads appear on your site, Google does a very nice job of assessing your pages and supplying ads that might interest your visitors. For example, if you run a site about the history of window treatments, Google is likely to dish up ads for vintage blinds and specialty curtain rods. That kind of relevance is important, because Google doesn't pay you when somebody sees an ad on your site; it pays you when somebody clicks an ad. So you want Google to fill your space with blurbs likely to interest your readers.
The $64,000 question is, of course, how much can you make? The exact answer is: it depends. If your site gets tons of visitors, and you focus on a narrow topic, there's a good chance Google will serve up ads that appeal to a lot of people hitting your site. For example, if you run a popular site devoted to mobile gadgetry, you might make enough to buy a new device every few months. If your site gets sporadic traffic, or more important, if it's not clearly about something, it may be hard for Google to supply highly relevant ads, and you might make enough to cover a box of paper clips every so often.
From: http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/07/26/WhatIsAdSense.html
What is Edutainment? (3)
Edutainment
Edutainment (also educational entertainment or entertainment-education) is a form of entertainment designed to educate as well as to amuse. Edutainment typically seeks to instruct or socialize its audience by embedding lessons in some familiar form of entertainment: television programs, computer and video games, films, music, websites, multimedia software, etc. Examples might be guided nature tours that entertain while educating participants on animal life and habitats, or a video game that teaches children conflict resolution skills.
Educational play facilities as well as hands-on children's museums are considered to be "edutainment" where children actively play in engaging environments, and learning in the process. Some examples of edutainment facilities are PlayWiseKids in Columbia, MD; Talents Center in Saudi Arabia; Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY; and the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, PA. These facilities are also popular field trip destinations for pre-school and elementary school teachers.
Most often, edutainment seeks either to tutor in one or more specific subjects, or to change behaviour by engendering specific sociocultural attitudes. This is also used for behavior students in certain schools in the UK. Successful edutainment is discernible by the fact that learning becomes fun and teachers or speakers educate an audience in a manner which is both engaging and amusing.
Various groups in the United States and the United Kingdom have used edutainment to address such health and social issues as substance abuse, immunization, teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, and cancer.
Etymology
The term edutainment was used as early as 1948 by the Walt Disney Company to describe the True Life Adventures series.
The noun edutainment is a neologistic portmanteau used by Robert Heyman in 1973 while producing documentaries for the National Geographic Society.
The noun edutainment is a neologistic portmanteau used by Dr. Chris Daniels in 1975 to encapsulate the theme of his Millennium Project, which later became known as The Elysian World Project, where the core philosophy is 'Education through Entertainment. Later this was adopted by others and in particular made popular by Bob Heyman while producing documentaries for the National Geographic Society.
Edutainment is also used to refer to the use of small chunks of e-Learning used to deliver key messages in an entertaining manner. This can be used to treat such issues as ethics, diversity and compliance.
According to other sources, Peter Catalanotto first coined this phrase in the late 1990s as he travelled around the country edutaining schoolchildren about writing and illustrating.
Prior to this period, "Edutainment" was the title of hip-hop group Boogie Down Productions' fourth album which was released in 1990, which predates Catalanotto's popularization of the word. It is also the name of a popular radio show in Knoxville TN, "The Edutainment Hip Hop Show".
In 1983, the term "edutainment" was used to describe a package of software games for the Oric 1 and Spectrum Microcomputers in the UK. Dubbed "arcade edutainment" an advertisement for the package can be found in various issues of "Your Computer" magazine from 1983. The software package was available from Telford ITEC a government sponsored training program. The originator of the name was Chris Harvey who worked at ITEC at the time.
Press release marketing for the Electronic Arts computer game Seven Cities of Gold, released 1984, also used the term edutainment.
Entertainment-education for social development
The field of Entertainment-Education (EE), combines communication and education theory with communicative arts to deliver primarily social development messages. Although Entertainment-Education has existed for millennia in the form of parables and fables, perhaps the most influential modern-day practitioner and theorist in the field is Miguel Sabido. In the 1970s, Sabido began producing telenovelas (soap operas or serial dramas) that combined communication theory with pro-health/education messages to educate audiences throughout Latin America about family planning, literacy, and other topics. His model, which incorporated the work of Albert Bandura and others theorists, as well as research to determine whether programs impacted audience behavior, revolutionized the field. Today, the principles are being used extensively in the health communication field to educate people around the world about important health issues. Initiatives in major universities, such as Johns Hopkins University and in NGOs such as PCI-Media Impact and government agencies such as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), are impacting the United States and the world.
Successful radio programs that have incorporated Entertainment-Education principles include:
• "The Lawsons/Blue Hills" - a radio program that was designed to help Australian farmers adjust to new farming methods.
• "Tinka Tinka Sukh" - a Hindi-language radio program that results in environmental and health improvements in India.
• Soul City - An extremely successful, South African radio serial drama that carried AIDS prevention messages
There are many television programs that incorporate Entertainment-Education as well. The Sentinel Award, which is administered by the University of Southern California's Annenberg Center for Communication, the CDC and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), is given each year to programs that address health and medical issues in their storylines. 2006's nominees/winners include:
• Numb3rs - for a storyline about the shortage of organ donations.
• Grey's Anatomy - for storylines about organ transplantation and cancer.
• As the World Turns - for a breast cancer storyline that involved a major character.
• The George Lopez Show - for a storyline about a kidney transplant.
• Don Pedro's Diabetes - a telenovela about a major character's struggle with diet, exercise, and medication to control diabetes.
Educational theories
Entertainment-Education uses a blend of core communication theories and fundamental entertainment pedagogy to guide the preparation of the programming. Additionally the CDC has a tip sheet available on its website that provides additional guidance for writers and producers.
The major communication theories that influence Entertainment-Education include:
• Persuasion Theory: (Aristotle, Petty, Cacioppo) Psychological characteristics effect the response of a person to messages. Also indicates the message and source factors that influence a person's response such as the credibility, attractiveness, and expertise of the source.
• Theory of Reasoned Action: (Ajzenr, Fishbein) Social influences effect behavior, including beliefs and perceived social norms.
• Social Learning Theory: (Bandura) People learn by observing others and the consequences of their behavior. If the person so chooses, they then emulate the behavior by rehearsing the action, taking action, comparing their experiences to the experiences of others, and then adopting the new behavior.
• Diffusion Theory: (Rogers) Behavior spreads through a community or group over a period of time. Television may plant the idea, but social networks reinforce it and cause it to grow.
Pedagogy involved with Entertainment-Education include:
• Relevance: Learning is more likely when people can see the usefulness of the knowledge they are given.
• Incremental Learning: Learning is most effective when people can learn at their own pace.
• Distributed Learning: (Fossard) Different people learn in different ways over different periods of time. It is important to present information differently so that people can absorb it.
Edutainment in film, television programming
Motion pictures with educational contents appeared as early as 1943, such as Private Snafu.
After World War II, edutainment shifted towards television, primary as children's television series, such as Sesame Street, Dora the Explorer, and Teletubbies. Discovery Channel is also known for its various shows that follow the theme, such as Mythbusters.
For older viewers, individual situation comedy episodes also occasionally serve as edutainment vehicles, sometimes described in United States television commercial parlance as very special episodes. One episode of the American sitcom Happy Days was reported to have prompted a 600% increase in the U.S. demand for library cards. Meanwhile, the British radio soap opera The Archers has for decades been systematically educating its audience on agricultural matters; likewise, the Tanzanian radio soap opera Twende na Wakati ("Let's Go With the Times") was written primarily to promote family planning.
Criticism of edutainment
Edutainment is also a growing paradigm within the science museum community in the United States. This approach emphasizes fun and enjoyment, often at the expense of educational content. The idea is that Americans are so used to flashy, polished entertainment venues like movie theaters and theme parks that they demand similar experiences at science centers and museums. Thus, a museum is seen as just another business competing for entertainment dollars from the public, rather than as an institution that serves the public welfare through education or historical preservation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edutainment
What is Edutainment? (2)
LET'S BEGIN WITH THE "EDUTAINER"...
An original "Georgia peach" who grew up in the Tarheel state, Val Jones presently resides in North Carolina, promoting her mission of educating through entertainment by poetically “planting good seeds and clearing away weeds” through Val Jones Edutainment. She poetically motivates and awakens the senses with unique and insightful presentations and dramatic interpretations. In the media for over twenty years, Val knows how misperceptions and stereotypes can affect our minds and actions. The aim of Val Jones Edutainment is to break down those myths and mindsets that hold people back.
Val's goals are to empower young women of color to embrace the beauty and uniqueness in themselves, to promote the brilliance of African American literature and culture, and to offer various workshops around the country, specifically in the urban communities, to show youth how to express their feelings in powerful, yet creative and non-violent ways.
Witness Val in person and find out why many are blown away by her performances of I Am 24K Black Gold, Sistas...We Got Skills, Free Lunch and a Smile, I'm an Old Hip Hop Junkie, Blues in My Black, God Bless The Child and more.
ATTENTION TEACHERS!
The same old teaching methods do not work on today's youth. And parents are too busy making a living in an unstable economy to fully recognize what is happening to their family. Communication has become disrupted. Youth appear to be disinterested...disheartened...disturbed by their surroundings. Assumptions are made. "This generation is lost." NO they are not! It is not that the youth of today are not bright or willing to learn. But a changing world with age old methods are confusing them. And the lack of understanding leads to learning that which disguises itself as fun. One thing we do know is "fun" is ENTERTAINMENT!
That is why my method of teaching is so effective and long-lasting. I call it EDUTAINMENT...educating through entertainment. Through rap, poetry, humor, history and song, I will motivate even the one you thought lost into developing positive self-esteem and creative yet non-destructive power. Allow me one hour with your youth and witness the transformation.
THEN, IT'S TIME TO WORK ON THE ADULTS!
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!!
Check out a few books from my library...just to get you started:
1. The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz
2. The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
3. The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz
4. The Isis Papers: Keys to Colors by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing
5. Black Voices by Abraham Chapman
6. And Don't Call Me a Racist by Ella Mazel
7. How to Eat to Live, pts. 1 & 2 by Elijah Muhammad
8. Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing by Caroline Myss
9. Sacred Woman: A Guide to Healing the Feminine Body, Mind & Spirit by Queen Afua
10. Stolen Legacy by George G. M. James
11. Lessons From History (A Celebration in Blackness) by Jawanza Kunjufu
12. Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization by Anthony T. Browder
13. Racism, the Inevitable in America by Edward Faison, Jr.
14. Collected Stories of Charles W. Chestnutt by William L. Andrews
15. The Wisdom of Florence Scovel Shinn by Florence Scovil Shinn
What is Edutainment?
Edutainment is a form of education which is designed to be entertaining, in order to keep people interested and engaged. A wide variety of formats can be used to present edutainment, ranging from books to guided tours of zoological parks, and this particular branch of the education world is also extremely profitable. Numerous companies make very large sums of money producing educational materials with an entertaining twist, and in some regions of the world, the rise of edutainment has been criticized by people who fear that it sometimes focuses more on amusing people than teaching them.
The basic concept of edutainment is quite old, although the word, a portmanteau of “education” and “entertainment” was coined in the early 1990s. Many children's books in the 19th century were prime examples of edutainment, with readers being drawn in by colorful scenes which were used to teach them letters of the alphabet and words. Children's books were also used as vehicles for moral and social lessons, as in the case of books which encouraged children to share, or stories about children who failed to heed warnings and ended up in trouble. In the 1990s, however, the edutainment industry exploded, and became much more diverse.
In addition to books, edutainment can also appear in the form of board games, television shows, movies, class activities, video games, and in other formats. Edutainment may also take the form of a trip to a zoo, museum, playground, park, or similar location, in which students are educated about the place they are visited while being entertained by the sights. Edutainment products have also been aimed at people beyond school age: entertaining educational posters about diseases, for example, are posted in many doctor's offices to teach people about common diseases and methods which can be used to prevent them.
The goal of an edutainment product or experience is to provide some valuable knowledge to the consumer by keeping him or her engaged with entertaining material. People who argue in favor of edutainment suggest that when educational material is presented in a dry way, people tend to tune out, and they do not actually absorb the material or the lesson. For example, people are usually more interested by a brightly colored pamphlet than they are by a single sheet covered in densely written text.
However, some educators have suggested that edutainment may cross a line at times. When material is more amusing than it is educational, students can lose out. The focus on providing entertainment foremost is also viewed as problematical in some communities, with critics suggesting that people may not be able to focus on less dynamic presentations of material because they have been deluged in edutainment. In other words, some critics think that edutainment has created its own market by training people to look for amusement before they seek out knowledge.
from: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-edutainment.htm
