Best Technology Blogs For Real Tech Lovers

How do you keep up with the latest technology trends, gadgets and releases? Some people just have that one friend who calls them at strange hours of the night to let them know about a new game release that isn't going to happen for another six month and some people spend a lot of time scanning the internet trying to find the latest news and reviews of products that are coming out. There are some magazines and even podcasts that bring a great deal of information to those interested consumers and these are becoming some very popular ways to get recent updates from the biggest companies in the industry like Apple, Microsoft, HP, Dell and many more.

For the real geek, there is no better way to get their info than reading the best technology blogs. These sites thrive on hot new updates on all things geek!

There are some great tech blogs that do not get all the media attention like Engadget and Gizmodo do and many times these smaller technology news sources are bringing just as much value to the reader. The smaller technology blogs bring some great information and many times they cover some of the smaller stories that you may not hear about on the huge tech blogs. The best technology blogs will have information about the up and coming news in tech and also carry some product reviews to help you make educated purchasing decisions when you are ready to buy your next digital gadget. Reading product reviews can give anybody a quick idea of the capabilities of the new device and if it is as useful as the manufacturers write ups make them sound. This is a good way to do some simple research before you buy and make sure that you get your money's worth on ever tech purchase you make.

The best technology blogs will also cover a wide variety of technologies. It seems like most of the big name tech sites just flood their sites with iPhone and Android articles, these are some hot devices, but many of us are looking for information on a lot more than cell phones. When you are checking out the top technology blogs on the net, make sure that you find one that covers the topics that you are interested in and make sure they are updated frequently. Some sites only have day old news and this is no way to find out what is hot and trending right now. There are many great technology news sites on the internet so take a look around and see if you can find the perfect tech news site for you and your interests.

When you start searching for the best technology blogs on the internet you will find that there really are many to choose from. This cool lens on Squidoo shows off some fan favorites and lists the top technology blogs that you may not have heard of already. Have fun finding great tech sites and giving yourself a in depth in the latest tech of our times.

Personal Technology for the Modern Society

In our fast changing world, technology is essential towards the execution of various tasks, which are impossible to be carried out without the power of science and electronics. Technology serves to be the vital bridge which fills up the gap between the impossibility and the possibility. It serves as the key towards unlocking the future full of fulfilled vision, accomplished mission and achieved goals.

As human beings of the twenty-first century, we are fortunate enough to be given a chance to have a grip on numerous gadgets that we could utilize for our own benefits. These modern gadgets ease the burden in carrying out our duties, and granting us the efficiency and precision that we desire. Nowadays, a contemporary device is a need for us human beings to fully unlock the potentials deep within ourselves, beneath our businesses and underneath the visions that we hold inside our minds.

Without these gadgets, it would be arduous to fulfill the tasks that the modern world is demanding from us. The inability to hold and utilized a gadget would create a barrier between us and our goals for today's world, since modernization is calling upon its people to take a step forward and lean into something that could accomplish and finalize a task in a higher level.

Hence, we are challenged upon this society of ours to keep a hold with the gadgets and use them for the advantage of humanity. Luckily, there are innumerable devices and technology that we could own today.

Touch screen technology is just one of the many technology that could provide us only the best results and provide us an excellent service. This kind of technology allows the user to be interactive, which is a great way to deal with the interest of the current civilization. It allows an individual to create different sizes of presentations, allowing the viewer to examined profoundly a material. Touch screen technology allows its user to introduce his product to his clients in the most collective and communal manner. Subsequently, this would lead to a successful presentation and business deals.

Touch screen technology is durable than ever, thus one can be assured that such a technology could be of service for a business or for an establishment in a long span of time. Moreover, it allows a person to multitask in his presentations and create an amazing display of his product that would spark a great interest among people and clients. Owning this technology allows a user to personalize his tasks and functions. This is necessary since nowadays there are innumerable tasks that an individual should partake. Thus, personal technology permits someone to go beyond the boundaries and to go outside the limits.

Today, as our society is constantly evolving, utilizing such a superb product of science such as the touch screen technology, allows us to respond to the demands of time. It is just one among the proofs on how the world has just become so complex, that we need to be equipped to land a spot at the top.

Matthew Hohn enjoys writing for Ssidisplays which sells touch screen technology and acrylic projection screens as well as a host of additional products.

Science Meets Spirit

Science and spirit are not separate disciplines; understanding the true nature of reality reveals where science meets spirit!

"Countries like ours are full of people who have all of the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it...it aches!"

Bernard Levin

Sooner or later everyone starts to ask questions about the nature of reality. We are curious about who we are; we ponder on the meaning of life; we look at the world and wonder what is our place in it. Our search will usually take us to information, including the major religions, that suggests a 'wholeness' to reality; that everything is 'one'; that we are more than just flesh and blood.

We are now in a very exciting time when quantum physics is making discoveries about reality that support what the ancient wisdom philosophies have been saying for thousands of years. It is therefore surprising that there are hundreds of websites which claim to be examining the nature of reality, but in fact are only examining small areas of this 'oneness'; they seem to have fallen into the trap of 'dualism'. That is to say, no matter what their starting point is, or what terminology they use, sooner or later they talk in terms of 'spiritual' and 'physical'. They are left with these seemingly irreconcilable opposites which will never allow the true nature of reality to make sense.

It is the same mistake classical science made when trying to find the so-called spark of life that they thought was somehow injected into inert matter. It is only with the advent of quantum physics that science has started to realise that a totally new and radical approach is needed to begin to understand the nature of reality.

SPACETIME

For centuries science had treated 'Time' and 'Space' as if they were two separate and absolute 'entities'. Because of this error in thinking, scientists had wrestled unsuccessfully to make any real sense of reality. Genuine progress started to be made when certain scientists, starting with Albert Einstein, challenged the normally accepted scientific assumptions. This eventually led to the realisation that 'time' and 'space' were intricately intertwined. It also meant that a new word was needed to explain this concept and so they created the word 'Spacetime', which, without realising it, had taken science another step along the road to discovering the 'Wholeness' of everything. It is this 'Wholeness' that the ancient wisdom philosophies have been speaking about for thousands of years.

To illustrate the advances in scientific thinking, please consider the following quotations from several physicists:

"People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubborn persistent illusion."

- Albert Einstein

"The concept of time derives from the fact that we divide reality into bits and pieces. In so doing, we create a subject and an object with a space between. We experience these objects, these aspects of reality, in a piecemeal manner and thus create a linear succession in time. The spaceless infinite removes the space between subject and object; the timeless now removes linear succession. Instead of knowing the Universe from a distance, the Self knows the Universe by being it, without need of space and time."

- Norman Friedman

"Mind does not observe the past; it creates it. The past is only as real as we make it."

- Fred Alan Wolf.

"This universe has no beginning or ending, no outer edges in space."

- Stephen Hawking

MATTER

The quest of physics has always basically been to discover what matter is; what the fundamental building block of the reality we experience is actually made of. Once they had made the discovery of the atom, scientists represented everything as being made of components which resembled coloured balls, albeit very small coloured balls. As the atom was examined further it was found to be composed of a nucleus with orbiting electrons, but we still had the coloured ball imagery.

The quest continued to find what these components were made of. What followed was the discovery that the atom's nucleus was made up of two other 'bits' which scientists called neutrons and protons. However the journey was not over because the neutrons and protons also had to be made of something didn't they? Unfortunately for science, as they examined the neutrons and protons further they were left with what they could only call energy, and nobody was quite sure just what that was. Again it seemed that science had moved closer to proving what the ancient wisdom philosophies had always said, that all things come from the one.

To illustrate the advances in scientific thinking, please consider the following quotations from several scientists:

"It is not only possible but fairly probable, even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of one and the same thing."

- Carl Jung

"Quantum Physics leaves us with 'Quantumstuff', existing as a particle in our three dimensional world and appearing only when we observe it, and otherwise, existing as a wavelike entity not in our three dimensional world."

- Norman Friedman

"The difference between the old and the new physics is simple and profound; both the old and the new physics were dealing with shadow-symbols, but the new physics was forced to be aware of the fact; forced to be aware that it was dealing with shadows and illusions, not reality."

- Sir Arthur Eddington

CONSCIOUSNESS

We have seen that we are not quite sure what 'matter' is. It certainly does not seem to be extremely small pieces of solid 'something' as was once thought. Instead it is best described as 'energy' but we are not quite sure what that is either.

Ask yourself if 'thought' or 'consciousness' could also be described as 'energy'?

If this is the case then the implications are tremendous.

Have a look at the following statements by leading physicists and other eminent people:

"No elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is registered (observed) phenomenon... Useful as it is under everyday circumstances to say that the world exists 'out there' independent of us, that view can no longer be upheld."

- John Wheeler

"Consciousness ultimately creates reality, because the choice of what is actualised, event to event, is always up to consciousness."

- Amit Goswami

"The knower is ever greater than the known, and the seer is greater than the seen. That which is known is contained within the knower, and that which is seen is in the seer; the vast expanse of the sky is in the mind, not outside, because the mind is everywhere and there is no outside to it."

- Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi

"I had come to suspect, and now felt compelled to acknowledge, that science and the physical world were products of human imagining; that we were not the cool observers of that world, but it's passionate creators. We were all poets and the world was our metaphor."

- Roger S Jones

"Quantum theory essentially erased the difference between matter and fields, making reality a unit that exhibits the properties of both. This single, unitary stuff gave rise to the fantastically successful algorithm now used by physicists in all calculations involving quantum theory. But nobody knows what this unitary stuff really is. Most quantum physicists, of course, stop short of calling this unitary substance consciousness."

- Norman Friedman

"It is your mind that creates this world."

- The Buddha

REALITY

For most people the world they live in is viewed as a series of opposites, such as light and dark, hot and cold, right and wrong, good and bad, physical and spiritual etc. With the latter pair of seeming opposites we have what we could call two major institutions who look after the interests of their respective fields. These are of course the institution of Science, who measure and weigh all things physical, and the institution of Religion, in what ever form it takes, who measure and weigh our non-physical life. Science has often been portrayed as the enemy of religion, with each new discovery that science made seeming to disprove a little more the claims of religion. But, with the advances made in the area of Quantum Physics, this may no longer be the case.

How do we experience our reality? This is something we often take for granted, but it's worth pondering for a moment or two.

We receive our day to day experiences through our five senses, which are Touch, Taste, Sight, Hearing and Smell. But do these senses tell us everything?

For instance, what does modern physics tell us about the light and sound spectrums?

Do our eyes see the whole range of the light spectrum?

Do our ears hear the whole range of the sound spectrum?

What does science tell us about the atomic structure of matter?

Can we really rely on our sight or our hearing or our touch to tell us about the true nature of the world we inhabit?

Do you think it's possible to know the true nature of reality just using the five senses we have?

Our senses only provide us with part of the picture of the true nature of reality and because of this we very often make the wrong value judgments in our lives.

The true nature of reality is not only stranger than you imagine, it is stranger than you can imagine.

The following quotations will illustrate this point further.

"Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and, therefore, part of the mystery that we are trying to solve."

- Max Planck

"Both the ancient Hindu philosophies and quantum physics teach that an infinite, unchanging reality exists hidden behind the illusion of ceaseless change"

- Fred Alan Wolf

"The habit of attributing life to bodies goes hand in hand with extroversion; and the notion of a living organism is nothing but an objectification of the principle of life in terms of the senses."

- John Levy

"According to quantum physics principles, what we think of as the 'real past' is also alterable and not fixed."

- Fred Alan Wolf

FURTHER INSIGHTS

We have presented here a selection of quotations from various leading physicists and philosophers to aid further insights into the nature of reality.

"In essence, there is no universe present without the imagination, no imagination without a mind, and no mind without consciousness. Thus, as we begin to probe into the structure of consciousness, we come to its spiritual foundation in ancient wisdom."

- Fred Alan Wolf

"Fragmentation is continually being brought about by the almost universal habit of taking the content of our thought for 'a description of the world as it is'. Or we could say that, in this habit, our thought is regarded as in direct correspondence with objective reality."

- David Bohm

"One has the feeling that the thinkers of the East knew it all, and if we could only translate their answers into our language we would have the answers to all our questions."

- John Wheeler

"Physicist Alain Aspect and his collaborators not only proved nonlocality, but also confirmed the existence of a transcendent domain beyond the material domain of spacetime. This is in direct contradiction to the one-material-world assumption of material realism and is in direct support of transcendence found in all spiritual traditions."

- Amit Goswami

"On this side of the veil there is 'you' and 'I', on the other side of the veil there is only 'us'.

- Omar Khyam

"Truth is infinite, and our understanding will always be finite."

These concepts are explained in more depth, and in an easily understandable and practical way, on our 'Nature of Reality Course'. We will show that rather than being difficult and impractical subjects they can be understood in sufficient depth to be of real use in our everyday lives. The implications of this knowledge will not only delight and astound you but will also change forever the way you see yourself and your world.

To know more about the course log-on to http://www.thenatureofrealitycourse.com.

We, at NoR, have been devoted for many years to studying the world philosophies and sciences in our exploration of the nature of reality.

This study has resulted in The Nature of Reality Course; written in 21st century language that does not require course participants to have any specialist knowledge or training but still provides meaningful and very practical benefits.

The Nature of Reality Course is a new and unique Course which combines the wisdom of the east with the science of the west.

The facts about the true nature of reality are not only stranger than you imagine, they are stranger than you can imagine.

The online version of the Nature of Reality Course is available at http://www.thenatureofrealitycourse.com

Forensic Science Degrees

Institutes across the United States offer a wide range of online and campus-based forensics programs including criminal investigations, forensic science, digital forensics, computer forensics training, and crime scene technician training, at both the Masters and Doctoral levels.

Graduates of Master of Science in Forensic Computing gain both an understanding of criminal justice issues related to electronic crime investigation and a computer science foundation in forensic computing. The theoretical grounding of the computing curriculum equips the students to respond to the continuously changing technical and legal challenges in the field and participate in research and training in computer forensics and security techniques. The practical side of the curriculum equips students to work as forensic computing specialists in such roles as cyber-investigators, first responders, technicians in forensic labs and consultants on computer security issues.

The Master of Arts in Criminal Justice program consists of a general survey of the field with courses in research methods, the causes of crime, social control of social deviance, and analysis of the police, courts and correctional systems with opportunities to take additional courses in various sub-areas such as drug abuse.

Master of Arts in Forensic Psychology, this program is designed to train practitioners to provide psychological services to, and within, the criminal and civil justice systems. It focuses on the understanding, evaluation and treatment of adult and juvenile offenders, as well as the victims of crime and domestic violence. It covers crisis intervention, psychology and the legal system, and also the role of the psychologist in the courtroom. Through the curriculum, students are provided with an advanced understanding of psychological development and psychopathology, personality assessment, psychotherapeutic techniques and research methods.

Master of Science in Forensic Science, the program is designed to provide advanced education for scientists, scientists in administration, directors, and other professionals currently employed in crime laboratories and in such related areas as public safety, arson investigation, and environmental protection. It also prepares people who are interested in entering such careers. The curriculum meets an urgent national need for well trained forensic scientists.

PhD in Criminal Justice - The Doctoral Program offers an interdisciplinary education in the fields of criminal justice, criminology and forensic science which combines theory, empirical research, and normative analysis. Through a well-integrated core curriculum, the students are trained rigorously in social science methods, research design, statistics, and information retrieval. They are also provided with a firm grounding in criminological theory, criminal law, criminal procedure, organizational behavior, public policy analysis, and the psychology of criminal justice.

PhD in Forensic Psychology - The Program endorses the scientist-practitioner model of doctoral education in psychology. This model has been widely adopted by doctorate programs in clinical psychology nationwide. The model maintains the primacy of research training while also providing the necessary clinical preparation techniques. The program educates students both in providing professional psychological services to and within the law enforcement field and the criminal and civil justice systems as well as contributing to the development of knowledge in the field. Upon completion, students are eligible to apply for state licensure as psychologists.

Forensic Science [http://www.e-ForensicScience.com] provides detailed information on Forensic Science, Forensic Science Degrees, Forensic Science Colleges, Forensic Science Schools and more. Forensic Science is affiliated with Biotechnology Careers [http://www.i-Biotechnology.com].

Education and Careers: The Paths We Choose

We all know that education prices are skyrocketing, and the return on investment (ROI) is not so clear. Degrees, they say, used to guarantee a job, and now jobs that used to only require a bachelor's degree require a master's, and so on. This means that the ROI has decreased, and that higher education is undergoing inflation. Technological changes, moreover, are eliminating midlevel service jobs.

According to a May 2011 report by the Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University, full-time workers with a bachelor's degree earn, on average, 84 percent more over their lifetime than those with only a high school diploma. If workers, then, with a bachelor's degree are now filling jobs that those with only a high school diploma used to have, then living conditions and salaries for them are poor, and salaries for those without a degree are unlivable. In this situation, it is necessary to earn a higher degree, and yet, hard if not impossible to receive a decent ROI for the time and money spent.

In comes online education. Online higher degrees are becoming more credible and more common. And as if on a linear train of thought - in comes free online education, offered from top universities around the country (MOOCs). Moreover, the career opportunities that only a degree-in-hand allow are merging with online ed options: just a few weeks ago Georgia Tech announced that it was merging with Udacity to provide a reasonably-priced computer science program. In the totally unbalanced situation of higher than reasonable brick-and-mortar degree prices versus free online education, hybrid models are emerging as one way of answering to the issue for positive ROI outcomes.

ROI: What Does It Really Mean? OR Is Money What It's All About?

According to government projections, by 2020, only three of the thirty fields with the largest projected job openings will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position: teachers, college professors, and accountants. Most of the available positions will be midlevel jobs not easily replaced by technology such as retail sales associates, fast food workers and truck drivers.

College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities are now among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level, while nursing, teaching, accounting, and computer science graduates are the most likely. Graduates with degrees in marketing, finance, human resources, and advertising are seeing an increase in career opportunities and therefore ROI.

'While engineering and computer science consistently rate among the top-paying college majors, students should also research employment demand and hot skillsets,' Andrea Porter, communications director at Georgetown's CEW, said to USNews for a piece called 'College Majors With the Best Return on Investment.' "Research what skills are most valuable in the labor market... and depending on those 'hot skills' you can also obtain a certificate that will provide you skills that will set you apart," she added.

Katie Bardaro, a lead economist at PayScale (an online salary database), contributed to the piece by stating that engineering, physics, computer science, and mathematics boast strong earning potential and low unemployment rates, which can help prospective employees reap the highest return on their education investment.

Many are concerned, because where there are jobs there isn't enough talent and where there is talent, jobs are limited. And since ROI is usually only calculated by the maximum money one receives for their time spent in college, top-paying careers which are in-demand are listed as the top careers.

If you are cut out for the analytical work, these advisers say, then do it! For the money.

But what about for those who don't necessary need the maximum paying career - those who see what they want to contribute and what they themselves are talented in as important first, and then wish to identify how to make a living? Is money the most important thing to all of us? When did economical ROI become the most important aspect of continuing one's education? And the answer of course, is always for some, and for other's: when this became a concern.

No, money is not the most important factor for all of us. "Teachers aren't in it for the money," for example, is a common expression of the profession. But money can help us get places. Money is necessary to survive. A decent paycheck, good working conditions, and fulfilling our dreams is the ideal for many of us.

If money was the only thing that mattered, then perhaps we would all heed the advice of the higher education advisers who say - enter computer science now! Perhaps it is not that we do not have the ability, talent or work ethic, but simply, that our interests lead us somewhere else. Some of us have our own visions to follow. What then?

Fulfilling Our Highest Visions

We have an economy that is based on creating revenue by selling things we don't need cheap and making a profit vs. filling real world needs for humanity's benefit. We are conditioned to want more money and certain things - often brands. There is too much competition in fields we don't really need, and too many shady businesses and practices that take advantage of people. Imagine if we focused on the best and putting capable people into jobs that actually serve people, imagine if money didn't matter the way it does for people and businesses of today. But it does because money is the most powerful thing in our world. Even knowledge doesn't come close to the power money allows a person to yield.

Technology should make things easier on all of us, not take away a limited amount of jobs and further the economic gap between the wealthy and the poor, making only the hardest jobs that cannot easily be filled by technology what's available to uneducated people. All people should be well-educated. All people have potential. Meaningless jobs should be filled by computers, and people should be encouraged and able pursue their dreams. Make the world a better place. Make themselves better. Make others better. And help the community.

Perhaps I am too partial to romanticizing education. I truly believe that it is one of the most powerful forces in the world; that knowledge, not money, should be the most powerful. However, true education, education of this magnitude, is not, I believe, about pushing out "job-ready" graduates with "hot skills" at the right time or moment to enter a certain market. I believe the true graduates are the ones who leave college having faced themselves, and the world around them, and are ready to enter it; that specific skills are as important as life-skills, self-confidence, and general intelligence. That these hot skills don't in fact add up if graduates are looking at the job market to pick a career, rather than finding their career based on their innate talents and desired life, whether this means that they work in advertising, as a teacher, professor, fisherman, farmer, agriculturist, or politician. We must find our own path and therefore happiness instead of the world demanding, stealing, insisting it away from us.

So while education is a good and now an almost necessary cost in the vision of this country and our place in it, and while many things influence our futures in a numerical and calculated way - our parent's education, our education, society's demands, and media influences - we must insist on making our own dreams and happinesses real. ROI is not only about money gains, although it is often discussed in this matter. You are not a determined by the money you make.

Of course, we must have some kind of practical plan. We have to make it work. And following our happiness, indeed can take a lot of work. And many make their visions work by combining them with one of the strong in-demand fields such as in science, technology, education or business. If we love the outcome, then the work in the end means something. This, in my opinion, is what matters.

360 Education Solutions is an advocate in the search for quality online degree programs and professional development for teachers.

Perk Ups of Adult Education

When it comes to acquiring education, age really does not matter. Such an opportunity is called adult education which lets adults to start or revive education from any point in their life without the age restriction. It gives people the launching ground to survive and makes them stronger in this highly competitive world of today both educationally and financially.

Many people you know or meet are left with emptiness because they could not do what they actually wanted to do with their lives. Some took wrong choices and preferences, some were dropped out and others were pushed into boring fields which they were not interested in. If while reading this, you are feeling the same way then it's your story too. For such kind of people who want to reshape, rethink and redesign their educational status, adult education is a directing path which leads them to explore themselves and find the things which they always wanted to.

Adult education is everywhere

Adult education is everywhere. Whether you want to study full-time, part-time, daytime or night-time, it's your decision. Today's world offers that much flexibility which no one ever imagined. You can study whilst being present at home or even if you are already employed and want to upgrade your current educational status then education for adults has a lot to offer you with top most the factor of flexibility.

A lot of regular universities are offering this kind of educational courses where people from different backgrounds come and choose the subjects they are interested in. Apart from the regular universities offering these courses, there are many online and distance learning institutes which are dedicated to educating adults and offer a diverse range of subjects, disciplines and qualifications to help them cope up with their busy routines and tough work schedules.

Perk ups of adult education

• Getting yourself enrolled in an advanced learning program leads you to climb up the ladder of success and earn you the opportunities to excel in your existing field with much more advanced and enhanced education.
• Education for adults becomes crucial when you want to change your current field or line of work and when you do not own the knowledge and expertise to enter the new profession.
• The use of online recourses and study material benefits every single individual without the need of following the traditional methods of writing down the lectures.
• Successful completion of adult education programs increases the level of self esteem of a person.
• As compared to regular learning, adult education is cost saving in many aspects. You study at home hence save travel cost as well as relocation expenses. You eat homemade food hence save money paid previously to campus dining halls and most importantly, the tuition fee is significantly less than the fees of a regular college.

Sana Shoukat is a writer by profession and a graduate in media and communication studies. She is also a US State Department selected young leader. She writes for different niches with the top most online education. Her recent article is about adult education and features the perk ups of adult 

Educational Games to Make Learning Fun

This is by far, the most popular and basic category of toys for young children. Small blocks made of soft material are ideal for an infant. They love to look at it, more so, if they are brightly colored. They like to hold and squeeze the blocks and this activity enhances the grip and strengthens the hand muscles. The advantages of building blocks as playthings are as follows:

Imaginative skills are sharpened:
For a preschooler, blocks provide ample opportunities to build towers, animals and houses, using imaginative skills.

Team spirit:
Building blocks played in a group are more enjoyable and the best means to teach the little one to share and co-operate with others. This also inculcates team spirit in children at a very young age.

Physical strength:
Carrying the wooden blocks and placing them in the appropriate place enhances physical strength. The toddler will lift the blocks and eventually learn to balance them.

Sharpens the creative bend of mind:
Building blocks and tiles help in constructing pillars, houses and castles. This is indeed a creative activity which boosts the artistic and inventive traits of a child.

Educational puzzles:
Educational puzzles make problem solving a fun to do activity. The simple ones teach numerical and alphabetical concepts while the complex puzzles teach various other educational concepts which are hard to comprehend.

The Science Behind a Good Marriage

Science can do many things. It can create cures for what used to be incurable diseases; it can tell us who was at the scene of the crime; it can explain the mating habits of Emperor Penguins. But can it really be used to define what a good marriage is and offer guidance to couples whose marriage is in trouble? Tara Parker-Pope thinks so and in her new book, For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage, tells the reader why, translating the science into practical advice.

Parker-Pope was driven to research the science of marriage when she found her own marriage crumbling after seventeen years. Local bookstores were filled with marriage advice books and self-help books but she found most of them full of platitudes and clichés. Parker-Pope wanted the same "objective, evidence-based advice" about her marriage that she would receive in answer to a health issue. As author of the New York Times' "Well" blog, Parker-Pope was used to approaching health issues using science. So why not approach her emotional issues using science as well? And as there was no book out there providing this approach to solving marriage issues, Parker-Pope decided that she would write one herself. Interviewing dozens of the world's top marriage and relationship researchers and poring over hundreds of published research studies, Parker-Pope's extensive investigation into the science of a good marriage has produced, For Better: The Science of a Good Marriage. And don't think that this is some dry old science textbook similar to the ones from your schooldays. Parker-Pope make the science accessible to the everyday reader, using the studies and their results to draw up strategies for a wide range of couples; not just the ones who fear their marriage is on the rocks but for those who are concerned they are in a rut, or just want confirmation that they are doing the right thing. A Magic Formula? So is there a magic formula created by scientists for a "good marriage"? If so, what is it?! Well, you will need to read the book to find out but some of Parker-Pope's recommendations for a "good" (read "happy") marriage include:

• "Celebrating the good news"; in other words, rather than focusing on what is wrong, focus on what is right too
• Understanding and implementing what she calls the "Mathematics of Marriage", meaning that it is okay to argue occasionally or lose your temper with your partner as long as you outweigh the negativity with positive actions and words, ideally with a five-to-one ratio

• "Just do it!" According to Parker-Pope, "Sex won't solve all your problems but it will certainly help." Low-desire couples are advised to have sex even if they don't feel like it. After going through the motions for five minutes, the sexual activity will release "bonding chemicals" which enable the couple to start to enjoy the act and continue. So can science really help your marriage? Parker Pope's advice resulting from her scientific research is full of good tips, strategies and common sense. Whether her approach will work for every struggling couple, I'm not sure, but science has certainly got something right. Parker-Pope writes "...research shows that couples in stable relationships have more sex, more money and live longer, healthier lives." Amen to that.