Kerala is a charming state curving alongside the azure Arabian Sea on the southern tip of India. It is has been one of the most sought after tourism & holiday destinations of Asia. It attracts tourists from all over the world with its unique cultural and geographical features. It is noted for vibrant culture and eye-catching greenery. In tourism parlance, it is fondly described as the God’s Own Country. The National Geographic has mentioned it one of the 50 must visit destinations of lifetime or one of the ten paradises on the earth. Breathtakingly beautiful beaches fringed by swaying palm coconut trees, vast stretches of serene and scenic backwaters, endless expanses of sprawling lush spice plantations, forested hill stations, historical monuments & sites, religious shrines & spots, deluxe houseboats, colorful fairs & festivals, etc are featured attraction of tourism in God’s Own Country.

There are many fascinating tourism destinations in God’s Own Country which are key attractions of many Kerala tour packages. Among them, Fort Kochi, Kovalam and Alleppey charts top. Fort Kochi is said to be as the Mini Kerala because its features all these things that Kerala boats. Here tourists can enjoy beach tourism, backwater tourism, houseboat cruise, boat cruise, culture & heritage tourism, and many more. St Francis Church, Mattancherry Dutch Palace, Hill Palace Museum, Jew Towns, Pardesi Synagogue, Fort Kochi, Portuguese Buildings, Colonial Homes, Willington Islands, Chinese Fishing Nets, museums, beaches, backwaters, etc are key attractions of tours and travels in Mini Kerala, Kochi.

Kovalam is a small town and combination of three semi-circular beaches namely Light House Beach, Hawa Beach and Samudra Beach. Kovalam beach in India is one of the finest beaches resorts in the world. It is wildly acclaimed and much admired by tourists and travellers. There is not matching of Kovalam beach. It has international appeal and charm. And of course vacationers from all over the world visit the beautiful beach destination of Kerala quite in good number. It is also a very popular destination of honeymoon tours Kerala. Newly weds have a wonderful opportunity to indulge in several beach activities and water sports. Beaches here are very ideal for swimming, bathing, sunbathing, and just for relaxing and watching nature beautiful in surroundings. For couples, Kovalam is a dream destination. Ayurvedic resorts, parlors and saloons are added attractions of Kovalam beach.

Alleppey is a picturesque destination in god’s own country noted for backwater tourism as well as beach tourism. Alleppey also boasts some Ayurvedic resorts. It is much admired tourist destination in the state due to its extraordinary nature beauty and amiable ambiance. Alleppey is basically known for backwater cruise with deluxe houseboats traditionally called Kettuvallams. Houseboats in Kerala are deluxe holiday home floating over serene & scenic backwaters. Staying at deluxe houseboats cruising serene & scenic backwaters is itself a unique experience of Kerala tourism and holidays.

About Author ::

Michael Hussy is a renowned travelogue and has been dealing with travel guides since longtime. If you want to know about Kerala Tourism, its romantic beaches, picturesque backwaters, picture perfect hill stations and many more visit to http://www.kerala-honeymoon-packages.com/

Autism Family Weekend, April 9th, 10th & 11th. April 11th is our first annual swim-a-thon to benefit autism. Location: Gunstock Inn & Fitness Center, 580 Cherry Valley Road, Gilford, NH., 03249, www.gunstockinn.com Contact Stephanie at sbastille@metrocast.net or call 603-556-7502. Details are still being worked out and will keep everyone posted. This is the 3rd year for hosting the Autism Family Weekend and am looking forward to seeing some regulars and new faces.

FRIDAY, Feb. 26 (HealthDay News) -- It's not a particular brain region that makes someone smart or not smart. Nor is it the strength and speed of the connections throughout the brain or such features as total brain volume. Instead, new research shows, it's the connections between very specific areas of the brain that determine intelligence and often, by extension, how well someone does in life. "General intelligence actually relies on a specific network inside the brain, and this is the connections between the gray matter, or cell bodies, and the white matter, or connecting fibers between neurons," said Jan Glascher, lead author of a paper appearing in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "General intelligence relies on the connection between the frontal and the parietal [situated behind the frontal] parts of the brain." The results weren't entirely unexpected, said Keith Young, vice chairman of research in psychiatry and behavioral science at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine in Temple, but "it is confirmation of the idea that good communication between various parts of brain are very important for this generalized intelligence." General intelligence is an abstract notion developed in 1904 that has always been somewhat controversial. "People noticed a long time ago that, in general, people who are good test-takers did well in a lot of different subjects," explained Young. "If you're good in mathematics, you're also usually good in English. Researchers came up with this idea that this represented a kind of overall intelligence." "General intelligence is this notion that smart people tend to be smart across all different kinds of domains," added Glascher, who is a postdoctoral fellow in the department of humanities and social sciences at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Hoping to learn more, the authors located 241 patients who had some sort of brain lesion. They then diagrammed the location of their lesions and had them take IQ tests. "We took patients who had damaged parts of their brain, tested them on intelligence to see where they were good and where they were bad, then we correlated those scores across all the patients with the location of the brain lesions," Glascher explained. "That way, you can highlight the areas that are associated with reduced performance on these tests which, by the reverse inference, means these areas are really important for general intelligence." "These studies infer results based on the absence of brain tissue," added Paul Sanberg, distinguished professor of neurosurgery and director of the University of South Florida Center for Aging and Brain Repair in Tampa. "It allows them to systemize and pinpoint areas important to intelligence." Young said the findings echo what's come before. "The map they came up with was what we expected and involves areas of the cortex we thought would be involved -- the parietal and frontal cortex. They're important for language and mathematics," he said. In an earlier study, the same team of investigators found that this brain network was also important for working memory, "the ability to hold a certain number of items [in your mind]," Glascher said. "In the past, people have associated general intelligence very strongly with enhanced working memory capacity so there's a close theoretical connection with that."

MMR doctor proved right in week he was condemned as 'dishonest' In the week that the doctor at the centre of the controversy over the MMR vaccine and autism was called “dishonest, irresponsible and callous” by a medical disciplinary board, a new study has been published that suggests he could be right all along. Researchers in New York have discovered that children with autism spectrum disorder also had inflammation in the ileum, part of the small intestine – the exact same discovery made by Dr Andrew Wakefield, who may now lose his medical license following a 30-month hearing at the General Medical Council. Wakefield noted that the children he saw also had been given the triple MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine, and he speculated that it might be the cause. After the publication of his paper in The Lancet in 1998, vaccination rates dropped dramatically as parents in the UK refused to have their children vaccinated. The new study, from the New York University School of Medicine, discovered that 143 children with autism spectrum disorder also suffered from chronic gastrointestinal symptoms, and inflammation in the small intestine. As the vaccine is compulsory in the US, where the children live, it is reasonable to assume that most, if not all, were vaccinated – although the researchers do not suggest that it was the cause of the inflammation they detected. (Source: Autism Insights, 2010; 2: 1-11). Story from WDDTY: http://www.wddty.com/mmr-doctor-proved-right-in-week-he-was-condemned-as-dishonest.html