Fall Foliage Scenic Drives in New England - Introduction

Fall foliage in New England really begins in August. The shortening daylight hours trigger the deciduous trees to begin the process of shedding their leaves. It happens all around North America, and all around the world.

But in New England it's special.

Why is fall foliage in New England so different and special?

It's a factor of many things but mostly an abundance of different types of deciduous trees, warm autumn days, and cool - but not freezing - nights. When these and a few other conditions are all mixed in the right proportions, then you get the world famous stunning shades of reds, yellows, oranges, and browns on the hills and mountain sides of New England.

Between mid-September to late-October, visitors flock to New England to see the fall foliage. These six scenic drives offer some of the best autumn views available from anywhere on the planet.

This is an introduction to a series of six articles that provide details and routes on each of these scenic drives.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - MOHAWK TRAIL MASSACHUSETTS

The most popular fall foliage scenic drives in Massachusetts are along the famous Mohawk Trail. This trail rolls out through the northwestern part of the state on route 2, and winds through the hills and mountains of the Berkshires, touching picturesque towns like Williamstown, Deerfield, Shelbourne, Colrain, Charlemont, and Shelburne Falls.

Mount Greylock, the highest point in Massachusetts, offers spectacular views of the surrounding area and Mohawk Trail.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - KANCAMAGUS HIGHWAY NEW HAMPSHIRE

New Hampshire has many scenic drives in the White Mountain National Forest but at the top of the list has to be the 34-mile Kancamagus Scenic Highway that runs along route 112 from Conway to White Mountains Visitor Center in Lincoln. This drive is considered by many to be the top fall foliage New England scenic drive. It has beautiful forests ablaze with autumn colors and plenty of photo opportunities with walks along gorges and streams, and with views of the highest mountains in the Presidential Range.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - CENTRAL VERMONT AREA

In Vermont nature planted all the high peaks in the south - although the North Kingdom has great color as well. But arguably Vermont's best loved fall foliage drive is in the Central Vermont area, around Killington, and the towns and highways of Woodstock, Rutland and Ludlow. This is deep in The Green Mountain National Forest area, and not surprisingly offers spectacular fall foliage color and scenery.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - LAKES AND LEAVES MAINE

Parts of Maine are the first to display peak fall foliage color in New England. With Maine's many driving loops to choose from, it's difficult to single out one. But the Lakes and Leaves drive that touches the shores of Moosehead Lake on Route 15 before heading south on route 201 is ever popular. You'll see unparalleled fall foliage views of the tree-lined banks of the Kennebec River, and the surrounding mountains on this Maine Scenic Highway.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - RHODE ISLAND COAST

Fall vacationers in Rhode Island have open roads and coastal drives to satisfy their leaf peeping. The 61-mile Rhode Island Coast Scenic Drive follows the coastline east from Westerly before turning north along Narragansett Bay, and eventually over Newport Bridge on route 138. The drive finishes over the breathtaking Ocean Drive in historic Newport. A pleasant seaside twist to a fall foliage drive.

FALL FOLIAGE SCENIC DRIVE - CONNECTICUT ROUTE 169

Not to be outdone during fall foliage the state of Connecticut has in its own little corner of popular autumn leaf spotting sites, with some of the most stunning scenic drives being on Route 169 in the glacial plains which are part of Quinebaug River bottomlands.

Are you ready for more details? Then look for the other articles in this series. Or if you can't wait you can pick up the complete scenic drive free report containing these and other New England scenic drives, along with detailed route coverage and attractions, at his New England vacations site.

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Solid State Drives Vs Hard Drives - An Introduction

There are presently two common types of internal drives. The more common drive is the hard disk drive, while the solid state drive (SSD) is still making progress. One the outside there may not appear to be much of a difference between a 2.5" hard drive and an SSD with the same form factor. The connection to the motherboard is the same. The power connectors are the same. Even the mounting to the computer case or laptop hard drive bay is usually the same. The difference is in how the drives store and retrieve the information.

Hard disk drives consist of one or more round platters coated with a magnetic substance that can store a magnetic field. As the platter rotates, a read or write head can move over the platter and detect or change this magnetic field. Solid state drives do not have moving parts-hence the name. Instead, a solid state drive uses NAND-based flash memory chips. These memory chips, much like USB thumb drives, can retain their data even when there is no power. Instead of a moving read or write head, information is stored by selecting which memory cell to store information to and applying the desired value to that memory cell in terms of ones and zeros.

The hard drive is still the most common form of storage by far in today's computers because they are cheaper - less than $200 for a terabyte when this is written. Because the hard disk drive must rotate a platter and move a read or write head across the platter, there is a slight delay when accessing data. This delay is called the seek time. If a file system becomes severely fragmented, multiple seeks read reading and writing can greatly degrade performance.

In addition the hard drive can be more easily damaged. The read and write heads are so close to the platter that if dust particles get on the platter, they can cause scratches and loss of data. Also, dropping or bumping the hard disk drive can jar the read and write heads to touch the platter, causing damage to the heads and loss of data. For this reason, hard disk drives should not be moved while in use, and should be handled carefully even when not in use.

The solid state drive is more expensive, but because it has no moving parts, it is less fragile. Because data access is truly random accesses with virtually no seek times, it also has much lower performance degradation and is not sensitive to a fragmented file system. However, the memory cells in a solid state drive currently can't be written to as often as the magnetic platters in a hard disk drive. After writing a memory cell so many times, they wear out. Because of this, special technologies may be used to distribute writes across the disk's memory and to level the wear.

While hard disk drives are still more common, solid state drives are slowly gaining popularity. Commonly found in new laptops, SSDs have no moving devices, use less power, can take more of a beating, and provide much faster data access than hard drives in nearly all situations. For example, one of the fastest drives right now, the Crucial RealSSD C300, reads data at up to 355 megabytes per second, which is more than four times as fast as a regular notebook hard drive. On the downside, the capacities are still much lower than a similarly priced hard drive and the wear and tear may affect solid state drives slightly faster than hard disk drives. As with all new technologies, these teething problems are resolved as they are discovered and there is no doubt that the SSD will take over the role of the aging hard drive technology-it is only a question of when. For now, they are mostly found in high-end, enthusiast computers.

H.J. Berg is a freelance writer who regularly contributes to Fastest SSD - a data storage blog that focuses exclusively on high-end Solid State Drives. It covers the latest news in solid state storage technology and you will also find SSD reviews and helpful guides.

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Indian Laws: An Introduction

The system of laws operating in India is known as Indian laws. The provisions of Indian laws are largely influenced by the ancient texts, the Arthashastra (400BC) and the Manusmriti (100AD). Certain provisions are also drawn from the English common code and the laws of western countries.

An important source of Indian laws is the Indian Constitution and rules issued by the legislative bodies. The Indian President and State Governors also posses powers to issue ordinance. Verdicts passed by the Supreme Court, High Courts and Specialized Tribunals also form an important source of Indian legislation. Certain international trade laws, such as the laws on intellectual property, are applicable in India.

Key Branches of Indian Laws

The complex system of Indian laws is aimed at assuring justice and equality to all Indian citizens. They also intend to promote a democratic and liberal society in India. Main branches of Indian legislation include:

Administrative Laws

Administrative laws form an integral part of the public legislation. It regulates the working of government agencies involved in the decision-making process and administrative activities, such as formulation and enforcement of rules and regulations. These government agencies include commissions, boards and tribunals.

Family Laws

Family laws are a branch of Indian laws that are applicable on a person by virtue of his religion. The three main branches of family laws are Hindu laws, Christian laws and Muslim laws. Family laws govern litigation related to personal matters, such as marriage, divorce, guardianship, adoption and inheritance.

Criminal Laws

Criminal laws in India define types of criminal offences and punishments for committing those offences. An important legislation governing criminal offences in India is the Indian Penal Code (IPC). It applies to the whole of India, including the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Civil Laws

The primary aim of Civil laws in India is to deal with non-criminal disputes, such as the formation and breach of contracts, ownership of property and issues of child custody. The Indian statute that governs the procedure for registering civil cases, the legal rights of defendants and plaintiffs, Court fees and the working of Civil Courts is called the Civil Procedure Code (CPC).

The author, Swapna, is a crazy, fun-loving, intense, moody and liberal thinking Indian mom. She loves writing about books, wines, food, movies, musings on news around the world, and Indian Laws. She has practiced law for three years in litigation in Kerala. She also functioned as Commissioner appointed by the Rent Control court to undertake a site investigation on behalf of the court and submitted the report before the aforementioned court. Suggesting LawIsGreek for more information on Indian Rules

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