Academia and podcasting have a similar problem: unless you’re involved in them, they seem incredibly intimidating to get into. With academia that is mostly true; a number of economic, systemic, and personal reasons make it inaccessible for a lot of people. With podcasts, however, that is not the case — to the same extent. If you have access to a recording device, editing software, and an internet connection, that is all you need to share your work with the digital world.

Illustrating how podcasting have captured the interest of people all over the globe in recent years, research company Grand View Research suggested that the global podcasting market size valued at USD 9.28 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.5% from 2020 to 2027. During the pandemic, listeners worldwide are observed to be spending more time at home due to work-from-home and social distancing policies – changing the entire dynamics of the market for podcasts, which used to have a pre-pandemic target audience of people listening to broadcasts during their commute. The industry is now expected to grow with engaged listeners who are stuck indoors while working from home.

Podcasts exploded in 2020. People created nearly 900,000 new podcasts last year, according to Chartable, and hungry listeners couldn't get enough. Listenership in the U.S. grew 90%, and it grew even faster in other countries tracked by the podcast measurement company.

One thing that stood out in Chartables data is how dominant Spotify has become, thanks to its strategic podcasting acquisitions. And despite the ongoing consolidation in the industry, it may have built an insurmountable lead in most areas of podcasting from the creative, advertising, and listening sides of the equation.

Any summation of the past year begins and ends with COVID, even if we’re just talking about podcasts. Given everything that’s happened, how can it not?

We had just a little over two months of expected life in 2020 before counties across the United States started implementing initial lockdown measures, drastically altering the shape of everyday activity. Movement was scaled down, businesses were shuttered, and a great cloud of uncertainty descended upon the populace as this massive and utterly terrifying thing unfolded all around us.

1. Scitable:

   Scitable, created by NatureEducation, is an online collaborative space for science learning. Visitors to the site can browse or search through science articles and ebooks, ask experts science-related questions, build an online classroom, or even share their own content. Materials on the site are focused on the life sciences, but there are also numerous resources that can help learners start or accelerate a career in science.
   

2. TVO:

   Similar to PBS, the Ontario-based television station offers many of the same educational resources and opportunities for learning. Even if you can’t tune in live, you can take advantage of dozens of videos on topics like science, nature, business, tech, education, and culture. Connected to TVO is Big Ideas, a site that offers videos that touch on important and engaging topics like mathematics, economics, and even urban design. Other resources include educational tools for parents and kids, civics education on Canadian government, and access to loads of compelling documentaries.
   

3. Saylor:

   While sites like Coursera and Udacity have been drawing the most attention on the free education front these days, Saylor has largely flown under the radar. Created in 2008, the site offers nearly 250 free courses online, with topics centered on the 10 highest enrollment majors in the U.S. In addition to taking classes, learners can participate in discussion forums (organized by topic), track courses and print transcripts, and may soon even be able to access free textbooks.

4. GCF LearnFree.org:

   This North Carolina-based site is produced by Goodwill Industries and focuses on helping people from all walks of life build skills in technology, literacy, and math that will help them find work. All classes offered by the site are entirely free, and even come complete with mobile apps that make it possible to learn on-the-go. Currently, there are over 750 free lessons that teach everything from how to use Microsoft Office to basic addition and subtraction.
   

5. University of the People:

   The brainchild of educational entrepreneur Shai Reshef, University of the People is a tuition-fee, nonprofit, online academic institution that offers access to undergraduate degree programs in business administration and computer science. It maintains relationships with Yale, NYU, Hewlett-Packard, and the Catalyst Initiative to supply students with opportunities for research, future study, and internships. While the site focuses on helping learners in developing nations, students from nearly 130 different nations have been accepted (tuition is free, but you still have to apply).
   

6. Engineering for Change:

   Engineering for Change isn’t a traditional learning site with videos, courses, and lessons. Instead, it’s a live, interactive webcast that allows participants to learn and interact with others in engineering. It’s also a chance to play an active role in helping to solve humanitarian engineering issues. A new topic is addressed every month, and anyone interested in becoming more involved or learning more about engineering is encouraged to sign up.
   

7. The Faculty Project:

   Through The Faculty Project, learners can get access to professors from prestigious schools like Dartmouth, Vassar, Duke, and Northwestern, to name just a few. There are dozens of courses and lectures to choose from, covering a broad spectrum of topics. Launched just this year, the site is slowly building up a great collection of resources that can help students learn through video, PDF, PowerPoint, discussion boards, and educational articles.
   

8. Textbook Revolution:

   There are a growing number of sites out there that are dedicated to providing users with access to free textbooks. Textbook Revolution is among them, and while it hasn’t received as much attention as some others, it’s still a solid place to look for free educational resources. Currently, the site offers up access to dozens of textbooks, ranging in topic from accounting to chemistry.
   

9. Learnthat:

   Learnthat is an excellent place to explore tutorials that cover business, technology, and finance. Visitors to the site can learn how to improve their skills in Excel, digital marketing, or even management, through hundreds of helpful articles, videos, and photos.
   

10. University of Reddit:

    Most web-savvy individuals have heard of Reddit, but many may not be familiar with the University of Reddit. The site offers anyone the chance to share their expertise through class lectures and videos with others in the web. Currently, the site is home to educational materials in art, computer science, general studies, language, math, music, philosophy, science, and social studies, which means most things are covered. If they’re not, learners are always welcome to add their own educational content.
    

11. MentorMob:

    MentorMob doesn’t supply any educational content of its own, but is an excellent tool for bringing together resources from other sites, organizing them, and sharing them with others. Users can create their own “playlists” of educational material or browse through existing collections compiled by other users. While it has been featured in a number of major publications, the site doesn’t have the widespread attention that others generate, but that could change as the Pinterest-like functionality helps users to create incredibly useful lists for learning.
    

12. Memrise:

    Memrise promises to help users learn through a combination of brain science, fun, and community. Much of the content is game-based and highly visual, offering visitors to the site the chance to boost their skills in a variety of languages, or even to learn more about topics like cheese, herbs, and fish.
    

13. LearnersTV:

    LearnersTV brings together videos, audio lectures, science animations, lecture notes, online tests, presentations, and publications to offers visitors a wide range of material with which to learn. Those looking for an in-depth experience can find entire courses, while those just doing cursory research can browse through short articles and PowerPoints.
    

14. Grovo:

    Knowing how to use technology is an essential skill in today’s job market, but with so many new technologies popping up all the time, it can be hard to keep up with them all. That’s where Grovo can help. The online learning site specializes in offering video lessons on top Internet products. Visitors to the site can expand their knowledge of sites like Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, and WordPress, or just learn a bit more about netiquette and online marketing.
    

15. Alison:

    Alison offers free online courses and certification through 400 different courses in 10 different course categories. Launched in 2007, the site helps people from around the world earn certification in topics like legal studies, psychology, health studies, project management, and human resources. All content is free but to get a copy of your certification, you’ll have to shell out about $20.
    
 

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Any bodybuilders famous or otherwise who have glaucoma or R glaucoma suspect? Before you go TLDR (too long didn't read)...you might find all of this interesting in terms of prevention.... or help if you have glaucoma or are like me "a glaucoma suspect".... at the end, there's more positive...

Farmscape for November 7, 2024

Animal health officials are responding to the first case of a pig in the United States testing positive for high path H5N1 avian influenza.
On October 30th USDA confirmed that the first detection in a pig of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza had occurred on a small backyard mixed farm in Oregon that housed poultry, swine, sheep and goats.
Swine Health Information Center Executive Director Dr. Megan Niederwerder notes the investigation was triggered when birds on the farm started showing clinical signs of infection.

Quote-Dr. Megan Niederwerder-Swine Health Information Center:
We know that H5N1 is a specific highly pathogenic avian influenza strain that has really increased with regards to circulation over the last two years.
This is primarily maintained in migratory waterfowl but the virus has spilled over into other mammalian species such as seals and sea lions as well as domestic livestock including dairy cattle, first detected in March of 2024 and now in the first pig in October of 2024.
These pigs that were housed on this farm, there were five pigs, none of these animals were intended for the commercial food supply.
Pork continues to be safe for consumption.
There is no concern about the safety of the nation's pork supply as a result of this finding.
The other aspect of this detection is that none of the pigs that were housed on the operation, including the one that was found to be infected, had any clinical signs.
They were completely healthy so this could indicate a low pathogenicity in pigs.
We're still learning about that.
Only a single pig has been shown to be infected so there's a lot to learn about the potential risk to the swine industry.

Dr. Niederwerder encourages pork producers to review their biosecurity procedures focussing on areas where workers or equipment may be exposed to both dairy farms and pig farms or poultry farms and pig farms.
To keep up to date on the situation visit swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

       *Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers

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The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.5. This release fixes several bugs as well as CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2014-9427 and CVE-2015-0232. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.5 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.22. This release fixes several bugs and addresses CVE-2015-0235 and CVE-2015-0273. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.22 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.6. This release fixes several bugs and addresses CVE-2015-0235 and CVE-2015-0273. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.6 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.23. Several bugs have been fixed as well as CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2015-2305 and CVE-2015-2331. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.23 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.7. Several bugs have been fixed as well as CVE-2015-0231, CVE-2015-2305 and CVE-2015-2331. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.7 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.24. Several bugs have been fixed some of them beeing security related, like CVE-2015-1351 and CVE-2015-1352. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.24 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.8. Several bugs have been fixed some of them beeing security related, like CVE-2015-1351 and CVE-2015-1352. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.8 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.25. Several bugs have been fixed. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.25 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.9. Several bugs have been fixed. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.9 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.26. Several bugs have been fixed as well as several security issues into some bundled libraries (CVE-2015-3414, CVE-2015-3415, CVE-2015-3416, CVE-2015-2325 and CVE-2015-2326). All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.26 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.10. Several bugs have been fixed as well as several security issues into some bundled libraries (CVE-2015-3414, CVE-2015-3415, CVE-2015-3416, CVE-2015-2325 and CVE-2015-2326). All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.10 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.11. Five security-related issues in PHP were fixed in this release, including CVE-2015-3152. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.11 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.12. 12 security-related issues were fixed in this release. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.12 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.13. 11 security-related issues were fixed in this release. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.13 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.29. This is a security release. Many security-related issues were fixed in this release. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.29 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.5.30. This is a security release. Two security bugs were fixed in this release. All PHP 5.5 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.5.30 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.

The PHP development team announces the immediate availability of PHP 5.6.14. This is a security release. Two security bugs were fixed in this release. All PHP 5.6 users are encouraged to upgrade to this version. For source downloads of PHP 5.6.14 please visit our downloads page, Windows binaries can be found on windows.php.net/download/. The list of changes is recorded in the ChangeLog.