Take the proper steps to make your bike comfortable to increase your cycling time and safety.

If you want to get your outdoor cycling in this winter, you need to bundle up and make yourself visible.

An exercise bike is one of the best equipment machines to have in a home gym.

7 of the most famous bike trails in the United States to consider for your cycling trip.

Improve ankle mobility and flexibility to prevent pain and injury, allow for a greater range of motion.

Roman women dressed in bikinis and competing in sports.

Bones are as valuable as muscles, and to improve your body’s bone strength and overall health, you should incorporate a few habits into your daily routine.

Mobility training improves performance or functional mobility in sports, during exercise workouts and in performing daily tasks by improving joint health, maximizing movement efficiency, helping to avoid injuries, and accelerating healing.

Warmer temperatures and the sunny disposition of spring welcome Mother Nature’s best-dressed and most talented performers: her birds. If you’re lucky, they will migrate to your yard bringing endless hours of entertainment in song, dance and color, seeking only food,...

There is a new blog network in Birmingham, Alabama! The Realtors at Weichert, Realtors - Access Realty have joined together and created the only real estate blogging network in Birmingham.

The blogs are titled simply by their city names such as: Homewood Homes, Hoover Real Estate, etc., making them easy to find.

The blogs contain the latest homes for sale and real estate news about the local communities. I have included links to the citys that are up on my link list to the right. Check them out!

Now there's an easy way to find the open houses in the Birmingham, AL area with just the click of your mouse.

Weichert, Realtors - Access Realty has just launched www.8YellowBalloons.com

Tune in to 8yellowballoons.com every week to see where the open houses are going to happen. You would drive around looking but it's a lot easier with a map.

You can also custom design your own Open House Home Tour!

Podcasts created by big corporate brands to humanize themselves in the minds of everyday people — or branded podcasts, as they are known in the biz — are an increasingly common phenomenon these days. McDonalds launched one a while back to plug the return of its Szechuan sauce. Tinder has one, as do Microsoft and Nike and Slack. Hell, even Goldman Sachs has one, though how you’d humanize a giant octopuslike bank is anybody’s guess. So it should not come as a particular surprise that Netflix, the all-consuming video distribution platform and entertainment company that has laid waste to countless waking hours, has bought into the trend as well. But what may be a little surprising is the way in which the company has done so: As it turns out, Netflix’s various branded podcast adventures are far more peculiar, and in some ways, more interesting than one would otherwise assume.

complete article

The podcast industry is growing fast; the industry generated an estimated $479.1 million in revenue in 2018 and is expected to produce more than $1 billion by 2021, according to a new report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC. The latest revenue figure represents an increase of 53 percent in just a year.

The shift to podcast ads backs up what industry titans, like Spotify, have been saying for months. The company plans to spend up to $500 million this year on podcast-related acquisitions.

complete article

Nielsen has launched Nielsen Podcast Listener Buying Power Service, an analytics tool providing insights matching podcast listeners by genre with their buying habits.

The tool is placed to help pair podcasts with advertisers by detailing the interests and expenses of audiences.

The product, from Nielsen Scarborough, launches with iHeartMedia, Cadence13, Stitcher, Westwood One and Cabana as clients.

Clients will be able to profile shows using program titles collected from subscribers. In order to connect specific types of listeners with particular advertisers and specific program-level insights - built from a sample of 30,000 respondents.

complete article

iHeartMedia has been the radio industry leader when it comes to podcasting. From purchasing How Stuff Works, to The Ron Burgundy Podcast with Will Ferrell, to slapping a full day of podcasts on its radio stations, iHeart has not been afraid to take risks with this fairly new medium. So what does Bob Pittman think about it all?

complete article

A tool called Headliner is solving the discoverability issue in podcasting in a couple different ways, for both consumers and creators.

On the creation side, Headliner allows podcasters to upload snippets of their podcasts, which Headliner transforms into videos, complete with automatic captions and spiffy images or clips of your choice. The resulting files, called audiograms, can be uploaded to the social media site of your choice (unlike audio files, which no major social network allows to be uploaded).

complete article

As the global COVID-19 pandemic sweeps the globe, it appears more people are turning to podcasts for news and scientific information as much as a distraction.

Acast, one of the world's largest podcast hosting and analytics companies, said new listening figures for March 21-22 saw a 7% increase in listens globally, equivalent to more than 750,000 podcast plays.

Although some categories experienced declines, podcasts in the education, entertainment, science, medicine and health genres were all up more than 10%.

complete article

Theres good news on the horizon for podcast revenue growth, and presumably for radio organizations that are active in that space.

With expected growth of 14.7% through 2020, the stage has been set for podcast revenues to hit $1.1 billion in 2021, according to the IAB/PwC report.

While it remains to be seen what long-term impact the pandemic has on podcast revenues, IAB/PwC still predicts a 15% jump in 2020. This comes after podcast ad revenues soared 48% between 2018 and 2019, a stunning growth rate.

Podcast listenership in the US has been soaring in recent years and advertising dollars are following. Podcast ad spending is a bright spot amid lackluster digital radio spending. According to eMarketers latest forecast, US podcast ad spending will surpass 20% of digital radio ad spending this year and cross the $1 billion mark next year.

By the end of 2020, podcast ad spending in the US will reach $782.0 million, up 10.4% from last year, giving it a 21.0% share of the US digital radio ad market. And in 2021, spending will jump nearly 45% to $1.13 billion.    

Podcasting is having a moment. Maybe, if we stretch just a bit, a year. And possibly even an era.

Twitter just bought podcasting platform Breaker, the app that took podcasting and made it social. And what began as a trend — Spotify buying podcast platforms Anchor and Gimlet in 2019 — is turning into a torrent as many of the other big players in technology are buying podcasts, podcasters, podcasting tools, and podcast publishing platforms.

Tech moves in eras.

There was the era of PCs. The era of search. The era of social, and the era of smartphones. None of these necessarily roll over and go away: like radio or TV or magazines, they adapt, morph, and persist as new eras and new paradigms take precedence. But each era focuses innovation and investment and attention in a new space.

Today podcasting is one of those spaces.

Music streaming companies have seen stellar growth in user numbers. We ask Morningstar equity analyst Neil Macker if the trend can continue.

Some of the key findings are, as you said, the music industry has rebounded because of simply the streaming industry itself. Music streaming has exploded over the last few years, and because of that, record labels have moved from a declining business in terms of revenue to a growth business over the last five years.

Podcast coverage has a peculiar history. Whether fueled by wishful thinking or impatience, the media’s takes on the format often come in fits and starts. Many outlets have declared podcasts the next big thing over the years, and there’s been a lot of discourse surrounding podcastings perceived booms, busts, and even blips. Commonly pegged to the seemingly never-ending stream of new shows, discussions of the golden age” or peak of podcasts are regularly had. Articles compare the podcast boom to the Wild West and the American gold rush. It is all very amusing. And, when compiled, all of this breathless coverage reveals just how difficult it is to capture something with a community ethos through an industry lens. Here we celebrate podcasting’s sweet 16 with a look back at some of the more excited articles — including our own — from the early days.

When it comes to human organs, none is quite so mysterious as the brain. For centuries, humans have had numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the organ works, grows, and shapes our ability to learn and develop. While we still have a long way to go before we truly unravel all the mysteries the brain has to offer, scientists have been making some major breakthroughs that have gone a long way in explaining both how the brain functions and how we use it to organize, recall, and acquire new information. Here, we list just a few of the biggest and most impactful of these breakthroughs that have contributed to our understanding of the science of learning.

1. More information doesn’t mean more learning.

   
   The brain is equipped to tackle a pretty hefty load of information and sensory input, but there is a point at which the brain becomes overwhelmed, an effect scientists call cognitive overload. While our brains do appreciate new and novel information, as we’ll discuss later, when there is too much of it we become overwhelmed as our minds simply can’t divide our attention between all the different elements vying for it. This term has become a major talking point in criticisms of multi-tasking and in the modern information-saturated online sphere, but the discovery of this cognitive phenomenon also has major implications for education. In order to reduce mental noise, teachers have had to take new approaches to presenting material, using techniques like chunking, focusing on past experiences, and eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.

2. The brain is a highly dynamic organ.

   
   Until the past few decades, people believed that the connections between the neurons in your brain were fixed by the time you were a teenager, and perhaps even earlier. One of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the science of learning happened when scientists began to realize that this just wasn’t the case. In fact, the brain’s wiring can change at any age and it can grow new neurons and adapt to new situations, though the rate at which this happens does slow with age. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity, and it has had major ramifications in our understanding of how the brain works and how we can use that understanding to improve learning outcomes.

3. Emotion influences the ability to learn.

   
   The ability to learn, retain, and use information isn’t just based on our raw IQs. Over the past few decades it has become increasingly clear that how we feel and our overall emotional state can have a major impact on how well we can learn new things. Educational situations where students feel stressed, shamed, or just uncomfortable can actually make it more difficult for them to learn, increasing negative emotions and sparking a vicious cycle that may leave some children reluctant to attend class. Research is revealing why, as the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system has the ability to open up or shut off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections, making it difficult or impossible to learn. It may seem like common sense that classrooms should be welcoming, non-stressful environments, but different students have different triggers for negative emotional states, making it key for educators to watch for signs that indicate this in students.

4. Mistakes are an essential part of learning.

   
   Failure is a dirty word in most aspects of modern American society, but when it comes to the science of learning, research shows that they’re essential. A recent study found that students performed better in school and felt more confident when they were told that failure was a normal part of learning, bolstering a growing body of research that suggests much of the same. Much like it takes multiple tries to get the hang of riding a bike or completing an acrobatic feat, it can also take multiple tries to master an academic task. Neuroscience research suggests that the best way to learn something new isn’t to focus on mistakes but instead to concentrate on how to do a task correctly. Focusing on the error only reinforces the existing incorrect neural pathway, and will increase the chance that the mistake will be made again. A new pathway has to be built, which means abandoning the old one and letting go of that mistake. This idea has formed the basis for a growing debate about education in American schools, which many believe doesn’t allow children to embrace creativity and problem solving as they are too focused on memorization and test scores.

5. The brain needs novelty.

   
   Turns out boredom really can kill you, or at least your will to pay attention and learn. Repetition may have its place in learning, but what the brain really craves is novelty. Researchers have found that novelty causes the dopamine system in the brain to become activated, sending the chemical throughout the brain. While we often regard dopamine as the “feel good” chemical, scientists have shown that it actually plays a much bigger role, encouraging feelings of motivation and prompting the brain to learn about these new and novel stimuli. This breakthrough has led to some major changes in how we think about learning, and has motivated many schools to embrace learning methods that cater to our brains’ need for new and different experiences.

6. There are no learning styles.

   
   What kind of learner are you? Chances are good that at some point during your educational career someone labeled you as a particular type of learner, either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. This idea that there are distinct types of learners who learn best with certain assortment of stimuli has been showing up in education and brain science for decades, but recent studies have shown that this idea really doesn’t hold much water. Students may have preferences for how they learn, but when put to the test, students were found to have equivalent levels of learning regardless of how information is presented. Attention to the individual talents, preferences, and abilities of students, which helps to cater to the emotional and social needs of students and improves their ability to learn, is more important than styles (of which there have been 71 different models over the past few decades).

7. Brains operate on the “use it or lose it” principle.

   
   There’s a reason that you forget how to speak a language or work out a trigonometry problem if you don’t use those skills on a regular basis. Information in the brain that isn’t used is often lost, as neural pathways are weakened over time. Research has found that the brain generates more cells than it needs, with those that receive both chemical and electrical stimuli surviving and the rest dying off. The brain has to receive regular stimulation through a given pathway in the brain to sustain those cells, which is why lifelong learning is so important to brain health. These findings also have implications for vacations in K-12 education as well, as students who don’t get intellectual stimulation over the summer are much more likely to forget important skills in reading and math when they return to class.

8. Learning is social.

   
   While some select individuals may learn well cloistered in a library with a stack of books, the majority of people need a social environment to maximize their learning. Research has found that from infancy on, people learn better through social cues, much more easily recalling and emulating the actions or words of another human. Aside from social cues, socialization has been shown to have other learning benefits. Peer collaboration offers students access to a diverse array of experiences and requires the use of nearly all the body’s senses, which in turn creates greater activation throughout the brain and enhances long-term memory. Group work, especially when it capitalizes on the strengths of its members, may be more beneficial than many realize, both for teachers and their students.

9. Learning is best when innate abilities are capitalized on.

   
   All of us, from the time we are born, possess innate abilities to see and hear patterns, something that psychologists doubted was true for decades but that we now know to be the case. Research suggests that reinforcing those innate capabilities by teaching patterns early on may actually help kids learn more and sharpen their brains. Aside from being able to see and hear patterns, the human mind has a number of innate abilities (the ability to learn a language, for instance) that when capitalized on in the right way, can help make learning any concept, even one that is abstract, much easier. Combining these innate abilities with structured practice, repetition, and training can help make new ideas and concepts “stick” and make more sense.

10. Learning can change brain structure.

    
    Brain structure and function are intertwined, and you can’t improve one without taking the other into consideration. Yet, in years past, most ideas about learning ignored ways that the brain’s structure itself could be modified, instead focusing on brain function or the brain’s output. The reality is that brain function can only be changed through changing brain structure, which is actually less complicated than it sounds. For example, brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people, and lessons that engage both allow students to more easily identify with their teachers and to learn concepts more quickly, as their brain cells are getting twice the attention and workout. In fact, any new information, if used enough, can modify the structure of the brain, something educators and neuroscientists are just starting to fully explore. 

When someone studies to become a teacher, they learn a number of different teaching strategies that help them effectively impart knowledge to students. Corporate trainers with advanced degrees in adult education are also often exposed to similar strategies as a part of their academic preparation. In contrast, many internal employees who take on training duties at their companies aren't familiar with effective teaching strategies. Many of them are selected to train new and current employees because they are good at their jobs and not necessarily because they're skilled educators. Unfortunately, this can mean that their training efforts don't quite achieve the desired results.

MacWise terminal emulation for Macs with Intel and Power PC processors.

I was motivated by a news report showing an ABC correspondent having trouble getting through by phone to report a flock of oil-soaked pelicans. The news report made me realize that the iPhone is a great tool for reporting the location of birds needing help. It's built-in GPS capabilities make it a natural for reporting the location of birds needing help.

Older versions of the 3ivx video codec may cause MacWise to crash.
Install the latest version of 3ivx to prevent crashes...

IamBigBrother Software Download

IamBigBrother 9.0 will monitor your children in Instant Messages, Chats, Emails, Web Site URLs and much more while undetected from the user.

Human nature invariably prompts a level of trust;if it is written, it must be true. We live in a generation where we expect authors, editors and publishers that are qualified to write on various topics. What qualifications are required to post a blog, write an online article, or edit a wiki? Some web surfers may find the answer startling: None. Expertise is no longer a prerequisite.

Questioning Online Credibility

NotePage is pleased to announce its Universal Binary version of FeedForAll Mac. FeedForAll Mac is software that allows publishers and webmasters to create, edit and publish: RSS feeds, podcasts and videocasts.
The Universal Binary version of FeedForAll Mac now performs faster on Intel based Macs.

FeedForAll Mac can be used to create and maintain an unlimited number of RSS feeds and podcasts, enabling users to flawlessly maintain and distribute multiple content streams simultaneously. Existing RSS feeds that are improperly formatted are automatically repaired by FeedForAll Mac, ensuring that all feeds used with FeedForAll Mac conform to the RSS specification.

FeedForAll Mac has a built-in wizard that helps users efficiently create and maintain RSS feeds. The wizard's new extended support walks users through the creation of various RSS feeds and namespaces, including iTunes.

FeedForAll Mac version 3.0 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or better and 22 Mb of free hard disk space. FeedForAll Mac costs $39.95, and may be purchased securely online at http://www.FeedForAll.com. You can download a free fully-functional 30-day trial of FeedForAll Mac from the same web address.

As an added benefit, registration for FeedForAll or FeedForAll Mac provides publishers complimentary access to the RSS Scripts directory, that contains powerful PHP scripts for managing and manipulating RSS feeds. The scripts in the RSS Directory currently include: RSS Cache, FutureRSS, RSS2HTML, RSS2HTML Pro, RSS2SQL, SQL2RSS, RSSmesh, and RSSFilter.

In an era where technological advancements redefine the spectrum of conventional crime, our collective cybersecurity has been thrust into uncharted...

Lengthy jail terms have been handed to 22 Chinese citizens - and a Cameroonian man - for cyber-related crimes in Zambia. The gang's only female...

Ninjalane Podcast: In this episode the duo talk about the current state of mobile devices and how they have really become more of a fondle device and less of a communication tool. Later they update us with the games they have been playing including some that aren’t so good.

Farmscape for October 30, 2024

Two research projects approved through the Swine Health Information Center's Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program will focus on reducing the risk of swine transport vehicle contamination at hog processing plants and at deadstock disposal sites.
The Swine Health Information Center’s Wean-to-Harvest Biosecurity Research Program, funded in collaboration with the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research and Pork Checkoff, has approved funding for research intended to help improve transport vehicle biosecurity where the transport trailer interfaces with the harvest facility and at the deadstock disposal site.
SHIC Associate Director Dr. Lisa Becton says two projects will be conducted by the University of Minnesota.

Quote-Dr. Lisa Becton-Swine Health Information Center:
The first project is quantifying trailer contamination rates at the harvest plant interface.
The goal of this project is to gather and analyze data on viral contamination rates in trailers and this will be looking at a 12-month period over time at the plant interface.
It's going to assess the rates of PED, PRRS and Senaca Valey Virus and the goal is to understand what are the epidemiology factors related to trailers and unloading for the ability to either increase or decrease contamination rates, to understand what happens at that interface and then determine what are things that we can do to mitigate those risks.
The second project is going to be assessing viral contamination of mortality disposal structures at wean to harvest farms.
It's going to describe what the current procedures are for disposal and assess viral contamination in the environment around those containers but also to assess what is happening at these disposal structures such as compost and dead box and to detect and test what could be a decontamination strategy.
Again, the goal is to help identify risks and to develop a strategy to mitigate those risks.

Dr. Becton says the two projects will be conducted over a 12 month span to take into account seasonal changes and how those changes can drive the risk of disease introduction.
Information on this work can be found at swinehealth.org.
For more visit Farmscape.Ca.
Bruce Cochrane.

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

China's $700+ billion current account surplus is calling out for application to something besides U.S. bonds, so the Chinese state-controlled offshore oil company is bidding to buy Unocal. The $18.5 billion unsolicited takeover proposal is $1.5 billion more than...

Virgin Mobile - No contract and Free Line Rental

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