Free the Internet - Blog Carnival at Collection of Web Freebies - 17th Ed.

Welcome to the 17-th, November 19, 2010, edition of the "Free the Internet" Blog Carnival. Some statistics: submitted articles � 59, published articles - 23. I want to thank all the authors contributing to the issue. Some articles were excluded from the review, since their topic of discussion did not match the main target of the carnival. I am sorry, that not all submissions were accepted, as some of the excluded articles carried a significant value. As one of the submitted articles carried a link to the potentially dangerous site, I want to ensure all the readers that all articles were tested and evaluated, and all the posted links are safe to visit.


Jennifer Saksa presents Do You Know What Open-Source Software Is? posted at NCH Software Blog.

Susan Bryant presents Top 5 Business Website Essentials posted at Winweb BusinessBlog.

Michael Erins presents 12 iPad Apps to Help You Become a More Effective Teacher posted at Masters in Education, saying, "Many teachers use modern technology to assist them in their profession. If you are a teacher, it is helpful to keep up with some of the latest electronics, including the iPad. Considering the immense number of applications available for this Apple product, it should come as no surprise that there are some that can help you in the classroom."

Madeleine Begun Kane presents The Social Network (Limerick Review) posted at Mad Kane's Humor Blog.

Blog income presents Has Social Networking Gone Too Far? posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, "At a time when online media is being used for business networking, political updates and governmental campaigning, is it time to reconsider your use of Facebook and Twitter?"

Bernice Frankel presents Top 20 Mobile Education Apps: iPhone vs. Android posted at Masters Degrees, saying, "Mobile educational apps can give you an edge in and out of the classroom. Here are 20 great mobile education apps, 10 for the iPhone, and 10 for Android phones."

Lindsay Samuels presents The Bookworm?s Guide to the iPad: 100 Tips, Tools, and Tutorials posted at Library Science Degree, saying, "With any new piece of technology, confusion, turmoil, and frustration can quickly set in when spending so much money, along with learning something new. To help, the article has compiled a Bookworm's Guide to the iPad: 100 tips, tools, and tutorials."

John presents How to Strategically Use Keyword to Build Your Business posted at KeywordMarketingPro - Professional SEO Services, saying, "How to Strategically Use Keyword Marketing to Build Your Business"
 
Carrie Oakley presents 40 iPad Apps That Librarians Love posted at Online Colleges, saying, "Librarians wear many hats at one time. Besides managing their space, they also organize events, reach out to the community and enhance the feel of the library, making it a timeless treasure that is making a major comeback."
 
Review Monsters presents Many Ways To Make Money Online posted at Welcome to Review Monsters!.
 
Patricia Duggan presents Game On: 12 Recent Studies Showing Video Game Play Improves Self posted at Psychology Degree, saying, "The twelve recent studies listed in the article are showing video game play can be an improvement. So set the controller down for a while, have a read, and see how video games can help everything from reaction time to social skills"

Ferrari Dude presents Top 10 Casual Web & Facebook Games to Pretend You're a City Planner posted at Masters in Public Administration, saying, "You can get a little practice in public administration by playing online games related to city planning. Here are 10 web and Facebook games that let you pretend to be a city planner."

Victoria Kennedy presents Top 25 Twitter Apps for Health and Fitness Nuts posted at Ultra Healthy, saying, "While Twitter provides a great way to keep in touch, there are also a number of useful applications - including those for health and fitness. Here are 25 great Twitter apps that can help you with your health and fitness goals."

Antonio Banderas presents 19 Useful Chrome Extensions for Educators posted at Masters in Educational Administration.

Sanna Paltrow presents Top 50 Web Tools for Reviewing Doctors and Hospitals posted at Comments on: What Are The Top Ultrasound Technician Schools?.

Blog income presents Blog Expert Series: Does Stripping Down Stress You Out? posted at We Build Your Blog, saying, "Now you have your niche, you are ready to start writing?"

Samantha Rhodes presents 10 Amazing Google Side Projects You?ve Never Heard Of posted at Online Engineering Degree, saying, "Internet searches are by no means where this technological giant leaves off. The article has gathered ten amazing Google side projects you've never heard of but should or will know very soon. Revolutionizing everything from your morning commute to evening television, pre and post Google might just be the way technology is referred to in the future."

Joanaa Tiger presents 10 Ways Facebook Is Ruining Your Relationships posted at College Crunch.

baliconfederate presents The 3 Ways To Improve Your Adsense Earnings posted at webandrank.

Darwin presents Can My Company Fire Me Over Trash-Talking on Facebook? posted at Darwin's Money, saying, "Can My Company Fire Me Over Trash-Talking on Facebook? You bet! There's a landmark lawsuit working its way through the courts now which may set the tone for future worker Facebook posts."

Erica Morgan presents 10 Great Sites That Require High Speed Internet posted at Internet Providers.

Erica Morgan presents 10 Reasons Every Home Needs Internet Service posted at Internet Providers.

Yohan T presents Forgot A Password? Best 2 Alternatives To Keep Track Of Passwords posted at The Security File, saying, "2 great ways to store your passwords securely and for free. Never forget a password again!"

Cathy Thomas presents Top 10 Places to Find Banned iPhone Apps posted at Computer Technician, saying, "Can't find it on iTunes? Then the app must be one of the many that Apple has rejected over the years and ever since the release of the first iPhone. According to Apple: "applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind.""

JohnQ Stakes presents Top 25 Twitter App Ranking and Review Sites posted at Masters in Communication, saying, "If you are interested in learning about what different Twitter applications are available, and their quality, you can consult these 25 Twitter app ranking and review sites"


That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of free the internet using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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National UnFriend Day: Clean your Facebook Account

"Remember five years ago when no one had Facebook and you didn't know what the guy you took high school biology with was having for lunch?" Jimmy Kimmel asked the audience on his show last night. "Remember how that was fine? Let's go back to that."

If you didn't watch "Jimmy Kimmel Live" November 11, you might think Kimmel started a campaign to end Facebook, but he's not. Instead, he announced a new national holiday called "National Unfriend Day," where he encourages you to "cut out some of the friend fat in your life" on Facebook and otherwise.

Today, November 17, Kimmel wants you to look at all of your Facebook friends and decide: who is really your friend? A friend, as he says, is not someone who "asks what 'Harry Potter' character you are."

See two Video Presentations (watch one after another as they are logically connected):

National UnFriend Day

National UnFriend Day (part 2)

On his show yesterday evening, Kimmel celebrated the arrival of National Unfriend Day with its very own anthem sung by country artists Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker.

To all the friends I've un'ed before

Who sent me quizzes about Jersey Shore

You made my life a hell

With your stupid LOL

To all the friends I've un'ed before

To all the guys from grammar school

Posting shirtless pictures by their pool

Your fat and sweaty back

Really makes me want to yak

To all the friends I've un'ed before

Our time on earth goes by so quickly

We have to make each moment great

So I cannot waste one more minute

Reading your dumb status update

Kimmel may have a point, but this rather funny joke of a holiday seems to be more a late night comedy sketch than an event manufactured out of real concern for the status of friendship.

Still, National UnFriend Day is good natured -- at least for those not being unfriended -- and you might even consider taking the day to cut some friend fat of our own.

Facebook had no immediate comment on how the festivities were being marked at company headquarters. Needless to say, Zuckerberg is not likely to be adding Kimmel to his friends list anytime soon.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://ping.fm/JYzkO

http://ping.fm/qkJd2

http://ping.fm/LtEcp

http://ping.fm/fGZEQ

Do you have too many "real" friends on Facebook?

"Remember five years ago when no one had Facebook and you didn't know what the guy you took high school biology with was having for lunch?" Jimmy Kimmel asked the audience on his show last night. "Remember how that was fine? Let's go back to that."

If you didn't watch "Jimmy Kimmel Live" November 11, you might think Kimmel started a campaign to end Facebook, but he's not. Instead, he announced a new national holiday called "National Unfriend Day," where he encourages you to "cut out some of the friend fat in your life" on Facebook and otherwise.

Today, November 17, Kimmel wants you to look at all of your Facebook friends and decide: who is really your friend? A friend, as he says, is not someone who "asks what 'Harry Potter' character you are."

See two Video Presentations (watch one after another as they are logically connected):

National UnFriend Day

National UnFriend Day (part 2)

On his show yesterday evening, Kimmel celebrated the arrival of National Unfriend Day with its very own anthem sung by country artists Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker.

To all the friends I've un'ed before

Who sent me quizzes about Jersey Shore

You made my life a hell

With your stupid LOL

To all the friends I've un'ed before

To all the guys from grammar school

Posting shirtless pictures by their pool

Your fat and sweaty back

Really makes me want to yak

To all the friends I've un'ed before

Our time on earth goes by so quickly

We have to make each moment great

So I cannot waste one more minute

Reading your dumb status update

Kimmel may have a point, but this rather funny joke of a holiday seems to be more a late night comedy sketch than an event manufactured out of real concern for the status of friendship.

Still, National UnFriend Day is good natured -- at least for those not being unfriended -- and you might even consider taking the day to cut some friend fat of our own.

Facebook had no immediate comment on how the festivities were being marked at company headquarters. Needless to say, Zuckerberg is not likely to be adding Kimmel to his friends list anytime soon.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://ping.fm/A8RNT
http://ping.fm/4I1tb

http://ping.fm/td1rd

http://ping.fm/8CBQg

http://ping.fm/HDOyW

Using Drum Therapy for Alzheimer's

Therapeutic Effects of Drum Therapy?

Drum therapy is an ancient approach that uses rhythm to promote healing and self-expression. From the shamans of Mongolia to the Minianka healers of West Africa, therapeutic rhythm techniques have been used for thousands of years to create and maintain physical, mental, and spiritual health.

Current research is now verifying the therapeutic effects of ancient rhythm techniques. Recent research reviews indicate that drumming accelerates physical healing, boosts the immune system and produces feelings of well-being, a release of emotional trauma, and reintegration of self.

Other studies have demonstrated the calming, focusing, and healing effects of drumming on Alzheimer's patients, autistic children, emotionally disturbed teens, recovering addicts, trauma patients, and prison and homeless populations. Study results demonstrate that drumming is a valuable treatment for stress, fatigue, anxiety, hypertension, asthma, chronic pain, arthritis, mental illness, migraines, cancer, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, paralysis, emotional disorders, and a wide range of physical disabilities.

What is special in Drum Therapy?

The special healing effect of drumming therapy could be partially due to the fact that drumming reaches down into a person's psyche to touch patients in a non-verbal way. Drumming therapy is being used with people of all ages. From patients as young as four to those as old as 104, drumming therapy has many benefits. Some of the benefits of drumming therapy include:

• Drumming has been proven to reduce anxiety and depression in patients over the age of 80. A study also noted the increased self-esteem of the patients following their weekly drumming session.
• During one study on drumming therapy, participants had blood samples drawn before and after a one-hour drumming session. Doctors found a marked decrease in the hormonal stress response and an increase in activity of natural killer cells.
• Alzheimer's patients have been shown to respond favorably to drumming therapy. They are able to connect better with their loved ones as a result. Therapeutic drumming can also increase their cognitive ability.
• For patients suffering from Parkinson's disease or stroke, moving can be difficult. Therapeutic drumming, when done with deliberate slow, steady rhythms, enabled these patients to move more steadily.

Brain Activity

Research has demonstrated that the physical transmission of rhythmic energy to the brain synchronizes the two cerebral hemispheres. When the logical left hemisphere and the intuitive right hemisphere begin to pulsate in harmony, the inner guidance of intuitive knowing can then flow unimpeded into conscious awareness. The ability to access unconscious information through symbols and imagery facilitates psychological integration and a reintegration of self.

Drumming also synchronizes the frontal and lower areas of the brain, integrating nonverbal information from lower brain structures into the frontal cortex, producing "feelings of insight, understanding, integration, certainty, conviction, and truth, which surpass ordinary understandings and tend to persist long after the experience, often providing foundational insights for religious and cultural traditions."

The reason rhythm is such a powerful tool is that it permeates the entire brain. Vision for example is in one part of the brain, speech another, but drumming accesses the whole brain. The sound of drumming generates dynamic neuronal connections in all parts of the brain even where there is significant damage or impairment such as in Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), or Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

Why the drum affects Alzheimer's clients more than other forms of music therapy?

The possible reason for the Drum Therapy being potentially more efficient for Alzheimer's patients, that any other forms of music therapy is based on the scientific fact that rhythm, even more than tone, reflects our earliest - actually prenatal - experience. The first sounds we hear are those of the mother's heartbeat when we are still in the womb. Drumming calls to mind that familiar rhythm…  And when our mother holds us against her chest, and tenderly pats our back we can hear and feel the rhythmic pulse of her heart and hand. That beat can evoke the memory of a familiar, peaceful state. It can affect our emotions and the reactions of our muscles. It helps our body relax. It can create an emotion close to that of euphoria.

When we are part of a group playing the drums, the familiarity of a shared rhythmic beat helps everyone to experience a unity with the group. The group healing effect is potentially stronger that one received from individual sessions.

Because Alzheimer's patients usually have a short attention span, and also because some tire easily, it is recommended to limit the therapy sessions length by no more than thirty minutes per class.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://ping.fm/iJZ3t

http://ping.fm/9JbK3

http://ping.fm/sVy6d

http://ping.fm/1SwRM

Free Web Planner - Optimal Retirement Calculator

For every person approaching retirement age, there is a point, when the reality of transition from active workforce to the community of retired, becomes clear. At that point, you start asking yourself, your friends, and your financial adviser, multiple questions, such as:

* How much will I have to live on in each year of retirement?     

* In which accounts should I save for retirement?

* When should I retire?              

* When should I start Social Security Benefits?

* When should I roll over my IRA to a Roth IRA?               

* Should I continue to work after retirement?

* When should I sell my house?               

* Should I take out a reverse mortgage?

While nothing can replace the professional evaluation, you would definitely benefit from having more or less reliable estimates, allowing to get familiarized with the reality. One of the best available online tools to support your decisions in retirement planning is Optimal Retirement Planner (ORP). I would recommend you to evaluate this webware as one of the elements of retirement preparation and optimal asset distribution during retirement.

The ORP was developed by James S. Welch, Jr., who has been a full time, professional computer programmer since he started on UNIVAC I in 1954.  He concentrates on special purpose database management system development, large database accounting applications, and large scale mathematical programming systems. 

He developed the Optimal Retirement Planner (ORP), a linear programming (LP) based retirement calculator.  ORP demonstrates the making of a computationally intensive application composed mostly of industrial grade, commercial mathematical software available to the retail market over the Internet.  ORP has developed a cult following of users that find it useful for the strategic planning of optimal asset distribution during retirement.

The Optimal Retirement Planner (ORP) is a Decision Support System intended to illuminate retirement financial planning and to debunk the myths and half truths that are the currency of the field. ORP provides guidance for:

1. Pre retirement: How much to save in which retirement account.
2. Post retirement: The order to drawdown which retirement savings account while minimizing taxes and meeting IRS regulations.

The process is easy:

1. In the ORP parameter form Fact Section specify the facts of your current situation; age, IRA balance, Social Security Benefits, etc.
2. In the ORP parameter form Choices Section specify your retirement plan choices; age to start social security, the amount of contributions to retirement savings; life expectancy, when to sell your house, etc.

ORP turns this into a Linear Programming model and solves it. Linear Programming is an Operations Research technique that began in the 1950's to model oil refineries. It is still used for that application but has grown to include many more, including retirement financial planning.

ORP runs in two different modes:

1. Simulation Mode: ORP generates a retirement plan for your particular set of choices.
1. ORP computes the maximum amount of after-tax, inflation adjusted money available for spending in each year of retirement. This is a single number that summarizes your entire retirement picture. Because ORP is an optimizer there are no better solutions � guaranteed.
2. ORP's Withdrawal Report shows the cash flow that yields this result.
3. Other ORP reports show the flow of money into and out of your retirement savings accounts and show the progressive income tax picture throughout retirement.
2. Monte Carlo Risk Assessment Mode: Demonstrates how your particular set of choices will behave in an uncertain economic environment.

ORP's simulator is fundamentally different from retirement calculators because:

1. ORP computes an optimal retirement savings schedule showing which accounts to save in before retirement to maximize withdrawals during retirement.
2. A retirement calculator user specifies how much to withdraw each year and the calculator computes when the money runs out � age of ruin. The ORP user specifies her (couple's) life expectancy and ORP computes the amount of money available for annual spending.
3. ORP adjusts the retirement plan with income from post retirement employment.
4. ORP models the progressive Federal and state income tax.
5. ORP models the Federal Minimum Required Distribution requirement.
6. ORP flows money from the IRA to Roth IRA and after-tax accounts to maximize money available for spending.
7. ORP withdraws money from the IRA in parallel with the other accounts rather than the conventional approach of exhausting the after-tax account, IRA and Roth IRA in that order.
8. ORP models the sale of an illiquid asset (home) late in retirement.
9. ORP models Ty Bernicke's Reality Retirement Planning in which withdrawals are biased toward the early retirement years when the retirees are the most active.

Again, ORP is available on the Internet for no charge for all users.

Website: http://www.i-orp.com/

http://tinyurl.com/32kvap2