iMinds – Make your iPod or MP3 player Clever!

iMinds are clever short audio clips of only 8 minutes length, that convey in a concise and condensed format all the knowledge you need about a clearly defined topic.

This will change the role of portable MP3 players from DJ’s only to teachers also, in an attractive and playful way. Think ‘trivial persuit’ on steroids! The idea behind these info clips is that people intersperse them between the songs they are listening to on their players. The information(also called mindtracks) is presented in an attractive format, and it may well start to tickle the desire of the listener to learn even more about a particular subjet.

To have articles out of an encyclopedia on an iPod, iPhone or MP3 player seems to be far fetched, but if you think about all the different podcasts on sometimes very exotic subhects you can download online, then these iMinds will certainly have a great future too!

iMinds only come as downloadable audio files, which makes them very practical to fetch and upload.

Some of the topics that are covered are:

• iMinds Art

• iMinds Crime

• iMinds Conflict

• iMinds War

• iMinds Culture

• iMinds Religion

• iMinds People

• iMinds Generalist

• iMinds Genius

• iMinds Geography

• iMinds Nature

• iMinds History

• iMinds Ideas

• iMinds Concepts

• iMinds Medicine

• iMinds Inventions

• iMinds Politics

• iMinds Law

• iMinds Business

• iMinds Mystery

• iMinds Conspiracy

• iMinds People

• iMinds Places

• iMinds Pop Culture

• iMinds Science

• iMinds Maths

• iMinds Specialist

• iMinds Sport

• iMinds Action

• iMinds Travel

I can see a bright future for the iMinds series, all it will take is some smart kid getting a few of these tasty mindtracks onto his iPhone, iPod or MP3 player and then showing his newly gained wisdom off to his peers.  This will  make knowledge sexy and hot, and all of a sudden all kids will want to grab their share.  At less than a dollar a piece these iMinds are affordable and often cheaper than all the other audios or games the young generation have on their audio gadgets.

Agatha Christie Death on the Nile

Together with Murder on the Orient Express, Death on the Nile is certainly one of the best known crime novels wordlwide, both were written by Agatha Christie.

When you look at the plots, there are a few similarities which make the settings so deceptively simple and still, when you listen to these audio books, you are wondering cnstantly, who could be the murder and have to change your opinion quite often.

Agatha Christie was a master of the crime novel and has managed to give her stories uexpected turns and to convolute the plots to a degree that the listener is kept both amazed, flabbergasted and astonished about the new developments.  In these two books, a group of people is consrtained within the confines of a ship or train, and people die regulary. Till the end it’s not clear who the murderer is…  – Count on Hercule Poirot to lift the mystery.

If you’ve never listened to an Agatha Christie crime novel, then I suggest you hop over to the Agatha Christie Audio site and grab your self a few of ther audio books. You’ are sure to be entertained!

Joyce Meyer – Approval Addiction

There are people on this world who could not care less how other think about them. They walk through life and don’t have many problems…

And then there are the nice folks who like to make sure that everybody approves of their actions. That can be extremely stressful, as it’s simply impossible to do things the way EVERYBODY would like.

Joyce Meyer (author of Battlefield of the Mind) has written her book Approval Addiction to help people to distinguish between monstruous egoisme and total approval and to find a golden middle way that will not hurt too many people around you.

Approval Addiction Joyce Meyer Audio Book

It’s important to also look for oneself and not deny yourself everything just to make sure others approve. You need to approve yourself too!

The audio book is a great tool to find a new happier life.

Joyce Meyer – Approval Addiction – Audio Book

Click above to listen to a sample recording. The book can be downloaded immediately.

Want to talk about … Sex?

What’s the secret to great sex? Great talk about sex!

With this audio book you will discover how to enhance your sexual play by sharing your most intimate desires with your lover.

Talk about Sex - Erotica Audio Download

The voices you will hear are full of sensual, scintillating fantasies you can actually re-create yourself. Yes, these adventures in erotica can be as real as what your friends and neighbors do behind closed doors, or they can be as fanciful as a fairy tale.

Refresh your relationship and bring a little slat and pepper into your sex life!

Let your imagination run wild as you explore the frontiers of sexual pleasure with these tales. And learn how you can tell your partner which stories turn you on, suggest what new, exciting things you’d like to try—and transform your secret dreams into ecstatic reality…

Download this great erotica audio book here:

Nice Couples Do – Talk about Sex – audio download

Get Kids to Read during summer holidays!

Reading is a very important skill, and helping kids to read is certainly one of the most important favours you can give to a child. The problem seems to be, that many kids simply don’t like to read:

As school let out for summer Thursday at Muskego Elementary School, Joe Dorn watched his first- and second-grade students scamper off into a world temporarily free of structured class and homework.

Dorn could predict which students won’t pick up a book again until fall, putting them at risk for falling behind academically.

The challenge of getting kids to read in the summer is nothing new. But for older students especially, more educators – and librarians are bypassing “recommended lists” of classic novels and instead suggesting graphic novels, magazines, Web sites, comic books – anything to get them reading.

Traditionalists may hope kids tackle something more substantial than the latest book-turned-popular movie. But others say what kids read is less important than instilling a want to read.

“If they’re completely interested in dirt bikes, get them a subscription to a dirt bike magazine,” said Kelly Hughbanks, coordinator of youth services for Milwaukee Public Library.
(Source: JS Online)

This is a great approach to getting children to read. An other is to let them listen to audio books, and allow them to consume great stories this way, and then slipping in the ocasional written book, possibly illustrated, too, to read either together with them or let them read themselves. This works quite wel too!

There a number of great childrens story audio books ready for online download, that you can easily burnonto a MP3 player, an audio CD for your car stereo or the kids own stereo, or simply play it with the computer.

A free audio book is ready for download on the home page of ChildrensStory.org that allows you to test your system for compatibility before you download the other audios.

Children who love animals i.e. will love to hear animal stories, and once they discover how much fun it is to follow a story, and you hand them an animal story book that is in print, and no audio is available, they are quite likely to pick it up and start reading!

Living with mentally disturbed Lady

Alan Bennett had given ‘shelter’ to a lady who was mentally slightly disturbed for many years. As Bennett kept a diary, he often wrote a few sentences about this landlord and tenant relationship.

Camden Town

Later, after the death of Miss Shepherd he condensed these notes into his book and later into a theatre piece, called “Lady in the Van”.  Miss Shepherd lived in a van and usually was parked somewhere along the road in Camden Town.

Bennett had taken Miss Shepherd in, to keep her out of trouble and finally allowed her to park her van in his garden, where she lived until her death. Apparently the realtionship between the two was not exactly easy, here’s Alan Bennett’s comment: “One was seldom able to do her a good turn without some thoughts of strangulation.”

But Miss Sheperd was in no way dangerous and got on quite well in her own little world. Getting assistance from the Social Services, and selling pencils and some tracts she wrote she survived quite happily. Her view on the world was simple and sometimes quite surprising. This was her reaction to Alan Bennett’s boiler bursting and flooding his entire  basement: ‘What a waste of water.’ …  😉

In the audio book “Lady in the Van” Alan Bennett narrates his notes himself. It’s an other great production by BBC Audio Books, that is well worth loading onto your MP3 player. I’ve listened to this particular one so many times, I can easily recite along with Alan Bennett.

Pimsleur Portuguese

Vasco da Gama bridge Lisbon. Portugal

In Wikipedia the Portuguese language is described like this:

“Portuguese (português or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain) and northern Portugal from the Latin spoken by romanized Pre-Roman peoples of the Iberian Peninsula (namely the Gallaeci, the Lusitanians, the Celtici and the Conii) about 2000 years ago.” (Wikipedia)

This quite old language has travelled with the tradesmen in the 16th century around the globe and has also finished in Brazil, where today more people speak Portuguese than in the country of the origin of the language, in Portugal.

To pick up your first Portuguese phrases and to be able to say hello in Portuguese, the Pimsleur Portuguese audios are a great tool. You are sure to start off right, and if you have 30 minutes a day (i.e. during your commute) you will pick up the Portuguese language quickly and with the right pronunciation from start.

Learn Spanish – With the right Pronunciation!

To learn Spanish seems to make more sense every day. The Hispanic population in Northern America grows very fast, for one, and once the Mexican swine flu scare is over, many North Americans will again spend great holidays in Mexico and further south. Especially the countries of Central America (Panama, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Belize) have a lot to show and are great for tours a bit off the beaten path.

Speaking the language helps tremendously, when you want to pass a good time and when you hate ith when you feel that many natives are pointing their virtual fingers at you, thinking ‘dirty gringo!’ … or even worse…

Because if you go through the trouble of learning even only a few Spanish phrases and are able to exchange a few words, to place your oder in the restaurant in Spanish and to ask for directions or to say ‘hello’ in Spanish, or ‘good-bye’, you come across as somebody who respects the people in the country you are visiting. … And just as we, these people appreciate when they are taken for equals.

The smiles from the people you speak to in Spanish, their good tips where to go and what to see, and simply the good feelings that come your way when you speak some Spanish make a big difference! And learning Spanish wihout a bad North Aremican accent is a lot easier than you thought:

Get yourself the Pimsleur Spanish Audio (download) and start spending 30 minutes every day listening  and repeating after the native speakers who will teach you Spanish in a very short time. Before you will realize it, you will not only understand Spanish, but even speak Spanish with the right pronunciation! Even if you’ve never learned a second language, or miserably failed with other systems (believe me, there are millions of other people out there who had the same problems learning a second language due to the wrong teaching system) you CAN!

Why not spend 30 minutes every day for two months and then see where you stand? I bet, you’ll speak and understand Spanish after 60 days! The Pimsleur Spanish download is in my humble opinion THE single most effective tool to learn Spanish quickly.

Vatican Saved?

Every time a book scenario includes the Vatican, you can be sure to hear a lot about complots, secret societies, and hidden codes.

Add to this a nuclear bomb, a symbiologist who might hold the key to avoid an attack on the Vatican. Dan Brown has set up this plot and then spins it masterly in his thriller  “Angels and Demons”:  Angels and Demons by Dan Bronw – downloadable audio book.

Once you start listening to this audio book, you will only set down your earphones, when you are at the end! It’s a very fast paced plot that stays very credible and will catch your attention immediately.

Dan Brown is best know for his top bestseller, “The Da Vinci Code”.

Why Learn Hindi with Audio Lessons

Hindi is a language that is spoken by about 40% of the Indian population, which means that from the total of about 1’200 Million Indians,  roughly 500 Million speak Hindi.

Chances, that you get by in India by speaking English and Hindi are therefore quite good. As India becomes more important every year, both from a political and economic point of view, there is a need to have a good tool to learn this Indian language.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the best and most efficient method to learn any language is the total immersion method. You travel to India, cut all contacts with people who speak anything but Hindi and you learn real fast!!!

This method is highly efficient, but often not very pactical. Therefore, I recommend you try the audio method. That are specifically prepared audio lessons that teach you Hindi by simply listening and repeating after the speakers from the audio. With only 30 minutes per day you are sure to master Hindi and be prepared to move in a Hindi environment with confidence and knowing, that you are able to speak Hindi and understand Hindi.

Sure, you will not be able to negociate a contract in Hindi, but you will be able to hold short conversations, get by in restaurants, hotels, get directions and exchange greetings etc. This with a near perfect accent, as the speakers on these audios are native Hindi speakers.

To answer the question in the title: Learning Hindi with audio lessons is so much more efficient because you can start immediately to speak and understand the verbal communication. If you first had to learn the written language, you’d spend months, if not years doing that, and only then could you start off. Also, with audio lessons you are nearly guanranteed to learn Hindi the correct way with a near perfect Hindi pronunciation.

To me these are two very strong and valuable points.