MISSION, Kan., Dec. 30, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- (Family Features) If you worry that you or someone you love will get heart disease or even have a heart attack, it's understandable.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).

Research shows you can lower your risk, particularly if you team up with family, friends or co-workers. This kind of social support may be the key to your success.

To mark American Heart Month, NHLBI, one of the National Institutes of Health, is inviting people across the country to team up and join #OurHearts, a national heart health initiative that encourages people to improve heart health together.

"Studies show that having positive, close relationships and feeling connected to others benefits overall health, blood pressure, weight and more," said NHLBI's Dr. David Goff, director of cardiovascular sciences.

Consider these five tips that can help lower your risk of heart disease:

Risk: Inactivity Solution: Move more throughout your day. Aim for at least 150 minutes each week of physical activity. Build up to activity that gets your heart beating faster and leaves you a little breathless. If you're busy, try breaking your daily activity into 10-minute chunks. Stay motivated: Make walking dates. Join a pickup soccer or basketball game. Join a fitness class with your neighbor. Grab a loved one and dance in your kitchen.

Risk: An unhealthy diet Solution: Consider an option like NHLBI'sDietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)eating plan, which is free and scientifically proven to lower high blood pressure and improve cholesterol levels. Stay motivated: Invite friends to cook up heart healthy recipes together. Start a lunch club at work and trade recipe ideas.

Risk: Smoking, even occasionally Solution: Quitting can be beneficial to your overall health, even if you've smoked for years. Set a quit date and let those close to you know. If you've tried quitting in the past, consider what helped and what made it harder. Stay motivated: Ask your family and friends for support or join a support group. Find resources and connect with a trained counselor at 1-800-QUIT-NOW or smokefree.gov.

Risk: Inadequate or poor-quality sleep Solution: Sleeping 7-8 hours each night helps improve heart health. Try going to bed and waking up at the same time each day. Getting a 30-minute daily dose of sunlight may also improve sleep. Stay motivated: Resist that late afternoon nap. Turn off all screens at a set time nightly. Relax by listening to music, reading or taking a bath.

Risk: Uncontrolled stress Solution: To help manage stress, try relaxation therapy and increase physical activity. Talk to a qualified mental health provider or someone you trust. De-stressing may also help improve sleep. Stay motivated: Join a friend or family member in a relaxing activity like walking, yoga or meditation every day.

Learn about heart health and heart healthy activities in your community at nhlbi.nih.gov/ourhearts. Use #OurHearts on social media to share how you and your friends, colleagues or family members are being heart healthy together.

Michael French mfrench@familyfeatures.com 1-888-824-3337 editors.familyfeatures.com

About Family Features Editorial Syndicate A leading source for high-quality food, lifestyle and home and garden content, Family Features provides readers with topically and seasonally relevant tips, takeaways, information, recipes, videos, infographics and more. Find additional articles and information at Culinary.net and eLivingToday.com.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0fd01a66-357b-4f92-8596-9f472ee49ff6

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5 Ways to Improve Your Heart Health - Benzinga

By Express News Service

SAMBALPUR: In a novel attempt, doctors at the District Headquarters Hospital in Sambalpur have started providing music therapy to the patients.Music and sound systems have been installed in all the wards and OPD of the hospital to help patients and their attendants relax through devotional and soft music. No sound systems have, however, been put up in operation theatres, labour rooms and Mother and Child Health Care Centre of the hospital.

CDMO Sashi Bhusan Patel said music is being played for patients in the DHH from Sunday and for the purpose, 15 sound boxes have been installed.Besides devotional and soft music, the sound systems are being used to create awareness on health issues as well as cleanliness, harmful effect of gutka and appealing people not to spit in the open. More sound systems will be installed in the hospital soon, he said.

An attendant of a patient, Ramchandra Khadia of Gaudpali under Jamankira block, lauded the move and said they are getting various information and updates through the system. Apart from the information, the music is having a relaxing effect on everyone and improving the patientcare atmosphere in the hospital, he said. Patients from across the district besides neighbouring ones depend on the DHH for their healthcare needs. Although the DHH has a sanctioned 149 beds, it accommodates over 268 patients in 15 different wards.

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Music therapy for patients in Odisha Hospital - The New Indian Express

Happy New Year 2020: Make promises to yourself and stick by them.

Another promising 366 days lie ahead with New Year 2020 as we draw curtains to Year 2019. It is also time to make New Year resolutions to yourself and assess how you were able to keep up with the last year's promises. Did you kick the bad habit you had promised yourself? Did you manage to read the books that you had wanted to finish? Did you learn the language, or travelled where you wished to? And, did you hit the gym and got into your old jeans? Well, some promises are never meant to be broken, especially the ones you make to yourself. If you were not able to keep up with the New Year resolutions of last year because of some reasons, it's time you reflect why you missed those and add them to your New Year resolutions list this year. If you were able to keep up with the last year's resolves, pat yourself on the back and prepare another set of new year resolutions for 2020. It's a great feeling to make promises and live by them. Happy New Year!

While we all have our sets of resolutions depending on where we are and where we should be headed. Here are some common New Year resolutions that you can take a cue from and add to your list of resolutions for the coming year.

Practise yoga, meditation for inner balance: While we keep focusing on looking fit in the body, the crucial aspect of mental well-being often takes a back seat. This year, take the New Year resolution to focus your energies towards of mental well-being and being fit from inside. Right yoga and meditation tools would help you get necessary awareness about your body and you will feel more enthused and energized about life than ever before.

Keep plants, learn gardening: With rising global warming and contaminated foods that we get at homes, it's time to learn some basic gardening and grow your own herbs, lemons, chilies and fruits. Sure it would need some investment in terms of time and energy, but seeing the flower and fruit sprout would be a fruitful experience. It will be great for home and also for your health and well-being. Good for environment too!

Learn new musical instrument: Music connects you to your inner self and heals you from within. While listening to nice music can be alleviating, creating your own music piece would give you another high! So what are you waiting for, grab that guitar, piano, drum set, flute, sitar or harmonium, and make your own melody.

Learn new language: Language connects us but can also sometimes act as a barrier in the way we communicate our thoughts and emotions. It would be a good time to learn a local and global language as it will open up your understanding to a new world, culture and communication would no longer be a hindrance to understand another person. It will be a connecting chord worth investing in.

Travel to new places: Travelling to new places is a great learning experience. It opens up your eyes to new possibilities and also tests your survival skills in a new territory. You can go to a relaxing place, a historical sojourn or an adventurous journey, the experience would be absolutely worth it and add to your personality.

Read more books: Books are indeed one's best friends. It would be a good idea to unwind and pick up the books you had always wanted to read and add to your knowledge base. Hit the bookstore or download some e-books and get reading this new year.

Socialise and meet people, don't just text them: Caught up with texting and sending emojis, many of us have literally cut ourselves out from the "real world" and have forgotten to emote, express and reach out. In the coming year, make it a point to reach out, meet people in person and not just stick to online chats.

Learn to cook new dishes: Cooking is quite liberating and cooking the way you like your dish is very empowering feeling. Knowing what goes into your meal and then to your tummy can bring a great consciousness towards food and your personal well-being. Learn quick meals and stop dependence on your family or online orders to fill your belly, get into the kitchen and get inside that apron! You would come out very happy.

Set a goal and buy something you desire: That new dress, or a new phone, or long boots, or a vehicle, play station, home appliance, whatever it is that you have set your heart at; you must buy this year as it would give you a sense of achievement. Doing something for yourself always gives a kick and is sure a very satisfying felling. So build your goal and work towards achieving it.

All the best and a happy new year 2020!

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Happy New Year 2020: New Year Resolution Ideas You Can Use - NDTV News

Curious kids have a thirst for knowledge and now we're sharing their questions with you.

So this year, The Conversation US jumped on a great idea dreamed up by our colleagues in Australia and launched a series of articles meant to answer questions kids ask, but that everyone probably wonders about. The Conversations editors collect childrens questions and then look for scholars who can provide clear answers based on their own research and expertise.

Below are a few of our favorite Curious Kids articles from the past year. And whatever your age, if you have a question youd like an expert to answer in 2020, send it to [emailprotected]. Curiosity has no age limit!

Why is money green?

This one could only have come from an American kid. Marek, age 12, asked the question; history Ph.D. student Jonah Estess gave an answer.

It turns out that green ink is hard for counterfeiters to get right on their phony bills. And in the quirks-of-history department:

Also, there was lots of green ink for the government to use when it started printing the money we have now. The green color also does not fade or decompose easily.

Why do old people hate new music?

Maybe Holly, age 14, got sick of adults yelling turn that racket down and decided to ask this question. Psychology researcher Frank McAndrew had some ideas for her.

As they age, brains get worse at telling apart chords, rhythms and melodies. Another factor: Grownups might gravitate to the music they listened to back when they were young and their emotions were more intense. Or it might come down to whats called the mere exposure effect just hearing something more tends to make you like it more.

When youre in your early teens, you probably spend a fair amount of time listening to music or watching music videos For many people over 30, job and family obligations increase, so theres less time to spend discovering new music.

If you barely ever hear the latest bangers, you might not like them either.

What can you learn from an animals scat?

Verity Mathis from the University of Floridas Florida Museum of Natural History confirmed that Cora, age 9, was onto something with this question. Poop is a window into animals hidden lives.

Scat can tell us a lot about an animals diet, habits and movement, so scientists like to study it both in nature and in the lab. Outdoors, scat can identify what animals are present in an area. Then researchers take it to a lab, dry it out and dissect it for clues about the animals diet.

Researchers can even extract DNA from scat, a hands-off way to learn more about whats going on with a particular population.

Why do feet stink by the end of the day?

Our inbox suggests that kids are very interested in all things gross and smelly. Indiana University microbiologist Bill Sullivan took a stab at this question from Helen, age 6.

He points the finger (toe?) at a harmless type of bacteria that live all over peoples skin, happily eating up dead skin cells. The stinkiness problem arises inside your warm, moist shoes conditions the bacteria love and take advantage of to chow down and multiply.

Like anything else that eats, these bacteria make smelly waste. It is their waste that gives sweaty feet their funky odor: It contains stinky chemicals like those made by skunks and rotten eggs.

Where does the sand on the beach come from?

Kids write in with big questions about how the Earth works, too. Sly, age 6, posed this one that many an adult relaxing at the shore might have wondered about.

University of Washington geomorphologist David Montgomery explained that theres more to beach sand than meets the eye.

It has stories to tell about the land, and an epic journey to the sea. Thats because mountains end their lives as sand on beaches.

Its a story of erosion. And the sizes, shapes and colors of the individual grains of sand you see can tell you about the kinds of rocks they originally came from.

What are you wondering?

Over the past year, we had a blast hunting down answers to about everything from stargazing with binoculars to why kids arent very patriotic these days to what makes pizza so infernally delicious. Thank you to all the kids who were curious enough to ask questions and keep em coming in the new year!

Editors note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversations archives.

[ Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend. Sign up for our weekly newsletter. ]

Maggie Villiger, Senior Science + Technology Editor, The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image: Reuters

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5 Questions You Didn't Know You Needed the Answers To - The National Interest Online

Meditation apps have become one of the most accessible ways to maintain a mindfulness regimen. Whether you prefer deep breathing exercises, guided meditation or calming sleep stories, meditation can be a huge added benefit to your daily wellness regimen.

Research suggeststhat the benefits of meditation can include a reduction instresslevels, anxiety, depression and insomnia. And don't forget the physical benefits: Meditation and deep breathing can also reduce blood pressure and improve your heart rate variability, a metric that can tell you how well you handle stress. In addition, many studies show sleep meditation can calm your mind and help you get a more quality night'ssleep.

For many people, finding the time or energy to commit to a regular practice is difficult, and though in-person visits to a meditation studio are a great option for some, for others they may not be a practical approach to consistent meditation. With a little help from the right app, zen could be as little as three minutes away. Here are the best meditation apps of 2020 to improve your mindfulness practice and relax your mind.

Read more about mental health:

This guide to the best meditation app picks is a list of meditation, mindfulness and breathing apps that claim some of the best ratings on iTunes and Google Play. None fall below four stars, and they all boast gushing reviews from happy customers.

In addition to ratings and favorable reviews, I looked for apps that offer more than just audio meditation. Throughout this list, you'll find options for customizable meditations, background music without words, engaging activities, inspirational push notifications and supplemental meditation or relaxation podcasts.

Lastly, nearly every app on this list was developed by a person or company with strong ties to meditation and mindfulness -- not just someone who hopped on the meditation train to make a few bucks, but rather touts formal training or a commitment to the ancient and universal practice of mindfulness and meditation.

Cost: Free or $9.99 a month.

Stop, Breathe & Think calls itself the emotional wellness platform for the "under-25" generation. This app offers mindful meditation sessions designed to help teens and young adults tackle tough emotions like depression and anxiety. In addition to meditations, you can engage in short meditation exercises that allow you to check in with yourself, ask questions and truly notice how you're feeling.

With the premium subscription, you get access to more meditations, music, ambient sounds and other mindfulness exercises.

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Cost: Free with in-app purchases ($60 annual subscription).

Calm app's wide range of guided meditations is mainly designed to assist people in relaxing (or calming down) in comparison to some other meditation apps that are designed to inspire deep thought or creativity.

Meditation length varies from 3- to 25-minute sessions. If you're keen on developing a daily meditation practice, try Daily Calm, the app's 10-minute program you can practice before the beginning or end of your day.

Calm also offers breathing exercises, sleep stories and soothing background tracks to help you get a good night's sleep. The premium subscription includes all that and more, including Calm Body programs, monthly Calm Masterclasses and exclusive music. This is perhaps one of the best meditation apps for a newcomer looking to relax, reduce stress levels and get better sleep.

Cost: $4.99 for iPhone, $1.99 for Android. An additional premium membership is available for $30 per year.

Buddhify categorizes all of its guided meditations by activities and emotions. Examples include walking, taking a break from work, going to sleep, stress and empowerment. Buddhify is an advanced meditation app, so it's better suited to people who have already broken into the world of meditation and mindfulness and want to develop a regular practice.

Buddhify taps into the social nature of humans: The creators of Buddhify developed some meditations that only work if you're meditating with a friend, your partner, a coworker or someone else. Additionally, the app's Give feature offers users the unique ability to send a targeted meditation to a friend. For example, you can send a calming meditation to a friend who's going through a hard time, or send a cheerful one just to brighten someone's day.

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Cost: Free with in-app purchases ($5 per course).

Insight Timer offers a paid subscription, but if you're new to meditation or only meditate occasionally, chances are you won't need to purchase anything. This app offers 15,000 free guided meditations from more than 1,000 meditation teachers, as well as access to 750-plus soothing music tracks.

This app is unique in that it allows you to design a custom meditation practice suited to your needs and interests. A $5-a-month subscription gets you premium meditation courses, offline listening and other extras related to mindfulness and meditation.

Cost: Free with in-app purchases.

Omvana offers hundreds of free guided meditations across several categories: improving sleep, focus, relaxation, body, productivity and more. Created by the mindfulness experts at MindValley, Omvana can help you find the perfect guided meditation by individual mood, stress level and other factors.

You can choose from a variety of instructors and program length, and you can tailor the background music to meet your preferences.

Cost: $1.99.

Richard and Mary Maddux, creators of the popular Meditation Oasis podcast, developed Simply Being. This app gives you gentle nudges to meditate regularly, encouraging you to practice meditation at different times during the day -- complete with soothing graphics and music.

You can customize the length of meditations, choose to listen to meditations with or without music and nature sounds, or simply stream the audio to help you focus on another task at hand.

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Cost: Free.

As you might gather from its name, The Breathing App focuses just on breathing and the physiological benefits you get from slowing your breath down: increased pulmonary function, decreased stress and anxiety, lower blood pressure and improved emotional balance, just to name a few. All of which are beneficial for overall health and sleep patterns.

Developed by Eddie Stern and author Deepak Chopra, The Breathing App is simple and perfect for those who want the benefits of mindfulness without delving too deep into spirituality. You can only modify two settings for the meditation program: length of practice and breath ratio.

Cost: Free seven-day trial, $100 annual subscription.

The app 10% Happier is a mindfulness app for meditation skeptics and fidgety people. The app offers a no-nonsense, relatable way for beginners to dip their toe into the meditation experience, and it's more geared toward performance enhancement than soul-searching. It's great for people with high-pressure jobs and busy lives.

One of the best meditation apps for beginners, 10% Happier offers a free trial which includes a basic one-week introduction to meditation and mindfulness, but after that, the free offerings become sparse. You can always listen to the free 10% Happier podcast, though.

Cost: $11.99 a month or $96 a year

Burnout is real -- seriously, the World Health Organization designated burnout an official medical diagnosis in May. The meditations on Simple Habit focus on daily stress relief, and the developers know you're busy, so they make it as easy as taking five quick minutes for meditation time. In fact, the app even offers a special playlist just for burnout symptoms, with topics like "stay calm with a busy schedule" and "relieving morning anxiety." There's even a guided meditation program just for commuting.

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Cost: Free trial, $12.99/month, $19.99/month (family plan), or $69.99 for an annual plan

A "best guided meditation apps" list wouldn't be complete without Headspace, the mindfulness app developed by sports scientist-turned-Buddhist monk Andy Puddicombe. Originally an events company, Headspace now encompasses guided meditations, animations, articles and videos to assist beginners and experts alike in their meditation practice and has become one of the best known and most popular meditation apps in the category.

You can test out Headspace with the free Basics course, which offers 10 meditation sessions to teach you the foundations of meditation and get you in a mindful rhythm. You can also try a free session from many of the app's collections of meditations.

Cost: $9.99 per month or $49.99 per year

Mindwell blends isochronic tones, solfeggio frequencies, and spoken words to induce creativity and focus, which differs from the main goal of many other meditation apps that aim to promote relaxation.

Mindwell also offers meditations to help you recover from stressful or upsetting moments that occur throughout the day. For example, say you experienced a client meeting at work that didn't go well -- you could use a Mindwell meditation specifically designed to dampen negative emotions and help you move forward with your day.

Mindwell also offers a MoodShift, which maps your mood over time and allows you to track your mood and meditation progress.

Cost: Free with in-app purchases.

I included this breathing and meditation app because it's even more convenient than iPhone or Android apps for busy on-the-go folks. Breathe is the mindfulness app for Apple Watch that allows you to squeeze in short meditations without ever pulling out your phone.

Using one of three presets -- classic, focus or calm -- you breathe in rhythm with the animation on the screen. If you answer a call or text or move around too much during the exercise, your watch won't give you credit for that session.

Breathe is a native app on the Apple Watch Series 4, so it doesn't show up in the iTunes store. Breathe isn't compatible with Android devices.

Read more:Forest bathing: How nature can help you de-stress and get healthier

Originally published earlier this year.

The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.

Originally posted here:

11 meditation apps for better sleep and less stress - CNET

Pictures of a cow wearing a pair of comically oversized virtual reality goggles recently spread like wildfire over social media, and even the major news outlets eventually picked it up. Why not? Nobody wants to read about geopolitical turmoil over the holidays, and this story was precisely the sort of lighthearted news people would, if you can forgive the pun, gobble up.

But since youre reading Hackaday, these images probably left you with more questions than answers. Who made the hardware, what software is it running, and of course, why does a cow need VR? Unfortunately, the answers to the more technical questions arent exactly forthcoming. Even tracking the story back to the official press release from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food of the Moscow Region doesnt tell us much more than we can gather from the image itself.

But it does at least explain why somebody went through the trouble of making a custom bovine VR rig: calm cows produce more milk. These VR goggles, should they pass their testing and actually be adopted by the Russian dairy industry, will be the newest addition to a list of cow-calming hardware devices that farmers have been using for decades to get the most out of their herds.

The press release claims that the VR goggles were modified from commercially available hardware to take into account the shape and size of a cows head, but theres no word of which product served as the basis for the experiment. Given the massive size of the goggles in relation to the cows human handler though, its safe to assume that whatever headset was used is being completely obscured by the obviously custom enclosure.

That said, because we can see no obvious cables coming from the headset, its possible researchers using some variant of the phone-based VR goggles that were all the rage after the release of Google Cardboard. Weve noticed that excitement over these simple gadgets has waned significantly in the last year or so, but here the idea makes perfect sense. If youre looking to outfit whole herds of animals with this technology, a basic plastic enclosure that holds a cheap Android device makes perfect sense.

One also has to wonder what sort of optics are required to fool a cow into thinking theyre looking at a real pasture. Like many prey animals, a cows binocular vision is minimal when compared to human vision. In other words, they have limited depth perception when looking directly ahead. In fact, its said that cows have trouble discerning shadows from actual holes in the ground, and will avoid walking over them. On the other hand, they have excellent panoramic vision which allows them to see nearly 360 degrees without having to move their heads.

Accordingly, it seems there would be little need for the sort of stereoscopic optics used in even low-cost VR headsets. A more likely arrangement would perhaps be a large-format phone (or small tablet) behind a Fresnel lens that would expand the image to fill the cows field of view. Since the goggles dont appear to wrap around the cows head it seems unlikely it could provide much more than a 180 degree view for the animal, but that may still be enough to achieve the desired effect.

It might seem like this technology is a stretch, but one could argue that its simply the logical evolution of what dairy farmers have already been doing for decades. For nearly as long as humans have been keeping cows domestically, its been known that they seem to enjoy listening to music. In the early days farmers would actually play instruments for their herds, but as technology improved, they installed loudspeakers and piped in recorded audio.

In an oft-referenced 2001 study, psychologists from the University of Leicester observed a 3% increase in milk production in cows that were exposed to slow, relaxing music during the day. That might not seem like a lot on a small scale, but when multiplied by thousands of cows, its certainly worth the cost of a few speakers. The science behind this is still not fully understood, and the psychologists explained the experiment was designed primarily to fact-check the anecdotal claims of farmers who were already serenading their animals.

The general consensus is that nervous and agitated cows produce less milk, so anything that can calm them down should result in a noticeable increase in yield. Some even claim the taste of the milk is improved when the animal is more relaxed, but theres even less science to back up that idea.

Given this, the idea that providing the cows with visual stimulation to go along with the music that many farmers are already playing for them doesnt seem completely unreasonable. The press release claims that researchers have already found wearing the VR headset seems to improve the cows general mood. In the future, a more comprehensive study will be performed to see how much it actually increases milk production over existing techniques.

Even so, its hard to look at this experiment and not see it as needlessly complex. After all, humans have been managing to coax milk out of cows for all of recorded history without any video game trickery. But of course, the demands of modern farming are quite a bit different than the idyllic mental images most of us have. If youre picturing something that looks like what they put on the carton: a handful of cows meandering around a wide-open pasture, complete with grain silos and a windmill in the background; the reality of a high-yield dairy farm might come as something of a shock.

It could be that providing the cows with a vision of a somewhat less dystopian environment might make life in captivity easier for them. If this sounds a bit like the plot of The Matrix, thats because it literally is. As depressing a realization as it may be, putting cows into a virtual environment where they can forget theyre being mechanically drained of their bodily fluids in service of a technologically superior species might be the nicest thing we can do for them.

From a purely practical standpoint it seems like lining their pens with high-definition displays showing scenes from a spring meadow would make more sense than equipping each cow with an individual video system, but perhaps the simulation wouldnt be accurate enough. Like Morpheus said, No one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.

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Electric Dreams Help Cows Survive The Desert Of The Real - Hackaday

After more than a decade leading Central New Yorks #1 morning radio show, Tom Owens and Becky Palmer are retiring from Tom & Becky.

Their last show will be on Friday, December 20th, according to an announcement on WSYR-TV.

Tom and Beckys airtime will be filled by The Bobby Bones Show, beginning Monday, December 23rd. Its a nationally syndicated country music radio show originating in WSIX-FM studios in Nashville.

Becky started as co-host along with the late Ron Bee. Tom Owens then joined the show, and the duo went on to earn a Country Music Association Medium Market Personalities of the Year nomination for leadership, community service and excellence in broadcasting.

Tom and Becky left listeners with a fond farewell message:

After 11 years as your companions driving into work, mending the farm, relaxing after a long night shift, or simply two friends to listen to when you need them We are moving onto the next chapters in our lives ... Weve had so many incredible memories with you. Weve interviewed countless country artists, and witnessed first hand the beginnings of some amazing careers, such as Garth Brooks, Taylor Swift, and Carrie Underwood. From the Grandstand, to the Amphitheater, to countless other amazing venues for country music, weve loved giving you incredible, once in a lifetime opportunities with the stars.

Tom is a Syracuse University grad and a huge fan of the Orange basketball and football teams who also enjoys spending time with his family in Fort Myers, Florida. Hes looking forward to doing that more often.

I dont nearly get to spend enough time with my son who currently lives around that area, Tom wrote in the announcement. [My wife] Laurie and I are looking forward to being able to travel there more often.

Becky survived a battle with breast cancer during her tenure on the show, and began an initiative to educate women about the importance of early mammograms. She intends to spend more time doing that when she retires, as well as exploring other hobbies.

I have been working on renovating a mobile home throughout this year. Its an older, vintage vehicle And boy, I wasnt expecting it to be so much work, she wrote.

The duo thanked listeners for their years of tuning in. YOU are the reason why we have absolutely loved this wonderful journey.

My friends Tom and Becky have been instrumental to B104.7s success and they have made a big impact in the Syracuse community," said Syracuse Market President Rick Yacobush. We all wish them the best as they choose to spend more time with their families.

The Bobby Bones Show will broadcast from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. on weekdays on B104.7, and will feature the biggest names in country music mixed with pop-culture news, information and conversation to start your morning.

Read Tom and Beckys full statement on LocalSYR.com

Go here to read the rest:

Tom and Becky retiring from B104.7; replaced by Bobby Bones Show - syracuse.com

Perhaps the best headset to wear after an hour or so of wearing a VR headset (or spending too much time in front of a screen), the iDream 5 gives you a relaxing head and eye massage to help you calm down after all that stressful work and blue-light exposure. The VR Headset-esque device sits cleanly on your head like a helmet, with three modules on the front, top, and back, respectively. With a wide variety of settings, you can select between routines, choosing to knead your scalp for better blood circulation, massage your eyes for relaxation and better sleep, or use a series of vibration and heat-pad routines for stress and pain relief. The iDream 5 packs a weeks worth of usage on a full charge and even comes with in-built speakers to play relaxing music for the full experience and can be entirely controlled via a panel on its side, or by a smartphone app besides, if youd like to use the iDream 5 while working, watching TV, or reading, the goggles unit is completely detachable, freeing up your eyes while giving you a full head massage.

Designer: Breo

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The iDream 5 relaxes your eyes and head with massages, vibrations, and hot-compresses - Yanko Design

Richard Strauss created some of the splashiest, most theatrical orchestral music in the repertory. So, an all-Strauss program might easily turn into too much of a good thingleaving one feeling as overstuffed as a large Thanksgiving dinner.

Fortunately, the Houston Symphony and music director Andrs Orozco-Estrada avoided that danger Friday night at Jones Hall.

Could anything begin a concert in a less showy way than the sickroom gloom that launches Strausss early tone poem Death and Transfiguration? Yet Orozco-Estrada and the orchestra made it as arresting as the sonic pyrotechnics that come later in the score.

The upper strings pulsations were hushed but deep, generating a paradoxical electricity. The rumblings from the orchestras lower reaches added sepulchral darkness and depth, and the tendrils of melody sang out plaintively.

As the protagonists death throes erupted, Orozco-Estrada spurred the orchestra to give them visceral force.

When the sufferings gave way to memories of better days, the orchestras sweep and red-blooded richness brought them to life. The players evoked the departeds transfiguration in a gradual, commanding crescendo. Without interrupting the momentum, Orozco-Estrado took time to lead the strings to caress the most mellifluous turns of phrase. At the climax, Strausss main transfiguration theme rang out majestically.

Written 58 years later at the end of his long life, Strausss Four Last Songs returned to the theme of lifes inevitable end, complete with a quote from Death and Transfiguration.

Some conductors emphasize the songs spaciousness to a fault. Orozco-Estrada gave them a bit more flow, setting up Swedish soprano Miah Persson to relish the vocal flights that are the songs calling card.

And the soloists lyric-soprano gleam and fluent vocalism clearly savored the songs transports and reveries alike. When Strauss called for her to soar, Persson gave each melisma a shape and energy of its ownsurging here, relaxing there, ringing out vibrantly at the lines peak. As Spring invoked birdsong, her lightness gave the moment an airy charm of its own.

In the songs more reflective sections, Persson imbued the German texts with an almost conversational feel. That was especially compelling in the last song, At Sunset, with its meditation on past experiences and lifes final dusk. Perssons voice sounded a bit dry at times, but that was a small price to pay for the expressive immediacy of her performance.

When her voice was silent, Orozco-Estrada let the orchestras rich textures bloom. But whenever Strauss brought the solo voice to the fore, the conductor alertly pared down his accompaniment. In Going to Sleep, guest concertmaster Juliette Kang set the stage for Persson by filling her pivotal violin solo with shapeliness and warmth.

The concerts second half brought two portraits of antiheroes: Till Eulenspiegel and Don Juan. The orchestra plunged into both showpieces with ample virtuosity, but Orozco-Estrada ensured that each work had its own distinctive profile.

After Orozco-Estrada took his bow before Don Juan, he gave the downbeat before the audience had finished applauding; the entire performance was shot through with that kind of eagerness.

The orchestras power and crackling virtuosity captured the legendary rakes sheer, self-destructive abandon. The strings most flamboyant flourishes were dashing, forceful and razor-sharp; the entire ensemble brought the climaxes tremendous energy and blazing tone.

Principal oboist Jonathan Fischer and principal clarinetist Mark Nuccio spun out Strauss lyricism tenderly in the love scenes. And when Don Juan met his doom, the orchestras muffled, glowering tone put across his spiritual darkness.

The prankster Eulenspiegel came to life through the orchestras quicksilver fleetness and whimsical light touch. Associate principal horn Robert Johnson set the tone with his nimble solos, and the orchestras agility and sharpness gave each of Eulenspiegels escapades a rascally pizazzespecially principal flutist Aralee Doroughwith clarinetist Nuccio investing the troublemakers last cries with squealing desperation.

Screens on either side of the stage supplied translations for the Four Last Songs. But someone had the dubious idea to use projected titles during the tone poems as well.

In Don Juan, that included the likes of Don Juan theme, First encounter and In his mind, he was a hero. That last one, accompanying the striding horn theme, got a chuckle from some listenersprobably not the reaction Strauss wanted.

If ever there was music that invites listeners to listen and let their minds eyes run free, its these colorful, picturesque works. No doubt, helping the audience understand the scenarios was well-intentioned. But the spoon-feeding only pre-empted the listeners own reactions.

The program will be repeated 8 p.m. Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday. houstonsymphony.org; 713-224-7575.

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Blog Archive Houston Symphony gives thanks to Richard Strauss with an evening of brilliant music - Texas Classical Review

Innovative in nature, Southern Californias Idyllwild Arts Academy knows how to capture the creativity of children, youth, adults and families with an annual Summer Program, with the next program taking place between June 14 and August 9, 2020.

This immersive experience provides hands-on instruction in every imaginable arts discipline, including sculpture, painting, photography, ceramics, jewelry, Native American arts, film and digital media, fashion design, dance, theatre and creative writing.

All of this is in addition to exceptionally varied music options that include orchestra, chamber, choir, band, piano, jazz and songwriting.

As the Best School for the Arts in America according to the 2020 Niche rankings, Idyllwild Arts Academy has a longstanding reputation for inspiring learners and creating leaders. And Idyllwild Arts Summer Program workshops offer high-caliber arts instruction to attendees of all ages and abilities.

Situated on 205 forested acres in Southern Californias majestic San Jacinto Mountains, the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program has professional artist-educators on hand to spark self-expression.

Source: Idyllwild Arts Academy

Children between the ages of 5 and 8 experience the joys of creativity and performance through the Idyllwild Arts Childrens Center.

For Summer Program attendees aged 9 to 13, known as Junior Artists, there are opportunities to explore and develop individual creative expressions.

Finally, for attendees aged 13 to 18, the intensives and workshops supply focused and challenging experiences. Young learners who choose a single creative outlet to focus on during the program are challenged to improve their skills and strengthen their self-confidence.

At Idyllwild Arts, all workshops provide a low student-to-teacher ratio, so students get the best out of their Summer Program experience and every class evokes artistic discovery, productivity and creativity.

If you take a look at the Summer Program page, youll see a creative specialty that fits every aspiration and age group.

Presenting numerous subject areas such as Creative Writing, Dance, the ESL & Arts Summer Intensive, Fashion Design, Film, Digital Media, & Sound, the Multi-Arts Day Program, Music, Theatre and Visual Arts, the Summer Program caters to diverse creative minds.

Source: Idyllwild Arts Academy

For Visual Arts enthusiasts, there are abundant riches to choose from. From a two-week 3D art extravaganza where students explore the world of ceramics, to an exciting digital photography camp that covers the fundamental techniques of photography, camera handling and finalising print, endless possibilities that fulfil the creative needs of visual artists are waiting at Idyllwild.

For aspiring theatre performers and producers, the Theatre module includes an exhilarating summer theatre camp where students work on an original or adapted musical from its early stages of development to its premiere.

The Summer Program also enables students to put a modern spin on a Shakespeare play, performed under the stars with professional lighting, sets, costumes and music.

Film, Digital Media & Sound students use a state-of-the-art soundstage, film-based lighting, grip equipment, HD digital cameras and editing suites to make short digital films.

Because creativity knows no age limit, the Summer Program also has an Adult Arts Center where students enjoy the relaxed atmosphere of a summer camp while receiving intensely detailed technical instruction and personal attention to individual artistic needs.

Source: Idyllwild Arts Academy

With workshops available such as Hot Clay & Pottery, Jewelry & Metals Week, Mixed Media & Book Arts, Native American Arts, Printmaking & Photography and Sculpture & Glassblowing, parents receive guidance from experienced instructors eager to work with learners of all ages and abilities.

Or, if parents prefer to be together with their child or children, the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program Family Week allows whole families to explore a range of the arts, enjoy outdoor recreation in a stunning mountain setting and share meaningful time together.

The Family Week features seven days and six nights of fun and adventure, with all meals and accommodation provided. Here, relaxation comes naturally.

The best part is that families can tailor their programs to suit their interests, enjoying live performances, concerts, lectures and games, or choosing to be active by creating art, hiking or swimming or just relaxing by the pool and reading a book. Everything is possible at Idyllwild!

So if youre interested in unleashing your creativity by registering for the teens and kids workshops, Family Week or the 4-Week Summer ESL, click here to find out more.

Adult registration opens in February and youre always welcome to email summer@idyllwildarts.org to find out more about the 2020 Summer Program schedule.

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Idyllwild Arts: Making art a lifelong practice

Balance arts, academics, and athletics for students to reach their full potential

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Idyllwild Arts Summer Program: Intensive practical instruction in the arts - Study International News