Cognitive Labs

We're still analyzing the numbers, but there was an increase in unique visitors of 220% between the year 2007 and the year 2008 for Cognitive Labs. At the end of the day, it's all about reach and audience. The television people have known this for years, and it is the same on the Internet-though attitudes bounce between higher and lower intervals of interest depending on external factors. But the fundamentals don't change.

Labels: 2007, 2008, 220, fundamentals, intervals, unique, uniques

Here's September for Cognitive Labs...over 622,000 visitors

Labels: 2008, alzheimers exercise brain canada, browsers, coglabs, september, traffic

One of the studies presented at the 2008 International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease in Chicago shows that subjects with early Alzheimer's disease who exercised frequently saw less deterioration in the areas of the brain that control memory.

MRI scans show that exercise positively affected the hippocampus region of patients' brains, an area that is important for both memory and balance. In Alzheimer's, the hippocampus is one of the first parts of the brain to suffer damage. Exercise and physical fitness have been shown to slow age-related brain cell death in healthy older adults, and earlier this month a preliminary study was published showing that exercise may help slow brain shrinkage in people with early Alzheimer's disease.
Now, researchers at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kan., have used MRI and other imaging tools to analyze how exercise affects the brains of those with early Alzheimer's.

The research found that patients with early Alzheimer's had a "significant relationship" between the size of key brain areas associated with memory and fitness, unlike healthy older adults. Those patients with better fitness ratings had less brain tissue atrophy and those with worse fitness had more brain damage.

"This is the first study to get an inside look into specifically where these changes occur in the brain. We're able to locate the changes associated with fitness to the actual memory region, the hippocampus, which is a key area for Alzheimer's-related atrophy," said Robyn A. Honea, Ph.D., a lead investigator on the study. "This suggests that maintaining cardiorespiratory fitness may positively modify Alzheimer's-related brain atrophy."

Labels: 2008, alzheimers, conference, hippocampus, honea, kansas, mri

At this stage in the game, we're going to add links to blogs/sites we notice/read/react to that in one way or another make a major contribution to understanding (a) cognitive health (b) health & science and (c) the internet because all of these topics are so inter-related.

July 21st was probably an all time high water-mark, surprising because it's the middle of summer and historically, this has been the off season as far as brain-training is concerned. In the nineteenth century they used to say philosophy was popularized in the northerly climes, where there was nothing to do in the long dark days of winter but read, think, and write by the fire.

But now, Cognitive Labs is tearing it up right in the midst of the lazy ants-at-the-picnic and bears-at-the-campsite season.

So, look for that in the days and weeks ahead. Contact us for any specific syndication needs you may have, (e.g., route 66 'kicks' game or anything else) as that program is blazing as the Bonneville salt flats [saltflats.com] - assuming you can determine this...

Labels: 2008, blog, fox, philosophy, reading, summer

Yes, it's true. June was fabulous.



Details at 11.

Labels: 2008, june, junkdna

It's been a short, but event-driven year already. Mysterious assassinations, winter storms that brought sheets of snow and rain to the West, a maelstrom of beemer-crushing tree limbs on the Coast and maybe the worst blizzard since the Donner party in the Sierra, as well as unforeseen political surprises in Iowa, where the favorites in both parties were lured into an ambuscade - all suggest that a layer of unreality has been deposited upon our collective perception.

The young year 2008 also marks the 65th anniversary of the invention of the Slinky. In 1943, Richard James was working on a springloaded-powered gauge to measure the horsepower of industrial engines - in this case boilers for U.S. Navy ships, when he accidentally dropped a spring and was shocked to see it take a step forward - illustrating the principle of conservation of energy in dramatic form.

"Hmm," he thought. "This might be an interesting toy."

He spent 2 years working on the concept and introduced the Slinky at a Philadelphia department store in time for Chistmas of 1945. He had a friend in the audience buy the the first one and from then on the saga continued.

Eventually James' wife, Betty, became CEO and led the company into a diverse line of product extensions.

More than 250 million Slinkies have been sold around the world.

links:

Michigan State - history of the Slinky
About.com - invention of the Slinky

Labels: 2008, bhutto, blizzard, california, history, rain, slinky, storms

2007 was a great year, we've now hit the milestone of 3.5 million visitors who are concerned with brain fitness.

The chart above shows the rate of growth.

In 2008 as of 11:40 Pacific time on 1/3 we have 73,000 visitors and 196,000 page views so far.

Labels: 196000, 2007, 2008, 73000, cognitive, labs, pageviews, visitors