Tom Elwood - what I read on the internet.

OK Go - Needing/Getting - Official Video

2012-02-10T01:12:00.001-08:00

I don't know how they think of these videos, but this rock group has thought of some great, artistic, unforgettable videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MejbOFk7H6c&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Reminds me of the Rube Goldberg Honda ad.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ve4M4UsJQo

Best definition of medical emergency I've seen.

2012-02-09T14:29:00.001-08:00

I've struggled and searched for a definition of 'emergency' before because the definition can be 'stretched' for convenience in hospital settings.
Emergency Services: Any health care service provided to a member after the sudden onset of a medical condition that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity or severe pain, such that a prudent layperson, who possesses an average knowledge of health and medicine, could reasonably expect the absence of immediate medical attention to result in i) placing the health of the member, or, with respect to a pregnant member, the health of her unborn child, in serious jeopardy; ii) serious impairment to bodily functions; or iii) serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.
-from a provider contract with Coventry.

However, I'm not sure in this definition why it can't be an expert opinion rather than a layperson that would expect the adverse outcome. For instance, brainstem herniation is life-threatening but looks like sleepiness to a layperson.
-Tom.

Science behind massage - evidence. Muscle biopsies!

2012-02-08T07:30:00.000-08:00

A massage after vigorous exercise unquestionably feels good, and it seems to reduce pain and help muscles recover. Many people — both athletes and health professionals – have long contended it eases inflammation, improves blood flow and reduces muscle tightness. But until now no one has understood why massage has this apparently beneficial effect.

Now researchers have found what happens to muscles when a masseur goes to work on them.

Their experiment required having people exercise to exhaustion and undergo five incisions in their legs in order to obtain muscle tissue for analysis. Despite the hurdles, the scientists still managed to find 11 brave young male volunteers. The study was published in the Feb. 1 issue of Science Translational Medicine.

On a first visit, they biopsied one leg of each subject at rest. At a second session, they had them vigorously exercise on a stationary bicycle for more than an hour until they could go no further. Then they massaged one thigh of each subject for 10 minutes, leaving the other to recover on its own. Immediately after the massage, they biopsied the thigh muscle in each leg again. After allowing another two-and-a-half hours of rest, they did a third biopsy to track the process of muscle injury and repair.

Vigorous exercise causes tiny tears in muscle fibers, leading to an immune reaction — inflammation — as the body gets to work repairing the injured cells. So the researchers screened the tissue from the massaged and unmassaged legs to compare their repair processes, and find out what difference massage would make.

They found that massage reduced the production of compounds called cytokines, which play a critical role in inflammation. Massage also stimulated mitochondria, the tiny powerhouses inside cells that convert glucose into the energy essential for cell function and repair. “The bottom line is that there appears to be a suppression of pathways in inflammation and an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis,” helping the muscle adapt to the demands of increased exercise, said the senior author, Dr. Mark A. Tarnopolsky.

Dr. Tarnopolsky, a professor of pediatrics and medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said that massage works quite differently from Nsaids and other anti-inflammatory drugs, which reduce inflammation and pain but may actually retard healing. Many people, for instance, pop an aspirin or Aleve at the first sign of muscle soreness. “There’s some theoretical concern that there is a maladaptive response in the long run if you’re constantly suppressing inflammation with drugs,” he said. “With massage, you can have your cake and eat it too—massage can suppress inflammation and actually enhance cell recovery.”

“This is important research, because it is the first to show that massage can reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines which may be involved in pain,” said Tiffany Field, director of the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami Medical School. She was not involved in the study. “We have known from many studies that pain can be reduced by massage based on self-report, but this is the first demonstration that the pain-related pro-inflammatory cytokines can be reduced.” she said.

Getting a massage from a professional masseur is obviously more expensive than taking an aspirin. But, as Dr. Field points out, massage techniques can be taught. “People within families can learn to massage each other,” she said. “If you can teach parents to massage kids, couples to massage each other. This can be cost effective.”

Dr. Tarnopolsky suggests that, in the long run, a professional massage may even be a better bargain than a pill. “If someone says “This is free and it might make you feel better, but it may slow down your recovery, do you still want it?” he asked. “Or would you rather spend the 50 bucks for a post-exercise massage that also might enhance your recovery?”

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/how-massage-heals-sore-muscles/

mp4a to mp3 converter online

2012-02-05T13:38:00.001-08:00

Very convenient to use online - gives you a converted file to download after online conversion.
http://www.convertfiles.com/convert/audio/M4A-to-MP3.html

Liz Phair video

2012-02-05T12:58:00.000-08:00

I like this video - clever idea of having album covers in a juke box show all the lyrics to the song.

Dylan video

2012-02-05T12:51:00.000-08:00

Stands on a streetcorner throwing down lyric cards. I love this video, especially where he parodies his own lyrics.
The clip was originally a segment of D. A. Pennebaker's film, Dont Look Back.

Much copied, never equalled.

And a funny parody of it by Weird Al where all the lines are palindromes.

Proust on art

2012-01-30T12:03:00.001-08:00

Proust's elegantly incisive observation: "Through art alone are we able to emerge from ourselves, to know what another person sees of a universe which is not the same as our own and of which, without art, the landscapes would remain as unknown to us as those that may exist on the moon. Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world only, our own, we see that world multiply itself and we have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists, worlds more different one from the other than those which revolve in infinite space, worlds which, centuries after the extinction of the fire from which their light first emanated, whether it is called Rembrandt or Vermeer, send us still each one its special radiance."

-Tom.

Amazon's Kindle Fire Is Blazingly Fast for a Mobile Device | Popular Science

2012-01-21T09:51:00.001-08:00

Aha. I've often wondered why I sit waiting a long time for a page to load. This article describes how an operating system can get around the bottleneck of a slow host server, by crowd sourcing page elements and pre packaging them in an efficient format. TE

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-12/amazons-kindle-fire-blazingly-fast-mobile-device

-Tom.

How incredible life is

2012-01-18T13:54:00.000-08:00

"It's hard for us to accept how incredible life is, in the moment..."
Nicely phrased thought from a video about time passing.

scan a building into CAD

2012-01-07T10:11:00.001-08:00

Within a radius of 400', this $30,000 camera scans in data points so you can recreate an environment, like a crime scene or building design in minutes so you can manipulate your view of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeU4X5B0Zyg&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Tom.

Spray-On Skin | Popular Science

2012-01-06T20:49:00.001-08:00

A harvested skin sample grows while you wait in this device and can be sprayed back on to an area 80 X the size of the harvest.
http://www.popsci.com/bown/2011/product/avitarecell-spray-skin

-Tom.

The Lytro camera

2012-01-06T20:37:00.001-08:00

CNET description of the Lytro camera.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDyRSYGcFVM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Tom.

Lytro light field camera

2012-01-06T20:36:00.001-08:00

Camera with thousands of micro lenses captures multiple pictures allowing you to select different parts of the image to bring into focus after the fact.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm3_sbA01zI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Tom.

PrintBrush™ 4X6 -First pocket size ink jet printer/digital camera in the world! (hi def video)

2012-01-06T20:34:00.001-08:00

Prints onto any surface.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPhLFxRgfQ8&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Tom.

Very cool. Print on anything. PrintBrush

2012-01-06T20:32:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSM5z5vL-Qo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

-Tom.

Jobs and product image

2012-01-02T18:30:00.001-08:00

He would care, sometimes obsessively, about marketing and image and even details of packaging.
"When you open the box of an iPhone or iPad, we want that tactile experience to set the tone for how you perceive the product." p. 78

Steve Jobs bio

2011-12-26T21:37:00.001-08:00

"I think his desire for complete control of whatever he makes derives directly from his personality and the fact that he was abandoned at birth." p4
"He learned to stare at people without blinking, and he perfected long silences punctuated by staccato bursts of fast talking. This odd mix of intensity and aloofness.." p31
"He could be brutally cold and rude to her at times, but he was also entrancing and able to impose his will. 'He was an enlightened being who was also cruel.' "p32.

Steve Jobs biography

2011-12-25T20:21:00.001-08:00

"They developed...whole new devices and services that consumers did not yet know they needed." p xxi
"Jobs said that his appreciation for Eichler homes (http://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&source=mog&hl=en&gl=us&client=safari&q=eichler%20homes&sa=N&biw=320&bih=416#p=0)
instilled in him a passion for making nicely designed products for the mass market." p7

Brain changes shape from studying.

2011-12-09T20:31:00.001-08:00

London can drivers study furiously to pass a test of knowing 25000 streets. Their brains were studied and actually changed shape versus controls. TE
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/Media-office/Press-releases/2011/WTVM053658.htm

Informed consent for Anesthesia

2011-11-28T16:33:00.001-08:00

It seems that the more you tell patients about specific risks, the more it relieves their anxiety.
Here's a list of studies of consent for anesthesia.

How Medicare Fails the Elderly

2011-10-21T18:25:00.000-07:00

OPINION | October 16, 2011
Opinion: How Medicare Fails the Elderly
By JANE GROSS
The truth about Medicare: what it pays for is not what most recipients need or want.

China and the global economy

2011-10-21T18:15:00.000-07:00

" Never before in history has a country with such a low per capita income played such a central role in the global economy."
An article in which a Yahoo finance columnist argues that China will not dominate the world economy, but that China and India have a GDP per capita that is rising towards that of the developed world. And beyond that hje's skeptical whether China can make the transition from manufacturing to services.

http://www.jgmobile.net/article/20110821/ENT07/308219965/1134/ENT07&template=mobileart

Projection onto Buildings

2011-10-14T18:56:00.000-07:00

http://castroller.com/Podcasts/BestOfYoutube/1862328

Rachel's

2011-10-12T20:04:00.001-07:00

"Rachel's Challenge" - Rachel Scott was the first student murdered at Columbine High School in 1999. Her father Darrell Scott started Rachel's challenge to "start a chain reaction of kindness" which has been heard by millions. The 5 primary points are to

1) look for the best in others

2) dream big

3) choose [friends who are] positive influences

4)speak with kindness and

5)start your own chain reaction.

NYTimes: Apple Introduces a New iPhone, With a Personal Assistant

2011-10-08T18:52:00.000-07:00

"The iPhone is the most critical product in Apple's line-up and the largest source of its revenue, accounting for more than $13.3 billion — almost half of total company sales — in the most recent quarter."

Although the new phone is virtually indistinguishable from its predecessor on the outside, the company says the iPhone 4S is packed with better technical innards, including a more advanced camera. http://nyti.ms/pIZtws

-Tom.