Pay phones going bye-bye?

AT&T said by the end of next year they are going to stop owning and operating public pay phones. The company which operates 65,000 pay phones will put them up for sale and it is said that independent operators will be the first to bid.

"Even in the age of mobile handsets and BlackBerrys, people still drop quarters into public phones. About 5% of all U.S. households, and 8% of those with annual incomes under $20,000, have access to neither wireless nor land-line phones."

This is what would be my guess for why AT&T is going to stop operating the pay phones. I remember awhile back, the phones on some sides of freeways were taken away because the majority of people own a cell phone now and there was no need to have them there.

Apparently, public pay phones have been around since the 1880's and now with all of the technology we have, it seems as if the pay phone business is no longer profitable.

By Lauren Darmody

feeling depressed

Are there times when saddnes just takes a hold of you and you stay in a rut. Well there are many people who suffer from depression. However, some of those people will try and treat their depression with pills while others dont believe in the magic of medicine. For those who don't believe in medicine a new innovations has arrived. This is new innovation is a permanent implant in the brain that shocks it with electrcity. Several different wires are placed in different areas of the brain. the wires are then hooked up to two battery-run stimulators. At a doctors command the shock is sent to the individual. Millions of neurons sit in electricity. After this the indivdual feels happier and more livly. Who would have thought that all anyone needed to be happy was an electric shock to the brain.



Christine Thompson

once a tire and poof now is oil.

Frank Pringle’s has created a machine that will turn pretty much anything into oil. He can put in a tire, a rock or a platic cup and seconds later it will turn in oil. The machine is a microwave emitter that extracts the petroleum and gas hidden inside everyday objects—or at least anything made with hydrocarbons. This happens to be many of the products that used around in everyday life. This machine this will turn 10 tons of every day waste like tires, plastic and more to create 17 million BTU's of energy. Frank Pringle thought of this idea 10 years ago when he witnessed a tire fire an saw how much engery was being wasted. With this new innovation it will help change how we are able to gain oil.

Christine Thompson

A new taste for food

scientists are testing new ways for individuals to like certain foods. They have found that many people dont like the taste of oysters because they seem to be slimy while others don't like lemons because they are bitter. Scientists have found that a a like or dislike doen't only come from the taste buds in the tongue but also that it is molecules, receptors, brain structures and genetic code that will enable them to create flavors that will be come irresistible. They have found that certain foods a mother will eat with child will become a food that the child when born will also love. Scientists are useing a machine called a "sepbox" which is a high-performance liquid chromatograph, an instrument that separates compounds according to their chemical affinity with certain solvents and resins. This helps scientists see what types of flavors will taste good. With this new innovation to food it will make certain foods taste better and more appealing.

Christine Thompson

Robotic Leeches: Sucking on Your Heart

For over 2000 years, leeches were needlessly applied to treat a multitude of maladies as an adjunct to bloodletting. Since medieval times the leech has been used to cure everything from fever to possession by evil spirits. Now I know leeches may seem a bit outdated in modern medicine, but a 21st century robotic version of these slimy little blood suckers may soon be let loose inside the chests of heart patients. As the April 2007 New Scientist explains, a tiny device known as the Heartlander, brainchild of scientists at Carnegie Mellon University, can slide across the still beating heart of a patient and deliver treatment without the need for open heart surgery.

While the application of these robotic leeches may not be available for human trials just yet, their potential for treating congestive heart failure patients certainly merits our attention, because let’s face it, the thought of leeches mending our broken hearts doesn’t suck.

Now for many of us, the advent of the Heartlander may conjure up images of the miniaturized surgical team in the 1966 film “Fantastic voyage,” in which Donald Pleasance and his fellow mini-adventurers aboard the submarine Proteus are shrunk to microscopic size so they can remove a blood clot from inside a human brain. The reality of procedures such as this is explained in the April 19, 2007 Guardian, which states, “the Heartlander team hopes their creepy-crawly robot will be much less traumatic for both surgeons and patients.” Traditional open-heart surgery, commonly used for bypass, involves surgeons opening up the patient’s chest and pulling back the ribs. Recovering from this operation can take weeks.
However, according to the April 2007 New Scientist, The Heartlander can be inserted using minimally invasive keyhole surgery. Once in place, it will attach itself to the heart and begin inching its way across the outside of the organ, injecting drugs or attaching medical devices. In tests on pigs, the Heartlander has fitted pacemaker leads and injected dye into the heart. The September 16, 2007 Philadelphia Inquirer explains, the 20-milimeter-long robot has two suckers for feet, each pierced with 20 holes connected to a vacuum line, which hold it onto the outside of the heart. By moving its two body segments back and forth relative to one another it can crawl across the heart at up to 18 centimeters per minute. This back and forth movement is generated by pushing and pulling wires that run back to motors outside the patient’s body.
The plan, according to developer Cameron Riviere in the May 7, 2007 Business Week, is to insert the Heartlander through an incision below the ribcage, and pass it through a further incision in the membrane that encloses the heart. Surgeons keep track of the device using X-ray video, or a magnetic tracker, and control its movement via a joystick. “This device is certainly like nothing else I’ve seen,” says Andrew Rankin, a cardiologist at the University of Glasgow in the U.K., April 18, 2007. “Many procedures can be performed by passing instruments into the heart through blood vessels, but it is not possible where damaged or diseased tissue is close to the heart’s surface.” This device could be useful in those cases.
Medical News Today explains on April 25, 2007, the latest research shows that over 308,000 patients underwent coronary artery bypass surgery last year. “Though minimally invasive procedures on a beating heart are sometimes possible, some areas of the heart are out of reach to instruments inserted through keyhole incisions and the limited space in the chest cavity makes operating difficult.” Along with the use of other robotic devices, the Heartlander can reach all parts of the heart’s surface.

Currently, according to the previously cited Philadelphia Inquirer, the use of laparoscopic coronary artery bypass surgery has increased in popularity, so more surgeons are using robotic arms controlled by joysticks, tools that some say make the operation easier. There are fewer occurrences of hand tremors, and with the use of three-dimensional cameras, as Dr. Joseph Woo explains, “it looks like you are sitting inside the heart.” Unlike laparoscopic instruments, small robotic arms have full range of motion and much smaller incisions are required.
Men’s Health Magazine goes on to explain, In April of this year Joseph M. Hendrickson underwent bypass surgery where surgeons used robotic arms to relieve the strain on three of his plaque-choked arteries. While sitting around the fishing hole six weeks later, he proceeded to explain to his two fishing buddies that doctors were able to sew grafts on to his beating heart through an incision no larger than the size of your average fishing lure. “They just couldn’t believe I was out fishing already and in no pain whatsoever,” Hendricks explained. The two men who had also undergone bypass surgery stepped forward to tell him they knew better, each sporting eight-inch scars from where doctors sawed through their chests to get to their hearts.

Through a combination of robotic arms and stents, or small mesh tubes used to prop the blood vessels open, Dr. Francis P. Sutter, explains “we can do these surgeries on very sick patients without putting them on heart and lung machines that have been known to diminish cognitive ability.” Robotic technologies now allow surgeons to sit a few feet from a patient peering through a three-dimensional scope, manipulating the robotic arms like a space-age marionette.
The October 5, 2007 Medical News Today explains, the prototype has not been tested on humans, which will take several years, so it is unlikely to be in general use by heart surgeons before the year 2013. Medical News Today goes on to explain that heart experts have welcomed and praised the idea of the Heartlander. However, they wonder whether in practice it will be as useful as its inventors hope. Many heart procedures require access to the inside of the heart, whereas the Heartlander only accesses the outer surface.

However, with the advent of other robotic techniques, the Heartlander’s potential for aiding in bypass surgeries in the future is very exciting. Dr. Rankin, in the previously cited New Scientist reveals that this device will come into its own for future treatments such as stem cell therapies to encourage regeneration of heart tissue. Medical News Today goes on to explain that injections of adult stem cells into damaged heart tissue significantly improved heart function in patients with severe congestive heart failure. In fact in current trials, patients who have received stem cell injections therapy have seen a 45 percent increase in healthy tissue re-growth, as well as their heart’s improved ability to contract more effectively and restore its blood supply. The only problem is that stem cell therapies must be performed on an open heart to avoid pushing a needle too deeply into a patient’s heart.

This is where the Heartlander has the most potential for revolutionizing heart surgery. By attaching steel robotic hands and three-dimensional cameras to the end of the Heartlander, essentially giving the little leech eyes and arms, the device can move through the surface of the heart, even the difficult to reach areas at the back of the heart, and deliver treatment. The Heartlander has the ability to burn away dead or diseased tissue and inject stem cells in precise locations in the heart without having to rip open the patient’s chest. According to Dr. Riviere in the April 19, 2007 London Daily Mail, this will also alleviate serious complications such as abnormal heart rhythms, and the danger of strokes that are commonly associated with a surgery as dangerous as coronary artery bypass. While the Heartlander may not be able to perform bypass surgery on its own, its potential for creating longer healthier lives by providing much needed follow up therapy in a much less invasive way, is certainly impressive.

You know talking about leeches for this long reminds me of a disturbing scene in my favorite movie “Stand By Me,” you know the one I’m talking about. Now I’m not saying that you should run out and jump into the first swamp you see for improved health, but the next time you encounter one of our little blood sucking friends, and you will, remember to keep an open mind, or at the very least, an open heart.

-Roger

MySpace to start news feeds...

I am not a MySpace user, but for those of you who are...you might be interested in this news that came out on Nov. 27.

News Corp.'s popular online social network, MySpace, plans to launch Facebook-style "news feeds" in the next 30 to 45 days, Fox Interactive Media President Peter Levinsohn said Monday.

News feeds, which alert users to what their friends and colleagues are doing, have been one of the most popular features of MySpace rival Facebook.

"The concept of a news feed is something we are very focused on, and we'll be well down the path in the next 30 to 45 days," Levinsohn said at a media conference.

He said his company also planned to let users express different versions of themselves by creating more than one profile, for example one for family, one for friends and one for work.

The new feature will let you "express yourself in all those different segments," Levinsohn said.

I remember when the news feeds first came out on Facebook and everyone freaked out trying to push petitions so I am sure MySpace users will react the same way. Most people I know are Facebook AND MySpace users so it might not come as big as a shock to them but we'll see. Oh yeah, it's funny how many stories are in the NY Times and LA Times about Facebook and MySpace.

By Lauren Darmody

Behavioral Targeting

This is the term used for what I wrote about on Facebook before. Advertising companies who are bordering on privacy lines who deposit tiny data files on personal computers to keep track of what people surf on the internet so they can try to sell things better to them.

" The research company eMarketer projects that spending on behavioral targeting will nearly double to $1 billion next year and hit $3.8 billion by 2011. "

WOW.

"Read enough golf articles online and a data file will be put on your computer labeling you a golf fan. When you're on a Web site on cooking, don't be surprised if ads for golf clubs follow you there."

SCARY.

I have experience with this since I travel so much. I am always looking for the best deals to fly places and I get ads and e-mails from online advertisers who I never subscribed with letting me know the best deals of flights to places I had previously searched like Budapest and Munich. I never even think about it and when I do, I just assume that I had not deleted my "cookies" on my computer and the ads were just following me.

If it means saving money for me, then the ads can follow me all they want. But if these ads were following me to sites I needed to go to for school work or something unrelated to travel then I would start getting annoyed.

By Lauren Darmody