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Living Room / Re: Show us the View Outside Your Window
« Last post by KynloStephen66515 on August 27, 2012, 12:21 PM »Its a tad foggy...
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(CNN) -- Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, has died, his family said Saturday. He was 82.
"We are heartbroken to share the news that Neil Armstrong has passed away following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures," Armstrong's family said in a statement.
Armstrong underwent heart surgery this month.
"While we mourn the loss of a very good man, we also celebrate his remarkable life and hope that it serves as an example to young people around the world to work hard to make their dreams come true, to be willing to explore and push the limits, and to selflessly serve a cause greater than themselves," his family said.
A team of scientists at the Boston Children’s Hospital have invented what is being considered one the greatest medical breakthroughs in recent years. They have designed a microparticle that can be injected into a person’s bloodstream that can quickly oxygenate their blood. This will even work if the ability to breathe has been restricted, or even cut off entirely.
This finding has the potential to save millions of lives every year. The microparticles can keep an object alive for up to 30 min after respiratory failure. This is accomplished through an injection into the patients’ veins. Once injected, the microparticles can oxygenate the blood to near normal levels. This has countless potential uses as it allows life to continue when oxygen is needed but unavailable. For medical personnel, this is just enough time to avoid risking a heart attack or permanent brain injury when oxygen is restricted or cut off to patients.
Dr. John Kheir, who first began the study, works in the Boston Children’s Hospital Department of Cardiology. He found inspiration for the drug in 2006, when he was treating a girl in the ICU who had a sever case of pneumonia. At the time, the girl didn’t have a breathing tube, when at the time she suffered from a pulmonary hemorrhage. This means her lungs had begin to fill up with blood, and she finally went into cardiac arrest. It took doctors about 25 minutes to remove enough blood from her lungs to allow her to breath. Though, the girl’s brain was severely injured due to being deprived of oxygen for that long and she eventually died.
Microparticle Composition
The microparticles used are composed of oxygen gas pocketed in a layer of lipids. A Lipid is a natural molecule that can store energy and act as a part of a cell membrane, they can be made of many things such as wax, vitamins, phospholipids, and in this case fat is the lipid that stores the oxygen.
These microparticles are around two to four micrometers in length and carry about three to four times the oxygen content of our own red blood cells. In the past, researchers had a difficult time succeeding as prior tests caused gas embolism. This meant that the gas molecules would become stuck trying to squeeze through the capillaries. They corrected this issue by packaging them into small deformable particles rather ones where the structure was rigid.
Potential Future Uses
Medical: There is the obvious medical uses where the microparticles can be used to save off death from a restriction in breathing due to inflammation of the lungs, collapsed lungs, and the like. It would be good to have these injections ready in hospitals and ambulances for when the time is needed.
Military: Can you imagine a navy seals capability when they wouldn’t need to surface for air and could stay underwater for over 20 minutes? If a boat was to begin to sink, you could shoot yourself as the boat is going down to ensure you aren’t drowned in the under current of the sinking vessel. How about for toxic gases when a facemask is unavailable. The military could have a number of uses for such a medical advancement.
Private Sector: Really this can be used as a precaution for anything nautical where the potential to drown is a real danger. Deep sea rescue crews could inject themselves prior to making a rescue, underwater welders can use it in case they become stuck or air is lost to their suits. The potential use for anything water related seems extremely worthwhile.
Conclusion
In the end, this is an amazing medical advancement and I cant help but recall the movie the Abyss when they took the pill, their helmets filled with air, and they were told they can breathe the water. Well what if they really couldn’t “breathe” water” but since the urge to breathe is natural, that must take place… even if you’re not breathing air per se. But your body was provided with enough oxygen for a time period by taking a pill. It’s just goes to show that anything, absolutely anything that can be thought up, can potentially one day become reality. Thank you scientists, for reminding me that people and their ingenuity are nothing short of awesome.
Sad thing is that they need to create doubt in order to make sales... that'd be a hell of a marketing angle-iphigenie (August 22, 2012, 02:13 AM)
I can't count how many times some stupid browser detection rules caught me as collateral damage - either too new a version (after a new release), or Opera etc. I typically tweet how lame they are, and never go back.
First, if you are going to block IE 8 then you ought to block older Firefox, early chrome, people who have older smartphones (how dare they not buy a new one every 6 months!) and pretty much every release of Safari. And you probably will end up blocking people on Linux or BSD by mistake - or people using secure/solid IE derivative browsers. And everyone on XP that can't run FF or chrome. That's a lot of people to call names and antagonise.
And blocking people on older computers might make sense if you're selling only to the digital crowd, but even then, be careful. You might be surprised what people are using outside the "i have the latest computer to impress my friends" crowd.
If you can't put in the effort to support ie 6, 7, 8 (or opera) then that is fine. Understandable considering some of the hacks on has to do, the knowledge it requires and all the testing effort. But you don't have to be an ass about it and cast judgment on people and rub their noses in it.
And if it is to put some of the annoying new features of modern web design that make a site hard to use, navigate and impossible to bookmark, well then, I have no sympathy for you.
Websites ought to be designed for their users, not used for their designer to compete in the cool leagues of featuritis...
oops, soapbox alert. getting off-iphigenie (August 21, 2012, 03:52 AM)
If the promotion is still on, ask a friend or family member to redeem it for you, maybe for some sort of reward for helping you-Stephen66515 (August 20, 2012, 05:46 PM)
I think Blockbuster went bankrupt...-Renegade (August 20, 2012, 05:55 PM)
Just hit upon another thread looking for DC coffee mug art work. It reminded me of my favorite coffee mug. Unfortunately I can't find a replacement anywhere. When it dies it's gone. I can't afford to bid on E-bay for memorabilia. I've never seen a plastic coffee mug designed as well as this.
Note the width of the mug. When it's on the desk you don't have to worry about knocking it over. Low center of gravity.
(see attachment in previous post)
Also the brilliance of the design is to use air as insulator, rather than heavy ceramic. Note this mug keeps my coffee hot much longer than any ceramic or other mug I've used.
(see attachment in previous post)
Plastic end pieces shown. The dark blue sippy piece is softer than the shell of the mug body. It's very comfortable.
(see attachment in previous post)
and the shot from the other side for completeness.
(see attachment in previous post)
I've looked all over the web and I've never seen this exact design. Too bad the promotion was one per customer or I would have gotten back in line to rent more movies.-MilesAhead (August 20, 2012, 05:33 PM)
When I scan the barcode I get this:-4wd (August 20, 2012, 12:40 AM)
man, with all the advances we're making with light technology, i have a feeling that within our lifetime, the notion of "seeing is believing" is just going to be turned upside down.-superboyac (August 19, 2012, 11:25 PM)
Well...
http://www.thedenver...31362231/detail.htmlEBay Bans Sale Of Spells, Hexes
Company Also Eliminating Category Listings For Psychic Readings, Tarot Card Sessions
Beginning in September, the site is banning the sale of "advice, spells, curses, hexing, conjuring, magic, prayers, blessing services, magic potions, [and] healing sessions," according to a policy update.
The company is also eliminating its category listings for psychic readings and tarot card sessions.
The update is a part of a "multi-year effort...to build trust in the marketplace and support sellers," eBay wrote in its company blog.
Has anyone actually been buying magic on eBay? It seems so: The site's "spells and potions" category currently has more than 6,000 active listings and happy feedback from quite a few satisfied buyers.
A psychic/magic auction site could do very well.-Renegade (August 19, 2012, 07:59 PM)
OOPs sorry - thought I sent it as a PM to cthorpe!-Carol Haynes (August 19, 2012, 06:39 PM)
Good job one of us was paying attention...I don't even know why I clicked on this post, seeing as I didn't want it myself hahaCarol, I removed the link you posted purely cause I clicked it, and it said I could redeem it. Didn't want someone jumping onto something you offered to cthorpe and stealing it-Stephen66515 (August 19, 2012, 06:37 PM)
- Hope I am not out of line for editing your post 
I'm getting a headache :p