New Guidelines Proposed for Children Receiving Radiation Scans

In the past paced, ever-evolving medical age that we live in receiving an x-ray, CT scan or any other test using radiation is relatively common, even for children. But as the number of scans increases the FDA as well as the Alliance for Radiation Safety in Pediatric Imaging are suggesting that the amount of radiation children receive over the course of their lifetime could increase their risk of certain cancers later in life.

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The article, published by the Boston Globe , stated that while many pediatric hospitals adjust their scanners to produce a lower amount of radiation for children it is not necessarily the case in general hospitals. As part of the recommendation to lower the dose that children receive, the FDA is also recommending that machines have built in adjustments for children of different ages and sizes.

The agency is also calling on parents to track the tests that their children receive. Often the results could be determined with a radiation-free test, only using radiation when absolutely necessary. It’s also a good way to track your child’s exposure to ensure that it doesn’t become excessive. This is of particular importance for children that with serious illnesses that require more tests than the average child.

Experts say that the tests, when necessary, are safe but this is just one more way to ensure that our children lead happy healthy lives .

The Quest for Health

The quest for health requires of all things – a healthy lifestyle. Easy to say not so easy to do in this world of processed foods and sedentary lifestyles. However there is no getting around this simple rule.

There are two things you must incorporate into your lifestyle if you want to achieve health and increase muscle mass, lose belly fat, develop stamina and all the other benefits of living a healthy lifestyle.

Number one is to undertake regular cardiovascular exercise. Simple huh? Do this four days per week for forty minutes. Cardio can take the form of running, cycling, swimming or any other exercise where you are out of breath and sweating!! Muscle building exercises such as weights and bodybuilding are not cardiovascular and so dont fall in this category. Cardio is suppose to be challenging as the aim is to increase the heart rate for an extended period of time. One benefit of cardio is that it uses up calories and thus aids weight loss.

Number two is to eat only wholegrain, organic, unrefined, or non processed foods. This is important as it will keep your appetite in check and ensure good eating habits. Must of the food found in grocery stores these days has been so refined and added to that many key nutrients have been removed and often replaced with artificial ones as well as chemicals and preservatives. Therefore make a point to eat only wholegrains and organic items. Try to avoid excessive intake of sugars, alcohol and caffeine.

By following these two steps your will improve your well being and ensure that your weight stays at a healthy level. This will help eliminate the need for unhealthy weight loss regimes such as crash diets, fat burning and cosmetic surgery.

Image via Creative Commons

Annual MDA Labor Day Telethon Moving To LA

One of the great things about Las Vegas is that once you find a hotel in Vegas it’s not a matter of locating something to do as much as it is deciding where to start. Unfortunately if you were hoping to attend or just catch a sneak peak of the celebrity performers for the annual Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) telethon you’ll be out of luck. A spokesmen for the South Point Hotel Casino & Spa, the location of the event in past years, announced Friday that the organization is moving the show to Los Angeles. More info about the decision to move can be found here .

The MDA is one of the leaders in research, fundraising, and education of diseases like muscular dystrophy, ALS, and other related diseases. The group was founded in 1950 and over the years has raised billions of dollars and has helped support groundbreaking developments in treatments and causes of these diseases.

Here is a video of Celine Dion at last years show.

Rapid Detox….is it possible

For anybody addicted to any type of drug detox is often necessary before even going to a drug rehab center. The excruciating withdrawal symptoms from opiates can often cause the addict to wait much longer before seeking help. This article from CBS talks about a controversial rapid detox treatment for opiate addicts. This article from choosehelp.com is much more skeptical and talks about some alarming side effects. It seems the treatment is not used for alcohol detox. The cost of $15-20k which is not covered by insurance is extremely prohibitive.

The Effects of New Technologies on Customers

Developments in technology over the years have changed the way that businesses interact with their customers. Gone are the days when a customer relationship management (CRM) program took care of all customer interactions. Social media has become a major influencer with the development of review sites and the sharing of information. Mobile and other touch devices are also changing the way we interact. This is all influencing the way that business is carried out and the way we interact with our customers.

Technology influences customer’s attitudes and behaviors. Opportunities exist and unfortunately dangers are lurking out there too. This requires a change in marketing focus as it should include the influence that emerging technologies have on customer behavior.

Customers are much more likely to have a direct influence on the marketplace as they have immediate access to information and are also immediately able to share their experiences. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter are enabling customers to have an influential voice.

The humble computer is no longer the tool that customers use to decide on purchases – they use smart phones, iPads, and laptops to gather immediate information and use social portals to debate and question their potential purchase. There is no longer a restraint on time or place where this occurs.

There are opportunities that arises from this change in behavior. Businesses must move away from established strategies and adapt and embrace developing technologies. This will enable heightened levels of customer interaction and increase business reach. Customers are the lifeblood of any business and this is the perfect time to intensify your relationship with them.

Provided by C3 Touch providers of social customer complaints software

Cable Company Moves Streaming TV to Smartphones, Tablets, and Laptops

Comcast launched its new Xfinity Streampix service for subscribers this week, entering the competition for your portable entertainment dollars against Netflix, Hulu Plus and Amazon. The service rolled out initially to Comcast’s 22.3 million subscribers across 39 states on Feb. 23 and could eventually help the cable company expand its customer base and keep increasingly Internet-oriented consumers from cutting the cable entirely.

About Streampix
The Streampix service is designed to complement the Philadelphia-based cable and Internet provider’s ongoing Xfinity TV service, which provides TV subscribers with access to 75,000 current and recent TV episodes on demand as well as recent and new-release movies. Streampix offers full runs of past seasons of some on-going shows, like 30 Rock and Grey’s Anatomy, as well as older programs, like Ugly Betty and Married with Children, children’s programs and older movies.

On Comcast’s official blog, Comcast Voices, Marcien Jenckes, the company’s senior vice president and general manager of video services, said the program is an effort to respond to consumer demand for access to a deeper video library and will add value to customer subscriptions. Through this program, Comcast hopes to get their subscribers to drop other similar services and make them their sole source for video services.

Netflix currently has 40,000 television episodes and movies in its library, Amazon Prime offers about 15,000, while Hulu Plus says it provides access to more than 16,000 television episodes and “hundreds” of movies.

Streampix Portability
Right now, Comcast subscribers can watch Streampix and Xfinity TV on the television, on desktop computers and laptops and via the Xfinity TV App on an iPad, iPhone — 3G or newer — or iPod Touch — second generation or later — over a WiFi or 3G connection.  The app is available for Android platform devices, but at present, only the functions that allow a device to operate as a TV remote control and remote DVR programmer are operational on Android devices.
When announcing the Streampix program on Feb. 21, Comcast said that “in the coming year” the service will be available on the Xbox 360 gaming system as well as fully accessible on Android smartphones and tablets.

Cost
While Xfinity TV is available to all Comcast TV subscribers as part of the regular service; Streampix is only free to subscribers to Comcast’s upper-tier cable packages and is a $4.99 a month add-on to other cable packages. The service is only offered to the company’s TV subscribers, Internet-only subscribers and people who aren’t Comcast customers can’t currently subscribe solely to the Streampix service.

Future Possibilities
This may not always be the case, however. According to The Wall Street Journal, the deal Comcast signed with content providers including its own NBCUniversal, as well as Disney-ABC, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros., and Cookie Jar Entertainment, would allow it to sell its service nationwide to anyone. While the company says there are no current plans to offer the service outside its subscriber base, its content rights do leave that option open, according to WSJ.

Recent Boost in Online Business causes High Demand for Graphic Designers

If you have a creative side that you want to express, graphic design programs can help you achieve your goals. With more people starting online businesses, the demand for skilled graphic designers continues to grow in order to meet this need. You can get the training you need to build an art portfolio. Your portfolio may help you get the career you desire in the field.

Get the Education

Your education is the first step to working in art. Although your passion for the arts brings you closer to a job, getting into one of the schools around the United States may catapult you into a long-term career. A number of design schools offer online programs for working or busy students. This may help you earn a degree in graphic arts or design at your pace.

Today’s schools understand that you still have obligations that may not allow you to attend a program full time or during certain hours. The best programs have flexible courses that you can take any time during the day, evening or night. Most graphic design programs even allow you to have 24-hour access to your curriculum.

You can begin with an Associate of Arts in Graphic Design degree and later move on to a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Many students enter school without any previous educational pursuits. If you fall into this situation, beginning at the associate degree level is preferable.

Curriculum Studies

Depending on the degree you seek, you may study graphic design principles, advertising, marketing and many types of media. You can learn how to design games, online magazines and web pages. Since many online companies need web pages that stand out, you can learn how design pages that rank high on the Internet.  A number of graphic design programs teach multimedia skills. This can help you build a portfolio that appeal to many different employers.

Programs typically last for two years or less. You will earn a degree online just as quickly as you would in a traditional technical, college or university setting. After completing your studies, you may find employment as a webmaster, online game designer or media designer. These careers are just a few positions you may pursue.

Changes in Science, Space and Technology

There have been and will continue to be major changes in technological development this decade. From biotechnological research being conducted by Huntingdon Life Sciences Inc to the efforts being made to overhaul the energy grid, the 2010′s will see a wide range of achievements in the science, space, and technology industries. Three advancements in particular promise to promote a renewed interest in space research and the continued evolution of quicker Internet speeds:

The new James Webb Space Telescope—NASA’s new telescope will be more advanced and powerful than any tool the agency has ever used in order to peer into the depths of space. In fact, the James Webb Telescope will be able to see further into the past of our own universe, capturing glimpses of some of the early stages of galactic formation. The telescope will give us a view of the very first galaxies that were created after the Big Bang and should promote a wide variety of upgrades and overhauls to fields related to astronomy, cosmology, and other space-related industries.

Building a space ark—The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, whose previous credits include the creation of the Internet, now has its sights on the creation of a 100 year starship that would take humans further into space than ever before. While this lofty concept may seem relegated to the realm of science fiction, multiple sources confirm that plans are underway to create an exploratory committee for the viability of the project. Perhaps the most exciting part of this development is how much independent and auxiliary research will result from such an ambitious undertaking.

The new 4G LTE network—This Internet network isn’t as cosmic as the James Webb Telescope or a 100 year space ark but the effects could actually be more universal for the people of Earth. With quicker Internet speeds and an ever-accelerated network, smartphone technology should advance as well as the demand for more complex tools, like Augmented Reality, the Semantic Web, The Internet of Things, and even holographic smartphone apps. All of this is dependent on the public buying into the need for more complex cell phone operations which the 4G LTE network, already being adopted by several major mobile providers, should allow for.

We’ll have to wait and see how quickly these advancements take shape. We can certainly expect increased Internet speed sooner than the space ark. It will interesting to see how Internet evolution on Earth affects our ability to study outer space.

Real Estate Technology Pioneer: Daniel Drimmer

Prior to the rise of the internet, apartment hunting was dominated by print. Potential residents armed themselves with classified ads from newspapers, fliers found on bulletin boards, and, in larger communities, with apartment magazines filled with listings from residential buildings in their city. It was then a matter of footwork. Visiting all the listings that looked promising only to discover that the neighborhood wasn’t right or the property was in disrepair, etc. Apartment hunters of the past could spend weeks trying to pinpoint the perfect residence.

Today, all they need is a computer or smart phone with a solid internet connection and the weeks of research and time spent trekking from property to property can be accomplished in a few hours. This is thanks to leading real estate visionaries like Daniel Drimmer who evolved a number of technologies that make finding and renting an apartment a whole lot easier.

One of the most obvious advances of the real estate industry online was the birth of the virtual tour. The first examples of this tool appeared in the form of still photos that provided a 360 degree view of a given room or apartment complex. Once streaming video became an option, Drimmer and other leaders began creating true video tours of properties and specific units. This meant that instead of having to drive to every potential apartment, searchers could quickly watch short video clips and eliminate those that weren’t worth the time, or gas mileage, to visit. Thanks to Drimmer, today’s residential rental companies post their virtual tours on video sharing sites as well as their company websites in order to give potential residents all the information they need.

Another important tool that was pioneered by Drimmer is the interactive map. Renters can search for available units by geography. The best maps allow for filtering by specific features and amenities. Since location is the most important aspect of any real estate transaction, it only makes sense that being able to see properties on a map would be a key part of the apartment hunting process.

In addition to these two features, more and more apartment sites have started offering the online lease application. Prospective residents can easily complete the application from home, work, or, using a smart phone or other handheld device, from anywhere they like. Efficient companies will be able to offer quicker decisions, since all the information is provided digitally, rather than having to be gleaned from a paper application. The overall savings in time and energy is invaluable.

Tools like these are what set apart companies like Drimmer’s Starlight Apartments from rental companies that rely on the now old-fashioned process of printed listings and time-consuming site visits.

Image courtesy Joelk75 via Flickr. Creative Commons License.

The Love Motel for Insects

The Love Motel for Insects project will only be funded if at least $8,000 is pledged by Sunday Dec 11, 11:59pm EST.

Artist Rendering of Proposed Love Motel for Insects in NYC

Urban Art Projects is fundraising on Kickstarter to bring artist/scientist Brandon Ballengée‘s Love Motel for Insects to New York City. The Love Motel for Insects is an innovative interactive outdoor artwork that is both an art piece and a life science project.

Combined with ancillary educational programming referred to as Bug Love, this programming informs the general NYC public about important environmental issues, inspires NYC youth so that their interest in science continues into the classroom and provides inspirational experiences, termed Eco-actions, involving both art and science.

Ballengée’s Love Motel for Insects has been exhibited worldwide since 2001; its various iterations have been extensively covered by the media as well as referenced by academia. Ballengée has been reviewed by art critics including Roberta Smith, Edward Lucie Smith and Lucy Lippard; he has also been mentioned by art historian Steven Wilson in his book Art + Science. Media coverage includes features on PBS, ABC News, BBC, and NPR.

Venice Biennale, Waterways, Italy, 2008, Photographed by Brandon Ballengée

Ballengée is also referenced in Art Practice as Research, by Professor Graeme Sullivan of Columbia University. Additionally, Ballengée recently participated in a symposium at the National Science Foundation and has received numerous honors such as the Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship and was recently named an Aububon TogetherGreen Fellow; a fellowship which receives funding from Toyota. Ballengée’s work has also been exhibited widely and is in numerous public collections including The American Museum of Natural History in New York, NASA in Washington, D.C., Yorkshire Sculpture Park in England, and the Yale Peabody Museum.

Love Motel for Insects is an ongoing series of outdoor installations intended to construct situations between humans and arthropods. The works use ultra-violet lights on enormous blank canvases to attract insects and create an opportunity for public interactions with rarely seen nocturnal arthropods. At each location, the Love Motels for Insects become the backdrop for community events such as picnics, biodiversity festivals, graffiti jams, scientific investigations, musical events and even local film screenings relating to local insect species.

EcoConnect and Love Motel for Insects in collaboration with Ecohaven Project

As described by Ballengée himself: “The Love Motel for Insects sculptures began in 2001 in Central America. At this time my initial structures were made from black (ultra-violet) lights and bed-sheets placed in the Costa Rican forest floor. Within hours numerous species of flying moths, Hemipteras, beetles, caddisflies, ants, lacewings and other arthropods descended on the installation. Female moths released chemical pheromones to attract mates and consequently “painted” the impromptu piece. Fascinated and inspired by this initial experience, I fabricated further Love Motel for Insects sculptures and developed ancillary public nocturnal field trips. To date versions of the project have debuted in diverse environments including tropical rain forests (rain, dry and cloud), inner city bus-stops, London roof-tops, industrial ‘brown-field’ sites, public schools, Scottish Highlands, German town centers, Venetian boats, and other sites within temperate climate systems. Each Love Motel for Insects variation is site-specific to each unique community and eco-system.”