Saturday, September 17, 2005

At Thursday’s keynote presentation of the Tokyo Game Show, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata unveiled the controller design for the company’s new Nintendo Revolution console. Resembling a television remote, the controller uses two sensors placed near the user’s television to triangulate its position in three-dimensional space. This will allow players to control actions and movements in video games by moving the device through the air.

The remote control design is said to target new players who are unfamiliar with traditional video game controllers.

A supplementary peripheral has also been shown, consisting of a separate plastic grip that is designed to be held in the player’s second hand. It provides an analog stick and two trigger buttons, and connects to the bottom of the main controller with a simple cord. Additionally, Nintendo has suggested that the main controller will be able to slide inside a “shell” that will allow it to function like a conventional video game controller.

The Revolution is expected to be released next year.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

A medical center, once the site of intense controversy over abortion in the 1990s, which has been vacant for nearly 10 years, was imploded in Buffalo, New York at 6:00 a.m. [eastern time] today.

Several streets in about a 2 block radius were shut down until the implosion occurred and the dust settled. At least 200 people watched in nearby parking lots and on rooftops of buildings to get a good look at the implosion.

The ground and the walls of buildings shook as the dynamite detonated and a brief shock wave could be felt as far as 1 1/2 blocks away. Witnesses even reported small pieces of bricks and concrete falling out of some buildings, but no one was injured.

The building, owned by Kaleida Health, once housed several medical offices, including an abortion clinic. Hundreds of people protested about the abortions outside the center during the Spring of Life Movement in 1992, but other medical procedures and treatments were also part of the center’s services. It was built in 1965 and was 14 floors tall.

Kaleida Health had the building imploded so that the current Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus can be expanded. Several other major medical facilities are also in the same area including Roswell Cancer Institute and Buffalo General Hospital.

“This implosion of 50 High Street will continue the explosion of growth on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. This event will ensure future opportunity for investment, development and growth,” said the CEO and President of Kaleida Health in a statement on Thursday.

==Sources==

• Melinda Miller & Sharon Linstedt. “Onlookers watch from rooftops as 50 High St. implodes” — Buffalo News, May 26, 2007
• “50 High Street Gone in a Flash” — WGRZ, May 26, 2007
• “Medical campus building to go boom” — MSN Money, May 24, 2007

Sunday, August 3, 2008

At least seven mountaineers have died while climbing K2, the second highest mountain in the world. The accident was reportedly caused by a rock slide or an avalanche that severed all the ropes used for ascent and descent.

Initial reports state that seventeen climbers ascended the mountain in two groups, with both reaching the summit successfully. The reports also state that after the avalanche, some climbers attempted to return without ropes.

The summit was covered in clouds late yesterday afternoon and the conditions in the mountain continued to deteriorate. Some of the latest reports indicate that eight climbers were stuck at the summit, unable to descend. Four of these climbers are Norwegian nationals. The conditions at the summit during night are extreme and offer very limited chances for survival for people unable to descend.

In an unrelated incident, a Serbian climber and his sherpa fell down during the initial descent. This incident was, however, unrelated to the other deaths caused by the avalanche.

Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.