‘Stayin’ Alive’ really will keep you alive

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Next time you find yourself in a bad accident and you’re in the ER, you might end up being resuscitated by John Travolta.

It’s been found that at 103 beats a minute, the Bee Gees song “Stayin’ Alive” is perfect for anyone performing CPR on a patient and has almost the perfect rhythm to help jump-start a stopped heart.

In a study from the University of Illinois medical school, doctors and students did close to the ideal number of chest compressions doing CPR while listening to the song from the 1977 movie “Saturday Night Fever.”

The study found that when the doctors and students went to do CPR, the song instantly started in their head and their overall CPR performance improved as a result.

One medical student said that he knows of a Queen song also with the same perfect rhythm – but there’s a slight problem with it.

“I heard a rumor that ‘Another One Bites the Dust’ works also, but it didn’t seem quite as appropriate,” Gilbert said.

Below is a news report on the subject that I managed to find on YouTube.   I’d be interested to hear your opinions on the subject, especially if you are a doctor, nurse or medical student.

Meanwhile, if you see a doctor disco-dancing out of a hospital, then you can be sure he’s just saved someone’s life.

Cheapest Blu-Ray Player Deal EVER!

Just a quick post to let you guys know about this awesome deal that Amazon has right now. They’re offering the Samsung 1080P BD-1500 Blu-Ray player, including the ultimate Matrix blu-ray film collection 2 free Blu-Ray movies (The offer changes often, so be sure to check it out), for only $206.64, shipping included. Now for those of you who have been waiting for the occasion to get a cheap Blu-Ray player, this is a great deal! If you remove what you would normally pay for the movies, you end up paying about $170 for the BD-1500.

Other great Blu-Ray players Amazon deals:

–Sharp Aquos BDHP21U 1080p Blu-ray Disc Player:$204.97
–Curtis Mathes Blu-ray Disc Player : $169.99
–Memorex Blu Ray Player: $174.99



Downloadable Yoda Available for Pwning

by Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

This probably doesn’t come as a huge surprise (file it as one of the worst kept secrets in gaming), but Namco announced this morning that both Yoda and Darth Vader will soon be available as downloadable characters for Soul Calibur IV on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. So now there’s something to fill those suspiciously blank character portraits!

Is $5.00 too much to pay for a single character? For those of you who play the game, are you considering making the purchase when they become available on October 23?

I can see the appeal of having one of your favorite characters to play… I admit, one of the reasons I originally bought a Game Cube was because I wanted to play Soul Calibur II with Link. But then again, $5.00 seems a bit pricey. Imagine if you had to buy the whole cast separately!

Google’s embarrassing moment during Royal visit

By Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Google claims to be able to answer any question you can throw at it – but it obviously wasn’t prepared for Prince Philip when he visited Google’s London headquarters with Queen Liz the other day.

The Google staff were all prepared for the Royal drop in, the products were all ready and everyone had their lines all memorized.   What could possibly go wrong?    Obviously they forgot about the 87 year old Duke, who apparently has a very big interest in technology and who has a habit of asking a lot of questions.

When the Google staff started showing him Google Earth and satellite shots of Buckingham Palace, Phil decided he would much rather want to see an image of the Google offices instead.   He then asked “You DO know where it is, don’t you?”

So the staff started clicking to find their own building – only to find out that the building was not there because the satellite images were taken before the offices were built!   So the red-faced Google employees had to try to explain this to the Duke who looked rather bemused by the whole thing.

But to give Google credit, they rapidly moved on by showing Liz and Phil a YouTube video of a laughing baby :

The Queen thought it most amusing.  “Lovely little thing, isn’t it?” she said to Phil. “Amazing a child would laugh like that.”

But Phil didn’t hear her – he was out in the street trying to figure out why Google Earth couldn’t see the building from the air (“has Google made the building invisible?  It’s the only explanation!  BLOODY MARVELLOUS!”)

Oh, and for those who didn’t get it, that last part was a joke by the way!

World’s Tallest LEGO Tower: The Making Of

You may have heard or seen pictures of the 100ft tall Lego tower that was recently built in the Rathaus Platz in Vienna. But now, check out this video showing how, with the help of 3,000 kids and 500,000 Lego pieces, the tower was built.

Now just imagine yourself pushing that thing down and watching the insuing destructive catastrophe. Oh Fun Fun Fun!

[Via TechEblog]

Keep your cat away from your counters with the Blender Defender

When it comes to finding ways to keep animals out of spots where they have no business in being, people can get really imaginative. Earlier this year, we posted about a special bird-repulsing system that keeps the little animals from pooping into your pool’s pristine water. Now, the following one will be of particular interest to those of you who have cats who can’t get over their plant-chewing addiction. Lo and behold, the Blender Defender:

[Via [H]]

Apple’s new multi-touch trackpad demonstration

As most of you probably already know, the new MacBook has been released early this week. While the visual aspect of the beast is quite appealing, one of the features that I didn’t consider that fantastic was the new buttonless multi-touch trackpad. I mean, I already hate trackpads that have the “tapping” feature enabled, why would this be any different? Anyways, I guess I’ll have to wait and try one to see how this thing works. In the meantime, here’s a short presentation explaining how the new multi-touch trackpad works.