Virtual Medicine: Informed Consent in Second Life

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

slnurseAccording to The Economist, the virtual world Second Life might be a new way to help those with learning disabilities understand (and therefore provide informed consent for) medical procedures and treatment options. A model of the Royal Sussex County Hospital is being built, where the avatars of study participants will, for example, have their virtual blood virtually taken after virtually lying down in a virtual bed and virtually waiting in a virtual waiting room; I can’t help but wonder if there will be virtual five-year-old copies of Newsweek. In any case, this is all with the goal of a real researcher asking real questions of the real participant in order to determine whether their avatar’s trip to the hospital gave them a better understanding of what’s going to happen in the real world.

This is just one of many research projects going on in Second Life about the possible beneficial applications of virtual worlds. This kind of research could be valuable even if it’s in the very preliminary stages. Though I feel like at this point Second Life is becoming more of a research tool than anything else (the amount of new people joining the world has been dropping steadily for some time). Most people I know who are still on Second Life are either: (A) researchers, (B) entrepreneurs (and I can’t imagine the real estate market there is what it was a few years ago either), or (C) looking for virtual sex (possibly with furries or in Gor). Which… come to think of it, sounds kind of like the early days of the Internet. And look what that’s done for our hospital visits! (See: Cyberchondria)

[Image Source: flickr(CC)]



Your iPhone Looks MUCH Better Now [PIC]

By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

I spied this image on Gizmodo yesterday and it made me laugh.  Notice “YouTube:” just you and a tube!

OBKyC

“Weather” and “Safari” aren’t too bad either!  Somebody clearly put a lot of work into this.  Let’s hope getting on the front page of Digg was the payout they were looking for!

[via Digg]

Alarm Clock from Hell

You think you are a heavy sleeper? This guy has been using a setup that includes an air compressor to wake him up every morning for years!

[via Buzzfeed]



Google: “Digital Vampire”?

By Casey Lynn
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

In a recent speech, Dow Jones Chief Executive and publisher of the Wall Street Journal Les Hinton waxed poetic upon the evils of Google by picking a metaphor and, er, sinking his teeth in. He called Google a vampire that’s been “sucking the blood” out of the newspaper business. Of course, he continued, Google isn’t all to blame. Newspapers should never have offered content free on the web!

“There is a charitable view of the history of Google. [It] didn’t actually begin life in a cave as a digital vampire per se. The charitable view of Google is that the news business itself fed Google’s taste for this kind of blood. [Free web content] gave Google’s fangs a great place to bite. We will never know what might have happened had newspapers taken a different approach.”

Hinton also says that Dow Jones is in the process of creating a new web platform that will level the playing field. I can only assume that the code name for this super secret project is “Buffy.”

Of course, the real question is, just what kind of vampire is Google? Hinton implies that it needs blood to survive, but is it also immortal? Will a stake kill it, or do we need sunlight/fire? Most importantly, I think, Google is the kind of vampire that requires an invitation into your home. Oh, and it definitely has some kind of psychic and/or mesmerizing ability. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t sparkle, though.

Okay, I think this metaphor is done; put a stake in it.

[Picture source: Flickr (CC)]

Yahoo! plans to market like it’s 1999

By Sterling “Chip” Camden
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

yahoo-purple-logojpgGather around, children, and I’ll tell you a tale of a bygone era when Yahoo! was relevant.  Way back in the late 1990s and even into the early 2000s, Yahoo! was the web portal and search engine of choice for many netizens.  But that was before the ascendance of the Great Google.

Since then, Yahoo! has struggled to keep users coming back.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t even think about Yahoo! when I consider where to do something online, whether it’s search, email, maps, forums, or anything else.  The only Yahoo! service I use at all is Yahoo! Groups, and that’s only because the RSS Advisory Board’s public group is hosted there (not my decision).

Now Yahoo! is looking for ways to get their yodel back with a massive marketing effort, led by a new Chief Marketing Officer, Elisa Steele, and aided by some well-known outside consultants.

Hmm.. I think I could save them some big consulting bucks with one piece of free advice:  make better products.  As CEO Carol Bartz said in a recent interview, “The best way to change the perception is to do a good job and then talk about it.”  Note how “do a good job” comes before “talk about it.”  Marketing is a very important part of success, but if you don’t have the products to back it up, it’s just a bunch of hot air.

What do you think about Yahoo!’s products?  Do they have a potential niche in which they could excel?  Or are they doomed to a series of unsuccessful attempts to catch up with Google, while being alternatively courted and slapped around by Microsoft?

Here’s Yahoo!’s own account of their history.  Note how it lacks any significant events after 1995, or any mention of their competitors.  They claim:  “Yahoo! is the No. 1 Internet brand and reaches the largest audience worldwide.”  I’d like to see the numbers to back that up, but then again the page is Copyrighted 2005.

3D Short of the Day: E.T.A. by Junkworks

He cannot deny it, Marvin has the most boring job in the universe… but navigating through space in an old piece of junk must surely bring its own share of excitement… right?

If you want to download the 720P version of this movie or simply want to learn more about it, you can do so by visiting Junkworks’ official website.

Science is Sexy Tidbit: Mrs. Darwin, Her Life in Brief

By Jimmy Rogers (@me)
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

Emma2Much has been made of the wives of the important men in history.  Some of those wives were very important in their own right, or even more so than their husbands.  It seems that one such lady has somehow slipped through the cracks of history, though.

Recently, a journal called International Microbiology published a gem of an article that describes the life of Emma Darwin, wife of Charles Darwin.  While her husband’s landmark book, The Origin of Species, has been read by many modern biologists, few know the story of his wife and greatest companion.

One might assume that this is because she was a wholly uninteresting person, but then one would be wrong!  As it turns out, where Charles was the brilliant but frail husband, Emma was the caring but principled wife.  Their inherent disagreement about the nature of God and creation had a great impact on when and how the Father of Evolution chose to bear his brainchild.

I won’t say any more for fear of spoiling an engagingly written article by Mercè Piqueras, Associate Editor of the journal, but believe me when I say I’ve read a lot of biology articles and this one deserves some high honors for its quality.

You can find the article in this link [More about Mrs. Darwin than Mr. Darwin]. It is a PDF that you will want to download directly.

Be you historian or scientist, I’d love to discuss this article with you on Twitter.  If you’re shy, leave a comment!

[via @MicrobeWorld, the Twitter account for the American Society for Microbiology’s public outreach program][Emma Darwin Portrait from Wikimedia Commons]

An Inside View of Darth Vader’s Mask

While I’m sure that you’ve all seen Darth Vader’s mask from the perspective of an outside observer, how many of you have ever seen it from the inside? Not many, I’m willing to bet! Look at all those tiny needles! Maybe Lord Vader was a fan of acupuncture, who knows?

[Via Walyou]

IE8: O.M.G.I.G.P.

O.M.G.I.G.P. stands for “Oh My God I’m Gonna Puke.” Some of you will think that this acronym should be used as an Anti-IE acronym, but in the case of the following video, no, it’s to promote IE8’s new InPrivate mode. Warning: Video is a bit gross.

Oh, and before anyone mentions it, yeah, we know, Chrome already had this feature way before IE8 was even out!


Real Eagle vs Remote Controlled Eagle: FIGHT!

This is what you get when you decide to invade a real eagle’s airspace. Fortunately for the fake eagle, a crow was there in the end to save its sorry ass.

[Via Gizmodo]