Archive for the ‘Fitness Resources’ Category.
March 3, 2012, 2:26 am
A Vanderbilt grad student wants the visually impaired to be able to use one of their strongest senses–touch–to better visualize algebra, geometry, and more.
For the blind and visually impaired, it can be nearly impossible to follow along when a math teacher spends most of a lecture in front of a blackboard or projector drawing shapes, parabolas, X-Y planes, and other visuals.
It’s about time there’s an app for that, thought mechanical engineering grad student Jenna Gorlewicz, who’d spent a few years at Vanderbilt’s Medical and Electromechanical Design Laboratory miniaturizing endoscopic robotic capsules and was looking for a more people-oriented project.
So Gorlewicz, who says she loves both teaching and math, set out 18 months ago to try to develop a tablet app that uses haptic (or tactile) technology to help the visually impaired learn math and other subjects with a strong visual component.
Using a Samsung Galaxy Tab, which can generate hundreds of different sounds and vibrations with various frequencies, Gorlewicz was able to assign different tactile queues for different features.
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March 1, 2012, 3:24 pm
Who says yoga can’t be funny? Certainly not Dan Damman and Chris Thomas. Together, they’ve written a “mockumentary” poking fun at the yoga world. Offering glimpses of the project through a series of videos, which are quickly going viral, they make light of the commodification of yoga, and the personality quirks of the people who practice it. The idea started when Damman saw a postcard for a trademarked yoga retreat. He thought the idea behind it was kind of funny, “that someone was offering yogis the chance to embrace their vision, but if they didn’t, they might get sued.”Soon, Damman, a yoga practitioner himself, saw comedy in yogis everywhere, from the people breaking the speed limit to get to class to others rushing into class to steal a coveted spot for their mats. Read the full article…
February 19, 2012, 9:52 pm
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Dr. Farzad Mostashari / National Coordinator for Health Information Technology
The HITECH Act, part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, put in place new incentives for doctors and hospitals to help them make the investment in electronic health records (EHRs). It also made a very important distinction: that health IT is not just about the technology, its how we use the technology to improve care. It has moved health care in a direction that isnt just about more technology its about using that technology in a way thats going to be meaningful to patients. <
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February 10, 2012, 10:23 pm
Actress-comedian Magda Szubanski was a poster girl for Jenny Craig since December 2008 when she lost an astonishing 79 lbs and dropped five dress sizes by following the program.
Recently, it was announced that Magda parted ways with the weight-loss program saying that she does not need professional support any more. She thanked Jenny Craig for providing some fabulous and practical tools and great support in her weight loss journey.
When asked about her great achievement in losing weight, she replied:
I strongly believe that if you dont have your health, you dont have anything. The whole thing for me about losing weight is, yes, you can wear fantastic clothes but it really is about health, improving your fitness and your enjoyment of life.
Magda admitted that she was feeling the pressure of being a role model for weight loss. It
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February 9, 2012, 5:39 pm
Over the past several months, the Federal government escalated its war against medical marijuana to previously unseen heights. The Drug War machine kicked into high gear starting in October when the IRS began applying an obscure part of the US tax code, meant to target drug cartels, against medical dispensaries in attempts to shut them down. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms joined in the fight when it issued a heavy handed one page memo to every gun and ammunition dealer nationwide informing them that they must, by law, deny sales to lawful medical cannabis patients.
The hammer really fell when the US Attorneys for the four federal districts in California formally announced a crackdown on medical marijuana dispensing operations and began issuing memos threatening operators and landlords of these properties.
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