January 2009
27 posts
Doc, I Can't See 3-D! | Popular Science →
This Sunday, keep an eye out for 3-D commercials. But if you can’t see them, it may be time for a checkup…
First, make sure you’re not wearing the red and blue glasses from 1984. Apparently the new technology won’t make you dizzy if you don’t have the right pair so you could probably trash those at this point. To watch these commercials, you’ll need to pick up a set of free glasses...
WatchIf I Had - A Cataract at Age 70 and Had Blurred Vision
(January 28, 2009 - Insidermedicine) Dr. Scott Greenstein, MD, FACS, a specialist in cataract surgery, discusses what he would do if he were 70 years old and had blurred vision. Dr. Greenstein, a Comprehensive Ophthalmologist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and an Instructor in Ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School, has been...
Spat stalls eye-trauma center for troops -... →
USA Today (1/29, Zoroya) reports, “A military center devoted to finding new treatments for combat eye injuries has been delayed for a year by an ongoing squabble between the Congress and the Pentagon over who will pay the $5 million needed to get it started, according to interviews and Pentagon records.” Meanwhile, “roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to take a toll...
What are the recommended vitamins that patients... →
Recent studies have disproved the benefit of taking many vitamins… Internist Matthew Mintz goes over the data, and finds that vitamin E has not been shown to improve dementia, and vitamin C does not prevent colds. Some, like increased doses of vitamin A, can be even dangerous and increase the risk of death. This is what works: i) folic acid for pregnant women, which prevents neural tube...
Hands-On with Samsung's Projector-Phone | Popular... →
SAMSUNG SHOW W7900 Projector: 10 lumens, 480 by 320 pixels, up to 50 in. diagonal Screen: 240-by-400-pixel, 3.2-in. OLED Wireless: 3G HSDPA up to 7.2Mbps, global roaming (900/1800/1900 MHz) Cameras: 5-megapixel main, VGA front-facing model for video calls Size: 4.4 by 2.2 by 0.7 in. Price: TBD
Ah, the wonders of miniaturization! —DC
Happy Chinese New Year 2009 - Year of the Ox/Cow →
This celebratory website contains lots of information on the customs and traditions related to the Chinese Lunar New Year…
Happy Chinese Moooo Year! Gōngxǐ fācái (Congratulations and be prosperous)! —DC
Roger Federer secures quarter final place in... →
Three-time champion Roger Federer mounted one of the greatest comebacks of his career recovering from a two-set deficit to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals…
Whew! That was a close call… Go Roger! —DC
Download The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People... →
Audible.com is offering a free audiobook download of the best-selling Stephen Covey book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Since its original publication in 1989, Covey’s book has sold over 15 million copies and is part of the early canon of productivity and self-improvement books that launched popular interest in the genre. Follow the link above to download a copy of...
VisionRx GlaucomaCheck™ Is The First Patented,... →
In support of National Glaucoma Awareness Month, VisionRx has launched its groundbreaking online glaucoma test, known as GlaucomaCheck™. Now anyone can screen for glaucoma in the convenience of their own home…
GlaucomaCheck™ is what eyecare professionals refer to as a visual field test. It is the first and only patented online glaucoma test accurate and sensitive enough to be used by...
Avoid the 20 Worst Foods in America, 2009 Edition →
Via Lifehacker, Men’s Health updates its list of the worst foods to eat in the U.S., finding a wealth of new terrible-for-you menu options to avoid if you’re anywhere near concerned with your health or waistline… Here’s just a sampling…
The Worst Food in America of 2009: Baskin Robbins Large Chocolate Oreo Shake, 2,600 calories, 135 g fat … “more...
Coblis — Color Blindness Simulator →
If you are not suffering from a color vision deficiency it is very hard to imagine how it looks to be colorblind. The Color BLIndness Simulator can close this gap for you. Just play around with the sample picture or upload your own images…
A color-deficient software engineer ingeniously comes up with a way for individuals with normal color vision to see what it’s like to be color...
Photo Camera for Nearly Blind Developed at MIT -... →
By scaling down technology similar to that found in scanning laser opthalmoscopes, MIT scientists have created a portable photo camera that allows people who are seriously visually challenged to take their own photos.
…Goldring’s idea for the seeing machine began with a visit to her optometrist. At the time, she was completely blind…
How wonderful… As has been oft-said,...
“There is no pleasure in having nothing to do; the fun is in having lots to do...”
– Mary Little
How Glasses Change Your Image →
Hey, who needs Extreme Makeover when just the right frame will do? (- _^)
Special thanks to my Georgia colleague, Dr. Sally Freeman, for sharing with us this cute cartoon! —DC
Life on Mars? →
The sun rises over the Red Planet…
The tantalising prospect of finding life on Mars came a step closer today after Nasa discovered tell-tale ‘seasonal plumes’ of methane gas in the planet’s atmosphere… Read more…
Wow! Wouldn’t that be somethin’? —DC
Surgery Checklist Lowers Death Rate -... →
Surgical teams that followed a basic cockpit-style checklist in the operating room, from confirming the patient’s name to discussing expected blood loss, reduced the rate of deaths and complications by more than a third, according to a year-long, eight-nation project being released today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Surgeons, it seems, are discovering what airline pilots...
Statin Drugs Sometimes Cause Eye Disorders →
Researchers say eye disorders related to statin drug use are rare, but can occur in about 0.1 percent of cases.
Statin drugs are prescribed extensively to help lower cholesterol and prevent conditions such as strokes and heart disease. While highly beneficial, the drugs also have been linked to skeletal muscle disorders as a side effect.
Casey Eye Institute investigators discovered that that...
Being outdoors lowers risk of nearsightedness |... →
Spending two or three hours outdoors each day appears to lower a child’s risk of developing nearsightedness, although researchers can’t explain why… Read more…
Maybe I should have watched less TV as a kid! —DC
WatchIf I Had - Droopy Eyelids - Insidermedicine
Dr. Jean-Francois Tremblay, a Dermatologist and Medical Director of the MédIME clinic in Montreal, discusses what he would do if he had droopy eyelids. Dr. Tremblay Tremblay is a Dermatologist at the University of Montreal Hospital Center and the Medical Director of MédIME clinic in Montreal.
Polaroid Introduces the Polaroid PoGo Instant... →
A digital version of the company’s iconic instant camera…
This is gonna be a fun camera! ^_^ —DC
From a Visionary English Physicist, Self-Adjusting... →
In the Worldview column in the Washington Post (1/9, A13), Mary Jordan writes that Joshua Silver, an atomic physicist who also taught optics at Oxford University, “wants to provide eyeglasses to more than a billion people with poor eyesight.” According to Silver, “in many developing countries, only about five percent have glasses because so many people…have little or no...
SPECTACLE CHANDELIER - Stuart Haygarth →
Spectacle Chandelier
Spectacle is created from over 1000 pairs of prescription spectacles which are linked together to resemble a traditional tiered chandelier. By using prescriptive spectacles which were once an essential tool for seeing an interesting analogy is drawn between their old and new purposes. A mirror ball light effect is produced as the light is refracted through the several...
EyeSeeCam: See What The Surgeon Sees - Medgadget →
Biomed engineers and clinical neurologists at the University of Munich Hospital are working on commercialization of a head mounted camera designed to store and transmit the exclusive point of view of its wearer’s eyes. The EyeSeeCam moves along with the pupils of the user, and as such allows “for the first time, to literally see the world through somebody else’s eyes.”...
Tributes to Braille, whose vision gave books to... →
WHEN her parents turn the lights off at night, Erica Chandotto can keep on reading her favourite Harry Potter without them knowing.
Almost entirely blind, the 11-year-old’s love affair with the world of Harry Potter has been made possible through the work of Frenchman Louis Braille, two centuries earlier. Erica has not thought much about who Braille was, although she says “he must...
Medical myths -- BMJ →
Recognize these myths? Sometimes even doctors are duped… Read Article
This is Part II of Medical Myths… You can find Part I in yesterday’s post! —DC
People should drink at least eight glasses of water a day
We use only 10% of our brains
Hair and fingernails continue to grow after death
Shaving hair causes it to grow back faster, darker, or coarser
Reading in dim...
Festive medical myths -- BMJ →
In the pursuit of scientific truth, even widely held medical beliefs require examination or re-examination. Both physicians and non-physicians sometimes believe things about our bodies that just are not true. The following are some common medical or health beliefs related to the holidays and winter season… Read article
Part II will follow tomorrow! —DC
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and...”
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1749 - 1832