Top 10 Ways to Turn Your Retired Gadgetry into the Technology of the Future

 

 

With the rapid progression of technology each year, it's easy to accumulate a pile of obsolete gadgets that you just can't bear to get rid of. So don't! Here are our top 10 ways you can take the retired gadgets you've already got and turn them into something that has a solid place in the future.

10. Turn an Old Mobile Device into a Dedicated VOIP Handset

 

We've seen how easy it is to turn an iPod touch into an iPhone using a few tricks and some sort of VOIP service, and it's just as easy with an old phone—so long as you have a constant Wi-Fi connection. It can be nice to have a home phone or two you can use to answer calls when your cellphone isn't handy, you don't have great reception, and you don't want to leave the VOIP app unattended. So grab a mobile copy of Skype, Fring, Line2, or whatever, and leave it open and ready on your old mobile device. It'll wait for someone to call it, or you can just pick it up and, say, order a pizza without the fear of yet another dropped call.

9. Create a Wireless Internet Radio from an Old Router

Radios and routers aren't exactly technology of the future—more of the past and present, really—but when you combine them with the internet you've suddenly got a pretty awesome device for streaming music. The process isn't even that complicated. All you really need is a particular wireless router (the Asus WL-520GU is recommended in this case) and a USB sound card. Pretty neat.

8. Create a Home Security System with a Webcam

When you buy a new laptop, or even a monitor monitor, these days you're almost guaranteed a built-in webcam. That's great, but what do you do with your old bulky, USB-cabled micro-camera? You use it as a security monitor for your home. You can even make it motion-sensing. Better to have it catching criminals than collecting dust, right?

 

7. Use an Old PC Fan to Create a Battery-Charging Wind Turbine

 

Maybe wind power is the future and maybe it's not, but we're headed towards something sustainable so you might as well get started now. If you'd like a means of recharging your batteries without relying on an outlet, create this wind turbine out of an old PC fan. This project involves a little hacking and tinkering, but it's worth it just to have power anywhere the wind blows.

6. Turn an Old Projector into a Book Scanner

Most kids born in the last decade don't know whiteout from Britney Spears, so someday you're going to hear the question "did you really used to read books on paper?" Perhaps it's time to accept the inevitable and realize that the medium we know as print is a bit more ephemeral than we may like. But losing our books isn't an option, so the only thing we can really do is take an old projector and turn it into a book scanner, of course! If you've got the time, patience, or lower-level employee you can torture, this little project will finally help you evolve those dead tree tomes into their next state of being.

5. Make a Touchscreen Tablet Out of an Old Netbook

 

Netbooks had their moment, but their sales are dwindling thanks to the popularity of the tablet. If you wish your netbook actually was a tablet, you're not really out of luck. Just turn it into one. (That linked post even includes software we made to provide it with a heads up display to make it feel even more touch-friendly.) It's not going to be as magical as an iPad, but it's a fun upgrade for a computer you may not use so much anymore. Alternatively, you can do the same with an old MacBook if you've got one of those lying around instead.

  4. Build a Cellphone-Powered Robot

Even your old cellphone, smart or not, has enough power to create a personal robot. The video to the left is proof of how an old mobile can create a "cardboard truckbot." The additional parts you'll need will only cost you $30, and Cellbots provides instructions on how to put it all together. You've likely got an old feature phone you've been planning to recycle for the past five years. Rather than wait for that day to never come, provide that gadget of the past with new life as talking, robotic truck.

3. Turn an Old Computer into an XBMC Home Theater PC

 

XBMC is our favorite media center software. It's free and it's better than it's paid alternatives thanks to a slick, customizable interface that plays all sorts of media from the majority of networked and local destinations. It can pull content from the web, tell you the weather, double as a retro video game console, and much more. What's really great is that it can run on a super cheap, underpowered nettop. That may also mean your old computer is entirely adequate for the job. Either way, you'll be up and running a home theater system that's ahead of its time before you know it.

2. Automate Your Home with an Old Router

The homes of the future will be automated, but you can have that now with the help of an old router. Said router needs to be OpenWRT compatible and this project will require a few other things, but if you're up to the challenge you'll be controlling your home from your smartphone on the cheap.

1. Turn an Old Computer Into an Internet PVR, Downloader, and NAS

 

The future of home entertainment ought to be as elegant and wonderful as the systems we can put together ourselves today. Old computers are perfect machines for creating a fully-featured content downloader. You can simply set up automated BitTorrent and Usenet downloads, or go so far as to turn that old machine into a NAS and install Usenet tools like SABnzbd and Sickbeard as well. This will make an old machine, seemingly destined for obsolescence, into an incredibly powerful server that will provide you with virtually any entertainment you want. It's unfortunate there isn't a comparable product and service available for purchase right now, but that's part of what makes doing it yourself seem so amazing when you're through.

 

More than just an RV: ESCAPE injects some style into the tiny house movement

 

The ESCAPE home looks like a cabin but is actually rated as an RV (Photo: Canoe Bay)

Image Gallery

Perhaps due to the fact that the challenge of designing viable tiny homes pushes architects to come up with creative space-saving solutions, the tiny house movement is bursting with great ideas. The latest such dwelling to come to our attention, dubbed ESCAPE, is a 37 sq m (400 sq ft) home that boasts a handsome design, lots of customizable options (including operating completely off-grid), and legal status as an RV.

ESCAPE is envisioned as a vacation cabin, first home, or rental property, and is pretty well-stocked for small living. The interior contains a main living area, bathroom and separate toilet, bedroom, and a small kitchen area. Each of the rooms can also be customized with a range of options, which include a steam shower, air conditioning, and dishwasher. The porch can also be converted into a semi-outdoor multi-function space.

Owing to its legal status as an RV – or Park Model RV to be precise – ESCAPE is mounted on an RV chassis and wheels, so doesn't need proper foundations, nor is it subject to the same taxes and planning laws as a permanent structure. Just to be clear though, it's not a motorized RV and contains no engine, so you're not going to be driving this thing down the road. It also requires a moving truck to be transported, like a mobile home, and can't simply be towed with a decent-sized car like the OTIS.

There's not a lot of additional space to play with given its size, but judging from the photos, ESCAPE doesn't fall into the familiar trap of resembling an oversized shed. Indeed, the design owes more than a little to Frank Lloyd Wright (who the designers cite as an influence), and the pleasingly rural appearance is achieved thanks to finishing touches like wooden window frames, hardwood floors, cedar wood siding, and large overhangs.

The home is said to be very efficient to heat, and sports a tight (though not totally air-tight) envelope. Though there are no efficiency figures available, the ESCAPE company website states that its sealed combustion gas fireplace is adequate to handle the worst of Wisconsin's winter weather. On the all-important storage front, there's a large closet and built-in armoire, bedroom drawers, and cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom.

ESCAPE is available for purchase now, and comes already built. It will set you back a minimum of US$79,000, depending on options. A company rep informed Gizmag that potential buyers are encouraged to view the house in person – more details via the source link below.

Source: Canoe Bay Escape via Treehugger

All You Need to Know about Gravitational Waves

 

A beginner's guide to the BICEP2 discovery of primordial gravitational waves

Credit: Nature magazine

Astronomers have announced the detection of the imprint of primordial 'gravitational waves' that originated in the Big Bang that created our Universe 13.8 billion years ago. The discovery has been hailed as a milestone in science, but the concepts involved will be unfamiliar to many people. Help is at hand. Here are some FAQs on gravitational waves and their answers.

What is the significance of the BICEP2 announcement?

Scientists will be unravelling the consequences of this discovery for years. But some major implications are already clear:

• Albert Einstein predicted 'gravitational waves' nearly 100 years ago, but he also calculated that they would be extremely feeble, so much so that he thought they would never be detected. BICEP2's findings are the most convincing evidence — short of direct detection — that gravitational waves actually exist.
• The waves are the confirmation of a cornerstone theory of the standard picture of cosmology. This theory, called inflation, says that during the first moments of its existence, the Universe underwent a brief period of exponential expansion.
• During inflation, the Universe's temperature — and thus the energies reached by elementary particles — were trillions of times higher than can be achieved in any laboratory, even in particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland.
• Because inflation is a quantum phenomenon and gravitational waves are part of classical physics, gravitational waves establish a link between the two, and could be the first evidence that gravity has a quantum nature just like the other forces of nature (see 'How to see quantum gravity in Big Bang traces').

What are gravitational waves?

Gravity, according to Einstein's general theory of relativity, is how mass deforms the shape of space: near any massive body, the fabric of space becomes curved. But this curving does not always stay near the massive body. In particular, Einstein realized that the deformation can propagate throughout the Universe, just as seismic waves propagate in Earth's crust. Unlike seismic waves, however, gravitational waves can travel in empty space — and they do so at the speed of light.

If you could watch a gravitational wave head-on as it moves toward you, you would see it alternately stretching and compressing space, in the up–down and left–right directions (see video).

Is inflation the only thing that can produce gravitational waves?

No. Anything that's massive and is undergoing violent acceleration is supposed to produce them. In practice, the only  gravitational waves that we might be able to directly measure would be those from cataclysmic events such as two black holes colliding and fusing into one. Several observatories around the world are trying to pick up the distant noise of such black-hole mergers.

Why couldn't gravitational waves be measured directly, but only detected via a radiotelescope?

The gravitational waves that originated during inflation are still resonating throughout the Universe. But they are probably now too feeble to measure directly. Instead, scientists look for the imprint the waves have left in the broth of elementary particles that pervaded the Universe around 380,000 years after the Big Bang, which we see via the 'cosmic microwave background'. Observations of the microwave background radiation are made using telescopes that detect radio waves, and so the 'ripples' in the background caused by gravitational waves could only be detected by a radiotelescope.

Why was the discovery made at the South Pole?

The Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, which hosts BICEP2, sits on the Antarctic ice sheet at more than 2,800 meters above sea level, so the atmosphere is thin. The air is also very dry, which is helpful as water vapor blocks microwaves. And Antarctica is also virtually uninhabited, so there is no interference from mobile phones, television broadcasts, and the rest of our electronic paraphernalia.

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on March 17, 2014.

Quitting Smoking: 6 Things You Notice About the Stupid World

 

By John Cheese February 24, 2011

 

My body feels like electrified concrete. My mind isn't working. I've eaten about half a pound of Jelly Belly's already. Even the licorice flavored ones.

What's it like to quit smoking, you ask? Remember the worst flu you've ever had -- body aches, lethargy, stomach cramps, nausea, headaches, sore throat, coughing that makes your lungs feel like they're on fire. Then imagine the angriest you've ever been, and try to picture being in that state for a solid week. When people try to cheer you up, it only makes it worse. Everything makes it worse.

Concentrate on physically clenching every muscle in your body all at once and hold it for as long as you can. Just when you think you can't take it anymore, hold it for another week. Now, combine all of those into one cohesive army that's constantly attacking your body and mind, and the whole time, you know that smoking a single cigarette will take all of that away in less than five seconds.

I've smoked one to two packs of cigarettes a day for 24 years, and just this week I decided that enough is enough. So I loaded up on junk food, attempted to seal myself off from society and quit cold turkey. Here are a number of observations I made about the world while in the throes of nicotine addiction.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

MTV is Not Targeted Toward Adults Suffering Nicotine Withdrawal

To catch you up a bit, I had a series of habits that had me scheduled to die before age 50. I managed to quit drinking over a year ago and wrote about the terrible recovery process. My doctor says for my liver this was the equivalent of diving from a car one second before it flies off a cliff and explodes into a ball of fire below. So step two in my goal to live to see my children some day graduate from college was to stop smoking those 30 or 40 cigarettes a day.

Luckily there are many saliva-augmenting alternatives

Anyway, I had been planning a completely unrelated column where I would come back to MTV after having not watched it since I was 16, trying to see teen culture through adult eyes. I thought this would be interesting, considering that it kind of annoyed me even when I was perfectly within the target audience. Having grown up when MTV was in the Pauly Shore era, I was eager to see how they the channel's on-air personalities had evolved the science of being incredibly fucking annoying now that they were in their Jersey Shore phase. Somehow my editors wound up scheduling my MTV marathon on the same day as my first day smoke-free. In my state of mind, this was like somehow getting into a boxing match while laying on an operating table getting open brain surgery.

I reached out to Cracked's own Dan O'Brien for help:

I can't say much more on that subject because my "all-day" MTV marathon lasted two hours. Let me just put it this way and move on: If you can't be like Elvis and shoot your TV with a revolver when it pisses you off, then cramming your dick into the screen really is the only thing that relieves the hate. Yes, tell me how you "didn't come here to make friends," MTV reality show star. Say it into my balls.

Brown Jelly Bellys are Like Shit Landmines

As any ex-smoker or attempted ex-smoker will tell you, the "hand-to-mouth" part of the habit is every bit as hard to break as the chemical nicotine addiction. When I smoked my last cigarette and tossed the rest, the time that elapsed before I subconsciously reached for the pack was three minutes.

So you have to do something that lets you replace that hand-to-mouth action until you can de-program it. For me, it was candy. Goddamned piece of shit candy.

Let me tell you why this Jelly Belly jellybean situation is fucking bullshit. There are four flavors of Jelly Belly that are brown: Cappuccino, Root Beer, Might As Fucking Well Be Root Beer and Spiritual Abortion. I could buy a full pound of just the cappuccino ones and eat them for all three meals. But I cannot express enough what kind of mind-fucking, soul-crushing, trust-obliterating sense violation it is to bite down on what you expect to be cappuccino and ends up being any of the other three. And it happens every fucking time.

75 percent chance of eating a human shit flavored Jelly Belly.

Because they not only made them all brown, they made them almost the same exact shade of brown. True Jelly Belly fans will point out that the cappuccino ones are speckled whereas the others are not, in which case I point out that I'm quitting smoking and will fucking car bomb you if you don't stop being such an enormous goddamn embarrassment.

"Cyjackers"

I cannot use this as an excuse to smoke. This is the trap the addiction sets; I've fallen into it before. "Wow, nicotine withdrawal makes me act like a raging asshole! I'd better smoke again just for the unselfish benefit of those around me!" Uh huh. Nice try, cigarettes. This won't last forever. I have to remind myself of that. But if I smoke, then I have to go through all of this again. No fucking way. Even if everything is making me want to punch the world. Like cyjackers.

"Cyjackers," you say? "Why, that word doesn't even goddamned exist, John. What the fuck are you talking about?"

Although it might make a great series of young adult novels

Good question. The term came from my local news, who tried their precious little hearts out to do a story on technology, but ended up just looking like a bunch of drooling rock fuckers, desperately trying to scare old people and connect with teens. It was a story on identity theft, which began with the words:

"They call them 'cyjackers,' and they can steal your ..."

No. No, no, no, no, no they fucking don't. Nobody in the history of humanity's combined technology has ever, ever, used the word "cyjacker" in any context. Nobody in the long, festering existence of mankind's numerous languages has ever put those letters in that order to create that term with that meaning. Ever.

You made that up, you fucks. Holy shit, how long as it been since I quit? THREE HOURS?

Luckily, when I heard them say that, the closest thing I could throw at the television was a dry dishrag that bounced off with a light "fluff" sound before I unleashed a barrage of cursing that made me thankful my kids weren't here. Not because I didn't want them to hear the cursing, but because there's a good chance I would have thrown one of them at the TV as well.

 

Cravings=Deficiencies

 

While cravings can mean a number of things including psychological reasons, a strong craving usually indicates your body is low in a specific nutrient, vitamin or mineral. The craving is an indication that it wants to make sure it gets what it needs, the difficult part these days is, we have so much processed unnatural food at our disposal that we often get confused about what our bodies are actually asking for. The foods you crave may NOT contain that nutrient and often the person eats unhealthy empty calories in place of nutrient dense wholefoods.
Having some knowledge about what our cravings can mean, may help us to reduce unhealthy habits and poor food choices.

 

FOOD CRAVINGS

Craving this:
Reason is:.
Restore with this:...

COMMON FOOD

Cheese
Essential Fatty Acids deficiency
Omega 3's (EPA and DHA)- Flax oil, ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts

Calcium deficiency
Sesame seeds/ tahini, broccoli, kale, legumes, mustard and turnip greens

Pasta, white bread, pastries
Chromium deficiency
Onion, romaine lettuce, tomato, cinnamon, grapes, apples, sweet potato

Bread and toast
Nitrogen deficiency
Foods containing proteins, i.e.. Green leafy veges, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains

Red meat
Iron deficiency
beans, legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs+ other dried fruit, seaweed, spinach, cherries, Vitamin C for iron absorption

Popcorn
Stress hormone fluctuations
Meditation, breathing exercises, exercise, leafy greens, vitamin B and C

Crisps
Chloride deficiency
celery, olives, tomato, kelp, Himalayan sea salt

Essential Fatty Acids deficiency
Omega 3's (EPA and DHA)- Flax oil, ground flaxseeds, chia seeds, walnuts

FLAVOUR

Burned Food
Carbon deficiency
Fresh fruits

Acid foods
Magnesium deficiency
raw cacao nibs/beans/powder, Whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, greens, fruit

Salty Foods
Chloride deficiency
celery, olives, tomato, kelp, Himalayan sea salt

Stress hormone fluctuations
Meditation, breathing exercises, exercise, leafy greens, vitamin B and C

SWEETS

Chocolate
Magnesium deficiency
raw cacao nibs/beans/powder, Whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, greens, fruit

Soda, fizzy drinks
Calcium deficiency
Sesame seeds/ tahini, broccoli, kale, legumes, mustard and turnip greens

General sweets
Hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar)
fruit, high fibre foods (beans, legumes), complex carbs (grains), chromium (cinnamon)

Tryptophan deficiency
spirulina, pumpkin/sesame/sunflower seeds, raw cacao, oatmeal, sweet potato, spinach, raisins

Chromium deficiency
Onion, romaine lettuce, tomato, cinnamon, grapes, apples, sweet potato

Sulphur deficiency
cruciferous vege (kale, cabbage, etc), cranberries, horseradish, asparagus, carob powder, garlic, onion

Phosphorus deficiency
whole grains, pinto beans, pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts, lentils

STIMULANTS

Coffee or black tea
Sulphur deficiency
cruciferous vege (kale, cabbage, etc), cranberries, horseradish, asparagus, carob powder, garlic, onion

Iron deficiency
beans, legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs+ other dried fruit, seaweed, spinach, cherries, Vitamin C for iron absorption

NaCl (salt) deficiency
Himalayan sea salt, Apple Cider vinegar, kombucha

Phosphorous deficiency
whole grains, pinto beans, pumpkin seeds, brazil nuts, lentils

Alcohol, recreational drugs
Calcium deficiency
Sesame seeds/ tahini, broccoli, kale, legumes, mustard and turnip greens

Glutamine deficiency
Cabbage, beetroot, beans, spinach, parsley, vegetable juice

Protein deficiency
Green leafy vegetable, nuts, seeds, legumes, grains, beans

Potassium deficiency
citrus fruits, bitter green leafy veges, banana, tomato, pineapple, black olives, seaweeds

Avenin deficiency
Oatmeal, granola

Tobacco
Silicon deficiency
horsetail herb, nuts, seeds, oats, millet, barley, onions, whole wheat, beetroot. Avoid refines starches

Tyrosine deficiency
Fruits (esp. Avocado and banana), whole grains, oats, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds, Vitamin C, veges

EATING HABITS

Lack of appetite
Chloride deficiency
celery, olives, tomato, kelp, Himalayan sea salt

Thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency
whole grains, peanuts, seeds, beans, green and yellow vegetables

Niacin (Vitamin B3) deficiency
Peanuts, sunflower seeds, wheat bran and wheat germ

Manganese deficiency
walnuts, almonds, pecans, whole grains, green leafy veges, pineapple, blueberries

Often overeating
Tryptophan deficiency
spirulina, pumpkin/sesame/sunflower seeds, raw cacao, oatmeal, sweet potato, spinach, raisins

Tyrosine deficiency
Fruits (esp. Avocado and banana), whole grains, oats, legumes, beans, nuts, seeds, Vitamin C, veges

Silicon deficiency
horsetail herb, nuts, seeds, oats, millet, barley, onions, whole wheat, beetroot. Avoid refines starches

Often snacky
No balanced diet, missing nutrients
Consider a detox and substitute junk food for healthy meals

MORE BIZARRE

Crunching on ice
Iron deficiency
beans, legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs+ other dried fruit, seaweed, spinach, cherries, Vitamin C for iron absorption

Laundry starch
Iron deficiency
beans, legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs+ other dried fruit, seaweed, spinach, cherries, Vitamin C for iron absorption

Cigarette butts
Iron deficiency
beans, legumes, unsulphured prunes, figs+ other dried fruit, seaweed, spinach, cherries, Vitamin C for iron absorption

 

 

http://www.iridologyathealthyliving.com

New Sausages Will Make Your Guts Healthier--If You Can Stomach The Secret Ingredient

 

Cured meat made from baby poop bacteria? It's the new probiotics.

Probiotic foods have been associated with several health benefits, from regulating bowel movements to increasing immunity. Though the claims are sometimes disputed, we've seen a number of "good bacteria" products appear in the last few years, including "functional" yogurts like Activia and more ancient recipes like kimchi and kombucha.

You may not be surprised to hear of another probiotic foodstuff in the making. It is, oddly enough, in the form of a sausage. But that's not even the weirdest part. What may be most shocking is the source of the mighty micro-organisms present in the sausage: human feces. Or, to be more exact--baby poop.

What may be most shocking is the source of the mighty micro-organisms present in the sausage: human feces.

Food scientists in Spain took 43 stool samples from baby diapers and cultured the bacteria in petri dishes. Then, they transferred the bacteria to six bundles of fuet, a Catalonian sausage similar to chorizo. The researchers were looking for a bacteria that would become the dominant strain within the meat (would dominate over the naturally occurring organism) and they found only one that did. It multiplied to levels of 100 million cells per gram--enough to begin to promote health benefits, the scientists say.

Co-author of the study, Anna Jofré, a food microbiologist at Catalonia's Institute of Food and Agricultural Research, says the sausages could be an alternative for people who don't like yogurt. She told Live Science: "Probiotic fermented sausages will give an opportunity to consumers who don't take dairy products the possibility to include probiotic foods to their diet."

The researchers still need to test the sausage's actual probiotic effects on humans, and there are no plans to commercialize the meat tubes at this stage. However, Jofré says the sausages "tasted very good" when cooked.

 

The Hidden Dangers of Going Under

 

 

Anesthesia may have lingering side effects on the brain, even years after an operation

Mar 18, 2014 |By Carina Storrs

Credit: Ashley Mackenzie

Two and a half years ago Susan Baker spent three hours under general anesthesia as surgeons fused several vertebrae in her spine. Everything went smoothly, and for the first six hours after her operation, Baker, then an 81-year-old professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, was recovering well. That night, however, she hallucinated a fire raging through the hospital toward her room. Petrified, she repeatedly buzzed the nurses' station, pleading for help. The next day she was back to her usual self. “It was the most terrifying experience I have ever had,” she says.

Baker's waking nightmare was a symptom of postoperative delirium, a state of serious confusion and memory loss that sometimes follows anesthesia. In addition to hallucinations, delirious patients may forget why they are in the hospital, have trouble responding to questions and speak in nonsensical sentences. Such bewilderment—which is far more severe than the temporary mental fog one might expect after any major operation that requires general anesthesia—usually resolves after a day or two.

Although physicians have known about the possibility of such confusion since at least the 1980s, they had decided, based on the then available evidence, that the drugs used to anesthetize a patient in the first place were unlikely to be responsible. Instead, they concluded, the condition occurred more often because of the stress of surgery, which might in turn unmask an underlying brain defect or the early stages of dementia. Studies in the past four years have cast doubt on that assumption, however, and suggest that a high enough dose of anesthesia can in fact raise the risk of delirium after surgery. Recent studies also indicate that the condition may be more pernicious than previously realized: even if the confusion dissipates, attention and memory can languish for months and, in some cases, years.

In Too Deep
Anesthesia comes in three main types. Local anesthesia, the mildest form, merely numbs a very small area, such as a single tooth. Regional anesthesia desensitizes a large section of someone's body by injecting drugs into the spine that block nerve signals to the brain. Often a patient getting regional anesthesia also takes a relatively small dose of a powerful sedative drug, such as propofol—not enough to put them under but enough to alter brain activity in a way that makes the person less aware and responsive.

General anesthesia relies on a cocktail of drugs that renders patients completely unconscious, prevents them from moving and blocks any memories of the surgery. Although anesthetic drugs have been around since 1846, many questions remain as to how exactly they work. To date, the strongest evidence suggests that the drugs are effective in part because they bind to and incapacitate several different proteins on the surface of neurons that are essential for regulating sleep, attention, learning and memory. In addition, it seems that interrupting the usual activity of neurons may disrupt communication between far-flung regions of the brain, which somehow triggers unconsciousness.

When postoperative delirium was first recognized, researchers wondered whether certain anesthetic drugs—but not others—deserved the blame. Yet studies comparing specific drugs and rates of delirium in patients after surgery have always been scant and inconclusive. “No particular anesthetic has been exonerated in patients,” says Roderic G. Eckenhoff, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Pennsylvania. But “we can't say yet that there is an anesthetic that patients should not get.”

One reason scientists struggled to say whether sedative drugs were at fault was the difficulty of separating them from other major hospital stresses, such as surgery itself. Indeed, many of the things that make being hospitalized so unpleasant—poor sleep, restricted movement and a regimen of medicines—can also cause confusion, forgetfulness and even delusions.

In spite of these difficulties, researchers hit on two other factors that increased the chances a patient would become dramatically confused after an operation: being older than about 70 and having preexisting mental deficits, such as regularly forgetting appointments or severe dementia. Delirium is also more common after major surgeries—which can last at least a few hours and require patients to stay one night or longer in the hospital. Among patients above age 60 about 50 percent become seriously disoriented after heart bypass or valve replacement surgery, according to one study, yet the same is true for only 15 percent or so of patients in the same age range who have elective hip joint surgery—a shorter and less risky procedure.

Research over the past several years has revived anesthesia as a potential culprit in delirium: instead of focusing on the type of anesthetic drug, scientists are now concerned about the amount of overall anesthesia. Researchers suspect that the more anesthesia someone receives—and, consequently, the deeper someone slips into unconsciousness—the greater the risk of delirium. In one study, for example, Frederick E. Sieber of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and his colleagues gave 57 elderly hip surgery patients enough propofol to achieve regional anesthesia and another 57 patients enough propofol to induce general anesthesia. Eleven of the lightly anesthetized patients became delirious after the operation, compared with 23 of the patients under general anesthesia.

A related study offers a clue as to why previous research failed to see a difference in rates of delirium between patients receiving general and regional anesthesia. Sieber tracked 15 patients aged 65 years and older who were all undergoing surgery to repair fractured hips. The team gave the patients regional anesthesia consisting of propofol and an anesthetic that disabled nerves in the spinal cord. Based on standard practice, the team monitored blood pressure and heart rate as a proxy for depth of anesthesia to determine the appropriate dose. Meanwhile a computer, which the team could not see, also determined the depth of anesthesia based on a more direct but less commonly used measurement: electrical activity in the patients' brain, as gauged by electrodes attached to their forehead. The fewer electrical impulses crackling through their brains, the deeper the anesthesia. Eighty-seven percent of patients' brain activity dipped low enough to qualify as general anesthesia during at least part of the surgery.

“I was flabbergasted,” Sieber says. Because of this study and similar findings, he suspects that it is common for patients getting regional anesthesia to receive so much sedative drug that they are actually in a state of general anesthesia.

Lasting Effects
Deep anesthesia has also been linked to subtler but longer-lasting cognitive problems. In a 2013 study, doctors at a Hong Kong hospital monitored the brain activity of 462 patients undergoing major surgery, keeping the electrical activity as high as possible while still inducing general anesthesia. For another 459 patients receiving general anesthesia, the doctors monitored only blood pressure and heart rate. Patients received either propofol or one of several anesthetic gases. The morning after surgery, 16 percent of patients who had received light anesthesia displayed confusion, compared with 24 percent of the routine care group. Likewise, 15 percent of patients who received typical anesthesia had postoperative mental setbacks that lingered for at least three months—they performed poorly on word-recall tests, for example—but only 10 percent of those in the light anesthesia group had such difficulties.

In some cases, these mental handicaps persist longer than a few months. Jane Saczynski, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and her colleagues tracked the mental abilities of patients 60 years and older in the Boston area for up to one year after heart bypass or valve surgery. Based on tests of memory and attention in which patients repeated phrases and named everyday objects, those who did not develop any delirium generally regained their presurgery mental capabilities within a month, whereas patients with postoperative delirium took between six months and a full year to recuperate. Patients whose mental fog lasted more than three days after surgery had still not regained their full acumen a year after the operation.

Although researchers remain uncertain about how anesthetic drugs might usher in a state of postoperative delirium, they have some ideas. The drugs may have an easier time overwhelming neurons in older adults because the proteins that anesthetic drugs are thought to target on the surface of neurons become less abundant with age. Some experts have suggested that in elderly patients, the brain may also have a harder time refashioning the connections between different regions that could break down during anesthesia.

Preliminary Protections
As researchers continue to look for more precise answers about postoperative delirium, clinicians are adopting a number of strategies to minimize risk. Doctors at John Hopkins and other hospital settings now constantly talk with elderly patients during regional anesthesia, making sure they can respond to their name. Sieber thinks this practice could be at least as effective a gauge of the depth of anesthesia as brain activity and could be superior to blood pressure and heart rate measurements.

Other precautions include making sure patients are well hydrated and nourished before surgery, which likely improves blood flow to the brain. After surgery, experts recommend orienting patients to their hospital stay by encouraging family and friends to visit, getting them up and out of bed during the day, encouraging a good night's sleep, and discontinuing any medications that could further alter brain activity. Although it remains unclear exactly how these interventions help, physical and mental activities stimulate communication between nerve cells, which could reestablish vital connections between brain regions.

For her part, Susan Baker has always made an effort to be as active as possible and to spend time with loved ones following the various surgeries in her life, just because it has seemed like a good way to spur recovery. But when she had to have another procedure after her delirious episode, she took a couple of extra precautions—asking her son to stay in her hospital room that night, for example. And before her operation, she made a special request: to keep the anesthesia as light as possible.

7 Lessons From 7 Great Minds

 

Have you ever wished you could go back in time and have a conversation with one of the greatest minds in history? Well, you can’t sorry, they’re dead. Unless of course you’re clairaudient, be my guest. But for the rest of us, we can still refer to the words they left behind.
Even though these great teachers have passed on, their words still live, and in them their wisdom. I’ve made a list of seven what I believe are some of the greatest teachings by the world’s greatest minds.

1. Realizing Your Dreams
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.”
- Lawrence J. Peter
In order for us to achieve our dreams, we must have a vision of our goals. Writing down our dreams and creating a list of actions helps us stick to our plan. As it’s said “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”. When we turn our goals into measurable actions, we gain clarity and are able to see the necessary steps we must take in order to achieve them.
Action: Visualize a life of your wildest dreams. What did you dream of doing when you were a child? What would you do if you had a million dollars? Create a vision for your goals and start breaking them down into small actions that you can take on a day by day basis.

2. Overcoming Fear
“It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, “Always do what you are afraid to do.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The best way to learn something is to dive right in to it. When we overcome our fear of failure, we learn that only those who are asleep make no mistakes. Fear is the only thing keeping us from experiencing a life of love and fulfillment. If we make a commitment to an uncompromisable quest for truth, we will realize that as we grow more into the truth, our fears start to disappear.
Action: You must define your fears in order to conquer them. Create a list of everything you’re afraid of and start facing them one at a time. Make a commitment to yourself now to not let fear rule your life.

3. Intention and Desire
“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”- Guatama Buddha
Our thoughts determine our reality. When we stop thinking about what we don’t and begin thinking about what we do want, our lives begin to transform. Instead of working against our desires and intentions, we move into alignment with them.
Action: Create a list of your intentions and desires. Wherever you go, take this list with you. Read it when you wake up and before you go to sleep.

4. Happiness

“Happiness depends more on the inward disposition of mind than on outward circumstances.”
- Benjamin Franklin
Happiness comes from an inner peace, understanding and acceptance of life; a perspective of truth that opens your eyes to the beauty of life all around us. Happiness cannot be achieved by external status, it must be an internal state that we realize when we see our innate perfection.
Action: Realize that happiness is a choice. In every decision you make ask yourself “how can I respond to make myself happy and fulfilled?”

5. Self Acceptance
“If a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” – Jesus
When we stop trying to be what we are not, we realize our authenticity. Before we had knowledge, we were completely authentic. We learn to use knowledge to measure and judge, which is a powerful tool we have as humans. However we create an image of perfection in our mind of what we should be, but are not. We confuse knowledge for nature. We believe in the lie of our imperfection. When we realize this we can reclaim the truth of our perfection and live in love and acceptance.
Action: Make a commitment to never go against yourself. Practice non-judgment and realize that the same part of your mind that condemns you is the same voice that caused you to take the action in the first place. We don’t even have to believe what we say to ourselves.

6. Appreciation and Gratitude

“So much has been given to me, I have not time to ponder over that which has been denied.”
- Helen Keller
How many times do we count our misfortunes rather than our blessings? When we take time to open our eyes to the miracle of life we can see the many gifts that have been given to us. Remembering all the beautiful aspects of life and all the reasons you are blessed can immediately shift our mood. We can move from sorrow and despair to appreciation and hope.
Action: Each time you find yourself complaining about something, re-direct your focus to something you are grateful for. Make a habit of transforming your awareness of troubles into an awareness of abundance.

7. The Art of Simplicity

“I made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it short.”
- Blaise Pascal
Perfection is not when there is nothing to add, but when there is nothing more to take away. As Bruce Lee once said “the height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” True mastery of our lives is realizing the simple joys of life, removing distractions and clutter from our lives.
Action: The art of simplicity is knowing what to take away. Practice recognizing when you’re spending your time on unimportant tasks and re-focus on the important.
This list is by no means exhaustive. There are other many great teachings that I did not include here because I felt like they were already expounded on thoroughly elsewhere, such as Einstein and Gandhi’s timeless classics. There are also great teachings to be found from our parents or friends.

Courtesy of IlluminatedMind.net

 

Genetic Maps of the Brain Lead to Surprises

 

By Ed Lein and Mike Hawrylycz

The first detailed map of what our genes are doing inside our brains show how very different we are from mice and challenge a long-held theory of how our gray matter works

More In This Article

As you read these words, your eyes scan the page, picking up patterns to which your mind assigns meaning. Meanwhile your heart contracts and relaxes, your diaphragm rises and drops to control your breathing, your back muscles tense to maintain your posture, and a thousand other basic tasks of conscious and subconscious life proceed, all under the coordinated control of roughly 86 billion neurons and an equal number of supporting cells inside your skull. To neuroscientists like us, even the simple act of reading a magazine is a wondrous feat—as well as an example of perhaps the hardest problem in science today: in truth, we cannot yet fully explain how the human brain thinks and why the brain of a monkey cannot reason as we do.

Neuroscientists have intensely studied the human brain for more than a century, yet we sometimes still feel like explorers who have landed on the shores of a newly discovered continent. The first to arrive plotted the overall boundaries and contours. In the early 1900s German scientist Korbinian Brodmann sliced up human brains and placed them under his microscope to examine the cerebral cortex—the exterior layers of gray matter that handle most perception, thought and memory. He parceled this cortex into several dozen regions based on the topology of the organ and how the cells in each area appear when labeled with various stains.

Mundo: Base militar ucraniana é invadida por russos na Crimeia

 

Quarta-feira, 19 de março de 2014 - 09h21

Mais uma base militar ucraniana na Crimeia foi invadida e bandeiras da Rússia foram hasteadas no local. Centenas de homens uniformizados invadiram Sevastopol. Houve pouca resistência, mas nenhuma violência. Em poucos minutos, as bandeiras da Ucrânia foram retiradas dos mastros e substituídas pelas da Rússia.

Até agora Moscou nega o envio de tropas extras à região, onde já estão 24 soldados russos, muitos uniformizados mas sem identificação, que são chamados de "milicianos pró-Rússia". Na terça-feira (18), horas após a assinatura do documento que incorporava a Crimeia à Rússia, uma base militar em Simferopol, capital da Península, foi invadida. Um militar acabou morto.