Lofty Matters

Our home is finally on the brink of taking a major technology leap with the upcoming birthday of one of my teen sons. Yes…we are just about to add a PS3 to our collection of entertainment gizmos. Apparently this is a really good time to purchase equipment like this and he’s wanted this for a long time…so he is counting the hours down to his birthday.

I have to ask. If you have one…how did it impact your family? Do you like it? Was it worth it?

I just heard about this and I am all excited…

Now you can read vintage magazines without spending a penny! Google recently announced on its blog that it has made a large selection of reading materials available through Google Books, including editions of Popular Science dating back to 1872!

Now, I don’t promise to abandon my Amazon books browsing entirely, but this may put a serious dent in it!

At age 78, Dr. David Watson still has a thriving practice and sees dozens of patients each day. He has been practicing medicine in Yoakum, Texas for 50 years.

Recently Watson received the “Country Doctor of the Year” award. This award honors a primary care physician who best exemplifies the spirit of rural practitioners. The award is given out by Staff Care (a physician staffing service) and it hopes that in so doing it will attract more young doctors to family practice.

I can’t help but wonder how his practice has changed over the years and what the popular prescriptions have been over the years. Something like weight loss pills now, I’m sure…but what must it have been like 50 years ago?

The internet is certainly a vast resource…the information you can gather ranges from info about products like Hydroxycut to encouraging stories like this:

John Stirling is back at work now and it’s nothing short of a miracle. He had a gardening accident in September that cut off his left arm. Stirling slipped while trimming a tree in his garden with a chain saw and severed his arm below the elbow.

After it happened he started running from house to house looking for help. Eventually he found one neighbor who was at home. The neighbor helped him by tying his arm with a belt and a towel while they waited for an ambulance. Then the neighbor managed to recover the arm from Mr Stirling’s lawn and preserved it by putting it in a bag of frozen sausage rolls to keep it cold.

It took twelve surgeons 18 hours of surgery to reattach the limb and Stirling returned home in only two weeks.

Recent studies conclude that prescribing music can improve heart health and lower cholesterol levels. If a person listens to 30 minutes of their favorite music every day, not only can it help to relax mentally but it can also benefit physically by expanding and clearing blood vessels.

It is believed that this happens due to a release into the bloodstream of nitric oxide, which helps to prevent the build-up of blood clots and harmful cholesterol.

The purpose of the research was to find cheaper, nonpharmacological ways to help us improve patients’ heart health. Other benefits included increased endurance on a treadmill by up to 15% (most participants did not even realize they were working harder).

Would adding music help Leptorexin be an effective diet solution? I’m not sure…

Greetings! Hope you are staying warm where you are! Winter is in full swing here and I feel like hibernating inside until it goes away…ah well…more time to scan for good news I guess.

Here’s this week’s installment. Hope it brings you a smile…encouragement…inspiration! Enjoy!

Yo-Yo Ma Brings Remix Culture to Music’s Ivory Tower

Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma is hosting an online competition and is inviting listeners to add their own accompaniment to his performance of the traditional hymn “Dona Nobis Pacem,” from his latest album, Songs of Joy & Peace.

“Just releasing a CD is constraining to an artist,” Ma says. “You know: ‘I’m the product, you’re the consumer’—it’s no longer like that.” In October, he posted his cello solo to the site Indaba Music. Since then, scores of users have added their own variations and countermelodies. Now its time for Indaba users to vote for their favorite arrangements. The winner gets a recording session with Ma that will be featured on both Indaba and the cellist’s own site.

New ‘Recycled Water Bottle’ Phone Unveiled

MOTO W233 Renew is the world’s first mobile phone made using plastics from recycled water bottles and is also the world’s first carbon neutral phone. Motorola has offset the carbon dioxide required to manufacture, distribute and operate the phone through investments in renewable energy sources and reforestation.

“Today, natural resources, energy and time are more precious than ever before,” said Jeremy Dale, corporate vice president, global marketing, Motorola Mobile Devices. “From the product’s design, to the packaging to our partnership with Carbonfund.org, we wanted to ensure that this device makes the right impact with consumers and the environment.”

Motorola was able to reduce the phone’s size by 22 percent and the box and all of the packaging materials are printed on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. There is also a postage-paid recycling envelope in box making it easy to return any previous mobile phones for recycling at no cost.

A promising young goalkeeper with only two fingers on each hand is hoping to play at the highest level after a sports firm designed a special pair of gloves for him.

Joseph Pritchard wants to make it as a Premier League Keeper even though he has only a thumb and two fingers on his hands.

When Puma heard he was unable to wear standard gloves, they ordered developers to create a unique pair of gloves for him.

Tags: Motorola, Puma, Yo Yo Ma