Robot Takes on Battle of The Bulge

April 27, 2010

France 24

Imagine something between a computer game and a pet that helps makes you slim. One inventor did just that and came up with Autom — a robot that will look dieters in the eye and tell them what they need to hear.

Users can have daily conversations with the 38-centimetre-tall (15-inch) robot, which will crunch calories and provide feedback and encouragement on their weight-loss progress.

For those who hate manuals — there isn’t one. Switch Autom on and it’s ready to go.

Its blue eyes open and its head swivels as a computer inside its head allows it to search for a human face in front of it and maintain eye contact.

“Hello, I’m Autom! Press one of the buttons below to talk to me,” it says in a robotic female voice with an American accent. “I’m ready to get started. Let’s keep working together.”

Users tap their details onto the robot’s screen in response to its spoken questions about weight, diet, exercise regime and goals and over time it builds up a knowledge of the dieter’s strengths and weaknesses to tailor its questions and advice accordingly.

The information is also processed to provide graphs on their progress and habits over time.

The brainchild of Cory Kidd, a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a doctorate in human-robot interaction, Autom hits the US market later this year, retailing for about 500 dollars.

The 80-billion-dollar US weight loss market has already been targeted by Nintendo with its Wii Fit and My Weight Loss Coach games but Kidd is banking on Autom offering dieters a more personalised way of using technology to slim down.

It is a so-called sociable robot, a new generation of robots that adapt their behaviour in order to interact with humans.

Autom looks fairly simplistic, with a head and neck attached to a rectangular box-shaped body on two stumpy legs. Its face has no nose and only the hint of a mouth.

But the cutting-edge field of human-robot interaction combines insights from the social sciences as well as technology and medicine

“It draws heavily on human psychology — so understanding how we as people interact with one another,” Kidd told AFP. “It relies on cues that people use in everyday communication.”

Click here to continue reading the report.

The Future of Health Care

April 27, 2010

CNS News

By Matt Cover

The Senate Committee on Aging last week offered a preview of the government’s future role in health care, showing how Americans will interact with doctors and other health care providers. The demonstration offers a glimpse at an overlooked effect of health care reform.

The effort, loosely called e-Health or e-Care, combines health-care technology with 21st-century Internet connectivity. It will allow doctors to interact with their patients through innovations such as video chats, telephone health checkups, and home-health monitoring devices that relay data over wireless Internet connections.

“The development of the broadband network and health information technologies has the potential to truly transform health care and simultaneously enable better outcomes and lowering costs,” said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine).

One of the new health technologies on display last Thursday was an automatic drug dispenser that can monitor and adjust medication dosages wirelessly, allowing doctors to tailor dosages of drugs such as insulin without having to schedule in-person visits with patients.

“What we’re talking about, folks, is using a device like this one,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said, as he displayed the small device. “It attaches to the patient’s skin and is loaded with drugs that are administered in the exact way that the doctor prescribes – wirelessly.

“That means that a doctor can vary the doses based on the information the doctor is receiving [from the monitor]. The patient doesn’t have to go in to the doctor and then the pharmacy to change his or her prescription,” he said.

The data recorded by such devices would be automatically uploaded to a patient’s electronic health record, which could then be reviewed by a doctor from a computer or smart phone, allowing the doctor to monitor a sick patient in almost real time.

“This device here connects to other devices that measure a patient’s blood pressure and glucose [sugar] levels – things that any doctor treating a diabetic patient wants to know about,” Wyden said. “It wirelessly uploads this data to an electronic medical health record that is monitored by a health care professional.”

The key to the new health care technology is broadband Internet connectivity, Wyden explained, because new technologies such as home monitors and new methods such as video conferencing require high-speed connections.

“What all these devices and technologies require is access to a high-speed Internet connection, or what is commonly called ‘broadband,’” he said.

In adopting these new technologies, the government aims is to reduce the cost of Medicare by changing the way it pays doctors, who would be allowed to bill for Internet-based “visits” with patients instead of in-person visits.

“Five percent of Medicare beneficiaries, who in most cases have one or more chronic conditions, constitute 43 percent of Medicare spending,” Dr. Mohit Kaushal, health care director at the Federal Communications Commission, told the committee.

“But there’s a set of broadband-enabled health information technology, both now and emerging from development, that can mitigate many of these issues and reduce the cost of care while improving clinical outcomes,” Kaushal said.

Kaushal, testifying before the committee via video conference due travel disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano, said that Medicare needs to begin reimbursing for e-Care technologies so that doctors will have an incentive to purchase and install them.

“Given what it will take to implement an outcomes-based reimbursement model [for Medicare] reimbursement should be expanded for e-Care technologies that will improve system-wide expenditure reductions under CMS’ [Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services] fee-for-service model,” Kaushal said.

Click here to continue reading the report.

Feds Invade Farm for 5 a.m. Inspection

April 26, 2010

World Net Daily

By Bob Unruh

Federal agents invaded an Amish farm in Pennsylvania at 5 a.m. to inspect cow-milking facilities then followed up the next day with a written notice that the farmer was engaged in interstate sale of raw milk in violation of the Public Health Services Act.

A failure to correct the situation could result in “seizure and/or injunction,” the warning letter from Kirk Sooter, district director of the Philadelphia office of the Department of Health and Human Services, told farmer Dan Allgyer of Kinzers, Pa., on Wednesday.

The farm invaded Tuesday is the one agents visited in February, driving past “Private Property” signs to demand Allgyer open his property for their inspection, saying, “You have cows. You produce food for human consumption.”

The case is being publicized by the National Independent Consumers and Farmers Association, which promotes traditional methods of linking farmers with consumers.

Spokeswoman Deborah Stockton told WND Allgyer “is the type of farmer who exemplifies what we are trying to restore.” On her organization’s website is the commitment “to promote and preserve unregulated direct farmer-to-consumer trade that fosters availability of locally grown or home-produced food products.”

She reported she got details directly from Allgyer of Tuesday’s early-morning inspection, which highlights the growing conflict between farmers who want to provide health food locally and federal regulators.

Allgyer could not be reached immediately for comment.

The farmer told NICFA he came out of his house about 4:30 a.m. for his milking routine and noticed a lot of traffic on Kinzer Road.

Shortly later, the cars were coming up his lane.

“I stood back in the dark barn to see what they were going to do. They drove past my two ‘Private Property’ signs, up to where my coolers were, with their headlights shining right on them,” Allgyer reported.

He called to the five men as they were preparing to knock on his home, where his wife and family remained asleep.

“Two were from the FDA, agent Joshua C. Schafer who had been there in February and another. They showed me identification, but I was too flustered to ask for their cards. I remember being told that two were deputy U.S. marshals and one a state trooper. They started asking me questions right away. They handed me a paper, and I didn’t realize what it was,” he said.

“Schafer told me they were there to do a ‘routine inspection.’ At 5:00 in the morning, I wondered to myself? ‘Do you have a warrant?’ I asked, and one of them, a marshal or the state policeman, said, ‘You’ve got in your hand buddy.’ I asked, ‘What is the warrant about?’ Schafer responded, ‘We have credible evidence that you are involved in interstate commerce,’” the farmer reported.

WND telephone calls and e-mails to the FDA requesting comment did not generate a response.

Allgyer said he confirmed his identification but then said he wouldn’t answer anything further.

To continue reading this report, click here.

The Government Has Your Baby’s DNA!

April 26, 2010

Natural News

By Ethan A. Huff

According to Brad Therrell, director of the National Newborn Screening & Genetics Resource Center, all babies born in the United States are required to be screened for a host of genetic diseases. The government has mandated that all newborns be evaluated genetically to see whether or not they might be predisposed to developing a genetic disease and most parents are not informed about the tests.

The Browns from Mankato, Minnesota, are one such couple who was informed by their pediatrician that their daughter, Isabel, has a gene that allegedly heightens her risk of developing cystic fibrosis. Curious as to how the doctor obtained information about Isabel’s genes, the couple inquired of her about this, only to find out that Isabel had undergone gene tests when she was born without their consent.

Many states not only conduct gene tests on newborns but they store them indefinitely in government labs, which has caused an uproar among concerned parents.

“Why do they need to store my baby’s DNA indefinitely? Something on there could affect her ability to get a job later on, or get health insurance,” explained Annie Brown, Isabel’s mother. Her concern is shared by millions of parents across the country, many of whom have filed lawsuits in their own states against the government.

In Minnesota, the explanation for why DNA is stored indefinitely is so analysts can perform repeat tests if need be. The state claims that in case a child ever goes missing or dies, DNA blueprints can be used for tracking and identification purposes. It also admits that samples are used for “medical research”.

Genetic testing on newborns first began in the 1960s to allegedly help detect serious conditions like retardation in order to save babies’ lives. According to records, many newborns’ lives were saved from such testing.

However, new tests were gradually added to the panel over the years. In some states, babies are screened for up to 54 different conditions. Their results are then stored in state labs for indefinite periods of time but, according to Therrell, parents need not worry about it.

“The states have in place very rigid controls on those specimens,” he explained. “If my children’s DNA were in one of these state labs, I wouldn’t be worried a bit.”

In reality, outside researchers often have access to the samples as well as the babies’ names to whom they belong. One study conducted in Minnesota found that over 20 scientific papers published in the U.S. since the year 2000 used newborn blood samples.

In many states, parents can request that their babies’ DNA be removed from labs and destroyed. Whether or not the state actually obeys is another story.

Click here for the full report.

Google Street View Logs WiFi Networks & Mac Addresses

April 26, 2010

The Register

By Andrew Orlowski

Google’s roving Street View spycam may blur your face, but it’s got your number. The Street View service is under fire in Germany for scanning private WLAN networks, and recording users’ unique Mac (Media Access Control) addresses, as the car trundles along.

Germany’s Federal Commissioner for Data Protection Peter Schaar says he’s “horrified” by the discovery.

“I am appalled… I call upon Google to delete previously unlawfully collected personal data on the wireless network immediately and stop the rides for Street View,” according to German broadcaster ARD.

Spooks have long desired the ability to cross reference the Mac address of a user’s connection with their real identity and virtual identity, such as their Gmail or Facebook account.

Other companies have logged broadcasting WLAN networks and published the information. By contrast Google has not published the WLAN map, or Street View in Germany; Google hopes to launch the service by the end of the year (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/02/google_germany/).

But Google’s uniquely cavalier approach to privacy, and its potential ability to cross reference the information raises additional concerns. Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently said internet users shouldn’t worry about privacy unless they have something to hide. And when there’s nowhere left to hide…?

Click here for the full report.

Stephen Hawking Says Aliens Exist but Are Dangerous

April 26, 2010

TimesOnline.co.uk

By Jonathan Leake

THE aliens are out there and Earth had better watch out, at least according to Stephen Hawking. He has suggested that extraterrestrials are almost certain to exist — but that instead of seeking them out, humanity should be doing all it that can to avoid any contact.

The suggestions come in a new documentary series in which Hawking, one of the world’s leading scientists, will set out his latest thinking on some of the universe’s greatest mysteries.

Alien life, he will suggest, is almost certain to exist in many other parts of the universe: not just in planets, but perhaps in the centre of stars or even floating in interplanetary space.

Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved.

“To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational,” he said. “The real challenge is to work out what aliens might actually be like.”

The answer, he suggests, is that most of it will be the equivalent of microbes or simple animals — the sort of life that has dominated Earth for most of its history.

One scene in his documentary for the Discovery Channel shows herds of two-legged herbivores browsing on an alien cliff-face where they are picked off by flying, yellow lizard-like predators. Another shows glowing fluorescent aquatic animals forming vast shoals in the oceans thought to underlie the thick ice coating Europa, one of the moons of Jupiter.

Such scenes are speculative, but Hawking uses them to lead on to a serious point: that a few life forms could be intelligent and pose a threat. Hawking believes that contact with such a species could be devastating for humanity.

He suggests that aliens might simply raid Earth for its resources and then move on: “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.”

He concludes that trying to make contact with alien races is “a little too risky”. He said: “If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

The completion of the documentary marks a triumph for Hawking, now 68, who is paralysed by motor neurone disease and has very limited powers of communication. The project took him and his producers three years, during which he insisted on rewriting large chunks of the script and checking the filming.

John Smithson, executive producer for Discovery, said: “He wanted to make a programme that was entertaining for a general audience as well as scientific and that’s a tough job, given the complexity of the ideas involved.”

Hawking has suggested the possibility of alien life before but his views have been clarified by a series of scientific breakthroughs, such as the discovery, since 1995, of more than 450 planets orbiting distant stars, showing that planets are a common phenomenon.

So far, all the new planets found have been far larger than Earth, but only because the telescopes used to detect them are not sensitive enough to detect Earth-sized bodies at such distances.

Another breakthrough is the discovery that life on Earth has proven able to colonise its most extreme environments. If life can survive and evolve there, scientists reason, then perhaps nowhere is out of bounds.

Hawking’s belief in aliens places him in good scientific company. In his recent Wonders of the Solar System BBC series, Professor Brian Cox backed the idea, too, suggesting Mars, Europa and Titan, a moon of Saturn, as likely places to look.

Similarly, Lord Rees, the astronomer royal, warned in a lecture earlier this year that aliens might prove to be beyond human understanding.

“I suspect there could be life and intelligence out there in forms we can’t conceive,” he said. “Just as a chimpanzee can’t understand quantum theory, it could be there are aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.”

Click here for the full report.

Bill Would Allow Fed To Hide Its Spending

April 26, 2010

Huffington Post

By Ryan Grim

The Wall Street reform bill headed for a test vote on the Senate floor Monday night will allow the Federal Reserve to continue to pump trillions of dollars into major banks largely in secrecy, the co-author of House language that would open the central bank to an audit charged in a memo to the Senate.

“The Senate has a provision in its reform bill that purports to audit the Fed. But, it really doesn’t do anything of the sort. I’m going to run down the details for you, and reprint the legislative language so you can read it yourself,” writes Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.).

It would not allow the GAO to look into the Fed’s massive purchase of toxic assets, its hundreds of billions in foreign currency swaps with other central banks or its open market operations, among other restrictions.

Grayson and co-author Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) passed legislation through the House that would allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Federal Reserve and, after a delay, release the information to Congress. It was a remarkable victory, with a populist coalition beating back the combined lobbying efforts of the Treasury Department, the Fed and Wall Street banks.

The Senate has been more hostile territory for the Fed audit provision. Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) opposes the Grayson-Paul version, but allowed a much more restrictive audit proposal from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) into his bill.

Grayson, in his memo, outlines the shortcomings of the Senate bill. Walker Todd, who spent some 20 years as a counselor with the Federal Reserve Banks of New York and Cleveland, reviewed Grayson’s analysis and told HuffPost he concurs with it.

The Seante bill would allow an audit of the TALF program and slightly expands authority to audit emergency lending conducted under section 13(3) of the Federal Reserve Act, but restricts it to very specific purposes.

Meanwhile, it would not allow the GAO to look into the Fed’s massive purchase of toxic assets, its hundreds of billions in foreign currency swaps with other central banks or its open market operations, among other restrictions.

Fed backers argue that requiring transparency would politicize monetary policy, though monetary policy and the Fed itself are already political — they regularly lobby Congress, after all — and would tempt lawmakers to pressure the Fed to inflate the currency to reduce the debt burden.

Merkley said he agrees with Grayson’s analysis. “I appreciate Representative Grayson’s concerns over accountability at the Federal Reserve. I have been a strong proponent of Fed reform and voted against the re-confirmation of Ben Bernanke because the Fed has been so lax in using its regulatory powers,” Merkley said in a statement to HuffPost.

“Moreover, I felt strongly that we need to act now to empower the GAO to audit the extraordinary emergency programs created by the Fed and I succeeded in getting that power into the Senate bill. Rep. Grayson points out, fairly in my mind, that we need to go even further to audit the Fed’s standing programs. I agree. While we need to protect the Fed’s independence to implement monetary policy, I think the structure and use of their standard programs should be transparent.”

Click here for the full report.

Cosmetic Health Dangers

April 26, 2010

Mercola.com

By Dr. Mercola

Dr. Samuel Epstein is a well respected professional in cancer prevention. He is a professor emeritus of occupational and environment medicine at the University of Illinois in Chicago, and is an expert on toxins. He is also the chairman of the Cancer Prevention Coalition.

Dr. Epstein has authored 270 scientific articles, and 15 books on the causes and prevention of cancer. These include the groundbreaking Politics of Cancer (1979), and most recently Toxic Beauty (2009) about carcinogens and other toxic ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products.

In this interview, Dr. Epstein discusses several pressing health dangers that receive little attention, including:

* Nanoparticles used in cosmetics
* rBGH milk
* Meats
* The lack of prevention in the new Obama cancer plan

To listen to the interview, click here.

Grapes May Reduce Diabetes & Heart Disease

April 26, 2010

Telegraph.co.uk

By Richard Alleyne

The fruit lowered blood pressure, improved heart function and reduced other risk factors for heart disease and metabolic syndrome, it was claimed.

American researchers found this could be due to phytochemicals – naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain.

Following animal tests, the research revealed a grape-enriched diet preventing risk factors for metabolic syndrome, a condition which is often a precursor to type 2 diabetes.

Mixing a blend of green, red and black grapes into the diets of laboratory rats as part of a high-fat, American style diet, they were compared with a test group fed with a similar diet full of fat and sugars.

After three months, the rats that received the grape-enriched diet had lower blood pressure, better heart function, and reduced indicators of inflammation in the heart and the blood than rats who received no grape powder.

Rats also had lower triglycerides and improved glucose tolerance.

Heart surgeon Dr Steven Bolling said: “The possible reasoning behind the lessening of metabolic syndrome is that the phytochemicals were active in protecting the heart cells from the damaging effects of metabolic syndrome.

“In the rats, inflammation of the heart and heart function was maintained far better.

“Although there’s not a particular direct correlation between this study and what humans should do, it’s very interesting to postulate that a diet higher in phytochemical-rich fruits, such as grapes, may benefit humans.”

Although he added those wanting to lower blood pressure and reduce the risk of diabetes should follow some tried-and-true advice such as eating a healthy diet low in saturated fat, trans fat and cholesterol, maintain a desirable weight and exercise more.

Click here for the full report.

H1N1 Vaccine Study Invesigates Complications From Vaccine

April 26, 2010

Washington Post

By Rob Stein

Federal health officials are investigating the first hints of any possible significant complications from the H1N1 vaccine, but stressed that the concerns will probably turn out to be a false alarm.

The latest analysis of data has detected what could be a somewhat elevated rate of Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can cause paralysis and death; Bell’s palsy, a temporary facial paralysis; and thrombocytopenia, which is a low level of blood platelets, officials reported Friday. The data is being collected through five of the networks the government is using to monitor people who were inoculated against the swine flu.

Officials stressed that it is far too early to know whether the vaccine was increasing the risk of those conditions or whether there is some other explanation, such as doctors identifying more cases because of the intensive effort to pinpoint any safety problems with the vaccine.

Based on the preliminary report, the Health and Human Services Department’s National Vaccine Advisory Committee, which has been charged with monitoring the vaccine’s safety, voted unanimously to follow up on the findings. “We’re at the first step of determining whether there is a problem,” Guthrie S. Birkhead, who chairs the committee, said during a teleconference in which a subcommittee of experts presented its latest findings on the data. “There’s a lot more work to determine whether there is.”

Marie McCormick, who led the subcommittee, said there was a good chance the indications of problems could disappear with further analysis. Even if the link with Guillain-Barrésyndrome is confirmed, the committee calculated the vaccine at most could be causing one extra case per 1 million people vaccinated.

“We have categorized this as a potential, not even a weak, signal,” McCormick said, adding that no signs of problems have been seen in the other networks of data the government has been analyzing.

Even if the possible risks turn out to be real, officials stressed that the danger of the flu remains far greater.

“From everything we know right now, the influenza vaccine, including the H1N1 vaccine, is very safe, and it’s much riskier to get influenza than the influenza vaccine,” said Anne Schuchat of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Officials said they were not surprised that some possible problems that turn out to be false alarms might be found, given how intensively the vaccine’s safety is being monitored.

The vaccine was administered to 350 million to 400 million people worldwide, including as many as 80 million Americans, as part of an unprecedented response to the first flu pandemic in decades.

Since the inoculation program was launched, health officials have been particularly concerned about Guillain-Barré syndrome, in part because a vaccine made in 1976 in response to a different strain of H1N1 influenza led to a small increase in the number of cases of the condition.

But officials expressed confidence that the new vaccine is safe because it was produced with the same methods employed since then to make the seasonal flu vaccine, which has been administered safely to millions of people.

Each year, about 3,000 to 6,000 people in the United States develop Guillain-Barré syndrome whether or not they were vaccinated — a rate of one to two people out of every 100,000 people. Some studies have indicated that the seasonal flu vaccine might be associated with one additional case of the syndrome out of 1 million vaccinated. And influenza itself can cause the syndrome.

Although the vaccine was produced in record time, antiquated technology and unexpected problems growing the virus fast enough to produce the vaccine meant that most of the doses did not arrive until after the second wave of infections peaked last fall. That led to widespread anxiety, frustration and lines across the country as people scrambled to find the first doses. By the time most of the vaccine was ready, the second wave was already receding and demand fell sharply, leaving millions of doses unused.

The relatively low number of deaths compared with previous pandemics and the millions spent on the vaccine have led to charges that the World Health Organization exaggerated the pandemic’s risks. That prompted the Geneva-based arm of the United Nations to launch two investigations, which are ongoing.

Click here for the full report.

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