Found this while posting the last post, 9 Technologies to help bring down the costs of our healthcare systems. I’ve put a couple the ones I thought were amazing below, but you can read the whole article here. Some are simple changes to current tech and some are complete revamps, but awesome all around. Funny thing, I bet you no one will complain that we’re putting a bunch of lab workers or doctors out of jobs with this tech. But when we try to implement technologies to make local and federal government more efficient and need less workers, everyone goes crazy about job security.
Didn’t mean to go off topic, by NJ is bankrupt but everytime they try to cut people out to save money, it turns into a huge protest and I’m tired to paying some of the highest property taxes in the nation….
Medical Acoustics Lung Flute
“People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease might be able to scale back on their meds by instead using this $40 reusable instrument (also a PopSci Best of What’s New award winner) that sends vibrations into the lungs to break up mucus. Make sure to check out the video of the Lung Flute in action, starring Senior Associate Editor Bjorn Carey and His Mucus.”
Insulin Made From Flowers
“Americans with diabetes shell out some $132 billion a year for insulin, which usually comes from genetically engineered yeast or bacteria. But Canadian scientists can make it cheaper. They inserted the human insulin gene into the common safflower plant, which churns out the drug for a fraction of the cost. Just 25 square miles of the crop could make insulin for the entire world.”
Project Sikuli is a new automation program that can be programed using screenshots. Yes, screenshots! You can automate anything on your PC or MAC using screenshots. Don’t believe me, check out the vid. Then check out the Project Sikuli site.
Google Chrome OS is an open source operating system for people who spend most of their time on the web. The concept of thin clients are really starting to take shape in this operating system. In the video below they describe how all data will be stored in a cloud.
The experience of Chrome is built around the core tenets of speed, simplicity and security. This is a demo video to give you a feel for the Google Chrome OS user experience.
Here’s is a more high-level and entertaining overview and introduction to the Chrome OS.
Today is the 40th birthday of our dear friend the Internet. It’s kinda crazy to think that social networking, search engines, blogs, Napster, Internet browsers, IM, online gaming and hell the internet protocol itself are all birthed from a simple network message “lo” sent between two computers over the ARPANET 40 years this day. May I say Internet, you look great for 40. It seems that you got a lot faster with age. Granted your also a lot wider these, but hey they say you gain some weight every year of your life. People are alway talking you about you now-a-days. I remember when those so-called experts thought you were just a fad. But you showed them. And now I see your really connecting folks in China, India, America and Africa. I admire you for that.
Honestly, I consider you my virtual best friend. When I was in college, you helped me with my studies and also served as a much needed distraction. With that, choosing my career path, of owning my Web Company was honestly a no brainer.
You’ve even linked me up with old friends, acquaintances, and non-friends from my past which otherwise would not have happened…amazing. Quite frankly you continue to bring me years of discovery, wonderment, and enjoyment. My mom can even work with you…and I think she might me even be addicted. And when I have kids, I am certain they will know and respect you just like myself. You’re truly one of a kind.
Yesterday, I attended an event by the New Jersey Communications Advertising and Marketing Association (NJCAMA). Met some good people and heard some great things. The guest speaker for the evening was Geno Church from Brains on Fire. Geno gave a great presentation on word of mouth marketing (WOMM) and movement building where he took us through a few case studies with Best Buy and Fiskar (yes, the orange handle scissor people).
Here are a few notable quotables that stuck with me and my notes.
Everything is crap… Unless you have a strategy behind it
Social media is not WOMM
People trust people
Tactics bog us down
“No! If you build it we won’t come”
90% of WOMM occurs offline
Why should people be motivated to participate and share? Why people tell stories
support a cause
enable an experience
communicate the ethos of a brand
Geno captured everything quite eloquently when he says that we should create movements not campaigns. Then he went on to explain lessons learned about movements
So it always a marvel to me how your chest could be opened up and your heart tampered with, and you could be walking the next day. Or how they could send a tube up your thigh and into your brain and you can be fine the next day.
Needless to say the human body has been studied through the ages and we know just about everything there is to know.
I know this has nothing to do with websites, but it reminds me that in our infinite studying of all things there are still things that we haven’t come to understand and the things we do understand can always be questioned.
This is sad… why wouldn’t the formula take health care costs into account… 1 in 6 is really bad, it really points to the fact that we need better education and training for people in this country. Giving people food stamps doesn’t help, what people in poverty need is training/ eduction as the tools to get themselves out of the hole their in. People don’t need charity, they need the ability to do for themselves.
“WASHINGTON – The level of poverty in America is even worse than first believed.
A revised formula for calculating medical costs and geographic variations show that approximately 47.4 million Americans last year lived in poverty, 7 million more than the government’s official figure.
The disparity occurs because of differing formulas the Census Bureau and the National Academy of Science use for calculating the poverty rate. The NAS formula shows the poverty rate to be at 15.8 percent, or nearly 1 in 6 Americans, according to calculations released this week. That’s higher than the 13.2 percent, or 39.8 million, figure made available recently under the original government formula.
That measure, created in 1955, does not factor in rising medical care, transportation, child care or geographical variations in living costs. Nor does it consider non-cash government aid when calculating income. As a result, official figures released last month by Census may have overlooked millions of poor people, many of them 65 and older.”
Anita Zinsmeister of the South Jersey Dale Carnegie Training left me a voicemail last week to attend a free intro class for Leadership Training for Managers (LTM). The 7 week (1 day a week) program covers: planning, decision making, time management, motivation, conflict resolution, and fostering innovation.
The group has an excellent ability to teach through games, simulations, and discussions. Derrick and I have taken the High Impact Presentation training. Well worth it.
I’ve always wanted to attend, but wanted to get the other partners involved. It’s best we are on the same page. Needless to say we went yesterday and had a great time.
If you’ve taken the LTM class, I’d like to hear from you. We’re definately takeing the course, but probably not until next year first quarter. This time of the year is our most busiest.
Here are some notable quoatables from the intro class
You can only coast when your going downhill.
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
Imperfect action always beats perfect inaction.
Only knowledge that gets used sticcks in the mind.
Bonus! Here’s DC’s 7 management diseases:
“We’ve never done it that way.”
“We’ve always done it this way.”
“If it’s not broken, why fix it?”
“We’ve tried that back in 1988 and it didn’t work.”
