Sunday, August 21, 2005

A robotic system at Stanford Medical Center was used to perform a laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery successfully with a theoretically similar rate of complications to that seen in standard operations. However, as there were only 10 people in the experimental group (and another 10 in the control group), this is not a statistically significant sample.

If this surgical procedure is as successful in large-scale studies, it may lead the way for the use of robotic surgery in even more delicate procedures, such as heart surgery. Note that this is not a fully automated system, as a human doctor controls the operation via remote control. Laparoscopic gastric bypass surgery is a treatment for obesity.

There were concerns that doctors, in the future, might only be trained in the remote control procedure. Ronald G. Latimer, M.D., of Santa Barbara, CA, warned “The fact that surgeons may have to open the patient or might actually need to revert to standard laparoscopic techniques demands that this basic training be a requirement before a robot is purchased. Robots do malfunction, so a backup system is imperative. We should not be seduced to buy this instrument to train surgeons if they are not able to do the primary operations themselves.”

There are precedents for just such a problem occurring. A previous “new technology”, the electrocardiogram (ECG), has lead to a lack of basic education on the older technology, the stethoscope. As a result, many heart conditions now go undiagnosed, especially in children and others who rarely undergo an ECG procedure.

Saturday, August 12, 2017

Yesterday, the state government of Victoria, Australia announced their decision to trial self-driving vehicles on two of the state’s major connecting motorways, the CityLink and Tullamarine Freeway. The trial is to use autonomous vehicles from automobile companies including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Tesla. The two-year trial is to have three phases.

The cars are to drive alongside commuters, but in public testing a driver is always to be present, as Victorian law requires drivers always keep a hand on the steering wheel. However, in occasional closures of the Burnley Tunnel, with no other drivers to endanger, the cars are to be tested with nobody in the vehicle.

Lane assist, cruise control, and recognition of traffic signs are in the trial’s first phase, expected to complete before the end of the year. This includes monitoring how the driver-less cars respond to road conditions, including lane markings and electronic speed signs.

“Victoria is at the forefront of automated vehicle technology — we’re investing in this trial to explore ways that this technology can be used to reduce crashes and keep people safe on our roads”, said Luke Donnellan, the Victorian Minister for Roads and Road Safety. He noted, “Ninety per cent of the fault of accidents is human error […] so we know that if we can take out human error we will have less accidents”.

Tim Hansen, Victoria Police’s Acting Assistant Commissioner, said that police had founded a project team to investigate how self-driving vehicles would change policing on roads. “Can we intercept vehicles more safely to avoid pursuits and ramming?”, he asked.

The trial is a partnership between the state government, Victoria’s road management authority VicRoads, owner of the CityLink toll road Transurban, and insurance company RACV.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Ricardo Serran Lobo is a Brazilian blogger who writes about his famous neighbor, the politician Roberto Jefferson, head of the Brazilian Labor Party in the Brazilian Congress of Deputies. Jefferson has become a major figure in the ongoing Brazilian mensalão scandal revolving around corruption and bribery.

Vizinho do Jefferson [1] quickly became very popular among Brazilians, describing the routine of Jefferson, while providing information about politics and fresh news about the scandal. Lobo’s blog got third place in the Best Of Blogs contest run by Deutsche Welle International.

Lobo gets an intimate look at the center of Brazilian politics by living in Brasilia, near residences of parliamentarians (including Roberto Jefferson), public buildings and the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies. Or, as he says in his blog: “near the eye of the hurricane,” a reference to the recent political crisis.

At first, Lobo began describing the daily activities of his famous neighbor deputy Roberto Jefferson. As the crisis moved on, he began to describe the political events regarding it. His writings evolved to not only what is going on with Jefferson, but what is going on in Brazilian Congress, and has interviewed politicians, including Roberto Jefferson himself.

The blog tries to be informative, with a lot of humour (common with Brazilians), and some protests against the bad habits of Brazilian politics in general.

Jefferson’s neighbor, the blog, is an example of citizen journalism and it shows that ordinary people can compete with professional media.

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Philippine officials have put a southern province under martial law today, and arrested the patriarch of a powerful clan, following last week’s massacre of 57 people. Government officials say President Gloria Arroyo suspended civil rights in the Maguindanao province.

This comes soon after the Philippine authorities received reports that some groups were arming themselves to resist arrests by security forces.

Officials said that troops took Andal Ampatuan Senior, the local governor, and his son Zaldy Ampatuam, into custody at their home in Maguindanao. Another of Ampatuan’s sons, Andal Ampatuan Junior, is already in jail in connection with the massacre. More than 100 soldiers and dozens of police raided homes belonging to the Ampatuan family Friday. The Ampatuan clan has ruled the southern province of Maguindanao for more than a decade.

“There are more than 80 people suspected of having participated […] We need a massive force to assist ordinary police to be able to arrest them. It appears that if martial law […] is not adapted, the probability of trouble is very high because they will prevent themselves from getting arrested,” said acting defence secretary Eduardo Armita to the Al Jazeera news agency.

Martial law has not been imposed anywhere in the Philippines for the last 28 years.

During the November 23 massacre, about a hundred gunmen attacked and slaughtered members of a convoy traveling to register politician Esmael Mangudadatu for governor — challenging the Ampatuan clan’s hold on power. The dead included Mangudadatu’s wife, sisters, and supporters. More than half the victims were journalists.

President Arroyo has faced intense pressure to take action against the violence because of her political ties to the Ampatuan clan. She continues to promise justice will be served.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

A man and his wife, aged 87 and 84, have died after a car hit them in North Ayrshire in Scotland. The couple, who have yet to be publicly identified, were walking across Greenock Road in the town of Largs when they were hit by a red Toyota at approximately 9:15am BST (0815 UTC) yesterday.

An air ambulance reportedly attended the scene of the crash. The woman was taken to Southern General Hospital in Glasgow. She died several hours later. Her husband died at the crash site. The Toyota driver, a 34-year-old woman, was uninjured but as a precaution was taken to Inverclyde Royal Hospital.

Greenock Road was closed between Nelson Street and Brisbane Road following the incident but reopened around 4:00pm BST (1500 UTC) yesterday. A report about the incident is to be sent to the procurator fiscal. Police have appealed for potential witnesses to the accident to contact them.

[edit]

Sunday, June 26, 2005

MTV Networks’ MTV and VH1 have secured the rights to distribute over cable networks the Live 8 series of concerts which will be taking place at 8 venues in Europe, North America and Japan. The concerts are meant to raise awareness of poverty in Africa and charitable donations to fight it.

America Online holds the rights to broadcast Live 8 over the Internet and is currently in talks with American Broadcasting Company to also broadcast the concert.

MTV, VH1, and its college network, mtvU will broadcast the concert from noon to 8 PM. This will be the second outing for MTV, as they broadcasted the original Live Aid concert. If ABC decides to air the concert as well, this will also be their second going as well. According to MTV, this is the longest MTV has gone without a televised event since the coverage of the violent, riot-filled Woodstock 1999.

Two radio networks will also broadcast the concert. The subscription-based XM Satellite Radio will broadcast the original five announced concerts but will not broadcast the Tokyo or Barrie concerts. Premiere Radio Networks will broadcast the concerts tailored to the three genres of urban, rock and roll and pop music.

Some of the performers slated are: U2, Coldplay, Madonna, Dave Matthews Band, Jay-Z, Destiny’s Child and a reunited Pink Floyd.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Australian Minister for Vocational Education and Training, Gary Hardgrave has announced the government will provide AU$15.8 million to establish an Australian Technical College in North Adelaide. The minister said the government was entering into a partnership with the Archdiocese of Adelaide and consortium of industrial and manufacturing companies.

The North Adelaide college will be located in Elizabeth and be operated as an independent non-government school. The college is one of 25 to be established across the country.

Enrolments at the college will begin in 2007 and will offer courses in areas where identified skills shortages exist in the North Adelaide region, specifically – engineering, construction, electronics and cooking.

Mr Hardgrave said that the proposed college had been popular among the North Adelaide business community. “This important initiative has been well received by North Adelaide business and industry, and will help to address skills needs and provide opportunities for those in greatest need, including a lot of Indigenous students in the region,” Mr Hardgrave said.

“The fact that this College is being led by local employers, local government and other key stakeholders, means it will be truly industry and community driven,” he said.

Australian Technical Colleges were established to cater for year 11 and 12 students who wish to do an apprenticeship as part of their school education.

The Australian Education Union has expressed a number of concerns about the model put forward by the government. In a report, they claim that trade facilities at TAFE colleges (operated by state governments) will deteriorate as funding is diverted to the ATCs. The union is also concerned that ATCs are supposed to be selective VET schools. According to the union they will have selective entry and preferential funding. It is feared that teachers will be lured away from schools and TAFE colleges to higher paid positions in ATCs.

The Education Union suggested that the government invest in schools that already offer vocational education programs.

Friday, May 19, 2006

The 3D animated short film Elephants Dream, formerly known as Project Orange, was released to the Internet yesterday. The film is available under the Creative Commons Attribution License, allowing anyone to download, modify and distribute it. The 10-minute film has been called “the first open source movie” by NewsForge. Not only is the movie itself free content, even the computer files containing the 3D models used in the film are available under the same terms.

The project was first announced one year ago and was jointly produced by the Blender Foundation and the Netherlands Media Art Institute. The film tells the story of Emo and Proog, two men trapped inside a surreal machine world. Only freely available open source software was used to create the movie. Most of the work was done using Blender, a 3D modelling and rendering tool. The Blender Foundation is selling an extended edition on DVD, which includes subtitles in 34 languages, a Making Of documentary, commentary tracks, and all files used to create the movie.

In spite of the successful completion of the project, the Blender Foundation “has no intention to grow or expand into a company or studio” according to the project website. “Instead, the Foundation aims at endorsing and supporting activities within (educational) institutes, universities and companies.”

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Last week, RAF Leuchars in Fife scambled two Tornado F3 interceptors, when radar detected two Tupolev Tu-142 Bear Bombers and the alarm was sounded “Bears in the Air”.

The RAF would not disclose the exact time of the incident, which was to the north of the Outer Hebrides. It did say that no contact was made between the aircraft.

The Russian Bear Foxtrot bombers are renowned maritime raiders that regularly probed the United Kingdom’s airspace during the Cold War.

The Russian aircraft were snooping on Neptune Warrior, a Royal Navy exercise taking place near the Outer Hebrides last week. Neptune Warrior was a live-fire naval training exercise involving warships, submarines and aircraft that took place between April 22 and May 3.

The Tornado’s watched the Russians for approximately 15 minutes until the bombers returned to their home base in Murmansk.

During the Cold War in the 1970s and 1980s, Soviet spies were sometimes spotted watching from the perimeter of RAF stations to time exactly how long it took jets to take off and intercept Bear bombers, probing the United Kingdom’s defences and testing the response. Nato pilots in those days were well accustomed to an almost daily aerial game of cat-and-mouse.

Squadrons of Phantom interceptors were on constant quick-reaction standby through the 1970s and 1980s to deal with the threat of Soviet long-range bombers engaging in a long-range attack on Great Britain. The Bears can carry an arsenal of missiles, some nuclear-tipped, to strike NATO warships blocking the entrance to the vital North Atlantic sealanes between the United States and Europe.

In July, the Tornado will be replaced by the new Eurofighter Typhoon. Currently, RAF personnel on scrambling duty spend most of their time on counter-terrorist missions, checking out commercial airliners approaching Britain in ways that arouse suspicion, either because they have taken the wrong flight path or because the pilot has not contacted ground control.