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Technological Healing

Tue, 2012-01-03 22:52 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Sharon Begley - technologyreview.com - January/February 2012

      

More data: Technologies aimed at improving our health are proliferating. One example is this device that plugs into an iPhone to turn it into a glucose monitor. Credit: Patrik Stollarz/AFP/Getty Images

A leading researcher says digital technologies are about to make health care more effective. But is so much data really beneficial?

Nanosensors patrolling your bloodstream for the first sign of an imminent stroke or heart attack, releasing anticlotting or anti-inflammatory drugs to stop it in its tracks. Cell phones that display your vital signs and take ultrasound images of your heart or abdomen. Genetic scans of malignant cells that match your cancer to the most effective treatment.

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Analysis of Warning Process: Swine-Origin Triple Reassortant Influenza A(H3N2) Virus In USA

Wed, 2011-12-21 23:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by James Wilson, M.D. - Biosurveillance - December 21, 2011

We have been monitoring the situation with swine-origin triple reassortant influenza A(H3N2) virus (S-OtrH3N2) inside the United State for some time now.  Recent reports of likely human-human transmission sparked debate, discussed here in this post.

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Trade in Surveillance Technology Raises Worries

Sat, 2011-12-17 11:41 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Kent Hoffman

(Sari Horwitz/The Washington Post) - Syrian activist Rami Nakhle said that after he set up an online newspaper and started blogging about human rights issues, Syria’s secret police began summoning him for regular interrogations that involved threats of torture and a day in solitary confinement.

By , Shyamantha Asokan and

The Washington Post - December 1, 2011

Northern Virginia technology entrepreneur Jerry Lucas hosted his first trade show for makers of surveillance gear at the McLean Hilton in May 2002. Thirty-five people attended.

Nine years later, Lucas holds five events annually around the world, drawing hundreds of vendors and thousands of potential buyers for an industry that he estimates sells $5 billion of the latest tracking, monitoring and eavesdropping technology each year. Along the way, these events have earned an evocative nickname: the Wiretappers’ Ball.

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RAND - Focus on Community Resilience - Newsletter

Sat, 2011-12-17 00:30 — Kathy Gilbeaux

imageWelcome to the first Focus on Community Resilience newsletter. At RAND, we have been intensively studying the many cross-cutting issues related to how communities can withstand and recover from disasters and other conditions that affect community well-being. We are launching this newsletter to share research findings, resources, and tools with people like you who are working to help communities prepare for natural and manmade emergencies. We hope this newsletter will stimulate an exchange of ideas among community leaders and a forum to share lessons about resilience-building strategies and activities.

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Video - The People's Skype

Thu, 2011-12-15 23:25 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

http://peoplesskype.org/

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Shunning Facebook, and Living to Tell About It

Wed, 2011-12-14 21:56 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

December 13, 2011

by Jenna Wortham - The New York Times

Tyson Balcomb quit Facebook after a chance encounter on an elevator. He found himself standing next to a woman he had never met — yet through Facebook he knew what her older brother looked like, that she was from a tiny island off the coast of Washington and that she had recently visited the Space Needle in Seattle.

“I knew all these things about her, but I’d never even talked to her,” said Mr. Balcomb, a pre-med student in Oregon who had some real-life friends in common with the woman. “At that point I thought, maybe this is a little unhealthy.”

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Local Towns Signing Up for Twitter and Facebook for Emergency Comm.

Sat, 2011-12-10 10:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - December 7, 2011

Following the lead of several other cities and federal agencies, the town of Wilton, Connecticut recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account to help communicate with residents and share information during a disaster

Following the lead of several other cities and federal agencies, the town of Wilton, Connecticut recently launched a Facebook page and Twitter account to help communicate with residents and share information during a disaster.

Two major storms, including Hurricane Irene, left many Wilton residents without water or electricity for up to a week and sent a strong signal to emergency officials that they needed to improve disaster communications.

To that end, the town created an official Emergency Facebook Page as well as a Twitter account.

Speaking before the Wilton Board of Selectman, Fire Chief Paul Milositz, who is also the town’s emergency response director, said, “We have to get better at [communication with residents].”

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Level 3 Crises Addressed as Level 1 Crises

Sun, 2011-12-04 23:33 — Kathy Gilbeaux

The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations-The Mann Gulch Fire

submitted by "Anonymous"

This is a useful thread.  Several of you might be interested in the link to the famous article "The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations:The Mann Gulch Disaster," by Karl E. Weick (http://www.cs.unibo.it/~ruffino/Letture%20TDPC/K.%20Weick%20-%20The%20collapse%20of%20sensemaking.pdf) about the 1949 Mann Gulf fire in Montana where 13 firefghters died in a wildfire.   The section beginning on p. 11 "From Vulnerability to Resilience" and from pp 17-23 on "Structures for Resilience" may be particularly applicable.

Some of the comments in the thread also are worthwhile, like input on "Community Involvement."

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Detroit in a Hostile Takeover Bid?

Sun, 2011-12-04 18:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

CBS News - December 4, 2011

      

The Detroit skyline is seen in this 2008 file photo. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

(AP) 

DETROIT - The idea is extreme, even in a city accustomed to fighting for survival: Should the state of Michigan step in to run Detroit?

The governor has taken steps in that direction, proposing an unprecedented move that could give an appointed manager virtually unchecked power to gut union contracts, cut employee health insurance and slash services. But city leaders bristle at the notion. Said the mayor: "This is our city. Detroit needs to be run by Detroiters."

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Taking the Tiny House Movement Tinier

Sat, 2011-12-03 21:09 — Kathy Gilbeaux

by Kirk Johnson - The New York Times - December 3, 2011

      

Glenn Grassi used his skills as a set designer in the construction of his portable 84-square-foot microhome, trying to maximize the space available.  Matthew Staver for The New York Times

LOUISVILLE, Colo. - For many Americans who bought more home than they could really afford in the giddy days before the crash, the big-house dream has become a nightmare in the ashes of foreclosure and regret.

So after all that, how does 84 square feet sound?

Glenn Grassi, in building his prototype one-room microhome - 7 by 12 feet stem-to-stern, including a wood-burning stove, an antique parlor chair that also serves as a seat for the compost toilet beneath it, and a shower under the bed - is hoping it sounds, well, like shelter in the old-fashioned practical sense.

Or like a work of art. He is not exactly sure.

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