Posts Tagged Wii

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Headlines: Healthcare News from Around the Planet


Self-Prescription Glasses for the Poor of the World – From the Guardian: “What if it were possible to make a pair of glasses which, instead of requiring an optician, could be “tuned” by the wearer to correct his or her own vision?  Might it be possible to bring affordable spectacles to millions who would never otherwise have them?”  What an amazing concept!  The inventor “has devised a pair of glasses which rely on the principle that the fatter a lens the more powerful it becomes.  Inside the device’s tough plastic lenses are two clear circular sacs filled with fluid, each of which is connected to a small syringe attached to either arm of the spectacles.  The wearer adjusts a dial on the syringe to add or reduce amount of fluid in the membrane, thus changing the power of the lens. When the wearer is happy with the strength of each lens the membrane is sealed by twisting a small screw, and the syringes removed. The principle is so simple, the team has discovered, that with very little guidance people are perfectly capable of creating glasses to their own prescription.”  The British inventor’s quest is to offer glasses to a billion of the world’s poorest people by 2020.

New Exercise and Sports Regimen Brings New Injuries – The Wii, one of this year’s most popular Christmas gifts has the potential (like almost everything) to cause injury if misused or overused. The golf and tennis games in particular can cause painful sprains and fractures to players and observers when the controller is swung to simulate the swing of a racket or golf club.

How Microsoft Plans to Make Money in Healthcare – One is Amalga, a software system that allows hospitals to gather data stored in multiple silos and access it all in one place.  A second is Health Vault, which allows patients to store their personal health information online.  

Do Patients Trust Doctors Too Much? – An interesting article with very interesting comments that discusses patients grading physicians on public rating sites.  The article points to patients giving good ratings based on the quality of the interpersonal dynamic rather than the quality of the medical care, while commenters discuss what patients base their assessments on.

Sex Chip May Make Viagra and Diet Pills Obsolete –  Viagra may one day be history as scientists at Oxford University are working on an electronic sex chip that stimulate pleasure centers in the brain.  For past few months scientists have been focusing on an area of the brain just behind the eyes known as the orbitofrontal cortex. This is associated with feelings of pleasure derived from eating and sex.

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Learn This: Game Systems for Those Of Us Who Don’t Know the Difference Between Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft Consoles

Twenty years ago we bought our son a Nintendo.  That was the last time I felt up-to-date on the game system world.

Today gaming isn’t just for kids anymore.  It’s for kids and adults of all ages; it’s for fitness, eye-hand coordination, relaxation, sports improvement, strategy-development, cooking and much more.  I recently asked my 21-year old daughter to give me some insight into the current world of gaming.  Here are her descriptions of the three competing gaming companies and her comments on each.

Nintendo:

  • Japanese Company
  • Translated from Japanese to English, Nintendo means “leave luck to heaven.” (Potential Jeopardy question.)
  • Product evolution is Nintendo (NES), Super Nintendo (SNES), Nintendo 64, GameCube (GCE), Nintendo Wii (pronounced “we”) which was introduced in 2007 as the world’s first interactive gaming system.
  • Handheld players evolved from Gameboy, Gameboy Color, GameBoy Advanced, GameBoy SP, to Nintendo DS (Dual Screen.)
  • Least expensive systems.
  • Most famous game of all time from any company is made by Nintendo: the Mario series.
  • Add-ons include the cross-bow and the steering wheel.
  • Comments: More family-oriented; games are colorful and happy.  The Wii took the company from competing on graphics to competing on interactivity.  My favorite games because there’s never been much blood.

Sony:

  • Japanese Company
  • Product evolution is PlayStation 1, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3, introduced in 2006.
  • Widely recognized as the gaming system with the best graphics.
  • More premium systems can play older version games.
  • PlayStation 3 has a Blu-ray high definition DVD player.
  • The handheld player is the PSP (PlayStation Portable.)
  • Comments: I never had a strong attachment to this player; I watched my brother play but never wanted to play myself.  I think the games available are limited.

Microsoft:

  • US Company
  • Product evolution is XBox and the XBox 360 introduced in 2006.
  • The XBox 360 has a DVD player and an HD DVD player can be added.
  • Music can be uploaded from CDs and can be listened to regularly or instead of game music.
  • MS introduced the Halo series, which is a first-person shooter game and is one of the best-selling games of all time.
  • The system allows play by Internet with players around the world.
  • No handheld is currently available.
  • Comments: Cool that you can play your music through it, but I despise Halo because of its violence.

Now go impress your kids, your grandkids, your neighbors’ kids, and that new doctor you just hired.

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