New York, NY, USA – November 16, 2009 – (Motor Sports Newswire) – BRP has been named the “Grand Award Winner” as decided by Popular Science in the annual “Best of What’s New” for its 2009 Sea-Doo GTX Limited  iS watercraft with iControl technology.

The Popular Science award is extremely prestigious as products from every form of recreational activity were considered. BRP’s Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS watercraft – the only marine product in the running – was selected as the Best of 2009 in the Recreation segment. In 2009 the Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS watercraft collected an unprecedented number of awards and recognitions from marine media and the United States Coast Guard with much of the acclaim attributed to the introduction of Intelligent Brake & Reverse (iBR) the only braking technology on a watercraft.

“For 22 years, Popular Science has honored the innovations that surprise and amaze us – those that make a positive impact on our world today and challenge our views of what’s possible in the future,” said Mark Jannot, Editor-in-Chief of Popular Science. “The Best of What’s New Award is the magazine’s top honor, and the 100 winners – chosen from among thousands of entrants – represent the highest level of achievement in their fields.”

BRP’s Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS model features iControl, the world’s most advanced watercraft technology that seamlessly integrates a host of new features and benefits such as Intelligent Throttle Control (iTC) and iBR to give the rider more control than ever before. The Intelligent Suspension (iS) is another engineering breakthrough introducing the only full rider environment suspension system in the marine industry delivering the smoothest ride on the water. The new S3 hull improves wave penetration and the exclusive stepped design provides precise handling and is powered exclusively by the 255* hp Rotax 4-TEC marine engine.

“The Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS equipped with iControl is defining the future of personal watercraft with innovations that improve the levels of safety and change the way Sea-Doo watercraft riders have fun on the water.” said Bob Lumley, Vice President, North American Sales & Marketing Sea-Doo/Ski-Doo division.  “BRP is honored that Popular Science has recognized the many advancements the Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS watercraft brings to the recreational boating public. The innovation of iControl technology will be enjoyed by more riders as the technology expands to more Sea-Doo models in the years to come.”

BRP’s award winning iControl technology expands from two models in 2009 to seven in 2010. 2010 Sea-Doo watercraft models equipped with iControl will include, the GTX Limited iS 260, GTX iS 215, GTX 155, RXT iS 260, RXT-X 260, RXT 215, and the WAKE PRO 215.

About Best of What’s New
Each year, the editors of Popular Science review thousands of products in search of the top 100 tech innovations of the year; breakthrough products and technologies that represent a significant leap in their categories. The winners – the Best of What’s New – are awarded inclusion in the much-anticipated December issue of Popular Science, the most widely read issue of the year since the debut of Best of What’s New in 1987. Best of What’s New Awards are presented to 100 new products and technologies in 11 categories: Automotive, Aviation & Space, Computing, Engineering, Gadgets, Green Tech, Home Entertainment, Securities, Home Tech, Personal Health and Recreation.

About Popular Science
Founded in 1872, Popular Science is the world’s largest science and technology magazine, with a circulation of 1.3 million and 6.8 million monthly readers. Each month, Popular Science reports on the intersection of science and everyday life, with an eye toward what’s new and why it matters. Popular Science is published by Bonnier Active Media, a subsidiary of Bonnier Corporation.

Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. (BRP), a privately-held company, is a world leader in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution and marketing of motorized recreational vehicles. Its portfolio of brands and products includes: Ski Doo and Lynx snowmobiles, Sea Doo watercraft and sport boats, Evinrude and Johnson outboard engines, direct injection technologies such as E TEC, Can Am all-terrain vehicles and roadsters, as well as Rotax engines and karts.

www.brp.com

Sea-Doo, Ski-Doo, Lynx, Evinrude, Can-Am, Rotax, Spyder, E-TEC, iControl, iS, iBR, iTC, S3, WAKE, X, RXT, 4-TEC and the BRP logo are trademarks of Bombardier Recreational Products Inc. or its affiliates. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

*2009 Sea-Doo GTX Limited iS was equipped with a Supercharged 255 hp Rotax 4-TEC engine; the 2010 model now offers a Supercharged 260 hp Rotax 4-TEC engine.

For corporate information:
Johanne Denault
Manager, Corporate Communications
Tel: 450.532.5173
johanne.denault@brp.com

For product information:

North America
Tim McKercher
Competition and Media Relations
Sea-Doo Products
Tel +1.321.409.0519
tim.mckercher@brp.com

International
Adrien De Alexandris
Product Manager Sea-Doo and Can-Am
BRP International Division
Tel +1.450.532.6413
adrien.dealexandris@brp.com

####

Coolerado’s ultra-efficient air conditioner was listed in the “Best of What’s New 2009″ in Popular Science.

Didysis hadronų kolaideris (DHK) vis pakliūva į bėdą. Pirmiausiai sugedo elektromagnetai. Po to DHK pakartotinas įjungimas buvo atidėtas, kad būtų galima papildomai įdiegti tam tikrų saugiklių. O šįkart dalelių greitintuvą sustabdė praskrendantis mažas paukštukas. Tikrąja to žodžio prasme. Teigiama, jog paukštis skrisdamas numetė batono ant išorinių greitintuvo įrenginių, dėl ko įvyko sistemos perkaitimas ir ji nustojo veikti.

Apie tai rašo pvz., „Popular Science“, „The Register“. O kita pusė nė žodžiu neužsimena apie paukštį, o informuoja, jog DHK ruošiamas pilnam dalelių paleidimui.

Oficialiame CERN (Europos branduolinių tyrimų organizacija) tinklapyje skelbiama, jog pasirengimas dalelių paleidimui greitintuve vyksta sklandžiai, 6 iš 8 sektorių jau paruošti. Kiti bus pajungti kitą savaitę. Lapkričio pirmą savaitę jau buvo užfiksuotas ir dalelių srauto judėjimas priešinga kryptimi dalimi DHK tunelio apskritimo.

Jei viskas vyks pagal planą, jau po savaitės dalelių srautai pilnai bus paleisti, ir netrukus po to bus pirmas nestiprus dalelių srauto susidūrimas.  

Taigi nežinia, ar paskleista informacija apie batoną yra tik pletkas, ar CERN tiesiog nenori užsiminti apie gėdingą gedimą.

The International Space Station is again visible over Essex skies. It is now very bright and easy to spot, but you do have to know when and where to look.

Current ISS viewing times for Essex are available here.

At the moment you can also see the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it makes its journey to the ISS.

Watch continuing live coverage of space shuttle Atlantis’ STS-129 mission to the International Space Station (via spaceflightnow.com)

Herschel has been listed as one of the top ten aviation and space projects in Popular Science’s Best of the Year round up.

Thanks very much for the kudos! Hopefully we’ll soon have more results announcements as well!

For our last public meeting of 2009, the NEAS welcomes guest speaker Chris Jones who will be discussing “Discovery Made Easy: Variable Stars, an opportunity for amateur science”.

Variable star observing is a field of astronomy where amateurs can make significant contributions to science. Professional observatory schedules are unable to make the necessary observations of such objects and so it is down to dedicated enthusiasts to collect data and, possibly, make discoveries.

Chris Jones is just entering his fortieth year as an active observer of the skies and has been observing variable stars systematically for over three quarters of that time (making him a true expert on the subject).

Our public meetings are open to everyone. It will place at the Henry Dixon Hall, Henry Dixon Road, Rivenhall End on Wednesday 18th November. Doors open at 7:30pm, for an 8pm start. Entry cost £3, with refreshments available.

You’ve probably heard of Freakonomics, a great popular economics book (and there are an awful lot of those out nowadays, aren’t there?) and you’ve likely heard of the follow-up, Superfreakonomics.  Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner wrote these books.  Steven Levitt teaches at my school, but I’ve never taken his class.  Either he or the school administration is not interested in offering his class to evening students.  Thanks.  Jerks.

This is not a review of Superfreakonomics.  I loved the first book, but have yet to get my hands on the new one.  I’m mentioning it, because the last chapter on global warming has kicked off quite an energetic volley of phrasemongering.  Dubner & Levitt wrote a chapter that essentially offers some alternate opinions on what we should do about global warming, compared to the currently dominant Al Gore solution.  (For the record I’m all for CFL’s.  Just not in the bedroom–they’re not effectively dimmable.)

So, this has kicked up quite a storm of controversy.  A dusty, dusty storm that threatens to block out the sun.  That wouldn’t be so bad, if you believe in geoengineering as a way to initiate global cooling.  But a lot of the criticism, as you can probably guess, is shrill and nasty and condescending.  And, of course, it is the nastiest stuff that travels across the internet fastest. 

Thankfully, there is some in-depth discussion available.  Arguing for the  freakonomists is Nathan Myhrvold.  Myhrvold is probably used to telling people to slow down and listen for a second, just because of how his name is spelled.  He was interviewed in the book, talking about the limitations of solar-cell infrastructure, among other things.  He has some confidence that there are some cheap geoengineering possibilities, that might become solutions.  I won’t go into his bio, because you can read it on the Freakonomics NYT blog, where he’s responded to some of the criticism.  I hope you do read his response to his critics, because contextualization is badly needed when people start slinging mud.

Arguing capably and reasonably against the global cooling chapter in the book (and particularly, against geoengineering) is Real Climate.  What I love about their argument is that they go right after the sound-bite logic that Levitt and Dubner have deployed to simplify their case.  It’s funny to me that many commentators start by praising the first book, then saying this one is garbage.  My guess is they weren’t subject matter experts on any of the chapters in the first book, so they couldn’t dismiss any of it as overly simplistic.

Of course, Levitt and Dubner wrote what was intended to be a popular book.  Of course they’re phrasemongers.  That’s what they set out to be.  But we don’t need to act like children about it, do we, Joe Romm?

[UPDATE: the comments on The Economist website frequently contain excellent information and analysis.  Such is the case with The Economist's review of SuperFreakonomics.]

Following this discussion?  What useful contributions have you found?

Poor lil' guy. Looks like a scrote.

I don’t believe in reincarnation, but if I did, I would hope to come back as the Naked Mole Rat.  Popular Science tells me that the Naked Mole Rat is immune to cancer.  Why? (Devrah, you’re gonna like this)

Turns out, humans only have one gene that protects us against cancer, p27, whereas that pimp, the Naked Mole Rat, has two.  Their second gene, p16, is expressed in a way that instructs cells to stop dividing.

Other things Popular Science told me about the Naked Mole Rat that makes me want to be one in the next life:

• Naked Mole Rats have mad longevity. They swagger around way longer than other stupid rodents.
• Their lips are behind their front teeth. They’re smiling all the time. Makes sense, they don’t get cancer. I’d be happy, too.
• They breathe mostly through their skin. 
• Acid doesn’t burn them. 

What better animals is there to be?

Now the only question is, what do I have to do in this life to get the Naked Mole Rat hookup the next time around?

Circleville Pumpkin Show
Circleville, Ohio

This is even weirder than it might seem; last week, my friend Joe sent me the following article from a 1938 issue of Popular Science, which he found here, on Boing Boing:

The thing I’ve been noticing after a few years of attending the Pumpkin Show is that nothing changes from year to year. All the same rides/booths/attractions are in the same place every year. I have never, however, seen the above at the show before, and given the huge crowd around the older gentleman talking about the mold and the pumpkins, wouldn’t have registered it if not for having seen the article so recently. I had to fight my way over to get this shot, and in the chaos, overheard only that they’d been doing this since 1938, and that either there were only two molds left in the world or that they were made in only two places in the world.

Synchronicity, I guess.

Warren Zevon – Werewolves of London

Patrick Wolf – Lycanthropy

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising

Ozzy Osbourne – Bark At The Moon

As part of the International Year of Astronomy 2009, Autumn Moonwatch (and Meteorwatch) will take place from 24th October to the 1st November.

There will also be a Twitter Moonwatch on the evenings of the 26th & 27th October), where the idea is to communicate with people all over the UK while you observe the Moon.  To take part in this, you will need to sign up to Twitter (for free) and the follow @astronomy2009uk.

During Twitter Moonwatch various people around the country will be live-tweeting images of the Moon, planets and other astronomical objects. At the same time astronomers from Newbury AS (and many others) will be online to answer any questions you might have about the images being tweeted, and about astronomy in general.

This Moonwatch will be a special one, as Faulkes Telescope Network of professional telescopes will also be taking part and taking images with their 2-metre telescope situated in New South Wales, Australia.

To find out more, visit www.astronomy2009.co.uk

Living in the future!

It’s about time we started pulling our futuristic weight. Here we are, 2009. No flying cars, no cities on clouds, no food in pill form. No better future awaits us on the off world colonies. Not even armies of Robot slaves to rise up against our greedy decadent ways! I think it’s about time we started acting like we lived in the year two thousand nine dammit. Hopefully Cern and Popular science can lead us there.

In 1924, German mathematician David Hilbert published a paper noting a pretty amazing side effect to Einstein’s relativity: a relativistic particle moving faster than about half the speed of light should be repelled by a stationary mass (or at least it would appear to be repelled, to an inertial observer watching from afar). Read more here.
Popular Science, October 10 2009.

War on terror now extends to expanding scientific frontiers.

The 32-year-old man of Algerian descent was one of two brothers detained in the south-east town of Vienne on Thursday.Police believe they had been in contact over the internet with people linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and had been planning attacks in France. Read more here.
BBC news, October 9 2009.

French judicial officials have said the suspect has acknowledged that he corresponded online with the group and vaguely discussed plans for terror attacks. In line with French judicial policy, he has not been identified. Read more here.
New York Times, October 12 2009

Dr. Hicheur has not been charged with a crime, and the French authorities have not said what evidence they have in the case. A person informed of the investigation said that some incriminating information was in the form of e-mail messages and other communications obtained at the time of Dr. Hicheur’s arrest. Read more here.
New York Times, October 13 2009.

The Swiss seem to do everything beautifully.

Under French law, filing preliminary charges gives police time to carry out further investigations before deciding whether to send a suspect for trial or drop the case. Read more here.
World Radio Switzerland, October 13 2009.

And today details of the ‘brilliant and solitary’ physician’s sinister plans were made public by security sources who have been collecting evidence against him for the past year-and-a-half during a surveillance operation. Read more here.
Mail Online, October 14 2009.

God Fearing Man

One of the things that I really like about the scale and scope of what is happening at CERN is that the experiment and the size of the science means that it gets bent out of subject and starts to be religion and philosophy and a bunch of other things. The magnitude of the ideas, and what it takes to understand them, even a fraction of them is immense. So much that it transcends mere science and brushes other schools of thought, turning it into a new thing. Here is such a thing.

“It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail to Overbye. In an unpublished essay, Overbye relates, Dr. Nielson said of the theory, “Well, one could even almost say that we have a model for God.” It is their guess, he went on, “that He rather hates Higgs particles, and attempts to avoid them.” Read more here.
Reuters blog, October 13 2009.

Whew! Science man. It’s big. I think we’ve all earned some the Clash.

Dear Diary,

Betty Lou and I went to the Telenews theater tonight. There wasn’t anything especially interesting except a March of Time and a Popular Science. In the Popular Science film they showed how cadets are tested at Randolph Field, Texas, to see whether or not they are physically fit for flying. It was so interesting that if I were a boy, I’d rush down there in double-quick time and get myself a little of that training.

While we were down town I got the new issue of Movie-Radio Guide, but there was nothing in it about their poll. Bob Hope has just got to be Star of Stars again this year. (And Ill scream bloody murder if R.S. is first in anything!)

Mokslininkai ir entuziastai nuolatos ką nors meistrauja, kuria, daro bandymus. Vieni užsiima smagiais išradimais, kiti žalojančiais, dar kiti visuomenei naudą kuriančiais ir t.t. Išradimas, apie kurį rašau sekančiose pastraipose, nėra neįtikėtinas, tačiau visgi naudingas visuomenei, todėl jis keliasdešimčiai minučių pagavo mano dėmesį. Galbūt pagaus ir jūsų.

Mokslininkai sukūrė nepirštuotą pirštinę, kuri elektrodų sensoriaus pagalba automatiškai paverčia rankų judesius į tekstą. Michael Linderman su kolegomis paskelbė apie savo mokslinių tyrimų projekto pirmojo etapo rezultatus, kurio metu, šeši savanoriai naudodami skaitmeninį rašiklį, penkiasdešimt kartų parašė skaitmenis nuo 0 iki 9 vilkėdami prototipinę pirštinę. Pirštinė fiksavo rankų ir dilbių aštuonių raumenų aktyvumą. Kompiuteris koreliacijos būdu apdorojo duomenis iš skaitmeninio rašiklio ir pirštinės, ir pagal tam tikrus modelius išvedė juos į rašytinius simbolius.

M.Linderman’o komanda taip pat naudojo techniką, vadinamą diskriminacijos analize, kuri testavo ar gerai kompiuteris atpažįsta raumenų judėjimo modelius, atitinkančius rašytinius simbolius. Kompiuteris atpažino 63 procentus skaitmenų, pakartotų penkis kartus, ir 97 proc. skaitmenų pakartotų 35 kartus.

Kita vertus, pats „Popular science“ straipsnio autorius klausia, kiek šis naujadaras bus patogus… norint bet kur ir bet kada ką nors užsirašyti, ar tikrai patogiau bus paimti  pirštinę, ar geriau tiesiog susirasti lapą popieriaus ir tušinuką. 

Tačiau M.Linderman ir jo komanda visgi šią pirštinę sukūrė daugiau medicininiais tikslais. Jie tikisi pagelbėti nervų ar raumenų ligomis sergantiems žmonėms. Jų manymu, nauja technologija leistų daug greičiau nei dabartiniai metodai aptikti pirmuosius Alzhaimerio ar Parkinsono ligų simptomus. Mokslininkas taip pat mano, kad ši pirštinė galėtų būti naudinga, siekiant padėti pacientams iš naujo išmokti rašyti, arba sukurti rašymui skirtus protezus.

This morning three birthday cards caught my attention in a store: “I bow to your oldness,” “Annually Challenged,” and “Dangerously close to being Old.”   I thought of sending one of them to my elderly mother, but thought the humor might pass her by and my birthday might provoke a similar card.   In looking at the cards, I was reminded of how much youth and newness are valued in American society.  Babies are generally regarded as being cuter than ninety year-0lds.  Wrinkes are not sought for their asthetic qualities.  In the European States of Greece and Italy, it is not unusual in the culture for older men to fancy younger women.  In many of the American States, people like to tear down old buildings in order to build new ones.  I myself much prefer new to old buildings.  What if we could pause our lives for, say, two hundred years, and thus be able to continue on in a world in which everything would seem new to us?  What if the problem of aging, and mortality itself, could be solved?

Last night, David Letterman was making some pretty funny cryogenic jokes, such as in visualizing grandpa’s frozen head being used to cool the punch in a bowl.  Letterman’s own head could roll, given his recent revelation that he has been sleeping with members of his staff.  According to NOW (the national organization of women), the controversy has “raised serious issues about the abuse of power leading to an inappropriate, if not hostile, workplace environment for women and employees” (CNN, 10/7/09).  Men such as Letterman make decisions on hiring and firing, who gets raises, who advances and who does entry-level tasks, NOW said. Maybe sleeping with the presumably younger women made Letterman feel younger and more alive?   Although Freud theorized a death instinct, most of us want to live more than we want to die.  Presumably Letterman does not want to die on the air, or deliver a dead-pan joke.  So the prospect of being frozen until such a time that science has determined how to solve the little problem known as physiological mortality is…well…interesting. 

What would it be like to be frozen and then “revived” in two hundred years.?   Looking back…everyone alive now being then gone…and their world being “distant”.  We could look back to what had been written about Barak Obama.  We could meet our great, great, great grandchildren.  Those of us who have penned books could see how they panned out–whether what one has written has transcended the author’s own age.  This important criterion is one that must remain unanswered for any writer. 

Philosphically (in the sense of French existentialism), I contrast the sense of being “instantly” revived (as though waking up the next morning without any recognition of 8 hours having past) with the alternative.  I wonder also what things will be like in 200 years.  Will technology continue to be the dominant element of change, as in the last century?  Or will political, economic or social changes dwarf it?  An age can perhaps be characterized by the element doing the most changing.  Contrast the amount of technological change with that of your field during the 20th century.  Or put another way, what would counseling look like were it to have changed as much as technology has changed?  I think a trigger is necessary (as in an earthquake) for an element to engage in such qualitative change that can define an era, so it is perhaps impossible to predict which element will be decisive next.  We tend to assume that the element dominant in change in our time will simply continue to be the salient element of change.  What if the element is language, such that a global tongue emerges (not from technology)?  The world would be much different even if technology remained oriented to the computer rather than “leaping” forward. 

Returning now to our own day, perhaps the salience of technology as the dominant domain of change blinds us to the alternative domains that could experience expodential rates of change.  What would such political change be like?  Or psychological?  Or even social?  If these domains were to change as much as technology has changed in the twentieth century alone, what could we look for?   In presuming as a default the technological nature of development, we don’t even raise these questions, let alone work on possible answers.  Perhaps this new century will be different.  Sadly, those of us alive now are not likely to know.  However, we do have Letterman’s jokes to keep us entertained…if his head doesn’t drop off the air into the punch-bowl at a victory party at NOW headquarters.

Article cited: http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/07/letterman.now/index.html

Richard Dawkins has a new book, in which he sets out to prove, once and for all, that evolution is a fact `in the same sense as it is a fact that Paris is in the northern hemisphere’, or, as he calls it, a Theorum.

Here he is talking about a prediction made by Darwin and Wallace after observing the striking length of the nectaries of Angraecum Sesquipedale (it’s an orchid ) that an insect capable of extending to such a length must exist. The insect was indeed discovered forty years later, and aptly baptized praedicta.

This little example gives the lie, yet again, to the allegation that evolutionary science cannot be predictive because it concerns past history

(The Greatest Show on Earth, Kindle location 718)

Two comments come to mind. First, this prediction, insightful as it is, has little to do with the core assertions of evolutionary science — that all species evolved from one another, and that this process is driven by random mutations and natural selection. Indeed, it seems to me that Darwin was not appealing to any of these ideas when he made it, but based it solely on the fact that the plant fertilizes via insect pollination and that the nectar serves to lure these insects. I don’t care or know much about creationists, but my guess is that this fact will be gladly adopted by the most diehard of this lot, since it perfectly fits their framework of design and purpose in Nature.

Second, when critics complain about the poor predictive power of evolutionary science, they mean I think falsifiable prediction. An assertion that an insect will be discovered at some unspecified time in the future is not falsifiable, because you can never go wrong. Either the insect is found, in which case you made a prediction that turned out to be true or the insect has not been found yet, but this does not serve to weaken the theory of evolution. Case in point: Angraecum longicalcar, a cousin of the A. Sesquipedale whose nectaries are too long even for the praedicta. The insect whose tongue is large enough to suck the nectar from the longicalcar was not found yet, but Dawkins is not a bit embarassed by this fact. On the contrary, he only mentions it as another manifestation of the predictive power of evolution.

Konkurencija ir sveikos ambicijos kuria naudą visuomenei. Štai mobiliuoju telefonu greitai galima bus ne tik fotografuoti, filmuoti, naršyti, siųsti, rašyti, kalbėti, bet ir prižiūrėti sveikatą. Greitai – turiu omeny porą-keletą metų.

Greitu metu pasaulyje gali atsirasti apie 4 milijardus „mobiliųjų slaugių“. Telefonai papildyti įvairiomis papildomomis programomis gali tapti realūs pagalbininkai medicinos darbuotojams, nes duomenys apie vartotojo sveikatos būseną iškart galėtų būti perduoti gydytojui.

Šie mobilieji pagalbininkai padėtų dažniau nustatyti ligos pradžią, sumažinti apsilankymų medicinos įstaigose skaičių ir apskritai sumažinti sveikatos priežiūros išlaidas, o ateityje padėtų ir suleisti vaistų injekcijas.

Dabartiniai mobilieji telefonai „Bluetooth“ pagalba jau leidžia bėgimo metu sekti širdies ritmą, taip pat įrašo nubėgtą distanciją, bėgimo greitį, vietovės, kurioje bėgioja žmogus, aukštį virš jūros lygio.

Tačiau netrukus žada, kad pasirodys telefonai galintys per „Bluetooth“  matuoti kraujo spaudimą, cukraus kiekį kraujyje ir siųsti tiesiai mobiliojo telefono savininko gydytojui. Kol kas tik vyksta bandymai, bet šios prognozės skamba visiškai realiai. Tuo labiau, kad po 2012 metų jau tikimasi žmogaus organus patikrinti automatiškai – patikros metu nereikės net nutraukti naudojimosi telefonu. Tai reiškia, jog telefone būtų implantuoti mažojo nuotolio radijo ryšio jutikliai, kurie galėtų bet kada tiesiogiai gydytojui teikti informaciją apie asmens gyvybines funkcijas. O gydytojas galėtų iškart atsiųsti pacientui tam tikras rekomendacijas. Prireikus, telefonas kaip tikra slaugė galėtų išvirkšti ir reikalingą dozę insulino ar skausmą malšinančių vaistų.

Na, skamba labai patraukliai. Kita vertus, žinant mūsų sveikatos apsaugos sistemą, tokie mobilūs pagalbininkai mums ne itin ką pagelbės jei gydytojai neturės šiuolaikinių IT priemonių ir nebus apmokyti jomis naudotis. Iš dalies man čia kvepia „sukurta specialiai JAV, bet tinka ir kitiems“. Labai tikiuosi aš klystu.