Ow, my breathing!

Office printers 'are health risk' - "Almost one-third were found to emit ultra-tiny particles of toner-like material, so small that they can infiltrate the lungs and cause a range of health problems from respiratory irritation to more chronic illnesses." [BBC via Gizmodo]

Now it's all coming together: four straight years of 15+ hours per week spent working in a small and poorly ventilated room full of laser printers that chugged away non-stop the whole time, and the periodic 7-to-10 week cases of bronchitis that just wouldn't go away and which disappeared completely when I left university. It certainly makes a fella' think.

A futurist digs his hearing aids

The Accidental Cyborg - "These [hearing aids] aren't just dumb amplifiers; they're little digital signal processors, small enough to fit into the ear canal, and smart enough to know when to boost the input and when to leave it alone... And here's where therapeutic augmentation starts to fuzz into enhancement: one of the program modes I'm considering would give me far better than normal hearing, allowing me to pick up distant conversations like I was standing right there." [Open the Future via BoingBoing]

The blogger at Open the Future's hearing aids have apparently confirmed his enthusiasm about the coming (eventually, honest!) wave of cyborg-ness. I had a similar rush of optimism after getting my own hearing aids, but it's faded somewhat with time.

They're great, and they've improved my quality of life considerably, but they're incredibly expensive, and could certainly be better. For example: I don't get distortion or interference from my GSM cell phone, but orienting my Motorola's earpiece so that the speaker lines up with the microphone in my hearing aids is hit-and-miss at best.

I often feel a little lame, having spent around $3,000 for custom-molded, high quality 'headphones' that I have to take out to listen to some phone calls or my iPod. That problem can be addressed with bluetooth add-ons, which are compatible with the larger BTE (behind-the-ear) devices, not my small ones. Oticon, the manufacturer of my own devices, has developed a relatively small BTE aid with built-in bluetooth as well as wireless co-ordination between the two aids -- awesome, but presumably battery-devouring.

Not to mention that being able to "pick up distant conversations like I was standing right there" is approximately the most annoying superpower ever when riding the bus.

Lessons for Canada, too

Michael Moore on his new film Sicko's showing at Cannes:

Even those who have been harsh to me in the past, or who have not agreed with my politics, were moved. Aside from my stated desire that "Sicko" ignite a fire for free, universal health care (and a larger wish that we, as Americans, do a better job of treating each other with a true sense of solidarity and respect), I continue to hope that I can make a contribution to the art of cinema and give people a good reason to get out of the house for a few hours...

[read more]

Booze, smokes worse than some illegal drugs: study - "Prof. Nutt and his colleagues used three factors to determine the harm associated with any drug: the physical harm to the user, the drug's potential for addiction, and the impact on society of drug use." [Globe and Mail]

At-home earning & online booking

If it works as advertised, Skype Prime could enable regular (anglophone) Joes to profitably connect with eager Asians or Eastern Europeans or others as paid 'conversation partners' in their spare time. Apparently it even includes a handy online booking and scheduling function.

Now if only I could book medical, dental, optometric and audiology appointments online... that should be coming in the near future. I know my optometrist already uses and 'end to end' practice management software package for windows - his eye charts are a flat panel LCD reflected in a mirror, and he emailed me a copy of a recent Optomap laser retinal scan. Presumably an online booking module is in the works, or perhaps even already available.

Whenever I finally shift from my old 905 health care providers to new ones in the 416, the ability to book online would be a massive selling point. I suspect, however, that such perks are the preserve of high-end, pay-as-you-go clinics for the rich where your OHIP card is worthless.

English conversation partner

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As with the cheapo, so too with the custom

Breathing lessons: the peculiar pleasure of earplugs - "I could hear people speaking, I could hear sounds, but it all took place at a remove. And yet I did not feel farther away from everything. I moved through the streets as though in a dream, but, as with a dream, somehow more attentive and aware than usual. Up to that point the purpose of earplugs was to keep things out. Now I perceived a new dimension to earplugs—to keep things in." [Slate]

The effect only gets stronger when you graduate to the custom kind.

"A University of Iowa study may provide an explanation for why some people get migraine headaches while others do not. The researchers found that too much of a small protein called RAMP1 appears to 'turn up the volume' of a nerve cell receptor's response to a neuropeptide thought to cause migraines." [University of Iowa]