'Piss-Screen' toilet game et al

My brother is an orthopedic surgeon and a gadget freak! He keeps me updated with whats happening in the world of gizmos & gadgets. Thanks to him, we have a state of the art video documentation & archiving system at Rotunda. Anything new that can refine our documenting abilities is incorporated as soon as feasible. After yesterdays blog, I thought our readers must hear of the Piss-Screen!


Unusual shock tactics here. A new toilet-based computer game intended to help tackle drink-driving was tested in bars and clubs around Frankfurt last week. Playing on a weakness of all drinkers - their bladders - the Piss-Screen is a pressure-sensitive inlay for urinals that lets you play a computer game while you wee. Based on Need for Speed, players steer a car round a course by aiming left or right as necessary. It's all relatively entertaining, until the game terminates in a horrifying crash sequence followed by the message: "Too pissed to drive? Take a Taxi instead".

In lighter news, in California the world's largest camera made it into the Guinness Book of Records on Monday after taking the largest photograph in the world. Made from an old aircraft hangar, the top of the camera stood a towering 44 foot off the ground. It took 10 days to expose the 31 by 111 foot picture.

Now, don't give up the cool box yet, but the iDrink solar swimware line for men could be about to revolutionise summer outdoor drinking. So much better than the female Solar Bikini , the iDrink combines the best bits of a summer's day: the beach, good tunes and beer. Not only do the shorts charge your iPod while you lie in the sun, they also generate enough power to keep your beer cool as well. Truly inspired.

Keep checking this space for gadgets-gizmos & medical discoveries:)

TheParkYourNutsStool

Just could not resist uploading this picture. Must be one of the coolest inventions ever:)

Little Whittled Thumbs

Rather than buying a phone with a bigger keypad, a "large" American man had his thumbs "surgically altered" to allow him to use his iPhone with greater accuracy, the North Denver News alleged earlier last week. Thomas Martel, 28, of Bonnie Brae is a big guy. So he has a hard time using the features on ever-shrinking user interfaces on devices like his new iPhone. At least, he did, until he had his thumbs surgically altered in a revolutionary new surgical technique known as "whittling." "From my old Treo, to my Blackberry, to this new iPhone, I had a hard time hitting the right buttons, and I always lost those little styluses," explains Martel. "Sure, the procedure was expensive, but when I think of all the time I save by being able to use modern handhelds so much faster, I really think the surgery will pay for itself in ten to fifteen years. And what it's saving me in frustration - that's priceless."
"This is really, on the edge sort of stuff," explains Dr. Robert Fox Spars, who worked on developing the procedure. "We're turning plastic surgery from something that people use in service of vanity, to a real tool for improving workplace efficiency." The procedure involved making a small incision into both thumbs and shaving down the bones, followed by careful muscular alteration and modification of the fingernails. While Martel's new thumbs now appear small and effeminate in comparison to his otherwise very large hands, he says he can still lift "pretty much anything I could lift before the surgery - though opening spaghetti sauce jars has been a problem. That was a big surprise."

The procedure - known, apparently, as "whittling" - involved a small incision being made into both his thumbs, before the digits were shaved down to the bone. Horrific. Believe it or not, the situation could have been stranger. The operation could have been preformed with the help of GPS technology, which last week made the news for its increasing popularity as a surgical application in joint replacement surgery. Whew! What a way to begin my week:)

Photo on the Nightstand

After a long night of making love, he notices a framed photo of a good looking man on the nightstand by her bed.


He begins to worry.


"Is this your husband?" he nervously asks.


"No, silly," she replies, snuggling up to him.


"Your boyfriend, then?" he continues.


No, not at all," she says, nibbling away at his ear.


"Is it your dad or your brother?" he inquires, hoping to be reassured.


"No, no, no!!!" she answers.


"Well, who in the hell is he then?" he demands.


"That's me before the surgery."

Getting the Mechanics

There was a Gynecologist who decided he no longer wanted to practice. Instead he wanted to restore old cars. To prepare himself for this career change, he signed up for a mechanics course in engine repair. He studied really hard, and the day arrived for the final exam. The task was to find out what was wrong with the engine and repair it. The Gynecologist took a little longer than the rest of the class, but he got the job done. A couple of days later he went to see how he did. Up on the wall, beside his name he saw a mark of 150%. He was really puzzled so he went to the instructor. "How can this be?" he asked. The instructor replied, "Well, I gave you 50 points for figuring out the problem, and 50 points more for solving the problem. But I had to give you an extra 50 points for doing all the work through the exhaust pipe!"

Another False Ringtone?

Men who use mobile phones could be risking their fertility, warn researchers. A new study shows a worrying link between poor sperm and the number of hours a day that a man uses his mobile phone. Those who made calls on a mobile phone for more than four hours a day had the worst sperm counts and the poorest quality sperm, according to results released at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine annual meeting in New Orleans in 2006. Doctors believe the damage could be caused by the electromagnetic radiation emitted by handsets or the heat they generate. The findings suggest millions of men may encounter difficulties in fathering a child due to the widespread use of mobile phones and offers another possible explanation for plummeting fertility levels among Indian males. Sperm counts among Indian men have fallen by 29 per cent over the past decade, a drop which has also been blamed on increasing obesity, smoking, stress, pollution and 'gender-bending' chemicals which disrupt the hormone system. The latest study backs up previous research which indicated a link between mobile phone use and sperm quality, but it is the biggest and best designed to date.
US researchers in Cleveland and New Orleans, and doctors in Mumbai, India, looked at more than 360 men undergoing checks at a fertility clinic who were classified into three groups according to their sperm count. Men who used a mobile for more than four hours a day had a 25 per cent lower sperm count than men who never used a mobile. The men with highest usage also had greater problems with sperm quality, with the swimming ability of sperm - a crucial factor in conception - down by a third. They had a 50 per cent drop in the number of properly formed sperm, with just one-fifth looking normal under a microscope.
The researcher, who led the study, said "Almost a billion people are using cell phones around the world and the number is growing in many countries at 20 to 30 per cent a year. In another five years the number is going to double. People use mobile phones without thinking twice what the consequences may be. It is just like using a toothbrush but mobiles could be having a devastating effect on fertility. It still has to be proved but it could have a huge impact because mobiles are so much part of our lives.The greater the use of mobile phones, the greater the reduction in each measure. This was very clear and very significant. Many in the lowest group for sperm count would be below normal as defined by the World Health Organisation.The most likely mechanism was damage to sperm-making cells in the testes caused by electromagnetic radiation or heat, although a fall in hormone production could also affect sperm motility and sperm DNA.The eyes, breasts and testicles are the areas of the body most likely to absorb the energy and many men carry their mobiles attached to their belt. Mobiles may also increase temperature in the groin, if a man was wearing it on a belt or carrying it around in a pocket. Sending text messages uses less power than talking but it can be a more intense emission of radiation, especially on trains"
Altogether 361 men in the study were divided into four groups, with 40 never using a mobile, 107 men using them for less than two hours a day, 100 men using them for two-four hours daily and 114 making calls for four or more hours a day. The main finding was that on four measures of sperm potency - count, motility, viability and morphology, or appearance - there were significant differences between the groups.
However, Dr Allan Pacey, senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield, said "This is a good quality study but I don’t think it tackles the issue. If you’re using your phone for four hours a day, presumably it is out of your pocket for longer. That raises a big question: how is it that testicular damage is supposed to occur?" He said mobile phone use may be a marker for other lifestyle factors known to affect sperm quality. "Maybe people who use a phone for four hours a day spend more time sitting in cars, which could mean there’s a heat issue. It could be they are more stressed, or more sedentary and sit about eating junk food getting fat. Those seem to be better explanations than a phone causing the damage at such a great distance" he added.
What next?

A Wonderful Story

A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the outer office of the President of Harvard University. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in
Cambridge. She frowned. "We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours, the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't. And the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it
was a chore she always regretted to do. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," she told him. And he signed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern-faced with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son that attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus." The president wasn't touched; he was shocked. "Madam," he said gruffly, "We can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard. The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We
have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical plant at Harvard." For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. He could get rid of them now. And the lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a University? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment.
And Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California, where they established the University that bears their name, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.