Blind Man's Bluff

An Arab on Arabs

Brilliance CT 256-Slice Scanner from Philips Gets to the Heart of the Problem

Philips recently unveiled their 256-slice scanner that renders 3-D images of the body like never before. The $2-million Brilliance CT machine can capture the body's skeleton, organs and blood vessels in the minutest of detail, and was unveiled recently in Chicago, at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting.Philips' scanner can give a patient a full body scan in less than a minute — and exposes them to 80 per cent less radiation than a traditional X-ray machine. The machine scans the body as well as rotating around it, sending out 256 pulses every one-third of a second. It is so powerful that it can capture an unblurred image of an entire heart in less than two heartbeats.The machine could prove useful in the battle against cancer. As well as picking up tumors in the body, the scanner should be able to show medics how the disease spreads and new patterns of abnormality.

BBC Sez Smellable Internet on the Way

The solution to the Internet addicts is on the way, and should be here by 2015. According to the BBC a South Korean company is claiming that the Internet will be able to deliver smell data by 2015. Why will this be the ultimate medicine for Internet addicts? Because they will be forced to smell the people and things they look at on a daily basis. I don't even want to imagine what kind of foul stenches the Internet could produce on any given day and I don't even want to know why a smell-o-net would need to be available by 2015. Smells like a turd covered in burnt hair—name that movie!

BBC also predicted that by 2012 batteries in mobile phones will last perhaps two months between recharges.

The experts taking part in the survey said that by 2018 robots will be routinely carrying out surgery.

The long-range predictions in the survey came from interviews carried out with about 3,500 technology experts in South Korea.

The country has long been known for its dedication to hi-tech.

Net-using citizens enjoy some of the highest speed broadband connections in the world, widespread high-speed mobile networks and the country's education system makes extensive use of the net to teach and track pupils' progress.

The hi-tech panel behind the report believed that, by 2015, the net will be used to deliver data about smells to a fragrance cartridge sitting next to a computer or other device accessing the net.

By 2015 the report suggests that soldiers will wear bulletproof and waterproof battle dress that can also change its appearance to match its surroundings.

Available soon after, by 2018, will be robots small enough to swim along blood vessels in the human body finding, probing and healing any health problems they come across.

Eyelash Growing Drug Will Cure That Baldness Around Your Eyes

If you've ever worried about the inadequacy of your eyelashes, the company that brought you Botox now has a serum to make them longer and fuller. The source of its power: repurposed glaucoma meds.

Allergan will introduce the lash growing drug, named Latisse, at the end of the month. It'll be used to treat “eyelash hypotrichosis,” that life-threatening condition where you look in the mirror and huffily remark that your eyelashes just aren't full enough to flutter properly.

Clinical trials found that Latisse increased “overall eyelash prominence as measure by the Global Eyelash Assessment” by at least one point on a four point scale. That's right, there's a Global Eyelash Assessment scale. God, I love the beauty industry.

Japanese Doctors Using Wii Fit to Help You Stop Being Fat

Nintendo has partnered with NEC, Panasonic and Hitachi to put together a system that actual doctors will use to check up on actual patients, using a Wii Fit.

The add-on is a special channel for the Wii, called the "Health Checkup Channel", that provides two-way communication between doctors and their patients. For the doctors, the system is essentially a readout of whatever information Wii Fit collects, presented over time and in the context of the patient's medical history, which I would assume he or she would be privy to. For the patient, the experience is much like the vanilla Wii Fit, except with a real-life doctor feeding you personalized guidance.

Inkjet Cartridges To Save Your Kidneys

Sometimes it's hard to remember that inkjet printers are good for anything other than ripping you off, but news today from HP's own intellectual property czar may change that: the technology that regulates the precise mixture of pigments down to the last picoliter will soon make home kidney dialysis machines more accurate by regulating mixtures of dialysis fluid with similar accuracy.

People with kidney problems often have to undergo dialysis treatments several times per day, so doing so at home is a necessity; unfortunately, home dialysis is prone to errors because the dialysis solution must be mixed precisely, often at varying concentrations. The HP-licensed inkjet tech will allow for dialysis solution to come in easy-to-swap cartridges that handle precise mixtures automatically. OK, you're off the hook for now, HP. For now.