IEEE Spectrum reports on a "radical new weapon" against brain tumors — only available since 2015. They profile a typical patient who "wears electrodes on her head all day and night to send an electric field through her brain, trying to prevent any leftover tumor cells from multiplying [and] goes about her business with a shaved head plastered with electrodes, which are connected by wires to a bulky generator she carries in a shoulder bag."
the_newsbeagle writes:
The Optune system, which bathes the brain tumor in an AC electric field, is the first new treatment to come along that seems to extend some patients’ lives. New data on survival rates from a major clinical trial showed that 43% of patients who used Optune were still alive at the 2-year mark, compared to 30% of patients on the standard treatment regimen. At the 4-year mark, the survival rates were 17% for Optune patients and 10% for the others. Patients have to re-shave their heads every few days and re-apply all the electrodes, but that’s never been a problem, according to one patient. "If you have a condition which has no cure, it’s a great motivator."
Have you been enjoying Columbus Underground’s Holiday Shopping Guide? This weekend, take advantage of Black Friday and Small Business Saturday deals in the Short North and more! Thanks once again to Elm & Iron for being the presenting sponsor of our shopping guide. Make plans to stop by their Holiday Open House in Clintonville for […]
via ColumbusUnderground.com Holiday Shopping Guide 2016 – Week Two
If you’ve always wondered how a pre-digital SLR film camera worked, you can either spend hours painstakingly removing all its tiny screws in order to completely take it apart, or just leave it in the path of a 60,000 PSI waterjet which will reveal the camera’s guts in a manner of minutes.
We’re living in the golden age of industrial machinery being used to destroy random objects, but when are we going to finally see a bunch of factory robots just smashing up a car? Internet, don’t let us down.
Winx is an innovative medical device for treating obstructive sleep apnea, a common sleep-related breathing disorder. The system operates by applying a gentle negative pressure through a novel mouthpiece to urge airway-obstructing tissues (soft palate and tongue) forward, thereby keeping the airway open during sleep. Winx consists of a quiet bedside console connected to a fitted mouthpiece with small flexible tubing. The console generates the negative pressure, collects excess saliva, and provides operation and usage feedback. Winx is simple to use, comfortable, quiet, compact, and travel friendly, offering many advantages over the current standard of care (CPAP) by eliminating the need for a facemask, headgear, humidifier and pressurized air. Winx solves a serious problem in a brand new way, representing a good combination of disruptive technology, appropriately simple design, and highly effective clinically proven performance.
Items are organized by category below, just be sure to note the promo codes, and remember that you can only use one promo code per order on Amazon, so if you want multiple items, you’ll have to buy them separately.
Battery Packs
USB Chargers
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The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade is a mainstay of living rooms on Thanksgiving Day, giving everyone an excuse to quietly drink coffee and ignore the world while watching Hello Kitty float by. This year, that’s possible in even more rooms with the help of YouTube.
As always, NBC will broadcast the parade, complete with rousing commentary from Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, and Al Roker. That stream will be available from NBC’s site, but you need a cable login to watch it. If you don’t have that, Verizon is streaming for free on YouTube. This stream is hosted by Marlon Wayans and Olivia Culpo. It kicks off at 9am EST/6am PST on Thanksgiving day.
We know you’re looking for the best Black Friday tool deals and Cyber Monday deals on electronics and parts for your next project, so we did the hard work for you and put together a massive cheat sheet.
Aspartame—the artificial sweetener found in drinks like Diet Coke—is not good for you. If you believe otherwise, I admire your commitment to self-delusion. A new study published by a team of investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital found a possible reason aspartame doesn’t help you lose weight—oh sorry, haven’t you heard? Like most things in society, diet soda is probably a giant scam.
Richard Hodin, a surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and the study’s senior author, explained, “Sugar substitutes like aspartame are designed to promote weight loss and decrease the incidence of metabolic syndrome, but a number of clinical and epidemiologic studies have suggested that these products don’t work very well and may actually make things worse.”
Dr. Hodin and his team found that the artificial sweetener intestinal alkaline phosphatase (IAP), which is a gut enzyme that researchers believe prevents obesity. So even though there’s no sugar in your diet beverage, it might not aid you in your weight loss journey.
To test out aspartame’s effect on IAP, researchers examined four groups of mice over a four-week period. Scientists fed two groups a high-fat diet—one received drinking water spiked with aspartame, while the other had plain water. The remaining two groups were fed normal diets—one with aspartame water, the other with plain. Mice drinking aspartame-spiked water consumed the equivalent of three and a half cans of diet soda per day.
Researchers found “while there was little difference between the weights of the two groups fed a normal diet, mice on a high-fat diet that received aspartame gained more weight than did those on the same diet that received plain water.” Furthermore, mice who received aspartame water had higher blood pressure and higher blood sugar levels, which researchers believe is evidence of a glucose intolerance. “Both aspartame-receiving groups had higher levels of the inflammatory protein TNF-alpha in their blood, which suggests the kind of systemic inflammation associated with metabolic syndrome,” Science Daily reported.
Dr. Hodin said, “While we can’t rule out other contributing mechanisms, our experiments clearly show that aspartame blocks IAP activity, independent of other effects.”
Does this mean I’ll finally stop drinking Diet Coke? No way. But at least now I know what will likely contribute to my premature death.
Reader BrianFagioli writes: After the release of both alpha and beta versions, Fedora 25 is officially here and ready for production machines. If you aren’t familiar with the popular Linux-based operating system, please know that it is the distribution of choice for the founder of the Linux kernel, Linus Torvalds. One of the most endearing qualities of Fedora is its focus on only offering truly free open source software. Also, you can always count on a very modern version of the Linux kernel being available. Despite having very up-to-date packages, it is always very stable too. My favorite aspect, however, is the commitment to the GNOME desktop environment; other DEs are available, though. The team says, "Fedora 25 Workstation now makes it easier to for Windows and OS X users to get started, with Fedora Media Writer serving as the default download for those operating systems. This tool helps users find and download the current Fedora release and write it to removable media, like a USB stick, allowing potential Fedora users to ‘test drive’ the operating system from that media environment. Fedora can then be installed to their systems with the same process".
. But you might be getting the bad end of that deal. Repurposing your phone is a much better idea.
Think about it. That old phone, whether it’s an archaic Nokia or a recent Android or iPhone, has some sophisticated circuitry inside. As we move into a world of smart homes and connected devices, your phone’s technology is more useful than ever before.
The Guide To Replacing a Damaged Mobile Phone Display If you have damaged the screen of your mobile phone – perhaps you dropped it or sat down while the device was in your pocket – you’ve immediately given yourself a headache. Can the phone… Read More
. But it can be intimidating to do it. What if you can’t do it? What if you make things worse?
. If you’re comfortable with those, try something challenging like disassembling and reassembling a phone.
There are things about your smartphone that you know are possible, but you’ve never explored. This is the time to explore them.
Do you have an old Nokia or some such candybar device with a number pad? Get ready for the geekiest DIY project of your life. The web’s beloved DIY enthusiast, Tinkernut, has a guide to turn that phone into a modern smartwatch!
. The recommended version is the Arduino Pro Mini, which costs about $10. The total cost of the parts, apart from the old phone, is less than $50. Not bad for a new smartwatch, which you can proudly show off and say you made yourself.
Should You Buy A Smartwatch Now, Or Wait? Everyone is talking about smartwatches and other wearables as "the next big thing." So, should you buy a smartwatch today, or wait for the smartwatches to come? Read More
. The question is, “Do you have it in you to make a smartwatch?”.
Right now, a hacker can easily trace back all the data from your phone to you. If you have an extra smartphone, you can turn it into a “ghost phone” with Lifehacker’s guide. It’s completely untraceable.
A ghost phone is important in today’s world. It’ll keep your identity secure on online dating sites, or if you’re selling something on Craigslist. And who knows, you might want to leak confidential information like Snowden.
Add a secure VPN (virtual private network) service that encrypts all data going out of your phone. CyberGhost and Hideman both do this.
Create a new Google or Apple account from this phone. Don’t sign in with your existing account on the app stores. Similarly, create new accounts for any app you want to use.
Don’t buy any app or service. Online transactions leave a money trail.
This is a handy gadget to have with you. Any time you want to take a data-sensitive online action, it’ll keep you more secure than your everyday phone.
Any Broken Phone: Recycle It Into a Wallet or Piggy Bank
Most of these tricks are useful if you have a functional old phone. But what if it’s a busted old clamshell phone or a broken iPhone? Roll up your sleeves and turn it into the coolest wallet around.
Instead of spending good money to buy a bunch of security cameras, why not just use old smartphones? They work brilliantly, and it’s easy too.
There are two ways you can go about this. First, you use apps on popular mobile platforms, if your old phones are smartphones. Second, you set things up manually so that the operating system doesn’t matter.
For an Android-only setup, nothing is as easy as Perch. Download the app, place your phone where you want it, and you can watch all the action on another phone or computer.
For an iOS or Android+iOS setup, get Presence. You can set up multiple phones this way, and it has a web view option to check the feeds on a computer.
For Windows Phone, Gotya seems to be the preferred option for many users.
This is one of the most popular ways to reuse an old smartphone. Whether it’s running Android or iOS, you’ll be able to control almost anything in your smart home.
What you need to check is if your Android phone has an infrared (IR) blaster. This will let it connect to TVs, air conditioners, and other devices that normally use a remote control. The iPhone does not have an IR blaster.
. Get an app like SURE (Free) or Smart IR Remote ($7), connect it to all your devices, and start using it.
If the phone doesn’t have an IR blaster, well, you’ll need to get IR connectivity somehow. You can either add an IR blaster to the phone with a third-party accessory. These usually cost about $40-60. You could even DIY it for cheap. Or you can buy the Logitech Harmony Hub for around $100. The Harmony Hub acts as an IR “base” for all your devices, and then connects to your phone over Wi-Fi. If you have the cash, the Harmony Hub is the easiest option.
Android/iPhone: Dedicated Portable Gaming Device
Hopefully, your old phone is an Android with an expandable memory card slot, or with plenty of internal memory. If so, turn that into a portable gaming device for your kids (or yourself).
Enhance Android Gaming With These Controller Options Gaming on a touchscreen can be difficult and frustrating. While being able to whip out your Android phone and sneak in a little Final Fantasy on your lunch break is great, having no tactile feedback… Read More
Android/iOS/Windows Phone: Put It Permanently In Your Car
It is ridiculous how many people overlook the simplest use for an old smartphone. Grab a car phone holder, a double-port car charger, and fix your phone in place permanently.
No, you don’t need to be wasting your everyday phone’s battery or data on GPS and turn-by-turn directions. That’s what the car phone is for.
, and play music from your car phone. Heck, you can actually go old-school and load it up with offline music; a luxury you can’t afford on your regular phone with its limited storage.
Just do this and see how much better your driving experience is.
How Have You Repurposed an Old Phone?
These are just some of the many things you can do with an old phone instead of throwing it out. It’s only limited by your imagination. We’re sure some of you have come up with even cooler applications for unused handsets. Tell us how you repurposed them in the comments.
Originally written by Saikat Basu, published May 4th 2012.