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  • PJ Crowley Puts Hamid Karzai on Notice

    More than halfway through a coy interview with Josh Rogin about whether or not Afghan President Hamid Karzai really walked back his inflammatory Thursday speech in a Friday phone call with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley has this to say about Karzai’s subsequent I’ll-join-the-Taliban-if-I-can’t-control-an-election-watchdog comments:

    Crowley declined to directly address Karzai’s latest comments in his Tuesday press [conference], but did issue this warning.

    “His comments do have an impact in the United States and he should be aware of that,” said Crowley.

  • GM will have brake override on every automatic transmission vehicle by 2012

    Filed under: ,

    If there’s a silver lining in the rash of unintended acceleration claims that have popped up against Toyota as of late, it’s that manufacturers from around the world are beginning to think about incorporating brake override systems in their products. General Motors has just announced that all of its vehicles with automatic transmissions and electronic throttle control will boast an “enhanced smart pedal” by 2012.

    Essentially, the unit will reduce engine power in the event that both the accelerator and brake pedals are depressed simultaneously. We’re having a hard time envisioning an event that would cause us to stand on both pedals at the same time, but hey, it takes all kinds. Hit the jump to check out the press release.

    [Source: General Motors]

    Continue reading GM will have brake override on every automatic transmission vehicle by 2012

    GM will have brake override on every automatic transmission vehicle by 2012 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Lawyers For Steven Hayes Could Pull Out In Petit Murder Case; Client Wants To Plead Guilty In Death Penalty Case

    The two defense attorneys for accused murderer Steven Hayes say they could pull out of the case over his request to switch his plea.

    Hayes has told Superior Court Judge Jon Blue that he wants to switch his not-guilty plea to guilty in the deaths of three members of the Petit family in Cheshire in July 2007.

    Veteran Courant court reporter Alaine Griffin has the details at http://www.courant.com/community/cheshire/hc-web-hayes-0406apr06,0,7155167.story

  • Watch iPhone OS 4.0 Apple Event Online And Live Blogging on April 8th

    The iPhone OS 4.0 Apple event is going to be held at the Infinite Loop campus in Cupertino. The event is scheduled to start from 10:00AM PT (-8 UTC) on April 8th 2010. Though we don’t have an invitation for the event, we will be covering the event live here at Techie Buzz.

    iPhone OS 4.0 Apple Event

    Readers can get the live coverage of the Apple event from the following sites:

    • Engadget Live
    • GDGT Live
    • Boy Genius Report

    Techie Buzz will also be covering the event live, so visit us to keep tabs on all the latest happenings from the Apple iPhone OS 4.0 Event. The expectations are, as usual, high from an Apple Event. We would definitely like to see a newer version of the iPhone OS being launched with multi-tasking support.

    In addition to that, Apple might also release a newer version of the , which could either be the iPhone 4G or iPhone HD, however, nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

    We will update this post with videos and live streaming links for the iPhone OS 4.0 event as soon as they become available.


    Announcement: Missing Mobile News in the Main RSS Feed? We have decided to remove the mobile content from the main feed, please subscribe to our dedicated Mobile News RSS Feed at http://feeds.techie-buzz.com/techiemobile. Thank you for your understanding.

    Watch iPhone OS 4.0 Apple Event Online And Live Blogging on April 8th originally appeared on Techie Buzz written by Rajesh Pandey on Monday 5th April 2010 04:48:40 PM. Please read the Terms of Use for fair usage guidance.

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  • How To Cancel A Credit Card Without Hurting Your Credit Score

    Say you’ve got a credit card you don’t want for whatever reason and have decided to cancel it. Here are some simple steps you can take to make sure the card a) really gets canceled b) it doesn’t harm your credit score.

    How To Cancel A Credit Card:

    Step 1: Pay off the card in full.

    Step 2: Call Customer Service to make sure the balance is really zero. Interest may have still been accumulating.

    Step 3: Once the balance is zero, cancel the account over the phone. Feel free to entertain any retention offers they might throw at you. That’s always fun.

    Step 4: Follow up in writing and ask for written confirmation that the account is closed. Keep a copy of this stuff for your records. You never know when you might need it.

    Step 5: Wait awhile, then check your credit report to make sure the account is really closed. Don’t do this the day after you close it, sometimes it takes awhile. Also, use www.annualcreditreport.com to check your reports for free. Don’t use any fake free credit report offers.

    What about my credit score? Recently FICO, the company that calculates credit scores, came out and debunked the very, very pervasive myth that closing a credit card account shortens your credit history and hurts your score. So, don’t worry about that.

    What may affect your score, however, is your credit utilization ratio. FICO explains it this way: “This ratio basically looks at your total used credit in relation to your total available credit; the higher this ratio is, the more it can negatively affect your FICO score. So, by closing an old or unused card, you are essentially wiping away some of your available credit and there by increasing your credit utilization ratio.”

    “To close card accounts without impacting one’s credit score, you need to only have zero balances on your credit report for all of your active credit cards. That’s because if you have zero balances your credit utilization rate is therefore zero, and you can’t raise it — and potentially hurt your score — by closing one or more of the active card accounts,” says Craig Watts, public affairs manager for FICO.

    So if you’ve got zero balances, go ahead and close that account. If not, figure out how much it will affect your credit utilization ratio and decide that way.

  • Congratulations to The Intersection | Gene Expression

    Ms. Kirshenbaum and Mr. Mooney have an article which they coauthored which will appear in The Best American Science Writing 2010.

  • L.A. controller warns that city could exhaust general fund next month [Updated]

    Wendy GreuelLos Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel on Monday said she expects the city’s general fund “will be out of money" by May 5 and that L.A. will likely deplete its reserve funds and be in the red by June 30.



    Greuel alerted Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the City Council of the city’s dire financial situation after the head of the Department of Water and Power stated he would oppose sending $73.5 million in utility revenue to the city treasury. Interim General Manager S. David Freeman said the council’s vote to block a proposed electricity rate hike last week threatens to put the utility in a deficit.



    Greuel urged the council and mayor to immediately tap the city’s reserve funds so that city has enough cash to cover payroll.

    “This is the most urgent fiscal crisis that the city has faced in recent history, and it is imperative that you act now. That is why I am asking you to immediately transfer $90 million from the city’s reserve fund to the general fund so I can continue to pay the city’s bills, and to ensure the fiscal solvency of the city,” Greuel said.

    Councilman Greig Smith said the decision by the DWP had put the city in a “very risky” situation.

    “Our reserve fund was already very marginal to begin with.  This could push it over the edge,” Smith said. “That would mean we would have nothing in the tank on June 30,” at the end of the fiscal year.

     

    Smith said he could not envision a scenario in which the city could recoup that much money before July 1. Even additional layoffs could not be processed that quickly.

     

    “The question is what are we going to do next? That I don’t know,” Smith said.

    [Updated at 2:43 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly stated that the general fund would be depleted by May 10. The fund is expected to run out by May 5.]


    — Phil Willon and Maeve Reston at Los Angeles City Hall

    Photo: Los Angeles Times

  • A (Short) Guide to the Jobless Benefits Blame Game

    With countless headlines reminding readers that jobless benefits begin expiring today, it was inevitable that each party would be slinging blame over the Senate’s failure to pass a filing extension before leaving town last month for spring break. Which is why you’ve got Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) yesterday accusing Republicans of “irresponsibility” and Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) returning fire today with charges that “Democrats thought it was more important to catch their planes” than help the unemployed.

    Lost in the hostile little back-and-forth is the same thing that was lost during much of the debate over health care reform: The two sides simply don’t agree on the policy, and so no length of negotiation was likely to produce a compromise.

    In the case of unemployment benefits ,the parties are much closer than they put on. Both want to extend the filing deadline, which is today. But the Republicans want to use stimulus funds to pay the tab. The Democrats don’t, arguing that a bit of temporary deficit spending amid the jobs crisis will pay dividends down the road. That’s it. That’s the disagreement. And both sides have an argument to back them up. Funny, though, how quickly the underlying issue gets lost in the mud.

  • Southern Californians: spot a naked-eye occultation tonight! | Bad Astronomy

    For those folks in Los Angeles (and parts of Nevada, Idaho, western Montana, Calgary and Edmonton): if you are up at 03:34 Pacific time tonight, you can watch as an asteroid blocks the light of a naked-eye star!

    RWS_ZetaOphOcc1Sky and Telescope has the details. Basically, the asteroid 824 Anastasia will pass directly in front of the star ζ (Zeta) Ophiuchi. At magnitude 2.5, the star is easily visible, about as bright as Polaris (though honestly, from LA you may need binoculars). The map shown here on the left is from Sky and Tel; click it for a higher-res version.

    The asteroid itself will be invisible to the eye; it’s at magnitude 14.7, a thousandth as bright as the faintest object you can see even from a dark site. But when it passes in front of the star, the star will dim or blink out for up to 8 seconds. This occultation, as it’s called, is important because by mapping exact locations and timing from a large number of observers, the shape of the asteroid can be found! Well, more or less, since we only see it in profile, but it’s still a nice clue to the characteristics of an otherwise featureless point of light.

    So if you plan on being out and about at that time, why not check out how to do some astronomy from literally your back yard? The more people who participate, the better our science is!

    Image credit: Sky and Telescope.


  • Chevrolet Cobalt Z22

    Cobalt Z22 makes its mark
    By Nauman Farooq

    Chevrolet and the “Z” badge goes a long way back. It started out in the late 1960’s as an option code for the Camaro. The Z/28 package turned a humble pony car into a galloping horse.

    Cobalt Z22

    Chevrolet Cobalt Z22

    So successful was the “Z” package, that Chevrolet later started offering the package as an additional trim package on some of their cars. Along with the Z/28, there was the Z34 Lumina, the Z34 Monte Carlo, and most recently the Z24 Cavalier.

    Ever since Chevrolet replaced the Cavalier with the Cobalt in 2005, Chevy enthusiasts have been waiting for the next “Z” package.

    Now the wait is over, a new “Z” package has arrived for the Cobalt coupe, and its called the Z22. However, unlike its predecessors, this “Z” is not a performance package. The new Z22 package is all about enhancing the cars looks.

    So the new Z22 package includes a body-colored rear spoiler, chrome exterior package, fog lights in the front bumper, 16-inch aluminum wheels, and some “Wicked tattoos.”

    These new tattoo style decals were designed with the collaboration of General Motors Quebec dealers and Cossette, an advertising and design agency. They have come up with three distinct design patterns that customers can choose from to have on their car.

    These additions are an affordable way to make your car stand out from the rest. Chevrolet says, “this model aims at targeting younger consumers such as adults from 18 to 34 year old. It appeals to young men that care about their appearance and the look of their car.”

    General Motors also says this new “sport” package is only offered for a limited time. So if you’re in the market for a sporty coupe with some added style at an affordable price ($109 bi-weekly payments on 72 month finance, with $0 down), drive over to your local Chevrolet dealer to find out more.

  • Looking at ‘Invisible Cities’

    During his freshman year at Harvard, Christian Starling ’10 had a panicky moment. An art project was due. What now?

    He found the answer under his bed — in bits of trash, paper, and random materials. Voila, he had an art installation.

    The experience also gave the anthropology concentrator a theme that has lasted four years. Starling began collecting found objects in Cambridge and Boston, and on sojourns to Mississippi and New Orleans. He recorded what he found and where (including an Old Thompson whiskey bottle, from in front of the Memorial Church, that was empty.)

    For a new show of student art, “Invisible Cities,” Starling took images of three months of objects and arranged them chronologically in a tiny diary. The images and entries resonate with a strange power and read like a poem of consumer culture: belt buckle, hoop earring, Ph paper, hair piece, flattened fork, bent spoon, fragment of licorice rope, cell phone antenna. (Earth to civilization: Is that you?)

    The strange power of cities, real and imagined, is the theme of “Invisible Cities,” where a visitor will find Starling’s “The Book of Found Objects,” along with the work of 14 other Harvard students. The show runs through April 20 at the Center for Government and International Studies, CGIS South, 1730 Cambridge St. It was co-curated by Nancy Lin ’11 and Anne Sawyier ’12, both history of art and architecture concentrators.

    Included in the show at the building’s Concourse Gallery are photographs, paintings, drawings, miniature sculptures, and five films running in a continuous loop.

    “Invisible Cities” is more about the emotional response to places than it is about travel itself, said Lin.

    “We thought about how you experience travel, how you experience new places,” she said. “It was more of an internal experience, as opposed to ‘Here’s a photo of the Eiffel Tower.’ It has less to do with the city than it does about yourself.”

    Fun was part of the equation too, and inclusion. “We wanted to reach out to as many students as possible,” said Sawyier. “We wanted the artists to have fun with it, and to share their internal experiences of places.”

    The students represent a clash and clamor of disciplines: economics, biology, art, literature, and the social sciences. A budding economist, Jieliang Hao ’11 made her “White Series” from daily photo studies of the same corner of Dunster House.

    “That’s not like a travel-abroad photo,” said Lin, who called the Hao series “her own poem,” and a kind of internal journey. “You don’t need to travel abroad to have journeys. You can have them inside of you.”

    Kayla Escobedo ’12, a Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) concentrator, displayed a few panels from MONTY, a graphic novel in progress.

    And neurobiology student Natasha Coleman ’10 co-created “Moving Through the City,” a mixed media/video exploration of New York, with Andrés Castro Samayoa ’10, a concentrator in Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

    “If medical school doesn’t work out,” her artist statement says, she’ll “try her hand at fashion photography.”

    “Invisible Cities” — taken from the title of a 1972 novel by Italo Calvino — seems to say that art has a place in every academic discipline.

    Anh-Thu Ngo, a second-year doctoral student in anthropology, is one of two Harvard graduate students in the show. She used her film “Shadow of Echoes” to explore the sensory experiences of place.

    Ngo recently spent 10 weeks in her native Vietnam, in the city of Hue, employing what she called “the camera’s amble and resting gaze” to give the viewer a lush sense of place that words alone cannot create. “Childhood and motherland loom in these dreams,” wrote Ngo, in the film’s minimal and poetic text.

    There are caged birds in an outdoor market, men lounging at a tree-shaded café, a gray bridge fluid with the traffic of motorbikes, ancient stone walls, a shaded walk, and a vendor crouching on a sidewalk. She holds up a single flower.

    “With this medium I was able to explore more creative aspects of my time there,” said Ngo. Hue is known for its centuries of art as well as for the Vietnam War’s most horrific urban battle, in 1968.

    Ngo said Harvard is prominent among universities breaking new ground in “sensory ethnography,” the name of a two-semester class she took last year.

    “There’s a lot more evocative power through images and sound,” said Ngo of using film for ethnography. But despite its power, she added, incorporating film into scholarship “is really stretching the boundaries of the discipline.”

    Funding for “Invisible Cities” came from Harvard’s Office for the Arts. Guidance came from painter Bettina Burch, the art board associate at CGIS, and from Ruth Lingford, VES professor of the practice of animation.

    Helping too was Paula Soares, VES manager of academic programs. “We just threw the ball,” she said of the show’s origin last fall. “Nancy and Anne ran with it.”

  • Classroom Gore: Global Warming Goes to School by Tom Gantert

    Article Tags: Education, Not Evil Just Wrong

    A national campaign was launched today to get public schools that have shown Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” to give equal time to the opposing view of global warming.

    The Independent Women’s Forum launched its Balanced Education for Everyone campaign today. It hopes to have the 2009 documentary “Not Evil, Just Wrong” shown in classrooms around the country. “Not Evil, Just Wrong” claims to expose erroneous claims about global warming.

    The Independent Women’s Forum is a nonprofit, founded in 1992, that supports limited government and free markets.

    Ryan Alexander, the campaign manager for Balanced Education for Everyone, said many schools around the country are offering the Al Gore movie as an education on the global climate.

    Source: michigancapitolconfidential.com

    Read in full with comments »   


  • Report: Chicago-area ‘Save Hummer’ rally planned for April 11

    Filed under: , , , , , , , ,

    Hummer H3T Alpha – Click above for high-res image gallery

    Not so fast, Captain Planet. Hummer may be on its last leg at the moment, but fans of the brand aren’t going to let their favorite earth-roaming SUVs go down without a fight. Capital & Labor International Coalition, a newly-minted organization, thinks it has all the answers to the brand’s woes, and has scheduled a summit to help save Hummer here in the states on April 11.

    This assemblage could be more than just a few fans with posters. CLIC has invited everyone from shareholders to Hummer’s CEO and United Auto Workers leaders. Thane Ritchie, chairman of the organization, said CLIC has taken a good hard look at the General Motors/Hummer issue and there may be another option out there other than just turning off the lights for good.

    Members of the group have even invited Senator Rolland Burris (D-Illinois) to help out as well. Burris will be acting as a liaison between the coalition and the federal government, especially when it comes to getting any aid for the brand. In the meantime, the Save Hummer in America rally will be held next week in Chicago. Hey, it worked for Saab, right?

    [Source: Automobile]

    Report: Chicago-area ‘Save Hummer’ rally planned for April 11 originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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  • Android Quick App: 3banana Notes

    3banana Notes

    I’ll admit it.  I’m forgetful, and it get worse every year.  Smart phones are a life saver here, without them I’d never get anything done because I’d spend my life trying to remember the things I need to remember.  I need a calendar that synchronizes.  I need a to-do list manager.  But what I need most of all is something that let’s me jot down bits of information on the go so I can sit later with a cigar and a nice espresso and fill out the calendar and to-do lists.  That’s where 3banana Notes comes in. Follow along after the break to learn some more about the notepad with the silly name.

    read more

  • Beware the Badge: Monikers of Performance

    Mercedes Benz AMG

    Since the 1950’s manufactures have been giving their performance cars special monikers to make sure that people knew they were in the presence of something special. They would designate everything from engine size, to special features to the tuning company that may have made some performance modifications. For the most part these badges are found on the front fenders or rear deck lid, but truth be told, nowadays they can be found almost anywhere on the vehicle. Just about every automaker, foreign and domestic utilizes this marketing tactic to set themselves apart. It’s a great strategy and for the owners of these cars, those monikers are badges of honor.

    • Chrysler SRT

    Chrysler SRT Division

    • Ford SVT

    Ford SVT

    For example, Ford uses SVT, an acronym which stands for “Special Vehicles Team”, Chrysler has their SRT division for “Street and Race Technology”, and GM utilizes the letter “V” as in CTS-V, it stands for “Voracious”. These bits of exterior automotive information lets those who follow behind know that they are in the company of a vehicle that will most likely give them a good run for their money.

    • Cadillac V

    Cadillac CTS-V

    As mentioned foreign automakers also take part in the fun. Mercedes has been using AMG for years. AMG was founded by Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard Melcher in 1967 and stands for “Aufrecht Melcher Grossaspach”, where Grossaspach is the town which AMG was founded. BMW uses the letter M which stands for “Motorsport”, and Audi the letters RS for “RennSport” (German for Racing Sport).

    • Audi RS

    Audi RS

    • BMW M

    BMW M

    This is automotive marketing at its finest and people will pay big money to have one of these badges adorn their fenders. The fun really comes into play when you see two of these factory hot rods line up against each other as not only will you have a great head to head run, but the drivers will each be gunning for factory pride.


  • Weekly Poll: How Will the iPad Affect Cloud Computing?

    oracleweeklypollchart.png It is fairly evident that the iPad and cloud computing are deeply tied to each other. A selection of storage and cloud management apps now are available on the iPad. So, we want to know: “How will the iPad affect cloud computing?”

    But before we get to that question, let’s take a look at last week’s poll. We asked: “Is Oracle a Cloud company?”

    Sponsor

    We had 125 people reply. In total, 68 respondents said: “None of the above. Oracle, like IBM and Microsoft, is a hybrid, with the majority of its revenue still with its on-premise offerings.” Forty-four people agreed that Oracle missed the boat and won’t leave its franchise.

    This week we want to know:

    It’s evident that there are a number of new issues that bring cloud computing into the discussion. Eddie Dumbill says it is Apple’s lack of integration that is the biggest issue. It does not support MobileMe:

    “However, the iPad is no more advanced than the iPhone in its cloud integration. I would have loved to have switched on the iPad, keyed in my MobileMe login, and automatically had my email, browser bookmarks, calendar and contacts set up for me, as well as the ability to load in ebooks through my iDisk, and have my photo galleries available.

    Instead I was forced through the painfully overloaded iTunes application, and had to tether my device via USB to get all of my content on it. Setting things up was a crazy dance involving configuration in both iTunes and in the iPad’s settings panel. To make matters worse, the iPad doesn’t want to charge over USB. This means I need to plug it in twice: once to the charger, and then somewhere else to sync. Decent cloud access would have mitigated this a little.”

    What are your thoughts?

    Discuss


  • Jawbone ICON Bluetooth headset

    Jawbone ICON Bluetooth headsetThe latest addition to Alpih’s Jawbone series of Bluetooth headsets — which features the same proprietary "Noise Assassin" technology first developed for use in tanks and helicopters — is not available in a variety of colors. It also is the only Bluetooth headset with a Voice Activity Sensor that actually feels your speech and helps cancel out background noise. It also can connect to two phones at the same time and will whisper caller ID and battery life into your ear. The Jawbone ICON Bluetooth headset is available now in the Android Central Store for $99.95. (Sponsored post)

  • Ergonomía: Pautas Generales

    Hay una ciencia que rige que día a día se encarga de buscar una mejor eficacia, eficiencia de nuestras actividades de la vida social, como así también laboral; para que éstas se hagan con el menor esfuerzo posible y que repercuta de mejor forma en nuestro organismo, principalmente, nuestra espalda; y si señores; hablo de LA ERGONOMÍA.

    Esta ciencia que tiene como punto de partida dolores en la espalda, pero no esos que aparecen por un esfuerzo mal hecho, sino que presta atención a aquellos que aparecen al cabo de un tiempo producto de posturas viciosas, deportes  mal practicados, falta de aptitud física, malas costumbres laborales, etc.

    Pero estas no son patologías exclusivas de siglo XXI, sino que desde el hombre adapto la bipedestación, la continua lucha con la gravedad hace a la misma la principal enemiga en esta película.

    Estos problemas de espalda en el mercado son muy costosos, ya que no sólo es dificultoso encontrar la causa que origina dicha sintomatología sino también las pérdidas que ocasiona por ausentismo laboral en su empresa y también en el sueldo de dicho trabajador que lo padece. Es una gran cadena de pérdidas que no le conviene a ninguna de las partes.

    Lo que intenta esta ciencia es no llegar a la instancia de la rehabilitación y tratamientos costosos, otorgando información necesaria para centrarse en el ambiente de la prevención. Vendría a ser algo como el famoso refrán : “Prevenir antes que curar”.

    Diseño adecuado de nuestro puesto de trabajo

     En bipedestación y, en especial, cuando estamos realizando algún trabajo
    que absorbe toda nuestra atención, tendemos a situarnos en la mejor manera
    posible para realizar el trabajo o esfuerzo concentrándonos en él, pero olvidando lapeligrosa posición que le estamos dando a nuestra espalda. Como reglas generalesno debemos usar por mucho tiempo zapatos de tacón alto, o con plataforma; estarde pie en la misma posición por mucho tiempo; Estar de pie con las rodillas juntas,los músculos abdominales relajados y la espalda curvada. En cambio, cuando seanecesario que estemos de pie por mucho tiempo, debemos levantar un pie ycambiar frecuentemente de posición, mantener la tarea a una altura adecuada y, si podemos, colocar un pie a una altura más elevada que el otro y alternar la posición de ambos pies frecuentemente.

    1.  La tarea no ha de encontrarse muy baja y/o alejada de nosotros, debe encontrarse a una altura correcta.

    2. Estar de pie mucho tiempo con una lordosis excesiva puede causar dolor lumbar.Puede eliminarse colocando un pie e un pequeño banco. Un pequeño taburete le permite a una pierna flexionarse en la región de la cadera, lo que relaja el psoasilíaco y “aplana” la curva lumbar. Este método es recomendable para mantener una postura en bipedestación relajada y duradera.

    3. En el plano frontal hay que evitar la rotación de la columna vertebral, cintura escapular y pélvica. Producen dolor en la columna lumbar si son actitudes repetidas y se hacen siempre sobre el mismo lado, como el transportar mucho peso en un brazo, lo que hace inclinar peligrosamente la columna, y produce dolor lumbar si es muy repetido. Hay que repartir el peso en las dos extremidades por igual, y si no es posible, alternar el uso de cada miembro superior llevando el peso una vez en un brazo y al rato en el otro brazo.

    4. Arrastrar un peso con una mano conlleva una rotación de la articulación del hombro y de la cintura escapular en general, que es fácilmente evitable
     llevando el carrito por delante (es mejor empujar que arrastrar). Además si la otra mano la llevamos ocupada por una bolso, carpeta, etc, hacemos que se produzca una rotación e inclinación lumbar que puede abocar a un dolor de espalda si no corregimos dicha postura.

    Agarrar y trasladar objetos correctamente

    Al levantar, llevar y alcanzar pesos no es tan importante cuánto se levanta o lleva,sino el cómo se hace. Como aspectos preventivos indicaremos que cuándo se halla de trasladar y trabajar con muchos pesos y objetos, hemos de despejar el camino, mantener los pies separados para llevar un buen equilibro, usar zapatos cómodos y protegernos tanto las manos, como los pies, con botas o guantes si es necesario.
    Hay que levantar el peso en diagonal cuando se realiza el trabajo con los dos
    brazos, así lo mantendremos cerca del cuerpo y la espalda sufrirá menos. No
    arquee la espalda, doble las rodillas evitando el girar al coger el peso.

    1. Hay que mantener el peso cerca del cuerpo para que el brazo de palanca sea menor y por tanto la fuerza que repercuta en la columna también disminuya.

    2. Al cambiar objetos de posición, gire todo el cuerpo en bloque y gire con los pies, no con la columna; no intente ahorrase movimientos corporales haciendo que la espalda sea la que realice todo el cambio de posición.

    3. Cuando sea posible empuje en lugar de levantar.

    4. Si carga objetos sobre el hombro intente llevar la mayor parte de la carga hacia delante, es más cómodo para la columna vertebral.

    Método de movilización de enfermos

    No sólo esta ciencia se encarga de darle consejos a aquellos trabajadores que lo hacen en oficinas sentado frente a una computadora, sino también a profesionales de la salud, tal es el caso del kinesiologo que continuamente moviliza pacientes y lucha no solo con el peso de su cuerpo sino también con el de su paciente.

    A la movilización de enfermos debe dársele la importancia que tiene. Se
    trata de un acto profesional, quizá el más frecuente y previo a muchos otros que,como tal, requiere un estudio serio, un aprendizaje de la técnica y un
    entrenamiento repetido a fin de adquirir una actitud y unos hábitos correctos. Este acto profesional debe tener en cuenta el proceso de independización del enfermo, y debe estar encaminado a educarlo en la reinstauración del movimiento fisiológico,lo antes posible, a fin de evitar los factores nocivos de la inmovilidad, respetando
    en cada momento los muchos factores que inciden sobre él, pero de ningún modopor ignorancia, prisas o rutina debemos retrasar su evolución locomotriz. Como consideraciones importantes encontramos que debemos motivar al enfermo para que colabore al máximo, nunca se debe escoger un movimiento que invalide al enfermo, ni por razones de eficacia mal entendida (ganar tiempo), nos debemos situar en cada movimiento según el estado del paciente, las circunstancias que lo rodean, los medios de que disponemos y adoptar las técnicas más convenientes de acuerdo a las características antropométricas de quien las realiza.La movilización correcta del paciente aporta beneficios al enfermo (mejora física, psicológica y una mayor autonomía) y al cuidador (evita dolores de espalda,economiza energía, da mayor autonomía y capacidad al trabajo y un mayor grado
    de satisfacción en el mismo).
            

    Asimismo, la técnica se basa en unos principios determinados: Conocer la
    patología del enfermo, respetarle y motivarle; estudiar el recorrido a realizar
    (movimiento seguro); ver si necesita ayuda (y pedirla), separar los pies para tener una base de apoyo amplia colocando uno de ellos en la dirección del movimiento; mantener derecha la espalda, es decir, la cabeza y el cuello deben seguir la alineación original de la espalda; El centro de gravedad de la carga debe estar lo más cerca posible de nuestro cuerpo; siempre flexionar las rodillas; dar órdenes claras y precisas al paciente; y agarrar siempre utilizando toda la mano, no solamente los dedos, para evitar pellizcos y sensación de inseguridad.

    EJERCICIOS DIARIOS Y SIMPLES PARA EVITAR TRASTORNOS

    1. Aprenda y practique una buena mecánica corporal. Intente mantener las tres curvaturas naturales de la espalda en su posición normal. Examine su postura estando de espalda contra una pared. Debe existir un espacio mínimo entre la espalda y la pared. Una postura perezosa o una posición ”militar” aumentan las curvaturas de la espalda. Mucha gente adopta mala postura desde la niñez. Los adolescentes pueden adoptar una postura encogida por muchísimas causas, intente evitarlo. Mantenga la curvatura natural del cuello estando erguido con el mentón levemente contraído. reduzca el volumen del vientre y mueva la pelvis de modo que mantenga una curvatura natural en la región inferior de la espalda

    2. Realice las siguientes posiciones de reposo que pueden aliviarle la espalda almovilizar la pelvis y enderezar la espina dorsal:
           
    • En el trabajo o en casa póngase en cuclillas y tenga agarrado el respaldo de un sillón de 2 a 5 minutos.
           
    • En el trabajo o en casa: Dóblese hacia delante en la silla y baje la cabeza hasta las rodillas de 2 a 5 minutos.
           
    • En casa: Acuéstese decúbito supino y ponga las piernas sobre una silla,con una almohada bajo las piernas, se sentirá más cómodo. Para obtener máximo alivio mantenga esta posición durante 15 minutos.

  • Zune HD 4.5 Firmware Released Adds Smart DJ And More

    Last week, we had told you about the impending Zune HD 4.5 firmware update and the wait was definitely not that long as Microsoft has released the Zune HD 4.5 Firmware to users.

    Firmware 4.5 for Zune HD adds a new application called Smart DJ, which is somewhat similar to the iPod Genius feature. he update will provide expanded MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile support – which includes Xvid and AVI codec support as well.

    Zune HD

    To update to Zune HD 4.5 Firmware, connect your Zune device to the Zune software and go to Settings -> Device -> Player Update. If your device is connected you can check for software updates and upgrade to the latest firmware.

    Watch a video of the new features which are available in Microsoft Zune HD Firmware 4.5.


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    Zune HD 4.5 Firmware Released Adds Smart DJ And More originally appeared on Techie Buzz written by Keith Dsouza on Monday 5th April 2010 04:30:00 PM. Please read the Terms of Use for fair usage guidance.

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