Posted by on under private health insurance, weap, right to keep and bear arms, handguns, medical device, handgun, inventors, health insurance, medicare, guns, physicians, fda, palm, pers, insurance | 
Repton writes "Thanks to the Second Amendment, even the elderly have the right to keep and bear arms. The problem is that many of the guns out there are a bit unwieldy for an older person to handle. However, the inventors of the Palm Pistol are planning to change all that with a weapon that is ideal for both the elderly and the physically disabled. In a statement submitted to Medgadget, the manufacturer, Constitution Arms, has revealed the following: 'We thought you might be interested to learn that the FDA has completed its "Device/Not a Device" determination and concluded the handgun will be listed as a Class I Medical Device.' Physicians will be able to prescribe the Palm Pistol for qualified patients who may seek reimbursement through Medicare or private health insurance companies."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tagi: private health insurance, weap, right to keep and bear arms, handguns, medical device, handgun, inventors, health insurance, medicare, guns, physicians, fda, palm, pers, insurance
Posted by on under earth orbits, photo nasa, soyuz tma, minute spacewalk, solar array, crash pad, returning to earth, federal space, space shuttle, southeastern coast, careens, ultima series, atlant, bottom center, 10th birthday, brith, sci fi, michael fincke, frt, stabiliz |
: Photo: NASA
Floating 190 miles above the Earth's surface, the extraplanetary crash pad known as the International Space Station careens through the sky at an average of over 17,000 miles per hour, making almost 16 Earth orbits a day.
Set for completion in 2011, it's been 10 years since construction first began on the ISS. The final version will double its current capacity of three residents to six and provide incalculable contributions to science. In honor of its 10th birthday, we've assembled some of our favorite photos from the space station's lifetime. Click through the gallery for a glimpse at one of the world's most impressive sci-fi realities.
Left:
Astronaut Piers J. Sellers moves along a truss on the International Space Station, while space shuttle Discovery is docked in July 2006.
: Photo: NASA
The Soyuz TMA-13 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station with Expedition 18 on Oct. 14, 2008. Visible in the background is the southeastern coast of Tunisia (left), the Gulf of Gabès and the Isle of Jerba (bottom center). Top of the picture points northwest.
The Expedition 18 mission brought NASA astronaut Michael Fincke and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov to the ISS for a six-month stay that relieved two other astronauts of their posts.
Of particular note to Wired.com readers: Videogame icon and now space tourist Richard Garriott (known as Lord British in the Ultima series) tagged along on the expedition for 12 days before returning to Earth on Oct. 24.
: Photo: NASA
The International Space Station is seen here in front of the Earth's horizon, photographed from the space shuttle Atlantis as it moves farther away June 19, 2007.
During the departure and fly-around, the Atlantis crew got a look at the station's newly expanded configuration, which included the retraction of an old solar array and the unfolding of a new one on the starboard side of the station.
: Photo: NASA
During a seven-hour, 19-minute spacewalk, astronaut Scott Parazynski cut a snagged wire and installed homemade stabilizers to strengthen a damaged solar array. Parazynski is anchored to a foot restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System.
Mission STS-120 was flown by the space shuttle Discovery and delivered the Harmony module. The module, among other things, added 2,666 cubic feet of living space and completed the U.S. core contribution to the ISS.
: Photo: NASA
Best known for the insulation-foam scare after the Columbia tragedy, STS-118 found Endeavour with a puncture in its heat shield. Fortunately the fears that the exposed foam would lead to another catastrophe were needless.
Endeavour's orbital-maneuvering-system pods and vertical stabilizer are visible in this photo as it docks with the International Space Station. The mission successfully delivered its supplies and modules.
: Photo: NASA
On mission STS-122, European Space Agency astronaut Hans Schlegel works to replace a nitrogen tank used to pressurize the station's ammonia cooling system.
Pictured in the photo is the exterior of the new Columbus laboratory, which Schlegel traversed during the six-hour, 45-minute spacewalk.
: Photo: Victor Zelentsov/NASA
The station's first female commander, Peggy A. Whitson, walks with cosmonaut Yuri I. Malenchenko (center) and Malaysian space tourist Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, who is also the first Malaysian in space.
The astronauts are wearing Russian Sokol launch-and-entry suits for Expedition 16. The crew launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct. 10, 2007, and arrived at the ISS on Oct. 12.
: Photo: NASA
In this photo, the Expedition 1 crew members are still training for their upcoming mission a week-and-half prior to the Oct. 30, 2000, launch to International Space Station.
They are (left to right) Soyuz commander Yuri P. Gidzenko, Expedition 1 commander William M. (Bill) Shepherd and flight engineer Sergei K. Krikalev.
As the first residents of the ISS, it was this crew's job to unpack all the supply boxes and move in. They stayed a little over four months before returning to Earth.
: Photo: NASA
This view of Hurricane Felix was taken from the International Space Station on Sept. 3, 2007, with a 28-70mm lens set at 28mm focal length.
The ISS was located nearly over the coast of eastern Honduras when this image was taken. At approximately noon GMT, Hurricane Felix was moving west at 21 miles per hour. The sustained winds were 165 miles per hour with higher gusts making it a category 5 hurricane.
: Photo: Bill Ingalls/NASA
Photographer Bill Ingalls has traveled the world as a photographer for NASA since 1989. Honored by United Press International as one of the top pictures of 2007, Ingalls' photo of the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft shows it being transported by train to its launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The spacecraft launched two days later, bringing the Expedition 16 crew to the International Space Station.
: Photo: NASA
Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 17 flight engineer, uses a communication system in the Zvezda service module of the International Space Station on July 17, 2008. The Russian module provides living quarters and life-support functions.
Tagi: earth orbits, photo nasa, soyuz tma, minute spacewalk, solar array, crash pad, returning to earth, federal space, space shuttle, southeastern coast, careens, ultima series, atlant, bottom center, 10th birthday, brith, sci fi, michael fincke, frt, stabiliz
Posted by on under lazy writer, secd, human quality, text software, mth, chunks, conversations, alg, pers |
As a lazy writer who is occasionally forced to interview an actual person, I still haven't found the perfect solution to transcribing phone interviews without doing it myself. But a service called Cogi looks promising.
For $30/month you can record all of your calls through the Cogi website or a dial-in number—up to 1000 minutes a month. These calls can be pulled up at any time in the future, and you can bookmark important points of the call along the way for quick review.
But where the service gets really cool is that you can have 15 of these bookmarks transcribed for you (unfortunately, only in 30 second chunks). Apparently the system uses voice-to-text software along with some level of human quality control assurance.
We figure Cogi could be pretty great or a bit mediocre, but they are offering free one-month trials so you can try before you buy. [Cogi]
Tagi: lazy writer, secd, human quality, text software, mth, chunks, conversations, alg, pers
Posted by on under crying babies, promise breaker, norman vincent, simy, mentor, feelings, boss, pers, promes, experiences |
Promises are like crying babies in a theater, they should be carried out at once. ~Norman Vincent PealeAssociating with a person who makes a lot of promises but consistently breaks them, or simply doesn't keep them, is challenging. It is even harder if they're a member of your family or somebody whom you consider to be a close friend, or even a boss or mentor whom you have trusted. In particular, a history of shared experiences and feelings can make it very hard for you to know how to handle this person. Nevertheless, if their continued broken promises are making your life unpleasant and you feel used up, discarded, ignored, or just plain messed about, it is essential to deal with the promise breaker and then forgive them. Note that forgiving doesn't mean forgetting or letting them get away with it; it means that you reach a space of letting go and no longer allow this person to call the shots and ruin your chances at enjoying your life.
Tagi: crying babies, promise breaker, norman vincent, simy, mentor, feelings, boss, pers, promes, experiences
Posted by Jason Kottke on under amaz, h company, ppos, hsieh, specific company, steve jobs, rk, new yorker, snapshot, shoulders, cult, housewares, ty, pers, ceo, clothes, shoes, experiences |
From last week's New Yorker, a snapshot of the cult of Zappos just before the Amazon acquisition. I found it somewhat odd that the CEO, Tony Hsieh, doesn't particularly care about the products his company sells:
"I've never been into shoes -- and I'm still not," he said. Zappos has begun to expand from shoes, as Amazon did from its base of books, into other categories of merchandise: handbags, clothes. "Kitchenware, housewares, whatever," Hsieh said. But he's not really interested in those things, either. "I much prefer experiences to stuff," he said.
Hsieh also doesn't downplay the cultish aspects of the company either (unintentionally or not):
Though he has become increasingly visible as the face of Zappos and spends almost all his time proselytizing its culture, Hsieh resists the idea that he is powerful, or that the perpetuation of the brand rests on his shoulders. "For any company or movement or religion or whatever, if there's one person that personifies it then that puts that company or vision at risk, if the person, say, dies," he said. "What's gonna happen to Apple if something happens with Steve Jobs? That's why it needs to be about a movement, not about a person or even a specific company."
Tags: Tony Hsieh zappos
Tagi: amaz, h company, ppos, hsieh, specific company, steve jobs, rk, new yorker, snapshot, shoulders, cult, housewares, ty, pers, ceo, clothes, shoes, experiences
