Robotics and medical experts in Japan on Wednesday unveiled the prototype of a new hi-tech electric wheelchair that resembles a scooter and promises greater mobility. Users ride astride the four-wheeled Rodem — rather than sitting in it, as in a conventional wheelchair — steer it with a joystick and hold onto motorbike-style handles while the knees and chest rest on cushions. The design allows users to slide more easily on and off the vehicle, lessening reliance on care-givers to lift them, the inventors said. ‘I believe this is a whole new idea for a wheelchair,’ said Makoto Hashizume, head of the Veda International Robot Research and Development Centre and a medical professor of Kyushu University. ‘With this vehicle, users can move around more freely and more actively without much help from other people.’ It is the first invention unveiled by the Veda centre, which opened in May in southwestern Munakata city and is a joint project of Japanese robot maker Tmsuk Co. and researchers from 10 universities and institutes. The robotics and medical specialists, including from Germany and Italy, aim to invent robots for use in health and nursing, an area where high-tech Japan, […]
WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the world’s largest business federation, wants to put climate change science on trial. In an attempt to head off a U.S. EPA finding that climate change endangers public health and welfare in the United States, the Chamber Tuesday petitioned the federal agency for a trial-like hearing of the scientific evidence before an administrative judge or EPA official. ‘An endangerment finding would give rise to the most far-reaching rulemaking in American history,’ the Chamber said in its petition. ‘Before embarking on that long, costly process, EPA ought to do everything possible to assure the American people of the ultimate scientific accuracy of its decision.’ ‘In short, an on-the-record proceeding is not only desirable, but in this instance it is necessary if EPA is serious about its proclaimed commitment to ‘overwhelming transparency,’ scientific integrity, and a resolution based solely on the record of the scientific evidence,’ the Chamber said. What the Chamber called an ‘on-the-record’ proceeding in its petition was given a more inflammatory name by William Kovacs, the Chamber’s senior vice president for environment, technology and regulatory affairs, in an interview with the ‘Los Angeles Times.’ Jury in the […]
The US tolerates more inequality, deprivation and suffering than is acceptable here When we Europeans – the British included – contemplate the battles President Obama must fight to reform the US health system, our first response tends to be disbelief. How can it be that so obvious a social good as universal health insurance, so humane a solution to common vulnerability, is not sewn deep into the fabric of the United States? How can one of the biggest, richest and most advanced countries in the world tolerate a situation where, at any one time, one in six of the population has to pay for their treatment item by item, or resort to hospital casualty wards? The second response, as automatic as the first, is to blame heartless and ignorant Republicans. To Europeans, a universal health system is so basic to a civilised society that only the loony right could possibly oppose it: the people who cling to their guns, picket abortion clinics (when they are not trying to shoot the abortionists) and block funding for birth control in the third world. All right, we are saying to ourselves, there are Americans who think like this, but they are […]
WUXI, China — President Obama wants to make the United States ‘the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy, but in his seven months in office, it is China that has stepped on the gas in an effort to become the dominant player in green energy - especially in solar power, and even in the United States. Chinese companies have already played a leading role in pushing down the price of solar panels by almost half over the last year. Shi Zhengrong, the chief executive and founder of China’s biggest solar panel manufacturer, Suntech Power Holdings, said in an interview here that Suntech, to build market share, is selling solar panels on the American market for less than the cost of the materials, assembly and shipping. Backed by lavish government support, the Chinese are preparing to build plants to assemble their products in the United States to bypass protectionist legislation. As Japanese automakers did decades ago, Chinese solar companies are encouraging their United States executives to join industry trade groups to tamp down anti-Chinese sentiment before it takes root. The Obama administration is determined to help the American industry. The energy and Treasury departments announced this month that […]
Merck was in trouble. In 2002, the pharmaceutical giant was falling behind its rivals in sales. Even worse, patents on five blockbuster drugs were about to expire, which would allow cheaper generics to flood the market. The company hadn’t introduced a truly new product in three years, and its stock price was plummeting. In interviews with the press, Edward Scolnick, Merck’s research director, laid out his battle plan to restore the firm to preeminence. Key to his strategy was expanding the company’s reach into the antidepressant market, where Merck had lagged while competitors like Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline created some of the best-selling drugs in the world. ‘To remain dominant in the future,’ he told Forbes, ‘we need to dominate the central nervous system.’ His plan hinged on the success of an experimental antidepressant codenamed MK-869. Still in clinical trials, it looked like every pharma executive’s dream: a new kind of medication that exploited brain chemistry in innovative ways to promote feelings of well-being. The drug tested brilliantly early on, with minimal side effects, and Merck touted its game-changing potential at a meeting of 300 securities analysts. Behind the scenes, however, MK-869 was starting to unravel. True, many […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
