Author: andy

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$30,000 from the National Parkinson Foundation…to play the Wii…

So, I saw this blurb on Wii Nintendo Fanboy, referring to a press release discussing how the Medical College of Georgia has been awarded a $30,000 grant from the National Parkinson Foundation to test 30 individuals for improvements in their Parkinson’s symptoms by playing the Wii.

More specifically:

“‘Occupational therapy looks at how the illness affects the patient’s whole life, from the psychological, cognitive and sensory motor standpoints,’ says Dr. Ben Herz, assistant professor of occupational therapy in the School of Allied Health Sciences and a study principal investigator along with Dr. John Morgan, neurologist. ‘Our therapists are responsible for helping someone maintain or gain their independence with functional activities.’

“While occupational therapy is frequently used in the comprehensive care of Parkinson’s patients, evidence is needed to support its short- or long-term effectiveness, says Dr. Herz.

“’We’re hoping to show a slowing of the progression of the disease and a decrease in medication while increasing function. If we can teach patients to exercise and do functional activities, maybe we can have them take less medications,’ he says.”

Anyway, this is an idea I had…but…didn’t write a grant for it. I’m wondering if I could have gotten such a thing past my Prelim committee, and have Dr. Westfall playing Wii Sports during my exam…would have been more fun… 🙂

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Sam, on virtual video…

A video on YouTube titled “Simon’s Cat ‘Cat Man Do.'” Personally, I think it’s about Sam, ’cause that’s what he does… Any morning that he doesn’t have food in his bowl around 5:00-6:00 am, he starts scratching under our door. Never fails. The fluff ball makes me feed him before I go to bed just to ensure that he doesn’t wake me up too early in the morning. This morning, I squirted him with a water bottle…he came back 30 minutes later and started again…

Anyway, this video is an appropriate representation of our cat…enjoy… 😛

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Why do CDs cost so much?

There’s an interesting blurb in this month’s Rolling Stone talking about why CDs cost $15.99, and moreover why Wal-Mart wants that cost dropped to $10… Apparently, the price of a CD is figured as follows:

    $0.17 Musicians’ unions
    $0.80 Packaging/manufacturing
    $0.82 Publishing royalties
    $0.80 Retail profit
    $0.90 Distribution
    $1.60 Artists’ royalties
    $1.70 Label profit
    $2.40 Marketing/promotion
    $2.91 Label overhead
    $3.89 Retail overhead

Now, in all honest, it’s rather interesting just seeing how many pieces of pie are getting divided up here, and how the retailer only sees $0.80 in profit per CD sold, and the artist themselves see $1.60 per CD sold.

Apparently, according to the article, Wal-Mart has emerged as the nation’s biggest CD retailer and your record’s sales at Wal-Mart essentially determine whether you’ll make money or not (~138 million people shop at Wal-Mart each week). However, Wal-Mart (and Target and Best Buy…) take a loss on CDs to sell them closer to $10 in hopes of getting people into the electronics section, where they’ll buy something on the way back, or pick up a DVD, etc. while they’re back there.

Well, Wal-Mart is tired of taking that loss on each disc and is trying to convince the music industry to streamline their process a bit, otherwise Wal-Mart will cut back on space for CDs and instead offer shelves to DVDs and video games. This would, of course, be terrible for the music industry as a whole in that nearly all their CDs are sold (excluding the internet) in Wal-Mart, Target and Best Buy now, as an estimated 1200 record stores have closed in the last two years alone.

Anyway, I find this relatively interesting… I did a presentation for Speech class in undergrad on how stupid the music industry is, as a whole, and how they really need to adjust their model if they want to compete in the 21st century. That was nearly 6 years ago, and apparently little has changed. As the article states, the music industry is all about milking every last dime in profit from a given song (frequently crappy ones…), while companies like Wal-Mart want to make every purchase as cheap as possible to make their profits on volume. I kinda think iTunes, and other online retailers, are following closer to the Wal-Mart model, removing most of the overhead costs listed above in favor of making money on the volume sold of a given song (or album) to millions of people.

Personally, I’m shocked the CD has made it this long as a popular medium. Brooke and I only buy CDs anymore when it’s a certain group (like Dave Matthews, for example) – otherwise, we’ll buy it through iTunes and burn it ourselves, as we tend to care very little about how pretty the cover art to a given album is.

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Where do I go for stem cell treatments? China!

So, I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR this morning when they had this article about stem-cell treatments offered by Beike Biotechnology – in China… The article specifically highlights how Americans with little hope of curing ailments (like a family’s blind 7-month-old daughter) are going to China to give these treatments a try. The company uses stem-cells harvested from umbilical cords, so they aren’t embryonic in nature (i.e. somewhat less controversial…). It’ll set you back upwards of $10,000-$20,000 (less the cost of actually getting to China to try it!).

I guess the problem I have with this is on two fronts:

1). There are a variety of ethical concerns from a scientific standpoint, in that (according to the article) there is little research in the field to suggest that implantation of these stem cells should yield any beneficial effect. And by “little research,” I mean in cell culture, rats, mice, etc. Essentially, it seems to me that these people are being given experimental treatments that shouldn’t be given to humans yet. It would be one thing if there was a great deal of promising data to suggest moving forward with human trials, but it seems like this company kind of decided to skip that part and just jump right in on people.

2). What does it say about American policy when people are willing to go to a different country to get these treatments (ethical or not…). According to the article, over 600 foreigners (not necessarily all Americans…) have gone to this company to get the treatment, which thereby means that there are people here in the US and other countries that want the option. However, there are so many restrictions here in the US on experimentation (let alone human trials) that these individuals are forced to go to countries that have “skipped” over the, perhaps, more proper procedures.

Perhaps if the US provided more funding and support for stem cell research, we wouldn’t have Americans traveling overseas to get experimental treatments for their 7-month-old children? I’m not even saying embryonic stem cells (although I’d still like to see more research on them), but even on umbilical cells – without proper funding and support, researchers can’t get the work done, thereby risking other, less ethical, groups coming forward with these treatments and offering them to the public.

Where exactly is the morality of denying money and support for stem cell research when it forces families to go overseas to get treatments that we could have developed ourselves?

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Updat(ing)…

Nothing too special going on recently, but I’ve been keeping pretty busy…

1). Work has been going pretty well, recently. I’ve been getting lots of useful data, but I’m still waiting on an important piece before submitting my first paper for publication. I don’t really know which journal I want to submit it to yet, either, but that will partially depend on this last piece of the puzzle. Regardless, the data I’ve been obtaining in the last few week has actually been somewhat exciting, so it makes things interesting for me!

2). I got Super Smash Bros. Brawl last weekend and have been playing it mostly incessantly since I unwrapped it. The game is crazy addictive, lemme tell ya… I’m only about a quarter of the way through the single-player portion of the game, as I’ve been dabbling in the Event modes, Classic mode and on-line games trying to unlock characters and levels. If you’ve got a code for me, shoot me an e-mail or something so you can beat me up with Peach! 😛

3). Grounded was last night, and I think this was our 7th one or so. We’ve been having a great deal of fun with it, but it’d still be nice to see more people coming out (third Saturday of every month!). I recently got all the advertising materials from my sister so now I can start editing some things myself. As such, I added a new section to the Grounded site that has photos, wallpapers (I’m still working on those) and, more importantly, music. So yes, you can stream music recorded from monthly Grounded events from your own computer. w00t!

4). We’ll be heading to Columbia for Easter this year… We are supposed to play for the Good Friday service here in St. Louis first so we won’t hit town until Saturday morning. Otherwise, we’ll be at church Saturday night at St. Andrew’s, as per usual, and then hang out with the immediate and extended family on Easter Sunday. Hopefully giant radioactive rabbits don’t crash the party…

I guess that’s about it. Tomorrow is St. Patty’s Day, so Dr. Westfall, the chairman of our department at school, always has a huge party (complete with dancers…he has to install a wood floor in the basement for them every year…) and it’ll take up the entirety of my day. Heck of a way to spend a Monday, I say… 😛

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"C" is for cookie…


So, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, did a little blurb for a site called TrueMajority.org. It seems to be mostly a liberal-leaning website, but I think they’re trying to bring a more moderate message to issues relevant to our time.

In the Flash animation (linked to above, if you click on the image…), you get him talking for a few minutes about what the site is, but mostly about his “Oreo Analogy”…which is why you should spend a minute and watch it. He breaks it down by saying one Oreo equals $10 billion, and the Dept. of Defense gets 40 Oreos. Then he describes how much our social programs get (Head Start, Education, etc.) and how much is going to the defenses of other nations that could hurt us (i.e. Russia, China, etc.).

Anyway, it’s amusing and enlightening. Working in science, I’m very aware of the NIH budget, where most science dollars in health research comes from. The NIH budget is $35 billion and hasn’t increased with inflation in years (meaning that we’ve effectively got decreases in funding progressively).

One Oreo cookie shaved off the top of that defense budget could help cure a lot of people. And help education. And feed the hungry.

And no, shaving a few cookies off the top of that stack won’t “let the terrorists win”…

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“C” is for cookie…


So, Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream, did a little blurb for a site called TrueMajority.org. It seems to be mostly a liberal-leaning website, but I think they’re trying to bring a more moderate message to issues relevant to our time.

In the Flash animation (linked to above, if you click on the image…), you get him talking for a few minutes about what the site is, but mostly about his “Oreo Analogy”…which is why you should spend a minute and watch it. He breaks it down by saying one Oreo equals $10 billion, and the Dept. of Defense gets 40 Oreos. Then he describes how much our social programs get (Head Start, Education, etc.) and how much is going to the defenses of other nations that could hurt us (i.e. Russia, China, etc.).

Anyway, it’s amusing and enlightening. Working in science, I’m very aware of the NIH budget, where most science dollars in health research comes from. The NIH budget is $35 billion and hasn’t increased with inflation in years (meaning that we’ve effectively got decreases in funding progressively).

One Oreo cookie shaved off the top of that defense budget could help cure a lot of people. And help education. And feed the hungry.

And no, shaving a few cookies off the top of that stack won’t “let the terrorists win”…

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Gaming makes you thin(ner)?

So, I know Brooke isn’t a huge fan of the idea, but I really wanna grab Wii Fit when it releases for the Wii (obviously…) on May 19th, 2008. It’s been out in Japan for a few months now and has already sold over 1 million copies in that region alone (i.e. it’s pretty popular). Apparently, the designers had to re-do the included Balance Board peripheral for the Americans because, well, we’re mostly overweight…

For those that don’t know (mostly just you, Mom…), the game will feature multiple “mini-games,” a la Wii Sports, but you will do them all on the Balance Board, a wireless device that can record your weight, sense your movements, and keep an eye on your progress. You can practice your yoga, jog (in place, of course) with a computer character that keeps your pace, you can do push-ups, skiing, and so on. There should be forty or so games, in all. The Balance Board will then be available for use with other software that can be created (skateboarding games, anyone?).

Wii Fit

The reason I mention this at all is because the guys at Wired.com have started using it and wrote up a little diary of their first week with the game. There are screen shots included on the article, but at the very end, they say the following:

“Today, I turned on Wii Fit for a few minutes, but turned it off after a couple of yoga poses because I felt like running a few blocks instead. That’s either a bad thing or a good thing.

“I am going to keep using Wii Fit, as it definitely does what it claims to. After an hour, I’m sweating, my muscles are sore — I’ve exercised. And I’ve set some personal-best records, and maybe unlocked some new games. It’s fun. The hardware is a great idea — I just think the software could be worlds better. Luckily, since Nintendo seems to be trying to get third parties on board (cough), I bet we’ll see a better virtual-exercise-regimen game before too long. With any luck it will ship before Wii Fit gets too boring.”

Nintendo has officially stated that the game is not intended to help you lose weight, but instead to “make you more aware of your body.” I think the article above really highlights that fact: you will use it, realize how terrible your balance is and how many push-ups you can actually do, and then maybe try and work out just a little bit more often. And if you need a little guidance (or “coaxing”), then you can play a game while you work out.

So yeah, I think I want it. I’m not one to go out jogging or biking or anything, so maybe spending the projected $80 on the game would get me off the couch for gaming, just like Wii Sports does.

And knowing how popular Wii Sports is, I can’t begin to imagine how many of these puppies will sell to nursing homes across the continent… 😛

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"Education" vs "Training"…

So, I finally watched “Jesus Camp” this weekend with Mom and Brooke, the latter of which had already seen it and subsequently shown it to the high school Sunday school class at church (heh…). The movie, for those that don’t know, is a documentary beginning in the spring in the general area of Lee’s Summit, MO (near Kansas City, of course) as kids there (ranging from ages 6-12) prepare to go off to summer camp in North Dakota; the kids then go to the camp, and then return. The camp is run by a Pentecostal minister that is preaching to them for the week. It’s close to 1.5 hrs long. Essentially, the movie is about how the evangelical movement in America is affecting the young children involved.

The neat thing about the movie is that it’s told solely from the perspective of the kids and the camp director, along with a sort of “counterpoint” presented through an evangelical radio host (that later interviews the camp director). The film makers say nothing in the movie, but allow the kids, parents and other figures to do all the talking. The people in the film speak for themselves, leaving little room for interpretation by the viewer.

Well, the thing is…because of this fact, you know that these people really believe what they’re saying, and it provides some cause for concern. The camp director is interviewed frequently throughout the film talking about “training” these kids. She constantly refers to it as “training,” and mentions multiple times how “people in other religions” start “training” their kids from the age of 3 to do everything and anything for their beliefs, including strapping a bomb to themselves. She literally talks about how “we Christians” need to start “training” our kids in a similar way.

Now, as my Mom so perceptively noticed, many of the kids depicted in this movie seemed to be brainwashed. Not playing with toys at the age of 9. Not playing video games. Not watching MTV. They were instead going up to a few old African American guys in the park asking if they knew “where they were going after they die.” They said heaven. The 9 year old girl said “are you sure?” They said “yes.” As she walked away with her mullet-donned accomplice (seriously…watch that video…), she says “I think they’re Muslim.”

I guess it’s concerning because, as the camp director says, these are the next generation of voters in our country. I know (or hope?) that this is an isolated group of evangelicals and that this is not how most of them go about things, but I have to wonder if their childhood isn’t being corrupted for something Jesus didn’t intend?

Perhaps I’d feel differently if they were talking about “education” rather than “training.” That word really has the connotation of preparing for a battle or war.

I don’t think I like where this is going.