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Saying Goodbye To Old Technology — And A Legendary NYC Repair Shop  

Why are we parting with BlackBerry Classic and VCR — but not fax or QWERTY keyboard? We ask you to nominate outdated tech for phase-out and visit Tekserve, the closing cult Mac store in Manhattan.

 
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Robotic Surgery Triumphs Over Prostate Cancer In Obese  
It's yet another feather in the cap of robotic-assisted prostate surgery. Researchers in the Department of Urology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine have discovered that robotic-assisted surgery to remove the prostate reduces the risk of blood loss and prolonged hospital stays.

Researchers examined records of 9,108 obese men who underwent radical prostatectomy (removal of the prostate gland and some surrounding tissue). Among all patients, 60.4 percent underwent robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy and 39.6 percent underwent open prostatectomy.

Compared with patients who had open surgery, patients undergoing robotic-assisted surgery were 83 percent less likely to require blood transfusions and 72 percent less likely to require prolonged hospital stays. But robotic-assisted surgery did not reduce the risk of infections and other complications, the study found.

The robotic system allows surgeons to operate through a few small incisions. Movements by the surgeon's hand or wrist are translated into highly precise movements of the surgical instruments. Every maneuver is directed by the surgeon, in real time, as the surgeon views a magnified, 3D, high-definition image of the surgical site.

Prostate cancer is the most common solid organ cancer in men in the United States. One in six men will develop prostate cancer over their lifetimes, and many will choose to have radical prostatectomies. In the past decade, the use of robotic-assisted radical prostatectomy has surpassed that of open surgery.

More than one-third of adults in the United States are obese. Obese patients can be challenging, because many have related conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and obstructive sleep apnea that can increase the risk of blood transfusions, complications and prolonged length of stay.

Researchers concluded the study results have these implications:

• The finding that robotic-assisted surgery reduces blood transfusion and prolonged length-of-stay even in obese patients offers a better understanding of the value of robotic surgery in challenging patients.
• For urologists, the finding that robotic and open surgery have similar complication rates implies that both techniques remain interchangeable. The surgeon's comfort level should dictate which surgical approach is used.
• For obese prostate cancer patients, the broad findings suggest that both surgical approaches are feasible and safe.

In the study, researchers examined records from the 2009-2010 Nationwide Impatient Sample maintained by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Dr. Samadi is a board-certified urologic oncologist trained in open and traditional and laparoscopic surgery and is an expert in robotic prostate surgery. He is chairman of urology, chief of robotic surgery at Lenox Hill Hospital and professor of urology at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. He is a medical correspondent for the Fox News Channel's Medical A-Team Learn more at roboticoncology.com. Visit Dr. Samadi's blog at SamadiMD.com. Follow Dr. Samadi on Twitter, Instagram, Pintrest and Facebook.

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China launches world's first quantum science satellite  
QUESS mission will test the feasibility of quantum communication between ground and space  
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What are the potential applications of topological insulators?  
Why topological insulators could boost electronics and quantum computing  
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The London Dome from a Cable Car  

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EMIRATES AIR LINE - London  

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The London Dome at Sunset  

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The Dome  

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EMIRATES Cable Car Station  

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EMIRATES AIR LINE Cable Car  

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EMIRATES AIR LINE Cable Cars  

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r0B0t: Intel's Euclid is a RealSense PC the size of a candy bar  
Intel has just announced Euclid, a unique all-in-one RealSense device that's packed in the size of a candy bar. As CEO Brian Krzanich said on stage, this is essentially an easy way to bring sensors to any robot. The Euclid packs in a camera, an Atom...  
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The Downsides Of Having A Big Brain  
A big powerful brain has obvious advantages but it also carries hidden costs, and for many species a big brain now puts them at greater risk of extinction.  
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Human's Hubris Against Nature  

Image Credit: Dana Ellis Hunnes

Earlier this week, an article came out in the New York Times, entitled "against sustainability"

This article was viscerally upsetting and compelled me to write this piece in response:

In a perfect example of hubris, "Against sustainability" argues that nature, the environment, and "resources," are ours for the taking, to do with them as we please. Which, in fact, we pretty much do.

This is a highly biased, and Anthropocentric view of the world, one which does not take into consideration evolution, and our destructive ways against the world. Modern humans (Homo sapiens) more or less fully evolved in the last 100,000 years. And in this time-frame, and even more specifically, in the last 150 years, we have managed to cull large proportions of most species.

Many of the flora and fauna that exist on Earth and in our oceans today evolved hundreds of millions of years ago. For example, the shark evolved some 400 million years ago. Today, most shark species have declined by over 90% or more. Why? Because they get caught in fishing nets, or more importantly, because humans eat them in shark-fin soup; a soup that tastes like nothing.

Slaughtering elephants for their tusks, an elephant-tooth, known as "ivory" is sure not for human survival. It's for a trinket, or an ornament, often fueling terrorist or other illicit organizations.

Murdering rhinoceros for their horns, so that now there are fewer than 25,000 of them, is not for human survival. It's for an "aphrodisiac" with absolutely no proven effects. Thus, the arguments made in "against sustainability" that we preserve things simply for our consumption are base.

The background rate of extinction is about one to five species per year. However, the current rates of extinction, since humans figured out how to cull and mass execute animals, has been 1,000-10,000 times faster than those back ground rates. This is a fact.

Humans are the most destructive species on the planet. We do not use our fair share of the natural resources. Our cities utilize mass amounts of natural and fabricated resources. And our cities are growing. Nearly half of all people live in cities, and this is increasing.

We are reckless with our use of fossil fuels. We are reckless with our fishing methods, destroying ecosystems, habitat, and throwing away unintended fish species.

We are reckless with our clear-cutting of forests, fracturing animal lives. We are reckless in our dietary habits; fueling deforestation.

It is never excusable to say "Mass extinctions are only tragic if nature is viewed as something perfect that we are destroying, rather than as a state of flux in which we are participating."

Extinction is forever. Once a species is gone. It is gone for good. That is inexcusable. Particularly when we can do something to prevent it.

Biodiversity isn't just about protecting what's pretty, or admiring what we want to look at. Biodiversity, ensures a healthy planet, decreases the risk of blight, decreases the risk of disease spread, and decreases the risk of environmental collapse.

Monocultures, where one species of crop is grown, or one type of livestock is reared; there is always the risk of "failure." If a blight goes through the field, you lose your crop. If an illness or disease goes through your livestock, you could lose them all. Biodiversity and sustainability are therefore crucial for the health and safety of the planet; and the health and safety of us.

As E.O. Wilson has said, animals (and other species) do not need us to survive, but we [sure do] need them.

To defame the concept of sustainability is to throw the baby out with the bathwater, and to have a blasé and cavalier attitude toward preservation of ecosystems and species is not only negligent, but it is reckless.

Each animal and plant has a place in the web of life.

I'd like to say humans have a place in the web of life too. But mostly, it seems like human's place is in the web of death.

To contact Dana: recipe.for.survival@gmail.com
Twitter: recipe4survival
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RecipeForSurvival/
PlanetExperts: http://www.planetexperts.com/author/danahunnes/

-- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

 
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Roots Of The Sand Storms Are In America!  
I was born in Pali, a small town in Rajasthan, the largest state of India with a major portion of the Thar desert. Although it is located around the desert region, once every few years it also receives its share of wetter than usual Indian monsoon. And this year in 2016, this part of India is once again flooded as are several other parts of India including Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and in the recent memory, many other parts such as Kashmir and Chennai. These intense weather patterns in India are of course not isolated incidents as they are matched with similar examples of droughts, hurricanes, typhoons, floods, and other natural disasters throughout the world.

While it is common to read analyses by scholars in which the rise of global terrorism is at least partially blamed on American foreign policy, how can the rise in recent natural disasters be explained? It is true that unplanned and mismanaged urbanization has insufficient ways to deal with natural disasters in most of the African and Asian countries. The effects and the response for these disasters will definitely need to be handled by the local administrations but is the underlying cause for the increasing disasters?

As we know, natural disasters are not new phenomena for our planet and for millions of years, humans have survived them but the underlying cause for the recent upsurge in these disasters is indeed rooted in the recent human activities. Here is how the Nobel prize winning scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change are cited on the NASA website:

Climate change may not be responsible for the recent skyrocketing cost of natural disasters, but it is very likely that it will impact future catastrophes. Climate models provide a glimpse of the future, and while they do not agree on all of the details, most models predict a few general trends. First, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an increase of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will probably boost temperatures over most land surfaces, though the exact change will vary regionally. More uncertain--but possible--outcomes of an increase in global temperatures include increased risk of drought and increased intensity of storms, including tropical cyclones with higher wind speeds, a wetter Asian monsoon, and, possibly, more intense mid-latitude storms. (For more information, see Global Warming: Potential Effects of Global Warming).

Until recently, USA has been the leading country for the greenhouse gas emissions thus the biggest reason for climate change and yet, very little change in American lifestyle or energy consumption or food habits has been accepted in the USA even as America continue to directly or indirectly preach other countries how to "develop." American appetite for beef (cattle meat) is another leading cause for massive deforestation across the world, fueling further the climate change and thus more natural disasters and yet no foreseeable change in decreasing the beef craze in America.

For the majority of the scientists and environmentalists, the above underlying cause for the upsurge in natural disasters and climate change is now common knowledge but for the American administration, this still seems like a blind spot. Sooner, they realize the problem, sooner they will begin to address it and prove their accountability not only to the American taxpayers but also to the mother earth and mother nature.

Several scientists in the late 20th century had coined a phrase the butterfly effect. It explained rather poetically that even flapping of a butterfly in one part of the world can cause hurricanes in other remote parts of the world. We in America are certainly much more significant players than a mere butterfly as far as our carbon footprints are to be counted as the cause for climate change and natural disasters.

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Take off from the City of London Airport  

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EMIRATES AIR LINE - River Thames London  

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London Docklands  

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London Cranes at the Docklands  

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Cable Cars at Dusk  

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Cable Car Sunset  

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London at Dusk  

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Air Line Cable Cars - London Docklands  

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Sunset over The Dome  

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Historic Louisiana Flooding Affects Tens of Thousands (28 photos)  

Over the weekend, a slow-moving storm pulled massive amounts of moisture inland from the Gulf of Mexico, dumping nearly two feet of water on Louisiana and neighboring states. Governor John Bel Edwards said that at least eight people have lost their lives in the disaster, now affecting 40,000 homes. National Guard troops, emergency rescue teams and local volunteers have been working to rescue as many as 20,000 people trapped by the rising waters. The flooding has begun to recede in many places today, allowing some homeowners to return and assess the damage.

 
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