![futuramb:
infoneer-pulse:
Your Physician Is Googling Your Symptoms Too
You aren’t the only one using search engines to diagnose your symptoms when you get sick (or have a bout of hypochondria). The Wolters Kluwer Health survey asked members of the American Medical Association a simple question: “How often would you use the following sources [professional journals, colleagues, medical reference books, search engines, etc.] to gain information used to diagnose, treat and care for patients?” It turns out that only professional journals and colleagues outrank search engines, and 46 percent of physicians cite Google and its ilk as frequent sources of information.
» via The Atlantic
I wonder how true these numbers are… If we are adding the factor that it is e g perceived as “unprofessional” to google something and therefore most likely is biasing the answers, the reference to professional journals are probably lower and googling and “medical/drug sales reps” remarkably higher.
Another aspect is that google very often hold references to both professional journals and blogs of colleagues. And colleagues might have acquired their knowledge from surfing the web…
But even without these adjustments the number are really interesting and a consequence of this is that patients and physicians probably should google their symptoms together rather then separate of each other…](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lu0cgqIduB1qzsn48o1_250.jpg)
Your Physician Is Googling Your Symptoms Too
You aren’t the only one using search engines to diagnose your symptoms when you get sick (or have a bout of hypochondria). The Wolters Kluwer Health survey asked members of the American Medical Association a simple question: “How often would you use the following sources [professional journals, colleagues, medical reference books, search engines, etc.] to gain information used to diagnose, treat and care for patients?” It turns out that only professional journals and colleagues outrank search engines, and 46 percent of physicians cite Google and its ilk as frequent sources of information.
» via The Atlantic
I wonder how true these numbers are… If we are adding the factor that it is e g perceived as “unprofessional” to google something and therefore most likely is biasing the answers, the reference to professional journals are probably lower and googling and “medical/drug sales reps” remarkably higher.
Another aspect is that google very often hold references to both professional journals and blogs of colleagues. And colleagues might have acquired their knowledge from surfing the web…
But even without these adjustments the number are really interesting and a consequence of this is that patients and physicians probably should google their symptoms together rather then separate of each other…
According to computer scientist John Kubiatowicz, from UC Berkeley. The books you put on your Kindle increase its weight, and not in the sense of gaining you respect among your friends and colleagues for having a scholarly taste in books. No sir, it’s actual weight in the physical world. And it’s not just the Kindle or just e-readers either, it’s every device that you load data on. You see, the downloading of ebooks to your e-reader changes the level of energy stored in the electrons on it. Their physical number stays the sum but, as Albert Einstein so cleverly put it, E=mc2. If those electrons are storing more energy, they gain more mass—ergo, your e-reader becomes heavier! You may have noticed that you have read over 150 words already and have yet to find out how much the weight actually increases by. That is by design. Because the increase in weight is by 10-18 of a gram, or 0.000000000000000001g. Kubiatowicz tells us that it’s called an attogram, but we are pretty sure he just made up that word on the fly (nope, just kidding). So how much is an attogram anyway? You won’t be the least bit surprised to know that it’s such a tiny unit of weight that it is unmeasurable by any scales that currently exist and you can actually affect the weight of your Kindle more just by charging its battery or wiping off its screen. (via A Kindle becomes heavier when you load it up with ebooks. Seriously!)
Robot solves Rubik’s cube in 5 seconds, sets world record [video]
Full Story: SmartPlanet
USB-equipped urban bikes can charge mobile devices
With so many gadgets and mobile devices in common use today, keeping them all charged has become an ongoing challenge. We’ve already seen numerous efforts to help consumers do just that in taxis and atfestivals, for example, but recently we came across a new approach targeting urban cyclists. Specifically, German bicycle maker Silverback has recently launched two bikes with built-in USB ports that can charge devices as the rider pedals. READ MORE…
![crookedindifference:
Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century
The United Nations expects the world’s population to reach 7 billion on Oct. 31.
Water use is predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing countries and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries with more and more people moving from rural areas to cities.
Over a billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and over 2 billion live without adequate sanitation, leading to the deaths of 5 million people, mostly children, each year from preventable waterborne disease.
The problem is that 97.5 percent of [the water] is salty and … of the 2.5 percent that’s fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen. Only 8 percent of the planet’s fresh water supply goes to domestic use and about 70 percent is used for irrigation and 22 percent in industry.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ltmwrn1yox1qzy0ygo1_250.png)
Water use has been growing at more than twice the rate of population increase in the last century
The United Nations expects the world’s population to reach 7 billion on Oct. 31.
Water use is predicted to increase by 50 percent between 2007 and 2025 in developing countries and 18 percent in developed ones, with much of the increased use in the poorest countries with more and more people moving from rural areas to cities.
Over a billion people lack access to clean drinking water, and over 2 billion live without adequate sanitation, leading to the deaths of 5 million people, mostly children, each year from preventable waterborne disease.
The problem is that 97.5 percent of [the water] is salty and … of the 2.5 percent that’s fresh, two-thirds of that is frozen. Only 8 percent of the planet’s fresh water supply goes to domestic use and about 70 percent is used for irrigation and 22 percent in industry.
(via mothernaturenetwork)
