Archive of ‘General’ category

Be the Change – Duke Design for a Difference Challenge

 

Think you have the next big idea to transform the health of mothers around the world?

ABC News’ Be the Change: Save a Life and the Duke Global Health Institute are launching an open challenge for university students, designed to surface and celebrate emerging innovations in maternal health care, and to provide a launch pad to make those ideas a reality.

Around the world, 350,000 women continue to die each year of complications due to childbirth. In the vast majority of cases, they’re dying of preventable causes: severe bleeding, infection, obstructed labor and a host of other problems that can be averted with skilled care and improved technology. We believe that somewhere amidst the deep pools of knowledge, creativity and passion at work in today’s universities is a new social innovation to improve health care delivery, an innovative piece of technology designed for low-tech clinics and home delivery, or something altogether new and life-saving.

Whether you’re an undergraduate, a graduate student or a professional student, we’re inviting you to share a short video showcasing your idea, and how you plan to address one of the many causes that lead to high maternal mortality rates or lower quality of life for pregnant and postnatal women. And we’re challenging you to do it in 5 minutes or less.

All submissions must be received by midnight on April 29, 2011 to be considered. CLICK HERE for more on submission requirements, eligibility and judging criteria.

The prize? One outstanding individual or team will win $10,000 and the opportunity to work with experts to develop and test the design or idea in the field. The winner will also be invited to present his or her idea before global health experts at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health annual meeting in November in Montreal.

Together, we’ll help put an end to the countless unnecessary deaths of mothers worldwide, and introduce America to a new generation of innovators and problem-solvers.

For more on maternal health and Challenge FAQs, CLICK HERE. Please direct any questions about the Challenge or submission form to ABCSaveALife@Gmail.com.

The Men of Geeky Moms 2011 Fantasy Calendar

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The "Men of Geeky Moms 2011 Fantasy Calendar" is ready for purchase!  The calendar features men who make geeky women salivate.  Let the men entertain you month to month with wonderful quips such as "Wanna see my hard drive?"  or "Would you like ftp access to my server?"

We had such a great time creating this calendar.  As an added bonus, Geeky Moms is donating a percentage of the sales to our Relay for Life team!

Thanks to all the models and support from our family and friends this calendar is now available!

Go to geekymencalendar.com for more details and purchase information!

Facebook Frustrations

eye strain Why do people have to mess with things that are perfectly fine the way they were?  Facebook is forever updating their site.  This can be okay but the last update is driving me nuts.  They have shrunk the font down to a size that literally gives me a headache within minutes of using it.  Granted I’m not 20 anymore but I’m not in need of glasses that are 3 inches thick either.  There has to be a happy medium between fitting more on a page and giving people eye strain.. 

In ranting and complaining to a few of my friends, one resolution albeit temporary was found.  This resolution will affect other sites so make sure you “undo” your actions before going to a new site.  When you are on Facebook hold the Control Key and the + sign down.  This increases the size of your browser as a whole.  It is using the browsers zoom function.  You can also go to the View menu option and choose Zoom.  To undo this hold the Control Key and the – sign.   

Another change Facebook has implemented is while you are chatting with someone it adds your picture to every chat message you send and their picture to their responses.  It doesn’t hurt anything but it was an unnecessary change.  It doesn’t add any functionality and it doesn’t make chatting easier to do.  It in fact takes up more room and frankly I don’t think I need to constantly see my picture with every line I type. 

Change is not always easy for people, but on the flip side, change is not always necessary. 

Facebook will never make everyone happy.  It’s just not possible.  One change can have 100 people loving it and 2000 people hating it and vice versa.  I just wish that they would stop and think about the changes they make and ask themselves the following questions:  Is it necessary?  Does it INCREASE functionality?  Is it just fluff?  Can it be undone if half the population of Facebook hate it?  Are there options for people who don’t want to use the new change?  What are the reasons behind the change?  Once those questions are asked and answered, then make the change.   I bet they’d find that not every idea needs to be implemented and not every option explored.  In the meantime, if they could increase the font size and I’d be ecstatic! 

In Defense of the Casual Gamer

The amazing world of gaming has now expanded to cell phones!  Does my addiction to phone apps qualify me as a gamer?  This has became a huge debate in my circle of friends!  I have been defending my gamer status to a few of them lately and it has raised the question what qualifies someone as a gamer?  So was born this article and the official defense of the casual gamer. 

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Planes Trains and Automobiles

train So I was reading the news this morning, and to get a good balance I often like to read both the Drudge Report, which seem to me to contain more conservative political views. And then weigh it against something like ABC News in what I feel to be a more liberal side of the coin. I actually enjoy reading the Report more because most of the political headlines read almost exactly like something out of the The Onion, so I usually get a good laugh just browsing the headliners.

Today I ran across this article describing that the government had given huge stimulus packages to states that would enter into contracts to put up high-speed rail between big cities in the US, the GOP  has vowed to shut it down after the big gains in the house last week.

It brings into sharp contrast the Federal Reserve and the Obama administrations strategy to stimulate the economy through continuing to devalue the dollar. They are making a bid to cash in and reinvest that wealth into the infrastructure, just like was done with the highway interstate system in the great depression.

High speed trains are good because they can offer less congested skies over major cities, and help relax traffic in cases of emergency. But the fact remains the nations private passenger train companies have been having enormous problems lately. It cost nearly as much to ride the train as it does just to rent a car and drive yourself. But if I must admit it if I was going to get to travel on the ground at 186 miles an hour I would ride the train more…

The real issue isn’t a question of a society risking capital in the high speed train industry. Instead it is whether or not the US wants to further devalue the wealth of the country by using the value of the US currency as leverage. Even if the depression is broken and the economy starts to boom, its only a patch on a ever expanding leak on the fiat currency system.

2 Billion People on the Internet

imageAccording to a report published by the International Telecommunication Union, the number of Internet users around the world doubled in the past five years and will surpass the two billion mark in 2010.  1.6 billion people now have Internet access available to them from their home.

Broadband subscriptions rose substantially with 8% of the world Internet subscriptions using broadband.

The amount of SMS (text) messages tripled over the past three years to reach 6.1 trillion.  This means about 200,000 text messages are being sent every second! 

Netflix for Wii Now Disk Free

 

Wii owners can download the new Netflix disc-free streaming update from the Wii Shop Channel.  Up until now, Netflix viewing through the Wii needed a special Netflix disc.  This update adds Netflix as a menu option on the Wii Menu.  Previously, the only console which had disk free streaming of Netflix was the XBox 360. 

Sony’s Playstation 3 also requires a disk, but an update is expected to be released sometime today to allow disk free streaming.

 

You still need a Netflix subscription in order to take advantage of the streaming.  Subscriptions start at $8.99 a month. 

Be the Match

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Geeky Moms proudly sponsors the Be the Match program.  Be the Match is a foundation established to create a bone marrow donor registry for patients and families looking to cure life-threatening diseases like lymphoma or leukemia.

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