(h/t: Johanna)
Posts Tagged ‘Open thread’
Caturday: Getting ready for Christmas
by 1389AD ( 38 Comments › )Filed under Caturday, Open thread at December 22nd, 2012 - 7:00 pm
Dog Day Afternoon: Cliff the beagle detects Clostridium difficile infections in hospital
by 1389AD ( 13 Comments › )Filed under Dog Day Afternoon, Medicine, Open thread at December 15th, 2012 - 3:00 pm
Cliff and C. diff – Smelling the diagnosis
Published on Dec 14, 2012 by BMJmedia
Sniffer dogs are often seen in airports, but Cliff, the beagle from Amsterdam, is more at home in a hospital. Cliff has been trained to sniff out the bacteria clostridium difficile, which is highly infectious and can cause outbreaks of diarrhoea on the ward.
Scientists at the VU University Medical Centre in Amsterdam studied how effective Cliff was, and found that he can sniff out Clostridium difficile infections in stool samples and even in the air surrounding patients in hospital with a very high degree of accuracy.
You can read the research behind Cliff on bmj.com – Using a dog’s superior olfactory sensitivity to identify Clostridium difficile in stools and patients: proof of principle study
Dr Dog: How beagle Cliff can sniff C. Diff
He has 83pc success rate in sniffing out hospital superbug after only two months’ training
He is the hound of the hospital ward. Cliff, a two year old beagle with trademark floppy ears, has been trained to sniff out patients infected with a superbug and could potentially save hundreds of lives.
Instead of tracking hares, rabbits and other small game, Cliff puts his nostrils to work on the wards chasing down patients suffering from Clostridium Difficile, the hospital infection that can spread rapidly among the elderly causing lethal outbreaks.
Existing laboratory tests to diagnose the condition are expensive and slow and can delay the start of treatment by up to a week. Using a dog with a sensitive nose to patrol the wards and pick out infected patients is fast, efficient – and popular.
As a scent hound the Beagle has few equals – it can find a mouse in a one acre field in less than a minute. In tests, Cliff correctly identified 25 out of 30 patients with C Difficile – an 83 per cent success rate – and 265 out of 270 negative controls, after just two months training.
Unlike the lab technicians, he could screen a complete hospital ward in less than 10 minutes, strolling past each patient’s bed until he came to one with an infected occupant. Then he promptly sat down.
Despite his interest in their personal aroma, patients welcomed his visits. “He brings a lot of joy to the hospital. Patients love to see him,” said his owner.
The tests were carried out at two hospitals in Amsterdam which, in common with hospitals in the UK and around the world, have made strenuous efforts to reduce C Difficile rates. The infection occurs in older people who have been treated with antibiotics, disrupting the balance of bacteria in their gut and causing diarrhoea which in the worst cases can lead to bowel inflammation and death.
Major outbreaks in the UK at Stoke Mandeville and Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells hospitals in the mid-2000s, and smaller outbreaks at other hospitals, have claimed hundreds of lives.
Details of Cliff’s performance are published in the British Medical Journal by Dutch researchers from the University Medical Centre in Amsterdam who say it holds “great potential” for screening hospitals for C Difficile.
#Caturday: Simon’s Cat is back!
by 1389AD ( 96 Comments › )Filed under Caturday, Open thread at December 8th, 2012 - 7:00 pm
Simon’s Cat in Icecapade
Published on Dec 7, 2012 by simonscat
http://www.simonscat.com
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A festive feline’s frosty fishing frolic.Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE!
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=simonscatExclusive drawing lessons from Simon Tofield and much more… check out the Simon’s Cat Extra Youtube channel.
http://www.youtube.com/user/simonscatextra
Simon’s Cat in ‘Nut Again’
Published on Nov 23, 2012 by simonscat
An agile adversary gives Simon’s Cat the run around.
Simon’s Cat in ‘Fetch’
Published on Oct 29, 2012 by simonscat
A playful dog interrupts a cat’s down-time.
Okay, I just had to find out what “Gangnam Style” is all about
by 1389AD ( 133 Comments › )Filed under Music, Open thread at December 6th, 2012 - 6:00 pm
Being older than dirt, all I knew about “Gangnam Style” is that it had something to do with a viral music video on YouTube. Because the video has fueled various takeoffs and parodies, some of them political, I figured it was time to see what it was all about.
PSY – GANGNAM STYLE (강남스타일) M/V
Published on Jul 15, 2012 by officialpsy | #1 on the YouTube 100
PSY – Gangnam Style (강남스타일)
▶ NOW available on iTunes: http://Smarturl.it/psygangnam
▶ Official PSY Online Store US & International : http://psy.shop.bravadousa.com/
▶ About PSY from YG Ent.: http://smarturl.it/YGfamilyAboutPSY
▶ PSY’s Products on eBay: http://stores.ebay.com/ygentertainment
▶ YG-eShop: http://www.ygeshop.comFor More Information @
http://www.facebook.com/officialpsy
http://twitter.com/psy_oppa
http://twitter.com/ygent_official
http://me2day.net/psyfive
http://www.psypark.com
App Store: http://goo.gl/l9TU6
Google Play: http://goo.gl/UiEn1© YG Entertainment Inc. All rights reserved.
From Wiki:
“Gangnam Style” (Korean: 강남스타일, IPA: [kaŋnam sɯtʰail]) is a K-pop single by South Korean musician PSY. The song was released on July 15, 2012, as the lead single of his sixth studio album PSY 6 (Six Rules), Part 1. “Gangnam Style” debuted at number one on the Gaon Chart, the national record chart of South Korea. As of December 4, 2012, the music video has been viewed over 884 million times on YouTube, and is the site’s most watched video after surpassing Justin Bieber’s single “Baby.”
The phrase “Gangnam Style” is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam District of Seoul. The song and its accompanying music video went viral in August 2012 and have influenced popular culture since then.
[…]
“Gangnam Style” is a Korean neologism that refers to a lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district of Seoul, where people are trendy, hip and exude a certain supposed “class.” The term was listed in Time‘s weekly vocabulary list as a manner associated with lavish lifestyles in Seoul’s Gangnam district. Psy likened the Gangnam District to Beverly Hills, California, and said in an interview that he intended in a twisted sense of humor by claiming himself to be “Gangnam Style” when everything about the song, dance, looks, and the music video is far from being such a high class.People who are actually from Gangnam never proclaim that they are—it’s only the posers and wannabes that put on these airs and say that they are “Gangnam Style”—so this song is actually poking fun at those kinds of people who are trying so hard to be something that they’re not.—Psy
The song talks about “the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild.” The song’s refrain “오빤 강남 스타일 (Oppan Gangnam style)” has been translated as “Big brother is Gangnam style,” with Psy referring to himself; “Oppa” is a Korean expression used by females to refer to an older male friend or older brother. During an interview with The New York Times, Psy revealed that the Korean fans have huge expectations about his dancing, so he felt a lot of pressure. In order to keep up with expectations, he studied hard to find something new and stayed up late for about 30 nights to come up with the “Gangnam Style” dance. Along the way, he had tested various “cheesy” animal-inspired dance moves with his choreographer, including panda and kangaroo moves, before settling for the horse trot, which involves pretending to ride a horse, alternately holding the reins and spinning a lasso, and moving into a legs-shuffling side gallop.
[…]
More here.
From Urban Dictionary:
(Warning: Urban Dictionary is NSFW because of over-the-top language on the site.)
- A Korean song written by Korean singer Psy.
- “Gangnam” means “south(nam) of the river(gang)” in Korean. In this song, the “river(gang)” is the Han River, which penetrates the City of Seoul, capital of South Korea. The northern part of Seoul(gangbuk) has been the capital of Korea since the early 15th century. Development of Gangnam and expansion of Seoul started in 1970s. Gangnam is the icon of the rapid economic development of South Korea in 1970s and 80s. Mostly benefited from skyrocketing real estate price followed by planned economic development, Gangnam has become the most wealthy area in the entire South Korea. “Gangnam” is being regarded as the place where people are rich, girls are pretty and everything is supposed to be cool.
I’m not rich enough to have fun in Gangnam Style.
