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Cybernetic Prosthetics for Amputees
A. J. Perkins writes "Returning amputees from Iraq are getting computer-driven artifical limbs allowing greater balance and mobility. These futuristic limbs have hydraulic pumps visible through its clear plastic shell. They are loaded with an on-board CPU and rechargable batteries. The Utah3 Arm, which allows simultaneous motion in the elbow, hand and wrist, offering movement old prosthetics could not. These are coupled with the SensorSpeedHand, which has electronic sensors in the fingertips that make it easier to grip objects. The C-Leg monitors motion 50 times per second to assist with balance."
This is good news, but you know, it doesn't put a smile on my face. If there were a story here entitled "Thousands of kids didn't lose their leg in the first place" that would make me smile.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
There are 2 types of diabetes Type 1 which is sometimes also refered to as juvenile diabetes and usually strikes children. My step-son came down with it when he was 3 and it's not because he was fat slob who sat on his ass all day eating candy. Translated it wasn't preventable.
I get so sick and tired if ignorant people whining about their wimpy little Type 2 diabetes and worrying about the possibility of having to give themselves injections. My step son has been doing that for years (actually he's on an insulin pump now which is a wonderful thing). Plus the type 2 people like to try to swap war stories with my stepson (he's now 19). His body produces 0 insulin and was a real treat to deal with through puberty.
I also have an Uncle who was one of te most fit and active people I know... he came down with Type 2 diabetes when he was 60.
So let's not be spreading this "wholly preventable" FUD as it's not true in all cases.
I bet that he would rather have his leg back.
SealBeater
-- Its survival of the fittest...and we got the fucking guns!!!
"Will people, in the distant (or maybe even near?) future volunteer to swap their human body parts for machine replacements?"
I wouldn't. My body is relatively self-healing, so if I mess something up it has a pretty decent chance of fixing itself to at least a functional state without outside intervention. It's a system that has functioned in billions of units for tens, if not hundreds of thousands of years.
Machines break. Electronics suffer from bad programming. Technicians might not be easily found, and if my arms stopped working I'd have a hard time fixing them myself. My arms are also submersible to fairly extreme depths, able to withstand hot and cold to a significant degree, and capable of extremely fine motor control and motion.
Body part replacements for me would be a last resort if my stock ones were failing.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
The problem with decent people joining the Army is the possibiltiy that they will be given jobs that a decent person would find extremely disturbing to perform.
Although this certainly isn't the first time that has been true.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- HST
All I can say, is shame on this administration.
Now please, don't get me wrong. We in the field are enjoying the publicy and the chance to show off the advancements of the past fews years. And yes, the advancements in prosthetics technology are slow due to funding and lack of research. But what I'm more concerned about is the need for people like me in this war.
Honestly, when this war began many of us in the industry recieved notices about new patients arriving in as new amputees and we were being asked to write manuals for surgery procedures that are archaic! And endorse the use of out-dated concepts.
It's appauling the way these troops are being handled. They are not recieving optimal surgeries such as the ERTL procedure. Nor are they all recieving C-legs and Utah-arms. Do you have any idea how much these costs?! No. Not every solider will be getting one and if they did, watch your insurance rates skyrocket. It's just not realistic.
All I'm saying is that, thank you for the publicity but you are being lied to. This is not what is honestly happening at clinics. This is a poster pin up to make you feel better about the war and the injuries.
Sorry, I'm out of mod points right now.
slashdot karma isn't worth glorifying the mess our great nation has ended up in due to the arrogance of a small group of people in Washington
Arrogance, yes, small group of people, yes, but not in Washington. The current mess in the Middle East began a long time ago, in 1919, when the British and French diplomats divided the Ottoman Empire, which had been in the losing side in World War I. If they had done their homework, they would have known they were creating a nation, Iraq, composed of three different regions, with three different groups: shiites, sunnites, and kurds. An inviable country, whose most probable form of government is a dictatorship.
Now, what is the right thing for the POTUS to do? Should he be an isolationist? If Woodrow Wilson hadn't been one in 1914, WWI would have lasted less, with less victims, and probably none of the great convulsions of the 20th century. A short war might not have caused the birth of nazism. Possibly even Russia wouldn't have gone through communism.
And even if nazism did happen, if FDR had gone to war in 1939 instead of waiting two years for the inevitable, WWII would have been less traumatic. Or better, if FDR, Chamberlain, and Daladier had stood up to Hitler in 1938 there would have been no war. If Bush senior had done the right thing and invaded Iraq in 1991 you wouldn't have all this mess today.
Looking back over the last hundred years, I get the impression that arrogance isn't what starts wars. Wars start because of indecision. When a dictator feels that other leaders fear him, he thinks he can get away with anything. The best way to avoid wars is to make it clear to all the Saddams and Hitlers that tyranny isn't an accepted form of government, anywhere. Such rulers should be removed from power, using the necessary force. When this becomes the usual procedure we may say goodbye to all wars.
Perhaps, then, America shouldn't hire people like Saddam to assassinate leaders, and put them in place once the old leader is dead. Perhaps, then, Donald Rumsfeld shouldn't sell people like Saddam biological weapons of mass destruction and perhaps, then, people like George Bush shouldn't send "experts" in to help with the "calibration" of those weapons. Perhaps, in fact, tracing the history of Iraq back to 1919 is simply a handy way of ignoring the actual and immediate fact that these soldiers are dying for a government which caused the problem in Iraq and who decided to attack it on the feeble pretext of the War on Terror in order to, as Wolfowitz's said, secure America's economic future (ie, oil).
A little less pointing the finger at long dead people and their wars and a little more pointing it at the people in power today who are sacrificing their people for money today might help fix this mess.
TWW
"Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
I didn't tell you to shut up. I stated our preference that you not use us as examples or martyrs. Regardless of our individual political opinions (I'm a Democrat), the circumstance of our employment - which is contractual, subject to both USC and UCMJ, and difficult to get out of - make it inappropriate for us to become involved, as a body, in politics. The armed forces exist to defend the United States, and, when given lawful orders by Congress or (in certain circumstances) the President, to make aggressive war on foreign nations. We do not exist to participate in the political processes which carry us to the point of armed conflict. Which means it's inappropriate to drag us into it.
I love it when people say "sir" in an attempt to dignify baseless, crass, and cowardly slander. I'd probably insult you right back, but I'm having a hard enough time keeping a straight face right now.
Arr! The laws of physics be a harsh mistress!