Wanderings – Page 39 – The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

Shades of “Bionic Man”

joe January 5, 2009 Technology

Got my January issue of IEEE Spectrum – all about the work of members of IEEE. The cover picture featured this arm – was that ever a shocker. Work is going on to make new prosthetic arms that will allow the user/wearer to touch, feel and control with their own nervous system! Reading about the work gives new meaning to “nanotechnology.”

This issue of Spectrum was about the “Winner and Loser Technologies of 2009”.

The article begins by telling of an engineer who is playing “air guitar hero” (take off on “Guitar Hero”) without a guitar! “More to the point, he is playing without his right hand, having lost it in Iraq in 2005.” He quits only after beating the high score of another engineer who just happens to have two hands.

The winner had controlled the muscles in his forearm, and the electrical impulses had been wired into a sort of “Wii-like” device. This is all part of research to provide better, more realistic artifical limbs to people who have lost theirs and is all part of a U.S. Government program for veterans, but the reward will be to all amputees.

Sally Adee, writer of the article says that it is much more difficult to create artifical arm/hand combinations than artificial legs. “Legs require only 4 degrees of freedom, where an arm and hand combination needs about 22 degrees of freedom plus the ability to feel heat, texture and force.”

If you can get to your library and check out the issue, I would highly recommend it. It is not a science article, and talks in non-techie terms.

Confused?

joe January 2, 2009 General

It's easy to get that way. With all the information available to us – radio, TV, internet, newspaper, teachers, preachers and friends, it's a simple matter to lose direction.

Remember "My mind's made up – don't confuse me with the facts"? Well, the other day, looking through a magazine, found "DLTIYHBTIYN" in an ad from Computer Associates. If you aren't into computers and computer software, they are not the main point of this – it's "DLTIYHBTIYN" that stuck out.

Don't Let The Information You Have Bury The Information You Need

Unless you really know, how do we know what we know is true or false. To top it off, if that's the basis for how we live, then I think "we got a problem."

Wrap Your Mind Around This

joe January 1, 2009 Faith

The facts are always confusing. Moreso when we have to dig a little and get out of what we call our "comfort zone." That was one of the things that John talked about in his second letter. In effect, he said "some of you walk in truth" and "some don't."

He did not actually say "some don't", but that has to be implied from the words "some do." The amazing thing is that he did not harp on the "don't" people. He marched right on with the instructions to keep going the way you "learned." More correctly, he said "keep walking the way you learned to walk" (living the way you learned to live).

It's like a basketball coach who talks to the team at half time and says "You're ahead, just keep shooting and defending like you have been and you will win." In other words, keep doing the right thing!