It's a tale as old as time: how do you easily tell which headphone goes in your right ear, and which one goes in the left ear (without reading tiny text)? You could always mark them with some tape or nail polish, but reader animatorgeek has a pretty clever solution.
I have a lot of old earbuds and a lot of them seem to have the same shape of silicone thingy that fits inside the ear. You can take that silicone thingy and swap it around between different-colored earbuds and end up with a set with two different colors. Now it's much easier to know at a glance which side is which. For instance, on my set I can easily remember that grey is left and black is right.
Just a small tip for those that have a number of different (colored) pairs.
Use Colored Earbud Tips to Tell the Right From the Left | animatorgeek
YEREVAN (Reuters) - Thousands of Armenians protested in Yerevan on Tuesday against the inauguration of President Serzh Sarksyan for a second term, saying that his re-election had been fixed.
Across town, Sarksyan said in his inauguration speech that developing the economy, ensuring the rule of law and deepening democracy were his top priorities, along with the peaceful resolution of a long-standing territorial dispute with Azerbaijan.
European monitors had said the February 18 election was generally well conducted, but bemoaned a lack of competition after leading opposition candidates pulled out fearing the outcome would be rigged. Sarksyan's tally of 58.6 percent was in line with opinion polls.
Tuesday's peaceful crowd of some 12,000 was the biggest of the intermittent protests since the election.
Demonstrators led by Raffi Hovannisian rallied in Yerevan's central Freedom Square as the inauguration was held a few kilometers (miles) away. Hovannisian came second to Sarksyan according to the official count, but insists he won the vote.
"We say 'No' to false oaths, 'no' to false presidents," Hovannisian, a U.S.-born former foreign minister, told supporters.
With security tight, demonstrators marched through the city after the rally but were stopped by police when they tried to approach the presidential administration building and turned back toward Freedom Square.
Late in the evening, Hovannisian and some 100 supporters were allowed to march towards Sarksyan's administration complex, but promised police not to spend long there. He said he would hold another protest on Friday.
Several protesters were briefly detained but there has been no repeat of the violence that erupted after round-the-clock protests following Sarksyan's first election in 2008. Eight activists and two police were killed in those demonstrations.
Foreign governments are watching for signs of instability in mostly Christian Armenia, a nation of 3.2 million that hosts a Russian military base and is at odds with its oil-rich, mainly Muslim neighbor Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The mountain territory is in Azerbaijan but has been controlled by ethnic Armenians since a war that ended in 1994 with a shaky truce.
There is still sporadic shooting and Azerbaijan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that an Azeri officer had been shot dead on Monday evening by a sniper near the "line of contact".
A military spokesman in the self-proclaimed Nagorno-Karabakh government called the Azeri statement "disinformation" and denied violating the truce.
Sarksyan said a peaceful settlement of the issue "will remain our priority for as long as necessary to arrive at a final solution", while also promising to "enhance the level of our security".
Years of mediation led by France, Russia and the United States have failed to resolve the dispute, and Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has not ruled out eventually resorting to force.
(Writing by Margarita Antidze; Editing by Jon Hemming)
Apr. 10, 2013 ? An advance in micromotor technology akin to the invention of cars that fuel themselves from the pavement or air, rather than gasoline or batteries, is opening the door to broad new medical and industrial uses for these tiny devices, scientists said in New Orleans on April 10. Their update on development of the motors -- so small that thousands would fit inside this "o" -- was part of the 245th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.
Joseph Wang, D.Sc., who leads research on the motors, said that efforts to build minute, self-powered robot devices have evoked memories of the 1966 science fiction film Fantastic Voyage. It featured a miniaturized submarine, which doctors injected into a patient. It then navigated through blood vessels to remove a blood clot in the brain.
Fuel and propulsion systems have been a major barrier in moving science fiction closer to practical reality, Wang explained. Some micromotors and even-smaller nanomotors, for instance, have relied on hydrogen peroxide fuel, which could damage body cells. Others have needed complex magnetic or electronic gear to guide their movement.
"We have developed the first self-propelled micromotors and microrockets that use the surrounding natural environment as a source of fuel," Wang said. "The stomach, for instance, has a strongly acid environment that helps digest food. Some of our microrockets use that acid as fuel, producing bubbles of hydrogen gas for thrust and propulsion. The use of biocompatible fuels is attractive for avoiding damage to healthy tissue in the body. We envision that these machines could someday perform microsurgery, clean clogged arteries or transport drugs to the right place in the body. But there are also possible uses in cleaning up oil spills, monitoring industrial processes and in national security."
Wei Gao, a graduate student in Wang's lab, described how the team at the University of California, San Diego, has developed two types of self-propelled vehicles -- microrockets made of zinc and micromotors made of aluminum. The tubular zinc micromotor is one of the world's fastest, able to move 100 times its 0.0004-inch length in just one second. That's like a sprinter running 400 miles per hour. The zinc lining is biocompatible. It reacts with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach, which consists of hydrogen and chloride ions. It releases the hydrogen gas as a stream of tiny bubbles, which propel the motor forward. "This rocket would be ideal to deliver drugs or to capture diseased cells in the stomach," said Gao.
Gao also described some of the latest advances in the technology. The newest vehicles are first-of-their-kind aluminum micromotors. One type, which also contains gallium, uses water as a fuel. It splits water to generate hydrogen bubbles, which move the motor. "About 70 percent of the human body is water, so this would be an ideal fuel for vehicles with medical uses, such as microsurgery," said Wang. "They also could have uses in clinical diagnostic tests, in the environment and in security applications."
Another type of aluminum micromotor doesn't have gallium and is the first such motor that can use multiple fuels. "We're really excited about this micromotor," said Gao. "It is our most flexible one to date. For the first time, we've made a micromotor that can use three different fuels -- acids, bases and hydrogen peroxide, depending upon its surroundings. Therefore, we can use these motors in many more environments than ever before."
The scientists are working on extending the lifetimes of the vehicles so that they last longer and functionalizing them for specific biomedical applications. They also are exploring commercial partners for realizing real-life applications of this work, said Wang.
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Society of Interventional Radiology: 38th Annual Scientific MeetingPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ellen Acconcia eacconcia@sirweb.org 703-460-5582 Society of Interventional Radiology
How prostate, pain, fat, tumors and legs benefit from minimally invasive treatments, showcased April 13-18 in New Orleans
FAIRFAX, Va.From miniature ice balls that can zap pain and lung tumors to an image-guided, minimally invasive method to shrink the prostate, physicians will present the latest research on cutting-edge treatments at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting April 13? at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The meeting is centered on the theme "IR Reaching Out" and delivers education, resources and outcome-based evidence to attendees from a broad range of diverse clinical interests and practice settings.
Listed below are several examples of research being presented at SIR 2013, illustrating why the meeting attracts a diverse group of experts, including community or university-based physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, radiology assistants, nurses, technologists as well as hospital administrators and industry partners.
For Men Nonsurgical treatment shrinks enlarged prostate Men who suffer from enlarged prostatesprompting frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom may have a minimally invasive option to shrink the gland. According to early reports from the first prospective U.S. study, prostatic artery embolization (PAE) reduces blood flow to the prostate, shrinking it and significantly reducing symptoms.
Medical illustrations are available.
Body Reshaping Sculpting beautiful bodies with lasers Fat-melting lasers are not only safe and effective, they could replace the surgical "tummy tuck," suggests research on more than 2,000 women and men. The safe new treatment melts fat, which is then suctioned out of the body.
Freezing Treatment Freezing out pain
Chronic pain can be helped by freezing damaged nerves, suggests a study of a minimally invasive treatment called cryoneurolysis. The treatment could provide relief to the more than 15 million Americans who suffer from chronic nerve pain.
Medical images are available.
Ice therapy zaps lung tumors Minimally invasive cryoablation freezes and kills cancerous tumors that have spread to the lungs, extending survival, according to results of the treatment's first multicenter trial.
Medical images are available.
Difficult Tumors Treating resistant tumors with electrical pulses A minimally invasive electrical pulse treatment, irreversible electroporation (IRE), attacks tumors yet doesn't hurt healthy nearby tissue, according to preliminary research.
Medical images available.
Preventing Amputation Drug-coated stents can save legs Stents coated with anti-clotting medicine can open blocked leg arteries, relieving pain and preventing amputation in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), suggests a new study.
Medical images are available.
For Dialysis Patients Stenting dramatically improves treatment access for dialysis patients SIR's Abstract of the Year suggests that kidney patients who are on dialysis may be helped by minimally invasive treatment with stents, which can keep their treatment access sites open longer than balloon angioplasty.
Medical images are available.
Repairing Dangerous Bowel Blockages Stenting blocked bowel arteries saves lives Reopening blocked bowel arteries with stents can alleviate severe pain, weight loss and death, suggests new research. The minimally invasive treatment can help people avoid surgery.
Medical images are available.
###
For more information about the Society of Interventional Radiology and its 38th Annual Scientific Meeting, visit online at http://www.SIRweb.org or http://www.SIRmeeting.org.
About the Society of Interventional Radiology
Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.
Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit http://www.SIRweb.org.
The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 38th Annual Scientific Meeting April 13? at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The theme of the meeting is "IR Reaching Out," chosen to reflect the many ways the Annual Scientific Meeting provides valuable education to attendees across a broad range of diverse clinical interests and practice settings.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Society of Interventional Radiology: 38th Annual Scientific MeetingPublic release date: 10-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ellen Acconcia eacconcia@sirweb.org 703-460-5582 Society of Interventional Radiology
How prostate, pain, fat, tumors and legs benefit from minimally invasive treatments, showcased April 13-18 in New Orleans
FAIRFAX, Va.From miniature ice balls that can zap pain and lung tumors to an image-guided, minimally invasive method to shrink the prostate, physicians will present the latest research on cutting-edge treatments at the Society of Interventional Radiology's 38th Annual Scientific Meeting April 13? at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The meeting is centered on the theme "IR Reaching Out" and delivers education, resources and outcome-based evidence to attendees from a broad range of diverse clinical interests and practice settings.
Listed below are several examples of research being presented at SIR 2013, illustrating why the meeting attracts a diverse group of experts, including community or university-based physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, radiology assistants, nurses, technologists as well as hospital administrators and industry partners.
For Men Nonsurgical treatment shrinks enlarged prostate Men who suffer from enlarged prostatesprompting frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom may have a minimally invasive option to shrink the gland. According to early reports from the first prospective U.S. study, prostatic artery embolization (PAE) reduces blood flow to the prostate, shrinking it and significantly reducing symptoms.
Medical illustrations are available.
Body Reshaping Sculpting beautiful bodies with lasers Fat-melting lasers are not only safe and effective, they could replace the surgical "tummy tuck," suggests research on more than 2,000 women and men. The safe new treatment melts fat, which is then suctioned out of the body.
Freezing Treatment Freezing out pain
Chronic pain can be helped by freezing damaged nerves, suggests a study of a minimally invasive treatment called cryoneurolysis. The treatment could provide relief to the more than 15 million Americans who suffer from chronic nerve pain.
Medical images are available.
Ice therapy zaps lung tumors Minimally invasive cryoablation freezes and kills cancerous tumors that have spread to the lungs, extending survival, according to results of the treatment's first multicenter trial.
Medical images are available.
Difficult Tumors Treating resistant tumors with electrical pulses A minimally invasive electrical pulse treatment, irreversible electroporation (IRE), attacks tumors yet doesn't hurt healthy nearby tissue, according to preliminary research.
Medical images available.
Preventing Amputation Drug-coated stents can save legs Stents coated with anti-clotting medicine can open blocked leg arteries, relieving pain and preventing amputation in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), suggests a new study.
Medical images are available.
For Dialysis Patients Stenting dramatically improves treatment access for dialysis patients SIR's Abstract of the Year suggests that kidney patients who are on dialysis may be helped by minimally invasive treatment with stents, which can keep their treatment access sites open longer than balloon angioplasty.
Medical images are available.
Repairing Dangerous Bowel Blockages Stenting blocked bowel arteries saves lives Reopening blocked bowel arteries with stents can alleviate severe pain, weight loss and death, suggests new research. The minimally invasive treatment can help people avoid surgery.
Medical images are available.
###
For more information about the Society of Interventional Radiology and its 38th Annual Scientific Meeting, visit online at http://www.SIRweb.org or http://www.SIRmeeting.org.
About the Society of Interventional Radiology
Interventional radiologists are physicians who specialize in minimally invasive, targeted treatments. They offer the most in-depth knowledge of the least invasive treatments available coupled with diagnostic and clinical experience across all specialties. They use X-ray, MRI and other imaging to advance a catheter in the body, such as in an artery, to treat at the source of the disease internally. As the inventors of angioplasty and the catheter-delivered stent, which were first used in the legs to treat peripheral arterial disease, interventional radiologists pioneered minimally invasive modern medicine. Today, interventional oncology is a growing specialty area of interventional radiology. Interventional radiologists can deliver treatments for cancer directly to the tumor without significant side effects or damage to nearby normal tissue.
Many conditions that once required surgery can be treated less invasively by interventional radiologists. Interventional radiology treatments offer less risk, less pain and less recovery time compared to open surgery. Visit http://www.SIRweb.org.
The Society of Interventional Radiology is holding its 38th Annual Scientific Meeting April 13? at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The theme of the meeting is "IR Reaching Out," chosen to reflect the many ways the Annual Scientific Meeting provides valuable education to attendees across a broad range of diverse clinical interests and practice settings.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide car bomb killed at least 15 people and wounded 53 in the main business district of Damascus on Monday in what the Syrian prime minister said was a response to army gains against rebels around the capital.
The bomb near a school in the Sabaa Bahrat district, which also houses the Central Bank and Finance Ministry, set cars ablaze and damaged buildings, state television footage showed.
A Damascus resident who described the blast as the biggest she had heard in the capital during the two-year-old revolt against President Bashar al-Assad said large plumes of black smoke were rising from the Sabaa Bahrat district.
Car bombs and attacks on civilians are commonplace in the Syrian conflict, which the United Nations estimates has killed more than 70,000 people, without so far producing a winner.
Each side has accused the other of using chemical weapons, among other breaches of international law, although it remains unproven whether such weapons have actually been fired.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said an advance team of experts had gone to Cyprus and was awaiting permission from the Syrian government to investigate the conflicting assertions.
After the car bomb blast, Syrian television showed footage of seven bodies in the street, including at least two charred corpses in the wreckage of an overturned bus. Other vehicles were still on fire, lined up in what appeared to be a car park.
A woman with a blood-covered face was carried away on a stretcher. Panic-stricken women in long black dresses and headscarves ran towards the scene. Some children in school uniform were shown in bandages.
The state TV presenter described the attack as unprecedented and said: "We only have one choice, either win or die."
Angry and terrified residents interviewed by the channel called for decisive army action. "Look at Damascus. Is this Damascus? Look what is happening to it," said a weeping man.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but each side blamed the other.
Russia said the blast occurred about a kilometer (half mile) from the Russian embassy and that Moscow "decisively condemns the latest cruel foray by terrorists whose criminal activity is killing and causing suffering among peaceful people".
A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said the bombing was the second major "terrorist act" near the embassy in about six weeks, "which creates a real danger to the lives and security of its employees".
It said "extremist groups in Syria that resort to terrorist explosions and mortar attacks on residential areas must receive a consolidated and uncompromising rebuff from all members of the international community".
GOVERNMENT OFFENSIVE
Syrian insurgents based in the outskirts of Damascus have pushed into areas near the government-held heart of the city, stepping up mortar and car bomb attacks in recent weeks.
But rebels said the army had intensified attacks on villages in the rebel-held Ghouta area to the east of the city since mid-March, besieging some of them under siege to pin rebels back.
"The entrance of Ghouta from the north is under siege," said a rebel commander in the area. The military, he said, was trying to disrupt rebel preparations for a "big battle" to break into central Damascus, the seat of Assad's power.
Osama al-Shami, an activist from southern Damascus said Assad's forces had launched a big tank-led assault on eastern Ghouta from the side of the International Airport to the south.
If successful, he said, the offensive would dislodge rebels from their footholds around the airport and cut their supply line to eastern Ghouta from the southern border with Jordan.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said on state television that Monday's bombing was a response "to the great achievements of the Syrian army, especially in the Damascus countryside."
He said the Syrian army was "determined to go forward and will crush them", referring to Assad's foes.
In the divided northern city of Aleppo, where a military stalemate has lasted for months, government troops took the outlying village of al-Aziza, which sits next to the main highway and near the airport, opposition activists said.
They said the capture of the strategically important village could allow the army to push on into districts captured by insurgents in the south of the Syria's biggest city.
Syria's conflict started with peaceful protests against four decades of Assad family rule that were violently suppressed. An armed struggle ensued, forcing more than a million Syrians to flee abroad, and displacing millions more inside the country.
U.N. chief Ban, who met the head of the global chemical weapons monitoring body in The Hague on Monday, said the U.N. investigators only needed a green light from Damascus.
"We are ready," he said. The full team will consist of 15 experts, including inspectors, medical experts and chemists.
"All we are waiting for is the go-ahead from the Syrian government to determine whether any chemicals weapons were used, in any location," Ban said. He urged the Syrian government to be more flexible so the mission could deploy as fast as possible.
Syria has asked the United Nations to investigate an alleged chemical attack on Khan al-Assal village, near Aleppo, on March 19 which it blames on insurgents. The opposition, which says the government was behind the attack, wants the U.N. team's remit to include other alleged chemical attacks in Damascus and Homs.
Western powers back the opposition stance, but Russia has resisted broadening the U.N. inquiry. Ban said all serious claims about chemical weapons use in Syria should be examined.
"The use of chemical weapons by any side, under any circumstances, would constitute an outrageous crime with dire consequences and constitute a crime against humanity," he told delegates to a chemical weapons conference.
(Additional reporting by Anthony Deutsch in The Hague and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Michael Roddy)
It's a tale as old as time: how do you easily tell which headphone goes in your right ear, and which one goes in the left ear (without reading tiny text)? You could always mark them with some tape or nail polish, but reader animatorgeek has a pretty clever solution. 
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Public release date: 10-Apr-2013
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