bookofjoe

Inflatable surfboard

Jim Weir, an avid surfer for 50 years, created it.

It's called ULI, for Ultra-Light Inflatable, and it's pronounced "oo-lee."

The San Diego-based company makes a range of boards, from a $139 bodyboard to the top-of-the-line 8-foot Round Tail surfboard.

The boards are made from the same materials used in military and commercial inflatable boats, and they're durable and UV resistant.

They deflate completely for traveling and fit into a large backpack.

You inflate them with a hand pump when the surf's up.

Since the board is soft and the fins flexible, they're safe around swimmers.

In fact, they're the only surfboard allowed on San Diego swimming beaches.

[via GadgetryBlog and Gizmodo]

130 mph Japanese bullet train derails during an earthquake: how is it no one was hurt?

Much less severe unanticipated events and much slower trains invariably result in many dead and injured passengers.

Yet every single one of the Japanese bullet train Toki No. 325's passengers simply exited the train last Saturday and walked a mile to the nearest station.

What happened that's so different from the usual litany of horror?

The ground began to shake as the train was traveling at its usual cruising speed of 130 mph.

Japan's train tracks have built-in anti-earthquake measures.

Sensors along the tracks immediately cut electricity to the trains as soon as the first tremor is detected, so that the trains smoothly come to a halt.

Ryohei Kakumoto, a transportation-industry analyst and former employee of the railway authority, said, "That only works when the epicenter of an earthquake is off somewhere in the distance."

"If the quake is right beneath the train, as was the case this time, the sensors can't slow the train in time to stop any damage."

So, in a sense, this was the earthquake equivalent - for the bullet train - of "the perfect storm."

And yet no one was hurt.

That's solely due to the alert driver, who slammed on the brakes at the first sign of trouble.

And yet the Japanese press focuses not on this miraculous escape, but rather is filled with front-page accounts of the failure of the supposedly invincible engineering of the bullet train.

It's a different way of looking at the world.

Clothespin Chopsticks

Nicely done.

They cost $3.95 here, and they're exactly what the name says: a pair of chopsticks connected like a classic wood clothespin.

No more "laptop lo mein" or "suey sweater."

In black, green, orange, or red.

Re-usable.

Acrylic and stainless-steel-wire construction.

Dishwasher safe.

A bookofjoe 2004 Design Award winner.

BehindTheMedspeak: Internet Organ Donor Uproar

Well, that didn't take long, did it?

Last Thursday I wrote that UNOS [United Network for Organ Sharing] - its hegemony over who gets an organ transplant now threatened from out of nowhere by MatchingDonors.com, where patients waiting and dying for an organ take matters into their own hands and find their own donors - would strike back, and hard.

Sure enough, yesterday's USA Today had a story in which UNOS' predictable stable of biomedical ethicists - in the O.R., we consider them basically roadblocks who, if in a jam, would abandon their stated precepts in a [transplanted] heartbeat - started in with their usual "ethical concerns," "fear abuses," exploit vulnerable people," "subvert the equitable allocation of donated organs," "undermine the public's trust" shibboleths and nonsense.

Hey, it's all about the wonderful, highly-paid executive jobs at UNOS and the burgeoning departments of biomedical ethics at universities nationwide, is what's behind these concerns.

Trust me, it's sure not about the patients who need transplants.

UNOS dropped the ball and lost the confidence of most of the medical establishment when it failed to ram through a federal law creating "Implied consent" to organ donation in the absence of other stated preference.

That, of course, would have instantly ended the donated organ shortage and the need for the UNOS.

So don't waste precious time and space on the problem that they've created.

Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, was quoted as follows by USA Today:

"It's not a bad thing, but it's a questionable thing."

Boy, if there were ever a better statement of how ethicists look at the world while people die around them, I have yet to see it.

Here's the USA Today story, by Robert Davis.
________________________

Online organ match raises ethical concerns

The nation's organ transplant officials are scrambling to try to develop rules to guide surgeons and hospitals coping with a new twist: organ donors and recipients who find each other on the Internet.

Two men who met on an organ-matching Internet site - MatchingDonors.com - are recovering this week from kidney operations Wednesday in Denver.

But the medical establishment is still weak in the knees.

Allowing people to match their own organs online could exploit vulnerable people, subvert the equitable allocation of organs and undermine the public's trust, says the United Network for Organ Sharing, which oversees the process of distributing organs from deceased donors.

Officials from UNOS are working to come up with a new set of rules that doctors can follow when a would-be organ recipient comes into the hospital with an organ donor found online.

"It's not a bad thing, but it's a questionable thing," says Arthur Caplan, a medical ethicist at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania Health System.

"It's questionable because the people you encounter and the people you are going to be matched with may not be people who are telling the truth. The Internet is not the place for honesty in getting a mate, getting a loan and probably getting a kidney."

But people needing kidneys are desperate.

The number of people waiting for a kidney transplant has doubled in the past 10 years.

On Sunday, 60,029 people were hoping to get an organ to replace one of their body's toxin filters, damaged by diabetes, high blood pressure or other diseases.

But those people know that organs from deceased donors are too scarce to meet the national need.

Increasingly, they are turning to family, friends and strangers who are willing to give up one of their two healthy kidneys.

Last year, 15,137 people got a kidney transplant, and 40% of those organs came from living donors.

The clinical ethics committee at Presbyterian/St. Luke's Medical Center in Denver decided last week there was nothing wrong with a match being made on the Internet.

"If crafted carefully, this will allow them to be matched with people who need those organs," says Reginald Washington, chairman of the ethics committee.

"This is another tool. If properly used, it could be a very helpful tool."

A major concern is that people could start buying and selling organs, an illegal practice that could go on in secret.

The ethics committee sought signed promises from both donor and recipient that no money was paid for the organ.

But Bob Hickey, 58, of Edwards, Colorado, was allowed to pay about $4,500 for travel expenses and lost wages for Robert Smitty, 32, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and his family to fly to Colorado for the surgery and recovery.

But Caplan worries that the match made on the Internet does not allow the donor enough medical support to fully consider the risks - including death - before making a decision.

Smitty, a food-service worker, already had decided to give a kidney to someone in need when he found Hickey's plea on the Internet.

"I was just in that frame of mind when I read about his situation," he said in a statement released by MatchingDonors.com.

And Hickey said in the same statement that he was happy to pay about $300 for the volunteers at the non-profit Web site to help sell him as a good recipient.

"I don't have any shame about saying it's advertising," he says.

"If we go on a list managed by the transplant center and the government, we don't have anything we can do. We just sit there waiting for someone to die."

Some health officials worry that allowing those with financial means to sidestep the system will cause further disparity in an already fractured health system.

But Washington says having a way to get around the current system, which studies have shown already has racial and financial disparities, could help those populations.

Now, people who need a kidney may go to a church group or a circle of friends and family and ask for volunteers to donate.

The odds of a biological match are small in such a small pool of people.

So instead of asking for a kidney, for instance, a sick person might ask family and friends for money to post their pitch to a wider audience on the Internet.

Whether MatchingDonors.com is a niche that fades away like so many once-hot Internet sites or whether it saves thousands of lives in the future, nobody knows.

"We encourage the ethical community to consider this as an issue," Washington says.

"It is now on the table."

Grapple - say 'Grape-L'

I'd say "fraud."

Here's the story on this fake fruit.

I saw a package of what appeared to be apples in the organic produce section at my local Kroger yesterday.

I looked more closely: the fancy label read just as the title of this post does, and in smaller lettering underneath, it said:

"Looks like an apple. Tastes like a grape."

Hey, I thought, that sounds cool.

They figured out how to cross an apple and a grape, and created this new fruit.

I bought a package.

I mean, I've tried Pluots and Apriums, liking the former but not the latter.

Anyway, when I got home I opened the package of Grapples, and sniffed at them.

Boy, they sure smelled like grapes; more precisely, grape juice.

I bit into one: tasted like grape juice, though the texture and mouth-feel was exactly that of an apple.

Meanwhile, I looked more closely at the label, to see how they'd achieved this odd hybridization.

Whoa.

Under ingredients, it said: "Apples, Artificial Grape Flavor."

No wonder they tasted like grape juice: that's what was in them.

I went to the website, where I read the following:
___________________

The Grapple is a Washington State Extra Fancy apple.

The apple is bathed through a patented process and in a few days the entire apple takes on the essence and mouth-watering taste of Concord grapes.

The combination is outstanding.
___________________

Not.

But why stop there?

I've already begun soaking peaches in pineapple juice, and have applied for a patent on my secret process.

I'm gonna call the result a

"Peepple™."

Look for 'em soon at your local [un]Whole[y] Foods.

'Unknown Space' - bookofjoe's back door into China's virtual space?

What's Unknown Space?

Never heard of it until I read yesterday's Wall Street Journal article by Li Yuan.

It's a website for the hundreds of thousands of Chinese professionals and students scattered throughout the U.S.

It's a virtual family-counseling and advice center for the increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants trying to navigate a very different way of life in the U.S.

An estimated 300,000 users, most college educated, visit the site every month.

There are over 300 forums on the site - which is mostly in Chinese, to my chagrin.

A small group of users write in Chinglish - a combination of Chinese and English.

I don't do that either, but maybe I best hire a tutor to get me up to speed so I can get on this site, post a few times, and open the portals of bookofjoe to a quarter of the Earth's people, so far unable to join the joehead movement.

Unknown Space is already making money: over 20,000 people have registered for their online dating service at $14.95 a month.

Do the math: that's $300,000 a month.

FunFact: my first-ever girlfriend was Chinese. It happened at the beginning of my freshman year at UCLA. I fell madly in love. Nancy, you were the best or, as people now might say, DA BOM.

Here's the Wall Street Journal story.
________________________

Web Site Helps Chinese in U.S. Navigate Life

"How can I tell my father, who is coming to visit us soon, not to smoke in my apartment because my wife doesn't like it?"

The question is typical of the hundreds posted every day on www.mitbbs.com, a Web site popular among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese students and professionals scattered throughout the U.S.

Within hours, dozens of fellow Web users offered their advice, and one stood out as both workable and diplomatic: "Tell him that you signed a nonsmoking lease. If you violated the rule, you would not be able to take your deposit back. No Chinese parents will take the risk of losing hundreds of dollars."

Such savvy advice is exactly why use of the site, known as Unknown Space LLC, is soaring.

The online billboard started in 1998 as a place where Chinese students at American universities could post questions about how to write computer programs - and talk about Chinese politics without fearing a government crackdown.

It has since evolved into a virtual family-counseling service for the increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants who are trying to navigate a very different life in the U.S.

An estimated 300,000 users, most of whom are college educated, visit the site every month.

Caught between two cultures, the users of the Web site often find they get the best advice on adapting to U.S. life from each other.

In the 300-plus forums hosted by the site, users want to know how to apply for green cards - proof of permanent residency - and citizenship; how to deal with difficult bosses and colleagues; where to find the cheapest car insurance; and whether democracy will work in China.

Web sites founded and frequented by immigrants are flourishing in the U.S. because they help these groups to adapt to a new environment, says Ram Mahalingam, assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan.

"Remember, there used to be about 750 German-language newspapers in the U.S. in 1900. It's all about communication."

Zhou Shiyi is a typical user of Unknown Space.

After graduating in 1998 from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Mr. Zhou worked for MCI Inc., Sprint Corp. and Trilogy, a technology-consulting firm in Austin, Texas. He was often one of very few Chinese in his office.

"I couldn't even find people to gossip with," he says.

He tried to participate in discussions on the bulletin boards on CNN.com and ESPN.com, mostly on topics concerning China. Even so, he found it hard to be spontaneous.

"I would have to think whether I was using the appropriate words and terms. By the time I finished my posting, the topic had often changed," said Mr. Zhou, now a business-school student at Georgetown University in Washington.

He got turned on to Unknown Space when he first moved to Washington and was looking for recommendations for good Chinese restaurants.

Most of those who frequent Unknown Space write in Chinese, while a small group, like Mr. Zhou, write in Chinglish, a combination of English and Chinese.

Initially, the bulk of users were students.

But in a development that has surprised even the founders of Unknown Space, many students have remained loyal after graduating and setting down roots in the U.S.

Now, only 30% of the users use campus e-mail accounts that end with ".edu."

Unknown Space was founded by Liu Jia in 1998, one year after he came from China to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study cognitive neuroscience (hence the university's name in the Web site's address).

Initially, Mr. Liu thought only about providing a forum for Chinese students to discuss politics publicly and freely - a luxury in China.

He didn't expect that after two to three years, his fellow Web users would start showing more interest in discussing their family and career problems than China's political situation.

Although Mr. Liu wanted to quit the site, "it had become public property among Chinese students and professionals, and I felt that I had the responsibility to keep it running."

Unknown Space had become such an important part of its users' lives that when its hard drive crashed in 2001, they donated more than $10,000 to buy a new one.

To keep it going, its founders last year agreed to run online advertisements, mostly for dating and recruiting services.

While some visitors complained, most don't mind.

"If it will help keeping it up and running, they can stick ads to the end of every post for all I care," says Xue Jing, a software engineer at Freddie Mac and a frequent bulletin-board user.

The advertising became an instant success.

Phone-card companies and travel agencies targeting the Chinese community had long coveted the site's large and loyal user base.

Most Web pages are still maintained by volunteers and the five people involved in running it in Cambridge, Massachusetts, work free.

Mr. Liu, the founder, ended his association with Unknown Space before returning to Beijing in November 2003 to work for the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The company has tried to keep its costs very low, outsourcing programming and customer-service jobs to Beijing and hiring about a dozen people in China with the ad revenue.

The owners refuse to disclose last year's earnings, but say more than 20,000 people have registered for their online-dating service for $14.95 a month.

"The Web site has a very strong mass base because it provides information on many how-to questions Chinese immigrants are eager to learn," says Eric Li, owner of a phone-card Web site called eCallChina.com and one of the site's first advertisers.

Alan Zhou knows exactly what his life would be like without the online bulletin board.

After coming to Iowa State University in 1998 to pursue a Ph.D. in engineering mechanics, Mr. Zhou has spent on average four hours a day on Unknown Space in the past six years.

As of September 25, he has visited the Web site 14,053 times and posted 15,245 articles, which, he says, will put him only in the rank of midlevel fans.

"This Web site is a real community for Chinese" in the U.S., Mr. Zhou said.

"You can actually make friends there." Mr. Zhou and his wife went to Atlanta over Memorial Day weekend to share cooking experiences at the invitation of fellow gourmets who frequented the food forum he used to host.

Mr. Liu, the founder, tries to understand why his fellow Web users are so hungry to communicate with other users about their daily lives.

Most users agree that what makes Unknown Space attractive isn't the opportunity to communicate in Chinese, but the cultural intimacy it provides.

One of the most popular and recurrent topics is how to handle relationships with parents and in-laws.

"I don't think Americans can understand why we have to invite our parents and in-laws to the States while complaining [about] the troubles and inconvenience all the time," said Alan Zhou.

"It's just cultural difference."

Cloud stamps

There are 15 different ones.

They came out on October 5.

You can see them here.

If you've got $5.55, you can buy the complete set

right here.

Not a bad deal.

BehindTheMedspeak: U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist's 'October Surprise'

The United States Supreme Court sprang it on Monday, when it issued the following terse press release.
___________________

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was admitted to Bethesda Naval Hospital on Friday, October 22 and underwent a tracheotomy on Saturday in connection with a recent diagnosis of thyroid cancer.

He is expected to be on the Bench when the Court reconvenes on Monday, November 1.
___________________

Don't count on it.

This news exploded like the bombshell it is when became public Monday.

I'll leave the bloviating to the grand panjandrums of punditry (Spiro T. Agnew, where are you when we really need you? But I digress).

Here we'll go behind the what and take a look at the why, the specialty of this exclusive bookofjoe feature.

First, a brief anatomy lesson.

The thyroid gland straddles the trachea [also known as the larynx or windpipe].

It's the largest gland in the neck, and regulates the body's metabolism.

If an enlarged thyroid - whether from goiter or cancer - starts to press on the trachea immediately adjacent to it, breathing difficulty can ensue as the lumen of the trachea shrinks.

Thyroid enlargement can result in thyroid tissue eroding the trachea, and lead to its collapse.

Justice Rehnquist's tracheotomy [also called tracheostomy] was prophylactic: that is, it was done to prevent a catastrophic tracheal narrowing and/or collapse which could result in respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest, and death.

What is a tracheotomy?

It's a surgical procedure, often performed under local anesthesia with the patient awake (very likely the case with Rehnquist) in which an incision is made in the front of the neck, enlarged down to the trachea, and then continued through the front wall of the windpipe.

A breathing tube - called a tracheostomy, or trach - tube is then inserted through the opening.

The tube can be left open to the air for the patient to breathe on his own, or connected to a source of oxygen for assisted or controlled ventilation with a ventilator.

In general, thyroid cancer, of which about 23,000 new cases a year are diagnosed in the U.S., does not result in breathing or airway compromise or difficulty.

Therefore, I must conclude that Rehnquist's disease had progressed to the point of physical impairment beyond the cancer itself, which makes it far more serious and potentially life-threatening.

Rehnquist is 80 years old and a longtime smoker, two big strikes against him.

Dr. Yosef Krespi, chairman of otolaryngology at St. Luke's-Roosevel Hospital in New York, was quoted in yesterday's Wall Street Journal as saying, "It has to be the aggressive type or complicated thyroid cancer for someone to have a tracheotomy."

Dr. Paul Wallner of the National Cancer Institute was quoted in the same article as saying a tracheotomy might be done for two reasons: "Simply in anticipation of routine thyroid surgery or... because he was having breathing difficulty."

I have to go with Dr. Krespi's assessment.

No one has a tracheotomy for routine thyroid surgery.

Why?

Because cutting a hole in the larynx and putting a foreign body through it into the windpipe is not a trivial thing.

Obstruction, infection, bleeding, a whole host of potential complications are introduced which are otherwise not present.

No, this is serious stuff.

Which is why there is no way Rehnquist will be on the Bench next Monday morning, November 1, when the Court reconvenes.

Dr. Krespi said he would not recommend a cancer patient who needs a tracheotomy return to work so quickly.

As I said, not to worry; ain't gonna happen.