GorillaOffTopic, Everything But Gorilla Trades

The Gorilla has been hearing a lot of talk about more and more celebs going “green” in Hollywood- and that’s a good thing! If Hollywood can be good for something other than spouting off their political views, (the Gorilla can do without celebrity opinions on politics), then why shouldn’t they use their clout to get others to be environmentally conscious?  So what exactly are celebrities doing to change their lifestyles and go “green”?  Well some are changing their own personal habits and some are creating products to help change the world. For example, Leonardo DeCaprio, has bought an apartment in Riverhouse, an eco-friendly building overlooking the Hudson River. The eco-friendly Prince Charles has just purchased and Aston Marin that runs on biodiesel made from wine! And the beautiful and environmentally active, Kate Hudson, is collaborating on a line of cruelty-free, good-for-the-Earth hair-care products that she hopes will eventually expand into a skin care and color cosmetics. Although these examples may be extreme and limited to those who are financially successful, the examples are being set to help us be aware of changes we call all make (even small ones) that can change our carbon footprints and make all of us greener.  So how can you make simple changes to your own daily life to be more “green?” Many people say they started small, but even small changes can be meaningful. Here are a few examples of things each of us can do in our daily lives to help us be gentler to our environment. Adjust your water heater: Did you know that if you lower your water heater’s temperature from 145 degrees to 120 degrees, not only are you saving energy, but you will save a little money too?   How bout’ riding a bike instead of driving? When the Gorilla only has to go a short distance, he tries to ride his bike or walk instead of using his car. With gas prices being ridiculous anyway, is this really a hard thing to do? You are killing 3 birds with one stone here: (Pardon the pun!) You are saving on gas, you are reducing carbon emissions, and you are getting exercise to boot!  Stop printing so much! Many people are using much less paper and toner by simply keeping their information stored in their computers, rather than printing it out. If at all possible, try to do this. Another option is to switch to a laser printer; it uses much less paper and toner. Use biodegradable or organic products: There are more and more products to choose from that are kind to the environment. These are products that in addition, are not tested on animals. They are better for the environment (less harsh chemicals), healthier, and animal friendly. They include everything from shampoo to food. Look for products with the “Green Seal.” Use Energy Star Products: With the help of ENERGY STAR, people saved enough energy in 2007 alone to avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 27 million cars — all while saving $16 billion on their utility bills. The Gorilla doesn’t have to tell you how important it is to recycle, recycle, recycle!  That is the most basic of environmentally conscious efforts. And everyone can make a difference in this world. If you think your individual efforts alone are insignificant, consider this: Individually, all alone, as a single human being, you can decrease production of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases by thousands of pounds each year. So get out there and go green…everyone’s doing it!

It is Monday. You are up and about getting ready for your usual commute to work. On your way out, you look in the mirror by the front door to check your appearance, as you always do. Tie is straight…check! Hair is neat…check! No food in the teeth…check! You are on time- no, you are early, in fact. You think to yourself, “This will be a good day.” Suddenly, just as you are opening your car door- BAM! A flash of light hits you out of nowhere. It happens to you every so often so you are no stranger to its sneakiness, and its brashness. It is a migraine-or at least the familiar beginnings of a migraine and you dread what you know will be the inevitable pain and misery that will surely abound within the hour.  For those of you who don’t know about them, a migraine is not just a bad headache, it is much worse, and unless you have personally experienced one, you cannot imagine just how badly they can hurt. They are painful. They are disruptive. They can sometimes be debilitating. But now, a new device is on the horizon that may just zap the pain away.  A recent study revealed that a device, which delivers a therapy known as transcranial magnetic stimulation, or TMS, may be just what the doctor ordered. This cool little device sparks a magnetic pulse, that when held against a person’s head, creates an electric current among nerve cells to the brain. In turn, the migraine is disrupted in the “aura” phase, which is experienced by many people at the beginning stages of a migraine and causes visual disturbances and tingling and numbness. A new study, which included over 200 patients, randomly selected some of the patients to use the TMS device and the others to use a “sham” product. Of those who used the TMS device, 39% of the TMS patients were pain-free two hours after treatment, versus 22% of patients using the sham device.  

Dr. Yousef Mohammad, of Ohio State University in Columbus, said “This is very significant. This is a much better response than is achieved with any other method or medication that we have.” If this incredible device becomes available, it means that the misery migraine sufferers have to endure may be soon be a thing of the past. So let’s rewind, shall we? With the TMS device in your pocket, you walk to your car feeling ready for the day, and when the migraine strikes, you whip out your little headache blocker and BAM! Within a short period of time, you are back to Monday morning in great shape and the day isn’t an entire loss. Well, isn’t technology and science a wonderful thing?

Time is THE most valuable commodity. Yes, it is of the essence- and in fact- it is the essence of a life of peacefulness, and low stress. That is if, in fact, you have some to kill. Most of us don’t, and that is why many people are “outsourcing” there lives so to speak. Ever wondered what it would be like to have some of your most tedious errands taken care of for you? Or maybe you have menial tasks, like making plane reservations, or even dinner reservations, but simply don’t have the time to do it. Nowadays you don’t have to be the CEO of a big company or a celebrity to have a personal assistant, no sir.  Today’s personal assistants can be found online in the form of a “virtual assistant” and are relatively affordable for anyone making at least $30,000 per year. The Gorilla heard about this concept and thought “how cool!” Now, you understand, the Gorilla doesn’t want to compare himself to a “celebrity,” but it sure would be nice to have someone at his beck and call, when he needed a little help with those tedious things, such as calling American Express to get that erroneous charge off of his account. You know how long they put you on hold for- right? Well, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone else perform this time-consuming little task for you, so that you could continue to be productive at your workplace?  There are a number of web sites that offer services just like these and much more. They do virtually everything you could imagine from ordering a birthday cake to sending out “thank you” notes on your behalf. Some even have messenger and courier services if a delivery is needed on very short notice. You’d think the prices on services such as these would be simply outrageous, but they are in fact, quite reasonable depending on the need, and which services you plan to use.  For example, one interesting site the Gorilla visited, AskSunday.com, charges about $29 per month for up to 15 “requests.” Another site, GetFriday.com, offers pay-as-you-go and monthly plans in increments of 10 or 15 minutes. The monthly plan starts at around $120 for 10 hours. Not bad, at all! Many working people can afford it-even in this wilted economy. The point is, most of these tasks take up our valuable time, which can make us less productive, and therefore cost us time- which is money. These virtual assistant services seem to counteract that fact, so the cost is completely relative to what you might lose if you had to perform all of these tasks yourself. And the critics agree.  

They say if you look at the type of people who use these sites, they are most likely not going to stop because of inflation. Demand for personal assistants, for businesses and personal reasons, is climbing. According to research firm Evalueserve, which estimated revenue from such sites last year at $250 million, they anticipated it would grow to $2 billion by 2015. Wow! It makes sense in a such a harried world to outsource some of your little day-to-day errands. The Gorilla is a big fan of the virtual assistant and loves the services they provide. (Not to mention- Mrs. Gorilla is currently his personal assistant…so she loves the idea as well!)  It sure gives a whole new meaning to “multi-tasking!”

What if you were paralyzed and unable to walk? One can only imagine how a lifetime spent never being able to walk would affect a person, but now, new technology can let those who are paralyzed walk- at least in the virtual world. Technology is an amazing thing and recently, a 41-year-old paralyzed man used only his brain waves to manipulate a virtual Internet character to take a walk and chat with another person on the popular Second Life web site.

The man, who has suffered paralysis for more than 30 years, can barely move his fingers due to a progressive disease, which affects his muscles, so he has been unable to use a keyboard or a mouse. But a new experiment allowed him to wear special headgear, which contained electrodes that monitored the brain waves related to his hands and legs allowing him to walk and move freely. All he had to do was imagine that he was walking and voila! Walking was exactly what he did! 

Using a microphone he was also able to have a conversation with someone else (another character). The researchers at Japan’s Keio University said that it is the first time that a paralysis patient has succeeded in meeting someone and having a virtual conversation in an Internet virtual world. In addition, Junichi Ushiba, associate professor at the biosciences and informatics department of Keio University’s Faculty of Science and Technology says that researchers are also now studying a system that would let patients create text messages by mentally selecting the letters. ”In the near future, they would be able to stroll through Second Life shopping malls with their brain waves… and click to make a purchase,” Ushiba said. 

Second Life is an increasingly popular virtual world in which people can navigate a character called an avatar (on their own behalf) through a whole world of activities such as social activities and even shopping. It is always tough for those who are rendered immobile due to any kind of debilitating disease or condition, so it is a wonderful innovation that can allow those individuals to at least have the feeling of being able to control their movements- even if it’s just in a virtual world.

It’s summer folks, and you know what that means, right? A little sun, fun, and relaxation are on the way for many who intend to enjoy their vacation time with family friends, or simply alone. Many people will head out to the beach or the lake on the weekends, and that means getting a lot of sun exposure. But before you gas up the Chris Craft or jet skis just remember…put on the sun block, and put it on thick!

Skin cancer is a very real threat; probably more than you know, and the fact of the matter is, like it or not, it is something that any of us who live in the world (and are exposed to any sunlight) are at risk. Surprisingly, it is estimated that over 1 million new cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed in the United States alone this year, and it is believed that of those, approximately 68,000 will be the often-deadly, melanoma. Of those, about 8,000 will result in death. Melanoma is one of the deadliest forms of cancer and if it is not caught in the earliest stages, it is almost always fatal. Currently, there is no cure for the deadly cancer, but recently, a possible breakthrough has scientists and researchers on edge, wondering if a cure is on the horizon. The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, conducted a study which was based on an experimental immunotherapy treatment. One man involved in the study had a complete remission after receiving treatment, surprising and exciting researchers who have always believed that immunotherapy is the most promising treatment for late stage melanoma.  The 52-year-old man, who is from Oregon, was given only one year to live before he received the immune-priming treatments, but doctors who conducted the study are reluctant to show their enthusiasm at their success since the man was the only one out of nine patients who had good results. Still, the treatment, reported in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is being counted as the latest in a small series of successes involving immune-priming treatments against deadly skin cancers. And although he had no role in the research, Dr. Darrell Rigel, a dermatology researcher at the New York University Cancer Institute in New York, says “Immunotherapy has become the most promising approach” to late-stage, death-sentence skin cancers.  Although this is extremely good news, the immune-priming experiments have yet to yield a consistent therapy. The therapies, which have a long history behind them (20 years of research to be exact), have focused on souping up a certain kind of immune system cell — the “killer T cells” that envelop and kill foreign agents. But the new research at Hutchinson took a different approach. Scientists here focused instead on specific helper T cells that are adept at locking onto cancer cells and guiding the killer cells to their target. Researchers then drew blood from patients, located the special helper cells and then grew more of them in the laboratory. They then infused roughly 5 billion of the cells back into the patients — without chemotherapy or the other harsh drugs. “It’s a simpler and less toxic approach to melanoma than had been previously employed,” said Dr. Louis Weiner, director of the cancer center at Georgetown University.  The fourth man in the study to be treated was the Oregon man, who was treated in 2005. Two months after, treatment scans revealed no tumors, even though the cancer was in its advanced stages and present in his back, groin and lungs at the time of the treatment. Two years after the treatment, he had no symptoms at all. The good part is, there were no side-effects to the treatment, unlike other cancer therapies. In addition, an analysis showed that his immune system had targeted not only one type of protein target on cancer cells, but two others as well. It is thought that the treatment revved up his immune system’s ability to expand his cancer-fighting ability in new ways. Unfortunately, though, the longer-term effects are not known at this time because the man fell completely out of touch with researchers and has declined any further interviews, making it impossible to follow-up on his progress.  Still, it is inspiring news that we can all be excited about. But the Gorilla wants to warn you- wear that all-important sunscreen because many of us are getting to the age in which the lack of doing so earlier in life is literally biting us in the behind (and in other areas more exposed to the sun!). So have your good ole’ fun in the sun, but do it with sunscreen and a big fat hat on your head!

It seems that Microsoft reigns supreme once again in the “what’s cool in tech” department. Mr. Softie and Harrah’s Entertainment just introduced the coolest new innovation, and the Gorilla can’t wait to try it out for himself. So what is it that has the Gorilla so excited? It’s a high-tech interactive bar table that lets patrons do a number of different things including order custom drinks, watch YouTube videos, play touch screen games, and even flirt (yes flirt) with each other- (although the very married Gorilla probably won’t be using that feature!). 

The table makes it easy for Harrah’s to track its customers’ habits and behaviors, adding to its sophisticated customer rewards program that tracks users’ gambling habits. These cool tables were recently installed in the lounge at the Rio All-Suite hotel and have built-in 30-inch flat screens, which use Microsoft’s surface technology and include custom applications built exclusively for Harrah’s.

The $10,000 units incorporate the program called Mixologists, which lets patrons be the bartender and create custom concoctions of the cocktails and mixers of the users choice. The coolest part of that is that the program can remember what you drank while you were there and remember it the next time you order! Another program lets users watch YouTube videos either by searching or choosing from a list of popular videos. Harrah’s officials announced that they reached a licensing deal with YouTube on Wednesday. The table also includes a program called Flirt, which allows customers sitting at any such table in the lounge see and chat with each other, take and email pictures, and exchange phone numbers. 

Other cool programs let customers play video games and get info about restaurants, shows, etc.  ”Of all the goodies up our sleeves lately, this is one of the most dramatic,” Tim Stanley, chief information officer of Harrah’s, told The Associated Press. “The range of opportunities is fairly limitless.” The Gorilla, for one, is a new fan of this cool technology and he can’t wait to go to Vegas and try it out! Hey… Banana Daiquiris, a little YouTube, and some gambling anyone? Viva Microsoft! Very well done once again.

Have you ever been to the desert? If you have then you have certainly felt the intense magnitude of the heat there. Like the Gorilla, you have probably even pondered the effects of all that heat, and how it could power the world with its solar energy. Well, okay, maybe you hadn’t quite thought about that aspect, but scientists certainly have- and thank goodness!  As it turns out solar power from Africa’s deserts could actually supply all 600 million of it’s poor citizens - who don’t have electricity currently- with power, and it can even be exported to Europe. This was reported by a green energy conference in Nairobi on Thursday. Today, the Gorilla was out in the blistering sun and thought about that very good idea and smiled. After all, why not?  This desert sun could possibly provide the equivalent of 1.5 barrels of oil per square kilometer, as reported by Gerhard Knies, who is project manager for Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC), at a meeting of nine African states. He explained that the desert is the largest and best source of solar power and went on to explain how deserts receive 700 times more power per year than all humankind is using! Whoa, now that is a lot of power! The timing could not be better, as so many of Africa’s poor are in desperate need of electricity. Imagine how it could affect their society for the better!  And the better news is that providing solar thermal energy is simple and clean compared to extracting and processing fossil fuels (which we know is harmful to the environment and way too costly to boot). The process of harnessing the sun’s enormous power involves a combination of mirrors and pipes to concentrate the sun’s heat to boil water and drive an old fashion steam turbine. Once you have the mirrors and pipes, the costs are finished, and Mother Nature does the rest. That’s it! ] 

Currently, solar power is being used throughout the world as a supplement to the costly use of fossil fuels, but its use is limited right now. Eventually, the hope is that fossil fuels will become the supplement to renewable solar energy! Well, all the Gorilla can say is, let’s get going on this people! The outrageous costs of fuel are what is behind the movement to harness solar power, and with price of gas in Europe reaching as high as $12 and more per gallon, push has certainly come to shove. Hey, whatever it takes to get this environment healthier and cleaner is what we all want, so to the awesome innovation of harnessing solar power, the Gorilla says ”bring on the heat!”

The Gorilla went to fill up his car the other day and like many of you, he is still reeling from the shock of how much it cost to fill his tank, even though the surprise should be over by now. It’s not- and no matter what you drive or how much it takes to “fill er’ up,” at around $4 per gallon, it is not easy to accept the reality of how expensive gas is right now.  Everyone is doing what they can to conserve, so many companies are cleverly capitalizing on the expensive prices by offering free gas cards to consumers for bringing their business to them. Some banks are offering $50 gas cards to those who open new accounts with them. Car dealers are offering free gas fill ups just to come on in and test drive, (they never had so many people take test drives!), and radio stations across the globe are giving away gas as a prize to the correct number caller! The Gorilla even heard about a wealthy local attorney in his area giving away free gas to the first one hundred people who showed up at an area gas station in a poor neighborhood. Unfortunately, he was only giving away gas to one hundred people, but several-hundred showed up. That is how badly people need the gas!  Probably the most interesting “gas giveaway” by far though, was the one the Gorilla heard today. Free gas to those who donate blood! Blood for gas? This will surely be the tell all to end all of how badly people want free gas! It’s a great idea really, especially since summer is the most difficult time of year for the American Red Cross, when it comes to blood donations. Almost 14% of donors during the year are college and high school students, and when summer comes, the students are gone, leaving much of the already fragile blood supply dwindling. The Red Cross has teamed up with different gas companies to give away gas in exchange for a blood donation in some areas. The promotion works like this: There will be four weekly drawings for $100 gas cards and one grand prize drawing for a $1000 gas card at the end of the month.  It sounds like great incentive to help the already fragile blood supply in this county! Ironically, traumas tend to increase during the summer, and the need for blood is actually worse this time of year than almost any other. Your blood donation is desperately needed and could help to save lives! Not to mention the donation is mutually beneficial to you and the patient right now. People need blood, and people need gas too- more now than ever before, so give a little and get a little! The Gorilla likes the concept and just as he always does, he will be donating blood himself this summer for sure! (Getting a little free gas in the process is just an added bonus.)

“Babies, babies everywhere, but none for us to conceive!” That is sometimes a very real problem for those couples, who have trouble becoming pregnant. It is also an issue for certain single men or women, or gay and straight couples, who would love to have a child, but don’t have all the right “components” shall we say, to do so. For those people who desperately want a child, there are, of course, options. We all know about surrogacy and then there’s always adoption (a great option), but what about those singles or couples who want another avenue?  For them there’s always the option of using a sperm bank. This option is, and has been for many years, a very popular one, and as a result, there are thousands of happy people, who have successfully parented healthy children via a sperm donor or egg donor. In the past, it seemed easy if you were the donor. One could donate anonymously- no strings attached so to speak- without the worry or stress that commonly goes along with actually being a parent, and having to be accountable to anyone, yet doing something good for someone who otherwise would not have been able to experience the joys of having a child. But today, is a new day and anonymity is no longer part of the deal with modern sperm banks.  The picture is a very different one from the days of old, when doctors acted as sperm brokers and parents kept mum to their children. Today, people basically handpick their donors through a screening process, involving pictures and audiotapes of potential donors. This new method of “openness” has shaken up the multimillion-dollar sperm bank industry, which has always been built on anonymity. The focus of this largely un-regulated business was always on the donor- not the offspring- as their well being was never really a factor. But the tides have changed and now sperm banks that have never had to keep a count of the sperm they donate or the children born from them may have to face some accountability.  After years of debate, three of the nation’s largest sperm banks- California Cryobank, Xytex Corp. and Fairfax Cryobank- are proposing the first national registry of sperm and egg donors. California Cryobank’s Dr. Charles Sims says that the industry has “gotten the message loud and clear” and says that, “we have some role and responsibility to do this.” The industry’s goal is to create a voluntary, highly secured nationwide repository for records, thus allowing the biological children of these donors to have an “open door” to know the truth when, and if, they decide to. Sims believes it should include the names of sperm and egg donors, when and where they donated, and the names and birth dates of children they produced. But the proposed repository is raising some critical concerns with some banks, who feel strongly that donors should be protected.  

They feel that if donors don’t have the option of remaining anonymous, they will be deterred from donating. But whose rights are more important; the donor’s or the child’s? That is the question that remains on everyone’s minds. But Wendy Kramer, whose son Ryan was conceive in 1989 via a sperm donor, feels strongly that it is the kids who have all the rights. She believes these children have a right to know their biological parents and so she and Ryan created the Donor Sibling Registry (DSR) online. Using donor ID numbers, children, parents and donors are finding each other and, at the same time, exposing what Kramer calls the “chaos” in the industry. “We’ve got one donor with over 100 offspring,” she says. So far, the DSR has matched more than 5,000 children with others who share the same donor, including her own son, who found his half-sister through the registry. Over 100 offspring? Wow! Imagine if the Gorilla had 100 little gorillas around the globe to call his own! Luckily, there is no financial obligation for these donors to their offspring, or that guy might have a load of child support to deal with! It’s about time someone did something about this mess. In the Gorilla’s mind, it is long overdue.

If you are a fan of the Paralympics, than you already know about the great Oscar Pistorus. Oscar is a double amputee world champion sprinter who has broken his own world record 26 times. He is phenomena, he is and enigma, and yes, he is handicapped. You wouldn’t know it to watch him run. It is exactly like attempting to watching a cheetah running across the vast African Plain; he is so fast, so driven, you can hardly keep your eyes on him. He is so good, in fact, that this South African was banned from competing against able-bodied runners by The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on the grounds that his prosthetics are giving him a technical advantage. It was, and still is Oscar Pistorius’ dream to run against able-bodied athletes so now the task at hand was to appeal the decision made by the IAAF which caused international outrage. That was back in January of this year. Since then, Oscar won that appeal but must prove he will qualify.  Pistorius, 21, still must post a time fast enough to qualify for the Games. Pistorius must meet the qualifying standard of 45.55 seconds in the 400 meters to gain an automatic berth in Beijing (or 45.95 seconds for a provisional spot). According to his coach, Ampie Louw, his personal best is 46.33. He has 64 days left to meet those qualifications in order to compete. Many disabled athletes have competed in the Olympics before, but very few have raised the issue of whether their disability, or their compensation for a disability, presents an advantage. It is an issue that has raised controversy and will continue  to do so since the debate has become more about technology than handicap. What happens in the future when we have bionics available is, the question of all questions. This decision could, and most likely has, sent a message that will resonate with all Paralympians who would like to be able to compete against able-bodied athletes in the future.  “It’s not just about me,” Pistorius said in a telephone interview from Milan. “It’s about the extra opportunity for amputee athletes.”  Here here! Congrats to Mr. Pistorus- and the Gorilla will be watching this story closely for an update. Hopefully he meets the qualifications and can compete right along with the other able-bodied athletes at the Summer Olympics. That one will be an exciting one to watch!