Videos on Lung Diseases

Blausen Medical videos about lung disease, from the site www.About.com

How Lungs Function
COPD
Emphysema
Bronchiectasis
Congestive Heart Failure
Bronchodilators
Inhalers

Photoshop Match Color: Improve Your Pictures With Classical Art

Improve Your Photography With Classical Art.

Cool new Photoshop tool called "Match Color". This tip takes it a step more creative by using Old Master paintings as the color source, maintaining a library of favorites for use. The pic shows a few. Detailed instructions in the original post- highly recommended!

Play: Not Just a Silly Thing, Really a Forger of Bonds

What are the Opportunities: The Dog and the Polar Bear

Why Didn't the Wild Polar Bear eat the Husky?


In Churchill, Manitoba, Canada something amazing happened. A tethered dog didn't get eaten by a hungry polar bear. Instead, they played.



Play practitioner Fred Donaldson applies lessons learned from animals to people, especially uptight adults. The hope is that play will be returned to it's rightful place as a forger of bonds between individuals and even between species. Read the whole article for details.

Success From Failure: Never Give Up On Yourself, OK?

The Rejection on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
But They Did Not Give Up

Failure. That big ugly word that stops us cold in our tracks. Well, screw it! Everyone from Abraham Lincoln to Albert Einstein to Thomas Edison failed, and failed big. But they didn't give up. They picked themselves up and kept going until they reached their goal. We can too.

For inspiration when the going gets rough, come here and feel invigorated, ready to slug it out with your particular demons of failure. Like the Woody Allen saying goes: "I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. Eighty percent of success is showing up." Be sure you show up tomorrow for round two. Those demons don't have a chance.

Pop No Wheelies on an EasyGlider

Electric Easy Glider: My Chariot Has Arrived | GroovyGreen.com





If you have an illness like COPD and are looking for a scooter or electric wheelchair, this might be a cool and affordable alternative if you are able to stand upright OK. Check out this:

"If you yearn to travel the streets of your town reenacting the procession of a festive Roman Triumph (sans slave holding a golden wreath above your head), look no further than the assistance of the Electric Easy Glider. This one-wheeled 380-watt electric scooter features a detachable footbridge that visibly mimics a chariot style stance. It will travel about 15 miles on a single charge (at a top speed of 13mph) and can be juiced back into service in about three to four hours. Including your choice of five colors, expect this one to retail for somewhere around $1300 when it hits the States this fall. As the rest of the Internet has declared; 'it’s way cooler than the Segway.'"

COPD Food for Thought

Nutritional Guidelines for People With COPD

Feeding your body is pretty simple until an illness like COPD enters the picture. COPD requires more calories for breathing so getting the proper nutrition is vital. This article sums it up nicely. Whether you need to gain or lose, cut salt or caffeine, or add fluids, there is plenty to learn in here to help manage this disease.

Take the "Grade Your Dog Food" Challenge

inkforums How to Grade Dog Food





Use the information in this post to grade your dog's food. You will surprised - and appalled - at the pathetic scores of most commercially available dog food from your grocers or large pet-store chain. For quality foods, shop at the small Mom & Pop pet stores who stock organic and healthier alternatives. You'll pay more but the difference in your pet's health may well astonish you- sleeker coat, increased energy, fewer illnesses.

SUGGESTED SEQUENCE FOR USE OF MULTIPLE INHALERS

Suggested Sequence of Use for Medical Inhalers

http://www.emphysema.net/inhaler_sequence.htm



This site provides a suggested sequence, in chart form, for using popular short and/or long -acting medical inhalers. COPD sufferers and others with lung disease will find this information useful and may want to print it out for future reference.

Green Roofs: Not Just For Hobbits Anymore

Green Roofs: An Introduction with Pretty Pictures | EcoGeek

(Please visit the link for the full text)

Written by Philip Proefrock
Tuesday, 21 August 2007

"It's not just for hobbits anymore. The logic of green roofs is becoming more apparent. We can minimize our bills while maximizing the beauty of the urban landscape. And every day it's becoming a little easier to live in a house that just happens to have plants growing on it.Vegetated roofs, or green roofs have a layer of living plants on top of the structure and the waterproofing elements. There are really two types of green roofs, intensive and extensive."

"Intensive green roofs often have a soil depth of a foot or more, and require substantial structural elements to support the weight of the whole roof. Intensive roofs can sustain a wide range of plant species and typically require a fair amount of regular maintenance. Because of the additional demands they impose, intensive roofs are much less common than extensive roofs."

"Extensive roofs are much shallower, typically only 2 to 4 inches deep, and are planted with particularly hardy plants. Over the last 50 years or so, this kind of roof has been developed, especially in Europe,. But now they are becoming increasingly common in the United States."





"Why are green roofs such a great idea?"

"First, they help to reduce roof stormwater runoff. In some cases, this can help reduce the size of stormwater pipes, and the amount of stormwater that needs to be treated by municipal water treatment. In a light rainfall, a building with a vegetated roof can have no stormwater runoff at all."

"Green roofs also protect the roof membrane from sunlight, which breaks down the roofing material. Having even a couple inches of soil helps to greatly extend the life of the roof, and a longer lifespan means less material ends up in landfills from re-roofing buildings after the membranes have failed."

"Green roofs keep the roof cooler, which helps to reduce the heat-island effect, which contributes to cities being hotter than the surrounding countryside. This can be beneficial to the building in reducing its summertime cooling load."

"A green roof is also a source of oxygen and provides a habitat for some birds. Birds and insects can find homes much more readily in the living environment of a green roof, where an ordinary roof is nearly barren. And yes, it's even possible to graze goats."

"What is a green roof made of?"

"Starting from the top, an extensive green roof has a layer of plants, which are typically sedums. These are low-growing, shallow rooting, drought tolerant plants. There are many different varieties of sedum, with different different coloration and different flowerings, so that a roof can have a varied appearance, rather than looking like an entire crop of a single variety."

"Can I put a green roof on my house?"

"Green roofs make sense for residential use as much as for commercial buildings. However, retrofitting a green roof onto an existing house is not a simple matter because of the extra weight a vegetated roof adds. Most roofs are not structurally strong enough to support a vegetated roof without some reinforcement. Green roofs also work best on lower slopes."

"The added cost of a vegetated roof versus a conventional shingle roof, and the relatively small number of contractors familiar with installing them are probably the biggest limiting factors."

"Does a green roof have to be mowed?"

"A sedum covered roof is naturally self limiting in size. Most sedums grow only a few inches tall. As mentioned above, it is also fairly self weeding, due to the inhospitable environment it offers to most weed species."

"What Does the Future Hold?"

"We were excited a while back to announce Toyota's green roofing tile. These modular, interlockable grass tiles make green roofing an absolute cinch.They're a lot lighter than other methods, and installation is a breeze. At about $34 per tile, they're still expensive, but prices would of course drop if demand were to increase. "

"And, second, I and many others would like to see Friedenreich Hundertwasser's vision of every horizontal surface being returned to nature:

'The true proportions in this world are the views to the stars and the views down to the surface of the earth. Grass and vegetation in the city should grow on all horizontal spaces - that is to say, wherever rain and snow falls vegetation should grow, on the roads and on the roofs. The horizontal is the domain of nature and wherever vegetation grows on the horizontal level man is off limits; he should not interfere. I mean taking away territories from nature, which human beings have always done.'"