Hasta La Gadget!

The annual E3 trade show in Los Angeles is always full of surprises. It is one of the biggest events of the year for the games industry. It’s a great way to check out upcoming titles and find out what developers are working on. Sometimes robot dinosaurs even show up.

Every year these companies come up with unique ways to get our attention and this year Sony is the clear winner, because this Watcher cosplay to promote Horizon Dawn Zero is amazing. Beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

It was made by effects studio Spectral Motion, who have been involved with films like X-Men: The Last Stand, Looper and Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Now you understand why it looks so good. Check it out in action in the videos below:

[via Kotaku via Fashionably Geek]

A Senate amendment that would have allowed the FBI to search a suspect’s phone and online records without a court order came very close to becoming a reality today. The legislation, introduced by Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Richard Burr (R-NC) in…

Being a photographer means sinking tons of money into camera bodies, lenses, and accessories to get the clearest, sharpest image possible. It’s very expensive, and not many people get to make it their full time living due to the time and effort you have to put into it to make a truly amazing image. The rest of us have aspirations of being full-fledged photographers, but don’t want to sink our whole lives into the process, so we take pictures on our phones and upload it to social media.

If you want better images on your phone you’ll have to spend extra to get extra, but the OOWA is looking like a pretty solid option to make your phone a close equivalent to a DSLR. If taking crystal clear images is one of your life goals, then these lenses will help you achieve it. This is a case and lens combination that will give you a 75mm telephoto and 15mm wide-angle lens that are capable of f1.75, or 2.2 with an iPhone.

This will let you take sharp images that don’t have that horrid graininess close up or image quality that falls off around the edges. These only work well with iPhone 6 and above, and while there are plans to be compatible with the next iPhone, there’s no talk of working with Android. You can pick up both lenses for $139, which comes with lens caps and carrying pouches, or you can buy individuals at $79 a piece.

Available for crowdfuding on Kickstarter
[ OOWA Lenses help your Instagram feed look amazing copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

In my husband Olof’s and my relationship, I’ve always been the one who resisted change and he the one who embraced it. So I was puzzled when the big tree in our front yard died, Olof refused to let it be removed. But it was when he started using “feeling” words about the tree that I became officially alarmed.

My husband is an engineer and a former Air Force pilot. He’s out-going, universally liked, incredibly kind, and has a great sense of humor. But a sentence that starts with the words “I feel” is never going to come out of this man’s mouth.

Actions, he maintains, speak louder than words. Okay, but as I’ve pointed out to him on more than a few occasions, sometimes words would come in really handy.

I, meanwhile, am pathologically sentimental toward anything that has been in my possession for more than two minutes, and particularly toward trees. I had an especially strong attachment to this tree which had not only been the focal point of our front yard for four decades but was the backdrop for every family photo. I’d spent hundreds of happy hours reading in its abundant year-round shade.

In earlier years it was constantly full of kids, both ours and neighbors. The tree tolerated all that activity well, even the rope bridges and tire swings and having endless wooden steps nailed into its trunks and branches, never mind all manner of platforms and tree forts. If it could speak, I think it would say those were its happiest years.

So when the tree started losing its leaves and oozing sap last fall, I hired numerous agricultural pest people and arborists to try to diagnose its afflictions and save it.

One tree guy looked me right in the eye. “Well, you know, lady, sometimes things just get old and DIE.”

“I’m aware of the concept,” I said coolly, making a note to savage him on Yelp.

Multiple arborists said that the tree, if not officially dead, was terminally moribund, and more to the point, unsavable. With the heaviest of hearts, I started researching tree removal companies and even a new tree to replace it.

After being cut back 40% as a last ditch effort in January, the tree did begin to produce a few leaves this spring – the operative word here being “few.” Every day Olof was out front examining it, counting leaves.

“It’s coming back!” he insisted. “I told you!”

“But Olof,” I countered, “twenty-two leaves can’t support a 35-foot tree.”

“But it’s trying so hard,” he insisted. “I just think anything that is working so hard to live needs to be encouraged. You’re not being fair to it!”

Fair? And now it has a persona? Did it also have a name he wasn’t sharing with me? And by the way: who ARE you?

In the 51 years I’ve known him, Olof has always been gracious about not pushing me into changes I wasn’t ready to make no matter how crazy it made him. So giving the tree another month seemed perfectly reasonable. There was still time to take advantage of the growing season.

But three more months went by, the leaf count was down to 11, spring had sprung and to me it just looked like we had a large dead tree in our front yard. Sitting outside reading under barren branches is very depressing, never mind seriously low on shade. But Olof still clung to hope. “Just one more month!” he implored. And then he’d go out and count the leaves again, now on the fingers of one hand. In a strong wind, I feared the tree could come crashing through the roof..

Finally, I said gently, “Olof, I think it’s time to pull the plug. But I won’t do it unless you say OK.” In retrospect, he never actually said OK, just quietly nodded his head. I thought he was on board with this until he glumly queried a few nights later, “So when are the assassins coming?”

Ironically, the night before the “assassins” came, I was the one outside with my arms around the tree trunk, crying and thanking it for so much joy and happiness. The kids, who had planned to build some new tree forts in it for their kids, were really sad to see it go as well.

We at Nostalgia Central are trying to bond with the new tree, its 10-inch circumference looking pretty puny in comparison to the 65-inch circumference of its predecessor. So now all I have to do is wonder if the embassy on Klingon has returned my real husband. There’s an easy way to find out. I could just ask him how he’s feeling.
 

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Are you safe at home? It’s a simple question that social workers, nurses, physicians, emergency medical technicians, and indeed all health care providers need to ask their older patients every time they see them. Why? Because that simple question can be a crucial first step toward identifying potential elder mistreatment.

Adding the syndrome of elder mistreatment to a patient’s history and physical exam is crucial, because elder mistreatment is a serious, common, and sometimes fatal problem that is easily missed unless astute clinicians are assessing for it.

Even more disturbing, most elder mistreatment is never discovered. An Institute of Medicine report noted one in 10 older Americans, “experience physical, psychological or sexual abuse, neglect, or financial exploitation.” But for every elder mistreatment case that is brought to the attention of authorities, more than a dozen go unreported.

A serious public – not private – health issue
Elder mistreatment is a serious public health issue and we need coordinated public health responses to support health care providers, social services agencies and law enforcement to work collectively to intervene in a way that respects older people’s wishes while ensuring their safety and wellbeing.

Too many of us still view elder mistreatment as a private matter, much as we once treated domestic violence against women and children. This is partly because approximately 90% of abusers are family members and friends, most often adult children, spouses, partners and others, many of them suffering from drug or alcohol abuse or mental illness, or collapsing under the stresses of caregiving.

We cannot forget that elder mistreatment victims are some of society’s most vulnerable people. For example, older people with dementia, physical disability and frailty are at high risk. Intervention and care planning are essential and critically needed components of the health care encounter for improving the care of older people, and are just as much a part of good care as the physical examination.

The power of screening: a precious opportunity
Why should we routinely screen during medical and health care appointments? People who suffer elder mistreatment are often isolated, so any contact represents a critical opportunity to intervene. Health care professionals and allied health workers are often the first, perhaps the only, line of defense for a vulnerable older person.

The emergency department likewise offers an important opportunity. Frequent visits to the ED may constitute a warning sign for mistreatment, and all emergency personnel should be aware of the need to flag injuries possibly caused by abuse, document any suspicions, and take action if necessary.

Finally, situations change day to day. An older person who was safe at the last visit may not be at future appointments. Vigilance is extremely important.

Yet health care providers cannot handle elder mistreatment on their own. Here are three ways we, as a nation, can help.

A three-part strategy for reducing elder mistreatment

• First, insist on appropriate funding for elder mistreatment programming and training. Congress can and must appropriate full funding for the newly reauthorized Older Americans Act. The statute includes increased training on prevention and screening for states, Area Agencies on Aging, and local service providers, as well as support to improve the exchange of information between different authorities. It also strengthens the Long-Term Care Ombudsman Program, which investigates and resolves complaints, including mistreatment, in nursing home facilities and other adult care homes.

• Second, make better use of the laws we already have. We can support and expand the Department of Justice’s laudable efforts to train prosecutors in all 50 states on the issue and encourage legal action against perpetrators of elder mistreatment and financial exploitation.

• Third, build the evidence base through robust research. We should expand work at the National Institute on Aging and other appropriate NIH Institutes to gather researchers to establish the evidence for best practices related to elder mistreatment prevention and detection, screening tools, and gaps in our health system’s response to this growing problem. Knowledge is power.

At the 2015 White House Conference on Aging last summer President Obama called out elder mistreatment as a national tragedy and a priority area for improving the care and wellbeing of older people. He was the first President ever to do so and the moment was historic. We must not waste it.

As a geriatric nurse who has focused on the issue of elder mistreatment for many years, I am convinced that all of us can make a dramatic difference in the lives of older adults by adding elder mistreatment to our differential diagnosis.

All health care, law enforcement, social work, and other professionals who see older adults should, as they teach, round, examine, and treat, please keep that simple question in mind. Are you safe at home?

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