Our BT winners pack it up for our flight home! It was so hard to leave such a beautiful place. BIG thanks to www.westjetvacations.com and the BTA! We had an amazing trip to Barbados!
More breakers dancing to classic tracks from Queen and MJ. The best!
Our BT winners Karen and Mike! First ones up and last ones out!
Cameraman Rob in action – on stage and our last sunset in Barbados.
Everyone says “you haven’t seen Barbados until you’ve been to Oistins”. Oistins fish fry is stacked with people on a Friday night and it’s the only place to be for Bajans and for visitors. It was our best and last night out on the island!
Bajan breakers (and our technical guru Randy) throw down old skool to C&C music factory. Freedom & Zelma 4ever!
Sony announces Free ebooks for Canadians
Good news for Sony ebook readers (and I know a lot of you BT viewers have them!) Sony has just announced it will give access to hundreds of thousands of public domain books from Google, optimized for current models of the its popular reader.
If you own a Sony reader just go to the Sony ebook store. You’ll find a button which will lead users to the books from Google, which you can transfer to your PRS-505 or PRS-700 Reader.
What titles are available? We’re talking classics here. “The Awakening,” “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” and “Black Beauty.” You can also download “The Letters of Jane Austen, ” “Sense and Sensibility” and “Emma.” This brings to total number of Sony ebooks available in Canada to 400,000. Not bad. Just to compare, Amazon only offers 250,000 titles.
Does this entice you to go out and buy a Sony ebook reader?
Just another example of the interesting research underway at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine. Seriously, it doesn’t stop.
Here’s the story.
Susan Buckley has only twelve percent of her kidney function.
She’s just weeks away from going on dialysis. It means everyday tasks are hard to do.
“Cooking, cleaning, laundry, you do a little, you sit down. You do a little, you sit down. You just don’t have the same energy . I think that’s what i struggle with the most.”
But Doctor Burgess is doing research into a charcoal-like substance – that may help keep kidney patients off dialysis. It has to do with removing medium sized molecules from the kidneys.
Doctor Burgess explains, “these middle-sized molecules might be responsible in part for the many complications that occur in other body systems when the kidneys don’t work.”
In a study from Japan, kidney patients took the substance in capsule form, with dramatic results.
Doctor Burgess says “it actually somehow gets these middle sized molecules to stick to it – in the gut – and remove them that way from the body, since the kidneys no longer do the job adequately.”
And lo and behold – patients started doing much better. In fact, there was a 33 percent reduction in the number of people who ended up either losing kidney function or ending up on dialysis.
So Doctor Burgess is hoping to recreate this effect in her study.
The one catch is patients have to take 10 of these capsules with each meal, that’s 30 pills a day. But if you ask someone with kidney disease, they would say if taking the pills would keep them off dialysis, they’d do it.
Buckley is no exception. “I tell ya, if I could go to the cupboard and take some pills and not have to go on dialysis I would certainly do that.”
But Buckley is not a good candidate for the study, because of her type of kidney disease. However, she still thinks it’s exciting research.
“I think it’s great for people coming up behind us, the next generation, our children behind us, I’m all for it.”
-Doctor Burgess is still looking for people to participate in this study. She’s looking for people with chronic kidney disease, who have not had a transplant and who are not yet on dialysis. If you would like more information call 403-220-8613.
The world's first cell phone made from recycled water bottles
It’s the new trend in electronics. TVs that use less electricity, gadgets with less packaging. Yes green is the new black folks! Now Motorola has jumped on the green bandwagon with a world first, a cell phone with a body made from recycled water bottles. I’m not talking about those small 500ml bottles. I mean those giant 18.9L bottles, the ones you see in offices.
Design
At first glance you would never know the Renew is made form recycled material. It’s light weight yet feels solid. It has a very simple design yet looks fairly slick. There are no sliding parts or flip out keypad here. What you see is what you get, a simple phone. This also happens to be reflected in the features.
Features
Truth be told there are not many features on this phone. This is as simple as it gets. Texting is the main feature. Renew has the classic Motorola software in it so if you’ve used any Motorola phone in the past 4 or 5 years, you know what you can expect. Texting is simple, yet time consuming. There is no qwerty keypad so some patience is needed. There is predictive text however, so that does speed up the process.
The Renew is also a music phone. You can download music right on the phone itself. The phone comes with a set of headphones which are needed since music sounds horrible on the handset itself, which is to be expected.
Like most phones you can browse the web on the Renew. I am disappointed with this feature as it seems a bit archaic. The browser is dated and looks nothing like the browser smart phone users are accustomed to. It is not ideal to “surf” the web on this phone!
Bottom line
You have to give Motorola credit for trying to be green. The company made a smart choice by using 100% recycled packaging. Renew is also the first certified carbonfree phone (Motorola offset the amount of carbon monoxide used to produce the phone by investing in green technology). It is a bit disappointing the body contains only 25% recycled material.
The phone may be cutting edge since it’s made from water bottles but it feels dated. It lacks many features. No Bluetooth, no GPS, no video player, no camera, no Wi-Fi. It feels old. But not everyone needs a phone packed with features. if you want a plain Jane phone for talking and texting, renew is worth checking out! If you’re used to using a Smart phone and need more out of your handset…maybe wait awhile before going green.
The Good:
Contains plastic from recycled water bottles
Simple, stylish design
Easy to use
Packaging made from 100% recycled material
First certified CarbonFree phone
The Bad:
Very limited features
Only 25% of phone’s body is made from recycled plastic bottles
Carrier and price to be announced in Canada later this month.
The University of Calgary’s Faculty of Medicine has attracted another top researcher.
Doctor Peter Stys a neurologist and scientist will now be working at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the U of C. He’s from Ottawa and does cutting edge research in the area of nerve fibres. This research can help with many disorders like multiple sclerosis, stroke, spinal cord injury and brain trauma.
Doctor Stys explains, “The nervous system is composed of nerve cells and nerve fibres and we will be working on the wiring – which we think is very important because without wiring there’s no communication between nerve cells. The wiring is injured in many different disorders like multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, brina trauma and stroke. And all of these are very common and leave patients with huge disabilities and we know very little about what causes damage to these wires. So that’s what we’re trying to figure out and trying to fix.”
Doctor Stys was attracted to the city by the huge community support researchers get here as well as the world class researchers that are already working in Calgary.
The funding he’s received means Stys has set up a lab with the most advanced lasers in the world. Stys says this should allow them to get answers sooner rather than later.
Doctor Stys is the inaugural Dr. Frank LeBlanc Chair in Spinal Cord Research.
For more information on the Hotchkiss Brain institute and the kind of research underway there, visit the website:
On Monday’s Show (March 16)….we had our “Frugal Panel” in, to spread the word – on spreading your dollar around and saving a few bucks…
Some of their favourite websites include:
Hop online to find the savings !! Oh, and if you have a favourite penny-pinching website to throw my way, please do so!!!
Lastly, on the “thrifty” front…
I have a “winner” when it comes to “breaking down” the difference between someone who is “Cheap” an someone who is “Frugal”….
“Studio Derreck” here at “BT” puts it this way…
“FRUGAL” – is when you go out of your way for deals, penny-pinch and coupon-clip because you don’t have a lot of money – and you must be creative to survive….
“CHEAP” - is when you have an abundance of $$$$$…but choose to hold onto it with a tight grip…so you become a “tight wad”.
I like the definitions !!!!!!!!!
Happy Monday.
-A
One of the reasons I love doing health stories is really for personal research. Sure my husband and I would like to have another child, but after that…. hmmmm…. he may be going to visit this clinic.
Here’s the story.
Ken Houston had a vascetomy about a month ago.
He swears it wasn’t that bad. “There is nothing about the procedure that is over the top. It’s not that uncomfortable, it’s not that painful, there is nothing about it that’s to an extreme.”
It might be because Doctor Phillip van der Merwe is the only doctor in town who does not use a needle to give the anesthetic. Instead, he explains, “it’s basically a special jet injector that we import from the USA. The anesthetic is forced in through the skin under high pressure, so there’s no needle involved.”
But, it’s not completely pain free. Doctor van der Merwe says it feels like a snap of a rubber band, but it’s considerably less painful than a needle anesthetic.
And instead of using a scalpel, “there’s a pointy little instrument that makes a tiny hole in the scrotum – about point five of a milimetre and then we gently open the skin.”
Doctor van der Merwe even has his weiner dog, Ben, at the clinic. And yes, the irony is not lost on him. It’s an effort to make patients have a laugh and relax. All told – the vascetomy takes less than twenty minutes.
Now once you have the procedure done, you’re not sterile right away – it could take up to seven months before you’re in the clear.
Doctor van der Merwe explain, “where we cut the vas tube, beyond that there is still some sperm in the body and that needs to be flushed out of the system by ejaculation.”
Patients have to have a sperm count done before Doctor van der Merwe will say they can stop using birth control. Houston has a few months to go, but it’s all been worth it. He admits, “it’s always worse in your head. It’s ten minutes, it’s done and the rest of your life, it’s not a concern.”
For more information visit the website,
www.vasectomyclinic.ca.
A couple of key points you should look for on the site:
- vasectomies are covered by Alberta Health, reversals are not, and they’re very expensive
- vasectomies are way easier than having the woman have her tubes tied
- consider banking some sperm if you’re not entirely sure
Nothing to be afraid of here….
That is….unless WINNING FREE STUFF gives you the “Willies”….(is that how you spell “Willies?”)…
Anyway…once again I have the priviledge of giving away some “Goodies” from McDonald’s !!
McDonald’s is currently promoting their “NHL STAR HELMETS” — a great collector’s item — but even better if you can pick up a bunch FOR FREE…
That’s just what “KRISTA B.” has done from the ABC Club !!! — and, to add to the excitement, Krista also picks up a $20 Gift Card. Yay Krista.
Sign up to the ABC Today !!!! And YOU could be a winner like Krista Too.
(read previous blogs on details on HOW to sign up).
BE SURE TO CATCH UP WITH US ON “BREAKFAST TELEVISION” ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16TH….Check this out – we will be assembling our “Frugal Panel” — Tips, Suggestions and “insider info” on how you can save a few bucks….and maybe have some fun doing it along the way!
-A