vivez, plus intense: ”

Depuis mardi, le défibrillateur de ce patient transmet immédiatement la moindre anomalie de son coeur à son médecin par e-mail ou par SMS.
“

Since Tuesday, the ICD is transmitting immediately any abnormanl data from its heart to the patient’s doctor via email or text messages.

(Via 20 minutes CH, via Amandine.)

Diagnosis: Email Apnea?: ”

By Linda Stone

I’ve just opened my email and there’s nothing out of the ordinary there. It’s the usual daily flood of schedule, project, travel, information, and junk mail. Then I notice. I’m holding my breath.

As the email spills onto my screen, as my mind races with thoughts of what I’ll answer first, what can wait, who I should call, what should have been done two days ago; I’ve stopped the steady breathing I was doing only moments earlier in a morning meditation and now, I’m holding my breath.

And here’s the deal: You’re probably holding your breath, too.

I wanted to know — how widespread is email apnea*? I observed others on computers and BlackBerries: in their offices, their homes, at cafes. The vast majority of people held their breath, or breathed very shallowly, especially when responding to email. I watched people on cell phones, talking and walking, and noticed that most were mouth-breathing and hyperventilating. Consider also, that for many, posture while seated at a computer can contribute to restricted breathing.

Does it matter? How was holding my breath affecting me?

I called Dr. Margaret Chesney, at the National Institute of Health (NIH). Research conducted by Dr. Margaret Chesney and NIH research scientist Dr. David Anderson demonstrated that breath-holding contributes significantly to stress-related diseases. The body becomes acidic, the kidneys begin to re-absorb sodium, and as the oxygen (O2), carbon dioxide (CO2), and nitric oxide (NO) balance is undermined, our biochemistry is thrown off.

Breath holding and hyperventilating disturb our body’s balance of oxygen, CO2, and NO. Nitric oxide, not to be confused with the nitrous oxide used in dental offices, plays an important role in our health. From a briefing document prepared for the Royal Society and Association of British Science Writers, Pearce Wright explains, ‘The immune system uses nitric oxide in fighting viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, and tumours. Nitric oxide transmits messages between nerve cells and is associated with the processes of learning, memory, sleeping, feeling pain, and, probably, depression. It is a mediator in inflammation and rheumatism.’

As I researched the literature, and spoke with physicians and researchers about breath-holding, a relationship to the vagus nerve emerged. The vagus nerve is one of the major cranial nerves, and wanders from the head, to the neck, chest and abdomen. Its primary job is to mediate the autonomic nervous system, which includes the sympathetic (‘fight or flight’) and parasympathetic (‘rest and digest’) nervous systems.

The parasympathetic nervous system governs our sense of hunger and satiety, flow of saliva and digestive enzymes, the relaxation response, and many aspects of healthy organ function. Focusing on diaphragmatic breathing enables us to down regulate the sympathetic nervous system, which then causes the parasympathetic nervous system to become dominant. Shallow breathing, breath-holding and hyperventilating trigger the sympathetic nervous system, in a ‘fight or flight’ response.

The activated sympathetic nervous system causes the liver to dump glucose and cholesterol into our blood, our heart rate to increase, our sense of satiety to be compromised, and our bodies to anticipate and resource for the physical activity that, historically, accompanied a physical fight or flight response. Meanwhile, when the only physical activity is sitting and responding to email, we’re sort of ‘all dressed up with nowhere to go.’

Some breathing patterns favor our body’s move toward parasympathetic functions and other breathing patterns favor a sympathetic nervous system response. Diaphragmatic breathing, Buteyko breathing (developed by a Russian M.D., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteyko_method), some of Andy Weil’s breathing exercises, and certain martial arts and yoga breathing techniques, all have the potential to soothe us, and to help our bodies differentiate when fight or flight is really necessary and when we can rest and digest.

Now I want to know: Is it only the Big Mac that makes us fat? Or, are we more obese and diabetic because of a combination of holding our breath off and on all day and then failing to move when our bodies have prepared us to do so? Can 15 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing before a meal tune us in to when we’re full? If, when we’re doing sedentary work, and O2, CO2, and NO are optimally balanced, through healthy breathing, will we escape the ravages of an always-on sympathetic nervous system? Can daily breathing exercises contribute to helping reduce asthma, ADD, depression, obesity, and a host of other stress-related conditions?

I predict, within the next five-to-seven years, breathing exercises will be a significant part of every fitness regime. In the meantime, why not breathe while doing email? Awareness is the first step toward wiping out email apnea!

*Email apnea – a temporary absence or suspension of breathing, or shallow breathing, while doing email (Linda Stone, February 2008).

(originally published on The Huffington Post)

“

(Via O’Reilly Radar.)

Ron Paul BotNet Mechanics are Fascinating

Over on SecureWorks there’s a research write-up titled Inside the “Ron Paul” Spam Botnet that provides a look behind the scenes of an email spam botnet. What’s impressive about this particular story is that it’s both well written and goes into quite a bit of detail for a report of this type.The story starts by describing the telltale features used to identify the spam messages and goes on to work upstream, getting access to copies of the malware, looking at how it spread, and ultimately nabbing a copy of the administrative interface for sending the spam.

In fact, the details alone are so interesting that by the time you reach the conclusion, you’ve stopped caring about this particular spam episode. What’s far more captivating is getting a good look into the mechanics behind a reasonably sized spam operation.Good stuff. Give it a read.Thanks to Joe Stewart and the folks at SecureWorks for making the data available and telling the story from beginning to end.

See Also: Ron Paul spam traced to Ukrainian botnet(InfoWorld)

(Via: Jeremy Zawodny’s blog)

Real snail email

RealSnailMail is a project currently developed by boredomresearch. The system uses real snails with pet RFID chips glued to their shells to carry and deliver electronic messages on their own time, despite growing expectations of instant communication.

Commissioned as part of the Tagged exhibition in London, the launch of the project will constitute of a projection in the space gallery is a computer model created by boredomresearch, enabling them to test components they will need to build ‘RealSnailMail’.

Eventually this system will be built into an installation version in 2007/08. You can visit the Real Snail Mail website and send a message which travels to a server where it is entered into a queue. Here it waits until a snail wonders in range of a hot spot. The hot spot is the dispatch centre in the form of a RFID reader. This reader identifies the snail from its chip and checks to see if it has not already been assigned a message to carry. If the snail is available it is assigned the message at the top of the list. It then slips away into the technological wasteland. Located at the other end of the pond (in the case of aquatic snails) is the drop off point. When, or if, the snail ever makes it here, it is identified by another reader, which then forwards the relevant message to the recipients email address; once again travelling at the speed of light.

The tagged exhibition runs until 21 Oct., at Space Triange, in London. The artists will give a talk tonight 7PM at [ s p a c e ].

Also by boredomresearch: Theatre of Restless Automata.

Talking about slowing the web:

Louise Klinker’s SLOWEB project that responds to peoples’ obsession with speed and efficiency when using computers.

What does it mean when you have to queue to enter a website? And does it feel special to know that you are the only one using a service like Google at that time?

SLOWEB offers peripherals for the computer: a blind for the screen and a coffee mug to use as a mouse. SLOWEB also offers two computer applications: a special slow mail service that provides extra information about how long the author took to write it and is also concerned with the geographical relationship between author and receiver and a unique version of Google that requires you to queue if you want to enter a website.

And there’s also SLOWmail by Carolyn Strauss and Julian Bleecker from slowLab. This project has been awarded one of the Rhizome 2006/2007 commissions. The email service would deliberately slow down the pace of electronic messaging, offering a more reflective experience for both sender and recipient, and challenging forth more artful, writerly and meaning-ful correspondence.

The author tags his correspondence to describe a relationship to the recipient, their respective geographic locations and the mood of the message. The message is then filtered through the SLOWmail software environment which further interprets its meaning and assesses the sender-recipient relationship, factoring in message history, frequency of correspondence and past message content to determine the delivery timeframe.

At any time, users may login to the SLOWmail web site to view messages in progress, experienced as compelling graphic visualizations that develop gradually to represent pending correspondence.

(Via we make money not art.)

[tags]information flux, slow, email, animal[/tags]

(no subject)

Gmail – Inbox for pierre 11/08/06 11:56 AM posted by martine

(Via pierre.reblog.)

[tags]reblog, architecture, email[/tags]

Bureau of Workplace Interruptions

We harness interruptive technology to expose the secret possibilities of the workday. As a time-stealing agency, the Bureau of Workplace Interruptions works directly with employees to invisibly insert intimate exchange into the flow of the workday. Our promise is to create interruptions that challenge the needs of our users and the social and economic conditions of the modern workplace.

When you submit a request for interruption, our agents go to work finding the right interruption for you. We consider your occupation, work hours, and the means by which we can contact you. Once a feasible interruption has been decided on, we work to slip it into your day via mail, email, telephone, or a workplace visit. We strive throughout this process to keep our actions invisible to your employer.

[tags]work, time, flow, flux, sms, email, mobile phone, disruptive, alteration[/tags]