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Tuesday, December 25, 2012
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Larklife
The first time I launched the Larklife iPhone app, I thought, "How can an app this well designed and different from the competition go with a gadget that's so clunky and awkward?" Larklife ($149.99, direct) is just one of many fitness-tracking gadgets vying for the attention of consumers who want to be motivated to get moving. And the app could do just that, provided you have an iPhone, because it really does work differently from all the other personal health and wellness programs you'll find. But the wristband that goes with it doesn't compare to the more slender and sophisticated models you'll find in big brand names like Nike and Jawbone. Due to Larklife's lackluster form factor and slightly high price, it sits somewhere in the middle of the fitness gadget pack. It's not bad, but not great, and for less money you can probably find something you'll like better.
For me, the answer is the $100 Fitbit One, our Editors' Choice and one of only a few fitness gadgets that isn't a bracelet, making it easier to conceal when you don't want your friends or a hot date to know you're monitoring your physical activity. The Fitbit costs less than most other devices, works with both a Web app and smartphone app, and connects with a host of other personal health apps and devices.?
More similar to Larkflife are the Nike+ FuelBand and the Jawbone UP. The Jawbone UP fits the most comfortably of the three, although the Nike+ FuelBand at least puts visual data, like the time and your total activity for the day, right on the bracelet itself?neither Larklife nor Jawbone UP do. If I'm going to wear a gadget 24/7, I'd at least like it to tell me the time.
Design
Though a bracelet, Larklife disassembles in a way that I've never seen before in a fitness tracker. Its core component is a small piece of plastic with a strip of LED lights and a single button on the side. That core piece snaps into a plastic bracelet or "day band," as well as a separate and more flexible strap for overnight use to track your sleep. The USB rechargeable battery isn't in the core piece but rather in each band.
The lights serve a couple of purposes, like flashing to remind you to be active or to indicate a function. For example, press the button twice to automatically log when you eat a meal so you don't have to take out your smartphone to record everything you eat during dinner. You can add specifics later, or not.
In wearing Larklife for several days, I got used to it the same way I got used to wearing a wristwatch. I removed it to type and to slide my arms into a fitted jacket. But I didn't like that the blue bracelet called attention to itself. Fitbit One, on the other hand, hides discreetly out of sight on a waistband, bra strap, or even in a pocket (the thing is tiny), giving you more control over who knows you're wearing one.
The Jawbone UP is much smaller and sleeker than Larklife, but in other ways they're extremely similar. Each is designed to be worn on the wrist and only sync via an iOS device (not a computer), although Larklife syncs via Bluetooth whereas Jawbone UP connects via the headphone jack. Both the Jawbone UP and Larklife include silent alarms that vibrate to wake you, as does Fitbit One.
Larklife's Strength: A Simplified App
While the Larklife band may be clunky, its companion iPhone app, where you see all the data the device collects, is decidedly simplified. It has only four categories for logging data?meals, workout, boost, and sleep?and automates some of the recordkeeping for you. If you run or workout vigorously while wearing Larklife, the app automatically records that activity as a workout (although it once thought I worked out when all I did was scurry to catch a train). A "boost," the way the app describes it, could be anything that makes you feel refreshed, from taking a brisk walk or heading to the water cooler for some office gabbing. It can be whatever you want, and I like that Larklife includes it in its data collection. Decreasing stress should be seen as an integral part of wellness.
The band and app sync over Bluetooth, so you always have quick access to the data when your iPhone is nearby. I ended up flipping the Bluetooth off quite often, however, to conserve my phone's battery.
Most of the app display appears in portrait mode. Bubbles relating to each of the four logged activities (meal, workout, boost, sleep) fill up a screen for one day's activity. Drag your finger around the current day's screen, and the bubbles bounce and move around. Turn the phone horizontally, and your day's activity plot onto a bar graph that shows when you were active, total time active (in minutes), calories burned, distance traveled, and your sleep data.
What Larklife captures isn't remarkably different than other fitness gadgets and apps, except for the unique "boost" category, but it does simplify the process of recording. When you enter a meal, for example, the app doesn't ask you to search a massive database of foods for exactly what you've eaten, but rather offers a selection of basic food types?protein, vegetable, fruit, grain, and water?and has you tap the ones you've consumed. Again, the emphasis is more on wellness and thinking positively than getting into the nitty gritty of what you did wrong for the day, although not everyone will agree with this approach. I, for one, learn a lot when I count calories and pay close attention to exactly what I'm eating. I'd rather have a more detailed system than a general one. But it could be appealing for people who want to change their fitness and eating habits in a way that will actually stick.
Better Fitness Through Personal Data
Larklife is a good product but it competes with a few that are better and less expensive. The Fitbit One remains the clear Editors' Choice for its excellent form factor, top-notch data collection, and wonderful companion app for iPhone, Android, and the Web. It also integrates with a host of other apps and gadgets. When you can get all that for $99, Larklife just doesn't seem like it has much appeal.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/y3IS6pRH3oU/0,2817,2413317,00.asp
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Focus on Komen's breast cancer goals, not the controversy of early ...
Komen's founding chairwoman Nancy Brinker
Re: ?Going off track ? Brinker stumbles as leader, and Komen suffers fall in prestige,? by Cheryl Hall, Wednesday Business column.
Hall?s column resurrects an issue that has been resolved and fails to address the urgent needs facing breast cancer patients today and the potential damage to breast cancer research.
As Hall points out, the controversy surrounding Planned Parenthood resulted in financial losses to Komen and those we serve. This apparent punishment for an admitted error in judgment is not just disproportionate, but could have far-reaching and unintended consequences.
The decline in Komen funding deprives women with breast cancer, and those at risk of developing the disease, of critical services that may literally help them survive. At the same time, a decrease in funds for research means that the next generation of treatments will be delayed. There has been a decline in federal funding for cancer research, and organizations such as Komen are critical in sustaining the research engine. Without this support, countless worthy research projects will be placed on an indefinite hold. Moreover, we face the possibility of a ?lost generation? of cancer researchers.
It is time to move far beyond the controversy of early 2012 and put our dollars into the clinical services that women with breast cancer need and the research that will ultimately lead to an eradication of the disease.
Dr. Eric P. Winer and Dr. George Sledge, co-chairs, Komen Scientific Advisory Board Advisory Board
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Pope grants Christmas pardon to ex-butler who stole, leaked documents to expose Vatican 'evil'
Though Robert Pattinson stuck by her, Ben Affleck has left Kristen Stewart?in the dust. Citing a schedule crunch, the actor has backed out of?Focus, a con-artist movie set to costar Stewart and begin filming this spring. Stewart had just said in a recent interview that she was excited to start shooting, but now who knows what will happen. "Hi Kristen. We know that you were excited about working with Ben, but he dropped out, so we got you a replacement," a producer says to her the day she arrives on set. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-grants-christmas-pardon-ex-butler-stole-leaked-121929753.html
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Source: http://fortbendcountypets.com/?p=21054
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Violence, fear & suspicion imperil Pakistan's war on polio
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani health worker Bushra Bibi spent eight years trekking to remote villages, carefully dripping polio vaccine into toddlers' pursed mouths to protect them from the crippling disease.
Now the 35-year-old mother is too scared to go to work after masked men on motorbikes gunned down nine of her fellow health workers in a string of attacks this week.
"I have seen so much pain in the eyes of mothers whose children have been infected. So I have never seen this as just a job. It is my passion," she said. "But I also have a family to look after ... Things have never been this bad."
After the deaths, the United Nations put its workers on lockdown. Immunizations by the Pakistani government continued in parts of the country. But the violence raised fresh questions over stability in the South Asian nation.
Pakistan's Taliban insurgency, convinced that the anti-polio drive is just another Western plot against Muslims, has long threatened action against anyone taking part in it.
The militant group's hostility deepened after it emerged that the CIA - with the help of a Pakistani doctor - had used a vaccination campaign to spy on Osama bin Laden's compound before he was killed by U.S. special forces in a Pakistan town last year.
Critics say the attacks on the health workers are a prime example of the government's failure to formulate a decisive policy on tackling militancy, despite pressure from key ally the United States, the source of billions of dollars in aid.
For years, authorities were aware that Taliban commanders had broadcast claims that the vaccination drive was actually a plot to sterilize Muslims.
That may seem absurd to the West, but in Pakistan such assertions are plausible to some. Years of secrecy during military dictatorships, frequent political upheaval during civilian rule and a poor public education system mean conspiracy theories run wild.
"Ever since they began to give these polio drops, children are reaching maturity a lot earlier, especially girls. Now 12 to 13-year-old girls are becoming women. This causes indecency in society," said 45-year-old Mir Alam Khan, a carpet seller in the northern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
The father of four didn't allow any of his children to receive vaccinations.
"Why doesn't the United States give free cures for other illnesses? Why only polio? There has to be an agenda," he said.
While health workers risk attacks by militants, growing suspicions from ordinary Pakistanis are lowering their morale. Fatima, a health worker in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said that reaction to news of the CIA polio campaign was so severe that many of her colleagues quit.
"People's attitudes have changed. You will not believe how even the most educated and well-to-do people will turn us away, calling us U.S. spies and un-Islamic," said the 25-year-old who did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.
"Boys call us names, they say we are 'indecent women'."
Pakistan's government has tried to shatter the myths that can undermine even the best-intentioned health projects by turning to moderate clerics and urging them to issue religious rulings supporting the anti-polio efforts.
Tahir Ashrafi, head of the All Pakistan Ulema Council, said the alliance of clerics had done its part, and it was up to the government to come to the rescue of aid workers.
"Clerics can only give fatwas and will continue to come together and condemn such acts," he said. "What good are fatwas if the government doesn't provide security?"
RISK OF POLIO RETURNING
That may be a tall order in Pakistan, where critics allege government officials are too busy lining their pockets or locked in power struggles to protect its citizens, even children vulnerable to diseases that can cripple or disfigure them.
Pakistani leaders deny such accusations.
Politicians also have a questionable track record when it comes to dealing with all the other troubles afflicting nuclear-armed Pakistan.
The villages where health workers once spent time tending to children often lack basic services, clinics, clean water and jobs. Industries that could strengthen the fragile economy are hobbled by chronic power cuts.
Deepening frustrations with those issues often encourage Pakistanis to give up on the state and join the Taliban.
So far it's unclear who is behind the shootings. The main Taliban spokesman said they were opposed to the vaccination scheme but the group distanced itself from the attacks.
But another Taliban spokesman in South Waziristan said their fighters were behind an attack on a polio team in the northwestern town of Lakki Marwat on Monday. "The vaccinations were part of "a secret Jewish-American agenda to poison Pakistanis", he said.
What is clear is the stakes are high.
Any gaps in the program endanger hard-won gains against a disease that can cause death or paralysis within hours.
A global effort costing billions of dollars eradicated polio from every country except Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Vaccinations cut Pakistan's polio cases from 20,000 in 1994 to 56 in 2012 and the disease seemed isolated in a pocket in the north. But polio is spread person-to-person, so any outbreak risks re-infecting communities cleared of the disease.
Last year, a strain from Pakistan spread northeast and caused the first outbreak in neighboring China since 1999.
Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the World Health Organization, said the group had been coming closer to eradicating the disease.
"For the first time, the virus had been geographically cornered," he said. "We don't want to lose the gains that had been made ... Any suspension of activities gives the virus a new foothold and the potential to come roaring back and paralyze more children."
MOURNING FAMILIES
Condemnation of the killings has been nearly universal. Clerics called for demonstrations to support health workers, the government has promised compensation for the deaths and police have vowed to provide more protection.
For women like Fehmida Shah, it's already too late. The 44-year-old health worker lived with her family in a two-room house before gunmen shot her on Tuesday.
Her husband, Syed Riaz Shah, said she spent her tiny salary - the equivalent of just $2 a day - on presents for their four daughters. Even though the family was struggling, she always found some spare money for any neighbor in need.
"She was very kind and big hearted. All the women in our lane knew her," he said.
"The entire neighborhood is in shock. Pray for my daughters. I will get through this. But I don't know how they will."
(Additional reporting by Imtiaz Shah in Karachi, Jibran Ahmad in Peshawar, Saud Mehsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Katharine Houreld in Islamabad; Editing by Michael Georgy and Sanjeev Miglani)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-fear-suspicion-imperil-pakistans-war-polio-023132732.html
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