msb-0266 MS and Headsets

msb-0266 MS and Headsets

intro

Disclaimer! Disclaimer! Disclaimer!

MSBPodcast is "not" any kind of a medical podcast.

It is by and for MSers.

Its purpose is to keep us entertained, to explain our symptoms, to remark on our discoveries, and to raise the general consciousness about our disease.

The path to illness is shadowy, murky and rough strewn.

The path to wellness is lit by the lamp of knowledge.

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Feedback comes first, so...

Shauna is going to be a weekly contributor. She's on on Wednesday's.

Despite her feeling a little worse for wear with appendix bother, you should listen for her charming, if fast-paced voice on the next episode. (I must admit I have been infected by the laconic pace of life here down south. [You don't have to be a geography geek to appreciate now little north- and east-wards Nova Scotia is from New Jesey. {Man ... we're practically neighbors. :-}])

And if you have any words for Shauna, (like well-wishes,) drop me a line as charles@msbpodcast.com and I'll make sure she gets every last one of them.

This week-end I spent some of my time going through my indie/podsafe music collection and I got stuck on [munk] like a needle in a groove. (Bet you that image confuses anybody born after the introduction of CDs. [From "A brief history of CDs" { http://www.melbpc.org.au/pcupdate/9802/9802article11.htm } "In 1982, the first Sony CD player called the CD-101 was released with Billy Joel's 52nd Street being the first musical production". {Man 1982. I was married and everything by 1982.}])

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I got a jump in my download stats, "quite" a jump, that tells me that I got a couple of new subscribers through iTunes and they've downloaded all hundred past episodes there or I've got a lot of new listeners and they're cherry picking the episodes they want.

Welcome who and where ever you are.

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You know how some people are "uber"-creative and spin-off entire industries, never mind companies or corporations, while the rest of us are stuck either following 'em, cleaning up after 'em, enjoying 'em and/or burying the dead in the debris?

That's why they seem to change style at the drop of a hat, and leave a trail for others to follow but it only leads a little way into the forest, before disappearing, like they did, into a will-o-the-wisp.

These people come into our lives of their own accord and leave likewise pulled by their own imperatives; pursuing their own muse; or should that be pursued by their own muse since they tend to be as driven as they are driving.

They are classified as geniuses, brilliant, fickle or "low-expectation mother fuckers" depending on how productive they manage to be while in our mutual spheres of attention.

But they're "never" classified as stable.

---- "I Am" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

Feed Forward comes next, so...

This is "your" segment.

Say "your" piece on this segment.

Share with other MSers whatever "you" want to share.

Drop me an email: "charles at MSBPodcast.com"

---- "Grave" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

Feed Me comes third, so...

Do you have a therapy, product, good or service that is of interest to MSers?

Consider advertising on this podcast.

Reminders on this segment only cost $0.03 per reminder per download of an episode. (A $30CPM targeted at MSers.)

It can/should lead to a full ad, in text, audio or video, which costs $3.00 per download.

That sounds expensive until you do the math and realize that if nobody downloads it it costs you nothing, unlike print, where you often can't even get an ad in to the specialized journals, or radio or TV where you'd just be wasting your money with the 0.0833% MSers rate of return. (That's about six times "below" the level of "statistical noise".)

But MSBPodcast is 100% in your market, and you only pay per download of your material.

No play, no pay.

Reach the MSers who would buy your therapy, product, good or service, with-out having to waste your advertising money on anyone who is "not" interested...

Send me an email at: "charles (at) MSBPodcast.com"

---- "Superheroes" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

"Thesis:"

I ran into something [ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7254078.stm ] at the BBC news website that got me thinking.

You should click on the link to launch your web browser and stop/pause this recording (or go to MSBPodcast.com and click on it there on the website,) and come back after you've read it. Seriously... This podcast can wait.

I've been on about using neuroplasticity to recover our functionality (and since applying it to my "Tai Chi" exercises I have noticed improvements in my movement and in my control, [and others have noticed it too so its not just wishful thinking on my part,]) when it comes to getting our somatic senses back.

Now I'm thinking that there must be some way for these "gamer's hemets" to be used in some form of cognitive evaluation and therapy.

---- "Podpeople" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

"Synthesis:"

Might an "Epoc" style headset be useful in other ways?

If we could extend our mental maps to something entirely external, and thus not influenced by sclera, and we train ourselves to extend our mental maps by providing immediate feedback, might this technique be used for rehabilitation.

If we could control an avatar in some representation of 3D space and control its attitudinal positioning in that same 3D space, might that not provide some of the same feedback that we need to get our somatic sense back.

I'm thinking that this would be extremely telling from a diagnostic sense as well.

If we can decipher the patterns between the volitional signals and the muscular actions, we might be able to enhance the control over the volitional signals by augmenting and supplementing these and using our brains' own ability to extend its own inborn mapping abilities.

The human brain is amazingly flexible and adaptive.

---- "30 Days" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

"Conclusion:"

Perhaps we can help ourselves by using the tools and toys at our disposal in unknown or atleast in unimagined ways.

I'm looking at the "Epoc" helmet and thinking that it could not only map how our brains' are different but it could mediate between the differences between then by translating between the signal paths that are at the core of the differences.

On other fronts, I'm seeing what I can rig up so Shauna and I could do a show together.

We've got both got Skype so now to see if "Naturally Speaking" can handle the both of us so we don't have to kill ourselves trying to create transcripts "on the fly." (Some of my listeners have hearing difficulties and like to follow along in the script just in case they might miss something. [What could I possibly have to say that was important enough to warrant it, I'm sure I don't know, but its all on every episode of my writing blog {at http://multiplesclerosisblog.blogspot.com/ }, on my podcast site (at http://www.MSBPodcast.com/ }, in the iTunes lyrics tab notes and even on the iPod 'about' screen.])

---- "Bombshelter" by: "Munk" http://www.myspace.com/munk

Outro