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An email-based sporadic publication of
technology-related items for kinesiologists
compiled by Ken Daley. Issue #29.
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SPORTSCIENCE |
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News and Comment: Internet |
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ISBS recently has launched a new service called the Coaches' Information Service (CIS). This service is the fruit of ISBS' continuous effort to disseminate scientific research findings throughout the coaching community. The URL of the CIS Home is http://www.sportscoach-sci.com. Currently, 11 sections are in service:
Basketball
Field Athletics
Golf
Gymnastics
Paralympics
Soccer
Strength & Conditioning
Swimming
Tennis
Track Athletics
Volleyball
Members are strongly encouraged to visit CIS and to provide valuable feedback / input. CIS will soon evolve into a comprehensive and valuable internet asset for the sport science community. Please contact Dr. Hans Gros hans.gros=AT=sport.uni-stuttgart.de, VP of Publications of ISBS if you are interested in serving as editor or contributor.
In an effort to develop an academic information resource for coaches, athletes & media commentators, Sportballet Online has undertaken the development of a new Coaches Information Network. The objective of this initiative is to provide access to scientific research articles, journal and resource information for Olympic and sport development programs world-wide. Sport links include:
Baseball, Basketball, Dance, Equestrian (Equine, Rider), Field Athletics, Golf, Gymnastics, Handball, Hockey, Martial Arts (Tae Kwon Do, Judo), Paralympics, Rowing, Soccer, Swimming, Tennis, Track Athletics, Volleyball, Weightlifting, Winter Sports (Skiing, Skating) and Wrestling.
At this time, Stephen M. Apatow, director of development for this initiative is requesting the submission of online scientific research articles, journals and information sources from US and international sports governing bodies for inclusion in this network. Information can be submitted via email to cin.submission=AT=sportballet.com
For additional information on the Coaches Information Network, visit: http://www.sportballet.com
Stephen M. Apatow
SportBallet: Biomechanical Analysis, Correction & Retraining
Eastern United States: (203) 668-0282
Western United States: (775) 884-4680
Email: info=AT=sportballet.com
In response to a couple of e-mails asking about conversion factors for blood lipids there is a fantastic web site that I have come across which does most of the lipid conversions but does much more than that. It has over 2300 different algorithms for a whole range of medical/physiological measures, all of these are easy to download as well formatted Excel spreadsheets. The site is the Medical Algorithms Project at http://www.medal.org. Give it a try and see what you think.
Dr Richard Davison
Department of Sport and Exercise Science
Faculty of Science, Technology and Design
Park Square
Luton, Bedfordshire LU1 3JU
E-mail: richard.davison=AT=luton.ac.uk
This item features in the In-Brief article in this issue of Sportscience.
THE NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE FOR ALCOHOL AND DRUG INFORMATION (NCADI)
NCADI is one of the world's largest repositories of information on substance abuse prevention, education and policy and it's socio-economic impact. NCADI services include:
* an information services staff (English, Spanish, TDD capability) equipped to respond to the public's alcohol, tobacco, and drug (ATD) inquiries;
* the distribution of free or low-cost ATD materials, including fact sheets, brochures, pamphlets, monographs, posters, and video tapes from an inventory of over 1,000 items;
* a repertoire of culturally-diverse prevention, intervention, and treatment resources tailored for use by parents, teachers, youth, communities and prevention/treatment professionals;
* customized searches in the form of annotated bibliographies from alcohol and drug data bases;
* access to the Prevention Materials database (PMD) including over 8,000 prevention-related materials and the Treatment Resources Database, available to the public in electronic form; and,
* rapid dissemination of Federal grant announcements for ATD prevention, treatment, and research funding opportunities.
NCADI is one of the largest Federal clearinghouses, offering more than 500 items to the public, many of which are free of charge. The latest studies and surveys, guides, videocassettes, and other types of information and materials on substance abuse are available from various agencies, such as the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
NCADI staffs both English- and Spanish-speaking information specialists who are skilled at recommending appropriate publications, posters, and videocassettes; conducting customized searches; providing grant and funding information; and referring people to appropriate organizations.
They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at: 1-800-729-6686.
On the web at: http://www.health.org
[Info supplied by SportBallet Online youthprograms=AT=sportballet.com]
A new ethical forum has recently been making its presence known within the sporting world. Having been established for over 6 months, the Forum for the Analysis of Sport Technology (FAST) is seeking to raise awareness about issues relating to the way in which technology is becoming increasingly overwhelming within sports.
Its research interests range from the manufacturing of new sports equipment to the genetic modification of athletes and it comprises academics from a large number of institutions that are world renowned for scholarship in sports ethics. Its members range in expertise to include bioethics, sport policy, history, psychology, philosophy, evolutionary theory, and genetics and have recently been pro-active in raising awareness about the implications of gene technology for sports. In the approach to Sydney 2000, its members held a panel symposium at the 28th Annual meeting of the International Association for the Philosophy of Sport, speaking about such issues as cloning, genetic manipulation, and new innovations in doping.
One of its most recent interests has been Speedo's Fast-Skin swimming suit, which raised controversy in the approach to Sydney, and which received an ambiguous response within the sporting world. FAST intends to provide the arguments and ideas relevant to making justifiable decisions about the acceptability of new technologies in sport. One of the Council members and author of a new book titled Fair Play in Sport, Prof. Sigmund Loland from the Norwegian University for Sport and Physical Education, said that
"it is necessary to consider a number of factors in order to conclude whether this innovation should be made legal. These include whether technology causes unnecessary harm, increases the quality of sport practices, whether the joy or complexity of the test makes learning easier, and whether the technology is accessible to all. We have to ensure that the technology permits for a sporting contest that is fair for all, however problematic it might be to define what constitutes fair-play."
The main aim of the research group is to provide ethical conclusions upon which to found policy decisions in sport. Thus, it has a central interest to speak with sports federations and the International Olympic Committee in an attempt to provide independent ethical advice about new 'problem' technologies. Additionally, FAST hopes to broaden its discussions to contribute to discourse about technology in general, both in terms of identification the implications of alienating human beings from their bodies and the transcendence of human-machine borders. In this context, of particular interest is to contribute to bio-ethical research interested in deriving ethical conclusions about genetic engineering.
The very applied nature of bio-ethical questions is considered by FAST to require the consideration of how individuals receiving the benefit of genetic procedures will 'fit' into sporting practices. What will be the relationship of the law, human rights, and sporting policies if genetic manipulation is allowed at the social level? Will sporting authorities be justified in banning a competitor who was genetically altered before birth? Will genetic modification provoke another form of sporting competition that separates the enhanced from the non-enhanced? Another of its members, Andy Miah at De Montfort University, responded to recent press coverage and scientific research that is beginning to identify possible applications of gene technology to sport by arguing that,
"it is not reasonable to consult the rule books on this one. Genetic enhancements are not here yet and the rules do not say much that is helpful. We have a real opportunity to provide well-grounded arguments about their acceptability and we should certainly not take for granted that all kinds of genetic enhancement are unethical. Indeed, to make this conclusion would make the devastating mistake of concluding their acceptability without having a clear understanding about their implications and character - something that has been a lacking within anti-doping policy."
For more information about the work of FAST, or to become a member of the Forum, please contact: fast_international=AT=hotmail.com or visit http://www.dmu.ac.uk/ln/fast.
Point Guard Proficiency by Sam Lachterman.
With the basketball season almost upon us, this script should be of interest.
Find out how good your favorite point guard really is with this script.
http://www.earthweb.com/redirects/javascript_2.cgi
Very cool site to evaluate how fast your Internet connection is.
Try http://msn.zdnet.com/partners/msn/bandwidth/speedtest500.htm
A group of education associations led by the International Society for Technology in Education are focusing now on developing a new set of technology standards for school administrators. University of Virginia professor Zahrl Schoeny explains that administrators "are absolutely key to accomplishing integration of technology. They provide the funding, the planning and the release time for teachers to get trained. The administrator really is key to getting the whole plan. "Therefore, though they don't have to learn everything in technology, they do "need to understand the role of technology in education. You have to have an awareness of when technology is worthwhile." (New York Times 27 Dec 2000)
Television's technology-driven evolution was sparked by the introduction of the remote control, which inspired greater impatience among viewers, and thus, more channels and more action-packed shows. Now, digital technologies are entering the mix, creating time-shifting services such as TiVo. TiVo uses a computer hard drive to store shows, allowing users to pause live shows and program their set-top box to record shows about a particular topic. An up-and-coming development is interactive television, combining the Internet with television. Companies such as RespondTV and Wink Communications believe that the future of television lies in a viewer's ability to react to onscreen events using the Internet. Much of the potential of interactive TV is tied into commerce. For example, a viewer might click to buy a product as it is advertised on television. (Wall Street Journal, 13 November 2000)
IBM is taking the wraps off what it believes is the industry's clearest display,
which it says is 12 times sharper than existing displays -- or about 4.5 times
clearer than HDTV. The unit features 200 pixels per inch and more than 9 million
pixels on a 22-inch screen, resulting in an image as clear as an original 35
mm photograph. Company officials say the technology could eventually make its
way into displays for laptops, desktops and hand-held devices, but IBM initially
plans to target markets that require high-resolution imaging, including telemedicine,
weather forecasting, publishing and graphics design, and satellite mapping.
(Infoworld.com 10 Nov 2000).
http://www.infoworld.com/articles/hn/xml/00/11/10/001110hndisplay.xml
IBM is launching a computer recycling program, aimed at relieving a problem some environmentalists see as one of the biggest solid waste issues to emerge in decades. For $29.99, the IBM PC Recycling Service will accept and process all PCs and PC parts. Shipping is included, so consumers need only to box up the equipment and send it via UPS to Envirocycle, a Pennsylvania recycling firm (www.recycle.net/recycle/trade/envcycle.html). Useable equipment will be donated needy organizations and everything else will be recycled "in an environmentally responsible way," says Wayne Balta, director of IBM's corporate environmental affairs. The program is billed as the first one aimed at individual consumers and small businesses, and requires no purchase or trade-in on the customer's part. The National Safety Council's Environmental Health Center estimates that 315 million computers will become obsolete in the next few years, and a spokesman for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group says, "The disposal of 'dead computers' is likely to be the next big solid waste challenge that our nation will have to deal with." (AP/Los Angeles Times 14 Nov 2000)
Honda has developed a new remote-controlled 4-foot 95-pound robot called "Asimo"
(Advanced Step in Innovative Mobility) which moves in a human-like way and has
the ability to change directions, do a little dance, and raise its arms. The
company is studying ways to add voice recognition and other capabilities and
hopes to make Asimo into a commercial product within a few years. (AP/USA Today
21 Nov 2000)
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crh725.htm
The American Academy of Pediatrics and a nonprofit group, Learning in the Real World, will collaborate to study the effects of computers on children. The research will focus on how the use of computers impacts motor development in children from birth to age 11. The American Academy of Pediatrics has conducted similar research into how music video, advertisements, and other cultural factors affect children; Learning in the Real World has long questioned whether computers should be used in the classroom. The two groups believe they will be able to provide the first concrete research into this issue. A study earlier this year from the Alliance for Childhood said computer use in classrooms should be banned until there is clear evidence the technology does not cause harm to young students' development. The Software Information Industry Association disagrees, saying it approves of further research but thinks the key is making educational software more interactive. Officials at the National Association for the Education of Young Children say no one should jump to the conclusion that technology is bad. Instead, more and better training for both students and teachers is required. (New York Times Online, 13 December 2000)
Computer networks such as the Internet may follow the samepatterns that scientists have found in molecules and ecosystems. Several recent studies have shown that networks are not necessarily random, as many scientists had long believed. Thenetworks seem to follow a pattern identified by scientists as the power law. According to the power law, in any network made up of nodes linked to other nodes, the number of nodes having a certain number of links is inversely proportional to the number of links. In other words, in any system, there are far more nodes with only one or two links than nodes with 10 or 100 or 1,000 links. Scientists say this pattern has an effective purpose: because of the number of links, problems with one node will likely not cause any problems to the millions of other nodes. However, if someone designs a program to knock out one of the few nodes with many links, it could cause the network to crash. Proponents of this network model say they may have discovered something like a universal law. However, critics of these studies say computer networks show several deviations from the power law. They argue that although a network may show some signs of an order, it likely will demonstrate just as many signs of randomness. (New York Times, 26 December 2000)
Researchers at the University of West Florida's Institute for Human and Machine Cognition have created a pageless Web browser based on concept mapping. Concept maps, a learning tool created in the 1970s, use diagrams to illustrate how a topic is related to other subjects. Joseph Novak, professor emeritus of education and biology, and his colleagues at Cornell University developed concept mapping to help researchers explain huge amounts of information in an effective format. The institute at West Florida picked up on concept mapping as part of a $6 million effort funded by the government to create tools for the Navy and NASA. The project led to the pageless browser software, which allows users to easily create concept maps, alter the information, and add links to other resources. Geoffrey Briggs of NASA's Ames Research Center used the software to create an online concept map of Mars. The site shows the word "Mars" at the top with lines that link to subtopics such as "Exploration Strategy" and "Search for Evidence of Life." Users can open new maps by clicking on different concept box icons. The researchers offer the software for free to nonprofit users. (Miami Herald, 31 December 2000)
Researchers studying immersive Web technologies at universities across the country are pioneering the future of the Internet. The hope is that within 10 to 15 years Web users will be able to see 3D images, hear full-channel sound, and even feel the texture of a fur-lined coat they plan to buy online. Jaron Lanier, chief physical scientist at Advanced Network & Services, says the real benefit will come from being able to interact with other people using the entire range of human senses. However, bandwidth and processor speeds remain barriers to refining the super-sensitive subtleties of human interaction. Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) are exploring the use of haptics, a force-feedback technology that allows people to feel digital objects. Regardless of the advance of immersive Internet capabilities, some experts doubt whether this will be the end of the line using technology to replicate real life. Jaron Lanier says human senses are so refined that, although we may be wowed by new technologies, people will soon be able to quickly distinguish between the digital and corporeal. (Los Angeles Times, 5 February 2001)
Giving new hope to the idea that microfans may someday cool computer chips
(or be used to propel microscopic platforms into the air for use in atmospheric
monitoring or surveillance), a team of mechanical engineers at the University
of Colorado at Boulder have created an eight-bladed fan the size of a grain
of sand. Funded partly by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the
project is an example of the technology called MEMS, which is short for microelectromechanical
systems. One MEMS expert said of the microfan: "It's not clear if it can spin
at high speeds and withstand centrifugal forces. Some engineering has to pass
before that can happen." (New York Times 15 Feb 2001)
http://partners.nytimes.com/2001/02/15/technology/15NEXT.html
Moving Together is not an official publication of Maharishi University of Management. It is nothing other than a personal try to share/create a collective wisdom in the area of technology as it impacts professional Kinesiologists.
Ken Daley
kdaley=AT=mum.edu
http://www.mum.edu/exss_dept/daley.html
Associate Professor
Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences
Maharishi University of Management
Fairfield, Iowa USA 52557
Member of the Internet Developers Association
