It looks like we are now entering the very high-tech age of managing stroke patients. Researchers are now trying to employ robots in rehabilitation.

Using robots in a therapeutic role in neurorehabilitation, particularly for stroke, is based on the premise that repeating limb movements can help to recover motor control. However, stroke is the most common cause of severe disability in the UK, and physiotherapists are in short supply. So if patients can retrain limbs with the aid of a robot but overseen by a professional physio, then more patients can get more out of rehab programmes.

Hermano Krebs is a principal research scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is one of the leaders in robotics, with a broad research base to his work. It’s what pioneers in the UK are building on today and everyone who’s anyone in therapeutic robots will at some stage pass through his lab.

‘We started here in 1989 back when I was a student at MIT,’ he says. ‘We introduced a paradigm shift in the use of robots for rehabilitation.’ Previously, they had been used as assistive devices: helping people with a spinal cord injury to feed themselves or as a prosthesis. ‘Our idea was to introduce a tool to help clinicians increase their productivity and make more efficient use of their time.’

Initial trials of a robot-assisted arm and shoulder exercises were with sub-acute patients with a localised lesion. Patients who had the added robot therapy showed twice as much improvement as those who did not.

Source: Frontline

However, none of them have ever been used in the actual settings yet. All results have been based on clinical trials. Click here to read more.

Call for opinions
What are your thoughts on robots in rehabilitation? Do you think they will ever become a reality? Are you willing to work with robots? How do you think therapists and patients will accept them?

Tell us your thoughts by leaving us a comment. We’d love to hear from you!

Rosalinda is showing on QTV, Mondays - Fridays at 8 pm. I think GMA is preparing the audience and wetting their appetite for the Filipino remake of Rosalinda, which is to start production this year. After Marimar was a hit for GMA, ABS-CBN followed the bandwagon and was in talks to remake Rosalinda into a Filipino version starring Angel Locsin, but GMA beat them to the punch and bought the rights from Mexican TV company Televisa first. I have a feeling it will star Marian Rivera, because I don't see anyone else who could do this role now that she's the new Angel Locsin, so to speak. Poor Angel Locsin, I really loved her. But even though this role in Rosalinda is almost exactly the same role as in Marimar, and it will be done again by Marian Rivera, it doesn't really make any difference because Thalia played almost the same poor girl character in all the three "Maria" novelas, and it was still a hit, because it was done by Thalia. As far as Marian Rivera having that same star power waits to be seen, but I think she will if she just keeps riding this upswing in her career well.

As far as who'll play Fernando Carrillo's role, I think GMA is going to choose Richard Gutierrez, even though he doesn't fit the role, and he's too young, it's gonna be him anyway just for the fact that they need star power to vehicle this novela, and Marian Rivera who will be a superstar by the time the novela shows based on the overpublicity she's getting now, plus Richard Gutierrez = ratings heaven for GMA. But if you ask me, Richard Gomez fits the role more, but they won't choose him because he's too old, and in the Philippines, since kids graduate at 16, once a celebrity hits 24, people think they're old already. And once you hit 30, unless you've established yourself as a qualified superstar by this age, you're practically ancient in Philippines showbiz.

You know what doesn't make any sense in the Philippines? On cable, the only Spanish channel they have is TV Española, which doesn't get high ratings because

#1: it's all in Spanish without subtitles, which most Filipinos don't understand
#2: it only has boring news shows, boring talk shows, and boring cooking shows all day long, which most Filipinos don't understand, nor would want to watch

If the cable company chooses at least one international cable channel in Spanish to show in the Philippines, why don't they choose Telemundo, which has English subtitles via Closed Captioning, or Univision/Televisa instead of TV Española, since most of the telenovelas that Filipinos have a fondness for, and most of their favorite telenovela stars from the heydey of it a few years ago: Thalia, Fernando Carrillo, Gabriela Spanic, Laura Flores, are on Televisa and Telemundo? Filipinos don't care about the celebrities they show on TV Española, because they're all from Spain, Filipinos don't know or care about Spanish celebrities. Besides my beloved Penelope Cruz, I don't even know many Spanish celebrities, nor do I care to know since it doesn't really interest me. But Filipinos do know tons of celebs from Latin America from their favorite telenovelas, if the Philippine cable companies want to get better viewership and more subscriptions, it doesn't make any sense that they get a TV station from Spain, TV Española instead of Telemundo (from the US) or Televisa (Mexico), since most Filipinos don't care about what's happening in Spain, but they do want to know what's happening with Thalia and the telenovela world in Mexico, Latin America, and the US, which you will find on Televisa, Univision, or Telemundo (and with English closed captioning), but won't find on TV Española. Even Spaniards don't like to watch TV Española, they call it "telebasura", but that's the only Spanish channel they have in the Philippines. Studies show that Spanish is the most popularly chosen foreign language to learn in the schools and universities in the Philippines, many Filipinos have the choice of Chinese, French, Italian, etc., but the foreign language that is most chosen by Filipinos is Spanish, but the only channel available to Spanish language students in the Philippines to help them learn and improve their Spanish is the most boring Spanish channel in the world full of telebasura, as the Spaniards say. That's just great, it's no wonder. They should have Televisa or Telemundo, since most of the telenovelas that Filipinos loved (Marimar, Rosalinda) were from Televisa or Telemundo, and students in the Philippines learning Spanish will learn Spanish better watching their favorite actors and actresses, rather than the crap they show on TV Española, and it is crap because I watched it when I was there in Manila, and it's total crap they show on that channel, I was so bored just minutes watching it. The only interesting thing that came on was a Rafael Nadal tennis match, but wait, that wasn't even on TV Española, that was on the Sports network, so that doesn't count, hehe.

Also, they have Korean channels and Japanese channels on Philippine cable, but they don't have English subtitles. What's the point of having those channels, having access to all of these great Asian series, if Filipinos can't understand them when they watch it because it's all in Japanese or Korean with no English subtitles?

If you ask me, it's quite obvious that the Philippine cable companies are catering more to the foreign businessmen in the country, than to their own countrymen, and that's why the cable that Filipinos pay for monthly are filled with TV Española (for Spanish businessmen), Japanese (Japanese businessmen), Korean (Korean businessmen), and Arabic (for businessmen from the Middle East) TV stations that most Filipinos won't even watch due to a language barrier, and that sucks. That totally sucks, because the cable should be prioritized to the Filipino masses, not to businessmen who visit the country for only a few months or weeks and leave.

New things to add in the list of things that don't make sense in the Philippines, hehe, sadly, hehe.


Rosalinda Opening Credits

Fernando Carrillo singing a rock song from Rosalinda
Speaking of Fernando Carrillo, he's been doing movies for the past few years, and he's returning to television in a new telenovela called El Engaño on Telemundo really soon since Telemundo is showing promos of his new novela right now, which means it will probably be next month. And lucky for you Pinays living in the US that it's on Telemundo and not Univision, which means that you can watch it from the beginning and understand it even though it's in Spanish, because Telemundo provides English closed captioning on CC3. Up to the Minute Update, Fernando Carrillo has been let out of his mulit-million dollar contract with NBC Telemundo, and replaced with Christian Meier, the star of Zorro which is showing right now on ABS-CBN. This means that Doña Barbara, the new upcoming telenovela starring another Filipino favorite: Gabriela Spanic, will have to look for a new leading man now that NBC-USA-Telemundo has bumped Meier out of that novela to this one:

Fernando Carrillo and Telemundo Part Ways

Venezuelan actor Fernando Carrillo has abandoned recordings for the upcoming Telemundo telenovela El engaño, a series that will star fellow Venezuelan, actress Gaby Espino. The news was confirmed in a press release from the network, and even though the motives behind his departure weren’t explained, the Venezuelan media speculate that the actor’s demands were beginning to conflict with his work.

Carrillo, 42, had signed a two-year exclusivity contract with Telemundo, whose parent company is NBC, but the actor’s relationship with the network ended today. “Telemundo studios has made the creative decision to search for someone more in line with the show and its production needs,” a press release announced.
But the media in his country are telling a different story. Supposedly, the actor tried to organize a strike in favor of an eight-hour work day. The press also report that his star status was going to his head, as he was constantly asking for time off to travel and making demands for privileges not included in his contract.

It was also said that the actor was making $50,000 a month, on top of having his apartment, car, cell phone and a piano he requested paid for. None of these rumors have been confirmed. Of the actor, the network stated: “We wish Fernando the best in his future projects.”

At the end of 2007, the actor told the press he was “very content with the new experience, the character, not to mention the great production from Telemundo, NBC Universal and an excellent cast. I couldn’t ask for a better cast, seriously. It’s a great constellation of Mexican stars.”

And now for the questions: What will Carrillo do now, and who will replace him? Some rumors suggest that Peruvian actor Christian Meier could take his place.

“As soon as we have news of a replacement, we’ll let you know,” ended the Telemundo statement.

A lot of bloggers are getting money (moolahs as what Ate Ria Calls it) from blogging, but for me, i getting much food. We ate a lot today. We went to Pepper and Peppers for lunch and Hanoi for Dinner.

Whew! That's what we call gluttony. Batang Yagit is getting MORE healthy these days. I'm exerting some efforts in reducing my weight. But the food trips are irresistible. Can you think of a way where I eat a lot without ever gaining so much weight?

Few weeks ago, I went to my Tita's house which is not far from our house. The first thing she said, "You are getting fat, 'wag kang papasobra."

Ok. I'm gaining weight, getting fat, getting ugly. So what? At least I'm able to eat good food, ehem, a lot of good davao food.

We're still on our 6th leg of the Davao Bloggers Food Trip. There's still more to come, (I guess).

I used to have crooked teeth and so I wore braces. Of course my teeth were fixed, however, it was too soon to take my braces off even if my teeth were already corrected. I didnt see anything wrong with taking them off, in fact, I hated having them on, but now I see why I shouldn't have insisted doing so. MY TEETH ARE GOING BACK TO BEING CROOKED LITTLE BY LITTLE! It's unnoticeable though, but I consulted the dentist already and its gonna take about as much money if I had braces again, it doesnt matter that used to have them before because we're starting from scratch. It's hard to smile nowadays. Oh those celebrities are somehow lucky specially those who can consult Las Vegas cosmetic dentist. That is why they always have pretty smiles, they have nicer and whiter teeth. Definitely worth showing off to everyone around. He's not just your ordinary dentist, I’m talking about cosmetic dentistry. It's just one cool make over, I'd say. There are several procedures available that could just do the magic for everyone. There are so much make overs being offered in the market now, but this is something I think worth investing on. I hope you will consider the one that's really essential and hygienic. Cosmetic dentistry must be the one for you. So you can go ahead and flash that winning smile!

Tada!!!

ZAMBAPALOOZA 2: Sa IBA tayo! Surf Festival '08!

Mark your calendars boys and girls, February 1 - 3, 2008 is the day! The Zambales Surfing Association invites everyone to discover, explore and experience the Zambales surfing scene in Iba, Zambales at La Playa del Norte Beach Resort. Surfers, Skim boarders, Wake boarders, Kiters, Kayakers, Professional Beach Combers, Beach Bunnies, Bonfire starters are ALL WELCOME!!! Other activities besides Surfing are Skimboarding, Wakeboarding, Wall Climbing and Kayaking. There will also be skate park for all you skate boarders.--all this made possible by Tribu Outdoors. Of course there's a surf competition, you can check out the details if you go to their website. 

I am sooooo excited!! It's my dad's birthday and he wants to go to the beach so I told him about this and he agreed, I just hope he doesnt change his mind though! I can already feel the heat of the sun! Summer has officially begun! Ok i stop here now cus Im starting to sound retarded. Anyway, you wouldn't want to miss something like this so I suggest you start booking your hotels! The host resort is La Playa del Norte and they have a 20% discount on room rates. Here are a few details:

Rooms: 10 AC / 25 non-AC
Rates : Php 1,400-2,500.00/night
Single cottage (SC) good for 2 persons
Cabana good for 3-4 (beyond 3 ppl add P100 each)
Beach Front Cottages (BFC) good for 3-5 (over 3 ppl add P100 each)
De Luxe Cottage (DL) good for 3-5 ppl (over 3 ppl add P100 each)
Executive Cottage *aircon rooms* good for 3-5 ppl
Contact persons: Francis (Iba) and Mauryn Ordonez-Floro
Zamba : (047)811-2363
Manila : (02)894-5668
Cell No: (0916)961-0200

Want more? Me too, so go here. 

Is there anybody around in this age of technology that has not gone online or is not a member of a global network? I honestly think there is one, even if everyone in this world is  becoming internet savvy.  Oh well, except the newborn of course!  I am just overwhelmed that there are so much brilliant minds that create and offer a site for one to be able to join a global network.  I mean there is so much opportunity for you to just be yourself, express yourself, meet people from different parts of the world.  The link and connection is just amazing! These social and global networks have allowed a lot of kids today, like Neil Crespi, to be more creative and outgoing. In relation to this, I am in awe of young minds creativity in writing - - reading their blogs and publications eats up a lot of my internet tiime - - reaching globally and getting global attention, what more could you ask for?  All you have to do is spend 30 seconds of your precious time to sign up and go global! You wouldn’t regret having done so.