Coming Soon to this location : Virtualability Island

-new resident orientation -training facilities - and consumer health information for people with disabilities and chronic illness Sponsored by Virtual Ability, Inc. and Alliance Library System Made possible by a grant from teh National Librar y of Medicine
posted by Namro Orman on Virtual Ability using a blogHUD : [permalink]

Search in Second Life Opens Up!

"Librarians Like to Search, Patrons like to Find"

The new build-in browser in SL opens up massive opportunities to search in web-based resources out there on the Web.

A simple example, but with huge potential, can be seen at the booth of the booth of the Dreams fair (http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dreams/120/26/25) we now have a box that says: "type your search in chat with /5 "

HEALIA ("The high quality and personalized health search engine"

People can start searching right away, no need to click on something first.
Just say: /5 stroke (for instance)
It displays a blue box (load web page) and opens the build-in browser with the results.

But, that is not all! ;-)

The search is pushed via the web-search of the Healthinfo Island browser toolbar with pre-installed quality health search options (http://healthinfoisland.ourtoolbar.com, still in beta, and constantly in a updating stage.

This results in a webpage INCLUDING a topframe displaying all other searchengines installed in the toolbar.
Patrons can repeat the search with the same query without typing again by clicking on the next search engine in that frame above.

The script that send this chat to the web-url was written by MB Chevalier, who also published a post on his blog about this.
I thank him for taking the time to talk with me about this, write the script and adjusting it to my wishes. ;-)
More on this later, little movie in preparation.

Tags: secondlife, sl, search, healia, healthinfo island, healthinfo, mb chevalier

Food recalls

This image is from a terrific website on child nutrition programs.

Living in the US it's hard not to be aware of the whole Hallmark foods fiasco, where abuse was filmed and made public. It is also becoming more difficult to close your eyes and awareness to the reality: this was very likely only the tip of a giant iceberg, merely the most visible element of a serious problem here and elsewhere.
For example, here's a PDF document put out by the California Department of Public Health: Products made with Hallmark/Westland Recalled Beef.

Just how big a problem is this? What is a 'regular' person to do? There's some great information out there right now that can help you make better choices.

One of these is the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, FDA Recalls, Market Withdrawals and Safety Alerts. In their own words, the site "includes the most significant product actions of the last 60 days, based on the extent of distribution and the degree of health risk." Here, you'll find how to report problems, the 'straight scoop' on media reporting, and the site provides links to older, archived information. Another link on this page leads to FDA Patient Safety News, where you can search the site for reliable and current information.

A 'gateway' site to federal food safety sites, the News & Food Safety Alerts page contains links to health warnings, regulatory compliance information, and more - including some interesting pages designed specifically for kids.

Finding reliable information on food safety and nutrition is not so difficult when you have access to sites like FirstGov for Consumers - check this out for lots of very accessible links.