ABC News Internships

I started my career at ABC News many moons ago as a summer intern at 20/20. If you want to break into TV news there is really only one way. Volunteer your services to a multi national billion dollar company for free. It's fun and educational and the networking opportunities are priceless.

ABC News Internship info.
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=2938454&page=1

Convert File Formats Online - Yippee!

I think this website is a gift from above. Converts file formats online for free. The company asks a simple question and the answer for me is yes!

"Have you ever wanted to convert files without the need to download software ?"

http://www.zamzar.com/

My Dad is Cool

STARR REPORT
By MICHAEL STARR
February 26, 2007 --

* Mt. Sinai's Dr. Elton Strauss a featured speaker March 4 on the Annual Ar thritis Foundation TV Special and Telethon, airing 3-5 p.m. on Ch. 55 (TW Cable) and Ch. 10 (Cablevision).

It's 'All' unscripted

Here's a first: The March 9 episode of "All My Children" will feature transgender actors/actresses, playing themselves, in scenes in which Zoe (Jeffrey Carlson), a transgender woman who's come out in Pine Valley, at tends group support sessions. These sessions will be uns cripted - a first for "AMC" and highly unusual for any dramatic show in any daypart.

Media Relations Graduate Assistant

Cool job with the NY Jets. Feel free to apply and get me free tickets when you get hired :-)

Overview: A graduate assistant in the New York Jets Media Relations Department is a key member of the media relations staff. Our goal is to provide you with on-the-job training, real-life work experiences and a hands-on knowledge of every aspect of what is required to work in the NFL, in a major market, in media relations. This graduate assistantship could be the last step in your sports public relations training. We are looking for qualified individuals who have proven themselves at the college level or have excelled in similar positions in the NFL or in other major sports

Qualifications:
bachelors degree in journalism or related field preferred
sports public relations experience necessary

Apply for this position

Recipe: Red Velvet Cake by Elisa Strauss

Adapted from "The Confetti Cakes Cookbook" by Elisa Strauss (Little, Brown, to be published in May). Purchase now for big savings.

Time: 90 minutes, plus cooling
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
3½ cups cake flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa (not Dutch process)
1½ teaspoons salt
2 cups canola oil
2¼ cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) red food coloring
1½ teaspoons vanilla
1¼ cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons baking soda
2½ teaspoons white vinegar.

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place teaspoon of butter in each of 3 round 9-inch layer cake pans and place pans in oven for a few minutes until butter melts. Remove pans from oven, brush interior bottom and sides of each with butter and line bottoms with parchment.
2. Whisk cake flour, cocoa and salt in a bowl.
3. Place oil and sugar in bowl of an electric mixer and beat at medium speed until well-blended. Beat in eggs one at a time. With machine on low, very slowly add red food coloring. (Take care: it may splash.) Add vanilla. Add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in two batches. Scrape down bowl and beat just long enough to combine.
4. Place baking soda in a small dish, stir in vinegar and add to batter with machine running. Beat for 10 seconds.
5. Divide batter among pans, place in oven and bake until a cake tester comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool in pans 20 minutes. Then remove from pans, flip layers over and peel off parchment. Cool completely before frosting.
Yield: 3 cake layers.

iPhone

While I was in Las Vegas for CES 2007 I missed all the iPhone excitement. Thankfully I was sent these links:

- Microsofts's Zune Phone

- Make you own iPhone

- Watch it's birth

- Buy the iPhone nobody wants

I'm in Las Vegas at CES

I'm in Las Vegas at CES. Read about me over here: EMS @ CES 2007

ABC News - Wanted: Your viewer submitted video!

Wanted: Your viewer submitted video!

2006 is the year of digital video, and ABC News wants to put the best of the best, the worst of the worst, and the most powerful moments on national TV.
Have you captured an astonishing scene others missed? Has your video helped the voiceless be heard? Have you recorded a life changing event? Caught a celebrity in a predicament? Used the camera in a creative way? Cameraphone. handheld video. Webcam.

Our producers are asking for the most powerful, compelling, emotional video moments captured in 2006. If your video is strong enough, important enough, really meaningful, we will put it on TV. Upload your video or tell us about it.

"Caught 2.0" is airing nationwide on ABC News '20/20' on Dec. 29, 2006.


Submit your video here


Find out more about our special here

Happy Thanksgiving

Have I ever mentioned what a talented sister I have? Check out this sculpted work of art, and "yes, it is really a cake".

My sister's amazing book is available for pre-order over at Amazon.com. Buy early and save over $5 with free shipping and no tax. The Confetti Cakes Cookbook: Spectacular Cookies, Cakes, and Cupcakes from New York City's Famed Bakery

Vote for my photos please

Submitted to JPG Issue 8: Tourist. Is it a good fit?




Submitted to JPG Issue 8: Embrace the Blur. Is it a good fit? Vote Now!

Regis and Kelly Audience Spottings

ABC TV - Regis and Kelly 9.25.06
Guests: Marcia Cross (Desperate House Wives) and Nelly Furtado

When my friend Kevin visited from Oregon I offered to take him to the broadcast of Regis and Kelly. Perhaps not the most exciting tourist activity, but the show is broadcasted from the building next to my office. It was actually a lot of fun. We were seen in three of the crowd shots and now you can see us too.




This was more a way for me to figure out how to get video online than a real celebration of myself in the audience of a daily talk show.

How...
- Recorded TV show on Time Warner DVR in Standard definition.
- Burned the show to a DVD using my Samsung DVD player/burner
- Imported the DVD video into my Mac Desktop G5 using MPEG Streamclip (Free Software) which converted the DVD VOB video and audio content into a DV-25 file. (Hour show 12GB - 15 minutes)
- Imported the DV file into iMovie HD. Edited out the show minus Kevin and me on TV.
- Exported the edited clip as a h.264 Quicktime file.
- Uploaded it to YouTube and Google Video.

Help public school children through this amazing organization.

DonorsChoose is a simple way to provide students in need with resources that our public schools often lack. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit project proposals for materials or experiences their students need to learn. These ideas become classroom reality when concerned individuals, whom we call Citizen Philanthropists, choose projects to fund.

Proposals range from "Magical Math Centers" ($200) to "Big Book Bonanza" ($320), to "Cooking Across the Curriculum" ($1,100). Any individual can search such proposals by areas of interest, learn about classroom needs, and choose to fund the project(s) they find most compelling. In completing a project, donors receive a feedback package of student photos and thank-you notes, a teacher impact letter, and an expenditure report showing that their tax-deductible gift was spent as directed.

I love how productive they are.

Weather Station Online

I have installed a Davis Vantage Pro weather station on the deck of my parent's beach house in Saltaire on Fire Island, NY.

Click for the latest stats here:


Here are some photos of the storm







Here are some photos taken on the beach July 2th, 2006 of a lightning storm.

Juvenile Corrections - Awards

The broadcast I produced about Juvenile Corrections in the state of Arizona has been honored with four awards so far.

- Cine Golden Eagle Award
- Silver Angel Award - Excellence in Media
- NCCD PASS Award (National Council on Crime and Delinquency - Prevention for a Safer Society)
- Communicator Award of Distinction

ABC News: Should You Buy an At-Home Defibrillator?

Should You Buy an At-Home Defibrillator?
By Eric M. Strauss

I wrote an article recently about the importance of defibrillators. Defibrillators save lives. The Phillips HeartStart Home Defibrillator promises to bring this lifesaving tool right to American homes without the need of a doctor's prescription. At a cost of about $1,250, is this product worth the price? It depends whom you ask. Read more ...

For sale at Amazon.com for $1150 delivered.

Clever Cakes

Elisa Strauss doesn't just bake cakes . . . she bakes dreams. Whether it be a stiletto-shaped vanilla-flavored confection or a sugar replica of your cat, her creations are meant to indulge tongues and eyes alike. Delicious - and better yet, you can learn to make them too.

Read More

Program Note | Foster Care in America

I've been working on a broadcast about Foster Care in America for several months now. I hope you will watch our show Thursday 10pm on ABC.


I've worked on the full broadcast, but specifically the parts in Louisville, KY.

Here is an article about a social worker I spent time with:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/FosterCare/story?id=2021066&page=1


Below is a message from Diane Sawyer on ABC News' special series on foster care, "A Call to Action: Saving Our Children." Watch "Primetime" this Thursday at 10 p.m. ET for Sawyer's report.

During the years that I've been covering this topic, I've met children who were in 11 homes, 18 homes — moved from place to place and then moved again. Even though everyone knows this shatters lives — one study says there's a higher percentage of post traumatic stress disorder among these kids than war veterans.

So what if we made a commitment to stop bouncing kids from home to home to home? What if we asked communities to band together, to find homes, to support damaged families, to help these kids have a better chance for a normal life? What if, instead of lurching from horror story to horror story, we agreed to do what works.

We can change their chances. As adults, former foster care children make up 30 percent of the homeless and 25 percent of the prison population. Children most of all want one constant adult to love in their lives. That's why I've asked ABC News to dedicate the entire division's resources to this issue. We are calling it: A Call to Action: Saving Our Children. We hope you'll watch, and join in.

Diane Sawyer

John Stossel's New Book

Do yourself a favor and purchase John Stossel's new book. It is a quick and interesting read. He spells out a lot of misconceptions he believes people have, and most importantly I am mentioned in the acknowledgements.

ABCNews.com has created a cool web site that has some video excerpts from the segments that are in the book.

MYTH: Divorce hurts women much more than men, and many men abandon their kids.

TRUTH: Both men and women suffer after divorce, and lots of men want to give more to their kids.

The media (including the men, for psychological reasons involving guilt or other factors best left to Dr. Phil), see men as inviting, politically correct targets. When experts start trumpeting statistics that add up to "men are bad," reporters listen. For years, I heard bad things about deadbeat dads. They were living it up, while their ex-wives and children had to scrape by. It's a recurring story, and the media regurgitates it regularly. It's also group slander.

High Tech Orthopedic Surgery by My Dad

Million Dollar Man’s Million-Dollar Machine

NEW State-of-the-Art Surgical Navigation System

New York, NY – Countless people suffer from arthritis pain associated with hip and joint pain. In the past, correcting these problems via surgery meant lengthy tests and less precise procedures that lead to more post-operative care. The idea of being a bionic man through joint replacement seemed less like fact and more like fiction. The Sci-Fi future of joint replacement has now become a reality. Dr. Elton Strauss, Chief of Orthopaedic Trauma and Adult Reconstruction at Mount Sinai Hospital Center, is among the first to use the revolutionary new technology known as the Stryker Navigation System. The mechanism is an interactive operating monitoring system designed to improve the surgical performance and clinical outcome of joint replacement. According to Dr. Strauss, “the computer guided equipment allows me to achieve microscopic precision, while providing a more cost effective and minimally invasive procedure. ”

Developed by Stryker Leibeinger, the PC based navigational system provides accurate decision making for alignment and orientation of instruments, trials and ultimately implants. Unique to other joint replacement navigators, the navigational system provides surgeons with pre-operative, intra-operative and post-operative assessments of the patient's joint kinematic measurements. The software features include imageless technology (no CT/MRI images) and provide patient kinematics derived by using motion analysis and bony landmarks.

The system also provides a unique visualization tool for tissue balancing, online visualization of joint angulations and displacement, and step-by-step comprehensive initialization of a patient’s anatomy. In all, the system provides more accurate, faster and easier assessments of a patient’s condition, which assists the surgeon in providing the best care possible. According to a spokesperson for Stryker Leibinger, “the navigation system allows the surgeon to receive completely new insights that can help optimize the outcome of surgical efforts. The smart instrumentation and the software are tailored to the specific needs of the different surgical branches.” Through smart tools and computer vision, it will also allow for the continued evolution of limited incision surgery.

How does it work?

The navigation system uses an infrared camera and markers along with unique instrument tracking software to continually monitor the position and mechanical alignment of the implant and the surgical instruments relative to the patient’s knee anatomy. Wireless instruments send data pertaining to the knee kinematics (movement) to a computer.

The computer analyzes and displays kinematic data on a monitor in the form of charts and graphs that supply the surgeon with the optimum angles, lines and measurements needed to align the prosthetic joint within the patient. The patient receives the best possible outcome in their joint replacement, accuracy to within one to two millimeters is extremely important. Just as a wheel alignment affects the life of automobile tires, precise alignment is key to smooth movement and long-term wear in joint replacements.

“Joint replacement is an extremely successful way to treat patients suffering from arthritis,” says Dr. Strauss. “The new computerized surgical navigation technology allows my surgical team and me to provide the best alignment of the joint, or bone. By doing so, we can increase the expectancy (20+ years) of an implant and give a patient the best possible stability and range of movement, even in difficult anatomic situations.”


Book an apointment to see Dr. Strauss 212.241.1648 Tell them I sent you :-)

Treating the Elderly

For additional information or to speak with Dr. Strauss, please contact Jill LaVorgna at 212.213.6444, or jill@kmrcommunications.com.

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Pre-order The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album, Stadium Arcadium, and automatically receive the new single, “Dani California.” The pre-order also gives users access to pre-sale tickets for the group’s upcoming tour. And they'll be automatically entered to win the band’s complete catalog and an engraved Red Hot Chili Peppers iPod.



Red Hot Chili Peppers' blog