Barinthus's Xanga

What's the problem?

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 14:11:16 GMT

Aging nation faces growing hearing loss

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.

By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hearing loss results in social and psychological isolation, "which makes their life hell," Greenberg said.

Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing 2 1/2 times that of their parents and grandparents, he said.

Stefan Heller of Stanford University said research in restoring damaged hearing cells "is very much at the beginning and it's still a long, long road."

Inner and outer hair cells in the ear pick up sound vibrations and send them to the brain. Damage to outer cells causes hearing impairment which can be helped by hearing aides, he said. Damage to the inner cells cannot be repaired and causes deafness.

Heller said ear stem cells have been isolated in laboratory work and grown into cells that resembled hair cells.

"They're not perfect," he said. When placed in the ear of chicken embryos, most of the cells died. A few survived and were implanted into the inner ear. The next step, he said, is to try the experiment in mice.

Gene therapy is being tested in an effort to produce more hair cells in the ear. The result so far has been a type of hybrid cells and researchers are unsure whether they can get these cells to survive.

Heller said scientists in Japan are experimenting with drugs that seem to help spur the growth of hearing cells in young mice. The results in older mice are far less promising.

There seems to be something not yet understood that prevents new cell development in the inner ear. This is an area where cancer is not known to occur, he said, and an indication that something prevents cell development.

Honestly... what's the problem? Apparently since hearies have no qualms about implanting Deaf babies with cochlear implants, why don't we just implant them all?

Double standards make me sick.

A Cart at Gallaudet

Fri, 23 Feb 2007 00:24:16 GMT

I found this amusing. A friend who forwarded me this picture assured me it is an authentic cart at Gallaudet.

The Deaf Mute Howls...

Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:01:31 GMT

Ella Mae Lentz recently released an excellent vlog regarding her reasons for using term "Deaf mute" on her blog. If you haven't done so, I strongly recommend you to view this vlog.

For nearly 9 years I have considered myself a Deaf Mute. ASL is my primary mode of communication and I do not speak. I have no desire to speak at all and see no point behind it. Don't get me wrong - I respect others' wish regarding using their voice. It is a personal decision although it may be influenced by many factors including audism but that is some other entry for some other time. Bottom line: it is a personal decision which will be respected as long my personal decision to not exercise my "powers of speech" is respected.

I would like to take this time to remind you all about one Deaf Mute. His name is Albert Ballin and he wrote a book titled The Deaf Mute Howls. Published in 1930, this book discussed ideas still very relevant today especially the current fad in deaf education to implant children with cochlear implants and robbing their precious education time for 'speech therapy.' While I don't necessarily agree with everything he said, I still encourage you to read Ballin's The Deaf Mute Howls.

I will pay Ballin a visit to refresh my memory of what he wrote and perhaps later in this year, we can discuss his book.

Infamous Snickers AD

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:47:06 GMT

What are your thoughts regarding this Super Bowl commercial?

Coddling Stupid People

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 22:45:05 GMT

New York may ban iPods while crossing street

Story Highlights

• Legislation would ban gadget use while crossing the street
• Three pedestrians in Brooklyn killed stepping into traffic
• New York senator: We have a major public safety crisis

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine.

New York State Sen. Carl Kruger says three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district have been killed since September upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device. In one case bystanders screamed "watch out" to no avail.

Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street.

"Government has an obligation to protect its citizenry," Kruger said in a telephone interview from Albany, the state capital.

"This electronic gadgetry is reaching the point where it's becoming not only endemic but it's creating an atmosphere where we have a major public safety crisis at hand."

Tech-consuming New Yorkers trudge to work on sidewalks and subways like an army of drones, appearing to talk to themselves on wireless devices or swaying to seemingly silent tunes.

"I'm not trying to intrude on that," Kruger said. "But what's happening is when they're tuning into their iPod or Blackberry or cell phone or video game, they're walking into speeding buses and moving automobiles. It's becoming a nationwide problem."

Seriously, this is going too far. Americans are one ultra-sensitive people but this is even too much. For one thing, this is not practical in terms of enforceability. Also, those people need to be sent back to kindergarten and re-learn that it's important to look in both directions before crossing streets. I see this as the price of audistic hubris biting hearing people in their collective ass - they have became so accustomed to and so dependent on hearing they forget about the benefits of using other senses available to them.

I remember a story a friend told me from her stay in Sweden. One teenager was killed because while he was walking under a couple of icicles, one broke loose and impaled him. Naturally, his family and community was devastated but did they rush to a lawsuit or clamored for a sign "Beware of Falling Icicles" to be put up? No - everybody knew better than to walk under icicles and that teenager placed himself in danger. Also, guess what? Shit happens. That's one of most basic facts about life. I cannot stress this enough - shit happens.

I'm not a cold-hearted bastard - I do feel bad when I see awful things happening to people but at same time that's how it is. Some days are awesome, some days it's not even worth getting out of the bed.

Back to the icicles example - I bet you that in United States, the land of lawsuits and "Beware the contents of this cup may be hot," the family would file a lawsuit so fast the doctors yet have time to officially declare the decease of the teenager and all over the nation including Puerto Rico there will be signs placed warning people to not walk under icicles.

iPod

Fri, 29 Dec 2006 12:40:18 GMT

I'm sure many of you have heard of iPod and its new competitor Zune. I knew it was basically a digital walkman which you can store songs on. Someone recently told me that you can also download movies and tv shows. I looked it up on their website and according to them, with a 80 GB iPod you can store up to 100 hours worth of video. That's a lot of movies.

I contacted their tech support but they were not helpful. It was to be expected. So I thought I'd see if any of you guys have an iPod or know of someone who has one. My questions are:

1. If you were to view a movie or tv show on an iPod, are there captioning or subtitles available. My guess is no according to the size of the video screen. However, I don't want to make any assumpations.

2. A friend told me you can hook up an iPod to a TV and play your movies and tv shows on that TV. If so, are captioning or subtitles available for that?

3. Can you hook up an iPod to a portable DvD player or a laptop to play movies or tv shows with captioning or subtitles?

If I can get a 'yes' answer to any of the above, I would think iPod is a viable buy for those who are interested in watching movies or tv shows. For instance, if I only can view movies from iPod via a laptop or portable DvD player - that's still a great option. It's much preferable to store movies on a tiny iPod than carrying perhaps 5 DvDs with me whenever I travel.

If captioning or subtitling is not available at all, perhaps you will want to contact Apple's customer support and explain that you would like to see a such feature to be enabled.

Today's the Day to be Merry

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 15:58:32 GMT

Merry Christmas to you all! Whatever you do - if you have been drinking and is going out for a drive - be careful!

My Tarot Card

Fri, 22 Dec 2006 03:38:37 GMT

I noticed this on CuteNewfie's blog so I decided to give it a twirl

You are the Hanged Man

Self-sacrifice, Sacrifice, Devotion, Bound.

With the Hanged man there is often a sense of fatalism, waiting for something to happen. Or a fear of
loss from a situation, rather than gain.

The Hanged Man is perhaps the most fascinating card in the deck. It reflects the story of Odin who offered himself as a sacrifice in order to gain knowledge. Hanging from the world tree, wounded by a spear, given no bread or mead, he hung for nine days. On the last day, he saw on the ground runes that had fallen from the tree, understood their meaning, and, coming down, scooped them up for his own. All knowledge is to be found in these runes.

The Hanged Man, in similar fashion, is a card about suspension, not life or death. It signifies selflessness, sacrifice and prophecy. You make yourself vulnerable and in doing so, gain illumination. You see the world differently, with almost mystical insights.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Interesting.

Christmas is coming!

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 22:44:08 GMT

Stuck on what to get for someone? No fear - here's a suggestion. This will make a *great* gift for anybody!!!

The ideal present

Enjoy!

Ponderings of the Day

Wed, 20 Dec 2006 00:06:26 GMT

As we all probably know, if there is a female living in a household each male in that household is expected to put down the toliet seat everytime he completes his business. It's given.

But after thinking on this subject - can anybody honestly give me a good solid rationale why should males be obligated to put down the toilet seat down every time? Why not simply leave it up?

The most common excuse I'm given (usually by a female) is that if males don't take time to put down toilet seat down, sometimes a female will fall into the bowl. Consider this: Every time I come in, I have to check to see whether if the seat is up or down and make any adjustments appropriate to the type of 'business' I'm about to commence. So why does the proverbial female falls into the bowl? She didn't check. I think I better leave the interpretation of this up to you.

My arguments for leaving the toilet seat as it is once you're done with whatever you had to do:

* It's actually better to have the seat up because you just never know - the next male to come into the room could be a lazy slob who winds up urinating on the seat. It's not a pleasant sight for a female or a male needing to do number 2 coming in.

* By accepting the responsibility of shouldering the burden of adjusting the toilet seat by females, we are promoting gender equality.

So - can you give me a good reason why males have to do all the work in the bathroom? As you ponder this over, check out the following link:

Toilet Seat Study

The only fault I can find with this article is that it did not include the fact that males do have to sit down to do their number 2 business.