Skid Lids Helmets

It's helmet time again. I was behind a motorcyclist the other day and noticed a small sticker saying Skid Lid. Though I'd prefer to see a helmet with a bit more coverage, I love the term. And, at least he was wearing one. I continue to be amazed at the number of motorcyclists I see without helmets. A trip to a brain injury unit should be mandatory for those taking the licensure course.

On another twist, Danish police are giving hugs and helmets to bicyclists without. See the video below.

Via Boing Boing

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US Open Ball Girl who is Amputee

A n interesting piece about a girl who is a ball girl for the US Open and is an amputee. I anticipated a fluff piece spun as an "inspirational" story, but it steered pretty well away from that. They talked about her role as the first individual with a disability as a ball girl at the US Open, but also about her athletic career, and running both marathons and triathlons. As the interviewer mentions, calling her disabled is almost a misnomer, because with the right technology, she does not have much of an impairment.

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You can read more and support this writer at Associated Content

SSA Criticized for Wait and Denial of Claims

CBS Evening news piece on the wait for individuals to receive Social Security and the amount of individuals turned down for SSI/SSDI

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Sign Tube

Okay, so virtually everyone has been to You Tube at one point or another. If not, then they've watched one of their videos embeded in a news story or blog (such as this one). Though You Tube recently added captioning, its not widely used by video producers. One limitation of the You Tube method is that only the person who uploaded the video can add captions to it.

There's now a video site out there for those who are Deaf, Sign-Tube. Funded by the UK based Deaf Enterprise Partnership, it is for "deaf people or those who wishes or involved in Sign Language or in the deaf community to share the news, information, events and even fun with people across the world."

It looks like the site is fairly underused, as there are only 500 videos listed currently (as opposed to YouTube which has 10 hrs of video uploaded to the site every minute and has hundreds of millions of views per day). A quick search on You Tube for Sign Language gets 42,000 videos.

Sign Tube is an interesting idea, especially as it intends to develop community as part of it. I'm not sure if there's a need for it, as YouTube seems to be hosting a significant amount of sign language videos, but that's what is nice about the internet, you can always put something out there and see what sticks.

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Savants: 50% are autistic

Very interesting video about savants.

"A fascinating look at the relationship between genius and autism, with particular focus on the phenomenon of savants; a small group of enigmatic talkens with extraordinary mental abilities. Savants number less than 100 worldwide. Some can work out five-digit multiplication in their heads, or recite thousands of books by heart. Others can play a piano melody after hearing it only once. Over half of savants are autistic; others develop these super human talents only after brain injury."

I was especially amazed at the man who could draw a city from a flyover. Interesting piece about him worrying whether he's losing his ability, and whether it's due to working on improving his other skills. Long video, but worth the time to watch it.

Pt 1: Beautiful Minds the Einstien Effect.
Stephen Wiltshire's website

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"My Stroke of Insight" -Jill Bolte Taylor

Firstly, TED stands for Technology Engineering and Design, and "brings together the worlds most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).

Jill Bolte Taylor is a neuroanatomist. I had read about her speaking at TED about her personal experience of having a stroke and watching "her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding--she studied and remembered every moment."
I am so excited that they have posted it to the TED site, so enjoy her fascinating talk.

On this page there was a related video, "My history of Electroshock Therapy" which is the story of a surgeon who has a very intimate experience of electroshock therapy, aka Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).
Visit TED to view their collection of amazing and fascinating people.

Bob's House (video)

Well done Pepsi for your Superbowl ad "Bob's House" (below for those who haven't seen it.) It's a nicely done ad that's not patronizing and brings some humor to the issue of disability.
A press release from Pepsi notes that it was "created by and features PepsiCo employees who are members of EnAble, an employee network whose mission is to create a more inclusive environment for people with disabilities."
It seems that other reviews of the ad were generally positive, however Pepsi upset others by not captioning their other ads run during the same game. I went to Pepsi's site looking for more information on this group EnAble, but was disappointed.

Ultimately, I applaud Pepsi for doing their piece, and getting it right, even if it was on only this ad.