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July 2009 - Posts
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  This church is right on the village square, sort of speak, in Concord. It has a very old cemetary right next to it on the side of a hill. Looking at old graves can be very interesting. I remember doing it when we lived in Europe where indeed cemetaries can be very old and have many interesting stories to tell in the stones. We couldn't go in the cemetary, but we could take pictures of the stones from the sidewalk. With a telephoto lense you could read the markers. Many of the graves were from before the Revolutary War, and still others were graves of people who had died during the Revolutionary War.
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 Just as there's a British memorial on one side of the bridge, this is the memorial to the Minutemen who died during the conflict.
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    This place was so peaceful and the water so calm. People in canoes came by often. I looked around at the ground, the rise on the other side of the bridge with the open field, and just tried to imagine the Minutemen facing off against the British troops.
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I thought some of you would find the following story interesting. It's from the Arizona Republic. Kilimanjaro hikers show that visually impaired are independent
by Eddi Trevizo - Jul. 27, 2009 09:05 AMThe Arizona Republic
Cindy Wilhelmi and Adam Messler reached the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in late June, trumping a lifetime of disability.
Wilhelmi, 49, a Glendale resident, and Messler, 29, both legally blind, observed what they could of the famed Tanzanian mountain's scenery from an elevation of 19,340 feet, amidst a flurry of flashing cameras, tears and hugs.
The two were among a group of eight blind climbers
, along with 17 sighted guides, who hoped to raise funds and awareness for the Foundation for Blind Children in Phoenix. The group raised over $200,000 through fundraisers to benefit the foundation's infant care program, which provides teaching skills and assistance to families raising visually impaired infants. To read the full story go to: http://www.azcentral.com/community/westvalley/articles/2009/07/27/20090727gl-nwvkiliexpedition0725.html
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Here's another story about NIH funding from the American Thoracic Society's Washington Letter.
House Approves 2010 Health Spending Bill
On July 24, the House passed the FY 2010 health research and services spending bill, known as the Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Bill. The House passed the bill by a margin of 264 to 153. The bill provides $30.966 billion for NIH, a 3.1 percent increase over FY 2009 and a 1 percent increase for the CDC.
The bill includes language requesting the CDC establish a program, including a public health action plan, on COPD, although funding has not yet been specified. The ATS is working with CDC's Office of Chronic Disease Prevention and members of Congress to ensure that a COPD public health program will be set up within the next year. The ATS was also successful in getting the following other agency directives included in the bill:
• Directive applauding NHLBI's sleep research and calling for more study to modify the link between sleep disorders and cardiovascular disease.
• Directive urging the NIAID to intensify research into new diagnostics, drugs and vaccines to halt the spread of drug-resistant TB.
• Directive to CDC TB program grantees calling for minimal administrative costs to ensure adequate funding to all jurisdictions based on proportion and complexity of TB cases.
The House passed an amendment to the Labor-HHS bill offered by Rep. Issa (R-CA) to prohibit NIH from funding three peer-reviewed grants supported by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The grants are public health studies of behavioral factors involved in the transmission of HIV among sex workers and substance abuser populations in Thailand, China, and Russia. The ATS opposed this amendment in a letter to House Representatives on the basis of support for the NIH scientific peer-review process without interference from Congress.
The Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to mark up its version of the health spending bill this week. It is not yet known if an amendment similar to the Issa measure will be offered in the Senate bill, which would be necessary for it to be enacted into law.
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You’d hardly think of getting behind the wheel as a point of controversy, but for some in the blind/low vision world, it really is a point of contention. Who should be allowed to drive, who shouldn’t and is it really safe?
I must confess, in my younger years I was very against the whole thing. It didn’t seem safe. As I’ve come to understand how even people with the same visual acuity can sometimes have different “practical” vision, I’ve lightened up on the issue a bit.
Even so, I don’t drive and I won’t drive unless there’s some technological breakthrough that would make me feel that it would be safe. My nystagmus makes it very hard for me to get my eye to look into a bioptic unless everything else in the visual field is blocked out. High glare moments, such as twilight, reduce my vision considerably. So for me, it’s a non-issue.
While there are many low vision drivers who seem to be perfectly safe, I do worry that the pressure to drive puts some people behind the wheel that maybe shouldn’t be there. Eye doctors, in their zeal to “make you better” seem sometimes very eager to outfit someone for driving. I worry about, for example, people I know who say they need a sighted guide to get around a strange building, yet get behind the wheel. Or another low vision person I know who has had four accidents in six years, but swears it has nothing to do with his vision.
Driving isn’t a right. Getting behind the wheel can be a life and death decision and should be taken with a great deal of care and thought for others.
It’s not hard to understand. Of all the aspects of not seeing so hot, I think the most difficult to deal with is not driving – especially here in the Midwest where public transit is scarce and often useless.
Everything else in my life that is impacted by my vision I’ve found an alternative technique to use to make it just as efficient and easy for me to do as anyone else. But, there’s no alternative technique equal to the act of getting in one’s car whenever you feel like it and going anywhere you please.
That isn’t to say you can’t lead an independent adult life without driving. I’d hardly view myself as dependent. I’d encourage others who decide driving isn’t safe to plan a life that allows you the greatest independence. Live in places with public transit if possible, or within walking distance of the things you’ll need most often, like a grocery store or bank. If you can, hire someone for an afternoon a week to run you around to do the things you need to do etc.
Remember that people that drive have expenses, like car payments, gas and insurance. If you can afford it, budget that in for your own transportation needs, whether it’s cab fare or hiring a neighbor to get kids to soccer practice.
I also think it’s important for families with kids that might not ever be able to drive to plan family outings now and then using public transit. It was really scary growing up, knowing I wouldn’t be able to drive, and yet never having how to live without a car modeled for me.
Who knows – maybe someday the technology will be out there for us all to be able to drive. You’ll note the article I posted below about the engineering team developing a car for the blind. As they perfect this technology, perhaps it can supplement what low vision drivers are already using to make them even safer and more confident – or to expand the areas where they feel comfortable driving.
I’m not exactly holding my breath, but I sure wouldn’t mind a chance to see this technology for myself.
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 Frankie the Cat got this photo of Carmen and I standing next to this big statue of the horse. It was in a park near where Gabe had a doctor's appointment.
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This is a press release from the National Federation of the Blind - I want to go to Virginia just to try this out! Grin! Blind can take wheel with vehicle designed by university engineering design team
7/20/2009
News Outlet: Science Blog.com
Publication Date : 7/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible: The opportunity to drive.
A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team (http://www.me.vt.edu/blinddriver/) from Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate. Although in the early testing stage, the National Federation of the Blind -- which spurred the project -- considers the vehicle a major breakthrough for independent living of the visually impaired. "It was great!" said Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus this summer. Majerus is an access technology specialist with the National Federation of the Blind's Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, a research and training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help the blind achieve independence.
Majerus called his drive a liberating experience, adding that he drove before on Nebraska farm roads with his father as a guide in the passenger seat.
Sitting inside the vehicle, a blind driver can turn the steering wheel, stop and accelerate by following data from a computing unit that uses sensory information from the laser range finder serving as the 'eyes' of the driver, in addition to a combination of voice commands and a vibrating vest as guides. A member of the Virginia Tech student team sat next to Majerus in the passenger seat to monitor the system's software operations.
"It's a great first step," Majerus added. "As far as the differences between human instructions and those given by the voice in the Blind Driver Challenge car, the car's instructions are very precise. You use the technology to act on the environment -- the driving course -- in a very orderly manner. In some cases, the human passenger will be vague, "turn left" -- does that mean just a small turn to the left, or are we going for large amounts of turn?"
Also driving the vehicle was Mark Riccobono, also of Baltimore, the executive director of the Jernigan Institute, who also is blind. He called his test drive historic. "This is sort of our going to the moon project," he said
In 2004 Jernigan Institute challenged university research teams to develop a vehicle that would one day allow the blind to drive. Virginia Tech was the only university in the nation to accept the nonprofit's call two years later, said Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, part of the Virginia Tech mechanical engineering department. The National Federation of the Blind provided a $3,000 grant to launch the project.
"I thought it would be a very rewarding project, helping the blind," said Hong, the current faculty adviser on the project. "We are not only excited about the vehicle itself, but more than that, we are excited about the potential of the many spin-off technologies from this project that can be used for helping the blind in so many ways."
The team will bring the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle to the National Federation of the Blind's Youth Slam summer camp event held July 26 through Aug. 1 in College Park, Md. There, the team hopes to have teenagers who would be obtaining their driver's licenses, but cannot because of their blindness, drive the buggy.
Youth participants also are expected to remote control drive miniature cars. Additionally, the car is expected to ride in a National Federation of the Blind-sponsored parade in Washington D.C.
"I most look forward to learning as much as I can from these bright young students," said Greg Jannaman, who led the Virginia Tech student team in his senior year and graduated in May with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering. "Blind students from across the nation apply to be selected to attend this summer camp. While we are there to provide an educational experience for them, I can only imagine the invaluable feedback and fresh new ideas that they will provide in return."
Jannaman is excited about the vehicle's success. "There wasn't a moment's hesitation with any of our blind drivers, whereas blind-folded sighted drivers weren't as quick to let go of their preconceptions," said Jannaman of Hendersonville, Tenn. "The blind drivers actually performed better than their sighted counterparts. An overwhelming sense of accomplishment overcame me as I simply rode along while Wes and Mark successfully navigated the driving course without my assistance."
Early models of the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle relied more on technologies for fully autonomous vehicles, previously developed by Virginia Tech mechanical engineering students as part of the DARPA Urban Challenge (www.vt.edu/spotlight/achievement/2007-10-29_victortango/2007-10-29-victortango.html). The student team redesigned the vehicle so that the blind motorist has complete control of the driving process, as any sighted driver would. This change in approach led to new challenges, including how to effectively convey the high bandwidth of information from the laser sensors scanning the vehicle's surrounding environment to the driver fast enough and accurate enough to allow safe driving. As a result, the team developed non-visual interface technologies, including a vibrating vest for feedback on speed, a click counter steering wheel with audio cues, spoken commands for directional feedback, and a unique tactile map interface that utilizes compressed air to provide information about the road and obstacles surrounding the vehicle. Riccobono knows of mock ups and non-working "blind driver car" set-ups from the past, but says this is the first working vehicle to put the blind and visually impaired in control of the steering wheel. "Blind people have brains, the capacity to make decisions," he said. "Blind people want to live independent lives, why would they not want to drive?" Even once the technology is perfected, laws now barring the blind from driving and public perception must be changed, Riccobono said. "This is the piece that we know will be the most difficult," said Riccobono, adding that the car must be near-perfected before the National Federation of the Blind can truly push the car to law-makers and the general public. He said this effort will take millions of dollars in development. The 2009-10 student team already is planning major changes to the technology, including replacing the dirt buggy vehicle with a fully electric car commonly used by traffic officers in downtown city centers. The all-electric vehicle would reduce the vibration which can cause problems to the laser sensor, and it will provide clean electric power for the computing units and that is better for the environment.
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I was wanting a way to dampen the munchies - and God took care of it. Grin! I don't know what's up, but this morning I woke up with sores all inside my mouth that hurt like *(^(^(^., Tylenol didn't do it. I had to break out the big guns. I also have this ongoing little ulcer thingie so it's been code brown galore, at least once a day or more. I need to go to the store, but I'm afraid to get too far from home for fear of "code brown." My joints are acting up too. Whine, whine, whine. Suddenly I don't really want to snack. Guess that took care of that!
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Here's an update on the proposed NIH budget. So far, so good. House Passes Proposed 3 Percent NIH Funding Increase
July 27, 2009
By a GenomeWeb staff reporter
NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – The US House of Representatives on Friday passed a 2010 budget for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education that would increase funding for the National Institutes of Health by nearly $1 billion over its appropriation for 2009. To read more visit: http://www.genomeweb.com//node/921113?emc=el&m=451175&l=1&v=244e9bc480
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