Man's deafness cured after a TOOTH is removed from ear!!!

For more than 30 years Stephen Hirst was in constant pain and partially deaf because of excruciating earache.But that is all in the past now after doctors found a TOOTH lodged in the former miner's ear.

Okay! Ladies and Gentlemen, start pulling your teeth!!!! (smile)

I cannot say if this is an actual prank or not.. But it seems to be true according to several sources online. Read for yourself.

Read more:

• http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1321482/Mans-33-year-earache-mystery-solved-doctors-pull-tooth-ear.html
• http://sify.com/news/uk-man-s-33-yr-old-ache-was-due-to-tooth-stuck-in-ear-news-international-kksrksaheaj.html
• http://www.medindia.net/news/Doctors-Remove-Tooth-from-Ear-75535-1.htm

New Zealand offer world first service for Deaf

Can you believe this? "Until today, New Zealanders who are hearing impaired and deaf have had to use a fax machine to make contact with 1 -1 -1 (the police)."

This is already 2010!!!

Nevertheless, New Zealand have established a new "textting" system where a person can text and communicate with the police. New Zealand is supposedly to be the first country in the world to offer this unique service.

For more details (and you can watch a video), please go to 3news.

Movie made by Deaf and Dumb to premiere on Oct 9

"The movie Amir=Garib, to be premiered on October 9 in the Town Hall Auditorium, has all the essentials of a Bollywood flick, but one fundamental element — sound. The movie has been made by deaf and dumb people."

"Why are India still calling people with hearing loss as 'Deaf and Dumb"???"

I thought the Deaf communities across the world got rid of "Dumb" about 50 years ago?

What are your thoughts!???

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Movie-made-by-deaf-and-dumb-to-premiere-on-Oct-9/688214/

WorldDeaf Cinema Festival and Marlee Matlin

Courtesy of Gallaudet University.

Gallaudet University is proud to host the WORLDEAF Cinema Festival (WDCF) November 4-7, 2010. The four-day conference and competition will bring together both filmmakers and film fans to celebrate and discover the cinematic art of deaf and hard of hearing people, as well as of hearing people who produce films with or about deaf and hard of hearing people. Not only will the event spotlight the global dimensions of deaf cinema, it will also highlight the diversity of the world’s deaf and hard of hearing communities.

Honorary Chair of WDCF, Marlee Matlin will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the festival. Terry Riley, Chief Executive of the British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust, will receive WDCF’s International Media Award. Samuel Goldwyn, Jr., chairman and CEO of the Samuel Goldwyn Company will share his views as a film producer.

There will be some well-known Deaf names there including Jack Jason (Marlee Matlin's interpreter).

It sounds fun! I might attend! See you there!

DEAFNATION WORLD EXPO IN LAS VEGAS A SMASHING SUCCESS

The Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas was buzzing with activity and hands were flying everywhere you turned during the week of July 18-23, 2010. More than 23,400 unique visitors from 73 different countries came to Las Vegas for the DeafNation World Conference and Expo (DNWE). With special thanks to the Platinum sponsors, Sorenson Communications and Purple, DNWE was a smashing success.

DNWE welcomed signing crowds from every corner of the world, communicating in a blend of native sign languages and International Sign Language. The week saw over 300 booths ranging from fashion to sign language dictionaries to Video Relay Services to deaf films, and over 70 workshops including topics like the future of deaf telephony, environmentally-conscious living, and cultural exchanges.

The week-long celebration of Deaf culture kicked off on Sunday, July 18 at the Fremont Street Experience with a canopy video created by DeafNation. Live entertainment previews included the Finnish band Signmark and contestants in the Miss Deaf International pageant, which had its finale on Friday, July 22 crowning Miss Deaf France as the new Miss Deaf International.

During the week at Sands Center, special appearances were made by deaf Oscar-winning actress Marlee Matlin, and deaf UFC fighter and the person the movie “Hamill” is based on, Matt Hamill. Thousands upon thousands lined up to buy books, T-shirts, pictures, and to have them signed by Marlee and Matt, before taking a picture with the stars.

The main stage was the center of all the activity. Three distinguished keynote speakers were invited to DNWE to present in front of thousands. The first speaker, Mark Wheatley, is the current Executive Director of the European Union of the Deaf, and he presented “The European Perspective of the Deaf Community in EU Member States.”

Donalda Ammons, an international sports leader and former president of Deaflympics, discussed “Deaf World Sports: The Power of Internet-based Media.” Bernard Bragg, an international deaf entertainer and the founder of the National Theatre of the Deaf, presented “We’re the World.”

Also on the main stage was the wedding of Robert McClay and Katrina Green, both Americans, who wished to hold their wedding ceremony on Wednesday, July 21. Deaf rapper Sean Forbes from D-PAN performed to cheering crowds, and Signmark gave a preview of what they would play on Monday and Tuesday nights at the Treasure Island pool party. For cinema-goers, DNWE had two surprises for them: screenings of films from two different deaf production companies, ASL Films from the United States, and Awi Film from the Czech Republic.

During the week, DeafNation received honors from two different organizations – the International Service Award from the Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf, and an award in honor of DeafNation’s 10-year-long partnership with Deaflympics, Inc. as its media partner. Many other countries honored DeafNation with various paintings, fabrics, and trinkets that are culturally priceless.

The World Deaf Art Gallery had over 20 pieces from international deaf artists, including the famous Chuck Baird, and a series of beautiful batiks created by deaf students from Ghana. Mannequins were donned with pieces by deaf fashion designers. Next to the art gallery was one of the main attractions at Sands that drew crowds – the Deaf Wax Museum.

Deaf wax sculptor Don Baer is well known for his series of historical deaf figures, and it was a honor for DeafNation to have his latest piece unveiled at DNWE – a sculpture of Bernard Bragg in his heydays, as a mime. Bragg was extremely touched, and the first words he said were, “That’s me!” amid flashes from the crowd.

DNWE had something for everyone. For those who were itching for some sports action, a corner of Sands Expo Center was reserved for the World Deaf Darts Tournament. Teams and singles participated in the tournament, with Curtis Cote coming out on top in the 301 singles, and Curtis Cote and Mike Cope winning the 501 double slot. Sean Byrum and Gary Burke won the cricket double, while Mike Cope, Curtis Cote and Jason Hurt sweeped the team-of-3 slot.

DeafNation partnered with Deaf Sports Academy to provide flag football and basketball games for children and teenagers, and the Las Vegas Charter School of the Deaf had childcare activities that included the popular moon bounce.

After the week at Sands Expo Center and DNWE wrapped up, DeafNation hosted a World Deaf Golf Classic at three different courses over three days, for $15,000 total prizes. After playing at the Arroyo Golf Club, the Siena Golf Club, and the Red Rock Golf Club, John Ramirez III came out as the winner of the 2010 DeafNation Golf Classic.

The success of DNWE would not have been made possible without the hard work of our committee, volunteers, and the sponsorship of our Platinum-level sponsors: Sorenson Communications and Purple. Special thanks also go to our Bronze-level sponsors: Deaf Missions, Sprint Relay, The Z, Gracias VRS, ASL Pre-Paid Legal, and ASL Dream Team.

DeafNation’s philosophy is that free admission brings a diversity of attendees who can share our culture, needs, language, and information. Overall, our goal is to give everyone the chance to meet new people from all the corners of the world, ranging anywhere from historical regions like Europe, the Americas and Africa to exotic regions like Asia and Australia, and learn new languages, new cultures and new traditions, which was all done under one great roof!

VIDEOS AND PHOTOS WILL BE AVAILABLE IN SEPTEMBER ON WWW.DEAFNATION.COM
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Do we want another DeafNation World Expo? If yes, then when and where??? Any suggestions?

(courtesy of DeafNation through email subscription)

Music for Deaf people, is this possible???

Well, this is quite interesting. German designer Frederik Podzuweit invented a device that  "promises to make hearing music a reality for the deaf community based on synesthesia — a type of sensory stimulus evokes the perception of an entirely different sense." In other words, it will allow the Deaf community to experience the same emotions as Hearing people do when listening to music. You simply place the device around your neck like a scarf and the device will do the rest.

 Music for Deaf people

Music for Deaf people

This really does lead to many questions. For example, are Deaf people really capable of understanding and feeling the true meaning of music? Or is it like trying to teach a fish how to walk? (ergo: it's impossible?)

Another question to consider is how can we prove that Deaf people will experience the same sensations as a Hearing person might while listening to music? Or is it synthetic like in the example of cochlear implants... We already know it is not the same as a Hearing person.

Overall, this seems like an interesting experiment, as the creator states, to allow the Deaf community to experience a "different sense".

Oh I See! News in ASL !!! www.oicmovies.com

Don't you hate it when you're watching the news and the Closed Captioning (CC) is behind, incorrect, or even doesn't show up??? I hate it too! I finally found a good website where I can watch everyday news in American Sign Language (ASL). www.oicmovies.com. 

www.oicmovies.com. 

"Our vision is to provide the best available resource for news, information and entertainment in American Sign Language. We do this by producing original programming in ASL and organizing available ASL content from the web."

Lastly, I got the opportunity to interview with the founder of www.oicmovies.com. See below for the script. 


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1) Is www.oicmovies.com Deaf owned?

     Yes. My name is Mary Luczki, I'm deaf, and run the company with two hearing partners, Carrie Lezotte, and Diane Cheklich.  Carrie and Diane have business and production experience (they own oneofusfilms), and used their money to get us going.  I manage all the content, what stories are important to the Deaf, what videos are good enough ASL for the site, and I make sure we are Deaf and ASL in our overall viewpoint, focus and vision.  I also want to make sure there is a variety of ASL signing styles for everyone.  Even though it is my partners who have provided the money for this, they have made it clear that this is for the Deaf, it's our community, and they never even think about telling me what to say or do on the site. 

2) Tell me a bit about yourself and how you came up with this idea?
     I have an interesting story for that. Everyone in my family is Deaf and I was born hard of hearing. My family always asks me questions; "What's going on? What are they saying? What are they doing?" and so forth. I was almost like an interpreter or perhaps a reporter, always explaining everything to them. Eventually, I became fully Deaf when I was around 13 years old. If you don't mind me saying, that's when I became "normal" with the rest of my family.  Yet I still enjoyed gathering news and explaining it to my family and friends. That led me to the idea of signing out the news.  Another hearing friend came up with the idea of putting it on VHS tapes, and distributing it via a subscription system. We tried it out, but it was difficult to do that because we didn't have enough technology back at that time time around the 1990s. Fortunately, technology is now easy for all of us. We also have the Internet. Anyone all over the world can access it. So I decided to give it another try! My friend, Fawn Alleyne, who happened to work for oneofusfilms.org, contacted me and suggested setting it up for the internet. She was kind enough to set up a meeting with Carrie and Diane where I could pitch my idea to them. They loved it and here we are as a result.

3) How long have www.oicmovies.com been up and running?

     Just a bit more than a year now.  I met Carrie and Diane about two years ago through Fawn, and we met and worked on the site, shooting videos and talking about it, for about a year before we launched, in April of 2009. 

4) May I ask, in what ways are the sponsors helping you?
     They gave me all the equipment needed to do this. They literally are paying for everything including the website.  We actually are earning nothing from this. This is all volunteer-based.  They have even provided a mini-studio in my home to make it easier for me to generate the news videos at home, then upload to be edited and put on the site.

5) That is very generous of them! Do you have any plans to bring in any revenues to help reduce the financial burden from your sponsors?

     Oh yes. We truly appreciate everything they have done for us. In fact, we are thinking of ways to pay them back as our token of appreciation. We have some ads on our website, but that doesn't pay much yet because we haven't reached the #s of members needed to make a significant difference. As we continue to build our membership by providing the best ASL resource on the web, our ad sales will help generate the money we need.  We've been steadily growing for a year, and we've found out about half our audience are people learning ASL, so we're going to offer a reasonably priced captioning option that those learning ASL can pay for monthly. OICmovies has just been spending money to get to where we are, and so this service will turn us into a real business that can create jobs for more people. We really want to publish new stories every day and have a variety of reporters, but it will take a bit of regular money to do that. Additionally, we just released our first dvd, "Best of OIC Movies 2009: ASL only edition" for $19.95. Also, people can support us by purchasing shirts, hats & caps, bags, cups, buttons, magnets, and mouse pads on http://www.cafepress.com/oicmovies.  we plan to have a Best of Cassie DVD available soon as well.  Cassie is our star Deaf comedian. 

6) I noticed you did say you need #s of members needed to make a significant difference, what kind of #s are you talking about? 
     Well, we now have about over 10,000 members and and that was one of the milestones we needed to hit, then revenues generated from the ads will increase. So the # of hits which means the # of people that visit www.oicmovies.com can be used to attract sponsors and advertisers. Think what it would be if we could have 100,000 members!

7) As you may or not know, there are other websites such as DeafNewspaper., iDeafnews and etc, how are you different?
     I prefer to focus on the news happening around us. Often enough, Deaf people would watch the news, but they don't understand it quite well. Sometimes the Closed Captioning (CC) are out of sync, far behind, or doesn't even appear or is just plain inaccurate. That really hurt the Deaf population. Also, in Deaf culture, we do not only want to know the story, but we want to know why and how. For example, the earthquake in Haiti; the news about people getting hurt and millions of dollars in damage is not enough for Deaf people. Deaf people want to know how did it happen? What caused it?  Also, sometimes Deaf people are not familiar with their terminology such as Richter magnitude scale, aftershock, and etc. In my videos, I make sure to explain the terminology, "why" and "how".  I think Deaf people really benefit from it.
     Also I would like to add one more thing. iDeafNews seems to focus on the Deaf-related events. DeafNewspaper like to talk about Deaf personal stories. Finally, OIC Movies are about the daily news that you see on television. So I think with three of us, we complete the world of news. That's a good thing in my opinion. 

8) What's the biggest opportunity you predict for your business?

     Well, the beauty of news is that we'll never run out of news. There'll always be something going on in USA and in the world. As I said before, if we can figure out how to generate revenues, I think we can finally start paying people for reports than asking them to volunteer. That'll help us to increase the amount of news and even broadcast it 24/7. 

9) What's the biggest challenge OIC Moviesis currently facing? 

     Probably generating revenue so we can accomplish more. We've been able to get a lot accomplished without a lot of resources, so, like any new small business, managing our growth is a challenge. There's so much we want to do, so many stories to tell, and probably the hardest thing is to stay focused on one thing, delivering the news once a week, when there are so many things that need to get done. We want to be neutral and unbiased and factual. We just want to deliver the news and let the Deaf think for themselves. We have a small staff, the three of us and a few other volunteers, so we can't make big things happen quickly, but we are thinking big!
     In addition, we are working on being family friendly, so that any one of any age can watch us.  I have had schools who contacted me and told me how much they enjoyed showing OIC Movies to their children. The children really benefit from it. However, I did have one school who contacted  me and told me they couldn?t show my website because unknown to me, one of the google ads was showing a dating website and it was not allowed in their school. I had to contact the website host and ask them to block those kind of ads. Go figure. Those kind of things are sometimes unexpected obstacles that we face, but that?s part of business. We can't always react as fast as we want to, but we were able to make the chance.

The man behind iDeafNews

Recently I had an interersting interview with the creator of iDeafNews, Seth Gerlis. The following is a summary of our conversation.

 

http://ideafnews.com/new/

1) Is iDeafNews Deaf-owned?
Yes. It is owned by me, Seth Gerlis.

2) Could you tell me a little bit about your background and where  you developed your skills in starting the iDeafNews?
I worked with DeafNation for one year - I learned how to use the equipment, editing machine, the video cameras and the tools to learn to how to film correctly.I do not have any background in film making nor journalism, it is all from scratch. I learned how to set up the news program by myself.

3) How did you come up with the idea for iDeafNews?
There are already several services out there that provide news and current events, but most of them are shown in Closed Captioning instead of in sign language. According to Gallaudet, there are about 600,00 Deaf and 30 million Hard of Hearings in the USA. Many of them want to see news in sign languages. In other words, I want to give them "colors and pictures" for them to enjoy aesthetically and visually.

4) How will iDeafNews be different than other existing services?
I noticed some services are either too personal such as focusing on marriages, obituaries, and so forth. Others focus on hearing news. What I mean by that is the daily news we see on tv. iDeafNews will focus only  on Deaf-related news. IDeafNews' goal is to eventually deliver all kinds of Deaf-related news 7 times a week. FYI, iDeafNews has a Facebook page and all the videos are posted there as well.

5) Would it be challenging to find Deaf-related news on a daily basis?
IDeafNews will not just focus on daily news, but it will also deliver all kinds of features such as sports, politics, social events, expo, interviews, and many more. I do not think it'll be a challenge. I am currently delivering  2 times to 4 times a week. Additionally, there is only one of me. I cannot be at more than two places at the same time. I am hoping to build a network of local reporters on site everywhere in the USA. They will go out, get the report, and I'll deliver it on iDeafNews. I will admit that I do not want to be signing all the news 24/7. I prefer to give everyone their 15 mins of fame. I believe in working with Deaf communities everywhere.

6) You mentioned about having a Facebook page. Why do you post it on both your website and your Facebook page?
Originally, we opened up for business on November 12th with our original website, but I wasn't satisfied with my original design. So I switched to Facebook for the time being until I develop a better design for the website. Ironically, by the time I redesigned the website in January, the Facebook page grew at a rapid pace. I realized there are some people who prefer to spend all their time on Facebook while some other people don't like to use Facebook. So this gives the audience the ability to choose where to view the news.

7) What's the biggest opportunity for iDeafnews?
I'm hoping to establish iDeafNews to be the  #1 media worldwide for any kinds of viewers. I want the subtitles to be uploaded instantly and translated in every language. Additionally, it would be nice to have a reporter sign news out in their native language such as BSL, FSL, or even Universal Sign Language.

8) Do you plan to eventually tap into the television market?
Probably not. I don't think there'll be enough demand to justify it. The internet should suffice.

9) What is the biggest challenge you currently foresee for your business.
Currently, I need more manpower and equipment. It would be great if we could do live news, but I'm unable to do that due to lack of money.And if it happens there are too many news going on at same time, that's great! IDeafNews can post news several times a day. We'll see.

Thank you, Seth Gerlis, for taking the time to chat with me. It does sounds like an exciting business endeavor. I wish you the best of luck.

And for your entertainment, here's a sample of iDeafNews

.

Hearing and Deaf now can drink from the ocean!

1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water, but that's not going to be a problem in the future. We figured out how to purify the salty water from the ocean into fresh water. How awesome!

A quick background:
70% of the world is water. That is equal to about 300 quintillion gallons. That's a lot of water, but we couldn't drink most of it because it comes from the ocean. The ocean water is too salty for us to drink. It'll make us sick.

California actually established the first full-scale seawater desalination facility last year, but it wasn't until this year that the California Department of Public Health finally approved the water for public use. How exciting! That means we'll never have to worry about running out of freshwater.

How it works:

http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-04/californias-first-full-scale-desalination-plant-lets-residents-drink-pacific-ocean

First, the plant will filter all the dirt and chemicals out of the water. Then it will go through a special layer of a membrane consisting of millions of holes. The holes will be big enough to allow water go through, but not for the salt. That's probably the simplest explanation you'll find. The reason why we haven't established this technique all over the world is because it is expensive, but then again our technology is finding ways to make it cheaper and affordable.

Cool huh? :)

Can you read my lips? No? How about a robot's lips?

Japanese scientists are developing human-like robots. So human-like that it's actually creepy in some ways. How are we going to tell the difference between human beings and robots / androids.

fastcompany

Geminoid F is the newest product of the Intelligent Robotics lab atsaka University and robot builders Kokoro Co. Ltd.  "Silicone realistic skin, convincing hair, and teeth that seem so real they make Geminoid F have a nearly human smile." Not only that, but the robot also comes with a a tele-operation system which uses a smart camera to track your facial expressions and replicate them.

In other words, Japanese scientists are working on a robot that will  imitate you. Soon enough, we'll be able to read robots' lips. I wonder if that's a good thing or not? After all, everyone lip's are different, thus making it a challenge for us to lipread with ease.

Google will soon be able to translate Sign Language

Google can already translate over 50 languages. What about Sign Language??? Sooner than you think!

Here's a list of the languages they currently can translate:

Afrikaans	Danish	Greek	Japanese	Polish	Swedish
Albanian	Dutch	Haitian Creole	Korean	Portuguese	Thai
Arabic	English	Hebrew	Latvian	Romanian	Turkish
Belarusian	Estonian	Hindi	Lithuanian	Russian	Ukrainian
Bulgarian	Filipino	Hungarian	Macedonian	Serbian	Vietnamese
Catalan	Finnish	Icelandic	Malay	Slovak	Welsh
Chinese	French	Indonesian	Maltese	Slovenian	Yiddish
Croatian	Galician	Irish	Norwegian	Spanish
Czech	German	Italian	Persian	Swahili

Google has a prototype app where you can take a picture with your Android phone. It will digitize the picture into text. Then the text will be translated into any language of your choice. Cool huh?
"Right now this technology only works for German-to-English translations and it's not yet ready for prime time. However, it shows a lot of promise for what the future might hold. Soon your phone will be able to translate signs, posters and other foreign text instantly into your language. Eventually, we're hoping to build a version of Google Goggles that can translate between all of the 52 languages currently supported by Google Translate — bringing even more information to you on the go."

One day, we willl be able to carry a device that will allow us to communicate with anyone in the world.  

Can planes cause Deafness???

Widespread deafness is a major problem for the villagers of Santhali, in the Kalchini Block of Jalpaiguri district of the Northeast Indian State, West Bengal. At present, the number has crossed the limit and reached more than 2 to 3 thousand. Now it seems that the entire village has turned into 'a village of the deaf.'

What is the cause?

Airplanes. More specifically, airforce planes and fighter-aircraft (especially, Mig-21, Mig-27, Ground Attack Fighters and some Mig-23UB)s, They can produce up to 500 decibels of sound...

A human hearing's pain threshold where sounds start to cause pain is around 120 decibels.

500 decibels is a whopping can of worms!

http://newsblaze.com/story/20100327123118shan.nb/topstory.ht

Is there a future for Deaf reporting / reporters?

Ken Davis think so...

Ken Davis, the CEO and founder, established DeafNewspaper LLC in 2002. Eventually a website was established. and the first vlog was made on August 04, 2009. It was about www.aspencamp.org. The websit es growing nicely. News vlogs are being shown on every Tuesdays and Saturdays.

As I continued watching more vlogs, I couldn't help but notice that  Ken Davis is always cheerful and jolly. I bet if he grows a bigger beard and gains some more weight, he'll make an excellent Deaf Santa Claus. Lol.

Anyway, I see his vlogs / reports cover everyday news in the Deaf community. They cover everything from sports cars to scams to camping to marriages to McDonald's. You will never know what will be next on the news. That's cool. Here are few to start with: Vlog 1 (Tax) and Vlog 2 (Valentine) I wonder if DeafNewspaper will expand to the point where it can do new vlogs everyday? That means we will need more Deaf reporters all over the USA. Anyone want to help out?

However, I did not like the design of the website. It is literally covered with ads. The menu toolbar is made in flash. That's a bad idea due to accessibility and usability reasons. Also I noticed iframe is being used. That's generally frowned upon. I think a make-over look will help the company grow even more.

Moving on... It looks like it sponsors 2 other websites; http://www.aslvlogs.com/ and http://www.aslsilentchef.com/. Mhmm.. Here's a thought, Michi Demarrais of ASLSilentChef could help Ken Davis become Santa Claus...Her foods look delicious though!

Phone that can read your lips!

"Researchers at Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) have developed a method for mobile phones to convert silent mouth movements into speech. The technology is based on the principle of electromyography, that is the acquisition and recording of electrical potentials generated by muscle activity. This muscle activity is measured in the face and converted into speech." (http://www.cellular-news.com/story/42211.php)

You literally put the phone against your cheek and it will interpret your facial muscles.

Here are some mof the advantages that  I can think of right away;

1. Deaf people will no longer look silly on the phone. "Hello!? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"
2. Also Deaf people can talk now without having to worry about making "funny" noises in front of people.
3. Anyone will be able to tell their passwords, PINS, "I love you" on the phone anywhere and anytime.

At the  same time, a question arises, How many Deaf people know how to talk or at least move their mouth to form the words correctly? Beside, Deaf people still can not hear anythingon the phone.

Is this really going to help Deaf people or not? 

DeafBlind can see with their tongue???

That's right. That is what I said!

It is possible to see with your tongue! Bizarre huh?

I'll admit that when I first read this, I was extremely suspicious. I thought it had to be a hoax or something. But then as I continue reading, it started making sense. I even went online to verify the data. Shockingly enough, it is true.

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Here's the story in laymen terms.

The world is pretty much divided into insulators (rubber, plastics, etc) and conductors (metals, water, muscles, etc).

We are made of mostly water. Our muscles, fat, and bones are made of mostly water as well. Therefore, that means we are a very good conductor.

With that being said, your tongue is actually a muscle. Well, many muscles to be accurate. These muscles help you to swallow, chew, talk, etc. Your tongue is hooked up to the brain with many different nerves. (refer to Figure 1).

Every time you take a bite, the taste buds on your tongue will send out an electrical signal through the nerves to your brain and your brain will tell you if it's delicious or bad tasting.
--------------------------------
So our brilliant scientists thought, "Why can't we do that with a device that will control the current flow of electricity and put it on the top of their tongue?"

Well, that's what they have done. It is called BrainPort.

You literally put the sunglasses on, put the white device on the top of your tongue, and turn it on with the remote control. Boom! Like magic, you can see!

This is currently a protoype and not for sale anywhere in the world. However, if you would like to particpate in this project, you may contact Dr. Amy Nau @ University of Pittsburgh, Dr. William Seiple of Lighthouse International in New York, or Dr. Aimee Arnoldussen @ Wicab, Inc in Wisconsin.

Now here's the million dollar question.

Is it really "seeing" ???? 

YouTube will offer CC on your videos now!!!

This just came in!

Google Inc.'s YouTube said it will offer automatically generated captions for its entire video catalog, a boon for deaf users and those who want to watch videos in other languages.

At a press conference at YouTube's San Bruno, Calif., headquarters, Google software engineer Ken Harrenstein demonstrated the feature and went through the reasons Google invested in the product—from expanding accessibility to crossing language barriers to improving search.

YouTube watchers can see available captions by clicking on a button in the lower-right-hand part of the video player. They can also select to see captions in a different language from the language of the video. Mr. Harrenstein, who is deaf and gave his presentation in sign language, said he has been working on the product for the past five years.

YouTube has been pushing captions for a while, in part because the company hopes it will make it easier for its search engine to identify particular moments within a video. In 2008, it began allowing content owners to upload their own captions. Last year, Google turned on automatic captioning for videos uploaded by a small number of partners, like the University of California, Berkeley and Yale University.

Now, YouTube is rolling them out across the catalog of millions of videos, starting with English-language videos, as long as they have clear audio. The move was cheered by several students from the California School for the Deaf, who were in attendance.

Google research scientist Mike Cohen said the captioning technology blends Google's speech-recognition and translation algorithms. "I don't know about anything tried at this type of scale before," he said.

Mr. Cohen said the technology is constantly improving, getting better at canceling out noise conditions and factoring accents.

He said it relies on the same technology components as Google's other speech-recognition products, like Google Voice's automatic voice-mail transcription and its voice-based search service. But he noted that the algorithms have to be tweaked to account for the differences in audio spoken into a phone versus an audio track.

The technology isn't perfect. Mr. Harrenstein pulled up captions for a video of Google executive Vic Gundotra at a Google developer conference last year.

While talking about giving each developer in attendance an Android phone, Mr. Gundotra said the phones contained a SIM card, which provides service for the phone. The technology picked it up as "salmon."

Mr. Harrenstein said, aside from the captions for millions of videos already running, Google will have the rest of the library done soon.

YouTube viewers will be able to select to see captions automatically, although some companies that upload large amounts of content to YouTube will get to choose whether they want captions available.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704187204575101852850074026.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsForth

Test Your Knowledge of Deaf Culture Around the World!

How much do you know about deaf people and sign languages in other countries? Here are a few questions to spark your curiosity. Test your knowledge and let us know how you do. Have fun! (See answers below).

1) What is the only country in the world to have sign language specific law?
a. USA
b. Japan
c. New Zealand
d. England
e. Mexico

2) In how many countries are deaf people not allowed to drive?
a. less than 10
b. 10 - 25
c. 25 - 50
d. more than 50

3) How many countries legally recognize sign language?
a. less than 10
b. 10 - 25
c. 25 - 50
d. more than 50

4) Deaf people can vote in all of these countries except ________?
a. Thailand
b. Australia
c. Saudi Arabia
d. Kenya

5) How many hours of interpreting per year per deaf person does the Bulgarian government pay for?
a. 0
b. 10
c. 100
d. 500

Source for all questions/answers based on a survey of 93 countries from The World Federation of the Deaf: Deaf People and Human Rights Report, January 2009. Click here to view a .pdf of the full report: http://www.wfdeaf.org/pdf/Deaf%20People%20and%20Human%20Rights%20Report%20-%2023%20Feb%2009%20Version.pdf

ANSWERS: 1) c. New Zealand; 2) c. 31; 3) c. 44; 4) c. Saudi Arabia; 5) b. 10

(Courtesy of http://discoveringdeafworlds.org)

List of Deaf, DeafBlind, and Hard of Hearing Stores online

Children & Teaching Resources

buyASL

https://www.buyasl.com/catalog/

(No Description provided.) Looks like it focus on resources upon how to teach and learn ASL along few pagers, alarm clocks, and gifts.

Novelty

ASL Sign of Love

http://www.cafepress.com/signsoflove

“The ASL Sign Language Stuff Store where you will find products with unique ASL graphics on them.”

Little ASL Shop

http://www.printfection.com/LittleASLShop

“We sell ASL themed T shirts & gifts for adults & kids in the deaf community. Artist designed.”

Interpreters

ASL Terp Store

http://www.cafepress.com/aslterp

“A store for American Sign Language Interpreters.”

Books & DVDs & VHS

OhSoEZ Deaf and Sign Language Store

http://astore.amazon.com/ohsoez-20

Offers hundreds of books, DVDs, and VHS upon American Sign Language and Deaf Culture

General Merchandise (Walmart-like)

Harris Communications

http://www.harriscomm.com/

“Find over 2,000 products for Deaf and Hard of Hearing people, people interested in sign language, Deaf Culture, hearing loss and more.”

Hearmore

http://www.hearmore.com/store/default.asp

“Hearmore, is your one source for aids and appliances for assistive living. We offer unparalleled selection and affordable prices of products for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Our dedicated staff will provide you with service that is fast and reliable. Browse our site to view the variety of products we have for the deaf community. Our goal is to is to bring you the best products available in alarm clocks, amplified telephones and vibrating watches plus low vision products, medical products, mobility products and household products.”

Emphasis on Independent Living such as products for those with Lack of Mobility, Vision, or / and Hearing

Maxi-Aids

http://www.maxiaids.com/store/default.asp

“Maxi-Aids has been an established special-needs provider for over two decades. In that time, we have evolved into the world’s leading provider of adaptive products, products for independent living and products designed to enhance your lifestyle simply by making your every-day tasks easier.”

Are there any more I have missed?