Category: current events
Harriet McBryde Johnson
Harriet McBryde Johnson has died.
Hers was a fabulous voice - a Southern voice, a woman’s voice, an advocate’s voice, a sensible voice - for the disabled.
I’m trying to find the first thing I ever read by her - an article about power dressing for an appearance in court. Time to go re-read Too Late to [...]
Karen Stone
I was dismayed to read of the death of Karen Stone in this month’s New Mobility (and surprised that I hadn’t heard already).
Karen Stone, who used illness and writing to teach, dead at 62:
“She wrote about it (having a disability). It was a big thing when she was writing. She wrote about it as a [...]
Copenhagen Airport accessibility improvements
Airport Accessibility in Copenhagen
So far, the airlines flying out of Copenhagen Airport have provided services to disabled persons through their handling companies, which meant that what these travellers were offered varied greatly from one airline to the next. The new service for disabled persons that Copenhagen Airport will be offering in cooperation with an external [...]
It’s not really a scooter
I’ve now seen three stories about Senator Tim Johnson’s re-election bid. They’re all very similar. They all have a picture of Senator Johnson in what is clearly a power chair, and they all say that it is a scooter. I guess “scooter” telegraphs less disability than “power chair” or “wheelchair”.
The stories:
USA Today, A year after [...]
Lafayette CO passes visitability ordinance
Lafayette adopted what is likely Colorado’s toughest residential access measure Tuesday night, mandating that a quarter of new homes built in the city guarantee access to people with disabilities.
The city’s “visitability” ordinance, passed by a 7-0 vote, requires that 25 percent of new homes constructed in Lafayette include at least one stairless entrance into [...]
Lotta things going on
Since I’ve been gone, working 12 hour days, no weekends off, no internet access except at the hotel at 2 in the morning:
Christiane has mastered haranguing the train people in England
Dorothea has gotten a new job
Erik is relapsing (feel better soon, Erik!)
Patricia has moved to Typepad (looks nice!)
Stephen has started his new job
Lady Bracknell has [...]
Another one bites the dust
Invacare is discontinuing sales of Kuschall chairs in North America:
“Kuschall was doing OK, but it wasn’t profitable for us,” said Invacare Vice President Brian Ellacott. “(Medicare) reimbursement is going to be reviewed in 2007, and we know it’s going to go down. So if it wasn’t viable financially currently, the picture could get worse in [...]
Judge Says Currency Shortchanges the Blind
From the Washington Post: Judge Says Currency Shortchanges the Blind:
A federal judge said yesterday that by keeping all U.S. currency the same size and texture, the government has denied blind people meaningful access to money.
…
Government attorneys argued that forcing the Treasury Department to change the size or texture of the bills would make it harder [...]
Wrap Rage
So obvious, once it’s pointed out: Wrap Rage.
I bought an electric toothbrush the other day; spent at least 15 minutes trying to get it out of its packaging and my hands hurt for the rest of the day.
Like a Mouse on Fire
At work, we have a new metaphor for that behaviour that is between getting revenge and going down in flames:
Mouse burns down house in revenge
A mouse wreaked revenge on a pensioner who tried to kill it by tossing it on to a bonfire. It scuttled back into the man’s house and set the building ablaze.
So sad
My daughter just got a come-on in the mail from Tulane University, mailed from ZIP code 24581.
So sad.
College of Santa Fe
What a practical offer to Katrina victims: College students from New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region are able to transfer to CSF and enroll for the fall semester as “visiting” students
Via Out of the Frying Pan.
Bias
In black and white?
Black man loots, white people find.
Good Stuff
Agent Fang’s Life as a Token Crip
Fazia’s links to Duke University report on iPod distribution and the Fog Screen
Awww…
Via Fazia, Disabled dolphin jumping again with world’s first artificial fin.
All Saints’ Day
It’s All Saints’ Day (or All Hallows Day, the day that All Hallows’ Eve [Hallowe'en] is the vigil of). (Ghastly sentence.)
Some All Saints’ Day info:
All Saints - Wikipedia
Millions in Europe revere All Saints’ Day
Tomorrow is All Souls Day, for the less-sainted dead.
Should Verizon get more of my money?
I always have choir rehearsal on Tuesdays.
Last presidential election, I was working for the technologically saavy but soon to be laying everyone off company, and had a nice Internet-enabled phone. During rehearsal, everytime I wasn’t supposed to actually be singing, I was looking up election results at CNN.
Now I’m paying for my own cellphone (the [...]
Words had to change their meanings
To fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meanings. What used to be described as a thoughtless act of aggression was now regarded as the courage one would expect to find in a party member; to think of the future and wait was merely another way of [...]
Origami-folding Robot
Dexterous robot conquers art of origami:
Modelling the creation of an origami model is also mathematically and computationally complex.
The designer’s website
Shallow
The older I get, the more I groom. Haircuts every six weeks (ok, every four weeks, cause it grows out so fast), that sort of thing. Now, suddenly, I want a manicure. (Actually, it’s sudden, but not mysterious - I’m getting ready to go to the wedding of a family friend that has all the [...]
The First Motorcycles of Spring
In between snowfalls, I’ve spotted the first motorcycles of spring parked outside my office. People here seem to favor really big bikes.
Nineteen days till spring, sixty-five days till the average last frost date for the Front Range!
Primary Excitement
The first presidential primary in the nation, as we all know, takes place in Washington DC tomorrow.
But it doesn’t matter, because the votes of the 600,000 US citizens who live in the District of Columbia aren’t counted anyway.
Washington, DC, Uses Presidential Primary as ‘Attention-Getter’
Relative Risk
An acquaintance of mine is, shall we say, risk averse. His current concern is West Nile virus. He has been regaling me with counts of how many of the mosquitoes caught in his neighborhood are of the West Nile carrying variety, and how many dead and sick birds he’s found. Today he asked me how [...]
Bush fails the Segway Test
Bush fails the Segway Test, sure to join a long line of Presidential gaffes, including the world-famous Killer Rabbit incident.
Too much news
How much war news is too much? How many hours can be filled saying the same thing over and over again? All of them, apparently.
I like listening to Morning Edition and All Things Considered while driving to and from work, but I’m going to have to figure out some way to condense my intake of [...]
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