StemCell Therapy

Published: 12:54 Wednesday 15 January 2020

RNIB are aiming to get people who are losing their sight talking.

The Need to Talk team supports adults and young people over the age of 11 who are blind or partially sighted.

Talking can help move your life forward in the direction you want whether it is about ambitions for your family, work, social life or emotional and physical wellbeing.

They can also offer support to help face the future with confidence.

The RNIB Need to Talk counselling service, which is delivered alongside Fighting Blindness, aims to rebuild confidence and help you retain independence.

People can receive eight to ten counselling sessions over the phone.

People can get in touch with Need to Talks counselling and Living with Sight Loss team by telephoning, or emailing RNIB or Fighting Blindness.

Phone RNIB on: 0303 123 9999, or email: needtotalk@rnib.org.uk (rnib.org.uk).

See the article here:
'Need to talk' campaign launched by RNIB - as someone begins to lose their sight every 15 minutes - Belfast Newsletter

Throughout its eight-season run, Arrow gave fans plenty of bad guys to develop a love/hate relationship with. Sometimes the audience just plain hated them. From mob bosses to metahumans, Team Arrow has seen it all and defeated them all. But the wins often came at a cost.

RELATED:Arrowverse: The 5 Best Metahumans (& 5 Worst), Ranked

While some villains forever made their marks on the series and the fans, others fizzled out or never made an impression at all. When it came to Oliver Queen, some villains walked the line between enemy and ally. Here are five of the best, and five of the worst, villains on the show.

Following the "Undertaking" event where the Glades were nearly demolished, Sebastian Blood became the Mayor of Starling City with the help of Slade Wilson. Working under Deathstroke, the leader of the Church of Blood agreed to acquire Mirakuru soldiers to destroy the city so that he could guide the city to salvation.

Brother Bloodmade a deal with a madman with a vendetta to create chaos that he had the power to stop. But he didn't account for Slade's obsession for Oliver Queen's blood. In the end, that blindness killed Brother Blood.

Malcolm Merlyn used his influence and wealth to orchestrate a major terrorist attack against the Glades. Malcolm's motivations for attacking it stem from the death of his wife, who was killed by a thug from the neighborhood.

When his character returned with the plot of being Thea's real dad, he became obsessed with using her to get to the Arrow who thwarted him. If he'd been smarter and less myopic, he could have expended all that time and money on fixing systemic issues instead of trying to attack the symptoms.

The Head of the Demon led the League of Assassins and mentored Oliver. The back and forth of ally to enemy between him and Oliver made Ra's al Ghul a worthy villain. His dedication to the Demon eventually led to the fallout between him and his mentee.

RELATED:10 Things That Make No Sense About The Arrowverse

Ra's looked for a successor as the Head of the Demon and he chose Oliver, but the Arrow declined. When it looked like Ra's al Ghul killed Oliver on the mountain top fight, the fans waited with bated breath.

Carrie Cutter became obsessed with the Green Arrow and mimicked him by learning archery. She called herself Cupid as she believed she was in love with the vigilante. Where once she stopped crimes as part of the SCPD her obsession with the Arrow led her to commit them to get his attention.

Her manic obsession with a superhero that didn't even know her just made her seem like a lovesick school girl who went off the deep end. Her characterization didn't go far enough to show how she became that way.

Helena Bertinelli was the daughter of Frank Bertinelli, a huge crime boss in Starling City. When he killed her fiance because he thought Michael was gathering evidence against him to turn into the FBI, she became a vigilante. She was dubbed the Huntress by Quentin Lance.

The Huntress made for a complex villain because she did the same as Oliver, go after bad guys. She also had a personal score to settle as it was her that had gathered evidence against her father's crimes, and her fiance paid the price.

The pun in this bad guy's name led to an even worse codename: the Bug-Eyed Bandit. Her superpower? Bees. Robotic bees to be exact. She controlled the mechanical bugs remotely to do her bidding. The first thing she did was exact revenge on her boss who fired her and the coworkers who ratted her out on her experiments.

Brie's overall characterization was cheesy and ridiculous. Granted, that is the nature of comic books and their characters. But considering the series had taken a darker tone than its source material, she just didn't fit right.

Damien Darhk once fought alongside the Ra's al Ghul in the League of Assassins, but he went rogue and started his own faction of the League called H.I.V.E. He took water from the Lazarus Pitto create the assassins he needed for his army.

RELATED:Arrowverse: 5 Best Bromances (& 5 Heroes That Cant Stand Each Other)

He planned to implement a razed earth policy, in which he burned everything down to start the world anew. He built a following and they created bunkers to survive the apocalyptic event he had in mind. Team Arrow defeated him butlost the Black Canary, Laurel Lance.

The hacker organization founded by Cayden James was an obvious bad guy from the start, but Felicity Smoak was too blind to see it. Alena easily manipulated the Team Arrow tech expert, using Felicity's desire to do good against her.

But Cayden was not the same man he was before going into prison. He developed a plan to rid the world of its internet. Devastating as that might have been to social media junkies,it wasn't exactly an evil-genius level plan.When he attacked his follower Alena it proved he wasn't great at keeping allies.

Slade Wilson was a member of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service who became one of Oliver's mentors after he survived the sinking of the Queen's Gambit. But when Oliver chose to save Sara Lance over Shado, Slade's paramour, he vowed vengeance against the vigilante.

The Mirakuru running through his veins didn't help Slade's judgment either. Deathstroke eventually made amends with Oliver, agreeing to help him take down Adrian Chase. At that point, all Slade wanted was to find and reconnect with his sons. He was a character that walked the line between villain and ally.

The former district attorney Adrian Chase feigned friendship with Oliver while secretly committing murder as Prometheus. The villain wanted revenge against Oliver for killing his father during his days as the Hood. When Oliver first started as a vigilante with no remorse for taking life, it wasn't his finest hour.

But Adrian's vendetta to expose Oliver as a murderer by murdering innocent people himself never made sense. Adrian just killed to get Oliver's attention rather than make an actual statement. He didn't end up being as intelligent a villain as he was made out to be.

NEXT:Arrowverse: 10 Most Hilarious Crossover Memes

Next10 Celebrities You Forgot Were Guest Stars On M*A*S*H

Meagan Cahuasqui is a Latinx writer, poet, traveler, and reader. She holds a B.A. in creative writing from UCF and an M.B.A. in marketing from NSU. When shes not engaged in the aforementioned activities, she can be found yelling and crying at her TV over fictional people that break her heart.

Originally posted here:
Arrow: The 5 Best Villains On The Show (& 5 Worst) | ScreenRant - Screen Rant

CEDAR RAPIDS Losing your vision can be an isolating experience, but a new Cedar Rapids-based support groups aims to create a community among blind and visually impaired area residents.

The Blindness Support Group is made up of more than a dozen blind and visually impaired individuals who meet once a month to learn from one another how to overcome barriers specific to their disability.

The group was formed by Jonathan Ice, a Cedar Rapids resident and longtime advocate. The group held its first meeting in March.

When people go blind and by that I mean the whole range of vision loss they feel very isolated, Ice said. They feel like theyre the only one going through this.

To find out youre not alone in this is really a very helpful thing. Not only are you not alone in this, but there are other people who are finding ways of dealing with it, he said.

But Ice emphasized the group is focused on positive experiences.

If its just people having a pity party about how awful it is being blind, its not going to do any good, Ice said. But if you can have people who can share ideas and patterns to cope with the challenges you have as a person, you can do a lot.

For Sarah McDonough, a 42-year-old Coralville resident, the Blindness Support Group has helped her navigate the world safely after her vision was damaged by a stroke two years ago. She has learned how to use a knife and how to cook safely with a hot stove, among other skills, she said.

That has been a huge help to me that I know I have support and help that I can ask for, McDonough said.

In addition to sharing ideas among themselves, the Blindness Support Group invites guests to speak at its meetings. For example, Ice said they have invited an official with the city of Cedar Rapids to learn about public transportation options.

The support group also plans to invite an ophthalmologist, or a vision care specialist, to next months gathering.

Ice found a passion for teaching blindness skills during his time at the Iowa Department for the Blind, where he worked for more than 17 years.

Although Ice was born legally blind, he said he didnt know it until he was diagnosed at age 20.

I just thought my vision was bad, Ice said. Suddenly, I get this label when I was 20, but it was a bit amusing because it didnt really change my life. I was still doing things like playing softball and riding a bike and all the things I was doing before.

But then, Ice said he began to notice things he didnt have in common with people who werent visually impaired. They didnt face job discrimination or lowered expectations from others like he did.

Ice saw the impact support groups statewide had on his clients at the Iowa Department for the Blind, and said he felt it was important to bring a group back to Cedar Rapids.

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Support groups for blind and visually impaired individuals have existed in the past, but they have tapered off over the years.

The second-largest city in the state should have (a support group), too, Ice said.

Meetings are held from 1 to 3 p.m. the fourth Thursday of the month at Cottage Grove Place, Sedlacek Hall, 2115 First Ave. SE, Cedar Rapids. For more information, call Ice at (319) 298-2919 or email jkice89@q.com.

Comments: (319) 368-8536; michaela.ramm@thegazette.com

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Cedar Rapids group formed to support blind, visually impaired residents - The Gazette

January 11, 2020

By Jana ReissReligion News Service

Drawn from his fiction and nonfiction writings, The Reading Life: The Joy of Seeing New Worlds Through Others Eyes takes snippets of C.S. Lewis various writings, all themed around the capacious love he had for books and reading, and gathers them into a gift book perfect for the new year.

Nostalgia for childhood

The pieces are short and well-chosen, and often draw upon nostalgia. Several times in different essays, Lewis reflects on childrens literature as a nourishing source of adult reflection. He says those stories meant something different to him as a mature man than they did in childhood, but that very timelessness is what makes them important to revisit.

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up, he writes.

This attraction to myth and childrens fantasy leads him to review his friend J.R.R. Tolkiens work. Lewis early reviews of The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring are included in the collection and make for fascinating reading for anyone who loves the series.

He urges people to take The Lord of the Rings books seriously as literature, asserting readers who revisit The Hobbit again and again will realize what deft scholarship and profound reflection have gone to make everything in it so ripe, so friendly, and in its own way so true.

Prediction is dangerous, Lewis writes, but The Hobbit may well prove a classic.

In a similar vein, he notes that true readers just dont have an age-based timetable for what they find interesting:

The neat sorting-out of books into age-groups has only a very sketchy relation with the habits of any real readers. Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us. No reader worth his salt trots along in obedience to a time-table.

Lewis covers some familiar and controversial questions is it permissible to dog-ear a book? No, he insists; such behavior ought to fill us with shame. (I stubbornly dog-eared that page.) Yet he gives the thumbs-up to marginalia: He underlines, indexes and comments in his books, particularly ones he didnt think were very good, thereby making them his own.

Many an otherwise dull book which I had to read I have enjoyed in this way, with a fine-nibbed pen in my hand: one is making something all the time and [a] book so read acquires the charm of a toy without losing that of a book.

Not all of the essays are lighthearted love letters to the act of reading. In The Case for Reading Old Books, he takes on a question that plagues me constantly: What will turn out to have been the blindnesses of our own age?

When we read writers across the centuries, we are alive to their false assumptions in a way they were not able to be:

Nothing strikes me more when I read the controversies of past ages than the fact that both sides were usually assuming without question a good deal which we should now absolutely deny. We can be sure that the characteristic blindness of the 20th century the blindness about which our posterity will ask, But how could they have thought that? lies where we never would have suspected it, and concerns something about which there is untroubled agreement.

Magic about the past

When we read this collection more than half a century after Lewis death, his own blind spots will seem obvious to us his utter lack of attention to questions of gender, race and colonialism; and his assumption that the Western canon of literature is canonical because it is superior and not simply because it helps to reify those assumptions about gender, race and colonialism.

But thats not the point. Or at least, thats not the only point. That essay, like all great literature, should make us pause and turn the tables on ourselves, and try to spot our own Achilles heels. Its not that there is any magic about the past, as Lewis makes clear. People were not cleverer or more moral then than they are now.

But a regular habit of keeping the clean breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds, as Lewis wrote, broadens our perspective and makes us challenge the unquestioned assumptions of our age in a way that reading only contemporary writers cannot.

Read more from the original source:
Review: Readers will love 'The Reading Life' compiled from CS Lewis' writings - Alabama Baptist

Inclusive education for the specially-abled is one of the most effective ways through which we can move towards a just society that is more sensitive to the needs of the less fortunate among us.

Our society is developing at a rapid pace, the message that needs to be delivered among the people is of social acceptance and inclusion along with creating an environment that is supportive for the learning of people with any form of disability. A socially inclusive society is one in which all people enjoy the same rights and where no one experiences any stigma and discrimination. In India and around the world, many times, people with disabilities are denied the right to go to school, find a job, access health care and take part in political processes. Addressing this very issue and to propagate the idea of inclusivity, Sightsavers supports comprehensive education and social inclusion to ensure that children who are blind or visually impaired are included in mainstream education and people with disabilities such as blindness or visual impairments have an equal right to achieve their full potential, just like everyone else. This is crucial to boosting the confidence of the people with any form of disabilities and making them an equal part of society.

Importance of inclusive education

India is home to nearly 8 million blind people, which is approximately one-fourth of the total blind population in the world. Inclusive education enables children with disabilities to realise their rights, facilitating their participation in, and contribution to society; supports poverty reduction and can tackle discrimination through social integration.

The vision we want to inculcate in the society is for them to practice a system of inclusive education that will ensure people with disabilities to have access to equal educational opportunities. People may be born without a completely functional organ or senses but that shouldnt deter anyone from leading a life of independence and dignity.

Holistic education of children with visual impairment is necessary, as when children with disabilities participate in mainstream education on an equal basis with other children, they learn from an early age that they are valued members of society. A plethora of initiatives are taken by the government and NGOs to ensure people with any form of disability are registered in mainstream schools. Moreover, the practice of inclusive education in schools helps them to participate more actively in general community activities throughout their lives and will promote social acceptance.

Now, the challenge is to ensure learning outcomes, to find the right teacher that is skilled to teach children with disabilities and to create an environment that is supportive of the learning of children with visual impairment. For inclusive education in India to succeed, training of specialist teachers is required. Assistive devices and accessible educational material should be made available, provision of compensatory skills training, suitable infrastructure, better accessibility and building education management and leadership among others for people with visual impairment are of primary importance. Our government should demonstrate scalable, cost-effective approaches to education for children with disabilities.

Need for socially inclusive society

Change is the only constant, hence change in the attitudes of communities, schools and governments by ensuring they adopt socially inclusive policies towards people with disabilities is an important step for making a disabled-friendly India. For a socially inclusive society, it is required to equip disabled people with skills; tools and assistance they need to earn a living and lead an independent life. Access to digital platforms and technology has made it easier for people to learn, adapt and upskill technologically in the recent years. It has created more opportunities and new possibilities for disabled in helping them overcome discrimination, for example, a visually impaired person can now listen to audiobooks and learn. As citizens of this society, we should encourage people with disabilities converse with other children to be active participants in society. For the development of the society, a standardised approach is required for mainstreaming inclusive education and disability inclusion.

We all have to create an environment to make our society more aware and discrimination-free for people with disability. And the situation is improving now. The disabled people are also contributing greatly towards society. Sightsavers India has been working to achieve governments goal on Accessible Elections. The campaignTowards an inclusive election: Leaving no one behind aims at creating awareness regarding accessible election and in ensuring increased participation of the PwDs in voting. Inclusion in the election process with complete participation of people with disabilities (PWDs) is a step in the right direction to ensure that no voter is left behind. Through this initiative, Sightsavers India is encouraging more voters and empowering DPO members (Disabled Peoples Organisation) all the more.

It is important to create an environment where disabled can equally participate in the society and share classrooms with other children in a mainstream education environment from an early age. This can be achieved when we take a step forward to create an inclusive society, where everyone including people with disability (PwDs) are treated alike with equal opportunities and pay. It is crucial to uplift the disableds confidence and send a message to the society that how there are no limitations for people with visual disability.

The author is director-funding and marketing, Sightsavers India

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Education is the first step towards an inclusive India - The Sunday Guardian

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) With the new year upon us, its a good time to take a health check for your family. Have you had your childrens vision checked lately?

Dr. Todd Wolynn, CEO of Kids Plus Pediatrics, explains why its important, when you should have it done and how its improved with the help of technology. Heres his edited conversation with KDKAs Kristine Sorensen.

Kristine Sorensen: Vision care is important because it can have long term impacts, right?

Dr. Todd Wolynn: Absolutely. If not picked up, a vision disorder in childhood can cause permanent disability. Actually, vision problems are the number one cause of disability in children.

Kristine Sorensen: What should parents do?

Dr. Todd Wolynn: Do your regular checks with your pediatrician. We used to not be able to do vision checks until close to age 4, but now have a phone-based application where we can screen kids down to age 1. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends annual photo screening between the ages of one and three.

Kristine Sorensen: Why is it important to do it as young as possible?

Dr. Todd Wolynn: You want to pick up an eye disorder as early as possible to get treatment early. Sometimes parents may have concern about eye strain, sometimes they call it lazy eye. If that can get detected and diagnosed early, if it is a true vision impairment, the ophthalmologist can take care of that early and help avoid things like surgery down the road.

Kristine Sorensen: And even possibly blindness?

Dr. Todd Wolynn: Yes, amblyopia is one of the leading causes for childhood blindness.

Kristine Sorensen: If your pediatrician doesnt have that app, because its so new, what should you do?

Dr. Todd Wolynn: If your pediatrician or family practice doctor doesnt have it but you have concerns, bring it up to them. If theyre unsure of whats going on, theyll then refer you over to the pediatric ophthalmologist.

Kristine Sorensen: Ive worn glasses since I was about 10 years old, so Im very aware of how important it is. Thank you so much for the advice.

Read the original post:
Kidsburgh Kidcast: Importance of Vision Screening - CBS Pittsburgh

The City of Stonnington was delighted to receive a Move It AUS Community Swimming Grant from the Australian Government and Swimming Australia to partner with Vision Australia to reduce barriers to swimming for people with blindness or low vision.

The $10,000 grant will assist the City of Stonnington to:

City of Stonnington Mayor, Cr Steve Stefanopoulos, is excited about the opportunities the grant will create.

Well use this grant to remove barriers to swimming for people with blindness or low vision.

Through a combination of training for staff and increased participation opportunities, Harold Holt Swim Centre will become a safer and more welcoming environment.

We know that swimming is a huge part of Australias culture and I thank Swimming Australia, the Australian Government and Vision Australia for helping us to create these opportunities

I look forward to the program being rolled out this year, said Cr Stefanopoulos.

Training for aquatics staff at Harold Holt Swim Centre will start soon, with increased participation opportunities and training programs to follow shortly after.

Read this article:
Swimming Australia grant to create opportunities for people with blindness or low vision - Mirage News

One of the things Jody Bumgardner had in common with her 10-year-old daughter, Ella, was shyness.

She was super shy. At 10, she still wanted me to walk her to her class, said Bumgardner, who will put aside her own shyness on Jan. 18 to speak at First Baptist Church of North Augustas Mix and Mingle With a Mission event at 10 a.m. The event is sponsored by the churchs womens ministry.

The last time Bumgardner walked Ella to her Awana class was Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2016. Unbeknownst to her family, Ella had been born with an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), and on that night while still at church, her brain began to bleed.

Medical professionals attending First Baptist recommended Ella be taken to the hospital after she exhibited a myriad of symptoms including severe pain, blindness and difficulty breathing. They called an ambulance that took her to the Childrens Hospital of Georgia, where she died two days later.

Bumgardner will share Ellas story at the Jan. 18 meeting as well as speak about a program her family has started called Ellas Gift, which provides small gifts for children at the hospital.

We wanted to think of ways to keep her memory alive and be able to help people, she said.

They began taking the gifts to the hospital not long after Ellas death.

Small coloring and activity books, crayons, stickers, a small New Testament and other items are placed into the green bags embroidered with Ellas name on them. Green was Ellas favorite color. The bags also come with a card with Ellas photo and her story on the back.

They provide some distraction from a scary test or keep them occupied while in the hospital, Bumgardner said.

Theyve heard that children now look forward to the items, and they try to keep the hospital stocked with them, she said.

She will be taking donations for Ellas Gift at the Jan. 18 meeting.

Bumgardner said it brings her joy knowing Ella still makes a difference even though shes no longer alive.

She would be so embarrassed at all the attention, she said. Im so thankful God has used her life.

Not only will she talk about Ella on Jan. 18, but Bumgardner will share pieces of her own story and how her faith has helped her through.

(Gods) been there every step of the way, she said.

She said shes found comfort in scripture including ones such as Philippians 4:13, which says in the King James version, I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

Its a verse she walks out on a daily basis, she said.

I couldnt do this if it wasnt for him, she said.

She said there are some days when shed rather stay home and cry, but she remembers that verse and it helps her through the day. She knows that her life helps other people, and that means a lot to her as well.

The event is free and open to area women. Registration is available online at http://www.csrachurch.org. Click on Events, then Mix & Mingle. The deadline to register is Jan. 12.

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Ellas Gift: Childs memory lives on through gifts to others - The Augusta Chronicle

Michael Rosenkrantz, Special to The Desert Sun Published 7:54 a.m. PT Jan. 10, 2020

Wheelchair tennis was founded in 1976 by USTA honoreeBrad Parks and Jeff Minnenbraker, both wheelchair athletes.(Photo: Courtesy Desert Ability Center)

Todd Hanover, Anthony Lara, Tom Ayala, Dana Mailloux, Sergio Naduville, Jessica Hillier-Davidsonand David Buck.None of these athletes are household names, but they are accomplished in the world of wheelchair tennis.

Wheelchair tennis was founded in 1976 by USTA honoreeBrad Parks and Jeff Minnenbraker, both wheelchair athletes, and is played on any regulation-sized tennis court with no modifications in equipment. The only difference in rules is that players are allowed two bounces of the ball before it has to be returned.

On Jan.26, Desert Ability Center (DAC), the premiere adaptive sports organization in the Coachella Valley, along with JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa and Peter Burwash International (PBI) Tennis will be hosting its first annual Up/Down Doubles Tennis Tournamentfundraiser.Thetournament will feature doubles teams consisting of one wheelchair tennis player and one able-bodied or stand up player:hence, one up, one down.

This unique tournament will help Desert Ability Center raise funds for adaptive sports programs.DAC is looking for able-bodied tennis players of any skill level to team up with wheelchair athletes.

The tournament at the Marriott, which is open to the public, will start at 12:30 with the incredible PBI Tennis Show, which has been performed in 99 countries.A wheelchair celebrity match begins at 1:30 with "Shes a Gamer" host Cristina Walters of Radio 1010 and with her colleague Geoff Bloom.

Joining Walters and Bloom will be Ron DiGrande of the SoCal Coyotes.DAC is hoping to add a few more celebrities to the event;all will compete in wheelchairs with some of Desert Ability Centers athletes.

The main event will be a round robin tournament from 2-5 p.m., consisting of eight teams.

Desert Ability Center provides opportunities to improve the quality of life for athletes who have a range of physical disabilities.(Photo: Courtesy Desert Ability Center)

Desert Ability Center provides opportunities toimprove the quality of life for athletes (and their family members) with a range of physical disabilities, including spinal cord injuries, amputationsand blindness while raising awareness of adaptive sports and the abilities of people who live with a disability.We enable the public to dis(cover)abilities.

DAC believes in the power of sport to change the world, connect people and open the door of opportunity and inclusion for the valley's children and youth with a disability.

Michael Rosenkrantz is the program director for Desert Ability Center, working to develop more adaptive sports for athletes in the Coachella Valley.

First annual Up/Down Doubles Tennis Tournament Fundraiser

When: Sunday, Jan. 26, 12:30-5 p.m.

Where: JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa, 74855 Country Club Drive, Palm Desert

Information: Michael Rosenkrantz (520) 244-4575, michael@daccv.org

desertabilitycenter.org

Read or Share this story: https://www.desertsun.com/story/life/2020/01/10/you-havent-seen-tennis-like-before-coachella-valley/2838254001/

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You've never seen tennis like this before - Desert Sun

They say theres a German word for everything. My favourite is Lebenswelt, an idea described by the Austrian philosopher Alfred Schtz as that province of reality which the wide-awake and normal adult simply takes for granted as common sense. Probing beyond this is the hard work of authors: they remove our blinkers, while revealing deeper layers of reality. That is, they teach us how to see, instead of merely look.

Take a simple patch of dirt. Most of us wouldnt look twice. But David Haskell spent a year nose-deep in leaf litter examining a single square metre of old-growth forest in Tennessee. In The Forest Unseen he documents the marvellous profusion of life, and all the miniature commuters from snails and salamanders to coyote pups and woodpeckers that cross this small parcel of land, or call it their home. The result is an almost magical look at the interconnectedness of the natural world, and the invisible ties that bind us together.

In the urban jungle, we are bound by different threads: unsleeping algorithms that trawl the internet finding patterns that are invisible to human eyes. In Weapons of Math Destruction, Cathy ONeil lays bare the maths, rules and data that increasingly shape our everyday lives. Models, she writes, are opinions that are embedded in mathematics. She charts the unchecked growth of these models, and how they are coming to define school admissions, bank loans, mortgages and health insurance even the ways our societies are policed. Learning how to read between the lines (of code) becomes crucial if we are to unlock their hidden biases.

In Wilful Blindness, Margaret Heffernan asks us to consider why we sometimes think ignorance is bliss

Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins is the only work of fiction on this list. On the surface, the story is about a pilgrimage to Jerusalem by a cast of oddball characters, including talking inanimate objects. Robbins deftly weaves the separate narratives together in a climactic big reveal; a showdown where the audience must choose between watching the Super Bowl or Salomes Dance of the Seven Veils a dance that reveals, with each veil discarded, a grand illusion held by humanity.

There are illusions, and then there are the things that we refuse to see. In Wilful Blindness, Margaret Heffernan asks us to consider why we sometimes think ignorance is bliss. Drawing on insights from whistleblowers, business leaders, criminals, psychologists and neurologists, she reveals that often we deliberately put on blinkers to avoid conflict, feel safe, reduce anxiety and protect prestige. Perhaps even more dangerous are the ways in which companies and corporations can become structurally blind; not because their leaders dont want to see, but because their sights are so myopically set on being competitive.

Last in my list is a blind spot that can be revealed through photography. Jo-Anne McArthurs haunting book We Animals documents the day-to-day conditions of animals hidden away in medical testing labs, industrial farms, circuses, aquariums and markets. While in our minds eye we picture animals out in the wilderness or grazing in meadows, McArthur brings an empathetic lens to the grim reality mostly unchallenged of millions of lives spent in captivity.

The Reality Bubble by Ziya Tong is published by Canongate.

Continued here:
In focus: the best books to reveal your blind spots - The Guardian

Updated January 07, 2020 09:22:18

The number of people with myopia, aka short-sightedness (difficulty seeing objects in the distance), has increased dramatically in recent years in various regions of the world.

For example, in many cities in China, more than 90 per cent of university students are living with myopia. In pure numbers, this is one of the largest epidemics humanity has ever seen, far greater than the obesity epidemic.

The myopia boom was first noted in the 1980s in the cities of East Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The cities of China followed soon afterwards, and a similar trend is being noted in Europe.

For most people, myopia is merely an inconvenience requiring correction with glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.

Notably, myopia is associated with an increased risk of blindness from retinal detachment, glaucoma and myopic macular degeneration. Risk of blindness increased with worsening severity of myopia and this is a major public health concern.

Researchers and parents of children developing myopia have looked for explanations and the latest "suspect" is the use of personal electronic devices.

But the myopia epidemic in Asia preceded the release of smartphones by many years (the first iPhone was released in 2007).

New technologies televisions in the 1960s, computers in the 1980s, laptops in the 1990s, and currently smartphones and tablets have all been blamed for causing myopia.

As far back as the 1600s, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who first identified concave lenses could correct myopia, is said to have attributed his short-sightedness to all his years of "intense study of astronomical tables and so forth". But he might well have blamed Gutenberg's printed books (the latest technology at the time).

So, what have researchers found so far?

Having parents with myopia increases a child's risk for myopia. But children can mimic their parents' potentially myopia-inducing lifestyle such as near work that requires focusing on close-up objects and studying a lot inside as well as inherit their genes.

After years of debate over whether myopia is due to genetic or environmental factors (with reading and screen use suggested), we now know it is an interaction of both genes and environment.

Myopia does not result from a single gene defect; more than 160 interacting genes contribute to the risk of myopia.

What are the environmental triggers that would explain an epidemic?

Many studies have looked at possible risk factors but only a few have come out consistently around the world: near work, years in education and lack of time spent outdoors in daylight.

Untangling the interactions is a challenge because these factors are interrelated, with children who study more spending less time outdoors.

Despite decades of parents warning children, no study has shown that sitting too close to the television causes myopia.

In the past two years, five papers (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) have looked at myopia and personal electronic devices. Some, but not all, have found an association between the amount of screen use and myopia. But this does not mean screen time itself causes myopia.

Instead of reading from books, children are reading more from screens and changing the nature of their near work. Rising rates of myopia are related to near work behaviours, rather than screen use in particular.

Children are also changing the way they use screens. The simple idea that screen use occurs indoors was completely overthrown by the Pokemon Go craze, as gamers headed outdoors with their smartphones in search of virtual treats.

In addition, we now have children using virtual reality goggles to play games or even study.

Australian guidelines recommend:

There is no rigorous scientific basis for these time limits in relation to visual health. But a recent study showed a large percentage of children exceeded these time limits.

Potential health issues relating to screen time are diverse. Sleep, posture, level of physical activity and behavioural issues are additional reasons for concern.

Unlike previous generations, most children today experience a lot of screen time. But we don't have consistent findings for use of television, computers, tablets, smartphones or even virtual reality goggles themselves as the main cause of myopia.

We clearly need some very large, well-conducted studies where we directly measure the use of screen time across a wide range of health issues from infancy to young adulthood.

Some cities in China are trialling scheduled time spent outdoors at school to see if it prevents or decreases the progression of myopia in children.

In Australia, we need tailored messages to encourage kids to spend more time outdoors if they are inside reading or using screens too much.

David Mackey is Professor of Ophthalmology at University of Western Australia. This article originally appeared on The Conversation.

Topics:health,eyes,diseases-and-disorders,mobile-phones,science-and-technology,australia

First posted January 07, 2020 06:30:50

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Short-sightedness in kids was rising long before they took to the screens - ABC News

Columbia, MD, Jan. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Foundation Fighting Blindness launches 2020 with a bold, new logo and branding for its signature fundraising event, VisionWalk. VisionWalk includes more than 35 walk events in cities throughout the United States. Each walk is a fun, family-friendly 5K and an opportunity for communities to come together in support of the Foundations mission to fund research leading to treatments and cures for blinding retinal diseases.

The new logo utilizes a color palette of deep blue, which represents trust, unity and importance. The turquoise signifies patience, protection, tranquility and healing. An accent of gold will be part of the new branding which represents the guiding light and signifies a beacon of hope and strength for those who are affected with a blinding retinal disease.

Rebranding VisionWalk with a fresh, bold look was a perfect way to celebrate our 15th year and no better way to launch a momentous year, such as 2020. says Michele DiVincenzo, vice president, events and chapters. The new brand identity further connects this signature fundraising event to the new Foundation logo that was adopted early in 2019.

Throughout its 15-year history and through the generosity of more than 200,000 walkers, donors, and corporate sponsors, VisionWalk has raised more than $55 million. These funds have enabled the Foundation to continue to advance its important mission of moving vision-restoring treatments from the laboratory to the patients who need them.

Vision science is making great strides today more than 38 potential treatments are in clinical trials but there is still more work to do. You can join the fight by participating in a walk or sponsoring a walker or a walk team. The 2020 VisionWalk starts Saturday, February 29, in Phoenix, Arizona. To see what walks are in your area or to learn more about how you can get involved, visit VisionWalk.org. Together, we step closer to fighting blindness.

About the Foundation Fighting Blindness

Established in 1971, the Foundation Fighting Blindness is the worlds leading private funding source for retinal degenerative disease research. The Foundation has raised more than $760 million toward its mission of accelerating research for preventing, treating, and curing blindness caused by the entire spectrum of retinal degenerative diseases including: retinitis pigmentosa, age-related macular degeneration, Usher syndrome, and Stargardt disease. Visit FightingBlindness.org for more information.

###

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Foundation Fighting Blindness Celebrates 15th Year of VisionWalk with New Branding - GlobeNewswire

In a public letter released in the Guardian, Fight for Sight has has called upon leaders in the field to urge the government to develop a national plan to address sight loss.

The eye research charity convened the UKs leading ophthalmologists to draw attention to the 1:20 funding gap, a notion that despite 20% of people in the UK experiencing serious sight loss or blindness in their lifetime, just 1% of the national grant funding is invested in eye research.

On top of this, the prevalence of of sight loss is also on the rise, and the number of people in Europe with the leading cause of blindness, age-related macular degeneration, is projected to hit 10 million by 2050.

Back in October 2019 a WHO World Vision Report found that more than one billion people worldwide are living with sight loss, which is contributed to by a lack of investment in eye care and research.

Adding to this research, Fight for Sight will be conducting a major research study in 2020 which will show the economic and personal impact of sight loss, as blindness can have a huge impact on peoples mental health and ability to work, increasing costs on health systems and infrastructure.

The situation is being regarded as shameful by head of research at Fight for Sight, Dr Rubina Ahmed, who said that Weve seen the first gene therapies for eye diseases become available on the NHS and stem cell treatments are already restoring sight for patients at clinical trial.

She went on to explain that the amount of funding currently is not fit for the scale of the challenge, with hundreds of eye diseases and millions of people affected globally. Science and technology have the answers, the only barrier is the funding to make it happen.

Finally, she encouraged urgent action, as there are currently over two million people in the UK living with sight loss.

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Eyesight leaders urge government to address '1:20 funding gap' - PharmaTimes

Telford & Wrekin Council has been given permission to destroy products found at Eden Horticulture in Hortonwood West.

Council officers visited in December and found the powerful supplements in stock for sale online.

The products are not authorised for sale to the public because they are either drugs in the stages of clinical trials, or have been dropped from ever being safe for human consumption due to severe adverse effects such as cancerous growths, kidney failure and eyesight problems.

They were all sold under the Bodybuilt Labs label and promoted as helping to lose fat.

The products included Bodybuilt Labs S-23, a pre-clinical trial drug intended to be a potent male hormonal contraceptive; Cardarine GW-201516, which caused the rapid development of cancer in rats and mice; and Andarine (S-4), reported to give a yellow tint to eyesight and night-time blindness.

Today justices at Telford Magistrates Court signed off on condemnation orders, giving the council permission to destroy the products.

Councillor Richard Overton, cabinet member for enforcement, said: This is a very serious matter. Products which have been promoted for fitness are either unproven, or have very serious side effects.

"If anyone has taken any of these products and has any concerns, they should contact their GP. If anyone still sees these products for sale, please inform Telford & Wrekin Councils public protection team by either calling 01952 381818 or emailing public.protection@telford.gov.uk."

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Found in Telford: Illegal bodybuilding drugs that cause cancer and blindness to be destroyed - shropshirestar.com

(PRESS RELEASE) HAUPPAUGE, NY ClearVision Optical, in partnership with Aspire Eyewear and Revo, announces the sponsorship of Miles of Portraits: India.

Miles of Portraits is an aspirational magazine and film designed and developed by Erik Douds and Annalisa van den Bergh that highlights the journey of two cyclists as they pedal 700 miles across southwest India over a four-week period. While this journey is tough for seasoned cyclists, the pair have an added challenge, as they are both type 1 diabetics.

However, this isnt the duos first ride together. In fact, they have cycled over 20,000 miles on their bikes in support of a mission to raise awareness for what they describe as an invisible disease and the notion that despite a T1D diagnosis, anything is possible including riding the TransAmerica trail from Virginia to Seattle. More recently, Erik and Annalisa have completed a 1,000-mile loop around Alaska in addition to a Southwestern U.S. tour.

Riding while constantly monitoring their glucose levels, often in remote and isolated areas of the country, the cycling pair is looking to complete their next ride in South India, kicking off on Jan. 6.

The route covers approximately 700 miles over four weeks and will begin in Kochi then venture into the tropical, lush hills of Kerala and finally along the southwestern coast of India.

Throughout the trip, Erik and Annalisa will be capturing photos and video footage of the people they meet along the way, and will compile that footage into a magazine and film upon returning to the U.S. Miles of Portraits showcases all of the ways the bicycle brings people together. Erik and Annalisas story has appeared on the cover of Adventure Cyclist Magazine, Outside Magazine, The Washington Post, and the REI Co-op Journal.

In order to aid in their efforts, ClearVision Optical, in tandem with Aspire Eyewear and Revo, has teamed up to sponsor Miles of Portraits: India.

As health ambassadors, specifically for type 1 diabetics, both Erik and Annalisa recognize and routinely speak to the importance of routine eye exams and vision health for the diabetic community.

As a global traveler and endurance athlete, Erik Douds has served as an Aspire Eyewear ambassador benefitting from the brands thin and lightweight yet durable construction. Both Annalisa and Erik have also worked with Revo in the past and benefitted from the brands performance sunwear features during their biking trips, which reduces sun glare and eye fatigue.

In the past few years, Erik and I have found pure happiness in the liberation that is riding a bicycle, and more importantly, weve had the chance to bring home the message that representation matters, stated Annalisa van den Bergh. Our aim is to show that people living with type 1 diabetes (or any condition for that matter) can go anywhere and do anything. We are proud to work with a company that shares this message so passionately.

To view past Miles of Portraits magazines and videos, visit https://milesofportraits.com/.

To follow Erik and Annalisa on their ride through India, visit the Miles of Portraits Instagram or Facebook pages.

Also join Aspire Eyewear, Revo and Erik and Annalisa on their social pages for additional information on the cycling duos trip.

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Glaucoma, The Sneak Thief of Sight, Continues to Affect Vision of Millions of Americans - InvisionMag

Market Overview:

The anterior uveitis treatment market will show rapid growth due to the increasing cases of the uveitis and the development of novel drugs and treatments. There has been an increasing prevalence of uveitis as it is responsible for an estimated 30,000 new cases of legal blindness annually in the United States and accounts for about 10-15% of all cases of total blindness in the country. Uveitis is a sight-threatening inflammatory disease affecting the uveal layer of the eye. Redness of eyes, blurring of the vision, the small size of the pupil, and sensitivity to light can be possible symptoms of anterior uveitis, which, if not treated, can result in permanent blindness. Thus, there are new developments in the applications of products and treatment modalities that are ongoing. New treatment options for uveitis such as corticosteroids and anti-inflammatory drugs are already gaining traction in the market. In addition, other factors such as the growing geriatric population, rising incidence of the disease, and new product developments are also expected to be some of the driving factors in the growth of the market.

Top Companies in the Anterior Uveitis Treatment Market: AbbVie Inc., Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc., Alimera Sciences Inc.,, Clearside Biomedical, Inc., EyePoint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Novartis AG, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Bausch & Lomb Incorporated and others.

Click the link to get a Sample Copy of the Report:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/01091744599/anterior-uveitis-treatment-market-growth-trends-and-forecast-2020-2025/inquiry?source=Bulletinthenews&Mode=PK67

The report also provides a regional analysis of the Anterior Uveitis Treatment market, including the following regions: North America (the US & Canada), Europe, Asia pacific (China, India and Rest of Asia Pacific), Latin America (Brazil & Rest of Latin America) and Middle East and Africa.

Scope of the Report

As per the scope of the report, anterior uveitis is an eye inflammation that involves the middle layer of the eye. Anterior uveitis is the most common form of uveitis and is the most frequent extra-articular manifestation of ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients. Untreated anterior uveitis results in loss of vision and permanent eye damage that arises with the development of infections such as glaucoma, retinal edema or cataract. Anterior uveitis can be treated with eye drops containing anti-inflammatory drugs. Corticosteroids have also shown significant results to cure the condition and to treat anterior uveitis. Exploring new drugs and expanding therapeutic applications of existing drugs to include and effectively treat uveitis offers significant growth opportunities for companies involved in the uveitis market.

Browse the report description and TOC:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/01091744599/anterior-uveitis-treatment-market-growth-trends-and-forecast-2020-2025?source=Bulletinthenews&Mode=PK67

Key Market Trends:

Corticosteroids Segment is Expected to Dominate the Treatment Type Segment During the Forecast Period

Corticosteroids are found dominating the anterior uveitis treatment market as they are first-line therapies for anterior uveitis and are used in the form of eye drops. Corticosteroids are the most preferred option over biologics however researchers are currently exploring biological therapies for the treatment of anterior uveitis.

Corticosteroids are also used in sustained release treatment, i.e., in ocular implants. It has thus shown significant results to cure the condition and researchers are also exploring biological therapies to treat anterior uveitis. In addition, corticosteroids and anti-inflammatory drugs are found gaining traction in the market.

North America is Anticipated to Dominate the Anterior Uveitis Treatment Market

North America is found dominating the market owing to the rising prevalence of the uveitis disease in the United States. There is also an increasing number of key players in the region that is leading to the high growth of this regional segment. The other factors resulting in the growth of the market is the growing geriatric population, and increasing investments in research and development by drug manufacturing companies for innovating new treatments such as corticosteroids.

The market in Asia is also expanding fast for the same reasons the markets in North America and Europe are expanding.

Customization of the Report: This report can be customized as per your needs for additional data up to 3 companies or countries or 40 analyst hours.

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MarketInsightsReportsprovides syndicated market research reports to industries, organizations or even individuals with an aim of helping them in their decision making process.MarketInsightsReportsprovides and regional market intelligence coverage, a 360-degree market view which includes statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.

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Anterior Uveitis Treatment Market Global Research and Clinical Survey Report 2020 to 2025 Novartis AG, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals - BulletintheNews

The dangers of closed viewpoints and political partisanship are becoming costly realities for American corporations. CNN and AT&T have learned expensive lessons that the rest of corporate America would be wise to heed.

CNN is floundering as a business. Its ratings have fallen through the floor. Given that it remains the staple of airports across the country, it seems possible that, within a rounding error, there is often nobody voluntarily watching CNN.

There is also little doubt that CNN is a deeply ideological left-wing organization. Recently Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter and his CNN colleagues pulled long faces about Justice Neil Gorsuch appearing on Fox News to promote a book, even though Stelter had cheered Justice Stephen Breyers appearance on Stephen Colberts show, and CNN had hosted Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to promote the hagiographic movie RBG.

Just days ago, CNNs disinformation reporter worried that a right-of-center satire site was really generating disguised fake news, even thoughthat same reportermerrily retweets satirical fare from left-of-center humorous-news siteThe Onion. Similarevidenceofbiasabounds.

The effects of that partisanship are appearing directly in CNNs bottom line, as it has now had to settle with Nick Sandmann, the high-school student of Covington Kid fame who was falsely accused by CNN and other ostensibly objective new sources of racial insensitivity and perhaps even darker misdeeds.

Despite these indicia ofovert bias, CNNcontinues to insist it is an objective news organization, not leaning in favor of any party or ideology. This willful blindness is unjustifiable, but is better understood when one realizes that it is genetic, inherited from CNNs corporate parents.

CNN is owned by AT&T. AT&T plays the same duplicitous partisan blindness games as its once-respectable media outlet.

This fall, we at the Free Enterprise Project (FEP) of the National Center for Public Policy Research asked AT&T to allow its shareholders to vote about whether they would like AT&T to provide them reasonable information about the ideological perspectives (which we further defined as the political/policy positions) of its board of director candidates, on which shareholders vote each year. In response, AT&T went to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to try to block our proposal from going to shareholders.

AT&T told the SEC that it just couldnt figure out what we were talking about, or how to report on it. Noting that political positions can be divvied up more finely than just liberal versus conservative, it complained that providing meaningful information, while allowing for nuance, would tax their information-conveying powers past the breaking point. This from a telecommunications company that owns a purported news station.

AT&Ts claim is absurd on its face, and the reason for it is clear. From the biographical information thatAT&T does provideabout its current board members (who are also the corporations slate of board candidates for next year), we have concluded that every member of the board who reveals his or her political activities has served only in Democratic administrations and for Democrats.

This is true despite the fact that AT&T proudlyif, it seems, only rhetoricallydirects its employees to get out of their echo chambers to represent the values of all customers. Meanwhile, the AT&T board remains the archetype of a partisan echo chamber, even while leftwing politicians and activists threaten to break up AT&T again while accusing it of having dark designs to destroy open access to the Internet without highly disruptive, Democrat-supported regulation.

AT&T is hardly alone in this arguably self-destructive high-level partisanship. As Baron Political Affairs, LLC revealed in 2019, every single director of a Fortune 100 company who has been elected or has worked for an administration has been (or worked for) a Democrat. The ratio shifts to two Democrats for every Republican in the Fortune 100 generally, and to 5:1 for financial or tech firms within that group.

FEP tries to get Americas biggest companies to recognize the potential risks of their high-level partisanship. CNN provides just one illustration of the ways echo chambers at the highest levels can affect businesses bottom lines and the tenor of civic life generally. Another example arises from the aggressive resistance we at FEP encounter when asking these corporations to protect their employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of their civic viewpoints or participation.

Everyone agrees that partisan rancor has gotten far out of hand. But rancor will not fade while those who ostensibly bemoan partisanship actually practice it with abandon while pretending they cant even see it.

Scott Shepard is the coordinator of the Free Enterprise Project at the National Center for Public Policy Research.

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Covington Settlement Should Warn Business That Bias Costs Big Bucks - The Federalist

The number of people with myopia, aka short-sightedness (difficulty seeing objects in the distance), has increased dramatically in recent years in various regions of the world.

For example, in many cities in China more than 90% of university students are living with myopia. In pure numbers this is one of the largest epidemics humanity has even seen, far greater than the obesity epidemic.

The myopia boom was first noted in 1980s in the cities of East Asian countries such as Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. The cities of China followed soon afterwards, and a similar trend is being noted in Europe.

For most people, myopia is merely an inconvenience requiring correction with glasses, contact lenses or refractive surgery.

Notably, myopia is associated with an increased risk of blindness from retinal detachment, glaucoma and myopic macular degeneration. Risk of blindness increased with worsening severity of myopia and this is a major public health concern.

Researchers and parents of children developing myopia have looked for explanations and the latest suspect is the use of personal electronic devices.

But the myopia epidemic in Asia preceded the release of smart phones by many years (the first iPhone was released in 2007).

New technologies televisions in the 1960s, computers in the 1980s, laptops in the 1990s, and currently smartphones and tablets have all been blamed for causing myopia.

As far back as the 1600s, the German astronomer Johannes Kepler, who first identified concave lenses could correct myopia, is said to have attributed his short-sightedness to all his years of intense study of astronomical tables and so forth. But he might well have blamed Gutenbergs printed books (the latest technology at the time).

So what have researchers found so far?

Having parents with myopia increases a childs risk for myopia. But children can mimic their parents potentially myopia-inducing lifestyle such as near work that requires focusing on close-up objects and studying a lot inside as well as inherit their genes.

After years of debate over whether myopia is due to genetic or environmental factors (with reading and screen use suggested), we now know it is an interaction of both genes and environment.

Myopia does not result from a single gene defect; more than 160 interacting genes contribute to the risk of myopia.

What are the environmental triggers that would explain an epidemic?

Many studies have looked at possible risk factors but only a few have come out consistently around the world: near work, years in education and lack of time spent outdoors in daylight.

Untangling the interactions is a challenge because these factors are interrelated, with children who study more spending less time outdoors.

Despite decades of parents warning children, no study has shown that sitting too close to the television causes myopia.

In the past two years, five papers (1, 2, 3, 4 and 5) have looked at myopia and personal electronic devices. Some, but not all, have found an association between the amount of screen use and myopia. But this does not mean screen time itself causes myopia.

Instead of reading from books, children are reading more from screens and changing the nature of their near work. Rising rates of myopia are related to near work behaviours, rather than screen use in particular.

Children are also changing the way they use screens. The simple idea that screen use occurs indoors was completely overthrown by the Pokmon Go craze, as gamers headed outdoors with their smartphones in search of virtual treats.

In addition, we now have children using virtual reality goggles to play games or even study.

Australian guidelines recommend:

There is no rigorous scientific basis for these time limits in relation to visual health. But a recent study showed a large percentage of children exceeded these time limits.

Potential health issues relating to screen time are diverse. Sleep, posture, level of physical activity and behavioural issues are additional reasons for concern.

Unlike previous generations, most children today experience a lot of screen time. But we dont have consistent findings for use of television, computers, tablets, smart phones or even virtual reality goggles themselves as the main cause of myopia.

We clearly need some very large, well-conducted studies, where we directly measure the use of screen time across a wide range of health issues from infancy to young adulthood.

Some cities in China are trialling scheduled time spent outdoors at school to see if it prevents or decreases the progression of myopia in children.

In Australia, we need tailored messages to encourage kids to spend more time outdoors if they are inside reading or using screens too much.

More:
Short-sightedness in kids was rising long before they took to the screens - The Conversation AU

By Chris LangeJanuary 9, 2020 12:00 pm

Applied Genetic Technologies Corp. (NASDAQ: AGTC) shares jumped by more than 50% on Thursday after the firm announced positive interim data from its midstage trial in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP).

The study demonstrated that patients treated centrally with its product candidate demonstrated durable improvement in visual function six months after dosing.

The results reinforced the promising efficacy and safety results reported in September 2019 and will help to design the XLRP pivotal trial planned to be initiated by the end of 2020. The company also remains on track to report interim six-month data from the dose escalation cohorts of both of its ongoing trials in achromatopsia later this month.

At the six-month mark for the same nine centrally dosed patients:

Sue Washer, president and CEO of AGTC, commented:

These promising results further demonstrate that our XLRP candidate has tremendous potential to provide meaningful benefit to XLRP patients who today have no treatment options. The positive results observed to date give us confidence that the data as a whole will support advancement of our XLRP clinical program to a pivotal trial in 2020.

Shares were last seen up about 51% at $6.30, in a 52-week range of $2.52 to $7.12. The consensus price target is $12.42.

By Chris Lange

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How This Eye Study Is Making Waves - 24/7 Wall St.

As Jesus passed by he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" Jesus answered, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God might be made visible through him. We have to do the works of the one who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world." When he had said this, he spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, "Go wash in the Pool of Siloam" which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back able to see. His neighbors and those who had seen him earlier as a beggar said, "Isn't this the one who used to sit and beg?" Some said, "It is," but others said, "No, he just looks like him." He said, "I am." So they said to him, "How were your eyes opened?" He replied, "The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, 'Go to Siloam and wash.' So I went there and washed and was able to see." And they said to him, "Where is he?" He said, "I don't know." John 9: 1-1

Be on guard for the times when we are too confident about who God is.

Right before this story in Johns Gospel, Jesus was rejected by the Pharisees in the temple. He is unwanted and excluded.

And so Jesus approaches the one who is unwanted, excluded, and marginalized the man who was born blind.

The poor seek and find refuge with the other poor; the excluded with the excluded.

We see that the disciples are talking about the blind man, but they do not attempt to enter into a relationship with him. He is a nobody without a voice. No one seems to care about his hopes and needs.

People with disabilities are still sometimes treated as nobodies or as second-class citizens.

The disciples ask the question that every culture asks: Why is someone born with a disability?

Even today, the questions remain. Why us? What have we done? Why is God punishing us with illnesses and disabilities? What have I done to God that he would send me a catastrophe like this?

We often feel if people have success, wealth, and good families this is a sign they are blessed by God. Failure, broken relationships and bad health are signs of something wrong something bad in our lives.

But Jesus says: Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that Gods works might be revealed in him.

Each of us is born so Gods work may be accomplished in us. Each one of us has been created by God and for God. Each one of us has a vulnerable heart and yearns to love and be loved and valued. Each one of us has a mission. Disabled or not.

Jesus reveals this man born blind was made for love as well as me and you!

St. Paul confirms that, reminding us people with disabilities are chosen by God too.

In the first letter to the Corinthians he says: God has chosen the foolish of the world to shame the so-called wise. God has chosen what is weak in the world to shame strong. God has chosen what is low and despised, people who are nobodies, in order to reduce to nobodies those who are somebodies, so no one might boast in the presence of God.

That is very similar to the Copernican Revolution, which moved the center of the universe from Earth to the Sun.

We used to say we should do good for the poor, disabled, in need.

But it is they who are poor, disabled or ill who are doing good for us.

The people we are healing all in fact healing us.

They call us to love, they are awakening in us what is most precious: compassion.

Jesus calls himself the Light of the World in the context of the mans blindness. He spit and mixed his saliva with clay on purpose. This had great meaning, for when God made Adam, he made him of spit. Jesus is acting like God of the Old Testament: He gives the blind man new eyes and sight.

He is not just the Messiah, or just a prophet He is God! He is doing it on the Sabbath.

The Pharisees fail to realize this because of their tunnel vision; they call Jesus a sinner, and call the blind man a sinner, too that he was born in sin, which caused his blindness. But they are so wrong.

Jesus is teaching us the difference between true sight and true blindness. Jesus physical actions, miracles and manifestations are meant to point us toward the ones that are more invisible.

It is far better to be disabled, to be blind and ill and to live in the light of Gods mercy, love and tenderness.

On the Sabbath day, which is Sunday for most of us, consider visiting the sick and shut-in. Stop by the nursing home or hospital. Perhaps make time for someone you know, maybe even a friend, relative or neighbor who is disabled. The sick and suffering need you, but as the Gospel story tells us, we will receive blessings and graces from the least likely of places.

Father Mateusz Rudzik is a 32-year-old adventure-seeker, skateboarder, sky diver, rock climber, and Catholic priest. He is the pastor of St. Vincent de Paul Church in Tallassee and St. Joseph Church and School in Tuskegee.

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We are each created by and for God - Tallassee Tribune