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Fiction Blindness and Rage: A Phantasmagoria Brian Castro Giramondo, $26.95

Throughout a distinguished career that began in 1983 with Birds of Passage, Brian Castro has consistently played intricate games with language and with literary and cultural allusions. This playfulness often extends to echoes of the lives and works of writers as diverse as Kafka (notably in After China) and, in Drift, the little-known English experimental novelist B. S. Johnson, who died in 1973.

Many diverse elements enter into the fabric of Castro's always intriguing though sometimes opaque works. Looking back over his career, it seems that finding the appropriate form for his often unusual preoccupations hasn't always been successful. There often seems to be a conflict between the demands of narrative and what really engages Castro's intellect and imagination.

His latest work has, I think, found a solution to that conundrum. Described as "a novel in 34 cantos", Blindness and Rage recounts the adventures, mostly in Paris, of the Adelaide-based writer-cum-town-planner Lucien Gracq. Cast mostly in a kind of free verse made up of lines of different lengths with the frequent use of rhymes, half-rhymes, internal rhymes and alliteration this form gives Castro greater scope for doing what he seems to like doing best, and is often very good at doing.

Blindness and Rage hops from arcane topic to arcane topic, from Adelaide to Paris to China and Hong Kong with a disarming nonchalance unconstrained by the need to tell a coherent tale. Not all of it is completely comprehensible, at least on a first (or second) reading, but most of it is lively, striking and even exhilarating.

The narrative, such as it is, is straightforward enough. Gracq has been diagnosed with a terminal liver condition. He decides to spend his last days numbering 53 he'd been assured, he insists several times in Paris.

He moves into a small flat near the Jardin des Plantes, and comes into contact with a shadowy group of savants, Le club des fugitifs, which offers writers who are about to die the chance to ascribe their last work to another person. Gracq is accepted into the club, intending to bestow on it his epic poem based on cultural and anthropological theories of play. He also has a brief flirtation with Catherine Bourgeois, a concert pianist, whose flat is on the same landing as his.

Castro constructs a bewildering array of allusions, quotations, literary jokes and puns around this narrative kernel. They are far too many to detail in a short review. Here are a few. At one stage Gracq considers travelling to Amsterdam to enlist the services of "the infamous Dr Nietzsche" and his euthanasia-computer. There are references to Pushkin and Kafka again, to modern French writers such as Georges Bataille and to the 18th-century pornographer Restif de la Bretonne, de Sade's antagonist. One could go on and on.

The topography of Paris also provides important elements to this "phantasmagoria", none more so than the area around the Jardin des Plantes. Gracq rents a flat at 11 Rue Linne. As it turns out the "Fugitives" hold their raucous meetings next door at No.13. The man who acts as Gracq's sponsor is called Georges Crepe their first meeting took place in a creperie near the place where 16 Carmelite nuns were guillotined in 1794.

Such random bits and pieces come together, as often with Castro, in the literary figure standing behind Gracq's adventures. Georges Perec (his surname an anagram, of course, of Crepe) spent the last years of his life at 13 Rue Linne. He was a member of OuLiPo, an eccentric group of writers, almost all of whom flit across the pages of Blindness and Rage.

Finally, Gracq was told he had 53 days left to live when he moved to Paris, and Perec's last, unfinished, work was a novel entitled 53 Days, conceived during the 53 days he spent in Australia a few months before his death. Fifty-three was also the number of days Stendhal supposed to have needed to write The Charterhouse of Parma, a factoid that might have inspired both Castro and Perec.

After all this, read Blindness and Rage and prepare to be enthralled and sometimes exasperated.

See the article here:
Blindness and rage review: Brian Castro plays his customary literary ... - The Sydney Morning Herald

Centre Daily Times

Aaronsburg man doesn't let blindness slow him down Centre Daily Times And heavy too, at least judging by the size of the equipment eating up space in Ron Ream's barn-turned-wood-working emporium. Ream was gracious enough to give me a guy who once nicked himself on a rolling pin a rundown of some of the grizzlier ...

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Aaronsburg man doesn't let blindness slow him down - Centre Daily Times

June 1, 2017 An off-the-shelf contact lens with a gold trace and a specially equipped pair of glasses could provide a non-invasive, personalized therapy to treat and prevent elevated intra-ocular pressure in patients with glaucoma. The technology is being developed by Bionode LLC, a Purdue-related startup co-founded by Purdue professor Pedro Irazoqui and Murray I. Firestone. Credit: Purdue Research Foundation/Vince Walter image

A Purdue-affiliated startup, Bionode LLC, is developing a wearable neuro-modulation device that could be used as a non-invasive, personalized therapy to treat and prevent elevated intra-ocular pressure in patients diagnosed with glaucoma.

The technology was developed in Purdue's Center for Implantable Devices by Pedro Irazoqui, professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering and lead at the center. Irazoqui serves as chief technology officer of Bionode. The company was co-founded by Irazoqui and Murray I. Firestone, CEO of Bionode.

"Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world behind cataracts. Intraocular pressure is caused when the eye either produces too much fluid into the aqueous humor or the eye does not drain properly. The pressure then goes up. Over time, that pressure damages the optic nerve and ultimately results in blindness," said Firestone. "Current treatments for glaucoma suffer serious limitations concerning patient compliance, side effects, and efficacy. There is need for a non-invasive, effective treatment for glaucoma that solves these issues."

Bionode's technology utilizes an off-the-shelf contact lens and a pair of glasses.

"All we do to the contact lens is add a single trace of gold. That trace of gold receives an electromagnetic field that we transmit from a specially equipped pair of glasses to convert the field into a current. The current is then delivered to a very specific part of the eye's anatomy to achieve the desired therapy," Irazoqui said. "Our device can electrically stimulate the muscles around Schlemm's canal, the structure where fluid leaves the eye, to decrease the impedance to fluid flow and, thus, decrease pressure. There's no surgery, it's not invasive, it's just a contact lens that you wear with a pair of glasses and it takes about five minutes to work and has no known side effects."

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Irazoqui said the Bionode platform overcomes the limitations of existing treatments.

"Current treatments for glaucoma include eye drops which have side effects and low patient compliance and they eventually stop working. There is the option of laser eye surgery which you can do a maximum of a couple times, and beyond that there is a blood procedure, which is an open wound in the eye that leaks liquid whenever pressure goes up, this has terrible risks for infection. Additionally, all these methods take about three months to work," he said. "Most patients who opt for these solutions have visual loss within about 10 to 15 years and by 15 to 20 years go blind. The Bionode platform could be the first line of defense for Glaucoma patients."

Bionode is working to conduct a clinical trial of 100 patients to demonstrate the durability and effectiveness of its platform.

"Currently we have a working prototype and we are seeking $1.5 million in funding to conduct a full human clinical trial. We have partnered with a clinician who owns two ophthalmology institutes, one in Madrid and one in Barcelona, Spain. He is an internationally renowned ophthalmologist," Irazoqui said. "Our goal is to complete that large clinical trial, apply for CE Mark approval, and file for a FDA de Novo approval in the United States."

Firestone added that in the future the company may also look into the Bionode platforms' usefulness in post-traumatic stress disorder, urinary incontinence, gastric disorders and more.

Explore further: Researcher explores best treatments for glaucoma

Researchers at Queen's University Belfast together with University of St Andrews and Aberdeen have found that the procedure used to remove cataracts is more successful than current standard treatments with laser in treating ...

Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness worldwide, most often is diagnosed during a routine eye exam. Over time, elevated pressure inside the eye damages the optic nerve, leading to vision loss. Unfortunately, there's no way ...

People with high-risk glaucoma will be able to monitor their disease, anywhere, anytime, thanks to a new device developed by an FIU professor.

A new device that slowly releases eye medication may one day be a promising option for the many glaucoma patients who struggle with administering their own daily prescription eye drops. New research shows a medicated silicone ...

Patients with age-related macular degeneration who received seven or more eye injections of the drug bevacizumab annually had a higher risk of having glaucoma surgery, according to a study published online by JAMA Ophthalmology.

A contact lens designed to deliver medication gradually to the eye could improve outcomes for patients with conditions requiring treatment with eye drops, which are often imprecise and difficult to self-administer. In a study ...

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Non-invasive, effective contact lenses and glasses to treat glaucoma, prevent blindness - Medical Xpress

Women's Health

5 Unexpected Things That Can Make You Go Blind Women's Health You might be surprised to learn that blindness has a gender bias. Most people aren't aware that two-thirds of people who are blind are women, says Assumpta Madu, M.D., an ophthalmologist at NYU Langone. There's a much larger preponderance to ...

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5 Unexpected Things That Can Make You Go Blind - Women's Health

Crime expert: The Lefts Blindness on Terrorism

The Left responded to the Manchester bombing with feckless calls for resisting hate, pledges of renewed diversity and little else, laments Heather Mac Donald at City Journal. Yet nothing that an Islamic terrorist can do will ever shake the left-wing commitment to open borders. Indeed, it seems the real threat that radical Islam poses . . . must be disregarded in order to transform the West by Third World immigration. As for improved anti-terror intelligence, the Left still decries the modest expansions of surveillance power under the 2001 Patriot Act as the work of totalitarianism. But terrorists dont care if an attack is met with candlelight vigils they care if border restrictions and law enforcement make it impossible to destroy lives. They will only have failed when they can no longer slaughter children.

Ex-attorney: Kushners Getting Media Mugged

Todays mainstream news media have turned into the mob as a ruling class, charges Fox News Greg Jarrett. And the latest victim is White House counselor Jared Kushner, whose crime appears to be no crime at all. The fact that he met with two Russian officials has produced mass hysteria in both print and television with no attempts at reasoned analysis, no context of historical precedence. Nearly every single president, he notes, has established and relied on similar back channel contacts and had discussions with foreign governments before taking office, including President Obama. As for Kushner being a focus of the FBIs Russia probe, that simply means the Bureau would like to speak with him. Reporter: Albany Wont Even Fake Ethics Reform

Ever since President Trump fired US Attorney Preet Bharara, Albany lawmakers have breathed a sigh of relief and seemingly stopped pretending to care about ethics reform, notes Ashley Hupfl at City State. This year, Gov. Cuomo proposed the usual ethics reforms he has included for the past few years, but little was done to include them in the state budget. He blames the Legislature, saying its members have no appetite for more. Yet allegations of corruption have continued to dog lawmakers, most recently in the controversy over leadership stipends paid to legislators who dont actually chair their committees. But given Cuomos stance that virtually everything got done in the budget, it appears unlikely there will be any ethics reforms toward the end of the session. Conservative take: Should Insecure Dems Be Coddled?

What do Democrats want? asks Noah Rothman at Commentary. The answer: Nothing so much as to have their assumptions validated. Which is why telling liberals what they want to hear can be a materially rewarding enterprise. Indeed, committed liberal activists do not want to change to meet the moment. Rather, they want an excuse to view their opponents as dangerously outside the mainstream, deserving only of exile. Thats the message Hillary Clinton, for one, is delivering. But not every Democrat is giving in to their partys darkest, most self-destructive impulses. Like Sen. Cory Booker, whose refusal to leap to the firm conclusion that the presidency has been sold to Moscow and that all thats preventing impeachment proceedings is the congressional GOPs cowardice is, in a way, an act of courage. From the right: Sad Decline of the Shopping Mall

Time was, recalls Kevin Williamson at National Review, when the American shopping mall was the reincarnation of the downtown business district, moved indoors where it could be air-conditioned and efficiently policed. Yet now this new downtown is dying were down to 1,100 malls (400 of which are soon set to close) from the high-water mark of 5,000. But shops and jobs go together: One in ten employed Americans works in retail, and they tend to be workers who for various reasons sometimes lack of skill and education, but also things such as the need for flexible scheduling or physical limitations often do not have a great many desirable options. The real crisis is not so much a matter of jobs lost in the present but of jobs that never come into being in the future.

Compiled by Eric Fettmann

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The left's blindness on terrorism, Kushner's getting mugged by the media & other comments - New York Post

News

The exact nature of the link between sea temperature and blindness in salmon has been established by scientists at Norways National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES).

Farmed salmon often lose their sight in summer, when rising temperatures cause cataracts that make their eyes opaque, which is a serious welfare problem.

These are permanent damages to the lens. The worst case scenario is that the vision is so impaired that the fish cannot see the feed, stop eating and stop growing, said Sofie Rem, scientist at NIFES.

Since salmon is cold-blooded, the body temperature is the same as the temperature of the water. The optimal temperature for Atlantic salmon is about 13 degrees. If it gets warmer than that, the salmon will not perform as well and be at greater risk of developing cataracts, she added. In nature, wild salmon can move to deeper and colder waters when temperatures rise, but that is not a possibility in sea cages. The past summers have seen periods of high seawater temperatures in Norway, and Rem says that many fish farmers contact NIFES with questions about cataracts during such periods.

Summer is the cataracts season. Since we are facing climate changes, the ocean temperatures will become even warmer, which makes it important to have knowledge about what happens to fish when the temperature rises so that we can safeguard their health and welfare, she explained.

Oxidative and osmotic stress

The NIFES study demonstrates that several changes take place in the lens when water temperatures rise. - not least that the lens runs out of antioxidants. The antioxidants protect the lens from damage, and when there is not enough of them, the proteins are destroyed and white spots form in the lens. This is called oxidative stress.

The lens is a small sphere of transparent protein. It is a little like egg white, which also consists of transparent protein. When the egg is cooked, the proteins are destroyed and turn white. Something similar happens in the eye of a salmon when the proteins are destroyed, and they are no longer transparent, said Rem.

At the same time, the lens changes in a way that resembles the changes seen in people who develop cataracts due to diabetes. The blood sugar levels of salmon living in the warmest water increased, and this had consequences for the lens.

When the blood sugar level rises, there is an overload of sugar in the lens, and we see an accumulation of sugar alcohol, Rem reflected. This causes problems with the water balance in the lens.

The lens must contain the correct amount of water in order to remain transparent. If it swells up or dries out, this could damage the cells and result in cataract formation. Scientists call this osmotic stress.

The scientists noticed that the lenses of salmon living in the warmest water had a lower ability to regulate this balance because they had less osmolytes, whose function is to transport water out of the cells.

Increasing prevalence

Cataracts have only been a major problem in aquaculture the past 20 years. Before that, animal by-products such as blood meal were used in fish feed, but this practice was discontinued in the 1990s due to the perceived risk of transferring BSE. Without the blood meal, and with less fishmeal in the feed, farmed salmon lost an important source of histidine.

Histidine is an essential amino acid, which makes it an important building block in proteins. In addition, this amino acid can function as an antioxidant and osmolyte. This means that histidine can both protect the cells from oxidative stress and help maintain the water balance in the lens, which is why histidine can protect against cataract development.

The salmon has to get all the histidine it needs to cover the nutritional requirement through the feed. However, not all of the raw materials used in feed production contain enough histidine, and therefore it is common practice to add synthetic histidine to the feed. The scientists at NIFES have previously found that Atlantic salmon need almost twice as much histidine to minimize cataracts, as it needs to sustain growth. This is particularly important right after the smolt are transferred to sea cages and when the temperature rises. However, this is not always enough to eliminate cataracts.

We have identified the underlying causes of why salmon are more susceptible to cataracts during the summer. This will form the basis for further work to increase robustness of the fish when facing environmental changes, Rem concluded.

Link:
Secrets of summer blindness in salmon revealed - TheFishSite.com

The FDA designates Orphan Drug-tagged ProQR Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:PRQR) QR-110 for Fast Track review for the treatment of Leber's Congenital Amaurosis Type 10 (LCA 10), a genetic disorder characterized by the progressive loss of vision in the first few years of life. It is caused by a mutation that results in abnormal splicing of messenger RNA (mRNA) which results in the non-functioning of a key protein called CEP920.

QR-110, an RNA-based oligonucleotide, is designed to restore the normal splicing of messenger RNA to enable fully functioning CEP920 to be produced. It is administered via intravitreal injections in the eye.

Fast Track status provides for more frequent interactions with the FDA review team and a rolling review of the New Drug Application (NDA).

Top-line results from an early-stage, open-label study, PQ-110-001, should be available next year.

Shares are up3%premarket but only on 70 shares.

More:
ProQR's QR-110 Fast Track'd for rare pediatric blindness; shares ahead 3% premarket - Seeking Alpha

Nothing can come in the way of those who have set their goals up high and are determined to achieve them.

Tushar Rishi from Ranchi and Dharshana MV from Krishnagiri, two students who appeared for the CBSE Class 12 boardexams this year have beaten all the odds and emerged victoriously. They scored 95 per cent and 96.2 per cent respectively.

Despite having being diagnosed with bone cancer in his left knee right after his class 10 mock exams in 2014, Tushar never gave up. A student of Delhi Public School(DPS), he failed to appear for the exams that year.

I was under chemotherapy for around 11 months. It has obviously changed me a lot, but I try and stay focused on my academics, he toldHindustan Times.

After chemotherapy sessions, he hit back stronger and secured a perfect 10 CGPA in Class 10 board exams, 2015. I am in a much better condition now after all the treatments. But I have to visit AIIMS in every 3 to 4 months for check-ups and updates on my health, he adds.

The 19-year old, who believes that allocating a little time each day reduces the impending exam pressure, has also authored a book named The Patient. Itcharts the story of his struggle as a young cancer survivor. You can find the book on Amazon.

Tushar has managed to secure the phenomenal marks without any coaching and wishes to pursue graduation in English or Economics fromDelhi University in the future.

You may also like: Theres a Lot More to Raksha Gopal, CBSE Class XII Topper, Than Just Academics. Find out Here!

Another awe-inspiring story is that of Dharshana, who did not let blindnessstop her and scored 96.2 per cent in the Commerce stream.

Being blind in the right eye and having partial vision in the left, the preparation was challenging for Dharshana. Today, she attributes her success to the support she received from her family members and teachers.

I use magnifying glasses to read books. I had opted for Computer Science as the fifth subject, but could not spend much time on computers. I wanted to score more, but my studying hours never crossed late in the night. It had to be done during the day, she toldNews18.

You may also like: She captained an under-19 womens cricket team and after her disability is inspiring thousands!

Apart from regular lessons, she also made use of audio tools and took extra classes. Now, instead of partaking in the annual rat race for colleges, Dharshana wishes to pursue Carnatic music along with her entrepreneurial ambitions, citing MS Subbulakshmi as her inspiration.

I want to study here (in Krishnagiri), where I can take up my passion for music. I want to be an entrepreneur and at the same time be a singer. I practice at home and sometimes I sing at concerts where people appreciate my singing talent, she said.

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Cancer or Blindness, These Kids Didn't Let Anything Come in the ... - The Better India (blog)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn may have found an unlikely inspiration for his plans to tackle racial inequality in the workplace former Prime Minister David Cameron.

Earlier today, the Labour leader fired a broadside at the Tories over their failure to improve the lot of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic workers, and vowed to act by picking up a Cameron scheme.

The former Tory leader brought together the likes of HSBC, KPMG and Virgin Money to commit to name-blind recruitment of graduates in October 2015.

The plan required names to be removed from graduate recruitment applications, cutting discrimination against applicants with ethnic-sounding names.

Read More: I have a Muslim-sounding name: Should I change it to John on my CV?

And despite claiming that BAME workers are being held back by the Conservatives, Corbyn today committed to carrying on where Cameron left off.

Labour plans published today commit the party to exploring the practicalities in rolling out name-blind recruitment practices.

The party said BAME unemployment is double that of the white population at 10 per cent, compared to five, while people with Asian or African sounding names also have to send twice as many applications to get an interview.

Read More: No, name-blind recruiting won't solve the UK's bias problem

Corbyn also said the party would implement the recommendations of the Parker Review on ethnic diversity in top executive positions.

These include requiring the human resources teams or search firms for FTSE 100 or 250 firms to identify and present qualified people of colour for board vacancies.

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General Election 2017: Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's name-blindness plans seem to have come from an unlikely ... - City A.M.

The new Baywatch movie, a reboot of the Nineties beach-set crime-and-melodrama TV series, continues Hollywoods unoriginal marketing. It holds momentary interest for the way it adapts television culture (free, meaningless distraction) for a new era.

On the big screen, Baywatch might seem a variation on its cathode-ray source simply because it stars Dwayne The Rock Johnson, Hollywoods leading exponent of biracial diversity, and Zac Efron, Hollywoods newest male pin-up. Respectively, they play lifeguards Mitch and Matt not entirely interchangeable but alliterative nonentities who bring little distinction to the basic formula. The combination of over-the-top action-movie stunts and crass humor is shameless, both below-the-belt and beneath most folks IQs.

Hollywood movies have become television at just the point when media shills are spreading the fake news that were experiencing a new golden age of TV. These shills dont call it a renaissance, because that word might intimidate victims of our failed education system and even cynics realize that nothing gets reborn in Hollywood, that recycling is not the same as being given new life.

Yet the level of audacity in the Baywatch movie, directed by Seth Gordon with the same insipidness he brought to Identity Thief and Horrible Bosses, is greater than in the cornball TV series. And Johnsons and Efrons exaggerated beefcake and lame ethnic contrasts add to the overkill. Only a child mired in TV cultures hard sell would find any of this unique. Such unenlightened appreciation would be a sign of the cultural catastrophe in which old television shows are granted the same interest that Hollywood used to give to classic drama and literature. This pop-culture emergency is more urgent that the films plot, in which the team of lifeguards oppose a drug dealer (Priyanka Chopra), an idea rehashed from last months movie version of the TV series CHiPs.

What Millennial children and hack reviewers dont admit is that this shift of values, the inevitable triumph of assaults on the cultural canon (the old low- vs. high-culture debate), defines a state of widespread desperation: Hollywood is desperate to make money, without the risk of creativity, and audiences are eager to be distracted from their daily, dangerous, antagonistic, collapsing reality. Baywatch, while offering incessant juvenile sitcom bromides about competition (competence) and sex (relationships), disguises those concerns while making them trite. It plays the audience cheap.

The pandering involved in making a film version of a TV series cravenly calculates the publics taste for T & A and chase scenes. This blatancy is regressive. A Baywatch movie works backward from the Sixties beach-movie series Gidget that then became a TV show. The display of muscle strain during a Rock vs. Zac beach competition is worse than obvious; its not as light-hearted as the beach competition in Dirty Grandpa, and it misses the reality-show tension of Steve Austins Broken Skull Challenge.

If Baywatch were better than junk, it might deserve a semiotic analysis of its leisure-place setting, diversity casting, and smutty premise that devolves into law-and-order banality. But we are at a stage of escapist desperation that a critic has to wonder whether that desperation is worth exposing. Neither Johnsons Mitch nor Efrons Matt shows the depth that might make audiences relate to them as people. (That was the surprise of Johnsons characterization in Michael Bays superb Pain & Gain, in which he played muscle-head psychosis as a symptom of greed and insecurity a modern condition made revelatory and funny.)

It wont do to dismiss Baywatch as the start of the summer inanity (movie inanity is a year-long problem). But consider the beach-movie idea to which Baywatch is historically inferior. Alexander Mackendricks sex farce Dont Make Waves (1967) depicted the edifice of American morality as nearing collapse. In Daniel Petries The Lifeguard (1977), a rare character study of male concupiscence, the casually macho Sam Elliott faces moral obligation. And, best of all, recall Eric Rohmers serene, erotic farce Pauline at the Beach (1983). All dealt with the sexual mores of their times, but TV culture never gets that deep and apparently has not inspired erotic reflection even in a reboot.

There are going to be more and more movies like this, many from TV series, most from comic books. But the lesson that must be learned is that escapism especially when its TV-based amounts to cultural idiocy. Despite its sun-bright carousing, cuss words, and explosions, Baywatch merely takes its cue from TV manipulation of the shut-ins and the adolescents sexual prurience. These hedonistic beach-bunny hijinks are Hollywoods own winking equivalent of the 72-virgins promise that inveigles terrorists.

Armond White is the author of New Position: The Prince Chronicles.

Continued here:
Baywatch's Cultural Blindness - National Review

Welcome to Geeks Vs Loneliness, our spot on the site where we chat about things that may be affecting you, or people you know. This week, we're handing over to Shawm Kreitzman, who wants to talk about something we're betting many of you - us included - hadn't heard of before...

A few years ago, I stumbled across the trailer for Anomalisa on YouTube.

I had never heard of the film, but I watched the trailer with mild interest and thought it looked like a curious (if slightly melancholy) piece of stop-motion animation, nicely executed, but ultimately unremarkable. I let my mouse wander on to something else, and didnt give it another thought.

Until my girlfriend happened to see it, that is.

That was incredibly creepy, she said to me, after seeing the clip.

Creepy? I had thought the mood was a little on the glum side, the general tone rather drab. But creepy?

All the faces are exactly the same, she told me.

Apparently thats the whole point of the film. I hadnt actually noticed it.

From where I sit, you have a superpower. Congratulations. You may not have X-Ray vision, or Adamantium claws that spring out of your knuckles (and be honest, how useful would that really be at the office) but there is something that you do every day; something that is completely beyond my abilities. You can distinguish one face from another.

I happen to suffer from face-blindness (prosopagnosia, to its friends) which means I find it very, very difficult to tell faces apart.

Think for a moment about how many different faces you have seen in your life. Apart from your family and friends, there are the faces of your neighbours; there are the thousands of commuters you have passed on your way to work, and the total strangers you see in the supermarket. There were the faces of the other kids at your school, back in the day. And thats before we even start talking about the faces you see in the Media: politicians, actors, celebrities, lingerie models, football hooligans etc.

Somehow, those millions of faces all look different to you. I have absolutely no idea how you do it.

Never mind the faces in Anomalisa; all faces look alike to me. Jason Statham and Clark Gregg look alike to me, apart from the hair (dont tell the staff at Den Of Geek I said that). Show me a photo of the Beatles and I see four identical white kids with silly haircuts. With a gun to my head I couldnt tell you which one is which.

Im not blind; my vision is perfectly fine. I can read the bottom line of the eye-chart forwards and backwards without breaking a sweat. But if I should happen to bump in to my optician at the grocery store an hour later, I will have absolutely no idea who she is.

Most people, it seems, are hard-wired to distinguish the tiniest variations in facial features and perceive those variations as a unique individual without even realising they are doing it. I never got those wires. When I look at a human face, I see the eyes, nose and mouth right where theyre supposed to be. I can see that some people have brown eyes, some people have blue eyes and such like.

But to take all those features and use them to construct a unique person? That is completely beyond my ability.

Like many people with prosopagnosia, I spent most of my life with absolutely no idea I had it. Indeed, it wasnt until I was in my 30s that I even knew it could be a thing. Before that, I just assumed I simply wasnt paying enough attention. After all, everyone else seemed to recognise each other with ease. Why couldnt I do that?

There were plenty of socially awkward moments. I hated parties, or any situation where I would be expected to meet a large number of new people in a short time (I still do). When I worked in a shop, I was hopeless at recognising regular customers when they walked in (until they spoke to me, at which point I would recognise them at once. Im exceptionally good with voices.). If someone changed their look significantly (shaved their beard, lost a lot of weight, dyed their hair purple etc) they instantly became a stranger to me. And I was useless at spotting familiar actors in films.

Before I read about prosopagnosia, it had never occurred to me that others might be seeing faces differently. When I recognise people (and I do recognise people all the time) its usually by their hair; their voice; their body language. I just assumed that everyone else did the same thing, only much better.

The biggest problem with face-blindness is that most people have never heard of it. Tell someone youre colour-blind and they will understand immediately. Tell them youre dyslexic and they will nod, sympathetically. But prosopagnosia? Is that contagious? Do you take pills for it? (No, you dont, by the way. Theres no treatment per se.) And if you fail to recognise someone youre supposed know, they can become very offended very quickly. Even after I explain it (which I rarely bother to do) people are often sceptical.

So you really cant see my face? they ask.

Of course I can see your face; its right where you think it is. I just cant see what makes your face different from the countless other faces I have seen in my lifetime. (And my prosopagnosia is relatively mild. Some people are unable to recognise their own family, or even themselves in mirrors and photographs.)

Please dont be offended. Its nothing personal, but thats exactly the problem. For most people, The Face is the most personal thing there is (theres a reason they dont call it Voicebook).

The irony is that Im not troubled by any of this, although that wasnt always the case.

Before I knew what it was, I struggled with it quite a bit. I thought I must be doing something wrong; I thought I simply wasnt being observant enough. This is a story I have heard from many others with the same condition. Many of us are terrified of meeting people, of interacting with anyone, for fear of embarrassing ourselves or inadvertently causing offence. We simply dont realise that we truly see the world differently.

When you're different, you tend to experience things through a filter. If something happens and you react one way while everyone else reacts another way, your first response is generally to wonder why. If I wasnt reacting to things the way normal people do, then obviously we're seeing things differently. When I eventually realised I was face-blind, it didn't scare me or disturb me; it made perfect sense. I was literally seeing things differently.

Normal is my least-favourite word in the English language. Remember Malcolm McDowell's line from Star Trek: Generations? Normal is what everyone else is, and you are not. Best Line Ever.

In exploring my own prosopagnosia, I have realised that the way we perceive the world around us is extremely subjective and personal. When I compare notes with people who have dyslexia for example, I hear them talking about written words the way I talk about faces.

When they see printed text on a shop window or a street sign, they don't see the text, they see the shapes. Once they recognise those shapes as text, they can consciously make a decision to attempt to read it. For my part, I cant imagine seeing text and not reading it. Where they see shapes, I see language.

When it comes to faces, I see shapes, while you see people.

We can never truly know what another person sees when they look at the world, but I feel sure that it's nothing the rest of us would recognise. People with synesthesia, for example, can hear colours, and, growing up, probably assumed that the rest of us do as well.

The only thing we have in common is the fact that we have almost nothing in common. Thats why everyone reacts differently, and its one of the reasons why so many people hate each other so much. I really wish more of us would realise that; it would solve so many problems in this world.

For my part, I rather like the fact that I'm seeing things the way you don't (or vice versa). It constantly reminds me that everyone sees something different when they look at the same things. That's what gives the world its diversity.

Sadly, some people are frightened by diversity. I will never understand that. It's as plain to me as the face on your nose.

If you think you might have prosopagnosia, my best advice is to talk about it with your family and close friends. Compare notes. Let them know what youre dealing with. It really helps.

There are various facial recognition tests that are freely available online. I recommend these two:

http://www.faceblind.org/facetests/ff/ff_intro.php and http://facememory.psy.uwa.edu.au/

There are also many chat rooms, forums and Facebook groups devoted to prosopagnosia, including this Yahoo group:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/faceblind/info

And finally, here is the NHS information page about prosopagnosia:

http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/prosopagnosia/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Thanks for reading.

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Geeks Vs Loneliness: face-blindness - Den of Geek UK

Addison County Independent

Blindness no barrier to massage therapist Addison County Independent MASSAGE THERAPIST STEVEN Fidler has been running his own practice in Middlebury for the last three years. He believes his blindness has become an asset to providing his services. Independent photo/Trent Campbell. MIDDLEBURY Just another day ...

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Blindness no barrier to massage therapist - Addison County Independent

Education and Technology:

Microsoft Learning Tools is software that helps improve reading skills by reducing visual crowding, highlighting words, and reading text aloud, so students can engage with words in a whole new way.

Again?

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD). You probably havent heard much about it, but if you live in the United States, its the most likely way youll lose your eyesight as you get older. Basically, the cells in your retina that detect lightaka the maculatend to decline as you age, leading to vision loss and, in some cases, total blindness.

But a recent clinical trial tested an unorthodox method to treat and potentially prevent this from happening: giving patients a man-made virus. The trials findings, published last week in The Lancet, show that administering viruses may help doctors stall vision loss and eventually make age-related blindness a thing of the past.

For the trial, doctors gave the virus to 19 patients with advanced, wet age-related macular degeneration, a type of AMD that causes abnormal blood vessels beneath the macula to leak fluid. White Americans over the age of 80 are particularly vulnerable when it comes to getting the chronic eye disease. All the patients in this new trial were 50 years old or older and had little success with standard treatments. Though the virus was not drastically different from a common cold, doctors intended for it to jump-start the patients immune systems and help their eyes drain the problematic eye fluid.

What they found was substantial fluid reduction in four of the patients, some fluid reduction in two patients, and five who saw no improvement. According to Mic, doctors didnt expect eight of the patients to see any improvement from the outset. But for the five who were expected to see some improvement and didnt, it seems their bodies already had antibodies to ward off the homemade virus, deeming it ineffective. But for those who literally saw progress as a result of the virus, the trial is definitely worth replicating.

Read more:
Curing Blindness May Be As Simple As Getting A Virus - GOOD Magazine

Tucked inside a small laboratory at UConns Technology Incubation Program (TIP) in Farmington, Conn., Nicole Wagner is trying to cure vision impairment and blindness for more than 30 million people worldwide.

Using a protein, grown in the laboratory and implanted behind the retina, this promising new procedure offers hope for patients with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and other retinal diseases.

These are terrible diseases that truly impact the quality of life for many people, said Wagner, the president and CEO of LambdaVision. To offer patients the possibility of restoring their vision provides them the chance to see a new grandchild, resume a golf game, drive again or read a favorite book. For many people, restored vision would allow them to return to an independent life.

LambdaVision uses a light-activated protein, bacteriorhodopsin, to stimulate the retina of patients suffering from impaired or lost vision due to retinal degenerative diseases. The protein, isolated from high-salt environments, including the Dead Sea, is grown and purified in the laboratory. The protein works by absorbing light and converting it into a signal that is picked up by specialized cells in the retina, relayed to the optic nerve and ultimately interpreted by the brain.

More than 31 million people worldwide suffer from irreversible vision loss caused by macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa. The incidence of blindness caused by retinal degenerative diseases is increasing at a rapid rate due to an increase in the global geriatric population, Wagner said.

LambdaVisions implant can restore high-quality vision to those patients who are no longer candidates for traditional treatments and have end-stage retinal degeneration, Wagner said. Current treatments only succeed in slowing the progression of disease.

LambdaVision was founded through support from UConns Technology Commercialization Services in 2009. Dr. Robert R. Birge, distinguished professor of chemistry at UConn, led a research group that included Wagner.

The protein is in pre-clinical trials across the country to determine the stability and efficacy of the implant.

LambdaVision has been incredibly fortunate to have the continued support of UConn and the State of Connecticut, and we owe much of our success to the incredible mentors that have helped us to propel the research and development and commercialization of the technology, she said. In the early stages of development, they were the believers.

LambdaVision has won many awards, including most recently: a 2016 UConn SPARK Technology Commercialization Fund Award and the prestigious 2016 MassChallenge CASIS-Boeing Prize for Technology, which allows the company to carry out experiments aboard the International Space Station. Since gravity can interfere with the uniformity of the retinal implant films, the hope is that work done in microgravity will be faster and yield improvements in the homogeneity and stability of the product.

The company also won the $15,000 Wolff New Venture Prize, sponsored by UConns Connecticut Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation (CCEI) and a National Science Foundation Small Business Innovation Research Grant.

To be on the brink of a new and exciting medical breakthrough is thrilling, Wagner said. Im very eager to see this technology available in the medical community where it can make a difference in peoples lives.

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Farmington Startup Sets Sights on Curing Retinal-Disease Blindness - UConn Today

The expo included an awards ceremony, where awards for outstanding high school and elementary school student and outstanding employee/employer were presented, as well as an independence award, and an equal access award.

Attendees to the expo explored how Pennsylvanians who are blind or visually impaired overcome challenges in education, employment, and independence. BBVS offered simulations of varying visual impairments, while other vendors and organizations gave hands-on demonstrations with guide dogs, tools, and services that facilitate living with a visual impairment.

This year's Master of Ceremonies was Carlton Anne Cook Walker, a certified teacher of students with blindness and visual and multiple impairments. She served as an itinerant teacher of blind and low-vision students in South Central Pennsylvania for more than six years. Currently, she serves as Project Manager for the NFB BELL Academy (National Federation of the Blind Braille Enrichment for Literacy and Learning Academy), a nationwide program which provides summer learning experiences for hundreds of blind and low-vision students ages four through twelve.

In Pennsylvania, it is estimated that more than215,000 individuals aged 40 and under experience severe vision problems. Of those, more than 69,000 experience total blindness. For those over the age of 50, more than 1.76 million suffer from a severe visual impairment.

Following is a list of award recipients:

Outstanding Elementary School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Nathan Craig. Watch Nathan's video: https://youtu.be/45KFlBXPtvA.

Outstanding Middle School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Jaylen Hallowell and Simon Bonenfant. Watch Jaylen's video: https://youtu.be/Sivw-km-UFc. Watch Simon's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwZjl1sTeXk.

Outstanding High School Student #AccessEqualsSuccess in Education Video Award Kayla McDonough. Watch Kayla's video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEn8v11j1YQ.

Outstanding Individual #AccessEqualsSuccess in Employment AwardRen Wang

Outstanding Employer #AccessEqualsSuccess in Employment Award Bayer HealthCare, LLC

Outstanding Individual #AccessEqualsSuccess in Independence Award Ron Ream

Outstanding Business #AccessEqualsSuccess in Independence Award PSECU

Great Lakes Regional Braille Readers Are Leaders Award Andrew Godwin

For more information, please visit the BBVS website, or contact the BBVS at 717-787-6176 or bbvs@pa.gov.

Media Contact: Lindsay Bracale, 717-787-7530

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pa-department-of-labor--industry-hosts-blindness-awareness-expo-300462593.html

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry

http://www.state.pa.us

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PA Department of Labor & Industry Hosts Blindness Awareness Expo - PR Newswire (press release)

Using nanoparticles to carry genes rather than viral vectors could be safer, simpler and allow for larger genes to be transported

24 May 2017 by Selina Powell

Researchers have used gene-carrying nanoparticles to prevent sight loss in mice with a human form of leber congenital amaurosis (LCA), in a study published in Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids.

The inherited cause of blindness affects two to three babies in every 100,000 newborns, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Although the research focused on leber congenital amaurosis 2, or LCA2, scientists believe the study holds promise for other forms of LCA and inherited diseases that lead to severe vision loss or blindness.

Study author Dr Zheng-Rong Lu, of Case Western Reserve University, told OT that using the nanoparticles for gene delivery had advantages over traditional viral forms of delivery.

The nanoparticles were easy to produce, safe and had unlimited cargo capacity, Dr Lu explained.

Right now, genetic visual disorders are a major cause of retinal degeneration and severe vision loss, yet there are no approved therapies to treat these diseases, Dr Lu shared.

With gene therapy, we can cure the disease by delivering a healthy copy of the mutated gene directly to the cells that need to use it. However, this promise cannot be realized without a safe and effective gene delivery system to carry the gene into the target cells, he emphasised.

Gene replacement therapy using the delivery system in mice with LCA2 resulted in improved vision for more than 120 days.

Dr Lu highlighted that while the gene delivery system had potential, further improvements were needed. Future work would focus on prolonging gene expression and improving tissue specificity.

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Fine-tuning gene delivery to combat childhood blindness - AOP

New book exposes Willful Blindness in connection with murder conviction of local rabbis son

Zeke Goldblum and his mother, Evelyn Goldblum. (Photo provided by Orah Miller)

Willful Blindness, which was published last November and is available at amazon.com and other online retailers, is edited by former Post-Gazette writer David Bear and primarily authored by James Ramsey, a former narcotics detective turned private investigator who has spent the last 10 years researching Goldblums case.

Since the incarceration of Goldblum in 1977, several high-profile figures have come out in support of his release, most notably the prosecuting attorney that tried the case, Peter Dixon, and retired U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler, who presided over the trial. Dixon and Ziegler, as well as renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht, have all submitted letters or affidavits at various clemency and commutation proceedings throughout the last three decades, claiming that the evidence and extenuating circumstances require that Goldblum be released.

Still, after 40 years, Goldblum, the son of the late Rabbi Moshe Goldblum who served for 24 years as the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Shalom, remains behind bars, currently confined at the State Correctional Institution Mahanoy in Schuylkill County.

He is 67 years old, walks with a cane and has other health issues.

On February 10, 1976, Goldblum, a 26-year-old law school graduate working with Ernst and Young, was arrested for his purported involvement with a murder. The previous evening, the victim, George Wilhelm, had been stabbed and thrown off the rooftop of the Smithfield/Liberty parking garage downtown. Rather than falling to the street, Wilhelm landed on the roof of the pedestrian bridge one floor below, and, though mortally wounded, he survived long enough to tell a policeman the name of his assailant: Clarence Miller.

That statement is known in the law as a dying declaration. It is typically given significant evidentiary weight, as it is presumed that a person on his deathbed will tell the truth.

Nonetheless, Wilhelms dying declaration was not enough to raise a reasonable doubt in the minds of the jury, and in 1977, Goldblum was convicted of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, plus 15 to 30 years.

Bear, a longtime Squirrel Hill resident, began researching the case about two years ago.

When I got involved, I was amazed not only at what was discovered, but the whole process the state uses to deal with life sentences, Bear said, noting how rare it is in the state for a lifer to get his sentence commuted. The attitude of state officials, he continued, is that life means life.

There have been a number of actions brought by the family and others to overturn the wrongful conviction, he said, but only one of those applications the one filed in 1998 received a public hearing. In addition to letters of support from Ziegler and Dixon, the medical examiner on the case, Joshua Perper also said that Zeke didnt do it and that he shouldnt be in prison, according to Bear.

The matter of Goldblums continued incarceration goes beyond his particular case, according to Bear, and to the broader issue of geriatric lifers in Pennsylvania who are routinely denied clemency.

I hope this logjam will break, Bear said. They shouldnt just deny them all.

Willful Blindness is a thorough review of the circumstances of Goldblums case, including a look at media reports at the time, alleged cover-up of evidence and purported misconduct among those seeking a conviction for Goldblum.

Bear presented a talk about his findings at an adult education event at Beth Shalom last week, at which Zekes brother David Goldblum from Baltimore was present, as was his sister Orah Miller, who resides in Israel. The family continues to be active in seeking Goldblums release, and The Chronicle featured an in-depth article about those efforts in December 2015.

Maybe this book will help, Bear said. Its all I can do.

Toby Tabachnick can be reached at tobyt@thejewishchronicle.net.

Excerpt from:
New book exposes 'Willful Blindness' in connection with murder conviction of local rabbi's son - thejewishchronicle.net

ANDOVER, Kan. (KAKE) -

The same old routine at the middle school track meet: waiting your turn, watching dozens of events. Then finally, you get the call. But that's a call Rich Yamamoto almost didn't get.

"My coach passed me up and goes, 'Hey, why weren't you at practice yesterday?'I was like, 'Because you didn't tell me I had to run,'and so he goes, 'Yeah,we have a spot for you at the meet if you want to join.' I'm like, 'OK.'"

It wasn't a normal race for Rich. At this meet, the 8th gradergot to run with his dad.

"It's really neat," Rich's mother Jennifer said. "It's nice that they have something they can spend time together with and have bonding over."

Before the race, Rich sets a goal. The race starts. Rich's dad, Richard, is his guide. The reason for that: Rich is blind.

Richard leads his son while letting him know his pace. Four laps around the track for one mile and Rich brings it home.

In a race he almost wasn't going to run, Rich set a personal record, leaving behind a legacy at a routine middle school track meet not soon to be forgotten.

Rich says he plans to run track as a freshman next year.

The Yamamotos are always looking for dedicated runners to work with Rich. If you or someone you know would like to help, email the Yamamotos.

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Blindness doesn't stop Andover middle school runner - KAKE

A WOMENS organisation in Yate has awarded 3,000 to a blindness charity after organising a series of events over the past year.

Members of Yate and District Townswomens Guild chose Retinitis Pigmentosa(RP) Fighting Blindness as their charity of choice for 2016-17, and raised funds for the organisation by hosting beetle drives, sales tables, a fashion show and Christmas Craft Stalls.

Rhona Cowie, Chairman of Yate and District Townswomen's Guild,said: "I would like to extend my thanks to all of the ladies of the guild for their hardwork and effort.

"My predecessorChristina Shinton did an amazing job organising the fashion show, which was attended by around 160 people and raised most of the money."

"Models wearing clothing fromM&CO and Next also made the fashion show a very successful evening."

Rhona and Christinapresentedrepresentatives from RP Fighting Blindness with a 3,000 cheque at the Townswomen's monthly meeting in April.

RP Fighting Blindness is a charity dedicated to finding a treatment for a group of eye conditions (retinitis pigmentosa) that affect vision and can ultimately lead to blindness.

There is currently no cure for RP, which affects around 25,000 people in the UK, but the charity provides support and guidance for those who have been diagnosed.

Ian Watson, Fundraising Manager at RP Fighting Blindness, said: We were delighted to hear of the support from Yate and District Townswomens Guild.

Community support of this type is so important for our charity; not only does it raise much-needed funds, but spreads the word of our work too, raising awareness of inherited retinal dystrophies with the general public.

The Townswomen's Guild have now announced that their next charity will beDogs for Good, an organisation that trains assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities and children with autism.

They will be hosting a luncheon on Wednesday, May 31 at 12.30pm at the Masonic Hall in order to raise funds for the charity.

Those wishing to book a ticket should contact Rhona on 01454 881532.

She added: New members are always welcome to join us. We area friendly group who enjoy meeting, having a chat and give amazing support to various charities.

Excerpt from:
Yate and District Townswomen's Guild raise 3000 for blindness charity - South Cotswolds Gazette

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. If youve lived in central Indiana for a while, youve probably heard Bernie Eagans voice come through the radio at work, at home or in your car.

Bernie is the afternoon radio personality from 4 to 8 p.m. on Soft Rock B105.7. Hes also been working at Emmis Communications, which also owns 93 WIBC, since 1981 and has only been on two radio stations this entire time. Before joining B105.7 as their morning radio personality in 2002, Bernie had worked as a DJ at Lite Rock 97.1 WENS, which is now Country 97.1 HANK FM.

But if youve listened to Bernie over the past 36 years, you may have never known this entire time that he is blind.

It doesnt matter. It doesnt add to the show, it doesnt take away from the show. If it made a difference, they probably wouldnt have hired me, says Bernie who says he focuses instead on talking about the music, station events, upcoming concerts and things that he says his listeners can relate.

Because Bernie may rarely, if ever, mention on-air that he is blind, he says his listeners are surprised to find out when they meet him.

If youve never met a blind person, people dont know how to behave, says Bernie.

His wife Teresa drives him to and from work and helps him to the studio to start his show. Once she sets up the computer for him, hes ready to roll.

A lot of times shell help me with transcribing things. Shell read them, Ill write them down. When youre blind, theres no question there are certain things that somebody has to help you with and she is just great, says Bernie.

Shes [also] a much better driver than I am, says Bernie jokingly about Teresa, whom he married in 1995.

Bernie also takes the music logs for B105.7, which tells a radio DJ the order the songs on the station will play, and transcribes them into braille to print off and use for his show.

Bernie had gone to the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired through high school and knew that he wanted to work in radio as a teenager.

I went down to what use to be Indiana Central College, now the University of Indianapolis. They [have] a station, WICR, and so I used to bug those guys because I used to live very close. My mother took me over to the station and I went in and started telling the [DJ] how to do his show because I was 14 years old, so I [thought I] knew everything. And [the DJ] finally said to me, do you want to take over the show? Of course it scared me unbelievably, and I said, sure! Bernie says the WICR DJ showed him how to run the equipment, and he had his first taste of being on-air.

From there, Bernie went to Ball State University to study Radio Broadcasting and worked at several stations in East Central Indiana including WERK, which is where David Letterman also got his first start.

In 1981, Bernie applied to work at a new station called WENS, and was hired by Program Director Rick Cummings, who is now the President of Radio Programming for Emmis Communications. Bernies first day on the air was July 11, 1981, which was one full week after WENS had debuted as an Adult Contemporary format on July 4.

After nearly 36 years on the air in Indianapolis, does Bernie have any plans of slowing down anytime soon and stepping away from his passion in radio?

Im not really sure. Im going to work here, if I can, until I retire. Then after that, well see what happens.

CLICK BELOW TO HEAR BERNIE EAGAN TALK WITH 93 WIBCS C.J. MILLER ABOUT OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES OF BEING BLIND AND WHY HE DECIDED TO GO INTO RADIO BROADCASTING.

93 WIBCS C.J. MILLER REPORTING.

Twitter: @CJMillerWIBC

Photo Credit: C.J. Miller / WIBC

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B105.7 Radio DJ Bernie Eagan on Overcoming Challenges of Blindness - 93.1 WIBC Indianapolis