The Frontrunning Blog

CI-trivia

2005-12-07T14:07:00.000-08:00

Here are some interesting news from the World...

http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/25/stories/2005112502220900.htm

Discount CI in India...
One fifth of the price of the cheapest CI devices on market. Indian doctors are now trying to get permission to test the cheaper devices on cats. Approximately 1 million people are candidates to the cheaper CI.

Advanced Bionics www.bionicear.com
Medical Electronics, www.medel.com
Cochlear Corporation, www.cochlear.com

http://www.michaelchorost.com/

PLASTIC PLAYGROUND SLIDES A HAZARD FOR IMPLANTEES
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported last week on a little-known danger for people with cochlear implants: plastic playground slides. Children with implants have had their devices “zapped” by static electric shock, the newspaper said, and while the shock doesn’t ruin the implant, it requires an inconvenient trip to an audiologist. Static electricity is such a major concern that Washington University electrical engineer Robert Morley has received a grant to study plastic slides, one of its main sources. Children with cochlear implants can go down metal slides worry-free, but as more playgrounds change to plastic, children are faced with a choice: don’t play, or play without their implants, and sound. Said Peg Jones of the St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf: “It’s a completely different experience to go down the slide without the wind and the ‘whee’.”

STEM CELL RESEARCH COULD OFFER DEAFNESS CURE
Stem cell research could offer a cure for deafness within 10 years, said researchers from Sheffield University in the U.K. Dr. Marcelo Rivolta of the university’s Institute of Molecular Physiology revealed his research last Wednesday at a conference organized by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID). His team is using embryonic stem cells harvested from two sources – human embryonic stem cells and cells from the fetal cochlea – in an effort to grow new cells in the inner ear, reported the London Daily Mail. After 10 months, it has been shown that stem cells from the sensory nerves can be regrown in damaged areas, which could lead to the return of hearing. “It is a very challenging approach but we are confident it is possible and the potential for these cells is there,” said Dr. Rivolta.

http://www.magneticpoetry.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=3055

PORTABLE TRANSLATION DEVICE IN DEVELOPMENT
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley are exploring how to use mobile devices to provide sound awareness. They’ve created an application that causes a phone to continuously record the last 30 seconds of sounds nearby. If you wanted to know what sounds just occurred near you – something a person says to you, environmental sounds, etc. – you would press a button and the application would ask an operator to describe the last 30 seconds of sound. The operator would then send you a text message with a description of the sounds. According to Tara Matthews, a graduate student working with Professor Jen Mankoff, people are needed in San Francisco and Los Angeles to help study the new devices. You would use it for two weeks, answer a daily email and participate in three interviews (in person, phone or IM), and in return, receive about $150. Contact tmatthew@cs.berkeley.edu if you want to get involved.

Det sner...

2005-11-25T07:09:00.000-08:00

Første dag med sne! Folk er ellevilde - man skal lige ud og foreviges i sneen. De stråtækte tage ser rigtig søde ud med sne på. I dag har vi arbejdet med hjemmesiden - opdatere og gøre små ændringer. Vi skal også til at lave dvd'er med alle de film vi har lavet undervejs i forløbet. Sidste uge lavede vi en lille demonstration i Århus Sygehus, hvor vi udtrykte vores utilfredshed med at døve børn med CI fratages tegnsproget. Det var en vellykket demonstration, som dem på sygehuset sent vil glemme!

Henad ugen var flere taget væk, Christophe i Frankrig, Ronan i Irland. I dag fredag er Christophe endnu ikke vendt tilbage. Vi regner med han er her i løbet af weekenden. Næste uge skal vi atter til kære København, fredag til Castbergspris-uddelingen til Liisa K., lørdag DNUR workshops. Lørdag aften er der julefrokost, men søndag er de tid til film i Malmø, hvor der er filmfestival.

Dazzling Copenhagen

2005-11-02T02:27:00.000-08:00

That was great being in Copenhagen more than a week. We enjoyed a lot going out eating Greek, Turkish and junk food. Visiting numerous places around Copenhagen, meeting other people. Am looking forward to going there again the weekend for the HC Andersen Bicentenary Festival in Cph Sign Society.

Sorry Everybody

2005-10-13T06:47:00.000-07:00

I don't know if I am too late, but I just found the charming website Sorryeverybody.com, where Americans apologize Bush for the rest of the world. Jerry explained me the federal voting system, which is different from the European ones based on the actual number of votes. The American system is based on points of winning states, etc. And the citizens have to be registered before voting. The Departement of Interior don't send the voting papers to each citizen aged 18 as Europe and other democracies. Imagine America having a voting system like Europe - what a different world!

Gentle October

2005-10-11T17:27:00.000-07:00

I am confused. I usually hate October, one of the most depressing months, while you are in Denmark. I always remembered October as dim grey, wet, humid, sad and boring. October is one of the best-selling cinema months, but seems this year makes a exception. Today I sat outside reading newspaper about the earthquake in Pakistan - 1000 hospitals were destroyed by the quake. Sad, but what can we do? What can they do? Denmark already donated DKK 10 million and a few Hercules flights with the most necessary stuff. Back to Danish weather, and the temperature reached 19°C, that's very unusual. The weekend we were a lot outside playing a viking game while drinking cold beers. Saturday we had the very desired opportunity to cook our own food - we decided to cook some Thai-style curries. People ate a lot, it seems to everybody loves jasmine rice!

Today the Norwegian anthropologist Hilde Haualand had a presentation about her anthropological analysis on the big Deaf events such as Deaflympics and WFD congresses. I have had seen her presentation in Montréal two years ago, but today we had a unique opportunity to discuss and share with her. We had also short presentations about our backgrounds, and we are really different frome each other. Hearing parents or Deaf families, oral or bilingual primary education, when we became Deaf instead of deaf, and so on.

Et par ord om CI

2005-10-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

Vi blev alle på Castberggård weekenden over, med undtagelse af Gordon, der tog til Stockholm til en døvehistorisk kongres. Jeg fandt nogle fagblade der lå på bladhylden i kontoret. To af disse var fra Danaflex, dansk leverandør af audiologiske ting, heriblandt høreapparater og dele til høreimplantater. Der er virkelig nogle interessante påstande bladet fremgiver, bl.a. om døves syn på CI, generelle nyheder, osv.

Jeg vil tillade mig at citere fra fagbladet "Vestdansk Center for cochlear implantation hos børn", nr. 13, juli 2005, fra artiklen "Da CI kom til Danmark" af Uffe Jochumsen

"Et af nøglepunkterne i de døves modstand mod CI opfatter jeg som ren problemfornægtelse: At man som døv blandt liggestillede i kompenserende omgivelser ikke opfatter sig som handicappet, og slet ikke målgruppe for medicinsk behandling. Det er rigtigt, at man som døv kan kompenseres i forhold til de hørendes standarder et langt stykke hen ad vejen - og for resten af tilværelsen må man etablere sig i en parallel subkultur med egne værdier. Dette er en begrænsning i de personlige muligheder, som i normal sprogbrug kaldes et handicap.

Et andet facet, er at tegnsproget (ligesom andre sprog) er identitetsbærende og formidler - ud over den rene information - af en mængde dybere lag af fællesskabssignaler indenfor følelsernes domæne. Når vi (måske noget naivt?) foreslog, at denne samhørighedsfølelse vel ville blive erstattet af tilsvarende værdier i det hørende samfund, blev det afvist som både urealistisk og fornærmende."

Interessante synspunkter Uffe Jochumsen kommer med i hans artikel. Det passer meget godt, at vi ikke rigtig har prøvet at sætte os selv på den anden side og se på os selv med andre øjne. Det er både uhyggeligt og spændende at så mange danskere har og vil få CI, hvad betyder det for vores døvesamfunds udvikling, i hvilken retning vil det dreje i? Jeg har ikke rigtig et forslag til hvordan det kunne blive til. Jeg tror meget vil ligne sig selv, bare med en række specifikke tilbud til CI-brugere, mange af dem vil nok anvende sig af tegndansk eller tegnsprogs- og skrivetolke.

My Finn-Agrian impressions

2005-10-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

I was 12 days out of Castberggård, that's long time. I had to leave first to Switzerland, where I had to make a short presentation about EUDY to the Swiss Deaf Youth seminar. Interesting being in Switzerland, a multilingual country. Everything was perfect, bit boring indeed. Few days after I left to Finland with the Frontrunners team. The human rights conference was okay, much of it is like a year long re-run from WFD. It's fantastic how to see the Finnish couple Markku and Liisa being the two absolute stars during the days. Also fantastic to see the ultrascheduled organisation during the conference and the FAD centenary events. Everything went smoothly. I bought a Marimekko mug, and a lot of new clothes in HM, bit cheaper than in DK. :o)

Menneskerettighedskongres i Helsinki

2005-09-20T10:22:00.000-07:00

Ja, så skriver jeg lidt på dansk! I dag var vi arbejdet meget med at udforme materialet som vi skal bruge til en lille happening i Finland. Vi valgte at arbejde med vores usikre fremtid, altså os døve, som hastigt mindskes i antal, altså hvis man ser dem med høreimplant som ikke værende døve. "Stop Genocide" - stop folkedrab anvender vi i vores materiale.

Måske nok meget sagt, men det er nu alligevel noget om snakken, da døve skal have ret til deres tegnsprog uanset deres skæbne. På mandag flyver vi til Helsinki for at deltage i Verdensforbundets menneskerettighedskongres i weekenden 29 september - 2. oktober. Det er oplagt for at deltage i kongressen, da menneskerettigheder er en af vores temaer, heriblandt folkedrab, minoritetsundertrykkelse, sproglige rettigheder og døvekultur.

Vi får lejlighed til at tjekke Tallinn tirsdag til onsdag, mange drømmer om at prøve de efter sigende billige kursteder lidt udenfor Tallinn. For mig skal jeg have et klip, evt. lidt kurbehandling og shopping af de ting der er billige dernedefra. Torsdag får vi så mulighed for at observere Verdensforbundes bestyrelsesmøde, der er åbent for offentligehden. Mon ikke man får moret sig lidt ved at tjekke folks retoriske evner ud? Helsinki bliver spændende! Kan ikke lade være med at tænke på at Iittala-ting er billigere dér end i Kbh.

Håber I synes vores hjemmeside er god og tilpas interesant - største hurdle er nok de tunge videoer. Men Danmark er nu efterhånden dækket ind af hurtigt net, så vi skal ikke klage. Tjek ugerapporterne, mange spændende noter at hente fra vores hjemmeside.

The Jutland Peninsula Cuisine Victims

2005-09-18T11:04:00.000-07:00

Some people are suffering from eating the food provided here at Castberggård. Sometimes there are somewhat comestible salads with not-so-suspect contents, worse are the menu combinations. Jutlanders are keen on eating meat, especially pork. I have to say that only 80% of the Danish pigs in the farms are alive until they are slaughtered. But fortunately we had the opportunty to doing kitchen workshop and play-koh'ing during the weekend, where the other half of the Frontrunners team were mingling with Swedes in Gothenburg. The rest of us went to Kolding Friday and enjoyed some fairy tale atmosphere. I was amazed myself seeing the city houses from 1595 and forward in perfect conditions. I'm glad we Danes respect the old stuff, but just if it is not alive!
Well, I just made some pancake dough ready for use later for the evening coffee later this night. Hope people will appreciate my utterly butterly carby initiative served with icing sugar and strawberry jam. Tomorrow the updates I made on the Frontblog.dk will be uploaded, and I'm certain you'll enjoy the changes. It only can get better.

Wow, the Germans are voting today. I have no idea who is the best one to trust on. Angie or Schröder? Guess the people want see a new face on the news, thus it will be Angie for sure. She promised visting Denmark just after she celebrates herself because she likes the Danish way of managing the tax money.

First post - 17 days after

2005-09-18T04:13:00.000-07:00

Yeah, now I start blogging about my life in Frontrunners! Now, 17 days after, I am finishing the Frontblog.dk website. I hope this website will help you having a clear idea of what we are doing here at Castberggård. People are working on the two current issues of the weekly Think Tank, these are Developing Countries and 22 questions about the situation of the Deaf Community of a nation. Denmark have rich experiences working with developing countries, the Danish Deaf Assoication, DDL is currently finishing their 12-year developing project in Uganda. Uganda started from almost zero, and now they offer interpreters, deaf education, and now they are working on a dictionary of Uganda Sign Language. I have to check DDL's website to provide more information about the developing project.