Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Johnny Scott The Deaf Humanitarian
Johnny Scott was a very popular gentleman in the 80's. Not only was he popular, he was a true humanitarian. He's cared for the welfare of scores of deaf people in Orange County. He was a great feller to work with at our agency in the last years of his life.
His biggest impact was getting about a dozen hotels along Beach Blvd and the Knotts Berry Farm area to rent to deaf people at $150 a month.
YES $150 A MONTH!
Can you imagine how big of a help Johnny was? He had a big heart for the deaf community and he was a true humanitarian. He did that by keeping a lot of deaf people off the streets.
Our agency offers our lasting gratitude and eternal respect to him for his impact on the lives of hundreds of deaf people on Orange County, California. We do that by hosting a chess tournament under his name. He's loved chess.
4th Annual Johnny Scott Memorial Chess Match
September 6 & 7, 2008 at our classroom.
Prizes
1st Place $100
2nd Place $75
3rd Place $50
4th Place $25
We hope you attend this event because this is what a good name is all about and that name is Johnny Scott!
September 6 & 7, 2008 at our classroom.
Prizes
1st Place $100
2nd Place $75
3rd Place $50
4th Place $25
We hope you attend this event because this is what a good name is all about and that name is Johnny Scott!
Project Enableworks
Project “Enableworks”
A one stop center for people with disabilities offering the following;
1) Social service assistance
2) Education
3) Manufacturing and employment
4) Housing and assisted living
5) Healthcare and physical therapy meeting place
6) Recreational activities
7) Social activities
8) Outreach activities
9) Rescue and shelter
The one stop center would be a large apartment building several floors high and each floor will house a particular age group with a few multipurpose rooms in each floor for certain activities.
The building itself will be made accessible to U.S. ADAAG guidelines such as ramps, elevators, signal notification systems, adaptive technology, and other modifications needed to sustain the independence of people with disabilities.
The one stop center is needed because people with disabilities oftentimes face barriers and difficulties in transportation. If we can have everything in one place, we can eliminate one of the biggest worries faced by people with disabilities and their families.
Possible outcomes from the project;
1) Increase in morale
2) Improvements in individual safety, health, and productivity
3) Improvements in independent living skills and knowledge
4) Improvements in relations with local governments and general public
5) International prestige for compassion toward people with disabilities
Monday, May 12, 2008
UCI Gets $27.2 Million Today For Stem Cell Research
(VIDEO ABOVE WAS PART OF THE GRANT PROPOSAL)
This the letter that I just got in my emailbox,
Stem Cell Patient Advocate Committee,
We are very pleased to announce that UC Irvine was awarded $27.2 million today from the state to build a new stem cell research facility that will unify and strengthen the campus’s fast-growing stem cell biology program and serve as a hub for research in Southern California.
When completed, the three-story, 61,600-square-foot building will house the UCI Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, as many as 26 laboratory-based and clinical researchers, a stem cell techniques course for young scientists, a master’s program in biotechnology with an emphasis on stem cell research, and an array of programs and activities that involve and educate patients and the general public. It will include the core stem cell laboratory and state-of-the-art equipment for human embryonic stem cell line derivation, cell culture, differentiation and purification, and cell and tissue imaging. It also will include clinical space with resources to see patients.
Pending final University of California Board of Regents approval, construction is scheduled to begin in September and finish in July 2010. The facility will be modeled after the existing Hewitt Hall and located within the heart of UCI’s Biomedical Research Center in the Health Sciences complex.
We are extremely thankful of the institutional support that has enabled this award, and the growth of UCI's stem cell activities. We look forward to many years of continued success, and welcome your involvement.
Hans and Peter
I am very happy to be part of the UCI Stem Cell Patient Advocate Committee as a representative from the deaf community since November 2006.
Richard
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Congratulations Deafskullo!
You've successfully hijacked the deaf vlog world!
With 9 out of 10 video blog comments being about the mystery character known as Deafskullo, its safe to say that a witch hunt has started for the individual who is behind the Deafskullo mask.
People have been losing sleep, burning a lot of tobacco, and pointing fingers at anyone who they think could be playing this mean game to the deaf vlog world.
The ASL deaf culture hardliners seem to have given Deafskullo an immense amount of power and this opens the possibility of copycats playing the same gimmicks to destroy the ASL deaf community.
The best way to deal with Deafskullo and the likes of it is to IGNORE IT.
And a big lesson is going to come out of this.
Richard
Monday, May 05, 2008
Commenting On Deaf Blog/Vlog Aggregators
I have a lot of respect for Tayler Mayer and his Deafread.com and Deafvideo.tv aggregator projects. He has my envy and the envy of the deaf blog world. Tayler planted the first stake in an untamed field. Seeing the stake survive almost 2 years, its time others get to put up similar stakes in the same field.
Blog aggregators are a powerful tool at uniting a balkanized deaf community. It should not be used to further divide up the deaf community.
The problem is that whenever blogs are submitted to an aggregator the human editors, like in deafread for example, the human editors some being hardcore DBC core members or followers use their personal judgment on deciding what is 'deaf enough' to be on the front page. I'm seeing a lot of good deaf related material ending up in the gutter pages of that particular aggregator. Not only that, a number of other troubling elements have been appearing on the aggregator itself. There's a word for what I've been seeing and its called HYPOCRISY!
This is the hypocrisy that holds a lot of promise at preventing the divided deaf community from reunifying ever again.
Being a man of action, I started another aggregator, and I assure this will be more of an unifying force than whats been displayed at the other aggregator. Our Blogs are divided in 4 simple categories. We even have a hotlist out in the front page and all blogs submitted will be on it. As of now the core aggregator elements are up and running and we will be working on the cosmetics keeping in mind the need for simplicity and universal accessibility.
I'm not against deafread or any of Tayler's wonderful projects. I just need to weed out a few cultural bugs thats been affecting the deaf blogworld lately and our new www.hear-for-life.org aggregator will accomplish that for all of us.
Richard
