Nice Sonic Boom Alarm Clocks

I have a Sonic Boom alarm clock. It is a nice clock with a vibrator (perhaps better word for it: a bed shaker). You know vibrators are usually a word term for dildo that vibrates. LOL.

Anyway, It is good for heavy sleepers or deaf people. I cannot hear the beep when the alarm is on. The bed shaker will help to wake me up. It is powerful. It is 12-volt. It will vibrate the whole bed mattress if you put in under the matress. It looks like this :

But now Sonic Boom has different colors, look, and design. It is really cool. Maybe I should consider an upgrade. Mmm… but they are not cheap. It is costs from 29.95 to 50 dollars. Maybe I should get the heart clock ? So I can feel loved in the morning. heh, just kidding. My alarm clock is just fine for now.

You can buy the Sonic Boom here.

Blogged with Flock

Glow Gloves?

Do you think it is a cool idea to use this in the club? So you can see anyone signing in sign language clearly in the dark and don’t have to deal with the hassle, such as trying to find a place where it has a lot of lighting to see each other better…

I think it is cool… but does it get very hot? I wonder how it works? Well, I would love to have one!

You can go to the site that sells them: http://www.glowcompany.co.uk.

via [The Red Ferret Journal]

Cochlear Implant and CSI

Cochlear Implant Does Have RISKS!

Excerpt from that article (full article)., which was mentioned in Washington Post Express this morning:

FDA Warns of Cochlear Implant Risks

The Associated Press
Monday, February 6, 2006; 6:24 PM

WASHINGTON — Children with an early version of the cochlear implant face an increased risk of bacterial meningitis beyond just the first two years following implantation of the hearing devices, the Food and Drug Administration warned Monday.

The increased risk means the young implant patients should be monitored as long as the electronic devices are in place for signs of the sometime fatal infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Deaf children fitted with the implants and a positioner get bacterial meningitis more often than either children with the implants that don't have the small rubber wedge or those without implants at all, the FDA said in separate letters to patients and doctors.

The rubber wedge originally was used to help doctors position the implants during surgery. Advanced Bionics Corp. was the only manufacturer to sell implants with positioners. None has been implanted since July 2002.

An original study found 26 of 4,264 children with the implants developed meningitis during the first two years following surgery, with those with positioners at greater risk. Now, a new study that followed the same children for an additional two years found another six _ all with positioners _ developed meningitis. The results appear in this month's issue of the journal Pediatrics.

It remains unclear how the positioner increases the risk, the FDA said. Nor does the agency have enough information to recommend surgically removing the devices, given the risk of postoperative infection.

Beyond monitoring cochlear implant patients for signs of meningitis, which include high fever and a stiff neck, the FDA recommends the children receive the proper vaccinations.

You can go to FDA's Cochlear Implant for more information: http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/cochlear/

Hat Tip to Ridor.

Will DC Have Its Own CSI lab?

Have you ever watched CSI shows on the TV? Some of you may wonder what is CSI? It stands for Crime Scene Investigation. There is a team on CSI to investigate what happened to the person who is murdered. They find fibers, hair, finger prints, and many other possibles. They are helping to make sure they catch the right guy. In the past, we don't have all of the luxuries, and oftentimes we put the wrong guy in the jail or on the death row. That is the purpose to have the CSI. They have real-life crime labs across the America. It will be mentioned later here.

Anyway, I love watching all shows, except CSI: NY. I am not impressed with CSI NY. I guess it is the actors. No personality whatsoever, that you may feel connected to, like other actors in other CSI shows. I like the original CSI the best, which is in Las Vegas. It is always very interesting. CSI Miami is also interesting too. CSI: Miami airs on every Monday at 9 pm. CSI: LV airs on every Thursday, at 9 pm. I just watched CSI: Miami last night. It is good. I am very facasinated with the technology they use in the lab. I want those cool gadgets in my home office! I am a computer freak, as most of you know that.

Would it very interesting to watch the CSI: DC on NBC? Yeah, it would be because of the involvement with politics. If they ever have one, they better get good actors, and fit the personality into it. I don't know how to say it right, but you know what i mean, to make it more interesting.

In real-life, a few cities have their own crime lab, such as in Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. DC does not have one. Would it make a big difference in DC to catch bad guys quickly in DC if we have the crime lab here?

Excerpt from the article, http://www.nbc4.com/news/6696930/detail.html

Two years ago, cold case squad investigators sent a DNA sample to the FBI's laboratory in connection with a 20-year-old murder and rape investigation. (Just recently), it proved a match to a District resident.

Mayor Anthony Williams said if the District had its own laboratory, it would put authorities in a better position to get results back more quickly.

Hat Tip to DCist

.::Who Will Be The Next President of Gallaudet?::.

Some bloggers have mentioned about I. King Jordan’s retirement and his departure of Gallaudet University in December 2006; however, he will continue to be a voice for deaf empowerment and achievement at Gallaudet University and across the country and to teach scuba diving, assumedly at Gallaudet. In his presidental years, he apparently has done an excellent job, and has increased the endownment from 5 million to 150 million dollars. That is a lot of money. Good job, Jordan. He also has helped to improve Gallaudet University a lot. I have met him on a few occassions. He seems a very nice man. His wife, Linda Kephart Jordan, was a temporary teacher, to replace with my another teacher, in my Beginner’s Cermanics class. She is very sweet, and I enjoyed working with her in the class.

Now I wonder who will be the next Gallaudet’s President? If the next president is hearing, will we have another DPN?

Have they line up the persons who will possibly be the next President? If so, I wonder who are they? Well, they will have a board meeting in October 2006. I guess we will find out until then.

I wish him good luck in his endeavors in the future.

.::The Great Debate::.

Yesterday, my hearing friend and I had the two great debates. We argued about a few things … Actually it is not the first argument we had. We had a quite few debates. I can understand that he is a hearing guy, and I am a deaf guy. He is entitled to have the opinion and what he knows of. So am I, too.

My hearing friend, lets call him a Hearie. It may not be the best name. I don’t want to name his real name to expose himself on the Internet. Yesterday, Hearie told me that he had read the article about Gallaudet and Football on Washington Post. I asked him if he can give me the article link. He told me where it was. I went looking and found it. I read it slowly… but I stopped for a second. It bothered me very much! Here is the small excerpt from the article:

DeStefano, the athletic director at Gallaudet, has this wild idea: Let’s bring back varsity football to the world’s only liberal arts university for the deaf and hearing-impaired. Never mind that it’s been 11 years since the Bison last played as a varsity team. Forget that — with the exception of an outstanding four-year run in the late 1980s — Gallaudet football has not had a winning season since 1930.

It did say “…the deaf and hearing-impaired.”

I don’t like the word term: hearing-impaired.

I decided to tell Hearie that I don’t like the word used in the article. I specifically told him it was hearing-impaired. I asked him: “Why would the writer say that?” “Why cannot he just say deaf?”

Actually, I know what the writer meant. He should probably say hard of hearing (HOH). Because it seems to be more acceptable in the deaf community. I mean for those deaf people who can hear some usually call themselves HOH. In my opinion, all persons who have mild, medium, or severe hearing loss are deaf. Yet, it happens the same with the gay community. Some people say I am Bi-Sexual while I say they are gay. So I cannot change the identify what they are.

Anyway, the word Hearing-impaired started us the hot debate. Unfortunately, I don’t remember every words he said, only some. It was a very tiring and overwhelming argument. Therefore, I could not quote what or how he said. However, I was bothered by it. Truthfully, it was a sore debate. Often, we got out of the way on the topic. We didn’t have the limitation. Mostly it went in general. It is funny, that he and I thought we do not understand each other from beginning. Really, my argument mainly was that I wish they don’t call us as hearing-impaired. However, I cannot speak for the deaf people. I hope they do agree with me.

Back to the point, Hearie thought that hearing-impaired does apply to deaf people. He did ask me to check what the impaired/impairment means. Impaired means physically or mentally unfit. I told him that I don’t have any physical or mental unfit. He said hearing is a physical …. I cannot remember what word he used. It was a advanced word. Later on, I have thought about it. Generally speaking, he is right that I am hearing-impaired. Ok, I admitted that he is right. I do have hearing-impairment. I was born with it. However, the word hearing-impaired sounds offensive when you called a person who has mild, medium, or severe hearing loss. Cultural speaking, it make us feel less for who we are. Recognizing as a cultural identify, we preferred deaf rather than hearing-impaired. Actually, it is nothing to do with right or wrong how you say it. Yet I hope Hearie and the rest of the world understand why we cringe when we heard them call us that, and hope they will call us the proper way on the Internet, newspaper, and even in the person. I told him that hearing people usually asks after they found I am deaf, such as “Oh, you hearing-impaired?” or “How did you become hearing-impaired?” I often corrected him or her that I am deaf, and then I go ahead and answer his or her questions.

When we had this continual debate, I research on the Internet and I discovered as it describes:

Elderly people with a hearing loss developed late in life often refer to themselves as being hearing impaired. This is an appropriate exception, but is often overgeneralized by the majority of the American public.

Sometimes during our debate, Hearie did agree with that part above. Then we moved to another great debate. It was about deaf community/population. He was more of pressuring on population while I was pressuring on deaf community. We talked about which city has the largest deaf community, or in his theory, which city/or state has the largest deaf population. In some way, I think he thinks that community/population mean the same thing. I am not sure what he is thinking about it.

Well, I didn’t how we got into that far, not start from yesterday, we talked a little last week, I believe. Basically, he loves questions. He was as curious as a Curious George. That is ok, I try my best to answer all of his questions. He asked me something about Gallaudet University. Pardon me, I may have a bad memory. Actually it was a lot of talking in the past few weeks. Sometimes I can be overwhelmed with the heavy conversations. He asked me, like, in my own word, why is that so? When I said DC has the largest deaf community in the US. Oops, I have hurt his feeling by saying, “DUH.” He felt that I offended him as if he was stupid. Actually, when someone said, “Duh” to me, I don’t take too seriously, and I would do like, what or why? As if I am curious. I said it is because of Gallaudet University and usually, deaf students after graduation stay in DC. Yesterday, I cleared to him why DC has the largest deaf community, is because DC is not the only one; DC Metro. DC Metro contains DC, VA, and MD, so it make all three make its largest deaf community.

Now why I did mention population? When I said DC has the largest deaf community in the US, he apparently was reluctant about that idea, and said, no, KY has the large deaf population than DC. I made myself clear that he cannot compare KY and DC because KY is the state, and DC is the city. Anyway… some things I did not follow Hearie about things he has said. I ignore it and insisted that it is true that DC has the largest deaf community. So I double-checked with one friend … to my surprise, that Rochester, NY is the largest deaf community in the US. Then I said, ok, it may make sense because it has NTID there. I apologized to him that I made the mistake, and told him that Rochester is numbered 1. Later, I asked another friend about it, he said something like that, “No, the largest deaf community in the US is DC. Rochester has the best deaf community, but the largest, no. DC’s deaf community is much bigger.” I did not say that right what he said, but it was something like that.

Finally, I got tired of debating with with Hearie…after he was not happy that I changed the fact twice, which made him not trust my source. He said that he cannot rely on my source. Well, I got my source right at the beginning. He said that he will find out for himself from the reliable source. I said to him that he can find out for himself, and I hope he will find a good source whatever is the right fact. Again, I know I am right.

Sure, there are many cities that have good/best community in the US. A few to name, Austin, Riverside, Fremont, Rochester, and DC. However, which city has the largest deaf community? My answer would be DC. What is your take?

Now, I know how difficult to talk to a hearing person about things like the great debates we had yesterday. I cannot say I blame on him. I know our population/community are very small. It may be hard to understand our culture/our views. I perfectly understand their culture, maybe not fully but adequate. I learn a lot from hearing people out there all of my life. I have been around by hearing people a lot. While out there, you hearing people don’t see deaf people every day, and they could not get a chance to learn our culture/our view.

Update:

You can check those websites below about the word term: hearing-impaired.

What is Wrong with the Use of these Terms:
“Deaf-mute”, “Deaf and dumb”, or “Hearing-impaired”?

Playing devil’s advocate