Disability Futures

“Jiujitsu is for everyone,” is a well-worn phrase within the Jiujitsu community, but a new chronicle of this martial art’s adaptive side shows that it’s far from just a slogan. Para Jiu-Jitsu Magazine launched online in January and will publish stories and news about the growing para jiujitsu community on a quarterly basis.

If you’ve ever watched the UFC, you’ve surely seen jiujitsu. It’s the grappling art that leads to arm and leg locks, choke holds, and eventually, tap outs

The popularity of jiujitsu as a whole has increased over the past few years, and along with that, more and more people with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities have joined the community as athletes and competitors. Para Jiu-Jitsu Magazine has arrived to record the wave of interest in the sport.

The brainchild of graphic designer, Brazilian jiu-jitsu purple belt and T5 complete paraplegic Maximiliano “Max” Ulloa, Para Jiu-Jitsu Magazine is just his latest attempt to inspire the newly injured to get involved in the sport while supporting the burgeoning para-jiujitsu scene and the athletes who are already a part of it.

When my daughter was born with Down syndrome, I had many questions about the possibilities for her future. She was only a few months old when someone shared a link to an auction for a painting by Michael Wasserman, an artist with Down syndrome. His art was captivating, and somehow it felt like a symbol of great possibilities for my daughter.

A few years later, I connected with a Polish author Joanna Puciata. I was surprised to find she had a sister with Down syndrome, which we both felt was a sign our friendship was meant to be. She invited me to an art exhibit where we could meet in person and I could look at her sister’s art. Her paintings were full of emotion; I felt Kasia Puciata’s sadness through the pictures she painted and saw great beauty in the way she shared her feelings with each brush stroke. I am now the proud owner of two of her original paintings.

Often, the way artists experience life comes across in their pieces. People with Down syndrome have a unique way of looking at life, and their artistic expressions reflect those experiences.

Many of the artists with Down syndrome below have had their work recognized by experts in the field, allowing them to showcase their art around the world.

The Budding of Our Skynet Future...

https://goo.gl/m9feLd

Around Valentine’s Day in the US and UK, these things called candy hearts (or conversation hearts or sweethearts) appear: small and sugary, bearing a simple, short Valentine’s message. There are only room for a few characters, so they read something like “LOVE YOU” or “CALL ME” or “BE MINE”.

I collected all the genuine heart messages I could find, and then gave them to a learning algorithm called a neural network. Given a set of data, a neural network will learn the patterns that let it imitate the original data - although its imitation is sometimes imperfect. The candy heart messages it produced… well, you be the judge.

The neural net did produce some that would pass for - and arguably improve upon - the standard messages.

DEAR ME
MY MY
LOVE BOT
CUTE KISS
MY BEAR
LOVE BUN

Others were in the same spirit, but perhaps not quite as effective.

YOU A LOVE
AM GOOD
YOU ARE BABE
ME MY <3
YOU ARE IT
HEART ME
SWEET PEAR
COOL CUD
FANCY MY HERO

Others were, um, strange. I don’t know what they mean, but some of them might work on me.

ALL HOVER
OOG LOVE
TEAM BEAR
TIME HUG
PIN A FACE
YOU’RE ME
SWOOL MAT
BOG LOVE
I HONKER
HOW COT
BEAR WIG
FANG
BE A GOOL
TWEET UP BAT
WIRLY OOT
I WANDER

The federal government entered into a partial shutdown at midnight Saturday, which could cause widespread adjustments for a slew of government programs.

All essential services will continue during a shutdown, such as public safety operations and Medicare payments.

"Funding for the programs under Titles II, XVI, and XVIII of the Social Security Act will continue, even in the event of a lapse in appropriations," the plan says.

Other core functions like disability claims or appeals over benefits would continue to function.

While checks still go out, some aspects of the Social Security Administration would get hit during a shutdown. Many employees would be placed on furlough, meaning they couldn't work and would not receive pay for the duration of the shutdown. (In past shutdowns, Congress has passed legislation to back-pay employees placed on furlough.)

I wonder if these materials are available through inter-library loan?

https://goo.gl/LAkN6W

The State Library of Ohio is pleased to announce the Ohio Digital Library now includes a collection of eBooks and videos about Deaf culture and American Sign Language (ASL). The collection includes fiction and non-fiction for children and adults and covers many aspects of Deaf culture and ASL including language, history, education and instruction. The Deaf culture and ASL collection was developed by an Overdrive Account Analyst with a B.S. in American Sign Language Interpretation. With nearly 200 titles, the collection provides a beneficial resource to help increase awareness with the goal of bridging the gap between hearing cultures and Deaf cultures in today’s society.

“This collection of eBooks and videos about Deaf culture and ASL serves as a wonderful complement to the print collection already available at the State Library of Ohio,” expressed State Librarian Beverly Cain.  “We recognize that many fine books about Deaf culture and ASL are not currently available in digital format but we are dedicated to updating the collection as frequently as possible to keep it both robust and relevant.  Many thanks to our account specialists at Overdrive for their assistance in developing this collection.”

Some of the greatest Old Master artists, through the centuries, portrayed disability. In three articles, Parts One, Two and Three, Charles Josefson explores twelve of these portrayals. In Part One he considers the Luttrell Psalter, Duccio, Mantegna and Brueghel the Elder.

Galleries, auction houses, and some art historians speak of the Old Masters. But who qualifies as an Old Master? Typically, the term Old Master refers to European painters working during the period 1300-1830. Certainly, we all know an Old Master when we see one: Van Eyck, Leonardo, Titian, Vermeer or Rubens. In three articles I shall explore how a selection of twelve Old Master artists depicted disability, and how these depictions reflected changing societal attitudes to disability.