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In the future, when people try to imagine what it was like to live in our time, there will be lots of artifacts to sift through: TV shows, YouTube videos, selfies on Instagram, as well as the traditional things, like newspapers and news reports.

But movies will have a special place.

A few things make movies a particularly good measure of what was happening and what people were thinking at a particular time. First, theyre meant to be watched by large groups, and so theyre intended to please almost everyone. This means that if a movie endorses an idea in strong terms, you can assume that either that idea was widely held or, at the very least, reasonable people thought that idea was widely held. Almost nobody makes a movie with the intention of offending the audience.

Second, movies are not spontaneous. They are meticulously composed fantasies, created to please viewers at a particular time, and as such they consciously and unconsciously capture the aspirations, assumptions and values of their day. They give the facts of the era the cars people drove, the phones people used but also capture the hopes and expectations, the ideas that people had about themselves.

So, we are now 20 years into the 21st century, a fifth of the way through. Today, were looking at 20 movies that people in the distant future can look at if they want a crash course on what Americans were thinking, feeling and experiencing in the first two decades of the 21st century.Each one captures an idea or a moment or a style that helped tell the story of their time, and ours.

Following 9/11, the national trauma that began our current era, movies suddenly began telling stories of civic collapse. Sometimes it was an invasion, sometimes zombies woke up, but the idea that ran through all these films is that civilization, something we thought was built on rock, was quite fragile and could actually go away. Blindness, in which a huge swath of the public suddenly lose their eyesight, was a mystical yet brutal treatment of this idea, a real plunge into the abyss.

Honorable Mention: A more popular version of this concept (from a post-apocalypse standpoint) can be found in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

Written by and starring Oakland natives Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, this film told an affecting personal story about friendship, while dramatizing a number of current social issues, such as the strains of gentrification and the tension between the police and the black community.

This is very much a personal story, but because director Richard Linklater filmed Boyhood over the course of 12 years, it captures, as no film ever has, the incidentals of life over a long span of time the toys and the computers that people used, the haircuts that were popular, how people carried themselves and how families interacted.

By taking two straight archetypes and making them gay, this Ang Lee film about a rodeo cowboy and ranch hands secret relationship made pop cultures most powerful case for gay marriage, at a time when most Americans were against it.

Honorable Mention: Gus Van Sants Milk (2008), about the assassinated gay rights leader, presented the gay rights movement as a great American movement in the tradition of Martin Luther King and civil rights.

It was just another exciting, well-made Roland Emmerich action movie, except as the climate crisis has worsened, its images of superstorms, frozen oceans and mass migrations have stayed in mind. Essentially, it presents the climate version of the civic chaos film. We thought we could take the weather for granted. It turns out, we couldnt.

Jacob Aaron Estes wrote and directed this story of a mild-mannered obstetrician (Tobey Maguire) whose life begins to derail. A shrewd moral document, the movie steers the audience into taking the doctors side, while subtly revealing that every one of his problems is due to moral laxity. The film is, in essence, an indictment (and a record) of modern morality, which means that most of the audience watching never even figures out that the Maguire character is a bad person.

Starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor, this satire of early 1960s sex comedies was also a commentary on the fluidity of romantic and sexual mores in general, so that, in the end, when the movie contorts itself to please a modern audience, it both records the 2003 notions of right and wrong and slyly shows that these ideas will someday also seem outdated.

A running and increasing anxiety of the 21st century has been the notion that computers could take the place of people, or begin to dominate human life. This low-key film starring Oscar Isaac and Alicia Vikander, playing an android with impressive intelligence, made the most frightening and persuasive case for how that might happen.

A British and American counterterrorism team sits in a boardroom trying to figure out when to strike a cabal of suicide-vest-wearing terrorists, in this powerful film about awful choices in modern warfare. It contains the already classic curtain line from Alan Rickman, as a British general: Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war.

Until this decade, the Civil War was always presented as a noble dispute between two equally worthy sides. This film presented the Confederacy as a political and social evil, which was stamped out in one Mississippi county, under the leadership of a Confederate deserter named Newton Knight. Theres a goosebumps moment when Gugu Mbatha-Raw looks at the baby she has had with Knight, trying to decide whether hes black or white. Finally, Mbatha-Raw says, Youre just a brand-new thing, arent you?

Honorable Mention: Quentin Tarantino got the ball rolling by presenting slavery as an unmitigated evil in Django Unchained (2012), and director Steve McQueen followed with the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave.

The spiritual sickness of modern life the loneliness, the longing, the problems of connection, the distorted and mournful eroticism was captured beautifully in this film, starring Emily Blunt and written by Erin Cressida Wilson.

Honorable Mention: Chloe (2010), a film in the same vein, also written by Wilson. And Watchmen (2009).

Steven Soderbergh made the first and best film about the Great Recession, with porn star Sasha Grey as a high-priced call girl who finds herself slipping. Its about someone finding out shes not as special as she thought she was, which is the bitter lesson for everyone in a recession.

Honorable Mention: The Wolf of Wall Street.

A vacation movie set in New Orleans during the Essence Music Festival that depicts adult female friendship and modern-day sexual mores in real ways, while demonstrating what was hilarious in 2017.

Honorable Mention: Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016).

Justin Long and Drew Barrymore meet and fall in love, but theyre separated geographically by their careers in a film that captured the anxieties of young Americans trying to enter the job market during the recession.

Joaquin Phoenix fell in love with a Siri-like computer operating system in Spike Jonzes tale of the near future, in which the human personality becomes distorted by technology.

Honorable Mention: Robin Williams starred in The Final Cut (2004), which imagines a future in which everything people see and hear is recorded by a computer chip in their brains, thus transforming human interaction for the worse.

A lot of movies are making oblique commentaries about President Trumps administration, but this Ike Barinholtz comedy directly addressed the alienation, the bitter discord and the darkest fears that this presidency has introduced into modern American life.

There have been a number of 9/11 movies, but no film captured the aftermath of that tragedy the sick feeling we all carried with us better than this masterpiece from Spike Lee.

Honorable Mention: United 93 (2006), Paul Greengrass film about the hijacked flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

This Brady Corbet film attempted and succeeded in telling the moral history of the 21st century, through the story of a high school girl who survives a school shooting and becomes a pop star.

This celebration of the female principle, through the avatar of a superhero, made in anticipation of our first female president, became a focal point of aspiration and a statement of value when the election didnt go as planned.

Honorable Mention: Black Panther, which positioned Oakland as a focal point in a Marvel superhero film.

With Vin Diesel at the center, this aggressively directed Rob Cohen movie introduced a new kind of action film and a new kind of 21st- entury cool, which had something to do with tattoos and shaved heads. And what was all this cool fighting going up against? Terrorists, of course, intent on making the world unlivable.

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20 movies that tell the story of our century (so far) - San Francisco Chronicle

Prevent Blindness provides free resources to the public for Januarys National Glaucoma Awareness Month

CHICAGO (PRWEB) December 26, 2019

According to estimates from the Prevent Blindness report, Future of Vision: Forecasting the Prevalence and Costs of Vision Problems, more than 3.2 million Americans ages 40 and over have glaucoma in the year 2020. The number is expected to increase as the population ages. Glaucoma, often referred to as the The Sneak Thief of Sight, is a leading cause of vision loss that damages the optic nerve. Although symptoms may not be noticeable at first, glaucoma slowly diminishes peripheral vision (side vision), making activities such as driving increasingly difficult.

January is National Glaucoma Awareness Month and Prevent Blindness, the nations oldest volunteer eye health and safety nonprofit organization, seeks to educate the public on the disease, including risk factors, types of glaucoma, treatment options and more. Prevent Blindness offers a dedicated web page providing patients and their caregivers with free information at https://www.preventblindness.org/glaucoma or its online resource, Living Well with Low Vision at https://lowvision.preventblindness.org.

More women than men have glaucoma. Risk factors for glaucoma also include:

The American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) also states that those with diabetes, migraines, high blood pressure, poor blood circulation or other health problems affecting the whole body are at increased risk of glaucoma.

The year 2020 is an ideal reminder for all of us to make the resolution today to save our vision for tomorrow, said Jeff Todd, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness. By detecting vision problems and treating them early, including those from glaucoma, we can help to avoid significant vision impairment.

The AAOs EyeCare America program provides eye care at no out-of-pocket cost to medically underserved seniors age 65 and older, and glaucoma exams to those at increased risk. For more information, visit https://www.aao.org/eyecare-america.

Allergan is supporting the efforts of Prevent Blindness in its public outreach efforts to protect vision from glaucoma. Allergan is a leading global pharmaceutical company with a more than 70-year heritage in eye care has launched over125 eye care products and invested billions of dollars in treatments for the most prevalent eye conditions including glaucoma, ocular surface disease, and retinal diseases such as diabetic macular edema and retinal vein occlusion. Recently, Allergan launched the My Glaucoma campaign which is designed to help people understand the burden of living with glaucoma and empower those with the disease and their caregivers to feel comfortable speaking with their doctor about a treatment regimen that fits their lifestyle. For more information, visit http://www.MyGlaucoma.com.

For more information on glaucoma, or other financial assistance programs, including Medicare coverage, please call Prevent Blindness at (800) 331-2020 or visit https://www.preventblindness.org/glaucoma.

About Prevent Blindness Founded in 1908, Prevent Blindness is the nation's leading volunteer eye health and safety organization dedicated to fighting blindness and saving sight. Focused on promoting a continuum of vision care, Prevent Blindness touches the lives of millions of people each year through public and professional education, advocacy, certified vision screening and training, community and patient service programs and research. These services are made possible through the generous support of the American public. Together with a network of affiliates, Prevent Blindness is committed to eliminating preventable blindness in America. For more information, or to make a contribution to the sight-saving fund, call 1-800-331-2020. Or, visit us on the Web at preventblindness.org or facebook.com/preventblindness.

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Glaucoma, The Sneak Thief of Sight, Continues to Affect Vision of Millions of Americans - PR Web

By "Sunday Morning" contributing videographer Judy Lehmberg.

The caption on this past week's "Sunday Morning" Moment of Nature indicates the bighorn sheep were filmed near Gardiner, Montana. They were, but more specifically in Gardner Canyon. (That isn't a misspelling; the town is named Gardiner, but the nearby river is the Gardner River in Gardner Canyon; I have no idea why no one has adjusted the spelling of one or the other so they match.) The canyon is just inside the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park and just south of the town of Gardiner. The high cliffs of this steep canyon are some of the best places in the park to see bighorns, although that wasn't always the case.

Two hundred years ago there were at least several million bighorns in the western U.S., so many that the Shoshoni (sometimes referred to as the Sheepeaters) relied upon them as their primary food source. By 1900, after what Ernest Thompson Seton referred to as "the epoch of relentless destruction by the skin hunters," their numbers were reduced to a few thousand in the entire United States. Once the U.S. Army began protecting Yellowstone and its animals, their numbers began to rise, and by 1912 Seton reported a Yellowstone bighorn population of at least 200.

That number has fluctuated over the last 100-plus years with a high of close to 500. Most of that fluctuation has been due to disease. Bighorns are susceptible to conjunctivitis caused by Chlamydia which results in their cornea becoming keratinized and opaque, resulting in blindness. The disease itself doesn't kill them, but the blindness makes it difficult to both find food and navigate the cliffy areas they call home. An outbreak of conjunctivitis in 1981-82 reduced the Gardner Canyon bighorn population by 60%. Mature males were hit especially hard as the outbreak happened during the winter when they were in rut, presumably because that's when they devote more time to fighting and mating than looking for food. The sheep also suffered a decline when pneumonia broke out in 2015. However, they appear to have bounced back since then. Although the source of either disease has never been proven, it is known that domestic sheep carry both and can be found north of Yellowstone where some bighorns live. Domestic sheep-borne disease, reduction of habitat and ranching have all contributed to their decline nationwide.

Bighorns, like other sheep, have horns rather than antlers. The difference is antlers are new bone which grows every year and are shed in the spring. Horns are composed of an inner core of bone covered by a keratinized sheath, neither of which is ever shed, and continue to grow throughout a male's lifetime. The female's horns are smaller and only grow during the first few years of life. The age of a bighorn male can be determined by the deeper grooves in their horn. The grooves form during the November-to-December rut when males are more concerned with mating than eating. If the horn tips are broken or worn and the area between their nose and eyes is scarred, that is another indication of age.

The male's skull is about twice as thick as a female's to provide some protection while they butt heads during the rut. If they hit each other straight on, the horns can take the brunt of the collision. Even so, it is amazing how hard they can hit each other. Testosterone can be a scary chemical sometimes.

One of the most surprising encounters we've had with bighorns was several years ago in the early spring just before lambing season. We found a group of bighorns on a cliff near the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek, and stopped to film them.

What happened next can be seen in the video below:

If you visit Yellowstone and would like to see bighorn sheep, there are several areas you should look. The cliffy areas around the confluence of the Lamar River and Soda Butte Creek, the area near the confluence of the Lamar River and the Yellowstone River, both in the Lamar Valley, as well as during a hike up Mount Washburn and (probably the most reliable area) Gardner Canyon. Because the canyon is so high and steep, it is worth pulling off the road and carefully scoping the east side, especially in the late spring when the females are lambing. After the lambs get a few weeks old, it isn't unusual to see them form groups that run along the cliff side seemingly for the pure joy of being alive.

Judy Lehmberg is a former college biology teacher who now shoots nature videos.

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To watch extended "Sunday Morning" Nature videos click here!

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Nature up close: Domestic sheep-borne disease, reduction of habitat and ranching have all contributed to their decline nationwide, but bighorn sheep...

Renowned ophthalmologist and president and founder of the Eye Foundation of America Dr. V.K. Raju has been chosen to serve as the keynote speaker at a Jan. 1 100th anniversary event at the Rotary Club of Kolkata.

Born in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, Raju earned his medical degree from Andhra University and completed an ophthalmology residency and fellowship at the Royal Eye Group of Hospitals in London.

The Indian American physician is board certified in ophthalmology, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and the American College of Surgeons.

He moved to the United States in 1976 and has since resided in Morgantown, West

Virginia, where he is currently a clinical professor of ophthalmology at West Virginia University, runs practices at Regional Eye,and is the

founder and medical director of the nonprofit Eye Foundation of American.

Raju is also thedirector of the International Ocular Surface Society, director of the Ocular Surface Research and Education Foundation, MBBS at Andhra University in India, and the chairman of the Goutami Eye Institute in Rajahmundry.

Serving as the keynote of the upcoming centenary event isnt the first great honor bestowed on Raju.

He has also received numerous awards, including the AMA Foundation Nathan Davis Excellence in Medicine International Award; four-time awardee by The American Academy of Ophthalmology; Martin Luther King Jr. Achievement Award from WVU; Distinguished Community Service Award from the American Association of Physicians from India; Pride of the Pride Award from Lions International District 29 Vaidya Ratna; Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Ophthalmologists of Indian Origin; and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the WV State Medical Association.

Raju also was among the class of 2017 inductees into the University of Toledo Global Medical Missions Hall of Fame, thePresidents Lifetime Achievement Award from President Barack Obama, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the North America Telegu Society.

The Rotary is a very near and dear partner to the Eye Foundation of America's heart. The Rotary has done amazing things on a local, national and global scale- most notably the work to end polio. The Eye Foundation of America works to back Rotary causes as well, especially those that work towards public health and disease prevention, Raju explained in an interview with India-West.

The 100-year history of this club is a monumental occasion, with Raju speaking on the work of the Eye Foundation as well as the collaborative project the EFA and the Kolkata Rotary Club are embarking on: The Retinopathy of Prematurity.

The project has been growing steadily in India for some time now. The Eye Foundation of America will be gifting a Ret-Cam during the celebration. With this device, ophthalmologists in Kolkata will be able to more efficiently and accurately screen more premature babies for the disease, allowing the possibility for vision saving laser treatments or surgery as needed. Without the screening, many premature babies would be blind for life.

This speaking event will be a great chance to further the joint mission of saving lives and improving health, Raju told India-West.

During a trip to India in 1977, the physician was approached with a request to use his ophthalmology experience to examine a local farmer with an eye problem. He realized just how much his home country needed eye care services, especially for under-served and under-privilegedareas.

He began returning to Andhra Pradesh every few months to conduct eye camps in rural locations where he and a team of medical professionals trained in eye care would perform vision screenings, check for glasses, provide medications, and recommend surgery, he explained.

As the eye camps grew in size and frequency, Raju realized the need for a more established care center to provide surgeries free of charge. The first eye hospital was constructed and ophthalmologists were hired full time to provide care, he added.

In 1982, the EFA was originally founded as the West Virginia Ophthalmology Foundation Inc. In 1990, the name was changed to the West Virginia Eye Foundation, Inc. The final name change happened in 1992 under the advice of a friend, who recommended a name that would encompass the wider spread of the foundation. The Eye Foundation of America has been so-called since 1992, Raju told India-West.

The mission of EFA is to prevent blindness by going where the need is greatestoften rural and remote areas of developing countries where there is no medical care or where the cost of the care is prohibitive.

Our primary goal is to eliminate avoidable childhood blindness. Although the Eye Foundation of America serves people of all ages, we have a special place in our hearts for children because it is they who have the most to lose, he said.

Visually impaired or blind children grow up without the same advantages as sighted children. Unable to read and write, they often cannot support themselves as adults and may become dependent on their families and /or communities, Raju added.

Raju continued to note that premature babies are also a focus, as they can suffer from Retinopathy of Prematurity, a retinal condition unique to premature babies as a result of receiving too much oxygen.

With help from our donors and volunteers worldwide, we have been able to screen over 200,000 premature babies and perform treatments on hundreds of babies that are affected by this disease, he said.

In addition to preventing childhood blindness, the EFA plans to touch the lives of 100,000 people in India as a part of its ongoing efforts to eliminate avoidable blindness due to diabetes and diabetic retinopathy a condition that often leads to blindness if left untreated.

In addition to these primary focus points, the EFA also contributes to Vitamin A supplements and education efforts, he said.

To date, the Eye Foundation of America has performed over 3 million vision screenings. Over 650,000 sight-saving surgeries have been performed at no cost, the foundation notes.

Hundreds of thousands of pairs of glasses have been provided, often the simplest form of vision care, but one which makes a huge impact to each person. The EFA also coordinates education for medical professionals, including grand rounds teaching sessions, fellowship programs for residents, and additional specialty training for ophthalmologists, it said.

In the coming years, Raju said that the Eye Foundation of America will continue to provide care to those that need it poverty stricken, rural and under-privileged people around the world.

We will continue to collaborate with groups that need our resources while growing our own footprint. In the immediate future, the Eye Foundation of America is thrilled to announce the imminent construction of another eye hospital in Rajahmundry, he told India-West. We have outgrown our current space at Goutami Eye Institute and we will be moving into a five-floor facility with wings devoted specifically to ocular oncology, pediatric ophthalmology, and retinopathy of prematurity.

The current Goutami Eye Institute will serve as a vision therapy and occupational rehabilitation center to help those individuals effected by vision-threatening diseases or blindness regain their independence and learn new skills, Raju said.

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Eye Foundation of America's Indian American Founder VK Raju to Speak at Rotary Club of Kolkata, Announce Project on Treating Preemie Eye Disease -...

Homonyms spawn countless puns and some of the most amusing turns of phrase in modern culture. Think of Baloo the bear singing Bare Necessities in the Disney version of Jungle Book.

Now though, the New Year presents an opportunity to consider a homonym as a motivating message. Just as the number 20/20 is the measure of optimal vision, the year 2020 can be about setting an intention for keeping clear sighted about what climate change means now and in the future, and how best to respond. One of my Sea Grant colleagues in Alaska said recently that residents there dont have to be convinced of the reality of climate change, because melting permafrost, flooding coastal villages and altered fisheries there are everyday realities. They are readily engaging in projects to adapt. Neither can we in Connecticut afford the luxury of willful blindness.

Already coastal roads from Greenwich to Stonington are experiencing sunny day flooding at high tides, storm drains are overwhelmed with frequent heavy rains, and warming waters in Long Island Sound are reordering the marine ecosystem. This March, municipal officials from around the state will gather for the seventh climate adaptation workshop co-sponsored by Connecticut Sea Grant in as many years. This time, the topic requested by previous attendees will be shoreline retreat. Its a highly sensitive but necessary conversation for the many cities and towns with shoreline neighborhoods increasingly vulnerable to rising seas and intensifying storms. Figuring out if, where and how to structure fair and orderly buy-out programs is one of the many daunting challenges thats better to face now than after the next natural disaster.

Managing shoreline retreat is just one of the many climate change conundrums involving the intersection of the coastal economy with the environment. Decades of fossil fuel emissions are changing the chemistry of the atmosphere, the ocean and the land, setting off a cascade of impacts moving with momentum that cant be stopped immediately, and not ever without confronting the truth. One of those truths is accepting what we dont know, and working to understand it.

Thats the case with the acidification of our coastal areas. Its the more complicated cousin of the better known phenomenon of ocean acidification turning offshore waters into hostile environments for coral reef survival, among other effects. But the changes there are following a more predicable path. Not so in coastal areas like the Long Island Sound estuary. Variable inputs of freshwater from rivers, nutrients and pollution from land and warming temperatures are combining with increasing carbon dioxide levels to change local water chemistry in erratic ways that threaten coastal economies. In some areas elsewhere in the North Atlantic region, commercial shellfish farmers are adding buffering agents to the seawater in their hatcheries where young shellfish are grown. Without it, the larvae cant develop their shells properly.

But the exact combinations of mechanisms causing this to happen in one area and not in another as little as 10 miles away remains unknown. Nor can we predict where it will happen next. Connecticut Sea Grant, working with the New England Coastal Acidification Network, has been working to further the science and will be communicating findings to industry, policymakers and the public in 2020, a continuation of work begun in 2018.

But working on the hard problems of climate change isnt just for the scientists and their colleagues in groups like Sea Grant. Consider the words of the Rev. Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, who shared the panel with Connecticut Sea Grants Juliana Barrett and others at a forum last October titled, Reality, Hope and Action in an Age of Climate Change at St. James Episcopal Church in New London. In her recent book of Advent readings, she writes, However we participate in healing creation, all of us are needed. Everyone has a part to play.

Consider, too, the words of the wonderful writer Wendell Berry. In an essay about a sustainably managed Pennsylvania forest as metaphor for the kind of reordering needed in our collective and individual relationships with our home planet, he writes: To say that the good care of the forest, as of all the worlds places, depends upon love is, sure enough, to define a difficulty. But not an impossibility. The impossibility is that humans would ever take good care of anything that they dont love. And we can take courage from the knowledge that millions of Americans once loved their vegetable gardens, cared well for them, and kept them dependably productive and that a good many still do.

With love, clear vision and resolve to play our part, 2020 can be a better year for us and the Earth.

Judy Benson is the communications coordinator at Connecticut Sea Grant, a partnership of the University of Connecticut and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association that is one of 34 Sea Grant programs nationwide. She can be reached at: judy.benson@uconn.edu.

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Having 20/20 vision about climate change in 2020 - News from southeastern Connecticut - theday.com

Now is the time of year when we typically take inventory of our lives and set new goals. Relationships, finances, careers and health are all important aspects that impact our overall wellbeing. For this New Year, consider making your health a top priority.

According to the recent Americas Health Rankings Annual Report, the nations obesity rate continues to rise, with one in three adults now experiencing obesity. In Arizona, 29.5 percent of adults are obese. This alarming statistic may have serious health consequences such as diabetes which now impacts approximately 30 million adults and is the No. 1 cause of kidney failure, lower-limb amputations, and adult blindness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There are many factors that play a role in your health, but one that you can control is making a commitment to start living a healthier lifestyle. Sure, there will be some bumps during your wellbeing journey, but your goal can be achievable and you deserve to reap the benefits.

Consider some helpful tips for achieving a healthier you in 2020.

Regular exercise may help you live longer and may reduce your risks for a host of diseases. Try to aim for at least 2.5 hours of moderate aerobic activity a week, but if thats too challenging then start off with 15 minutes here and 15 minutes there. Every little bit counts. To be successful, your fitness program should become a part of your daily life.

Also, check with your health plan and employer to see if they offer wellness incentives. For example, UnitedHealthcares Gym Check-In program enables participating employers to provide employees and their spouses the opportunity to each earn hundreds of dollars a year for visiting a fitness facility 12 days or more per month.

Sure, its easier said than done, but good nutrition is a vital part of a healthier lifestyle. Experts say the healthiest diets are rich in fruits and vegetables, because these foods are full of healthful nutrients and fiber. Here are three simple tips to eating healthier: Go for more fruits and veggies; choose less meat and fat; and keep an eye on the size of your food portions. Just saying no, to the buffet can do wonders.

If youre feeling stressed, its important to unwind and relax by doing something you enjoy. Maybe its watching a movie, reading a book, or volunteering to give you time to recharge. Also, make time to connect with others. Maybe thats friends, family, a faith group or a hobby club. Its important that you dont isolate yourself after a stressful event. Remember, if you cannot get a handle on your stress, talk to your doctor. She or he may recommend a counselor who could help you find other ways to help reduce or manage the unhealthy stress in your life.

Take time today to make an appointment with your doctor for your annual wellness visit and be sure to ask about preventive services such as health screenings and vaccines. Check with your health plan as many preventive services have no additional cost, as long they are delivered by care providers in your plans network. Your doctor will help you create a treatment plan to help manage any chronic conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Ann Marie OBrien, R.N., is the national director of health strategies for UnitedHealthcare.

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Tips to help achieve a healthier you in 2020 - AZ Big Media

LAHORE: Pakistan stands at the 12th spot in the global ranking for cataract surgical rate (CSR) and tops the Muslim world with a ratio of 5,203 per million population per year.

Released by the National Committee for Eye Health (NCEH) -- under the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, the report, titled Cataract Surgical Mapping Pakistan-2019, was prepared under the supervision of Prof Asad Aslam Khan, the coordinator for National Programme for Prevention and Control of Blindness. The report has been declared a landmark achievement for Pakistan in meeting the targets set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Cataract remains the leading cause of blindness worldwide, accounting for nearly half (47.8 per cent or 17.7 million) of the cases. The treatment is surgical, a highly cost-effective intervention.

The report, a copy of which is available with Dawn, mentions significant statistics regarding Pakistans record cataract surgeries in the last two decades. The surgeries were conducted through public-private partnership between the federal/provincial health department and international and national non-governmental organisations (NGOs) following WHO guidelines.

The current report on mapping of cataract surgical services indicates that Pakistan has exceeded its targets for 2020 that were projected in 2002, the report reads.

The NCEH carried out a comprehensive survey all over the country to compile the report and found that over 1.1 million cataract surgeries were reported in 2018. The data indicates that Pakistan achieved CSR of 5,253 (with Azad Jammu and Kashmir included) and 5,307 (minus AJK).

There is an overall preponderance of cataract surgeries in females (male to female ratio is 0.95), the report further states.

The data indicated the proportion of cataract surgeries by service provider nationally barring AJK with the government sector contributing to 15.9pc of the surgeries, forces 1.8pc, NGOs 39.9pc, and the private sector 42.4pc.

In order to achieve a CSR of over 7,500 by 2030, at least 1.84 million surgeries must be performed annually. If there is no change in the current annual cataract surgical output, the CSR will drop to 4,628 by 2030, the report stated. At least 58,000 to 60,000 more cataract surgeries will need to be performed every year than the rate of each previous year to achieve the 7,500 target.

Prof Asad Aslam Khan, also chief executive officer of the Mayo Hospital, said that during the last two decades the NCEH upgraded eye units of 27 teaching, 120 district headquarters and 100 tehsil headquarters hospitals. More than 800 optometrists, 50 orthoptist, 51 investigative oculist, 1,200 ophthalmic technician, 34 vitreoretinal specialist, 24 paediatric ophthalmologist, 92 community ophthalmologist and more than 100 ophthalmic nurses have been produced in the country, he claimed.

He said the first report on mapping of cataract surgical services was compiled in 2002, which determined the national, provincial and district CSRs, and it had noted that Pakistan had a national CSR of 2,254.

He said the Universal Eye Health a Global Action Plan 2014-2019 had been launched by the WHO following a resolution passed by the World Health Assembly in 2013. This global action plan identified cataract surgical rate as one of the three global monitoring indicators.

In the last 20 years, there has been an incremental change in the distribution of eye care services in Pakistan, especially with development in and investment by the public sector, a mushroom growth in the non-government sector and a massive increase in the private sector.

We now approach the end of Vision 2020 The Right to Sight next year in 2020 and straddle the Sustainable Development Goals era with about 10 years left to go by 2030, said Dr Khan.

For future planning, he said, it was vitally important to obtain updated data about the changing trends of CSR at the national, provincial and district levels in Pakistan. As a result of all the achievements of the NCEH, Pakistan is now among the top 12 countries with highest CSR, he added.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019

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Pakistan ranks 12th globally in conducting cataract surgeries - DAWN.com

Time behind bars can change a man, especially 30 years. All that time, alone in your thoughts, and replaying that horrible day you did the unthinkable. I don't think the now-executed Lee Hall should have been freed but rewarded for his good behavior for these past 30 years.

The fact they sent a man his death who served 30 years with not even a misdemeanor on his prison record is absurd. The time he did and with the condition he was in, Lee should have been given a chance for a retrial with the chance of a life sentence without death row or probation. But the controversial killing of a blind man could have been prevented if not for the Department of Correction.

The Department of Correction knew Lee Hall had glaucoma since 2010 and failed to listen to the medical recommendations. Everyone should have the right medicine and to not be in pain, no matter how much pain they have given to the world.

Killing a blind person who is no longer any harm to this world is wrong and not what this amazing country represents.

Noah Allen, McDonald, Tennessee

***

Drain Trump Swamp in November 2020

We've got a problem. We have a dishonest administration that seems to be out of control. The government appears to be guided by a person who is mentally ill. This person, Donald J. Trump, is supported by platoons of stooges, "yes men" who do his bidding. Hunting has started for a stooge scapegoat for the current mess. Stooges are expendable.

My feelings are that it is better to let Trump get his comeuppance at the hands of the voters. This loss of the election would bring a message to the base and the evangelicals about clay feet. It would be a traumatic learning experience.

Also, nobody would need to deal with conspiracy theories and books by nutball minor players in the impeachment. If the evangelicals want to evangelize, they could start with the Trump Swamp at the top. Don't fiddle with the underlings.

The big question is how many generations will it take to fix this inside attack on America? Judges have a lifetime appointment.

Bill Reed

***

Recycle restaurant packaging waste

Restaurants create a lot of material waste. I have worked in a lot of restaurants in the past few years, and I have seen many, many recyclables go into the trash cans. Glass, plastic and paper waste is a major problem in the industry due to the packaging in food and alcohol deliveries.

Those materials waste precious resources such as water and energy. Of course, this is an integral part of the restaurant industry. However, we are able to make more responsible choices by choosing to recycle correctly and sourcing food locally.

The food will be fresher, in season, and will help boost local economies. If we are willing to take it a step further, we can consider composting the food waste we are able to.

Eden Skelton

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Blindness should have spared Hall and more letters to the editors - Chattanooga Times Free Press

The good news is that this particular form of blindness leaves an opening for technology. Two types of artificial retinas have already been approved for human use. And new [research] suggests a way for those retinas to one day get much better.

The key point is that retinitis pigmentosa targets the rod and cone cells almost exclusively. The disease does minimal damage to the retinas many other neurons, which process signals from the rods and cones and convey the results to the optic nerve. So in principle, fixing vision is just a matter of going in through the very back of the eye, where the ravaged rods and cones originally formed a layer just 100 micrometers thick, and replacing them with a device that will generate electrical pulses in response to light. Pulses from various points on the device can then communicate with the retinas surviving neurons in a natural way.

Existing retinal prostheses require silicon or metal implants that are comparatively thick and completely rigid, a combination that the sensitive retinal tissue does not like at all, says physicist Guglielmo Lanzani of the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Milan. Over time, he says, inflammation is followed by fibrosis scarring, which can reduce the artificial retinas already limited effectiveness.

So instead, as Lanzani and his IIT colleagues explain in the recentAnnual Review of Physical Chemistry, their group is investigating a different kind of retinal prosthesis made from semiconductive polymers, a class of carbon-based plastics that can conduct electricity in much the same way that silicon microchips do.

These polymers are best known for their use in some types of organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, the richly colored screens found in millions of smartphones. But the materials also show promise for a new generation of cheap, flexible, lightweight solar cells. And they show even more promise as soft, flexible bioelectronic interfaces to living tissue one of the emerging and very exciting applications of organic semiconductors, says Carlos Silva, a physicist at Georgia Tech in Atlanta. These applications include drug delivery and biosensors.

Because semiconductive polymers bend and flex like natural tissues, Lanzani says, they are biocompatible. In tests in the lab and in animals, the polymer retina seems to coexist with them quite happily, with no adverse reactions at all.

Just as important, adds IIT neuroscientist Fabio Benfenati, semiconducting polymers can get the physiology right. When light hits the polymer sheet, he says, it triggers a localized pulse of electrical activity about 80 to 100 micrometers across. Because this is roughly comparable to the spacing of rod and cone cells outside the densely packed fovea, where the eyes visual acuity is the highest, the polymer prosthesis would allow a resolution akin to a persons natural peripheral vision.

And because the sheet can be engineered to deliver its electrical pulses as a flow of ions, it can pass signals to the surviving retinal neurons in a way that they recognize: Ion flows are neurons native language. Even though the mechanism is probably different from what is occurring in nature, Benfenati says, what we do is very biomimetic.

Carbon-based polymers such as rubber, nylon and polyester are usually thought of as insulators, preventing electricity from flowing out of wires or other metal parts. But in the 1970s, chemists established that certain polymers could conduct electricity quite well and better still, could function as semiconductors like silicon. By 2000, when work in this area won the Nobel Prize in chemistry, the field was flourishing.

Today, there are a number of semiconducting polymers that might be suitable for an artificial retina, but the IIT group has focused on P3HT, short for poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl), a material widely used in photovoltaic cells. In 2007, recalls Lanzani, as part of an effort to develop a more accurate device for measuring colors, he and his physicist colleagues showed thatP3HT could be engineered to respond to lightin much the same way as green-sensitive human cone cells. And shortly thereafter, he says, I heard about people building an artificial eye for robotics, including a retina-like detector, and I thought, The best place for a retina is in the eye the real eye!

This artificial retina idea became concrete when he met Benfenati at the coffee machine during an institute meeting. Fabio was excited, says Lanzani and as a neuroscientist, he knew how to work with living neurons.

Joining forces, their teams showed in 2011 thatneurons cultivated on a film of P3HT would indeed make connections with the polymer. Whats more, the neurons responded to electrical impulses from the polymer in the same way they would to nerve impulses from a rod or cone cell. Then in 2013 they showed thatretinas taken from a strain of rat with dysfunctional rod and cone cells would connect to the polymerin the same way, and would have a similar response to impulses. That was a confidence-booster, says Benfenati. Its one thing to have a cell growing onto a surface and getting a very tight contact, he says, and another thing just to put preformed tissue in contact.

Independently, as it happens, K.S. Narayan and his team at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in Bangalore, India, were gettingsimilar resultsusing a polymer blended with P3HT. But since then, the two teams paths have diverged somewhat. Narayans group has been carrying out laboratory studies with photoreceptor-free retinas obtained from chick embryos to get a very precise understanding of how the polymer and the retinal neurons interact. We are interested in biophysics, he says how neurons get excited when we introduce these artificial polymers to replace the receptors.

Lanzani and Benfenati, in the meantime, have moved on to testing their polymer prosthesis in the retinas of living animals. A crucial factor in this work has been their partnership with Grazia Pertile, says Benfenati. Not only is she head of the ophthalmology department at the Sacrocuore Hospital in Verona, Italy, he says, and one of the most skilled retinal surgeons in Europe, she is very interested in basic research, as well.

In 2017,Pertile and colleagues succeeded in implanting a full prosthesis in the eyes of living rats from a strain that has a genetic defect analogous to retinitis pigmentosa. After a months healing time, the pupils of these once-blind rats were contracting in response to light exactly like those of healthy rats, and their once-dormant visual cortex was abuzz with renewed activity. Its impossible to know what the rats were actually experiencing, but they showed every sign of being able to see again.

The team has now embarked on the multiyear road toward human experimentation. To prepare the way, Pertile has been developing techniques to implant the polymer retinal prosthesis in pigs, whose eyes are similar to peoples in both size and visual acuity, while others on the team have been refining the prosthesis itself.

Were taking the time, says Lanzani, in order to have the best architecture before going to humans.

M. Mitchell Waldrop is a freelance writer based in Washington, DC. Follow him on Twitter @MitchWaldrop

A version of this article was originally published on Knowables website as Polymers promise a more flexible artificial retina and has been republished here with permission.

Read more here:
Retinitis pigmentosa cure breakthrough? Next generation of artificial lenses being developed with flexible silicon-like chips to combat genetic...

Some nonprofits are household names, but small organizations can also be extremely effective. Here are nine high-impact charities that might not be on your radar but are worthy of your consideration this holiday seasonand throughout the year.

In 2015, the number of migrants arriving in Europe hit 1 million, a four-fold rise from the previous year, due to the Syrian civil war. Many remain in makeshift camps. Help Refugees, which started as a social-media campaign in response to the crisis, has grown to become the largest grassroots distributor of aid in Europe, providing food, shelter, interpreters and nurses. Nearly 90 percent of its budget goes directly to supporting refugees.

Courtesy of Innocence Project

The Innocence Project was founded by civil-rights attorneys in 1992 and uses DNA testing to free wrongfully convicted prisoners. Since 1989, the technology has exonerated 367 people in the US, 21 of whom had been sentenced to death. The group provides legal representation to prisoners, lobbies for criminal-justice reforms and helps freed prisoners, many of whom have spent decades in jail, transition back into society.

Frustrated with the failure of conventional aid programs to stop infant deaths in developing countries, Timothy Prestero set up Design That Matters, which produces cheap, innovative devices that treat neonatal pneumonia, hypothermia and jaundicethree leading causes of infant death. According to Prestero, a third of medical equipment donated to developing countries is wasted because its too complicated and difficult to maintain. Design That Matters, which has won multiple design awards, creates devices specifically for low-income rural hospitals.

Courtesy of Nurse-Family Partnership

In many countries, new mothers are supported at home by government-funded midwives. In the US, Nurse-Family Partnership is seeking to replicate that care for young, low-income mothers. The groups nurses make regular visits, starting early in a womans pregnancy and continuing until the child is two. The average client is 20 and unmarried with an annual income of $9,000. The nurses take a holistic approach, tackling everything from cigarette smoking to job searches, with the goal of reducing child abuse, behavioral and intellectual problems and juvenile arrests.

Since 1982, the Orbis Flying Eye Hospitala state-of-the-art teaching facility on a planehas treated people in 18 low-income countries, preventing blindness from cataracts and glaucoma. There are 36 million blind people globally, though more than 75 percent of cases are avoidable, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. In each country Orbis visits, volunteer surgeons and nurses treat patients, train local doctors and advocate with governments to improve eye care. Orbis International spends 93 percent of donations on sight-saving work.

In every country around the globe, girls are held back educationally because of a lack of access to feminine-hygiene products. More than half of Ethiopian girls miss school when they have their period. But even in rich nations, girls stay home due to poverty and shame. Celeste Mergens founded Days for Girls in 2008, when she discovered that girls in a Kenyan orphanage where she was volunteering spent several days every month sitting on cardboard in their bedrooms. Mergens and her team designed an affordable, washable sanitary kit that lasts for years. More than a million females in 125 countries, including low-income women in the US, have received the kits. The nonprofit also trains women in developing countries to produce and sell the kits themselves.

Courtesy of Bail Project

Though most countries have ended the cash-bail system, the Bail Project estimates that 2.5 million people in the US are held in jail each year because they cannot afford bail. A high proportion of those in pretrial detention have young children, with women and people of color disproportionately affected. Their bail is often less than $1,000. Faced with loss of jobs, housing and custody of their children, many plead guilty in exchange for release but end up with a permanent criminal record. The Bail Project estimates that taxpayers pay around $14 billion a year for pretrial detention alone, not including the social costs of unemployment and family breakdown. The Bail Project lends bail money to those awaiting trial.

More than 40 percent of American children are from low-income families, and half of those are below the poverty line. For families who have to choose between food and rent, childrens shoes are a particular burden, because they are expensive and quickly outgrown. Shoes That Fit provides new athletic shoes to elementary-school children from those families, who often suffer from stigma and bullying. The nonprofit, which spends more than 94 percent of its budget on footwear, helped more than 124,000 children in the last school year.

Courtesy of World Bicycle Relief

In developing countries, the majority of travel is done on foot. In rural communities, every doctors visit and school commute can take hours, if not days. Founded in 2005 with a donation of 24,400 bicycles to displaced survivors of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, World Bicycle Relief has now provided more than 469,000 bikes to isolated communities. The result, according to the organization, has been strong improvements in access to education, health care and work. The group also trains local mechanics to assemble and sell bikes. Stores, distribution facilities and supply chains provide employment, spare parts and repair services. Profits are reinvested in philanthropic work, creating a self-sustaining virtuous cycle.

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9 High-Impact Charities Where Your Holiday Donation Will Actually Make a Difference - Robb Report

When casting See, Apple and showrunners Steven Knight, Dan Shotz, Jon Steinberg, and Francis Lawrence aimed to involve individuals who are blind and low vision as much as possible. Accordingly, the first two actors cast on the series, a sci-fi epic set in a world in which all of humanity is blind, were Marilee Talkington and Bree Klauser both of whom are blind and have ample credits to their names.

However, besides Klauser and Talkington, there arent many other blind or low vision actors who have adequate experience on large-scale projects like See. So, to further cast the series as authentically as possible, its casting process took on an unprecedented form.

First, creators of the series utilized community outreach to recruit background and stunt actors who were blind or low vision. Once auditions began, Sees casting team coached and provided feedback to less-experienced actors who are blind and low vision to help them land a role on the series or on another program in the future.

Such inclusive behavior isnt a big surprise coming from Apple, which has a longstanding reputation for leading the charge in digital accessibility for individuals with disabilities, and specifically users who are blind and low vision.

In fact, Sarah Herrlinger, Apples director of Global Accessibility & Policy Initiatives, sits on the board of the American Foundation for the Blind. In a 2016 interview with Mashable, Herrlinger discussed Apples never-ending approach to make sure that its products are universally accessible to everyone.

When engineering specialized accessible features and content, Apples efforts have centered on consulting and working with individuals with disabilities. For instance, executive director Eric Bridges of the American Council of the Blind (ACB) told Mashable in a recent call that Apple worked with the organization to create the blind person holding a cane and guide dog emoji.

In June 2019, Apple released iOS 13, a software update that features Voice Control and VoiceOver comprehensive accessibility features that revolutionized the ways in which individuals with disabilities can use their iPhones and other Apple products.

Journalist Steve Aquino, who uses assistive technology to access their Apple devices, praised the update in TechCrunch, writing, Apple continues to lead the industry at making accessibility a first-class citizen. More recently, Sina Barham, who is blind and serves as the president of an accessibility consulting firm, affirmed that Apples efforts on iOS far exceed Androids progress on accessibility, according to Slate.

Apple is also unmatched with regard to the audio descriptions included on Apple TV+ content and original programming: Viewers can watch shows with audio descriptions in multiple languages regardless of their location.

Similarly, when launching See, Knight, Shotz, and Lawrence made sure to heavily consult with individuals who are blind and low vision throughout the entire production process to ensure respectful portrayals of blindness and disability.

Every actor we brought on who was blind or low vision provided comments on aspects of the world [of See], Joe Strechay, the series official blindness consultant, told Mashable over the phone. Strechays gig on See has been a topic of conversation in the entertainment press, and the consultant also worked with Charlie Cox on Netflixs Daredevil.

Hera Hilmar, who plays Maghra on 'See,' with Strechay on set.

Image: Photo Courtesy Apple

Strechay also shared that Knight and Lawrence began getting input from folks who are blind and low vision on Sees concept and initial scripts in March 2018. Between those first consultations and the start of filming in September of that year, Strechay, who is blind, reviewed scripts and provided countless suggestions on the series portrayal of blindness. Apple set a standard around respect, he said.

Tasked to train Sees sighted cast members playing characters who are blind, Strechay began the blindness training on set with lessons on education and awareness to address misconceptions about blindness. In particular, Strechay stressed that there are a lot of comical portrayals of blindness onscreen. See, he reaffirmed, is not one of them.

The casting of sighted actors to play blind characters is a discriminatory trend that the blind and low vision community is all too familiar with.

Despite the current discourse surrounding authentic and inclusive casting, portrayals of blindness in which the punchline is that a blind person cannot see have persisted. In 2016, Adam Scott played a blind lead alongside Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate in the comedy My Blind Brother, wherein the love triangle between Kroll, Slate, and Scotts character relies on the fact that Kroll and Slates characters can have sex without Scotts character ever catching them in the act. Similarly, in Deadpool (2016) and Deadpool 2 (2018), Leslie Uggams played Blind Al alongside Ryan Reynolds. Neither Scott nor Uggams are blind or low vision.

The casting of sighted actors to play blind characters is a discriminatory trend that the blind and low vision community is all too familiar with. An ambivalent review of Sees pilot from Chris Danielsen, public relations director of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), contextualizes See as coming at a time when blind people are always wary of how [they] are portrayed in the mass media, based on decades of past bad experiences.

Danielsen explained to Mashable that there has been little or no effort in the entertainment industry to cultivate blind talent. A guild for blind and low vision actors still doesnt exist, and such performers struggle to land roles as extras on screen, or don't make it past the initial audition, said Bridges in a separate conversation.

See isnt perfect: The series stars Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Hera Hilmar, and Sylvia Hoeks, none of whom are blind or low vision. Its casting practices (with regard to lead actors) dont appear to be any different than that of My Blind Brother and Deadpool.

Moreover, in its blog post, the NFB raised specific questions about the inclusion of sighted characters in the series whom some of the blind characters seem to view with reverence. In a phone call with Mashable, Danielsen elaborated that the NFB wondered why sighted characters were used as a source of salvation: Why are we not just seeing a society run by blind people and seeing how that plays out?

Chiefly, Danielsen stated that the NFBs concern is that they are not seeing authentic representation to the extent that [they] would like because its not apparent... that any of the blind cast have a role that is significant in more than a few episodes.

Talkington and Klauser both play members of the Alkenny tribe alongside Momoa and Woodard. Talkingtons Souter Bax is a multidimensional but minor character who opposes the Alkenny tribe leadership. Klauser plays a recurring character named Matal, a female warrior whose abilities to sense energies are shown to be valuable to the survival of the Alkenny. In addition, Jessica Harper, an actor who is low vision, plays Cora, a slave of one of the tribes in the world of See. Cora appears in the final three episodes of the first season.

Jessica Harper as Cora alongside Sylvia Hoeks, who plays Queen Kane.

In an interview with Horror Fuel, Klauser applauded Sees creators for being open-minded when she suggested that the set up of a particular scene didnt ring true to her lived experience as an individual who is legally blind, and shared that she was glad to have had the opportunity to accurately represent [her] community. Similarly, Talkington tweeted that she was proud to make history by authentically representing on the series.

Notably, however, neither Talkington or Klauser are top-billed cast members. After being heavily featured on Sees first four episodes, Talkingtons presence on the series has waned significantly. Because Talkington is the most prominent cast member who is blind, her apparent absence from the rest of the series seems disappointing with regard to the burgeoning representation of the blind and low vision communities on See. Strechay told Mashable that Talkingtons brief timeline on the series first season was just how it was written, and merely a result of Sees storyline.

Still, Apple and See showrunners are using the series as a catalyst for change. Despite and as a result of Sees efforts, Bridges said the series is a starting point.

Its taking Apple stepping in as a new force within entertainment to really have the first go at this problem... theyre putting their best foot forward, he said.

Similarly, Strechay clarified that authentic representation of individuals who are blind and low vision on screen is a continuing process. Were nowhere near perfect, he said, and reassured Mashable that the series will continue adding cast members who are blind and low vision for its second season.

Strechay explained that although A-list names like Momoa and Woodard dont currently exist in the blind and low vision community, See is working to identify and support the blind and low vision actors on set so they can be fantastic actors down the line. Sees background cast also included individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing, individuals of short stature, individuals who utilize prosthetic limbs, and an actor with cerebral palsy.

Marilee Talkington at the premiere of Apple TV+'s 'See.'

Image: jean baptiste for WireImage/getty images

Bree Klauser at the premiere of Apple TV+'s 'See.'

Image: frazer herrison/Getty Images

Speaking with Mashable, Tatiana Lee, a Hollywood inclusionist at Respectability, echoed Strechays sentiment and praised See for casting blind and low vision actors and actors with disabilities so they can eventually land a lead role in something else. Bridges hoped that the series will find more qualified blind actors and that there will be ever increasing levels of disability on the show in future seasons.

As See attempts to remedy a complex issue after a decades of discrimination in Hollywood, reservations coexist with optimism for the future. See has already cast more blind actors than any other film or TV show that we know of. So, progress, while perhaps incremental, has been made, wrote Danielsen. The series has been renewed for a second season, which grants showrunners a vital opportunity to cast individuals who are blind and low vision in upcoming lead roles while continuing to cast individuals with disabilities in future episodes.

In any event, the progress made by Sees second season will undoubtedly be compared to the strides made by its first. Hopefully, the expectation of such an assessment is motivation enough for showrunners to continue making change in Hollywood.

See is available for streaming on Apple TV+.

View post:
How the entertainment industry can catch up with Apple TV+'s 'See' - Mashable

The estimates have been primarily based on Nationwide Blindness and Visually Impaired Survey (2019).

New Delhi:

The prevalence of blindness in India has come down by round 47 per cent since 2007, in accordance with a authorities survey launched on Thursday, indicating that the nation is near reaching the WHOs objective of decreasing it to 0.Three per cent of the whole inhabitants by 2020.

In absolute numbers, folks affected by blindness have diminished from 12 million in 2006-07 to 4.eight million in 2019. Additionally, cataract nonetheless stays to be most typical explanation for blindness (66.2 per cent) adopted by corneal blindness (7.Four laptop). In addition to this, the proportion of blindness attributable to problems of cataract surgical procedure (7.2 laptop) has additionally elevated, the survey revealed.

In accordance with the Nationwide Blindness and Visually Impaired Survey (2019) launched by Union Well being Minister Harsh Vardhan, the estimated prevalence of blindness within the nation has come right down to 0.36 per cent from 1.00 per cent in 2006-2007.

The present survey was carried out over a interval between 2015 and 2018 by Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences of the AIIMS in collaboration with the Union Well being ministry in these aged = 50 years inhabitants (93,000) utilizing Speedy Evaluation of Avoidable Blindness (RAAB) methodology in 31 districts of 24 states and Union Territories.

Dr Promila Gupta, Principal Guide within the Nationwide Programme for Management of Blindness within the Ministry of Well being stated this house-to-house survey was designed to generate consultant knowledge for the sampled districts in addition to for India. An extra survey was carried out between 0-49 years age group in January-February 2019 and lined 18,00Zero folks in 6 districts throughout varied areas of India.

The outcomes of each surveys, in 0-49 age group and in = 50 years inhabitants, have been used to estimate the prevalence of blindness and visible impairment in India throughout all age group, Dr Gupta stated.The prevalence of blindness in India has come down by round 47 per cent for the reason that final survey carried out in 2006-2007 and the findings of the present survey are for blindness as outlined to be imaginative and prescient of lower than 3/60 within the higher eye, Dr Vardhan stated including the nation is near reaching the WHOs objective of decreasing it to 0.Three per cent by 2020. India modified its over four-decade-old definition of blindness in 2017, bringing it consistent with the WHO standards.

In accordance with the brand new definition, an individual whos unable to depend fingers from a distance of three metres can be thought-about blind as in opposition to the sooner stipulation of six metres, which was adopted in 1976. The purpose of revising the definition can be to have the ability to generate knowledge which could be in contrast with international estimates and obtain the WHO objective of decreasing the blindness prevalence in India to 0.Three per cent of the whole inhabitants by 2020, Dr Gupta stated.

The survey additionally discovered that the visible impairment has come down by 51.9 per cent to 2.55 per cent as a in comparison with 2010 ranges. The WHO had set the objective of reducing the prevalence of visible impairment by 25 per cent by 2019 as in comparison with 2010 ranges. In 2010, the prevalence of visible impairment was 5.30 per cent within the Indian inhabitants. We now have achieved this objective by a a lot better margin, Dr Gupta stated.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)

Get Breaking information, stay protection, and Newest Information from India and all over the world on NDTV.com. Catch all of the Reside TV motion on NDTV 247 and NDTV India. Like us on Fb or observe us on Twitter and Instagram for contemporary information and stay information updates.

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Blindness In India Reduced By 47 Per Cent Since 2007: Report - Sunriseread

Driving at night can be risky, whether you have vision issues or not. When there is decreased visibility at night, it leaves you at a greater risk as a driver, and it also puts other drivers and pedestrians at an increased risk of injury.

Around 72% of pedestrian accidents resulting in serious injuries happen at night, and 78% of those occur in urban areas.

When you're driving at night it's more challenging to react to other drivers, to see obstacles in the roadway, and to judge distances. Visibility is only around 500 feet when you're using your high beams, and that goes down to around 250 feet when you're using your normal headlights.

It's tough on your eyes to adjust how they function when you're frequently switching between bright headlights and dark roadways, and for some people with night blindness, this can all be even more challenging.

Sometimes you might hear people joking about being "blind" when they drive at night, but there are real medical conditions that can make it difficult to see at night. Nyctalopia is the name for night blindness.

With nyctalopia, someone has a hard time seeing in darkness or dim light.

It can take their eyes an unusually long time to adjust when they go from light to dark, and the problem stems primarily from an issue with the rod cells of the retina. The rod cells are responsible for taking light rays and converting them into electrical signals, which your brain then interprets as images.

When your rod cells become damaged, then that can lead to night blindness.

Night blindness isn't in and of itself a condition but is instead a symptom of something else.

Some of the reasons your rods might be damaged that can lead to night blindness include:

Night blindness does impact a person's ability to see at night and in dim or dark light, but they aren't completely blind.

Some of the symptoms of night blindness include:

Other seemingly non-related symptoms may occur when you have night blindness such as headaches, nausea, vomiting, and blurry or cloudy vision.

What about seeing halos around lights? A lot of people deal with this when they're driving at night, but it doesn't necessarily mean you have night blindness.

Halos mean that you see rings or bright circles around a source of light. When you're driving, this might mean a headlight or a streetlight.

Sometimes it's normal to see halos, but halos can also be caused by cataracts, LASIK surgery, or wearing glasses or contact lenses.

If you suddenly experience halos or they occur along with symptoms like blurry vision or pain, then it could indicate that you have a serious eye disorder, and you need to speak with your doctor. The causes of halos are different than the causes of night blindness.

Halos occur when there's a bend in the light that enters your eyes.

Treatments for halos depend on the cause. For example, if halos are due to cataracts, then the problem may be eliminated when you get cataract surgery. Similarly, if it's from glaucoma, laser surgery might help with the problem.

If you think you could have night blindness, the first thing to do is speak with your eye doctor.

Treating the condition, similarly to treating halos, requires that you have a diagnosis of the underlying condition, and then treatment is guided toward remedying that.

For example, if your night blindness comes from cataracts, you can have surgery. During cataract surgery, your cloudy lens on your eye is replaced with a clear artificial lens. Then, you should find that your night blindness is significantly improved.

If your night blindness comes from a deficiency of vitamin A, then your doctor may recommend supplementation.

Some of the genetic conditions leading to night blindness aren't treatable, and if this is the case, then the recommendation may be that you don't drive at night.

Even if you don't technically have night blindness, it's generally more challenging to drive at night than during the day.

Tips for safe nighttime driving include:

If you feel like your nighttime driving is impaired in any way, it's best to avoid driving. Speak with an eye doctor and figure out what needs to be done, but if at all possible, don't risk it by heading out on the roadways.

The winter is an especially risky time because you spend more time driving when it's dark, and it can affect depth perception, peripheral vision, and color recognition.

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Everything You Should Know About Night Blindness - Auto World News

We are only as blind as we want to be is a quote credited to civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou.

It acts as a stark reminder to many of us of how accountable we are for our actions as people, as well as a warning to businesses not to take the status quo for granted.

Recent times have been characterised by change: fluctuating politics; shifts in consumer habits; growing momentum behind purpose in business. Every business is now alive to the realities of change, and the urgency of aligning profits with purpose.

Next year is the starting gun for the single most important decade of the Post-War era: the decade of cleantech, of environmental preservation, of hope but also of crisis. The blindness Angelou refers to is what threatens all of us. Soon, corporate myopia will be viewed as a wilful choice rather than happenstance.

Next year will be the first time we will be held accountable for how we have embraced change. Are we modifying our behaviour to reduce climate emissions? Have we reduced our waste? The arrival of COP26 in Glasgow will certainly sharpen our senses to these questions.

Whats more, the scrutiny extends well beyond the environment. There are other urgencies. Are we tackling discrimination? Do we do enough to protect vulnerable or minority communities? What about encouraging STEM careers or supporting the next generation of leaders? How are we closing the gender pay gap or supporting the LGBTQ+ community?

These questions are reasonable expectations of businesses, and business leaders. The collective and the individual are not as separate as one might imagine, which should act as a warning signal to anyone at the top of an organisation.

The year 2020 is the year that these questions will become entrenched in the everyday. Cause will have consequence: consumers will vote with their wallets; suppliers will win and lose contracts based on how accountable they prove themselves to be; commercial buyers will ask for more; and shareholders and boards will double-down on governance.

Never before has strategic communications become so intertwined with action even activism, in some senses. Reputation is defined as the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something, and those beliefs and opinions will be defined by much more than words.

The choices we make now might help to define how well your reputation holds together in the coming years. Considerations include:

As the year draws to a close, businesses should prepare for a change of pace in 2020. Now is the time to ask whether your reputation will stand up to what is coming. As Maya Angelou said, we are only as blind to change as we want to be.

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2020.. the year when corporate actions finally have to match up to our words - Insider.co.uk

The transmission of Onchocerciasis also known as River Blindness has been halted in Plateau, Nasarawa and Kaduna states.

National Coordinator, Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) of the Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Chukwuma Anyaike made the disclosure yesterday during the National Onchocerciasis Elimination Committee (NOEC) meeting in Abuja.

Onchocerciasis is a parasitic disease caused by small worms living in the body. It is transmitted by the bite of the black fly, the vector for River blindness. Symptoms of the disease include severe itching, hanging groin, thick and rough skin and blindness.

Dr Anyaike said Nigeria had a significant burden of the disease with presence in 32 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Professor Betrand Nwoke, chairman of the committee said the meeting was organised to honour those who have contributed in ending the transmission of the disease in the three states.

He said experts have been working towards the elimination of the disease in the last 20 years, adding that results from Kebbi, Zamfara, Oyo and Bauchi states showed that the disease was at the verge of interruption in those states.

He said interruption of the disease in the three states meant that six million Nigerians would no longer be given mectizan for treatment.

He said the achievement was possible through collaborative efforts of the Federal Ministry of Health, international partners like Carter Centre, Sigth Savers, UNICEF and state governments and individuals.

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FG halts River blindness in 3 states - Daily Trust

27-year-old Zhang Zheyuan is prolific. As a violinist, hes toured with elite performance troupes, traveled the world, and played in Olympic ceremonies. And hes done it all in darkness.

Zheyuan was born with congenital blindness in southwest Chinas Yunnan province. He attended a special school for the disabled, learning side by side with other blind children, in a program designed to equip them with the kind of barebones skills theyd need to survive and make a living, if they were to eventually emerge on their own into the world. And that is an if theres a tacit understanding that many of the programs students will never achieve true independence.

For Chinas blind, the default path is massage. Some age-old idea posits that, sans vision, ones sense of touch becomes hyper-developed, allowing blind masseurs to navigate through tensions and knots in the muscles like some kind of bootleg therapeutic Daredevil (having experienced a blind massage, I feel a twang of harsh honesty to recall that it was generally unremarkable). Its unclear whether the tradition remains alive primarily out of a genuine belief in its tenets, or out of a public willingness to accept it as a sort of de facto, self-sustaining social support system.

Around the time when other children were setting off down the one-way road of massage education, Zheyuan was studying violin. As a productive hobby, of course, not a future career.

One evening while practicing at his instructors home, he recalls, rain began to fall heavily outside. The instructor invited Zheyuan to stay for dinner until the storm cleared, putting a Bach record onto the turntable. Zheyuan ate, awash in the white noise of vinyl crackle and raindrops on windows, taking in the sounds of Bachs compositions. Its worth noting that Bach too endured much hardship in his life, becoming orphaned at age 10 and eventually going blind himself, dying as the result of a botched surgery.

Zheyuan listened to his teacher, of whom Bach was a personal favorite, as he relayed these stories over Art of Fugue. He recounts feeling deeply affected by Bachs ability to transform his trauma and suffering into something beautiful that could move others. When the rain cleared he left with a head full of new ideas.

When Zheyuan told his school, no, I dont want to study massage, Id actually like to play the violin, he was met with harsh rebuke. Why would someone like Zheyuan want to throw himself into a useless pursuit like that? Why would he want to shuck off the dehumanizing-in-a-way-I-cant-quite-put-my-finger-on, but also safe and reliable tradition of becoming a masseur? Did he want to starve?

Zheyuan left the school that same year.

Amidst a firestorm of dream-shattering good intentions, Zheyuans father was a pillar of support. When others told him to be realistic, it was his father who read Zheyuans sheet music aloud, and told him to do something he loved. Zheyuan, with his fathers help, woke up routinely at 7:00 AM and practiced for ten hours each day.

Its touching, but realistically, it should have been insufficient. When your friends, family, teachers, and caretakers are all telling you that your dream is not of the come true variety, but of the pipe variety, and when that assessment is bolstered and supported by an unfair and undeserved truth, namely that you are different than others, and less capable than others, and unable to do the basic things that others take for granted (others, they might add, who have failed to achieve the very same dream youve identified), the support of one person, sadly, should not be enough to align your inner compass. Its in this understanding that we move closer to the true nature of Zheyuans greatness.

Lets condense the remainder of Zheyuans blow-by-blow history. He called up the China Disabled Persons Performing Arts Troupe and played his violin on the phone. He was invited to join the elite troupe, and spent the next two years touring the world. He played at the Lincoln Center, placed in a national TV competition, and captivated audiences with a solo performance at the Asia Paralympic Games.

After two years though, uncertainty started to creep in. Zheyuan was undeniably good for a blind man the best in the world. But Zheyuan wanted to be more than that.

Much to the dismay of his family and friends, who felt that against all odds, he had already achieved his fantastic impossible goal, he went back to school.

The Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing told him they would love to accept him, but unfortunately, didnt have the facilities required to educate blind students. Zheyuan only heard the first part of that sentence, renting out a small basement near the university and auditing all the classes there.

American schools were stunned by his playing, but turned him away for his poor English. Zheyuan started studying, memorizing a comprehensive English textbook word for word using the text-reading app on his phone, it was the only method available to him. Clearly, this is a man who doesnt give a damn if you think hes already reached his zenith. He has further zeniths in mind, and who are you to tell him otherwise? You probably dont even play the violin.

That was six years ago. The day that we wrapped on shooting this documentary film, September 20th, 2019, Zheyuan set off on the next leg of his march down an unending and personally-bricked road: a scholarship at the University of Sheffield in England. Goodness knows where hell go next.

When it comes to being blind, we tend to feel like its quite self-explanatory. The absence of vision. Wouldnt that be something?

In five days of intensive, 9-to-5 shoots with Zheyuan, we learned that blindness is far more complex, and far less one dimensional than that. Its not the absence of vision, full stop. Its the absence of vision as it relates to ones physical safety, and the absence of vision as it relates to ones social life, relates to ones relationships, relates to ones concept of self. Blindness is not a singular and major affliction that blankets Zheyuans life, but a complex and ever-moving truth that changes every aspect of his lived experience, in ways big, small, and diverse.

Shooting one of our RADII Voices films requires a significant commitment from the subject, and most of the time theyre not very familiar with the filmmaking process. Zheyuan, more than anyone, displayed an immeasurable readiness and tolerance for the (often grueling) demands of the shoot.

When the crew was collapsing onto park benches, shoulders sagging with fatigue, Zheyuan was ready for the next shot. When we were scrambling madly to reach our location while the light was perfect, Zheyuan was at the front of the mob. Not once did he question anything or betray a hint of frustration. He was here to make a film, and he brought to that task the same steely resolve he brings with him everywhere.

Interestingly, from the outset, Zheyuan was preoccupied with the visual nature of our project. He wanted to know the shooting style and the visual motifs we had in mind. We sent him references, which he poured over with the help of his dad. When we created a flier for our live music event in Shanghai (Zheyuan improvising with experimental electronic musician Laughing Ears), he sent us back revisions to improve our graphic design.

Zheyuan moves around with a kind of deftness. He bumps into something every now and again, but has an uncanny ability to catch himself that could only come from a lifetime of practice (its worth noting that we worked as a team exclusively in environments that were unfamiliar to him). Somewhere like his home or his school, his disability could very well go unnoticed. He can navigate through rooms based on a totally alternate set of sensory skills he can tell if the walls are metal, and at which point they change to wood, based on the reverberations of spoken voices in the room. Once hes been in a place for a few minutes, hes already drawn up a memory map of each object and corner.

That kind of alternate sensory skill extends to his specially-designed smartphone, which uses a computer narrator to orate texts, emails, web browsing, etc. It does so at approximately 300 million words per minute, sentences and whole paragraphs whizzing by in a wild gaussian blur. The Mandarin was unintelligible to our Chinese crew members, and when he switched the device to English, I too was stumped. Zheyuan found it amusing English was his second language, after all, and here he was scoring higher than me on listening comprehension. He had trained to do this.

In between shots, wed return periodically to Zheyuans hotel room for meals or power naps. The hotel was a nice one, with wall-to-wall windows and plenty of natural light. Good feng shui. The only thing that stood out was that some birdbrained interior designer had taken it upon themselves to construct the bathrooms doors and walls out of perfectly clear glass. Using the restroom, there was an unspoken rule that all would avert their eyes from the glass cube of public shame.

It wasnt until the fourth day, when we returned to the room with a full crew of additional day-rate cameramen, that one of them cracked a joke about the rooms obvious design flaw.

Zheyuan turned and asked me in English, The bathroom is made of glass?

I told him it was. He laughed it off and said something about how silly it was. But I knew that he was having to come to terms, in one instant, with the sudden realization of public awkwardness wed been enduring all week. Blindness is more than a physical inconvenience its an exclusion from a communal experience that is enjoyed ungratefully by nearly all living creatures.

When wed wrapped the last scene on day five, we felt that euphoric sense of bliss and relief that comes with crossing any finish line. Zheyuan was beaming. We went straight to a bar to celebrate with beer and chicken wings.

Zheyuan is able to sense the social cues of conversation based on things like the tightened roundness of words spoken with a smile, or the direction someone is facing when telling a story, and the resulting way their voice projects through space. He knows when youre trying to shake his hand, or when you want to help him with his bags. Sharing a communal basket of chicken wings in the center of the table can be a little tricky, but is overall very manageable.

At one point, I asked him if he could sign the vinyl record wed used in the film, as a memento of our time together.

Sign it? he said. I can only sign it in braille!

Id put my foot in my mouth. Even the simple pleasure of autographing something for a fan (which by now, I had become), writing ones own name, was outside of Zheyuans experience.

But when hed said that, hed done it with a sincere smile, laughing about it. This is classic Zheyuan.

The amazing thing about Zheyuan is not that he has mastered the violin. The amazing thing about Zheyuan is that, saddled with a challenge more immense than most people have ever known, he holds himself like someone who is completely unbothered in every moment. More than unbothered, but grateful.

Through one week of intense shooting, outside of his element, being prodded and shuttled around a foreign city by a crew of near-strangers, Zheyuan complained zero times. The only thing he brought forward was productive energy and assurance, even at times when we had little of our own. When he ran out of that, he slept.

It occurred to me that it was this attunement to a greater understanding, and a certainty about ones place in this world, that allows Zheyuan to do what he does. In spite of his challenges, Zheyuan has mastered his outlook on life, and he has mastered himself, in an almost nirvanic, Buddhist kind of way.

Zheyuan is not amazing because he has mastered the violin. He is amazing because he has mastered Zheyuan. His music is an expression of that a symptom of the greater illness of freedom and conviction in ones own inner truth. We hope you enjoy Zheyuans story as much as we enjoyed telling it with him.

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How a Blind Man Mastered this Impossible Violin Piece - RADII

The Iranian regime faces the most serious popular challenge to its tyranny in 40 years. Sparked by a 50 percent hike in fuel prices last month, the uprising has spread to the whole country. Security forces have killed hundreds of protesters, and at one point they were even forced to shut down the internet a sign that the ayatollahs feared for the survival of their regime.

So its worth asking: Did our experts see this coming?

Nope: Most were too busy blasting President Trump. The prestige press and Twitterati spent the last few years railing against the president for trashing the nuclear deal and ratcheting up sanctions actions that had supposedly sent the Iranian people rallying around the flag.

Writing in February, New York Times Tehran correspondent Thomas Erdbrink described a nation standing behind its government. Braving a drenching rain, he wrote, Iranians came out in droves to march up Revolution Street to the capitals Freedom Monument for a huge state-backed rally commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

Erdbrink also described Iranians parading effigies of Trump. But a reader would get little sense of a brutal regimes internal crisis of legitimacy that would explode a few months later.

You could hear a similar story on public radio, where PRIs popular show The Conversation warned this summer that Trumps sanctions would prove catastrophic. The presidents hard measures, the show suggested, would yield the classic rally-around-the-flag effect. Iranians are critical of their governments economic policies, but they also blame Trump for the hardships resulting from sanctions.

The same conventional wisdom traveled all the way down the journalistic totem pole, with Newsweeks David Brennan predicting last month that Trumps treatment of Iran will ensure America remains the Great Satan for years to come.

The very same ideas, often expressed in the very same words, emanated from Washingtons bien pensants at an alarming rate. Colum Lynch, Foreign Policys senior diplomatic correspondent, touted an academic poll in October that found conclusive evidence supposedly showing that Trumps sanctions had increased Iranian hostility toward the United States and boosted the popularity of Iranian hard-liners.

Writing in the same publication a year earlier, Philip Gordon of the Council on Foreign Relations and Robert Malley, a former Team Obama adviser, said the same thing only with more scorn. In Trumps vision, sanctions are a quasi-magical, multipurpose tool, they wrote, which might even lead the Iranian people, facing a collapsing economy, to rise up and sweep aside the Islamic regime. Thats an impressive wish-list. Its also utterly implausible.

Holly Dagres agreed in The Atlantic, judging Trumps policy to have produced meager results and noting that the heavy US pressure on Tehran in recent months has led to a rally-around-the-flag effect as Iranians push back against what many view as a Western imperialism.

Dror Michman, a Brookings Institution visiting fellow, concurred. Trumps sanctions, he wrote, will also have a huge impact on the Iranian president and will strengthen the radicals in Iran who always claimed that the West could not be trusted.

The unimprovably named Marik von Rennenkampf, an analyst appointed by Team Obama to the Pentagon, was even less subtle. Bellicose threats and confrontation lead to a rally-round-the-flag effect, he wrote in July in The Hill, where the Iranian population supports the government in power, regardless of how unpopular or authoritarian it may be.

As they say in Foggy Bottom: Oopsies.

The problem here isnt that so many experts were so wrong even the best thinkers can sometimes miss the mark. The problem is that all of our experts were wrong in exactly the same way, for precisely the same reason.

Blinded by their disdain for Trump, they could credit no narrative that didnt feature the president as the ultimate bumbler. Otherwise, theyd have had to accept two rather obvious points: that the billions paid by Team Obama kept the despised mullahs afloat; and that Trump imposing strict sanctions deprived the mullahs of the resources they need to keep oppressing the Iranian people.

So much was clear to anyone who actually bothered looking at Iran soberly. Sadly, this excludes more or less our entire liberal foreign policy establishment, most of academia and the media.

Its a troubling turn of events, but pay it little mind: As our experts are busy with their own #Resistance, a real resistance is unfolding in Iran.

Liel Liebovitz is a senior writer for Tablet. Twitter: @Liel

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Iran in flames and experts didnt foresee it due to Trump-hate blindness - New York Post

NewsEducationDialogue in the Dark has opened in London, giving visitors a sense of what it's like to not be able to see in a visual world

Wednesday, 4th December 2019, 6:01 am

Im in the pitch black and my heart is racing. Its not the kind of darkness that my eyes can adjust to I cant see a thing, not a single sliver of light.

My cane, which Ive been told to move slowly in front of me from left to right, clangs against what feels like a metal gate. Im seriously worried that Im going to smack into a wall, so I go slowly.

With my free hand, I reach out to check whats nearby, touching what might be a tree trunk. Dogs bark as I make my way through what Im pretty sure is a market stall, rummaging around to find something that feels like an onion. I dont know if its red or white, but I can feel the layers of peel.

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I try to work out what coins I have in my pocket in order to buy a coffee, but Im not sure Ive got the right money. The waitress tells me Ive given her 10p, not the pound coin I owe.

The blind leading people who want to learn

Im not actually outside on a street, but inside a studio space set up to feel like a real neighbourhood. This is Dialogue in the Dark, a new immersive experience in Hackney, east London, which shows people what its like to carry out ordinary daily activities when you cant see.

Of all the senses humans fear losing the most, sight is usually top of the list. Yet there are more than 350,000 people in the UK registered as blind or partially sighted, who every day find their way through a visual world.

Dialogue in the Dark was set up 27 years ago in Germany by Dr. Andreas Heinecke in 1988 who, after helping train a new, blind journalist at the radio station he worked at, realised how little he understood about blindness.

The social enterprise project now exists in over 40 countries across the world, opening for the first time this week in the UK. The idea is to help people understand what its like not to see, but it also provides employment opportunities for blind and partially sighted people.

Dialogue in the Dark

As I pick my way carefully over gravel and feel my way past a parked car, trying not to whack it with my cane, my guide Adara, a 34-year-old who has been blind all his life, helps me find my way with his voice. Its very disorientating at first- is Adara to my left or right, is he behind me? How far away? At one point I bump into him, feeling terrible about it- but of course, hes used to this in the real world.

I ask Adara how people with sight could change their behaviour to make his life easier. The bus drivers could make sure the volume is up on the next stop announcements, he says. He often has to ask them to turn it up. It would also be good if people looked where they were going, he sighs, albeit good naturedly. They just stop in the middle of the street.

When setting up the UK version of Dialogue in the Dark, the three founders sought advice and help from various organisations including The Royal Society for Blind Children about recruiting guides, and about how to make the experience as real as possible. Huseyin Gunduzler, who first had the idea to bring the concept to London after visiting it in Istanbul, says that the UK has some way to go with catering for the differently abled.

Leaving a genuine impression

I wanted this to get people thinking about how they might be able to help design the world better for those who cant see, to help inclusion and to have a more forward-thinking society. The aim is that at some point in the UK we have designed daily life to make it so accessible that we can stop using the word accessible because accessible will become the norm.

Dialogue in the Dark in Hackney has started fairly small- in Istanbul visitors experience going to an airport and getting on a plane - but Gunduzler hopes his exhibition will grow in time.

Dialogue in the Dark has left a genuine impression on me. Experiencing my sight taken away even for just one hour reminds me how much I take it for granted. Its made me better understand that its not that being blind is necessarily a tragedy in itself, but that the world is so badly set up for the differently abled.

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I spent a day experiencing blindness, which made me realise how badly the world is set up - inews

Love Is Blind follows a young lady who cant see her mother or the suicidal man that her psychiatrist assigned to her due to her previous traumatic experiences. The film stars newcomer and lead Shannon Tarbet as Bess, Matthew Broderick as the father, Chlo Sevigny as the mother, Aidan Turner as Russell, and Benjamin Walker as Farmer.

In the interview with director Monty Whitebloom, he explained what precisely selective perception is, the deeper meaning of the story, and how traumatic experiences shape our vision. The questions and answers are below:

What made you want to make a movie about selective perception about a girl that cant see her mother or this suicidal man?Whitebloom: What I felt was the central idea of the whole film was really identity. Its an important subject matter. The whole idea of who somebody is and what you think you are or what you think you see around youis that really real, is that fake, or is there truth to that. The story of Bess with this metaphor of selective blindness is really an interesting concept about not being able to see or not wanting to see whats right in front of youwhether that be good, bad, or indifferent. That is a really interesting jumping-off point to explore the ideas of love, the ideas of companionship, connection, how you meet people and have a better life.

what you think you are or what you think you see around youis that really real, is that fake, or is there truth to that.

What have you learned about selective perception in making this film? Did you have to do some research? Is this real? How does this happen?The selective perception within the film isnt actually a real condition, but there are various forms of blindness where you get face blindness. The most obvious cases, cant recognize their name or dont know who they are. This is called face blindness, so face recognition is a real condition, even though weve met people, we cant remember who they are. I did quite a lot of research into that. The whole idea of sight of how and what one sees is really interesting thing. Obviously, sight and the idea of seeing is believing, in what you see and how important it was. I was always fascinated by that subject matter. I could relate to that experience, not quite selective; but its certainly the idea of how important sight is and when you cant see something. Obviously, Bess is dealing with a mental condition more than a physical one.

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Selective Perception Demonstrated in Love Is Blind With Director Monty Whitebloom - Film Threat

Long-term exposure to air pollution has been linked to glaucoma, a debilitating eye condition that can cause blindness.

These were the findings of a major study published in Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science and undertaken by scientists at University College London which is the latest research to reveal how exposure to air pollution is affecting almost every part of the human body.

In England, about 480,000 people have chronic open-angle glaucoma. It most commonly results from a build-up of pressure from fluid in the eye, causing damage to the optic nerve that connects the eye to the brain. Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease.

The findings were based on 111,370 participants of the UK Biobank study cohort, who underwent eye tests from 2006 to 2010 at sites across Britain.

The participants were asked whether they had glaucoma, and they underwent eye examinations, which was then measured against where they live.

The results revealed that in neighbourhoods with higher amounts of fine particulate matter pollution were at least 6% more likely to report having glaucoma than those in the least-polluted areas.

The research team found that people in the most-polluted 25% of areas were 18% more likely to report having glaucoma than those in the least-polluted quartile, and they were also significantly more likely to have a thinner retina, one of the changes typical of glaucoma progression.

Eye pressure was not associated with air pollution, which the researchers say suggests that air pollution may affect glaucoma risk through a different mechanism.

Professor Paul Foster (UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital) said: We have found yet another reason why air pollution should be addressed as a public health priority, and that avoiding sources of air pollution could be worthwhile for eye health alongside other health concerns.

While we cannot confirm yet that the association is causal, we hope to continue our research to determine whether air pollution does indeed cause glaucoma, and to find out if there are any avoidance strategies that could help people reduce their exposure to air pollution to mitigate the health risks.

Photo Credit Pixabay

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27.11.2019 Air pollution linked to debilitating eye condition and blindness - AirQualityNews