News - newspaper articles: April 2005 Archives

The CBC Radio One network in Canada has an interesting story online about a blind woman who can now "see". The story is accessible online in text, MP3, Ogg, and other formats. 2005.05.03: Additions to this story placed below.

Imagine being blind for 25 years, and suddenly being able to see again - using your ears. It sounds impossible, but that's exactly what happened to Pat Fletcher. For the past few years, she's been experimenting with a revolutionary new technology that allows her to see through sound. Using a simple computer program that she downloaded from the Internet, called "The vOICe", which translates visual images into soundscapes, Pat's brain is able to translate those sounds back into images.

As a Big Red alumna, I'm disappointed that the current Cornell administration: (1) decided to raze a 100 year old forest for a parking lot; (2) overrode the wishes of the town of Ithaca to preserve the area; and (3) arrested students protesting the creation of the parking lot. See story from the Ithaca Journal here or the AP newsfeed here. My own fond memories of student protests in the early 1990s did not include arrests, the new administration is using police force instead of the gentle art of conciliation and negotiation. I hope other alumnae and alumni consider writing to President Jeffrey Lehman.

From John Sypal on the Japan Photography list:

Last night I went to Onishi Mitsugu's slide talk at the Nikon salon in Shinjuku (Shinjuku L Tower, 28F) [Tokyo].

Onishi sensei is having an exhibition of his recent work there through this week, and I highly, Highly going there to see it. He works in the shitamachi districts of Tokyo with a D70, and the work is amazing...

The New York Times > International > Asia Pacific > The Saturday Profile: Born to Be a Foreigner in Her Motherland:

The New York Times has an article on a woman who was born in Japan to a Japanese mother and Korean father, who was denied a supervisory position at her government job because she was not Japanese. This is a thorny issue in Japan because the issues surrounding naturalization are very complex, especially in regards to the resident Korean (在日コリアン) population.