(From Deb)
Hello everyone!
Hello everyone!
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Pasta Dinner Benefit for Rene
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Saturday, October 11, 2008
110-year-old woman recalls 9 decades of voting
Associated Press
October 11, 2008
TOLLAND, Conn. - When you're 110, memories are fuzzy. But Irma Schmidt's clear blue eyes light up when she describes the first time she voted 88 years ago.
Schmidt remembers marching to her hometown fire station in Ohio with her grandmother, mother and aunt to proudly cast their first votes for the state's favorite son, Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.
Schmidt, who now lives in Tolland, says she hasn't missed a November election since.
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who honored Schmidt in 2005 for being one of the oldest living women in Connecticut to have cast a ballot in 1920, the first year of full voting rights for women, believes Schmidt is the oldest living active voter in Connecticut. Gertrude Noone, a 109-year-old from Milford, is close behind.
During a recent interview at Woodlake at Tolland, the nursing home where she has lived since 2004, Schmidt remembers voting for Harding and for Franklin D. Roosevelt, but can't recall after that.
"Voting was always something you looked forward to," said Schmidt, whose 110th birthday was celebrated Oct 7.
A longtime unaffiliated voter, Schmidt told The Hartford Courant 10 years ago that she had voted for Truman, Kennedy, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Bysiewicz recalls Schmidt saying that she voted for John Kerry in 2004.
It's unclear whether Schmidt will vote for president for a 23rd time. The nursing home staff says she joins them with the morning paper and talks about the news every day. But Schmidt couldn't answer when asked if she'd vote this year.
Schmidt raised a family in New Brunswick, N.J., with her husband, George Schmidt, a political scientist and historian at Douglass College, the women's college at Rutgers. Irma Schmidt taught school during World War II and for decades taught piano in their home.
"All those recitals," Schmidt remembered.
Her daughter, Marianne Simonoff of Tolland, recalls the lively political discussions that filled their home.
"My father was the political scientist. She felt it was a duty to vote," Simonoff, 81, said.
Remarkably, there are 1,730 registered voters in Connecticut who are over 100 years old, Bysiewicz said. The state allows supervised voting of elderly and disabled residents in nursing homes as long as registrars from both major political parties are present to make sure there is no improper influence over the elderly voters.
Bysiewicz recalls being charmed in 2005 by Schmidt's smile and sharp wit.
"I'm delighted to hear that Irma is still with us," she said.
From courant.com
October 11, 2008
TOLLAND, Conn. - When you're 110, memories are fuzzy. But Irma Schmidt's clear blue eyes light up when she describes the first time she voted 88 years ago.
Schmidt remembers marching to her hometown fire station in Ohio with her grandmother, mother and aunt to proudly cast their first votes for the state's favorite son, Republican presidential candidate Warren G. Harding.
Schmidt, who now lives in Tolland, says she hasn't missed a November election since.
Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz, who honored Schmidt in 2005 for being one of the oldest living women in Connecticut to have cast a ballot in 1920, the first year of full voting rights for women, believes Schmidt is the oldest living active voter in Connecticut. Gertrude Noone, a 109-year-old from Milford, is close behind.
During a recent interview at Woodlake at Tolland, the nursing home where she has lived since 2004, Schmidt remembers voting for Harding and for Franklin D. Roosevelt, but can't recall after that.
"Voting was always something you looked forward to," said Schmidt, whose 110th birthday was celebrated Oct 7.
A longtime unaffiliated voter, Schmidt told The Hartford Courant 10 years ago that she had voted for Truman, Kennedy, Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Bysiewicz recalls Schmidt saying that she voted for John Kerry in 2004.
It's unclear whether Schmidt will vote for president for a 23rd time. The nursing home staff says she joins them with the morning paper and talks about the news every day. But Schmidt couldn't answer when asked if she'd vote this year.
Schmidt raised a family in New Brunswick, N.J., with her husband, George Schmidt, a political scientist and historian at Douglass College, the women's college at Rutgers. Irma Schmidt taught school during World War II and for decades taught piano in their home.
"All those recitals," Schmidt remembered.
Her daughter, Marianne Simonoff of Tolland, recalls the lively political discussions that filled their home.
"My father was the political scientist. She felt it was a duty to vote," Simonoff, 81, said.
Remarkably, there are 1,730 registered voters in Connecticut who are over 100 years old, Bysiewicz said. The state allows supervised voting of elderly and disabled residents in nursing homes as long as registrars from both major political parties are present to make sure there is no improper influence over the elderly voters.
Bysiewicz recalls being charmed in 2005 by Schmidt's smile and sharp wit.
"I'm delighted to hear that Irma is still with us," she said.
From courant.com
Friday, October 10, 2008
Mind Reading Video Game Unveiled in Tokyo
From FoxNews.comThe next era of video games has begun.
Japanese game publisher Square Enix and American brain-wave-helmet maker NeuroSky showed off their latest joint creation at the Tokyo Game Show Thursday — a game that the player controls with his own thoughts instead of a keyboard or joysticks.
Called "Judecca," the PC game is a zombie-killing first-person-shooter, though it's really just a proof of concept and not something that's going to be available to consumers anytime soon.
At the Tokyo Game Show, a young player sported NeuroSky's Mindset device, which looks like a pair of headphones with a small boom microphone extending forward to touch his forehead.
The "microphone" is actually a sensor that detects electrical activity in the player's left frontal lobe. In "Judecca," the player has to attain a state of relaxation before he can accurately "see" zombies or walk through walls.
NeuroSky hopes to start selling its Mindset headset in the U.S. next spring for between $50 and $80 per unit.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Water rescue off Milford coast
From WTNH.com
by News Channel 8's Jamie MuroPosted Oct. 8, 2008Updated 9:35 PM
Milford (WTNH) -- Warm days are slipping away like low tide. So, many boaters are taking every opportunity to be out on the water as much as possible, but one fisherman's season might be over.
"We had initial reports from land that the boat had capsized and there was a person in the water," said Capt. Christopher Zack.
The boat was located on the West side of Charles Island. An exclusive look from Chopper 8 shows the bow of the 21-foot Seacraft barely above water. The unidentified operator had been fishing, when he suddenly noticed something was very wrong.
"Said he was coming back from the Branford area, was fishing, hit some type of log, and the boat immediately started taking on water," Capt. Zack said. "Very soon after that, he was in the water, and the boat capsized."
The boater made a 9-1-1 call and it didn't take long for Milford's Rescue crews to find the man and pull him to safety. Thankfully, he was wearing a life jacket.
"He did the right thing, stayed with his boat, stayed with his vessel," said Capt. Zack.
As the Coast Guard was towing in his now severely water-logged boat, rescue crews were transporting the operator to Milford Hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.
Firefighters say they are relieved the rescue happened when there was still daylight. "Two more hours, it would have been dark, it would have been a different story," Capt. Zack said.
by News Channel 8's Jamie MuroPosted Oct. 8, 2008Updated 9:35 PM
Milford (WTNH) -- Warm days are slipping away like low tide. So, many boaters are taking every opportunity to be out on the water as much as possible, but one fisherman's season might be over.
"We had initial reports from land that the boat had capsized and there was a person in the water," said Capt. Christopher Zack.
The boat was located on the West side of Charles Island. An exclusive look from Chopper 8 shows the bow of the 21-foot Seacraft barely above water. The unidentified operator had been fishing, when he suddenly noticed something was very wrong.
"Said he was coming back from the Branford area, was fishing, hit some type of log, and the boat immediately started taking on water," Capt. Zack said. "Very soon after that, he was in the water, and the boat capsized."
The boater made a 9-1-1 call and it didn't take long for Milford's Rescue crews to find the man and pull him to safety. Thankfully, he was wearing a life jacket.
"He did the right thing, stayed with his boat, stayed with his vessel," said Capt. Zack.
As the Coast Guard was towing in his now severely water-logged boat, rescue crews were transporting the operator to Milford Hospital, where he was treated for hypothermia.
Firefighters say they are relieved the rescue happened when there was still daylight. "Two more hours, it would have been dark, it would have been a different story," Capt. Zack said.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Mercy Medical Center to remove window where some see Virgin Mary
by The Republican Newsroom
By JIM KINNEY
jkinney@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - Mercy Medical Center will gingerly remove a window where some see an image of the Virgin Mary and put in safekeeping where it can be studied.
The hospital is having a museum-quality crate built to house the window after it is removed, said Mark M. Fulco, senior vice president for strategy and marketing at Mercy.
"We are planning for it to be within the next week," Fulco said. "We are a very busy hospital and medical center, and our primary focus is on caring for patients."
The vision placed Mercy, a Catholic institution affiliated with the Sisters of Providence, in a quandary. The window has a bad seal and would have been replaced, along with every other window in the medical office building, before a Springfield man discerned the image while waiting for a friend to finish a medical appointment Sept. 30. Mercy wants to move forward with the replacement project and get the now-vacant office where the window is located ready for a new doctor.
But people still gather in the parking lot.
"I understand it might be disruptive for the hospital to have it here," said Barbara A. Grealis of Chicopee.
She and her husband George E. Grealis were in a small crowd gathered below the window Wednesday morning before Mercy had announced its decision.
Grealis said she hopes Mercy places the window in a church or chapel where people can still come and pray with the image.
"Maybe something non-denominational so all people can come," she said.
Rosa M. Ruiz of Chicopee said she'd visited the window twice a day since it was discovered more than a week ago on Sept. 30.
"I know its the mother of Jesus," she said, a set of rosary beads in her hands. "They should leave her just where she is.
But that's unlikely that the window will ever be an object of veneration in a Catholic Church sanctuary, said the Rev. Harvey D. Egan, a Jesuit priest and a professor of theology at Boston College. The Catholic Church is very conservative when it comes to authenticating miracles.
For example, Egan said the Church has not made an official decision on a vision at Medjogorge in what is now Bosnia that occurred in 1981.
Egan said there are also thousands of images of Mary similar to the one at Mercy spotted each year around the world, often in windows, sometimes in the patterns of baked bread.
"Given the troubles of our age, and now with the economy, people are looking for signs," Egan said. "But the real signs for me are: Are the people praying? Are they attending Sunday Mass? Are they loving their neighbor? Are the receiving the sacraments? That's where it's at."
Fulco said Mercy is acting with the permission of Springfield Catholic Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell.
Mercy is removing the window with the full knowledge that, as careful as workers will be, it might be damaged. Engineers have told the hospital that the image is the result of mineral deposits between the two panes of glass. The hospital knows the seal is bad. Any jostling might change the image or make it disappear, Fulco said.
"If that occurs, we have more answers, don't we?" Fulco said. "Nothing is certain about what will happen. I think were taking the right step."
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Gene discovery may help hunt for blindness cure
From Yahoo News
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered a gene mutation linked to the most common cause of blindness in the developed world, holding out the prospect of better treatments and perhaps eventually a cure.
British scientists said on Tuesday they had found six variants within the gene called Serping1 that were associated with age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
"Our findings add to the growing understanding of the genetics of age-related macular degeneration, which should ultimately lead to novel treatments for this common and devastating disease," Sarah Ennis and Andrew Lotery of the University of Southampton reported in the Lancet journal.
AMD -- which involves damage to the delicate cells of the macula, a region at the center of the retina -- is increasingly common as people get older.
Around 90 percent of patients diagnosed with AMD have the so-called dry version, for which no treatment is currently available.
The rest have wet AMD, which occurs when tiny new blood vessels grow between the retina and the back of the eye. This form of the disease can be treated with modern drugs.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Dominic Evans
"Our findings add to the growing understanding of the genetics of age-related macular degeneration, which should ultimately lead to novel treatments for this common and devastating disease," Sarah Ennis and Andrew Lotery of the University of Southampton reported in the Lancet journal.
AMD -- which involves damage to the delicate cells of the macula, a region at the center of the retina -- is increasingly common as people get older.
Around 90 percent of patients diagnosed with AMD have the so-called dry version, for which no treatment is currently available.
The rest have wet AMD, which occurs when tiny new blood vessels grow between the retina and the back of the eye. This form of the disease can be treated with modern drugs.
(Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Dominic Evans
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