Robriefs 4.30.2008

Robrief no. 1: Railway industry makes a big comeback in the new era of high gas prices
Few decades ago, railroad trains used to dominate the entire country in transporting tonnage of goods and materials on several hundred thousands miles of tracks, eventually declined due to cheap gas prices, expanding highway interstates and economic growths in places that doesn’t have railroad tracks. In this news report, railway industry in the United States is facing a resurgence business growth unseen in many years, thanks to the ever-rising prices of gas, hitting most of the big-rig common carriers nationally. A single railroad car can carry tonnage of goods that would take four 18-wheeler carriers. Some railway companies are even hiring more peoples in some of the biggest and busiest railroad yards in the country. This may be a great opportunity for the deaf in some of the hard-hit states to get into.

Robrief no. 2: Last remains of the Czar of Russia’s family finally identified
This has been a stimulating interest of mine for several years: the tragic murder of the Romanov family of Czar Nicholas II of Russia by the Bolsheviks in 1918. For many years, rumors and speculations have been circulating around the fact that only two children survived the Bolshevik execution and fled to Europe or elsewhere with their supporters, awaiting the day of return to power. However, DNA tests were performed on the bones on the last two Romanov children in a U.S. laboratory confirmed the authenticity of these Romanov children, finally putting to rest any further claim from the pretenders (and con artists). Especially the false Anastasias out there. It is ironic that a similar situation that happened less than four centuries before, Russia underwent a period called the Time of Troubles that brought out the False Dmitris, pretenders claiming to be the only surviving son of Czar Ivan the Terrible and seize the throne, resulting in chaos, war and destruction across Russia and eastern Europe, but eventually come to an end by the establishment of a Russo-German royal dynasty known as the Romanovs.

Robrief no. 3: Microsoft still stalking after Yahoo!?
Oh, man. GIVE IT UP ALREADY, MICROSOFT! Leave Yahoo! alone. They ain’t interesting. Microsoft is practically begging for stalking charges. Sheesh. Well, Microsucks anyway.

Robrief no 4: iPhone for the deaf for $40 a month under new TAP deal, thanks to Apple & AT/T
While I do not have an iPhone (and probably cannot afford one), this is the very best news I’d seen in a long time, especially for the deaf people who really wanted an affordable, total Internet/email/texting-accessible cost plan with their iPhones. Here’s one caveat: in order to qualify for a TAP-based iPhone, you must provide a proof of documentation from an audiologist or a doctor confirming that you are indeed deaf. Heh. That’s a chuckle there.

However, if I wanted an iPhone now, I would rather wait until late June when the 3G version of iPhone to come out.

Robriefs 4.24.2008

Robrief no. 1: DeafNation Expo in Columbus, Ohio on April 26th
DeafNation Expo will be held at Franklin County Veteran Memorial (north exhibition hall) in Columbus, Ohio this Saturday, April 26th. It will be all day event and with FREE admission. Come one, come all. Last year’s DeafNation Expo in Columbus was a great success with a beautiful, clear blue sky weather outside. I hope the weather may be as nice as last year but weather reports forecast a chance of showers and thunderstorm this Saturday. Dang. But still, if you all who live in Ohio and the neighboring states, come on down. There’s this big, fabulous Spaghetti Warehouse restaurant just a short walk from the DN Expo.

UPDATE 4.26.2008: The DeafNation Expo in Columbus was a great success. Approximately about 1000 people attended (that’s my guess based on my observation there, sent an email to DeafNation organizers to inquire about crowd size). Two best highlights of the Columbus DNExpo were the exhibition & demo of the new Viable video-phone and the hilarious performance of the ASL comedian John Maucere (the ADA-restrooms skit was a riot).

Robrief no. 2: Arby’s bought Wendy’s for 2.34 billion dollars
I think it’s a great move, about time: the owner, Triarc Companies Inc., of Arby’s finally bought Wendy’s for a reported $2.34 billion. However, the family of the late Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy’s, didn’t like the idea of the deal. Wendy’s has been falling into hard financial times and with a string of unsatisfied quarterly results, it’s been trying to turn things around but its recent marketing and advertising efforts have been unimpressive. To me, it’s always the same old thing. Let’s see how the merging of Arby’s and Wendy’s work out, especially its menus and I don’t think Triarc Cos. is going to convert Wendy’s restaurants into Arby’s.

Robrief no. 3: Dumb Move of the Month: China sues CNN over Jack Cafferty
Two Chinese women, one in America and one in China, filed a $1.3 billion lawsuit against CNN over Jack Cafferty’s opinionated comment against the government of China. Hello?!

Jack Cafferty spoke up what was a very simple, truthful fact: China have exported poisoned foods and lead-covered toys or materials to the US without ever done a thorough health and safety inspection regime and allowed such poisoned materials go through unchecked and get into the hands of the American public (and some of their pets). To say that China, especially its vast, one-party government, is not above criticism is clearly arrogant and utterly stupid.

The United States of America and the American people have been routinely insulted, criticized, slammed or bashed by non-American persons in other countries for every imaginable “wrong” in the world. Maybe we Americans should file lawsuits against everyone in the world who continually slams the United States and the American people! Good going, Liang Shubing and Li Lilan. Maybe future historians would say the real cause of World War III was lawsuits.

It’s time to take a refresher course on the Five Principles of Free Speech: On planet Earth, no one, no government, no religion, no corporation, no media, etc., is above criticism and immune from free speech. Period.

Robrief no. 4: Student can wear anti-gay t-shirt, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit rule
It is the right decision for this US court ruling over a student’s right to express her belief in a T-shirt, especially wearing it the day after her public high school had a promotion of gay rights event. I’ve been very concerned about the unscrupulous promotion of homosexuality inside public schools, especially in the elementary to high school level. I personally believe that a person’s sexual orientation is a private, personal matter and should be strictly limited within the confine of close friends and/or family members (those who are made aware of same-sex orientation), outside of a public school. Public schools have no business of promoting same-sexuality or heterosexuality issues for a specific group of people, except for educational awareness to prevent the spreads of STD, AIDS, or unwanted pregnancy.

The issue is over Ms. Nuxoll’s case of her religious beliefs being challenged by a public high school administration that had promoted a gays-right event encouraging students the choice to stay silence to support gay peers. There are, however, people who are uncomfortable with homosexual conduct in public just as there are people who are uncomfortable with the conduct of prejudice against gays, both are equally within their right to express their beliefs (or disappointments) but no administrator or official should have a say which right or belief is more important and respectful and expect everyone to fall in line. In China, a Chinese is not even allowed to criticize the Communist Party of China! In Pakistan or Nigeria, Christian Pakistanis or Nigerians are being harassed, assaulted and/or murdered on a daily basis by the Islamists. The same is true in Darfur of the Sudan (Christian and tribal Sudanese peoples being wiped out by the Arabic-Islamic militants backed by the government of the Sudan).

It is important to remember that prejudice against gays and lesbians and Christians did not began from any religion, even Christianity, It began from the lack of respect for common sense, human decency and decorum.

Twenty Years Ago… Akira!

Twenty years ago, to this month, the very first manga to be published and released for the American audience by Epic Comics, the creator-owned imprint for Marvel Comics Group, was none than other AKIRA. The manga series caught the US readers by firestorm and won rave reviews for its fantastic hi-tech, cyberpunk story and beautifully rendered art by Katsuhiro Otomo. The first American manga was on this cover seen below:

In the story that took place in a glittering, high skyline of Neo-Tokyo, more than 30 years after World War III which was brought about by a mysterious nuclear detonation of Tokyo. A gang of high school punks speeding on an abandoned highway with their motorbikes, when one of the bikers, Tetsuo, nearly ran over a small boy, then his motorbike exploded unexpectedly, nearly killing him. Kaneda, the gang leader, came to his best friend’s rescue and was shocked to find the small boy has the face of an old man, with no. 26 tattooed on his hand, then suddenly disappeared into thin air. Then Tetsuo was secretly taken away by the military.

And the story goes . . . something about a government cover-up of a deep top secret “sleeping giant” that was responsible for the nuclear detonation and Kaneda was determined to find out what has become of his best friend Tetsuo . . .

The Akira manga series went on for 38 issues, in full color, under Epic Comics. Actually, “Akira” was originally published in 1982 in Japan and concluded in 1990, totaling over 2000 pages and in six volumes. After the Epic Comics folded, the Dark Horse Comics bought the rights from Marvel and later re-printed the manga series in black-n-white trade paperbacks.

However, before the 1st year run of Akira series came in the US, Otomo produced and directed the animated film of “Akira”, which was released in Japan in the summer of 1988, winning wider acclaims and with the highest attendance ever at the time. Then, with much risks, Otomo’s animation studio and its distributor went ahead and release the Akira animation to the US audience in selected theaters less than a year later. It was an instant hit and became a favorite classic. It was this Akira film that actually became the benchmark for all the adult-oriented animation features released theatrically in the U.S. since then. This blogger, dark knight, has a nice blog about the greatest anime film ever.

The film can be seen on DVD in a remastered version (the Blu-Ray version have yet to come out). It is really that good and highly watchable.

Currently, there is a Hollywood production of a two-part live action version of “Akira”, slated for next year’s release and it may star Leonardo diCaprio, who’s also one of the Akira producers, in the Kaneda character role. The movie will be an Americanized version and will take place in New Manhattan instead of Neo-Tokyo. It should be interesting to see how that will goes. Historically, some Americanized versions of Japanese animation films didn’t translated well but, maybe, this time, no more? We shall see.

Still, hard to believe that I was an 18 years old high-schooler enjoying this fantastic manga series, Akira, twenty years ago.

Robriefs 4.21.2008

Robrief no. 1: “Sweet Nothing In My Ear” movie was okay
The CBS Hallmark movie last night, “Sweet Nothing In My Ear”, which starred the amazing Marlee Matlin and centered around the controversy of cochlear implant was, in my opinion, okay. Not impressive enough to compel me to stay really interested in the movie throughout. Cochlear implant is such a touchy, controversial subject for the Deaf community and I empathize with them somewhat. I don’t like the idea of having a plastic pad on my head with wire sticking out to a hearing aid, like a Borg. While I applauded Matlin’s performance in the movie and for bringing awareness of the Deaf community’s feelings about CI to a wider audience, the movie doesn’t provide enough deaf-centric subjects like why ASL is important to the deaf culture and the history of the deaf people in a melodramatic fashion, but then, the movie was only two hours long and the emphasis was all about the CI issue.

Maybe a bit too much of the subject of CI, with the deaf as the bystander between a rock and a hard place, as Marlee’s character demonstrated. Should have been better with a more convincing, representative statement of the Deaf community’s issue against CI. It would make for a compelling entertainment, even for a Hallmark movie.

At the same time, I had to switch back and forth the movie with the VHI channel on awesomely wild Rock of Love 2 Reunion show (Bret got the right rocker babe) and the awesome 1979 movie, “North Dallas Forty” on ESPN Classic. Here’s hoping Marlee wins “Dancing with the Stars” show all the way. As Bret so fond of saying this, “Awesome!”

Robrief no. 2: Observational Matters – Why gas prices are so high?
For the last few years, while I was driving on the highways and roadways, usually from home to work and back to home after work, I have been observing all the moving vehicles around me, with all sort of drivers inside. There are many different types of people driving different types of vehicles for different reasons. I’m assuming most of them only drive to work, then homeward after a long, hard day at work. But not always. There are people driving on the highways and roadways who aren’t going to or from work, as I’ve learned by talking with other people over the years, it seems that half of all the drivers on the roads are only driving their vehicles most of the times for three separate reasons and these will surprise you:

• Some are just cruising around or speeding for fun because they’re bored at home or work.
• Some wanted to show off their “pimp-up” or flashy, sporty vehicles around, with music blaring (why? Because they’re bored and wanted to show off!)
• Some actually work on the roads or drive around, going from one short stop onto the next, then onward to other places (not just delivering something but just to make a stop for something).

These kind of drivers are consuming a great amount of gas daily for their driving needs. I’m sure either some goes to high school, college or business school or they do not actually work (or looking for work), but my conversations with other people I work with or associated with outside work revealed otherwise. These “bored” or mobile at-work drivers demanded lot of fuels on a daily basis. They are wasting essential fuels that should have been reserved for a wide majority of drivers who actually goes to work and come home afterward, they wouldn’t have to deal with paying too much money for gas so other “slacker” drivers out there wanted to cruise around, show-off or working mobile for reasons unknown (what are they really up to?). They are heavy wasters.

Then there are heavy users of gas. We are talking about the vehicles that consume excessive amounts of gas and exhaust its energies sooner than later on a daily basis. Heavy vehicles with low mileage-per-gallon: SUVs, big pick-up trucks, big vans, dumpster trucks (diesel or unleaded, gas is gas), trucks that haul landscaping or construction equipments around, etc. Then, there are the very heavy users of gas: the less-than-load (short haul freight) and the long-haul big rigs.

These heavy and very heavy users of gas ride their vehicles either on a daily or an hourly basis! These vehicles do really consume more and more of gas everyday – drive fast while hauling something heavy or very heavy, make quick-short stops, and can be left idle when not in used.

Follow my example: when you’re driving to work or to home, take a practical observation of other drivers and their vehicles on the roads every day and you will get a better picture of life on the move for everyone eventually. It took me years to pick up something interesting, bizarre, irksome or habitually annoying from other drivers and the vehicles they’re riding and keeping tabs on the rising prices of gas.

And you’re still wondering why gas prices are so high? Take a good look at all kind of drivers and vehicles (especially the heavy ones) around you while you’re driving to and from work (and be sure to keep your eyes on the road as well!). Every day.

Robrief no. 3: Superquake prophecy in the Midwest back in 1973?
Few days ago, there was a major earthquake north of the Madrid fault in the Midwest: the Illinois quake of 2008. It was felt as far as in Columbus, OH or Atlanta, Ga. But I have never felt such a thing at the time, though it apparently explained the freakish behaviors of my cat the night before. My paternal grandmother and her family was near San Francisco when the great quake of 1906 struck, she was a teenager at the time. However, as I just learned this afternoon, there was a Superquake prophecy made in 1973 by Chuck Youngbrandt, predicting that Chicago and all the areas around the region would be destroyed by what it would be the largest, most destructive superquake ever. An excerpt of the prophecy below:

1973, Open Vision Lasting Almost A Week, Accidental Bombing Of Four American Cities & The Chicago Earthquake & The Invasion Of The United States — In 1973 the Lord gave me a vision of a massive earthquake striking the Midwest U.S.A. centering in Chicago, Illinois on some day in July in the future. This destructive earthquake led directly to an all out nuclear attack on the U.S. by Russia, China with Japan and the start of World War III. In that vision I saw a huge jet airliner on a glide path to land at O’Hare Airport north of Chicago [after the quake] when Lake Michigan roared out of its lake bed and swept over the city in what was a wall of water 100 feet+ high. The huge jet airliner turned on its jets full blast and black smoke poured out of its engines as the pilot frantically worked to pull up and away from the wall of water that was destroying Chicago.

I was puzzled at the time [July 2, 1973] because the aircraft I saw was a massive two stories high, unlike anything I’d ever seen. [In 1973 the Jumbo Jet had not yet arrived, it was being designed].

While the Jumbo Jet [747-400] with its two story bubble in the front of the aircraft looks “like” what I saw in 1973, this new airliner, the A3XX, shown in the June 24, 2000 news clip [The Dallas Morning News, Saturday, June 24th 2000, 2F, Airbus gives green light to super jumbo jetliner] “is” 2 stories high and looks more like what I saw in the 1973 vision.

I don’t know what you would make of this. I must say that Chuck Youngbrandt might have an overactive imagination at the time or was he really given the prophetic visions from God, warning of such a terrible, tragic thing to come?

Robrief no. 4: Food rationing in America? Yep, it happened before, it can happen again.
In World War II, many Americans went through a period of food rationing while the war was on. However, the days of America being the breadbasket of the world could be numbering. Maybe it will help eliminate obesity among overweight Americans? Hopefully. I have actually cut back on some foods that are too convenient, fattening or luxurious and focus only on the basis essences for the time being. Perhaps food rationing in America may be the best thing to happen yet? Who knows?

Robriefs 4.11.2008

Robrief no. 1: From Me to We?
Can you say “gorebal warming”, boys and girls? Good! Al Gore unveiled a new logo to promote worldwide efforts to prevent gorebal… er.. global warming. The “we” logo flips to “me” and vice versa. How convenient.

Robrief no. 2: Franz Herzog von Bayern could become the new King of England?
If Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of England, succeed in getting the 1701 Act of Settlement repealed, the Protestant Queen Elizabeth II could step down from the royal throne and the Catholic Franz Herzog von Bayern, the Duke of Bavaria, the rightful claimant to the Stuart lineage, could become the next King of England and Scotland. At least in theory. However, the current Duke of Bavaria, belonging to the ancient House of Wittelsbach, does not have male heirs and neither does his brother, Prince Max. So, in all likelihoods, the royal throne of United Kingdom could fall upon Max’s eldest daughter, Princess Sophie of Liechtenstein. Nonetheless, it would have to be up to the Parliament.

A side note: last Saturday, I rented and watched a really interesting British-produced movie, “To Kill A King“, a period piece about the English Civil War and Oliver Cromwell. Being a history buff, the movie presented somewhat a favorable Catholic perspective of the period by making the Protestant transformation of England from a monarchy to a republic look like a stupid mistake, the execution of King Charles I by making him a saintly martyr and turned Cromwell into a coldly-calculating tyrant. On the contrary, Cromwell, despite his flaws, didn’t wanted to abolish the monarchy entirely and had to become the ruler of England in order to keep the peace between England, Ireland and Scotland, though with much problems arose from his actions years earlier. That being said, Britain rated Oliver Cromwell as the tenth greatest Briton out of 100.

Robrief no. 3: Really dumb, Target. Really dumb.
Target fired a security guard for just stopping a young teen girl from stealing booze. He should have gotten a raise and a community recognition for doing something to stop a circumstance that would have cause much pains for the families later on. Who are the asshats running Target corp for making that stupid policy and so forth? Is Target encouraging everyone to shoplift at all Target stores? Good job, Dean Babock! Shame on you, Target!

McCain-Rice Ticket?

Not surprising to me that Condi Rice, the current Secretary of State, has been seriously courting Senator John McCain recently to be his potential Vice President, at least according to what Dan Senor speculated at this point now. I knew there are very few people on McCain’s short-list to be his Veep, given that McCain wanted someone much younger and quite capable to take over the role of President should a crisis arise. McCain, however, wanted to extend his interests in someone outside the Beltsway politics, someone totally unfamiliar to most Americans, if he and his campaign are willing to educate the American public about an unknown for the next couple of months prior to the Republican National Convention this late summer. If he chooses someone more familiar and experienced in governance or high-level policy affairs, whether in the state or federal level (or both), it would be less of a giant effort for the McCain campaign.

Condi Rice is, perhaps, the most logical choice to be McCain’s VP candidate. She’s smart, very experienced, have extensive knowledge of foreign policy and military affairs (such as the Surge in Iraq, as I’d learned in late 2006, was actually an inspiration of her “Stop, Clear, Rebuild” idea, triumphantly defeating the ex-Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld’s approach), and have broad relationships with high-level diplomats, power-brokers and foreign leaders. What’s more, she has Colin Powell and the former President George H. W. Bush as her significant mentors and have the personal confidence and guidance of the current President George W. Bush.

On the other hand, Condi Rice could be a wrong choice for McCain because he may not be keen to having any Bush holdover in his future administration and may wanted to remind the American people that his future administration is not going all about Bush’s policies for the future, other than a willingness to support the Bush Doctrine. McCain may also wanted someone who can be of sound economic and domestic governance backgrounds and to keep the skeptical conservatives to his side, so to maintain the leverage with the Republican supporters and mainstreamed voters across the nation and not lose significant party and support bases.

There are four candidates I have in mind to be potential McCain’s Veep, other than Condi Rice: George Allen Jr., Joseph Lieberman, Colin Powell or Mitt Romney. But these are just speculations for now. Mike Huckabee? Forget about that.

UPDATE 4.7.2008: Rob Portman of Ohio is on the list of McCain’s interested Veep picks. Seem like a very good choice, if the McCain campaign is willing to address “Portman who?” affair to the American public. We’ll see.

The End of Deaf Culture?

UPDATE 4.2.2008: This is a repost from yesterday’s blog that didn’t make DeafRead. See important note below after this blog.

Before I graduate from Gallaudet in 1995, I participated in the MacDougall Creative Writing contest for the English Department by submitting a short story about the future of genetic-engineering and the end of deaf culture. Although, I did not win any award but received a honorable mention. That’s alright by me. I no longer have a copy of that short story I typed out for several hours one late night and submitted to the English department in time before the deadline (some years later, I inquired whether they still have it or not. They claimed they had either lost or misplaced it).

It was a spur of the moment short story about a possible future, with a wildly concocted fantasy about an all-powerful government enforcing gene-engineering laws, using military squadrons to crack down, capture and round-up rebellious Deaf fighters and supporters, bagging them over their heads and sent them, on a “rendition”-like transport, to a Gitmo-like camp where they would be subjected to harsh interrogation for intel-gathering or process in preparation for the forced gene-engineering program to “cure” them of their deafness. Bear with me, I tried my best to recall these vague details of that short story I came up with in the spring of 1995.

There are two characters in it – one deaf man, a resistance fighter-leader, and a male government interrogator who know sign language. Both men waged a tough campaign against each other in a dimly-lit interrogation room, until one of them finally broke down in tears. I’m afraid that the exact details are not clear toward the end, so I suppose the twist was one was revealed to be a hearing who choose to become deaf and the other used to be deaf, as far as I can best recall. I leave that to your own conclusive interpretation.

I admitted it’s my fault that I didn’t make another copy for me to keep, but – *shrugs*. Only, I just wish the English Department didn’t bother to misplace my short story elsewhere and just save every submission to the MacDougall Creative Writing contest for future archives. It would be a nice trip down the memory lanes for those, including yours truly, who turned in their creative writing pieces years ago.

Nevertheless, I’ve been thinking for quite a time about what certain circumstances could mean the end of deaf culture, given all the possible opportunities and dangers of today’s (and future) technological, medicinal and scientific advancements as to might mean the end of deafness as we know it? Here are what I came up with below:

• Rapid advancement and dramatic improvement in hair cell regeneration process could lead to a potential requirement to eliminate deafness from among the deaf and hard-of-hearing population. Recognizing the future higher costs of health care, technological and economic accommodations of the current deaf/HOH population, a government mandate of gene-engineering issues would be strenuously debated and pushed through in the federal level, resulting in a federal act, as to reduce cost-benefit means and greatly improve the quality of life. A number of other countries would follow suit.
• Cochlear implant technology would be eventually replaced by hair cell regeneration (HCR) therapy program that would restore a wide variety of hearing losses in people’s ears, especially children born deaf or become deaf at an early age. No more painful surgeries and side-effects.
• Females who are pregnant would have the fetus’ genes thoroughly screened for any defect or problem and, if founded, concerned genes can be treated or eliminated without any risk to the fetus and the expectant mother. Deafness would be virtually eliminated before babies are born.
• Number of culturally Deaf people would dwindle worldwide over the next few decades. However, they would refuse to obey the federal act and resist against the law, either by fighting or sought an official protected minority status under human right and endangered cultural heritage laws. Culturally Deaf people seeking special protection or asylum status in countries that have little or no law on “curing” deafness. Like Pakistan, for example.
• Underground “clinic” cells would help the “cured-of-deafness” persons to become deaf again through various means. Few would goes far by burning their inner ears with something unorthodox and extreme. Ouch!
• Close down Gallaudet University, NTID, CSUN, and deaf-related academic institutions after federal and state funds diminish for good. Community services, programs and schools for the deaf eventually shut down. But retirement and living communities for the remaining deaf/HOH people, too old and too stubborn to be treated with HCR therapy, expand and thrive.
• As long as there are culturally Deaf people around, the usage of ASL may become a global sign language but could invoke anger and controversy from others who have been using and preserving their native, and older, sign languages as long as they can persevere. Eventually, they would realize that the preservation of the Deaf culture is more important than to bicker over native sign languages. The future is theirs for the taking.
• Interpreting programs to train hearing people to become interpreters for the deaf diminish and eventually shut down. Remaining interpreters work for the UN as interpreters in other languages or join the resistance with the Deaf.
• Worldwide, the deaf faces an eventual extinction.
• And the Alexander Graham Bell Organization for the Deaf would cease to be at last!

All of these are just speculations, nothing more, nothing less. Maybe not all might come true, some might. Who knows? Hey, isn’t today April’s Fool Day? Hmm….

UPDATE 4.2.2008:Somehow, my April 1st blog was not submitted to DeafRead.com on April 1st as it was supposed to. The DR editor, Jared, informed me neither DeafRead picked it up automatically nor my blog was submitted to DR last night. I am bit mystified by this, so my apology to the DRers for this odd dating of the blog today.

Yet another update: According to Jared: the yesterday’s “blog entry has an “empty” (unix epoch) pubdate” which has a published date of Jan 1, 1970. I’m still mystified by this.

The End of Deaf Culture?

UPDATE 4.2.2008: See April 2nd blog – The End of Deaf Culture? as it was meant to be an April 1st blog but somehow there was a WordPress Unix error regarding pubdate preventing the blog from being posted in current time, not Jan. 1st 1970.