Sean Forbes loves music, even though he is mostly deaf. In an interview with Weekend America, Forbes talks about about interpreting live concerts into American Sign Language. He’s also the founder of the Deaf Performing Artists Network (D-PAN), which creates ASL versions of music videos. Be sure to check out their video for Christina Aguilera’s “Beautiful” on the same page. It’s lovely in its blending of sign and other visual imagery. More D-PAN videos can be found here.

Thanks to Rose for the tip.

In the bad old days, staff at state institutions for people with cognitive disabilities would regularly restrain patients to their beds for even the most minor infractions. But thanks to the work of advocates and legislators, that practice became illegal except in very specific circumstances when the patient is a threat to himself/herself or others. Today, individuals in these facilities are treated humanely. Or so we thought. Investigators recently cited a state facility in rural Minnesota for using restraints (including metal handcuffs) to control and punish residents. Staff restrained residents for “infractions” like touching a pizza box and going outside without a coat.

I’m sure that the staff are good people who are trying to do their jobs in an environment with limited resources, but it’s worrisome that the practice of using restraints became commonplace and dare I say routine in the span of two years. The citation demonstrates the critical role state agencies play in providing oversight to facilities that serve people with disabilities.

And a note to the reporter who broke the story: using the word “retarded” in both the title and body of your article signals that you could use a hand stepping out of your personal timewarp.

This week’s collapse of major investment firms (and the ongoing government bailouts) prompted me to check out an episode of This American Life that examines the events leading up to the current credit crisis. I just finished listening to the show and it does an excellent job of telling the story from the perspectives of the people involved–the borrower with bad credit who took out a subprime mortgage that he couldn’t afford, the mortgage brokers who made these ill-advised loans and sold the debt to the investment banks, and the investment bankers who bought the debt and parceled it out to fund managers around the world. And what’s striking is that, even at the height of the lending craze, many of these actors realized that their actions didn’t make much sense at a granular level. It didn’t make sense to lend half a million dollars to someone without checking assets or income. It didn’t make sense to sell these loans as safe, triple-A securities. It didn’t make sense to expect housing prices to rocket ever skyward.

But as the report points out, everyone else was doing it and there was piles of money to be made. Most of that money went up in smoke and we’re all on the hook for the debt that is coming due. So much for letting the invisible hand of the market do its thing.

The NYT Magazine has an interesting piece up about “ambient awareness“–the bits of data we acquire about our friends’ lives via the short updates on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Here’s the money quote:
Each little update — each individual bit of social information — is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends’ and family members’ lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating. The ambient information becomes like “a type of E.S.P.,” as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life.
When I first started using Facebook, I didn’t bother updating my status too frequently. It seemed unlikely that anyone would care whether I had just returned from a walk or was craving Junior Mints. As my Facebook circle grew, I found myself regularly reading my friends’ status updates. This person made it home from a trip. That one is cooking butter nut squash. And I think I know why I find it appealing. We make a lot of fuss about life’s “big moments”–births, marriages, new jobs, etc. But the real substance of our lives is in those everyday moments when we’re cooking squash or going to work or watching the rain. Without the minutiae, life is a photo album. It comforts me to know that, as I go through my own daily routine and experience my own ups and downs, my friends and family are out there, doing the same thing.

The Big Picture blog is running some stunning photos taken at the Beijing Paralympics. If the pictures are any indication, the opening ceremonies were nearly as elaborate as those for the Olympics and they attracted a large crowd. The last photo in the series, an Irish athlete exulting in his bronze medal victory, is particularly moving. And check out the pictures of the wheelchair racer wiping out on the track.

The drama and athleticism displayed in these pictures cries out for television coverage, but we Americans will have to settle for watching it on our computer screens courtesy of Universal Sports.