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"This is one of the kindest things I've ever experienced. I have no way to know who sent it, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the U.S. Postal Service. " Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my four-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could, so she dictated these words: Dear God, Will You please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with You in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that You let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope You will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when You see her, You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her. Love, Meredith. We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey ...

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Inspiring! See photos here

We have a weekly lawn service that comes on Tuesdays. Usually they arrive while I'm still sleeping. No, the grinding lawnmowers and weedwackers don't wake me up! But sometimes they come in the early morning when I'm waking up in front of the TV. For some reason the dogs don't bark when they come early, but the bark like maniacs when they come and I'm up. Instead of listening to the barking for the next 15 minutes while they mow, I would usually "kennel up" both dogs in our guest bathroom. Recently I started just staying on the couch and yelling "Kennel Up!". Both dogs will run to the guest bathroom AND STAY THERE until I say OK to release them. I never have to move. Sweet. Yeah, I'm a dog trainer.

A deaf geek diligently tinkered with the firmware on his cochlear implant, trying to get it to faithfully render out Ravel's composition, Boléro, eventually meeting with success. Michael Chorost was born with partial hearing, and at 15, he discovered that Boléro was audible to him, and it became a touchstone for him, a piece of music that he developed a deep emotional attachment to. In 2001, Chorost experienced the sudden, total loss of the remains of his hearing, and Boléro was lost to him, seemingly forever. In this Wired feature, Chorost chronicles the amazing journey he embarked upon, learning the science of acoustics, of music, and of signal processing, reprogramming the firmware in his implanted prosthetic with the help of experts around the world with various theories about the psychoacoustic basis for music. The story is gripping, fascinating and informative -- a template for a tale that I believe will become more and more prevalent in times to come: a person who relies on...

Original article Aug 25, 10:13 AM EDT ATLANTA (AP) -- The tireless tongue already controls taste and speech, helps kiss and swallow and fights germs. Now scientists hope to add one more ability to the mouthy muscle, and turn it into a computer control pad. Georgia Tech researchers believe a magnetic, tongue-powered system could transform a disabled person's mouth into a virtual computer, teeth into a keyboard - and tongue into the key that manipulates it all. "You could have full control over your environment by just being able to move your tongue," said Maysam Ghovanloo, a Georgia Tech assistant professor who leads the team's research. The group's Tongue Drive System turns the tongue into a joystick of sorts, allowing the disabled to manipulate wheelchairs, manage home appliances and control computers. The work still has a ways to go - one potential user called the design "grotesque" - but early tests are encouraging. The system is far from the first t...

Not only do I feel pretty good today, not only has my itchy skin not flared up too bad (so far... allergies suk!), but to top it all off I FINALLY GOT ONE!! Got what, you ask? Got a freakin' deadbeat, low-life, holier-than-thou, I can park anywhere I want, parking on the handicap hash marks like a jerk, IDIOT!!! Today I went to the doctor's office to have my itch fixed. I pulled into the parking garage only to find that there was one handicapped spot left (there are only two available). BUT, between the two crip spots there was a jerk parked on the hash marks. You know, the hash marks that designate "no parking". "No parking" because us crips need room to maneuver our wheelchairs next to our cars. Those hash marks. So I couldn't get my wheelchair next to my car and I had to finagle and adjust my routine for exiting the car. Pain in my ass. Time to take action. I used my handy-dandy Blackberry to record the make/model and license of the shithead'...

My new pet Originally uploaded by WillaWoman "I am your Density"!! That's his name... he's a common Boa constrictor imperator. I adopted him from a confiscation. He needs some fattening up but overall he's healthy and very calm. I like him! (Can you name the movie the above quote comes from?) Click photo for more pix...

One Legged Inspirational Little Leaguer

Ahh, found the link: www.giveanhour.org May 25, 1:39 PM EDT WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thousands of private counselors are offering free services to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health problems, jumping in to help because the military is short on therapists. On this Memorial Day, America's armed forces and its veterans are coping with depression, suicide, family, marital and job problems on a scale not seen since Vietnam. The government has been in beg-borrow-and-steal mode, trying to hire psychiatrists and other professionals, recruit them with incentives or borrow them from other agencies. Among those volunteering an hour a week to help is Brenna Chirby, a psychologist with a private practice in McLean, Va. "It's only an hour of your time," said Chirby, who counsels a family member of a man deployed multiple times. "How can you not give that to these men and women that ... are going oversees and fighting for us?" There are only 1,431 ment...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- They're the cold cases of medicine, patients with diseases so rare and mysterious that they've eluded diagnosis for years. The National Institutes of Health is seeking those patients - and ones who qualify could get some free care at the government's top research hospital as scientists study why they're sick. "These patients are to a certain extent abandoned by the medical profession because a brick wall has been hit," said Dr. William Gahl, who helped develop the NIH's new Undiagnosed Diseases Program. "We're trying to remove some of that." The pilot program, announced Monday, can only recruit about 100 patients a year. But federal health officials hope that unraveling some of these super-rare diseases in turn will provide clues to more common illnesses. "We believe this is not only a service to be rendered, but also knowledge to be gained," said NIH Director Dr. Elias Zerhouni. About 10,000 new patients a year s...

Thanx to The Fail Blog

Worlds First Backflip On A Wheelchair -

It was only a chair, but it had become his purgatory. Each day that John Pou spent in the wheelchair, his spirit seemed to die a little more. It was a perpetual reminder of the calamity that had brought him and Marci, even the kids, to this place. The chair stood for all that was lost: A promising career as a policeman, a vigorous life spent in karate classes and fishing the lakes of his beloved North Carolina, future plans conjured when things were perfect - plans that seemed irrelevant and impossible now. Their home, too, the dream house John had worked on with his own hands, felt like a taunting monument to his inadequacies: The pool where he could no longer swim or play chicken with Chase and Kacie, the garden he could no longer tend, the front door he couldn't enter without a makeshift ramp for his wheelchair. That chair, affixed to him like an unwanted limb. It had been eight months since John shattered his C-5 vertebra diving over a wave during a family vacation. Eight month...

I have dreadlocks. I wash them regularly. I care for them and took a year to develop them properly. This is a huge "Glamour" don't!

Watch Video CARLSBAD, Calif. -- For the parents of Autistic children, an afternoon outing can be nearly impossible. But that has changed for one Carlsbad family. Five-year-old Jolena Gonzales has a special bond with “Muffit,” one that has changed her life. "Her communication skills have tripled in the 3-months since Muffit’s been home with us. Her personality is coming out, she’s much more social," said Jolena’s mother, Rebecca Cook. Before Muffit, leaving the carousel at the mall would have created a scene. "Kicking, screaming, tensing up. Flattening herself out on the ground, what most people would call a tantrum, but take a tantrum and multiply it by ten," said Cook. But a new program called "Leash On Life," uses volunteers from “Tender Loving Canines” to help families learn how to make service dogs like Muffit, a part of their lives. "I've been involved with this family for a good six months. I've probably been to 20 doctors appointments, ...

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

I watched a great documentary last night by the PBS series Independent Lens called " MAPPING STEM CELL RESEARCH: Terra Incognita ". What I found so interesting was how the two girls profiled that both had spinal cord injuries and fathers that were doctors, each girl had accepted their injury and their deficits, but each father had not. One girl's father was the research neurologist that was on this quest to find a cure for his daughter's injury. He was passionate about his research and fully dedicated to finding a cure. His daughter, on the other hand, had fully accepted her injury and had basically moved on. She was active in college activities and fully participating in life. Perhaps if the father realized that the time he was spending in the lab looking for the elusive "cure" was taking away from the time he could be spending with his family and his daughter, he could participate more in life... just like his daughter was already doing. I think searchin...

I went to a tattoo expo last weekend, specifically looking for a good tatt artist to do my next tattoo. Here was my idea: I wanted the 2 spirals of the DNA double helix to twist around my forearm, from wrist to elbow. I wanted the thingys that connect the helix's to appear to go thru my arm, as if they were tearing the skin and muscles to get thru. You'd see the inner workings of my arm, muscles, tendons, maybe even nerves. Then there would be stick-figure people climbing the DNA. They'd start at the "bottom" near my wrist and climb up to my elbow. They'd start out "disabled", broken limbs, non-working legs. As they progressed up to the "top", they would appear to be "healed" and finally whole once reaching the top. Get the symbolism? So I found this great local artist, Jon Zig , at the expo. His work is awesome and I thought he could really capture the look I wanted. He agreed to do the work when we met at the expo. All...