The Modern Love column in the Sunday New York Times has never been part of our regular reading rotation. We used to skip it even back in our pre-parenthood days, when we had time to plow through the whole paper—magazine, book reviews, all of it. So we’re grateful to the Modern Love readers who turned us on to a May 23 column by single amputee by Alexandra Capellini that we otherwise would have missed. There’s a lot of new dating lingo we don’t understand—something called “Bumble,” app-chat manners, etc.—but if we’re totally honest, we’ve always been clueless about dating. Nonetheless, we appreciate the gist of Capellini’s essay, viz.: Dating is awful enough without the added burden of helping the other person get over your limb difference. It’s an excellent read, even if (like us) you’re way past the courtship phase of your life.
On to the rest of the news:
A Dutch triple amputee break dancer named Redouan Ait Chitt (better known as Redo) stole the show in the second semifinal of the Eurovision Song Contest. Watch his performance on YouTube.
We’d be lying if we said we understood how this new bionic ankle works. If you can explain it to us, we’d be grateful. All we know is that it’s from the MIT Biomechatronics Group and it’s supposed to replicate the movement of an anatomical ankle.
Kuno the service dog has amassed 25K TikTok followers for the daily weather reports he files from Edmonton. His owner, bilateral amputee Marla Smith, says Kuno is starting to get recognized in public. “He’s got the personality for it,” she adds.
When you manipulate a knife or a screwdriver, your brain can easily tell where the hand ends and the tool begins. But what’s a brain to do if the hand itself is a tool (i.e. prosthesis)? Two neuroscientists shared their research findings (and the surprising implications thereof) in Scientific American.
A vascular specialist is preventing amputations in bulk via a combination of early diagnosis and noninvasive treatment. Lasers are involved.
Still not ready to board a plane or hit the highway? Amputee-owned Beeyonder brings live, interactive tours of 350 global destinations straight to your laptop or tablet.
Attention, limb-different skate punks: Dew Summer Tour is introducing a new adaptive division this year. Can a Paralympic medal event in adaptive skateboarding be far behind?
A couple of ninth graders took second place in the New York State Science & Engineering Fair last week for a project titled “Project Neuron: Prosthetic Hand Controlled by Brain Waves.” Excuse me: second place? For a mind-controlled prosthesis? First place had better have been a fusion reactor or something.
