Dyslexics using the iPhone as a reading aid

Interesting piece in the Guardian by a dyslexic who found the iPhone changed his life. He got an e-book app for his phone and loaded it up with classic novels he had never read because they were too intimidating. In a week he had paged right through the 1,000-page The Count of Monte Cristo. How did the iPhone help?

So why I had found it easier to read from my iPhone? First, an ordinary page of text is split into about four pages. The spacing seems generous and because of this I don't get lost on the page. Second, the handset's brightness makes it easier to take in words. "Many dyslexics have problems with 'crowding', where they're distracted by the words surrounding the word they're trying to read," says John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at Oxford University and chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust. "When reading text on a small phone, you're reducing the crowding effect."

It also turns out that he isn't alone.

I was so impressed that I contacted the Dyslexia Society, where Sue Flohr, herself dyslexic, recounted how her iPhone had changed her life. She told me that many others share my experience reading books and the society is in talks with the government over making school textbooks available as eBooks. Flohr said that her iPhone has not only brought greater organisation to her life, it has greatly improved her sense of self-esteem. I share this sense and now see that when I proudly show off my iPhone to others it is not just a new bit of technology, but the centrepoint of my newly ordered life.

Wonder if it has had a similar impact on Steve Jobs, not only the inventor of the iPhone, but long rumored to be one of the world's most successful dyslexics. (Via Maud Newton)

NYT story on Conan O'Brien spawns #helpingconan hashtag thread on Twitter

This line in today's NYT on Conan O'Brien's emergence as an online personality, which helped him sell out his 30-city comedy tour that starts next week, caught my eye.

Assisted by his executive producer, Jeff Ross, and personal friends, Mr. O’Brien signed up for Twitter in late February.

I mean, how hard is it to sign up for Twitter? It's not exactly brain surgery. What part did Conan need assistance with? The typing?

Apparently I wasn't the only one. There's a new hashtag thread on Twitter -- #helpingconan -- in which people add their own ideas on the help Conan needs to navigate the rigors of daily life. It seems to have started with this tweet by Roger Ebert.

Conan's executive producer "assisted" him in signing up for Twitter. His director tied his shoelaces. #helpingconan

Time will tell whether this has the legs to go viral, or whether it burns out quickly and remains nothing but a thread in a teapot.

When it comes to gay and lesbian marriage, Iowa works. Wisconsin, unfortunately, does not.

Joey and Gabi, whose relationship bridges the Atlantic, were married Friday in a magistrate's office in Dubuque, Iowa. They are so clearly in love, and it was a moving experience for those of us lucky enough to be there to see them make this commitment to share their lives. (Click on the photo above to go to Flickr if you want to see links to more wedding pictures.)

After the wedding, we took a photo by this sign because the headline seemed so appropriate. Gay and lesbian marriage has been legal in Iowa since August, 2007. If this led to a decline in moral standards or any of the other ill effects feared by opponents, it sure hasn't been visible. While Wisconsin recognizes civil unions, that's not the same. Wisconsin, sadly, banned same-sex marriage by constitutional amendment in 2006.

Worst of all is the situation in regard to same-sex marriage and immigration. While Joey and Gabi's marriage is recognized in the UK, Canada and most of Western Europe, it doesn't work the other way around. Married to a European, Joey can work in the European countries that recognize gay marriage, but it's impossible for Gabi to live and work work in the U.S. as she could if she had married a guy. The (ironically named) 1996 Defense of Marriage Act prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriage, which is interpreted as including immigration. Currently, an estimated 60,000 couples are caught in this dilemma.

U.S. immigration policy is in need of many reforms. This should be high on the list.

Seasonal storefront window art by Caldecott award winning author and his wife

Happy Easter!

You may have noticed this seasonal art brightening the storefront of Neuhauser Pharmacy on Monroe Street in Madison, or other scenes in a similar style for other holidays. If you have young kids in your house, the art may look curiously familiar.

There's a reason for that, as I found out when I looked more closely to see whether the hand-painted art mural had been signed. It was. And it turned out that the artists were award-winning children's book author and illustrator Kevin Henkes and his wife, also an illustrator, Laura Dronzek. And when I asked in the store, I found out they had painted other seasonal murals as well. Pretty cool -- not every pharmacy has its windows graced by the work of a Caldecott award winning children's book artist.

The mural is charming and repays a closer look. It's really a three-dimensional relief painting. The bunnies and chicks in the foreground are cutouts that stand out from the background scene. It's a very distinctive, stylized form of illustration, more sophisticated than it seems at first glance, and which has brought the couple considerable fame and success in the world of children's books.

Transatlantic Bridge

This is the East Washington Avenue Bridge across the Yahara River in Madison -- but it spans more than that river. You might call it a transatlantic bridge.

I posted a version of this photo -- taken with a 2mp Minolta Dimage X -- about three years ago, and you can read more about it at the original Flickr upload and comments, as well as the related blog post.

The reason I'm posting it again is to celebrate something happening today that has nothing to do with the bridge, but everything to do with the photo -- something that might never have happened had I not posted the photo on Flickr. It's the only photograph I ever took that, indirectly, resulted in someone else's marriage.

What happened was that a Flickr member in Germany who called herself Cybergabi spotted the photo in a group called Concrete Architecture in which I had posted the photo. She commented on the photo, I was curious who had left the comment and checked out her photostream, where I found a large number of imaginative and striking photographs. We struck up one of those long-distance friendships that seem to flourish on Flickr. She met other Madison area Flickr members through comments on my photostream and in the Madison-related groups to which I uploaded photos.

Last fall she visited to Madison to get acquainted with T and me and to attend the wedding of another Madison Flickr member, Miriam. A friend of Miriam's put her up during her visit. They fell in love, and several back-and-forth transatlantic visits later, one thing led to another, and today Gabi and Joey Johannsen are getting married in Dubuque. Congratulations and best wishes, Joey and Gabi -- and T and I look forward to sharing the day with you, along with Miriam and Dylan.

Note: One of my photos of the wedding here, with links to more.

Crocus weather and then some

Actually, it's quite a bit warmer than crocuses are used to this time of year, but this one doesn't seem to mind. It's been so warm in Madison the last few days, as temps flirted with the eighties and then today hit 81°F, that even when a cold front sweeps in with thunderstorms over the weekend and drops temps to the upper fifties, we'll still be five degrees above normal.

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