07/01/2011
03/01/2009
Grants for Young Artists with Disabilities (Deadline: June 19, 2009)
VSA arts, an international, non-profit organization
working to help create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and
enjoy the arts, and Volkswagen Group
America are now
accepting entries for Accelerate, a juried exhibition of young emerging artists with disabilities.
The
program is open to artists between the ages of 16 and 25 who are living in the United States and who have a
physical, cognitive, mental, or
sensory disability.
Submissions must be original work completed within the last three years and
after the onset of disability. Eligible
media include, but are not limited to, paintings and drawings (oil, watercolor, acrylic, pencil, or
charcoal), fine art prints,
photography, computer-generated prints, digital art, and time-based media (video, film). Work must have
a visual component. Both
representational and abstract work are welcomed.
The
competition will present one grand prize of $20,000, a first-prize award of $10,000, a second-prize award of $6,000, and
twelve awards of excellence of $2,000
each. Complete entry guidelines are available at the VSA
arts Web site.
02/06/2009
Psychiatric Unit Run by City Accused of Abuse
By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS
February 5, 2009
The federal government has documented a pattern of sexual and other violent assaults among patients at the psychiatric unit of a city-run Brooklyn hospital where a woman died in June on the floor of the emergency waiting room while staff members ignored her.
After a yearlong investigation, the Department of Justice portrayed the unit at Kings County Hospital Center as a nightmarish place where patients were not treated for suicidal behavior, were routinely subdued with physical restraints and drugs instead of receiving individualized psychiatric treatment, and were frequently abused by other patients.
The details are laid out in a 58-page report to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg that was made public on Thursday.
The investigators found that the psychiatric service operated like a prison. The report said that instead of meaningful treatment and diagnosis, the patients received frequent visual checks by the staff, and that even when patients were supposedly under watch, violence and attempted suicides occurred.
Among the most serious incidents the report documented were an October brawl among six patients that left one needing surgery, and an autistic patient being forced to perform oral sex in November. The report also included allegations that a woman was raped and that a 14-year-old was forced to engage in oral sex by a 16-year-old.
02/02/2009
01/31/2009
01/30/2009
Observers of first dates can predict outcome, study shows
Interested or deceptively flirting? Observers of first dates try to predict dating outcome in speed-dating study.
January 30, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- When it comes to assessing the romantic playing field -- who might be interested in whom -- men and women were shown to be equally good at gauging men's interest during an Indiana University study involving speed dating -- and equally bad at judging women's interest.
Researchers expected women to have a leg up in judging romantic interest, because theoretically they have more to lose from a bad relationship, but no such edge was found.
"The hardest-to-read women were being misperceived at a much higher rate than the hardest-to-read men. Those women were being flirtatious, but it turned out they weren't interested at all," said lead author Skyler Place, a doctoral student in IU's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences working with cognitive science Professor Peter Todd. "Nobody could really read what these deceptive females were doing, including other women."
Place's study, published in the January issue of the journal Psychological Science, focused on the ability of observers to judge romantic interest between others because this ability has evolutionary benefits when it comes to finding a mate. Decisions that other people around us make, said Place, can influence or inform our own choices.
"So, if you walk into a room and there's 20 people you've never met before, being able to know which individuals might be available and which are clearly smitten by others can make you more efficient in finding your own romantic interest to pursue," he said.
01/28/2009
The New York Times reported this tragedy, which stemmed from the economic crisis. As with the September 11th attacks and Hurricane Katrina, it has to be questioned what is being done to deal with the mental health impact of the economy.
January 28, 2009
By REBECCA CATHCART and RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
LOS ANGELES — A man shot and killed his wife and five young children before taking his own life Tuesday, apparently out of despair after the couple lost their jobs at a hospital, the police and city officials said.
Officers responding to 911 calls placed by the man, Ervin A. Lupoe, and by a television station to which Mr. Lupoe had sent a fax around 8:30 a.m., found seven bodies in a house in Wilmington, a working-class neighborhood near the Port of Los Angeles.
A police spokesman said the bodies were identified as Mr. Lupoe; his wife, Ana; their 8-year-old daughter and two sets of twins (5-year-old girls and 2-year-old boys).
Mr. Lupoe had telephoned and sent a fax to KABC-TV that indicated “he was despondent over a job situation and he saw no reasonable way out,” said Lt. John Romero, a police spokesman.