[Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

[Gabias, Paul]

Hi Vincent,

I'm so sorry about your brother!!!  If I were good with emoticons, I'd
insert  a sad face here.  So, just hear a sad voice and a sad heart. You
are right:  "If we did not have useless wars, we would not have so many
messed up Veterans."  But war is an industry with industrial human fall
out, and there is reason to cry over the spilt milk. It calls out for
the milk of human kindness in preventing these atrocities.  

All The Best

Paul Gabias

-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Vincent
Martin
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 9:43 AM
To: 'Blind Social Scientists List'
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

Paul,
That is it.  The name of this center has changed a little bit.  For
years,
the actual name was the Center of Excellence for Aging Veterans with
Low-vision.  There are actually over ten different Centers of Excellence
for
Rehabilitation Research for Veterans in the country.  Others deal with
hearing and mobility impairments, and anything you can think of that
deals
with injured or aging veterans.  Much of it is really related to what
happens to them as they do age, because the vast majority of veterans
using
the VA medical system are over the age of fifty. Centers are funded in
five
year cycles and can be closed if the research does not seem to be
relevant
anymore.   I know one that dealt with medical prosthetics for the eye
was
not renewed last year, as the research did not seem to be going anywhere
in
over ten years of existence.       
Research budgets have been steadily shrinking as the Federal government
shrinks its budget.  If it wasn't for the wars the past decade, there
would
be less budget to do research.  Congress rarely adds research dollars to
the
budget, unless there is something related to a war!  I could make a heck
of
a lot more money in the private sector, but I actually want to do
research
and can't get the funding to do so at the level that I want in the
private
sector or at the academic level.  I only intend to return to work there,
because the VA spends more money on blindness related research than any
other Agency in the world.  They spend more money on assistive
technology
than any other Agency in the world.  Most of all, they waste more money
on
assistive technology than any other Agency in the world as well!  I
would
love to do more research into what actually does assist a person to make
their life more meaningful.  I would like to see a more Social approach
to
the Rehabilitation research process.  This is why I still have been
actively
advocating for adding a totally blind researcher with a Social
Psychological
background.    
In the past, the primary areas of research were in Gerontology and
Vision
loss.  With all the years of research, they finally got the VA to
understand
that we really don't actually know how people see!  It is definitely
much
more Cognitively related than physically related.  A few years ago, five
researchers moved from the VA research facility in Florida and added the
Neurological component to the facility.  Adding in the work that is done
at
Emory University and all types of research that deals with the things
related to vision loss are researched.  Dr. Krish Sathian, who is the
director and who used to just be the Medical director is a renowned
Neurologist at Emory University and does all types of research related
to
blindness and haptic.  John Sanford, who is also the director of the
Center
for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access at Georgia Tech, is
one of
the nine individuals that created the Universal Design Principles.  He
has
degrees in Psychology and in Architecture!  There are currently two
legally
blind researchers on staff as well.  I especially love Dr. Madeleine
Hackney's research into how dance and balance are related, especially
with
people that are aging.  She is actually a former Broadway dancer who
completed her Ph.D. at the University of Washington in St. Louis in just
four years.  My former supervisor and mentor has degrees in Electrical
Engineering and in Education.  It was his work with blind researchers
that
got him interested in this area about forty years ago.  

I will download that book and try and read it before school starts next
week.  I have a brother that is a decorated Army Ranger from Dessert
Storm
who is considered 100 percent disabled.  He still thinks he got gassed
in
Iraq back in 1991.  In high school, he outran Herschel Walker of NFF
fame
for the 100 yard state championship in Georgia and now I can outrun him
backwards and blind.  If we did not have useless wars, we would not have
so
many messed up Veterans.  All VA research facilities are associated with
a
research University and a VA medical center.  
 





-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Gabias, Paul
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 8:00 AM
To: Blind Social Scientists List
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority

Hi

I googled " center for excellence for Visual and Neurological
Rehabilitation".  That didn't come up precisely but "Center for Visual
and
Neurocognitive Rehabilitation" did.  Is that it?

They have an impressive list of publications.  While perusing the list,
I
had a terrible image of returning soldiers as research rats, grist for
the
research mill.  Science always advances nicely under these conditions.
There is no need for producing brain lesions and trauma experimentally.
With sending young people to war, it's government sponsored, it's legal,
and
it's somewhat OK.  And there's always all the "glory" that goes along
with
winning wars.
One major way to treat trauma, is to prevent it.  In this effort, I
teach a
course on the Evolution of Aggression in Humans.
One book I use in the course is:
Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence 1997 by Richard
Wrangham and Dale Peterson.  It's available from Learning Ally.

All The Best

Paul Gabias


-----Original Message-----
From: Social-sciences-list
[mailto:social-sciences-list-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Gabias,
Paul
Sent: Tuesday, August 06, 2013 4:01 AM
To: Blind Social Scientists List
Subject: Re: [Social-sciences-list] Schedule A hiring Authority


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