Update 8-9-11

Hi,

Information from lots of places.

First, from Ellen Epstein Silver:  The following article appeared in USA Today on July 19th.  It talks about our son-in-law Jeff Rogers' blast gauge invention.  That was suppose to be featured on CNN a few weeks ago.  We are so proud of Jeff.

    Army Device Will Gauge Blast on Soldiers
    by Gregg Zoroya
    The Army will outfit a brigade of soldiers in Afghanistan in the next few weeks with gauges worn on their bodies that can alert medics to an explosion's severity -- proof of possible brain injury. It is the beginning of an effort over the next several months to wire up soldiers and vehicles with sensors, black boxes and digital cameras. The data may shed light on how blast exposures damage the brain, even when a soldier appears only dazed, researchers say. An estimated 300,000 troops have suffered mild brain injuries, mostly from blast, in Iraq and Afghanistan.
    "This is the beginning of a process that's going to lead us to collecting the data researchers need to untie this Gordian knot," says Gen. Peter Chiarelli, the Army vice chief of staff. Sensors will measure blast effects from buried bombs known as improvised explosive devices that have killed nearly 3,000 troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and wounded about 30,000. The newest sensor, developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for nearly $1 million, is about the size of the time piece on a wristwatch and weighs less than an ounce. Soldiers will wear three — on the breast and shoulder of their body armor, and on a helmet strap against the back of their necks.
    "It's an environmental sensor like a dive watch," says Col. Geoffrey Ling, a DARPA scientist. In addition to recording blast force and over-pressure, data that can be downloaded via a USB port, the device gives an immediate read of bomb severity, says Jeffrey Rogers, a DARPA physicist and one of the inventors.
After an explosion goes off near a soldier, a medic inserts a stylus or pen tip into a recessed hole on the device. A light flashes green, yellow or red, indicating whether the blast was strong enough to warrant further medical attention. "We're really worried about the guy who's not complaining," Ling says. 
    A second blast sensor developed by the Army -- worn inside the crown of the helmet and measuring how the head is whipped about in a blast -- will be used by six brigades by December. That device cost more than $50 million to develop and produce, says Lt. Col. Jon Rickey, program manager. By early next year, the Army also hopes to have 50 to 100 bomb-resistant vehicles in Afghanistan outfitted with sensors in the hull and seats connected to a "black box," says Gary Frost, of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force. "We're attacking this from a lot of different directions," says Michael Leggieri, a Pentagon blast-injury research director. "It's like a puzzle putting all those pieces together."

Next, a social note, from Zelda White Nichols:  For those lucky enough to go, Andrea Bocelli is giving a free concert on September 15th in New York City's Central Park.  The concert will also be shown on December 2nd on public broadcasting stations

A "Thank You," from Mary Sipp-Green to Joanne Shapiro Polner:  Many thanks for your nice review.  I'm glad you were able to make the opening.  Best regards.

From Facebook, word that Robert Fiveson, having completed a flight, in the last 12 inches of stepping down from his plane's tire, fractured his foot in 3 places.  Sorry, Robert.

Robert also writes:  How nice to read the thoughtful words of the Booker Gibson and Vince Tampio scholarship recipients.  The Television Award tickled me because I was in South when the first color TVs came into use.  God, I feel old.  Which way to the La Brea Tar Pits?  I need a nap.  
    And Robert notes:  The above message was sent from my iPhone.  Therefore, expect ridiculous spelling errors bordering on gibberish,

From a chorus of voices:
    Paula Ignatow Cohen:  The cantor's name was David Mann.
    Andy Dolich:  Cantor David Mann crammed my haftorah into a non-musical head at Temple Gates of Zion. He had a powerful yet beautiful voice which went well with the lesson learning sermons of the erudite Rabbi Simon Resnikoff.  My dad, Mac, was president of the temple for a few years, so the pressure on me not to screw up was immense in February of 1960.  And I believe Sydney is Rabbi Resnikoff's daughter.
    Barbara Blitfield Pech:  Sorry, I missed telling you -- Cantor David (Dave) Mann.  And Sydney Resnikoff,as in the daughter of Rabbi Resnikoff.
    Marc Jonas:  Cantor David Mann -- my mother's cousin.

Remembered from last week, from Barbara:  "Cantor Mann's cousin from Hebrew school, Steve Halpern..."

[Rich --  So if David Mann is Steve Halpern's cousin, and David Mann is Marc Jonas' mother's cousin, are Marc Jonas and his mother cousins of Steve Halpern?]

[While you're thinking about that -- an apology:  Last week, I edited "OMG" to "Oh, my god" for more general reading.  I thought about that as I was editing but figured God, being omnipotent, would know what the writer wrote and what I edited, and I'd be the one struck dead.
    I can say that because he's been letting me slide for years, and I'm getting so old it hardly seems to matter.]

Finally, in Life Before Valley Stream:  The latest New York magazine has a advertisement with a photo of the model apartment my family lived in in Stuyvesant Town, when my sister Marilyn and I were kids.  The ad describes the apartment as "spacious," but I remember it as small, even when I was 6 and far shorter than I am today.
    The photo makes the apartment look bigger by cleverly cropping out a wall that would indicate the actual limits of the living room, and the stylist seems to have set the dining table smack in center of the entryway that also acted as the "dining room."  Makes for a tough traffic flow but a nice picture.  The apartment's a 2-bedroom that now rents for $3,500 a month and is described as being in the "East Village, steps from the East River and the city's finest dining and shopping."
    Avenue C?  The East Village?

And it's my sister's birthday.  Happy birthday, kid.


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Rich