2012年4月5日 星期四

監管缺失 “企業供餐模式”走樣


監管缺失 “企業供餐模式”走樣


3月29日上午,貴州織金縣八步鎮小學生食用營養餐后出現大批身體不適的症狀。就此事件,官方稱之“疑似食物中毒事件”,并進一步解釋為“群體性心因性反應”。
而多方證據表明,中央財政資金補貼的農村義務教育階段學生營養改善計劃,經過多次走樣與欲說還休的幕后操作,或已變成地方及學校當事領導的利益奶牛。
“疑似”食物中毒事件

十二年國教 台聯批"規畫不全作半套、是國家級災難"

十二年國教 台聯批"規畫不全作半套、是國家級災難"

針對十二年國教規劃,台灣團結聯盟主席黃昆輝今天批評,馬英九僅為了兌現政見就不顧全國教師、家長、學生及社會各界普遍反對硬是要倉促上路。他建議不如以國教向下延長一年來取代十二年國教,可以減輕年輕父母的壓力,幫助弱勢孩子不要輸在起跑點。
黃昆輝指出,十二年國教事關重大,規畫不完全卻執意推出一定是一個國家級災難。他指出「半套十二年國教」,只會造成:扼殺國家競爭力、加深階級差距、學生壓力更大、公平競爭消失、學生成白老鼠、教學亂了套等六大災難。

未招滿特色招生名額不得流用 不得辦理續招


未招滿特色招生名額不得流用 不得辦理續招


教育部長蔣偉寧今天(5)在立法院教育及文化委員會提出「十二年國教特色招生及免試超額檢討」專案報告,多位立委質疑免試超額比序條件太多,蔣偉寧部長說,超額比序條件應該朝簡化方向努力,至於特色招生如果有未招滿名額,將不能辦理續招或納入免試名額,而是讓第二年特色招生名額減少。

對於免試入學超額比序條件,教育部訂出扶助弱勢、均衡學習、多元學習表現、適性輔導及國中教育會考。立委陳學聖指出,在「多元學習表現」當中,包括:服務學習、幹部、競賽等,但要如何給分,學生在家照顧阿公阿嬤與學生到偏鄉服務,如何比高下?立委蔣乃辛也質疑,基北區免試入學超額比序,最後可能會比不出來,要走上抽籤這條路,如果最後要抽籤,何不一開始就抽籤?蔣偉寧部長強調,長期要朝著比序條件簡化的目標努力。

考生同時報考 家長團體抨壓力不減

考生同時報考 家長團體抨壓力不減

103年12年國教實施之後的規劃是先免試入學再特色招生,不過教育部長__蔣偉寧今天在立法院教育委員會進行最新報告指出,每年五月辦理免試入學的時候,也會進行包括藝術、體育與科學特色招生的"甄選入學",另外特色招生的"考試入學",還是維持在每年六月辦理,不過家長團體批評,五月份考生報名兩個入學管道,壓力根本不會減輕.

先免試入學再辦理特色招生,是103年12年國教實施後確定的入學流程,教育部長蔣偉寧5號在立院教育委員會報告時更指出,五月辦理免試時,將同時辦理特色招生的甄選入學,只看術科.



免試入學 私下分班?教育部:依特教法可設資優班

免試入學 私下分班?教育部:依特教法可設資優班




記者孫偉倫/台北報導

資優班是否也是能力分班?立委陳學聖5日在教育文化委員會中質疑,即便免試入學,學校還是會進行能力分班,將學生分出等級,貼上標籤。教育官員答詢時表示,學校依特教法可成立資優班,這與免試入學是脫鉤的。

陳學聖指出,免試入學以後學生是否會被分成三級:首先是考試入學的特招學生,再來是免試入學,通過校內能力考試的學生是第二級,最後是免試入學,又通不過校內考試的學生,如此將讓學生被貼上標籤。

原文網址: 免試入學 私下分班?教育部:依特教法可設資優班 | 頭條新聞 | NOWnews 今日新聞網 http://www.nownews.com/2012/04/05/91-2801801.htm#ixzz1rBIO6TiT

免試超額比序 北北基有共識

免試超額比序 北北基有共識


十二年國教免試入學超額比序,基北區3市初步共識,將刪除「體適能、競賽成績、就近入學」等項目,保留「志願序、多元學習與會考」3大項,6日下午新北市教審會將審查。
新北市教育局今天傍晚表示,對於超額比序的3大項目,是新北市、台北市、基隆市的十二年國教高中職基北區推動工作小組,初步達成的共識。


全文網址: 免試超額比序 北北基有共識 | 生活 | 即時新聞 | 聯合新聞網 http://udn.com/NEWS/BREAKINGNEWS/BREAKINGNEWS9/7009142.shtml#ixzz1rBI4GyKE
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多元評量怎麼評 恐考倒教育部 【16:45】


多元評量怎麼評 恐考倒教育部 【16:45】

〔中央社〕民國103年要上路的十二年國教,超額比序項目中有「多元學習表現」,包括服務學習、幹部等;但要如何給分,恐考倒教育部,畢竟在家照顧祖父母和到偏鄉地區服務,難以論高下。

攸關全台學生、教師和家長的十二年國教,預計103年要正式上路,屆時有75%的招生名額提供給免試入學管道,當參與免試人數比招生人數少的時候,一定是皆大歡喜,因為理所當然全額錄取,不用比較。

賽門•劉易斯: 不要把知覺性當理所當然的事


賽門•劉易斯: 不要把知覺性當理所當然的事

Simon Lewis: Don't take consciousness for granted


經過一次災難性的車禍,讓他處於昏迷狀態,西蒙•劉易斯找到了超越所有恢復身體和精神期望的途徑。在INK會議他詳述這個不平凡的故事如何引導他去關注所有對知覺性的威脅,以及如何克服它們。

--------------------------

這就是開始。 它提出了一個存在性的問題, 那就是,如果我當時是有完整的連接系統和全意識, 為什麼在照片看不到我, 以及這是什麼時間和地點? 這是美國加利福尼亞州的洛杉磯,我居住的地方。 這是一張警方的照片。那實際上是我的車。 我們距離洛杉磯的最大的醫院之一不到一英里, 那家醫院稱為雪松•西奈半島醫療中心。 而情況是,一輛汽車載滿剛下班 在回家路上的醫護人員 遇上這事故後的汽車殘骸, 他們已經通知警方, 車內沒有任何倖存者,那司機已經死了,那我已死了。 而警方正在等待消防局的人到達 來分割車身 來搬出司機的屍體。 而當他們這樣做後,他們在玻璃的後面, 他們發現我 -- 我的頭骨粉碎,我的鎖骨粉碎,除了我的兩個肋骨, 骨盆和我的雙臂。 他們都被壓碎,但我仍有脈搏。 他們讓我進入那附近的醫院, 雪松•西奈半島醫療中心, 因為我的內部出血,那天晚上我接受了 45個單位的血液 --這意味著完全替換我所有的血液 -- 他們才能夠止住血流。 他們將我放入於生命維持系統, 而我又嚴重中風, 而且我的大腦陷入昏迷。
而這可能導致你 會一天看一集 雪松•西奈醫學中心 以及深思潛在大腦和實際大腦之間的差異。 這是MRI跟踪156渠道的信息 的一個密集陣腦電圖 。 這不是我在雪松醫學中心的腦電圖;這是你昨晚和今晚的腦電圖。 這是我們每晚在腦海裡的活動 消化白天的一切 和準備從在睡著的潛在大腦 連接至到當我們第二天早上醒來的實際知覺大腦。 這就是我4個月後 從醫院回來的樣子。 你可以看到在我頭骨的馬蹄形狀 就是他們為了搶救我生命 需要做的大腦手術的部位。 但如果你看看意識的眼睛,你可以看到那單一隻眼睛, 我在向下看, 但讓我告訴你我當時的感受。 我沒有感到空虛,我在同時感覺到所有一切。 我感到空和滿,冷和熱, 欣快和鬱悶。 因為大腦是世界上第一個 全功能的量子電腦, 它可以同一時間佔用多個狀態。 並由於我的大腦所有內部監管受損, 我在同時感覺到一切。
但讓我們一起來從我眼睛的後來來看, 這是一個伽瑪射線掃描圖片, 使用伽瑪輻射 到在大腦功能的三維地圖。 要看到三維需要一個實驗室, 但在二維我認為你都可以看到 一個正常頭腦有著 美麗和發亮的對稱性。 這是我的大腦。 這便是我的大腦右側超過三分之一 被中風破壞的結果。 所以我的家人, 在因為我們發現被醫療制度向前推進, 不得不設法尋找解決辦法和答案。 而在這個過程 -- 它花了很多年 -- 一個醫生說我的恢復,尤其是因為頭部受傷的地步,我進步的程度 是奇蹟。 而這時候我正開始寫一本書, 因為我不認為這是奇蹟。 我當然認為有奇蹟的元素, 但我也想到在我們的社會 沒有理由我們為一個大流行的問題 要奮力搜索才能找到答案。
因此從我恢復的這個經驗, 我想從四個特別層面來分享 -- 我稱它們為意識的四個C -- 它們幫助我的潛在大腦都每都增長 並發展至我每天用到的實際大腦。 第一個C是認知訓練。 跟那些被砸碎的車子玻璃不同的是, 大腦的可塑性 意味著一種治療訓練大腦的可能性, 使你總能夠恢復並提高你意識和自覺性的水平。 可塑性是指為我們總是可以對理智有 總有希望 -- 希望我們能重建該功能。 的確,頭腦本身可以重新定義, 這早在70年代兩位稱為哈根和席爾瓦的專家 已證明了。 全球的觀點是 在學校高達 30%的兒童 是有無法自我糾正的 學習能力不足,但透過適當的治療, 便可將他們進行篩選、發現和矯正, 以避免他們在學業上失敗。 但我發現的是幾乎找不到任何人 能提供這治療或護理。
以下是我的神經心理學家提供給我的資料, 假若當我找到有人可以應用它。 我不是醫生,所以我不會談論各種子測試。 讓我們只談全面的智商(I.Q.)。 全面的智商是精神的處理 -- 你可以如何快速取得資料, 保留和檢索它 -- 這對於今天生活中的成功是很重要的。 而你可以看到在這裡有三欄。 不可測試的 -- 這是當我在我昏迷中。 然後我慢慢地恢復到可以得79分的地步, 僅僅是低於平均水平。 在醫療健保系統中,如果你到達平均,就大功告成了。 那是我離開系統出院時的水平。 平均I.Q.究竟意味著什麼? 這即是,當我要用兩個半小時來完成 這裡任何人可在50分鐘內 完成的測試, 我便可能得到F。 這是一個非常,非常低的水平, 便可以被醫療系統踢出來。 接著,我接受了認知訓練。 讓我告訴你當我做了一段時間的認知訓練,右邊欄發生了什麼事情。 這是不應該發生的。 I.Q.應該是在八歲 便穩定和固定不變。
第二方面: 我仍然有着劇烈的偏頭痛。 這裡兩個因素我了解到, 百分之九十的頭部和頸部疼痛 是由於肌肉與骨骼的不平衡。 該頭顱下頜骨系統是至關重要的。 當我經歷它和發現解決方案, 這便是牙齒和顳下頜的關節。 高達30%的人口有着 由於下巴的毛病,疾病或功能障礙, 而影響整個身體。 我很幸運找到一個牙醫, 他用了你會即將看到的 整個宇宙的技術, 來重新把我的下巴定位, 頭痛的麻煩解決了, 但我的牙齒便不在正確的位置。 然後,他把我的下巴固定在正確的位置, 並把我的牙齒矯正到正確的排列。 所以,我的牙齒居然固定我的下巴在正確的位置。 這影響了我整個身體。
接下來的問題便解決了, 如果頭部和頸部疼痛90% 是失衡造成的, 其他10%便主要是-- 若你劃開動脈瘤,腦腫瘤 和激素的問題-- 便是循環。 想像一下,血液流經身體 -- 有人在加州大學洛杉磯分校醫療中心告訴我 -- 它是一個密封的系統。 有一個血液隨着它流過的大管道。 而大管道周圍是從血液 從血液裡吸取養分。 基本上就是這樣。 如果在密封系統的軟管管道上按着, 別的地方便凸起。 如果那凸起的地方 是在你的身體裡面最大的神經,你的大腦, 你便會有血管偏頭痛。 這痛苦的程度, 只有其他人患血管性偏頭痛會知道。 使用這種技術, 這是在三維空間的映射。 這是磁力共振成像, 磁力共振血管攝影, MRV, 一個有體積的磁力共振成像。 使用這種技術,在加州大學洛杉磯分校醫學中心的專家們 能夠找出 該軟管管道在何處被壓縮。 一名血管外科醫生取出我身體兩側的大部分[不清楚]。 而在接下來的幾個月甚至幾年, 我開始感受到了生活本身的神經重返回來。
它在身體哪裡去? 它進行了模擬和測試, 可在體內無腐蝕 超過80年。 因此它進入便留下來。這是植入的位置。 他們正在努力發展這個概念,-- 他們有試驗性的原型-- 便是我們置它於的整個身體中 需要的的運動關節。 主要單位將會進入大腦內部。 一個FM裝置在大腦的皮層,運動皮質 會向相關的肌肉的運動關節 發出立即的信號, 這樣, 如果他已經失去了自己手臂的控制, 他就能在即時候移動手臂。 而其他FM裝置植入指尖, 接觸一個表面時, 便會將消息發送回知覺的大腦皮質, 讓人感覺觸覺。 這是科幻小說?不是。 因為我正穿着第一個應用這技術的裝置。 我沒有控制我左腳的能力。 一個無線電裝置控制着我每走一的步。 每次我起步都是感應器提起我的腳。
最後,我想分享 這對我那麼重要, 而且改變我生活的方向的個人理由。 在我昏迷中,在我感覺其中一個存在着 一個保護者。 當我從昏迷中醒來,我認出我的家人, 但我不記得自己的過去。 漸漸地,我想起了保護者是我的妻子。 而我通過被用線關閉着的破顎, 小聲竊竊地告訴夜班護士 這個好消息。 而第二天早上,我母親解釋, 我並不是一直在這個房間、這張這床上, 我曾經製作電影和電視, 直到事故, 而且,沒錯,我是已婚的, 但馬西在意外當下就死亡了。 而在我昏迷期間, 她已在她的家鄉鳳凰城安息。 在之後的這些黑暗的幾年中,我不得不思考我還剩下些什麼, 因為今天對我一切特別的東西已經是消逝了。 而當我發現這些意識的威脅 以及它們是如何包圍整個世界 和越來越多人每天的生活, 我發現了什麼真正依然存在。 我相信我們能夠克服到對我們意識的威脅, 我們這個人類節目 可以在未來千年繼續放映。 我相信,我們都可以排除萬難不斷發光。
你知道嗎, 當我聽到西蒙 -- 請坐下,我只是想和他說一會兒話-- 當我讀了他的書,我去了洛杉磯與他會面。 當我正坐在這家餐廳裡, 等待一個人前來, 我想, 顯然他會有些不便... 我在腦海不知道我會看見是什麼情況。 而他正在走動。 我沒想到我要見的人 便是他。 然後我們會面,我們聯天, 而我在想「他不像是 一個空框框無血無肉的人」。 然後我很驚訝 科學技術在你身上 發揮的恢復作用。 在外面的書店 我們有他的書。 最令我驚訝的事情 是書中那些詳盡的細節, 他記下了 去過的每家醫院, 經歷的每一個療程, 每次差一點的結果, 和他如何偶然發現創新的辦法。 所以我覺大家可能會 錯過這一個細節。 告訴大家一點關於你在腿上穿了什麼。
我可以告訴你這個故事:這本來是一個被遺棄的技術, 但阿爾弗雷德•曼恩會見了將要退休的醫生, [辛德勒博士。] 而他將要退休 -- 所有的技術是將會被丟失, 因為沒一個醫學製造商願意將它採取, 因為它是一個小問題。 但世界上有數百萬的失聰人士, 而現在人工耳蝸給予數千位失聰人士聽覺能力。 它實在有用。 而他們其他的努力正是在開發人工視網膜給予失明人士。 而這個,這個是可植入的科技世代。 因為我在演說並沒有談到的是 這實際上是骨骼外。我要澄清。 由於第一代是骨骼外置, 它纏着腿, 纏着受影響的肢體周圍。 我必須告訴你,他們是驚人的 -- 在該建築物裡有一百個人在工作-- 工程師,科學家 和其他團隊成員 -- 所有的時間在工作。
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This is where it began. And it raises an existential question, which is, if I'm having this experience of complete connection and full consciousness, why am I not visible in the photograph, and where is this time and place? This is Los Angeles, California, where I live. This is a police photo. That's actually my car. We're less than a mile from one of the largest hospitals in Los Angeles, called Cedars-Sinai. And the situation is that a car full of paramedics on their way home from the hospital after work have run across the wreckage, and they've advised the police that there were no survivors inside the car, that the driver's dead, that I'm dead. And the police are waiting for the fire department to arriveto cut apart the vehicle to extract the body of the driver. And when they do, they find that behind the glass, they find me. And my skull's crushed and my collar bone is crushed; all but two of my ribs, my pelvis and both arms -- they're all crushed, but there is still a pulse.And they get me to that nearby hospital, Cedars-Sinai, where that night I receive, because of my internal bleeding, 45 units of blood -- which means full replacements of all the blood in me -- before they're able to staunch the flow. I'm put on full life support, and I have a massive stroke, and my brain drops into a coma.
Now you also continue to watch as consciousness evolved to the point that here in India, in Madhya Pradesh, there's one of the two oldest known pieces of rock art found. It's a cupule that took 40 to 50,000 blows with a stone tool to create, and it's the first known expression of art on the planet. And the reason it connects us with consciousness todayis that all of us still today, the very first shape we draw as a child is a circle. And then the next thing we do is we put a dot in the center of the circle. We create an eye -- and the eye that evolves through all of our history. There's the Egyptian god Horus, which symbolizes prosperity, wisdom and health. And that comes down right way to the present with the dollar bill in the United States, which has on it an eye of providence.
And that then might lead you to watch an episode one day of Cedars-Sinai medical centerand a consideration of the difference between potential mind and actual mind. This is a dense array EEG MRI tracking 156 channels of information. It's not my EEG at Cedars; it's your EEG tonight and last night. It's the what our minds do every night to digest the dayand to prepare to bridge from the potential mind when we're asleep to the actual mind when we awaken the following morning. This is how I was when I returned from the hospital after nearly four months. The horseshoe shape you can see on my skull is where they operated and went inside my brain to do the surgeries they needed to do to rescue my life. But if you look into the eye of consciousness, that single eye you can see, I'm looking down, but let me tell you how I felt at that point. I didn't feel empty; I felt everything simultaneously. I felt empty and full, hot and cold, euphoric and depressed because the brain is the world's first fully functional quantum computer; it can occupy multiple states at the same time. And with all the internal regulators of my brain damaged, I felt everything simultaneously.
But let's take a look behind my eyes. This is a gamma radiation spec scan that uses gamma radiation to map three-dimensional function within the brain. It requires a laboratory to see it in three dimension, but in two dimensions I think you can see the beautiful symmetry and illumination of a normal mind at work. Here's my brain. That is the consequence of more than a third of the right side of my brain being destroyed by the stroke. So my family, as we moved forward and discovered that the health care system had moved us by, had to try to find solutions and answers. And during that process -- it took many years -- one of the doctors said that my recovery, my degree of advance, since the amount of head injury I'd suffered, was miraculous. And that was when I started to write a book, because I didn't think it was miraculous. I thought there were miraculous elements, but I also didn't think it was right that one should have to struggle and search for answers when this is a pandemic within our society.
So from this experience of my recovery, I want to share four particular aspects -- I call them the four C's of consciousness -- that helped me grow my potential mind back towards the actual mind that I work with every day. The first C is cognitive training. Unlike the smashed glass of my car, plasticity of the brain means that there was always a possibility, with treatment, to train the brain so that you can regain and raise your level of awareness and consciousness. Plasticity means that there was always hope for our reason -- hope for our ability to rebuild that function. Indeed, the mind can redefine itself,and this is demonstrated by two specialists called Hagen and Silva back in the 1970's.The global perspective is that up to 30 percent of children in school have learning weaknesses that are not self-correcting, but with appropriate treatment, they can be screened for and detected and corrected and avoid their academic failure. But what I discovered is it's almost impossible to find anyone who provides that treatment or care.
Here's what my neuropsychologist provided for me when I actually found somebody who could apply it. I'm not a doctor, so I'm not going to talk about the various subtests. Let's just talk about full-scale I.Q. Full-scale I.Q. is the mental processing -- how fast you can acquire information, retain it and retrieve it -- that is essential for success in life today. And you can see here there are three columns. Untestable -- that's when I'm in my coma. And then I creep up to the point that I get a score of 79, which is just below average. In the health care system, if you touch average, you're done. That's when I was discharged from the system. What does average I.Q. really mean? It meant that when I was given two and a half hours to take a test that anyone here would take in 50 minutes, I might score an F.This is a very, very low level in order to be kicked out of the health care system. Then I underwent cognitive training. And let me show you what happened to the right-hand column when I did my cognitive training over a period of time. This is not supposed to occur. I.Q. is supposed to stabilize and solidify at the age of eight.
Second aspect: I still had crushing migraine headaches. Two elements that worked for me here are -- the first is 90 percent, I learned, of head and neck pain is through muscular-skeletal imbalance. The craniomandibular system is critical to that. And when I underwent it and found solutions, this is the interrelationship between the TMJ and the teeth. Up to 30 percent of the population have a disorder, disease or dysfunction in the jaw that affects the entire body. I was fortunate to find a dentist who applied this entire universe of technology you're about to see to establish that if he repositioned my jaw, the headaches pretty much resolved, but that then my teeth weren't in the right place. He then held my jaw in the right position while orthodontically he put my teeth into correct alignment. So my teeth actually hold my jaw in the correct position. This affected my entire body.
The next issue that resolved was that, if 90 percent of head and neck pain is caused by imbalance, the other 10 percent, largely -- if you set aside aneurysms, brain cancer and hormonal issues -- is the circulation. Imagine the blood flowing through your body -- I was told at UCLA Medical Center -- as one sealed system. There's a big pipe with the blood flowing through it, and around that pipe are the nerves drawing their nutrient supply from the blood. That's basically it. If you press on a hose pipe in a sealed system, it bulges someplace else. If that some place else where it bulges is inside the biggest nerve in your body, your brain, you get a vascular migraine. This is a level of pain that's only knownto other people who suffer vascular migraines. Using this technology, this is mapping in three dimensions. This is an MRI MRA MRV, a volumetric MRI. Using this technology, the specialists at UCLA Medical Center were able to identify where that compression in the hose pipe was occurring. A vascular surgeon removed most of the first rib on both sides of my body. And in the following months and years, I felt the neurological flow of life itself returning.
Where does it go inside the body? It has been simulated and tested to endure in the body corrosion-free for over 80 years. So it goes in and it stays there. Here are the implantation sites. The concept that they're working towards -- and they have working prototypes -- is that we placed it throughout the motor points of the body where they're needed. The main unit will then go inside the brain. An FM device in the cortex of the brain, the motor cortex,will send signals in real time to the motor points in the relevant muscles so that the person will be able to move their arm, let's say, in real time, if they've lost control of their arm. And other FM devices implanted in fingertips, on contacting a surface, will send a message back to the sensory cortex of the brain, so that the person feels a sense of touch. Is this science fiction? No, because I'm wearing the first application of this technology. I don't have the ability to control my left foot. A radio device is controlling every step I take, and a sensor picks up my foot for me every time I walk.
And in closing, I want to share the personal reason why this meant so much to me and changed the direction of my life. In my coma, one of the presences I sensed was someone I felt was a protector. And when I came out of my coma, I recognized my family,but I didn't remember my own past. Gradually, I remembered the protector was my wife.And I whispered the good news through my broken jaw, which was wired shut, to my night nurse. And the following morning, my mother came to explain that I'd not always been in this bed, in this room, that I'd been working in film and television and that I had been in a crash and that, yes, I was married, but Marcy had been killed instantly in the crash. And during my time in coma, she had been laid to rest in her hometown of Phoenix. Now in the dark years that followed, I had to work out what remained for me if everything that made today special was gone. And as I discovered these threats to consciousness and how they are surrounding the world and enveloping the lives of more and more people every day, I discovered what truly remained. I believe that we can overcome the threats to our consciousness, that the Human Show can stay on the air for millennia to come. I believe that we can all rise and shine.
You know, when I heard Simon's -- please sit down; I just want to talk to him for a second -- when I read his book, I went to LA to meet him. And so I was sitting in this restaurant,waiting for a man to come by who obviously would have some difficulty ... I don't know what I had in my mind. And he was walking around. I didn't expect that person that I was going to meet to be him. And then we met and we talked, and I'm like, he doesn't look like somebody who was built out of nothing. And then I was amazed at what role technology played in your recovery. And we have his book outside in the bookshop. The thing that amazed me is the painstaking detail with which he has written every hospital he has been to, every treatment he got, every near-miss he had, and how accidentally he stumbled upon innovations. So I think this one detail went past people really quick. Tell a little bit about what you're wearing on your leg.
I could tell you the story: this was going to be an abandoned technology, but Alfred Mann met the doctor who was going to retire, [Dr. Schindler.] And he was going to retire -- all the technology was going to be lost, because not a single medical manufacturer would take it on because it was a small issue. But there's millions of deaf people in the world, and the Cochlear implant has given hearing to thousands of deaf people now. It works. And the other thing is they're working on artificial retinas for the blind. And this, this is the implantable generation. Because what I didn't say in my talk is this is actually exoskeletal.I should clarify that. Because the first generation is exoskeletal, it's wrapped around the leg, around the affected limb. I must tell you, they're an amazing -- there's a hundred people who work in that building -- engineers, scientists, and other team members -- all the time.