KY's OD's & MD's Brawl.

“The Senate approved a bill Friday to allow optometrists to perform some surgical procedures on the eye and eyelid, brushing aside warnings from medical doctors who said optometrists are not qualified and could harm surgical patients,” according to Kentucky's Lexington Herald-Leader.

Optician and Bus Nut Rolled into One

“Gerard, 53, meticulously logs the comings and goings of all the double-deckers on the route,” reports the Sun. “And more than 500 enthusiasts log on each week to keep up with every detail of the pink-and-white buses' operations. The X1 - thought to be the country's longest bus route - serves destinations along 120 miles between Lowestoft, Suffolk, and Peterborough, Cambs” in Great Britain.

Custom Raid Nets $2.6 Millilon--not in Drugs, in Eyewear

“Customs has seized millions of dollars worth of fake sunglasses and reading glasses arriving from China,” according to a post on KABC Television's website. “ US Customs and Border Protection, also known as the CBP, seized nearly 10,000 pairs of counterfeit Givenchy sunglasses and 3,600 Giorgio Armani reading glasses at the Port of Los Angeles Feb. 2.” Those 13,600 pieces were valued at $2.6 million. The news show reported that “counterfeit glasses could be a danger to customers since they can shatter, cause eye injury, and may fail to provide UV protection.”

Bird Has Its Own Optical GPS System

A few weeks ago, Wired reported that “European robins may maintain quantum entanglement in their eyes a full 20 microseconds longer than the best laboratory systems, say physicists investigating how birds may use quantum effects to “see” Earth’s magnetic field. Quantum entanglement is a state where electrons are spatially separated, but able to affect one another. It’s been proposed that birds’ eyes contain entanglement-based compasses....Physicist Klaus Schulten of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign proposed in the late 1970s that bird navigation relied on some geomagnetically sensitive, as-yet-unknown biochemical reaction taking place in their eyes. Research since then has revealed the existence of  special optical cells containing a protein called cryptochrome. When a photon enters the eye, it hits cryptochrome, giving a boost of energy to electrons that exist in a state of quantum entanglement.” Imagine that as an optical implant. Not more GPS in the car.

Lovers' Squabble Puts Optician Out of Work

“ A former Lerwick optician [Brian Kelly formerly of Kelly Opticians]has lost an £800,000 civil action against his estranged wife and former business partner [Christine Kelly],” according to the Shetland Times . They worked together for 20 years. Brian claims has not been able to work in six weeks. After the two separated in 2004, Christine took out a court order dissolving their business partnership. Christine has “ insisted the interdict was to prevent him from personally taking stock from the premises. ”

Finding Those Misplaced Car Keys

"How do we find something we are looking for?" asks the MedicalNewsToday post.  "New data support the hypothesis that when we want to find something, we hold an image of it in our visual working memory. Volunteers' brain activity was measured as they looked for an object in a complex scene. Results indicate that visual working memory mechanisms may be involved in maintaining attention for a specific target during a search task. These findings have important clinical implications - for example, working memory problems may be mistaken for attentional deficits."

Just Because We Like Baseball, the Yankees, and Eyeglasses

"Ryne Duren, the star relief pitcher for two Yankee World Series teams who stared down batters through thick-lensed eyeglasses and then delivered fastballs that might go just about anywhere, died Thursday at his home in Lake Wales, Fla. He was 81," says a NYTimes post.

3D without Glasses

According to io9, "Apple has applied for, and recently been granted, a patent for tech that could produce 3D images without the need for special eyewear." Wearing special eyewear to watch a movie or TV show never held much promise. Apple's development of hologram technology begs the question: How long will various designers offer 3D eyewear?

Keeping an Eye on Santa's Travels

"A 55-year-old tradition continues this year as the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, launches its Santa Tracker at 2 a.m. EST on Christmas Eve, with help from Google Earth. NORAD tracks Old Saint Nick with four high-tech systems -- radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets -- not to mention the help of volunteers and donations to offset the costs." That's the word from the WashingtonPost.

High-Tech Glasses Conduct Searches

"New high-tech glasses track your gaze and display information about what you’re looking at, which could make a simple stroll down the street much more interesting," according to a post on MSNBC.

Optician Jumps from Perfectly Good Plane

"An optician jumped 10,000ft from a plane for charity. Laura Pacey, who works for Wardale Williams in Halstead, was keen to raise money for Fight For Sight, a charity dedicated to funding world-class research into the prevention and treatment of blindness and eye disease. The 21-year-old from Sudbury said: 'I was so nervous I didn’t realize how cold it was until after the jump.'" So went the report from the Gazette-News.

Eye for an Eye

"An Iranian man who blinded his lover's husband is to suffer a similar fate in a tit-for-tat sentencing - by having acid poured into his eye. Iran’s Islamic code allows for ‘an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth’ retribution - known as 'qisas' - in cases of violent crime," according to the DailyMail.

Taking Your Job for Granted? Think Twice!

When asked which sense individuals would least want to lose, they answer sight. Our language reveals this sentiment. Go to Google News and type in the word eye. When the results come up, click Last Day link on the left hand side. Almost 57,000 references to stories pop up. And you can then see how writers use the word eye--not referring to optics--but as a metaphor regarding understanding and knowledge.

Optic Nerve Key after Heart Attack

After a heart attack and the victim stops breathing, a process of irreversible brain damage starts within 3 to 4 minutes. Must it?  While researching cardiac arrest, Jeffrey Dobkin read about a boy drowning in icy waters.  Although submerged for over half an hour, the boy was rescued, resuscitated, and recovered completely.  No brain damage. 

What delays brain damage in drowning victims?  In an emergency can it be applied to heart attack victims?  Dobkin's research pointed to yes. He believes brain damage that occurs when someone's heart stops beating can be delayed for up to an hour.It relates to the optic nerve. Read on.

Lose an Eye, No Problem

Israeli Police say they found no wrongdoing in the case of an American art student who lost an eye when hit by a gas canister in a West Bank protest, according to a UPI report.

Opticians Give Up Eyes for Grapes and Porcelain

Opticians don't always remain opticians forever. Take these two:

“Beads of sweat covered Lorraine Nedell’s forehead as ...[the former optician] bent over a cluster of merlot grapes one sunny fall morning at Sannino’s Bella Vita Vineyard in Peconic, N.Y., on Long Island. Inching along the row of vines, she grabbed the purple berries, snipped them with a clipper and dropped them, over and over, into a plastic bin.” Apparently this New York optician saw a new vision. Read more at NYTimes.s

Then there's the optician who crashed the China business: Helen Boehm was “a self-made businesswoman known as the Princess of Porcelain for her company’s elaborate sculptures, which have graced the coffee tables of royalty and heads of state for six decades,” so she was described in her obit by the NYTimes. She recently passed away at 89 died at her home in West Palm Beach, FL.

Rocket Man-- 250K glasses Yes. 1 iPhone No.

"Sir Elton John would rather splash his cash on fancy specs than hi-tech gadgets — 250,000 of them,” according to the TheScottishSun.

No Connection between Grass and Glaucoma, Despite the Protests of C&C

Cheech and Chong will think this a real bumper. “Gotta give some credit to stoners . .  . they have everyone believing that pot is good for glaucoma, and for the eyes in general,” starts the post onYourEyeSight. “The truth is that no studies have shown significant benefits of ingesting marijuana, or it’s active ingredient Tetra-hydro cannabinol (THC)  in glaucoma, lowering eye pressure or eye health in general.  So where did this urban myth come from?” Can't forget the days and hearing the line,"Earache my eye, how would you like a butt-ache?".

New Home for OpticalCEUs News Blog

OpticalCEUs News Blog is taking up residence at a new web address: http://opticalceu.blogspot.com. "OpticalCEUs made the move in order to provide more services for the readers of the blog and attendees at its conferences," said Linda Conlin, founder of OpticalCEUs. “The search tool is more effective with the new site. We can provide news feeds from other sources of eye care news. Our design can be more up-to-date. Visit us at OpticalCEUs News Blog." The old blog will remain online indefinitely.

Slain Optometrist Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom

"The late optometrist Tom Little, a Kinderhook native, was one of 15 people recently named by President Barack Obama to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Among others named along with Little were cellist Yo Yo Ma, Congressman and Civil Rights hero John Lewis, poet Maya Angelou, artist Jasper Johns, investor Warren Buffet, civil rights activist Sylvia Mendez, baseball great Stan Musial, basketball great Bill Russell, president George H.W. Bush and labor leader John J. Sweeney," goes the report from the RegisterStar.