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Two Hungarian brothers are making eyewear from old movie reels. See the story on Reuters. You will have to tolerate a 20 second commercial from a Reuter's customer first.
August is also Cataract Awareness Month. Did you know that:
Cataracts are the leading cause of vision loss in the world.
Close to 20.5 million Americans age 40 and older have cataracts.
By age 80, more than half of all Americans will have cataracts.
Most cataracts develop as the body ages. Lights beats the eyes, and over time it hardens and becomes cloudy. When it happens, and it will happen to most of us, your vision will become dull, cloudy or blurred. Cataracts start small and grow. Symptons include:
Painless clouded, blurry or dim vision
Increasing difficulty seeing at night or in low light
Sensitivity to light and glare, seeing halos around lights
Colors seem faded or yellowed
The need for brighter light for reading and other activities
Frequent changes in eyeglass or contact lens prescription
Double vision within one eye.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley has this to say about August being Children's Eye Health and Safety Month: “There are tens of thousands of legally blind children in the United States. One in 10 children is at risk from undiagnosed eye problems that could lead to blindness. Only 14 percent of children under age six have had a comprehensive eye exam. Children’s Eye Health and Safety Month is dedicated to increasing awareness of the importance of proper eye care. As children head back to school in September, it’s important that they have the vision ability necessary to learn.”
OrlandoSentinel.com reports: “Thousands of Florida children may start the school year without the eye exams and glasses they need to succeed in the classroom because the state Department of Health has not released funds that lawmakers budgeted for vision screenings.”
Associated Press reported yesterday: "Members of a medical team gunned down in Afghanistan brought some of the first toothbrushes and eyeglasses villagers had ever seen and spent no time talking about religion.
More about the good works done by the medical team head by optometrist Dr. Tom Little from a story filed on Monday at NYTimes.com. The medical team was recently massacred by the Taliban.