AN IMMERSIVE EXPLORATION OF “SAUDADE”

THROUGH LITERATURE, ART, AND OTHER MEDIA

I am honored to be among the world class multimedia artists included in Amy Serrano's colorful, engaging Saudades book.

My back cover photo is on the bottom right.

More of my street photography in Portugal is in the book.

Official book sales started July 31.

It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million and powerhouse Miami local Books and Books.

The Miami Launch event is on Oct. 4.

For much more information, click on the press release:

https://files.constantcontact.com/be755cbc401/7673ddfe-4756-4c76-b51a-0527d29455a1.pdf

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

"This is a bigger story than my own. It is about rebuilding a life and now testing voice AI on a spacecraft," Rhonel Cinous says.

"If one person, one child, one adult looks at this and the takeaway is to go above and beyond any limitations they have — or that people put on them — it will be a successful mission."

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Always an avid reader and learner, Rhonel Cinous has used Amazon’s Kindle to digest vast volumes of content.

Post-injury, he explored the possibilities of voice-activated commands via his smartphone. Lately, he has been using an Echo Dot to interact with Alexa.

"I’ve always had a heart for service, a desire to use my communication skills to help others.

Sharing my life of living with spinal cord injury, it shows wheelchair users can live exciting, productive lives," Cinous says.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Before his injury, the Brooklyn-born, Miami-raised Rhonel Cinous hosted the Morning Drive on WSRF 1580 AM alongside his cohosts Rebecca Laratte and Fabiola Charles.

It was a slice of multicultural Miami; the broadcast was split between Haitian Creole and English.

Rhonel Cinous did his rehabilitation at Jackson Memorial Hospital and credits the "amazing staff" there.

He also praises the fully accessible gym and community built at the world-renowned Miami Project to Cure Paralysis.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous has become a leading voice for United Spinal’s Tech Access Initiative, advocating for inclusive technology that will help empower other wheelchair users to find greater independence and quality of life.

"For many members of the disability community, voice AI can make daily activities that were once challenging much easier, so we have more time to pursue our goals and aim for the stars.

I hope to use this opportunity to raise awareness of the power of our voices and the importance of developing cutting-edge technology that is inclusive to all," Rhonel Cinous adds.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

“When you are physically there, right where everyone has heard the phrase 'Houston, we have a problem,' you think about all the sacrifice that astronauts and scientists put into this," Rhonel Cinous says.

"You also think about all the innovations in engineering, GPS, vaccines — that have come from space exploration.

Who knows, someday, using the weightlessness of being in space, they could have a doctor onboard researching spinal cord injuries.

Or maybe ultralight, super-strong materials developed could help build a better wheelchair."

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

"What I found to be the most exciting was looking at a live view — pictures that Orion took of the moon and Earth.

The engineers were repositioning the capsule, so we saw it moving in real time," Rhonel Cinous says.

"When it was facing the sun, it was bright in the cockpit. 

Then it rotated, and sun moved across windows of the shuttle.

Depending on where the camera was pointing, we could see the completely black darkness of space."

Amazon says voice technology has the potential to make astronauts’ jobs simpler and more efficient onboard the Orion spacecraft.

Virtual crew members like Cinous simulated potential Alexa interactions with future astronauts, asking the voice AI to fulfill various requests.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous is active in the United Spinal Association, a leading national nonprofit advocate for wheelchair users and people living with spinal cord injuries and disorders.

He participates in United Spinal’s tech group and hosts the Ramp. It. Up! Podcast.

Amazon got involved in developing Callisto and testing commercial technologies, in this case, Alexa, to see how the company could assist crewed missions to the moon and beyond.

The company wanted a diverse group of virtual team members, so it reached out to United Spinal, and Cinous became part of the program.

He joined representatives from the space, science, and education sectors.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

"It’s like every science fiction movie — you roll down a long hallway with no windows.

Then you come into a room with super-intelligent engineers and scientists," Cinous says.

"We basically walked through what astronauts would do: wake up the system, garner oxygen levels in the capsule, check the speed and velocity of Orion, and gauge the distance between the spacecraft to destinations like the Earth or moon," he says.

"Just like I ask Alexa at home, we told it to play music — who wouldn’t want a little ambiance music in space? The scientists created a customized rap.

Then we altered the lighting a bit to make it more festive

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous' visit started with a tour of NASA facilities, which included seeing full-sized and scaled models of the International Space Station and Orion capsule.

The facilities were largely wheelchair accessible, and a video screen linked to cameras inside the model crafts allowed Cinous to explore visually.

“We walked and rolled past space suits and where the astronauts train,” he says.

Next came the working part of the trip.

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous was at the Johnson Space Center between December 8 and 10 to remotely send voice commands to Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa onboard the unmanned Orion spacecraft during its mission to orbit the moon.

Carried out in partnership with Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco, the Callisto project aimed to show how voice-command technology could help out astronauts on future missions.

 

 

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

 ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous and Vincenzo Piscopo CEO of United Spinal Association at Johnson Space Center 

"I was awestruck when I found out I was part of the crew," says Rhonel Cinous, who uses a power wheelchair for mobility.

"This is the first time something like this has been attempted, and I’m humbled I was a part of it and represented the disability community."

ONE SMALL ROLE FOR A MIAMI MAN

ONE GIANT LEAP FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Rhonel Cinous and Vincenzo Piscopo CEO of United Spinal Association at Johnson Space Center 

Rhonel Cinous, a podcaster and former radio host, has always been a techie.

His interest in adaptive and voice-controlled technology arose after he experienced a severe spinal cord injury in a snorkeling accident in 2016 during his first visit to Haiti, his family’s home country.

Following his recovery, the Miami-based Cinous never imagined he would contribute to a NASA space mission.

But this month, he found himself at the Johnson Space Center in Houston as part of a virtual team testing out Callisto, a communication technology project for the Artemis I mission's Orion spacecraft.

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

“You can use Alexa to set up your home environment,” Rhonel Cinous says. 

“You can check the front door via Ring, play music, turn on a light, control a fan, and more. It can be boundless in the ways it gives you independence.”

Alongside Alexa’s journey during Artemis I, Amazon will introduce new ways to make space exploration more accessible to its customers. 

Just ask your Alexa-enabled device, “What is Artemis I?”

“This is a bigger story than my own,” says Cinous about being an Artemis I crew member.

“If one person looks at this and their takeaway is to go above and beyond any limitations they have — or that people put on them — it will be a successful mission.”

 

 

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

“I joined the Miami Chapter, got a peer mentor, Ryan Gebauer, looked up New Mobility magazine and got active via Zoom when meetings went more virtual during the pandemic,” he says.

Before his injury, Rhonel Cinous used Amazon’s Kindle to read vast volumes of content across his phone, tablet, and laptop. 

Post-injury, he explored the possibilities of voice-activated commands via his smartphone. Currently, he uses an Echo Dot to interact with Alexa.

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

“This virtual crew opportunity will show the world that individuals like myself with a mobility disability still have opportunities,” says Rhonel Cinous.

“It might be digital or virtual, but you can be a core part of it.

You can even be part of a groundbreaking team guiding a first-of-its-kind experiment to put Alexa on a spacecraft.”

Cinous is a leading voice for United Spinal’s Tech Access Initiative, advocating for inclusive technology to empower wheelchair users to find greater independence and quality of life.

He discovered the organization by joining one of its spinal cord injury support groups.

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

“I was awestruck when I found out I was part of the crew, and I’m humbled to represent the disability community,” says Rhonel Cinous, a Haitian-American based in Miami. 

He wonders how assistive technology may help his career as a podcaster — his current show is Ramp. It. Up! 

As an Artemis virtual crew member, “I can test digitally accessible, voice-activated communications, and I’m excited to help drive technology to new levels.”

Amazon believes voice technology may make astronauts’ jobs more straightforward and efficient onboard the Orion spacecraft. 

Virtual crew members like Cinous will simulate potential Alexa interactions with future astronauts by making various requests.

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

Throughout the mission, Amazon, Lockheed Martin, and Cisco will invite guests to NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to become virtual crew members. 

Amazon invited United Spinal, which chose Rhonel Cinous, a C5-6 quadriplegic leader with the Tech Access Group, to be its representative.

The mission will also test Callisto, a technology demonstration payload developed by Lockheed Martin, Amazon, and Cisco.

UNITED SPINAL MEMBER FLIES TO THE MOON

AS A VIRTUAL ARTEMIS I CREW MEMBER

United Spinal Association member Rhonel Cinous is flying to the moon! Virtually, that is, as a member of the Artemis 1 mission’s virtual crew.

After months of delay, Artemis I finally launched at 1:47 a.m. November 16. 

It will orbit the moon over the next 25.5 days before splashing down off the coast of San Diego. 

NASA hopes Artemis I will prepare the way for a manned spacecraft to return to the moon.

Artemis I is the first integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems — the Orion spacecraft, the Space Launch System rocket and the ground systems at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

HP: HOW DO I NOT LOVE THEE

LET ME COUNT THE WAYS

HP--4-day delivery by donkey in the get it to you in 2 hours era?

I desperately need to print out event tickets.

I go to print on my HP printer-scanner.

Nothing.

Try again.

Zilch.

Then get dialogue box – out of cyan (why can’t we call it blue?) so printer can’t print.

No problem, I’ll switch to black ink only (grayscale) and I’ll have it in a jiffy.

Locks up again, another nasty dialogue box.

Printer won’t work till I refill cyan.

I root around, swear I have a cartridge…find none.

Who made it so you have to order color ink to make a lousy black and white print out?

Dialogue box now directing me to HP site.

Free next business day shipping.

Okay, I’ll bite.

It’s early Saturday, so I’ll get it first thing Monday.

Maybe I’ll even get it Sunday, since Amazon and others can get rare things to me in 2 hours, so why can’t giant HP get it in my hands in 24 hours.

Monday, nothing.

Tracking number not even working, 48 hours after order.

I get a request from a client and have to print our reports by early Tuesday.

Surely, next day business delivery has to mean Tuesday, because it’s the next day after business Monday.

But tracking number still worthless.

I waste time Tuesday first thing, running to the store to buy exact same thing I ordered way back on Saturday.

Finally, after I basically bought two of same thing, I get an update that cyan cartridge will be delivered Wednesday.

I also get a note reminding me that warranty void if I used non-HP ink.

I resent the mob tactics.

I get to thinking how HP operates on the schoolyard drug dealer business model.

Give the stuff out dirt cheap (the printer itself) cash in (outrageous ink prices) once the client is hooked.

Way past noon Wednesday, ink cartridges (I ended up buying a full rainbow of colors online on Saturday) finally arrive.

Is there anyone on earth, who does business in today’s two-hour delivery window, instant message with every continent world, that thinks delivery late on a Wednesday = next day delivery (from an order 4 days earlier on a Saturday?)