Neurodiversity and social change
Bill Wallauer is a videographer, a colleague of Jane Goodall. Click here to read Bill’s observations of chimpanzees behaving in ways that are fascinating to consider. Bill observes males displaying at waterfalls and in thunderstorms as individuals and groups transition into the sexual-display mode of communication. Jane Goodall wrote a famous passage describing these events. “All at once Evered charged forward, leapt up to seize one of the hanging vines, and swung out over the stream in the spray-drenched wind. A moment later Freud joined him. The two leapt from one liana to the next, swinging into space, until it seemed the slender stems must snap or be torn from their lofty moorings. Frodo charged along the edge of the stream, hurling rock after rock now ahead, now to the side, his coat glistening with spray. For ten minutes the three performed their wild displays while Fifi and her younger offspring watched from one of the tall fig trees by the stream...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 03/10/10 | No Comments | Read More
By William Stillman Reprinted with permission of the author for one-time usage only. Ever awaken in the middle of the night and realize your arm is “asleep” from the elbow down? It is a co...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/29/09 | 1 Comment | Read More
It crossed my mind awhile back that individuals with autism are less likely to be superstitious. This conclusion would also suggest that autistics are not magical thinkers. If this generalization has ...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/28/09 | No Comments | Read More
The Internet and the Iceberg Whole
Item: Ensign James “Peewee” Cobb, at 5’6”, 124 pounds, and 23 years old—in Pat Frank’s 1959 Cold War thriller Alas, Babylon—distinguishes himself as the only pilot in Fighting Forty-Fo...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/25/09 | No Comments | Read More
I have friends with gaydar. Usually women, these friends can conclude a guy is gay after a brief conversation. I don’t think it’s the way they dress or the way they talk. It’s a childlike aspect...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/24/09 | No Comments | Read More
By William Stillman Condensed from the new book The Soul of Autism: Looking Beyond Labels to Unveil Spiritual Secrets of the Heart Savants, published by New Page Books © 2008, William Stillman....[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/22/09 | 2 Comments | Read More
I started talking when I was three. My first memory is potato-on-the-spoon relay races in nursery school. I felt humiliated and appalled at my lack of spoon/potato acumen. Grown-up humor I ...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/21/09 | 2 Comments | Read More
Neurodiversity, Hidden Knowledge and Hidden Talent
Anything that is understood or known consciously is understood or known unconsciously first. I can’t imagine how the reverse would be true. Knowledge has to come from somewhere, right? I often kn...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/19/09 | 2 Comments | Read More
Autism is a social condition. Rather, in the way that loud, rhythmic music is a symptom of puberty, the sudden rise in autism is a manifestation of extreme societal change. Both transitions are...[Read More]
Andrew Lehman on 09/17/09 | 2 Comments | Read More
As a white boy in the Chicago suburbs who devoured every jazz biography I could get my hands on, my first encounter with the idea of “calling the children home” was a snippet from Nat Shapiro and ...[Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 09/15/09 | No Comments | Read More
Left Brain / Right Brain Neurodiversity.com Ballastexistenz Asperger Square 8 Aspie Rhetor Whose Planet Is It Anyway? Action for Autism Autism Science Foundation Aspie Family Prism*Song Natural Variation Cat in a Dog’s World Aspitude! Comet’s Corner NTs Are Weird Existence is Wonderful Incorrect Pleasures Neurodiversity – The Book