Archive for December, 2009

your dreams will be reduced down to breathing, and you will be grateful

The thing about not-being-a-person is: They will say those people and the price of being a person is to nod and agree that yes, those people aren’t people at all. They will have no idea who they are talking to. You yourself will start to forget, too. They will say a million small things that sow the seeds for violence done against you, and you will smile and let them. You will do math, constantly. How much do I want to be a person today? How much do I want this project to succeed? How much honesty can I afford? How much dishonesty will kill me? What is the cost of coming out? Is there a way to delay, soften, transmute? How long can I survive as half a person? Ever since the world ended ... I don't go out as much. People that I once befriended, just don't bother to stay in touch. Things that used to seem so splendid, don't really matter today. It's just as well the world ended -- it wasn't working anyway. Your dreams will be reduced down to breathing. [Read More]

on 03/5/12 | 2 Comments | Read More

Autism: Canary in the Coal Mine

“Nonright-handedness (NRH) has been attributed to hypoxia-induced brain changes in the fetus and associated pregnancy and birth complications (PBCs). Maternal smoking during pregnancy is known to ...[Read More]

on 12/30/09 | No Comments | Read More

The Path Home

As a child, I loved to wander through quiet woods and to pick wildflowers in meadows, following paths that I pretended would lead me into fairy tale adventures in a long-ago world.  I imagined myse...[Read More]

on 12/28/09 | No Comments | Read More

Geeks and Nerds: Autism’s Proxy Warriors

Two articles from the New York Times and one from Wired.com this week have been taking a look at what I’ve long seen as a proxy war between the autistic style in American culture and its detractor...[Read More]

on 12/25/09 | 1 Comment | Read More

Neurodiversity and African Americans

Two biological processes impact the American Black population, resulting in increased learning disabilities, specific medical maladies and challenges not familiar to most other ethnicities and mos...[Read More]

on 12/23/09 | 1 Comment | Read More

An Increase in Left-handers

A superb 25-year study in the UK by Marian Annett ending in the 1990s seemed to prove that in that part of the UK, left-handedness was not increasing over time. It’s been a difficult issue to pa...[Read More]

on 12/21/09 | No Comments | Read More

He’s Canadian, You Know

“He’s Canadian, you know,” yields 30,800 hits when entered in a Google search, while about half that many are returned for “She’s Canadian, you know.”  The phrase is a sort of running in-...[Read More]

on 12/18/09 | 2 Comments | Read More

10 Myths About Autism

by Jennifer Johnson Autism and its lesser-known relatives in the autism spectrum of disorders has found itself on the receiving end of a generous amount of attention lately. Affecting around 3.4 ou...[Read More]

on 12/15/09 | 3 Comments | Read More

Neuropsychology and Autism

Marian Annett (Annett & Manning, 1990; Annett & Kilshaw, 1984) has hypothesized a balanced polymorphism in dyslexia that neatly fits with my theory of biological and societal evolution I am ca...[Read More]

on 12/14/09 | No Comments | Read More

Who We Are

“Start Understanding Your Website Traffic In Ways You Never Imagined” is the pitch offered by VisitorVille, a service which provides website owners with a Sims-like representation of visitors to e...[Read More]

on 12/11/09 | No Comments | Read More

Barriers to Understanding Autism

My work has proposed three primary causes of autism and conditions characterized by maturational delay. All three causes impact fluctuating testosterone levels inside a mother, which determine her...[Read More]

on 12/9/09 | No Comments | Read More

Ruminations

The work of scientists is not often poetry. But they do reveal patterns that are profound. “A corollary of our hypothesis is that hormonal effects on the brains of offspring may vary with the ...[Read More]

on 12/7/09 | No Comments | Read More

The Iceberg Speaks

Given the stereotype of the mute, “unreachable” autistic child that comes most easily to many people’s minds whenever autism is discussed, I’m well aware of what a sharp departure from that im...[Read More]

on 12/4/09 | 3 Comments | Read More

Down Syndrome Riddle

Before the conventions, Sarah Palin caused a stir among the parents of children with Down Syndrome.  My Leftist buddy Martin has a kid with Downs.  Martin was moved by this Alaskan elected offic...[Read More]

on 12/3/09 | No Comments | Read More

Mildly Paradoxical

At some point, we’re going to start monkeying with our own evolution.  I mean consciously.  Clearly we’ve been playing with our evolution, unconsciously, from the start. One premise of my...[Read More]

on 12/2/09 | No Comments | Read More