data: he's autistic. best theory is that because of the sensory issues involved he didn't automatically pick up language the way most kids do. He had to be guided to it. Once he was guided to it, though, he's taken to it fairly well.
The point I was trying to make is that you seemed to be trying to draw some line between 'taught behavior' and roteness -- and it's not nearly that simple.
Or what about those things we used to refer to as 'gravity wells' on the surface of the pooltable in the dorm basement (we're not talking little dents here, we're talking 2cm+ dips in the table -- I got real good at playing the ball off them, though, much to my humanities-major friends' annoyance)
> For humans, "teaching" language is not a
> necessity. Consider: EVERY child brought up (in
> non-pathological conditions, c.f. "Genie")
> learns language.
False: See autism and hearing disorders.
My two year old (now three) went to speech therapy to do what your two year old does naturally. That said, it's fairly clear that his usage of language (now) is the same as that of most other three year old children. Just because it must be taught doesn't mean that the individual is mimicking the language after it's taught.
Re:Does no one here have respect for language?
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The concept you're trying for is 'grammer', and yes, it is hardwired (humans are hardwired to create grammer, not for specific grammatical rules). For a nifty discussion of this (in non-verbal languages, as well) see _Seeing_Voices_ -- I believe by oliver sacks...
That said, I'm not convinced that at least some animals *don't* have language. In this case 'I don't know' is a more intellectually honest answer than 'absolutely not' -- how would we know if dolphins have vocabulary and grammar? we're talking a completely alien species here. Up until the last century even deaf humans who used sign language were often considered sub-intelligent and without language. If you still believe this about deaf humans and/or sign language, please do read the above book.
Re:Why the preoccupation with "intelligent" animal
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> It's been said before, but it needs repeating:
> what about the tuna? Why worry about killing all
> those dolphins when we're so intent on killing
> the damn tuna? If you cut tuna, do they not
> bleed?
Because we eat the tuna. Therefore we furthur life. By your argument, why do we kill carrots -- I mean, not only are they alive, but they take longer to die, and are often *eaten* alive.
We aren't eating the dolphins.
(I strongly suspect, also, that tuna have a better energy use-to-energy output ratio -- i.e. they eat fewer sunlight-calories than dolphin, pound for pound, but I could be wrong about that)
Windows service packs affect more code than just the kernel. They don't allow me to selectively fix what I want, either. And they tend to break more than they fix.
With the linux kernel updates I can update just the kernel, rather than the kernel, the webserver and the kitchen sink. If I want to upgrade the webserver I'll do that separately, thank you. Also, I honestly see fewer changes in between 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 (or 2.4.0 and 2.4.2, really) than the average service pack fixes.
It isn't about how often updates are required, it's about whether those updates are out when I need them (esspecially security fixes) and how much control I have over running them. And not breaking more stuff.
I'd take argument with "100% topical" -- ads for human porn when I'm looking for information about the sex life of bonobos (which is, btw, highly interesting and a strongly suggest checking it out, though I doubt it would make good jack-off material) are not 100% topical, sorry. But they have a hit rate (defined as a topical ad),in my experience, of about 75%, which is still way better than banner ads.
but that's the joy of it..you don't *have* to post your CDs do make this honeypot work.
Though, even if this were the case, I dunno..if I leave a CD on my desk and a co-worker burns a copy of it (without me telling him to) am I still guilty of copyright infringement? How is this different from posting CDs?
Except that being intelligent, creative and curious makes the jobs of (some, at least..I'd argue most) educators (defined both as teachers and low-level [principals, vice-principals] administrators) more difficult. The rules that exist to make it difficult to kick out pupils do so for a reason. School is supposed to educate young people. Public schools are designed to indoctrinate kids into our society. The gap in between these two goals causes all sorts of problems, like kids who actually think, and therefore have different religions or political beliefs, or beliefs in general (knowing people who were expelled for being pagan, having nearly been expelled for practicing free speech on my own time, in a way that was purposely not derogatory to the school or any individual within it [I knew they'd hang themselves, if I gave them the rope, anyway], and having watched a teacher being forced to not teach about a specific poet, because he was homosexual [she wasn't telling anyone he was, but because allen ginsburg was a 'known homosexual', he and his work, all of it, were verboten) than those espoused by the school become problematic. How can you teach that the country was founded on christianity (yes, I'm talking about public schools) and peace and all that yummy stuff, when you have students who know and will speak about violence towards native americans (my little sister got in *big* trouble in third grade for ending an essay about Columbus with "But I don't know why everyone says he discovered America, there were lots of people called Indians here when he got here"), or japanese internment camps in WWII, it makes it difficult to indoctrinate the young people well. The rules exist so that people who think and want education can still get it. That the rules allow people who do not wish an education and are troublemakers simply because they don't want to be there is unfortunate, but honestly, I also think it's unavoidable (the reasons are complex -- but it's difficult-to-impossible to write rules that are based upon intent and motivation, rather than action. You can't write a rule against willfully disobeying a teacher with no good reason, you can just write a rule against willfully disobeying a teacher).
That said, I don't see what the point of suspending this boy was. He wasn't using school time or resources. There's no law against showing people having sex with cartoon characters. If he made a picture showing the VP having sex with a small child, then claimed it was real, *that* would be a problem, and is a situation handled in state law. While there's a place for insisting on respectful behavior towards adults and other students at school, there's no place for thought police to insist that a student always think and talk about his VP with respect.
Wait a minute, what about if I buy a copy of windows without a machine? Sure, it probably went through a wholesaler and a store, but so do most other products. Just because I bought an Oster blender at K-mart does that mean I can't sue Oster if it blows up the first time I use it? And if I lease a Ford, and it has a defect that causes it to fall apart at 65mph and kills my kid as he falls out of the back seat, does that mean I can't sue ford, because I don't own it?
IANAL either, but this doesn't seem to hold water.
saw it, lots of little kids. So many, in fact, that I left in the middle because I couldn't cope with the stress level (my gf thought it was because I had a weak stomach, but it really was the noisy kids -- I had a rough enough week at the office, I just wanted to sit quietly and watch a movie -- went home and watched _Boys_Don't_Cry_ instead)
Same here -- the school newspaper wouldn't publish a pro-controlled-hunting editorial (even though it was well written and researched, much more so than the 'please don't kill bambi' anti-hunting editorial it was written in response to) so I started an underground paper (with my friend's editorial, a 'letter from the editor' -- just me explaining briefly what the paper was and how anyone could submit articles, and they would be printed unless they were obscene [with the legal definition spelled out], a truly awful but unoffensive [in terms of content] poem by another friend and an article about religious tolerance, by a christian friend of mine [majority christian school, but the production team for the underground paper was sort of jokingly referred to as 'the league of pagan writers', in part protesting the school-funded 'fellowship of christian atheletes' (public school) and in part because most of us were, and anyone who hung out with us was cool enough to understand it was a joke, and we really didn't care what their religion was]) The administration hated us. They flushed me out by taking one of my friends (They figured [correctly] it had to be one of the freaks, but they picked the wrong one by a long shot -- she didn't even know about the paper until we released it) and then announcing that they had found the culprit and were expelling her, so I marched up to the office and turned myself in. Then they tried to intimidate me, and when they realized that, in the battle of wits, they were outgunned (when your student knows the rulebook better than you do..and has researched state obscenity law, and knows exactly what she can and can't get away with) they started playing dirty. I got sent to the school psych for awhile, got threatened with being kicked out for being a 'satanist', finally, my father (a civil libertarian too, yay!) went in and the principal told him that they had caught me smoking on school grounds. My father just about hit the ceiling (that would have earned me a beating, but...) and asked for proof -- so they dug out a security tape and tried to pass another girl off as me. It might have worked better if a. I was six inches taller, b. I had crimson hair c. I actually owned a miniskirt and fishnets and d. I'd actually deign to wear a dress to school. Since I'm five feet tall, never dyed my hair, and wore jeans and t-shirts more often than not, my father just wasn't impressed. He pretty much ripped the principal a new, erm, you know.
Not that that completely got the administration off us. For the whole life of the paper (and most of our other projects, unfortunetly) they watched us like hawks. We had our own vice principal assigned to our table at lunch. They had to add two new rules to the rulebook just for us ('there will be no distribution of non-school literature on school grounds' and 'gender appropriate attire will be worn at all times, including school dances') and generally, I think our heads swelled from all the attention.
The sad part is that the year I left for college, all those kids let the county pass a curfew law without so much as a peep. It really saddens me that my younger sister and her peers are so..sheeplike.
hey, here in CA I carry copies of the CA code around with me, so that I can hand them to cops who want to know *what* that thing is that I'm riding about on and *why* it's in the bike lane (or chained to a bike post)
um, as a moped rider (top speed of 20mph) I'm inclined to agree -- I've both fallen over (slipped on oil whilst going down hill) and hit a car at that speed (she made a right hand turn in front of me [across my lane] without signaling, so while I hit the brake I probably was going about 10 mph when I hit her) and both accidents hurt like a bitch -- I was wearing a helmet and a heavy jacket both times, which probably saved me some real pain. I still got some road rash and was sore for days. I don't think I'd ride anything that goes a 'mere' 22mph if it didn't have brakes...and people think I'm nuts for riding mopeds. jeeze.
Good luck at getting a teacher to give a damn, though.
True story: A friend of mine, in her senior year of high school (last year) got numerous written threats from a set of boys who told her that they would kill her for being a dyke. when she brought the notes to her principal he told her that she had 'brought it on herself' and that if she weren't so obviously gay she woudln't have problems. But when she told the boys that if they laid a hand on her she'd beat them up, *she* got suspended.
lovely, eh?
There's plenty of evidence that schools are much more dangerous for queer kids than straight kids. Unfortunetly.
citations?? I know a number of people who have been affected by prescription drug bans (including not being allowed to keep prescriptions in the office and not being allowed to have parents come and administer said prescriptions and being able to keep an asthma inhaler in the office, but having to come down [three flights of stairs, possible] on one's own whilst having an asthma attack to get it -- a teacher coudln't get it for her) but no one who's had to have medical attention yet. I'd love to have some evidence to beat clues into people's heads with.
Here's the real question, though: Do you really think he's a threat? Not 'is he odd?' many people are harmlessly odd. Geeks are a mild varient of this. Autistic people are an extreme varient. I have some neurological weirdity (passed on to my kid, who doens't live with me, so I doubt it's psychological at this point) that's been diagnosed as many things (including autism) and I definetly act odd. I talk to myself, a lot. Not necesarily 'normal' conversation (which many people do from time to time, at least) but random words or noises (hence my name, as 'rark' is a commonly used sound for me). I move strangely, and can occasionally be found rocking or spinning or otherwise engaging in behavior that is definetly uncommon in human adults and seems to unsettle those around me. I wear 'odd' clothes, esspecially when I'm stressed, because I'm super-sensitive to the way fabrics feel against me, and the feel of certain fabrics rubbing my skin or rubbing together is much better (very calming) or much worse (chills up my spine/fingernails on a blackboard) than any 'normal' person would know from personal experience. Maybe his raincoat gives him a feeling of security -- pressure on his skin, or maybe just that no one can see his body. Maybe he can't control the talking to himself (I can't -- I can suppress it for a little bit, but if I get distracted then it's all over). Maybe the pointing is so that he can 'get his bearings' (I tilt my head over for a similar effect). Maybe he 'gestures' because he has to be able to move to talk (I'm like this..I can't talk when I'm sitting still, I have to rock and move my arms to make words)
You said he makes 'threatening' gestures -- are they clearly threatening, or is it possible that because you (and others) already see him as a threat you're interperating movement that in other people woudln't alarm you as threatening? If they are, does he know that they are? Except for those gestures, nothing else you said would lead me to believe that he was a danger, though he certainly does sound like an odd character.
I should note here that I am probably the nicest person you could ever meet. I go out of my way not to hurt people, and to help people when I can. If anything, my greatest challenge is to not let other people ride roughshod over me. I have really lousy social skills (in part because I have severe language issues, I'm not sure how much of it is 'other stuff' -- not taking in information like other humans, and esspecially not taking in language correctly, from birth, is a pretty big speedbump in trying to learn social skills) and tend to be more trusting than possibly I should, but the other choice is to be too paranoid -- there's no reasonable 'middle ground' here for me. I can't 'read' people like most people can. I do many things that are similar to the guy and people find me similarly 'creepy' -- something that irks me. I know what it's like to fear things, and while I know logically that I have more fear than the 'average' person, it pains me to know that I'm 'causing' some level of fear in other people. I'm not looking to be everyone's friend -- I'm intensely shy and being with other humans, even those I like a lot and who like me, is exteremely tiring for me. But I do wish that people woudln't automatically go 'She's acting differently, I'm scared of her now'.
To bring this back to the original topic, these behaviors are ones that were actively discouraged (i.e. punished) when I was in school. The teachers enlisted the help of other students to find when I was doing 'bizzare' things (like walking on the sides of my feet or rocking or moving my head around oddly) and so the other students discovered that they could get brownie points for 'getting the weird kid in trouble' -- I didn't need any more help in being socially isolated.
So my only real point here is that the 'whackos' are already seen as a threat by society and schools even when their not. You're a thinking individual. Please don't compound the problem.
I've seen that stat for toddlers in numerous 'reliable' sources (the wash post a few years ago, for example) though I doubt it, personally.
50hours/week is 7 hours a day...if you figure 8 for sleeping that leaves 9 for work/food/everything else...*I* don't have that sort of time..maybe the 'average american' does..
but then, I went for four years with no TV (no interest) and now only occasionally watch my girlfriend's TV (mostly for the same reason that people climb mt everest, unfortunetly)
You need geek-dyke friends. We'd never bug you about such things..hell, it sounds like it matches my no-name grey laptop (that is currently broken, 'cos I went in to fix the pcmcia slots and it doesn't boot now and I haven't had the time to troubleshoot what I did wrong this time) and my home-built tower (the cover is..erm..somewhere...I think in the back cupboard..)
Age does matter -- I'm a 22 year old sysadmin -- been a 'computer professional' for seven years (started out as a PC tech and moved up). Most of my coworkers don't know my age, and that's largely because I've learned that little good can come from my coworkers knowing how old I am.
Some suggestions on dealing with it (this, btw, should not be construed as supporting the idea that young people should be treated with less respect because of their age. I don't believe that at all, but there's few things you can actively do to improve people's respect of young people until they respect you, so..)
1. Be extremely responsible. 'Out responsible' your coworkers whenever possible
2. Don't give anyone your age if at all possible.
(HR needs to know, but most people don't -- Keep it on a Need to Know basis -- don't lie, just don't bring attention to it)
3. Look older -- Consider how your coworkers and bosses dress. Consider how they do their hair. Consider how they carry themselves. Imitate this to the extent with which you are comfortable. This alone saved me a lot of trouble -- when I was 20 most of my coworkers thought I was 30 or so...they were rather surprised when I told them I coudln't join them at the bar..
4. learn from my mistake -- if your coworkers are in the habit of going to a bar, scope it out beforehand. In general, your odds of getting carded are lower if you're with a group of coworkers than by yourself. Remember these white lies "I have plans" and "I forgot my driver's license" -- repeat for any other activity that might give away your age
5. Never forget where you came from. If you're in a position where your co-workers respect you regardless of your age, challenge them when they refuse to give others the same respect they deserve (when possible -- don't chew out your boss) Always give others that respect, regardless of their age.
a web page, with a simple bio, discussion of education and philosophy, and some faqs like: how many patients do you see have symptoms that are caused completely by stress? What are these symptoms? (and when a doctor says 'seizures' here, I'll know to avoid them..)
Why? Because I"m sick of paying $100+ to discover that my dermatologist doesn't realize that asthma and hayfever are related to eczema, and all three are allergic reactions, my doctor wants to give me prozac for those allergic reactions, since allergies are caused by 'stress', my gyne is telling me I have HPV because she coudln't be bothered to tell me that using tampons before a PAP smear messes it up (she knew which day of my cycle it was, too..) (and no, I don't have HPV, but I had to spend $500 for a biopsy to be sure) or that my (yet another) doctor has decided that tylenol 3 is a really good long-term headache management plan (any headache that requires codeine to kill off that lasts more than three weeks is scary to me -- Turned out I'd just given myself a concussion, but doc #1 couldn't be bothered to figure that out).
Never mind the friend's daughter who has been told repeatedly that her seizures were 'psychological' and been sent to therapists for a year -- finally my friend took her to Stanford -- she has epilepsy!
I'm thinking mandatory informational advertisement could be a good thing, here.
first: paypal is not yet universal
second: people won't pay for something unless a. they can't get it free (or it has some advantage over similar things they can get free) or b. it tickles their charitable side -- something tells me that 'rate the chick' isn't charitable -- 'feed starving children' is charitable, 'save acres of rainforest', 'give us money so that we can hold a dance for queer youth' -- not 'rate the chicks'
Slashdot Mirror
data: he's autistic. best theory is that because of the sensory issues involved he didn't automatically pick up language the way most kids do. He had to be guided to it. Once he was guided to it, though, he's taken to it fairly well.
The point I was trying to make is that you seemed to be trying to draw some line between 'taught behavior' and roteness -- and it's not nearly that simple.
Or what about those things we used to refer to as 'gravity wells' on the surface of the pooltable in the dorm basement (we're not talking little dents here, we're talking 2cm+ dips in the table -- I got real good at playing the ball off them, though, much to my humanities-major friends' annoyance)
> For humans, "teaching" language is not a
> necessity. Consider: EVERY child brought up (in
> non-pathological conditions, c.f. "Genie")
> learns language.
False: See autism and hearing disorders.
My two year old (now three) went to speech therapy to do what your two year old does naturally. That said, it's fairly clear that his usage of language (now) is the same as that of most other three year old children. Just because it must be taught doesn't mean that the individual is mimicking the language after it's taught.
The concept you're trying for is 'grammer', and yes, it is hardwired (humans are hardwired to create grammer, not for specific grammatical rules). For a nifty discussion of this (in non-verbal languages, as well) see _Seeing_Voices_ -- I believe by oliver sacks...
That said, I'm not convinced that at least some animals *don't* have language. In this case 'I don't know' is a more intellectually honest answer than 'absolutely not' -- how would we know if dolphins have vocabulary and grammar? we're talking a completely alien species here. Up until the last century even deaf humans who used sign language were often considered sub-intelligent and without language. If you still believe this about deaf humans and/or sign language, please do read the above book.
> It's been said before, but it needs repeating:
> what about the tuna? Why worry about killing all
> those dolphins when we're so intent on killing
> the damn tuna? If you cut tuna, do they not
> bleed?
Because we eat the tuna. Therefore we furthur life. By your argument, why do we kill carrots -- I mean, not only are they alive, but they take longer to die, and are often *eaten* alive.
We aren't eating the dolphins.
(I strongly suspect, also, that tuna have a better energy use-to-energy output ratio -- i.e. they eat fewer sunlight-calories than dolphin, pound for pound, but I could be wrong about that)
What hypocrisy?
Windows service packs affect more code than just the kernel. They don't allow me to selectively fix what I want, either. And they tend to break more than they fix.
With the linux kernel updates I can update just the kernel, rather than the kernel, the webserver and the kitchen sink. If I want to upgrade the webserver I'll do that separately, thank you. Also, I honestly see fewer changes in between 2.4.1 and 2.4.2 (or 2.4.0 and 2.4.2, really) than the average service pack fixes.
It isn't about how often updates are required, it's about whether those updates are out when I need them (esspecially security fixes) and how much control I have over running them. And not breaking more stuff.
I'd take argument with "100% topical" -- ads for human porn when I'm looking for information about the sex life of bonobos (which is, btw, highly interesting and a strongly suggest checking it out, though I doubt it would make good jack-off material) are not 100% topical, sorry. But they have a hit rate (defined as a topical ad),in my experience, of about 75%, which is still way better than banner ads.
but that's the joy of it..you don't *have* to post your CDs do make this honeypot work.
Though, even if this were the case, I dunno..if I leave a CD on my desk and a co-worker burns a copy of it (without me telling him to) am I still guilty of copyright infringement? How is this different from posting CDs?
Except that being intelligent, creative and curious makes the jobs of (some, at least..I'd argue most) educators (defined both as teachers and low-level [principals, vice-principals] administrators) more difficult. The rules that exist to make it difficult to kick out pupils do so for a reason. School is supposed to educate young people. Public schools are designed to indoctrinate kids into our society. The gap in between these two goals causes all sorts of problems, like kids who actually think, and therefore have different religions or political beliefs, or beliefs in general (knowing people who were expelled for being pagan, having nearly been expelled for practicing free speech on my own time, in a way that was purposely not derogatory to the school or any individual within it [I knew they'd hang themselves, if I gave them the rope, anyway], and having watched a teacher being forced to not teach about a specific poet, because he was homosexual [she wasn't telling anyone he was, but because allen ginsburg was a 'known homosexual', he and his work, all of it, were verboten) than those espoused by the school become problematic. How can you teach that the country was founded on christianity (yes, I'm talking about public schools) and peace and all that yummy stuff, when you have students who know and will speak about violence towards native americans (my little sister got in *big* trouble in third grade for ending an essay about Columbus with "But I don't know why everyone says he discovered America, there were lots of people called Indians here when he got here"), or japanese internment camps in WWII, it makes it difficult to indoctrinate the young people well. The rules exist so that people who think and want education can still get it. That the rules allow people who do not wish an education and are troublemakers simply because they don't want to be there is unfortunate, but honestly, I also think it's unavoidable (the reasons are complex -- but it's difficult-to-impossible to write rules that are based upon intent and motivation, rather than action. You can't write a rule against willfully disobeying a teacher with no good reason, you can just write a rule against willfully disobeying a teacher).
That said, I don't see what the point of suspending this boy was. He wasn't using school time or resources. There's no law against showing people having sex with cartoon characters. If he made a picture showing the VP having sex with a small child, then claimed it was real, *that* would be a problem, and is a situation handled in state law. While there's a place for insisting on respectful behavior towards adults and other students at school, there's no place for thought police to insist that a student always think and talk about his VP with respect.
Wait a minute, what about if I buy a copy of windows without a machine? Sure, it probably went through a wholesaler and a store, but so do most other products. Just because I bought an Oster blender at K-mart does that mean I can't sue Oster if it blows up the first time I use it? And if I lease a Ford, and it has a defect that causes it to fall apart at 65mph and kills my kid as he falls out of the back seat, does that mean I can't sue ford, because I don't own it?
IANAL either, but this doesn't seem to hold water.
saw it, lots of little kids. So many, in fact, that I left in the middle because I couldn't cope with the stress level (my gf thought it was because I had a weak stomach, but it really was the noisy kids -- I had a rough enough week at the office, I just wanted to sit quietly and watch a movie -- went home and watched _Boys_Don't_Cry_ instead)
Same here -- the school newspaper wouldn't publish a pro-controlled-hunting editorial (even though it was well written and researched, much more so than the 'please don't kill bambi' anti-hunting editorial it was written in response to) so I started an underground paper (with my friend's editorial, a 'letter from the editor' -- just me explaining briefly what the paper was and how anyone could submit articles, and they would be printed unless they were obscene [with the legal definition spelled out], a truly awful but unoffensive [in terms of content] poem by another friend and an article about religious tolerance, by a christian friend of mine [majority christian school, but the production team for the underground paper was sort of jokingly referred to as 'the league of pagan writers', in part protesting the school-funded 'fellowship of christian atheletes' (public school) and in part because most of us were, and anyone who hung out with us was cool enough to understand it was a joke, and we really didn't care what their religion was]) The administration hated us. They flushed me out by taking one of my friends (They figured [correctly] it had to be one of the freaks, but they picked the wrong one by a long shot -- she didn't even know about the paper until we released it) and then announcing that they had found the culprit and were expelling her, so I marched up to the office and turned myself in. Then they tried to intimidate me, and when they realized that, in the battle of wits, they were outgunned (when your student knows the rulebook better than you do..and has researched state obscenity law, and knows exactly what she can and can't get away with) they started playing dirty. I got sent to the school psych for awhile, got threatened with being kicked out for being a 'satanist', finally, my father (a civil libertarian too, yay!) went in and the principal told him that they had caught me smoking on school grounds. My father just about hit the ceiling (that would have earned me a beating, but...) and asked for proof -- so they dug out a security tape and tried to pass another girl off as me. It might have worked better if a. I was six inches taller, b. I had crimson hair c. I actually owned a miniskirt and fishnets and d. I'd actually deign to wear a dress to school. Since I'm five feet tall, never dyed my hair, and wore jeans and t-shirts more often than not, my father just wasn't impressed. He pretty much ripped the principal a new, erm, you know.
Not that that completely got the administration off us. For the whole life of the paper (and most of our other projects, unfortunetly) they watched us like hawks. We had our own vice principal assigned to our table at lunch. They had to add two new rules to the rulebook just for us ('there will be no distribution of non-school literature on school grounds' and 'gender appropriate attire will be worn at all times, including school dances') and generally, I think our heads swelled from all the attention.
The sad part is that the year I left for college, all those kids let the county pass a curfew law without so much as a peep. It really saddens me that my younger sister and her peers are so..sheeplike.
hey, here in CA I carry copies of the CA code around with me, so that I can hand them to cops who want to know *what* that thing is that I'm riding about on and *why* it's in the bike lane (or chained to a bike post)
And this is for a standard moped
bah...
um, as a moped rider (top speed of 20mph) I'm inclined to agree -- I've both fallen over (slipped on oil whilst going down hill) and hit a car at that speed (she made a right hand turn in front of me [across my lane] without signaling, so while I hit the brake I probably was going about 10 mph when I hit her) and both accidents hurt like a bitch -- I was wearing a helmet and a heavy jacket both times, which probably saved me some real pain. I still got some road rash and was sore for days. I don't think I'd ride anything that goes a 'mere' 22mph if it didn't have brakes...and people think I'm nuts for riding mopeds. jeeze.
Good luck at getting a teacher to give a damn, though.
True story: A friend of mine, in her senior year of high school (last year) got numerous written threats from a set of boys who told her that they would kill her for being a dyke. when she brought the notes to her principal he told her that she had 'brought it on herself' and that if she weren't so obviously gay she woudln't have problems. But when she told the boys that if they laid a hand on her she'd beat them up, *she* got suspended.
lovely, eh?
There's plenty of evidence that schools are much more dangerous for queer kids than straight kids. Unfortunetly.
citations?? I know a number of people who have been affected by prescription drug bans (including not being allowed to keep prescriptions in the office and not being allowed to have parents come and administer said prescriptions and being able to keep an asthma inhaler in the office, but having to come down [three flights of stairs, possible] on one's own whilst having an asthma attack to get it -- a teacher coudln't get it for her) but no one who's had to have medical attention yet. I'd love to have some evidence to beat clues into people's heads with.
Here's the real question, though: Do you really think he's a threat? Not 'is he odd?' many people are harmlessly odd. Geeks are a mild varient of this. Autistic people are an extreme varient. I have some neurological weirdity (passed on to my kid, who doens't live with me, so I doubt it's psychological at this point) that's been diagnosed as many things (including autism) and I definetly act odd. I talk to myself, a lot. Not necesarily 'normal' conversation (which many people do from time to time, at least) but random words or noises (hence my name, as 'rark' is a commonly used sound for me). I move strangely, and can occasionally be found rocking or spinning or otherwise engaging in behavior that is definetly uncommon in human adults and seems to unsettle those around me. I wear 'odd' clothes, esspecially when I'm stressed, because I'm super-sensitive to the way fabrics feel against me, and the feel of certain fabrics rubbing my skin or rubbing together is much better (very calming) or much worse (chills up my spine/fingernails on a blackboard) than any 'normal' person would know from personal experience. Maybe his raincoat gives him a feeling of security -- pressure on his skin, or maybe just that no one can see his body. Maybe he can't control the talking to himself (I can't -- I can suppress it for a little bit, but if I get distracted then it's all over). Maybe the pointing is so that he can 'get his bearings' (I tilt my head over for a similar effect). Maybe he 'gestures' because he has to be able to move to talk (I'm like this..I can't talk when I'm sitting still, I have to rock and move my arms to make words)
You said he makes 'threatening' gestures -- are they clearly threatening, or is it possible that because you (and others) already see him as a threat you're interperating movement that in other people woudln't alarm you as threatening? If they are, does he know that they are? Except for those gestures, nothing else you said would lead me to believe that he was a danger, though he certainly does sound like an odd character.
I should note here that I am probably the nicest person you could ever meet. I go out of my way not to hurt people, and to help people when I can. If anything, my greatest challenge is to not let other people ride roughshod over me. I have really lousy social skills (in part because I have severe language issues, I'm not sure how much of it is 'other stuff' -- not taking in information like other humans, and esspecially not taking in language correctly, from birth, is a pretty big speedbump in trying to learn social skills) and tend to be more trusting than possibly I should, but the other choice is to be too paranoid -- there's no reasonable 'middle ground' here for me. I can't 'read' people like most people can. I do many things that are similar to the guy and people find me similarly 'creepy' -- something that irks me. I know what it's like to fear things, and while I know logically that I have more fear than the 'average' person, it pains me to know that I'm 'causing' some level of fear in other people. I'm not looking to be everyone's friend -- I'm intensely shy and being with other humans, even those I like a lot and who like me, is exteremely tiring for me. But I do wish that people woudln't automatically go 'She's acting differently, I'm scared of her now'.
To bring this back to the original topic, these behaviors are ones that were actively discouraged (i.e. punished) when I was in school. The teachers enlisted the help of other students to find when I was doing 'bizzare' things (like walking on the sides of my feet or rocking or moving my head around oddly) and so the other students discovered that they could get brownie points for 'getting the weird kid in trouble' -- I didn't need any more help in being socially isolated.
So my only real point here is that the 'whackos' are already seen as a threat by society and schools even when their not. You're a thinking individual. Please don't compound the problem.
I've seen that stat for toddlers in numerous 'reliable' sources (the wash post a few years ago, for example) though I doubt it, personally.
50hours/week is 7 hours a day...if you figure 8 for sleeping that leaves 9 for work/food/everything else...*I* don't have that sort of time..maybe the 'average american' does..
but then, I went for four years with no TV (no interest) and now only occasionally watch my girlfriend's TV (mostly for the same reason that people climb mt everest, unfortunetly)
You need geek-dyke friends. We'd never bug you about such things..hell, it sounds like it matches my no-name grey laptop (that is currently broken, 'cos I went in to fix the pcmcia slots and it doesn't boot now and I haven't had the time to troubleshoot what I did wrong this time) and my home-built tower (the cover is..erm..somewhere...I think in the back cupboard..)
Age does matter -- I'm a 22 year old sysadmin -- been a 'computer professional' for seven years (started out as a PC tech and moved up). Most of my coworkers don't know my age, and that's largely because I've learned that little good can come from my coworkers knowing how old I am.
Some suggestions on dealing with it (this, btw, should not be construed as supporting the idea that young people should be treated with less respect because of their age. I don't believe that at all, but there's few things you can actively do to improve people's respect of young people until they respect you, so..)
1. Be extremely responsible. 'Out responsible' your coworkers whenever possible
2. Don't give anyone your age if at all possible.
(HR needs to know, but most people don't -- Keep it on a Need to Know basis -- don't lie, just don't bring attention to it)
3. Look older -- Consider how your coworkers and bosses dress. Consider how they do their hair. Consider how they carry themselves. Imitate this to the extent with which you are comfortable. This alone saved me a lot of trouble -- when I was 20 most of my coworkers thought I was 30 or so...they were rather surprised when I told them I coudln't join them at the bar..
4. learn from my mistake -- if your coworkers are in the habit of going to a bar, scope it out beforehand. In general, your odds of getting carded are lower if you're with a group of coworkers than by yourself. Remember these white lies "I have plans" and "I forgot my driver's license" -- repeat for any other activity that might give away your age
5. Never forget where you came from. If you're in a position where your co-workers respect you regardless of your age, challenge them when they refuse to give others the same respect they deserve (when possible -- don't chew out your boss) Always give others that respect, regardless of their age.
a web page, with a simple bio, discussion of education and philosophy, and some faqs like: how many patients do you see have symptoms that are caused completely by stress? What are these symptoms? (and when a doctor says 'seizures' here, I'll know to avoid them..)
Why? Because I"m sick of paying $100+ to discover that my dermatologist doesn't realize that asthma and hayfever are related to eczema, and all three are allergic reactions, my doctor wants to give me prozac for those allergic reactions, since allergies are caused by 'stress', my gyne is telling me I have HPV because she coudln't be bothered to tell me that using tampons before a PAP smear messes it up (she knew which day of my cycle it was, too..) (and no, I don't have HPV, but I had to spend $500 for a biopsy to be sure) or that my (yet another) doctor has decided that tylenol 3 is a really good long-term headache management plan (any headache that requires codeine to kill off that lasts more than three weeks is scary to me -- Turned out I'd just given myself a concussion, but doc #1 couldn't be bothered to figure that out).
Never mind the friend's daughter who has been told repeatedly that her seizures were 'psychological' and been sent to therapists for a year -- finally my friend took her to Stanford -- she has epilepsy!
I'm thinking mandatory informational advertisement could be a good thing, here.
first: paypal is not yet universal
second: people won't pay for something unless a. they can't get it free (or it has some advantage over similar things they can get free) or b. it tickles their charitable side -- something tells me that 'rate the chick' isn't charitable -- 'feed starving children' is charitable, 'save acres of rainforest', 'give us money so that we can hold a dance for queer youth' -- not 'rate the chicks'
Is there some other definition of variant I wasn't aware of? Got links?
That's what I was trying to figure out ... Be *is* a unix varient (a single user varient, but still)
I'm guessing OS/2 or something real obscure (no clues? sniffle)
since you don't have an email address listed -- just for the record, I'm stealing this line for my email .sig