Alright, so I was in a bad mood earlier because of arguments in my lab. I tentatively withdraw the expletives. Nevertheless...
Besides my wife being a graduate student, my mother and uncle are college professors, my grandmother was a teacher and life-long hospital and school volunteer and my aunt is a nurse...
Great. Yet somehow I am reminded of "but some of my best friends of are {black|gay|autistic}!" You don't seem to comprehend:
My wife is a graduate student and some of her friends at college have admitted to her that they use it as a blanket diagnosis for kids whom they can't fit into any other category.
That's...pretty much science right there. "Haven't classified this yet? Put it in the unclassified folder, we'll look at it later, hopefully we'll have more and similar data then." "What's this new reading, we should look at that later...oh, shit, it's a new subatomic particle that breaks our current models." Complaining about having catch-all categories is basically complaining that we don't know everything yet. This is how we learn: general->specific, categorization and sub(-sub-sub)categorization.
I never claimed that nothing was ever wrong with people. I was specifically ranting about "PDD-NOS".
That is what you claim. You are implying that people put into 'PDD-NOS' are 'bullshit', that there's nothing different about them, and that they deserve no help, no study--that they are there simply as cash cows, to fund the lavish university lifestyle. PDD-NOS: Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, i.e. "something is different about their development, we aren't sure what, yet."
This is research! This classification is the entire point! Of course they get more funding for having a lot of people in this class: these are most interesting people to look at: the ones we don't understand! Having more in this category simply means they have a large sample size in which to explore.
autism diagnoses seem to have skyrocketed in the last decade and after hearing four of the dozen or so mothers claim that their sons were "autistic" at the last birthday party my son went to, I have to question to validity of many of the diagnoses.
I'm sorry, maybe I missed it: are you personally a doctor? Because otherwise, who are you to be questioning other people's diagnoses? Have you personally gone over to their houses? Read to them? Helped with their homework? Talked to their teachers and counselors?
The deeper issue here is that we are realizing more and more that for a large number of autistic/'autistic-like' people, there is nothing 'wrong' with them. They are different. Society does not treat them in a way which encourages their development, i.e. in the way that suits their brains. I personally know a young autistic man whose mother was once told he would never learn a language. He now writes short stories in his spare time. At some point in time, as the topic parent mentioned, this young man would have been labeled 'retarded', and his mother never would have even been allowed to put him in a real school. Even now, she's had to fight all through his life to get him a good education, to keep him from being discarded by society. We could be doing so much better.
We are starting to learn, and we're starting to change how we look at development, but we've still got a long way to go. Sure, maybe PDD-NOS children could be put into normal schools, taught in the 'standard' way. And many will surely do 'okay'. Probably some will even do great! But maybe if we study them, and further classify their specific learning types and developmental 'quirks', and if we then apply what we've learned in schools, maybe more will do great.
There is no 'autism epidemic'. There is no 'skyrocket'. What we have is increasing and undeniable evidence that the personal differences between brains, development, and learning can be both vast a
Right. Because nothing is ever actually wrong with people, it's just some BS diagnosis made up by those money grubbing universities with their fat-cat professors. Those damned grad students, giving the best years of their lives in serfdom just to steal the taxpayers' hard-earned money and blow it all on their fancy 15-year old cars and studio apartments.
On behalf of all graduate students, professors, doctors, nurses, and basically everyone else who has ever sacrificed in order to try to do something good:
Well a large part of VT has a FTTH initiative pulling itself together, but it got stalled by the economy tanking (they've just put in an app for stimulus money). Of course, that will take a good while to get installed and running, so there will probably be a nice gap in service if/when Fairpoint does implode. I can get Comcast where I'm at, but...ugh.
Funny thing is, I've not had a problem with Fairpoint. I had Verizon DSL, the changeover was transparent, and everything works fine. Oh well. Hope the fiber comes in before I'm done with grad school and have to move.
After reading this post a couple of times, I've decided that the first line is not referring to the parent, but is rather an abstract of the remainder of the post. It all makes sense now.
Logitech's entire marble trackball line is awesome. I hate using mice on foreign systems now, it feels so...clunky. And I can't even imagine gaming with a standard mouse.
C) You also fail to see that what you consider "permanent" generally isn't. Even a simple thing such as a broken hose can be a matter of life or death. Eventually things start to wear out and they aren't easy to replace.
That's one of our biggest problems. We need to start building stuff that can be repaired. Anything life-or-death should have a backup, but everything should also be accessible and toolable such that when one breaks, you can repair it quickly and easily. Enough of this one-shot lameness. Even better would be auto-repair.
NASA needs to start talking to people who build stuff like underwater drill rigs and arctic mining sites. While such installations may not be quite as extreme as space, they face many of the same problems, and yet manage to survive and turn profits (and speaking of profit, why aren't we mining asteroids yet?)
Frankly, NASA and the general public also need to get over their squeamishness. Space is a frontier. People die exploring frontiers, that's just a fact. People die all the time in much less noble or interesting pursuits. The astronauts who have died knew what they were getting into, and they went anyway. There are plenty of people who would go even if the risks were greater than they are now. We didn't let danger stop us from spreading over the planet, and now we must not let it stop us from getting off of it.
Sure, there's a difference. And pretty much everybody can tell the difference, if they compare SD and HD side-by-side. I watch some broadcast HD, and it's neat: I notice the actors' eyes more, the audio is a little better, etc. I would even pay a premium for Blu-Ray discs for some movies/shows. But I still watch SD, and it's just fine. If a show/movie is crap on DVD or SD, it's still crap in HD! If it's awesome, HD can be a nice plus, but it's still going to be awesome on DVD, or even VHS. For the vast majority of people, the fact that a better format exists does not suddenly render the old formats repulsive, and if you put up enough irritating barriers in front of the new format, they'll just stick with the acceptable, convenient old format.
I ran into the same issue with TV. It would be neat to have DIscovery HD, USA HD, Skiffy HD, etc, but I've got a very nice HTPC setup. I can record two SD or HD shows concurrently while watching another, and I can add as much disc space as I want. If I go with cable, I get crappy hypercompression on many HD channels. If I go with satellite, I get knocked out by (frequent in my area) bad weather. And with either, as it currently stands, I have to put up with their inferior DVR systems, because there's no easy way to get access to three independent MPEG program streams (even if they did yield unimpeded stream access through a usb or firewire port, they'd probably want me to rent three receivers to do it, hahahafu). CableCard HTPC tuners should be the answer to this, but they've completely ruined that with hardware and software restrictions in the same way they've ruined Blu-Ray.
So forget it, I'll stick with watching SD and the little broadcast HD I can get, when I want, where I want.
In the same way, the only HD movies I ever watch are what I can download in 720p off of Xbox Live, when I want, where I want. 720p looks quite nice on a wide-format, 30ft projector screen in one of my uni's classrooms. I know 1080 would look even better, but hey, the projector systems here aren't HDCP compatible, so even if I wanted to spend the cash to buy a Blu-Ray player, it wouldn't work, or I'd have to use crummy connectors that would negate the quality improvements. Hey, my xbox 360 upscales DVDs quite nicely, too.
...That's the Cochrane character I had known for twenty years.
But the way I see it is: the First Contact Cochrane was -before- all that. Up until his work kindles first contact and a human renaissance, Cochrane is just that kooky guy messing with the old missile near camp. Nobody knows he's a genius because he hasn't done jack, yet.
Vulcans, responsibility, and some small knowledge of the future surely all help him clean up his act.
However, if the schools are private and the Internet service is private then the money is limited only by the market, which means that it is practically unlimited.
...pure capitalism = everyone gets infinite money? Sweet, I didn't realize. Sign me up!
it was 20lbs...no way I'm able to fit that and anything else in a bike basket or in my backpack.
Clearly all that gym time isn't helping. I often hump 30-40lbs in to school (walk, bus, walk). With the right backpack (chest & waist straps esp. req'd.), it's really not a big deal.
if I were to increase my planning load, and travel times...
You seem to think that changing your ways would require you to add "30 mins planning routes for today..." to your daily schedule. It really shouldn't: sitting down, one weekend, for an hour or two, looking at bus/train schedules and your own schedule should allow you to plan out a typical week, and figure out what you need to bring in to work, where to leave things, etc. Then you just follow that, adjusting as needed. Time on transit need not be 'wasted', either--read, peruse a paper, whatever. Or just clear your head.
That two hours at the gym each day can also be cut down once you start hoofing it more. I get my cardio walking to/from/around school, and then do free weight stuff at home--hey, no gym required.
I guess I have a somewhat different perspective from a lot of people: though I do own a car, I absolutely hate driving. I look at it as a complete waste of my time and concentration, and feel like I'm putting my life into other people's [read: crazy driver's] hands, and taking other's into my own [I am not perfect, and people around here tend to walk right into traffic without a glance to either side]. I drive when I have to, but the bus is a welcome break from that.
Slashdot Mirror
Win.
*golf clap*
WHAT?! Nine thousand? There's no way that can be right!!!!
Alright, so I was in a bad mood earlier because of arguments in my lab. I tentatively withdraw the expletives. Nevertheless...
Besides my wife being a graduate student, my mother and uncle are college professors, my grandmother was a teacher and life-long hospital and school volunteer and my aunt is a nurse...
Great. Yet somehow I am reminded of "but some of my best friends of are {black|gay|autistic}!" You don't seem to comprehend:
My wife is a graduate student and some of her friends at college have admitted to her that they use it as a blanket diagnosis for kids whom they can't fit into any other category.
That's...pretty much science right there. "Haven't classified this yet? Put it in the unclassified folder, we'll look at it later, hopefully we'll have more and similar data then." "What's this new reading, we should look at that later...oh, shit, it's a new subatomic particle that breaks our current models." Complaining about having catch-all categories is basically complaining that we don't know everything yet. This is how we learn: general->specific, categorization and sub(-sub-sub)categorization.
I never claimed that nothing was ever wrong with people. I was specifically ranting about "PDD-NOS".
That is what you claim. You are implying that people put into 'PDD-NOS' are 'bullshit', that there's nothing different about them, and that they deserve no help, no study--that they are there simply as cash cows, to fund the lavish university lifestyle. PDD-NOS: Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified, i.e. "something is different about their development, we aren't sure what, yet."
This is research! This classification is the entire point! Of course they get more funding for having a lot of people in this class: these are most interesting people to look at: the ones we don't understand! Having more in this category simply means they have a large sample size in which to explore.
autism diagnoses seem to have skyrocketed in the last decade and after hearing four of the dozen or so mothers claim that their sons were "autistic" at the last birthday party my son went to, I have to question to validity of many of the diagnoses.
I'm sorry, maybe I missed it: are you personally a doctor? Because otherwise, who are you to be questioning other people's diagnoses? Have you personally gone over to their houses? Read to them? Helped with their homework? Talked to their teachers and counselors?
The deeper issue here is that we are realizing more and more that for a large number of autistic/'autistic-like' people, there is nothing 'wrong' with them. They are different. Society does not treat them in a way which encourages their development, i.e. in the way that suits their brains. I personally know a young autistic man whose mother was once told he would never learn a language. He now writes short stories in his spare time. At some point in time, as the topic parent mentioned, this young man would have been labeled 'retarded', and his mother never would have even been allowed to put him in a real school. Even now, she's had to fight all through his life to get him a good education, to keep him from being discarded by society. We could be doing so much better.
We are starting to learn, and we're starting to change how we look at development, but we've still got a long way to go. Sure, maybe PDD-NOS children could be put into normal schools, taught in the 'standard' way. And many will surely do 'okay'. Probably some will even do great! But maybe if we study them, and further classify their specific learning types and developmental 'quirks', and if we then apply what we've learned in schools, maybe more will do great.
There is no 'autism epidemic'. There is no 'skyrocket'. What we have is increasing and undeniable evidence that the personal differences between brains, development, and learning can be both vast a
Right. Because nothing is ever actually wrong with people, it's just some BS diagnosis made up by those money grubbing universities with their fat-cat professors. Those damned grad students, giving the best years of their lives in serfdom just to steal the taxpayers' hard-earned money and blow it all on their fancy 15-year old cars and studio apartments.
On behalf of all graduate students, professors, doctors, nurses, and basically everyone else who has ever sacrificed in order to try to do something good:
FUCK YOU.
Go live in a cave and die of polio, asshole.
So Anonymous Lazy Bastard instead of Anonymous Coward?
Well a large part of VT has a FTTH initiative pulling itself together, but it got stalled by the economy tanking (they've just put in an app for stimulus money). Of course, that will take a good while to get installed and running, so there will probably be a nice gap in service if/when Fairpoint does implode. I can get Comcast where I'm at, but...ugh.
Funny thing is, I've not had a problem with Fairpoint. I had Verizon DSL, the changeover was transparent, and everything works fine. Oh well. Hope the fiber comes in before I'm done with grad school and have to move.
Need a "troll mathematician" mod choice.
Citation please.
After reading this post a couple of times, I've decided that the first line is not referring to the parent, but is rather an abstract of the remainder of the post. It all makes sense now.
...Just in case anyone else was wondering.
Well if Contact taught us anything, it's that this web site actually only took $9 mil, but there are two of them.
Careful. There might be a baby under your hat!
Logitech's entire marble trackball line is awesome. I hate using mice on foreign systems now, it feels so...clunky. And I can't even imagine gaming with a standard mouse.
C) You also fail to see that what you consider "permanent" generally isn't. Even a simple thing such as a broken hose can be a matter of life or death. Eventually things start to wear out and they aren't easy to replace.
That's one of our biggest problems. We need to start building stuff that can be repaired. Anything life-or-death should have a backup, but everything should also be accessible and toolable such that when one breaks, you can repair it quickly and easily. Enough of this one-shot lameness. Even better would be auto-repair.
NASA needs to start talking to people who build stuff like underwater drill rigs and arctic mining sites. While such installations may not be quite as extreme as space, they face many of the same problems, and yet manage to survive and turn profits (and speaking of profit, why aren't we mining asteroids yet?)
Frankly, NASA and the general public also need to get over their squeamishness. Space is a frontier. People die exploring frontiers, that's just a fact. People die all the time in much less noble or interesting pursuits. The astronauts who have died knew what they were getting into, and they went anyway. There are plenty of people who would go even if the risks were greater than they are now. We didn't let danger stop us from spreading over the planet, and now we must not let it stop us from getting off of it.
Sure, there's a difference. And pretty much everybody can tell the difference, if they compare SD and HD side-by-side. I watch some broadcast HD, and it's neat: I notice the actors' eyes more, the audio is a little better, etc. I would even pay a premium for Blu-Ray discs for some movies/shows. But I still watch SD, and it's just fine. If a show/movie is crap on DVD or SD, it's still crap in HD! If it's awesome, HD can be a nice plus, but it's still going to be awesome on DVD, or even VHS. For the vast majority of people, the fact that a better format exists does not suddenly render the old formats repulsive, and if you put up enough irritating barriers in front of the new format, they'll just stick with the acceptable, convenient old format.
I ran into the same issue with TV. It would be neat to have DIscovery HD, USA HD, Skiffy HD, etc, but I've got a very nice HTPC setup. I can record two SD or HD shows concurrently while watching another, and I can add as much disc space as I want. If I go with cable, I get crappy hypercompression on many HD channels. If I go with satellite, I get knocked out by (frequent in my area) bad weather. And with either, as it currently stands, I have to put up with their inferior DVR systems, because there's no easy way to get access to three independent MPEG program streams (even if they did yield unimpeded stream access through a usb or firewire port, they'd probably want me to rent three receivers to do it, hahahafu). CableCard HTPC tuners should be the answer to this, but they've completely ruined that with hardware and software restrictions in the same way they've ruined Blu-Ray.
So forget it, I'll stick with watching SD and the little broadcast HD I can get, when I want, where I want.
In the same way, the only HD movies I ever watch are what I can download in 720p off of Xbox Live, when I want, where I want. 720p looks quite nice on a wide-format, 30ft projector screen in one of my uni's classrooms. I know 1080 would look even better, but hey, the projector systems here aren't HDCP compatible, so even if I wanted to spend the cash to buy a Blu-Ray player, it wouldn't work, or I'd have to use crummy connectors that would negate the quality improvements. Hey, my xbox 360 upscales DVDs quite nicely, too.
Screw their future.
> "Blu-Ray feels like laser-disk".
YES. Please, thank her for putting into words what I've been subtly feeling all along.
You, good sir, win.
Well there -are- a lot of unemployed people out there nowadays... :)
Then might I suggest a carbonite tuxedo?
...That's the Cochrane character I had known for twenty years.
But the way I see it is: the First Contact Cochrane was -before- all that. Up until his work kindles first contact and a human renaissance, Cochrane is just that kooky guy messing with the old missile near camp. Nobody knows he's a genius because he hasn't done jack, yet.
Vulcans, responsibility, and some small knowledge of the future surely all help him clean up his act.
You people clearly haven't met enough geniuses, nor enough drunken fools.
"Plus I hate how they turned the original Zephram Cochrane from a genius engineer into a drunken fool."
You seem to think these are mutually exclusive. As someone who works with engineers of all sorts, I assure you, there is a significant correlation.
Mmm. And then have fun being overrun by all the critters the spiders used to eat.
SPIDERS IS OUR FRENDZ
However, if the schools are private and the Internet service is private then the money is limited only by the market, which means that it is practically unlimited.
...pure capitalism = everyone gets infinite money? Sweet, I didn't realize. Sign me up!
it was 20lbs...no way I'm able to fit that and anything else in a bike basket or in my backpack.
Clearly all that gym time isn't helping. I often hump 30-40lbs in to school (walk, bus, walk). With the right backpack (chest & waist straps esp. req'd.), it's really not a big deal.
if I were to increase my planning load, and travel times...
You seem to think that changing your ways would require you to add "30 mins planning routes for today..." to your daily schedule. It really shouldn't: sitting down, one weekend, for an hour or two, looking at bus/train schedules and your own schedule should allow you to plan out a typical week, and figure out what you need to bring in to work, where to leave things, etc. Then you just follow that, adjusting as needed. Time on transit need not be 'wasted', either--read, peruse a paper, whatever. Or just clear your head.
That two hours at the gym each day can also be cut down once you start hoofing it more. I get my cardio walking to/from/around school, and then do free weight stuff at home--hey, no gym required.
I guess I have a somewhat different perspective from a lot of people: though I do own a car, I absolutely hate driving. I look at it as a complete waste of my time and concentration, and feel like I'm putting my life into other people's [read: crazy driver's] hands, and taking other's into my own [I am not perfect, and people around here tend to walk right into traffic without a glance to either side]. I drive when I have to, but the bus is a welcome break from that.
> -no damn good reason-
Two-screen multiplayer with friends? At least, that's why I bought my second (used, broken, and now RROD-repaired) 360.