An interesting article. The upper continental crust deforms in a brittle manner and is amenable to modeling via Finite Element Analysis (FEA). For example McCloskey et al. (2005) used FEA to forecast an increased risk of a major earthquake on the Sumatra Subduction Zone immediately south-east of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, due to a massive build up of post-seismic stress. Sure enough, within weeks there was an 8.8 Mag earthquake in the right place.
It is possible today, and there are several other examples, where forecasts have predicted the location of increased seismic risk after a major earthquake. Large earthquakes radically change the crustal stress field, increasing the risk of earthquakes in specific areas surrounding the area of initial slip. Forecasts are useful in warning survivors and emergency workers of the location and risk of aftershocks following a major earthquake. But McCloskey et al. (2005) and Jeff McGuire are a special examples, as the structural geology of the Sumatran Subduction Zone and the East Pacific Rise are far simpler than the continental crust and were easy to model, unlike e.g. the North Anatolian fault, Turkey, where the same technique has been applied with less success.
But I agree with the article, the technique will improve when the accuracy of geological data improves. And just like weather forecasting, once we have higher resolution data earthquake forecasts will improve. We might forecast some foreshocks too one day, but that would need a dense array of instruments (I'm skeptical of electromagnetic effects preceding large earthquakes i.e. prediction). This will only ever be available in the US, Europe and Japan, it will never be a certain science and only applicable to certain fault zones. Lastly, the excessive skepticism by many in the geological community to earthquake forecasting annoys me, who are rightly skeptical of and mix it up with prediction. But this is not prediction, earthquake forecasting deserves to be accepted and researched.
McCloskey J, Nalbant SS, Steacy S (2005) Indonesian earthquake: Earthquake risk from co-seismic stress. Nature 434:291.
I have a PhD and autism, so that makes me autistic but not stupid. Simon Baron-Cohen, a autism researcher, has expressed his worry that "curing" autism could reduce the number people studying maths and other professions that require good systematizing ability, a strength possessed by people with autism. Here is his comment on the BBC website...
I agree that the way to discourage curing autism, at least getting people to consider its wider implications that go beyond autism, is to connect the search into a cure with the search for genes that code for personality traits.
It is known that people with Autism and Asperger's are far more likely to vote in certain political directions and express a different degree of religiosity, so we are looking at personalty traits - of all people not just autistic people - when we look for a cure. It is scary stuff, the general public does not understand the ethics or its wider implications.
I'm not commenting on whether or not he is innocent or guilty, I'm just stating my impression that allot of his behaviors in court that led the jurors to convict him were not related to guilt but are typical behaviors seen Asperger's - such as deficits in episodic memory. You would be surprised how many court cases hinge on jurors early impressions of the indited suspect rather then tangible evidence. Having read more about the case, I agree that it is very likely that he is guilty.
I don't know much about this case, yet, but appears to me that several traits of Asperger's Syndrome were mistaken for guilt. For example, it was stated that Reiser's ability to remember license plates but not remember where he slept etc. indicated his guilt.
Episodic Memory (memory of events, times, places & associated emotions) is affected in Asperger's, sometimes to the point of amnesia. But Semantic Memory, memory for facts is often greatly enhanced. This appears to have lead Reiser to forget relevant autobiographical information but recall irrelevant facts, causing those unfamiliar with Asperger's to interpret his testimony as evasive and false. From Gardiner (2001) DOI:0.1098/rstb.2001.0955:
"There is evidence that remembering is selectively impaired in various populations, including not only amnesic patients and older adults but also adults with Asperger's syndrome."
That is exactly why the British media has taken a nose dive in its ability to intelligently discuss science and technology - todays journalists have an Arts and Humanities education in journalism, they have no critical thinking or science education. That abominable Panorama program was an example of just that phenomina, it was made by people who should be producing daytime cooking programs. When TV was young, in the 50-60's, it employed an army of engineers that created TV technology, later on they changed carers and many of them helped produce the unsurpassed science/technology documentaries of the 70s and 80s.
... last moved 12.1 +/- 1.6 million years ago - it is one of the youngest faults in Ireland. There maybe hot water flowing at depth in this fault... its a potential source of geothermal energy: http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100700.pdf
I read about he He isotope method a few years ago, in relation to hot springs along the Rhine Rift system in Germany - the hottest springs have more Helium-3. Its not a new idea.
Alternatively, one could try to locate young faults in geologically inactive areas, young faults are potential sources of geothermal energy as they are often porous and can allow hot fluid from depth to flow to the surface. We used Ar-Ar dating to determine that a fault in Ireland last moved http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100700.pdf
Yes, the theory is called Radiation Hormesis, that DNA damage caused by radiation stimulates a immune-protective response that increases heath. I'd love it to be true! But I'm a bit skeptical.
There was a fantastic study done in the 70's that found an inverse relationship between altitude and lung cancer (the higher you go the more cosmic rays) - the results have been statistically "massaged" over the years to agree with the "linear no threshold model". There is also a claim that lower levels of oxygen at altitude lower the lung cancer risk, oxygen being potentially carcinogenic due to oxygen radicals - but I could not find any evidence for this ( = they replaced an unacceptable conclusion with an unproven claim). The other possiblity is that the 70's study confirms Radiation Hormesis, you can even make a nice rainbow colored map of the lung cancer risk that fits flawlessly with altitude.
Why can't people get it into their heads that the human body has an anti-oxidant, DNA repair and immune system, that combats the effects of ionizing radiation - that the risk of ionizing radiation at low to moderate levels is overstated. Yes, there is mounting peer reviewed evidence. Think... wounds heal, infections are fought off and a suntan protects against UV radiation. Forget all that Cold War scare mongering that made the nuclear stockpile scary. It is likely, that below a certain level the body can repair damage done by ionizing radiation faster then it is caused.
The 11,000 member American Nuclear Society states : "It is the position of the American Nuclear Society that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support the use of the Linear No Threshold Hypothesis (LNTH) in the projection of the health effects of low-level radiation."
It was briefly mentioned on Sky News and the BBC that the disks are "password protected". Is this true, if so what's the encryption and password strength? Maybe the data cannot be accessed.
My favored culprit for drastic friction reduction during faulting is lubricating Silica Gel; finely crushed quartz in the active fault zone reacts with water forming fluidic silica gel. There is excellent laboratory evidence of silica gel lubrication in simulated fault zones (see Mineral Gel May Reduce Rock Friction to Zero During Earthquakes, http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100325. All that is needed is field evidence, and I think I have it.
Here is a nice paper written by some Iranians!
"Ion exchangers in radioactive waste management: Natural Iranian zeolites.
A. Nilchi, B. Maalek, A. Khanchi, M. Ghanadi Maragheh, A. Bagheri and K. Savoji
Jaber Ibn Hayan Research Laboratories, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, P.O. Box 11365/8486, Tehran, Iran. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, Volume 64, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 138-143."
Zoelite minerals have been used to filter out radioactive elements from radioactive waste water for the last 30 years or so. This is not at all new. Most people find this story extraordinary because its unbelievable, I find it extraordinary because it reports the mundane as if its extraordinary.
Zeolite minerals are already used to remove radiation from waste water produced by the nuclear reprocessing industry. Zeolites are natural molecular sieves, their cage like atomic structure efficiently traps specific chemical elements e.g. plutonium, americurium, iodine etc. So this is not a false claim, just exaggerated, there are lots of minerals with this property. I suppose this is someone looking for grant money...its that time of year again.
Once we understand the fundamentals of photosynthesis we could learn to engineer near 100% efficient organic solar cells, current silicon solar cells are expensive and are c. 16% efficient at best. For example, primitive photosynthetic pathways found in bacterial could be copied the man made organic solar cells that could be used to generate hydrogen as a by-product of photosynthesis. I suspect this is the aim of the researchers, they may have an eye on patents and are keeping quite.
http://www.afrlhorizons.com/Briefs/Jun03/ML0227.ht ml
I read recently that plagiarism is common in China, it extends not just to software (apparently) but to journal publications, this is due to English being a second language. Researchers who often have an incomplete grasp of English, copy large sections of text from western papers in order to help them write their papers. I think this is a bit of a grey area. I have myself been utterly suck for words and resorted to using a phrase or colloquialism, just a few words long, from another paper (I always re-write into my own style; a bit of guilty confession). It allows me to express my research findings in the language that is common to my research area. You often find similar phrases and expression in papers in the same field, it is clear that diffusion of language occurs in science, how else do we understand each other. I wonder if this example is due to language difficulties and people resorted to copying text, but went too far.
Caves can form in rocks other then limestone, such as gypsum - CaSO4.6H2O. In this case water simply dissolves the gypsum, which is slightly soluble in water irrespective of CO2 content. Gypsum is common evaporite mineral on Mars and can form pure deposits e.g. Pollack Crater has gypsum on its floor, it looks like Karst to me.
If the universe popped into existence, could it pop out of existence too?
Re:Read "The origins of exceptional abilities"
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 1
I agree that I was born without an innate skill at "Mineralogy". My point is that, the theory seems to say that people are not born brilliant, they are educated to be brilliant. That brilliance is only a matter of teaching a blank slate, brilliance has no inherited genetic component. If the theory says this, I firmly disagree.
From my experience of Asperger's Syndrome (AS); I see that there is an innate genetic (~93%) tendency to become proficient and expert via program of self-directed personal education, that emerges from the phenomena of AS. And by inference, there maybe many other self-thought "geniuses" today and in the past, who's early precocity and continued brilliance was a product of genetics, that caused them to form narrow obsessive interests. Thus, some are born to become brilliant. Bobby Fisher maybe one such example. AS is typified by social isolation, obsessive intellectual interests and difficulty with interpreting others emotions (empathy). Educating children as intensely as seen in AS, would be very difficult if not illegal.
Lastly, systematic-logical-rote education only suits some children not all. I bemoan the educators who apply a factual, shallow, narrow, repetitive educational style to children e.g. the Flash Card. I was on a bus the other day and I listened to a brother (age ~10) and his sister (age ~6) recite the Capitals of the Countries of the World (Their proud father was sitting nearby). They sounded like me as a kid! They were attempting to emulate the eccentric self-teaching style seen in children with AS, who's brilliance in one subject masks their difficulties elsewhere.
Re:Read "The origins of exceptional abilities"
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 1
I was pissed off when I read this article. I have mild Asperger's Syndrome. I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious, that we are born to be made experts...in our field of interest.
My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent more so then now, I was obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I would study minerals practically all day every day, week after week, month after month for years. I had the knowledge of mineralogy that surpassed a typical university graduate by the age of 14. I can identify my entire collection behind my back by touch and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book.
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate.
Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric, have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart).
You should read... Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability? by Michael Fitzgerald ISBN: 1583912134
Re:Or it's evidence of better training and motivat
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate.
I was pissed off when I read this article. I have mild Asperger's Syndrome. I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious. We are born to become experts, in our field of interest.
My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent, more so then now, I was happily obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I can now identify my entire collection behind my back, by touch, and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book.
If you made an average child adhered to my self directed mineralogy education program, you would possibly have been done for child cruelty, but I enjoyed it and would not have change a thing.
If I was into Chess I would have been a damn good Chess player. If I had been into Mathematics, I would have been a damn good mathematician. I was into Physics, I would have been a damn good Physicist etc.
Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric. They have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart).
Was I born to be made!
on
The Expert Mind
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
I was pissed off when I read this article. I have Asperger's Syndrome, I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious, that we are born to be made experts, in our field of interest.
My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent, more so then now, I was obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I would study about minerals practically all day every day, week after week, month after month for years. I had the knowledge of mineralogy that surpassed a typical university graduate by the age of 14! I can identify my entire collection behind my back by touch and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book.
If you made an average child adhered to my self directed mineralogy education program, you would possibly have been done for child cruelty, but I enjoyed it, would not have change a thing.
If I was into Chess I would have been a damn good Chess player. If I had been into Mathematics, I would have been a damn good mathematician. I was into Physics, I would have been a damn good Physicist.
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate.
Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric, have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart).
Autistic people have much poorer social skills then average by definition. 9 out of 10 autistics are male. Since autism is rare amongst women, women have on average, have better social skills then men. Autism is a spectrum condition that can affect people severely to very mildly. Most of those affected are male. Autism affect just under 1% of the population, 90% of whom are male.
On the other hand autistic people, have on average, have better systemising ability. Systemising ability is used in maths, science and engineering. Autism's milder version is called Asperger's Syndrome. People with AS often appear to be Nerds/Geeks.
Very poor social skills but Good at geeky/nerdy subjects = AS on average.
I have run a support group for people with AS for the last 3 years. From the university, the group includes a computer scientist, three computer programmers, a theoretical physicist, a microbiologist and myself, a geologist. There was one person who was studying theology (non-science). All are Male.
The next question, why are their more Male Nerds and Female Nerds?
Because Nerds (who are more often male) are very mildly autistic, they are just outside the range for a diagnosis of AS, they can cope, they can get along, they don't need extra help. AS is 3-6 times more common in university Maths courses for example, people in engineering courses are 3 times more likely to have an autistic relative then an arts student. AS/autism has been called an extreme male personality and is a likely reason (in part) for psychological based gender difference.
Slashdot Mirror
An interesting article. The upper continental crust deforms in a brittle manner and is amenable to modeling via Finite Element Analysis (FEA). For example McCloskey et al. (2005) used FEA to forecast an increased risk of a major earthquake on the Sumatra Subduction Zone immediately south-east of the 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake, due to a massive build up of post-seismic stress. Sure enough, within weeks there was an 8.8 Mag earthquake in the right place.
It is possible today, and there are several other examples, where forecasts have predicted the location of increased seismic risk after a major earthquake. Large earthquakes radically change the crustal stress field, increasing the risk of earthquakes in specific areas surrounding the area of initial slip. Forecasts are useful in warning survivors and emergency workers of the location and risk of aftershocks following a major earthquake. But McCloskey et al. (2005) and Jeff McGuire are a special examples, as the structural geology of the Sumatran Subduction Zone and the East Pacific Rise are far simpler than the continental crust and were easy to model, unlike e.g. the North Anatolian fault, Turkey, where the same technique has been applied with less success.
But I agree with the article, the technique will improve when the accuracy of geological data improves. And just like weather forecasting, once we have higher resolution data earthquake forecasts will improve. We might forecast some foreshocks too one day, but that would need a dense array of instruments (I'm skeptical of electromagnetic effects preceding large earthquakes i.e. prediction). This will only ever be available in the US, Europe and Japan, it will never be a certain science and only applicable to certain fault zones. Lastly, the excessive skepticism by many in the geological community to earthquake forecasting annoys me, who are rightly skeptical of and mix it up with prediction. But this is not prediction, earthquake forecasting deserves to be accepted and researched.
McCloskey J, Nalbant SS, Steacy S (2005) Indonesian earthquake: Earthquake risk from co-seismic stress. Nature 434:291.
I have a PhD and autism, so that makes me autistic but not stupid. Simon Baron-Cohen, a autism researcher, has expressed his worry that "curing" autism could reduce the number people studying maths and other professions that require good systematizing ability, a strength possessed by people with autism. Here is his comment on the BBC website...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7736196.stm
I agree that the way to discourage curing autism, at least getting people to consider its wider implications that go beyond autism, is to connect the search into a cure with the search for genes that code for personality traits.
It is known that people with Autism and Asperger's are far more likely to vote in certain political directions and express a different degree of religiosity, so we are looking at personalty traits - of all people not just autistic people - when we look for a cure. It is scary stuff, the general public does not understand the ethics or its wider implications.
I'm not commenting on whether or not he is innocent or guilty, I'm just stating my impression that allot of his behaviors in court that led the jurors to convict him were not related to guilt but are typical behaviors seen Asperger's - such as deficits in episodic memory. You would be surprised how many court cases hinge on jurors early impressions of the indited suspect rather then tangible evidence. Having read more about the case, I agree that it is very likely that he is guilty.
I don't know much about this case, yet, but appears to me that several traits of Asperger's Syndrome were mistaken for guilt. For example, it was stated that Reiser's ability to remember license plates but not remember where he slept etc. indicated his guilt.
Episodic Memory (memory of events, times, places & associated emotions) is affected in Asperger's, sometimes to the point of amnesia. But Semantic Memory, memory for facts is often greatly enhanced. This appears to have lead Reiser to forget relevant autobiographical information but recall irrelevant facts, causing those unfamiliar with Asperger's to interpret his testimony as evasive and false. From Gardiner (2001) DOI:0.1098/rstb.2001.0955:
"There is evidence that remembering is selectively impaired in various populations, including not only amnesic patients and older adults but also adults with Asperger's syndrome."
That is exactly why the British media has taken a nose dive in its ability to intelligently discuss science and technology - todays journalists have an Arts and Humanities education in journalism, they have no critical thinking or science education. That abominable Panorama program was an example of just that phenomina, it was made by people who should be producing daytime cooking programs. When TV was young, in the 50-60's, it employed an army of engineers that created TV technology, later on they changed carers and many of them helped produce the unsurpassed science/technology documentaries of the 70s and 80s.
... last moved 12.1 +/- 1.6 million years ago - it is one of the youngest faults in Ireland. There maybe hot water flowing at depth in this fault ... its a potential source of geothermal energy: http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100700.pdf
I read about he He isotope method a few years ago, in relation to hot springs along the Rhine Rift system in Germany - the hottest springs have more Helium-3. Its not a new idea.
Alternatively, one could try to locate young faults in geologically inactive areas, young faults are potential sources of geothermal energy as they are often porous and can allow hot fluid from depth to flow to the surface. We used Ar-Ar dating to determine that a fault in Ireland last moved http://www.ria.ie/cgi-bin/ria/papers/100700.pdf
Yes, the theory is called Radiation Hormesis, that DNA damage caused by radiation stimulates a immune-protective response that increases heath. I'd love it to be true! But I'm a bit skeptical.
There was a fantastic study done in the 70's that found an inverse relationship between altitude and lung cancer (the higher you go the more cosmic rays) - the results have been statistically "massaged" over the years to agree with the "linear no threshold model". There is also a claim that lower levels of oxygen at altitude lower the lung cancer risk, oxygen being potentially carcinogenic due to oxygen radicals - but I could not find any evidence for this ( = they replaced an unacceptable conclusion with an unproven claim). The other possiblity is that the 70's study confirms Radiation Hormesis, you can even make a nice rainbow colored map of the lung cancer risk that fits flawlessly with altitude.
Why can't people get it into their heads that the human body has an anti-oxidant, DNA repair and immune system, that combats the effects of ionizing radiation - that the risk of ionizing radiation at low to moderate levels is overstated. Yes, there is mounting peer reviewed evidence. Think ... wounds heal, infections are fought off and a suntan protects against UV radiation. Forget all that Cold War scare mongering that made the nuclear stockpile scary. It is likely, that below a certain level the body can repair damage done by ionizing radiation faster then it is caused.
The 11,000 member American Nuclear Society states : "It is the position of the American Nuclear Society that there is insufficient scientific evidence to support the use of the Linear No Threshold Hypothesis (LNTH) in the projection of the health effects of low-level radiation."
It was briefly mentioned on Sky News and the BBC that the disks are "password protected". Is this true, if so what's the encryption and password strength? Maybe the data cannot be accessed.
My favored culprit for drastic friction reduction during faulting is lubricating Silica Gel; finely crushed quartz in the active fault zone reacts with water forming fluidic silica gel. There is excellent laboratory evidence of silica gel lubrication in simulated fault zones (see Mineral Gel May Reduce Rock Friction to Zero During Earthquakes, http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=100325. All that is needed is field evidence, and I think I have it.
Here is a nice paper written by some Iranians! "Ion exchangers in radioactive waste management: Natural Iranian zeolites. A. Nilchi, B. Maalek, A. Khanchi, M. Ghanadi Maragheh, A. Bagheri and K. Savoji Jaber Ibn Hayan Research Laboratories, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, P.O. Box 11365/8486, Tehran, Iran. Applied Radiation and Isotopes, Volume 64, Issue 1, January 2006, Pages 138-143." Zoelite minerals have been used to filter out radioactive elements from radioactive waste water for the last 30 years or so. This is not at all new. Most people find this story extraordinary because its unbelievable, I find it extraordinary because it reports the mundane as if its extraordinary.
Zeolite minerals are already used to remove radiation from waste water produced by the nuclear reprocessing industry. Zeolites are natural molecular sieves, their cage like atomic structure efficiently traps specific chemical elements e.g. plutonium, americurium, iodine etc. So this is not a false claim, just exaggerated, there are lots of minerals with this property. I suppose this is someone looking for grant money...its that time of year again.
Once we understand the fundamentals of photosynthesis we could learn to engineer near 100% efficient organic solar cells, current silicon solar cells are expensive and are c. 16% efficient at best. For example, primitive photosynthetic pathways found in bacterial could be copied the man made organic solar cells that could be used to generate hydrogen as a by-product of photosynthesis. I suspect this is the aim of the researchers, they may have an eye on patents and are keeping quite. http://www.afrlhorizons.com/Briefs/Jun03/ML0227.ht ml
I read recently that plagiarism is common in China, it extends not just to software (apparently) but to journal publications, this is due to English being a second language. Researchers who often have an incomplete grasp of English, copy large sections of text from western papers in order to help them write their papers. I think this is a bit of a grey area. I have myself been utterly suck for words and resorted to using a phrase or colloquialism, just a few words long, from another paper (I always re-write into my own style; a bit of guilty confession). It allows me to express my research findings in the language that is common to my research area. You often find similar phrases and expression in papers in the same field, it is clear that diffusion of language occurs in science, how else do we understand each other. I wonder if this example is due to language difficulties and people resorted to copying text, but went too far.
And leave the wiki article as is...
Caves can form in rocks other then limestone, such as gypsum - CaSO4.6H2O. In this case water simply dissolves the gypsum, which is slightly soluble in water irrespective of CO2 content. Gypsum is common evaporite mineral on Mars and can form pure deposits e.g. Pollack Crater has gypsum on its floor, it looks like Karst to me.
If the universe popped into existence, could it pop out of existence too?
I agree that I was born without an innate skill at "Mineralogy". My point is that, the theory seems to say that people are not born brilliant, they are educated to be brilliant. That brilliance is only a matter of teaching a blank slate, brilliance has no inherited genetic component. If the theory says this, I firmly disagree.
From my experience of Asperger's Syndrome (AS); I see that there is an innate genetic (~93%) tendency to become proficient and expert via program of self-directed personal education, that emerges from the phenomena of AS. And by inference, there maybe many other self-thought "geniuses" today and in the past, who's early precocity and continued brilliance was a product of genetics, that caused them to form narrow obsessive interests. Thus, some are born to become brilliant. Bobby Fisher maybe one such example. AS is typified by social isolation, obsessive intellectual interests and difficulty with interpreting others emotions (empathy). Educating children as intensely as seen in AS, would be very difficult if not illegal.
Lastly, systematic-logical-rote education only suits some children not all. I bemoan the educators who apply a factual, shallow, narrow, repetitive educational style to children e.g. the Flash Card. I was on a bus the other day and I listened to a brother (age ~10) and his sister (age ~6) recite the Capitals of the Countries of the World (Their proud father was sitting nearby). They sounded like me as a kid! They were attempting to emulate the eccentric self-teaching style seen in children with AS, who's brilliance in one subject masks their difficulties elsewhere.
I was pissed off when I read this article. I have mild Asperger's Syndrome. I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious, that we are born to be made experts...in our field of interest. My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent more so then now, I was obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I would study minerals practically all day every day, week after week, month after month for years. I had the knowledge of mineralogy that surpassed a typical university graduate by the age of 14. I can identify my entire collection behind my back by touch and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book. Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate. Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric, have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart). You should read ... Autism and Creativity: Is There a Link Between Autism in Men and Exceptional Ability? by Michael Fitzgerald ISBN: 1583912134
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate. I was pissed off when I read this article. I have mild Asperger's Syndrome. I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious. We are born to become experts, in our field of interest. My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent, more so then now, I was happily obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I can now identify my entire collection behind my back, by touch, and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book. If you made an average child adhered to my self directed mineralogy education program, you would possibly have been done for child cruelty, but I enjoyed it and would not have change a thing. If I was into Chess I would have been a damn good Chess player. If I had been into Mathematics, I would have been a damn good mathematician. I was into Physics, I would have been a damn good Physicist etc. Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric. They have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart).
I was pissed off when I read this article. I have Asperger's Syndrome, I and people like me develop narrow intense interests as part of our AS. In our case it is obvious, that we are born to be made experts, in our field of interest.
My interest is Mineralogy. I just finished a PhD in geology. As a child and adolescent, more so then now, I was obsessed with Mineralogy and collecting minerals. I would study about minerals practically all day every day, week after week, month after month for years. I had the knowledge of mineralogy that surpassed a typical university graduate by the age of 14! I can identify my entire collection behind my back by touch and I can identify ~750 different minerals without needing a text book.
If you made an average child adhered to my self directed mineralogy education program, you would possibly have been done for child cruelty, but I enjoyed it, would not have change a thing.
If I was into Chess I would have been a damn good Chess player. If I had been into Mathematics, I would have been a damn good mathematician. I was into Physics, I would have been a damn good Physicist.
Asperger's Syndrome demonstrates than a predilection to develop narrow intellectual interests and to set up your own personal Suzuki School, is for some, innate.
Bobby Fisher, Mozart, Einstein, Newton and others. People who are obsessive, single minded, often self-thought and are socially isolated/eccentric, have all been speculated to have had AS (or Tourettes Syndrome in the case of Mozart).
Autistic people have much poorer social skills then average by definition. 9 out of 10 autistics are male. Since autism is rare amongst women, women have on average, have better social skills then men. Autism is a spectrum condition that can affect people severely to very mildly. Most of those affected are male. Autism affect just under 1% of the population, 90% of whom are male.
On the other hand autistic people, have on average, have better systemising ability. Systemising ability is used in maths, science and engineering. Autism's milder version is called Asperger's Syndrome. People with AS often appear to be Nerds/Geeks.
Very poor social skills but Good at geeky/nerdy subjects = AS on average.
I have run a support group for people with AS for the last 3 years. From the university, the group includes a computer scientist, three computer programmers, a theoretical physicist, a microbiologist and myself, a geologist. There was one person who was studying theology (non-science). All are Male.
The next question, why are their more Male Nerds and Female Nerds?
Because Nerds (who are more often male) are very mildly autistic, they are just outside the range for a diagnosis of AS, they can cope, they can get along, they don't need extra help. AS is 3-6 times more common in university Maths courses for example, people in engineering courses are 3 times more likely to have an autistic relative then an arts student. AS/autism has been called an extreme male personality and is a likely reason (in part) for psychological based gender difference.