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Being Obviously Wrong About Autism

I’m watching a Louis Theroux documentary about Autism (here’s the link to the BBC web site [1]). The main thing that strikes me so far (after watching 7.5 minutes of it) is the bad design of the DLC-Warren school for Autistic kids in New Jersey [2].

A significant portion of people on the Autism Spectrum […]

Autism and the Treatment of Women Again

Background

I’ve previously written about the claim that people use Autism as an excuse for bad behavior [1]. In summary it doesn’t and such claims instead lead to people not being assessed for Autism.

I’ve also previously written about empathy and Autism in the context of discussions about conference sexual harassment [2]. The main point […]

The Aspie Accent

I am often asked about my “accent”. The most common guess is that it’s a “British” accent, while I lived in London for about a year I don’t think that my accent changed much during that time (people have commented on the way I speak since I was in primary school). Also there isn’t a […]

Depression

Andrew Solomon gave an interesting TED talk about depression [1].

I’ve had problems with depression at various times through my life, about 18 months ago I recognised it as depression after reading a list of depression symptoms on the Beyond Blue site. I think that they have changed their site recently they now have an […]

Dr Suelette Dreyfus LCA Keynote

Dr Suelette Dreyfus gave an interesting LCA keynote speech on Monday (it’s online now for people who aren’t attending LCA [1]). One of the interesting points she made was regarding the greater support for privacy protection in Germany, this is apparently due to so many German citizens having read their own Stasi files.

The section […]

Asperger Syndrome – Disability vs “Over Pathologising”

Is Asperger Syndrome a Disability?

Some people tell me that I’m disabled. Usually it’s an unstated implication such as referring to Asperger Syndrome as a disability with the assumption that I’ll agree. One time I had someone assume that I had never had a paid job because they knew I’m an Aspie, maybe I should […]

Sam Harris on Lying

The Neuroscientist and atheism advocate Sam Harris has written a short blog post about a journalist named Jonah Lehrer who destroyed his career through false quotes and lies about them [1]. The main point of the article seems to be to promote his new eBook about Lying. The book is available for free until the […]

Autism as an Excuse

A Polish geek going by the handle of mmemuar has recently written a blog post claiming that people use Autism as an excuse for bad behavior [1]. He gets enough things wrong in one short post to make it worth debunking it. It seems that Google’s translation of Polish isn’t as good as some other […]

Autism and a Child Beauty Contest

Fenella Wagener wrote an article for the Herald Sun about an Autistic girl who won the “best personality” award from the controversial new Australian children’s beauty pageant [1]. The girl’s mother is complaining that an Autistic girl shouldn’t win a prize for personality and is critizing the pageant organisers.

A beauty contest involves queuing, being […]

Receiving Death Threats

On occasion I receive death threats in comments on my blog. This doesn’t bother me, I had more than a few pathetic losers say similar things to me in high school but the difference is that a pathetic loser on the other side of the world can’t do much about it.

The latest one is […]