Visit the kelpforest....

Dear senoritafish,

www.autism2006.org

Just to let you know that all the papers in our online autism conference are now open for viewing to give you a chance to read them before the authors come on line when the conference opens tomorrow, October 4.

Please tell all your friends about this invaluable, free opportunity to put questions to more than sixty of the world's top autism experts.

Best wishes,

Adam Feinstein

________________________________________


AWARES Conference Centre
http://www.awares.org/conferences

The All Wales Autism Resources (AWARES) is sponsoring their second annual Online conference on the Autism spectrum for target audiences of:

People with autism or Asperger Syndrome (or people living with them)
Parents
Teachers
Social workers
Probation officers
Police officers
Medical professionals
Care professionals
Researchers

Basically for anyone who may have dealings with autistic people - and given the rise in autism diagnoses recently, that could be almost anyone! Topics include:
( Read more... )

Darn, meant to post about this awhile ago.

There's an online conference on Autism/Asperger's starting tomorrow at:

http://www.awares.org/conferences/

One of the "speakers" is Tony Attwood, who wrote one of the first books I heard of about Asperger's. All the speakers will be available at certain times to answer questions.

Darn, just went to make a cup of coffee, and our lovely little boiling hot and refrigerated cold water taps by the sink in the breakroom are gone! Drat. Microwaved hot water just isn't the same. I may have to try it for some tea though; I need some caffeine.

At least the office seems slightly warmer this week, although I still wore my jacket most of the morning. Last week it was freezing in here all week. The building people said it was because of all of the office systems being off for the four day weekend, and it was taking awhile for the heat to get up to speed. Finally on Thursday, my boss held his hand up to the air vent and said he could feel some slight trickles of warm air coming out of it. I think what does come out the vents gets sucked straight out the floor to ceiling glass windows, because the inner rooms of the building always seem to be warmer. On a few days, it was definitely warmer outside. I know, here in southern California, that's not saying much, but damn it, it's been chilly lately. My feet weren't warm all last week.

I came in this morning to find a postcard on my desk, inviting me to donate my body for plastination. Apparently, PH had been to the Body Worlds exhibit at the California Science Center this weekend, and thought we might like to be added to the show. :p When DP asked if that's what he was planning to do when he croaked, he replied "Hell no!"

I hadn't heard this display was going on either. I saw an article in New Scientist saying the same scientist will be preserving a couple of giant squid in the same way, and forwarded it to VT. She told me some of her husband's students had been to his exhibition and taken pictures. I remember awhile ago when this exhibition was in London and hearing about protests; maybe they've been keeping this low key or something. In any case, it sounds vaguely creepy, as in several of the plasinated people are holding their brains in their hands, or balancing on top of them, but all for educational purposes. I was going to say I didn't feel any urge to go see this, but after looking at the two sites above, I'm beginning to feel curious. I have seen cadavers before, but this is a whole different thing. People report that actually seeing the real human body, how it's put together, and how it's affected by things like smoking, or where your duodenum is actually located, inspires them to take better care of their own.

According to the website, there are 300 plastinated bodies already extant, and another 6,000 willing to donate theirs after they die. However, while I do have my organ donor card filled out and nestled next to my driver's license, so I can do someone some immediate good if I'm suddenly squelched, I think I'd rather have the rest of my components just return to the natural cycle of things. Plant a tree on top of me, or scatter my ashes in the California Current and let the ocean take me where it will; maybe a foraminifer or a far off triton will use CaCO3 formed from my bones in its shell. Or you could scatter some of them here. There's a pretty little cemetery at the foot of that rock, overlooking the Tasman Sea, and I thought when I visited it in 1988 it would be a pleasant place to spend eternity.

edited: because apparently, I really like the word apparently.

The Ballad of Goldie Pinklesweet - by Roald Dahl, from The Great Glass Elevator.

(In junior high, my brother Doug had the entire above poem memorized, and could recite it upon request, complete with sound effects. Possibly he still can, I haven't asked him lately...).

( From today's The Writer's Almanac )

I remember being read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Great Glass Elevator, and James and the Giant Peach when I was in probably 4th or 5th grade. They were read to us, a chapter a day, by Mrs. Miller, a tall, thin, sharpish woman with a pointed nose; I don't remember her exact looks, she comes back to me as a collection of angles with shortish blond curls and dark roots. She had a pet rat at home - one time it had a tumor removed and she brought it in a jar to show us.

I remember one time after catching several of us sticking out our tongues at each other, she stalked around the room like a disgruntled heron with the following speech:

"Some of you may have noticed that I have a very long and pointed nose. (touches the end of said pointed nose) I also have a very long and sharp tongue. (sticks out said sharp tongue) I find it very easy to do this. (Sticks out her tongue and touches it to the tip of her nose). And unless you can do this (again, sticks out her tongue and touches her nose), I don't ever (touches nose again) want to see (touches nose) your tongues (touches nose), again. Kindly (touches nose), keep your tongues (touches nose) in your mouth."

This display made quite an impression on us and we never stuck our tongues out in her sight again. However, I practiced trying to touch my tongue to my nose for months afterward. I can't quite make it to the to the tip of my nose, but I can touch it.

It's rare to learn a new word from a comic strip. Chickweed Lane seems to be rather erudite, considering the one of the main characters (the mom)has a doctorate in mathematics...

http://www.livejournal.com/users/chickweed_comic/45135.html

pan·jan·drum
Pronunciation: pan-'jan-dr&m
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -drums also pan·jan·dra /-dr&/
Etymology: Grand Panjandrum, burlesque title of an imaginary personage in some nonsense lines by Samuel Foote
: a powerful personage or pretentious official

I think I've found a new euphemism for the Shrub.

For a challenge by megthelegend - who added me out of the blue a few months ago, and I'm ever so glad she did... :) I know this was due the week after you issued it, but it rapidly got out of hand and threatened to become novel-sized. I'm sorry it took me so long...

Meg sez...

senoritafish wants a non-(fiction)writer DARE.

I would love to hear about the birth of your kids. ::g:: I'm a sucker for a kiddie story, especially when it involves something that traumatic and amazing!!! Don't mention the actual labours if you don't want to, but I would love to hear, please, about the buildup and anticipation, about how the household adjusted each time.

OK, you asked for it. Actually I was planning to eventually post about this at some point. I'll try not to get too graphic, but there may be some TMI, and/or bodily fluids.

(  #1 - Nematode's Story... )

This one probably one won't be nearly as long. I'm a bit less clear on the details...
( #2 - Tardigrade's Story... )

This was the most recent- You'd think I could remember more. Then again, maybe you wish I remembered less! ;p
( #3 - Copepod's Story )

( Further Adjustments... )