Random Thoughts

The shortlist for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books was recently announced. (http://royalsociety.org/news/Royal-Society-Winton-Prize-for-Science-Book...) 6 books have been chosen for the shortlist out of a longlist of 13 books (At http://royalsociety.org/awards/science-books/ it says that the longlist is supposed to be 12 books but you can't expect a group of some of the finest minds in science to able to count can you?)I try to read all of the contenders each year. This year the judges told of the books chosen for the shortlist 'as having taken them out of their depth and…

What We Fight For: Children Who Will Find a Place in the World Have I said I've been in the trenches now for two decades, fighting to get what my children need? I get tired of the fight, tired of the battle with the outer world to get the resources needed, and so, when Bobby was nine, after he'd had a stroke, I realized I couldn't battle it all. I was worn out. I was tired of fighting for an appropriate education all while fighting the medical system to get him help, and honestly, all while fighting with him to give him the basic self-help skills that would let him be potty trained, be able…

"It's always darkest before the dawn."No, really?My replacement: "It's always darkest in a room with no windows and no lights on."Useful, huh? The textbook I use with my composition students advises them not to use overused phrases, seriously, like "According to Webster's Dictionary." And you know, if there's one thing I've read too many times, it's "According to Webster's Dictionary."  There are other phrases, of course, and the admonition to avoid cliches in one's writing, but cliches exist because they allow people to express something quickly in a manner that is meant to convey…

Kerry Cohen, author of Seeing Ezra, agreed to an interview with Kathleen Leopold and me. Kathleen's questions appear first. (This post appears at the Autism Blogs Directory) The name "Ezra" means aid or help. Is the title of your memoir a reflection of the idea that in seeing your son for who he is-helped you to see life how it really is. In other words, happiness and happy endings aren't guaranteed-one has to make them happen.Um, yeah, sure, of course. That's exactly what I meant when I titled it because, yeah sure, I knew my son's name meant aid. Ha. In all seriousness, that IS what I meant…

Cowritten by Kim Wombles and Kathleen Leopold Kathleen Leopold and I have been blogging buddies for over two years now, working on various projects together, struggling to figure out our places in the online autism community as we work in the real world to find our place there, as well, to find the best ways to help both our own children, and other children like ours. We’ve read several hundred bloggers over the years, and with over 800 bloggers represented on the directory, we’ve read hundreds of stories of how parents have come to face the reality of what autism means not just for their…

As I stared up into the dark the other morning, up before the alarm again, and already dwelling on the coming day and the need to fit everything on my to-do list into the day, my mind turned to the idea that good teachers and good preachers have the same skill set: an ability to energize and motivate their particular congregation into action, to move them from point A to point B with as little resistance as possible and to guide them to a higher plane of existence: enlightenment. Monotone droning doesn't do that. No, like a good Baptist or Pentecostal preacher, if I want action, I…

Walter Bonatti died yesterday at 81 years of age. One of Italy's greatest "old style" climbers, Bonatti is especially famous for the first ascent to the K2, the extremely hard to climb, 8611-meter-tall mountain in the Karakorum. Bonatti was instrumental in the conquer of the second-tallest mountain in the world by bringing, in a heroic effort with the Hunza climber Mahdi, oxygen bottles to his teammates Lacedelli and Compagnoni, who ascended to the summit the following morning. The episode caused a diatriba which lasted fifty years, because after bringing the oxygen to the agreed-upon point…

Squid news has been kind of slow lately, but I hate leaving this blog empty! (The frequency with which it is meant to be updated is, after all, given away in the title.) So here are a couple of tidbits. First, a creepy illustration by Kevin Evans: Second, a link to my pedantic rant on the correct plural of octopus cropped up in--of all places--a forum on n-category theory. If you don't know what that is, suffice it to say it's a branch (or a superset?) of abstract mathematics. And I only know that because it's what my brother does. And yes, my brother was the one who linked to my blog post.…

When I create original 'op ed' or educational bits for Science 2.0 (the movement, not the website), I often start with a podcast of the topic (over at 365 Days of Astronomy).  Then, I post the transcript or an extension of the podcast here as an article.  Finally, I can then draw from it when I lecture.  So the flow is:    podcast monologue -> punchy article -> inspiring lecture This month, I took a class lecture of mine ("What can you measuring about the Sun"), wrote a Science 2.0 article (clever title-- "Measure the Sun Yourself!"), then recorded it as a…

SquidFire is having an end-of-summer sale: $5 off all their adult t-shirts. (I think it still applies even if you live in the southern hemisphere.) While not all of their gear features cephalopods, they do have many tentacular designs. For direct links to the ones I like best, check out my Cephalopod Gear page. This list of the internet's best cephalopod-related merchandise largely owes its existence to the diligence of my friends, who send me links to every teuthoid t-shirt they see. So, if I'm missing something, drop me a line! And hey! Something just occurred to me. I don't get any…