From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/21/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
featured
It is with great relief that I remind myself it is not my job to convince others that I am right. If I’ve not changed any minds though, his past couple weeks on the site have been rewarding in other... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/18/11 | 9 Comments | Read More
As Shift Journal’s sidebar indicates, we spend a lot of time around here discussing alternative ways of defining autism. That discussion got particularly lively over the past two weeks, with much b... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 02/16/11 | 5 Comments | Read More
New Thread (If Not Us, Then Who?)
[continued from previous] I’ve said that I see a lot of thoughtful attention here; I’d like to also say that everyone (hi Diane, welcome; thanks for coming by) seems to be making sound arguments, ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/15/11 | 6 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/14/11 | No Comments | Read More
Lots of nutritious back and forth in comments this week, with Rachel and Stephanie both taking exception to my post last Friday. Before diving back in to the fray, I’d like to lay out one context i... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/11/11 | 10 Comments | Read More
One of the enduring patterns of my life is my on-again, off-again relationship with large, conventionally structured organizations of all kinds: corporate, political, and religious. In the on-again ph... [Read More]
Rachel Cohen-Rottenberg on 02/10/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
Among the many ideas that have been put forward in recent years to explain an apparent increase in the autistic population is the concept of assortative mating. According to this hypothesis, today’... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 02/9/11 | No Comments | Read More
When I first started studying how to be a parent, I read a lot of claims regarding the importance of monitoring, limiting, or disallowing television and video watching. However, when Willy first star... [Read More]
Stephanie Allen Crist on 02/8/11 | 3 Comments | Read More
Introverts, Extroverts, and Exercise
As one who habitually works out, I am constantly asked. “Isn’t it boring?” “Where do you get the willpower from?” I try to explain that I enjoy it for its own sake. But the response is usua... [Read More]
Zygmunt on 02/7/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
From the Link Cellar This Week
Fresh, resurrected, or newly discovered links from across the internet and the dusty reaches of Shift Journal’s archives. • • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/7/11 | No Comments | Read More
I’m usually content to allow Gwen McKay’s light touch and considerable gift for understatement work their magic on their own but her most recent post titled Fault Lines touched a nerve for... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 02/4/11 | 15 Comments | Read More
Those of us who have raised children know what often happens after pointing out muddy footprints on the floor, dishes left on the table from an afternoon snack, or some other dereliction of duty. Wit... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 02/2/11 | 5 Comments | Read More
WARNING! Oxytocin the xenophobia drug!
The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has published online ahead of full publication a science journal paper with the title Oxytocin promotes human ethnocentrism In case you were not awa... [Read More]
Lili Marlene on 02/1/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
There is no formal police force of social norms because no such organization is necessary. From mass society arises a self-enforcing slavery. One might picture a chessboard that sprawls as far as the... [Read More]
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/31/11 | No Comments | Read More
What’s So Funny About Wikileaks and Autism?
Caitlin Wray’s essay Be the Change: How to Shift Autism into the Mainstream appeared in this space last August, opening with her declaration that “I have a neighbour who can’t say ‘autism.’�... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/28/11 | 4 Comments | Read More
Social Tips for People with Aspergers
There comes a time in every Aspie’s life, that having a life means facing our fears and going out into the world. I love to sing, do stand up comedy, go to restaurants and sometimes (although v... [Read More]
Rudy Simone on 01/27/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
Once upon a time—in the far distant past, or perhaps in a future yet to come—a herd of mountain goats dwelt atop a high plain. Steep jagged cliffs fell away from this isolated mesa on all sides. ... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 01/26/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
The first proposed chapter for my book, tentatively entitled “Neurodiversity at Work: A Manager’s Guide,” is designed to introduce the concept of neurodiversity in a business-friendly context. M... [Read More]
Stephanie Allen Crist on 01/25/11 | 8 Comments | Read More
Music Preference in Introverts and Extroverts
For the majority of people in the industrialized West, music is primarily a means of social identity and unity. Millions listen to the same top 25 songs that everyone else is listening to. Of those t... [Read More]
Zygmunt on 01/24/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/24/11 | No Comments | Read More
The Autistic Cohort as a Distributed System
A few weeks ago I proposed that what the autistic cohort and the Wikileaks file-sharing drama had in common was that opposition to both came from centralized systems of power which in turn mistake aut... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/21/11 | 2 Comments | Read More
In response to my post last week about setting the stage for positive changes to happen, Stephanie accurately pointed out that it’s not just a matter of rearranging the environment and waiting to fe... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 01/19/11 | 1 Comment | Read More
After sitting in an idle moment watching one of those terribly popular cooking shows on TV, because someone else wanted to watch it, I have become convinced of my explanation as to why there are so fe... [Read More]
Lili Marlene on 01/18/11 | No Comments | Read More
Since introverts carry the most important things within, they can thrive almost anywhere under any circumstances. They are consumate wanderers. Only one who is self-defined can move unscathed from la... [Read More]
Zygmunt on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More
Nut grafs or otherwise relevant excerpts from entries which appeared last year at this time. • • • • • • • ... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/17/11 | No Comments | Read More
One Step Forward, Two Steps Back?
Just a few quick thoughts while I continue to piece together future posts. In comments to Sarah Schneider’s piece republished here last week (Allen Frances gave us the Asperger’s “epidemic” �... [Read More]
Mark Stairwalt on 01/14/11 | 3 Comments | Read More
In a doctor’s office when M is 18 months old, he is sitting in a corner reciting a book out loud as he turns the pages, giving a convincing impression that he is reading. The doctor and medical ass... [Read More]
Sarah Schneider on 01/13/11 | 5 Comments | Read More
I had a dream recently in which I wanted to open a locker but couldn’t remember the combination. When I mentioned this dream to Mark Stairwalt, he suggested that the locker might be a subconscious ... [Read More]
Gwen McKay on 01/12/11 | 6 Comments | Read More
