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August 2010

If You Suffer from Autism, Then You’re Doing It Wrong

Submitted by Joann on Mon, 2010-08-30 13:56


Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.
-- Frank Zappa

Resources mentioned in this post: 
Planning Matrix A: Individual Objectives
Behavior Observation Forms

Starry Starry Night

Submitted by Joann on Mon, 2010-08-23 21:18


You’ve seen the pictures. Maybe you’ve even been lucky enough to see it for yourself. The gloriously colored, amazing annual light show that is the Perseid meteor shower is going on right now, showing at a location near you until August 24.

Divine in appearance, meteor showers happen when planets – like Earth – move through streams of debris left by a comet. The Perseids are the debris field from the Swift-Tuttle comet, which is one of the oldest known comets, with sightings dating back 2,000 years. The Swift-Tuttle comet is also the largest object known to make repeated passes near Earth.

Resources mentioned in this post: 
A Tale of Trails
Dry Ice Comet
Space Rocks! A Meteorite Board Game

Eureka!

Submitted by Joann on Mon, 2010-08-16 07:37


When I was in second grade, our teacher assigned us a project on inventors. It was to be our first research project, where we had to use the school and public libraries to collect information about our chosen inventors.

“I already have my book,” I told Mrs. Flanagan on the day the project was assigned.

Mrs. Flanagan was duly impressed by my efficiency, until she found out that my book was Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and that my chosen inventor was Willy Wonka.

“He’s not a real person, dear,” she said. “Your report has to be on an actual inventor.”

Resources mentioned in this post: 
Design Squad: Invent It, Build It
Go-Go Gadget: Invent a Machine
Designing a Rube Goldberg Machine

Peekaboo, I C U !

Submitted by Joann on Sat, 2010-08-07 16:41


You already have zero privacy. Get over it.
- Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems (1999)

On a recent morning, I spent some time cooling my heels in purgatory – or, in more secular terms – the doctor’s waiting room. Tired of leafing through multiple issues of The American Journal of Orthopedics, I unabashedly eavesdropped on a pair of women sitting beside me. One of the women was complaining about her teenage daughter, who had apparently been grumbling to her parents about the “major” lack of privacy in their house. “So what?” mused the woman’s companion. “That’s entirely normal at her age.” “Yes,” retorted the first woman, “but we found out she’d been posting pictures of herself in her underwear on Facebook!”

Resources mentioned in this post: 
What's Private?
Private and Personal Information
Online Identity Theft: Information is Power