Yup. Declare normal human variation pathological, make money by "treating" it, laugh all the way to the bank.

I would also add that many of the "autistic" children I see aren't autistic at all, not by any standard I understand. They are children desperate for attention, and have found a way to get that attention.

Some may even be jumping on the autism bandwagon to be trendy. I've seen this with allergies, where kids want inhalers and shit so they fit in with their over-medicated peers.

...laura

For the most part, TNG was competent. At its best it was brilliant. I'm with people on episodes like The Inner Light and The Measure of a Man. Add in, for me, Cause and Effect, The Emissary, a few others. The human condition, in space. Good stuff.

Unlike many, I actually liked The Dauphin.

I thought Darmok was an interesting idea. How do you make aliens who are, well, alien, but not so alien that you can't interact with them? This was an issue with the Borg, badass aliens who could kick the shit out of Klingons and not work up a sweat, but who were so alien that no meaningful interaction was possible.

Bad episodes? Yeah, there were a few. I prefer to remember the good ones.

...laura

Unfortunately, very often facts are never verified, and dogma-truths (religionpolitics) are very often regurgitated by fools, bigots, and frauds.

I wish journalist, clergy, and politicians could be held to a higher standard, but as broadcast/print news, US, EU, RU, CN politicians, and all religions globally prove there is no higher calling than bullsh_t power.

IOW: Holding Citizens/bloggers to any standard for speech/information would be wrong and draconian. Holding journalist, scientist, businesses, clergy, politicians and their institutions/businesses to any standard of facts, truth, ethics would help US, EU, and Humanity.

Science requires facts for decent/discussion. Dogma (Christian, Islam, Satanism, Hebrew politics ) truths/views are about myth, theology, mysticism, allegory, fables/legends , there are always dissenting dogma views.

Yep, but I chuckle far to often.

I suspect, more like 1 in 10 CEOs, managers, politicians, clergy, judges ... "The Laity" would seek marketed medical assistance with most S&T/R&D problems.

We do have IMO the most S&T/R&D dumb judiciaries existentially possible for this century (I hope). BTW: Thanks for that Dick, George, GOP-TP and plutocrats.

Do you need to know how fast you're going? Yes.

Do you need to know how your car is performing? Yes.

Do you need to know where you are and where you're going? Yes.

We already have head-up displays that show car parameters, as well as navigation systems that help you get where you're going. This could be incorporated in to an HUD ("turn here ->").

Anything more would be information overload. I do not need ads to tell me how cool the store I'm driving by is (i.e. how much they paid for the ad), nor do I need neat pictures other people have taken in the vicinity.

Look at how they do it in airplanes: the pilots have the essential information in front of them, but can access other information as needed.

...laura

The USA government is a fiat plutocracy republic.
The USA government is not a pluralist democracy.
The USA government enfranchises only plutocrats.
The USA government is not committed to equal rights,
rule of law, health and welfare of the people, justice .

The USA government demands and screams fear of our
fellow citizens, fear of ideas, fear of race, fear the future,
fear the unknown, fear US . US Citizens are a fearful
and weak minded people seeking the evil in our own
brothers and sisters. US Citizens are fearful, because
they have piss-poor public educations, dogma religions,
and USA plutocracy propaganda feeding personal hubris
and “gods” granted self-righteousness.

Most of US are dumb fools for the damn few.
Unaccountable leaders are our masters.
Unrepresented people are their slaves.
Big-Brother plutocracy or emancipation (FREEDOM).

I've always thought ARM was a cool design. Simple, minimalist, sort of a latter-day PDP-11, one of those canonical architectures that just works. Simple chip, not many transistors, low power, good chip for mobile devices. It seems so obvious in retrospect. Especially since that's not what the designers had in mind. They were designing a simple chip because they only had a couple of people and that was all they could afford.

In one of the later scenes in Micro Men there is a whiteboard in the background with the original ARM requirements, right down to the barrel shifter.

...laura

I sometimes wonder if Google Glass is going to be another CueCat. Somebody thought it was a really neat idea and pushed it hard, but nobody else thought it was a neat idea and it died.

People view Google Glass as creepy and weird. That's hard sell, even for Google.

...laura

Is current GA activity intrinsically low, or is it low compared to the Good Old Days of the 1950s and 1960s general aviation boom?

Our GA airports are somewhat less than inviting to visitors. There was an editorial/blog in Flying magazine on this subject recently.

Airplanes really are expensive to buy and to operate.

Does anybody learn to fly for fun or for private transportation anymore? Everybody nowadays gets their PPL because it's the prerequisite for everything else. After the novelty wore off I too came to the realization that a PPL was sterile, a dead end, and am now working on my commercial license.

...laura

Remember the discussion in 2001. HAL was programmed to sound emotional, since it made it easier to talk to him. Whether he actually felt emotions was much harder to say.

...laura

A point the story ignores. Any idiot can get buttloads of power out of an engine if it doesn't have to do so for very long. Two-stroke engines are particularly good for this if fuel consumption and exhaust emissions are minor considerations.

...laura

Hawking, Einstein, Bohr, Planck, Newton are theoretical physicist, sort of like great artist that sculpt what they perceive. Unlike theoretical mathematicians (Descartes, Gödel, Whitehead, Leibniz ) theoretical physicists do no abstract art. Together these two groups of artist (AKA: theoretical scientist) have provided the greatest science, technology, and art advances in human history (not Pdity a/o Jesus). Boneheads that have insulted Doc Hawking, or others, should show some respect for their obviously betters.

Stupid Anonymous Cowards, like you, are mortal minions of krap.