Saturday, October 20, 2012

The other Baron-Cohen is also good at comedy

Mathematician's test score does not add up
http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/05/mathematicians-test-score-does-not-add.html

A very horrible story that just can’t be ignored

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/04/very-horrible-story-that-just-cant-be.html

Is this guy for real? Baron-Cohen's latest book is a real urban legend!

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/06/is-this-guy-for-real-baron-cohens.html

A quote from a 2007 paper published in the Neurocase science journal

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/10/quote-from-2007-paper-published-in.html

The Curious Case of the Autistics Who Don't Really See Like Eagles: a reference list in chronological order

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/08/curious-case-of-autistics-who-see-like.html

Another Baron-Cohen autism-related theory looks like a real dog

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/09/another-baron-cohen-autism-related.html

Another blow to notions of testosterone and systemizing and gender and behaviour

http://incorrectpleasures.blogspot.com/2011/12/another-blow-to-notions-of-testosterone.html

3 comments:

Barry de la Rosa said...

Hi Lili,

Sorry if this is the wrong place, but I can't find a "Contact me" link anywhere.

Was watching the Daniel Tammet documentary and decided to do a bit of digging around - and then came across his Wikipedia page - or more precisely, the Talk page for his Wiki page. Seems there is some controversy surrounding his memory abilities etc. One of your blog entries was mentioned, which led me here.

It seems there's one Wiki user who's intent on keeping his page as "clean" of controversy as possible, and (ab)using Wikipedia's strict rules to stop people mentioning certain facts - such as his achievements in memory competitions, his use of metaphor in the Icelandic TV show, and other discrepancies. Your main article on him cites a ton of sources, but thanks to Wikipedia's strict rules it isn't considered a "source".

My question is, have you considered publishing your findings in a more respectable format, i.e. a book?

There certainly seems to be enough material - either it's sloppy reporting across the board, or else there are inconsistencies in his claims (e.g. his claim to have learnt German in a week is the most obvious example).

I guess it wouldn't be a bestseller, huh... but still, your research seems sound. I guess I'm a stickler for the truth, and this bugs me. Oh well. Sorry for being horribly off-topic! Feel free to mod this :s

Lili Marlene said...

Hello Barry

Funny that you should ask about me writing a book about Tammet. I have indeed started a book, but thanks to all the B.S. going on in my life thanks to local police not wishing to do their friggin' job I haven't had the time or the peace of mind to finish the project.

I have already self-published two books at Smashwords, (one free), just to see if I can master the publishing process. I've been underwhelmed by the response to my books. Not exactly encouraging, but I haven't had much time to do promotion, so I guess it is no surprise. Here's my page, if you are interested: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LiliMarlene

Thanks for your comments, Barry.

Lili Marlene said...

Don't hold your breath waiting for the Wikipedia folks to see reason. Their encyclopedia is full of nonsense rubbish and deliberate misinformation, but they often don't welcome a dose of verifiable facts. I try my very hardest to resist the impulse to spend time trying to improve it.