Monday, May 27, 2013

Lili's thought for the day

OMG! Depp and Burton are doing a remake of my all-time favourite movie! If any team could pull it off, it would be this team, but WHY, WHY, WHY, do they feel the need to tamper with perfection? Does Johnny Depp seriously think he or any actor on the planet could be the equal to the late Vincent Price in any lead role? I'm sorry, there was and only ever will be one Vincent Price, and the role of The Abominable Dr Phibes was his role, and I'm convinced that the Dr Phibes character could only be understood by an actor with his intelligence and professional skill.

http://www.naughtybutnicerob.com/johnny-depp-to-star-in-the-abominable-dr-phibes-remake/

Don't wait for the remake, get a copy of the original and enjoy, and there's a sequel too. Don't forget to suspend any prejudices that you might have against horror movies. In the 20th century horror movies were often great movies.

Memorable fictional characters portraying autistic traits or themes

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Lili's thought for the day

Dr Allen Frances has a new book out, titled
Saving Normal: An Insider's Revolt Against Out-of-Control Psychiatric Diagnosis, DSM-5, Big Pharma, and the Medicalization of Ordinary Life.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0062229257
interviewed on Lateline:
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2013/s3763502.htm

Monday, May 20, 2013

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Lili's well-considered thought for the day

There are indubitably some cracked eggs among the group of academics and clinicians who are considered to be experts in the area of Asperger syndrome. I can think of no more disreputable area of academic research than the world of autism research and practice. Where there is parental anxiety the money will flow freely, and a mountain of funding will attract the wrong kinds of people, as sure as night follows day. 

Today I've been reading a chapter of a book about autism and Asperger syndrome which was published this year. I'm amazed that an academic text about autism has made it to the stages of online and paper publication with at least one chapter within it still choc-full of grammatical errors, idiotic errors in analysis and also at least one glaring failure in fact-checking (yes, it discussed Daniel Tammet as a case study with no reservations). Even the title of the chapter has an obvious grammatical error! How could that have been missed? I know how that could have been missed - the editor of this mess is a name well-known to me from the years of research that I have done in writing the content of this blog. Sloppiness is his middle name. His reference lists often include untraceable nonsense. His output as a author is matched by his lack of discipline in theorizing and his lack of depth of analysis and knowledge. He often co-writes pieces, but seems to jump from collaborator to collaborator, which makes me wonder whether the workload of the writing was fairly and evenly distributed. One thing nice that I'd say about this researcher is that he knows how to identify at type of person when he sees it, and he has clearly seen that type many times before. The question is - what is a sensible way to describe or label that type? His way off explaining people labelled with Asperger syndrome is not a sensible way. 

It's high time to give the concepts of autism and Asperger syndrome the big flush, and with them also banish to the S-bend the industry of parasites, dills and crackpots who have been making a living out of fear and loathing for way too many years. 

Lili's unnecessary thought of the day

David Koch, could you please give that old lady her voice back?

Lili's dismayed thought of the day


Daniel Tammet is discussed without skepticism in a journalism textbook - believe it or not.
http://books.google.com.au/books?ei=4IeTUfihDIShiQei1IGgBA&id=IIcLAQAAMAAJ&dq=manti+tammet&q=tammet#search_anchor

Lili's thought for the day

Michaelia Cash, could you please give that motorcyclist his helmet back?

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Lili's culinary thought for the day

Damn it! A jelly made with fresh passionfruit juice will not set properly. Why is there nothing about this in all the lists of fruits that you can't make a jelly with?

Lili's thought for the day

When politicians work themselves up into an emotional state just to get more headlines it's time to fetch the sickbag

Friday, May 10, 2013

Lili's fertile thought for the day

The Pumpkin Cycle: buy a wedge of pumpkin that has seeds in it from the supermarket - use pumpkin as an ingredient in a delicious Thai curry - add the peel and seeds to a kitchen compost bin - bury compost in garden where it wont attract mice or insects - pumpkins seeds germinate and emerge from the soil - pinch out all but the two strongest plants - water remaining plants - bees pollinate flowers - pumpkins grow - harvest pumpkins when the stems die off - use pumpkin to make pumpkin scones - repeat steps three to ten - use pumpkin to make tasty pumpkin soup - repeat steps three to ten........

Did you know it's International Composting Awareness Week
http://www.compostweek.com.au/core/

Thursday, May 09, 2013

Lili's next thought of the day

The Queen will not be attending Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (CHOGM) 2013 in Sri Lanka, and neither will the PM of Canada. Julia Gillard should not be going either, and Australia's Foreign Minister Bob Carr should desist from lying about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka for the Tamil People. Please sign the petition calling for Australia's PM Julia Gillard to reconsider the attendance of Australia at this year's CHOGM in Sri Lanka:
http://www.change.org/petitions/prime-minister-reconsider-chogm-2013-in-sri-lanka

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/saturdayextra/sri-lanka-and--human-rights-abuses/4667530

http://www.smh.com.au/world/queen-to-miss-first-chogm-in-decades-20130507-2j62p.html

Lili's astronomical thought for the day

There's going to be an annular solar eclipse visible from Australia: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/australias-solar-eclipse-friday-morning.htm
Hope clouds don't get in the way.

Friday, May 03, 2013

Lili's thought for the day

Why is it that so many educated people can't even tell the important difference between a test and a self-report questionnaire?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_test
http://www.hawaii.edu/cte/publications/RIASEC.pdf
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/table/0,,937442,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/table/0,,937441,00.html
http://www.hsperson.com/pages/test.htm

How about "FUN TOYS" and "CRAP TOYS"?

At our local Woolworths supermarket there are two bins full of toys which hadn't been selling well, but which weren't discounted. One of those bins is labelled "GIRLS TOYS" and the other is labelled "BOYS TOYS". It just confirms what I've suspected - that gender segregated marketing is another sly technique for selling tat that wouldn't otherwise be of much interest, by creating a need in the consumer to confirm their gender identity by selecting the piece of junk that shows which side of the biological fence they are on. It's another example for my list:

New wave and old-fashioned sex segregation in everyday Australian life, and around the world

Lili's thought of the day

They were talking about the Tamil Holocaust at the Adelaide Writer's Week.