A quote from an Aussie genius of rock

"I cope with it alright… It’s a strange thing because it’s really hard to know what [Aspergers] means and what it does and what it’s doing and what it’s done… so, yeah… I cope with it just by being a loner.” 

- Craig Nicholls in a recent interview article by Dominique Sisley for DIY magazine
http://diymag.com/2014/08/31/the-vines-craig-nicholls-interview-if-i-didnt-have-music-i-dont-know-what-id-do 

Doesn't Craig deserve some semblance of an adequate explanation to go along with his highly stigmatizing label? Doesn't Craig, along with all people labelled as autistic, deserve better? Is this the best that modern Australian psychology/psychiatry/disability advocacy can offer? Seems very lame to me. 

A link between these two concepts?

I was just reflecting on the heavy use of inflated hype words in the first couple of pages of the book Struck by Genius by Jason Padgett, in the collection of one-paragraph book reviews by big names in autism, savant and synaesthesia pop science writing. I refer to words like "remarkable", "extraordinary", "immense", "incredible", "unforgettable", "sudden genius", "medical marvel", "tremendous", "astonishing", "unfathomable", "unleashed", "irrefutable"..... and then I was mucking about in the internet and I came across this article in New Scientist, which explained that a team of researchers have found an association between the dodgier pieces of science writing by one particular scientist and his increased use of  words categorized as "amplifiers". 

Lili's insensitive personal atttack for the day

Shut the f*** up with the gender stereotypes, Carrie Bickmore! No Australian is doing more than you are to help us to see humanity through the lens of expectations and interpretations based on cliched and evidence-free beliefs about psychological and behavioural sex differences. If there were degrees in this stuff, my word, you'd have one, and it would surely be printed in pink. You know it and you live it, you life-sized Barbie Doll.

Lili's declaration of war

All weeds must die! Get lost Gazania! F*** you Fumaria! Morning glory, you will never see the sun rise again. African Pelargonium, your harsh stink will soon be nothing more than an unpleasant memory. Castor oil plant, prepare to be cast into the darkest depths of the wheelie bin. Whatcha think you’re doing in my garden, Watsonia? Wild oats, you will not live to cast your seed. Onion weed, I shall dig you out completely and carefully, bulbs and all. Goodbye forever Lantana! You will soon be replaced by a local native species of plant that is every bit as pretty and attractive to butterflies. You will not be missed. Shitplant.

Lili's fashion tip for the day

Got nipples that can be seen through three layers of clothing? Got nipples that can be seen from space? Try headlight dimmers.

Lili's go get f***ed thought of the day

The Conversation has closed comments on this incomplete and biased article. This is political censorship and an affront to free speech in Australia, and pretty much what I'd expect from this tame and lame bit of light reading for the enjoyment of the chattering classes. 

Lili's next thought of the day

Leunig's controversial cartoon about Zionism, Palestine and the strong forces against free speech in Australia:
http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/transcripts/1428_leunig.jpg

Lili's wildly contrasting thought of the day

When it comes to the job of telling the world the truth about the war crimes that are currently happening in Gaza, Mike Carlton looks like a martyred hero in my eyes, while the UN's General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon looks like a complete arsehole. 

Lili's thought of the day

Woke up this morning to the sound of Geraldine Doogue having a pleasant chat with an Australian celebrity psychiatrist who is also a serial plagiarist. What a completely bullshit start to the day. 

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with cured patients, or a safe and secure career in medicine in Western Australia? Choose one.

Below is an excerpt from a New Scientist interview with Australian Nobel Laureate Dr Barry Marshall who was at one time a Registrar at Royal Perth Hospital. I don't think Australian medicine has changed enough since the time described, in fact I'm convinced that psychiatric labels are still used liberally as a way of illegitimately dealing with unsolved or uninvestigated medical and genetic problems. 

If the H. pylori story isn't endlessly fascinating to philosophers of science, then it damn well should be. 

You famously experimented on yourself with H. pylori. Was that a risk for your career?

At that point my colleagues were treating ulcer patients as psychosomatic cases – using antidepressants, tranquilisers, psychotherapy, all that kind of thing. My career was already very shaky because I was ignoring the mental state of the patient and giving them antibiotics. Then my boss's patients started secretly coming to my clinic for treatment. The politics have always been difficult in medicine. There is some truth in the way medical practice is portrayed in TV dramas.

Hey Dr Marshall, you are my hero. 

Lili's rather amazed in a bad way thought of the day

Todd Sampson talks science for National Science Week? Really? I thought he's an ad company executive. Is he a scientist? Sure thing, the ABC television series that he was the host of, Redesign My Brain, "was a ratings winner", but was it good science or junk science? I have argued the latter in a post at this blog posted in October of last year. 

Once again, National Science Week is more of a concern to me than a positive thing, and that is saying a lot for a person whose interest in science is a driving force.