Posts by Russell Brown

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  • Southerly: By Popular Demand: Another…,

    Hilarious. It's not often I LOL at my desk. Reading during my allocated morning tea time, of course.

    I'm sure you're making all the sacrifices Damian. Just think: if everyone only has one chocolate biscuit, they could save the whole news division ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Island Life: A Special Public Address Message,

    Daniel Tammet is a high-functioning autistic savant. He is the author of "Born on A Blue Day" a very inspiring book about his life and achievements.

    Daniel Tammet is an amazing person and that book is just beautiful. It's sort of a shame that broadcast interviewers in particular always make him do savant circus tricks, because that's not really what the book's about.

    OTOH, the Las Vegas casino sequence in Brainman (aka The Boy with the Incredible Brain), the documentary that first brought him to public attention, is really mind-blowing. There's a YouTube clip of it here:

    And the clip of him meeting Kim Peek, the real-life inspiration for the Rainman movie is there too:

    If anyone's interested in grabbing the whole thing, there's an active torrent for Brainman here.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Hard News: 5.30 Follies,

    What happened to all of the sit-com proposals that went into TVNZ limbo last year?

    Being dusted off right now, I'd wager ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • So that's what Craig Parker's been doing…,

    Fronting dodgy mortgage ads on British TV, that is.

    Meanwhile, Charlie Brooker gives our Craig a serve:

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Island Life: A Special Public Address Message,

    MsB: question. Why are so many good autie/aspie bloggers (including yourself) female? It's almost like the blogging gender balance is reversed in neurodiversity land:

    http://autismdiva.blogspot.com/index.html
    http://ballastexistenz.autistics.org/?p=65
    http://partprocessing.blogspot.com/
    http://autisticbfh.blogspot.com/

    The "bfh" in the last one stands for "bitch from hell". Heh.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Island Life: A Special Public Address Message,

    So if you could eliminate (mild) autism from the genepool would you being doing good or harm? So much to learn:).

    It's become a bit of a cliche to say it, but there is some evidence that both Newton and Einstein were on the spectrum, which accounts for a fair bit of human progress. Einstein didn't talk till he was six, was considered a moron by his early teachers and often spoke about the visual nature of his thinking.

    I guess this is the unnerving side of the genetic knowledge that's accumulating. It can be incredibly stressful to be the parent of an aspie child. But the availability of prenatal screening opens a terrifying can of worms.

    I've taken to saying my kids are Aspergers, rather than that they have Aspergers. That's who they are and I'm not going to waste precious time looking for a "cure".

    Like Ms. B says (hi!), better communication interfaces. Aspies are a minority and they'll have to live in a neurotypical world, and need upskilling for that. But the problem isn't them, it's their interaction with an environment not designed for them.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Hard News: Trams, drams and scams,

    Robin, I do feel flattered that you're trying so hard with us. You're certainly putting in more effort than you did here, for example:

    Interesting! However, if we're into healthy living, it'd take more than just having a clean bedroom.

    Check out this site www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com

    It gives the real info on palm oil which is not only cheap but also rich in antioxidants and best of all, trans fat free! No wonder the Asians live such long healthy lives!

    Posted by: Robin Draper | February 27, 2007 at 04:56 AM

    I mean, thanks for playing and everything, but it's probably time to give up on us now.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Hard News: Introducing GodTube,

    I'm interested in finding thee torrent of the Front Line doco that Russell mentioned. No luck so far ... be great if someone could point me in the right direction?

    Thanks in advance.

    My bad, actually. Searches for "Newswar" bring up nada. But "News War", well ...

    http://isohunt.com/torrents/?ihq=%22News+War%22

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Stories: Best Party Ever,

    The main toilet looked like a punk had exploded.

    Genius.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Hard News: That's Entertainment,

    With DVD, there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to get albums in a lossless 24-bit format (e.g. Flac). Not seen many though.

    Beatport is now offering the option of purchasing tracks in uncompressed WAV format. It costs $1 more for the extra data (the files are up to 90MB) but it's a pretty cool thing to do.

    And somehow they manage to do it all without resorting to DRM ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

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