I Speak of Dreams

Top Ten Ways to Attract More than 18 People in New York City:

Top Ten Ways to Attract More than 18 People in New York City:

10    "Free Charlie Sheen!" press conference
 9     Grey Panthers Shake Weight® demonstration
 8     Guido the Singing Pretzel Vendor
 7     Free tickets to an off Broadway rap version of Oklahoma
 6     Captain and Tenille book signing
 5     A stack of cardboard boxes with a sign that says "We have boxes"
 4     A mime dressed as Donald Trump who pretends to fire people
 3     The Harlem Goys Choir
 2     Kimchee cooking demonstration
 1     The cast of Spiderman cast-signing rally

Immunize! New Music Video from ZDoggMD

LYRICS

From blog post

http://zdoggmd.com/2011/02/immunize/


I really wanna immunize so frickin’ bad
Protect you from those germs you’ve never had
Don’t want you to catch the mumps–meningitis too
Pertussis, hepatitis or the flu.
But everywhere I turn my eyes,
The internet is spreading lies.
So many parents scared by fairy tales and hate
I need to educate, so that I can vaccinate

Yo, lots of parents scared by the myths, they’re
Peeing in they’re underwear
“Shots ain’t needed,” suckers scoff
Now they’re kids get whooping cough
This bozo Wakefield said “shots make you autistic”
But that fool was paid by lawyers just to jack the statistics
And now the public’s understanding’s unrealistic
These lies on the internet make me go ballistic
Like aluminum in vaccinations, folks say, “Oh No”
But you get more in your diet just from eating some Ho Hos
Suckaz think, they catchin’ Flu from the Flu shot
But the shot stops flu, and that’s a cold that you caught, fool
Keep sayin’ that vaccine and not disease makes you illest
Like Gary Coleman said, “Whachu talkin’ ‘bout, Willis?”

But everywhere I turn my eyes,
Some so-called expert’s spreading lies
A different talk show every night, oh why get played
Cause it would be so great, if we’d all just vaccinate
oh oooh oh oooh we should all just vaccinate
oh oooh oh oooh we should all just vaccinate

Patients ask me what I’d do for my relatives
Knowin’ lots of medicine

I’d show ‘em vaccinations save more lives than almost anything
Don’t let my daughter get up in the car without a car seat
Why should I let her get pertussis, measles, or the mumps, G?
These ain’t the kinda shots that killed Tupac
They put the brakes on polio so little kids could walk
Prevented deafness, retardation–changed the world
You’re damn right I’m gonna give ‘em to my little girl
Don’t give Chuck Norris shots, though, that’d be dim
Chuck need vaccines? Naw…vaccines need him
To beat some sense up in you, do what needs to be done
To keep our children in the playground, not up in no iron lung
Sing it

I really wanna immunize so frickin’ bad
Protect you from those germs you’ve never had
Don’t want you to catch the pox–rotavirus too
Polio, rubella or H flu.
But everywhere I turn my eyes
Some B-list actor’s spreading lies
Listen to reason, hear the truth ‘fore it’s too late
We can keep our children safe, if we’d all just vaccinate
oh oooh oh oooh we should all just vaccinate
oh oooh oh oooh

I really wanna immunize so frickin’ bad

 

Autism Organizations: Where are the Autistics in Leadership Positions?

Sunday I put up a post about the one-day bookbuying event for Paul Offit's Deadly Choices.  Since Dr. Offit has donated the royalties from Deadly Choices to The Autism Science Foundation, it was in effect a benefit for ASF.

Michelle Dawson, a person with autism, an autism researcher, and a noted critic of all autism organizations that do not include people with autism in their leadership, posted the following yesterday afternoon:

Autism Science Foundation has, for nearly 2 years, deliberately excluded autistic people from its leadership. While (apparently) a lot of people see this as reason to support and promote ASF, I do not see how this can help autistics, or anyone else.

The commenter known as Broken Link responded with

Michelle, In an ideal world (which doesn't exist), there would be equitable representation. People with ASD would be a majority in all the organizations with a vision is to support autism and science. But it's not an ideal world. I have no idea how many people are full-time employees of the Autism Science Foundation. But I imagine that it's not thousands. Maybe 10's? Statistically speaking, they might have needed 100's of employees to randomly get one person with ASD. Of course, they should be proactive and seek out people who could speak to their core motivation. When you say people with ASD have been deliberately excluded, do you mean that you know people with ASD who have tried to gain employment with ASF, and have been rejected?

An anonymous commenter wrote:

Number of ASF employees? Many many fewer than you would think.

This morning, Michelle Dawson wrote:

In response to Broken Link, I didn't mention employees. I did mention leadership. A major autism funding body which publicly excludes autistics from its leadership is practicing and promoting bad science and bad ethics. Also, if ASF is structured such that ASF does not attract a lot of autistic people wanting to be in visible leadership positions (setting priorities, standards, etc), then ASF is in deep trouble, both scientifically and ethically. Finally, ASF is setting an example to employers, schools, families, communities, governments, etc. Why should employers (etc) see autistics as having something to contribute, when a leading autism organization (claimed to be science-based) very publicly does not? Maybe someone could explain to me why ASF's decision to publicly exclude autistics from its leadership is such a good thing.

Broken Link responded with:

Michelle, Sorry, I misread your comment. Indeed, there are no declared autistics in the leadership of ASF: http://www.autismsciencefoundation.org/leadership.html The leadership consists of the two founders, an attorney, Paul Offit, and the scientific advisory board consists of active researchers in autism. Yes, it would indeed be great if there were people with autism in some of these positions. Can you direct me to some evidence that autistics have been "publicly excluded"? Can it simply be that none have expressed interest? I would think that besides yourself, autistics holding autism research positions must be quite rare. And that's not a good thing either.

So. Must every autism organization have autistics in leadership positions? Discuss.

Mass Bookbuying Event Tomorrow: Raise Awareness of Safety & Efficacy of Vaccines

A group of pediatricians are planning a mass book-buying event tomorrow, Monday February 21st.

Here's the action:

Go to Amazon and purchase a copy of Paul Offit's Deadly Choices: How the Anti-vaccine movement Threatens Us All.  The hard-cover edition is $17.11 and the Kindle edition is $9.99.

Remember, Dr. Offit is donating all royalties from the book to the Autism Science Foundation.

Motive:

Moving Deadly Choices onto Amazon's Hot New Releases List.   If his book is the biggest seller on Amazon on Monday the 21st, this will raise much needed publicity about the importance and safety of vaccines.

But I already have a copy of the book!

So?  Buy another and donate it: to your local library, to a local high school library, to a high school or community college teacher of biology, health, or journalism, to your pediatrician...let your imagination be your guide.

Thinking of Buying a New Mac? Essential Apps

Yes I am thinking of purchasing a new computer.  Helpfully, Marc Frauenfelder of BoingBoing has published a three parts of a long series on his essential apps. 

(I took the advice of Leo Laporte, who once said that when he buys a new computer, the applications have to "earn their place" onto the hard drive). On the first day, I installed about 30 applications that I consider essential for the kinds of things I do.

1. Apps One through Five
   
2. Apps Six through Ten
   
3. Apps Eleven through Fifteen

(I actually installed two other applications that I'm not going to bother reviewing: Adobe Creative Suite 5, and FileMaker Pro 8. I feel everyone knows enough about these programs that I don't need to describe them.)

Next week:

I'll describe the other 15 applications.

 

Parents of Children with Asperger's Syndrome: Help a Researcher with a Survey

At our local special education PTA meeting tonight, a graduate student made a brief presentation and asked for help with her research. 

Amy Stratton is completing her Masters of Science degree in Clinical Psychology / Marriage and Family Therapy at the Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California.  Her thesis is "Mothers' Knowledge of Asperger's Disorder and Current Level of Maternal Happiness." 

Part of her thesis is a survey of parents -- mothers and fathers.  The survey has been approved by the Institutional Review Board of Notre Dame de Namur University (NDNU).

If you would like to take part in the survey, please click the link below:

http://qtrial.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_eCYyMYAuAGFzycs

The estimate is that the survey will take about 10 minutes to complete.

Contact information for questions or concerns about the survey are at the link above.

Thanks for helping with autism research.

 

 

The 1023 Challenge World-Wide, 2011

Tuesday February 8: New from JREF:

Petitions by Change.org|Start a Petition »

 If you prefer here's a direct link to the petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/tell-retail-pharmacies-to-come-clean-about-homeopathic-products

I will keep updating this silently as I find new resources

 Videos, blog posts & etc.

Evergreen: How does homeopathy work?

Note:  Andreas Kyriacou, who appears to read more languages than I do, is compiling an awesome gallery of photographs and links to videos:

http://kyriacou.ch/2011/02/1023-challenge-around-the-globe/

I Survived a Massive Homeopathic Overdose of Coffea Cruda 30C (Ten:23 in San Francisco, 2/5/2011)

On the morning of February 5, 2011, shortly after 10:23 am PST, I consumed about 380 milliliters of a homeopathic remedy for sleeplessness.   At  12:01 Am PST on 2/6/2011. when I began composing this post ...well, I was still not sleepy.  Nor did I suffer any ill effects from this massive overdose.

Why did I do this?  I joined a group of  consumer rights activists to take a symbolic 'overdose', with the  aims of increasing public awareness of what homeopathy really is,  and to put pressure on manufacturers and retailers who sell homeopathic products as if they were legitimate medical treatments.

Myth: Are Teens Actively Faking ADHD -- Often-- To Get Meds?

I ran across this fear-mongering discussion. The author appears to be a therapy provider on the East Coast of the U.S.:

A student at our school has been having a little trouble [and said].. that a friend heard about adult ADHD on TV. His friend told him that he could get special treatment, like untimed tests and rescheduling of exams if he was diagnosed with ADHD, along with free meds.

My question is do you think a kid can actually fake it well enough to get diagnosed by a doctor? Do you know of any cases where kids have faked ADHD? I would have to think or hope that the tests are thorough enough to weed out fakers.

I expect to see the number of abusers sky rocket especially in the teenage set. There are about 5 to 7 million kids diagnosed with ADD. That number is sure to go up because of information on the internet that encourages and teaches abuse (see below)? It just scares me to think that kids can find information like this on the internet.

So I went looking for the questionnaire.  There's exactly one citation, an 2006 article from Abram Magomedov at eXiledOnline, a somewhat fringe publication.

Research Initiative by the International Dyslexia Association Needs Your Support

cross posted at Academic Remediation

 This should be exciting news for anyone interested in reading acquisition, school success --even the achievement gap.

There are two needs here:

1. Additional sources of funding
2. Researchers with a background of evaluating reading instruction

The International Dyslexia Association will be awarding multiple $20,000 grants to evaluate the effectiveness of multi-sensory, structured, language instruction (MSL). While MSL has had decades of success, there has been very little replicated research to point to.