Blue Moon

Today is a blue moon day.  Not because I'm going to a party, but as in an actual blue moon event.  Link

Carl Kasell's last day

Change is necessary but requires adjustment.  I've been listening to Carl Kasell on Morning Edition wake me up every morning since around 1980.  I avoided thinking about him retiring.

Today is the day though.  Read his interview here.

Now what?

Asperger's Syndrome as superhero symptom

So, back to the Asperger's thing again:  in Bones, interestingly, it's the woman scientist who's autistic-like.  Which would make immediate sense, since scientists are perceived as cold, rational decision makers.  However, in Leverage, the super-thief is a woman and autistic-like, as befits her cold, rational choice of a career.

Not all heros, or superheroes, are Asperger syndrome characters, of course, but it's interesting to see this condition, or the stereotype of this condition, move to the forefront.  In the past, the cold, emotionless hero (think Bogart, or Gary Cooper) were exemplars of masculinity.  Jimmy Stewart achieved masculine hero status for remaining cool, but had the brilliant ability to portray a manic quality hidden underneath his masculine exterior.

The cold rational scientist should be the mad scientist, but we all know how to recognize the mad scientist: by his maniacal laugh.  Too much emotion, too much hysteria too close to the surface.

And, speaking of hysteria:  having the cold emotionless thief or scientist as woman adds added punch to the hero role (the former masculine role model).  Leverage is cool that way, since the computer geek is an  African-American, a change from the usual stereotype.

Sloppy reporting

NAZARETH, Israel – Just in time for Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what may have been the home of one of Jesus' childhood neighbors. The humble dwelling is the first dating to the era of Jesus to be discovered in Nazareth, then a hamlet of around 50 impoverished Jewish families where Jesus spent his boyhood.

Archaeologists and present-day residents of Nazareth imagined Jesus as a youngster, playing with other children in the isolated village, not far from the spot where the Archangel Gabriel revealed to Mary that she would give birth to the boy. [emphasis added]

from: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091221/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_antiquities

Numbers to Treat: extending care till it harms

The medical community wants to help.  The pharmaceutical industry wants profits, to develop new drugs.  The consumer is the source.  How women without true osteoporosis are convinced to take bone density drugs that may, in the long run, create the problems they all seek to avoid is described very well in the article (link below), part of an NPR series on our health care system.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=121609815

Recent student comment

"Cats!  They're such predators.  If we were smaller than them, they'd eat us."

The Autistic Superhero

So, we've all noticed the increase in autistic-like characters on TV recently: the anthropologist from Bones, Abed from Community, Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory, Bob Melnikov from ReGenesis, and any cyborg from the Terminator series. (We could also consider Spock from Star Trek as a precursor to the emotionless, rational hero.)

What to make of this? how about the need for the rugged individualist to cooperate in a team setting? (source) Or the difficulty of a rugged individualist cooperating in a team setting? See

The Myth of the American Superhero

(source).

just a thought