Edited by author 02-06-2010 01:21 AM
  re /m10444 As a Facebook member I will send a private message to the "friends of ..." suggesting direct email contact with you Michelle, though I have no reason to suppose that will be well-received either.

 I took a look at the group yesterday and find it offputting. Re the chap's situation, I fully agree with your position in /m10443

Thanks Dinah. I found some of the stuff being thrown around on Twitter *very* offputting (a good word) also.

Hi Michelle,

I hope all goes well with you on Monday moderating the panel discussion on life stages in autism.

Thanks Philip.

Here are some photos (from the NYT) of the big snowstorm which hit the US east coast http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/02/0...nowstorm_index.html The story is here http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/us/07storm.html?hp

Also via Twitter an airliner made out of LEGO http://www.bookofjoe.com/2010/02/wrote-rya...e-brickman-via.html

I wrote upthread re the autistic guy who was taken to HRDP, "I've done what I can to convey this situation to those who have the best chance of doing something, though again, this may also be futile."

In fact this has been productive, at least in that those I informed had not otherwise been informed, though in my view they very clearly should have been as priority. See the problem of the very big hospital, upthread.

Very long blog post about the Early Start Denver Model http://autismcrisis.blogspot.com/2010/02/v...rvention-early.html

Edited by author 02-07-2010 09:58 AM
Re/m10448, those New York Times photos of the snowstorm which hit the US east coast show beautiful enchanted scenes of city snowscapes.
 Article in the Times yesterday 'Autism and Asperger syndrome underdiagnosed in women, reseachers say: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_.../article7017168.ece.

It states that about one in five women suffering from an eating disorder is thought to be on the autistic spectrum.

Belated thought re /m10450 ... Autism advocacy and ASAN leaders interchangeably (and absurdly) write me off as "anti-ABA."

If they stumble across my ESDM post, are they now going to claim I'm "anti-ESDM"? Or is this just more evidence for my "anti-ABA-ness"...?

/m10451

It was observed that many women (60%) develop some of the cognitive characteristics and traits associated with autism when they have a diagnosis of anorexia, bullimia or some other eating disorder.

Re /m10453 , the paper from Janet Treasure I'm familiar with was a 2008 pilot study (abstract is here http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18208640 ) using Prof Baron-Cohen's SQ, EQ, and AQ--using self-report.

There was no difference between women with eating disorders and their controls on EQ and SQ, but there was a difference on AQ, with higher scores for the women with eating disorders.

This does not mean they were autistic (their mean AQ score was still low, and the AQ is hardly definitive), and it's hard to explain those EQ and SQ scores, given the premise of the AQ.

I don't know this area well, and I haven't found, in a quick look-round, the study by Treasure referred to in the Times. If anyone can point me in the right direction I'd appreciate it.

We are stuck in time: ever since QT was down for maintenance this morning (you might have see a banner thing announcing this), new visits and visitors are not being added. Probably it's not just us...

Edited by author 02-08-2010 05:18 AM
 Here is an article by Professor Janet Treasure in The Times dated 17 August 2007: 'Is anorexia the female Asperger's?'. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_.../article2272080.ece.

Tweeting from space http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/feb...pictures-from-space

You can find the guy here http://twitter.com/astro_Soichi along with lots of his photos.

Here's one http://twitpic.com/11vx1r "London, England - first time that I saw the whole city without any cloud."

This one http://twitpic.com/11x2s2 is "Pico De Orizaba,the highest mountain in Mexico."

With a lot of hesitation (due to privacy and many other issues), here is a blog post about the autistic guy who is stuck in HRDP through an inexplicable court order and clearly should not be there--including according to HRDP http://actionforautism.blogspot.com/2010/0...n-removed-from.html This gives slightly clearer (or less unclear) information than previously was provided.

The panel discussion last night about "life stages" went... really, really well. It did about everything a panel discussion should do. I may have been an atypical moderator but it seemed to work.

A whole lot of people attended and it was very well-received. It was a great pleasure to meet David Lekx, one of the panelists, who I did not know at all before. The other panelists were Tara Flanagan and Doug Mitchell.

Next Monday it is the learning panel.

Edited by author 02-09-2010 10:19 AM
"The war on 'cures' for homosexuality" http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...erapy-homosexuality , an excellent follow-up the article from the Independent linked to upthread. Here's an excerpt:

"Countless former victims of conversion therapy have contacted me, describing the years of suffering they endured during and since treatment – some of whom were forced into it by their families. Therapists have written in impotent frustration about how they are left to mop up the psychological mess left by conversion therapists. Many readers were simply astounded that this goes on in the comparatively secular UK."