Coral Rhedd

Newtonian, I am interested in why you exclude addiction to drugs as be excluded from illness that are "scientifically proven" to be genetic. Could you expand just a little -- without of course violating the exceptional integrity of this thread?

You seem to be asking how you can coach yourself to achievement. Consider these: 1. It is not as essential as some people may think to get all A grades. 2. You are already the measure of your motivation. It is you passing judgement upon yourself. You need to think about why you are not "motivated." 3. Examine whether you have lost motivation because you lose concentration. You may need to break study time into smaller blocks of time. 4. If you are twelve, then puberty beckons. Do not imagine you will escape unscathed. You will surely be distracted. Plan for those distractions. Prioritize your time. Social development is as almost as important to sucess in life as intellectual development.

The process of decompostion begins the moment the heart stops. The eyes are the first to go. Insects attack the eyes and lay their eggs almost immediately. If larve are found that match the site of death but not the site of burial, that's a good clue.

Yeah. I actually got that Paypal scam email. I have also been solicited by many "banks" I allegedly have accounts at to submit all my banking information so they can "verify" it. Some things people can simply do better. Typing in complete addresses would be extremely cumbersome. Ignoring nonsense is easier.

Ramin, have you considered that other illnesses comorbid with autism may be causal? Please tell me your theory about egression (loss of developmental milestones). What is your opinion of the notion that the rise of vaccination, especially the DPT vaccine, has caused an increase in the incidence of autism. Do you agree or disagree that the most powerful environmental influence is the womb?

What makes a harvest moon look so big? The hunter's moon is pretty fabulous too.

To what type of intelligence are you referring and how to you propose to evaluate prospective members? Try mine now: Who was John Locke? What is Hamlet's dilemma? What did fifteenth century painters use to make the Madonna's robes blue? No surfing allowed. Somehow I have a feeling the above questions may not be scientific enough for you. However there are many types of intelligence. Would it surprised you that I have learned the most in life from fools?

New York Times online has this article on autism: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/08/health/08brai.html It does little to suggest evironmental causes for autism. It seems to me that there is a tacit acknowledgement of genetic causes.

Think I am going to go take something strong. Like a Celebrex and a cup of tea.

I don't know Aardvark. I grew up with three younger brothers and this has always baffled me. I just naively have thought it has something to do with horror-mones.

Kelton wisely pointed out one type of hunting. The type people do as a hobby or for sport. Long ago I used to live on a ranch and during hunting season the rancher leased hunting rights to a group of city fellas. They came with their big luxury trailers (actually I think these things are called something fancier than trailers) and parked outside our windows. They had money but they tried to borrow lots of things from us like batteries, bread, and hand lotion. We learned to just say forget it. These guys made a real messes. They shot almost everything that moved, including cows. They left gates open. They got drunk and rowdy. One of them kicked one of my dogs. that almost brought on a war. When they left the gate on the cattle guard open, one of the horses tried to walk the cattle guard and got his foot hung in the rails of the guard and limped and was unusable for over a month. These guys only wanted to hunt bucks with big racks. They would cut off the horns and leave the meat to waste. Tough old bucks taste too gamey anyway. But there is another sort of hunting. We were poor and we mostly had goat meat to eat. To this day, I will get sick at the smell of goat. One year for population control the game warden handed out some doe permits. My mouth began to water at the thought of a young tender doe in the freezer. I didn't hunt. I have never been a good shot but my ex was an expert marksman. I kept waiting for him to use one of the doe permits. Finally, I all but forced him into the pick up with me saying: "Let's go kill some dinner." He moaned and groaned and whined. He liked goat meat. He also liked making me feel frustrated. We went to a pasture that had doe all over the place browsing as though human being were the least of their concerns. And we had them at close range. My ex shot and missed. We visited two other pastures with the same result. Finally I turned to him and screamed: "If you don't kill an effing doe you're sleeping on the sofa until Christmas." Even that didn't inspire him. When I was a child, my parents had over extended themselves financially. My father used to take us kids to the country to shoot rabbits. I hated it but we ate rabbit almost every Sunday and Saturday in the 'r' months. It was a nice change from beans. In rural areas, there are still people who hunt for food. I don't really think we can separate all hunting from its connection to food. Are we really so different from other predators? My dog eats dog food but he drools at the sight of birds and cats.

Well argued Aardvark. Most people have the false impression of a small struggling family farm on the brink of bankruptcy being saved by subsidies. It stems from all those emotional movies in the eighties

Farmers aren't oilmen and he's probably got most of them anyway on the religious values thing and his willingness to trash environmental laws. And he's been unselfish when? It worked before.

Just curious here. If people (with certain genetics) are surviving doesn't that mean that they have adapted to recent past and present circumstances. I am trying to think how serious poor eyesight is today. I wonder how many other nearsighted people think the greatest handicap to nearsightedness is problems actually finding their glasses when they take them off. For most people this is not likely to affect their survival as long as glasses, contacts, or vision correcting eyesurgery is available. Of course there can be some near misses: Suppose I have a crucial job interview for Thursday. On Wednesday night, I take off my glasses and put them down in the wrong place so that on Thursday morning I cannot find them. Therefore, I cannot drive. Therefore, I must call a taxi. Naturally the taxi will arrive late. Therefore, I arrive at the job interview late and make a bad impression and don't get the job and my income is substantially affected and I can't make the mortgage payment and I end up on welfare and find it is inadequate to live on and become homeless and find the shelter will not allow me an extended stay and end up on the street where I cannot sell my body because I am too old and I eventually freeze or starve to death. Therefore taking me out of the gene pool. My god, this is horrible! I am getting sick just thinking about it. Is that the sort of thing you were referring to or am I completely misunderstanding your POV?

Hi Ramin, I actually went to the site you suggested (it took forever to load) and all I could really see that it was saying was that human development was influenced by the child's genetics, the child's influence upon the environment and the environment's influence upon the child. They seemed to be discussing normal development and not disorders and in no way did they seem to be giving enormous weight to the power of environment. If we look closely at the DSM (Dianostic and Statistical Manual) it becomes obvious that most of us could find a niche in it -- especially if we look at those diagnoses followed by the term nonspecific. For instance, although my daughter has not been diagnosed, I suspect she may have Aspergers or a Nonverbal Learning Disorder. It is interesting that you say enviromental factors figure largely in Autism. Please understand that when you say this many parents of Autistic children are frustrated with this thinking because it was not so long ago that we emerged from a twilight zone where they were baffled at being blamed for their child's disorder. I hope if you continue to argue your thesis using Autism as an example that you will find sites with more comprehensive information than the one you have provided. Maybe you could look for a study that has been peer reviewed. Regards, Coral

You belief depends upon your ability to recite the pledge?

I knew you would.

Still laughing. You made my day. I am busy visualizing and it ain't pretty. Sometimes a cigar ain't a cigar.

Thanks Mart. I was hoping it wouldn't be seen as excessively vigilant. I always think it is nicer to have a dialogue than an argument.

Wow. This is something this wide-eyed ignoramous has always wondered about. So what is the Coriolus force?