Junk Science

I had some time on my hands during my recent vacation and took the opportunity to do some reading – sounds relatively benign so far right? Although the book I was reading was fictional, it used a lot of real science as the underpinnings for the plot, which was utterly forgettable. The science focused on the issue of global warming (a.k.a. climate change) and presented an argument that this “theory” is largely baseless. The author provided a list of references from known scientific journals (some of which I read regularly) so, having nothing else better to do, I spent some time tracking down the original papers.

Let me preface this by saying that global warming has never been a big issue for me. The scope of the problem (if in fact it is really a problem) is so vast that it would take the cooperation of all of humanity to fix, something that to my knowledge has never occurred even once in the history of humanity. Thus, I reckoned that it would just have to play itself out without the benefit of my worry. Imagine my surprise, however, when I discovered that most of the “facts” relating to the issue that I thought that I knew, were not really facts at all – I found myself to be the unknowing victim of “junk science”, something that I am pretty vigilant about avoiding. I won’t bore you with all that I learned, I’ll just give you some highlights and point you in the right direction to check them for yourself:

It seems that there is no reliable temperature record for any location on earth that goes back more than 20 or 30 years. The records that do go back farther suffer such significant inaccuracies, due to equipment changes, location changes, urban sprawl heat island effects and collection methods as to be completely worthless (note: the exceptions to this are in the paleo-records that exist in the form of core samples). Nobody anywhere on this planet knows what the average temperature really is, was, or will be. Of all the glaciers on the planet, only 4% have ever been studied and some are actually growing not melting, as is the case in Iceland. No actual average sea-level measurements exist, and due to various quirks of physics, it is unlikely that they will anytime soon. Water vapor is the greenhouse gas that is responsible for over 90% of the greenhouse effect - let's try banning evaporation. No one knows how many species are on earth, or what the normal extinction rate really is. More species are discovered each year than go extinct and no one knows at what rate new species are emerging. All climate predictions are based on computer models, much like our daily weather forecasts and we all know how often they are wrong when looking only a few days ahead. The system that is being modeled (Earth’s climate) is so complex and so poorly understood that the models are of little use other than as mere exercises or curiosities. There is a lot more, but suffice it to say that no one has a clue, and policy is being made on the basis of hype – so what else is new? Check out these links if you want more information:

The Real 'Inconvenient Truth' Greenhouse, global warming - and some facts

GLOBAL WARMING: Reason for Alarm?

Beginner’s Guide: Global Warming

Junk science is not exclusive to the climate change crowd, I encounter it in my daily perusal of autism research. A helpful example is the recent panic over the supposed connection between the MMR vaccine, mercury and autism. Careful studies of millions of children who had been immunized and which showed no causal link, were regarded as somehow tainted, while the views of junk scientists, and of celebrities whose ignorance was matched only by their reckless irresponsibility, were accepted quite uncritically. In the end, science seems to be winning out but it has been a close-run thing and the argument has been unconscionably protracted, while children fall victim to experimentation. Even now many otherwise intelligent people are not convinced.

It seems that lately science has come under attack by a cadre of antiscientists who use the trappings of science to advance their own political and financial agendas. They undermine the benefits of good science and emphasize the things that go wrong, which feeds into a general pessimism about science, the future, and about human possibility, that could be self-fulfilling. Junk science, which parasitizes the language of science — think of “intelligent design”, “reflexology”, alternative “immune therapies” — thrives on denigration of the real thing and is looming ever larger in the collective consciousness.

As Raymond Tallis, professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Manchester writes:

Other things ease the path of the antiscientist. The honesty of science is a built-in PR disaster. Unlike junk science, it reports its failures, its uncertainties and its changes of mind; and the rewards of fraud in science are short-lived. Self-criticism, perpetual questioning of authorised opinion and received ideas, goes all the way through science like “Brighton Rock” through Brighton rock. Worse, much science is difficult to understand and many educators regard the expectation of intellectual effort in pupils as harassment.

Junk scientists count on the scientific illiteracy and laziness of the public as well as the hysteria-seeking of the fear-mongering media. The “truth” has thus become the province of those who can shout the loudest or who can create the most sensational headlines. The fundamental methodology that makes science such a powerful tool for discovery has been subverted and corrupted, twisted and mangled then passed off on the bovine masses as the real thing.

Under the Wikipedia entry for junk science the authors offer some characteristics of junk science that should provoke skepticism when encountered. They were proposed by a group of concerned food scientists and have been only slightly modified by me to make them more food-neutral. I hope you find them helpful – see below:

Ten Red Flags of Junk Science:

1. Recommendations that promise a quick fix.
2. Dire warnings of danger from a single source, product or regimen.
3. Claims that sound too good to be true.
4. Simplistic conclusions drawn from a complex study.
5. Recommendations based on a single study.
6. Dramatic statements that are refuted by reputable scientific organizations.
7. Lists of "good" and "bad" things.
8. Recommendations made to help sell a product.
9. Recommendations based on studies published without peer review.
10. Recommendations from studies that ignore individual or group differences.

Perhaps old wisdom is still good wisdom, just as old science is often still very good science, so I will leave you with a dose of some of the best:

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many.

Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books.

Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders.

Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations.

But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.

~ Gautama Buddha (563 - 483 BC)

What To Do?

I started off my morning today the way I often do – by reviewing my list of things to do and updating it. Yes, the ubiquitous “To Do list" is very much a part of my life and I’ve been spending some time today considering whether or not this is a good thing. It is a habit that I developed as a young adult – not on purpose, mind you – I was gently nudged, nagged and badgered into the practice by my parents.

It started when I was in high school and centered on the homework issue, or apparent lack thereof. I used to have a pretty good (if rather selective) memory, and used to rely on it exclusively to keep track of important assignments, or so I maintained. In actuality, I did not like doing homework and saw writing it down on a list as creating evidence to be used against me – not good mojo or good policy.

Eventually, I capitulated and waxed reactionary: I would sit down to do my work and spend hours preparing a list that broke the tasks that I must perform into such extensive and exhaustive detail as to be completely absurd. This was the point of the exercise of course - kind of like holding a focus group on forming a committee to organize a planning meeting to plan a meeting for the purpose of making strategic plans. It happens all the time and nothing ever really gets done, although sometimes a lunch menu is selected.

It was a learning experience, however, and at least I learned how to write a great outline in the process of the procrastination of innumerable college term papers. I once even wrote a forty page outline for a term paper on Freud's The Question of Lay Analysis: Conversation with an Impartial Person – ironic huh? I suppose I was repressing after all. Eventually “the list” became a habit, and to this day even a quick search of my wallet will usually yield one or two of them.

I can’t say that I use “the list” as a way to remember things, as I seem to have a problem remembering to check my list on a regular basis. It is more of a way for me to organize my thoughts and priorities and it serves me as a sort of poor man’s data bank. “The list” also functions as a type of daily barometer – the best day being one at the end of which I have crossed the most items off. In a semi-subconscious effort to skew this, I add items to my list that I can’t help but accomplish: “wake up,” “eat lunch” and “breathe regularly” often appear.

There is a certain satisfaction to crossing something off of “the list” – at least for me – and I suspect some of y’all will identify with this feeling. This morning one of the items on my list read, “write something to post on blog,” and this rumination surely qualifies as “something,” so there you have it. Mission accomplished! Now if I can only remember where I put that damned list…

Monkeyshines, Some Snow and Back to Reality

Well, it feels like I never left New York – it’s amazing how our routines shape our thinking (and vice versa). And speaking of routines, our favorite little people came to stay with dear old dad this past weekend as usual. We had a very nice time - also as usual – other than that, there is not much to report but I'll try anyway (Note: the image update will be next Monday - stay tuned!).

Zach is doing a better and better job of communicating his feelings, wants and needs – and Daddy is doing a better job of figuring this communication out. There was a nice moment Saturday evening that bears some comment here. Miranda started a game with Zach, and they played it together for about 15 minutes. This was the first time that I have ever observed Zach playing with another child and it was as heartening as it was remarkable. This game was obviously one that they had played before, however, since I get so little time with them it was my first chance to see it.

The game consisted of Miranda announcing to Zach that “I’m going to get you.” She then turned and ran (making silly noises) to the other end of the apartment, jumping onto the doormat by the front door, as if it were “home base.” Zach started laughing and immediately ran after her, jumping onto the mat like she did. The game continued from there with Miranda running into the bedroom and jumping on Zachy’s bed, and Zachy following suit. The “bases” shifted to the couch, the big “thinking chair”, the kitchen window, etc., until they were both gasping for breath and laughing hysterically. Daddy just tried not to get run over, and egged them on – what fun!

The other interesting occurrence was that, upon waking at 3 or 4am, I went in to their bedroom to check on the sleeping monkeys and found Zachy’s bed empty. I had the briefest moment of fright, but then noticed that Miranda’s bed had become a double occupancy unit. Zachy had gotten up in the middle of the night and climbed into bed next to Miranda with his blanket – the two of them looked very cute all curled up next to each other. What was even better was that they slept through the night and Daddy actually got a decent night’s sleep.

I spent the rest of Sunday (after the visit ended at noon) cleaning up after “Hurricane Miller,” making my usual 2:30 meeting and doing laundry (sheets and towels mostly). I also spent some time trying to remember what I did for a living, and how exactly I went about doing it – it seems that I had forgotten. So I watched the snowfall and folded laundry, and started making those endless “to do” lists for the week, the month, the year, the… – but I suppose that’s another topic.

Monkeyshines, Travel and Other Things

Well, I guess it has been way longer than I normally let pass between posts, but life has been pretty full. Before I begin, let's have a little music, shall we?



That's better - as you're listening, just change the word "California" to "Florida" in your mind and we should be all set. Now, where was I? Oh yeah, so last week I was swamped doing all the stuff that I needed to do in order to not be around this week, which made for a few rather hectic days. Long story short - I got the absolute minimum necessary done, as one would expect - so here I am in sunny Florida (Lauderdale by the Sea to be exact - see map) staying with Dad and Fredi and having a fine time.

Of course my life was blessed this past weekend with a nice visit from our two favorite little people and even though we didn't sleep very much (and Daddy caught a wicked head cold from little miss Miranda - a cold that I'm still recovering from) we had a lot of fun.

The big adventure this weekend was our trip to K.B. Toys on 86th Street. We needed to get out at least for a little while on Saturday afternoon and the weather cooperated by warming up a bit, so we piled in the stroller and took a walk. Daddy explained to Zach and Miranda that they could each pick out one toy and only one, and that if they were good about this we could do it again in the future.

They were sooooo good! When we got there, Zach got out and was eyeing up the Thomas train sets, but Daddy reminded him that he already has one at Mommy's house, which he seemed to understand. He picked out a Geotrax train set instead, which turned out to be a pretty good choice, and got right back in the stroller clutching the box.

Miranda gravitated towards the dolls and much to Daddy's surprise picked out a Barbie (City Styles Barbie - her first). City Styles Barbie came with shoes and a hair brush, but to Miranda it was just "red Barbie". She also wanted "blue Barbie" (Barbie Fairytopia Magic of the Rainbow w/ necklace) which Daddy allowed so that each kid got the same dollar value of loot. We paid for our toys and headed back to Daddy's house to play with our new things.

It was a good thing that we had some fresh toys, as it was a long night. Must have been a full moon or something, because Zach (who went to bed nicely at 9pm) got up at 3am full of vip, vigor and vim. Miranda had only gone to sleep at 11:30 due to a long and late nap, but had a cold and got up at a little after 4am. So there we were: trains, Barbies, etc. burning the midnight oil. It was a good thing that Daddy had a little vacation coming up. Anyway, the visit was the usual slice of heaven and Daddy was sorry to see the little ones go, as always.

Monday was Presidents' Day which I spent sleeping and packing and Tuesday was a travel day. I've been comatose on the beach for most of the time since. I did get around to getting a camera and snapping a few pictures of the kids and have even taken a few here of sand and surf, so I will update this entry with those images when they become available.

Not much else to report - I will be traveling back to reality-land tomorrow evening and gearing up for another installment of Monkeyshines.
Peace and Love!

The Power of Nightmares

This is kind of mind-blowing and I would definitely call this a "MUST SEE." In order to save some time, I lifted the following description of this video trilogy from Wikipedia. Each part runs about 59 minutes and plays via flash media player. As always, your comments are not only welcome but sought after.

The Power of Nightmares, subtitled The Rise of the Politics of Fear, is a BBC series of documentary films, written and produced by Adam Curtis.

This documentary argues that during the 20th Century politicians lost the power to inspire the masses, and that the optimistic visions and ideologies they had offered were perceived to have failed. The film asserts that politicians consequently sought a new role that would restore their power and authority. Curtis, who also narrates the series, declares in the film's introduction that “Instead of delivering dreams, politicians now promise to protect us: from nightmares”. To illustrate this Curtis compares the rise of the American neoconservatives and radical Islamists, believing that both are closely connected; that some popular beliefs about these groups are inaccurate; and that both movements have benefited from exaggerating the scale of the terrorist threat.

The Power of Nightmares was first broadcast on BBC Two in three hour-long parts on consecutive Wednesday evenings in the autumn of 2004. The series was rebroadcast in late January 2005 on three consecutive nights, with the final part updated to reflect the Law Lords ruling from the previous December that detaining foreign terrorist suspects without trial is illegal.

Although the series has not been shown on U.S. television, its three episodes were shown in succession on 26 February 2005 as part of the True/False Film Festival in Columbia, Missouri, USA. After the film, Curtis made a public appearance and led a discussion in which he expressed pessimism about an eventual American TV airing or DVD release. It has, however, played in some small independent theaters.

Curtis has also stated: "Something extraordinary has happened to American TV since September 11. A head of the leading networks who had better remain nameless said to me that there was no way they could show it. He said, 'Who are you to say this?' and then he added, 'We would get slaughtered if we put this out.' When I was in New York I took a DVD to the head of documentaries at HBO. I still haven't heard from him."

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 1 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1002626006461047517

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 2 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7930933565201168

The BBC's The Power of Nightmares (part 3 of 3)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8732625326538179377

Monkeyshines Unlimited

I'll keep this week’s Monkeyshines entry short and to the point: I love my monkeys! Zach and Miranda came over at the usual time and stayed overnight once again. We all had a great time hanging out and playing and eating and singing and dancing, and yes we got a little sleep too.


This week we pulled the electric train set out, which all of us had almost forgotten about, and made a layout around the amazing marble machine. It was quite a sight (and sound): the train was going, Miranda was running back and forth to the bedroom to get more and more weebles to ride in the train, Zach was jumping up and down and chasing marbles that were bouncing everywhere (some even to places that Daddy can’t find), the train was whistling and shouting “all aboard” and Daddy was just fanning the flames. It was all very tribal.

This week we were also able to get out for a walk on Saturday afternoon, as the weather was not too cold – this was the first such outing for us, though more are certain to follow. This week the kids also slept through the night, which was nice for Daddy. Zach fell asleep around 9pm, got up at 6am and crawled into bed with me, wanting to cuddle and read some books – it was a very sweet way to wake up. Miranda fell asleep at 9:30pm and slept until 6:30am, when she woke up all smiles and giggles.

It looks as though we are all already falling into a nice routine. Daddy didn’t take any pictures this week, but we will rectify that before next week’s installment of Monkeyshines

Just Another Friday

Staff meetings are always an excellent barometer of one's serenity. I find that they are a great opportunity for me to see for myself how much I've grown - or not.

"A meeting is an event where minutes are taken and hours wasted."
~ James T. Kirk

This morning's staff meeting here at work was certainly no exception to this. It began with the short session of musical chairs that always seems to result when a bunch of otherwise smart people are asked to arrange themselves in something resembling a circle. That accomplished, we began by going around the circle and introducing ourselves to the people that we eat lunch with and sit in restroom stalls next to - EVERY DAMN DAY! After this elucidative experience my boss, who means well, passed out pink pieces of lined paper with purple hearts on them (presumably in honor of Valentine's Day), to each of those assembled, for a writing assignment. Oh boy! The Icebreaker activity! On the top half we were asked to complete this phrase: "The one part of my job that I love is..." On the bottom half the phrase to be completed was: "The one part I can improve upon is...."

“Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot masturbate”
~ Dave Barry

I chose not to share what I wrote, as we went around the circle - it was just harmless fluff anyway. In the past, blood would have been coming out of my ears by this point, but indeed I have grown. We went down the agenda items and I ate my bagel and sipped my coffee, trying not to be noticed, and not to notice what was being said. I think that most people view meetings as a place to get things off their chests or as some twisted form of group therapy, rather than as the working sessions of idea generation and consensus building that they are supposed to be. I mean, JEEEZ! - if it was just about information we could all just have written memos.



We discussed our class projects for Black History Month, We discussed what projects we were planning for Women's History Month and I sat thinking that when it was finally White Anglo-Saxon Male with Receding Hairlines Month that I'd really give it my all. The meeting ended with the obligatory "how can we improve our communications" nonsense and we adjourned, wondering if we had accomplished anything and not entirely clear about whether or not we had to do anything as a result of the discussions - so I guess it was a successful meeting, all the more so because my internal barometer was reading high pressure and sunny skies all the way. Looks like the forecast is good, right through the weekend.
Peace.

This Just In

The Washington Post article on the CDC autism study that was just released can be found at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/08/AR2007020801277.html

And Miles To Go Before I Sleep

I awoke this cold, dark February morning to the sound of helicopters, and for a moment or two I thought I was having one of my Vietnam flashbacks – then I remembered that I was never in Vietnam or even in the army - anyone’s army for that matter. Although this realization was something of a relief, I was still left with the matter of the helicopters. Helicopters – notice I used the plural form, for if it was just a single helicopter I probably would not have noticed or cared, as a single chopper usually denotes some kind of police action or semi-serious accident. When there are more than one it means that the media is involved, and that means something has happened – usually something rather inconvenient.

So I ran a bath and turned on the radio – surprisingly, AM news radio stations still seem to be the fastest news sources, even in this world of Internet and 24 hour cable news outlets. Sure enough, I quickly learned what I was seeking to know. It was kind of strange to hear someone reporting over the radio, from one of the helicopters that I could hear outside the bathroom window. There was this weird stereo effect to the noise of the rotors – news can be kind of fun but you don’t want it happening too close to home. The reporter was explaining that firefighters were battling a fire that had engulfed two houses on 74th Street near 4th Avenue.

It is an immutable law of physics that water runs downhill, and in New York City “downhill” is the subway system, which just so happens to run underneath 4th Avenue – I made a mental note, “better get a Snickers for the ride to work.”

Bay Ridge is connected to the rest of the world by a single subway line, the R-train, which is always voted the least reliable line in the annual survey of the NYC Transit system. Thousands of gallons of water per minute do not generally improve the functioning of electric trains; thus it was a slow ride out of the Neighborhood this morning. I transferred to the N-train, which is an “express” train, as usual at 59th Street in Sunset Park. I put the word “express” in quotations because, when used in reference to the subway, it has a slightly different meaning than you might expect: these trains do not go any faster, they merely make fewer stops at stations, although they make the same number of stops in the middle of tunnels. Things were fine, however, all the way across the Manhattan Bridge and through Chinatown, and it was not until 14th Street that the next hurdle appeared.

The NYC Transit System as it exists today, is a peculiar mix of new components and ones that are absolutely Jurassic. For example, the pumps that are used to pump rainwater (or any water) out of the tunnels were used in the construction of the Panama Canal, while the control systems that turn them on and off are relatively new. This mix makes for some pretty odd upkeep issues. This is aggravated by the fact that the Transit System has two long seasons, which are brought about by weather extremes: track fire season and track breakage season. These two long seasons are separated from each other by two, shorter track flooding seasons. Today, due to the extremely cold weather, it was definitely track breakage season, and the track my train was riding failed somewhere up the line. The best way to deal with these sorts of obstacles is to leave the underground and quickly hoof it across town to a different line, before everyone else on the train gets the same idea. I walked over to the 7th Avenue line, re-entered the system and made it safely to Harlem on the 2-train.

So why do you care? I was hoping you’d ask! Even though I leave myself tons of extra time each morning, and was therefore never in any real danger of getting to work late, what is remarkable is that at no time did I get upset or bent out of shape. This is amazing! It is a first-class miracle! As I watched my fellow passengers on this commute from Hell turn from miffed, to irked, to totally irate with steam coming out of their ears and nostrils, I found the whole thing funnier and funnier. Today will be a good day – imagine that.

More Changes

So in case you didn't notice, I have made some more changes here. I added a couple of links (will it never end?) to the sidebar, these are: Del.icio.us, Answers.com, and Sonific.com. The first was suggested by my Jedi Master, friend and consultant on all things that are both electronic and technical - Nathan.

Delicious is really cool, it allows you to place tags on websites that you visit (as many tags as you want) instead of bookmarking them, and creates a relational database for your "bookmarks" that is not only searchable, but can be added to by anyone who knows your user name. It's kind of a social bookmarking site in this way. Also, you can add buttons to firefox so that it is even easier to use than the regular bookmarking dropdown menu. Cool huh? Check it out and if you want to bookmark sites/pages for me to look at. I am "zmmiller" - as always.

Answers.com is a site that my friend Lewis financed as a startup some years back, and is a cool search engine that primarily gives you results from a wide variety of reference sources, all on one page. It took me a little while to get used to, but I have grown to like it and find that it saves me from constantly going to Wikipedia.

The final addition is the coolest, but may be replaced if I can figure out a better way to do this. You may have noticed the new music players on the page. I have been wanting to add some audio (someday video too) to this page for a while, in order to create a more complete multimedia experience, and this widget comes courtesy of Sonific.com. I plan to update the song on the sidebar periodically, but not too often. This posting is also an experiment to see if I can add specific songs to go with a specific entry - we'll know shortly. Ultimately, I would like to be able to post my own music (published and nonpublished)and that of my friends too, but as of yet Sonific does not have that capability. Supposedly they are working on it. At least for now, though, enjoy some nice relaxing music and let me know what you think.

On an entirely unrelated topic, I forgot to mention a really charming "Daddy moment" that happened over the weekend. Early Sunday morning, the kids cooperated by playing nicely together while I grabbed a quick shower. After the shower, I decided to shave and Miranda came bouncing by the bathroom just as I had the shaving cream spread all over my face (at least the parts one shaves). She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me with the funniest look that said, "what the Hell are you doing?" She had this look of intense concentration and I don't think that she blinked or took her eyes off of my face, until I had finished the whole process. She then laughed at me and went right back to her play with Zachy. It was really cute - I remember watching my Dad shave when I was that age or slightly older, and finding the whole thing to be somewhat mysterious - I guess some things don't change.
Peace and Love.

Overnight Monkeyshines

(Please note that the previous Monkeyshines post has been updated with 6 new images - Enjoy!)
This weekend featured the long-awaited overnight “slumber” party visit of our favorite little people. Although this will be the “new normal” it was special because it was the first time, none of us were used to it and we didn’t know quite what to expect. A complicating factor was the weather, which, with wind chills at or below zero, was bitterly cold throughout the weekend. This meant spending 24 hours together in Daddy’s little apartment. We handled it in style and had great fun in the process.

The visit started off the usual way at the Sensory Gym, only without any head injuries or vomiting this week. We arrived at Daddy’s house soon after, and Zach repeated his performance of the week before by handing Mommy her coat and shoving her out the door. We set about playing immediately, while Daddy got lunch ready. Zach ate a good helping of spaghetti, but Miranda, who had had her muffin on a stick with Mommy while Zach did his therapy, was not hungry. Zachy got spaghetti all over everything, including himself, so Daddy decided that a change of shirt was in the cards. As soon as the shirt came off the boy took the rest of his clothes off and jumped in the bathtub – so… it was bath time. Miranda loves the water too, and came running out of the woodwork, tugging at her clothes as soon as she heard the water running.

After the bath and some fresh clothes, Miranda asked for her milk and lay down on the couch for a nice long nap from 1:30 to about 4:15. Zachy and Daddy had some nice time together doing our thing. Zach is saying more words and the words that he is saying are becoming much clearer, so that I think even someone who didn’t know him would be able to understand some of them. I had planned to take them to Little People’s Parties, which is an indoor playroom with a jungle gym, rock-climbing wall, basketball, etc., but by the time Miranda-panda woke up it just didn’t make any sense. So we made dinner and had another bath, this time for real – hair got washed and ears got cleaned behind. We then put on our pajamas and had a nice quiet evening playing games, playing our instruments and watching our videos. They both really like hearing the guitar – when I play, Zach takes a blanket and makes a tent over our heads which he thinks is just so cool – kind of like an intimate club atmosphere. Both kids enjoy playing the guitar themselves too and both seem to have the Miller gift for music.

After our videos Zachy started getting tired, but Miranda was full of energy. Zach can get a little grumpy when he is tired, especially towards his sister and he earned a timeout for going after her with his feet. In fairness, there is really nowhere that he can go to get away from her and Miranda can be a bit larger than life at times. We had story time after brushing our teeth and by the end of In the Night Kitchen, both little people were happy again.

Zach fell asleep at around 9:30 so Daddy and his little girl watched an animal show until she fell asleep at around 10:30. Daddy watched his little ones sleep for awhile then decided to get some sleep himself at around 11:30. At about 2:30am Zachy got up and came into bed with Daddy and slept for another hour. At 3:30am he got up and decided that it was morning, flipped on all of the lights, turned on the marble machine and went to work. Daddy managed to keep him out of the bedroom for a while, but by 4:30am both little people were hard at play and Daddy was in the kitchen frying chickens for breakfast.

We ate our breakfast and played with some new toys like our rhyming cards, and just generally hung out all morning. By 10:30 or so both kids had had a snack (for lunch) and had crashed for some serious power naps. Mommy came by at a little after noon, just as we were all waking up. We changed our diapers and pullups and saddled up the big red stroller and said “bye Daddy’s house, see ya soon” – Miranda actually says this. Miranda grabbed a lollipop for the road and we all hugged and kissed, eagerly awaiting our next visit and our next installment of Monkeyshines.

Feeling Groovy

This morning Mia and I met on Roosevelt Island to tour The Child School. I had never been there before and getting there is a lot of fun. I took the subway into Manhattan as I do most days, but stayed on the train until 59th Street (usually I get off at Times Square and transfer to an uptown train for Harlem). I walked a few blocks up to 2nd Avenue at 59th Street which is where the 59th Street Bridge is. It is the bridge that inspired Paul Simon to write what many people call the “feeling groovy” song (interestingly, MS Word seems to recognize “groovy” as a word – huh?). This is also where one catches the Roosevelt Island Tram (pictured). After securing a cup of coffee for the ride at the diner on the corner, I found that when I swiped my Metrocard to enter the loading area that I got a transfer and thus got on for no additional charge (hooray for me).

I got a seat by the front window and enjoyed the view, which is in fact pretty groovy. The tram runs along side the bridge, which is an old art-deco affair spanning the East River, built of stone and some amazingly intricate ironwork. The ride only lasts for a few minutes, but it takes you up a couple hundred feet into the air then back down to the island. Roosevelt Island itself looks like it was once just a sandbar in the river, though now it has been developed into a charming little community. It has a free shuttle-bus service that runs you up and down Main Street (which seems to be the only street) and the whole place has the feel of a village, with incredible views, promenades, parks and lots of condos. The school is towards the northern end of the island on the Manhattan side.

The Child School occupies four modern buildings and has a real campus feel to it. It also has everything that you could ever want in a school – gyms, art studios, soundproof music rooms, stages, science labs, an organic garden, libraries, rock climbing walls, courtyards, soccer fields, and on and on and on. Most of all it was a real place of learning where the students were happy and safe. I was truly wowed! We were most interested in the kindergarten, which has six students, one teacher and one assistant teacher. They have a speech pathologist, psychologist, and OT on staff and appeared to use them very flexibly. Needless to say we are going to apply for Zachy for next September, as it seems like a darn good fit.

After the tour, the dog and pony show and questions and answers, we rode the tram back to reality-land and back to work. Today is a short workday for me, as I’ve lots to do in order to get ready for Overnight Monkeyshines – stay tuned sports fans!

Research…

Today I spent a lot of time reading through the ever-growing pile of autism research articles that I collect. I use Google Alerts, which allows me to set up search criteria and uses Google’s search technology to monitor not only news outlets and scientific journals from around the world, but also the web, blogs and all kinds of groups. When “hits” occur a link to the source material and a brief synopsis are automatically emailed to my gmail account. I then label them according to several categories I have set up and archive them in the 2800+ MB (and growing) of free storage that comes with the account. All of the archived material is searchable in several ways. It works so well that I have never deleted any email at all and am still only using less than 10% of my storage space. I can store documents and images, etc. all in one place, accessible from anywhere in the world – pretty cool, huh?

I have created a system in which I use one set of search terms to cast a very broad net, and several other sets of much narrower terms to focus in on what I’m interested in. In this way I not only get the veritable mountain of material that is published daily concerning various aspects of autism (and the other issues that interest me), but I also get a closer look at what the mountain really contains that pertains to me (and Zach). It works for me, but a lot is going on and keeping tabs on it requires a lot of reading. I suppose it is a coping strategy for me, however, sometimes I get too much information or read something that is pretty disturbing.

Today I read an article exposing what has become a scandal and debunking the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Apparently the research was funded by a group of trial lawyers who wanted to make some bucks off the pharmaceutical companies (villains attacking other villains) and perpetrated by researchers who got rich from doing seriously flawed studies and then acting as expert witnesses based on those studies. Another article offered a thoughtful look at the link between environmental toxins and autism and proposed taking a more holistic approach to treating side effects like gut problems, which are common in autistics, to improve their ability to learn. This was about improving the effectiveness of traditional approaches, not something absurd like curing autism. A third article pointed out the need for a greater speech-language focus in autism programs. I read a very ho-hum article on disciplining autistics and a wonderful article on mirror neurons, which would seem to hold the key to understanding autism. I suspect that this area of research will yield more fruit than any other area of autism research that is currently being undertaken. I plan to write quite a bit more on this as I learn more – stay tuned.

The kick in the teeth came in the form of an article that was just published today. It suggests that it is very likely, given the paradigm followed by the researchers, that chelating autistic children, in a misguided attempt to cure their autism, is causing permanent and significant brain damage to these children - similar to that of lead poisoning. The parents and doctors who have done this will have to live with the knowledge of the harm they have done to these children. The follow-up research is apparently already in the works and will most likely culminate in primate studies. The only positive that will hopefully come out of this is that all of the doctors, who in their arrogance feel that they know best and thus don’t have time to wait for proper research to be conducted, and who have been chelating autistic kids (and worse), will be sued into bankruptcy, drummed out of practice, or better yet jailed (nope - no axe to grind here!).

The final article concerned the use of anti-psychotic drugs (Risperdal in particular) to treat behavior problems in autistic children, the thought of which is completely repulsive. The side effects of these medications are permanent as well, and include: fever, stiff muscles, confusion, sweating, fast or uneven heartbeats (occasionally heart failure), restless muscle movements in the eyes, tongue, jaw, or neck, tremor (uncontrolled shaking), trouble swallowing, light-headedness and fainting.

I have gotten into the habit of taking a few moments for prayer, both before and after my daily perusal of these materials. Not to do so seems unwise and ungrateful, for I have two bright, beautiful, healthy, wonderful children who are fine just the way they are, and for that I give great thanks.