[Taxacom] oh dear...

Sun Oct 4 22:53:36 CDT 2009

Yeah Jim, when was the last time you took a shower? Roughly ... I mean what year? :)

________________________________________
From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Sara Lubkin [shl24 at cornell.edu]
Sent: Monday, 5 October 2009 4:36 p.m.
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: Re: [Taxacom] oh dear...

On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 11:16 PM, Sara Lubkin <sara.lubkin at gmail.com> wrote:

> Very interesting.  I've taken this test before.
> Actually, I am from a family with at least 4 generations of males with
> Asperger's - either diagnosed or probable.  My brother, who is a likely
> Aspie, decided everyone should take this test.  My daughter and I had the
> lowest scores; 16.  We both look for patterns, remember numbers easily,
> etc... but we like people as well.  The two are not mutually exclusive.  My
> son had the highest score.  I can't remember what it was.  He has been
> diagnosed with Asperger's since the age of 10, and he is brilliant, but he
> also really struggles with every day life.
>
> Honestly, I used to wonder why people considered Asperger's a disability
> rather than a different-ability until he went to college.  Then I realized
> just how narrowed his thought patterns really are and how really different
> my son is from neuro-typical kids his age.  When he ran out of money two
> weeks before school ended, it didn't occur to him to call me for money to do
> laundry.  But, since he didn't have clean clothes, he assumed he couldn't
> shower.  And it never occurred to him that other people might react
> negatively to two weeks of no showering or clean clothes.  Absolutely
> confusing to him.  Yeah.... he was gross.  So, maybe the questions are
> wrong.
>
> Finding patterns and enjoying information is a sign of a scientific mind.
>  Enjoying people is a sign of a social person.   So if you are a not very
> sociable scientist, you could very well have a high score.  But, getting
> confused and not knowing how to react when the patterns or expectations
> change is the sign of Asperger's. And the quiz just doesn't ask the right
> questions.
>
> In my family, the Aspies had the highest scores, women generally had lower
> scores  than men, and engineers tended to have higher scores.  Women who
> were engineers still had lower scores than men who were not.  Interestingly,
> I'm the only scientist is a family full of mathematicians and engineers,
> although one of the higher scoring males is an artist but, an artist who
> invented a wrench).  And, even with the lowest score, I was the one most
> interested in mapping the results in different ways to see what they looked
> like.
>
> So... interesting.   But, meaningful?
>
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 4, 2009 at 10:35 PM, Stephen Thorpe <s.thorpe at auckland.ac.nz>wrote:
>
>> Perhaps we should draft a questionnaire entitled "calculate your
>> shallowness index", with such question as:
>>
>> (1) do you prefer to (a) improve your level of education by reading and
>> observing nature, or (b) spend all your time socialising and indulging in
>> chitchat ...
>>
>> Two slogans:
>> (1) obsession is just a negative spin put on things by those who don't
>> give a damn about anything...
>> (2) madness - bah! It's all in the mind!
>>
>> BTW: another one of my "nice" images of nature in action:
>> http://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parisolabis_with_nematode.jpg
>> I bet this earwig had a stomach ache!
>>
>> ________________________________________
>> From: taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu [
>> taxacom-bounces at mailman.nhm.ku.edu] On Behalf Of Thomas Lammers [
>> lammers at uwosh.edu]
>> Sent: Monday, 5 October 2009 3:21 p.m.
>> To: TaxaCom
>> Subject: Re: [Taxacom] oh dear...
>>
>> No, I think it's accurate.  (I got a 32.)  Boring ordinary people think
>> autism is a disability.  Maybe not necessarily so.  Maybe "autism" is
>> another word for "incredibly focused and interested in furthering knowledge
>> instead of brainless bandinage with twits and fools."
>> ;-)
>>
>> Seriously, I think the questions merely select for people who are
>> different that what the phrasers of the questions see as "the norm".  Being
>> autistic is one way to vary from the norm.  Being a taxonomist is another.
>>  Similar symptoms, different causes.
>>
>> Tom Lammers
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Jim Croft <jim.croft at gmail.com>
>> Date: Sunday, October 4, 2009 6:02 pm
>> Subject: [Taxacom] oh dear...
>> To: TaxaCom <taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu>
>>
>> > feeling particularly misanthropic and ill disposed towards humanity
>> > and the planet in general at the moment and managed to score a very
>> > comfortable 36 (!) on:
>> > http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html
>> >
>> > Gut feeling is that the test is skewed towards the mass of boring
>> > people in the world and that taxonomists, nomenclaturists,
>> > systematists, collections managers, biodiversity informaticians,
>> > ICBN/ICZN junkies and taxacom subscribers would lie several standard
>> > deviations outside the control group...  :)
>> >
>> > jim
>> >
>> > --
>> > _________________
>> > Jim Croft ~ jim.croft at gmail.com ~ +61-2-62509499 ~
>> > http://www.google.com/profiles/jim.croft
>> > ... in pursuit of the meaning of leaf ...
>> > ... 'All is leaf' ('Alles ist Blatt') - Goethe
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>  Thomas G. Lammers, Ph.D.
>>
>> Associate Professor and Curator of the Herbarium
>> Department of Biology and Microbiology
>> University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
>>
>> http://www.uwosh.edu/departments/biology/Lammers.htm
>> http://www.kewbooks.com/asps/ShowDetails.asp?id=615
>>
>>
>>
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