…and suicide. This isn’t just a problem for the IT industry — we see it in space as well. Of course, as some have theorized, it’s possible that more people are being born this way, since the Silicon Valley culture over the past decades has allowed more of them to socialize together and mate with each other, opportunities that were more rare in a less mobile era that didn’t concentrate geeks to the same degree. We need to help the Asbergers-afflicted more as a society (no, I don’t mean government programs). As the article points out, many believe (including me) that they have advanced us greatly in not just computer technology, but tech in general, but they often pay a price in being social pariahs.
Lessons Learned From FDR
…the wrong ones.
Thomas Friedman
…you pitiful fool.
The Future In Space
…is bright, with the end of the Shuttle.
Obama’s Support
…is faltering in Iowa:
Bobby Burns has had a dramatic change of heart.
Burns, 23, was one of those young people swept up in Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Three years and one college degree later, he cannot imagine a scenario in which he would consider voting for the president’s re-election.
“I guess you could say I have seen the light,” he said.
On Tuesday he will caucus in a precinct right down the road from where he grew up. His vote will go for Mitt Romney.
It’s not just Iowa. And this is the president’s problem. There are a lot of people who feel this way. On the other hand, I think you’d be pretty hard put to find anyone who voted for McCain who’s going to vote for him in November.
Be Careful Today And Tonight
…billions may die. Sorry, when you believe wacky stuff, you don’t get points for earnestness.
Watching TV With Your Kids Over The Holidays?
Try Firefly. I noticed that there was a Firefly festival last weekend on one of the cable channels.
The Space Studies Institute
…is under new management. They want to reenergize it, and start to push the technologies we need to actually develop space. If you still want to contribute and get the deduction for 2011, you have two more days to do it. It’s a worthier cause than ever.
Obama, Trapped In Carter Country
Some thoughts from Ed Driscoll on parallels between the two presidents. I found this part interesting:
Obama doesn’t like people. He likes himself.
He appears to have a long-standing pattern of disconnection from others. Where are the voices of those who grew up with him, went to school with him, worked with him? It is eerily quiet.
Naturally, there are those who disagree with the notion that our president is aloof.
Despite the narrative in Washington of Mr. Obama as a loner, his friends and aides say he likes people just fine. He looked positively ebullient when he worked the crowd at a hangar last Wednesday at Fort Bragg, N.C., reaching out to nearly every one of 3,000 troops returning from Iraq.
No surprises there. Obama knows how to work a crowd. Apparently, he is downright ebullient when doing so. But that is not the same thing as liking other human beings and connecting with them. Working the crowd is about his ego. And a photo op.
Obama holds himself apart.
Something about him is off kilter.
And lots of people know it.
Republicans and Democrats, alike.
It reminds me of the classic line by Linus from Peanuts: “I love mankind, it’s people I can’t stand.”
The Tyranny Of The EPA
I hope that the SCOTUS slaps down the Ninth Circuit. If could be a major blow for freedom.