Autism

Wired recently published an interesting story about autism and autistics. The cover page states "The Truth About Autism: Everything You Know Is Wrong"

The story profiles, in particular, an autistic names Amanda Baggs. Amanda has uploaded a number of videos to YouTube, the most popular of which is called "In My Language" shown below. She no longer keeps a personal webpage, but has a very simple "non-site" that answers FAQ of her, it also has popular autism related links.

From the article and from her non-site she seems to be very blunt and, in my opinion, quite rude. What i found interesting about the article and her video is that although in a face to face interaction it seems as though some autistics cannot communicate properly with others, in fact they can, but just not through the traditional means.

I am somewhat confused by the video and her site in that i find it a little contradictory. maybe it is just my misunderstanding, but it seems that Amanda wants autism to be seen not as a disability, but rather as just another way of life, at the same time she often makes reference to her state funded caregivers and how one would never think she was "normal" if seen in public.

This is a never ending conversation/debate and I would love to hear other peoples thoughts and reactions to both the video and the Wired article which you can find here

Drupal Camp Vancouver

The First Drupal Camp Vancouver is set to take place on May 9 and 10, 2008.
The Friday sessions at SFU Wosk Centre for Dialouge (Hasting and Seymour) and Saturday sessions at Workspace (21 Water St., Gastown)

Here's the briefing from the Drupal Camp Vancouver Group Site:

A group of volunteers is assembling the masses for the inaugural Vancouver Drupal Camp on May 9 and 10th (Friday & Saturday) 2008. The event will feature multiple tracks of peer-taught edu-tainment at two downtown Vangroovy locations.

Certainly Vancouver has hosted many meet-ups, camps, conferences, and un-conferences around open source software topics but Vancouver Drupal Camp will be specific to the Drupal open source content management system and the first of its kind in BC. Participation is encouraged from all and many levels of ability and interests will be addressed in the inter-disciplinary schedule.

Wilensky's - pressed Salami sandwitches

Wilensky's is a small corner store that's been open since 1932 when the Wilensky special sold for less than 15c.
The Wilensky special is a pressed Salami and Bologna sandwich. It is always served with Mustard, this is not an option, you may add cheese if you wish. They also make their own sodas on site, cherry cola, cream-soda and orange soda!

The rules:
1. You may not tip
2. You may not ask for your sandwich to be cut in half
3. You pay when served
4. The special is made with mustard

See the reviews below:
RoadFood
Frommers
CTV
Yahoo Travel

Concordia - CASA Cares Fashion show

Last night i attended the CASA Cares Charity Fashion Show
I apologize in advance, they had smoke machines so some of the pics are a little muggy, but check them out here.

Drop and give me 20! - The Push-up Fitness Test.

Lifehacker posted an article relating to a New York Times story about push-ups and how they are one of the best tests of fitness and a great overall body exercise.

They also link to a Washington Post table for measuring your fitness level based on a number of exercises including the push-up.

See also Wikipedia's notes on Push-ups (Press-ups)

How do you measure up!?

Binocular Soccer!

This is a hilarious must-watch! A bunch of people in ridiculous outfits playing soccer with binoculars strapped to their heads. Thanks Basha for the tip.

Nanaimo takes center stage! - Google Earth

TechVibes recently wrote about how Nanaimo was declared the Capital of Google Earth. it turns out the city planners have been working to provide Google Earth with as much information as possible resulting in Google Earth providing more information about Nanaimo than is available about San Francisco!
Check out earth.nanaimo.ca to see the full scope of information available.
You can also see the TIME Magazine Article here.

It would be great to see more cities working with Google on projects like this, having this volume and wealth of information available for larger cities in Canada and the US will be invaluable to all.

The MacBook Air, I guess it really is that tiny!?

Check out Newsweek Senior Editor, Steven Levy. He lost his MacBook Air, in his house. The story goes that he reads a lot of magazines, I guess his wife cleaned up the clutter behind him and while throwing out a big pile of magazines from the coffee table, accidentally threw out his MacBook Air at the same time. This does give some credence to Apple's claims of how thin this machine really is, unfortunately it also gives credence to the idea that this guy, or his wife, may be completely blind or just stupid. The machine is thin, but a 3 pound magazine is a little hard to miss, no?

Memory Through Metamorphosis

A research article was recently published on PLoS ONE that detailed an experiment showing that a caterpillar actually retains its memories even after it has transformed into a moth.

This is interesting because it was always thought that due to the extent of the metamorphosis, including the change of bodily functions, environment, flight, diet and more, that there was little connection between the caterpillar itself and the moth. The belief was that the caterpillar is essentially completely broken down and reorganized to create a moth. This study has shown otherwise.

The researchers wrote that further research "will yield greater insight into the process of complete metamorphosis and move us closer to an integrated understanding of organisms, providing links between complex cognitive behaviors and the molecules and developmental processes that give rise to them."

Wired also had a review of the article here.

Steve Jobs Speech (2005)

I just saw this for the first time. A speech given by Steve Jobs in 2005 where he tells three very interesting stories from his life. It may be old, but I think it's a great speech. Watch it below.

Cellphone Tips!

Here are some interesting things that are possible on your cellphone in times of emergency. The coolest one i think is the ability to unlock your car from miles away!

1. The worldwide emergency number for phones is 112. if you are outside of the coverage area for your network in an emergency situation, dial 112 and your phone will search for any existing network to establish the emergency number.

2. Nokia phones come with a reserve battery. to activate the battery press the keys *3370# and your cellphone should restart with the reserve battery and a 50% increase in battery life. the reserve will be recharged next time you charge your phone.

3. If your phone gets stolen, you can disable it as long as you have the phones serial number. dial the keys *#06# and you should get a 15 digit code show up on your screen. This is your phones unique serial number. As long as you keep this number you can disable your stolen phone by providing this number to your service provider and they will block the phone, so even if someone replaces the SIM card, the phone will still not be usable.

This next one is my favourite!

4. If your car has automatic locks, and you happen to lock your keys inside somehow. (although you gotta be pretty impressive just to pull that off) as long as there is someone else with access to your spare set, you can call them from your cellphone, stand within about a foot of your car and ask them to click the unlock button while holding the remote near their cellphone. The signal should be transmitted through the cellphone and unlock your car!

Enjoy!

Free Airline Vouchers - Working the system

A tip coming from "Dumb Little Man" today explains the best way to get free airline vouchers by booking on overbooked flights. this is all great as long as you are flexible on your departure time/date. check it out HERE

Kudos to Victoria Startup - TeamPages

My friends at TeamPages received some great press recently.

TeamPages is a social networking and online management service for amateur sport organizations. Their tools allow you to easily organize your schedules, and communicate with your leagues.

Mike Tan, TeamPages CEO, is a strong leader and entrepreneur who I was lucky enough to work under on the University of Victoria (UVic) Commerce Students Society a few years back, I have also worked closely with other members of the TeamPages staff including Lesley Bidlake and Derek Story. as usual Mike Tan has brought together a talented group of individuals to propel his concept into the public realm. I'm sure they will see a lot more of this kind of press in the future.

Link here to the story in the Vancouver Sun