'Safe'
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Did anyone see the piece in the NY Times Magazine recently about brain disorders?
I read that and watched the video too. The girl they showed was so sweet and goofy. Very different from somebody with Downs, though with some obvious cognitive deficit.
Williams or Thomas or Jethro or some first name name. Near as I can tell, and I don't mean to make light here, it basically turns you into a puppy - super friendly and gregarious, always sunny, and absolutely no ability to pick up social cues. Seriously freaky.
I think it may be Williams Syndrome. [eta: just clicked the link, and it is indeed] Some of my boss's patients have it (whatever causes the brain thing also sometimes brings (comparatively minor) heart defects as a gift with purchase).
They are exceptionally sunny and cheerful and loving, but their families and caretakers have to be super-vigilant because they've got no instinct for doubt, skepticism, self-preservation, and they make great targets for everything from bullies to sexual abusers because they're so thoroughly guileless and trusting. They haven't got a mean, conniving, un-sweet bone in their bodies, and they're completely, physiologically incapable of imagining that any human being could ever wish harm on them or anyone else.
It's fascinating, the different kinds of things that can go wrong in making a person, and then what that means throughout a person's life.
I still love all the LOLs.
They haven't got a mean, conniving, un-sweet bone in their bodies, and they're completely, physiologically incapable of imagining that any human being could ever wish harm on them or anyone else.
This is the sort of thing that keeps me reading Oliver Sacks. The neuro bits are entwined in such strange and peculiar ways. When I think of brain damage making one meaner, naively I'd think of the mood as a reaction to the effect of the damage. Not an effect of the damage itself.
Sort of like the link between migraines and depression.
'DATELINE' SUED IN SEX-STING SUICIDE
July 18, 2007 -- THE sister of a veteran Texas prosecutor who blew his brains out as he was about to be busted in an underage-sex sting set up by "Dateline" is slapping NBC with a $100 million suit.
Louis "Bill" Conradt grabbed a gun and shot himself as he spotted cops, reporter Chris Hansen and a camera crew from the popular "To Catch a Predator" segment outside his home on Nov. 5, 2006, according to a notice of claim sent to NBC yesterday.
The suit will be filed Monday in Manhattan Federal Court on behalf of his estate, said Patricia Conradt's lawyer, Bruce Baron.
"NBC was responsible for his death. They conducted their sting operation and intentionally and with negligence sensationalized the situation," Baron said.
"It brought it to the point that he died of a self inflicted gun shot wound."
The 56-year-old prosecutor, a highly praised 20-year-law enforcement veteran, allegedly went online to solicit sex from a 13-year-old boy.
Hansen and a "Dateline" crew tagged along with cops to the prosecutor's home to capture the arrest.
NBC said if a suit is filed, "we will defend ourselves vigorously, as we believe the claims are completely without merit."
IANAL and I don't know anything more about this case, but I am skeptical of the lawsuit's merits.
Under what circumstances can one be held liable (in civil court) for causing someone's suicide? Does that happen?
The joke is, it's not unheard-of to remove one hemisphere of the brain -- in a young child. It's basically the last-ditch fix for severe epilepsy. And because a young child's brain still has its infant plasticity, children who have this operation usually end up in the ballpark of normal development. Despite having only half a brain.
I saw a medical program featuring one such girl and was absolutely amazed that despite the removal of half her brain there seemed to be no discontinuity of her identity or personality. I gather there were symptoms and reduced function issues during the adjustment period, but she was notably still the same person.
Ugh. Please remind me that not only do I have an 8am meeting tomorrow morning in an unfamiliar place for which I'll need to bring materials, but also that I SET IT UP MYSELF.
I'd blame me, but I'm already annoyed enough.
I can't work out how much I like this.
I saw a medical program featuring one such girl and was absolutely amazed that despite the removal of half her brain there seemed to be no discontinuity of her identity or personality. I gather there were symptoms and reduced function issues during the adjustment period, but she was notably still the same person.
Then there's the weird cases where the two hemispheres are separated (usually to fight epileptic seizures). It's amazing how little side effects are experienced. And then there's all the interesting research on weird effects of this surgery....
tommyrot, I think the lawsuit is bullshit. Then again, I don't have much sympathy for the privacy of pedophiles.
ION, I have to read The Female Brain for work this summer. I'm really looking forward to it--should be a nice counterpoint to my beliefs about the impact of the environmental and social elements. Anyone read this book yet?
