On a closer look, the io9 comments were pretty equally about the hotness, geek nitpicking, or actual video content.

Unless it gets an influx (and the race topics seem to incite that), IO9 has pretty decent commenters.

People With Asperger's Less Likely to See Purpose Behind Events in Their Lives

BOSTON—Why do we often attribute events in our lives to a higher power or supernatural force? Some psychologists believe this kind of thinking, called teleological thinking, is a by-product of social cognition. As our ancestors evolved, we developed the ability to understand one anothers’ ideas and intentions. As a result of this “theory of mind,” some experts figure, we also tend to see intention or purpose—a conscious mind—behind random or naturally occurring events. A new study presented here in a poster at the 22nd annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science supports this idea, showing that people who may have an impaired theory of mind are less likely to think in a teleological way.

Bethany T. Heywood, a graduate student at Queens University Belfast, asked 27 people with Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild type of autism that involves impaired social cognition, about significant events in their lives. Working with experimental psychologist Jesse M. Bering (author of the "Bering in Mind" blog and a frequent contributor to Scientific American MIND), she asked them to speculate about why these important events happened—for instance, why they had gone through an illness or why they met a significant other. As compared with 34 neurotypical people, those with Asperger’s syndrome were significantly less likely to invoke a teleological response—for example, saying the event was meant to unfold in a particular way or explaining that God had a hand in it. They were more likely to invoke a natural cause (such as blaming an illness on a virus they thought they were exposed to) or to give a descriptive response, explaining the event again in a different way.

In a second experiment, Heywood and Bering compared 27 people with Asperger’s with 34 neurotypical people who are atheists. The atheists, as expected, often invoked anti-teleological responses such as “there is no reason why; things just happen.” The people with Asperger’s were significantly less likely to offer such anti-teleological explanations than the atheists, indicating they were not engaged in teleological thinking at all. (The atheists, in contrast, revealed themselves to be reasoning teleologically, but then they rejected those thoughts.)

These results support the idea that seeing purpose behind life events is a result of our mind’s focus on social thinking. People whose social cognition is impaired—those with Asperger’s, in this case—are less likely to see the events in their lives as having happened for a reason....

Huh. Now I'm wondering how often I have "anti-teleological responses" and if I do this less often than a non-aspie atheist... I'd guess that I don't think that way that often.

My 88 year mother takes classes five days a week at the local Senior center (including aerobics three days a week, and works out on a machine the days she does not take aerobics). She is in a Senior Rock N' Roll choir, polticically active in left wing causes and goes to pay-what-you can at the opera and local theaters and also has lots of friends. I would call her quality of life pretty damn good.

My great-great-aunt Nan lived to be 91, and up until she had a fall at 90, she lived on her own, went to concerts and had a lively social life. She was a former librarian, and when told that she might not want to have a cataract operation at the age of 85, said to the doctor in indignation "Of COURSE I want the operation. How will I read?"

I have a lot of old miserable people in my life- I'm jealous of y'all!

left wind causes

I read this and thought "isn't wind power pretty left wing already? Geez!" and then realized it was a typo for left wing. Doh.

My aforementioned grandmother is fairly sick of things (especially since she can't read anymore), but she still volunteers at the hospital every week!

I'd be very happy to have my paternal grandfather's quality of life at 80. I'm dreading having my mom's quality of life at 74. Tithonus was a pretty good parable for framing the hope for a long life carefully.

Oh, my god, self, do not read the comment thread on Consumerist when the subject is a business insulting fat people. YOU KNOW BETTER.

Oh, my god, self, do not read the comment thread on Consumerist when the subject is a business insulting fat people.

Oh! I bet I know what story that is. The cake company?