Seth's Blog

Caroline Rodgers, a science writer, has noticed some very interesting correlations:

The new autism figures published in the CDC’s 12-18-09 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) http://bit.ly/57XRca reveal an apparent anomaly: While there was an overall average autism increase of 57 percent in children born between 2002 and 2006, Hispanics in Alabama showed a 67 percent decrease in autism.

The mothers of the first batch of children who were eight years old in 2002 would have been pregnant in 1993. Therefore, I looked at what changes might have occurred in Alabama’s public health policy in 1993 that would explain a 67 percent drop in the autism rate of Hispanic children born between 2002 and 2006.

According to the 2002 PRAMS Surveillance Report: Multistate Exhibits Medicaid Coverage for Prenatal Care http://bit.ly/8godkv .

During 1993-2002, the prevalence of Medicaid coverage for prenatal care . . . decreased in 3 states (Alabama, Florida and West Virginia).

This particular correlation is in addition to a broad correlation between wealth and autism (more wealth, more autism):

Also significant in last week’s MMWR report were the ethnic differences in autism prevalence found among non-Hispanic whites, blacks and Hispanics. The autism rate in the monitored areas throughout the United States of children of non-Hispanic white women was 102 per 10,000; among black children, 76 per 10,000; and among Hispanic children, 61 per 10,000 – roughly half of the non-Hispanic white rate. These results seem counter-intuitive, since the non-Hispanic white population could be expected to have more access to prenatal care than the black or Hispanic populations. Yet if autism risk is increased by exposure to prenatal ultrasound, these figures make perfect sense.

This isn’t cherry-picking. Rodgers believed that we should take seriously the idea of a prenatal-ultrasound/autism link based on entirely different data.

A few days ago I needed to convert image files from one format to another. Searching for the software, I found IvanView, an apparently reputable company whose program once got 4 stars from CNET. I download and installed the converter. Right after that I started having trouble with my Firefox browser. After I did a Google Search, and tried to go to one of the results, I’d be directed elsewhere. Trying to use Avis.com in America put me on Avis’s Australian website — and many relocations were much worse. Internet Explorer still worked okay.

I searched “Firefox virus.” I found a post about a problem that was the same as mine, with the reassuring words that it will just mess with your web surfing. The outlined solution steps, however, were either very complicated or didn’t solve the problem.

Later I started to have trouble with Internet Explorer. I used Norton Antivirus to scan my hard drive. It found nothing of importance. But it did tell me I had some sort of incoming malware. Then it told me to restart my computer. I did so — and was unable to log on! No one had reported this problem in what I’d read.

At this point I did a full system recovery (from a few weeks earlier). It took a few hours but then everything was fine. It’s unfortunate, though, that Mozilla and Norton, not to mention Microsoft, haven’t managed to protect against a virus that has been around for almost a year, as far as I could tell. You should be able to fix this by downloading a free antivirus program.

A 25-year-old Toronto accountant blogs:

A few weeks ago my parents came downtown to take me out for dinner. Apart from leftovers, my dinosaur garbage can and a few pieces of mail, they also brought my Ikea lamp.  Now my apartment is very small.  It’s a bachelor with about 600 square feet.  It faces south and gets a fair amount of light during the day, which is fine during the weekends.  But during the week when I’m at home – in the morning and at night – it can get pretty dark.

Now enter my Ikea lamp.  The first morning after receiving it I turned it on along with all my other lights, while getting ready for work.  I noticed a few things that day.  One, I wasn’t angry during my commute via the subway.  If you’re not from Toronto you won’t get this.  But if you are and you ride the rocket each morning, then you’ll understand the general expression of, “angry defeatism” on most commuters’ faces.  My lack of hate was personally noticeable.  I also noticed that I didn’t need my usual green tea when I got into work.  Even crazier I was alert when I got in, the type of mental alertness that often doesn’t show up until roughly 11 am.

I really thought about this for a while.  I couldn’t figure it out until I remembered this post by Seth Roberts.  It’s very short.  I thought about it for a few days and made a little experiment.  I went from turning on all my lights every morning to a few, to none.  My “awakeness” varied positively with the quantity and duration of morning light.  Along with morning light, I’ve also found that having the TV on and taking Vitamin D amplifies this effect.

It’s not a small impact.  It’s had a huge effect on my day-to-day.

I left a comment asking what the Ikea lamp was. One interesting thing about this was the exposure time. Judging from a comment (see below), it was about an hour. That’s the minimum I try to get early every morning (from sitting outside).
After I bought the absolute necessities for my Beijing apartment (bed, water heater, washing machine, etc.), my first optional purchase was a chair for the balcony. So I can sit on the enclosed balcony in the morning.

• caffeine self-experimentation. He fails to consider the possibility that he has become tolerant to caffeine –  that the caffeine effect is negated by an effect in the opposite direction.
• vote for anyone other than Martha Coakley

Apparently I’m a mad scientist. “Peasants (with pitchforks)” refers to rebellion — peasants storming the capital, armed with pitchforks. The alphabet, with lovely illustrations, is on a set of blocks available for purchase.

Via a post by Suzanne Lazear at Steamed!: Writing Steampunk Fiction.