David Demaree

  • ‘Aspies’ Cling to Asperger as Elite Diagnosis

    In a proposed change for the upcoming DSM-V, Asperger syndrome would be eliminated as its own, separate diagnosis, and merged in with several other conditions under a general ‘autism spectrum diseases’ category. The “Aspies” are not pleased about that: Liane Holliday Willey, a Michigan author and self-described Aspie whose daughter also has Asperger’s, fears Asperger’s… Read more

  • Yehuda Katz Reflects on Rails 3

    Here wycats explains not only what's changed in the beta release, but also why it's changed, in a clear, thoughtful way that makes me feel I've been both wrong, and an asshole, about Rails 3. To wit: One of the things that most surprised and impressed me is the Rails core team’s (and especially DHH’s)… Read more

  • Jonah Lehrer on Loss Aversion

    The amygdala, the part of the brain believed to be responsible for fear, is likely also related to the human aversion to loss. Researchers at UCL and Caltech have found evidence that people with damaged amygdalas are willing to make riskier decisions: Both amygdala-lesioned participants showed a dramatic absence of loss aversion yet they retained… Read more

  • Pentagon Funds Real-Life Spider-Man Tech

    Or, more accurately, “Beetle-Man.” Wired’s Danger Room blog reports Darpa—the gonzo R&D wing of the U.S. military that gave us the Internet—is funding a team at Cornell who are working on gadgets that may one day allow a person to climb walls like a bug: Dr. Paul Steen, lead researcher on the project, envisions shoes or… Read more

  • Bayonet Skills to be Omitted from Basic Training for Modern Soldiers

    I know what you're thinking: "we were still training soldiers to use bayonets?" Apparently so. And apparently, they've even been used this decade: A group of 20 British soldiers near Basra fought off an ambush by over 100 Mahdi fighters in Iraq, but eventually ran low on ammo. They then resorted to a fierce bayonet… Read more

  • John Nack: Adobe isn’t in the Flash business

    From Adobe's John Nack, who's this reasonable probably because he works on Photoshop rather than, y'know, that other app: [Adobe's] in the helping people communicate business. We'd all do well to remember that, because it means that the company's fortunes are tied to building great tools for solving problems. If we do that well, we… Read more