The Maroon Diaries

I watched a movie called Lucy , with Scarlett Johanssen and Morgan Freeman, last night. Nice science fiction flick. The first twenty minutes were particularly brilliant, but then I was sadly disappointed to hear that they made Morgan Freeman repeat that old chestnut about humans only using ten percent of their brains. I mean, come on, the man deserves more respect than that. At least he was getting paid bloody well, I suppose.  I'm surprised that this myth has lasted so far into this day and age of MRI technology, but it is still a very popular idea, and not just in the realm of Hollywood fiction. Why is that? Why do people just accept a statement like that with no evidence, let alone common sense, attached, and go on to repeat it as truth? Is it just because it sounds catchy and profound? Apparently that is enough for many a human brain. But this is not because we only use ten percent of them.  Firstly - where did this myth come from? There are a few different theories about...

Today is World Autism Awareness Day. Many people in the autistic community would prefer it be known as Autism Acceptance Day, or even Autism Appreciation Day. For me, the acceptance and the appreciation flowed very easily, once I had the awareness I had been missing most of my life. Ten years ago, I had no idea that I was autistic. I didn't see myself as being anything like the image I had of what an autistic person is like, which was probably, as for many people of my generation, associated with Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man . Looking back, the first clue could have been reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon . Did you ever have the feeling that there was something about you that was so very different to everyone else you knew, that you felt you were completely alone in this experience? And then one day, did you happen to discover, through chance or as a result of your own investigations, that there was someone else out there who felt the sam...