January 2010.

Travel itinerary:

31.12.2009. - 03.01.2010. Vienna - waiting New Year
04.01.2010. - 10.01.2010. Flight to Las Vegas - CES 2010 conference

CES 2010 keynotes

First week of 2010. is dedicated to CES 2010 conference. Flight to Las Vegas and see video from significant keynotes.Paul Otellini - INTEL, Steve Ballmer- MICROSOFT.

Procrastination at Its Finest!

Last fall, David presented me with a problem he had with Pamela, and a solution. Although he's only seventeen, he knows more about autism than some people and is an awesome brother. One day, he asked if he could borrow her Game Boy and she flatly refused him. He suggested that the three of us (Steve, David, and I) model borrowing in front of Pamela. I brought it up with our RDI consultant, and we picked an objective focusing on episodic memory. Our goal was to give Pamela opportunities to practice borrowing and loaning items, paying attention to feelings.

Off and on, we have been spotlighting borrowing, slowing working from her perspective to ours.
* We looked through old pictures of people sharing with her and talked about how she felt when others shared.
* We looked at pictures of us sharing food with animals (mule deer and birds) and two boys sharing an umbrella. We talked about feelings. We talked about David sharing his legos with Pamela while looking at old picture of him playing with them.
* In the moment of sharing, we talked about her feelings: letting her use my computer and look through pictures kept in a box. Then, David brought down his legos for her to play and we reflected on our mutual feelings.
* I began asking to borrow things from her but did not force her if she strongly objected. In my probing over time, I figured out electronics to be the common denominator! She has a hard time sharing her Game Boy, old TV guides, DVDs, and books having to do with television.

Procrastinating, instead of blogging for most of last month, I figured it was time to share. I am not kidding you about procrastinating as Pamela and I are still finishing up handmade cards for a Christmas card exchange we did with other autistic children. Pamela drew animals, and we brainstormed puns for the greeting. When we first tried this in December, Pamela reacted neutrally. Monday was our third batch of cards, and she laughed her head off at the puns. Then, she came up with her own and laughed at them too!

While making the cards, I worked on borrowing, pushing the envelope all the way to the mother of all borrows: a DVD. She clearly did not like my sneaky ways but did not scold me or react strongly.

What I love most about these two videos is how expressive Pamela is. She speaks both declaratively, sharing what she is doing. Her laugh is engaging and sweet.

Act on Empathy

If we see a friend going though tough experiences, most of us step up to help in some way. We act with empathy, since we're prompted to do more than if we merely feel sorry. It's helping with the intention of enhancing that friend's well-being.

Empathy leads to altruism. "Altruism is a choice and something that we can actively cultivate when we observe others in need," according to psychologist, Lidewij Niezink.

Ten years after Columbine, educator David Levine is giving workshops to help students practice empathy as a way to overcome violence in schools. Levine says,

Empathy is a bundle of social skills. It really is starting out with the natural inclination that children have to reach out when someone's having some struggles and then as they get older, teaching them ways to use that natural feeling, to not just feel what someone else is feeling, but do some things to help them.

Acting on empathy can turn lives around...

Change didn't come easy for Quentin Marcus Moore. He wrestled and fought it for years.

"I'd start thinking, like, I wanted a better life, because I had just had my first child," he says. "So I wanted a better life for him, instead of me just going through life gang-banging, shooting people. But it was, like, going through a dark smoke: OK, I'm leaving the gang, but I'm going through cliques and crews in order to get to a place where I can work and be able to have a job and see how it was in the working world.Empathy can turn lives around...

Quentin's path eventually took him to Homeboy Industries, where he works as a case manager. And now as a case manager he describes himself as a "light through the darkness to find out what people's needs are - transportation, education, spiritual guidance - and then we place them in programs or at agencies where those needs can be met." A lot of the change that took place for Quentin came about because he now helps others and "every day he sees homies changing from being hardcore bangers to more mature young adults."

Similarly, expelled from school at just 14, Marvin Osemwegie spent his days wandering the streets of Peckham, South London, getting in with the wrong crowd. An organization, From Boyhood to Manhood, made a difference in Marvin's life. He explains it...

"It helped me with my self development, with my temper, and I learned how to control myself.

It meant I was able to go out there and have an effect like I was supposed to, rather than going out there and being a nuisance wherever I went."

After two years in the programme, Mr Osemwegie went to college, where he gained five GCSE's and then three A-Levels. He plans to help other youth turn themselves around in the same way. Mr Osemwegie is one of a group of former FBTM students now forming their own business, Streets 2 Success, which will mentor young boys in the area and help them fulfill their ambitions in life.

Interestingly, there may be a basis in neurobiology for wisdom's most universal traits, which researchers, Jeste and Meeks found to include such "attributes as empathy, compassion or altruism, emotional stability, self-understanding, and pro-social attitudes, including a tolerance for others' values."

Empathy activates the brain's pre-frontal cortex, when a person ponders a situation calling for altruism. And, moral decision-making is a combination of rational (the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which plays a role in sustaining attention and working memory), along with emotional/social (medial pre-frontal cortex. Since the human brain has great plasticity, we can grow more new neuron dendrite connections each time you or I act on empathy. Just think we grow more wise as we do!

What fruits of empathy in action left an impression on you?

Tip of the Day

Do you know:

Murdering a person as in sleep walking is not recognised as a crime? Why? Recent research identified that sleepwalkers (particularly those with lucid dreams, click HERE to read about dreams) have showed no activation in the brain area associated with emotion and movement. A medical journal reported that, "as long as you are in a dream, you have no free rein on your actions and emotions". This means that a person who murdered a person while sleeping could use this reason to make a strong defence in the court.

Thrive at night?

Did you stay up late last night to usher in the New Year? While some folks thrive as they stay awake late into the night, others don't. Night owls have different brains! You'd be interested in what's behind this...

While some folks find that ideas and good work occur late at night, others who try find themselves very drained in the morning. Not too surprisingly, at 9:00 a.m., other folks' brains work at prime. What makes the difference in night owls and early risers?

Night owls have a gene that works more resiliently than those without. Their brains become more active as they tire. Scans show that these folks responded to fatigue by garnering more brain structures to help them perform well on a memory test, according to recent research.

Brains definitely function differently for night owls and early birds

Using magnetic resonance imaging-guided brain stimulation, scientists tested muscle torque and the excitability of pathways through the spinal cord and brain. They found that morning people's brains were most excitable at 9 a.m. This slowly decreased through the day. It was the polar opposite for evening people, whose brains were most excitable at 9 p.m.

Other major findings:

• Evening people became physically stronger throughout the day, but the maximum amount of force morning people could produce remained the same.


• The excitability of reflex pathways that travel through the spinal cord increased over the day for both groups.


• These findings show that nervous-system functions are different and have implications for maximizing human performance.

No matter which circadian rhythm is genetically wired in your brain, work with, rather than against the way your brain is wired as much as possible. When night owl friends play stimulating games on New Year's eve and you feel sleepy, try to stay where the light is bright. Bright light is known to increase your alertness at night.

Thoughts?

Happy New Year All of Y'all