Author: Joey deVilla

The boy whose brain could unlock autism

If you’re looking for some interesting reading this weekend, consider The boy whose brain could unlock autism, a longish article on the autism research that Henry Markram is doing, thanks to his son, who was diagnosed with autism. Markram’s hyptothesis is one that many of us who have friends and family “on the spectrum” have long suspected: that they live in an intense world full of “frightful and oppressive noise”, where all their sensory input in cranked up to 11, and where they take in too much and learn too quickly. “While they may appear bereft of emotion,” the article goes, “…they are actually overwhelmed not only by their own emotions, but by the emotions of others.”

The amusing “engagement season” photo

This photo, titled “Engagement Season”, “won the internet” earlier this week:

Click the photo to see it at full size.

Who even knew that a thing called “engagement season” existed? Hey, I’m all for marriage, but the marriage industry is twisting it into a creeping horror, and I empathize with Megan Jones, the woman pantomiming putting a gun to her head.

A news show in her area found her, and interviewed her:

“Somebody called me the enemy of love, which is great,” Jones said in an interview. She’s most likely not that, and her boyfriend says that the photo going viral is “pretty much the coolest thing to ever happen,” Jones said. I’m inclined to agree.

On high rotation on my sound system

Big History: Wolf Blood

If you have to hit the road today, put this on.

The Phenomenal Handclap Band: Shake

Pretty vocals, crunchy guitars, old-school synths, and all-round catchiness.

Porno Mathematics: Zelda Bitches

This one’s about video games and hot girl-on-girl action. Not safe work work or little kids. You’ve been warned.

The list of “surprising benefits” of China’s terrible smog problem can get one more item added to it: it will require pilots to become better at instrument landings. And that’s a good thing, amirite?

Here’s an amusing bit of audio that will take up a mere three minutes of your time: What’s the point of a cat?, a comedy sketch by BBC Radio 4’s “That Mitchell and Webb Sound”.

Found via Certified Bullshit Technician.

They also get to play the best Dungeons and Dragons campaigns.

In an op-ed for The Guardian titled Sadly, Rob Ford epitomises what Canada has become, Matthew Hays writes:

Each time Ford appears in the media, it’s another eerie reminder of what we’ve become: crude, swaggering, bungling, irrational and mendacious. We’ve reached that staggering moment in a brilliant horror film when our protagonist realises the truth: Rob Ford is the New Canada. He is us.

In the article, he points out that Toronto’s mayor and Canada control-freak war-on-science-declaring prime minister are two sides of the same coin. As a reminder of how buddy-buddy they were prior to the various scandals, here’s the short version video that the Tories tried to suppress, in which Rob ford introduces his “new fishing partner” Stephen Harper at his private barbecue:

Here’s the long version:

I have a hypothesis that for every Rob Ford situation, there’s an appropriate Family Guy graphic. For the recent television interview that Lord Conrad Black conducted with our Peter Griffin-esque mayor, there’s this one:

It was, to borrow a phrase from the Globe and Mail, “the death of decency”. Featuring a rich ex-convict fawning over and lobbing softball interview questions a rich likely-future-convict, it sank to unexpected depths when the mayor insinuated that Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale was a pedophile:

“The worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures,” said Ford, “I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say the word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?”

Ford continued, saying he “caught” Dale “on the bricks, over my fence, taking pictures. . . . He had cinder blocks that he had to step on to get over the fence.”

A desperate grasp made by a desperate man for whom nothing is too low anymore.

The Star says that Dale was not in Ford’s backyard, not taking photos of the mayor’s children, and not looking over any fence. In fact, Dale was on public parkland near the mayor’s home — working on a story that Ford was hoping to purchase some parkland for his property — when he was accosted by the mayor. Given that what the Star has been saying about the mayor has proven to be true and what the mayor has said about himself has proven to be — ahem — at variance with the truth, I’m more inclined to believe the Star.

Daniel Dale is suing both Ford and Vision TV — the channel that aired the interview — for libel. I hope he wins.

And how much of a Rob Ford love-in was that interview? This much:

Not to be outdone by his brother, Councillor Doug Ford (who often imagines himself to be Toronto’s co-mayor), borrowed a trick from third world politics and handed out $20 bills to people at a Toronto Community Housing complex:

HoHoTO, the holiday charity party that Toronto’s Twitter scene built is back! Back in 2008, a group of Toronto-based friends in the tech, social media, and marketing industries started chatting over Twitter about doing something for the city’s hungry for the holidays (a refreshing change from some attitudes in Silicon Valley). Conversation turned to action, and in a matter of days, The Mod Club was booked, sponsors were lined up, the event was announced, and HoHoTO was born! The party was well-attended, turned out to be a lot of fun, and more importantly, it raised tens of thousands of dollars to help feed less fortunate people in Toronto. You’d think the event was months in the planning, but it wasn’t! (I was at that very first one, and wrote about it here.)

There’s food aplenty to go around in Toronto, but the chasm between the haves and have-nots — like in many other places around the word — is widening. The median monthly income is $691, Toronto food banks are seeing a million visits a year, food bank use in Canada has climbed 21% since HoHoTO’s inception, and 30% of the people who rely on Toronto’s food banks are children. HoHoTO are helping to make a dent in that situation, having raised nearly $300,000 for the Daily Bread Food Bank and sent nearly 4 tons of food to Toronto’s hungry.

HoHoTO returns Thursday, December 19th, from 7:00 p.m. until late, it’s taking place at The Mod Club (722 College Street, at Craword, three blocks east of Ossington), and tickets are on sale online right now. They’re $45 for regular admission, or $150 for the VIP admission package, which gets you drinks and appetizers from 7 to 9 p.m..

Go and support a good cause and have a good time — go to HoHoTO!