Response-able

I was recently alerted to a blog called Science-Based Medicine which had a post that was rather critical of me. The post was written by David Gorski, a managing editor of Science-Based Medicine. If you read the post, you can probably understand why I took a little umbrage to Dr. Gorski's characterization of my efforts. Below is my response to him, shared here for my readers' convenience.

Tobii Or Not Tobii

As many readers may already know, I am really outraged by the pathetically weak computer systems that underlie the Tobii (and some other systems...). For a device costing $20K one would expect more than a low-power 32-bit CPU and 1-2GB of RAM. The computer hardware would fetch around $500 by itself. Is the software and eyegaze device really worth $19K? Having licensed high-end software for corporate development use in my career, I can comfortably say no.

Thomas Ohlson - Guest Blog

I would like to introduce to my readers my friend Tom Ohlson. He was diagnosed the same year I was and we are both "venterloquists". Although the circumstances suck, I am glad to have met him and am excited to present the following as a guest-blog entry. I feel exactly the same way.
Last week, on the 4th of July, scientists announced they may have discovered the Higgs boson. Frankly, I think if it were not a holiday and if there was nothing else newsworthy taking place, this announcement would have still have received little notice despite the significance of this discovery. This is unfortunate for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which is how American scientific curiosity has been replaced by a need for superficial sensationalism. Dont take my word for it--just look at the amount of major network news airtime devoted to the Higgs boson announcement vs. the Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes divorce announcement. Still, the discovery of the Higgs boson sounded a clarion call across the planet--great discoveries are still out there to be made and with them, comes great hope.

UnBearable

The hit movie "Ted" has stirred up some controversy in the ALS Community. I usually ignore such jokes (and sometimes even laugh along, including bits involving Stephen Hawking and a recurring "Hawking-esque" teacher character in Family Guy a few seasons ago). But this was over the line. I have lived with ALS for 7 years. In 5 years, ALS took away from me everything I had built in the previous 20. It is currently robbing me of the most productive years of my life. Man to man, I hope you DON'T get Lou Gehrig's Disease.

MacFarlane and Wahlberg owe the ALS Community some awareness.

PALS can't bear Ted.

Petition for awareness.