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Film About Autistic Artist Laura Nagle Wins Award

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Vectors of Autism, a documentary starring autism advocate and artist Laura Nagle (herself autistic) won the ‘Heart of the Festival’ award at the Sedona International Film Festival last month. The film covers her experience living with autism, and also examines the issue of ‘neurodiversity’, how greater public understanding and acceptance of differences in cognition could help in the social integration of autistic persons. View clips from the movie here.

Vectors of Autism official trailer from John Schaffer on Vimeo.

This documentary is a visual and aural feast that both entertains and educates about autism in adulthood, with stunning drawings and watercolors by Laura Nagle, creative animation and original music by Jen Turrell and Stewart Anderson. Laura’s artwork presents a unique visual perspective, which can be a metaphor for a different way of seeing. The theme song “Vectors of Laura” adds to the depiction of her experience of autism using a mathematical concept, which is another way of experiencing common to many on the autism spectrum. [quote from lauranagle.net]

Get Rid of Rust – The Quick-Glo Way

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We are a generation that has forgotten to re-use, repair and recycle. Don’t throw away old tools, bikes, etc, just because they’re rusty. Metallic waste ends up in landfills, doesn’t generally bio-degrade, and isn’t good for the environment. Today’s Good Design Award (if we had one) goes to Quick-Glo, the miracle rust remover that your grand-dad swears by. The following video review is courtesy of Jay Leno’s Garage.

3D Metal Printing

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3D printing is advancing at the same rapid pace as the Internet did twenty years ago. As with the Internet, the ramifications are difficult to predict. It’s now possible to print key components of an automatic rifle in your own home. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to print an entire rifle (or any mid-size complex metal or plastic object, even clothes made with sintered artificial fibres). No more factories, no more import-export of finished goods, economics textbooks will have to be re-written. There are only two ways this can go: towards greater personal freedom and creativity, or greater centralised surveillance, regulation and control. Place your bets now.

Graphene Could be Best Water Filter Ever

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This could be big. The world is facing a water crunch, at least when it comes to the stuff we can drink. Salt water covers 80% of the planet, but making it potable costs a bundle in energy; either to boil seawater (to release freshwater steam) or force it through inefficient filters to remove impurities. So far, only rich countries like Saudi Arabia or Singapore can afford desalination plants to do the job. That could change. Some years ago, researchers at Manchester University discovered they could create layers of Graphite only one atom thin, called Graphene. Scientists at MIT then discovered that Graphene is potentially a highly efficient water filter, one that requires very little energy to force the water through. This could mean that poorer countries will be able to afford desalination plants, which could in turn convert large arid regions into fertile farmland.

Via phys.org

Library Cafe Employs Barista with Autism

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About 90% of adults with autism are unemployed, so kudos to any employer that makes an effort to give them a chance and reduce that percentage. The Matador Coffee Shop in Scottsdale Public Library (Arizona, USA) has done just that, teaming up with The Southwest Austism Research and Resource Center to employ Jon, a barista with Aspergers. [Story & video via ABC 15]

“This was the first company that gave me a chance,” said Jon who has been looking for a job for the past six years.

More: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_northeast_valley/scottsdale/Autistic-barista-thrives-in-Scottsdale-library-coffee-shop#ixzz2OvYCQcui

iPad Games for Autistic Children

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Researchers from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education have launched a startup called  Go Go Games Studios to produce games for autistic children. The first suite of games aims to augment autistic children’s cognitive skills, and are available from Apple’s iTunes App Store.

“We wanted to use our technical and design skills to serve an underserved audience. We saw Go Go Games as a way to provide learning experiences that work like therapy but feel like play.” [ Wong Daniels, CEO of Go Go Games]

Go Go Games Studios won this year’s Shobe Prize, awarded by the University of Washington’s Human Centered Design and Engineering (HCDE) program. The prize will support the development of a second suite of games aimed at improving verbal communication in autistic children.

Go Go Games from Go Go Games Studios on Vimeo.

Via Stanford GSE News Video from Go Go Games