This October Marvel is joining STOMP Out Bullying with a number of variant covers for their titles Rocket Raccoon #4, Guardians of the Galaxy #20, Avengers #36,Inhuman #7, Hulk #7, Captain America #25, Legendary Star-Lord #4. This is all to support National Bullying Prevention Month, something that has been on everyone’s mind even more after the awful events of last week.
Ross Ellis, founder and Chief Executive Officer of STOMP Out Bullying stated, “We are privileged to join forces with Marvel Entertainment on this critically important bullying and cyberbullying prevention campaign. Bullying and cyberbullying have reached epidemic proportions, with one out of every four kids being a victim. And bullying transcends race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation; in fact, some of Marvel’s greatest Super Heroes were themselves bullied as kids and teens. But just as Spider-Man, Captain America, and Marvel’s many other Super Heroes were able to triumph and go on to combat evil, so can every…
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The interesting thing about Sphero is that the parts snap together. No soldering, screwing, etc. For kids on the spectrum who have problems with fine muscle control, this is a major plus.
Example of a Twill weave, with diagonal ridges. Image by Jauncourt (Own work) [GFDL, CC-BY-SA-3.0, CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0], via Wikimedia Commons
We’ve all been there, bought a shirt that looks nice on the rack, only to find it wrinkles easily no matter how much you starch it. For some autistics with OCD, flaws like these can be a distracting annoyance. Here’s a tip: shirts made of ribbed fabric tend to wrinkle less than plain weaves. Ribbed cloth has narrow cords or ridges that you can feel, running vertically or diagonally. Examples of ribbed fabrics include Twill and Poplin. Make sure you can feel the ridges easily. Prominent ribs on the cloth add structural integrity, which equals wrinkle-resistance.
If you missed it, on Tuesday the workgroup on Under-Recognized Co-Occurring Conditions in ASD of the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee met to discuss the current issues and start to lie out a research agenda. This workshop was aimed to have an honest exchange of views to help direct research – the IACC does not directly fund research itself. It’s a way for researchers and funding agencies to discuss priorities and opportunities. The meeting was webcast live and will be archived on the NIH webpage, when the link is live we’ll post it. In the meantime here is what was discussed.
From the very first set of presentations it was clear that this issue is, like everything else is autism, complicated and messy. Four different presenters using different datasets all showed consistent findings of an increase in neurological (seizure), gastroenterological (GI distress) and…
Something many autistics hear is that we dress ‘different’, because vague unspoken rules are not our forte, and fashion is filled with vague unspoken rules. If only there was a book that showed you how to dress on a normal daily basis. It turns out there is, at least for men (I’m sure there are plenty for ladies, but being male, I’m not really competent to recommend one. Any suggestions welcome!). It’s the Nordstrom Guide to Men’s Everyday Dressing, a richly illustrated manual on how not to stick out like a sore thumb, clothes-wise. Here’s a video review by Real Men Real Style, another great source for practical advice on everyday wear:
Taking a nap, we’ve seen time and again, is like rebooting your brain. Everyone likes to get a quick nap in every now and then, but napping may be as much of an art as it is a science. The Wall Street Journal offers recommendations for planning your perfect nap, including how long to nap and when.
The sleep experts in the article say a 10-to-20-minute power nap gives you the best “bang for your buck,” but depending on what you want the nap to do for you, other durations might be ideal. For a quick boost of alertness, experts say a 10-to-20-minute power nap is adequate for getting back to work in a pinch.
For cognitive memory processing, however, a 60-minute nap may do more good, Dr. Mednick said. Including slow-wave sleep helps with remembering facts, places and faces. The downside: some grogginess upon waking.
DESIGN FOR ASD 