As eloquently as I would like to state this, the direct route is rather preferred: this is fucked up.

MotherJones.com has an amazing and infuriating story available that looks into the Judge Rotenberg Center, a school in Massachusetts that specializes in behavior modification for both low and high functioning children with mental disabilities and/or behavior disorders.

That there is a school specifically for this is not that amazing, but that this school relies almost exclusively on electroshock aversion therapy is! One child was shocked upwards of 5,000 times in a single day before staff at the school concluded that he was not likely to respond to such methods.

Give the entire article a read. It’s definitely worth it. When you’re done, come back here for some other gathered info.

Obviously, this school hasn’t just been doing this recently. It has been going on for decades with little ongoing public outcry. The school has been challenged several times and has managed to come out the victor. Interestingly, New York as a state has outlawed the use of electroshock therapy for these types of treatments, but the state itself facilitates the placement of some of its children across the state line for admission into the JRC. The Massachusetts legislature has recently introduced a bill that would also eliminate electroshock, but it has yet to go anywhere. Judging by the potential political influence of the multi-million dollar center and the vocal advocation of the parents of attending students, it is possible that said legislation could die and the JRC could continue on its merry way.

Of interest are the following links:

http://www.kevinleitch.co.uk/wp/?p=374 - A blog entry that discusses a number of topics regarding the JRC. Be absolutely certain to scroll down to the comments and check out the information left by “Jeff”, and then scroll down further to “ann”, a one-time JRC employee, who talks about why the JRC isn’t as bad as everybody thinks. Another former JRC employee then pipes up to let “ann” know that things aren’t as rosy as she remembers them being.

http://www.judgerc.org/ - The Judge Rotenberg Center home page. Looks pretty pleasant, doesn’t it? The image at the top of this entry is from the site. It shows two kids out enjoying a bike ride in the sun, which would seem a pretty happy thing until you notice that both are wearing backpacks chock full of batteries and the devices that administer electric shocks to their limbs and stomach.

http://archive.seacoastonline.com/news/06012006/health/105752.htm - An AP article from last year covering largely the same ground as the Mother Jones article. Again, we see the electroshock backpack on a student. This photo, however, seems to show that there is a shock device attached to the straps themselves to ensure that the student receives a jolt if he attempts to remove the pack.

http://www.wbur.org/news/2006/JRCReport.pdf - A report put together by the New York State Education Department of what was observed at the JRC during an unannounced visit in 2006. Half of the students sent there by the state of New York were approved for shock aversion therapy.

http://judgerotenbergcenter.blogspot.com/ - A blog of testimonials from JRC supporters.

http://www.judgerc.org/ResponsetoGonnermanArticle.pdf - And here is Matthew Israel’s response to the Mother Jones article!

It’s chilling to know that there are parents out there who approach their children like a lot of people approach their dogs - by strapping them with a shocking collar to punish bad behavior - but I guess the larger question is this: when a child becomes a severe danger to him/herself and every one around them, what is the final recourse? Medication to the point of constant sedation? Severe physical isolation? Does this level of aversion therapy have some degree of utility?

As I’m married to a special education teacher who has focused on autism in her career, I can imagine I’ll get some first hand input as soon as she reads this or as soon as I bring it up in conversation. I’m curious to get her take on it from the educator’s perspective.

Speaking of perspective, let’s close this out with a picture of a JRC student receiving a gift from Santa Claus … while he’s wearing a fanny pack containing his electroshock gear.

Well, I stirred up another shitstorm on the CRBC list.  You know, the one I was quitting?  I tried, but for some reason, the removal request hasn’t been going through.

The CRBC recently penned a letter to a government official to lambaste her for declaring that federal transportation projects should not be used to fund anything friendly to bicycling.  This riled the CRBC who responded by accusing said official of changing her stance due to her close proximity to a “cadre of oilmen”.

That’s not usually the best way to convince somebody to change their mind again and another CRBC lister pointed that out.  That person was then accused of being out of touch with reality, at which point I stepped in to not only defend that person but to also add that I, too, thought the “cadre” comment was inappropriate and ineffective.  Then the mailing list exploded for a few days.

But I’ve not read any of the responses.

See, there are some times when I want to get my opinion out there but then not deal with any of the fallout.  This was one of those times.  I’ve done the same elsewhere, but not all that frequently.  I usually wait a few days, go back, and see what the responses were, but I almost never just wholesale delete the responses sitting in my inbox, destroying messages of both agreement and disagreement before even opening them to see which they are.

When I know that I might be starting a flame war, I have little desire to come back in to be burned in turn.  And that’s why I’m an internet coward.

Let’s say that you were shot today.  Yep, by somebody wielding a gun.  Let’s also say that afterwards, you were rendered a quadriplegic.  And then, let’s say that you lived 41 years after that incident while your attacker spent his time in jail having been convicted of the shooting crime.

Then you die.  41 years after the incident.  Should your shooter be convicted of murder since you eventually died?

I’m not so sure he should, but that question has now come up.  Hit the Read More link for the article.

Read the rest of this entry »

There was but one goal for Saturday - complete a metric century (62 miles) no matter what it took.

At 9AM, I started at the Alfarata trailhead of the Lower Trail, determined to ride to the other end at Canoe Creek, back again, and then repeat as necessary. I did it, but damn… it wasn’t pretty.

The first roundtrip saw me average 12-13MPH. Not bad for triking on gravel! I was quite pleased with myself upon my return to Alfarata as I had covered the trip in about two and a half hours. After a rest stop for a bathroom break, food, water, and sunscreen, I started round two.

No joke, round two took five and a half hours. My feet were frequently going numb, rest stops started taking longer and longer, and my average speed dropped to 10MPH. People were a lot more chatty during round two, as well. Four gentlemen chatted with me for about 10 minutes each about my trike and recumbency in general. I didn’t mind since the longer I gave my feet to recover, the better my ride would be.

After mile 46, my feet were ready to fall off from lack of circulation. I pushed like crazy just to get to the Mt. Etna trailhead for an extended break and self-administered foot massage. Then it was just another 5.15 miles back to Alfarata to complete my 66 mile ride.

Normally, I have nifty maps to show my rides, but my GPS freaked out a few times and recorded some bizarre coordinates that resulted in my recorded travel distance being in excess of 600 miles.

What I’m trying to do is work up to the 75 mile distance required for each day of the MS 150. I’m certain that 66 miles on gravel easily equates to 75 miles on road surface. Now I just have to be able to do it two days in a row.

Recovery wasn’t much of an issue, really. I was stiff for the rest of the day and into the evening, but by Sunday morning, I was back to normal. This is likely due to the fact that I consumed like a pig during the ride: four bananas; four caffeinated gel packs; two liters of water; a bottle of Accelerade; a bottle of chocolate milk. The downside of eating/drinking all that is that I had to carry it along with me the entire way, adding extra weight.

I don’t think I’m going to use the Lower Trail any more for solo rides. I tend to travel a little faster than everybody else during those runs and end up at the back tires of couples and families who are spread across the trail. Since I don’t like to interrupt conversation and don’t have a bell, I just hang back and ride with them until they notice me. It doesn’t bother me so much, but it seems to really bother them. Maybe 5% of the people that use the trail also use mirrors. It would be better if that were more like 60% because the noise of the tires crushing gravel masks the sound of traffic that is coming up behind you.

Feeling pretty good about having made that achievement. I doubled my previous personal best for distance. Now I just need to reduce the time required to do so.

There were three toys from my childhood that have always remained in my heart, warmly remembered, triggering nostalgia at a moment’s notice. Two of them were unabashed nerd toys. The third was beloved for its style and inner workings.

Toy #1: Dataman. It’s a calculator that plays very basic math games. I received this toy as a Christmas gift the same year that I got my Mego Star Trek figures (complete with Enterprise Bridge playset) . I spent hours with Dataman learning my multiplication tables and playing with factors. When you got something right, the LCD patterns would make it look like celebratory confetti was raining down Dataman’s display. This is probably the only toy that I have bothered to repurchase as an adult. I don’t know what happened to my original, but I do have a Dataman with its manual, purchased via eBay. I also don’t know if the intended pronunciation is “day-ta-man” or “da-ta-man”. A mystery for the ages, perhaps, or until somebody chimes in to school me.

Toy #2: BigTrak. Oh my ever loving god… It’s a futuristic tank you can program! With a laser! And sound effects! And a transport that dumps things! This was easily my first introduction to programming. It is with the BigTrak that I built the skills that would lead me to become a LOGO (well, turtle) master in the fourth grade. When the TV commercial hit that showed off the Transport with its ability to haul an apple into a room and dump it on the floor? Bliss. I had to have it. I received the BigTrak for Christmas, which prompted me to ask my parents how in the world Santa’s elves could build electronics and, specifically, Duracell batteries. That was the year that my parents broke the news: Santa sometimes buys stuff at the store. So close! I nearly repurchased the BigTrak but never pulled the trigger. Brandy also attempted to secure one for me but was unsuccessful. Now Gareth has a voice activated R2-D2 that can do the same thing though it lacks a laser or an ability to specify exact degrees of rotation or a kick-ass tank design.

Toy #3: StarBird. This toy is fondly remembered because it eradicated my fear of toy disassembly. The Starbird is a huge hunk of plastic that splits into several parts. The head disconnects from the main body, the inside of that head slides out to become a separate piece, and two simple attack fighters slide off the rear wings to provide support during battle. There was also a rotating rear cannon set on a plastic ball. The two coolest features of the Starbird were the laser effects (pew pew accompanied by red LEDs) and the engine acceleration/deceleration sounds. If you tilted the Starbird nose-up, you would hear the engine climb in pitch and force. If you tilted it nose-down, the engine would decrease in pitch and become soft. This mystified the hell out of me. After playing with this feature for a few weeks, I had to know how it worked… so I took apart the Starbird. Inside the head of the ship, I found a small metal enclosure that held a 1/4″ steel ball. When the Starbird was tilted back, the ball made contact with the rear of the enclosure, trigging the acceleration sound. When tilted forward, it made contact with the front of the enclosure, triggering the deceleration sound. Mystery solved and first toy disassembled in the name of discovery.

So what happened to nerd toys? Aside from LEGO Mindstorms kits, I can’t think of much today that provides for challenging electronic play. I guess there are still the 25-in-1 electronics kits (”Make a working AM radio!”) and toys from specialty companies, but not really anything that shows up in the Sears holiday catalog where all my toy shopping occurred during childhood.

Of course, it could be argued that children are engaging in much more complex puzzle solving by playing video games, handheld or otherwise, but those games don’t typically result in skills that translate to other pursuits. Knowing hit combos or boss patterns won’t help you figure out your taxes. I think that today’s kids are awesome at reacting to stimuli, but I wonder if their toys actually do anything to teach them how to process information.

Gareth has one toy that teaches rudimentary spelling - three letter words only. Where’s the Speak & Spell to take him beyond that? It’s largely dead. Today’s youth get all their educational electronic play through the VTech products, but I’ve played a few of those and they really don’t require much thought. You can get something wrong a thousand times and never be penalized or told “Wrong!”. You just keep doing it over until you get it right. The toys of my youth let you know when you messed up and made you do it over. Failure avoidance is a great motivator.

If I didn’t want to have Dataman tell me “GAME OVER”, I had to learn math. If I wanted the BigTrak to make it around the kitchen table and into the living room, I had to learn distance, direction, and sequential command design. If I wanted my StarBird to work after learning how it worked, I had to remember what pieces went where and in what order (not that this was a function of the toy… I’m stretching here). Where are the toys today that drive children to want to learn? Where are the toys today that allow children to fail? Where are the toys that will be remembered warmly by little boy and girl nerds when they’re in their 30s?

I hope those toys are out there somewhere.

During my commute this morning, I spotted two riders on a semi-recumbent tandem pedaling College Avenue between Rider Auto and the intersection for Science Park Road. Naturally, my interest was sparked because, really, you don’t see bikes like Gareth’s all that often. I couldn’t tell during my drive-by if it was a Hase Pino or a Bilenky ViewPoint. While I was tempted to pull over, hop out, and see it up close, I figured the couple was on a long tour (based on the number of panniers hanging off the bike) and didn’t need some random schmoe stopping them to ask questions.

Later in the day, I was adding some tags to the photos of Gareth’s Pino and accidentally searched for “Hase Pino” across all of flickr. Suddenly, there it was! The bike I had seen in the morning, same bags, same riders! Turns out the couple that I saw are engaged in a tour of all 50 United States. Their goal is to visit the geographic center of each state, which would explain why they were in Centre County.

It is essentially a two year trek around the country. That sounds pretty awesome, but I don’t know how anybody could sit on an upright seat for that long. I know I certainly couldn’t. And this is why if Gareth ever asks me to tour the country on the Pino, I’m going to say, “Uh, no.”

This image is too small to make it out, but that’s what it says around the collar of this fantabulous Element Owner’s Club jersey: Out of my Element.

This was put together by a member of the EOC forums and has been approved by Honda.  It also happens to perfectly match the colors of my trike, my helmet, my shoes, and my gloves.  There’s really no good reason to not buy it, right?

I agree!  That’s why I put my order in today.  It should arrive in about two months, just in time for it to be too cold to wear short sleeve jerseys. :(  Hmmm,  arm warmers may be in order.

I had hoped that the purchase of the Wii and its placement in the living room would mean that Brandy would engage in more video game activity. Turns out my hopes are being fulfilled as Brandy likes kicking my ass in Wii Sports Bowling. She consistently wins our bowling battles, usually pulling ahead in the final two frames.

I’ve been informed by others that there is a method to ensure consistent strikes, but I am choosing not to know this method in order to keep Bowling fun for both Brandy and me. If I start consistently winning, the joy will go out of playing for her. My humiliation is a small price to pay for gaming with my wife.

In the 7th grade, I journeyed to New York city as part of a drama club field trip during which I got to see the sights and hear the sounds of the classic metropolis. Never had I returned until Friday, 8/3, when Brandy and I traveled to NYC for her anniversary present - to see The Police in concert at Madison Square Garden.

Until now, I’ve never known my own capacity for cutting off people in traffic. After sitting still for nearly one hour, my instincts in assholery kicked into high gear, enabling me to move across four lanes of traffic in a single diagonal. What glory!

The morning started off not so well. My car was leaking oil, so I hurried it in to the local Honda dealership for an assessment. Luckily, it was just a bad oil filter and gasket, so they got that replaced and sent me on my way - but still an hour later than we anticipated. Then we hit two really bad patches of construction on I-80, each one adding nearly an hour from our travel time. After that came the bad directions from Yahoo! that ended up putting us in circles in Newark. We got that figured out and made it through the Lincoln Tunnel only to be brought to a very long halt on Dyer and 42nd (yeah, made a wrong turn coming out of the tunnel). By the time we made it to our hotel, the three hours we had hoped to have for general tourism had vanished, leaving us just enough time to walk around the block and have a quick meal at Chipotle. It did not live up to our ideals for the trip, though we still had fun.

But then we got to the Garden, found our floor seats, and sat back for an hour of opening act and over two hours of standing once The Police took the stage. Women really like Sting. I’m not sure they knew who the other two guys were, which was okay, since Sting was the only one of the three to exude anything approaching enthusiasm. It was easy to see which of the three had been consistently performing over the past 20 years.

The concert was great, very lively, mixed well. The Garden is a great place for a concert if you have decent seats.

Afterwards, we crashed at the hotel, slept in together for the first time in a year, and had breakfast at Lindy’s before getting back in the car and heading home.

Now that I’ve experienced NYC as an adult, I have fewer misgivings about visiting it for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, both seasonal events in which Brandy has wanted to partake. We just have to prep Gareth for a four hour car ride.

Oh, side note.  That photo up there isn’t mine.  In order to maximize time spent with my wife and not my viewfinder, I elected to leave my camera at home.  It was a much appreciated gesture as I’ve been known to sully experiences by, say, keeping my hand on the camera instead of holding the hand of my wife.

When the Nintendo Revolution was first announced, I was all, “Meh.” And then when the name was changed to Wii, I was all, “Ick.” Then when the pre-orders opened up, I was all, “Bah.” And as games slowly trickled out, I was all, “Yawn.” But when I tried somebody else’s Wii and made my own Mii, I was all, “Cool.” But the stores were all, “Nuh-uh.” And then Target was all, “Stock!” And I was all, “Buy!”, but then I was all, “Money. :(” So Brandy was all “Anniversary!” And I was all “Buy!” But the stores were all “Nuh-uh”. Until this morning when Wal-Mart was all “Stock!” and I was all “BUY!!!” and now am all “Work. :(”

So yeah, I now have a Wii.