In reference to a town near where I grew up  "Of course I know Northhampton - I am a lesbian, it's like mecca" I HAVE to get a t-shirt, bumper sticker something for that one!!

How is it that scorpion venom, bat saliva and gila monster pheromones are curing people of blood clotting, cancer, brain tumors and such, but people still don't care enough about them to let certain species become exist. Yes it might be a bit of a sweeping generalization but I'm of the school that the "cure" for what ever ails you can be found in nature, not a lab - maybe even in your own mind. Other things i was thinking about today...in no particular order

• frosting
• magazines
• pleather boots
• bunny ears
• Spanish prayer candles
• ear muffs
• writing a book
• glue sticks
• diet coke
• taxes
• and lemons

Just watched a program where a 10 year old was composing his own jazz music while talking about Gustav Mahler, Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker. It also had this amazing study in Australia where they were used magnetic waves to stimulate the area of the brain they believe savants use most. The program also had a few cases of temporary savants who became prolific artists or musicians for a few years before total dementia took over their lives. I have a co-worker whose brother is somewhere between highly-functioning autistic and a savant. He works with large factories to understand how their production lines can be modified to improve output, he says he can feel the inefficiencies in the machines and is wildly accurate. He is also really skilled a terrain-mapping, once he's been through the woods he can run back through with his eyes closed because he know where everything is. It's become a part-time job leading hunters through the woods in the dark to get a jump on their prey. What people are capable of, in every and all cases, never ceases to be amazing.