On 6/18/05, PAT MATHEWS <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > >From: Gary Denton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > The > >disease was unknown until 1943, when it was identified and diagnosed > >among 11 children born in the months after thimerosal was first added > >to baby vaccines in 1931. > > > No, it wasn't, looking back. The pianist/composer Blind Tom clearly had it, > among other noted "idiot savants". In one of Heinlein's novelettes, Lost > Legacy, a character names several such as examples of what the human minds > is capable of, if only we could harness it. All of them predate the > vaccines. > > And there was a great child prodigy of my childhood, Boris-something, who > after great promise dwindled into the world's greatest expert on streetcar > transfers. The psychology of the day blamed his terribly pushy father, which > he certainly had, but - streetcar transfers? That man apparently had some > mighty strange hardwiring. > > Not to say the problems with mercury might not be there! The condition has > certainly increased far beyond what population increase and better diagnosis > could account for. Though I do like the explanation offered by Wired > Magazine for Silicon Valley's huge increase, "We're breeding geeks there." > > Pat Nothing Boris- it was William James Sidis, contemporary of Norbert Wiener (who turned out a little better, anyways). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_James_Sidis
~Maru I think its more likely 'raising geeks there', but whatever... _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
