she is amazing. my supervisor heard her give a talk at a conference once and he said it was far and away the highlight of the whole conference. she didn't seem to look at, notice, or care that there were other people in the room while she went through her thing - but has such amazing insight into the workings of animals.

i'm not going to rant about the US educational system (i promise!!!) but it is very rigid with respect to `requirements everyone must meet in order to proceed'. that system isn't forgiving for people who excel in some areas and make a royal mess of others. so... people who are 'different' are selected against by that system and so it is always refreshing to hear of the odd case that made it through (in spite of it) and who go on to do great things!

there are many more... many more people, i mean. we are used to thinking of medical or mental 'disorders' or 'conditions' as dysfunctions. failures of 'proper function' or whatever. that is to focus on what people can't do. we aren't used to thinking of them as merely different (which is of course all that science tells us that they are). we are used to superimposing our (unwarranted) value judgement on that. and our value judgement impedes / prevents us asking the question 'what else do they do differently' and in particular 'do they do some things better?' she wouldn't have done what she has done if she didn't have the behaviors that resulted in her being dx'd with autism / autistic spectrum. it is sad that the system works against people who are different succeeding (preferring to reward the kind of educational success that money can buy)