Scott Adams speaks!

Yeah, doesn't sound that impressive until you learn, as I recently did, that Scott Adams (http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/), creator of Dilbert (http://www.dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/index.html), suffers from Spasmodic Dysphonia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spasmodic_dysphonia), which inhibits one's ability to communicate in various situations. Adams, for example, learned that he could recite rhymes even though his normal speech was nearly gone. He clung to that exception and kept reciting nursery rhymes until he finally recently got most of his normal speech back (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061028/ap_on_en_ot/dilbert_cartoonist). Fascinating. This story jives with another theory I find interesting: Mozart may have corrected his own autism with his music. There are researchers who argue Mozart had Tourette syndrome (http://tinyurl.com/wjz92). However, the symptoms cited could also be attributed to mild autism. Couple with that the theory that Mozart's music can correct autism (http://www.mozarteffect.com/OnlineStore/MERCProductd.php?d=0780), and there exists a mash-up theory that supposes his early mastery of music composition may have been an effect of how his brain was correcting itself or his music was one of his limited means of expression and repetition had a correcting effect on him. But back on topic, I also learned that Adams had to switch to a digital tablet (Wacom Cintiq) (http://www.wacom.com/lcdtablets/index.cfm) to keep drawing because his pinky would twitch when putting pen to paper. Amazing that the brain would precess those two with significant difference. Anyway, great news for Scott Adams. Hope he continues to improve, though I hope he'll stick with digital ink even after a full recovery.

CateGoogles: general_tech aimless_musing Mood = curious