We had the offending TV hauled away yesterday, much to my satisfaction. We had to move a lot of boxes rather suddenly yesterday afternoon when the men came to pick it up, so there is no place to sit in the living room at present. My goal for today is to get the living room put back together.

Yesterday was Elizabeth's eight month birthday which I commemorated with an entry on her web log.

I was a bit out of it yesterday morning, I think because I ate what I'd made for David's dinner. A large salad is not adequate nutrition for a nursing mother. It was a tasty salad, but I need all kinds of things that he shouldn't eat right now. Elizabeth nursed a lot in the night, so by about 8 in the morning, I felt pretty awful. I need to have a lot more fat in my diet than I ought to feed him. His new, strict dietary restrictions are going to take some serious rethinking or else I'm going to end up making separate meals for each member of the family.

I'd hoped to take the kids to the Hudson River Folk Festival yesterday, but it rained all day, with thunderstorms in the afternoon, so instead we were mostly in the house which was surprisingly pleasant. Depending on weather and how David is feeling, I might take the kids there this afternoon, though probably not.

While rooting around on the web in the past few days, I've discovered something interesting. I didn't know that there were so many types of ADD. I thought there was just ADD and ADHD. It seems that there are six or seven: ннInattentive ADD, Hyperactive-Impulsive ADHD,нOverfocused ADD, Limbic ADD, Temporal Lobe ADD, Ring of Fire ADD, and Basal Ganglia/Anxiety. (These links come with cool brain scan images.)

So why am I telling you this? The description of Overfocused ADD produces in me a shock of recognition. Not only does it sound a bit like, um, me, but it also sounds like a lot of people I know in SF. The characteristics overlap substantially with the popular image of Aspergers. Although it has it's down sides, overfocusing is one of those really useful intellectual skills that allows you to plunge passionately and joyfully into the deep structure of a subject.

A while back, I discussed posthumous attempts to claim Einstein and Newton for Aspergers. One problem with this hypothesis, I think, is that an indicator for Aspergers is a statistically significant discrepancy between Verbal and Performance IQ scores, the performance being substantially lower. (At the time I blogged it, I made an off-handed remark about a connected between Aspergers and impaired mathematical ability and then couldn't remember my basis for saying that. This discrepancy was what I was alluding to.)

IQ tests as they exist now are really peculiar scientific instruments. While some subtests at least try to test for specific skill sets, others seem to test for different theorists ideas of what constitutes intelligence. One guy thinks general intelligence is a function of processing speed. Another guy thinks general intelligence can be assessed by measuring something called matrix reasoning. A given individual can score as a bit slow by one measure and really smart by another.

Although, in rough approximation, Aspergers and Overfocused ADD might appear similar, I gather that they would show different scatter patterns on IQ subtests. I present this as an object of contemplation for the science fiction field.

(I should say that I'm not sure I believe in the notion of generalized intelligence. Howard Gardner's notion of multiple intelligences makes more sense to me.)

INTERESTING TO THINK ABOUT IN THIS CONTEXT is the NYT Magazine piece Savant for a Day.

(Via Jerry Kindall.)

MEANWHILE, the Guardian reports that the documents incriminating Labour MP George Galloway appear to have been forged. We already knew that the road to war was paved with lies, but this a new and particularly creepy one.

(Via Charles Stross.)

DAVID updates you on his condition on his weblog.