Thursday, September 07, 2006

General weirdness on the net: ultrasound, autism and satire

This is weird.

On August 7th Yale researchers published an article purporting to show a subtle derangement of neuronal migration in mouse fetuses (feti?) exposed to over 30 minutes of ultrasound.

On August 8th, writing in a disabilities blog I author, I cautiously noted that if one is hunting for a possible explanation of a rise in autism rates in the late 80s, it's worth looking at further experiments in this domain.

On August 19th, Wayne McDonald, wrote a satirical article relating ultrasound to autism and school violence -- inspired by the Yale press release.

On September 1st the Autism Society of America, to their almost immediate embarassment, referenced the ultrasound article in their weekly email newsletter - ASA-Net. (One assumes they are reconsidering their automated clipping service.)

Was there any connection between my August 9th posting and Mr. McDonald's satire? Probably it's merely synchronicity, but the web works in mysterious ways.

The story will be even more peculiar in the (very unlikely) event that there does turn out to be a real connection of some sort.

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