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On the issues that matter in Malone NY (USA)

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Autism from the inside

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Temple Grandin, PhD, professor and author of Thinking in Pictures, was born autistic.  Dr. Grandin didn’t talk until 3½, and as a young child screamed, threw tantrums, and got stuck doing simple movements over and over.  Today, however, a third of the livestock in the US are handled in equipment and …

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Letters to the editor

Some advice as you compose your letter (for more detail be sure to read Terms of Service). Each of us has strong feelings about certain topics. Strong feelings are okay; expressing those feelings abusively or maliciously, or as a tirade, is not. We’ve all written heated, intemperate letters and fired them off to the object of …

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Concussion

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD In the hierarchy of injuries, concussion is often considered to be near the bottom, almost a noninjury.  If a CT scan of the head is normal—meaning there is no bleeding or swelling in or around the brain, and no skull fracture—generally the person goes home to rest and recover.  I myself …

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Sick of poverty

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Everyone knows that poor people are, on average, sicker than well-off people. This is true even where there is universal health care, as in Great Britain and Scandinavia. It’s not just a difference between the top and the bottom of the wealth ladder, but a stepwise gradient from level to level …

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TV, video games, and kids

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Children under the age of two should not watch TV at all, nor be exposed to movies, computers, or computer games.  That’s the sobering message from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Punished by rewards

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD What do you do about a child or teenager who won’t do anything—who’s checked out of the family, won’t help around the house, and is failing in school?  Or the child who wants to be paid for everything he does? And why, when there is no motivation for these everyday survival …

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Warbler wave

—Nina Pierpont, MD, PhD Last night I slept by a pond.  The night was warm.  No clouds, numberless stars in the sky and the grass—really, it looked like stars had fallen into the grass.  Little points of greenish light which appeared and disappeared.  With a flashlight I found something looking partway between a sowbug and …

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