Samantha Pierce

Thankful Thursday! Shout out to my fellow imperfect people making their way through life. # thankful   # thankfulthursday   # everydaythankful

Large Magellanic Cloud The microscopic patterns of life often repeat themselves in telescopic images of the universe. How we attempt to describe autism has a galactic representative as well. At first I thought to use the Magellanic Clouds but really any galaxy will do and colliding galaxies work even better. A collection of a variety of types of stars, maybe some globular clusters , gases, dust, maybe some planets around those some of those stars, and other celestial bodies zipping about Antennae Colliding Galaxies The Large Magellanic Cloud is a globular cluster in our Milky Way galaxy. Pick any star on the edge of the cloud, is it in or out? Move a bit beyond to the next star, in or out? The edges of the clouds are as fuzzy as the edges of the autism spectrum. The cloud travels through the galaxy as a discreet body. The stars in the cloud interact with each other in predictable ways. Antennae Galaxy close up Galaxies colliding model the changing ground of societ...

Blast from the past when the minions where a bit smaller. "Did you just pee on my computer!" Thankfully the answer was no. "No don't pick my nose!" She was adamant on this point. "It was not a baby gorilla! It's a baby yeti, abominable snowman! It is not a baby gorilla!" I don't remember any more who he was arguing with or what about but that's still funny

Today I am thankful for/that: The personal computer, internet, and wi fi. All of which allow me to be very productive without getting out of my pjs or my bed.Yeah, I said it. Progress! Inspiration. The kids, even when they are fighting and screaming and being extra defiant. Modern medicine. I'd probably be dead without it. What are you thankful for?

When life gets crazy, for me that's at least once a day, I have to readjust my perspective. I remind myself that humanity exists in this one tiny corner of the universe. The odds against our existence are so great it's a marvel we are here. There is so much for humanity to discover, so much we still don't understand. But we burn to discover what we can, learn what we can. The petty squabbles of earth seem like just that petty squabbles. Considering the vastness of space helps me focus on the things that are of true importance. Kindness, humility, grace, the things that leave marks on peoples hearts that give them strength. The Milky Way Galaxy is our home galaxy in the universe. It is a fairly typical barred spiral with four major arms in its disk, at least one spur, and a newly discovered outer arm. The galactic centre, which is located about 26,000 light-years from Earth, contains at least one supermassive  black hole  (called Sagittarius A*), and is crossed by a ba...

From December 2007. This brilliant advertising campaign was supposed to raise the profile of autism or something. Still not sure why so many learned people thought this was an okay way to present autism and the people who live with autism to the world. This is quite repulsive. In a society that seems to put self esteem above all else for children it seems that it is quite alright to degrade individuals with developmental delays and psychiatric disorders and perpetuate stereotypes about them under the guise of raising awareness.  NYU ransom notes campaign  [link now leads to the NYU School of Medicine Child Study Center] An Urgent Call to Action: Tell NYU Child Study Center to Abandon Stereotypes Against People With Disabilities "We have your son. We will make sure he will no longer be able to care for himself or interact socially as long as he lives. This is only the beginning…Autism." "We have your son. We are destroying his ability for social interaction and dri...