Global Crisis

The Australian author Colleen McCullough died at age 77. The obituary in The Australian begins as follows:COLLEEN McCullough, Australia’s best selling author, was a charmer. Plain of feature, and certainly overweight, she was, nevertheless, a woman of wit and warmth. In one...

Marvel comics made a movie about a talking tree and a raccoon awesome, but you haven't made a movie with Wonder Woman.Girls read comics too and they care.Rowan is an 11 year old girl. I know her and her parents and am posting this with all of their permission (especially Rowan's)....

Last night, Georgia executed Warren Hill. Hill was clearly intellectually disabled as judged by pretty much every standard, except the ones used by the most bloodthirsty states. It's a gross violation of universal human rights.Here's a statement from The Arc.“Georgia’s ability to ignore experts and cross the line drawn by a more than decade-old Supreme...

Over the border from me, the Scott Walker experiment to dismantle the state of Wisconsin continues. He wants to create Kansas-North. Conservatives are loving it, and he's just the kind of boring white guy with an allegedly criminal past that the GOP establishment might nominate for president.Not long after President Obama unveiled his ideas for...

Double trouble has arrived in Scion dealerships. Scion paired up with Jeremy Lookofsky of Cartel Customs on the two-toned Scion tC Release Series 9.0. The new model combines style and substance and is based on a concept car developed for custom car shows. A new walk-around video...

Austen Heinz is the typical silicon valley disruptor superstar. Edgy. Controversial. Disruptive.He was profiled for his DNA Startup which allows you to "create life."In Austen Heinz’s vision of the future, customers tinker with the genetic codes of plants and animals and even...

Even though the Super Bowl is still about a week away, today BMW released the 60 second i3 commercial which will air during the big game.The commercial begins with a flashback to a live filming of NBC's Today Show in 1994 with Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel Talking about the internet....

Usually I post my roundup on Sunday, but just so much is going on that I wrote a post instead. And I should have an article going up later today. Here are my recent posts.Seattle Museum and How to Write/Program for Disability: Seattle has a neat program for "autistic kids." I laud the program, but say let's focus on the need and not the diagnosis....

In general in disability journalism, I'd like to see us emphasize needed accommodations over diagnoses. In other words, what do people with disabilities need over what they "have."Here's an example. I titled this blog post "for kids with sensory issues," but I'm referring to a piece actually called "Museum Opens Doors, Turns Down Lights For Autistic...

Activists perhaps should have focused less on Michael Brown, more on shooting of 12-yr-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland http://t.co/lWevkqrY2x— Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof) January 23, 2015A tweet is just a tweet, but when you have 1.5 million followers, many of who believe in your power as a social justice hero, these kinds of tweets matter.On the face...

So I was going to write a post about another killing, but I'm tired. My son was up much of the night (he has a cold so his breathing isn't great so he's restless and wakeful). I have a lot of work to do today despite the exhaustion. So here's something great.My daughter got some new action figures and asked me if she could make a movie. She's read...

Recently, video has surfaced of police trying to throw a man in a wheelchair from his chair. Allegedly, the individual ran over the officer's foot. Here are some other incidents worth remembering. And these are just the ones caught on tape.Brian Sterner thrown from his wheelchair by an officer who thought he might be faking (I write about this as the...

Today at the DC Auto Show, BMW announced they have partnered with Volkswagen and ChargePoint to begin what will be the largest roll out of CCS Fast Charge stations in the US. This first phase will consist of the installation of roughly 100 CCS Fast Charge stations, split between...

A new survey of chief academic officers is out from Inside Higher Education. Among the findings: Provosts really care about civility and think it should be part of the framework for hiring and tenure.I see this as potentially troubling. When the Steven Salaita controversy broke, I wrote a piece for the Chronicle called "Don't Speak Out," in which...

Basic principle: The fight for basic economic justice for everyone is the fight for better lives for people with disabilities. #SOTU4PWD— David M. Perry (@Lollardfish) January 21, 2015Yesterday President Obama mentioned "Americans with mental illness or physical disability" as part...

Nissan drivers will be more connected than ever in 2015 with NissanConnect℠ Mobile Apps – Nissan's global connected services platform – offering Twitter® and TripAdvisor® along with the launch of iOS support for Pandora®. These latest additions to NissanConnect Mobile Apps join...

Carol Swain is a Vanderbilt University law professor and noted Islamophobe. In the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, she wrote a thoroughly nasty column for The Tennessean. Protests and counter protests and accusations of censorship have followed.I wrote about related issues for The Chronicle of Higher Education a few months back, in the wake...

Last week I wrote about a new bill in Indiana that forbids disability-selection and sex-selection abortion. The latter almost never happens. The former happens all too often. The combination is an attempt to do two things: 1) split the pro-choice and disability rights movement and 2) gain support for abortion restrictions by nominally pro-choice individuals...

Today I had the pleasure of attending Tips Automotives 'Media Appreciation Day' this was right on time because BlueBird aka my 2006 Dodge Stratus was BEYOND dirty -- My car was cleaned to perfection and now I'm riding in style. I will be back in a few weeks to get my much needed...

On Friday I wrote my second piece for Reproductive Health Reality Check about fighting the divide and conquer attempts to sever the disability rights movement and the pro-choice movement. I offer two core premises that I want to make sure you don't miss.I believe the solution lies in an intersectional approach based on each community acknowledging...

Ellie building the Lego "Research Lab."My daughter, Ellie, who is 5: I wonder why people make pants without pockets. Me: It's because clothing designers believe girls don't need pockets.Ellie: We should go to a clothing designer and say, 'Hey! Put pockets in girl pants.'...

The all-new Lincoln MKX, debuted on Tuesday January 13 at the 2015 North American International Auto Show, is designed to attract a wide range of customers in the United States and beyond by offering more technology, engine choices and personalization options.Lincoln MKX offers...