alexist

I signed up for the experiments in yanata's LJ (testing cognitive styles in people with various conditions related to gender, both genetic and hormonal).

The initial questionnaire had 1 quirk. It asked about unusual learning conditions, and included hyperlexia, which I hadn't heard of, but in parentheses it said "learnt to read before the age of 3". I was 2 and a bit when I taught myself, so I selected that. When I googled, though, it seems that this defines a whole autistic spectrum disorder which I don't have (all my verbal skills were very quick to develop, not just reading). Oh well. Not my fault.

Anyhoo, my results:
Autistic traits: 35/50
Empathising: 29/80 (lower than I expected actually--my social skills have seriously improved in the past 5-10 years)
Systemitising: 120/160 (quelle surprise, the only thing keeping it that low is that I'm not particularly mechanical and so "how works" isn't very appealing to me)

I couldn't get comfortable, so didn't sleep much, even after I got up and opened the window (I felt bad doing it as Neil sleeps by the window so he'll get colder, but I was just too hot).

I have to get off my rear in a minute and go to Southgate to take my theory test. Better pass the damn thing :P

Not by a huge margin: 30/35 on the multiple choice, 48/75 on the hazard perception. I would have done better on the latter if I hadn't been tired--it slowed my reaction times. I didn't miss a single hazard, I just didn't get them as quickly as I should have.

It would be nice to know exactly which questions i got wrong on the multiple choice, though; the results slip just says which categories.

Still, not fussed as long as I've got the pass certificate. Now to prepare for the practical test--that's what really counts!

Article about the Iraqi exodus: "is one of the largest long-term population movements in the Middle East since Israel expelled Palestinians in the 1940s."

Leaving aside the contention that the Palestinians were "expelled" (some were driven out by Israeli forces, some left voluntarily) they forgot the mass migration of Jews following Israeli independence. Including, ironically enough, 150,000 Iraqi Jews, one of the oldest communities in the world. It was just part of a massive transfer of Jews from the Arab/Muslim world, most of whom ended up in Israel. (The main exception was Algerian Jews, who had French citizenship and mainly returned to France with the pieds-noirs in 1962.)

(Yes, I wrote a letter. The plight of Palestinian refugees is pathetic but it's often forgotten that it's a 2 way process--because the Jews resettled everyone, clumsily as it might have been, and the Arab world prefers to keep Palestinians in camps so they can hold them up as a symbol.)