I'm reading Michael Angold's Political History of Byzantium 1025-1204 at the moment. There's a really interesting section in there about the search for a new policy under Constantine Monomachos, and it's ultimate failure. I think there's the bones of a discussion here about growth and change in the Byzantine economy, and it's impact on politics. Following Alan Harvey's thesis about growth in the 11th century economy - Constantine Monomachos' administration is fostering this as a route to prosperity, and stepping the atate down from it's war footing - hence the runing down of the themes. I think Haldon has also pointed out that employing professional soldiers ('mercenaries') is a rational decision. I guess what I'm working towards is the idea that there is a nascent blossoming in civil society which is abruptly cut short after Manzikert and the capture of the state by the feudal aristocracy (Comnenus) who run the administration in the narrow interests of their own class.

BBC report about the diagnostic brain scan for autism:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/health-10929032

The BBC article on the new brain scan to diagnose autism was an interesting piece on a number of levels. First of all, it focussed very strongly on adults with high functioning autism. This is a group which doesn't tend to receive a lot of coverage - which usually highlights children specifically, and lower functioning autism generally.

Second it included the phrase "autism is a disabling and little understood condition". This is very true, but most recent press has sought to highlight how parents 'celebrate' their child's autism. Whilst I love my son dearly, I never want anyone to lose sight of the enormous negative impact autism will have on his life. He is disabled, and that doesn't mean he won't live a happy and fulfilled life, but it does mean that that life will be much much harder (and probably poorer) than his peers. To focus too hard on celebrating difference seems to me to verge on denying how hard life for someone with autism will be. So that phrase is the most insightful thing I've seen on TV about autism for a very long time.

Third, it said nothing about what this scan tells us about what causes autism. I suspect that this encapsulates the current scientific position. Progress has been made on identifying what autism is (ie. what the brain of someone with autism looks like) but we are a long way from understanding what makes their brain look like that. And if we don't understand the underlying cause, then all this scan delivers is a better understanding of the symptoms. In other words, we are no where near either prevention or cure.

But at least it was a more realistic picture than is normally given of the reality of autism for most people - and Rain Man was nowhere to be seen!