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Evil Genius

A

Anonymous

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I saw a guy on TV last night that looked like how evil geniuses are depicted in comics. He looked fairly normal except the area where the brain is was really big. Like his brain was twice the size of a normal one. The program was a British one called Sunderland, and from the little I heard it sounded like they were disuccing gay rights. I was wondering if anyone knew what the guy suffers from, since if somebody found his skull they'd probably think he was half alien, so maybe it could shed light on the starchild thing or so.
 
Probably hydroencephaly? Water on the brain can make just the cranium appear huge
 
The starchild thing is caused by people purposely shaping babies' heads for cosmetic effect--kind of like foot-binding. The pre-columbians did this often by pressing the forehead back and up. My dad is a forensic anthropologist and he gets the odd 'starchild' skull sent to his office for identification every few years, so I get to hear this explanation every few years, too.
 
Perhaps it was the slightly taller one from Ant and Dec?
 
The programme was Question Time and the gentleman concerned
is an academic. I think his name is Shakespeare. He appears
quite often on television, often to speak about the rights of
disabled and "different" people.

What he has to say is usually worth hearing and most viewers are
able to overcome quickly their initial surprise at his appearance.

Something which cannot always be said of other panelists on the show.
:rolleyes:
 
shakespeare - yeah i know the guy you mean. he's an academic sociologist and quite often the 'voice of common sense' in the disability rights argument. he's also a dwarf, so if you discovered his skeleton a thousand years from now the shape of his head wouldn't be the first thing you noticed...
 
A dwarf? He seemed a bit small but nothing special. But what has caused his strange head then?

As for starchild, can that really be cause by shaping the skull. I have seen the skulls where they are sort of pulled backwards. They could be caused by shaping(is there proof of that or is it jusy a hypothesis?) but the starchild skulls are bigger that usual. How do you shape a skull bigger?
 
Yeah, that's what I thought--they do look bigger, but apparently they are not. There is proof that it is all cosmetic shaping because people unfortunately still do this.
 
The Egyptians did it as well, I think to seperate the upper classes from the common herd.
I have seen pictures from a manuscript that indicate they strapped bits of board to their heads to flatten the front and increase the slope of the forehead (can't remember where tho)
 
Ahh, I thought it was just the hats that made it look like that.
 
Ummm.... nope, of course in the best tradition of annecdotal evidence, I can't remember where or when I saw this
 
Xanatic said:
A dwarf? He seemed a bit small but nothing special. But what has caused his strange head then?

As for starchild, can that really be cause by shaping the skull. I have seen the skulls where they are sort of pulled backwards. They could be caused by shaping(is there proof of that or is it jusy a hypothesis?) but the starchild skulls are bigger that usual. How do you shape a skull bigger?
Click to expand...

He's probably got hydrocephalus (water on the brain) which makes the head appear enlarged and misshapen. It can be caused by a blow to the head in infancy so it's possible skull shaping may have caused it, hence the larger skull.

See also the "water brains" thread somewhere on this forum...
 
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