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Is the Queen a Caliph?

You know, while I study (mainly British) history, it never occurs to me to wonder what colour the actors are . I guess a lot of Spaniards are at least part African because of the Moors.

While there may have been some hundreds of African males retiring to Britannia, they w
I personally don't think colour of skin is any more important than colour of hair, but that doesn't mean I think all cultures are of the same value.
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I agree. And there would no doubt have been some African legionaries stationed in Roman Britain. What I don’t believe however is that the mixed race family depicted in the picture was a fair representation of a *typical* family in Roman Britain, which was how the BBC had captioned it.

In itself it’s a small point but it is a good example of the current trend to rewrite history to suit contemporary fads. See also descriptions of historical women who pretended to be male in order to access professions closed to them because of their sex as “transgender”. Or claims that past geniuses suffered from Aspergers, or dyslexia, or ADHD or whatever the latest fashionable syndrome is.

Whoever controls the present controls the past etc. We do need to be alert to attempts to rewrite history to suit contemporary sensibilities and to call it out when we see it.
 
. Or claims that past geniuses suffered from Aspergers, or dyslexia, or ADHD or whatever the latest fashionable...

Roger that part.
I've researched Aspergers syndrome (or, as it's now called, being on the Autism Disorder spectrum) pretty thoroughly and I've also read a decent biography of Albert Einstein - and I just don't see any correlation. He was clearly a genius but otherwise lived an ordinary life and had a few affairs and got married, etc.

Even the notion that he was particularly `eccentric` is based on scant evidence. There's that one photo, taken in his old age, when he is sticking his tongue out which is relentlessly reproduced, as if to provide clinching evidence of this, but it was not typical of him as far as I can tell.

The Einstein as Aspergic (or in some cases AHD) myth derives from the idea that if one has a deficit in one area (social understanding and fine motor skills, for example) then this must be compensated in another part of ones life by some special superpower. As a matter of fact saying this can even be dangerous and self-defeating for those that it intends to help. A kid or teen with Aspergers faces a range of real problems which can be addressed. However, telling him (or her) that he/she can be Einstein is setting the bar dauntingly high and could almost invariably lead to frustration. Much better to name some real living examples with attainable lives - Chris Packham for instance.

Having said all that, I do have reason to believe that Newton was almost certainly (what we would now call) on the A.S.D scale - but I draw this conclusion from reports as to his social awkwardness rather than from his intellectual brilliance, which did not necessarily derive from it.
 
Einstein is a special case. If you can find something he hasn't been diagnosed with by someone, I'll give you a cookie.
 
Roger that part.
I've researched Aspergers syndrome (or, as it's now called, being on the Autism Disorder spectrum) pretty thoroughly and I've also read a decent biography of Albert Einstein - and I just don't see any correlation. He was clearly a genius but otherwise lived an ordinary life and had a few affairs and got married, etc.

Even the notion that he was particularly `eccentric` is based on scant evidence. There's that one photo, taken in his old age, when he is sticking his tongue out which is relentlessly reproduced, as if to provide clinching evidence of this, but it was not typical of him as far as I can tell.

The Einstein as Aspergic (or in some cases AHD) myth derives from the idea that if one has a deficit in one area (social understanding and fine motor skills, for example) then this must be compensated in another part of ones life by some special superpower. As a matter of fact saying this can even be dangerous and self-defeating for those that it intends to help. A kid or teen with Aspergers faces a range of real problems which can be addressed. However, telling him (or her) that he/she can be Einstein is setting the bar dauntingly high and could almost invariably lead to frustration. Much better to name some real living examples with attainable lives - Chris Packham for instance.

Having said all that, I do have reason to believe that Newton was almost certainly (what we would now call) on the A.S.D scale - but I draw this conclusion from reports as to his social awkwardness rather than from his intellectual brilliance, which did not necessarily derive from it.

Yeah - the idea of savants is an old one and they do exist but most people with autism / dyslexia / ADHD are not geniuses and most geniuses do not have these disabilities. And as you say aside from anything else it puts further pressure and unrealistic expectations on kids already having difficult times.
 
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Yeah - the idea of savants is an old one and they do exist but most people with autism / dyslexia / ADHD are not geniuses and most geniuses do not have these disabilities. And as you say aside from anything else it puts further pressure and unrealistic expectations on kids already having difficult times.

Yes an accurate statement. Children on the spectrum (the modern term for autism) as well as those with other mental-behavior illnesses like anyone else may or may not be intelligent in particular(s) area. However these poor individuals absolutely need no additional pressures to perform. Even in this age they are subject to far to much prejudice and difficulty.
 
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