11 ms·

40 Years After an Acid Attack, a Life Well Lived

148 points by Byliner 14y ago

GuiA 14y ago
I'm certain I've seen Dr. Miele in the BART before. Everyone (myself included, which I am ashamed of) did everything to not stare at him nor look in his direction– which of course would have been glaringly and awkwardly obvious to anyone observing the scene. Reading this article, his body of work is fascinating. Part of me hopes that if I ever see him again during one of my commutes, I'll have the courage to go up to him and ask him questions about all the cool stuff he's done.
- Mz 14y ago
  I wonder how aware he was of it and how much he experienced it as socially isolating. When I saw "Shallow Hal," the beautiful thin actress who wore a fat suit for the role of the fat girlfriend tried it out by going to a bar. She was used to being looked at. No one looked at her when she was the fat girl. She remarked in an interview how socially isolating it was. I know he is blind but he is not stupid. I wonder how much of that he notices.
  - joshschreuder 14y ago
    But a thin girl in a fat costume knows what it's like to be thin and socially active. It makes it more jarring to go from one extreme to the other (as it would be for an overweight person who was ignored to suddenly become the centre of attention). By that same token, I don't know if Dr. Miele would notice much of it, because he has been isolated in public from such a young age.
    - Mz 14y ago
      I am handicapped and so are my sons. We are "normal" to each other. I forget how impaired my oldest son is. When he runs into something which trips him up, I am often jarringly reminded. The article suggests Dr. Miele likely experiences a "normal" home life and is sensitive to the detail of wanting to be known for the right reasons. He may not be painfully aware of how strangers react, because he is used to it. Or it might be like a constant annoyance which grates all the more for having gone on so long. It would be interesting to hear his take on it.
AlexMuir 14y ago
A brilliant story, well written. There have been a few horrific stories of cultural backwards attacking women with acid in the UK press. It's made me far more cautious when handling automotive batteries. I won't move a car battery ever again without wearing safety goggles.
- praptak 14y ago
  Acids are dangerous indeed. In case of hydrochloric acid you don't even need to splash yourself to get hurt. The fumes are enough to damage your eyes or respiratory tract - gaseous hydrogen chloride dissolves in the moisture covering eyes and mucous membranes, producing hydrochloric acid.
  - pyre 14y ago
    To be fair, I remember handling HCl in chemistry and the fumes didn't dissolve my eyes, though I could tell that the fumes weren't nice either. It would depend on the concentration of the gas, which would also be a function of the concentration of the HCl that was vaporising.
  - localhost 14y ago
    HCl is not particularly dangerous, as it is fairly easily washed off. Concentrated sulfuric acid, on the other hand is particularly bad. It is very viscous, extremely difficult to wash off as water just heats up the stuff. See: http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/22350.htm http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/22350.htm
chime 14y ago
> But he said hers were wasted words. > “That’s so fascinating,” he said, “but you know, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I was a cautious kid. I knew who was outside the gate. I knew Bassy. You would have opened it, too.” I can't imagine the trust issues one would have after going through this. If a stranger does something, it can be explained away. But if it is someone you know, makes it much more difficult.
d0vs 14y ago
What does this have to do with Hacker News?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- sunils34 14y ago
  By HN guidelines, things that are appropriate are "Anything that good hackers would find interesting... anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." This is the story of Dr. Joshua Miele who, after this horrific attack, has been working on some really interesting projects using technology to make the lives of those living with disabilities better. After reading this story, I found an interview he did describing some of the projects he's been working on, including tactile maps on smartphones to help blind people navigate their world. http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106171000 http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106171000. So I'd say it's relevant.
- gnosis 14y ago
  From HN's Guidelines[1]: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did." [1] - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dschobel 14y ago
  How hard would it be for HN to filter posts like this? There are only so many permutations of "Why is this here? / What does this have to do with HN?" possible...
  - gnosis 14y ago
    To my knowledge, HN hasn't added any new features in years. I think the people who run this site are pretty happy with it the way it is and don't want to change it, despite many suggestions for improvements. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do anything about it.
pinaceae 14y ago
interesting as this again was done by a deeply disturbed individual, a paranoid schizophrenic. society since then has not gotten better at identifying threats coming from sick people. down to sandy hook, the completely insane individual is left alone until he/she commits an atrocity.
- blinkingled 14y ago
  >society since then has not gotten better at identifying threats The other end of it is society starting to aggressively label and segregate people as "threats". Everyone would have to fit this set of behavior somebody else defined or else they get labeled as threats.
- k-mcgrady 14y ago
  I have no specific evidence but I believe society has gotten better and identifying mental health issues and treating them. >> "down to sandy hook, the completely insane individual is left alone until he/she commits an atrocity" It's up to family and friends to help identify problems someone they know might be having and it's up to the government to provide adequate support and facilities to treat ill people. People being left alone with their problems until they crack is not just due to people not identifying the problems, it's due to inadequate care options.
  - specialist 14y ago
    Based on my recent personal experience, I don't feel that much has improved. Perhaps society is more accepting of the condition, and less likely to stigmatized. But helping a mentally ill person (in the USA) is pretty much not an option. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough.
    - Mz 14y ago
      I think that depends on how you frame the problem. It helps to start with wondering why they do things instead of labeling them "mentally ill" from the get go. But I am sorry to hear of your frustrations. That is intended to be a helpful observation, not a criticism.
seatac 14y ago
no offense but he looks like a certain Star Trek character I forget his name.
- EliRivers 14y ago
  How does adding "no offense" to the front of a statement affect how offensive the remainder of the statement is?
  - seatac 14y ago
    I see your point; it doesn't help at all yet many people still do it. but that's a cool star trek character if that helps. (probably not)
XorNot 14y ago
About 6 months ago in my lab we had an acid attack. One student took offense to another telling him what to do, grabbed a hammer and the nearest vial of sulfuric acid and chased the guy down, knocked him down, and started pouring acid on him. About the only lucky thing about the attack is that the victim didn't get any his eyes, but months on he's still recovering after multiple skin-grafts. There isn't really a lesson that we can fathom from this really. It happened about 24 hours after an incident when the perpetrator had gotten angry and thrown a beaker on the floor, and literally 5 minutes before the acid attack happened (when the previous events were related to me) I commented that we should take it more seriously because if someone's not in control that's how acid gets thrown on people.
- omarchowdhury 14y ago
  Tell us more about the perpetrator.
  - XorNot 14y ago
    He was just a new student - working closely with the victim actually. Apparently he turned out to have schizophrenia, but it was previously undiagnosed or unreported or something. Which is just weird as hell because how do you get to Ph. D level and have schizophrenia in the first place?
aaron695 14y ago
It is an interesting story about someone's life and overcoming adversity. But don't fall into the trap and read anything else into it, the things you should fear in life are quite boring. Some comments seem to be going down this path.
melc 14y ago
Thanks for posting this article. Dr. Joshua A. Miele is an incredible person and very inspiring. Thank you for your great work and contribution to people.

148 points by Byliner 14y ago

GuiA 14y ago

I'm certain I've seen Dr. Miele in the BART before. Everyone (myself included, which I am ashamed of) did everything to not stare at him nor look in his direction– which of course would have been glaringly and awkwardly obvious to anyone observing the scene. Reading this article, his body of work is fascinating. Part of me hopes that if I ever see him again during one of my commutes, I'll have the courage to go up to him and ask him questions about all the cool stuff he's done.

Mz 14y ago
I wonder how aware he was of it and how much he experienced it as socially isolating. When I saw "Shallow Hal," the beautiful thin actress who wore a fat suit for the role of the fat girlfriend tried it out by going to a bar. She was used to being looked at. No one looked at her when she was the fat girl. She remarked in an interview how socially isolating it was. I know he is blind but he is not stupid. I wonder how much of that he notices.
- joshschreuder 14y ago
  But a thin girl in a fat costume knows what it's like to be thin and socially active. It makes it more jarring to go from one extreme to the other (as it would be for an overweight person who was ignored to suddenly become the centre of attention). By that same token, I don't know if Dr. Miele would notice much of it, because he has been isolated in public from such a young age.
  - Mz 14y ago
    I am handicapped and so are my sons. We are "normal" to each other. I forget how impaired my oldest son is. When he runs into something which trips him up, I am often jarringly reminded. The article suggests Dr. Miele likely experiences a "normal" home life and is sensitive to the detail of wanting to be known for the right reasons. He may not be painfully aware of how strangers react, because he is used to it. Or it might be like a constant annoyance which grates all the more for having gone on so long. It would be interesting to hear his take on it.

AlexMuir 14y ago

A brilliant story, well written. There have been a few horrific stories of cultural backwards attacking women with acid in the UK press. It's made me far more cautious when handling automotive batteries. I won't move a car battery ever again without wearing safety goggles.

praptak 14y ago
Acids are dangerous indeed. In case of hydrochloric acid you don't even need to splash yourself to get hurt. The fumes are enough to damage your eyes or respiratory tract - gaseous hydrogen chloride dissolves in the moisture covering eyes and mucous membranes, producing hydrochloric acid.
- pyre 14y ago
  To be fair, I remember handling HCl in chemistry and the fumes didn't dissolve my eyes, though I could tell that the fumes weren't nice either. It would depend on the concentration of the gas, which would also be a function of the concentration of the HCl that was vaporising.
- localhost 14y ago
  HCl is not particularly dangerous, as it is fairly easily washed off. Concentrated sulfuric acid, on the other hand is particularly bad. It is very viscous, extremely difficult to wash off as water just heats up the stuff. See: http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/22350.htm http://fscimage.fishersci.com/msds/22350.htm

chime 14y ago

> But he said hers were wasted words. > “That’s so fascinating,” he said, “but you know, it wouldn’t have made a difference. I was a cautious kid. I knew who was outside the gate. I knew Bassy. You would have opened it, too.” I can't imagine the trust issues one would have after going through this. If a stranger does something, it can be explained away. But if it is someone you know, makes it much more difficult.

d0vs 14y ago

What does this have to do with Hacker News?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
sunils34 14y ago
By HN guidelines, things that are appropriate are "Anything that good hackers would find interesting... anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity." This is the story of Dr. Joshua Miele who, after this horrific attack, has been working on some really interesting projects using technology to make the lives of those living with disabilities better. After reading this story, I found an interview he did describing some of the projects he's been working on, including tactile maps on smartphones to help blind people navigate their world. http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106171000 http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201106171000. So I'd say it's relevant.
gnosis 14y ago
From HN's Guidelines[1]: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did." [1] - http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
dschobel 14y ago
How hard would it be for HN to filter posts like this? There are only so many permutations of "Why is this here? / What does this have to do with HN?" possible...
- gnosis 14y ago
  To my knowledge, HN hasn't added any new features in years. I think the people who run this site are pretty happy with it the way it is and don't want to change it, despite many suggestions for improvements. So I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them to do anything about it.

pinaceae 14y ago

interesting as this again was done by a deeply disturbed individual, a paranoid schizophrenic. society since then has not gotten better at identifying threats coming from sick people. down to sandy hook, the completely insane individual is left alone until he/she commits an atrocity.

blinkingled 14y ago
>society since then has not gotten better at identifying threats The other end of it is society starting to aggressively label and segregate people as "threats". Everyone would have to fit this set of behavior somebody else defined or else they get labeled as threats.
k-mcgrady 14y ago
I have no specific evidence but I believe society has gotten better and identifying mental health issues and treating them. >> "down to sandy hook, the completely insane individual is left alone until he/she commits an atrocity" It's up to family and friends to help identify problems someone they know might be having and it's up to the government to provide adequate support and facilities to treat ill people. People being left alone with their problems until they crack is not just due to people not identifying the problems, it's due to inadequate care options.
- specialist 14y ago
  Based on my recent personal experience, I don't feel that much has improved. Perhaps society is more accepting of the condition, and less likely to stigmatized. But helping a mentally ill person (in the USA) is pretty much not an option. Perhaps I didn't look hard enough.
  - Mz 14y ago
    I think that depends on how you frame the problem. It helps to start with wondering why they do things instead of labeling them "mentally ill" from the get go. But I am sorry to hear of your frustrations. That is intended to be a helpful observation, not a criticism.

seatac 14y ago

no offense but he looks like a certain Star Trek character I forget his name.

EliRivers 14y ago
How does adding "no offense" to the front of a statement affect how offensive the remainder of the statement is?
- seatac 14y ago
  I see your point; it doesn't help at all yet many people still do it. but that's a cool star trek character if that helps. (probably not)

XorNot 14y ago

About 6 months ago in my lab we had an acid attack. One student took offense to another telling him what to do, grabbed a hammer and the nearest vial of sulfuric acid and chased the guy down, knocked him down, and started pouring acid on him. About the only lucky thing about the attack is that the victim didn't get any his eyes, but months on he's still recovering after multiple skin-grafts. There isn't really a lesson that we can fathom from this really. It happened about 24 hours after an incident when the perpetrator had gotten angry and thrown a beaker on the floor, and literally 5 minutes before the acid attack happened (when the previous events were related to me) I commented that we should take it more seriously because if someone's not in control that's how acid gets thrown on people.

omarchowdhury 14y ago
Tell us more about the perpetrator.
- XorNot 14y ago
  He was just a new student - working closely with the victim actually. Apparently he turned out to have schizophrenia, but it was previously undiagnosed or unreported or something. Which is just weird as hell because how do you get to Ph. D level and have schizophrenia in the first place?

aaron695 14y ago

It is an interesting story about someone's life and overcoming adversity. But don't fall into the trap and read anything else into it, the things you should fear in life are quite boring. Some comments seem to be going down this path.

melc 14y ago

Thanks for posting this article. Dr. Joshua A. Miele is an incredible person and very inspiring. Thank you for your great work and contribution to people.