I'm certain I've seen Dr. Miele in the BART before.<p>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.<p>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.
> But he said hers were wasted words.<p>> “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.”<p>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.
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.<p>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.<p>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.
interesting as this again was done by a deeply disturbed individual, a paranoid schizophrenic.<p>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.
A brilliant story, well written.<p>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.<p>I won't move a car battery ever again without wearing safety goggles.
It is an interesting story about someone's life and overcoming adversity.<p>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.
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.