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Here's one on the intelligence of fishiesNow, we all hear a lot about goldfish. People get goldfish for their kids because "they're easy to take care of, and die soon anyway". They put them in bare bowls because "well, they don't need more, and they die soon anyway, and they're not that bright". They don't do anything about stimulation because "well, they're not that bright, and they die soon anyway". These statements would be troubling, except that the premises are totally flawed to begin with! When properly cared for, goldfish live decades - so all those fish that "died soon anyway" did so because they were killed by incompetent owners. And given that you can teach a goldfish to do a variety of tricks, I'm not so sure they're as unintelligent as all that. It's cruelty to have an animal and not give it any form of stimulation at all, it's like locking them in solitary for their whole life! ( Read more... )Two articles on two different kindergartens. One on a charter school that "justifies" its trip to the farm by calling it "test prep".Some of the comments are disgusting, blaming parents for kids not going "to the zoo". When are they supposed to go to the zoo? On a weekday, when it closes at 5? On the weekend, when it costs $12 per person and is crowded besides and you have to do your shopping and your cleaning and visit family and go to church? Uncool, guys. ( Read more... )And one about an absurdly expensive private school for gifted kids( Read more... )An article on zero waste facilities and communities( Read more... )And finally, one on problems faced by African immigrants in the Bronx( Read more... )Tags: animal welfare, articles, early education, education, environment, science
I'm feeling:  bouncy
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They're all here, I'll just pick and choose( Not much snark this time )I want to end with the closing paragraphs of the actual article: Recently, Amy Utzinger, a mother of four in Tucson, Ariz., let her daughter, 7, walk down the block to play with a friend. Five houses. Same side of the street.
Afterward, the friend’s mother drove Mrs. Utzinger’s daughter home. “She said, ‘I just drove her back, just in case ... you know,’ ” recalled Mrs. Utzinger. “What was I supposed to say? How can you argue against ‘just in case’?”I'll tell you how you argue against 'just in case'. You point out that the risk of dying in a fatal crash is so insanely high that you never let your child enter a car without your permission and stare at this woman as though she's deluded - which she is if she has to drive your kid five houses instead of, you know, walking her... or watching from the porch. Tags: articles, child development, childhood, free range
I'm feeling:  cheerful
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I'll link and c+p it in a second, and I'll also quote (and snark) some of the more interesting comments, but before I even get to that part I want to say something. I've often found that, online, the people I disagree with have much worse writing skills than the people I *do* agree with - and to quote one of my new favorite characters, Clementine, I am not even exaggerating! This is doubly (and hilariously, and ironically, and sadly) true when I disagree with the self-proclaimed Defenders of Language. It's bad enough that one can't correct another person's spelling without making a huge error in their own comment, but these people who go on and ON about how much learning the "cannon" did for them cannot even tell the difference between "would have" and "would of", or between a full sentence and a barely comprehensible fragment. I'm not cherrypicking. I refuse to quote *all* of them just because they're hypocritically less literate than they claim to be, but keep this in mind when reading the comments: The critical ones are almost all like that. I don't claim to have perfect writing either (I never was clearly taught about commas and semi-colons, I freely admit that), but at least I don't claim my education is better because it involved some classics. (At least this group, unlike the ones who threw a hissy fit over the teaching of the specific jingle "I before E", seem to have enough reading comprehension skills to understand the article. That's a change.) Any comments in bold are left by me. Click for article!( Read more... )And of course, the comments.Before you click the link, note that a lot of the comments disparage comic books (and graphic novels don't exist). I still don't understand whence this scorn. Now, my uncle, back before he did all those drugs, used to be (my mother says) quite bright. And the whole class was shocked when he did superwell on his reading assessment in elementary school because "all he reads are comic books!" Of course, he read them voraciously and probably read some that were "above his level", and there's the difference. Ray Bradbury, in Fahrenheit 451, makes the point that it's the content, not the delivery that matters - if we tell great stories by television, they're still great stories. People forget he made that point in the book, but he did. ( Read more... )Tags: articles, books, education
I'm feeling:  sleepy
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Fairly interesting, but the real attraction is at the link in the article.GoToplessSee, you're reading along about history, and equality, and toplessness, and we've got some pictures and it's all well and good until suddenly, apropos of nothing, we get: Who can participate? We welcome everyone! GoTopless was founded by the Raelian Movement, which recognizes that life on Earth was created by advanced extraterrestrial scientists. These scientists, both male and female, used their mastery of genetic engineering to create humans in their own image (breasts included!). GoTopless includes thousands of women and men, who have a wide variety of beliefs, affiliations, etc...Right. Well, I cherish the right of all people to believe what they want to believe. I suppose randomly stating your belief that humans were created by aliens is, in fact, no weirder than if the same site had randomly stated that they're members of any more conventional faith. (Which just goes to show that there's a time and a place. Not everything needs to be linked to your religion.) This is them. I don't think I'm converting any time soon, but then, I'm also not converting to any older and more established belief systems. In 500 years, who knows what people will think? Tags: articles, links
I'm feeling:  tired
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Here's an article about parents who dislike their kids getting an icee (note spelling) at the playground or when out and about, and who are working to prevent unlicensed vendors for no reason other than that they don't like saying no to their kids. (That's how it reads, anyway.)Choice quotes: 1. Parents in most places improvise solutions — running the other way when they hear the jingle or telling their children that they left their wallets at home.
2. As a new mother, she said, people coach you on potty training and what to feed your child. “But the ice cream truck, nobody ever mentions that,” she said. I have the answer to both of them: Be the parent and tell your kid "no". No, they CANNOT have an icee. No, they CANNOT keep whining for one, repeatedly. My nieces, they know that asking over and over again will turn a yes or a maybe into a no, will turn a no into a time-out - or an immediate trip home. This isn't hard, is it? Or say yes. No skin off my back, that's for sure. ( Read more... )Tags: articles, food, kids
I'm feeling:  annoyed
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Backers of Gay Marriage Rethink California Push ( Read more... )As Charter Schools Unionize, Many Debate Effect ( Read more... )Files Vanished, Young Chinese Lose the Future ( Read more... )Kyrgyzstan: At the Crossroad of Empires, a Mouse Struts ( Read more... )Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man ( Read more... )Meet the New Elite, Not Like the Old ( Read more... )Tags: articles, china, education, gay rights, politics, race, science
I'm feeling:  busy
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An article on psychological problems faced by Chinese-American children coming "home" to their parents after being sent to live with their grandparents. Interestingly, it seems the worst of these problems are caused by what ought to be a good thing - due to the proliferation of preschool, parents are calling their kids home at younger ages than they used to, at 2 instead of 6. Of course, two year olds are less likely to understand that these strangers are their *families*, you know?( Read more... )An article on changing ways of life in the Amazon( Read more... )An article on Sephardic Jews on the Jersey Shore( Read more... )Tags: articles, child development, china, ecology, health, immigration, religion, science, south america
I'm feeling: cheerful
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I'm reading through the comments now.It's a pity some of the examples chosen are so... weird, like the kid who peed in the friend's yard and whose mother was surprised he wasn't invited back. ( Read more... )There's a wide range of comments, but there are a few that keep coming up that I wanna reply to. (Alas, comments appear to be closed now, so I can't do so there.) 1. There's the "I don't want to sit where your kid's (potty-trained) naked butt has been" argument. This makes a lot of sense as a personal squick, but as a rational "because of germs" argument it fails. If your pants and underpants can't prevent the terrible germs from eating you from the bottom, why would the kid's pants and underpants have prevented the germs from getting on the seat in the first place??? Unless you're both naked on the same seat, in which case you're being a little hypocritical. (And it's not like kids are bastions of hygiene anyway. I'm more worried about sitting where their hands have been than their butts!) I can only assume these are the people who, uh, sprinkle when they tinkle. 2. There's the "OMG! Pedophile! They'll hurt your kids!" argument which makes some more sense... except where it doesn't. For most people, nudity is less alluring than a certain type of clothing. I don't know, I guess pedophiles could be different, but I suspect that most of them would also be more attracted to clothed kids (especially in, say, "grown-up" outfits that are vaguely sexualized) than naked ones. 2a. There's also the "I don't want pedophiles seeing my kids and not going near them!" argument, which is another one that works as a personal squick (and one I wouldn't argue with) but that probably doesn't harm the kid at all. I can only repeat my earlier argument and say that if they're getting off watching your kid, they're probably doing it no matter what your child is wearing. (Best not to think about it too much.) 3. There's the "If you don't clothe them fully from the time they're born, they'll never learn social norms!" argument, which is just nonsensical. We all learn things as we get older. (And just because somebody allows their child more freedom in this area does not mean that they never discipline their child. Logic, plz.) 4. And there's one more pedophile argument (we sure do have a lot of them) which runs "If you don't make them wear clothes, they'll have no idea something is wrong if an adult tries to harm them!" That also makes no sense. Surely you can teach a kid about not touching private parts without making them wear clothes inside your own home? Or teach them that it's okay for KIDS to be naked but not grown-ups? Or, if you're a naturalist, teach them that some types of behavior are okay when naked, but not others? Tags: articles, child development
I'm feeling: awake
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In South AfricaNow, of course, I'm happy for them. I'm happy for anybody getting married. But the fact that South Africa offers same-sex marriages is a national disgrace. Not for them, of course, but for us! How appalling, how absurd is it that they're further ahead on this issue of basic civil rights than we are? It shouldn't be tolerated, this level of cosmic irony. It's Just Not Cool. The solution obviously isn't to relegate South Africa to being the world's backwater again. Instead, clearly, we need to move this country to the last decades of the 20th century. For a change. Can we get some fucking equality here? It's embarrassing! ( Read more... )Tags: articles, gay rights, rantlings
I'm feeling:  aggravated
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So, over at Conservative Free Republic they have a forum. Lots of places have forums. And over there, occasionally they have people making and commenting with objectionable matter. Lots of forums have that problem. And hey, there it's racist and people are attacking the President's young daughters, which is abhorrent. Okay... it happens... but hey, their policy forbids racist content! (And anything which advocates for rebellion and secession as well.) So you'd think that they'd deal with that fast before it made them look bad... right? Well... no, don't make me laugh. They waited a day, and then only removed it because a guy doing research made a complaint. And... then they put it back up, only removing it for good once liberal blogs got a hold of this. Link oneLink twoLink three.Now, everybody is commenting on the vicious comments left about the President's kids, which is as it should be. Attacking anybody's young children (and 11 is still young) with slurs and misogyny (as well as racism and some basic classism, they've hit the trifecta there) is wrong, that goes without saying. But what gets me is the comment about Obama's Mother-in-Law, that she's "free-loadin'". I've heard that before, but without the overt racist subtext, and it makes no sense to me, firstly because she is, as I'm told, there to help keep things normal for her grandkids, and second because she's seventy-one! Seventy-one! What sort of family values allow you to insult people for taking care of their parents? If she were sitting around doing nothing, isn't she entitled? Surely, after 71 years, she gets to rest and be with her family? (Well, I suppose those are the same family values that tell you it's okay to insult defenseless 11 year old girls who haven't even done anything.) Some choice comments ( cut for offensiveness )Tags: america, articles, politics, race
I'm feeling:  upset
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One on building structures out of glass.( Read more... )On the increase in homeless people that occurs every summer( Read more... )On energy efficient incandescent bulbs.( Read more... )
Another article on bees in the city( Read more... )One on lead in urban gardens. I wonder if that affects the honey.( Read more... )An editorial on journalistic use of the word "torture"
A post on the deficit model of autism
An article on the totally unsurprising amount of heteronormativity (did I spell that right?) in Disney movies, which elevates heterosexual love to absurd degrees.
Quick, one more! Black kids kicked out of private pool for... oh, go read the article. From ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) homasse. Incidentally, those kids got offered a slot at a pool at this school, which looks more interesting the more I check out their webpage. Further research indicates the school may have its own past problems, but eh, it was all 50 years ago or so. What's going on TODAY is quite the opposite. Tags: architecture, art, articles, autism, bees, garden, gay rights, links, media, nyc, science
I'm feeling: busy
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One on adding two Muslim holidays to the school calendar.
I understand the reasoning that you can't reasonably add EVERY possible holiday to the calendar, but it occurs to me that they get off all of July and August, plus part of June and September. They don't *actually* have to be off until the Tuesday after Labor Day, they really can start school the Thursday before if necessary to fit these extra holidays in.( Read more... )An article on laws requiring electronics companies to safely dispose of electronics( Read more... )An article on how some societies have children who don't crawl. They're calling this research *new*, but as I've been referring people to these *very same studies* for years I wonder how new it can be.Tags: articles, child development, ecology, education, environment, holidays, law, nyc, religion, technology
I'm feeling: cheerful
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On a woman's effort to speak Hindi in NYC( Read more... )Daughter Against Use of Father’s Name to Subvert Neo-Nazis( Read more... )When an Ear Witness Decides the Case ( Read more... )An article on beekeeping in the city( Read more... )An article on how feeding cows a different diet not only reduces their methane output but - surprise! - makes them healthier
One on the proposal in the UK to stop teaching the specific mnemonic "I before E except after C". I personally have seen people claim this is due to "political correctness gone amok" (there's a term that no longer means anything if I ever saw one!), that it's due to "Obama's election" (these people seem to think that the UK is synonymous with the US), that it's due to not wanting to teach children how to spell, that there's NO way to learn how to spell without reciting inane jingles at every turn, and that all the rules are flying out the window. Not to mention the people who don't understand the rule in the first place. Why is language always ostensibly defended by people who lack the reading comprehension skills to understand that it was never under attack in the first place? WHY?
An article on why ethnic jokes aren't that funny
An article on octopi that "walk" to get past predators. COOL.
Here's an article on grown-up children of gay parents. I never want to see the word "gayby" again, but the article doesn't seem that bad.
Oh, and an article on the "girl who doesn't age". Every time I get to the part where they say the girl loves motion, I keep thinking that babywearing (teen wearing) would make their lives easier. This is because I'm a geek.Tags: agriculture, articles, bees, education, england, india, language, nyc, politics, religion, science
I'm feeling:  accomplished
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retreat.... 
contemplative
excited
gloomy
bitchy
numb
pensive
blah
calm
thoughtful
sad
determined
apathetic
predatory
awake
cold
