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Fall is coming!
2007-09-22 06:36:00
During this last hectic week, there were two glorious, glorious days where the sun did not shine as bright, the temperature was below 90 degrees, and there was that delicious, smoky, change is on the way smell in the air. I do not know if anyone else gets quite as euphoric and nostalgic as I do when that autumn smell comes drafting in from wherever it drafts in from, but it is my favorite time of the year. By coincidence, I am taking a neuroscience class this semester, and one topic this week happened to be on scent recalled memory associations, although it was not covered in quite as much detail as I would have liked. I am sure most have heard that your strongest memories are tied to scent, and yes there is an anatomical/physiological basis for this too. Beyond this, much is not known, as most of our consciousness is a mystery still. The mystery of consciousness is why it is wonderful to be alive, yet it is also depressing in that it reminds us of our own mortality.I digress t...
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More Nomadic Preacher
2007-09-21 02:19:00
Courtesy of TheDMOnline.com, a photojournal of Brother Micah preaching. He is a nomadic preacher, going around, preaching about all kinds of people going to hell. See previous post for more background. If anything, it should provide some serious entertainment if you have not had the pleasure of witnessing this guy. Be sure to turn your volume up.ORIGINAL LINK: http://media.smc.olemiss.edu/slideshows/2 00703211/small.htmlEDIT: I know this is off topic for the blog, so all I can say is that maybe you should warn your kids about guys like this just like warning them about the neighborhood crazy. Let them voice their opinion, but treat with caution.
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Apathy on Campus
2007-09-20 23:01:00
Continuing this theme of inaction by recent generations, I would like to illustrate some examples going on at the campus I attend right now. Most of these policies do not affect me, but the ones just entering college. No one protests however:1. Playboy magazines banned for sale on campus.Sales were banned based on the preferences of a few, and not the student body on a whole. There will always be a minority that objects to anything, but banning something like this on a college campus, an inherently liberal institution, strikes me as strange. Sales have not been re-instituted because no one has said anything. Never mind the simple reason of the first amendment.2. ...But crazy preachers are given free reignWhat is even more disturbing is that a nomadic preacher, Brother Micah, was given free reign in the name of free speech, even though he was downright offensive. There was a ton of student protest but nothing happened, which actually I believe was for the best. Freedom of spe...
More About: Campus , Apathy , Path

Colbert on Solitarity
2007-09-20 22:48:00
I was watching the Colbert Report last night and his "The Word" segment was quite...moving for lack of a better word. His Word was regarding the student getting tazered at a Kerry debate. If you have not seen it, well basically, it looks as if the kid was asking questions, someone cut off the microphone, and police hustled him away and tazered him. More poignant however was the total look of boredom and apathy seen on his fellow students faces. No one stood up to protest, no one said anything, they just looked on with apathy. What happened to the people of this country? Colbert implies it is because that most have become armchair protesters, posting on their blog, and Digging their way to make a difference. Colbert cleverly equates Digging to masturbating :) It is made even more ironic by the fact that every week or so there is a surge of people calling for action instead of sitting on their computers on Digg, yet you never see anything come of it.I cannot quite put my finge...
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Non-stick chewing gum!
2007-09-19 00:52:00
Wouldn't it be great if gum never got stuck on your shoes, carpet, in your kids hair? Gum is popular, especially with kids. So if you have a kid, chances are your kid has chewed gum, whether you let them or not, and chances are you have had gum stuck in the strangest of places."Revolymer, a Bristol University spin-out company, claims that it has created a new material which can be added to gum that makes it much easier to remove from surfaces.""The material is formed from long chains of molecules, called polymers, which have both water-loving (hydrophilic) and water-hating (hydrophobic), and therefore oil-loving, properties.The polymer's affinity for oil means that it can be easily mixed into the rest of the ingredients needed to create chewing gum; but it is its attraction to water that gives it its non-stick abilities.Chief Scientific Officer of Revolymer, Professor Terence Cosgrove, said: "The hydrophilic coating means that you always get a film of water around the gum and th...
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Children can step into the minds of storybook characters
2007-09-16 16:03:00
A large part of enjoying a good book is getting immersed in the life of a character, especially a character's thoughts and feelings. A new University of Waterloo psychology study shows that preschoolers can already perform this impressive perspective-taking feat and get into the minds of story characters. The study used an innovative approach to explore children's storytelling ability, focusing on how well they comprehend stories instead of how well they tell them. The study, entitled The Emergence of the Ability to Track a Char acter's Mental Perspective in Narrative, was published in the July issue of Developmental Psychology. "Children around the ages of three to five are fairly limited in their verbal abilities, and many previous studies have relied on methods requiring children to tell a story orally, potentially underestimating what they can do," says lead researcher Daniela O'Neill, who did the study with graduate student Rebecca Shultis. O'Neill, an associate professor ...
More About: Minds , Characters , Step

Mother’s milk a gift that keeps on giving
2007-09-16 15:57:00
The University of Texas Medical Branch has released a research paper that, surprise, there really is a ton of benefits to breast feeding over formula feeding! I think the main idea is that people are still uneducated about what is best when having a baby. Many still believe that formula=breast. People do not realize that they have no control of what goes into formula, except for the purity of water they use. The paper is not freely available online, unfortunately, but the University of Texas Medical Branch has released a news article about it. Here is an excerpt:"UTMB professor of pediatrics David K. Rassin, a co-author of the paper (with Baylor College of Medicine assistant professor of pediatrics Judy M. Hopkinson), said, “Although many of us assume that everyone knows breastfeeding is best for infants and the American Academy of Pediatrics has come out with really strong recommendations in favor of it, the prevalence of breastfeeding in the United States is only about 65 p...
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Dear God
2007-09-15 01:16:00
Not sure if these are real or not, but they sure are funny! If my daughter ever asked God "Instead of making people die and having to make new ones why don't you keep the ones you got now?" I would cry for lack of an explanation.

Daneil Cook vs. the Seven Year Old Surgeon
2007-09-15 00:41:00
Just curious if anyone remembers the Oprah episode with Amazing Kids. This episode was especially amusing. On it the first featured kid was Daniel Cook . I am sure most of you know this kid:"Daniel began hosting his own series, This Is Daniel Cook, when he was just 6 years old. Since then, millions of American and Canadian children have tuned in to follow along on his exciting adventures. Daniel has done everything from feeding animals at the zoo to digging for dinosaur bones." Impressive CV right? Imagine Daniel's sense of inferiority when Oprah's next guest was introduced:"At an age when most children are learning their ABCs, Akrit was reading Shakespeare and assembling a library of medical textbooks. When he was 5 years old, he enrolled in school. One year later, Akrit was teaching English and math classes.Akrit developed a passion for science and anatomy at an early age. Doctors at local hospitals took notice and started allowing him to observe surgeries when he was 6 yea...
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Health Insurance for the Low Income Families
2007-09-12 23:41:00
Being in college is like being sheltered from a lot of the problems of the world. One thing however, affects us as college students as it affects those not in college. Health insurance. My family, except for my daughter, has been without health insurance for quite a while now. We will have health insurance again, provided by the school, as soon as I start graduate school in January. I had looked previously at independent health insurance offered by Blue Cross et. al. and was not surprised to see a family health insurance package starting well out of our meager price range. When looking at school provided health insurance I found it much cheaper thankfully, averaging about 200 dollars a month. If it was not provided by school it averaged about 500 dollars a month for my spouse and I. The only problem is that it must be paid for a full year up front, and I cannot just jump on in the middle of the year. I keep telling myself graduate school will be worth it, I just do not want...
More About: Insurance , Health Insurance , Income , Families

Bias Against Mothers
2007-09-12 23:14:00
There is a great article over at Huffingtonpost.com about the bias against mothers in this country. Not sure how to go about addressing these problems, but I wholeheartedly agree that paid new mother leave, as well as child care reforms and health care reforms. To be fair and avoid bias, I believe the following article could be applied to single father's as well:"..Very few Americans realize that there is deep bias against mothers in this country and that we are undermining family's ability to care for children. I began to understand this a few years ago when I learned that equal pay for equal work is just as big a problem today as it was 40 years ago. I was shocked! Women without children now earn 90 cents to a man's dollar, mothers earn 73 cents, and single mothers earn about 60 cents to a man's dollar. A study done last year revealed that a mother is 79 percent less likely to be offered a job when all other factors -- including resumes, education, and job experience -- are ...
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Indian food is not fun for the whole family
2007-09-10 03:05:00
In an effort to boost my blog posts from such a scant week, I will relate a story that has to do with Indian food, a skeptical 2 1/2 year old, and a disgruntled wife. There is a new Indian restaurant in town that has some pretty interesting looking meals. Great I thought, a change from the countless Mexican establishments throughout town! I convinced my wife to try it with me. Beans of all sorts, pureed vegetables, curry, flat bread, and rice pudding graced our sight upon entering. What's not to like! "Mmmm easily digestible said I", *blank stare* said wife. The meal was progressing nicely enough, not too many complaints, until we decided to try the rice pudding. I was the first to taste, and I thought it was pretty good. So I told my wife this. She grabs a spoon as I ready a taste for my daughter. As my wife spoons some rice pudding into her mouth, I do the same for my daughter. Within seconds both of them are literally gagging, with accompanying retching sounds, ...
More About: Family , Food , Indian Food

Sparse Updates
2007-09-10 02:56:00
There have been pretty few updates this past week (if any) by my wife or I. The final semester of school is in full swing. Working at minimum wage in a work-study setting, I am getting valuable research related experience, but am gone most of the time. I have been getting to see my daughter for a couple of hours a night on weekdays, but it is not very much quality time. Most of the time I am home is spent cleaning up, because, well, I am sort of a neat freak. This leads into my science article for the day:"The Hygiene Hypothesis: Are Cleanlier Lifestyles Causing More Allergies For Kids?Science Daily — A little dirt never hurt. But in today’s super-clean world, vaccinations, anti-bacterial soaps, and airtight doors and windows are keeping dirt and disease-causing germs at bay.While staying germ-free can prevent the spread of disease and infections, leading a cleanlier lifestyle may be responsible for an increase in allergies among children.“It’s called the hygiene hypoth...
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Great Snack for the Whole Family
2007-09-03 23:19:00
This is not necessarily a good thing. Usually I am not one to like sweets. I am more likely to eat something salty. The thing is though, we just got these Reeses Snack sters Peanut Butter Explosions on chance. Since the first box, we got 2 more within 2 days! These snacks look just like leftovers from the Reeses factory, little peanut butter chips, crunchy bits, looses Reeses Pieces. I think I like them so much because they do not cause much bloating. They are very light on the stomach, and they aren't TOO sweet. Honestly my daughter has not had too many of them, we eat them so fast! My vote for guilty pleasure of the year for sure.
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And now for something totally unrelated
2007-09-03 04:27:00
A little comic relief never hurt anyone...Walk It Out, Fosse Pirouette Like it's Hot.
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The Caffeine has gotten me!
2007-09-03 04:20:00
Funny story. I have recently begun drinking caffeine 2 weeks ago. I did not have any when I woke up today. I felt tired, shaky, weak, and had a bad headache. The hypochondriac in me kicked in. OMG I Took tylenol then I drank 4 beers my livers failing! WTF Do I do?!?! Then I thought about the coffee. I had a cup, and sure enough I was better. I don't like feeling like that, but I need the stimulation at this point of my life. Note to self: don't let kid get so overloaded that she needs stimulants to make it through the day.
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Before getting that new toy on sale, check this out!
2007-09-03 03:56:00
We all know how hard it is to be vigilant at watching prices when shopping (OK maybe it's not hard for everyone, but it is for me!), but keep this new article from Science Daily in mind when shopping for toys, clothes, anything really that is marked at a discount. Everyone knows that sometimes things aren't even on sale, and stores just put a sale sticker on it anyway, but this is another trick to keep in mind when shopping!Sale s Prices: How Right Digits Affect Perception of DiscountsScience Daily — The amount of the discount may be less important than the numerical value of the farthest right digit, explains a new study from the Journal of Consumer Research. Keith S. Coulter (Clark University) and Robin A. Coulter (University of Connecticut) are the first to identify a visual distortion effect that may influence how consumers look at sale prices.The researchers show that "right-digit effect" influences consumer perception of sale prices. When the right digits are small, peopl...
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Balancing work and play
2007-09-03 03:44:00
Today has been a mediocre day, actually this whole weekend has been pretty mediocre. One problem that faces any parent that has a lot of stress in life, e.g. college and work, needs to find the time to balance interacting with their children and personal recreation time. I am sure many of you agree, this is very hard to manage. For example, I have been going to college and working at college for the past year, 8:00 - 5:00ish everyday during the week. This leaves Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday to accomplish the above mentioned tasks. For the most part, we have not been doing anything personally for us, not in the least part due to the lack of funds. This weekend we tried to do something for us one day, something for our daughter another day, and have a "lazy day" on memorial day. This did not work out so well. It has been so long since we tried to go out and do something that we could not decide on what to do. On Saturday, we just kind of went in circles and stayed ar...
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Fears Learned By Observing Others Are Similar To Those Learned From Direct
2007-08-30 22:16:00
Science Daily — Humans acquire fears using similar neural processes whether they've personally experienced an aversive event or only witnessed it, according to a study by researchers at New York University's Departments of Psychology.Did not think that maybe some random expression of fear by her good ole parents could have triggered a fear response to something unrelated. However, I would also like to find something about genetic variation in inborn fears. Assuming something like being scared of the dark is inborn for a majority of the population, what would happen with changes to expression of this fear.
More About: Direct , Fears , Learned , Dire , Rect

Where do Nightmares Come From?
2007-08-30 21:57:00
I've been pondering a question today that I know almost nothing about. Researched some and still know almost nothing! I was thinking about what makes children, or adults for that matter, naturally scared of something. I am sticking more to young children while pondering this because, they do not have as many cultural and developmental influences as an adult. Has anyone seen a very young child have what could be considered a nightmare (say, under one year of age)? Using my daughter as an example, it seemed that she was fearless for the longest time. Then there came a day when my daughter was suddenly, absolutely terrified of a dancing Jumbah doll It is a stuffed toy that makes farting sounds and bounces up and down. She had loved it the week prior. When I say terrified I mean that she was literally start shaking and run to the other side of the room screaming "NO! NO! NO!". Well, so much for that toy I though, and proceeded to use it as an effective way to keep my daug...
More About: Nightmares , Ares

Just a friendly reminder...
2007-08-29 01:21:00
Just a friendly reminder, you cannot escape your children's illnesses. One week ago I watched in fascination as my daughter suddenly spouted snot out of her nose, wiped it all over her face, and finally rub her face from one side of the couch to the other. Of course a prompt clean up was in order, but I could not help but wonder at what else has served as an impromptu face wipe for my daughter. Sure enough the illness has already passed to everyone in the family. This may not be a problem if you have older children that actually listen, so the well known rules of keeping the family healthy are:1. Wash infected individual's laundry seperately. This includes sheets, blankets, stuffed animals even. Bleach is the universal germ killer.2. Keep handles, door knobs, faucets, and toilets clean. Lysol, or more simply, 70% isopropyl alcohol, which is cheaper and works just as well, will keep these hot spots from spreading germs to everyone very quickly.3. Make sure children follow...
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The sorrows of being self aware
2007-08-28 02:44:00
I find it very hard to come to terms with death, as I am sure most people are. The same end for us all. I will not know what to say when my daughter asks about death, I will never be ready for death, and I will always want to experience more, to learn more. My daughter's self awareness is so awe inspiring, yet so tragic knowing that one day it will be gone. Should I try to leave a mark on the world, or should I just experience everything I can, and provide opportunities for experience to my daughter? I have never been one with much moral fiber, just a wanderer trying to understand what little I can. Wouldn't it be grand to study every intricacy of the human body and it's consciousness and then move on past ourselves to the universe. The most I can hope for is to pass on what little I know. It seems that everything we as humans do with intent is a fight against death. I can't get my head around how some people try to make life harder for others when everyone has such lit...
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Study Links Diabetes and High Fructose Corn Syrup Found in Soda
2007-08-28 02:30:00
Old news, but diabetes in children is on the rise so...here ya go if you have no idea about this yet!"A new study released Thursday suggests sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup may contribute to the development of diabetes. The study from researchers at Rutgers University, shows sodas sweetened with high fructose corn syrup contain high levels of compounds that previous research suggests may play a role in the development of diabetes."
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Already planning vacation...Alaska??
2007-08-27 01:44:00
I'm starting to think of vacation already, sometime in the next 12 months. Having not been out of state but a handful of times, I am thinking of going to somewhere like Alaska . Why? Can't really answer that, just always wanted to go. I'm not really big on going to a large city for vacation, and since this will be our first vacation as a family, it has to include our daughter, so no Las Vegas or anything! Wherever we end up going, lots of research needs to be done. It would be nice if we knew people in another state that could show us around, and keep us away from trouble spots. I'm so excited!
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Conditioning kids to be fearful of men?
2007-08-27 00:13:00
Just read something that I had not thought about before, and really, am not too sure about. Are we teaching our kids to be fearful of men? I've never thought about it before, as my child is never really in a situation where she could be easily separated or on her own right now, but these lessons are coming up soon. Would I tell her to seek a safe person such as a pregnant lady or older woman? Does this instill an un-spoken notion that all men are by nature unsafe? I would like to think not, but the truth is that it does. I would not tell my daughter to seek out an older male for example, even though I do not think this stereotype is necessarily true in all regards, however, it is true that most predators are male (reported ones anyway). Instead, what ever happened to find a person in uniform? Find the manager's office? Go to a public place, restaurant, etc?"Are we teaching children that men are out to hurt them? The answer, on many fronts, is yes. Child advocate John Walsh ...
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