Browsing all posts in November, 2009.
A Neutrino Walks into a Bar…
I am not a fan of pseudoscience. I know, you’re shocked. I generally do not give my money to any endeavor which supports pseudoscience. Just as I do not see movies with Tom Cruise or Mel Gibson. Why would I give them a dime? But hubby declared Wednesday to be family day, and there was [...]
Why Don’t We Stock Pepper in L&D?
“When God the creator of the universe in the first establishment of the world differentiated the individual natures of things each according to its kind, He endowed human nature above all other things with a singular dignity, giving to it above the condition of all other animals freedom of reason and intellect. And wishing to [...]
The Mother’s Holiday Survival Guide
It’s that time of year again, when we engage in the ancient pagan ritual of stuffing ourselves until we vomit, followed by watching sweaty men engage in physical combat in an arena in the name of sport. [What? You think the Pilgrims invented overeating?] So, as we traipse across the country (or the city) to [...]
Why Your Teen is an Emotional Mess
We parents are often stymied by how a teenager can turn a papercutter into an emotional crisis. Honest-to-your-favorite-deity, the Goth one day had a total meltdown over a missing piece of a papercutter. Which HE was the last one to use. Who knew papercutters were such emotionally hot-button issues? I would have guessed postage stamps, [...]
Madame Trota Tells it All
Quick recap: Europe, stuck in the dark ages, has only a few second hand medical texts from the good old days of Rome. Mostly Hippocratic “common knowledge” rules the day; Soranus, that great obstetrician of antiquity, has been largely forgotten; Galen has disappeared into the Byzantine Empire. Sudden contact with the Arab world during the [...]
To Science, or Not to Science
I ran across this study this weekend. A bunch of kids in 7th grade (11 and 12) were polled about future career choices. The results were tabulated against parents’ careers, and the student’s own later education. The results show that kids in the 11 and 12 year age range have a pretty good idea of [...]
The Engineer Syndrome
The nice elderly gentleman bagging my groceries this evening spent a great deal of time stacking them just so. Then he rearranged them. Then stacked. Then rearranged. I must have been staring. Or maybe I had that impatient expression of someone who realizes that it’s 4:30 and she’s not getting any younger. He explained that [...]
World War II and the WHO
We temporarily leave the dark ages to comment on a study I saw this week about the WHO’s C-section rate recommendations. First, some background. The natural childbirth movement in America began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The origins are mucky and unclear. It is often touted as a feminist response to the increasingly [...]
Food Wars, Part 5,349
I have expounded, in the past, about the utility of a scorecard when dealing with a child’s food choices. I have since decided that the scorecard is irrelevant. Scorecards only work when the rules stay the same from one game to the next; if the rules of the game change, calculating the stats is virtually [...]
Not Necessarily News
For those of you who were busy this weekend, doing parenting type things, the Mother (who apparently had nothing to do but read ridiculous news blurbs) has prepared this update on the latest, most important, and most revolutionary news items from the science world. Meddling parents may have a negative impact on their kids–because we [...]
