Just in time for the weekend, here's some news you can use--to help figure out how you're doing, parenting-wise:
First up, the big news for parents of kids born in 2007: The CDC has released the provisional numbers, and your kid's chances of getting into Harvard could not be worse. A record 4.3 million births last year. On the bright side, at least 2.15 million of those kids are already hooked on Baby Einstein. So maybe Oberlin. [cdc.gov]
Or maybe Bard? The Boston Globe just published the results of a study they conducted: seeing what would happen if their resident classical music nerd had a baby and 2,000 words to play with. The result is as expected: Baby Mozart is out, and Baby Schoenberg, Baby Webern, and Baby Schnittke are in. I had to look that last one up. [globe via dt freakout correspondent sara]
Actually, here's a perfect paragraph from the article itself:Speaking by phone from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, [music researcher] Hannon said this meant that infants start life with the ability to perceive complex rhythms but that they lose this skill unless it is called upon in their environment. Hannon was hesitant to make sweeping generalizations based on her research, so I'll do it instead. Clearly, if we want babies to retain the ability to perceive rhythmic complexity, they should be exposed to rhythmically complex music from a very early age.
emphasis added for awesome effect.
It's just a plant. A plant found in a plastic bag in a 2-year-old's lunch at daycare. After he was dropped off by the dad's girlfriend. Or as the kid's mom likes to call her, "that no-good pothead bitch who stole my husband." [charlotte sun & herald, port charlotte fl via dt reader ponch]
We knew back in February that Spike Jonze's adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are was running into some, uh, constructive criticism from the studio. Also, test audiences who saw it in-progress found the story of a disobedient child running away with a bunch of monsters to be somewhat dark. [really??] Now the LATimes has the studio line about how taking the film off the release calendar altogether is a positive development. Oy. [lat via kottke]
And last but not least, a dad in South Carolina tried to beat the gay demons out of his son with a baseball bat. [independentmail via andy]
Take the time to wade through the comments on that last story, speaking of "Oy". Or tsuris.
That is a fascinating set of comments: talk about a Rorsarch test.
he initial story sparked threads on discipline, trust in the media, hate crimes and bible history.
Threads that reflect the cultural controversies of our society, writ small. Interesting to that some of the poster claim personal knowledge of the family, and believe the police report is a spite act by a troubled child.
PS. I had to lift the best (IMHO) of the biblical posts:
@ Dixieman: Wow... First off it amazes me that people are still reading the King James Version. EVERY reputable bible scholar in the world has agreed that it is an errant copy of an errant Latin text and that King James authorized a few tweaks here and there so it was more in line with his beliefs. Second if you want to quote Leviticus and take it literally you'd probably need to look inward a bit. There are many laws in Leviticus that practically no one follows today (i.e. eating pork, planting multiple crops in the same field..garden anyone?, and pastors being free from blemishes, eye defects, physical disabilities, and having perfect testicles - Leviticus 21:16-21). I doubt you've looked under your pastors robe lately...else you might have to consider yourself amongst the "queers."