DT Friday Freakout: Nuclear Edition

Here are some stories from the science, safety, and parenting worlds designed to help give your confidence a little extra push--over the cliff. Have a great weekend!

Actually, these first two are just funny-sad:

• Do you remember going outside to build snowmen from the nuclear fallout that rained down on you as a child? No, of course not, only Baby Boomers do. And thanks to a study of 85,000 baby teeth collected in the 1960's, all those kids will now die of cancer. [Note to the earnest professor who wants to get that story out: Christie Brinkley attending your press conference is not as effective as getting your paper accepted into a peer-reviewed journal.] [politicsdaily.com via the awl]


• Also, the big crisis in Pakistan today is the wave of miltant attacks on civilian targets that killed up to 24 people the suicide bomber attack on one of the military's purported nuclear weapons installations the wannabe writer who just found out his will-blog-for-money sock puppet pseudonym Ernest Dempsey was factchecked and laughed at on Daddy Types two-plus years ago, and took the whole thing as an affront to his "tribal area-adjacent" culture. Great writers from great countries cop to their mistakes and just shrug off their critics, Karim! [daddytypes]

• True, the rabbits died, but their transplanted uteri were fine. Which is enough for an English bookie somewhere to take bets on the Times of London's headline, "First womb transplant could take place in 2 years." [timesonline.co.uk]
• The Mocha Moms [aka, the every-Tuesday, NPR-sponsored, bane of my kindergarten pickup line existence] successfully bludgeoned a hapless Swedish children's rights advocate into silence last week, thereby preserving their Biblically sanctioned right to beat the children they love. Listener reaction was surprisingly mixed! [npr.org]
• The only thing left of her was a blood-stained PDF copy of Save The Children Sweden's report, Never Violence: Thirty Years on from Sweden's Abolition of Corporal Punishment, published in partnership with the Ministry of Social Affairs, which wasn't that easy to find, so I'm mirroring it here: NeverViolenceSweden2009.pdf
• Speaking of beatdowns, the New Yorker's Daniel Zalewski delivers several to current children's book authors who depict powerless, incompetent parents. Which, truth be told, was only fourth on my 100 Things I Hate About The Pinkalicious Franchise list. A must-read before bedtime. [newyorker.com via @jodikantor]
• I know a lot of people are waiting to see if their kid gets into Harvard before demanding a refund from Baby Einstein. But if you're the impatient and easily dissatisfied type, and your kid's IQ did not, in fact, jump 10 points while you were in the shower, Disney is offering you a full refund. No proof of your child's averageness is required. Details at the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood [commercialexploitation.org, thanks dt sr freakout correspondent sara]

• Fetal exposure to stress hormones was linked to male fertility problems later in life. The kid's that is. So worrying about becoming a mother gives you a great leg up on worrying about becoming a grandmother! [sciencedaily; abstract at endojournals.org]
• When covered by insurance, IVF results in fewer multiple births. [sciencedaily]
• As early as five months, kids can tell human speech from a monkey call. But they can't distinguish between CNN and Fox News. Hey-o, thanks, you guys are great. I'll be here all week. [sciencedaily]
• You remember David Vetter? No, he's not the conservative, family values senator from Louisiana who frequents prostitutes in a diaper and hates interracial marriage. That's David Vitter. David Vetter was the Boy In The Plastic Bubble who had a big comeback with Pulp Fiction died young, but a 26-year study at Duke found that a bone marrow transplant pretty much clears that whole "I have no immune system!" thing right up. [sciencedaily]
• Using a bunch of math tricks Jennie McCarthy will never believe, [hippie!] researchers at UC Davis found that autistic kids have the same blood-mercury levels as non-autistic kids. Not that that means anything, mind you! Seriously, half their press release is pre-emptive vacctivist tampdown. [sciencedaily]
• Wired Magazine has like ten articles on vaccine scares under a heading, "War on Science." [Um...boo? Yay, Science!...?] I haven't read a single one, because if I had three spare hours, I'd drive the kids around the city looking for flu shots. [Wired]