• If pollution caused premature births, it would be enough. If preeclampsia occurred more frequently in Long Beach, it would be enough. But holy crap, the actual headline is, "L.A. Traffic Causing Premature Births: Study" [discovery.com via dt reader dt]


• That's what she said: That tree that Manhattan mom's telling her kid to pee behind is just too small! [nyt blogs]


• According to a new Australian study, "Daily sex (or ejaculating daily) for seven days improves men's sperm quality by reducing the amount of DNA damage." Whether this is enough improvement to increase pregnancy rates or to help fertility treatments is not known; obviously, much more research is needed. sciencedaily]


• A U of Minn study [?] paper [?] says that delaying having kids improves their relative position in the gene pool. But wait. In March, a different study found kids born to older dads do worse on cognitive tests. So does that mean that the dumber kids of older parents are dragging the average down even more? [sciencedaily]


• Because of communistical health systems in some countries like England, fertility tourism is the new hotness in Europe. [sciencedaily]


• And in completely related news, in 2007, 20% of British survey respondents admitted to having sex with a new partner while traveling abroad. Half of all those new hookups were with fellow expat Brits. [sciencedaily]

Meanwhile, I've loaded some appropriate educational materials onto the iPod to help the kid with her early American history. Have a great holiday--unless you're British, in which case, IN YOUR FACE, KING! HA!

Indeed. Congratulations to Cookie editor Meryl's friend Sara and her husband for this innovative use of an automotive tool cart for a smart, sleek and chic industrial-style changing table!

The industrial changing table that launched Daddy Types, which I made from a $50 Harbor Freight enameled steel tool cart, is still going strong, though we haven't used it as a changing table for K2, so much as a diaper and blanket dumping ground.

Also, Colgate seems to have bulked up the Mini-Contour Changing Pad, which used to be 30-inches long, and is now 33".

Meanwhile, I've been looking to swap it out with a real rolling tool chest, like an old Snap-on or Matco, etc., or a Craftsman from the Good Old Days, to hold all the kid's art supplies and stuff. They're harder to find than I would've expected.

Change for the better [cookiemag via swiss-miss]
Sunex International 8013 Service Cart, $139 [amazon]
Previously, 2007: another awesome cart-turned-industrial changing table

Un. freaking. believable.

Also, Shaiunna? Or is it too soon to ask?

OXFORD, FLORIDA -- Charges Possible in Python Strangling + VIDEO [floridaytoday via everyone]

Remind me again why I lament the absence of awesome euro station wagons in the US when there's a perfectly restored 1971 Citroen DS21 on eBay right now?

Why cry over not being able to spend EUR30,000 on an Opel, when I could probably get the DS home for a mere fraction of that?

How much more could it cost to have A/C added before the resto is complete [because, uh, obviously, it's still in progress]? And couldn't I get some LATCH attachments welded deep within the seat frame somewhere for a few pennies more?

Am I the only one thinking this? I must be, because even though the Citroen was the family car of the Citroen specialist, the auction's got three days to go, and it hasn't even cracked $2,000 yet.

1971 Citroen DS 21 (ID21F) Wagon(Break), currently $1,825, reserve not met, auction ends July 4th [ebaymotors thanks dt reader and fellow citroeniste, uhh...]

Like the Canadian author Susan Pinker, who argued a bit too myopically about the scientific proof of genetic and neurologically based differences between men and women in her 2008 book, The Sexual Paradox. In another Swedish article last week, Pinker warned of the pent-up damage being done by "family secrets," even though Jonas and Nora make very clear that their kid Pop's gender isn't a secret to Pop, just to everyone whose first passing question is, "Ooh, what did you have?" As if it really matters to them anyway. [Sample quote, with a double bonus Swedish vocabulary lesson: "There is nothing that is taboo or hush. Pop himself [sic] is fully aware of what's between their legs and their parents have talked to Pop that all children have either a snopp or a snippa."]

And now the NY Times' commenters have hopped on Pop, too. Lisa Belkin posted about Pop on Motherlode, and got 200 comments in a couple of hours. Pop would hit puberty before I get through them all, and then what's the point?

Pop's parents cite their feminist beliefs when explaining their disdain for the pervasiveness of gender-based expectations, biases, and social constructs. Which is truer than anyone seems to realize.

In 1972, the writer and NY Times columnist Lois Gould published X: A Fabulous Child's Story in the children's story section of Ms. Magazine that sounds word for word like the script for the Pop Drama playing out in Sweden. [No, I didn't know Ms. had a children's story section, either, but it's apparently where Marlo Thomas's Free to Be...You and Me originated.]

Gould's story was later republished as a stand-alone book in 1978 with illustrations by Jacqueline Chwast and it's this later version which Julia Mickenberg and Philip Nel include in their tantalizing anthology, Tales for Little Rebels: A Collection of Radical Children's Literature.

X is a feminist fairy tale that's adorably utopian in some respects and chillingly naive in others--See if you can tell which is which! X's parents were selected to raise X as X as part of a massive, "and very important Secret Scientific Xperiment known officially as Project Baby X." The 23 billion dollar and 72 cent project provided them with a several thousand-page Official Instruction Manual that anticipated every possible parenting challenge and provided precise instructions for raising X without any gender bias.

Ms. and Mr. Jones had to promise they would take equal turns caring for X and feeding it, and singing it lullabies.

And they had to promise never to hire any babysitters. The government scientists knew perfectly well that the baby-sitter would probably peek at X in the bathtub, too.

Clearly, nothing was wrong at all. Nevertheless, nobody they knew felt comfortable buying a present for a Baby X. The cousin who sent a tiny football helmet would not come and visit any more. And the neighbors who sent a pink-flowered romper suit pulled their shades down when the Joneses passed their house.

The Official Instruction Manual had warned the new parents that this would happen, so they didn't fret about it. Besides, they were too busy with Baby X and the hundreds of different Xercises for treating it properly.

And while every adult within earshot was having conniptions over X's threat to Society, and the PTA was rallying to get X Xpelled, all their children were reveling in X's liberated lifestyle:

"Come to think of it," said another one of the Other Children, "maybe X is having twice as much fun as we are!"...Then Jim, the class football nut, started wheeling his little sister's doll carriage around the football field."

But on a base level, I'm only asking to be nice; it really doesn't matter to me whether your new kid is a boy or a girl. And so I don't see the big deal about Pop's parents' decision; if they have the stamina to pull it off, be my guest.

Anish Kapoor, the British elemental sculptor who you may know from such public sculptures as the Bean in Chicago, was the artistic director of the Brighton Festival this year. Which gave him the opportunity he'd been waiting for "for a long time," to create a gigantic, blood-red sculpture of a chopped up female martyr.

Those two mounds of red rock in the old municipal bus depot, then, would be the breasts. And that pit there in the middle, that is the "Womb Pit." And those craggy things there on the left are the legs. And all together, they make Dismemberment of Jeanne d'Arc.

Never mind that Jeanne d'Arc was a virgin famous for dressing as a man before she was burned at the stake for defeating the British. I'm sure it all made sense at the time. The Brighton Festival ended May 24th.

Controversy? What controversy?Anish Kapoor's journey into blood, guts and controversy [guardian via c-monster]

I have to post this, not just because Das Racist's interview in the Village Voice is awesome, or because they address the Important Issues of The Day ["DID YOU KNOW THAT 1/3 OF ALL THREE-YEAR-OLDS IN URBAN AREAS ARE OBESE? I'M ALMOST POSITIVE I READ THAT ON THE INTERNET"; "Luckily, 'hipster' begins with 'H,' and so I don't have to deal with some Hindu hipster hybrid word. 'Indie-an' could work, though..."]

No, I had to post it but because the kid overheard this song and got all fact-checky on them: "Uh-uh, it's a combination KFC and Taco Bell!"

A Chat with Das Racist, the Geniuses Behind "Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell" [vv via afc]

The Opel Insignia EcoFlex Sports Tourer is somehow environmentally friendly. I don't speak German, though, and all I can figure is that it gets good mileage [over 50 mpg]. The Insignia just won the 2009 European Car of the Year. It has a 2.0L CDI diesel engine, yet it apparently drives surprisingly well.

It seems like an ideal, high-quality, high-efficiency family car that could find great, Jetta SportWagon-style success in the US. Maybe Saturn will put the Insignia Wagon on the fast track for its US rebadging efforts.

Oh, wait, that's right. GM dumped Saturn onto the Penske dealer network a week after it sold off 65% of Opel and Vauxhall to a Russo-Canadian-employee-dealer consortium. Thus ensuring that the probability of GM ever bringing an awesome-seeming family-friendly ride like the Insignia to the US market is actually somehow less than zero.

Opel adds Sports Tourer Wagon to Insignia ecoFlex line [autobloggreen.com via dt reader david]

I just posted some photos from a few months ago of the finished crib/toddler bed I made for the kid, which didn't get finished until K2 came along. And even then...

For those who have read my essay on oblivious- and superficial-sounding parental failure in Dooce's anthology, this is what I was talking about.

Maybe I've been so slow to post these pics because I've been waiting to see that no one brains herself on those Jorgensen clamp handles. [And no, no one has, not even ever close.]

DT Project: The Juddy crib/toddler bed photoset [flickr]

The horror... the ridiculous horror...

I've been trying to work out the script where this dopey gringa gone-native is Dennis Hopper, and the man living on this abandoned doll-covered chinampa is Kurtz, which would make the canals of the Mexico City borough of Xochimilco the Nung River, and which would make me--or you, fellow YouTube viewer--Charlie Sheen. But it's not coming, and all I know is, I've never wanted a machete more than I do right now.

This OMGOMG nonsense makes the clip from the Mexican In Search Of... feel like freakin' 60 Minutes:

half-baked explanation: Mexico's Isla De Las Muñecas [boingboing]

That's right, it's only $899 now, but on July 1st, the price of a new Bugaboo Cameleon jumps $80 to $979.

And a new Frog hops a whole $130, from $629 to $759.

So if you're in the market for a Bugaboo, your money-saving clock is ticking.

But some things won't change: the Bee will stay right where it is at $529, and the Cameleon being sold by some total scam artist on Amazon for $1,500 will still be insanely overpriced. Does anyone police this stuff?

Buy a Bugaboo through Amazon US before July 1st, and DT makes several fewer dollars! [amazon]
Buy a Bugaboo from DT Sponsor JoggingStroller.com before July 1st, and DT gets a cut of a lower sale price! [joggingstroller.com]

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The homebrewed messy modernist snake has eaten its tail, and it looks awesome. Andy Beach's April retail colabo in Milan with Apartamento Magazine has now gotten the The Selby treatment.

Which means you can see the full-color, reissued awesomeness of Enzo Mari's cardboard play screen without spending a hundred euros or whatever.

And you can get closeup to Max Lamb's sweet, little knock-together stools, which he apparently whipped up in a morning with a Japanese saw, a power screwdriver, and a few pieces of 1-by planed pine board. They're not necessarily kid-sized, but they are small. And between The Selby's photos and the instructions for Lamb's similar DIY chair in Apartamento #2, you could probably concoct a tidy little set of kid's play furniture. And it could be largely splinter-free!

everyday life objects shop milan [theselby.com]
Max Lamb - Bringing material to life, in seemingly bootlegged pdf format [institutfatima.org]