MetaFilter posts tagged with Children

Softies for Mirabel

hecho de la basura — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:56:17 -0800

In its' third year, Softies for Mirabel is an appeal for handmade stuffed toys to benefit children supported by The Mirabel Foundation. The Mirabel Foundation is an Australian nonprofit organization whose aim is to support children who are abandoned or orphaned due to parental illicit drug use. Softies (also sometimes referred to as plushies or plush toys) are popular among crafters as making one can be as simple or as complicated as the maker desires. Take a look at the Softies for Mirabel Flickr group for inspiration and get cracking, but hurry, deadline is December 10.

Flatpots, Fire Corals, and Four Blasters

Iridic — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 11:39:44 -0800

A Common Nomenclature for Lego Families.

Good Night and Tough Luck

nooneyouknow — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:55:24 -0800

Good Night and Tough Luck "Getting a good night’s sleep is actually a lot more complicated than one would think." An amusing look at the problems involved in getting a good night's sleep.

Poland Approves Mandatory "Chemical Castration" Drug Treatment for Convicted Pedophiles

zarq — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 10:56:48 -0800

In response to an incest case in which a man imprisoned, raped and fathered two children with his own daughter, Poland's Lower House of Parliament has approved an amendment to their penal code which makes chemical castration of pedophiles mandatory in certain cases. The bill still needs final approval from the Upper House of Parliament and President Lech Kaczynski, but passage is considered inevitable. Poland would be the first nation in the EU to make such drug treatment obligatory. Similar, voluntary policies for convicted sex offenders currently exist in Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Canada, eight US states (pdf) and South Korea. The severity of the impending Polish law has sparked a debate in the EU as well as increased attention on whether the Czech Republic's voluntary chemical castration program is humane and effective.

Get your Saturday morning on

Rhaomi — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 09:27:21 -0800

Saturday morning cartoons were once a staple of American television, but by the year 2000 they had all but disappeared. Of course, the Internet never forgets. Case in point: Cartoon Network Video -- a free, searchable, ad-supported service that provides hundreds of full-length episodes of classic shows like Dexter's Laboratory, Cow and Chicken, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Johnny Bravo, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, and The Powerpuff Girls, as well as current offerings and scads of shorter material. Too recent for you? Then give Kids WB Video a whirl -- it does the same thing with the same interface, but for older programs like Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Scooby-Doo, Thundercats, and the original Space Ghost. If you're in the mood to learn (and don't mind some live-action), PBS Kids Video has educational fare such as Arthur, Wishbone, and Zoom. And don't forget about Sesame Street, The Electric Company, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, The Magic Schoolbus and Schoolhouse Rock! Now if only we had some Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs...

An Iwo Jima Relic Binds Generations

alms — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:09:27 -0800

An Iwo Jima Relic Binds Generations. (SLNYTTJ - single-link new york times tear-jerker.)

Technology for helicopter parents

desjardins — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:51:56 -0800

Your mother has eyes in the back of her head. Chicago Public Schools sends parents a text message when their child is not in class or the kid's grades slip. Mayor Daley attends a demonstration. Chicago is not the only school district to use this technology. It's used in Calloway County, Kentucky. Memphis, Tennessee, and Saratoga Springs, New York, to name a few. It's not just used for monitoring your kids' grades. In San Antonio, you can also monitor the presidential propaganda that's fed to your kids! But what if you want to monitor the text messages your kids receive? Radar alerts you when a "suspicious" person texts, calls, or emails your kid.

The Philly Phanatic

Mayor Curley — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 07:49:29 -0800

Analyst Tim McCarver calls the Philly Phanatic "The best mascot in baseball." However, former Slim-Fast pitchman and ex Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda hates him. On being in the Phanatic costume Tom Burgoyne, who has had the role since 1993, says "I feel like I'm reliving my childhood." However, the Philly Phanatic is not always the funniest thing happening at Citizens Bank Park.

Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia

cashman — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 10:30:09 -0800

Neuroscientist Lise Eliot finds that claims of sex differences fall apart. In one study, scientists dressed newborns in gender-neutral clothes and misled adults about their sex. The adults described the "boys" (actually girls) as angry or distressed more often than did adults who thought they were observing girls, and described the "girls" (actually boys) as happy and socially engaged more than adults who knew the babies were boys. Dozens of such disguised-gender experiments have shown that adults perceive baby boys and girls differently, seeing identical behavior through a gender-tinted lens. "Eliot immersed herself in hundreds of scientific papers (her bibliography runs 46 pages). Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia, she explains that assertions of innate sex differences in the brain are either "blatantly false," "cherry-picked from single studies," or "extrapolated from rodent research" without being confirmed in people. For instance, the idea that the band of fibers connecting the right and left brain is larger in women, supposedly supporting their more "holistic" thinking, is based on a single 1982 study of only 14 brains. Fifty other studies, taken together, found no such sex difference—not in adults, not in newborns. Other baseless claims: that women are hard-wired to read faces and tone of voice, to defuse conflict, and to form deep friendships; and that "girls' brains are wired for communication and boys' for aggression." Eliot's inescapable conclusion: there is "little solid evidence of sex differences in children's brains.""

Ozmapolitan

crossoverman — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:59:20 -0800

Somewhere, over the rainbow, way up high,
There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.

The MGM musical version of L. Frank Baum's 1900 children's book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz turned 70 this week. It wasn't the first time it was a movie, nor the last time it was a movie or a movie musical. You just keep on keepin' on the road that you choose Don't you give up walking cause you gave up shoes Ease on down, Ease on down the road (come on) Many people read politics into the story, some read queer sexualties into it. Adapted as a radio play in 1908, Oz has been sequalised, reinterpreted, reimagined twice as science fiction and Muppet-ised. So if you care to find me Look to the western sky As someone told me lately - Everyone deserves the chance to fly Gregory Maguire's literary reinterpretation is a parallel novel (and the musical a further interpretation on top of that), while Ruth Plumly Thompson followed Baum's 14 Oz books with 19 novels - the bulk of the "Famous Forty" canon novels. Talk of another film. The Wiki of Oz.

Top things the < 18 set looks for on internets

ShadePlant — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:49:34 -0800

Top 100 search terms of the <18 crowd during summer. If you're Glenn Quagmire, don't read this. All others, continue! An article with at least superficial credibility (they admit kids search for porn, etc.) about what kids, tweens and teens search for online. Randomness includes Megan Fox, Walmart, Youtube and Naked Girls. (And Craigslist. What the hell do kids need on Craigslist?)

Alright! Let's go on a journey — through time and space! There are 95 Pokemon stamps! Let's get all of them!

silby — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 10:08:37 -0800

"And much like Christmas, originally about the birth of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about buying things for people and hoping that they buy more things for you, much how Easter, originally about the death of a religious savior-figure named Jesus, is now about receiving rabbit- or egg-shaped chocolates, now and forever Obon is about collecting all of the Pokemon." Japan, trains, marketing, pachinko, hordes of stamp-seeking children.

Splat No More

Servo5678 — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 11:23:07 -0800

Childrens' cable television mainstay and media brand Nickelodeon is rebranding as "The Nick" with a new splat-less logo. "The decision to streamline the network identities came after [Nickelodeon execs] started putting all of the channels' logos on the same business card--and decided that it looked like a mess." Just kidding about "The Nick", but the rest is true.

trippy kids' show from the 50s :P

kliuless — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 05:55:42 -0800

Andy's Gang - 1 2 3: "The green puppet, Froggy the Gremlin, appeared in a puff of smoke, and was always interrupting the story." Yes, sir, we're pals and pals stick together. And now gang, don't forget church or Sunday school! bonus -Soupy & Pookie -Howdy Doody and Buffalo Bob make Ice Cream Sodas! (Ernie makes Bert an ice cream soda :) -Clarabell Speaks -ANDY KAUFMAN INTERVIEWING HOWDY DOODY

Censorship lives!

bad grammar — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:13:37 -0800

This site deserves to rank with this site and this one. Given the blatant ideology and the questionable aesthetics, it resembles a parody, but in the post-Palin era, it's become impossible to tell.

Defining passion, as a mother

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 27 May 2009 08:38:48 -0800

"Yes, I have four children. Four children with whom I spend a good part of every day: bathing them, combing their hair, sitting with them while they do their homework, holding them while they weep their tragic tears. But I'm not in love with any of them. I am in love with my husband."

Daddy, Mommy, More Video

netbros — Mon, 25 May 2009 06:16:58 -0800

TotLol is a video website designed specifically for children. It is community moderated Youtube. The videos are submitted, screened and rated by parents. Some samples include: Bassett Hound Beat Box, Guitar Tips for Kids, and a Children's Book on India. Educational and fun.

When women hide behind their children on Facebook

Locative — Sat, 16 May 2009 07:42:18 -0800

Get Your Kid Off Your Facebook Page by Katie Roiphe You click on a friend's name and what comes into focus is not a photograph of her face, but a sleeping blond four-year-old, or a sun-hatted baby running on the beach. Here, harmlessly embedded in one of our favorite methods of procrastination, is a potent symbol for the new century. Where have all of these women gone? What, some future historian may very well ask, do all of these babies on our Facebook pages say about the construction of women’s identity at this particular moment in time?

Watch from behind the sofa

Artw — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:30:53 -0800

Is Doctor Who too scary for kids? Parents surveyed by TheBabyWebsite seem to think so. But is being scared a good thing? (via io9)

SpongeBob SquarePants at 10

ColdChef — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:58:37 -0800

“He’s courageous, he’s optimistic, he’s representing everything that Mickey Mouse should have represented but never did. There’s even something Jesus-like about him—a 9-year-old Jesus after 15 packets of Junior Mints.” SpongeBob SquarePants at ten years old.

Won't Someone Think of the Parents?!

grapefruitmoon — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:43:05 -0800

International Adoption may not necessarily be helping the disadvantaged in Third World countries as advertised. In some countries, like Guatemala and India, children are simply stolen from their families. The Hague Convention governs the rules for International Adoptions, but like all rules, they aren't always followed. Many adoptive parents believe that their children have been given up, but in some countries, "orphanage" doesn't mean what you think it means. Even in China, where girls have been legitimately abandoned due to the "one child" policy, the demand for adoptable children has simply outstripped the supply, leading to stealing babies. In other cases, parents are offered incentives to sell their children to orphanages.

Anna Skladmann's Little Adults

chunking express — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 07:26:59 -0800

Anna Skladmann's Little Adults. Photographs of the children of the ultra-rich in Russia.

Did corporal punishment save a struggling school?

jeeves — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:00:08 -0800

Three years ago, David Nixon took over the principalship at John C. Calhoun Elementary School. "Thirty minutes into his first day of school at John C, a father walked into Nixon's office and said, 'I want to give you the authority to whip my son's butt.' Nixon was surprised, but after he thought it over, he decided to give every parent the same option." Did corporal punishment save a struggling school? As of 2008, corporal punishment in American schools is legal in twenty-one states (no longer in Utah), mostly in the southeast. Children with disabilities, minority children, and boys are physically disciplined in schools disproportionately more often than other children, as noted by Human Rights Watch (report) and the Center for Effective Discipline (resources). Still-fascinating Corpun (previously) claims that most American students prefer the "'short sharp shock' of intense but brief pain to long, tedious hours of unhealthy incarceration," and observes that in South Korea, where corporal punishment is both legal and sometimes abusive, seventy percent of students think that teachers' use of the cane is fair. The American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (policy) and the American Academy of Pediatrics (policy) both oppose corporal punishment in schools. The AAP also discourages the use of corporal punishment in the home. Elizabeth Gershoff's famous 2002 meta-analysis of 88 studies found ten "strong associations" between corporal punishment and negative child behaviors and experiences. Her 2008 summary report on principles and practices of effective discipline includes 130 references providing evidence and arguments against the use of physical punishment. Not everyone agrees that corporal punishment is always detrimental. (Indeed, Gershoff's meta-study received comments questioning its validity.) Robert Larzelere argues counter to Gershoff that "detrimental child outcomes are associated with the frequency of any disciplinary tactic, not just physical punishment," suggesting that "excessive misbehavior . . . is the actual cause of detrimental outcomes in children." Larzelere and Brett Kuhn's own 2005 meta-analysis finds that optimized corporal punishment results in significantly better outcomes (PDF) than alternatives like time-out, reasoning, privilege removal, scolding, and ignoring. Their executive summary (PDF) asserts that "outcomes of physical discipline depend on how it is applied." They castigate previous studies for ignoring the distinction between abusive vs. optimal use of corporal punishment. The Economist comments on the rapid decline of school corporal punishment elsewhere in the world and refers to the United Nations campaign to end all corporal punishment of children by 2009 as a piece of "Utopian dottiness." Back at John C. Calhoun Elementary, referrals to the principal's office have gone down by 80% since David Nixon's arrival, and the school has won "three statewide Palmetto awards, one for academic performance and two for overall improvement—the school's first such honors in its 35-year history. Not everyone agrees with his methods, but most parents and teachers will tell you [Nixon] couldn't have pulled off such a turnaround without his wooden paddle."

The sins of the fathers

Joe Beese — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:52:02 -0800

Yarl's Wood immigration removal centre has seen hunger strikes and rioting. Now the British government has issued a report finding that its children "are being denied urgent medical treatment, handled violently and left at risk of serious harm". The Border and Immigration Minister replies, "If people refuse to go home then detention becomes a necessity." Plans have been approved to double the size of the facility. Of course, the right-wing feels that the detainees have it too good already.

Child labor in Bangladesh

Joe Beese — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 08:51:11 -0800

Child labor in Bangladesh

MetaFilter posts tagged with Children

Softies for Mirabel

Flatpots, Fire Corals, and Four Blasters

Good Night and Tough Luck

Poland Approves Mandatory "Chemical Castration" Drug Treatment for Convicted Pedophiles

Get your Saturday morning on

An Iwo Jima Relic Binds Generations

Technology for helicopter parents

The Philly Phanatic

Marching through the claims like Sherman through Georgia

Ozmapolitan

Top things the < 18 set looks for on internets

Alright! Let's go on a journey — through time and space! There are 95 Pokemon stamps! Let's get all of them!

Splat No More

trippy kids' show from the 50s :P

Censorship lives!

Defining passion, as a mother

Daddy, Mommy, More Video

When women hide behind their children on Facebook

Watch from behind the sofa

SpongeBob SquarePants at 10

Won't Someone Think of the *Parents?!*

Anna Skladmann's Little Adults

Did corporal punishment save a struggling school?

The sins of the fathers

Child labor in Bangladesh

Won't Someone Think of the Parents?!