June 2009 Archives
Lenore Skenazy: Why I'm Raising Free-Range Kids
Skenazy writes that DVDs of the first five seasons of Sesame Street (1969-1974) are labeled adults-only, because they show kids playing on their own: "'These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups.'... The wimps at PBS refuse to sanction any notion that kids can play on their own anymore. So now it's modeling the NEW norm: Constant parental supervision."
news from me - Michael Jackson, R.I.P.
Mark Evanier remembers working with Jackson on a cartoon show that never got off the ground.
Detroit Votes To Demolish 1923 Lafayette Building
More vandalism from the Detroit Undevelopment Authority.
Men My Mother Dated (and Other Mostly True Tales) by Brett Leveridge: Bob Wills
Funny, plausible anecdote: "It wasn't long before Dad felt a tap-tap-tap upon his shoulder, signifying that someone was seeking to cut in, to take a turn around the floor with Mom. By now you must surely have guessed that it was Wills. Dad graciously stepped aside and Mom found herself firmly in Wills' clutches.
"Mom felt there was little she could do but make the best of the situation, grit her teeth, and behave in gracious fashion until song's end...."
Charting America's Best Food Stops - WSJ.com
"Jane and Michael Stern select the country's top all-American dishes in '500 Things to Eat Before It's Too Late.'" Murphy's Steakhouse in Bartlesville gets a mention.
The Baldwin Project: Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall
"A child's history of England from earliest legendary times delightfully retold. Beginning with the stories of Albion and Brutus, it relates all the interesting legends and hero tales in which the history of England abounds through the end of the reign of Queen Victoria." Read it online or buy the book.
Brits at their Best: The British Constitution
Magna Carta, the Coronation Oath, the Statute of Westminster, the Bill of Rights of 1689: Elements of the foundation of the Anglosphere's heritage of liberty.
389 - America's Mean Streak « Strange Maps
A map of the west-southwestward course of the mean center of population for the United States. It's currently headed down I-44; if it continues on the same course, Tulsa will be the population center around 2050.
Yogi's Den: That's My World - Tulsa's Midcontinent Tower
Pretty pictures and interesting facts about the beautiful building at 4th and Boston.
15 Favorite John Candy characters from SCTV
Classic TV comedy characters: Dr. Tongue, Billy Sol Hurok, William B. Williams, Mayor Tommy Shanks, and, of course, Johnny LaRue.
Village Voice: New York Music - The Playboy Mansion
"Western-swing hype man-icon invents, uh, everything." From Anthony Mariani's review of the 2006 box set: "A four-disc box set of 105 remastered tracks, Legends of Country Music: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, casts doubt on the notion that several allegedly original pop music developments emerged only in the past 50 years; Bob was an early originator in disciplines including but not limited to hollering, waxing ironic, and rocking out. As a fiddler, he leaves the singing to pros, but he verbally encourages his orchestra almost to a compulsive degree."
Recalling the Apgar Score's Namesake - WSJ.com
A simple way to quantify a newborn's condition motivated vast improvements in neo-natal care:
"As simple as it was, the score transformed deliveries by requiring staffers to carefully observe and assess each baby, assigning a score of 0, 1 or 2 to each of the five categories. Then, as now, few babies get a perfect 10 one minute after birth, since most have bluish toes and fingers until oxygenated blood starts circulating fully. Some doctors became competitive about the scores, and many hospitals began repeating the test at five or 10 minutes to measure whether newborns had improved."
"Most importantly, babies who needed care started to get it, gradually spurring the development of newborn-size resuscitation tools, infant heart-rate monitors and neonatal intensive-care units. Thanks to all those efforts, and the philosophy that came with them, U.S. infant mortality dropped from 58 per 1,000 in the 1930s to 7 per 1,000 today. By the 1970s, it was said, 'every baby born in a hospital around the world is looked at first through the eyes of Virginia Apgar.'"
"A history of the lives, sufferings, and triumphant deaths of the early Christian and the Protestant martyrs." A 16th century book, updated to include 17th, 18th, and 19th century persecutions of dissenters like John Bunyan and the Quakers and missionaries like Adoniram Judson.
"After the Bible itself, no book so profoundly influenced early Protestant sentiment as the Book of Martyrs. Even in our time it is still a living force. It is more than a record of persecution. It is an arsenal of controversy, a storehouse of romance, as well as a source of edification."
Ace of Spades HQ: Change! Plurality In Rasmussen Poll Say Cancel The Rest Of The Stimulus Plan
45% say cancel the rest of the stimulus spending, but 55% say keep the tax cuts. The US has lost a million more jobs than the Obama administration predicted we would lose if we had done nothing at all.
Coburn's STD Lecture to Congressional Interns Put On Hold Due to Pizza Dispute
"Coburn spokesman John Hart said the 'safe-sex slide show' -- which Coburn, a practicing obstetrician, has given annually since 1997 -- is on hold pending a decision over who will buy the pie.... He said the Senate Ethics Committee has strict rules regarding outside groups, and that it 'would argue that that's an outside group increasing our office account inappropriately' -- a rule he said 'doesn't make much sense.'"
FORA.tv - MythBuster Adam Savage's Colossal Failures
An hour-long program (speech plus Q&A) at Maker Faire: Adam Savage from MythBusters explains what he learned from a couple of disastrous projects early in his career. Great viewing for the gifted kid (or gifted former kid) who's afraid to try and fail. Some interesting background on how he got into the special effects business and why it's great for polymaths. (Via manasclerk.)
Architecture - Demise of Gehry Design for Nets Arena Is Blow to Brooklyn - NYTimes.com
Times architecture critic Nicolai Ouroussoff: "Arenas are notorious black holes in urban neighborhoods, sitting empty most of the year and draining the life around them."
Britain's Labour Lessons For Obama | Newgeography.com
Joel Kotkin says the landslide defeat of Labour in local and European elections may mark "the decline of gentry liberalism." "Gentry liberalism - which reached its height in Britain earlier this decade and is currently peaking in the U.S. - melded traditional left-of-center constituencies, such as organized labor and ethnic minorities, with an expanding class of upper-class professionals from field like media, finance and technology."
Umbilical cord blood banking and donations bill passed in Ohio
An ethical source of stem cells for effective therapies: "Stem cells that are obtained from umbilical cords have been successfully used in treatment for leukemia, sickle cell anemia, and lymphoma as well as 100 other diseases...."
Tulsa Oklahoma Food Events, Festivals & Competition | The Tulsa Food Blog
Barbecue in Sallisaw, pecans in Okmulgee, and more food and fun in Bixby and Sapulpa.
Introducing ... The Barry Man-iLow « Irritated Tulsan
An effective way to deal with the annoying mega-bass blasting from the car next to you.
Transcript of the Magliozzis' commencement address - MIT News Office
In their 1999 commencement address, alumni Tom and Ray Magliozzi, aka Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers, teach MIT graduates the mantra that leads to happiness: "Unencumbered by the thought process. Unencumbered by the thought process."
"And most of you will leave here today with a pretty good idea of where you're going and what you're going to do.... But others among you may have charted a course or had one charted for you that you know is wrong. And you may feel some creative energy coursing through your body. Don't ignore it. If you feel the urge to create and discover and do something that will bring you fulfillment and happiness, do it now while you're young. You will never have more energy or enthusiasm, hair, or brain cells than you have today."
