An article on biking in NYC

Honestly, all these bicycle-related articles almost make me want to learn to ride a bike myself.

Maybe.

Once I've mastered beets, that can be my new resolution. (Maybe.)

And a very random article on intelligence in animals

Lots of Animals Learn, but Smarter Isn’t Better

( Read more... )

Edit: Oh, and here's one about hyenas which you MUST read now.

( Read more... )

Bunch of random articles

Unwanted childbearing is a greater demographic force than the desire for large families, and may have been for centuries.

Well, duh!

The Mystery of Parental Psychiatric Diagnoses
And a related post by ABFH

Another article on urban farming
And another one indeed

One on being a closeted gay, and, incidentally, on homophobia

One introducing the word kyriarchy, which is a bad choice for a word for a bad thing because it just sounds so dang pretty!
And a related post here.

Say, listen. I might start cataloging the nieceling's books one of these days. Would anybody be interested in my posting quick-ass reviews of them here? There's a lot of books to go through, so I won't do it unless at least one person says yes.

And, also, does anybody know where I can get one of those stands that they have in bookstores and libraries that have small shelves on all four sides and spin, so they're a very economical way of storing paperbacks?

So isabeau linked to the article on lying I linked to ages ago

And it's such a great link I'm posting it again! (It's relevant, really.)

There's a book I've been thinking about for the nieces (because they don't have enough books - let's drop the lies and admit that all these books are really for me!), buuuuut... I'm actually paying attention to the negative reviews this time instead of loudly mocking them.

I read the book at the bookstore, and I'm on the fence. (Unlike some people, I'm not shocked at the idea that you should pre-read books before giving them to young children.)

The story is about a girl who gets into 17 different kinds of trouble because she has "an idea" each time. (Some commentors over at amazon call her a brat, I don't think that's necessarily a fair assessment, nor do I think that reading about misbehavior is tantamount to telling your children that it's okay to misbehave.) At the end, she "has an idea" to lie (and get out of trouble) so she says sorry, and now she can do that forever (she thinks).

Well. Now, of course, you can see why people get upset. Very often we *do* tell or encourage children to lie for social reasons - we tell them to say sorry when they're not, to say thank you when they're feeling anything but thankful, to say "I'm really glad you came over" when what we're really glad of is that they're leaving, and to never, ever call somebody else's beliefs in Santa or the Easter Bunny (and forget deities altogether!) stupid, silly, or wrong, even if we think they are.

But it is a bit cynical to just state outright that saying sorry when you don't actually feel sorry is lying, or that it's okay to say the opposite of what you mean just because it's socially acceptable in this context. (Even when it's true.)

So, I don't know. Maybe when Evangeline is a bit older. If it comes out in paperback - why don't picture books come out in paperback more often? I'd certainly buy a lot more if they were cheaper and took up less space!

Until then, I'll just renew the library's copy of Cowboy and Octopus - "Hey, I said something nice about you, why didn't you say something nice about me? I thought we were friends!" "We are friends. And that's why I'm telling you, that hat looks like something my horse dropped behind him. Cause that's the TRUTH."

Ana has a $45 credit on her library card. I can keep renewing books and having them overdue until the end of time, at ten cents a day, and it won't make a dent in that. I may even start taking out the fully allowed 30 books (THIRTY BOOKS!) per visit.

Seriously?

"Are there negatives associated [with coal]? Sure. But 50,000 people die per year in our highway system, and you don't think about that when you get into your car. And you shouldn't."

Well, maybe you should. Maybe you should say, every time you get into your car, "Gee, I wonder if I've agitated enough lately for good public transportation in my area, and a walkable sidewalk system, and good bike lanes and bike ports."

And when you're done with that - go see if your local (or not so local) officials or power company would consider switching from polluting, non-renewable energy to clean, totally renewable energy. That won't ultimately kill you.

Just maybe.