Random links :)

Surgeon creates new kidney on TED stage

Let's state that again: He basically made an organ using a 3D printer. Like something out of Star Trek, isn't it?

Here's an article with one theory about why Henry VIII had so many problems producing an heir.

A hundred years ago, our food-safety regulators were willing to eat formaldehyde on our behalf. What are they doing now?

I'm still goggling over the printed organ. Did you read that article yet?

A video from Fox News showing protesters in a suspiciously snowless and bepalmtreed Wisconsin.

The Republicans’ War on Congressional Recycling. It's spiteful and petty is what it is. I can understand the anonymous email that goes "Somehow this bothers me more than the EERE cuts."

And finally, insulating yourself is more efficient than insulating your home, though you'd be wise to do both. All those times your mom told you to just put on a sweater, she was right.

And finally, in case you missed it - they basically used a replicator to print a kidney. I'm half hoping this is a hoax, because... it's scary stuff, living in the future! (In the present, should I die suddenly, I expect every one of my organs to be donated away. I can't take 'em with me, after all.)

Ugh.

No sooner did I clear out all those links, those nice, fun, harmless links about long underwear and printing kidneys on demand when I open my friends page and find... new links. New, not so fun links.

Doctor Gets Court Order to Confine Pregnant Woman Against Her Will

That link is bad enough, but of course once there you get to read all sorts of other depressing un-fun things. You can find them yourself. I'm going to take a short break to... I don't know, do stuff. I was going to go into the city this morning, but it'll have to wait until this afternoon because... yeah.

Edit: Updated here.

My mom sent me this article on the decline of cursive handwriting

http://www.parentdish.com/2011/01/21/cursive-handwriting/

Nevermind that they've been writing this article again and again since I was a kid, people never tire of talking about how Western civilization is about to fall because schools in America no longer emphasize cursive.

The comments are a morass of the usual fear-mongering:

OMG! If you don't write in cursive, you can't cash a check!!!

Yes, you can. There is no law, no, none requiring you to use any particular style when signing your name. The closest I can come to finding such a thing is a voter registration page for Ohio saying that sign means a "cursive style" mark unless you don't regularly use a cursive style mark in your business affairs, in which case your habitual mark in your own handwriting is what is desired, and that furthermore you can make an X if you can't sign your name at all.

Which sounds to me like you can write your name any damn way you please when voting in Ohio. And that is the only official information I can find on the subject.

OMG! If they can't write in cursive, they can't write a love letter or read the Declaration of Independence!

The first being beside the point (seriously? Only literate people love each other? And then only if they can write in a certain way?), anybody can read the Declaration of Independence in a printed form. You don't have to view the original.

Here's a dirty little secret about that, though. That pretty, official one that we all know about? That's not Jefferson's handwriting. They got a professional to write it out for them!

OMG! I can't spell, or use punctuation correctly, but I'm about to talk about declining standards!

STFU, hypocrite.

OMG! Teachers are too liberal! I'm going to go wildly off topic now! Also, I have no idea what a paragraph is!

See above.

OMG! If I can't write in cursive, my handwriting will be too slow when taking notes in class in college!

1. Learn shorthand.
2. Teach your kids to take notes - they should NOT be writing down every word. Not even in shorthand.
3. The premise here is debatable, but I'm not going to bother with that because let's go back to point 1. - this is why we have shorthand.

OMG! Like, the Scriptures are written in cursive, not printed!

WTF? Okay, maybe? But then they're in cursive Hebrew and Greek. I'm utterly failing to see your point here.

And, my personal favorite:

OMG! Kids today can't even recite the state capitals! followed by (exact quote) "Many things we learn aren't used after we leave school; that's no excuse not to to teach it."

1. Who the hell needs to know the state capitals at the drop of a hat? But if it's so important to you, I refer you back to Pippi, who has a very healthy take on this.

2. Actually, if something is truly useless for most of the population, won't kill you if you don't know it, and can be learned in adulthood, then yes, I kinda think that is an excuse to not teach it... or at least, to not teach it to elementary school kids. There are only six and a half hours in the school day, and some of that time is taken up with lunch and (hopefully) recess and gym. There simply isn't time to teach the kids everything on the off-chance that some of it might be useful one day.

Alternatively, if you think cursive writing is that important, teach it earlier. Start with cursive, and then have them learn print. Or teach print in kindergarten and the first half of first grade, and then they learn cursive and they're done. It does nobody any favors to spend three or more years teaching them to write one way, just to try to struggle to find time in the day to teach them another way when they already have all those printing habits. (And you don't have to tell me many teachers don't teach print very effectively either. I know, I know. Many teachers aren't taught how to teach any form of handwriting at all.)