Interesting Links for 08-05-2016

[andrewducker]

Boys do better in reading than girls - if told that it's a game (tags: gender reading children ) Medical Equipment Crashes During Heart Procedure Because of Antivirus Scan (tags: virus Technology fail ) Two-Minute Warnings May Fuel Screen-Time Tantrums (tags: psychology children Technology viaSwampers ) Wolves: Why are they so badass? (A report

Comments

[bart_calendar]

Cheetahs are fucking awesome.

I was watching a bunch of them sleeping once at the Bronx Zoo when the staff dropped their food at the other end of the pen. They got up so fucking fast and ran so quickly at the food it was like watching this giant sleek blur move. Like, seriously so fast it was difficult for my eyes to track.

I'm unsure how any animal in the wild has any chance against them at all.

[andrewducker]

I've never had a chance to see them move that fast in person. I'd love to though!

[ticktockman]

A zoo attendant (docent? interpreter?) told my group that the adaptations that make cheetahs so much faster come at the cost of things like jaw strength and claw sharpness. About 50% of the time a knockdown doesn't lead to a kill, and the prey escapes.

[bart_calendar]

The thing about sexuality labels is like if you are Kevin Spacey and can easily afford to go to Prague and hire all the rent boys you want, and you have enough money and social capital to have nobody give you shit then you can be like him and like "I don't care about labels."

Same if you are Matt Damon and want to do threesomes with Batflek and Jennifer Garner. Because, nobody is going to fuck with you over it. (Though if you have a bad DC movie coming out I guess you have to plant a fake story that you were cheating with the nanny and not Damon to prove yourself straight enough to wear a tight fitting leather outfit and bondage gear while fighting and getting sweaty with Superman.)

But for the average person who is trying to meet someone online for sex or a relationship or is trying to fight against various forms of discrimination the labels are very powerful weapons and I think Spacey and Damon and the like forget about that sometimes.

[kalimac]

Rather agree on this one.

Fine, everyone's along a scale. But as long as you don't insist on rigid boundaries between them, you can use words to describe various zones on the scale.

Deprecating words like "straight" and "gay" because everyone's along a scale is like not using "loud" and "quiet" because volume is along a scale. Come on, guys, don't be absurd.

[bart_calendar]

The reading t hing should shock nobody.

Males will learn to excel at anything if it can be made into a game.

If you manufactured "Laundry Hero" and gave points and had a leaderboard online and different levels, women who lived with men would never, ever have to do laundry again and everything would be perfectly washed and folded and dudes would be rushing home from work to do the laundry.

Same if you made "Dishwasher Hero" or "Toilet Scrubber Hero."

[kalimac]

This is the sort of declaration that makes me think "I am not a male," because what you describe is so very not me. Yet I appear to be male, and I'm certainly not secretly longing to be a transsexual woman, and I'm not even homosexual. So what am I?

[bart_calendar]

Sorry I thought it was clear I was satirically generalizing.

Clearly not all males (and clearly some males are good at laundry now!)

But if you made it into a game there are a large number of males who would suddenly find it more interesting.

[kalimac]

Sure, you can be sarcastically generalizing, and sorry if I poured too much irritation over you. But the mere fact that such a generalization is possible, even as a joke, reinforces the deep alienation I've felt from "manhood" ever since it was "boyhood" and in fact even more then.

[kalimac]

I'll like that "honest mom" even more if she tells us that she let her kids go out to play and walk/bike to school by themselves.

[drdoug]

I've had more stick than I expected for telling my kids straight about Santa and the Tooth Fairy, despite the fact that they are both still treasured family rituals, and working hard to teach them to be respectful of other people's sincere beliefs that they don't share. I suspect other adults see it as implied criticism. Which I suppose in a way it is, although I reckon and important part of being respectful of other people's sincere beliefs is not confronting them directly, and treading on eggshells when you disagree, taking steps to avoid conflict and de-escalate but without rolling over on what you think is right

[andrewducker]

My favourite book on where children coming from, for young kids is this one:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mummy-Laid-Egg-Picture-Books/dp/0099299119/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1462834648&sr=8-1&keywords=mummy+laid+an+egg

Two-Minute Warnings May Fuel Screen-Time Tantrums

[drdoug]

That's ... really counter to my lived experience as a parent. Closing out activities - of whatever sort - with countdown warnings seems way more successful and happy than just declaring it time to stop. Also, as someone who likes playing on computers, I really don't like having to stop dead right now, with no warning - it might be a really important bit or a moment it's really terrible to stop. Giving a warning so you know not to start those bits, or to quit at the next savepoint or whatever, seems just basic human decency

Re: Two-Minute Warnings May Fuel Screen-Time Tantrums

[andrewducker]

I also found it surprising - and I don't even have kids. Which was partially why I shared it, in case anyone had any insight.

Do let me know if you get your hands on the paper.