The Five Finger Rule

From C's Year One (1st Grade) class--for dealing with other people doing something you don't like.

1.Ignore

2.Walk Away

3."Stop it, I don't like it"

4."STOP IT, I DON'T LIKE IT"

5.Tell the teacher.

Benjamin's Corollary to the Five Finger Rule: Become (almost (but not quite) obnoxiously) curious about and fascinated by the other's behavior.

"Black people" as "species"?

An anti-abortion billboard campaign in Georgia has put up billboards announcing "Black children are an endangered species." to draw attention to the fact that "black" women are far more likely to have abortions than "white" women.

I put the terms in quotes because I'm not quite sure what they mean, in this context.

I wish I could ask someone who believes this what they mean.

How to get small and big

Today in the playroom with super amazing K. I had this conversation:

K: We can get very small and get into the truck (looking over at small truck on floor of playroom).

Benjamin: How shall we get very small?

K: We can look at the stars to get small.

Benjamin: Wow! what a great idea! That's an amazing way to get small!

K: And then we can go back to our normal sizes.

Benjamin: And how shall we get back to our normal sizes?

K: We can play with our friend to get back to our normal sizes!

Benjamin: Wow! I *love* it that you told me we can get back to our normal sizes by playing with our friend! And what friend shall we play with?

K: I'll play with you--you're my friend!

There are reasons

why Charles Taylor and his son get prison and financial ruin for overseeing a regime steeped in torture, while W., Cheney, and Rove go on living "free" and wealthy.

"Humanitarian" "Aid"

(and, I suppose, "defense"--you know, the kind that costs US$1 Trillion per year)

This reminds me of something that happened to Megan and I in Liberia. Under the rule of Charles Taylor and friends.

H/T Martin

iPad vs. Kindle DX

I realized today (while speaking with my super brilliant friend Russell) that when you compare iPad to Kindle DX, well ....

Steve Jobs is a freakin' genius. One wonders what a chart would look like of the going price for used kindles on ebay since before the iPad was announced until after it starts shipping.

Fascinating graphic

about disaster relief and so forth. Very nicely done.

The other side of the world

How kewl is this software--www.antipodr.com

Wooohoooot! I made it onto the FSM web site

Check out the pictures I submitted of the FSM siting at my girls' school playground.

vaccination and autism paper retracted

The British medical journal The Lancet today officially retracted the article which it published in 1998 which very much helped launch the "vaccinations cause autism" meme.

Our Make Believe Defines Our Reality, Religious/Mystical Experiences, and a Question

I have a question. Are you one of the 49% mentioned below? If so, why?

6% of Americans believe the Apollo moon landings were faked (Newport, 1999).

20% of Americans believe the sun revolves around the earth (Dean, 2005).

23% of self identified republicans believe their state should secede from the union.

24% of self identified republicans believe Obama "wants the terrorists to win" (Daily Kos, 2010).

24% of Americans believe in reincarnation.

25% of Americans believe in Astrology (Pew, 2009).
37% of Americans believe the sun will burn out at some point in the future.

40% of Americans believe in lucky numbers (Lightman & Miller, 1989).
44% of Americans believe God created humans in their present form sometime within the last 10,000 years (Gallup, 2008).

49% of Americans say they have had a religious or mystical experience defined as "a moment of sudden religious insight or awakening" (Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, 2009).
100% of Benjamin Wheeler Ady IIIs believe that their Megan is madly in love with them (Ady, 2010).

Ady, B. W. (2010). Our make believe defines our reality, religious/mystical

experiences, and a question. Upside Down Under. Retrieved from

http://insideoutupsidedownunder.blogspot.com/2010/02/our-make-

believe-defines-our-reality.html

Daily Kos. (2010). Daily kos/research 2000 poll. Daily Kos. Retrieved from

http://www.dailykos.com/statepoll/2010/1/31/US/437

Dean, C. (2005, August 30). Scientific savvy? In U.S., not much. The New York

Times. Retrieved from

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html

Gallup. (2008). Origin of Human Life. Gallup. Retrieved from

http://www.pollingreport.com/science.htm

Lightman, A. P., & Miller, J. D. (1989). Contemporary cosmological beliefs.

Social Studies of Science, 19(1), 127-136. Retrieved from

http://icasl.msu.edu/publications/Lightman%20&%20

Miller%201989.pdf

Newport, F. (1999). Landing a man on the moon: The public's view. Gallup

News Service. Retrieved from

http://www.gallup.com/poll/3712/landing-man-moon-publics-view.aspx

Pew Forum on Religious and Public Life. (2009). Eastern, new age beliefs

widespread: Many Americans mix multiple faiths. Retreived from

http://www.pewforum.org/newassets/images/reports/

multiplefaiths/multiplefaiths.pdf

Trusting our intuition

More evidence that we can benefit from trusting ourselves. In an upcoming interview, Jenny Sanford reveals that her husband insisted on removing the word "faithful" from their wedding vows, and that she chose to not listen to her own doubts regarding this.

Here's to listening to ourselves.