Kids' stuff

So you ran any number of 5K charity races yesterday or went on the Piedmont Farm Tour. But it's a rainy Sunday in the Southeast and you're wondering what to do with a house full of cooped-up kids, especially if it's too soggy to do day two of the farm tour. Let me suggest that you get to Durham, NC, to MakerFaire:NC. Maker Faire is an annual event organized by the people who bring us MAKE Magazine. Maker Faire:NC is a fully sanctioned event but is being planned and coordinated by Raleigh/Durham locals. Our goal is to bring together Makers, Crafters, Inventors, Evil Geniuses, Scientists,…

At the recent U2 Academic Conference, I had the opportunity to be at the local premiere of It Might Get Loud, a much-more-than documentary of the electric guitar as told through the careers of Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page, U2's The Edge, and Jack White of The White Stripes and Raconteurs. For the record, I thought that White was going to be totally out of his league - while I wouldn't call him a "legend" as billed by the producers, I left being incredibly impressed with his background and breadth of abilities. Related to the movie trailer below, I had an exchange with Toaster Sunshine, a…

Prof Tara Smith thought it important enough to come back from her hiatus to explain why she's doing the same for her kids. That's why. Addendum (20 Sept 2009): In my rush to put up a very quick post on Friday, I just saw that Revere at Effect Measure put up a detailed post on why we should always get the regular seasonal flu vaccine regardless of the current H1N1 pandemic.

[Sort of a repost from the last three years, updated appropriately - APB] Seven years ago at 11:24 am EDT (1524 GMT), your humble blogger was handed the keys to a whole new vocabulary of love. The gift came in the form of a 7 lb 13 oz (3,544 gm), 20.5 inch (52 cm) bundle of drooling, peeing, meconium-pooping bundle of baby girl, yanked from an incision in PharmGirl's abdomen. The lessons of compassion and unconditional love I have been taught by these two women have comprised the most formative experiences of my life. In return, PharmGirl has suffered tremendous indignities on my behalf:…

The US Food and Drug Administration is usually the first federal authority to take action on adverse event reports for any health product. But few appreciate that the FDA is also responsible for regulation of cosmetic products: pretty much anything applied to the skin. So, it was no surprise when I was trolling the FDA adverse event reports and news releases to find their announcement of a recall of a number of children's face paints due to rashes and undue skin irritation. The products are manufactured by Shanghai Color Art Stationery Company Limited, Shanghai, China. The original recall…

So, I'm over at CVS Pharmacy this morning looking for a sympathy card for Orac and Mrs Orac and a get-well card for Sheril, and - I admit it - some 25-50% off Valentine's stuff for the PharmKid. There, I came upon this complete and utter gem. Frankly, this is gilling me - but what better way to share the love with your catch than a double crispy chocolate fish from the R.M. Palmer Candy Co., of Reading, Pennsylvania: This foiled, life-like fish is the best you'll ever taste - made of our delicious Double Crisp candy. The natural-looking foil makes this fish the perfect "catch" for your…

Regular readers may note that ScienceBlogs.com has been off the air for the installation and upgrade of our blogging platform, MovableType. So while I finally learned how to use the old one after being here two-and-a-half years, I am now starting over. Hence, this first post being completely devoid of content. However, I wish to honor my first two commenters with the new interface: a spammer from Istanbul (not Constantinople). So without further delay, some music to mark this occasion: There is also a very impressive version performed live (for an audience of one, the host) on MTV Europe in…

We had one of our most active comment threads the other day when I posted my thoughts on drdrA's own superb post about what is most important to her in being a woman in science. I noted my own desire to listen to and understand as completely as possible the issues of my women colleagues and discuss, in an upcoming ScienceOnline'09 session with Zuska and Alice Pawley (Sat 17 Jan, 11:30 am, session C), how they can enlist academic allies who have the traditional power and resource structure (i.e., white guys like me) to establish partnerships in working toward fair and equitable treatment of…

I've been a bit too quiet on my end during this third year of ScienceBlogs.com participation in the October Blogger Challenges for DonorsChoose.org. DonorsChoose.org was launched by Charles Best, a Bronx schoolteacher who recognized that public schools around the US were underfunded, particularly in districts with a high abundance of poverty: Charles Best leads DonorsChoose.org, a simple way to fulfill needs and foster innovation in public schools. At this not-for-profit web site, teachers submit proposals for materials or experiences that their students need to learn. Any individual can…

As I alluded to in the previous post, many science bloggers like us are currently running challenges to readers to donate to projects at DonorsChoose.org. This great organization has been a sponsoring clearinghouse for all kinds of educational projects proposed by US public schoolteachers, many of which are very basic activities for which public funds are not available, then donors like you and I get to choose to whom we wish to send a few doubloons. Independently of the ScienceBlogs drive, I just learned that American Express has selected DonorsChoose as five finalists who are competing…

I am completely crushed, hammered, and otherwise incapacitated at work right now - apologies to readers who are looking for some natural products and pharmacology wisdom. It is in my brain but just not making it into pixels right now. In the meantime, I did want to let readers know that we are participating for our 3rd year in the DonorsChoose.org Blogger Challenge here at ScienceBlogs. More later on the program and my interests, past experiences, etc. In the meantime, you can check out some of the projects about which I am passionate at: Terra Sigillata's "More Abel To Do Science" Blogger…

[Sort of a repost from the last two years, updated appropriately - APB] Six years ago at 11:24 am EDT (1624 GMT), your humble blogger was handed the keys to a whole new vocabulary of love. The gift came in the form of a 7 lb. 13 oz. (3,544 gm), 20.5 inch (52 cm) bundle of drooling, peeing, meconium-pooping bundle of baby girl, yanked from an incision in PharmGirl's abdomen. The lessons of compassion and unconditional love I have been taught by these two women have comprised the most formative experiences of my life. In return, PharmGirl has suffered tremendous indignancies on my behalf: the…

My wife just reminded me that PharmKid wanted us to buy her Aqua Dots a week or two ago. The WSJ Health Blog nicely summarizes a New York Times article on the recall of the toy beads because their ingestion releases the CNS suppressant, GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate), from a precursor present in the bead adhesive. Yes, the product was manufactured in China, but it was distributed by a company in Toronto. A recall has been ordered by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission. The NYT article by Keith Bradsher has a great angle on how a scientist identified the GHB and GHB precursor after a case…

So, PharmK'er and I were at the originator of the chicken sandwich and she wanted a balloon. She then asked why said balloon was floating. Dad was safe in explaining how helium is lighter than the nitrogen-oxygen-carbon dioxide mixture we breathe. Then came the killer: "Daddy, where does the helium come from to fill the balloons?" "A compressed gas cylinder" was not the answer she was looking for. Thankfully, PharmMom, MD, consulted "the great big book of everything." Commercial helium is fractionated from natural gas, where it comprises about 7-8% of its volume, particularly in deposits…

A renowned, non-profit curriculum development organization in Colorado Springs, CO, called BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) has developed for NIH three FREE teaching modules for middle school teachers. The first is called, "Doing Science: The Process of Scientific Inquiry," and helps students in grades 7-8 to develop and refine their critical-thinking skills. The complete press release and info on the two other modules is below the fold. BTW, have I mentioned that these modules are FREE? I'm obviously committed to doing what I can to reverse the tide non-scientific intrusions…

No surprise here: a highly-regarded climatologist declares that the Bush administration is "muzzling government scientists" and covering up the facts about global warming. Warren Washington, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, said that Bush appointees are suppressing information about climate change, restricting journalists' access to federal scientists and rewriting agency news releases to stress global warming uncertainties. "The news media is not getting the full story, especially from government scientists," Washington told about 160 people…