The New York Times today reports on schools that are cutting funding for gifted programs in order to meet the requirements for the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. Schools are shifting funds to ensure that struggling students attain the law’s basic math and reading levels. This highlights one of the biggest dilemmas facing
Rosie O’Donnell and her partner Kelli Carpenter O’Donnell are premiering their documentary, “All Aboard: Rosie’s Family Cruise,” on April 6. The program, which will air on HBO, looks at the first cruise of the couple’s travel venture, R Family Vacations. (Full credit: The couple founded the company with friend Gregg Kaminsky.) The New York Times
My partner and I recently celebrated our thirteenth year together. Did we honor the occasion with a wild display of lesbian hedonism, an example of our depraved homosexual lifestyle? ‘Fraid not. We spent it at IKEA, picking up some bookshelves for my parents. That evening, we assembled it and stayed at their house with our
Two items of note today in regard to childhood obesity: A study by scientists at the Université Laval (article in French; English summary here) has concluded that amount of sleep was the prime factor in determining childhood obesity among children five to ten years old. In the study of 422 children, those who got less
It’s almost the end of Women’s History Month, so I thought I’d post a couple of links to sites of lesbian history resources. (Herstory, history . . . I used the former in the title for this post, since that seems to be the commonly accepted way of refering to the lesbian past, though I
Discussing breast feeding can be as risky an activity as wearing a Red Sox cap in Manhattan or using a Powerbook in Redmond. Pediatrician Sydney Spiesel puts on his flak jacket and gives it a try in this week’s Slate. He has, in fact, one of the more sensible opinions I’ve read. While I don’t
Technology site MAKE remembers the kiddies with links to a couple of homemade play dough recipes today. I haven’t tested these particular versions myself, but they sound similar to a recipe my mom used to make for me when I was younger. (Hasbro, makers of the “real” Play-Doh, even admit their secret formula contains mostly
Does frequent consumption of french fries as a toddler increase the risk of breast cancer, and whole milk reduce it? Those are the preliminary findings of a group of researchers led by a doctor at Harvard Medical School. While they warn that their results should be confirmed by other studies before being hailed as fact,
The New York Times today discusses how “thousands” of schools across the country are reducing class time in subjects other than reading and math, as a reaction to the reading and math testing requirements of the “No Child Left Behind” law. (Registration required for NY Times site.) In some cases, schools have completely eliminated other
Recent brain research has found that teenagers’ brains undergo an “extensive renovation” from a burst of growth in brain synapses, a process that may last until the mid-20s. Scientists involved in the research say this may help explain emotional swings and why teens are more likely than those of other ages to crash a car,
