One of the advantages of hosting Thanksgiving this year was that my parents stayed for a few days to help babysit. My partner and I were able to run some errands, including a trip to IKEA, our favorite home-furnishing store. IKEA is fun with kids, too—in fact, it’s one of the most kid-friendly stores that’s […]
A bit of quick fun for the holiday: Take a moment to participate in the poll on the right and help me solve the age-old question: Is it “Itsy-Bitsy Spider” or “Eensy-Weensy Spider”? Posts here will be sporadic the rest of the week until my extended family has departed. Have a great Thanksgiving, if you’re
Those of you cooking turkeys this holiday season may want to read these tips from Catherine Cutter of Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, on how to avoid Salmonella, Campylobacter, and other bacteria-borne illnesses while preparing and serving the big bird and associated trimmings. If you’re of the vegetarian persuasion, or are hosting vegetarians or
World Against Toys Causing Harm (W.A.T.C.H.) yesterday issued its annual 10 Worst Toys list for 2005. The list contains expected items, like paintball shooters, but also stuffed ponies and baby dolls of certain brands. Take a look, just in case.
Ever wonder why there are no colored bubbles? If you have kids, chances are you’ve played with bubble solutions that shimmer and shine, but which are basically clear. Bubbles in a solid hue, however, are a non-trivial problem in chemistry. Until recently, no one had created one. This didn’t deter inventor Tim Kehoe, however, and
After the last post, I thought you might want something uplifting: Research presented last week at the annual Society for Neuroscience meeting indicates that sweets relieve stress. This may not be news to many of us, but now we know why it works: sweets cause the body to produce lower levels of glucocorticoid stress hormones.
The U. S. National Center for Health Statistics has released its analysis of birth data for 2004. One of the potentially worrisome findings was that C-sections in the U. S. are at an all-time high. The increase may be connected in part to the rise in multiple and preterm births, as well as a large drop in
Reportedly, pulmonary embolism has overtaken all other causes of maternal mortality in the past two to three decades. Research from a thirty-year study just published in the Annals of Internal Medicine indicates that pregnant women and those up to three months postpartum are four times more likely than other women to suffer pulmonary embolism or
The Supreme Court ruled today, 6-2, that parents who challenge the adequacy of a disabled child’s “individualized education program” have the burden of proving it inadequate. The two dissenting justices felt that conversely, the school district should have to prove a program’s adequacy in such cases. While much of the current press surrounding Supreme Court
Researchers at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin, Ireland, announced a new screening test last week to detect Down syndrome in first-trimester fetuses. If the results of the test are positive, a woman can then choose to have further tests to confirm the diagnosis. The new test, a combination of a blood test and
