conuly

Afraid of Your Child's Math Textbook? You Should Be.

http://bit.ly/yoy4t5

When an Army of Artists Fooled Hitler
A new documentary shares the story of the 23rd unit’s daring work

http://bit.ly/1a1C3um

3-D printing of airway tube helps save U.S. baby

http://bit.ly/Z3yKkB

First, an editorial on pickles and immigration. Go on and read it!

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That article links to a Google book which is well worth reading if only to prove that the food police have always been with us.

That wouldn't be so interesting in and of itself, except that I found this blog that posts NYTimes stories from 100 years ago, and sure enough, at least one of the erstwhile public health articles posted talks about people giving pickles to babies! ("Never listen to your neighbors, only to the doctor." And, I guess, to the sanctimonious 13 year old who, after a few Saturday classes, knows more than you do about what to feed babies.)

That's a really good blog, and another one I want the feed to on LJ.

Recalling Green Book, Guide for Black Travelers

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Proposed Muslim Center Draws Opposing Protests

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The Littlest Redshirts Sit Out Kindergarten

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Amid Furor on Islamic Center, Pleas for Orthodox Church Nearby

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Immigrants are less likely to change their names nowadays

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(BTW - if you go to read that article on their website, don't click to read the comments. Apparently, not changing your name is akin to destroying the very fabric of society, and heaven forbid you mispronounce REAL names!)

At West Point, Hidden Gay Cadets Put in Spotlight

This is another one where you want to be careful with those comments. One thing, though - a lot of people in the comments are saying she "tricked" her way in. Isn't the whole dubious point of Don't Ask, Don't Tell that being gay isn't against the rules, so long as nobody talks about it?

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When an Arab Enclave Thrived Downtown

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Pastor's Plan to Burn Koran Adds to Tensions

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In a Hoarder’s Home, Going All Out to Find the Floor

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An editorial about bees and bee-pollinated crops

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An article about morals, sharing, and the world

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"Want to Use My Suit? Then Throw Me Something, Mister!"
Pictures

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Finding a possibly new (old) human species

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"The hidden histories that shape the way we live now" (I'm not going to hide this one behind a cut)

That's actually part of why I like language, because The Folk Process is (more or less) what gives us etymology.

So I skip around in some bizarre pattern from reading up on nursery rhymes (and no, Ring Around the Rosy does *not* mean what you think it does. I'm wary of hidden meanings in general, but that one's pretty provably wrong), then to children's songs (the ones written *by* children, meaning they're often alarmingly inappropriate) to jump rope rhymes, to chinese jump rope patterns (you see the thread there, right?), to hand clap rhymes, to folk songs and ballads, to etymology, to urban legends, to fairy tales, and somehow I inevitably end up with military cadences, no, I don't know why.

Right now Ana's into hand clapping, which is great except... uh... I was a bit of an outcast as a child. AND we didn't live near my school or anything, so it's not like I had much of an opportunity for forced socializing either. (I can't jump rope either.) I know precisely three handclaps from my childhood, and one of them is Quack-dilly-oso, and so it probably doesn't count. (Fun facts: 1. My sister and I spent a summer in Belgium teaching Quack-dilly-oso to other children, and if anybody in Wavre still plays it it is entirely because of us, thank you very much. 2. If the term "quack-dilly-oso doesn't make sense to you, try the name "Stella Ella Ola". Better?)

So here I am, dutifully trying to come up with a few more to teach her. (Evangeline is interested in them too, but she is really too young to quite get the mechanics of them. She has the words down pat, though. She has a remarkable memory for songs, tell the truth. It's amazing. All those games of "I'm going on a trip" must be sticking!)

It's easy enough to find sites and sites of people transcribing (with predictably poor spelling) the various rhymes they use, and the zillion and a half different variants known to mankind. Finding melodies (for those rhymes that have them) is a bit harder, and finding clear instructions is impossible. Most of them, the contributers didn't write instructions at all, and in the rest they're about as clear as mud.

There need to be vidoes, or, barring that, step by step photographs. Why nobody has done this yet, I don't know.

I can find a few on YouTube, but many of them go quickly, or aren't what I'm looking for. And anyway, they're *hard* to find on YouTube! YouTube isn't always as useful as one might hope :(

So, anybody willing to help me out here? Even scanty information is better than *no* information, really. (Information on chinese jump rope patterns, jump rope rhymes, the kind of songs kids sing but you wish they wouldn't, and - yes, lizziey! - cadences are appreciated too. And in other languages! Go whole hog! I can whip up almost poetic variations if I have a literal translation.)

Oh, and since we're (loosely) on the subject of kids' pastimes - remember that first BSG of the season? Where a big(ish) thing was that bag of jacks so-and-so found in the-spoilery-place? Yeah. When's the last time you saw jacks like that being sold? Huge plastic ones, and they're hard to find too. Clearly, Earth is not of our Earth.

From athanata. Edit: Whoops, and also interactiveleaf.

Something like 11,000 years old. Before writing. Before agriculture. And nobody knew.

About one of the most successful pirates ever, who happened to be a woman. Of course, history sometimes seems to be quite full of female pirates, but still.

While we're on the cool links, here's that one about how gay civil unions used to exist in medieval Europe. I don't know how compelling this evidence actually is, but it certainly is something to think about.

There's one here about urban farms, and all the stuff involved there.

And an older one about the soon-to-be creation of synthetic life. We are living in a sci-fi age, yea verily.

Here is a personal story by a man diagnosed aspie as an adult. Nothing much new here, but interesting enough.

And here's a nifty bit on pink, blue, and gender.

And, finally, finally - the Pachebel Bedtime. I'm too lazy to embed this. GO VIEW IT, you won't regret it, even if you hate Pachebel.

We watched the tail end of Sound of Music the other day. God, I love that movie. I mean, we watch it, and we sing, and we cry, and it's nothing at all like what really happened, but I love it anyway.

And we all hugged and rocked and sang Edelweiss, which prompted me to look up Edelweiss (a song not very well known in Austria, apparently), and this led me to the Edelweiss Pirates, and I just....

I guess I'm just in one of those moods, but I'm filled with admiration for them. I mean, I'm filled with admiration for anybody who did anything in those times....

But still. I was mildly impressed.

In not-at-all-related news (but I think of them together anyway), the Boy Scouts are getting some more of their special privileges taken away. This is because atheists run this country and hate Christians. Yes, somebody tried to tell me that.

Wow.

Thanks, carlanime!

First things first, fugaciouslover has a discussion loosely related to the Holocaust that some of you may be interested in, asking "how much is too much?"

Danish comics anger Muslims, and related conversation.

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And on a Muslim funeral home.

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An editorial on the Wilmington coup in 1898

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Has LiveJournal changed the way it deals with too-long entries, and nobody told me? Because I delete my bookmarks as I post them, and now I can't recover all the links I put in my entry which, um, aren't there....

On Turkey and Armenia

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"The New Berlin Wall

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On the Park Street Tree Lighting

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On the citification of India

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On that wall found in Lower Manhattan

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On the last Ziegfield girl.

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Wonder where rich Canadians go when they are sick? They cross the border to America for health care.

What American, if he were really, really sick, would voluntarily go to Canada, Germany, France or Sweden? Keep health care in America private.

What about poor Americans? Where do *they* get to go when they are sick? Nowhere, that's where. Not that this seems to matter.... I see no problem myself in having a public health care system alongside a private health care system, as we do with the schools, but I'm really a bit ignorant on the subject.

Anyway, some Times articles....

On colic, and remedies thereof

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On the return of standards from the Revolution

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On being French, and other things

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