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• Gender stereotypes woven into language of toy ads
• English school principal announces zero tolerance for mismatched socks
• Cop pepper sprays squirrel
• Can an antibiotic user fee reduce resistance?
• In great-grandma's time, little kids went around un-gendered
• Robots inspired by nature: the "DelFly" bionic robot (photo)
• CWA: Population isn't the problem, consumption is the problem
• Medicine for the Outdoors

Gender stereotypes woven into language of toy ads Posted: 09 Apr 2011 11:04 PM PDT Crystal transcribed a number of "boys'" and "girls'" toy commercials and made word-clouds out of the result. The difference is stark and immediately visible. Word Cloud: How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes (Thanks, Alice!)

English school principal announces zero tolerance for mismatched socks Posted: 10 Apr 2011 01:00 AM PDT The City of Ely Community College in Cambridgeshire, England has decided to restore discipline to its student body by nonsenically conflating genuinely disruptive behavior (talking in class) with mere individualism (wearing mismatched socks or brightly colored hair-bobbles). School principal Catherine Jenkinson-Dix is hell bent on producing a generation of young Britons who can't tell the difference between cooperating with your peers and blind conformity -- just what the future needs (assuming that the future won't require any original thought). Nonetheless, some shocked parents are attacking the new rules and accusing Ms. Jenkinson-Dix of turning the school into a "prison." "I'm absolutely appalled. They are wrecking pupils' education and turning it into a prison," Amanda King, 34, who pulled her 12-year-old son Ben and daughter Shannon, 14, out of classes, told the Cambridge News. "Staff are nit-picking for everything -for behaviour, for what they wear. Apparently they are not allowed to wear any accessories or even coats in school now." Another mother, who asked not to be named, said, "Yes, children should be taught to respect their teachers but to punish them for wearing bright hair bobbles or having their mobile phones is petty. I'm not happy about the new rules at all." U.K. school cracks down on bad manners (Thanks, Bytefire, via Submitterator!) (Image: Day 6 / 365 - Thinking in the corner, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from restlessglobetrotter's photostream)

Cop pepper sprays squirrel Posted: 09 Apr 2011 12:37 PM PDT This video appears to show a policeman macing a tiny squirrel. Rabies outbreak, perhaps? Even then, it seems a particularly cruel way to deal with it, especially given an audience of children. (Via NYmag.)

Can an antibiotic user fee reduce resistance? Posted: 09 Apr 2011 09:51 AM PDT The Infectious Diseases Society of America recently released a list of policy suggestions aimed at combating the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One of their suggestions: Charge wholesale purchasers of antibiotics a user fee. Most of the money would go toward funding development of new antibiotics—something that Big Pharma doesn't pay much attention to, because it isn't terribly profitable. It's an interesting idea, and one that Maryn McKenna (a journalist who specializes in antibiotic-resistant superbugs) thinks has merit. At the DC event, Dr. Brad Spellberg, author of Rising Plague (about resistance and drug development), likened the fee to something you'd pay at the gate of a national park. "We need to think of antibiotics as a precious, limited resource, the way we think of forests and fisheries -- something we protect and restore," he said. The interesting thing I see here: The proposed fee would be aimed at both medical and agricultural users. That's a big deal. As several people pointed out during the Conference on World Affairs, the routine use of antibiotics on healthy animals is a major contributor to antibiotic resistance. So is the unnecessary use of antibiotics by humans—who often take these bacteria-centric drugs in response to viral disease, such as colds. Maybe a user fee would discourage people from using precious antibiotics as placebos. Maybe a higher user fee for agricultural users would discourage the frivolous use of antibiotics, and force farmers to find safer ways of raising animals.

In great-grandma's time, little kids went around un-gendered Posted: 09 Apr 2011 09:30 AM PDT A hundred years ago, little boys wore pink and little girls wore blue—if their clothing was gendered at all. It wasn't always. In fact, a heavy emphasis on gendered clothing for children under the age of 6 is a relatively recent phenomenon. Smithsonian has really interesting story about the socio-cultural history of small children, gender, and clothing.

Robots inspired by nature: the "DelFly" bionic robot (photo) Posted: 09 Apr 2011 09:32 AM PDT Engineering school students look at the DelFly bionic robot during a demonstration at the International Workshop on Bio-Inspired Robots in Nantes April 7, 2011. Some 200 bio-robot technicians from 17 countries participate in the three-day event to show the latest developments in robots inspired from the animal world. (REUTERS/Stephane Mahe) The DelFly micro is only 10 centimeters from wing to wing, and weighs just a little over 3 grams. Its developers call it "the smallest flying ornithopter carrying a camera in the world." Below, more photos of the little guy in action, including the 0.4 gram camera it carries. (courtesy delfly.nl)

CWA: Population isn't the problem, consumption is the problem Posted: 09 Apr 2011 08:53 AM PDT "As we get women access to education and birth control, as there's a focus on human rights, the birth rate is leveling out. It's a great success story, actually. Sustainability is about consumption, not population. Indonesia has a high birth rate, but Indonesia is not going to push the world into runaway global warming. Not unless they all start consuming the way we do." — Ted Nace, author and environmental activist, during a Conference on World Affairs panel that asked, "Can Science Feed the Growing Global Population?"

Medicine for the Outdoors Posted: 08 Apr 2011 11:56 AM PDT There is nothing in this book that you don’t need to know. You don’t have to commit the book to memory but I would encourage you to know what’s in it and how to find it quickly. My first duty as a Scout leader is the safety and well-being of our Scouts at an age when they are poor judges of risk and have a propensity to overestimate their capacities. I need to know how to keep them safe and how to respond if they are injured or ill. Medicine for the Outdoors is the work of Dr. Paul Auerbach, wilderness medicine pioneer and arguably the world’s foremost expert on the subject. He explains the how and why of responding to nearly every possible illness or injury one is likely to encounter in a concise, step by step manner that is intended to be used on the spot - but don’t wait for something to happen before you read the book. Safety is not owning the right gear or having the right book. It is not having a well-appointed first aid kit. Safety is knowing how to prevent injury and illness and how to respond if it occurs. Get the book, read through it, make notes and practice the skills before you need them. I have a Kindle copy that I can carry on a smartphone, iPod or similar device. I also have a copy of the book that lives in our troop first aid kit. --Clarke Green Medicine for the Outdoors Paul S. Auerbach 2009, 535 pages $15 Sample excerpts: The outdoor environment is beautiful, but it is ever changing and can become hostile in a moment. Good fortune favors the well prepared, and there are no more important considerations for a successful outdoor experience than safety and first aid. Severe weather, wild animals, rugged terrain, and equipment failure all conspire to create or complicate medical hardships that must he diagnosed swiftly and remedied with certainty. The therapies can he integral to survival. Medical education is thus as compelling as any other form of learning. * How to use this book In order to use this book to best advantage, read the appropriate sections before you embark on a trip. In this way, you'll remember where to find information in case of an emergency. Use the index to locate specific topics, such as bee stings, frostbite, or choking. When reading about different problems, you may be referred to general instructions for medical aid, which are presented in Parts I and 2. All readers are encouraged to participate in organized first-aid and outdoor safety program. Don't forget to comment over at Cool Tools. And remember to submit a tool of your own!

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