Daniel makes stuff, and, in his spare time, writes about things like movies, kid culture, and geek stuff.
The Bechdel Test for Women in Movies

Never come across this before – but it’s fascinating.

Mar 16, 2010 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

"Don't Eat Egg Salad From a Vending Machine"

It’s time for the New York Times Magazine’s annual Food Issue, and author and contributing writer Michael Pollan has assembled a collection of sage “rules for eating” from his readers. As he explains:

How did humans manage to choose foods and stay healthy before there were nutrition experts and food pyramids or breakfast cereals promising to improve your child’s focus or restaurant portions bigger than your head? We relied on culture, which is another way of saying: on the accumulated wisdom of the tribe.

He received more than 2,500 responses to his solicitation for popular wisdom about food and eating, and he now shares his favourite from among them. Some anecdotes are philosophical (“When you’re eating, don’t talk about other past meals, whether better or worse. Focus on what’s in front of you”), some are pragmatic (“It’s better to pay the grocer than the doctor”), and some are poignantly telling, in this mass-produced & processed, industry-driven world of food we now live: “Don’t eat anything that took more energy to ship than to grow.”

Oct 11, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #

Teaching Kids That There Is A Battle Of The Sexes

Lisa Wade, writing for Sociological Images:

We socialize young children into thinking with gender (it’s always, somehow, boys vs. girls) and seeing the other sex as an enemy or competitor. Illustrating this, izhero sent us links to a set of t-shirts for young girls sold at David & Goliath Tees. The message for girls is, essentially, “boys drool, girls rule,” situating women and men in opposition, and setting girls up for a lifetime of battling the “opposite” sex.

Aug 21, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

The Wonderfulness of Sidewalks

The town of Bangor, Maine, is awfully proud of their sidewalks. And for good reason.

Sarah Smiley, writing specially for the Bangor Daily News:

Last July, when I came to Bangor from Florida to search for a house, I commented again and again (until I’m sure our Realtor was sick of hearing it) about the way people here congregate on the sidewalks. My mom, who was with me, said it reminded her of neighborhoods from the 1950s, where you didn’t need a pass code to get into your friend’s gated community and calling the kids home for dinner was as easy as opening the front door and shouting their names.

Indeed, one year later, our boys enjoy the sidewalk in front of our house from morning until night. They run through multiple backyards, never meeting a blockade of privacy fences. I can think of 12 neighbors offhand whom I know well and who know my boys’ names and where to send them if they get into trouble. On most nights, after Dustin gets home from work, he and I stand in the yard and watch our boys ride their bikes up and down the sidewalk.

(Before I go on, I must say that the comments on this over at Free Range Kids are, as ever, deeply engaging.)

Sidewalks, kids roaming freely, lemonade stands, open lawns, and front porches... all of these things are often well loved and cherished, deeply rooted parts of our lives. It’s true, their importance is often only known fully in retrospect, but I think if you’ve ever experienced the kind of culture and sense of community that these they inspire, you have a glimpse already at their power. It’s an instance where very real, physical geography inspires culture, which in term impacts our very individual psychological well-being and happiness. Often, it’s this that is at the bedrock of real Community.

These experiences of Place, experiences rooted in our environment and how we use it, play a vital role in determining what our lives and social realities are like. The places and neighborhoods we live in, how we interact with – and let our children interact with – the physical spaces around us… this makes up who we are.

So for the children’s sake, move somewhere where there’s front yards and sidewalks where they can play.

Jul 23, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

NY Times: 'When Do They Need a Fig Leaf?"

Man, clothes are such a drag.

Jul 17, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , , :: #

Brooks: 'In Search of Dignity'

I hate old people rants – you know, the ones where somebody goes off about how this “younger generation” and “kids these days” don’t have any sense of civility or respect. Luckily, David Brooks never goes there in his current op-ed, but instead discusses the absence of dignity in general American adult culture.

While I’m a bit more culturally relativist in regard to social manners of discourse, Brooks is always worth a read. Especially when he ends his pieces with a reflection on the cultural impact of President Barack Obama’s election.

Jul 12, 2009 :: Tagged under: , , :: #