Strollerderby : Wired

Morning News - It's All Bill Clinton's Fault

Brett Singer — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:00:00 GMT

One current theme I've heard leaking out of the GOP Hive Mind lately is the idea that the Obama Administration needs to stop blaming the Bush Administration for, well, anything. For example: "I think people will be blaming George Bush until they die. We are almost halfway through the 1st year of Obama’s Presidency and they are still blaming the last administration for EVERYTHING. I think the blaming needs to stop and people need to start taking responsibility for their destinies."

Here's a little item from Business Week about the failures of the auto industry: "The Clinton Administration, as many before it, simply could not figure out how to force the Japanese to open their auto market, so in 1995 after a bout of highly publicized negotiations, it declared victory, even in the obvious face of failure. And the Clinton Administration was also unable to address the absence of a national health-care system. These two failures were huge, seen in retrospect."

So. Let's review. The Obama Administration and/or all Democrats need to stop blaming the Bush Administration because, you know, c'mon. It's been MONTHS since Obama took office. But blaming the Clinton Administration, which has been out of office for NINE YEARS, makes perfect sense. Yes, these articles are from two different sources. But the idea that nothing a former President did has any effect on our current situation is just silly. Thus endeth the opinion portion of Morning News.

Malls are in trouble, and therefore stocks in mall companies may not be a good buy right now, according to the Motley Fool (me, I know nothing about finance). To me, the problem with malls was always the excessive amount of useless stores. "I Can't Believe They Put A Clock In It!" That sort of thing. These are not stores that will survive in weak economic times. OK, that's opinion as well.

Funny item from Buzzfeed -- Ferris Bueller's best friend's house is up for sale. The house, located at 370 Beech Street in Highland Park, Illinois, can be yours for a mere $2,300,000. Four bedrooms, four baths, and the coolest garage ever to appear in a classic 1980's film. ("When Cameron was in Egypt land... Let my Cameron go...")

Dopey iPhone app of the day -- ShakeIt, which attempts to simulate the shaking that people used to do with Polaroids. As a commenter on Wired puts it: "That seems silly. Got any apps to add pops and hisses to my MP3 files?"

And also from Wired, news of a new Wii accessory that will monitor your heart rate while you get your Wii on. The Wii Vitality Sensor attaches to your WiiMote and will do more than just tell you your BPMs, according to Nintendo. “It intends to have you see the information relating to the inner world of your body, achieve greater relaxation." Or it could tell my son that he's waaay too into the game he's playing and needs to take a little break.

Morning News - GOP Calls Sotomayor Racist

Do You Leave Your Kids Alone in the Car?

13 Year Old Alfie Definitely Not A Dad

Katie Roiphe Doesn't Like You Or Your Kids

Dad Charges Daughter With Grand Theft Auto

Spiderman Rescues Autistic Boy

Brett Singer — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

To be fair it was really "a Bangkok firefighter in a Spiderman suit." But to the kid, it was probably Spiderman. So I prefer my original phrasing.

The BBC reports that a Thai fireman named Somchai Yoosabai put on a Spidey suit in order to coax an eight-year-old autistic boy down from a ledge. It was his first day at school. The boy's mother told Somchai that her son had a "passion for comic superheroes," which prompted the costume change.

In case you, like me, were wondering why a firefighter keeps a Spiderman outfit handy, it's to "liven up fire drills in schools." Good idea. If someone had done that when I was in school, I might have joined the force.

Source: BBC via Wired

Baby Born in Penn Station During Rush Hour

Open Letter To The Woman Who Pushed Me While I Was Picking Up My Kid

Retro Electronic Toys

Brett Singer — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 00:36:00 GMT

Sometimes I think I might be psychic. For example, right now, you are reading this blog post. And you think the joke I just made wasn't all that funny.

See what I mean?

Anyway, I was talking to my son the other day about the handheld electronics I used to play with. Then I'm online, reading my email, and in my gmail toolbar I see the title of a Wired.com article: "Forgotten Electronic Games."

Hmmm. Maybe Google is reading my brain waves. Wouldn't put it past them.

But enough about my psychic ability. (I know that you don't want to hear any more about it. You see? You see what I mean?) What did Wired dig up? Here are some highlights:

Big Trak: Man, did I want one of these. You could program it to move around and stuff! And it had a laser! Well, it was just a little light that flashed, but it made a cool noise.

Vectrex: Another one that I didn't actually own. This little gem was a self-contained gaming system, complete with a monitor that displayed vector graphics (hence the name). The system is still popular with some folks -- Wired points out that there are even new games being made. http://www.classicgamecreations.com/

Microvision: This I had. And I wish I still did. The Microvision was really the first Gameboy, albeit a technologically inferior version. The controls consisted of a dial and a squishy membrane that became various buttons depending on which cartridge was inserted. The screen was a series of black squares on a gray background. But at the time, it was the coolest thing around.

Merlin: It seemed like everyone had one of these, except for me. I didn't care for it but it was hugely popular. Lots of beeping and more than one game to play. It looked (and sounded) like a futuristic telephone from a movie made in 1979.

Not on the list are some of my personal faves, like the Pac-Man knockoff Epoch Man:

"It's not just a game! It's a digital clock, with a musical alarm!" Things were much simpler in the early 80's.

Bring back any memories?

Source: Wired.com

Letting Kids See Watchmen

Rich or Rehab: Whatever Happened to Tia From 'Witch Mountain'?

Will Ferrell's Landlord Retires From Comedy

Breast Milk Cupcakes

Guitar Hero Camp

Should Cookie Magazine Get Killed?

Cole Gamble — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:30:00 GMT

Conde Nast, publisher of such household name magazines as Vogue, GQ and Wired recently shuttered it’s moderately successful mag Domino. Now the word is Conde Nast needs to bring the ax down on another low performer. On a possible death row list are Wired, Allure, Details, Gourmet and Cookie magazine – a parenting journal.

Not one to wait around for natural causes, Gawker set up a poll of their readers to see which magazine readers feel least deserves to remain on life support. While Gawker readers came out big for stalwarts such as Wired and Gourmet, they were unmistakable about who should go. According to them, Cookie magazine must die!

Among the choices for Conde Nast’s chopping block, Cookie is the youngest—a rather promising upstart. But is this economy may not be the time to invest in a nascent property. The Gawker poll, however, didn’t ask readers which magazine they found most financially viable. This poll was a popularity contest; a popularity contest in which Cookie came out the ugliest date to the prom.

Now we here at Babble wouldn’t begin to assess the quality of Cookie, we prefer to read a certain on-line parenting journal that begins with a “B” and ends in “abble.” Nonetheless, I personally think it good to have many voices of the new parenting generation out there. But what do you think? Surely some of you have read Cookie. So tell me, does Cookie deserve the knife?

More Cookie Talk:

As the Cookie Crumbles: Losing the Baby Weight is Easy, Fun!

More by this author:

5 Second-Grade Boys Found with Heroin

Woman In Labor Calls Radio Station To Find Husband

Did Salma Hayek’s Breastfeeding an African Child Mean the End of Man’s Inhumanity to Man?

Elizabeth Hasselbeck Thinks Everything (Including Aerial Wolf Killing) is About Abortions (PLUS VIDEO)

10 (Dumb) Ways to Get Pregnant

6 Reasons My Toddler is a Total Buttwipe

At the drive-in

Brett Singer — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Despite being a tech-savvy early-adopter type of publication, Wired also has genuine respect for the retro. On Wednesday they asked readers to send in photos of their favorite drive-in movie spots.

Growing up in the city, drive-ins weren't a regular part of my life, but I've been to a few in my time. I never experienced them as a teenager, where, if the movies I've seen are true, there isn't much movie-watching going on. As a little kid, though, it was a fun thing to sit in the car, watch a movie along with other people sitting in their cars, etc. When you put it that way it doesn't sound very exciting. But it was fun.

Add "drive-ins" to the list of things my kids will probably never experience. Oh well. Nothing lasts forever.

Demeter Play Doh Cologne. Whatever Will They Think Of Next?

Patti — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 17:02:00 GMT

I'm a big fan of Demeter Fragrances, with their quirky scents that mimic almost uncannily what they're intended to mimic. Grass, Tomato, Laundromat—I've had several over the years, including Play Doh. Not that I've ever really dreamed of smelling like Play Doh, but it was hard to resist. And it couldn't smell more like the real thing if you actually rubbed Play Doh on your pulse points. It's really amazing.

Demeter makes other kid-centric smellgoods, including Crayon, Baby Powder, Birthday Cake and Bubble Gum. But I feel like they could do better. Where's Baby Head? Nothing smells more awesome, or more distinctive, than a baby's head. And have you ever noticed how little kids like to shove their blankets up into their nostrils and just inhale? I bet Blankie would be a huge hit. And what about Pencil Shavings, or Magic Marker? Those are two scents that just reek (sorry!) of childhood for me.

What do you think Demeter is missing from the many smells of childhood? Just don't say "poop". They're probably working on that already.

(via Geekdad)

MythBusters: Just Part of Raising a Geek

Kelly Mills — Mon, 07 May 2007 12:31:00 GMT

As utter dork parents, we are doing our darndest to make our daughter the kind of kid who will play Dungeons and Dragons, correct her teacher during the physics lesson, join the drama club, and have thick tape holding her glasses together. In other words, we are grooming her for total geekdom. As my better half said recently, "It's gonna make the whole dating thing so much easier on us."

Therefore I was pleased to see other parents encouraging the same kind of behavior. Geekdad from the ubergeek source, Wired, put in a plug for kids watching one of our favorite shows, MythBusters. We adore this program because the hosts are appropriately hilarious, cute, and dorky; they encourage experimentation and skepticism; and best of all, they blow lots of shit up. Heh heh, cool.

I, like Geekdad, highly recommend this program for all ages. In fact, we just turned my engineer stepfather onto the show, and now he watches it religiously. Explosions and critical thinking for the whole family served up by funny people: what more could you want?

I'll also give a shout-out to another one of the dork programs we watch as a unit, called How It's Made. It's a completely straightforward look at how, um, stuff is made. They cover everything from a crayon factory to fish husbandry with the same unflappable delivery and bad puns. It's low tech and literal and Canadian and we like it. See? You can learn things from television.

And You thought YOU took a lot of Home Movies of your Kid

Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:35:00 GMT

I have hours and hours and hours of videos of my kids. I'm not kidding. Just the videos I have taken with my regular digital camera are taking up most of the memory on my laptop. It's becoming a real problem. Still, I've got nothing on Deb Roy. His son is one year old and Roy has already amassed over 12,000 hours of video of the little guy. Why, you ask? How, you ask?

Roy is doing research. He is trying to teach English to a robot. Seriously. He is the director of the Media Lab's Cognitive Machines Group. That is the why. Here is the how: they have equipped his house with 11 cameras and 14 microphones trying to capture everything the baby does to learn how to speak. Crazy, huh?

Wired has a great article detailing how this all came about. I feel kind of sorry for all of the graduate assistants that have to watch all of that footage. I mean - it is one thing to watch your own baby sleep. It is another thing entirely to watch hours and hours and hours of video of someone else's kid sleeping.

It's a whole new kind of reality tv. (yawn)