Toddlers’ Early Language Skills May Influence Later Anger Management

A new study published in the journal Child Development draws a connection between early language skills and emotional growth and also show a relationship to later development of anger management skills.

“We found that toddlers who have stronger language skills than other toddlers, and whose language skills develop faster over time, tend to be better at regulating frustration when they’re preschool aged,” says the study's lead author, Caroline Roben, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Delaware.

“It’s well recognized these days that emotion regulation is important for success in school,” Roben says. “When you’re doing things to promote [your children's] language skills, their verbal world, you may be doing something to promote their emotional development as well.”

Want to read more? Here's a link to the Penn State Live article where this was featured.

Vision-Restoring Implants That Fit Inside The Eye

This comes from MIT's Technology Review. Apparently, there is much work being done on a coming generation of retinal implants that utilize nano-scale electronic components to dramatically improve vision quality in individuals blinded by degenerative eye disease.

“Smaller materials do have the possibility of giving higher-resolution images,” says Shawn Kelly, a bioengineer at Carnegie Mellon University, who is developing a microscale retinal prosthesis. “Smaller electrodes can get closer to individual nerves, and you can have many more of them.”

A company in Israel and a team at the University of California, San Diego, appear to be leading the pack. See the linked article for details.

Fun Time! How Canadians Take Out The Trash In -32° Temperatures!

From Laughing Squid.

Dogs Driving Cars (yes, you read that right)

In New Zealand, rescue dogs are being taught to drive to address some misconceptions concerning their intelligence.

Here's a link to the Auckland SPCA, where the work is being done. Here's video of the training and driving.

In Oregon, Living Large In 800 Square Feet

Here's a lovely home in Eugene, Oregon which originally was 620 square feet, was completely deconstructed and then rebuilt to 800. Lots of exposed wood and lots of light. It has a 3.36 kilowatt solar system that also heats the water.

Travel Photo of the Week

Bay of Ao Noi on the island of Ko Phi-Phi Don, Thailand

Fun Time Bonus! A Glove and Boots Christmas!

How Children Develop Empathy

At this time of year we are supposed to think about the needs and suffering of others and do something positive about it. The feelings stirred by the feelings of others is called empathy and people who have it developed it as children.

This article from the New York Times by Dr. Perri Klass delves into the mechanisms by which this trait develops.

In a quote from the article: "Parental modeling is important, of course; sympathy and compassion should be part of children’s experience long before they know the words. Don’t offer material rewards for prosocial behavior, but do offer opportunities to do good — opportunities that the child will see as voluntary. And help children see themselves and frame their own behavior as generous, kind, helpful."

But financial rewards undermine prosocial behavior. In the US people can be paid for blood donations, but not in Britain. And the British donate more blood.

Worldometer: The World In Numbers

Are you interested in what's going on in the world? By the numbers?  The Worldometers website give you the run down on world population (births, deaths), government and economics (expenditures, productivity), society and media, environment, food and water and list goes on and the numbers increase and decrease in real time.

It's pretty cool to see the numbers of these things spin as you watch them. Here's a good one: As of December 23, 2012 at 8:34:48 AM the population of the Earth was 7,087,038,972, the number of  undernourished was 905,138,108, 10,951 died of hunger and 11,748,197 hectares of land turned into desert this year.

Fun Time! LEGO Quadrocopter Drone!

Study Links Food Allergies To Pesticides In Tap Water

Why can't we seem to protect our supply of fresh water? Why do we allow pesticides and other contaminants to poison it and then allow it to be consumed?

A team of researchers at the journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology decided to look at whether a rise in food sensitivities was related to the use of environmental pesticides and purifying chemicals.

“We started to look into the question of why in westernized countries food allergies are so prevalent, says lead study author Dr. Elina Jerschow. “Pollutants are so widely available in the West through pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, there may be a link.” While the link does not establish a cause and effect relationship, the study finds an association between pesticide exposure and food allergies.

Key findings from the study:

• In 2007, approximately 3 million children under age 18 years (3.9%) were reported to have a food or digestive allergy in the previous 12 months.
• From 1997 to 2007, the prevalence of reported food allergy increased 18% among children under age 18 years.
• Children with food allergy are two to four times more likely to have other related conditions such as asthma and other allergies, compared with children without food allergies.
• From 2004 to 2006, there were approximately 9,500 hospital discharges per year with a diagnosis related to food allergy among children under age 18 years.

Now can we start to figure out that we need clean water? Here's a link to the study.

IQ Is A Myth

Ah, the ever feared, respected and false Intelligence Quotient score. We have all lived our lives under its tyranny and for no other reason except that we have. Now comes a study shedding light on something I've always known.

Intelligence cannot be scored like a football game with winners scoring higher and losers scoring lower. A study published in the journal Neuron on Wednesday, determined that three factors — reasoning, short-term memory and verbal ability combine to create human intelligence or “cognitive profile."

The study’s senior investigator, Dr. Adrian Owen, who is the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging at the university’s Brain and Mind Institute says, “When we looked at the data, the bottom line is the whole concept of IQ — or of you having a higher IQ than me — is a myth. There is no such thing as a single measure of IQ or a measure of general intelligence.”

If you'd like to read the study's abstract, it's HERE. If you'd like to take the test from the study, click HERE.

Travel Photo of the Week

The Inverted Tower, Sintra, Portugal

Why The Universe Is Not A Computer After All

It looks like a long standing science fiction theory about the universe is false after all. For decades, the theory was that the entire universe was a simulation running in a computer somewhere and we only thought it was real because that was part of the program.

Ken Wharton at San Jose State University in California, has thought it out and come to this conclusion: “It’s basically the assumption that the way we humans solve physics problems must be the way the universe actually operates,” he says.

Well, that's all well and nice, but what if that's part of the program, too? I'll let you read the article and sort it out yourself.

Foraging Wild Foods

Wild Harvests is a blog about foraging wild foods in the Pacific Northwest and is an overabundance of wisdom in this respect. It also features recipes.

The most recent post was about their Thanksgiving dinner which included stinging nettles, Copper River sockeye salmon, venison and rice pilaf, all from the wild. Sounds pretty good, doesn't it?

The 31 Healthiest Foods Of All Time

Want to know what's good to eat? Not just good for you, but good tasting, too? If you trust Time Magazine, here's their list (with recipes).

My favorites? Brussels sprouts, kale, blueberries, salmon, beans...all of them.

And just in case you think Time made it all up, the list comes from the USDA.

Fun Time! Flaming Liquids Being Hurled Through The Air In Slow Motion!

Here's a link to their Youtube channel for more amazing slo-mo stuff.

Build A Laser Microphone

From Lifehacker comes this explanation of how to build a microphone that can be used at a distance, from a laser. That way you can listen in on conversations in the house across the street! And be a real spy! And find out embarrassing things about the neighbors! Or find out they're just as boring as they appear!



I just would like to know if we could just skip all the social decline and go right to the fall or do we have to go through every stage, one crazy technological development at a time?

If you can't resist participating in humanity's apparently inexorable decline, here's a link to instruction on how to build the long-range laser spy system.

I Dream Of Wires

In one of my many lifetimes I was a professional synthesizer programmer and performer. As a young teen I was consumed with the idea of owning and using modular analog synthesizers and as an adult I spent a good deal of time and money acquiring and learning to use these amazing sonic wonders.

I Dream of Wires is an upcoming documentary about the history of the creation and resurgence of these marvelous devices.

Below is a promo for the film and below that an extended interview with Chris Carter, who is interviewed for it.




Chris Carter: IDOW Extended Interview #9 from I Dream Of Wires on Vimeo.

Travel Photo of the Week

Matterhorn, Switzerland

Under $1300 3D Printer

I recently wrote a couple of entries about 3D printers. Now there's one under $1300, the Cube. Here's a link to the company, if you're ready to order and a handy informative video about the device.

How To Publish a "Minimum Viable Magazine" Online

I have always loved magazines. Beautiful, colorful, slick covers enclosing the latest in news, design or other interests limited to a specialized group. And although I prefer magazines in print, there is an overwhelming  impetus to publish online: there are no boundaries that limit a physical publication. You can have as many pages as you want. The normal economies of scale don't apply to your publishing run. You can even leave out advertising if you wish.

But there does seem to be some rules for minimum viability, as this article in Technology Review goes to show.

My favorite rule? Make it simple so you can make it fast. Because no one wants to wait an hour to download a publication they just paid for.

Starbucks Opens Drive-Thru Made From Recycled Shipping Containers

Inspired by the shipping containers that their coffee comes in, Starbucks has created a drive-through in Tukwila, Washington, that is made from four of the containers and built to LEED green building standards. 

Starbuck's Director of Global Corporate Communications, Alan Hilowitz says of this venture, "At this time, this store is one-of-a-kind. However, we are viewing this as a prototype which could be replicated in other locations"

Here's a link to the original article on Inhabit.com.

Fun Time! Star Wars Fans Build Full-Size Millennium Falcon!

What we've all been waiting for!



Going up on an 88 acre site in Tennessee. You can help. Here's their website.

$20 Tablet

With so much interest in tablet computers, it would only make sense that there would be intense competition to make a less expensive (a basic model iPad is $500) and capture more of the market.

Well, now someone's done it: a tablet for $20. Datawind has the Aakash 2, a fully capable Android-based tablet designed for educational use in the developing world.

If you'd like one, it seems that the commercially available model, the UbiSlate that is right around $85.

Snakebots

Just when you thought humanoid robots were getting creepy enough, here come a brand new creepy robot: a robot snake.

Carnegie Mellon University Roboticist Howie Choset and his team weren't inspired by human architecture when they designed their robot.

“A lot of people have this notion that robots are modeled after people,” says Choset, of in Pittsburgh. But “if you have to cross a field, swim a moat, burrow through a little hole in a fence and climb a pole, there’s no other robot that can do all those things,” he said of his serpentine machine.

The intent is for this device to be useful in building collapses and fires, where it's too dangerous for people and too difficult for larger robots to investigate.

Here's a link to the original article on Science News. Hopefully the snakebots won't end up on a plane.

Travel Photo of the Week

Iguacu Falls, Brazil

NYC Schools Teach Farming On Rooftops

The Fifth Street Farm

There's a bit of a revolution going on in urban rooftop vegetable gardens. Here's an article in the New York Times about schools in the Big Apple that are using the gardens to teach not only gardening and nutrition, but also subjects as varied as science, art, mathematics and social studies.

In the past two years the number of school based garden have soared from 40 to 232. Perhaps the biggest is the 2,400-square-foot garden at Avenue B and Fifth Street in the East Village, on top of a red-brick building that houses three public schools: the Earth School, Public School 64 and Tompkins Square Middle School called the Fifth Street Farm.

Its goal "is to create a large green roof farm accessible to children of all ages on the Robert Simon Complex in New York City's East Village. We hope this initiative will lead to greater awareness and understanding for our children of the natural world, especially the vital role plants play in our lives."

Self Filling Water Bottle

Here's a real boon to mankind. We have a problem with fresh water. We are running out. Our use of water, for irrigation, drinking, washing, is beginning to outstrip it's availability.

Deckard Sorensen has developed a technology that extracts water from the air. The device contains surfaces with hydrophilic and hydrophobic coatings, and then uses a fan to pass air over the surface. The water then condenses on the surface and fills a bottle or other container.

"We see this being applicable to anything from marathon runners to people in third-world countries, because we realize that water is such a large issue in the world today, and we want to try to alleviate those problems with a cost-efficient solution," Sorensen says. "We are looking to incorporate this in greenhouses or green roofs in the immediate future, and then later on, we’re looking to see how far we can really scale this up to supply maybe farms or larger agricultural goals."

The Rebirth of D'Angelico Guitars

Those of you who know me, know that guitars are one of my passions. I love the sound and feel of a fine guitar in my hands and I'm delighted to see this legendary instrument maker come back.

John D'Angelico is arguably one of the greatest luthiers ever. His handbuilt guitars are regarded as the pinnacle of the art and command the price of a luxury auto all the way up to that of a small house. By the time he died in 1964, at the age of 59, he had only made around 1200.

Guitar collector and businessman John M. Ferolito, Sr has revived the brand and hired Gene Baker and PBG Workshop to build a limited run of D'Angelico USA Masterbuilt Series using MRI scans of original D'Angelico instruments. Click on the link below to have a look.

D'Angelico Guitars.

Fun Time! Best Pizza In NYC!

Because if you're having fun in NYC, you still need to eat.