Apt. 11D

Pumped Up Kicks

Finished off the work for the day. Celebrating with a Big Mac and YouTube tunes. I like this one, too.

Broderick's New Superbowl Commercial

What do you think?

The Ritalin Solution

In yesterday's Times, L. Alan Sroufe argues that we are over medicating our kids with Ritalin and other ADD drugs. He argues that these drugs have serious side effects and that the concentration benefits wear off over time. (At one point in the article, he says the side affects are serious and permanent, but later claims that the side affects are temporary. Confused.) He said that ADD  is misunderstood. It isn't a neurological problem, but a behavior problems that is caused by bad parenting. 

Behavior problems in children have many possible sources. Among them are family stresses like domestic violence, lack of social support from friends or relatives, chaotic living situations, including frequent moves, and, especially, patterns of parental intrusiveness that involve stimulation for which the baby is not prepared. For example, a 6-month-old baby is playing, and the parent picks it up quickly from behind and plunges it in the bath. Or a 3-year-old is becoming frustrated in solving a problem, and a parent taunts or ridicules. Such practices excessively stimulate and also compromise the child’s developing capacity for self-regulation.

At this moment, I'm drumming my fingers on my desk, while I try to decide how much personal information that I should reveal. Answer: not much. Let's just say that my views on the topic are based on some family experiences,  conversations with neurologists and parents, and whatever scholarly articles squeak through the paywall. 

Attention problems aren't just because of bad parenting. That's a ludicrous, old fashioned, and annoying notion. Attention problems are clearly neurological. You'll see the gene passed down from parent to child and you'll see differences among children within one family. It seems highly unlike that a mom was in the habit of plunging Kid #1 in a tub of water, but not Kid #2. The Bad Parent theory fails to explain ADD.  

While Sroufe's Bad Parent theory makes me vomit, I am very sympathetic to his concern about the over medication of kids. 

I think there is a rather large population of kids who have trouble concentrating in school. They are smart, wonderful kids, but they simply cannot sit still in a desk for seven hours a day, while a teacher talks about the GDP of Peru. With the rise of high stakes testing, there is even more pressure on schools to reign in these daydreamers and force them to the concentrate. Rather than creating learning environments that will suit the daydreamers, schools are growing less and less tolerant of them. 

To meet the demands for high test scores, schools are pressuring parents to medicate the kids. (I have lots of anecdotal stories here, but I'm not telling those stories right now. ) It is much, much cheaper to medicate a kid, then provide him or her with a classroom aide. These medications do have temporary side affects that are rather gruesome. Some cause the kid to pull out hair or pick at his skin until it bleeds. 

The problem is that these drugs work to a certain extent. They do help the kid get through a boring day at school. I just wish there was a drug to give the schools that would help them be less boring. 

Photography Class #3

Two more great photos from readers. 

This study of blues and peaches comes from Katie at SCB Citizen. 

Sam Crane from The Useless Tree sends this street scene from Jaipur, India in 2007. The sari is proof that India is an ancient and wise civilization. 

Next assignment: children. 

The Price of Words

My buddy, Suze, is a freelance editor, so she's continually scanning the online job boards for new clients. She periodically sends me the worse job advertisements with wry notes about the downfall of civilization.  

Here's a proofreading job. They are looking for someone who will proofread health related articles. Some of these articles are written by non-English speakers, which will require serious editing. They would like someone with experience. It's a 20+ hours per week job. For all that, they will happily pay you $150 per month. 

A new blog that's devoted to healing and aspiration posts is looking for a blogger who knows HTML, WordPress, and SEO. That blogger should blog a 250-500 word post at least once a day, seven days per week. They estimate that writing that post should take you about 10 minutes per day. For all that, they'll pay you $50 per month. 

Sign up, people! 

Whippets? 80's Drugs Return

Demi Moore was hospitalized the other day, and reports claim that she was doing whippets before having a breakdown. 

I haven't heard about whippets since 1987. She's really trying to turn back the clock. All she needs a Swatch. 

Spreadin' Love 563

Turning old books into sculpture. 

A baby bat learns to fly. Waaaah. So sweet. (Thanks, lmc!) 

Check out this great slide show of reimagining vintage furniture. I'm picking up my buddy Suze from the busstop in an hour, and we're going to an estate sale. I heart junk. 

According to the New York Times, "A Pew Research Center poll this week found that the antipiracy legislation was the most closely followed news topic among Americans under the age of 30; even news of the presidential elections failed to get as much attention in this age group."

My brain blew out yesterday by the huge response to the JSTOR blog post that I wrote for the Atlantic. I spent too much time answering e-mails and tweets and I had to give myself a time-out to recover. I'm just catching up on my media diet for an hour before hitting the estate sales and then plotting my next bomb. 

Ow!

I'm geeking out over the latest Human Development Index.  1. Norway, 2. Australia, 3. Netherlands. 4. United States. ... 75. Georgia.... 184. Mozambique 185. Burundi 186. Nige 187. Congo.

Where the Wild MILFs Are

The Colbert Report
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Day Off

I'm taking a day off from the Internet. Recharging the battery. 

Open Thread. Send links of good stuff to read/look at when I return, please. 

Photography Class

I'm taking a photography class right now. Our assignment for the week was to take an abstract photo that explores color. Here's my photo.

Here's a shot from a reader, Lisa SG. Isn't it lovely? 

Disco Color comes from Sandra at Raincoastcottage. 

This one comes from Katie F.  I call it Hairy Berries.

Send me your photographs today and I'll post them. 

Spreadin' Love 562

Billy Cundiff's Facebook page. "I was gonna tell you to go to hell, but then I realized you live in baltimore, so that would be a step up" I'm so glad that I'm not Billy Cundiff right now. 

Skiing in the Spanish Pyrennees. 

Lovely modern, DIY birdhouses. 

A pop-up Starbucks made out of shipping containers. 

Lego + Minecraft = Nerdgasm

What's Wrong with Mitt

What aren't conservatives rallying around Mitt Romney? I don't think it's because the other candidates are so strong. It's simply because Mitt is a terrible candidate. He's coming into these debates over caffeinated and over prepared. He breathless tries to get out every answer that he and his advisers have agonized over for hours. He's too anxious to cover up his weaknesses. He's so wooden and robotic that he makes Al Gore look like Mr. Natural. 

He also is completely clueless about how to deal with the fact that he's fabulously wealthy. Last night, he again bragged that he made Kennedy take out a second mortgage on his house when they were running for office. It was a mean spirited, nasty remark. In a previous debate, he said that his father told him that nobody running for office should have to take a mortgage out on his house. Like only the wealthy should run for office. Like politics should be a hobby of the rich. 

He put off showing his tax returns, because he knew that it would annoy people that he only pays 15% taxes every year. Money earned passively through investments should be taxed at the same rate as money earned actively. 

Mitt may still end up winning the nomination. He has a well funded campaign, and he's backed by party elites, but the average voter is having a hard time pulling the ballot for him. 

A Blogging Dinosaur

A friend sent me a link to an interesting article about online college education and the unbundling of universities. It reminded me of a blog post that I wrote years ago, and so I dug around to find it. Back in August of 2003, I predicted that we would see more and more of online college education and that it would make it even harder for people like me to find jobs. 

It's funny to read this random thought that I had nine years ago. I was such a kid. I had only been blogging for a few weeks. My kids were babies and we were living in a crappy apartment in Manhattan with annoying neighbors. I was skinny. I was writing academic papers and teaching at a university. We were house hunting. Then we moved. 

I often think I should stop blogging about my personal life. Those posts invite judgement, and that criticism hurts much more than criticism about my views of politics or pop culture. Any criticism of my kids makes me breath fire. But of all those old posts, it is the personal posts that I treasure the most. 

The Walk of Shame

Over the weekend, I told my dad about our new favorite show, Shameless on Showtime. William H. Macy plays a fall down on the floor type of drunk, who scams the system for social security and disability checks which he blows on booze at the corner pub, while his kids raise themselves and pick his pocket to pay the electricity bill. They live in Chicago next to the L, which shakes their house as it rumbles by. Dad didn't think it was so funny, because he grew up in a drunken, dysfunctional family in Chicago.

I tried to explain that the show is so engaging despite the poverty and the alcoholism, because I think we relate more to this imperfect family more than the families in shows like Parenthood. The Shameless house has crap on the kitchen counters. The kids shove a bowl of Cheerios in their mouths before they rush off to school. The kids aren't wearing nice clothes or waking up with a face of makeup. There's no time for long soul searching discussions among family members. There's lots of running around and drinking. Hair is thrown into messy ponytails. The kids aren't on the honor roll. Well, one is, but he's trading in his tutoring skills for blowjobs. 

I think a lot of have abandoned the idea of the perfect family and are embracing our weird and unhealthy selves. 

Silly Head

Newt

It's grey outside in my basement office. There's a pile of damp and rapidly molding ski pants dumped on the laundry  floor. I have a bag of gym clothes waiting with good intentions by the front door. I have a blue sticky note of  errands that need to happen this morning. Well, let's ignore those pressing matters for a moment and talk about Newt. 

Why did Newt destroy Mitt in South Carolina? Is it because he killed in the debates last week, and people want a candidate that they think can out debate Obama? Is there really a backlash against party elite? Is Mitt in trouble, because of a populist backlash against anyone who has reeks of Wall Street? Is because Mitt has not convinced social conservatives that he's a real conservative? 

UPDATE: And in response to popular demand....

The thought of an open marriage with this newt doesn't make us vomit a little in our mouths.

The Morning Bagels

This is "Max is Rushing in the Bagels to a Restaurant on Second Avenue for the Morning Trade" by Weegee. I just came from the Jewish Museum's Radical Camera exhibit. Loved it. 

The Whys of Academic Paywalls

Let's say you get an obscure and alarming disease. Let's not make this scenario too scary. Let's say that this disease turns your big toe green and emits an embarrassing odor. What's the first thing that many of  us would do? We would google "alarming stinky green  foot disease." You might find a wikipedia page and a few newspaper articles on the green foot disease, but you would not be able to read any academic research on the topic, because you don't have a university ID. 

Why can't you read academic research? Why can't you read academic research that was conducted at public universities, which is funded by YOUR tax dollars? Let me tell you....

Not only is the research is hidden from the likes of you and me who don't have an academic ID card anymore, but also academics have to pay to read their own research. Yes, academics write research, receive no profits, and then have to pay to read it again. Oh, the insanity. 

UPDATE: Thanks so much to all my off-the-record friends who helped me with this article. And thanks to the love around the blogosphere. Yesterday, my article shot to the top of the Atlanic's Most Popular list. I was thrilled. 

More from Scott Lemieux, Boing Boing, and reddit. 

Henry Farrell calls on all academics to boycott Elsevier. 

UPDATE2: While the response to this essay was overwhelmingly popular, a couple of people have criticized it. The critics say that JSTOR is one of the good guys and I shouldn't be calling for their dismissal. The point is that we don't need ANY academic databases anymore. They cost us a lot of money. I didn't have the time to run down the exact amounts, but think hundreds of thousands of dollars per year, if not more, at the larger universities. If all journals just put their issues online, continued their usual peer review process, skipped printing the hard copy versions, then we would save money AND increase access. There's really no downside. 

A Thursday

4:00 Jonah, are you doing your homework?

J: Um, yeah. 

How many more definitions do you have to do? Oh, there's your brother's bus. Hurry up, hurry up. You have to be at school before 6:45 for your band concert. [Check email, start cutting up the broccoli, put the morning's cereal bowls in the dishwasher. 

J: But my shoes hurt.

Well, maybe you should have told me about your band concert earlier, instead of me finding out about it from some random lady at the YMCA yesterday. I could have gone to Payless the other day and gotten your some new ones. 

J: I don't know how to tie my tie.

We'll look it up on YouTube. Your dad won't be home in time. Hurry, hurry. [Grabbing Ian off the bus. Cracking eggs to bread the chicken. Check email.]

I: Moooom? Can I play Mega Mall Story on your iPhone? 

No. Start doing your homework. I need my iPhone. I'm checking email. 

I: Moooom? Can I play Nitrome Must Die?

No. It sounds like a bloody game and your teachers will think that we're abusing you. Again. Come on. Do your homework. We have to be out of her at 4:45 for the neurologist. [Check email. Answer email. Start frying chicken. Measure water for the couscous.] What time is your father coming home? He better get home early. Or at least on time. [Call Steve's office.] Where are you? Are you getting ready to leave? You need to be home by 6:30 at the latest, so you can eat some dinner and help with Jonah's tie. What? You have a 5:00 meeting? Arg!!! Well, you might not get dinner then. Bye. Kiss. Jonah, are you doing your homework? Why did you put this project off until the last minute. You should have been working on it over the weekend. [Put the broccoli in a pot with water.] I need to go to the supermarket on the way to the concert, because we're out of milk, butter, and wine. Really, really need a glass of red wine tonight. Ian, did you get green lights today at school. OK, good. Now, do your work. You have 2o minutes. Are you sick? Are you warm? You're not allowed to get sick. I have to go into the city tomorrow. [Check email.] 

Shit New Yorkers Say

Pat Kiernan!! I miss him so much.