Archive for the ‘Blog’ Category:
50 Valentine’s Day Gifts Under $50 (Links)
Our friend Tracy at TeeWii put together a terrific list of 50 Valentine’s Day gifts that cost less than $50. Although time is tight (Valentine’s Day is, well, tomorrow), if you haven’t gotten your sweetie a gift, here are a lot of excellent suggestions that won’t break the bank.
Also: Happy Valentine’s Day!
Valentine’s Day Wish List: 50 Gifts Under $50 | TeeWii.
Kindle Fire Tablet Sale NOW
Amazon is once again offering a limited-time price break on their Kindle Fire Tablet line. Here’s the sale price breakdown: Kindle Fire HD for $124 (down from $139), Kindle Fire HDX for $199 (down from $229), Kindle Fire HDX 8.9″ for $339 (down from $379), and Kindle Fire HD 8.9″ for $189 (down from $269). Such a deal! These prices are only good through tomorrow, February 14, 2014.
Note: those prices are for the Kindle Fire With Special Offers, aka ads. If you want it without special offers, you have to pay a little bit more.
What’s the difference between the Kindle Fire HD and the Kindle Fire HDX? 
For example, the Kindle Fire HD has a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 216 ppi, or 1280×800. The Kindle Fire HDX has a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 323 ppi, or 1920×1200. The HDX model also has “The fastest processor on a 7-inch tablet”, according to Amazon — “2.2GHz quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM for fast, fluid multi-tasking, gaming, and video.” That’s FOUR CORES, people. FOUR. More cores equals better performance when you’re consuming content on your Kindle Fire.
Bottom line: as we say every time Amazon throws consumers a bone and lowers the prices on Kindles for a limited-time sale, if you’ve been thinking about buying a Kindle Fire, now is a good time because you’ll pay less money. Sale ends February 14, 2014. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Kindle Fire HD Tablet – Best Value Kids Tablet, Family Tablet (They wrote that, we didn’t. But we do agree that it’s a good value.)
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Tim Armstrong Distressed Baby Parent Speaks Out (A-O-HELL-No)
The parent of a “distressed baby” that AOL’s Tim Armstrong blamed for cutting employee benefits is speaking out.
Here’s a link to an article Deanna Fei wrote for Slate.com’s DoubleX. The title?
“My Baby and AOL’s Bottom Line”
Subheading?
“That ‘distressed baby’ who Tim Armstrong blamed for benefit cuts? She’s my daughter.”
An article on Gawker’s ValleyWag by Nitasha Tiku makes the claim that the AOL CEO “has a history of targeting pregnant employees,” citing specific examples of past behavior, including a lawsuit dating to Tim’s time at Google. If you want to get really nauseous, read some of the comments.
Tim apologized. A couple of times. Doesn’t seem to be helping.
Bottom line? Smooth move, Tim. Stay classy.
Tim Armstrong blames “distressed babies” for AOL benefit cuts. He’s talking about my daughter. (via Slate DoubleX)
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Buy Whit Honea’s Book Now
Whit Honea has a new book out called The Parents’ Phrase Book. You should go buy it now.
Why should you go buy Whit Honea’s new book? I don’t recall giving you permission to ask for a reason. But I will give you one anyway. In fact, I will give you three. Read more »
You Want Crack With That?
McDonalds Happy Meal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Pennsylvania McDonald’s empoyee sold heroin in Happy Meals, police say | 7online.com.
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Let’s Get More Excited About Space Travel
Here’s an idea. Instead of endless reports about Justin Bieber and other mindless crap, let’s get more excited about space travel.
(This isn’t a picture of real space travel. It’s Captain Video and His Video Rangers. Old TV show.)
Live streaming video by Ustream
(By the way, the latest Bieber news, as of this writing, is that Usher flew to be by Justin’s side and offer emotional support or something. In case you’re curious. Who says this isn’t the DaddyTips age of having your cake and eating it too?)
On January 23, 2014, three days ago, NASA launched a Next-Generation Relay Satellite. No, not Star Trek: The Next Generation. Something real. The TDRS-L Satellite. Launched by NASA. Frickin’ NASA! And they broadcast the launch live on Ustream! And I didn’t even know! (The video is archived and embedded above. I was wrong. The video embedded above appears to be NASA’s live Ustream channel. Sorry. Here is a link to the video of the launch.)
Nobody cares. Why doesn’t anyone care? We should really care about this a lot more than we do.
Why should we care? Read more »
No Vaccines Means We Get Diseases Back
This NPR article is upsetting, and not only because looking at the constantly moving graphic is giving me a headache.
(This isn’t a full-on rant, but me expressing my opinion tends to lead to someone feeling like I’m ranting. Hence the graphic.)
I used to write a lot about the anti-vaccine folks. Here’s a post from 2010 that links to a piece I wrote for AOL ParentDish about the retraction of the Lancet study linking vaccinations to autism. And here is the very first Babble Podcast I did way back in October of 2008.
In that podcast I discussed how perhaps Jenny McCarthy is not the person to whom we should be looking to for medical advice of any kind. (I also wrote and recorded the theme song. I’m very talented.) McCarthy was very vocal about the link between vaccines and autism. Her proof was debunked. More on that in a moment.
Ante Up For Autism (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In addition to being the year when I recorded a podcast, 2008 is also when the Council on Foreign Relations began “tracking news reports” of disease outbreaks. Diseases that had been all but wiped out, if not wiped out entirely.
From NPR.org:
Since 2008 folks at the think tank CFR have been plotting all the cases of measles, mumps, rubella, polio and whooping cough around the world. Each circle on the map represents a local outbreak of a particular disease, while the size of the circle indicates the number of people infected in the outbreak.
As you flip through the various maps over the years, two trends clearly emerge: Measles has surged back in Europe, while whooping cough is has become a problem here in the U.S.
Whooping cough is back? Seriously? Preventable diseases should stay prevented. So much of the anti-vaccination information has been proven to be 100% false. (It’s possible that all of it has been debunked; I don’t know and therefore am not going to make such a broad statement.) What’s left is parental fear. Statements like “I believe vaccines are bad” don’t have any basis in scientific reality. Are doctors always right? Of course not. I don’t have a gall bladder because a certain doctor couldn’t be bothered to examine me for six months. Eventually the thing grew to the size of a football, became gangrenous, and I needed immediate emergency surgery or I would have died. Does that mean I no longer go to the doctor? Well, I no longer go to THAT doctor. But I haven’t thrown out all science, or the scientific method. Nor do I pretend that I am a scientist.
We should all be able to agree that whooping cough is bad. Whooping cough was gone. That was good. Now whooping cough, which is bad, is back. That is bad. Why is whooping cough back? Because some parents, based on bad information disseminated by a number of people, Jenny McCarthy being one of the more famous ones, are afraid of vaccinating their kids. That’s not good. At all. Stop it.
Here is a Public Health Report document from 1916. The text is as follows:
PATERSON, N. J.
Whooping Cough — Prevention of Spread — Affected Children Under 10 Years of
Age Required to Wear Arm Bands. (Reg. Bd. of H., Mar. 7, 1916.)1. No parent or guardian of any infant under 10 years of age suffering from the
disease commonly known as whooping cough shall permit any such infant to appear
in the street or in any other public place within the city of Paterson, N. J., unless
such infant shall wear and expose upon the arm a band of yellow material bearing
upon it the words “Paterson health department — Whooping cough.” The band
shall be in a form to be prescribed and supplied by the board of health, and shall
be worn for a period beginning with the earliest recognition o” the disease and con-
tinue until danger of infection is over, but in no event less than six weeks.2. No parent or guardian of any infant under the age of 10 years suffering from
whooping cough shall permit any such infant to board any street car or other public
conveyance or to visit any house other than the house in which such infant resides,
or any store, school, Sunday school, or building of public assembly.3. Any parent or guardian violating any of the provisions of this ordinance shall
be subject to a fine of $10 for each offense.
(Source: Internet Archive/JSTOR)
Armbands for kids! Doesn’t that sound fun? That was the best we could do in 1916. It is now 2014. We’ve come a long way, baby. Get vaccinated.
Zero deaths. That’s the goal.
(Above image from The Prelinger Archives.)
How Vaccine Fears Fueled The Resurgence Of Preventable Diseases : Shots – Health News : NPR.
