The controversial traveling show "Our Bodies" is at Regina's Science Centre right now and they're offering a lecture series each week to go with the topic. This week's subject was "Kids As Couch Potatoes" and that seemed fairly relevant to our lives these days so we decided to go check it out.
Some random thoughts on both...
- I'm not sure what I expected but the exhibit didn't blow me away. I even wondered if we were getting the full show or if we got a bit of a mini-version being a smaller centre. (My memory of hearing about it when it played Toronto while in library school was that tickets were like $50 or $75 or something. Here, I think it's $20 and we got a discount for coming on lecture night.)
- the lecture revealed that kid watching TV is...bad! (Who'd a thunk it?) But still an informative talk with lots of good information and statistics (now where do those come from?)
- also lots of information about our society's less-than-active lifestyles - kids *and* parents - which are obviously closely linked.
- Shea and I both know we let Pace watch too much TV (and here I'll sound like that smart but not too smart friend from a recent blog post who happily used a sample size of one to show that formula feeding ain't that bad) but I watched a lot of TV growing up and I feel like I turned out okay. In fact, you rarely hear people (outside of the TV industry I guess) citing some of the benefits of watching television - it gives you cultural literacy and I'd argue a better awareness of our commonality than perhaps any other medium, it gives you visual literacy, it helps you in social situations, it can help you win money on TV game shows (okay, now I'm stretching and my arguments are collapsing in on themselves too!)
- speaking of breastfeeding, again that idea that extended breastfeeding doesn't get the promotion it deserves is all over the place when you're looking for it. The lecturer pointed out that UNICEF recommends six months of breastfeeding and I felt Shea tense, knowing she wanted to scream out "two years!" (They're both right - UNICEF recommends six months of *exclusive* breastfeeding but for that to be sustained for two years. But the point - why wouldn't a PhD in children's health studies take this opportunity to promote breastfeeding for the longer length of time in a crowd with lots of parents and families present?)
- Then, in the "fetal" part of the exhibit (not as bad as it sounds but they had it curtained off with an additional warning notice), they had one sign talking about SIDS which listed some of the contributing factors - pre-mature birth, drug & alcohol dependency in the mother, etc. But of course no mention that not being breastfed is now considered just as much of a potential cause of SIDS as those other things.
- Lots of the controversy around the exhibit is about the exhibition of human bodies for what is, in essence, entertainment (edutainment?) There is also some concern from the religious angle which, as an atheist, I can nicely ignore. Much more worrisome is the uncertainty about how the bodies were obtained and what sort of consents (if any) were in place. I mean, I've got my signed organ donor card in my wallet. But no similar document can or has been produced for these specimens who are suspected to possibly be executed Chinese criminals or worse (body trafficking?)
- our regular babysitter got her license recently and that's probably a clue that we'll be looking for a new babysitter soon. She's already gotten a job at a local bakery but says she'll still do some babysitting...at least for the time being. Man, where did the last couple years go?
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Wednesday, August 4
"Our Bodies" & Kids As Couch Potatoes
by
Jason
on Wed 04 Aug 2010 09:28 PM CST
Wednesday, July 14
50 Foods Under $1 per lb
by
Jason
on Wed 14 Jul 2010 08:31 PM CST
Sure, they're counting on some store specials in this list but the point they make about the healthiest foods that you can eat often being the cheapest is a very valid one.
Sunday, June 6
Saccarine Sunday - Eight Month Old Has Cochlear Implants Turned On For the First time
by
Jason
on Sun 06 Jun 2010 09:43 PM CST
This is pretty amazing and heart-melting.
(via MetaFilter which has a good discussion of the implications for the deaf community, many of whom are opposed to this type of operation. Man, I never would've thought there was any question about doing something like this!) Thursday, January 7
Born Again Evangelical Stephen Baldwin vs. Richard Dawkins
by
Jason
on Thu 07 Jan 2010 11:10 PM CST
I would argue with Dawkins - I think Stephen "Balding One" is descended directly from apes.
 Monday, December 14
Music Monday - "Whoo-whoot!"
by
Jason
on Mon 14 Dec 2009 08:26 PM CST
This video is called "A Glorious Dawn" - Carl Sagan ft. Stephen Hawking (Cosmos Remix) and if that doesn't hint at how much coolness is in store for you when you click play below, I have only one word - auto-tune!
(found via a Reddit thread on songs that were so awesome you played them at least 10 times in a row) Saturday, September 26
Saturday Snap - Pace's First Concert
by
Jason
on Sat 26 Sep 2009 08:31 PM CST
Anticipating the appearance of the Backyardigans this afternoon as Pace had a water-themed day - swimming lessons in the morning, "Under the Sea" Backyardigans show then watch a bit of "Finding Nemo" on TV when we get home....
 Friday, August 7
Friday Fun Link - World's Oldest Map Found, Dates To 14 000 Years Ago (Aug 7, 2009)
by
Jason
on Fri 07 Aug 2009 09:39 PM CST
I can't help but use my "Digital Footprints" tag on this story!
 "The landscape depicted corresponds exactly to the surrounding geography," she said. "Complete with herds of ibex marked on one of the mountains visible from the cave itself." (via Reddit) Friday, July 17
Friday Fun Link - Unique Flavour Combinations (July 17, 2009)
by
Jason
on Fri 17 Jul 2009 09:30 AM CST
A pretty fun Ask MetaFilter question asks what are the most strange yet enjoyable food and flavour combinations you know?
Here's a few samples... - ham and peanut butter - cheese and brown sugar - lemonade with salt and pepper (popular in India apparently) - lemonade with iced tea - half grapefruit, sprinkled with cinnamon and briefly microwaved - garlic and orange juice The one main lesson? Apparently peanut butter goes with anything! I don't know if I have any personal ones - Shea's a big fan of french fries and ice cream (and that reminds me of a friend who would layer his french fries on his hamburger rather than eating them on the side). I always eat my pork chops with Vietnamese hot sauce rather than apple sauce. Someone in the thread posts that they get weird reactions eating grilled cheese with ketchup but I definitely do that. Going back to the peanut butter theme, my father-in-law eats peanut butter & onion sandwiches. My own dad talks of eating ketchup sandwiches growing up (I'm never sure if that's a "we were so poor" thing or if it's a "I was a really strange kid" thing!  ) Thursday, February 12
"Even Firefox Thinks That Shit Is Ridiculous"
by
Jason
on Thu 12 Feb 2009 11:55 PM CST
You love celebrity gossip, admit it. And when I need my fix, I visit What Would Tyler Durden Do (wwtdd.com) which has some of the funniest snarky comments you'll find on the Internet (that's a pretty high bar right there!)
A recent post about the "celebrity" mother of the octuplets in California caught my eye because it contained a photo of the woman while she was still pregnant. I usually don't put warnings on posts but seriously, if you click this link, you won't be able to unsee this. Her belly looks like the craniums in Alien Nation (okay, I'll leave the snark to the pros.  )Tuesday, December 16
Ocean Currents Could Power The World
by
Jason
on Tue 16 Dec 2008 10:13 PM CST
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