Assorted interesting stuff!

I have a long running battle with my dog over his nails. He actually chews them so I don't have to clip them, but that leaves ragged edges...so I was excited to read an excellent system for making the whole thing easier!
The Nail Wars

Skeptifem asks: Is weight loss surgery a feminist issue?

The idea of weight loss as a goal in and of itself is scientifically controversial. Obesity has only been correlated with health conditions, not identified as a sole cause of any condition. Lifestyle and genetics play a role in the conditions typically associated with obesity. There is also controversy over the danger associated with the surgery itself

Weight loss may or may not be a 'good' thing, but being healthy is more important than being thin: something lost in the national discussion. And one can exercise and eat right and be healthy and still be overweight.




And Mike the Mad Biologist has an excellent point about school reform:

It's the environment students live in that is the largest determinant of student performance--and, despite claims to the contrary, we can do something about poverty

And yet we don't do something about poverty.

Side note: children also have priorities. I volunteer as a Guardian ad Litem, and I am always appalled at teachers who complain about a student not being focused in class and barely passing when they know this child is on their second or third foster home, having been removed from an abusive or neglectful situation. With everything going on, why would getting a good grade even be on the child's radar? They are busy trying to survive...

We need to find some compassion, and a method that doesn't penalize students. It's not fair to keep holding a kid back; and it's not fair to promote them when they have no mastery of the subject matter. There needs to be a third and fourth and maybe even fifth or tenth option here...

And for no reason at all:


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad