Tabloids for Dads
Alex Watt of College Humor wants to make it clear: you father has no respect for what you call "culture." And what are you sitting around for? Go get a job. But first read another tabloid cover at the link.
Link -via Pleated Jeans
Great Advice from TV Dads
"Dad, what should I do?" Dad will tell you what's right, even if your father is Archie Bunker, Ned Stark, Homer Simpson, Andy Taylor, Cliff Huxtable or Don Draper.
-via Ace of Spades HQ
A Baby's Blackboard Adventures
This little boy began his adventures at only five days old. He's already seen and done more than many adults! For her series "Blackboard Adventures," Anna Eftimie used a chalkboard to add excitement and variety to this baby's life. You can view more photos in the series at the link.
Happy Father's Day
Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dads, Grandpas, Uncles, and Father figures. We wish you a day filled with laughter, love, good food and the time to lay around and do absolutely nothing.
Twins with Rubber Bands
Twin babies play with rubber bands. Doesn't sound all that exciting on the surface, but their joy and laughter make you smile and watch the whole thing. (via Daily Picks and Flicks)
Daddy's Little Dalek
They grow up and try to Exterminate! so fast, don't they?
Tamara Camera took these great pictures of her hubby and little girl before they ran off Trick-Or-Treating on Halloween a few years back. Tamara was apparently a TARDIS, but she stayed home from the festivities because she was sick -malfunctioning just like the TARDIS tends to do.
Skateboard Stroller
Super Pops Pow Into Your Mouth
These adorable little cake pops by Sweet Cheeks Tasty Treats are the perfect sweet treats for any youngster's superhero party. And don't worry you fondant haters, you can coat your cake pops in dyed white chocolate or any other hard type of shell and the words are actually written with food markers on rolled out Starbursts!
Baby Mistakes Mole for Nipple
Baby wants a snack and Grandpa's mole is convenient. But why doesn't it work?
-via Yababoon (warning: auto-sound)
The League of Aspiring Gentlemen
They're extraordinary in a way. The members of The League of Aspiring Gentlemen of Eau Clair Memorial High School in Eau Clair, Wisconsin want to turn into gentlemen. Their activites are designed to develop gentlemanly qualities:
"We wanted a reason to dress up every week," said club founder Alec Baca, noting the league's members meet most Wednesday's after class in the school's jazz band room dressed in their best attire.
But Baca added they do much more than just dress up. For example, he said, club members have practiced a variety of sports and leisure activities, learned about culture and fashion and have organized school events.
Meanwhile, its members certainly do embrace formal fashion, eschewing jeans and T-shirts for bow ties and sport jackets, cardigans and dress slacks.
But why are they called "aspiring gentlemen" instead of "gentlemen"?
The name of the club is important, Baca said, noting members are "aspiring" gentlemen. At no one point do members graduate to a level of gentlemen, but rather always remain aspiring. To declare oneself a gentlemen would be rather ungentlemanly, Baca said.
(Photo: The League of Aspiring Gentlemen)
A Baby Sees Ice Cream for the First Time
Redditor adrianahasaids showed her daughter ice cream. She reacted appropriately.
I've got good news for you, kid. No matter how old you get, ice cream is always this awesome.
Baby Names from Nature
Yeah, I definitely should have gone with Dragonhunter and Hellbender for my daughters.
Compressed Flapwort? That's so terrible that I can see it becoming popular. Bird and Moon may have done more harm than good by publishing this comic.
Why Finnish Babies Sleep in Cardboard Boxes
For 75 years, the Finnish national government has provided newborn babies with a cardboard box containing essential baby care gear, such as diapers and clothes. The box itself comes with a thin mattress that permits it to serve as a bed.
Although the program was originally for poor families, in 1949, it was extended to every baby in the country. Because mothers could register for a box only after visiting a doctor, some people say that it's one of the reasons why Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world.
The baby box has become an icon of Finnish culture, experienced by the entire nation. Helena Lee of the BBC writes:
At 75 years old, the box is now an established part of the Finnish rite of passage towards motherhood, uniting generations of women.
Reija Klemetti, a 49-year-old from Helsinki, remembers going to the post office to collect a box for one of her six children.
"It was lovely and exciting to get it and somehow the first promise to the baby," she says. "My mum, friends and relatives were all eager to see what kind of things were inside and what colours they'd chosen for that year."
Link -via Marginal Revolution
(Photo: Milla Kontkanen
ET Bark Home
Milwaukee holds an annual Pugfest to support a local pug shelter. This year, Redditor theonizemus was thrilled to see this great photo of her cousin's son and pug at the event. I don't know about you guys, but I desperately want to head to the Pugfest now.
Link Via Fashionably Geek
This Photographer's Daughter Has Super Powers
Emil Nystrom, a photographer in Sweden, loves his daughter. He's also no doubt proud of her prodigious development. He's photographed her doing amazing things. You can see more photos in the series at the link.
The K-9 Poodle Skirt
When Crafty Lil' Thing's daughter wanted to participate in the costume contest at her school's sock hop, she insisted on wearing a poodle skirt inspired by Doctor Who. Originally, she asked her mother to make one with a Dalek, but then she realized there was nothing more suitable for a poodle skirt than K-9.
Would You Like to Have a Dolphin Assisted Birth?
Adam and Heather Barringer of Charlotte, North Carolina have traveled to the Sirius Institute in Pohoa, Hawaii. In July, Heather should be ready to give birth to their child, Bodhi. They will do so in the presence of dolphins:
At the institute, the couple will spend time in the water, forming a connection with a dolphin pod they hope will bond with them and ultimately their newborn.
“It is about reconnecting as humans with the dolphins so we can coexist in this world together and learn from one another,” says Heather.
The couple hopes to find this connection during prenatal and postnatal swims with the dolphins.
“Having that connection with the pod of dolphins anytime – even if the birth doesn’t happen in the water – still brings peace, comfort and strength to the mother and baby during labor,” says Heather.
They believe a dolphin-assisted birth will be calming experience and beneficial.
“It’s total relaxation for the mother,” says Adam. “Dolphins are very intelligent and healing which in turn calms mother and baby for the whole process,” adds Heather.
If the birthing process doesn’t happen in the water, Heather will be accompanied by midwife, Mala, on a family/community farm in Akaka Falls, about 35 miles from Pahoa.
Traveling and living in harmony with the earth is a way of life for this couple. They’ve traveled across the country, staying with friends, living in and out of their car and picking up odd jobs or doing trades when they need money, food or supplies.
“We are all about living off the earth,” says Adam. The couple has been together 11 years and married for four.
Link and Official Website -via Ace of Spades HQ
(Photo: Gordon Wrigley)
Toddler Holds an Earthworm For the First Time
Lorax Bookcase
The Lorax speaks for the trees and now writes for them, too. DeviantART member Inciatus made this bookcase inspired by Dr. Seuss's classic children's book The Lorax. He gave it to his cousin, an elementary school teacher.
Adela Tells It Like It Is
When this zinger came up during a video shoot, Mom and Dad decided this short clip was the perfect way to announce the big news to family and friends. -via Daily Picks and Flicks
If Family Circus Was about a Rich Family
A Linguistic Dissection of 7 Annoying Teenage Sounds
This is what you get when a linguist's children reach middle school. Linguist James Harbeck gives us the phonetic analysis of the things teenagers say WAY too much, mainly to annoy parents, teachers, and even their best friends. A sample:
1. Breathy-voiced long low back unrounded vowel with advanced tongue root
This is usually spelled something like auuggghhh. It's the classic teenage sound of utter exasperation. The eyes are usually angled upwards, sometimes in contrast with a downward movement of the shoulders. "Breathy-voice" means that the vocal folds are wide apart, giving a very "chesty" sound. "Advanced tongue root" means that the back of the tongue is moved forward to make a larger resonating cavity behind it. "Low back" means the tongue doesn't rise anywhere in the mouth (compare this with "eee," which is high front). "Unrounded" means the lips aren't rounded.
If that makes no sense to you, it will when you hear him reproduce this and all the analyzed sounds in the accompanying video at The Week. Link -via Metafilter
The Princess
Matt Clarke has started a YouTube series called Convos With My 2 Year Old. In it, he recreates conversations with his daughter Coco. I'm sure the words were exactly the same, but common sense tells me that the original wasn't nearly as creepy as it seems when Matt plays the part. Look at that adorable little girl -who wouldn't want to play the princess for her? -via Viral Viral Videos
This Train to the Zoo Has Animal Seats for Kids
The Toy You Can't Throw Out
Everyone has that one toy, right? You know what I'm talking about: the toy you've had since childhood that you just can't throw away, give away, or sell on eBay. For me, it's the above pictured Cat in the Hat talking doll. Mattel put a couple of these out in the '70s. They were different sizes and had different records in them with different voices that spoke slightly different catchphrases.
Mine was famous for saying more often than not: "Does your mother know I'm here?"
In the video below, I pull the string a bunch of times and you can hear all the phrases. And while the turntable speed is clearly off, I don't recall it ever sounding great. Even as a kid this cat always sounded a bit creepy.
How about you, Neatoramanauts? What's the one toy YOU can't get rid of? Let us know in the comments below...
A Fact of Life
This graph makes a lot of sense. You can spot the exact point in which puberty begins. This graph was created in a hurry by redditor rstarr13. The age axis is a little wonky, but in reality, the first ten years of your life take up a lot more brain space than the last several decades. Link -via Pleated Jeans
Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch
A child's personal project turned into a documentary Yuck: A 4th Grader's Short Documentary About School Lunch. The film is 19 minutes long and has won several film festival awards. The trailers here are just short clips, but you can find a schedule of screenings at the film site.
In the fall of 2011, fourth grader Zachary Maxwell began asking his parents if he could start packing and bringing his own lunch to school. Unfortunately, they kept insisting that he take advantage of the hot lunch being served at the school. After all, the online menu sounded delicious and the NYC Department of Education (DOE) website assured parents that the meals were nutritious. Zachary wanted to convince his parents that the online menu did not accurately represent what was really being served at his school.
In an effort to prove his point, Zachary started sneaking a small HD camera into the lunchroom to show his parents the truth. Over the next six months, Zachary would continue to gather "inside" footage and research the claims being made by the DOE and the media about the City's public school lunch program.
To the surprise of no one besides his parents, the published menus differed quite a bit from the actual lunches served in schools. To be fair, all the lunches at his elementary school are free, and I've seen much worse. But Zachary Maxwell has a wonderful career ahead of him in filmmaking, journalism, or whatever he decides to do.
The film has a website. Link -via Boing Boing
By the way, Zachary now gets to bring lunch from home. Read more about his experience at the New York Times. Link
Most Popular Baby Names of 2012
Image: Igor Kolos/Shutterstock
For the fourteenth year in a row, Jacob is America's most popular baby boy name - but there are new entries in the list as compiled by the U.S. Social Security Administration. Here are the most popular baby names in 2012:
| Boys: | Girls: |
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As we mentioned above, Jacob has been champ for 14 years since 1999 ("Michael" held that title from 1959 to 1998). This is the second year Sophia came at number one for girl names. Liam cracked the top 10 for the first time, perhaps because of recent movies starring Liam Neeson.
The US Social Security Administration also released the names that underwent the greatest change in popularity from 2011 to 2012:
From Social Security's press release:
Many pop-culture naming trends appear in a popular feature of Social Security’s baby names website--the “change in popularity” page. This year’s winners for biggest jump in popularity in the Top 500 are Major and Arya.
The fastest riser on the girls’ list may have been influenced by the popular cable TV series “Game of Thrones.” Arya is the daughter of a leader of one of the Seven Kingdoms. She also is an expert sword fighter, so doubt her influence on the popular names list at your own risk.
For the boys, parents may associate Major with the military title. Acting Commissioner Colvin added “I have no doubt Major’s rising popularity as a boy’s name is in tribute to the brave members of the U.S. military, and maybe we’ll see more boys named General in the future.” You also might trace Major’s increase in popularity to a cable TV show. “Home by Novogratz” is a popular home design show featuring Major Novogratz, the youngest son of designers Robert and Cortney.
The second fastest riser for boys was Gael, and for girls, Perla. Both names most likely are on the rise due to the increase in the Spanish-speaking population in the United States. Perla is the Latinized version of Pearl and is popular among Hispanic-Americans. Gael’s popularity could be tied to Mexican actor Gael Garcia Bernal.
Teen Woken By Snake Bite
Teens can sleep through anything. Well, almost anything. While a sleepy Napa, California teen was reaching for her alarm clock she was bitten on the hand by a large boa constrictor. The really strange part, neither she, nor her family, own a boa constrictor.
The teen had crossed paths with a cold-blooded killer: a three-foot long boa constrictor. Somehow the reptile slithered into the Ojeda’s apartment on the 300 block of Collier Boulevard and made itself at home. It was a specimen so large, Ojeda said that Napa County Animal Control was shocked.
“When they saw it, they were like ‘Oh crap it’s big,’ so they went and got a cage for it,” Ojeda said.
Emelyn Ojeda did have to seek medical treatment for the bite, but the incident isn't causing her to lose any sleep. Apparently she is still sleeping just fine.
KPIX5 has more: Link
