At Foreign Policy's blog Passport, Joshua Keating notes an academic paper that found that the dictatorial a leader is, in general, the more children he has. From the paper:

We provide a theory whereby non-benevolent, non-democratic leaders increase their expected family size to raise the likelihood that a child will be a match at continuing the regime’s survival. As a consequence, having a larger family size raises the non-democratic leader’s expected rents that they can exploit from the citizenry. In contrast, democratic leaders have a lower desire to appropriate rents from the citizenry, and therefore have a diminished desire to have additional children for these purposes. We construct a data set of the number of children of country leaders as of August 31, 2005. We find that in a sample of 221 country leaders, fully non-democratic leaders have approximately 1.5–2.5 more actual children as compared to if they are fully democratic.

Link via io9 | Photo: AP

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Those of you who haven't lived in Alabama may struggle to grasp the magnitude of the rivalry between the respective football fans of the University of Alabama and Auburn University. Suffice it to say that Alabamians take their football very seriously.

That's why the ultimate threat against a 4-year old Crimson Tide fan is to take him to the Auburn Store.

via reddit

A study in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology suggests that very young children can understand ironic language. From the abstract:

Children's responses to others' ironic utterances were coded for their understanding of meaning and conversational function. Mothers were especially likely to ask rhetorical questions and to use ironic language in conflictual contexts. In contrast, fathers used hyperbole and understatement as frequently as rhetorical questions, and employed ironic language in both positive and conflictual contexts. Children also showed evidence of a nascent ability to use ironic language, especially hyperbole and rhetorical questions. Family members used rhetorical questions and understatement proportionately more often in a negative interaction context.

Link | Journal Article (payment required) | Photo by Flickr user adpk used under Creative Commons license

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Humorist Ryan Iverson puts on his best fake German accent and, speaking as filmmaker Werner Herzog, offers dark interpretations of children's books. He's already tackled Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Madeline, and -- best of all -- Curious George. Most recently, Iverson has read about the haunted, hunted central character in the Where's Waldo? series.

via MomLogic

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Comedian Danielle Uhlarik and Second City Network are gradually releasing a series of videos lampooning the values that the Disney princess movies teach. The one above is for Belle from Beauty and the Beast. You can also watch one for Ariel from The Little Mermaid.

via Ace of Spades HQ

Das Chupa, an artist, will soon be a daddy. He scorns the honor roll bumper stickers that some parents put on their cars, so he's created a set for parents of video game players:

My son Dean is going to be out of beta in just over 3 months and I've got some preparing to do. I've never understood why parent stick the crap bumper stickers about their six year olds making the honor list in a grade where bladder control is part of the curriculum.

Pictured above is one bumper sticker referencing one of Mega Man's foes.

Link via Geekosystem

20th Century psychologist Abraham Maslow famously categorized human needs in a pyramid, from physical survival to self-actualization. Now a team of evolutionary psychologists proposes that the top slot should belong to parenting:

The new pyramid is based on the premise that our strongest and most fundamental impulse, which shapes our day-to-day desires on an unconscious level, is to survive long enough to pass our genes to the next generation. According to this school of thought, backed by considerable — though not irrefutable — evidence, all our achievements are linked in one way or another to the urge to reproduce.

In other words, aside from our powerful brains, we’re pretty much like every other living creature.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/maslows-pyramid-gets-a-makeover-20682 via Glenn Reynolds | Image: Georgia Perimeter College

Previously: Maslow's Hierarchy of Robot Needs

A woman in Queensland, Australia went into early labor yesterday. Authorities dispatched a rescue helicopter to take her from a remote area to a hospital. Fourteen minutes before they landed, the onboard paramedic delivered the baby girl:

A spokesman for the RACQ CareFlight said paramedic Mel Bernas delivered the baby girl 14 minutes before landing. ''The baby and mother were in good spirits and transported to Mackay Base Hospital,'' the spokesman said yesterday.

''It is believed the Wollongong couple were married yesterday on Hamilton Island - so a very memorable wedding anniversary.''

Link via Stuff | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user 111 Emergency Used under Creative Commons license

A Canadian safety organization spent $15,000 making an optical illusion in a West Vancouver street. When a driver is about 30 meters away, it looks like a young child running into the street, chasing a ball. The BCAA Traffic Safety Foundation hopes that it will encourage drivers to slow down and be watchful of children. Spokesman David Drunne said:

The back-to-school season was chosen because September and October are the months that see the most child fatalities, Mr. Dunne said. Plus, parents are often the worst offenders, speeding, pulling u-turns and talking on cellphones, he said.

You can view a larger image at the link.

Link via Gizmodo | Photo: Globe & Mail

It can be hard to travel with children, which is why Singapore's Changi Airport was designed to be a family entertainment venue. Among its amenities is a 40-foot tall slide. It's the tallest slide in Singapore and the tallest slide in any airport anywhere:

For every $22 spent in the airport, adrenaline junkies (or really brave little kids) get tokens for two rides on the slide. Visitors who don’t want to travel at the speed of 19 feet a second, can take a ride down the shorter, one-and-a-half-story tall slide located at Terminal 3 Basement 2, which is free.

Video at the link.

Link via J-Walk Blog | Photo: New York Times

It's time for the R&D engineers at the NeatoShop to get busy, because Paul Starke has twelve great ideas for products that would be helpful for dads -- and probably moms, too:

4) Diaper Genie -- Yes, I know they already make this soiled-diaper storage unit, but what if it also granted you three wishes and had the voice of Robin Williams?

5) Snoozies -- Basically a onesie with a built-in snooze button. Is the baby crying in the middle of the night? Just tap the snooze button on his belly and get nine more minutes of sleep.[...]

7) Ambien-Coated Pacifiers -- Controversial? Probably. Effective? Definitely. I know for a FACT that my parents used to load me up with cough syrup before a long drive

What baby-care product would you like to see invented?

Link | Photo by Flickr user medigerati used under Creative Commons license

So, naturally, Kyle DuBois' parents are suing the school:

DuBois was hospitalized after receiving a serious electrical shock while in class on March 11. On a dare, DuBois clipped alligator clips to his nipples and received a severe shock that caused him to stagger and collapse, the lawsuit says.

The incident resulted in DuBois being sent to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, where he was diagnosed as having an "out of hospital electrocution resulting in cardiac arrest, unresponsive state and respiratory failure," according to the lawsuit.[...]

Court documents say DuBois suffered brain damage due to the heart stoppage.

How can you tell?

Seriously though, the lawsuit alleges that the teacher acted recklessly and was fully aware of the student's plan to shock his nipples. You can view a camera phone recording of the incident at the link.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view/20100831student_who_shocked_himself_suing_school_teacher/srvc=home&position=recent via Geekologie | Photo by Flickr user oskay used under Creative Commons license

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A 500-pound Bengal Tiger escaped from its cage at a zoo in Miami. As visitors fled into any secure area they could find, the tiger approached a 2-year old girl named Dianita Barratt. Her mother, Diana Barratt, said:

"She started walking down the trail ahead of me, and I decided just to leave the stroller and my purse behind and go after her," Diana said. "I rounded the corner and she's standing there staring at this tiger. It's very scary to have your 2-year-old daughter in such close proximity to a tiger."

Barratt calmly picked her daughter up, and was quickly escorted by park employees to a secure building.

Link via Momlogic

Instructables user kstruve lives in Arizona with his twin boys. It gets so hot that even with the car's air conditioner going full-blast, the kids are still dangerously hot. So he built a liquid cooling system to chill their seats. At the link, kstruve provides detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make one.

Link via Make | Photo: kstruve

It can be difficult for autistic kids to enjoy going to a movie theater because the high definition graphics and sound can give them an experience of sensory overload. So some theaters are now offering occasional screenings of children's movies in an autism-friendly environment:

The house lights stay on, the sound remains low, and there are no ads or previews before films. The screenings are beginning to catch on.

The sensory-friendly trend started two years ago, after a Maryland mother got kicked out of a movie theater when her autistic daughter became overwhelmed and disruptive during a showing of Hairspray. The mom got in touch with the Autism Society, a national advocacy group, which in turn contacted the AMC theaters chain about offering a low-key movie option once a month.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129479228 | Photo (unrelated) via Flickr user romulusnr used under Creative Commons license