Sequoia National Park is a lovely spot that is strikingly similar to Endor, the moon on which the Ewoks of Star Wars live. Anthony Herrera's kids love Star Wars, so he photoshopped Ewoks into the background of their photos from a trip to that national park:
After we got home, and after I had a little time alone with the photos, I told her I thought I saw something strange in a few pictures. We viewed them on the TV to get a larger image. You can imagine how surprised and excited she was when we discovered that we didn't see any Ewoks, but they saw us, and had certainly taken an interest in her and her little brother.
Awww. Ewoks are so cute! And even cuter when they pay close attention to children, right?
No. Remember: Ewoks eat people. In Episode VI, they tried to roast Leia, Han, and Luke. You may look at them as teddy bears, but they look at you as dinner.
What's it like to actually experience pregnancy? Men can only know vicariously, but researchers at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology have developed a sophisticated simulator that does a better job than any other currently available. It uses actuated air pockets to mimic fetal movement and an inflating water bag to demonstrate the weight and pressure experienced by pregnant women.
A blogger named Curtis claims to be on a diet consisting entirely of his wife's breast milk. It's an experiment to determine the suitability of the ideal newborn diet for an adult:
Preferring the taste of breast milk over cow's milk, Curtis said he drinks breast milk to settle digestive problems.
"And yes, I know how weird this may sound, it is kind of weird to me as well but why not?" Curtis wrote on his first post. "I mean cow milk was made for baby cows, why not drink human breast milk that was made for baby humans."
Some doctors are skeptical of this diet:
Dr. David Katz, director of the Yale Prevention Center, had even harsher words for the couple, going so far as to call the stunt "truly asinine."
"The rapid growth and brain development of early childhood is best fueled by the high-fat, energy-dense elixir of breast milk," said Katz. "There is no basis in all of nature to infer that it therefore is optimal food for adult mammals of any species."
Operation Smile is an organization that offers cleft palate and lip cosmetic surgery to children around the world. Here's a video of one successful surgery on a little girl in Brazil. A day after the procedure, she looks at herself and is amazed at the results.
The scientific method was one of the greatest developments in human history. If a child can learn basic empiricism, then s/he has a great advantage in understanding the world. So I'm quite pleased that three and a half year-old Elmo has now learned the word "experiment". Our thanks to Craig Ferguson for teaching him.
It could be fun to have a puppet theater in your house, but they take up so much room! Melanie of The Crafty Cupboard found a clever solution. Her puppet theater stretches across a doorway and his held in place with a spring rod. At the link, you can read instructions on how to make one of your own.
Jennie Yundt, who I suspect is the amazingly fit pregnant woman pictured here, did not let her pregnancy get in the way of her fitness routine. Here's a well-edited video compilation of her working out, even doing pull-ups three days before giving birth to her son. Wow. -via Doobybrain
This luxury ($2,199!) bathtub will no doubt provide great fun to the little boy or girl who wants to be a fighterfighter. It slips over existing bathtubs, but presumably requires one with specific dimensions. Link -via OhGizmo! | Photo: American Standard
The son of YouTube user MrJibaku refused to get out of bed. He thought, "No one tells me "no" especially when they are four years old." So he loaded a water pistol and, while vocalizing the theme music from DOOM, forcibly woke up the boy. -via Kotaku
Jennifer Perkins has a great idea for an art project to beat the summer heat: ice cube crayons! They're basically popsicles shaped like markers and used to color on paper. They function as watercolors. Follow the link to read her instructions so that you can make your own. Link
Aidan Dwyer, 13, discovered that tree branches are arranged according to the Fibonacci sequence. Now this has been known since the Eighteenth Century, but Aidan arrived at that conclusion through his own observations. He speculated that trees evolved into this pattern because it presents an efficient means of acquiring solar energy. If so, could he built an efficient solar energy collector in the same pattern? The answer was a definite 'yes', and his efforts have led to a new type of solar power collector:
First he determined the ratios representing the spiral pattern of the leaves and branches on an oak tree, using a cylindrical double-protractor tool of his own design. Then he copied the pattern using a computer program, and built an oak tree-shaped solar array out of PVC pipe. He next built a flat-panel array mounted at 45 degrees, like a typical home rooftop array, and attached data loggers to each model to monitor voltage.[...]
He determined the tree’s Fibonacci pattern allowed some solar panels to collect sunlight even if others were in shade, and prevented branches on a tree from shading other branches.
http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2011-08/13-year-old-designs-breakthrough-solar-array-based-fibonacci-sequence | Photos: Young Naturalist Awards
Furf, a Brazilian design studio, came up with this children's chair that features angel wings. It would be ideal for a time-out chair. http://www.coroflot.com/public/image_file.asp?portfolio_id=5364187&individual_id=293647&s=0&v=4&a=4&t=0 -via NotCot | Studio Website | Photo: Furf
This photo was taken by Gregory Ferenstein in a CrossFit gym -- a company that brands itself as bring hardcore fitness training to the average person. I really like this picture because it's a good reminder of how totally badass is merely going through pregnancy. Link -via Super Punch