this week’s del.icio.us bookmarks

here’s my shared bookmarks on del.icio.us for the week:

Posted 13 Jan 2006

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Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents

Growing Problem for Military Recruiters: Parents
Two years into the war in Iraq, as the Army and Marines struggle to refill their ranks, parents have become boulders of opposition that recruiters cannot move.

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to cosleep, perchance to dream (of statistics…)

a farily compelling response to the October AAP statement on cosleeping…

The term “adult bed” usually includes dangerous sofas, sofa chairs, make-shift beds and waterbeds, which account for a large portion of the adult-surface deaths. Also, the term doesn’t necessarily mean cosleeping is occurring, only that an infant is sleeping on that particular surface. An infant sleeping alone on an adult bed is at greater risk than when sleeping there with a parent. Failing to understand these points makes appropriate adult bed-sharing mistakenly sound dangerous.

and

“Bed-sharing/cosleeping” statistics and comments usually lump together cases of infants sleeping with any adult in any state, including over-exhausted, intoxicated adults, smoking adults, other children and even combinations of these. These comments and statistics also generally include dangerous practices such as sofa-sharing. Another limiting factor of these definitions is that they usually include statistics on infants who coslept at any point during the night of their SIDS-related death — not necessarily at the time of death. Conscientious parents are scared away from safe cosleeping by such slanted reporting.

and

The numbers in the largest study on cosleeping around the world suggest that safe cosleeping reduces SIDS greatly. Most nations with SIDS rates much lower than the United States regularly practice cosleeping on firm surfaces with low rates of adult smoking. Countries with increased cosleeping frequency also show decreased rates of SIDS.

[another previous AAP article says that “The Data Neither Condemns Nor Endorses Bedsharing/Cosleeping” but they won’t let you read it unless you pay moola or are a pediatrician, for we can’t share that dangerous information with the masses… jerks!]

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don’t let me forget this.

a bit stunned, Katrina was one of a number of recent tragidies on which i didn’t blog. however, this report from the Human Watch is a nugget i mean to keep in mind:

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

Posted 7 Jan 2006

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following the discussion

some interesting bloggage and commenting on feminsts raising boys.

Posted 6 Jan 2006

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on the list

Posted 3 Jan 2006

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14 Characteristics of Fascism

14 Defining Characteristics of Facsism. a well done flash animation. i’m kind of surprised, but glad that it’s stayed up so long. if you’ve not seen it, go. and then send to your friends and family.

Posted 1 Jan 2006

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