Sunday, July 5th, 2009
NEW YORK — Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word “midget” on broadcast TV. The group Little People of America said Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs
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Ban ‘Midget’ From TV, Little People Group Says
Sunday, July 5th, 2009
Like others in the so-called good-food movement, Allen, who is 60, asserts that our industrial food system is depleting soil, poisoning water, gobbling fossil fuels and stuffing us with bad calories.
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Street Farmer Genius: Will Allen And Future Of the Good-Food Movement
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Although we are partial here to the delicious vegan chocolate pecan tart that Lisa Lacy graced us with for the holidays, our ears perked up at the mention of a vegan chocolate cake recipe over at Grist: This recipe makes one 8-inch cake, but here I’ve called for one thin 9 x 13-inch layer to be cut into heart shapes and layered. You can double this recipe for an 8-inch two-layer cake or a thicker 9 x 13-inch half sheet cake. Experienced cake decorators freeze cake layers prior to decorating them to make them sturdier and easier to handle. This trick helps when cutting the cake layer into shapes, too. 1 cup all purpose flour 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1 cup Rapadura or sugar 1/3 cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/3 cup virgin coconut oil, melted and cooled slightly 1 cup of coconut water, or juice (or 3/4 cup water and 1/4 cup coconut milk)* (Get the rest of the instructions over at Grist) Be sure to also catch our last-minute guide to Valentine’s Day — with or without a date.
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Vegan Chocolate Cake Recipe For Valentine’s Day
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
WASHINGTON — Don’t just talk to your toddler _ gesture, too. Pointing, waving bye-bye and other natural gestures seem to boost a budding vocabulary. Scientists found those tots who could convey more meaning with gestures at age 14 months went on to have a richer vocabulary as they prepared to start kindergarten. And intriguingly, whether a family is poor or middle class plays a role, the researchers report Friday. Anyone who’s ever watched a tot perform the arms-raised “pick me up now” demand knows that youngsters figure out how to communicate well before they can talk. Gesturing also seems to be an important precursor to forming sentences, as children start combining one word plus a gesture for a second word. University of Chicago researchers wondered if gesturing also played a role in a serious problem: Children from low-income families start school with smaller vocabularies than their better-off classmates. It’s a gap that tends to persist as the students age. In fact, kindergarten vocabulary is a predicter of how well youngsters ultimately fare in school. One big key to a child’s vocabulary is how their parents talked to them from babyhood on. Previous research has shown that higher-income, better-educated parents tend to talk and read more to small children, and to use more varied vocabulary and complex syntax. Do those parents also gesture more as they talk with and teach their children? To see, university psychology researchers Susan Goldin-Meadow and Meredith Rowe visited the homes of 50 Chicago-area families of varying socioeconomic status who had 14-month-olds. They videotaped for 90 minutes to count both parents’ and children’s words and gestures. Quantity aside, they also counted whether children made gestures with specific meanings. This is not baby sign-language; parents weren’t formally training their tots. Instead, they used everyday gestures to point something out or illustrate a concept. A child points to a dog and mom says, “Yes, that’s a dog.” Or dad flaps his arms to mimic flying. Or pointing illustrates less concrete concepts like “up” or “down” or “big.” The researchers found an income gap with gesturing even in toddlerhood, when children speak few words. Higher-income parents did gesture more and, more importantly, their children on average produced 25 meanings in gesture during that 90-minute session, compared with an average of 13 among poorer children, they reported in the journal Science. Then the researchers returned to test vocabulary comprehension at age 4 1/2. The poorer children scored worse, by about 24 points. Researchers blamed mostly socioeconomic status and parents’ speech, but said gesturing contributed, too. It’s not just that richer parents gesture more, stressed Peggy McCardle of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the work. “It’s that there’s a greater variety of types of gesture that would signal different types of meaning,” McCardle said. “It sure looks like the kids are learning that and it’s given them kind of a leg-up.” The study doesn’t prove gesturing leads to better word-learning, but it’s a strong hint. Now scientists wonder if encouraging low-income parents to gesture more could translate to toddlers who do, too, and in turn improve school readiness. “It wouldn’t hurt to encourage parents to talk more and gesture more,” Rowe said.
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In Toddlers, Pointing Paves The Way For Speech
Thursday, February 12th, 2009
Judd Gregg speaks about withdrawal at press conference. Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News , World News , and News about the Economy
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Judd Gregg Speaks About Withdrawing As Commerce Secretary Nominee
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