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Open-source child-rearing
Behold the Mary-Kate and Ashley Pocket Planner. It’s a cartridge for the Game Boy, and allows pre-teens to organize their busy days with the same sort of neurotic efficiency deployed by their boomer parents. “Keep your busy life UNDER CONTROL in the COOLEST way possible,” crows the advertising copy. “ORGANIZE while having FUN.”
For a few years now, I’ve been freaked out by the professionalization of childhood — the idea that every single moment of a kid’s life needs to be as co-ordinated as a military campaign. The technology world has only been too happy to oblige, of course. When I wandered into a Radio Shack in the holidays, I was stunned by how many data-organizer tools there were for kids as young as, like, two: Hotwheel’s laptops, cell phones, you name it. Of course, when I was a kid I loved gadgets too — but I wanted gadgets that would blow shit up, not segment my day into 15-minute meetings. (Okay, it’s officially now Curmudgeon Day here at my blog.)
Personally, I think it would be more interesting to reverse the process — and, instead of having kids use the organizing tools of adults, let’s have adults use the organizing tools of kids. I’m going to found a company and force all my employees to exclusively use the Mary-Kate and Ashley Pocket Planner to co-ordinate their work days. (And use the “Ask Ashley” mode to make major corporate decisions.)
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
New technique renders objects at sea “invisible” to waves of water
Poll: Young people who use landlines are more conservative than those who use mobile phones
At Amherst college, 1% of first-year students have landlines, 99% have Facebook accounts
North Dakota the most outgoing state, according to study of “the geography of personality”
» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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