Weekly Science Headlines

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

A lot of people seem to think that unless a parent takes the exact same dollars that were given to them to help defray childrearing costs and use them to buy cheerios and baby clothes, they aren't "spending it on the child". I have heard, a fair number of times, people complaining because some woman they know "used her child support" to buy a phone or concert tickets or a meal at a restaurant or something "selfish". What does not seem to occur to people is that the mother ALREADY used the money she earned to pay rent so the child has a roof over their head, pay bills so the child has heat and running water, buy groceries so the child already has food, pay auto insurance so she can take the kid to school, and so on and so forth. Most single and divorced mothers have learned not to count on "extra" money, so they put their child's needs first and spend all their money on them, and then only IF child support comes through that month do they consider doing something nice for themselves.

This is great.  I'm going to have to remember this the next time someone mutters something about "poor people buying X".

Thanks! I'd love to see more people bringing up this rebuttal to the "selfish woman spending child support money on herself" or "poor people buying steak with food stamps" trope when it raises its ugly head.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

A lot of people seem to think that unless a parent takes the exact same dollars that were given to them to help defray childrearing costs and use them to buy cheerios and baby clothes, they aren't "spending it on the child". I have heard, a fair number of times, people complaining because some woman they know "used her child support" to buy a phone or concert tickets or a meal at a restaurant or something "selfish". What does not seem to occur to people is that the mother ALREADY used the money she earned to pay rent so the child has a roof over their head, pay bills so the child has heat and running water, buy groceries so the child already has food, pay auto insurance so she can take the kid to school, and so on and so forth. Most single and divorced mothers have learned not to count on "extra" money, so they put their child's needs first and spend all their money on them, and then only IF child support comes through that month do they consider doing something nice for themselves.

This is great.  I'm going to have to remember this the next time someone mutters something about "poor people buying X".

My response to THAt is "Shut up".  Seriously.  People who gripe about poor people being able to "afford" smart phones or a shitty car or whatever...Well, they're not the kind of people I want to be around.  Not because of the opinion itself, but because that opinion is the sort of opinion bad people have.

What is an evil person?  A person who does evil things.

Shitting on the poor is by definition an evil thing.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Thanks! I'd love to see more people bringing up this rebuttal to the "selfish woman spending child support money on herself" or "poor people buying steak with food stamps" trope when it raises its ugly head.

I used to say "Oh, yes, they should only buy gruel...YOU FUCK, YOU LIVE IN ONE OF THE ONLY COUNTRIES WHERE BEEF IS CHEAP."

Now I just say "shut up".

[P3nT4gR4m]

My strict moral code dictates that I'm only allowed to reduce a human being to a gibbering pile of tears and snot, if they're complete assholes...

[Junkenstein]

Nigel, if you missed this seems pretty relevant:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/13/22258825-mom-did-it-we-can-do-it-two-generation-programs-help-lift-families-out-of-poverty?lite

No surprises i'm sure, but more to add to the mix and helps move the conversation to how this shit can be done faster.

[LMNO]

My strict moral code dictates that I'm only allowed to reduce a human being to a gibbering pile of tears and snot, if they're complete assholes...

Considering where you set the bar, that's pretty much everyone, isn't it?

[P3nT4gR4m]

My strict moral code dictates that I'm only allowed to reduce a human being to a gibbering pile of tears and snot, if they're complete assholes...

Considering where you set the bar, that's pretty much everyone, isn't it?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Nigel, if you missed this seems pretty relevant:
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/13/22258825-mom-did-it-we-can-do-it-two-generation-programs-help-lift-families-out-of-poverty?lite

No surprises i'm sure, but more to add to the mix and helps move the conversation to how this shit can be done faster.

That actually brought tears to my eyes. A whole community that supports poor single mothers AND their children so they can get an education while raising children who will also go on to be productive members of... what's that thing called... it's almost like we're living in one... oh yeah, a society!

[Left]

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140117191354.htm

A team of engineers has developed a class of tiny bio-hybrid machines that swim like sperm, the first synthetic structures that can traverse the viscous fluids of biological environments on their own.

Cyborg flagellum.

Edited to add, found this one amusing.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140117104040.htm
Dr Google's now an epidemiologist.

[Telarus]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/02/04/271093289/eureka-first-life-in-the-universe

http://laughingsquid.com/goat-simulator-a-video-game-that-tentatively-simulates-the-goofy-life-of-a-goat/

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2014/02/04/271093289/eureka-first-life-in-the-universe

http://laughingsquid.com/goat-simulator-a-video-game-that-tentatively-simulates-the-goofy-life-of-a-goat/

That first one discusses a question I have wondered about myself... and it actually makes me rather sad, given that if such a hypothesis were true, then countless billions of planets developed life, flourished, and then went extinct as the CMB diminished below sustainable heat levels. It would mean that planets like ours came alive in the wake of a universe which had seen a great flush of life, and a great dying off. It could have once been a universe with a bustling interplanetary trade, with diversity that would boggle our minds, and in which no sentient species ever wondered if they were alone in the universe.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would like to play that goat simulator.

[Telarus]

That first one discusses a question I have wondered about myself... and it actually makes me rather sad, given that if such a hypothesis were true, then countless billions of planets developed life, flourished, and then went extinct as the CMB diminished below sustainable heat levels. It would mean that planets like ours came alive in the wake of a universe which had seen a great flush of life, and a great dying off. It could have once been a universe with a bustling interplanetary trade, with diversity that would boggle our minds, and in which no sentient species ever wondered if they were alone in the universe.

    That was lovely Nigel, thank you for sharing quite a moving image.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Thanks, man. I mean, the implications of what it might mean for life forms like ours developing much later on the edge of a cooling universe are pretty staggering.

[Telarus]

http://www.ecanadanow.com/science/2014/02/12/research-finds-some-species-of-crocodiles-can-climb-trees/